Shelley with her family.

Hi Let’s Talk Live viewers! Join my client on her journey and make positive changes to your nutrition habits without dieting!

Meet the client: Shelley is a busy D.C. mom. Over the years she has kept her family happy and healthy, but life’s stresses and challenges led her to do what many loving moms do - put everyone else first. Now she’s ready to take center stage and nurture a healthier well-being. For five weeks, she will make changes with the help of yours truly!

Each week, I will update this page with tools and to-do’s so you can make progress right along with us.* Check out the resources section of this website for more tools.

Please feel free to post questions or comments on our Facebook fan page. If you are blogging or tweeting your own journey please share the links on Facebook so I can offer motivation to YOU during the process!

Shelley will be blogging her experience at DC Ladies and I’m Still Standing. We will Tweet from @EasyNutrition and @DCLadies Join our Fan page for all the videos, blogs, and links you need!

Week 1 - Getting Started

To-Do’s

• Prepare for changes. Why are you ready now? What will motivate you?
• Change up your eating environment. Is your kitchen a “healthy food” desert?
• Put out a fruit bowl, nature’s candy.
• Stock up on fresh and frozen fruit. Aim for 2 a day.
• Try eating in response to hunger. Before you eat, pause, and ask “am I hungry”? Don’t delay eating if you are hungry. If you aren’t take a “15-minute time-out” with a mint or gum. Do you really need nourishment or do you “need” something else?
• Walk 30 minutes a day.

Not To-Do’s

• Focus on the scale and weight loss.
• Beat yourself up for past “failures” (you were dieting and it’s okay to be mad at what you were told, but not at yourself for trying)

Blogs for week 1:

Ditch the diet food.

Shelley, The Emotional Eater.

Week 2 - New Foods and Healthy Grocery Shopping

To-Do’s

• Make a healthy grocery shopping list - and follow it
• Cut back on packaged “heavily processed foods”
• Try roasting vegetables!
• Read labels for your sauces and condiments

Not To-Do’s

• Obsess over the scale
• “Treat” yourself to food
• “Snack” in front of tv or computer

Week 3 - Makeover Your Meals with Healthy Swaps

To-Do’s

• Cook one healthy meal this week. Options are endless! I love Ellie Krieger, RD. She has two books “So Easy” and “Foods You Crave”. Test out her Food Network  recipes and get one of her books.
• Have salad as a side for lunch or dinner most days this week. Salads are easy ways to help extend the meal and cut down on the portion size of the main entree.
• Eat when hungry, and pause before you eat… if you feel hungry, great! Eat slowly and enjoy whatever you choose - healthy or not! Get comfortable with a “fullness” that doesn’t feel stuffed.
• Notice something “new” about your foods - taste, colors, textures, and aromas.

Not To-Do’s

• Police yourself and your food choices.
• Feel guilty for eating certain foods.
• Expect unrealistic changes in a short time.

Shelley’s update week 3 on her blog.

Week 4 - Eating Healthy On-The-Go

Watch the TV appearance, click the video below:

To Do

• Check out the nutrition information before you go if you can - how else could you know that the pork chops have 3 times the calories and salt than the beef? Confused? Watch the TV appearance
  
• Re-think the wine or cocktail most of the time
  
• Skip the bread, chips, or pre-dinner food, they’ll bring enough food with your entree and if you are still hungry after a 40 minute meal, the kitchen can make you more.
  
• Modify the menu (baked, steamed, no butter, sauce on the side!)
• Split an entrée or take half home

Not To Do

• Avoid a meal out because you’re “afraid” it will ruin your progress.
• Deny yourself what you want
• Appetizers, wine AND dessert
• Add salt at the table
• Join the “Clean Plate Club”

Week 5 - Overcoming Roadblocks, Nutrition for the Long Haul

In the last week, Rebecca and Shelley reveal how many pounds and inches Shelley has lost in only four weeks and they discuss the real changes that have taken place that will continue to help her succeed. Rebecca compares Shelley’s eating plan to the “average American”.

To-Do’s

• Put scale weight on the back burner
• Trust the process
• Practice consistent, small changes
• Celebrate your success

Not To-Do’s

• Don’t eat like the typical American (high fat, high sugar, high salt and low fruits and veggies)
• Stress out over your weight
• Judge yourself harshly
• Give up

* All information presented is for educational purposes only. The author and all individuals and companies involved disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this information. Please see your health care provider before beginning or making changes to any exercise, fitness, and dietary programs. If you use any of the information presented in this course or on any website to which a link is offered you do so entirely at your own risk.