Hey! Below is the transcript for episode two of my podcast Jesus. Coffee. Barbells™ . If you would like to listen to episode two instead of read it, you can click below to listen on Spotify or search for Jesus. Coffee. Barbells. on your favorite podcast platform!

Hello! Welcome to episode 2 of Jesus Coffee & Barbells™ . My name is Coach Amber George and I am from coachambergeorge.com. It’s time for episode two of this podcast where I do my best to take the guesswork out of your fitness journey.

As always, any information that I give you should not be considered medical advice. I am a certified coach and trainer; not a medical doctor or healthcare provider. Any information that you decide to use is based on your own decision and at your own risk.

If you listened to episode one, you will know that I talked about how I am tired of talking about weight loss. And, that mamas should start focusing on getting stronger physically, mentally and spiritually. This in turn helps them reach their fitness goals. Their body follows suit.

Remember that we talked about the importance of sleep?

Ah yes. The wonderful thing that is sleep. And how for mamas, good sleep almost seems like a dream.

I mean girl, listen. My child, God love him, has never been a great sleeper. He has the energy of a hummingbird and from the minute he wakes up he is going 90 miles per hour.

There were 3 nights that I can remember that my child never went to sleep.

And no, I’m not lying. Girl, I am talking that baby was awake all. Night. Long. I’m sitting on the sofa, and my baby is in his room still awake. And had been all night long, and I see through the window the beginnings of the sun peaking up over the horizon and I was even too tired to cry. I just went and made coffee and ready to roll for the day.

So! That said, believe me when I say, I 100% understand that solid sleep just isn’t a reality when children are young or for those children that have trouble sleeping. I get it! But it is something to think about.

Anyway!

I want to tell you a story. So, there was once a young girl…. This sounds like the start of a bad fairy tale doesn’t it?  But really, I promise it’s not. It’s 100% true!

So there was a girl that she grew up playing sports.

When she reached junior high and highschool, she was a catcher for her fast pitch softball team, she played basketball and made all district and state awards. She was highly athletic and she ate according to what she was hungry for. She ate when she was hungry and didn’t eat when she wasn’t hungry.

She grew up in a home that taught her how to love her body and who she was through Christ. There weren’t magazines lying around that talked about ‘diets’ and ‘being skinny’.

When she was a child, other kids called her bird legs and butter face.

Which, if you don’t know what butter face means, it means “everything looks good but her face”. But even in the midst of that, her parents taught her how to love who she was through Christ. And it worked, because she grew up truly loving who she was.

When she was 16 years old she and her gal pal had just gotten their driver’s licenses and they went shopping for clothes.

The jeans that she tried on at the time were a size three and they fit. Her friend? Was a zero.

Now, at the time, a size zero was a HUGE deal. It was the time of zero and double zero. It was a huge deal.

She went home and cried to her mother about what had happened.

To which her mother replied:

“The size of your pants says absolutely nothing about your state of health, your beauty and intelligence. It really is all about what’s on the inside; both physically (health) and spiritually/mentally. You have to be confident in who you are and love yourself for who you are through Christ. He has made you fearfully and wonderfully.”

~Wise Mama

Now, even though she was not overweight, and even though her parents had taught her to love her body and her for who I was, from that moment forward, she struggled with the way she looked.

She struggled big time.

She started seeing certain foods as “bad” and gave herself fairly severe limits.  She graduated highschool and went to college and since she wasn’t playing sports anymore she was terrified she was going to be overweight.

When she went to the gym, all she did was cardio machines and ab exercises. When she married her high school sweetheart, she was 108 pounds.

Here’s the kicker.

She didn’t think anything was wrong. She was genuinely happy and didn’t realize that her consistent under eating could be an issue.

Fast forward about 10 years from when she got married and she now weights 20+ pounds heavier, is stronger than ever, hasn’t counted calories in awhile, does FUN cardio for heart health, lifts heavy weights, is ACTUALLY joyful and happy with her body.

Guess what? That gal is me.

There we are! 10 years apart 🙂

Now, before we really dive into mindful eating and what it is, what it isn’t, etc.

Allow me to say this. For some mamas, counting calories is about freedom. It used to be very freeing for me. In fact, I wrote a blog post about it. And for some mamas it is freeing to know exactly where they are in their caloric count for the day.

However, I had been counting calories for so long, that it became a burden to me, especially as my business grew, we started homeschooling, and I was diagnosed with Hashimotos disease. This was when I started mindfully eating.

Now, what is mindful eating?  

The simplest of ways to explain it is this – eat when you’re hungry and don’t eat when you’re not.

God put a little ‘messaging system’ between our brains and our stomachs that tells us when we’re hungry. It’s the dangdest thing, isn’t it?

But seriously. There is this trigger between our stomach and our brains that say, hey! Feed me! I’m hungry!

This is when you walk to the kitchen, and go get some food. Or if you’re out and about and don’t have anything to eat, you make a conscious decision about what you are going to eat. The whole point is this. EAT when you are hungry.

Because here is what I have found…

If I don’t eat when I’m hungry, then I tend to get TOO hungry and eat too quickly and then I tend to get overly full. 

Have you ever seen a puppy that as soon as their person puts their food on the floor, they attack it and gobble it down like they hadn’t been fed in the past three years, when you know that they ate just that morning? That’s what happens when we get overly hungry. We just start shoving and we tend to overeat.

But when I address the hunger pain within a few minutes of feeling it, I eat consciously and purposefully and I eat a proper portion size.

Eating slowly and mindfully will help you eat a proper portion for YOUR body.

It’s also vitally important that we set aside the ‘diet’ mentality. Yes, if you want to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit. But weight loss isn’t our hyper focus anymore, right? RIGHT! We’re focusing on learning our body and getting wicked strong while properly feeding ourselves!

We must learn to overcome the ‘bad food’ mentality. Or “I’m cheating on my diet” thoughts.

Allow me to step on a soap box. I absolutely cannot stand to hear somebody say “cheat day” I HATE IT. I will confess, when I first became a trainer, I’m ashamed to say that I used the word cheat.

And, that was wrong of me. In fact, if you see some of my really old blog posts, there might be the word cheat in there. And, that is really the wrong way of thinking. And, I am trying to go back through and update those really old posts.

Think of your food as fuel. I’m a car gal, so go with me here. If you drove a crazy cool car.. Think of your dream car. Pretend you’re driving it and it’s time to get gas. You’re not going to pull into the gas station and put the cheapest gas in there, right?

RIGHT. You’re going to put the 92 octane level gas in there so your awesome cars runs well.

It’s the same with food! When your ‘gas light’ goes off (meaning you are hungry) your go-to choice should be awesome nutrient dense foods that help your body run at tip top shape.

Things like fruits, vegetables, Greek yogurt, a serving of nut butter…. Ya know! Those kinds of things

Change your level of thinking from foods as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and change it to terms of fueling. Is this snack going to fuel my body how I’d like for it to?

And, ya know what? Sometimes a cookie or another food that isn’t as nutritionally dense IS OKAY.

I sure hope that this makes sense.

Here’s the biggest thing. You as an individual have to decide what will work best for you. If that is counting calories, Awesome! If that is doing intermittent fasting, great! IF that is to properly mindfully eat, then DO IT.

You must do what is right for YOUR body and YOUR body alone. Not what some Instagram influencer tells you.

So! How do you apply these methods to mindfully eat?

One of the biggest ways is to prep your snacks ahead of time. Because when you have prepped snacks, and your hunger pain hits, you really don’t have to think about it, you can simply go grab a snack that you have already made and eat it.

There are a couple of ways of doing that. There are now solid snacks that are pre packed such as cheese and nuts. Those tend to be more expense, and you’ll want to read the ingredients list that there aren’t extra preservatives because they’re pre-packed.

Or you can buy things separately which is my preferred way of doing things and make your snacks yourself. This way you can add more nuts if you want more nuts, or more carrots if you want more carrots. You really can make them your own!

Okay! Here’s where you’re going to need a pen because

I am about to give you 22 different awesome snacks that you can make ahead of time to have your food ready to roll.

• Stick veggies and prosciutto
• Slices of cheddar cheese and almonds
• An apple and 2 tbsp of peanut butter
• Greek yogurt with a dab of honey and red pepper slices
• Hard boiled egg and a piece of toast
• Celery sticks with peanut butter
• Cottage cheese, pretzel sticks and a banana
• 1 hard boiled egg, carrot sticks and your choice of flavored rice cakes
• 1 serving of cubed cheese, banana, and bell pepper slices
• Hummus and veggie sticks
• 1/3 of a cup of guacamole and blue corn chips
• Lunch meat with a few cubes of cheese and whole grain crackers
• Tub of Greek yogurt with berries mixed in
• Steamed edamame and a few nuts (you can grab a steamable bag of edamame in the freezer section of your grocery store)
• Energy/protein bar (check nutrition facts to ensure it’s natural and whole ingredients!)
• Peanut butter and banana on whole grain bread
• Rice cakes, avocado, and hard boiled egg
• Popcorn and handful of nuts
• 2 TBSP of peanut butter and banana
• Cheese cubes, cucumber and bell peppers
• Celery, peanut butter, and a few dark chocolate chips
• Pretzels, lunch meat, 1 serving of cheese
• Plain Greek Yogurt (season with onion powder, dill, dash of salt) and use to dip stick veggies in
• Stick Veggies and prosciutto
• Cheese cubes and almonds
• Cottage cheese, pretzel sticks and banana
• Hard boiled egg, pretzel sticks, and blueberries
• Popcorn, 2 TBSP of peanut butter and grapes
• Lunch meat, hard boiled egg, blackberries

Let’s chat about something that needs to be addressed. There’s these people out there, that will make comments about what you’re eating or not eating or whatever.

Because, for some reason they feel entitled to be able to make such comments.

Now, before I get into this, there are some people that mean well, and they are simply ill educated and that isn’t necessarily their fault.

But there are people out there that will make comments on your food and what you’re eating or not eating and they might not be so kind.

Forget them.

You don’t need that kind of negativity in your life. You make the decision that you feel are best for your body at that moment. We must become confident in the healthy choices that we make for ourselves.

Remember, there is a difference between confidence and prideful behavior..

Confidence is being 100% okay with WHO you are.

Does that mean that you’re 100% happy with yourself all the time?

Nope, it sure doesn’t. Being confident is that fine line between pridefulness (an extreme focus on yourself) and being sure of yourself.

Confidence is knowing that you will make mistakes along this life’s road but that you will get back up again and you will handle each situation with grace and dignity.

-Coach Amber

Having confidence is about knowing when it’s time to fight for yourself, your health and your family and when to back off with, once again, grace and dignity.

There’s nothing wrong with grace and dignity, by the way.

In fact, it’s quite a lost art. I far admire a woman who is strong and confident in who she is without being a brat about it. Because, often times, those that are the loudest are the least confident.

This beautiful type of confidence with poise and elegance comes with a healthy self-love and respect.

Being prideful is having an extreme focus on oneself and is far from self-love and respect.

Pride can be running head first into a situation or making a decision based off of what only you blieve.

On the flip side, it can also be believing so ill of yourself that all you can think about is yourself and what others are thinking about you.

Yikes, right?

That said, we must be confident in the decisions we make for ourselves. Realizing that as we go along this journey, we will make mistakes and being fearful of the opinions of others.

I used to fear the opinions of others all the time.

The pride that I have long struggled with and am now telling you about is worrying about what other people think. Worrying about what they will say about me behind my back or even to my face which I will tell you about in a minute…

Because, believe me, there have been plenty of people talk bad about me behind my back and tell lies.

Especially when you start a business, people that know you from your hometown can often times be the most cruel.

For far too long I let what they would think about me guide my decisions and my actions.

It was only after I truly realized that they are not Who I am trying please, was I truly freed from that pride.

In fact, I still struggle sometimes. There was one time I was somewhere… and I honestly can’t remember where, but it was a social situation where there was food on a table and we would all get our own food, right?

I’m at the table, minding my own business, and this feller (that’s southern for ‘fella’ or ‘dude’ 🙂 ) looked at my plate and said, “I sure don’t know how you do it.”

And I said, do what?

And he replied with, how you look the way you do and still eat like that.

Wait. Um. Excuse. Me. What you said? Back the bus up there, buddy.

I looked at my plate and for a brief moment, felt shame. We were at a social gathering, and there were treats on my plate, yes. But, I was quite horrified by this man’s comment.

It got me to thinking, what if I’m projecting the wrong messageby allowing myself to ‘eat this way’ sometimes. What if I look like a fraud. What if. What if…. What if….

Then, I stopped my thoughts before they got too far.

I put on my plate at that social gathering what I wanted to eat at that social gathering. What I ate at that social gathering was not going to derail my journey on this fit life.

WE MUST stop obsessing over our food.

For some women, this means counting calories because they won’t obsess about eating too much or too little. For other women, it’s Intermittent fasting, but for most of us, it’s mindful eating. Being mindful everyday of what we put into our bodies. Allowing ourselves the freedom for treats but those being just that. Treats.

WE must remember that the One in whom we aim to please is much bigger than the judgement of others and even the thoughts in our own brains.

So, what the Lord says about our eating is quite simple. The words that He gave to the apostle Paul are quite simple.

1 Corinthians 10:31 NLT –

So whether you eat or dink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31

WHATEVER you do. Whatever you eat or drink, you do it all for the Glory of God.

That’s what this journey called life is all about. We take the best care of our temples (our bodies) as we can. We make solid choices without obsessing.

We eat food that God created for us to eat. We move our bodys by lifting weight and running and working out/exercising. We do all for the glory of God.

Here’s your next steps, mama.

Ya know? My dad always pokes fun at me for saying thing like ‘next steps’ or ‘moving forward’. Those saying came from spending too long in corporate America.

BUT. I digress.

Here’s your next steps. Decide for yourself what type of eating you think would give you this most freedom. If you tend to obsess about food and you focus on numbers, then counting calories might be your best bet.

If you tend to eat too much over the course of the day and don’t have much control, maybe intermittent fasting is for you.

But, if you’re looking for a way of eating that can be freeing with a bit of prayer, work, and concentration, mindful eating is the way to go.

Remember, we aren’t on this eat to lose weight, pay bills, and die. We’re on this eart for a short time to live, bring glory to God, and love each other and ourselves.

Don’t allow the opinions of others or even your opinion of yourself get in the way of your journey.

You’ve totally got this. Remember, it’s a journey and not a destination. This type of life is not a 6 week challenge and then it’s over. It’s small steps in the right direction every single day.

Lighten up a bit and learn to go easy on yourself. We’re our own worst critics, but you’re amazing. You are fearfully and wonderfully made by the Master of the Universe. How do I know? Because Psalm 139:14 told me so and I believe so with all of my heart.

My name is Coach Amber George from coachambergeorge.com and you have been listening to Jesus. Coffee. Barbells.™ Be kind to yourself and others this week.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast platform and throw in your email below for a free 5 day clean up your diet challenge! It teaches you how to make solid food decisions and be confident in them. And it’s FREE!