Anyone else ever wonder if someone saw the analytics of your Google searches what they’d think of you, the human behind them ?!? 😂😂
Me to Google : “how to love your curly hair ” or me: “how to not be a crappy mom” 😜 or even me: “how much Disney is too much Disney?” lol <– this doesn’t even take into account any crazy searches I do for medical ailments or when the kids are sick.
Things I’ve learned too much about thanks to Google :
Autoimmune diseases, Disney vacation planning, curly hair and how to live with it, how to get my 💩 together in the morning, parenting and how to stay sane; and my latest obsession: hormones and weight loss !!
Hormones are such a crazy, wild subject but as I hit that mid 30s mark they seem to be EVERYWHERE and affecting EVERYTHING 😳👌
I’ve learned A LOT in a short time!
Wanna know some of the best foods to help with hormone balance :
avocado 🥑
Flaxseed
Broccoli 🥦
Pomegranate
Salmon 🐟
Leafy greens 🥬
Nuts 🥜
Turmeric
Quinoa
Wanna know the best way to drop weight, especially in the midsection once you’re in your mid 30s and on?
Weight/ resistance training 🏋🏻♀️
Wanna know one of the worst ways to try to lose weight at this stage ?
High intensity cardio for long periods of time 🏃♀️
(I share this one because I love anything that reinforces that I don’t have to run 😉)
But seriously… as we get older our hormones take a shift and the stress hormones get in the drivers seat — as a result, anything that adds stress can also negatively impact weight loss and cause you to actually HOLD ONTO weight. Especially in the belly area ! Gee, thanks, hormones!
This brings me to the next surprising piece of the puzzle that can really mess up our weight loss : STRESS… like it’s not bad enough on its own to feel stressed out…
I have clients come to me often and talk about hitting plateaus or even gaining weight and after some investigation we can usually get to the bottom of things. A lot of the time stress is present.
Why does that even matter? Well think about it: eating well and sleep are essential to weight loss, if you’re stressed out often your sleep is affected. And when it comes to food, again, if you’re feeling the effects of stress and crappy sleep, you’re probably not making the best decisions when it comes to your nutrition ( and it’s understandable).
I get this struggle and understand it so well…
Stress and worry have been a part of my personality for as far back as I can remember so learning about this caused me to take a major step back and look at how I can better handle this.
I’m a natural worrier.
I can actually figure out 4,356 ways something can potentially go wrong before that something has even happened …
I can actually worry myself to the point of not doing something in the first place …
As a child I would lay in bed and worry. About big things : death, illness, fear
About little things : what was that sound? What if I slept in and missed the bus ?
.
You name it. I could worry about it !
As I watched my own son face some of the same struggles with anxiety that I had most of my life, it was an alarm bell going off that this was an area I needed to work on to try to improve… if not for my own sanity and health, to be better able to help him.
So over the last few years I have worked HARD on this. Really hard.
I started to read and watch and listen to personal development books, podcasts even Ted Talks about confidence, courage and inner strength ( The Five Second Rule and Grace Not Perfection are two of my favourites).
I started to focus on living in the moment because I wanted to stop letting my anxiety rule me ( I love the calm app for guided meditations that are quick and I love my Five Minute Journal to write in first thing in the morning and right before bed).
I started to combat my worrying with a daily workout and sweat out some of my stress and anxiety — shutting my mind off for 30 minutes to focus on being stronger and healthier ( I love doing this this from home so it’s available any time I need it)!
I started to practice yoga ❤️
And then one day I read the following line : do one thing EVERY DAY that scares you …
And that’s when I started to do things way out of my introverted comfort zone :
Big things:
-I started to share my fitness journey with the world
-I went on conferences away from my family, on an airplane (which I found terrifying), to join women I only really knew from the online fitness world
And little things :
– I jumped on a paddle board this summer (if you haven’t seen how that went, I encourage you to become friends with me on facebook JUST so you can watch the video and laugh and laugh)
– I got professional photos done
-I stopped feeling too insecure to wear a bathing suit in public
I learned to try to find daily ways to be a WARRIOR instead of a worrier and although I still battle with it, I’m proud of the strides I have made.
We know we can’t eliminate stress from our lives completely ( life is gonna happen) and we know sometimes our hormones have a mind of their own, but imagine even with just a bit of mindfulness, intention and the proper tools in this area, how much better things can be?!
I was resigned to thinking my 30s were just when everything kinda started to fall apart… but I know that now to be untrue. We get to choose and we get to have a say, it’s just a matter of figuring out what’s right for our mind and our bodies and then putting it all into action!
If you need some help navigating some of these areas ( I know there is a TON of info out there), please shoot me a message or email me : lindsay.fortney@gmail.com
We’ve got this ! x
xo Lindsay
Lindsay Fortney Beyond Emotional Eating 