She's Busy AF

EP 139 | How to Prioritize Wellness as an Entrepreneur Amongst Being "Busy" with Ashleigh Hubbard

• Lauren Loreto

Share episode

When was the last time you paused to consider how your well-being affects your work? Ashleigh Hubbard joins Lauren Loreto in a heart-to-heart about the symbiotic relationship between personal health and professional success. This chat traverses their personal evolutions: Lauren's pivot from the weightlifting circuit to the entrepreneurial fast track and Ashleigh's impressive leap from a non-athletic past to a weightlifting present.  Ashleigh and Lauren dissect the nature of motivation, from external prompts to the deeply personal internal drive, and how it can sharpen our mental acuity and sustain our passion for our work. They swap notes on how simple starts with exercise and a solid grasp on our 'why' can revolutionize both our productivity and sense of satisfaction.

Find Lauren Loreto online:


Find Ashleigh Hubbard online:

Timestamps:

  • Ashleigh's journey and background (00:01:13) A
  • Entrepreneurs and the "busyness" mindset (00:06:18) 
  • Motivation and fitness (00:10:21) 
  • Challenges and setbacks in maintaining wellness (00:16:01) 
  • Balanced dietary recommendations (00:19:59) 
  • Proper Nutrition and Meal Planning (00:21:02)
  • Creative Meal Ideas and Variety (00:22:06)
  • Planning Ahead and Batch Prepping (00:30:00)
  • Neutral Mindset and Relationship with Food (00:34:44) 

Topics discussed: wellness, business success, entrepreneurs, healthy lifestyle, motivation, fitness, balanced nutrition, energy levels, self-care, mindset, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, sleep, physical activity, balanced meals, protein, carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, mindful eating, meal planning, batch prepping, neutral mindset, A-Hub Nutrition, The Wellness Diaries, social media



Speaker 1:

Welcome back to another episode of she's Busy AF, a podcast dedicated to founders, creatives and their teams to help them smash barriers and scale. I'm your host, lauren Loretto, founder of Bring Good Time, which is a dynamic marketing agency focused on content marketing and web design and development, and this is the she's Busy AF podcast. Today, I decided to take a little bit of a left turn away from strictly business topics and bring you a guest who is focused on you as a human, so this is not a podcast episode on nutrition alone. Before you're like I don't need to hear any more about this, I really think you're going to enjoy this episode. I've known Ashley for years and I've even worked with her myself at the start of my entrepreneurial journey from a nutrition and wellness point of view, and we're taking the whole title of this podcast seriously the she's Busy AF of it all and we're talking about how wellness plays a role in business success. So Ashley is the owner of Ahab Nutrition. She's been a nutrition and mindset coach since 2015 and is certified to help individuals with their fat loss and performance goals in the gym without extreme food restrictions and improving their all or nothing mindset along the way. So we really talk a lot about energy levels and finding balance and maybe even how nutrition does play into it, but way less about nutrition, way more about overall wellness. I think this will be quite a refreshing different episode for you. I hope you feel inspired by it to put your wellness as a little bit more of a priority, if you're not already. So tune into this episode. Hope you enjoy it.

Speaker 1:

Welcome, ashley, so excited you're here today. Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. It's pretty funny because we know each other so well. I like literally we go way back. Oh my gosh, 2016?, 18?, maybe 17. No, I'm trying to think. I think you're right. All I remember is taking before pictures. I remember just taking photos and sending them to you for nutrition in my tiny little cottage in Fort Lauderdale. I was like renting a 400 square foot studio in the back of a house and yeah.

Speaker 2:

I remember weightlifting and yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I was weightlifting, I was competing and that is now. I just walk every day.

Speaker 1:

It's better than sitting all day. No, it's funny. I'm selfishly excited to have this conversation. I hope it pushes me mentally back to a place where I can care a little bit more about my wellness.

Speaker 1:

I know a lot of entrepreneurs get really sucked into the business and then it's hard to take time for yourself because you're like okay. For me, specifically, like I scaled back from weightlifting so much because I was like this is two hours a night, four nights a week, like that's eight hours. I could be spending that on the, on growing my business, and now I'm in a place where it's a little different. But then I have like other things that take my time, and so it's just funny how like wellness in terms of like weightlifting and fitness have changed for me over time, and I know that that's true for some entrepreneurs as well. So, before we get into all that, though, tell us a little bit about what we know about your journey, a little bit as a health and fitness coach. But what is like one thing that people may not know about you? Oh, gosh.

Speaker 2:

So I feel like this answer could be two different things. I feel like it could be something that a lot of people actually know about me and then I feel like, on the other hand, there are probably so many people that haven't followed me from the beginning and so they don't know something that I would consider very common. So I'll just say I'll give you two answers. So, like, something that newer people that find me on the internet might not know about me is that I used to be a super competitor with, like CrossFit and weightlifting and powerlifting. I broke records with powerlifting and just like I was. I was so immersed in that and I was very like you know, you kind of mentioned all or nothing like, or did you mention that I don't know but this like this like really intense all or nothing type of behavior, and so I was like very gung-ho. That, and that's kind of what led me into like doing what I'm doing. So that might be something that a lot of people don't know about me is that I have a lot of experience in those sports and so if, like your client, you're listening and you like compete in those things as well or you like doing those things like I have a lot of expertise in those fields. And then something that someone might not know about me goodness, that's hard Maybe that I wasn't always super fit, like I didn't play sports in high school.

Speaker 2:

I didn't play ball sports. I mean I ran track for like a year in high school, but I mean I wouldn't really consider that extremely sporty. I was just. I was always like on the bigger side growing up and I think a lot of that is what actually motivated me more into fitness. I mean, there were other reasons as well. I think a lot of people find fitness because it's an outlet for them, and then that was partly what got me into like really diving deep into it. But I think that may be something that someone might not know about me is that like when I was younger, I wasn't just like this little stick, thin twig that like just got really blessed and like never had to struggle with like my weight or anything. Like I definitely wasn't that person, and so I think I think yeah, I think that's probably what most people might not know it's so funny because I know both of those things about you, but I've also known you forever.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, yeah, no, that's awesome. So kind of getting into the meat and potatoes, if you will. Entrepreneurs, business owners that's our audience here. That's who's tuning in? They often wear busyness as a badge of honor. That's kind of why this podcast started. It's called she's Busy AF and it was kind of a joke, but kind of not, you know, like it started from a place of when someone would ask me how are you? I'd be like I'm busy, you know, and I think people just again started to wear that as either a badge of honor or like it just is the truth, like they just don't have an answer that's all encompassing other than I'm busy and I just think, yeah, as marketers and entrepreneurs, people who are just really into their career, can wear that again like as a badge of honor. So how do you view this mindset in terms of overall wellness and what are some common health challenges that you see among entrepreneurs due to very busy lifestyles?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think I. Again. I also want to say I relate completely. It's it's so hard to not answer with like the oh you know, just stay in busy. Cause it's like what else do you say? But cause like they don't want to hear how you're like working on copywriting for like emails, and like they have no idea, so it just leads to more questions. You're just like, yeah, it's busy, so I get it. And I think that when it comes to this sort of mindset with entrepreneurs, we can wear it as a badge of honor because, like, we're thinking and associating it with like success and like making money and all of this stuff.

Speaker 2:

But with anything too much of something is like not a good thing.

Speaker 2:

Too much of a good thing is not a good thing. And if we are so focused on like the hustle and the grind and like not getting enough sleep and neglecting eating enough throughout the day and neglecting drinking water and neglecting just like being physical, like with our activity levels, it can really impact our health and our mental health as well. I mean, if you are running on caffeine, no water and almost no food, you're probably not going to feel your best, you're probably not going to sleep your best and ultimately, in the pursuit of being busy and and and neglecting all of those things, you're actually hurting your productivity and your focus and all of that in the long run, because when you don't get enough sleep and you don't recover and you don't feel your body well, you're not going to be able to like be the best you in your business or in your job or whatever you do, because you're just not taking care of yourself and all of the other ways that affect just being able to focus.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I feel that it's funny, like as I've gone on. I mean, I'm pregnant AF right now, so it's like I'm trying to give myself grace, but every day I just try and drink lots of water, I try and get a minimum of eight hours of sleep, which isn't hard. I'm really tired all the time, and so, like, water, sleep and then just eating enough is so important. I feel like I know that's something you taught me is that most of the time we're not eating enough, we're not fueling our body and so like. Therefore, you can either retain fat right or, like I mean, your energy levels are just not going to be great either.

Speaker 1:

And you know, physical activity it's like for me right now, that's walking. That's my bare minimum, because I yeah, striking the balance of being able to find weight lifting enjoyable, and that's actually. That's actually a section I'd love to get into now. I think for a lot of us, it comes down to motivation. You know like, especially people like me who have a background in weightlifting, or have a Peloton in my living room, or like we have the tools at our fingertips, but the motivation to do it, you know like, for me personally, I feel like I've got the water, the sleep and the food down pat, but the motivation to move my body, even prior to being pregnant recently, is just not there. And what do you think you know? Do you have any tips or strategies or anything that's like helpful in that realm?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So actually this is this is something that I've really learned a lot more about this year or the last year actually, just with like behavior change and mindset. So when it comes to motivation, I think a lot of times we just like sit and we're waiting to be motivated, but like motivation isn't going to just like come to you out of nowhere, like you have to derive it from something, so like there's extrinsic motivation and then there's intrinsic motivation, and so extrinsic motivation you might be motivated to do some sort of weightlifting or some sort of exercise or fitness class or whatever. An extrinsic motivator for that might be like the way that you look or like gaining strength. Intrinsic would be more like you tie it to how you feel. You tie it to like a certain value that you have, so like, let's say, you value being an active person or you value how you feel, how exercise and weight training makes you feel afterwards and how it affects the rest of your day, and that's kind of like your intrinsic motivator to get you to do that thing. Because most of the time I mean when we're breathing heavy, when we're straining our muscles, like it's not necessarily that that is what makes it like fun, like we do it because we know either that it's good for us, we do it because it makes us feel good afterwards. We know either that it's good for us, we do it because it makes us feel good afterwards Mostly it's usually those things of why we do it. And if we want to tie that into like being an entrepreneur, I know for me, if I do a workout, I really noticed that like my focus is a lot better afterwards. I feel I feel like it's a positive, like domino effect on like the the rest of the stuff that I do that day. Because you're like, okay, I've done this, like I can like you know, drink my water, eat really well. Like I feel like it's just a really good, um, positive thing to do and like set you up for the rest of the day, like whether, whether or not you train in the morning or the afternoon or whatever. But yeah, finding out why you want to do it I think is the first step. And then knowing that like it doesn't have to be like an hour, you know like it can be something that's more bite sized, something that's doable.

Speaker 2:

If you haven't been doing anything at all, don't tell yourself that you're going to try to do five times this week, like, just make it one, like say I'm just going to work out today, and then, like don't set yourself up for the next day or the other day, like, don't try to make all of these like future plans with it, just say I'm going to work out once today, and then do it, and then do it again, and then do it, and then do it again, and then, like, you'll build that confidence, get back into a routine with it again.

Speaker 2:

But just getting yourself to understand, like why you're, why you want to be motivated by, and like finding that value that you can tie to it, or whether it's extrinsic or intrinsic, because usually that helps a lot.

Speaker 2:

It takes the focus off of like oh, that's going to hurt really bad when I'm pushing really hard on the Peloton and it's going to make you think about the other things that are motivating you to do it. And I'll I'll end with this on my little tangent but like one of the things I wanted to do this last like few months is just be like tidier and like keep my countertops clean, keep my tables cleaned off, because I know that it makes me feel like a sense of like calm and peace. I don't necessarily love cleaning the tables and like doing that. It's kind of like a chore sometimes, but like I know that I feel like such a more calm person when, like things are just clean and tidy and that was was my motivator for it. And then once I kept doing it and I noticed how good it made me feel. It made me want to keep doing it because I was associating it with, like I like feeling calm at the end of the night.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, A lot of it's. A lot of it's habitual, right. Like you know, they say it takes 30 days to make or break a habit. I think it's the same thing with wellness. You know, maybe for someone like me it was having a kid and then not being like. It was the first time in my in like probably 10 years, that I took six weeks off of anything at all besides maybe some walking, yeah, and then it's so like there you go, you're past this 30-day threshold and it's so hard to get back into it again.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and not to make, not to discourage anyone listening, or you even, but there's actually research to show that like six months is kind of that area of like. When you're being, when you're consistently doing something and you're in a routine of doing something for six months, that's kind of the point where things become a lot like easier, a little bit more automatic, and it doesn't mean that you have to do like whatever behavior or habit that you're trying to do every single day, but, um, but just continuing to like improve the frequency of when you do it is is gonna be super helpful, rather than just trying to do like five days perfectly and then giving up because it's not sustainable and then you just don't even try anymore.

Speaker 1:

Oh, yeah, yeah, I mean again going back to like entrepreneurs and then, you know not, it's so funny. I hate when people are like I'm a mompreneur and like I know everything and I can do the most because my schedule is so busy. However, I will like, I will say when you're an entrepreneur, trying to keep up with what you did before, you had kids, you have a family. Now there's just extra layers of time. Time is not all yours anymore, and it makes it so much harder to prioritize and make time for yourself too.

Speaker 1:

As you were saying all these things, I'm like all right, start with one day right, which I do. Okay, I'm one day a week moving actively in some way, but then it's like okay. But then I have weeks, like this week, where there's no white space in my schedule, because two weeks ago my daughter was sick, so everything had to get pushed, you know. And then it's just so easy. It can be so easy to like, feel like you've got setbacks, or like how am I going to make time for X, y, z when I can't even get the bare minimum done and the house is falling apart?

Speaker 2:

you know, like it's, it can be tough first of all, not compare because, like I don't have kids but I can for sure understand thinking about it. Like, obviously, when you have a child and you have a family there's your focus is just not on yourself as much, and that's why it's important to that, like our motivators don't always need to be like a physical motivator, because sometimes it's just not, it's not in the cards for everyone to be focusing on like getting shredded like all the time. It's just not, it's not necessary for most people. Anyway, I think most people, when they do like get to a place where they've put so much focus on their, their bodies and get really, really lean, they realize that in order to maintain something like that, it's actually just not very enjoyable. There's a healthy balance of being in shape, being in a healthy physique, being at a healthy level of body fat and all of that where you can still maintain some flexibility and fun in your life, and I think that's what needs to be strived for for the most part.

Speaker 2:

But then there's like this comparison like this person's doing this and like how come I can't work out five times a week when Stacey over here has five kids and she works out five times a week, like comparing ourselves. There is. There is some things that we can utilize from comparison that are good, like okay, like what are some positive qualities that, like, this person has that you want to like, adopt and try to implement, but not like in a shame, like in a shameful way? I think that can be where it's like hurtful it can make you, it can make you kind of freeze and not take action on something because you just feel so terrible about yourself. So, instead of thinking of it as like, okay, I did one workout this week and then I didn't do any at all this week because my life was hectic, kid was sick, work was busy, it doesn't mean that, like this week was a failure. It just means like, okay, when's the next time you can work out and then just building from there, because consistency isn't doing it every day perfectly. That would be considered like perfection.

Speaker 2:

And so I like to think of consistency as like just keeping the frequency there, like never stopping. Basically, consistency doesn't mean that you have to work out twice a week, every week. It can mean it means that you just like don't stop because of a week where things were hectic, because, again, like, what timeline are we on. You know you didn't in 12 weeks. You don't have to like send in a report to your boss that you don't, that doesn't exist, that you worked out this many times in that amount of time Like that's not the case. But we put that pressure on ourselves as if we're trying to like pass an exam or something, and it's just a lot of like unnecessary pressure.

Speaker 1:

It's so true. It's so true. So in talking about, I want to shift over and talk about like nutrition and food specifically. I know you're big on biometric feedback markers, right, or biofeedback markers, that's what you call them. Food specifically, I know you're big on biometric feedback markers, right, or biofeedback markers, that's what you call them.

Speaker 1:

Wow, butchered it already, but I do want to talk about nutrition, and I mean, it's so true that it does have a huge effect on energy levels and like what you eat, when you eat, how you eat, like all of those things can play such a big role. What and I'm going to call this dietary recommendations because I think that's the term that everyone will understand but you know, if I were to come to you and say, like what would? What? Would a very balanced daily day in the life meal plan? You don't have to get specific with like eat this type of food, but like what? Like what do you see? What do you work on with your clients and how do you get them to a place where, like, food is a form of energy and feeling good?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I think I think, if I'm speaking in most generalized terms, this is something that most or I guess this is something that everyone could benefit from is like making sure that your meals are balanced in a way that they have protein source, they have a starchy carb source or just some sort of carb source, some veggies or fruit, maybe a fat source, if your protein is on the leaner side, and just having it be balanced in a way where you're kind of hitting all of those macronutrients, so protein, carbon, fat.

Speaker 2:

And two, making sure you're not skipping meals, which I know can be very common with business owners, entrepreneurs.

Speaker 2:

It's very easy to get so hyper focused with work that you just don't eat.

Speaker 2:

And again, like I was saying before, when you do this, it does impact your focus, it affects your ability to be your best self in your job, and so, again, when we're talking about motivation, yeah, you might be like really deep into some sort of workflow, but if you can get yourself to think about, okay, I really value being efficient and my best self in my business and being able to focus on what I'm doing in an optimal way, then I need to eat, because that's what you value.

Speaker 2:

You value, being in a good headspace, being fueled for the day, so that can be a little bit of an intrinsic motivator to to prepare something in advance for yourself, for your meals. Um so, number two do not skip meals. Number three um again with like the perfectionist type of attitude if, if something isn't perfect that day, like if you have to have like a lunch with like a business client or something like that you might not be able to get something that is quote unquote the most healthy, but there are still ways that you can have that meal that are healthy.

Speaker 2:

Like you can make sure that you're still kind of fitting that criteria of like, okay, do I have some protein, do I have some veggies? Like, okay, we're great. And then just like eating in a mindful way. So like that could look like not eating super quickly, chewing your food, because if you are trying to, let's say, watch your weight, you might want to not eat too quickly because you could eat more calories than you want to eat at that meal and so practicing some like mindful eating skills can be really beneficial. But in terms of like meal structure, an idea of like an example meal plan. So if I were going to follow that criteria of like having protein, having a carb source, fruits and veggies, fat source, an example of like a pretty balanced breakfast idea would be like a bowl of oatmeal with berries, maybe some nut butter, and then on the side maybe an egg scramble. So like I like to do one whole egg and then mix in some egg whites and then you can add some greens, like spinach maybe. Maybe some mushrooms, some peppers, tomato, things like that. And then you've got some protein and you've got some veggies, and then you've also got your carbs from oatmeal. You've got some fruit in there and maybe a fat source if you need some extra fat, and that's the peanut butter. Sorry, it's not a protein source, guys, peanut butter is not a protein source. But so that's like a really decent, balanced breakfast and then for lunch again get your protein source. So that could be any sort of like lean chicken, lean turkey, lean ground beef, fish, tuna, something like that, and then some sort of carbohydrate. So you've got rice, pasta, potato, quinoa, couscous, like there's several different types of like whole grains, starchy carbs that you can pick from, and then like your choice of veggie or fruit, and then, you know, add some seasonings, maybe add like a sauce to it. Be mindful of how much you're using, but you can add sauce. And that's kind of what your dinner could look like too, in a way, like I'm very lazy with my meals, so I tend to stick to that sort of like balanced meal pattern, where I have my main ingredients and I just like throw in a bowl.

Speaker 2:

If you want to get more creative with things you can like, maybe you want to do tacos one time, or a burrito or burrito bowl or doing some other sort of like type of meal. It doesn't always have to be this like okay, ingredient one, ingredient two, ingredient three, throw it in a bowl. It doesn't have to look like that, but there are ways you can use that structure in other ways. So like tacos would be a different type of example, because it's not in a bowl or on a plate necessarily, and you could even do a snack plate as a meal, like have some deli meat, maybe some cheese, girl lunch yes, girl lunch. And like make it more fun.

Speaker 2:

Because I feel like when you have variety like that, when you can do like some deli meat, or like tuna crackers, some raw veggies and fruit, something like that, where it's like kind of fun because you get to have all this like different assortment of foods and textures and taste and things like that, you can get creative with it. I just think that if you want to feel your best throughout the day, having making sure you have protein, at least for sure, and then some fruits and veggies, maybe a carb source, depending on like what, what your meals look like that day, that's a really good start to to it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I will say, like having worked with you in the past, like that's something I totally carry into. Everything still now is like got to prioritize protein. Make sure there's protein, like that's so huge I've been doing. I saw I must've been Tik TOK or somewhere where I saw like people getting like the spicy Thai chili tuna packets or taking tuna and like mixing it with sriracha and then and then making basically like a pokey bowl, except you do it with cooked, like you know, canned tuna essentially, and I actually tried it. I used to think canned tuna was absolutely disgusting, but you just have to like do it right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and oh my god, that's like one of my favorite go-to lunches right now yeah, I think tuna is actually like so good, I have this, so like I'll use a tuna pack and then I'll put it in rice and I have this Japanese barbecue sauce that I'll put in it and like at first I was like this kind of sounds like a weird mixture, but then, when I ate it, I was like this is amazing yeah so I mean you can get creative with it like that.

Speaker 2:

You know like it doesn't have to be like this pretty aesthetic photo of like a meal, it's just. I think if you can, if you can focus the meal around the protein, making sure you're having it and like in a balanced way, you'll just end up feeling better. You won't feel like this, these huge energy swings throughout the day, if you're having balanced meals throughout the day and not skipping meals. Because if you skip meals too, especially like breakfast, I notice a lot of people if they skip breakfast, they tend to be the people at night that get like super snacky. They want to just like eat everything in the pantry. And some people might like mistake that with emotional eating or something like that, and that could also be the case, but a lot of times it's just like when you don't eat enough throughout the day tends to want us to have the stuff that's like super tasty, hyper palatable, high calorie, highly processed types of foods that are very easy to overeat. And if you have health goals like, that's not the best sort of scenario to be in either either.

Speaker 1:

No, no, not at all. It's funny because in the last few weeks, something I've done to help myself eat better Okay, so, like I think you knew this, but like I moved across the state and therefore I lost, like, all my favorite restaurants, which is probably a blessing in disguise, because I maybe order off Uber Eats once a month or go out to eat, like once a month. So I've been like getting really crafty in the kitchen and cooking all my meals from home, and something that has helped me get excited about, I don't know, not just eating the same thing every day or, you know, like having enough variety to look forward to eating, which then actually makes me want to eat. Like I look forward to every meal is.

Speaker 1:

Every Sunday, I go through like a couple of different websites based on people I see on TikTok or just Pinterest or whatever pick out meals for each night of the week, and this also helps me like have fun with the family and say like we're gonna have this this night and that that that night, and then I go grocery shopping around that which also saves us in groceries, like I'm not wasting as much food at the end of the week, and also, um, like I'm saving a lot of money because I'll try and shop like I'll shop ingredients that go across a couple of different recipes, and so that's worked so well for me in terms of eating enough and saving money, and then also just like having a plan so that cause, when you don't have a plan, um, you can fall into bad habits or eat bad things or you know like fall off your plan or find yourself going out to eat a lot.

Speaker 1:

It took me years Like literally I just started doing this recently to get to this place and it's been a game changer for me. But do you have any other? You can either piggyback on that or do you have any other types of advice for busy entrepreneurs to make sure that they can be consistent both in wellness and nutrition?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think, like you said, having a plan is super important and you know your version of a plan might not look the same as someone else's, so like for you it's going once a week to find like the recipes you're going to do for dinner, grocery shopping, figuring all of that out.

Speaker 2:

For someone else it might literally just be like writing it down, even just like knowing, because, like you said, when you, when you don't have a plan, you end up just kind of at the mercy of like convenience food or like whatever you have on hand, and then you just don't end up feeling your best. So, even though for some people planning ahead might not be the most like enjoyable thing, again we can tie it back to like, okay, we're gonna save money by doing this. Okay, we're gonna be more efficient during the week, we're gonna waste less food during the week, we're gonna enjoy our meals more if we do this. So like, instead of thinking, oh, I have to meal plan, oh, I have to grocery shop, oh, I have to like cook all this stuff, instead of thinking of it that way, think of all of like the positives associated from it. So like that's something that is something that just a lot of people don't end up doing. They just get stuck with making several grocery trip runs because they didn't get what they needed, because they didn't make a list, they didn't plan. And I do think that, like, that's so important, as well as having things available in your home that you can fall back on if you don't do that. So like having some frozen and canned options, having some pre-cooked options, having some go-to like frozen, pre-made meals or something like that, where, no, it's not like something that you want to eat every single day, because, like, I don't think people want to eat frozen meals every day but having it there in case, so that you have something to fall back on, maybe during busier weeks where you just weren't able to get to it.

Speaker 2:

But, yeah, planning ahead is super important and another way that, um, I like to do this. I'm you probably do this in some way now and I think you used to do it before but just like batch prepping stuff. So like having protein that's cooked ahead of time, having rice or potatoes or some sort of carb source prepped and cooked ahead of time, having your produce that's like available for you, just so that, like it's easy to create meals from it. And again, again, like you can even get the single serve pouches of things to make it easier for busy weeks, so that you can just pop it in the microwave, add it to your, to your meat, add some veggies into it, add a sauce to it, like whatever, and that just again makes it easier for when you're busy and you don't feel like cooking. Something that takes a little bit more effort. But but at the end of the day, like if you want to change something, there's got to be a plan there in place, and so, whether that's on the weekend or like midweek, coming up with a plan for whatever meals that you want to have is going to really help you actually get it done.

Speaker 2:

And I also think I'll end with having like a master list of like five or 10 or 15 meals that you like to that you could like to go to because they're easy, they're something that you like.

Speaker 2:

Call it like a list of, like your staple meals. Having that and like having it somewhere in your home where you can refer to it, like when you're trying to think of like what you need from the grocery store, because then it's just right there for you and you don't have to just like think so hard about it, because most of us we, we like certain things but we don't always like keep a mental like bank of it in our heads at all times. So if you can come up with like a list of like 10 to 15, even 20 meals that you know that you enjoy, and then just like having it in a list, print it out, put it somewhere in the kitchen, that way you can refer to it when you are meal planning so that it's like you know what goes in it, you know what to get from the store, or something like that, because that again makes the whole planning process a lot easier and faster.

Speaker 1:

So true, yeah, and all the meal planning I've been doing, like you're obviously like for me, like I'm trying new recipes all the time and then, like you, find things you really like and it's like okay, we're gonna come back to that or like. I'll shop around the sale meat at the grocery store and be like oh, I made this recipe with that meat, so I'm gonna do that again. That's so brilliant. I didn't think about making sure you save those meals somewhere.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it does.

Speaker 1:

It takes the pressure off Because I can spend an hour or two hours planning for the week on Sunday, which sometimes defeats the purpose of planning. But yeah, that's all really, really awesome advice. Is there anything else you want, any other advice you have or anything else you want to leave us with here?

Speaker 2:

On the topic of planning ahead Just anything nutrition, wellness.

Speaker 2:

I think I think just like having I don't want to use the word balance because I think that that doesn't really tell you what that word means but I think not having a good versus bad when we think about food, I think that I think that what's healthy for you in the moment and what's healthy for someone else just looks different. So like if I have a client that's working on improving their relationship with food and like working on not seeing things as like their relationship with food and like working on not seeing things as like, oh, this causes weight gain, this causes weight loss, then for that person exploring different types of food like eating a donut or something, or like eating something that someone might consider, like a quote, bad food that might be like really healthy for them to do. It might be a really beneficial thing for them to do, to branch out and like try that without feeling like guilt or shame, and for other people they might need to eat less of those things. So I think just having a very neutral mindset with food and not like not putting labels on it is a really good way to foster a more healthy relationship with food and not have labels attaching that can cause, like that guilt and shame, like, oh, I ate pizza for dinner this weekend, like I'm such a bad person, like I'm gonna gain all this weight, and like that's just not really based in fact, and it can make us feel bad.

Speaker 2:

It can make us feel shame, which then affects how we act the next day. Same with, like the workout stuff. We miss a week of workouts. It really affects our confidence. It really affects, like it makes us feel shame. It can make us not want to do it again because we're like oh, I'm such a failure, why do I even try? Which then doesn't help you at all. So it can be the same with food. So I think just getting rid of the labels and looking at food is just like this neutral thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that Awesome. Well, how can our listeners find you and learn about how to work with you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so my business is called Ahub Nutrition. So I have an Instagram. You can find me there. My personal account is just my full name, ashley Marie Hubbard, and then my website is ahubnutritioncom. So I also have a podcast called the wellness diary. So if you want to learn more about nutrition and wellness tips, you can follow that as well. I do just some more obviously longer form content when I like to just go on a ramble. I don't think people on Instagram like to read that anymore in captions, but if you want to hear about it, you can find it there. And yeah, it's been a pleasure.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for having me. Yeah, Thanks for coming on. I love your podcast and obviously all of your socials, so I agree, Go check her out. I will make sure all those things are linked in the show notes, but thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you everyone for tuning in and we will see you on the next episode of SheFuzzyAF.