When you are in a relationship with someone, it takes both sides to make things work properly. Both sides need to be contributing to the relationship in order for it to thrive. Think about it, do you want to be the one putting in all the time and effort? The one spending all the money and doing kind things for the other? Do you want to be the only one who gives love all while you’re getting nothing in return? It feels nice to receive love, to be respected, and to be complimented by the other person. It feels awful to be neglected, belittled, or ignored. Now think about your relationship with food. You buy the foods you LOVE! You pay for them, bring them into your home, and put them in a safe spot before you enjoy them. BUT…is your food giving you anything in return? Is your food making you feel nourished, loved, and respected? Or is it making you feel yucky, sick, and anxious? You might LOVE Pop-Tarts, pizza rolls, potato chips, and cupcakes…but are those foods loving you back? Are they nourishing your body, providing you with energy, helping you build muscles, boosting your immune system, preventing disease, or improving your mood? The crazy thing is…healthy foods can do all those things for your body and more. Healthy foods can literally love you back! It’s time to change your relationship with food! It’s time to break up with foods that are doing nothing for you in return. It’s time to cut those ultra-processed foods loose and send them packing. They are no good for you and you’ll be soooo much better off without them. There are so many foods out there that are just waiting for a healthy relationship with YOU! They are there to help you positively change your life. You will feel so much healthier when you are in a healthy relationship with food!
We all need food to survive. We know that. Most of us love a delicious treat! We all have to eat and we should enjoy doing so. But that doesn’t mean we need to overindulge in foods that are not good for our bodies. The old saying “you are what you eat”…it really is kind of true. Think about it, if you are putting ultra-processed, high sugar, biochemically engineered ingredient foods into your body, those foods do NOTHING to help your body. They might make you feel full or satisfied temporarily, but then you’re just going to feel hungry again shortly. If you fuel your body with junk, you are literally going to feel like junk! If you are eating fatty, sugary foods…those foods are going to turn into body fat. If you fuel your body with nutrient-rich, high-protein, high-fiber, unprocessed foods, your body can use those foods to nourish you. You will start feeling better and you will see major changes in not only the way you feel, but how you look, and even your mood. When you’re getting ready to eat, ask yourself…”What will this food do for me once I consume it? Does it have anything that will benefit my body? Is this food going to do anything for me…or is this me again…the one putting ALL the work into my relationship with food?
This isn’t going to be easy! It’s actually quite hard to break habits that you’ve had for so long. It’s hard to change something that is comforting and that you’re “used ” to. You might be thinking there is NO way that I can do this. It may not be something you can do overnight. This might not be a cold turkey kind of thing for you. Even small changes each day can produce big results in the long run. If you take on the mindset of changing one little thing each day, just think of the progress you can make in a year. For example…if you are a soda drinker, and decide that you are ready to break up with soda, you may not be able to just stop. You can slowly remove yourself from your soda situation. Maybe today, make yourself drink a 12 oz. glass of water BEFORE your soda. Or instead of drinking four sodas today, cut it back to 3, and keep doing that until you’re not having any. Or maybe you just have a soda once in a while. It’s all about finding what works for you, setting a goal, and crushing that goal.
This wasn’t something that happened for us overnight either. It’s been at least a year of making healthier choices when it came to meals. Then, in August of 2024, when we started 75 Hard, we were tracking all our foods and started to eat “clean” foods, which drastically helped us. Fast forward to the present…we make so many swaps for the things we used to love… that I can now look at a food that I used to love and completely turn my back on it. If I can’t pronounce the ingredients or have no clue what those ingredients are, if the product says it may contain bioengineered ingredients…that food will go right back on the shelf! I now know that I can make a dessert at home that contains 5 or fewer ingredients that will satisfy my sweet tooth and that will have health and nutrition benefits. If it doesn’t give me something in return, it’s not going in my mouth. It takes willpower and dedication, but I promise you, I never go hungry. I eat foods that love me back! When you are aware of the changes that you want and need to make, it helps you get in the right mindset. I’m proud to say, that I’m finally in that right mindset, and you can get there too!
If you can get out of the habit of eating those “favorite foods” of yours and start finding healthier alternatives, you are going to be so very proud of yourself and just feel so much better. You’re going to notice that your skin will look better, your digestion will feel better, and your clothes will fit so much better! You won’t believe the boost of self-esteem that it will give you! Now, I fully understand how DIFFICULT this is! Food is a habit! There is so much hidden sugar in our foods and beverages, that we are literally addicted to it! Start with small changes, count those as a win! Be proud of yourself. Once you can break the cycle, you’ll never want to look back at your old relationship. You will be so happy that you’ve moved on and begun your new LOVING relationship with food…the kind where your food loves you back.
Once you get started, it’s kind of a fun, little “challenge” to find alternative healthier options to your old favorites. Yes, you might be able to notice differences….these new foods are not going to be exactly like your “old” faves. But when you find what you enjoy, you will not feel deprived…I promise! Andy and I don’t! We’ve found so many delicious alternatives, that we never feel deprived! We never feel the need to “cheat” on our new foods with our old foods. Here are some examples of our swaps:
-Instead of candy bars…we LOVE Built Puff Bars and 1st Phorm Protein bars. They both completely satisfy our sweet tooth and also help us reach our protein goals. https://amzn.to/432GlXj-Amazon Associate’s link for Puff Bars.https://1stphorm.com/?a_aid=AndyIAndy’s link for anything 1st Phorm, Peanut Butter Lover is my favorite protein bar and Andy loves Chocolate PB Pretzel
-Instead of the old pasta we used to buy, we now buy authentic Italian pasta, protein pasta made from chickpeas, or hearts of palm. Can we taste a difference? Yes, a little but for the nutrition that we are getting in return, it’s worth it. Our teenagers are fine with the Italian and protein pasta…they haven’t tried the hearts of palm yet. https://amzn.to/4gLLE0z-example of Italian pasta…notice the ingredient…yes 1 ingredient! https://amzn.to/4b6aOpA-chickpea pasta- 1 ingredient, chickpea flour. It’s also a great source of fiber and protein. https://amzn.to/41jBzUa-hearts of palm, again just one ingredient. Andy and I love this option, it’s low-carb and low-calorie. Tastes just like pasta…texture reminds us of al dente pasta. Now for the sauce…you have to watch the ingredients…a lot of companies hide a lot of sugar in pasta sauce. We look for all-natural ingredients like tomatoes and seasoning only. https://amzn.to/3X40I2M like this one. We have also learned to make Alfredo sauce out of cottage cheese!
-Ice cream….we don’t buy store-bought containers anymore! We do dessert prep on the weekends so that we have delicious ice cream throughout the week. We purchased a Ninja Creami…which has been a game-changer! This appliance does require you to plan at least 8 hours in advance because your ingredients must first be frozen before you run it through the Creami. Once you have your planning routine in place, you’ll be enjoying ice cream for days. Andy and I like to add protein to our ice cream. Ours usually consist of a protein drink or a protein powder with milk or Greek yogurt and some kind of flavoring or fruit. For example, 1 vanilla Jocko protein drink, 1 cup of frozen wild blueberries, and coconut milk, or 1 chocolate Fairlife protein shake with a banana and some flavored protein powder. All of our ice cream combos are under 600 calories and have at least 30-50 grams of protein for the entire container. 1 container is enough for us to share and both get a substantial amount of ice cream. https://amzn.to/3XbhzRh-this is the Ninja Creami that we have…but this new version offers soft serve!!https://amzn.to/4i4q2xs Your purchase will come with ice cream containers. We ordered extra so we can plan ahead and our kids like to make their own ice cream too. https://amzn.to/41BjfWV
These Fairlife chocolate protein shakes are really good and make awesome ice cream…think Wendy’s Frosty….yeah, that good!https://amzn.to/3CQ2MVf
Jocko vanilla protein shakes=very yummy ice cream-https://amzn.to/4gVXbue
With all these swaps, we never feel deprived, in fact, we eat very well. We understand that our food is our fuel. Eating healthy does not mean sacrificing flavor. Our meals and desserts are fabulous and even better…we know exactly what is in them, we know exactly what we are eating. It’s comforting to know that these cleaner and healthier foods that we are eating are loving us back. They are nourishing our bodies and souls, making us feel and look better than ever. Simple swaps and small changes can make a huge difference in your health. It’s time to start eating food that loves you in return.
1 Corinthians 10:31-So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
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