Food Freedom Tips for a Guilt Free Thanksgiving

In this episode, I share food freedom tips to help you have a Guilt Free Thanksgiving because let’s face it, food can be overwhelming. If you feel at war with yourself over what to eat and what not to eat, this episode is for you. Together we’re going to breathe deep, celebrate the moment, and create opportunities for ourselves to feel good from the inside out. Because you are worthy of feeling good in your own skin. Okay. Ya ready? Let’s do this.

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Happy Thanksgiving Week! In this episode, we’re focusing on a few mindset shifts and feel good tools to help take the stress, food guilt, and overwhelm out of the holiday. But these tips can also apply to any holiday or family gathering. It just so happens to be Thanksgiving week here in real time so that’s where our focus is going to be but if you’re listening to this episode after the actual Thanksgiving holiday, feel free to take what you need and apply it to the moment you’re in.

When it comes to having a Guilt Free Thanksgiving, we’re going to focus on two things. Number one: we’re going to get our mindset right. Number two: we’re going to take Feel Good Action with simple, easy tools.

So let’s start by getting our mindset right!!

One of my favorite favorite books of all time is called Mindset and it’s written by Carol Dweck. I’ll link in for you in the description of this podcast episode because I 100% recommend it to anyone and everyone. It was the book that helped me break away from perfectionism and rewrite my identity. I used to feel like I wasn’t worthy unless I achieved. And I used to feel like if I couldn’t be the best at something, then why bother trying. And in the book you’ll learn that there are two types of Mindsets. You can have a Fixed Mindset or a Growth Mindset. A Fixed Mindset believes things like “you’re either talented or you’re not” / “you either got it or you don’t” / “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” – so it’s this belief that change is hard, that who you are is who you are. But a Growth Mindset looks at things and says “I can always get better. I can choose again. I can learn and grow and improve my skillset. I don’t have to be perfect before I’m worthy. I can show up and do my best, even if I fail.”

That Growth Mindset is where the magic is. And I love how it relates to food and nutrition. It relates to fitness. It relates to school and jobs and relationships. It takes the pressure off perfectionism. And calls us to show up as we are, willing to fail in the hopes that we’ll learn along the way. Having a Growth Mindset is gutsy. It requires courage. It asks you to re-examine your beliefs. And that is not always easy. But we are not here for easy, are we? :) We’re here for that deep, feel good healing. You know that’s right!! 

There’s this quote I love that says, “when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

So we want to change our mindset so we can begin to see things differently. And that new perspective is going to help us choose again and make decisions from a place of love, not fear.

When it comes to our Guilt Free Thanksgiving, mindset is everything!!! It’s our foundation. Let’s get our mindset right first and then let’s take action from that place.

Mindset for a Guilt Free Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, we’re going to do 3 things. We’re going to observe without judgment. We’re going to choose again. And we’re going to replace worry, overwhelm, and fear with gratitude.

01: Observe without judgment. I do this thing when I’m on my period. I have a rule with myself. When I’m on my period, I’m not allowed to say anything negative about my body. And I know you know the feeling of when you’re on your period and you’re a little more bloated. You feel heavier. Maybe you feel more tired and grumpy. You just feel different, right? Well, I got tired of always beating myself up when I was on my period. I got tired of criticizing my body and I didn’t like how it made me feel to stand in front of the mirror and say negative things about my belly. So I decided to create this rule for myself. When I’m on my period I am not allowed to say anything negative about my body. I’m on my period right now and when I look at myself in the mirror, I notice the fact that I’m more bloated but I don’t allow myself to say or think or believe anything negative. If a negative thought or feeling comes up, I acknowledge it. I literally will say to myself, hey girlfriend – we don’t talk to ourself like this. And then I say something empowering. I thank my body for doing all that it does. For regulating my hormones. For suppling the energy for me to be who I am and do all I get to do. And that helps me kill off the self-judgment. 

With Thanksgiving, we’re going to do something similar. We’re not going to allow ourselves to beat ourselves up. And maybe you’re thinking, if I don’t beat myself up I leave room for someone else to judge me. Because if we can judge ourselves harshly it feels like we can protect ourself from the judgment of someone else. It feels safer. But it is a false safety.

Allow yourself to be safe with you. You don’t need to judge yourself. You don’t need to protect yourself from yourself or from the judgments of others. You are free when you decide that you love you. That you like you. That you trust yourself to make the best decisions for you.

This is our safe space. This is a safe place we can create for ourself. We can observe how food makes us feel without judging ourself for eating it. We can listen to our body with curiosity. We can pay attention to our energy level – do we feel tired or more energized after eating that? We can pay attention to our mood – do we feel more anxious, depressed, frustrated or overwhelmed after eating that?

02: Choose again. Then, with that information, we can allow ourself to choose again. Y’all. When it comes to food, we’re going to make mistakes. We’re going to eat foods that make us react in a negative way. We’re going to eat too much or forget to eat altogether. Hey it happens. When you notice yourself choosing things that are not helping you feel good, let’s choose again. Pick the next best thing. Don’t overthink it. You get to make choices moment to moment. You are empowered to choose again moment to moment. And really this moment is all we have. You cannot go back and change how you ate a year ago. You can’t even reverse the meal you ate an hour ago. But you can choose again in this moment. Let’s do our best in this moment. Trust yourself to make the next best decision. You got this!

03: Replace worry/overwhelm/fear with gratitude. Lastly, my friend, when you notice yourself feeling worries or overwhelmed, anxious or fearful replace it with gratitude. The opposite of fear is love. There’s a scripture I love in the bible that says, “perfect love drives out fear.” Love and fear cannot coexist. So when our thoughts are filled with worry and feelings of not-enoughness, let’s replace them with thoughts and feelings of love. Replace your worries with the things you’re grateful for. Worry is a thing of the future. Gratitude is something that pulls us back to the present. We overcome worry with gratitude. If you feel overwhelmed, tell yourself, “I trust myself to get it all done.” And you know what – getting it all done isn’t the main goal anyway is it? The main goal is connection – time with family, time to treasure the good that’s already here, time to be in the moment. Overwhelm will steal your joy if you let it.

Friend, you are in the driver’s seat. And now that we have chosen a Growth Mindset, let’s look at 3 things we can do to take Feel Good Action this Thanksgiving.

Feel Good Actions for a Guilt Free Thanksgiving

01: Hydrate. It’s so simple! It’s so simple that we forget to do it. Can feeling good really be so simple!? YES. Yes yes yes yes yes!!! And it starts with a hydrating glass of water. Pro tip: did you know that fruits and veggies are also hydrating? There is a high water content in fruits and vegetables. Water is essential for health. So let’s do our part in supporting our body so it can do what it does best!!! Another pro tip: squeeze lemon into your water first thing in the morning. It’s detoxifying. The lemon helps to “wake up” your liver, which functions to eliminate toxins from your body. It also helps you get regular with your morning poop! Yep, I said it and yep, we went there!!! We want to be regular – if you know what I mean. There are so many lil hacks you can do to drink more water and if you’ve heard of any, go ahead and try them out! If you feel overwhelmed by all the hacks, simply decide to take action every time you think about water or notice that you’re thirsty. Listen and take action. Listen and take action. You don’t have to complicate it! Just listen and take action! 

02: Take your probiotics. Set an alarm on your phone if you need a reminder! Or you can try this lil hack: Set out your supplements by your toothbrush! I tend to forget to take my supplements so what I do is I leave my supplements out by my toothbrush so I remember to take them every morning and every evening accordingly. Probiotics in general help improve gut health. And did you know!? Your gut is what keeps your immune system strong. A healthy gut is a healthy immune system. Things like alcohol, sugar, stress, and lack of sleep can wreak havoc on your gut because they feed the bad bacteria in your gut. And we all know that the holidays are often synamonous with alcohol, sugar, stress, and lack of sleep. So it’s something we want to be mindful of! When you know how food and lifestyle behaviors affect your body you can feel empowered to take feel good action so that you can set yourself up for success.

03: Move your body! Find a small, simple way you can move your body. Daily movement is one of the best remedies for stress, chronic pain, and hormone regulation and movement can help boost energy, transform your mood, and help you connect with yourself and others. Now I’m not saying you need to sign up for a big long workout class on Thanksgiving Day. But what I am challenging you to do is move in a way that feels fun for you.

One of my favorite things to do, especially on a holiday is to ask someone in my family to move with me! If the weather is nice, I’ll ask if someone wants to go out on a walk with me. And it’s so bonding and fun. You’ll feel the benefits of movement even if all you do is play music and dance around the house. The key here: Just move!!! 

If you want a really fun, no equipment workout – text me at 214-380-1546 because I created a HIIT workout that is perfect for you if you hate working out or if you haven’t moved your body in a while. You’ll feel empowered and uplifted doing these moves and I’m doing the full workout with you from the beach so hopefully it helps you feel seen and like you’re not alone too. I’ll put a link to my number in the description too!

OKAY FRIEND. That is our episode! We are going to have a Guilt Free Thanksgiving. We got our mindset on point and we have 3 ways we’re going to take Feel Good Action. We’re tuning into the small, simple things by drinking water, taking our probiotics, and moving! It doesn’t have to be complicated. Rather, it gets to be fun.

Friend, I hope you have an incredible week. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want you to know I am grateful for you. Thank you for all you are. Thank you for your presence in our world. Thank you for your willingness to love yourself. Thank you for loving the women in your life. Thank you for lifting others up. Thank you for being my friend and for being apart of our Fit Flamingo Flock. I cherish your being and treasure you. You are enough.

Have a specific question? Send me a DM on Instagram!

Friendly reminder: You are enough.

With love + light,
Madison

Hi, I’m Madison Deaton. As a personal trainer, nutrition and self-love coach, I focus on the inside first, helping you get to the root of why you think and feel the way you do. Then I use things like functional fitness, holistic nutrition, mindset and self-love tools to help you connect with yourself on a deeper level, see things from a new perspective, and unlearn habits that no longer serve you so you can take up space, step into your power, and become the woman of your dreams (friendly reminder: she has been YOU all along). Welcome to The Fit Flamingo! I’m so glad you’re here.

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