Your Mental Wellness Podcast for Your Voice and Sanity
Your Mental Wellness Podcast for Your Voice and Sanity
A lot on Your Plate: Food and Mood Journal Day 1 (cheatsheet enclosed)
With Sherpa Sarah Hohmann I get to embark on a scary yet brave subject: taking a look at the complex carbohydrates in our lives, our friends for mood and sanity. Join Sarah and me as we are taking a look at the Food and Mood Journal.
Sarah mentioned Project B3- watch a video on what Project B3 stands for. Here is her box
You'r listening to YOUR Mental Wellness podcast for YOUR voice and sanity.
Thank you for joining us this week on your mental wellness podcast for your voice and sanity. Make sure to check out our show notes, visit our website, www dot tools for vitality.com where you can subscribe to the show. We would appreciate it if you would tell a friend about the podcast
What are your questions about your mental wellness, tools for vitality, or any other topic that comes up for you?
Email me: toolsforvitality@pm.me .
Tools for Vitality: Therapy, Coaching, Optimizing Nutrition and Movement for Mental Wellness
Hi there, welcome back. My name is Sibylle Georgianna. I'm here with my special Shar priser. Call her Sarah Homans, whose brain I love to pick, as well on today's especially on today's topic, which is the food and mood journal, I think I referenced that in a previous episode as our tool where we can classify foods that influences our mood, our stress level of energy level, by simply kind of collecting data on ourselves for a couple of days, that will help us to identify how much the nutrition that we take in influences us as we go through our days as we are dealing with complex situations or just simple situations. So welcome, Sarah. I'm so grateful to have you join me today on this episode.
Sarah Hohmann:Yeah, absolutely. Isn't it nice to be here, thank you.
Sibylle Georgianna:Yes, I love I was always already thinking like, the person I want to do the food and move journey with it's you. Because you're always up for new things, you're always looking for ways to be more creative and to optimize, and another level of work life balance, which you really focus on. But I came across a food journal, which is posted in the in the show notes, were at a continuing education class, the instructor invited us to log even in key words, what we would eat as early as breakfast, lunch, dinner, or any snacking. And also log, how we feel at the moment as we consume as we drink our coffee to wake up as we eat now don't have to go to work, or whatever we would do. And then she would she challenged us to organize our or categorize our nutritional input or intake. I just very, you know, simple categories. So for one category, she kind of invited us to think about a set of categories was to look if the food was more with come up, made out of complex carbohydrates, versus simple ones. And the cheat sheet for all of this is in the cliffnotes here as well. Or you could email us to retrieve one. Because the idea is that we need carbs, but they need to be ideally the complex carbs. And that consists of foods that would contain dietary fiber versus starches. And the idea is by us being aware and logging, our food intake will make us much more aware on how our food our food can influence our mood. So, Sarah, yeah, jumped onto this with me, it's November, prepping this and I'm thinking is this really the best time of the year to start this? And I think it
Sarah Hohmann:is.
Sibylle Georgianna:What are you thought?
Sarah Hohmann:Oh, absolutely, you know, November, we're coming into like, the holiday season, we got to get into the right mindset to you know, start thinking about how we can stay on schedule with our, with our, you know, brain with, you know, what we're going to be eating, you know, throughout the time. So I think this is a fantastic, you know, Head Start to the, you know, what's going to happen the next few months?
Sibylle Georgianna:Yes, I hope so, too. And sometimes, you know, I find myself with hesitation, you know, especially when it's something that I'm passionate about, which is kind of counterintuitive. Yeah. But maybe like to not want to mess this up or you know, things like concerns to have. However, you know, when I looked at this topic of nutrition and how that influences all mental wellness and mental well being and sanity, this is technically a simple tool with which we can really govern and and guide our how we feel, how we feel about ourselves how we can tackle the challenges ahead how we can manage stress. And so for example, you know, a little cheat sheet, we can find complex carbohydrates by category, so I wasn't even aware of that, you know, I was think carbs is like pasta and rice, but they had it broken down that even, you know, broccoli, cabbage, zucchini, cuscuta, brown rice, all that stuff is a complex carbohydrate that can be logged as such as well as you know, foods that we eat, oatmeal, blueberries and all that stuff and I have not thought about it in terms of a complex carbohydrate. Again, this is not replacing nutritional advice from a nutritionist, but it's for the the lay person like us trying to survive and thrive during the holiday season, I guess. So if we think about the invitation for us to pull that overview sheet from the post, or from the from the episodes, Cliff's Notes, wherever you download that, and then to just map out what we eat, and how we snack and any reason for why we eat it. Now, maybe because it's quick, maybe because it's on the go, maybe that was the only thing I had in the fridge here how we feel. For me, I was I was thinking about my hesitation to do this. And I was been telling myself, I would just write or take a note as to my food intake. Just on a just I have a, like a paper copy journal, just in there without having to get ahead of myself trying to download Google Sheet or some app or something to electronically log this. So that was my first my first observation that I'm saying, Well, realistically, I could probably just jot down a note in my journal, but not do any fancy tracking of things. Yeah. How would you look at this, like tracking for three days? What type of food you eat, or just even I think a day at a time?
Sarah Hohmann:Yeah, that's really, that's a really good question. Me, I'm a visual person. So I feel like I'm, if I just write it down, I am not going to really remember it. So I would probably take a picture of it, and be like, Okay, so there's Brock. Like, if I have a salad, there's broccoli here, there's some spinach, there's, you know, all these vegetables, and then I can at least log it when I have the time. And at least then I can like say, Okay, this looks like it's this amount, like, you know, the size of my hand, or, you know, that kind of quantity. And then at least I can also take note of how I was feeling while I was eating it, you know, just remembering back because I, like I said, pictures for me bring back. Okay, here's how I was at the time kind of thing. Yeah, that's absolutely is how I'm thinking of it, or, you know, doing it? Well, and
Sibylle Georgianna:I think that makes a lot of sense, I was just going to put that cheat sheet over of you with the list of the two categories, complex versus simple on my phone as well. So that it's kind of a very quick reference guide there. So I think the the the goal is that in the nutrition course that I took, they say just focus on adding more complex carbohydrates don't even stress about you know how much you're gonna listen it, just try to figure out like, you know, and it's kind of like as we're aware, we can make changes but they were just encouraging us to just do a very rough ballpark don't get lost in the details, which I think just logging approximately, as you said, like what portions right, how many coffee do I drink, but not to get lost in like tablespoons of quinoa used or something, but just like some, some ballpark to start with, as then a stepping stone to be more aware. And then to potentially at some point, make changes or choose more of a complex carbohydrate instead of a simple one. Yeah, in order to avoid blood sugar spikes in order to avoid mood swings in order to avoid feelings of stress. So, yes, okay, so taking a picture, that's a good thing. I probably have to print it out and put it at my fridge to be on. You know, usually most of the time at home looking for where my phone is.
Sarah Hohmann:Realistically, yeah.
Sibylle Georgianna:Yes. Okay. So that's awesome. Yeah. And then the other part I was kind of concerned about is to, I don't know what that is. There's always some embarrassment when it comes to food intake, because I usually eat on the go or I eat leftover, same kids, or, like the chickpeas out of the can. I don't know, you know, I was like, oh my goodness,
Sarah Hohmann:that's me.
Sibylle Georgianna:Do that to
Sarah Hohmann:same.
Sibylle Georgianna:You know, and so I guess I'm more of a functional leader, not such a foodie. But so I guess to overcome that embarrassment, I mean, we don't have to say how we eat right? We don't say out of a can we just saying were in the house maybe or we're on the road or in the car. But I even think that it would challenge me as I log you know, if my half can ask can I chickpeas at work? It would challenge me to to make sure that I'm not you know, again that I'm not just eating Cheerios, something more like simple carbohydrates. But yeah, but I guess for even for that reason to do with my embarrassment about food a time because I can just just I'm very just looking for something to grab or a quick Yeah, it's probably a good exercise for you for me to for that for that reason.
Sarah Hohmann:Oh yeah, yeah, you know just just snack on something like, Oh, this is a granola bar, I'm going to take this and, and go on the run with it. Yeah,
Sibylle Georgianna:yeah, yeah. And I think the first time when I looked at the food magenta, I think I used it in the first around when I took this class. And I was shocked that I, I wasn't necessarily thinking about myself even a lot of carbs. But then, as I, as I noticed, you know how much I think it was more or less summer that I took, use the food and rejoinder, how much fruits I would eat. And that also some of it is more simple carbohydrates, or I think it was dried fruit or something like that. I'm thinking to myself, Oh, that's not Oh, yeah. So it just had a higher load than I was thinking. So from that point of view, I think it's a good exercise to do a repeat on this journey. As we, a lot of times, I don't feel my my mood is at my fingertips. But I guess, with the food choices, we do get Yeah, say, on on mood and on the well being and that way, but yeah, so do you feel you have a couple of days that you will go on to try this with? Or what is your what's your schedule looking like?
Sarah Hohmann:And most definitely, Oh, yep, that's, that's exactly what I was gonna say, I just recently got the, the B three down there, the the best. And it starts with like, a little reboot packet. And so I figured, you know, if they go hand in hand together, it'd be a really nice experiment of how is this making me feel? Like, how convenient is this right now? And, you know, just see how, how it's going to influence my choices of what I'm craving, you know, cuz I've been craving I guess, like, for the past few days, I was starting this. I've been craving like, salads, and like poached eggs. I know, it's, it's kind of crazy. I'm like, what I usually sometimes go for the mac and cheese or, you know, one time I did it, I wasn't supposed to according to the the shape thing, but I, I did. But then I went right back into salads, I went right back into steamed vegetables and all that it was just, you know, right now it's making me feel great. So writing it down and saying, Hey, this is the mood and feeling when I'm eating this, I think it'd be a very kind of interesting little challenge experiment, I'd say. That's amazing.
Sibylle Georgianna:So yeah, so you're referring to the there is a amazing company, the Mr. Robot company that has the big three package and they are really into optimization of mental well being but also even include spiritual well being, and really holistically developing yourself and especially as an entrepreneur, but their food or their supplement line has this amazing package called the B three project. And, and I'm so excited, you got to start with that because it really they have mapped out phases of 30 versus 60 words is 90 days of of using certain products that will then move you from feeling just better with regards to what you're craving. Feeling for feeling happy in terms of like how you can eat better, to all the way to long term benefits of anti stress benefits that they have identified in clinical studies. As well as how our body responds better. To you know, even conditioning more muscle, less fat, metabolism being enhanced. And heart health. I think that's what they looked at it in the long run. So this is really so rewarding. I feel if we were to if we NSU as you did you know you made that commitment to try it out to to really be open and one of the things that that are part of this project that you three as they call it at the module Well, what what products that they gave you.
Sarah Hohmann:Oh, let's see. I know they gave me little vitamins to take They, the first thing they want me to do was the reboot, which were like little vitamins you take, like day one at dinner, day two, breakfast and dinner and day three, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Like it's a little like little teeny vitamins to take with like a whole glass of water. And they suggest to do like, at least bout like maybe 64 ounces to like, I guess 70 ounces of water a day like to space out just throughout the time so you can get that hydration. So it can like, you know, really work it's magic, I guess through you. And it also comes with like a protein shakes. It comes with like little superfoods you can sprinkle into your smoothies, or little, I'd say it's something called menta biotics, where you could sprinkle that in your coffee. And just you know, at the start of the day, it kind of kind of makes you feel better in a way. Yeah, that that's the the top part.
Sibylle Georgianna:Yeah, so I think interesting. We can Yeah, it's it's fascinating, right. So I, I think the more we delve into the ability to really guide ourselves through whether that's supplementation in this case, or even simple food intake. It's just amazing how the body can be optimizing itself. I think for what they call a mental biotics. It allows for the gut and the brain to talk better with one another. As well as our overall it helps with the stress reduction, positive mood, and growth of overall what they call vitality. So feeling better by letting your gut be replenished.
Sarah Hohmann:Yeah,
Sibylle Georgianna:I can't wait. And I know, people can find you as well. As you look at work life balance, but I do believe you have hit on one of those cornerstones of goodwill, and work life balance, right. We feel good, we feel good at work, we feel good at home, we feel our body can replenish. And I could talk about this forever. There's probably like 30 More episodes. I want to talk about something that's all I want to talk about. Yeah, we could put the bookmark here for today. But then yeah, I really if you want me to include some of your resources, in the show notes, you let me know and let us let the listener now even hear from you how they can best reach you if they want to hear more about the be free project.
Sarah Hohmann:Oh, B three project. Absolutely. What my Instagram is. It's me, Sarah, of course. That's my whole Instagram. You can contact me through there. Or my email Sarah dot j dot home into nine@gmail.com. Either way, I'm definitely very responsive. Awesome. Thank you.
Sibylle Georgianna:So let's check back in soon and let's get started and our three day challenge or even a day at a time challenge if I didn't need to call us I'm not getting ahead of myself. Yeah, and I can't wait to share again.
Sarah Hohmann:No writing. That's fantastic. Well, thanks for having me on.
Sibylle Georgianna:Absolutely. I can't wait to get back on it. Okay.
Sarah Hohmann:All right. Take care.