Episode 8 Three Non Negotiables For Prioritizing Your Nutrition & Self-Care As A Busy Female Entrepreneur
Welcome to episode 8 of Wellness Wednesday’s Audio Series.
I’m Nissrine, registered holistic nutritionist, mindful nutrition & wellness coach for female entrepreneurs who are looking to prioritize their health and wellbeing without fad diets and wellness trends.
I created this series to bring a fresh perspective to nutrition and wellness, one that is centered on and lead by you.
There’s a plethora of information out there and it can be really hard to know what to do and eat to feel good in your body.
It’s easy to get caught up in fad diets and wellness trends, often questioning, doubting and second guessing your decisions when it comes to the way you nourish and care for yourself.
I wholeheartedly believe that; reconnecting with your own innate wisdom to know what your body needs to thrive is the first step to a life-changing transformation and true lasting wellness; and that progress is made by taking small steps, mindfully, intentionally and consistently.
In today’s episode, I’m sharing my top tips for prioritizing your nutrition and self-care when you’re really busy and life feels chaotic and overwhelming.
I recently polled a community of busy female entrepreneurs, much like myself, to find out what they were struggling with the most when it came to their nutrition & self-care and the response was split down the middle between…
I struggle to prioritize my nutrition & self-care
AND
I bounce between dieting and neglecting my nutrition & self-care all together.
To be honest, it didn’t surprise me. I was actually expecting these responses.
What may seem like two separate problems is actually two sides of the same coin.
And here’s why…
All or nothing diet mentality and hustle culture make it really hard to find balance and consistency with your nutrition & self-care.
The wellness industrial complex and diet culture thrive off of selling fad diets and self-care rituals that are elusive and unsustainable at best.
And hustle culture glamorizes long days and busy-ness in pursuit of social & financial success at the expense of our health and wellbeing.
It’s no wonder busy female entrepreneurs like you are feeling frustrated, tired, burnt out…and are struggling to prioritize your nutrition & self-care in a sustainable way.
You’re essentially stuck in the vicious all or nothing diet cycle where one minute you’re all in and the next minute you’re all out and you can’t seem to find balance or consistency.
The longer you stay in this loop though, the harder it is to get out and all you’re left with are aches and pains, shame and guilt and worst of all a complete loss of faith in your own innate wisdom to know what your body needs to thrive. You become reliant on that external input.
But you persist, thinking the problem is you, your motivation, and your ability to stick with a diet, so you try again and again and again to no avail.
Inevitably though, you give up, and who could blame you. It’s exhausting to live like that.
And that’s when it starts to become difficult to find time to prioritize your nutrition & self-care - because your past experiences and efforts didn’t serve you and your mind and body won’t let you go there again.
It’s a self-preservation mechanism.
When you don’t make time for nutrition & wellness though, you tend to go on autopilot, in complete disconnect with your body, often neglecting your physical, emotional, and mental self-care needs in the process, including your nutrition.
This leads you to feeling off kilter, desperate for a solution to feel better in your body and more vulnerable to fad diets and wellness trends that promise you a quick fix for all your woes.
Sound familiar?
I know I’ve been there, as have most of my clients and the women in my community.
But I promise you there is a better way and today I’m going to share what that is.
Before I go any further though, I want to reassure you that, as a busy female entrepreneur, mama and wife, in no particular order, I know first hand just how difficult it can feel to make yourself and your self-care a priority.
The entrepreneurial journey can feel like a rollercoaster of highs and lows on high speed. Couple that with caring for your children and making time to keep your marriage alive and it can feel like an impossible feat to carve out anytime at all for yourself, causing it to fall way down on your priority list.
But here’s the thing, nothing is more important than your physical, mental and emotional health.
Yes, I said it. Nothing.
I’m going to repeat that. Let it sink in.
Nothing is more important than your physical, mental and emotional health.
Because without them, you WILL burn out from exhaustion.
They are key to building your resilience so that you can continue to show up for your life, your family and your business.
Remember, you can’t pour from an empty cup. So you really need to fill yours first. Ok?
So, here are my top tips for prioritizing your nutrition & self-care when life feels chaotic and overwhelming - and I’m going to keep this very very simple for you.
There are 3 non negotiables from my experience, both personal and professional
Set a Wellness Vision for yourself
I bet you’re really good at setting a vision, goals and creating a plan when it comes to your business, and you would never walk into a meeting or presentation unprepared, but yet when it comes to your health and wellbeing,you fly by the seat of your pants. Am I right?
As I’ve said many times, wellness is not a passive process. It’s an inside job and you’re the CEO. You are in the driver seat, and you have to show up and do the work.
A wellness vision is a great way to begin doing that work and the very first thing I do with my 1 on 1 coaching clients.
It’s that important and it informs their wellness journey and the rest of the coaching experience.
Let’s unpack what this is now.
A wellness vision is a description of where you want to be - your ideal state of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health and wellbeing, written in the present tense.
It has two main components to it
It defines how you feel and act when you are at your best.
It articulates what you really want for yourself - your deepest desires and intrinsic motivators (the why behind what you want)
It’s important because it helps you set goals and intentions that are in alignment with where you want to go and gives you a reason to feel motivated when willpower is low.
In order to articulate a wellness vision you’ll want to answer a few questions like:
How do I want to act?
How do I want to feel?
What are some of the habits and practices that I want to be doing consistently and with ease?
Why are these things important to me?
How will they impact my life? my relationships? my career?
What do I have to gain from these habits and practices?
And what do I stand to lose if I don’t do these things?
It’s important to be honest with yourself about where you are now so you can clearly articulate where you want to go, but be sure to do so with positivity. Rather than make note of the things you want to stop doing, make note of the things you want to start doing and feeling.
Once you’ve answered these key questions, you’ll want to articulate your wellness vision in the present tense, in paragraph form.
Like a story.
Visualize it, feel it, express it, as if it were already a reality.
Be as detailed as you can be.
Imagine how you feel living in alignment with that vision because that is how you are going to manifest that vision into reality.
If you’d like to read more about what this is and how to do it, check out this article I wrote.
Build intentions into your daily routine & schedule
Every successful entrepreneur has a schedule and a routine, for their business at least.
You probably already have start time, maybe you have a stop time (maybe not, but that’s definitely something you should work towards on your self-care journey) and a lot of tasks, to dos and meetings in between.
In order to prioritize your nutrition & self-care, you have to start by setting some intentions and making time for them on your schedule and in your daily routine.
Intentions are simply “calls to action” that provide you with aim and direction on your journey.
And they can mean many things and be different things for different people, but here are a few examples of intentions that are applicable to almost any wellness journey and that most people can start to build into their schedules and routines starting now:
build time into your weekly schedule for a supermarket visit so you have the ingredients on hand to prepare yourself a nourishing meal.
build time into your daily schedule for intentional movement, even if it’s just a 10 minute walk or a quick stretch. If you don’t have time to workout for an hour, don’t take an all or nothing mentality, and fit it in for even 10 minutes.
cultivate a morning routine that helps you set yourself up for a successful day including a nourishing breakfast that gives you the energy you need to get going
schedule pauses throughout the day, to get up, get some natural light, stretch and take a mental break. They don’t have to be long, 5-10 minutes will do, just take them regularly throughout your day. Set an alarm and force yourself out of that chair.
hydrate yourself adequately throughout the day. When we’re busy, for some reason, this is the first thing to go, we stop drinking. Keep a bottle of water at your desk and refill it frequently. Set yourself an alarm to remind you to drink every few minutes.
build time into your daily schedule to prepare a nourishing meal and eat it mindfully and with intention. Don’t forget to download my free guide with my Simple 5 Step Framework to Nourishing Meals in Minutes as this will help you with what to keep on hand and how to throw it together for a balanced and energizing meal that supports you.
set a hard stop for your day. I know this may not be easy, because I struggle with this sometimes too because there’s a lot to do and I feel like I have to keep going. But the more you do this, the easier it gets to do it, until the hard stop becomes the norm and burning the midnight oil becomes a rare occurrence.
cultivate an evening routine to help you wind down and get the restorative sleep you need to face another busy day.
These are just the low hanging fruit and are mostly applicable to anyone.
These intentions are the habits that you are going to practice daily, that allow you to live in alignment with your wellness vision, in the present moment, so you can experience just how amazing it feels to bring that vision to fruition and make it a reality.
When you act in alignment with your intentions, you’ll experience the desired feelings you’re after, in the present moment, and not just at some fictitious time in the future.
When you don’t act in accordance with your intentions on the other hand, you’ll feel it on some level, whether it be physically, emotionally or mentally and you’ll be able to correct your behaviours and actions simply by re-aligning them to your intentions once again so you can achieve those desired feeling.
Get support & guidance
Lastly, you don’t have to do it alone. If you’re struggling, there’s no shame in that and it’s ok to admit that you need a little support on your journey. As a business owner you know how important the right guidance can be for the health of your business, and the same applies to your wellbeing.
Join a community, hire a coach or find an online course or program to get you on the right path.
Book a Complimentary no Obligation Wellness Consult
To chat about your goals and learn more about my coaching programs and packages and how I can support you in reaching your wellness goals with ease and simplicity as you build the business and life of your dreams.
If you’d like to be a part of my pilot program, entitled (re) Awaken Your Innate Food Wisdom, a self-paced mindful nutrition program with 4 weeks of group support to help you prioritize your nutrition & wellness without fad diets and trends, get on my mailing list to get an exclusive invitation once I’m ready to launch it.
It will be a journey to learning more about your body and what it needs to thrive; A mindful approach to nutrition that will improve your relationship with food; and a wellness education program that will guide you for life so your nutrition and self-care will always be a priority.
To get on my mailing list, subscribe to this audio series or download my simple 5 step framework to nourishing meals in minutes and you’ll be the first to know when the pilot program is ready for testing.
A Simple 5 Step Framework To Nourishing Meals in Minutes
You’ve got your hands full and more than enough on your plate. Take the guess work out of what and how to eat and make meal preparation a breeze, even when you’re short on time.
On that note, thank you for tuning in.
If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a comment below, or share with a friend (use the social share buttons below or send the episode URL by email or DM) and be sure to tune in next week for another episode of Wellness Wednesday Audio Series, where I a share a short audio clip each week to inspire you to reconnect with yourself on a deeper level so you can start nourishing and caring for yourself, more mindfully and intentionally.
Until next week,
Stay healthy, happy and safe,