On today’s episode, I’m chatting with reverse interviewer Lauren about her slow and steady healthy success story following Path B of the Fed & Fit Project!
We’re back with our 145th episode of the Fed+Fit Podcast! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode and be sure to subscribe on iTunes!
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Episode 145 Transcription
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Cassy Joy: Welcome back to another episode of the Fed and Fit podcast. I am your host, Cassy Joy Garcia. Bringing you back another awesome episode today with a Fed and Fit listener and reader. Her name is Lauren, and she’s got a really wonderful story that I would love to share. It’s kind of like a reverse interview, except Lauren and I started chatting not so much about some questions she had but she wrote in and shared a little bit of her story. And I said; would you be willing to come on the podcast and talk about that? Because I really think that her story and her journey is going to encourage and comfort a lot of folks out there. So welcome to the show, Lauren!
Lauren: Oh, thanks for having me!
Cassy Joy: Thank you so much for coming on! Lauren, to tell you guys briefly about her. She is a nurse practitioner. Right? I didn’t write it down because I said I would remember, and now I’m doubting myself.
Lauren: Yes, you’re right.
Cassy Joy: {laughs} She’s a nurse practitioner out of Houston, Texas, and is an absolute doll. Thank you so much for coming on and making time for us today. I would love it if you would tell us a little bit more about yourself. Maybe rewind the clock a little bit on your health journey.
Lauren: Sure. So like you said, Cassy, my name is Lauren and I work as a nurse practitioner full time here in Houston. I have two little boys, a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old who keep me quite busy; my second full time job, I always say. And a wonderful, supportive husband who quite frankly I couldn’t do this journey without. So that’s a little bit of kind of who I am and where I’m coming from.
I always think that’s important, because I think so often we always compare ourselves. And like; oh, I could never do something like this. I have a full-time job, or I’m a mom, or I stay at home with my kids and they’re in my hair all day. And I just want people to know, too, that The Project is so doable, even with super busy kind of crazy life. And maybe not having; I don’t just sit around all day and think about when I’m going to eat next and plan my workouts. You know? I think that’s important to know that it’s doable, no matter how busy your schedule is.
Cassy Joy: Yeah. And I don’t want to interrupt you. Well, I’m going to interrupt you. I don’t want to.
Lauren: Yeah, go ahead. {laughs}
Cassy Joy: {laughing} But, just so you guys know if you’re new listeners and you’re not sure what she’s talking about. The Project that she’s referring to is the Fed and Fit Project, and it is the online food and fitness. Really healthy lifestyle kind of gentle guidance program that my team and I run. And we open it up once a month to new members to walk through sort of a feel-good reset, and then on to figuring out what really works for you. I think that’s in a nutshell. You can head to www.FedandFitProject.com to learn more. Ok; sorry Lauren, take it away.
Lauren: Yeah, sounds great. So, I actually have celiac disease, which kind of puts a different spin on things. And that’s sort of; I hate the word disease. But it is what it is. It just basically means that I have some genetic and gut issues; I can’t eat gluten. I can’t consume gluten. And it’s a little bit more than, gluten doesn’t make me feel good. Or maybe a gluten intolerance. If it comes along with; if I eat gluten, it increases my risk for cancer down the road. It causes a lot of inflammation. It’s an autoimmune disease. So definitely gluten is an absolute never-ever food for me. Which doesn’t always have to be the case for everyone.
But I was diagnosed with celiac about 12 years ago now. So I’ve been gluten free for 12 years. Unfortunately, not really by choice. And so that kind of started this journey. I remember when I got diagnosed with celiac and Googling it, and it said I couldn’t eat wheat. And I was like; what in the world am I going to eat, then? {laughs}
So that kind of started this journey of going from; it’s kind of the cliché paleo saying. But the Standard American Diet to gluten free, and how that journey kind of happened when I’m in college in the middle of nowhere in a sort of middle Illinois and not really knowing. This was back before gluten free was kind of cool and hip and happening, and quite frankly, the gluten free products that were out there were terrible. So, at 20 years old, in the middle of college, I had to sort of learn how to eat completely differently.
So, then you know, sort of fast forward. Again, quite honestly, I had a lot of history of disordered eating. Which I think, unfortunately, a lot of women in society have. So kind of went through all of that in high school and through college, and even after. So you’re working through this going on different diets. I think, unfortunately, a lot of people our age. I’ve tried it all from Weight Watchers, to Atkins, to super strict paleo, to everything else. And I came to paleo, I think, in a better spot emotionally and a better relationship with food than I had been in a long time. But still wasn’t quite there yet.
I came into paleo with more of a weight loss mindset. And just, long story short. I feel like I could talk about that aspect alone for hours. That’s evolved more into; especially post-kids. Kids change you a lot. More into, I’m tired of worrying about how much I weigh. And I told you this, too. I don’t even own a scale. That was part of my journey over the last few years. That just doesn’t do me well. So we don’t even have a scale in our house. Which, people are shocked when I say that.
Even over Christmas, my dad and I were talking about weight stuff and issues with that for him. And he’s like; well how much do you weigh. And I said, quite frankly, I have no idea. I mean, I could give you a very good estimate based on my history and knowing kind of where my body is, but I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.
With my pregnancies, I would hop on the scale and face backwards and the nurse that weighed me always laughed at that. But I was like; I don’t want to know, and I don’t want you to tell me.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Lauren: That’s just an unhealthy place for me. And like you’ve talked about a lot; I think the scale is so far off of the good metric our goal of, if we’re doing well or where we’re at in life.
So, let me backslide a little bit here. I came into paleo with sort of a weight loss mindset. Post kids, that’s really sort of gone away for me and I really just want to feel good. So I want to have energy. I want to feel good about the way I’m eating. I didn’t want to do any more counting or measuring or don’t eat this for 30 days, or you’re a horrible human being.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Lauren: I just wanted to feel good about what I was eating. Feel good about what I was giving my kids. And just kind of revamp where we were at. Back in September, I had just finished breastfeeding our second baby. I guess he’s more of a toddler now. And I thought; when I’m done breastfeeding, I really want to kind of get our eating back on track. And I had come to Fed and Fit via PaleOMG, and sort of found you. I thought; I struggled to go back and forth of; should I do a Whole30? Which is a great program, but not really what I thought I needed at that time.
And then I saw your Project, and the path B. Which I just think is awesome. There’s nothing like your Project with path B. So to explain that a little; you have a path A and a path B, and the path A is a little bit shorter and a sort of rip off the Band-Aid. And the path B is more spread out and lets you set up goals to go throughout the project.
So I did the path B, and it was just so awesome for me. And I felt like this was the first time that I didn’t just listen to rules and the dogma of paleo. You really give the freedom to; I think you even say in your book or on the podcast and in your blog; you’re never off plan. And that was really freeing to me.
I think you can go through the Project, and you can follow the rules exactly to a T. But for me, it doesn’t work. Because then I get into this all or nothing perfectionism thing. And you really have freed it up to say; even if you eat something off plan, you’re not off plan. You know? So just to have empowered decision making. I would use your goals and your dietary markers of what we were sort of eliminating that week. But also give myself the freedom to say; this is my goal. But if I go to a party and there’s something there that I haven’t had that in a year and my friend makes that and it’s so yummy; I’m not going to leave there feeling deprived because I didn’t try it. And I’m also not going to leave there gorging myself on it and feeling like I just screwed up.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Lauren: So, I kind of went into every situation with; here’s kind of what my plan is, and here’s the freedom I’m going to give myself. And I sort of made my own rules within your rules, and sort of tailored it to where I was at in life emotionally, and physically. And the goals I had for myself, and the goals you helped me set up through your Project. And it just was a really, really good experience.
Cassy Joy: That just makes my heart sing. I just have to tell you. Because I was so hesitant. And I’ve probably talked about this before. I was so hesitant to put hard and fast rules out there. But you have to have something, right?
Lauren: Yes. It’s guidance. Yeah.
Cassy Joy: Exactly! You have to have something. But your interpretation of it is all of my hopes and dreams. This is some guidance, great word for it. But at the end of the day, where the real power and real value comes is what you decide is right for you. And that mindset of; there is nothing out of scope or off plan and you’re never on the bandwagon or off the bandwagon; there is no bandwagon! {laughs}
Lauren: Yes! And you’ve said that, and that made me feel like I can do this. Because I can kind of use what you have has guidance, and your weekly emails are so great. And listening to your podcast is so great. But also to know that I have the freedom to maybe go off a little bit of plan and still get right back on, and I didn’t screw up a “diet.” It’s just my life.
Cassy Joy: Yeah! Exactly. It is. That’s wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing all of that. And then, how long ago did you complete the three months? Path B is essentially the same format as path A, we just spread it out over three months. And as with Lauren, path B is definitely my favorite. You’re not supposed to choose favorites {laughs} when you own the program. But it is definitely my favorite. And if I could, that would be the only option out there. But a lot of folks would prefer to just kind of rip the Band-Aid off. And that’s fine. It works for some people. I’m not one of those people.
Lauren: And I would caution people, too. Even if you think you’re a rip the Band-Aid off person. Because I would have said, “Oh I’m a rip the Band-Aid off person.” Five years ago. Or maybe even three years ago. I thought I was. But I kept ripping the Band-Aid off over and over with different diets and challenges, and it wasn’t working. So, at some point, you have to stop beating yourself up and saying, I just suck. I’m not good at this. I don’t have enough willpower.
If you came out and started your car every day, and every day it didn’t start and every day you had to jump it, you wouldn’t say, “I don’t know how to start my car.” You would say, “Something is wrong with my car.” So in the same way, I had to say; ok, it’s not me. Something is not working with these rip the Band-Aid off approaches, and I need something different. And that’s what path B gives you.
And I think, too, you have to look at your motives. So it’s like; why. Why is it important if someone is saying, I want to do this? Rip the Band-Aid off and do this super quick. Maybe they’re looking at it from a weight loss approach. I would say list out your motives of why you want to do the rip the Band-Aid off, and then list out your long-term goals. And see if those things match up.
So, for me, my long-term goals are to eat well, eat healthy so that myself and my husband and my family feel good. So doing that in 30 days; what’s the difference of me spreading that out and maybe making it a little bit easier on us over three months. You know? I just think that path B is such a great, great option.
Cassy Joy: Oh, that’s so awesome. Man! What a great start to the day! You’re making my whole day. {laughs}
Lauren: Oh good! I’m glad.
Cassy Joy: That’s wonderful. Do you have any other words of wisdom for someone? Maybe that person who is sitting there thinking; you touched on at the beginning of this. That person who is like; I don’t have time to put myself first right now.
I was having a conversation with my sister the other day. And a lot of our friends and family members say, “That’s great! I’m just not in a place where I can prioritize my health right now.” And I have some thoughts, but I’m curious to see what you would say to somebody who is kind of struggling with when is the right time to prioritize something like this.
Lauren: Yeah, sure. And that is really hard, and I never want to downplay people; how busy they are. How much they have going on. Because my life is not your life, and my story is not your story. So, if people say, “Oh, I don’t have time to prioritize myself right now. Or I’m so busy.” I get that. It is so, so hard.
Here’s kind of a perfect example. And I talk more about food and exercise too. But prior to kids, my husband and I both did CrossFit. And he loved it. We weren’t like an everyday at the CrossFit gym type person, but four or five times a week we were at CrossFit. Our CrossFit was our community. You know, Saturday was getting up, going to CrossFit, going to brunch with CrossFit friends. Maybe lying by the pool with CrossFit friends. You know, it was just a lot of CrossFit, and our lifestyle was active. And at that time we had a dog and we would do CrossFit, and take the dog for a walk. You had all this free time.
And then once we had our first baby, it all happened at once. But our CrossFit gym ended up closing a couple of months after we had our first baby. And I really think that was a blessing in disguise, because the first couple of months we tried to keep up the old exercise habits that we had with this newborn that meant everything and more to us. And it wasn’t working.
Well, I take that back. It was working, because I was on maternity leave. But it was not going to work when I had to go back to my 7-4 job. I work outside of the home, and our son; both of our sons, now, are in daycare. And there was no way that I was going to be able to send my kid to daycare all day, come home and put him in daycare again to go to the gym. You want to spend every moment you can with your kids. So I knew that wasn’t going to work.
But what ended up happening was our CrossFit gym closed and sold all the equipment. They were very sweet, and sold it to the members first. So members got to come and pick out whatever equipment they wanted and buy it from the gym. So we were able to kind of set ourselves up with a home gym.
Cassy Joy: Awesome.
Lauren: And so have just sort of done CrossFit style workouts at home. And that worked wonderful for us. Because I can get up before work, and workout before my son’s even up, and I don’t feel like I’m taking away from him. And also I love, love, love working out in the morning. That’s kind of what gets me going.
Then, fast forward we have baby number 2, and now things have gotten crazier. {laughs} And baby number 2, god love him, his first three months were hard. Hard, hard, hard. He cried, I felt like nonstop, and working out was the last thing I cared about. And five years ago, if you had told me that I was going to go 6 months without touching a weight or working out at all, I would have said you are crazy and I would die before I would ever do that. And lo and behold, here it is. I went 6 months without working out one lick of exercise. And quite frankly, that’s where we were in life.
Cassy Joy: Yeah.
Lauren: So if someone would have said to me at that time; “Well you just need to prioritize yourself.” I would have slapped them.
Cassy Joy: {laughing}
Lauren: You know, we were going to work every day. I’m talking leaving the house at 6:30, getting home between 4:30 and 5, and then having a 2.5-year-old that we’re trying to spend time with, and a newborn that’s crying from 5 to 10 p.m. There was no way that I could have found time to work out. There was no way.
So I think if that’s kind of where people are at, that’s ok. Understand where you’re at in life. Again, you’ve even said this in your book or in your podcast. It kind of jumbles together. But sleep and water and food are much more of a priority than exercise. And that was really encouraging to me, too. Especially when I look back at that time and think; could I have made time to workout? But you know, I did try to prioritize other things. I tried to prioritize our sleep. I tried to prioritize what we were eating. And it wasn’t like I just totally went off the bandwagon.
So then fast forward, and we’re trying to get back into exercising. So we’re starting to exercise at home again. And then I was done breastfeeding, and that was a whole nother. You know; I had to get up at 4:30 and pump every morning before work. So I said, as soon as I’m done with this morning pump, I’m going to keep getting up, but exercise. So actually, since I started the Project, I’ve been using the exercises you have on your website and the exercises you have in your book.
Cassy Joy: Awesome!
Lauren: So I think at home workouts are a great way if someone is really strapped for time.
Cassy Joy: I think this is a great spot to stop and hear from one of our sponsors.
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Lauren: But again, I think if you’re just starting out new, and you’re not working out. You’re just starting the Project, let’s say. I think it’s ok. The first month of the Project, to be honest, I didn’t workout. Because we had some other family and personal things going on. And it was enough for me to just focus on my food and my water and my sleep. So for the whole first month of the project, I didn’t workout at all.
And then, I think because I was doing the Project, and I was feeling so good, and I was prioritizing sleep, and I was prioritizing eating. Then I was able to find time to make some workouts come back into my life and work again.
Cassy Joy: That’s so awesome. Lauren, do you just want to come over and have coffee every week with me? {laughs}
Lauren: Yes! Yes, I would love that! I love it!
Cassy Joy: We’re pretty close to each other. San Antonio is not that far. You touched on exactly where my heart was oriented. There’s this mindset that if we don’t have time. Or we don’t feel like we have the ability, or the time, or we’re not in the right place to do it all, then we can’t do any of it.
Lauren: Yes. Yeah.
Cassy Joy: You know? For example. Lauren and I are chatting right now. This episode is probably going to air close to Easter {laughing}. But we’re chatting right in the beginning of January, and my baby girl is due any time. But she’s still in my tummy. And I; you guys, I have not been working out lately. And that’s ok. It really is.
Lauren: Yes.
Cassy Joy: To kind of reiterate and just underline in bold what she was saying. The most important things are rest, hydration, and for me, of course, nutrition. But for me right now, I’m spending as much time as I can trying to get work set up so that I can be with her as much as possible in these next several months. And what that goes to play into is a healthy mindset. Right? And you have to sit there and you have to think; what makes sense for me? There’s no one size fits all. Exactly what she’s saying. Don’t let anybody cover you in should’s. You should be doing this, and you should be doing that.
I absolutely could get up from the couch and do 10 air squats. But I am not. {laughs}
Lauren: Oh gosh, I know. And they’re like; get up and do 10 air squats every commercial. And you’re like; can I just lay on the couch. {laughs} I’m about to have a baby.
Cassy Joy: {laughs} Totally. And when you’re worn out, and you’ve got two toddlers running around, and you’re up at 4:30 pumping, and you’re going back to work, and you have a husband and all these things that are wonderful. Right? They’re just so wonderful. If you need to just sit there, that’s way more important. If that’s going to help build a healthier mindset than getting up and working out for the commercial period.
Lauren: Yes.
Cassy Joy: I’m with you. That was so beautifully put. Thank you for sharing that.
Lauren: And I think, going back to what you said, too. Also don’t find yourself in a slippery slope where you use your business as an excuse, either. Because maybe you don’t have time to exercise, but you have to find something that you can do.
And I have found for me personally, if I even set myself a small goal, and I feel like; great, I accomplished that. Then that makes me feel better. It energizes me. And then before I know it, it’s a slippery slope of things are getting back into place. So like you said, don’t say, “Well, since I can’t workout I’m just going to eat pizza and ice cream every night. Because why bother.”
So going back to the, does the rip off the Band-Aid approach work for, or does small goals work for you. It’s like; if you are just totally off the rails and you’re trying to figure out where to start, just set a small, easy goal. Maybe that is the only thing I’m going to care about this week is that I get as much water as I can during the day. And that’s the only thing I’m going to worry about this week. But then, at the end of the week, you do it and you’re like; yes! I’m awesome. Now what can I do this week? You know?
And that’s kind of what the path B does. It slowly eases you into things. And I’ll be honest, too. I hope you don’t care that I say this. There was one week that we had some family stuff going on. I forget even what week it was in path B. But we were supposed to give up something this week and then something else the next week. And I just knew that if I flipped those two weeks, my life was going to be a lot easier. So I did!
Cassy Joy: Good!
Lauren: And it was great!
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Lauren: You know. So I think, too, it’s ok to take the rules and make them fit your life. Because that is how you’re going to stay on task. That’s how you’re going to keep making progress.
Cassy Joy: Oh, that’s so beautiful! Man, it just really makes me so happy. I had a conversation with Dr. Bauman. He started the Bauman Nutrition college out of California. That episode will have aired by now. {laughing}
Lauren: There you go.
Cassy Joy: Some time in the next couple of months. But something that he came out and said that I really identify with, as well. He was like; I created this program. But by no means do I just want people to do what I’m saying. And I just think there are so many wonderful resources out there in the world. And I want you to gravitate to what calls to you, right? Because there’s’ going to be the right size and the right fit for you out there somewhere. Right? The right; whether it’s a program or a community or some sort of a support group or something that just makes you feel great. There’s going to be a time and a season for different ones out there. So find what works for you.
But, I would encourage everybody, when you’re looking for something, look for the ones that say, “Here are some parameters and go figure out how to make it right for you.” They’re a little bit less dogmatic about their practices. Even so, the creator of this nutrition program, of course he has very staunch opinions as nutrition and functional medicine and things like that pertain to himself. But when it comes to teachings, he left everything so open ended, and I really admire that. So I would encourage folks to seek a resource like that out. I just felt called to say that for a second.
Anyway. Lauren, sorry to side rail! But thank you so much for sharing all that wonderful information. Do you have anything else you want to leave with listeners?
Lauren: Yes. I think something I have to say, too. I would be upset if I didn’t. I would say the number one thing; this is personal, personally. But the number one thing that I think made me successful; or I know. I know it’s what made me successful. Was the journaling. And I think even if you start out with your only goal of; I’m going to journal what I ate today. And I don’t mean measuring or counting or even saying I had 10 grapes, but just saying grapes.
Even just; I used your template. And I’m such a nerd. I printed out the templates for the whole 12 weeks, and I made myself a binder of week one, week two, week three, all the way through 12.
Cassy Joy: You are awesome.
Lauren: {laughs} I made myself my own little binder, and I wrote down my goals every week. So week one; and I did them each week because I knew they were going to evolve. So week one would be, I had a food, a hydration, a sleep, a mindset, and activity. And so if you look through my goals, how they changed is awesome. And it’s kind of just like I was saying it’s a slippery slope of you start small and you work your way up. So, the first part of the Project is to get rid of bad oils. Right? So my food goal that week was to get rid of bad oils.
But, ha-ha! I had already done that! {laughs} We don’t cook with those oils at home anymore, anyway. We cook with avocado oil and coconut oil and sometimes a little bit of olive oil. But coconut oil and avocado oil are what we use day in and day out. So even though that was the first goal, I still put it as my goal because it’s something I can check off and feel good about. Because I knew that some of the other goals I was going to list were things I wasn’t doing.
So I set a bed 10 goal. Like I said, I didn’t workout the first month of the Project. So honestly, I just put a big X through that activity section in the journal. Because I knew that I was going to wait a month before I started adding activity back. But I did put a goal of a number of steps I wanted to get that day. So my steps gradually increased each week. My bedtime gradually moved back each week. My goals for food changed each week. And just one of my goals was that I would journal every day. So that was a huge thing for me.
And then I added, with mindset, like week one I think I said I’m going to list one thing I’m proud of every day. And the next week was, I’m going to list one thing I’m proud of and one thing I’m thankful for every day. So those journals really became such a good resource for me. And again, I work full time. I have two kids. I wasn’t spending an hour on this journal every night. Sometimes I would spend maybe 3 minutes, and sometimes I would spend maybe 20. It just depended on what our night looked like and what had happened that day.
And mine was as basic as, I would write down what I ate and then the next column on the journal is how you felt immediately after and then how you felt two hours later. And I would put one or two words. It wasn’t this long, drawn out, let me contemplate how those eggs made me feel in my soul.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Lauren: It was just, you know; had eggs for breakfast. Really satisfied after. Still really satisfied two hours later. So it’s just, those journals really help the process the day and process where I was at.
Cassy Joy: Oh, that’s awesome. The journaling really is key. Just to underline, bold, highlight. Journaling really is key. And to your point, it’s not that we need to be writing down. Because I’m decidedly not a macro counter, by any stretch of the imagination. It’s not that we need to write down, I had 27 raspberries. It’s just, I had raspberries with breakfast kind of deal. It’s more, we’re qualifying. Is that the right way to put it? What’s actually showing up on our plate. Not necessarily quantity. Or if we are talking about quantity, it’s big picture.
But, it can really be; the analogy that I use. For whatever reason, I keep going back to it. Is that when you’re building your own plan and you’re trying to figure out what works for you, it’s so easy in the moment to think, “I’ll remember this.” You know? Let’s say you have a baked sweet potato with dinner, and then the next morning you get up and you go and work out and you feel awesome in that workout. You’re like; wow, I’ve never had more energy. I ran my fasted 400. And I PRd my deadlift. Who knows, I’m making big promises on a sweet potato.
Lauren: Right! {laughs} Hey, you never know.
Cassy Joy: You never know.
Lauren: Especially a white sweet potato.
Cassy Joy: Exactly! Those Japanese sweet potatoes are so good. And you think; oh gosh, I had that big sweet potato with dinner and some coconut milk on it, and I also got a full night’s sleep, and I got all this water yesterday. I will never forget this. Well, when life gets complicated, and things get a little difficult, maybe you’re having a week where you’re feeling a little crummy and you’re like; gosh, I wish I could just feel that way again.
When you try to remember what you did, it’s more difficult. But if you have it written down, and all you have to do is flip through and see sweet potato, full night sleep, water, felt awesome in workout. It’s not that it’s always going to be that simple, but it kind of helps us slowly start to decode what really works for our bodies. And how do we break out of the temptation. Instead of saying; gosh I want to feel that way again. Maybe I need to do another diet.
Lauren: Right! {laughs}
Cassy Joy: You know? Maybe the answer is so much more simply put in what lesson learned did you already go through and work through and document so that you can just go and have a cheat sheet on yourself. So that’s wonderful. I’m so glad. Clearly, you got so much more out of journaling. And that was you. It is what you make of it. And I think that it can be such a powerful, powerful tool. Not just for decoding nutrition, personalized nutrition tips, but also in just a general mindset state. And also staying kind of on the offense in terms of; I’m in control of this and I’m not at the mercy of this program controlling me.
Lauren: Yes. And that I think is huge. And you have to sort of tell yourself that over and over. That this is not a; oh my gosh if you eat off plan, then you better start all over. That you can sort of give yourself the freedom to do your best to stay within the guidelines. And some weeks, you’re going to follow it to a T, and some weeks you might go a little bit off plan. But I would encourage people to not just go off plan because there was a Hershey’s kiss sitting on their coworker’s desk just on a whim. But more of a planned, I know that we’re going to go out to dinner with our friends on Friday night. And maybe I’m already passed the giving up alcohol part, but I’m going to have one glass of wine and then I’m going to see how I feel. And I feel like crap, then I need to go back and maybe be 100% alcohol free for a while. But if I had one glass of wine, and I don’t have another one for three weeks and it really didn’t affect me, then it’s ok. It doesn’t mean that you just blew this diet and now you should eat bon bons and ice cream all day.
Cassy Joy: Yeah! That’s so it. I just want to high-five you. I’d probably hug you, actually. {laughs}
Lauren: Either. I’ll take both.
Cassy Joy: You’ll take both, awesome. Lauren, I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to come on and share your awesome story and your words of wisdom with everybody. I mean, I’m encouraged hearing you.
Lauren: Well good! You should be. I really appreciate all the hard work that you’ve put into it and put out there for us. And it’s helped me tremendously.
Cassy Joy: Oh good. That means the world to me, and that’s definitely why I do it. And if you guys want to learn more about The Project. Like I said before you can head to FedandFitProject.com. and that will take you to a little bit more information and links to get signed up. We start, like I said, the first week of every month. And we don’t jump in with a, “Ok, diet starts Monday!” We try to do 7 days of prep because that way you can really be intentional and get all those ducks in a row strategically before we jump into something and be very mindful of it.
But thank you again for coming on. Thanks everybody for listening. As always, you can find a full transcript for today’s show over at www.FedandFit.com under the show notes. As always, we’ll be back again next week.
