Nope!

If that sounds overwhelming and like 20 steps from where your weekly meal planning is now… I’ve got good news!

Meal planning can be personalized. You can start small, and find what works for you.

So whether you’re a meticulous planner and prepper, or a casually intentioned well-being lover, it’s possible to reap the benefits of meal planning.

Before we dive into the 8 wonderful reasons to plan your weekly meals over the weekend, let’s define three types of meal planners, so you can decide where you might want to begin. 

Meal Planner 1: The Lister and Listener

• You don’t like to plan too far ahead, because you like to use intuition to select meals that call to you throughout the week
• Making lists is your jam; recipe lists, grocery lists, meal lists, and it helps you keep some structure within your food choices
• You’re fairly busy and while you might build upon planning and start going into full on meal prep mode, for now you are honoring how much you can take on and starting small

Meal Planner 2: The Balanced Builder

• You take some time to not only make that intentional list of weekly meals, but you also have a chunk of time 1-2 days a week where you make enough for leftovers
• Every week might look a little bit different, and you might plan and prep anywhere from 3 or more meals a week. 
• You’re familiar with and practice time-saving strategies like making your breakfast the night before, placing food in categorized containers, and planning ahead for most meals
• You’re continually building upon your routine, and you love learning new tips and tricks for meal planning. 

Meal Planner 3: The Meticulous Meal Prepper

• You’re pretty much pro status. You have and enjoy the time you take each week to plan, prep and store meals for the week.
• Your fridge is likely insta-worthy with organized sections of pre-cut veggies, rice containers, portioned proteins, etc. 
• Each week you usually have at least a few days of breakfast pre-planned and/or prepped, and 3-5 days of lunch and/or dinner prepped in containers.
• You are intentional about getting in your prepping, and you also love continuing to work on consistency, efficiency, and variety.

Which one are you? Share in the comments below!

No matter where you fall in these 3 meal plan types, even if you resonate with more than one, or you’re just getting started, there are powerful health benefits that these types ALL share!

8 reasons to plan your meals every weekend

1. Relieve stress 

When we’re preparing our own food, the environment around us shifts. We melt into creative mode. The smell of sizzling garlic fills the air. The colors of freshly chopped red pepper and bright green lime slices catch our eye. 

The aroma and visual appeal of food ignite our digestive enzymes and help our body settle into a relaxation response. The fancy term is Cephalic Phase Digestive Response. It helps us support healthy digestion and drops us into the present moment.

Not only that but any amount of planning ahead and getting those muddled “what am I going to eat” thoughts out of your head helps relieve stress and anxiety, resulting in a sense of calm. 

2. Boost your mood

Let’s face it. When no planning of meals has occurred, we’re SO much more likely to skip a meal, or go for a convenience-over-healthy food choice. Skipping meals leads to a level of starvation mode in the body, which leads to hormone imbalance. This is what’s happening when we’re hangry. 

On the other hand, if we get so hungry we binge on something healthy or unhealthy, we’ll likely feel gross, tired and lazy afterward, and that is no mood of choice for anyone. 

When you set yourself up with a plan for your meals, you’re more likely to stick to it and more likely to eat healthier on a regular basis. The benefits of this are elevated mood and a balanced appetite!

3. Save time

Ok, while this may be a more obvious reason to plan your meals over the weekend, it’s an important one! 

If you were to add up all the wasted time spent on getting food when the store is packed, waiting for delivery when you’re already starving, and draining minutes staring in your fridge wondering what there actually is to eat… I imagine you’d have hours back!

4. Build your kitchen confidence

Every new skill starts somewhere. If you’re just getting started, take some time over the weekend to research and plan out simple getting started meals. It’s ok to mess up your first baked chicken, and it’s totally possible you’ll become more and more of a whiz as you go! 

Meal Planning helps you establish a good handful of go-to meals you’ll be able to cook with your eyes closed, eventually ;) 

Dive in, make mistakes, and remember, it gets easier and it is so satisfying to accomplish cooking tasty new meals!

5. Money saver

It’s no secret that door dash orders and Starbucks snack box purchases add up. But why not prove it to yourself? 

If you want a fun little experiment, go one week without meal planning at all, and at the end of the week write down how much you spent on all food and beverage purchases. The next week, plan ahead (even a little bit!) cook at home mostly, and at the end of that week write down how much you spent as well. 

If you didn’t save moolah on the meal planning week, your next Starbucks is on me, seriously! 

Bonus exercise: I also invite you to make a note of other ways those 2 weeks felt different. Think of some of the categories here and make a note, did you feel more calm, clear, energized, and productive during week 1 or 2?

6. Mental clarity

Think about all the other things we plan over the weekend for the week to come. Perhaps we look at our upcoming meetings. We plan time for our workouts. We schedule social events.

Planning for the week ahead boosts mental clarity, contributes to productivity, and establishes a sense of accomplishment before the week even begins!

7. It is the perfect addition to your self-care routine

If you’re already trying to be intentional about work-life balance, mindful living, and creating space to feel your best… Meal planning is pertinent addition to your weekly routine. 

Planning and preparing food for ourselves can be so much more than an act of survival. It can be a beautiful, nourishing ritual that directly contributes to filling our cup. 

And if you ever cook a meal for others, two birds with one stone, it’s a wonderful gift to share and you’ll feel proud and honored doing so.

8. Variety: The spice of life

Planning meals each weekend allows us to be conscious and intentional about our choices. Have I had fish in a while? What veggie haven’t I tried? I’m craving Italian food, let me find a healthy recipe for that! 

Variety is nutritionally important, as our body needs balanced consumption of proteins, fats and carbs. When we mix it up, we’re also getting a better variety of vitamins and minerals too! 

Instead of just grabbing anything, or eating cup of noodles for lunch every day, planning ahead helps us make healthier, well-rounded choices. 

Remember, it’s totally possible, and important, to personalize your weekend meal planning strategy!

I hope you have fun when you plop down on a comfy seat this Sunday morning in your cozies with a hot cup of coffee or tea and your planner. 

As you visualize your week ahead, and begin to plan out what meals will look like, picture yourself receiving all these wonderful benefits. You’ve got this!

Up next: 8 Helpful Meal Planning Tips for Your Week Ahead

• A change to our body, energy, and/or mood
• Less stress on a daily basis
• Improved productivity and mental clarity
• Feeling in control of our appetite
• Taking away the anxiety of an on-again-off-again relationship with our health routine
• Ditching any unwanted habits along the way
• The consistency that feels effortless and leads to overall self-confidence

Before we dive into how weekly meal planning checks all these boxes, I have a very important message.

Your healthy habit journey will not be and should not be “perfect”. If you’re looking at the list above with a view of “Yeah! I need to lose weight. I need that body change.” Or “Yep, I definitely eat too much, appetite control sounds like the discipline I need!”

I want you to take a big step back and hear me. That is our societal conditioning talking, not your body. You are beautiful. You are amazing. And you are always doing the best you can at every given moment. 

Stepping into self-care and nourishment is a wonderful accomplishment and, yes, it takes work. But it shouldn’t feel like a punishment for the body you have now. Remember the reasons outside of a certain weight goal that you are looking to form new habits.

If your meal planning routine becomes “diet-like” and is founded on restriction, guilt, fear of food, and over-obsession with “getting it right”, you will ultimately fail. You will miss the various other benefits meal planning has to offer, and you will likely not stick with it. 

Can meal planning be part of your routine that helps your body find balance? Absolutely! And, the more we can celebrate our consistency and non-weight accomplishments, the happier we will be.

So, rant over. Let’s take a look at these five empowering results you might experience from meal planning.

Meal planning is taking time weekly to brainstorm, shop for, and often prepare meals for the week or part of the week, in order to save time, money, and sanity in your busy lifestyle. 

1. Save money

Whether you’re a master-budgeter at the store, or a convenience over cost shopper, I think if any of us were told that we would save over $1,000 a year by doing a little planning ahead (which is an actual statistic btw), we’d say “Show me how!”

Not only that, but one of the first steps of weekly meal planning – simply making a grocery list – helps us spend 40% less at the store than when we go without a list. 

Then you can buy yourself something fun as a “go me!” reward for sticking with your meal planning routine each month.

2. Kitchen confidence

Ok, for those of you who are thinking that meal planning and fancy recipes will just never be your thing because you burnt oatmeal last week… take a deep breath. If the kitchen is NOT your comfort zone, that’s ok.

Start really simple. Your meal planning for the week can be a baby step to get you started. This might look like simply cutting up raw veggies for grab-and-go snacks, portioning out your crackers and mixed nuts in individual containers for convenience, or making simple recipes like salads or sheet pan recipes where you throw everything on one pan in the oven.

Before you know it, you’ll have a slew of go-to recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner! You’ll find yourself putting your own spices on things, mixing up the ingredients slightly, and even experimenting with your own creations! 

The biggest benefit of kitchen confidence beginning to kick in is that it motivates us to keep going. It makes us want to share with others, which always feels good. And it calms the overwhelm and sparks that effortlessness and ease that we’ve been seeking.

3. Appetite balance

Ok, Tess, I thought this post was NOT about dieting! 

You’re right, so let me explain the non-weight benefits of feeling like our appetite is balanced, and doesn’t have control over us. 

So often as the busy go-getters that we are, we might find we skip meals, eat really fast, stress eat, didn’t make time to plan ahead so we grab something convenient and possibly not too healthy, or wind down from a crazy day with a huge meal and 3 glasses of wine.

If one or more of these is happening on a regular basis, it’s almost certain that our appetite is out of whack. Our body might be going in and out of starvation mode, which can affect our blood sugar, weight, hormones, and energy. 

Irregular meal timing can make us crave unhealthy foods more often, it can impact our sleep quality, and it can fog our brain clarity. 

While we are all unique physiologically, the body’s metabolism is on a similar daily trajectory for each of us. In the morning, metabolism revs up and loves to be nourished to get the day started with energy. Midday, our energy peaks and it’s a great time to have our biggest meal of the day. From evening into the night, metabolism slows down as the body prepares to rejuvenate, detox, and repair itself. 

By planning our meals ahead of time, and even having 3-4 days of grab-and-go breakfasts and/or lunches at the ready, we’re so much less likely to skip meals or go for an unhealthy option, therefore avoiding the pitfalls of being unprepared.

4. Midweek peace of mind

Isn’t it interesting how even if we work on the weekends, there is still something about that Monday through Friday energy that feels like grind time? So let’s work WITH that!

What I mean is, think of Wednesday. This is a day that it might become a little more difficult to still get up and go to the gym. Our decision-making capacity has already been at work thousands of times each day, and our mind is ready for a break.

Now, imagine you finish working on Wednesday evening, and the ever-annoying question pops in your head… “Ugh, what am I going to eat for dinner?” You don’t have anything in the fridge. You want to cook but you don’t know what. So you go to the store and get some chicken, veggies, and potatoes. But when you get home you realize you don’t have any cooking oil and you’re out of salt. 

So you have to go back to the store, grumpy as all get out. You don’t get back home until after 8pm and you frustratingly make a late dinner (while eating your Twix you got the second time back to the store because starving) and pretty soon it feels like there is no wind-down time and the next day is practically here.

On the flip side, what if you had planned on Sunday to make enough chicken and veggies for at least 3 dinners that week? And you got to simply reheat, Netflix, and chill on a Wednesday night?

Not only is this benefit of a mind at ease available mid-week when things tend to be most stressful, it’s available throughout the entire week just by planning a little bit ahead of time.

5. Uplifted mood

Being creative has been proven to boost our mood. When we prepare our own meal, and get in the zone of planning out a balanced week of food, that’s us in our creativity! 

Some people express that cooking is indeed a stress reliever for them, almost like painting, listening to music, or journaling.

The mood-boosting from meal planning also goes back to what I mentioned in number 3, appetite balance. When we skip meals, we get hangry. The imbalance of meal timing and portion can also lead to feelings of depression, irritability, brain fog and sleepiness. 

Use this as a simple experiment within the next week. Take notice of when your mood is feeling low, and then check in to see what the last thing you ate was, and when. If it was a while ago and not very healthy or not very much, try grabbing a piece of whole fruit, a hard boiled egg, and/or a string cheese and crackers. Within a few minutes, you might find yourself getting a second wind!

As with any health changes, it’s super important to consult your medical doctor before making changes. No suggestions here are meant to be nutritional advice, as I believe we are ALL unique in what our body needs, and it’s important to take that into consideration when choosing our food.

Remember, start simple, and build from there. Celebrate your progress, not perfection. And continue checking in with yourself to make sure you still feel balanced and in moderation with your food choices, not in restrictive guilty diet-mode ;) 

Which of these results is most appealing to you? I’d love to hear!

Some goals you’ve had for a long frickin’ time and just can’t seem to make them a reality. We’ve all been there. 

The good news is, it means we’re human. It means we’re normal. And, the fact that you are here, reading this, continuing to look for solutions and answers and tools… actually makes you one of the goal-getters most likely to find your breakthrough and get to where you need to go!

You’ve totally got this. 

There are a number of reasons why each of us have certain habits or behaviors that seem to evade us. Think of those health habits, that no matter what you try, you just can’t seem to get a handle on or keep up with them over time. Maybe it’s been on again, off again, and sometimes you even give up. Again, that’s normal. It’s ok. Take a breather. 

The three main obstacles to accomplishing our goals

In my experience with clients and group coaching, there are three main obstacles that keep us from achieving goals, specifically when it comes to changing our food, fitness and mindset behaviors.

1. Accountability

If you don’t have a health accountability buddy yet, make that your first goal to complete within 10 min after reading this! We are 90% more likely to achieve a goal when we have external accountability, than if we just casually think about the goal, and try to do it on our own. 

2. Inner focus

This is actually one of the pillars of my H.A.P.I.E. Goal Method (I’ll explain more below). The “I” stands for Internally Focussed Goals. Meaning, your ideal habit or outcome must be for you and not for external validation like society, your friends, the bully who you want to prove something to, your partner or significant other.

The best way to confirm with yourself if you are creating goals with an internal focus, is to ask yourself the following questions:

Is my goal only about appearance?

For example: 
Lose 10 lbs
Fit into a size 4
Get a 6-pack
Weigh X pounds

If this sounds like you, don’t freak out… it’s ok if you do happen to have a physical goal like the ones mentioned. 

When that is our only goal, though, nearly 10 times out of 10, it’s going to lead to body hate, negative self-talk, and a continual feeling of dissatisfaction in your appearance… even if you hit your goal! So, just be sure to also include your truth, the other results you want from being your healthiest self, etc. Your answers to the next questions will also help.

What are the feelings I want to be overflowing with? Confidence? Freedom? Strength? Empowerment? Peace? Ease? Energy? Write down your top three feelings you want to experience when it comes to your food and body life. 

How will reaching this goal create a better version of me? How will I be able to better serve others if I reach this goal? 

3. An effective system

Now that we have accountability, and we’ve grounded ourselves in an empowering, inner-focused reason for why we are setting the goal we’re setting… it’s time to lock down the system! If we have accountability, we are connected to our “why” but we don’t have an action plan, it will still result in failure.

I’m all about balance and baby steps and not becoming obsessed with perfection because… hey, #beenthere. This is one big reason why I created H.A.P.I.E. Goals. These are my five guidelines which allow for progress vs. perfection, and sustainable change vs. a quick fix that ends in a crash.

By the way, I created a physical Goal Guide and Habit Tracker with this information (and a few bonuses!) that you can grab here! This link gives you 50% too as my gift to all the Life Goals readers.

Let’s take a brief look at the five steps, then I’ll walk you through exactly what to do for The H.A.P.I.E. Goal Method tracking system. 

SAVE YOUR SEAT FOR THE WORKSHOP >

The first exercise, which you can do now, is to think about that ideal health routine, the feelings and qualities you want to exude, how you want your body to feel, the mindset and body image you want to experience… Write it all down. Who is the version of you a year from now? 

Take 15-20 minutes to write down your “new you” health routine in the form of your ideal week! Include all the habits, behaviors, practices, workouts, meal prepping, etc. You can also include other things you feel contribute to your overall health and mindset, like massages, meditation, coffee with a friend, therapy, enjoying a dessert without feeling guilty, etc. 

What does the most confident, healthiest, empowered, at ease, balanced, and self-loving version of you do on a weekly basis when it comes to food, fitness and mindset routines?

Next, use the five guidelines below to help you create a starting off point that begins to build the bridge from where you are now to that ideal you just wrote down.

So often we try to go from 0-100 and hit burnout real fast! This method is about taking inspired, consistent action to create a lifestyle that will last. 

Enter… the H.A.P.I.E. Goal Method

Habit-based

Create a weekly goal, that you will dedicate yourself to for at least one month. The goal should be a first step toward the ultimate goal. This is your opportunity to go from a vague overarching result like “get a six pack” or “lose 10 lbs” to a habit-based action like “jog twice a week and work on abs for 30 minutes a week.”

Acknowledgment & celebration

It’s scientifically proven that positive reinforcement, celebrating our progress and acknowledging our wins releases endorphins like adrenaline and dopamine,  increasing our motivation to keep going! This can be as small as giving ourselves a sticker for the things we accomplished that week, to bigger rewards like a trip or spa day. 

Petitely progressive

For example, if you’re ideal version of you, a year from now, works out five times a week and meal preps lunch and dinner for five days a week… and right now you are doing both of those only one time a week, don’t jump straight to five! Start with two, so just one more time a week than you do now. The progression of your goals should feel just outside of your comfort zone, meaning it’s more than what’s currently happening, but also it should feel so doable that you are almost tempted to do more. 

Internally focused

This was explained above. In a nutshell, it’s about having a conversation with yourself about how your goals expand past physical appearance, past the need for external validation, and include your bigger reason for wanting to be the healthiest version of yourself.

Experimental

Even though we are taking a baby-step, compassionate and balanced approach, measurement matters! Most of us fall into one of two categories if we are not tracking and measuring new habits we want to implement. We either overestimate or underestimate ourselves… and the funny part is, whichever one we are, we are probably wrong! The person who tends to give herself more credit, like “oh, yeah… I easily worked out like 4 times this week!” is likely to only have done like 2 workouts in reality. 

Just as those of us who go into defeat and say “ugh, I haven’t worked out at all this week” ignore the three workouts we got in! The point? Write. It. Down. Track it! This is not meant to be a forever tracking thing. It’s meant to help you consciously take on the habit, so it becomes an unconscious routine like clockwork. 

Here is the experimental process: Use the tracking system below, or in the Goal Guide, to set goals to experiment with for at least one month. At the end of the month, you will do one of 3 things… Repeat, renegotiate or release!

Repeat

if you didn’t accomplish your weekly goal for at least 3 out of the 4 weeks, repeat the exact same goal! This is not a punishment, it’s a re-commitment to something you know you can do!

Renegotiate

This one can go up or down. If you didn’t accomplish your weekly goal for at least 3 out of the 4 weeks, AND you honestly feel like you tried to take on too much, renegotiate the habit to a lower number each week for the next month. If you smashed your goal, and you’re ready for more, renegotiate UP and add on one level to the goal. Maybe it’s one additional night of cooking at home. Maybe it’s one more workout, or adding on 15min to each existing workout. Elevate it to the next level for the coming month. 

Release

You don’t need this goal anymore. This might be because you actually found out it was happening already, and you don’t need to put such intentional focus on it. This also might be that it’s just not a relevant goal for you right now, it’s not what you need to be or can be putting energy into. You can release it for now. 

Another benefit of the “experimentation” mentality, is that we don’t lock ourselves into the pressure of a “forever from this point forward” change, which can mess with us mentally and actually cause us to self-sabotage, crave the things we said we “wouldn’t eat”, and leave us feeling like failures if we can’t stick to it. Within a month’s time, it gives us the opportunity to say “hey, I’m going to check in on this and see how it’s working for me in 4 weeks”.  

Now it’s time to set up our monthly goals in the form of declaring weekly habits for our food, fitness, and mindset!

The tracking system

Step 1

If you don’t have the Goal Guide and Habit Tracker, use a physical calendar or draw one out on one page where you have a box for each day. 

Step 2

Based on your ideal week, and reflecting on where you are now in regards to that, think of the smallest possible step toward your ideal, and begin with a weekly habit-based goal for one month. 

Complete step two for your food goal, your fitness goal and your mindset goal.

If you can’t think of a mindset goal, I love these great go-to practices for positive self-image and happiness:

Affirmations

Use those qualities and feelings you wrote down. Begin the sentence always with “I am…” because even when our inner critic is saying “you don’t feel this way yet, you don’t believe this”… just by committing to saying the affirmations out loud, you’re working on shifting the connections in your brain to more positive thoughts! 

Gratitude practice

I have the Gratitude app. You can set an alert on your phone for the same time every day, go in the app, and list however many things you can think of. You can also add pictures! 

Daily journaling reflection

I do this 3-step prompt that allows you to finish each day with positivity. Write down one thing to let-go, one proud moment, and one gratitude. Let go of one thing that did or didn’t go as planned, acknowledge yourself for something that did, and remind yourself of something you’re grateful for in that moment. (This is also included in the goal guide.) 

Step 3

Keep your tracking sheet somewhere you will see it and be sure to check in with it each day, maybe first thing in the morning (to mark off what you did the day before) or last thing at night to check off what habits you accomplished that day. 

I recommend getting some fun colored pens or markers, and some stickers to make it extra fun and motivating! 

Alright, it’s time to get goaling! I hope this was helpful, and I’d love to support you any time with your food, fitness and mindset lifestyle! See my bio for how to connect.

My journey from athlete to coach includes going through my own journey with food and body. In high school, I lost my best friend, and found myself waking up in the middle of the night to eat a whole box of dove ice cream bon bons. I look back with empathy for myself now, but at the time I was crying. I was ashamed and in pain. I didn’t know how else to deal with that deep sense of loss and confusion. I gained weight. People asked if I needed help. I would say no. This behavior of turning to food in times of stress and emotion became an ongoing habit from that point forward.

After college, I was out of competitive athletics for the first time since I was 4-years-old. I decided to break the withdraw and hired a team to train me for a body building show. Red flags started popping up along the entire journey. For instance, someone very close to me who had been in treatment for disordered eating didn’t support the decision, and it got to the point that we did not really communicate the whole time I was training.

In my (stubborn) opinion, I had a “good head on my shoulders” and didn’t feel I was susceptible to taking it too far. I simply saw it as another sport.

Slowly but surely, I became more and more obsessed with following every rule on my diet. If I had a piece of gum, I would account for the five calories on the treadmill. Another red flag was that I agreed to taking supplements like a fat burner, which messed with my natural appetite and hormones, as well as 1,000mg of caffeine.

Now, this is a red flag not just from the mental standpoint of my drive to look a certain way, but also because I have a congenital heart condition. If I had told a cardiologist that I was taking a thermogenic and that much caffeine each day, they never would have ok’d it!

The final red flag came after I competed and won the whole frickin’ show, after feeling “fat” on stage! Total body dysmorphia. I didn’t know how to slowly get off the strict diet, and ended up bingeing and getting sick and depressed for a long time after the show.

It wasn’t until I began studying Eating Psychology that I fully realized what I was going through with these experiences––emotionally and physically.

Using food as a coping mechanism for pain was actually very valid as food does set off our pleasure receptors and makes us feel better, at least in that moment. It can be very easy for food to be somewhat of a comfort, and that is why I’m so passionate about helping women understand what this is for them and work with it, not against it.

From my experience after the body building show, my body had physically been in such restriction for a long enough period of time that it was physiologically starving for certain nutrients, as well as fats and sugars.

The physiological component, combined with my emotional connection to using food as relief, was an awful combination when the restriction and control were finally lifted. This journey immediately led me to want to help other women who use restriction, shame, dieting, counting and other “rules” with themselves, to find a more intuitive way of eating, and a more balanced structure to nutrition.

6:05 a.m. –– My alarm goes off. Immediately, I have a highlight and lowlight of the day. Highlight is, I love my alarm song. It’s Coaster by Logic. The lowlight? My phone was across the room so I had to get up… to hit snooze.

6:20 a.m. –– I hop in the shower to wash my mangled curly hair (this happens once a week.) I tried the new tea tree oil shampoo from Trader Joe’s that my hairdresser recommended to strip product build up!

I also listened to “I am“ affirmations with binaural beats while in the shower.

I have almost all of my clients create “I am” affirmations to build up their internal environment of self-acceptance, confidence, and self-belief. I’ve recently learned it’s best to say affirmations first thing in the morning or last thing at night because our subconscious, which holds more than 90% of our limiting beliefs and negative thoughts, is least active at those times, meaning we are most likely to break through that wall of limiting beliefs and create new ones!

6:45 a.m. –– My darling fiancé Bruce has made me a chocolate mocha protein shake with unsweetened vanilla almond milk, progenex protein, frozen banana, and cocoa powder. Even though I said I wasn’t sure what I wanted to eat, he made extra for me, because he knew I needed something and he knows me so well! It was perfect.

7:05 a.m. –– We are out the door, because we have an event we are both going to tonight. My fiancé and I share a car. I work from home, and my fiancé works on the Westside. Long story short, the plan is for me to drive him to work. Enter grumpiness because A.) Tessie has not had her coffee, and B.) Our plan was not very well thought out, because I had work to begin and the commute was taking longer than expected.

9 a.m. –– Grumpiness subsides as I get home in time to make my coffee and prepare for my Facebook live at 9:30 a.m.

9:30 a.m. –– I hop on Facebook live on my Facebook page called Food and Body Breakthrough to share three things most people don’t know about my food journey. Many of us as eating psychology coaches have been drawn to the work partially through our own challenges with food and body. I love sharing about my journey because I feel that it is can be inspiring to people who might be able to write relate to it and are looking for healing themselves. And since you are reading this and you might not even know me at all, I’ll share them briefly here.

1. I began emotional eating in high school after losing my best friend and boyfriend. I shared about this in my intro, so you actually do already know this one. But just to sum up, I later learned how food, especially sweets, can easily become somewhat of a coping mechanism because our body physiologically responds with pleasure when we eat them. So the ice cream was literally taking my pain away.

2. The first time I really remember thinking “I need to go on a diet“ was after studying abroad in Spain for 6 weeks. I had ate, drink, and not worked out. I probably gained about 10 pounds and had no idea until it was almost my last week there. I had a blast there.

When I returned home, I remember seeing a picture of myself in a sports bra and thinking, “Oh my gosh I’ve lost my athletic body, I need to get it back. Who am I without that body?“ now one of the most important mindset shifts I work on with clients is learning to love their body all along the journey.

Our body morphs and shifts depending on our season in life; things you can’t control, life events, etc. All we can control is the practice to love ourselves and our bodies, and be grateful for everything that they do for us every day.

3. I still experience emotional eating and days where I don’t feel great in my body. I used to think that as a coach that I would need to be “perfect“ and have everything figured out. But the truth is, I know the people that I look up to and follow are the most vulnerable, transparent, and real.

Just a few months ago I was very stressed out about creating content for my online seven week program Food and Body Breakthrough, while sticking to my consulting job, and also starting a new workshop company.

Second long story short, I was at the store that day, saw the pop tarts and ate the entire box of pop tarts. But the tools I now have allowed me to relax into that process, be aware of what I was choosing, and not beat myself up about it––truly! I used to be on a vicious cycle of bingeing and then feeling guilty and thinking I need to exercise more. This time, I was able to just go back to routine and balance.

10 a.m. –– I had an awesome call with my business coach, and my takeaway was that I get to create the outline for my first book! It’s going to be a personal development workbook about why weight doesn’t matter when it comes to the most important “measures of health” and how we can start focusing on the things that truly matter.

11 a.m. –– I log into a consulting job part-time, so this leg of the day is a bit… well, not super exciting. But I wanted to be transparent about having a consulting job I currently do alongside my coaching business, because it’s my truth right now. While the consulting job has more components that feel like a job-job than my coaching career, I still like doing it and appreciate that I can log in from anywhere!

1 p.m. –– I stop to eat lunch. I get six meals a week right now delivered from Territory Foods in Los Angeles, so I ate one of those. Today it’s chicken meatballs with marinara and zucchini noodles. I heat it in the microwave for about two minutes and we’re good!

I love cooking, but honestly, I’m not the best at it (yet) and I don’t currently have the luxury of time in my schedule to focus on it more. And I’m okay with that. It’s a someday thing. The Territory meals help me to not have decision fatigue around food, and I know it’s going to be a healthy balanced meal, which for me is most important around lunch time.

4:30 p.m. –– I log out to check in on some other business. I have a workshop coming up with Carla Romo and Paris Coleman called Fall into Love & Wellness, and I need to update the attendee list and reach out to one of the sponsors. I also posted to my instagram at this time @tessietracy holla at ya girl lol and I checked in with a private coaching client.

5:30 p.m. –– It’s time to log out of work and head to the event, which is a Trainer’s Night at Bulletproof Upgrade Labs in Santa Monica. They invited like 40 personal trainers and group fitness class coaches to come try all the biohacking technology for physical, mental and internal wellbeing.

7 p.m. –– I arrive at Labs, and immediately go for the butternut squash soup and avocado toast (#freefoodplease). It was delicious. Bruce my bae is a trainer there, and he led the entire tour and explanation of the machines before we got started. I was definitely giddy with pride, like “yeah, that’s my fiancé!”

7:30 p.m. –– I did cryo and the PEMF for recovery, as well as a red light facial. I’m not going to even try to fully explain everything that these all do. But in general, cryo helps us generate blood flow and healing to all areas of the body by putting us in a -200 degree small room, for three minutes. I listened to the Maroon 5 song Girls Like You to pass the time faster!

When you get out, as your body works to heat you back up, it helps reduce inflammation, boost metabolism, and flush lactic acid. The PEMF is pulse electromagnetic frequency which helps regenerate cells to their healthiest form. Infrared light helps stimulate collagen production and helps rejuvenate the skin.

8:30 p.m. –– Although I was there by myself and didn’t know any of the other trainers, I ended up striking conversation with another health coach and we have been in touch since. I love it when my introverted self actually talks to people and makes friends. It always feels nice.

10 p.m. –– We get home and start winding down for bed. My nightly routine is not “perfect”, but I am pretty good about getting off of my phone.

I wash my face, use my new Rose Water facial toner, also from Trader Joe’s because TJ’s is life. I have some amazing night cream from dermalogica (I lucked out and my friend who owns the blog beautybunny invited me to one of her influencer events.)

I usually sleep in loose leggings or sweats, and a loose long sleeve shirt. I like being slightly cold when I sleep with the option to be cozy under our big fluffy white comforter ( #funfact: for most of us our bodies rest best at about 65 degrees).

I get into bed and flip through The Knot wedding magazine, even though we are pretty sure we won’t really do the whole traditional wedding thing, it’s helping me figure out what we do want it to look like!

11 p.m. ish –– I drift off to sleep. I am a very deep sleeper. I would probably even sleep through a roaring train right by my window… although I’m glad I don’t have that sound testing my sleep deepness every night.

Overall, this was a pretty average day. My takeaways from a day like today are:

1. I feel extremely joyful and fulfilled when I get to share about myself and use my creativity on platforms like Facebook Live, Instagram, my blog, or in creating workbooks and services for my clients.

2. I am excited to always be working toward increasing my impact and creating my career. I might have parts of the day that are for “somebody else” but I was reminded today that even these… less desirable responsibilities are something to be grateful for, and they simply serve as reminders of where I want to continue growing.

3. The trainer night was a huge highlight. Labs gave us all unlimited cryotherapy for three months, and I was grateful to be able to have a night with some networking, self-care, and being with my boo!