Nikki Cheak (00:01.208)
Welcome back to Real Food, Real Energy, Real Life, the show for midlife moms who are navigating hormones, exhaustion and chaos, and who are done with extreme diets and ready for something that actually fits their life. I'm Nikki Cheek, a certified health coach and mom of three. And if you're wondering why summer is draining you instead of energizing you, you're in the right place. So I want to talk a little bit about summer and what actually is going on in my house right now, because I've got three kids.
And if you are a mom of teens and tweens, you know that summer camps don't line up with work schedules and all of my kids are in different camps and my work schedule is crazy and my kids camps are all over the place. Right. And the timing is, you know, drop off, pick up, drop off, pick up. And I'm constantly back and forth and back and forth. And so
I really, you know, did try to get ahead this year. I thought I had my calendar planned out. My calendar is always color coded and, you know, I live by it on my phone. I prepped some meals and I just thought, you know, maybe it would feel a little bit smoother this time around. But honestly, after we got back from vacation, we hit the ground running. And before I can even finish breakfast, my kids are asking me what's for dinner.
And then it just doesn't stop, right? The kitchen is just turning into this like all day pit stop of I'm hungry and you know, my oldest just turned 15 and I swear he's going to single handedly eat us out of house and home. This kid has like a hollow leg. I don't know. But look, I love feeding them. I really do. But honestly, summer just hits differently when your structure and your rhythms kind of go out of the window, right?
It's, you know, constant interruptions. There's more noise, the mental load of juggling what feels like a thousand moving parts all day long. And I love it. Don't get me wrong. I love having my kids home and I do love the slower, you know, more relaxing season. But honestly, for so many of us, it's not a break, right? It's just a different kind of chaos.
Nikki Cheak (02:26.093)
And if you're finding yourself wondering why you're more tired now than you were during the school year, if you've got this frustration of like, I just don't understand, you know, there's technically less going on, but why am I just feel more off or feel more exhausted? And I want you to know it's not just you. This isn't about being busy and it's not about the food or the schedules or even our to-do lists.
It's about what happens when our structure just goes away and disappears. And that's what we're going to talk about in unpack today. Because if you're like me, you're driving around all of the time. And, you know, as midlife moms, we go into the summer thinking it's like this big exhale, like, finally, no school, no packing lunches, right? Maybe you don't have alarms that you have to set, but maybe you do like me.
and you're driving back and forth to multiple camps. But what actually disappears in that structure is that sense of routine that we didn't know what was helping us feel grounded. I remember right before school got out, I was so excited. I was like, finally, like a little bit of, you know, flexibility in our schedule. And I don't have to pack lunches all the time. And that is fantastic. And I love that so much. But I also
know that I thrive in a routine. And when every day feels a little bit different and meals are not as structured, or maybe they're at random times, and you try and start skipping your workouts, and you're making like 100 little tiny decisions before lunch, then your nervous system honestly just doesn't feel that safe, right? In the bass ground, it's just asking like, okay, are you good? You know, is something off?
And the biggest part here, you don't have to feel stressed necessarily, right? For your body to actually be stressed. It's not always these big blow ups or meltdowns. It's honestly the constant low level buzz of just the unpredictability that we live in every single day. And your nervous system is going to feel that. And so, you know, if your day looks like, you know, you're starting your day by already playing catch up.
Nikki Cheak (04:49.543)
or you forgot to eat and you just grabbed something fast and carby, then you get through your morning and maybe you get in a workout, maybe you don't, and it's not consistent. And then in the afternoon, you're crashing, right? You get foggy, you're irritable, you start to get hangry, but you're not even sure what you really even want, right? And you find yourself maybe snapping at your kid over something dumb or zoning out in front of the pantry because
You're like walking in there and you're like, okay, I don't know what I want, but I'm just trying to feel better. And then you wonder, okay, what, what's going on? Why can't I just get it together? And you aren't necessarily doing anything wrong, but your body doesn't feel grounded. And when your body doesn't feel safe, it can't reset. It can't recover. And it's just going to constantly stay on high alert.
So instead of judging yourself or trying to push harder, I want you to ask yourself this different question, not why am I so tired, but what would help my body feel good again? Because this is the thing that no one's teaching us, but it's actually what's going to change the game. And so look, I can probably take a guess at how your morning went. You may have gotten up early, you probably made breakfast for the kids or maybe they made breakfast.
breakfast for themselves. You may or may not have had to some snacks for the summer. And maybe you tried to toss a load of laundry in if you were ambitious enough. I know some mornings I try and be really ambitious, other mornings not so much. But you've likely reheated your coffee once, maybe twice, and by the time you actually look at the clock, it's somehow already time to leave and you still haven't eaten a thing. So what happens here?
You grab a bite of your kid's waffle or their toast, right? And you're just gonna tell yourself, okay, I'll eat later. It's not a big deal. I don't really need to eat. And I get it. I really, really get it because I used to do the same thing. I kept telling myself that, you know, if I skipped breakfast, that it wasn't a big deal. I'll just, you know, drink my cup of coffee and I could just wait a little bit longer until lunch and I'd be fine. But, you know, the eating...
Nikki Cheak (07:13.38)
You know, I could eat some snacks I threw in my bag from the night before. I might even tell myself that like eating real food didn't really matter that much. And let's be honest, some mornings I wasn't even hungry or I was just too overwhelmed and stuck in this decision fatigue to even decide what to eat. But what I want you to really know is when you're in this season of midlife where your body's already working harder behind the scenes.
When you skip that first meal or you just go with the caffeine and the carbs, your body doesn't go cool. Like we're being, you know, disciplined today. Like we're going to just take our time and make sure that we're making right decisions. It goes, crap. Like something that was off, like my body is off and it starts sounding alarms. Okay. So if you are eating just, if you're, if you're one those people who
You're grabbing your coffee and then maybe you have a muffin or you have that waffle or toast. Your body is, you know, your, your cortisol is going to stay high because your body is sounding that alarm. And then your blood sugar is going to take that hit. And then you spend your whole day chasing the energy and wondering why you feel so off. And that 3pm crash you beat yourself up for. Well, that snack spiral, you're going to like,
you're going to just keep going and going and going. And that mental fog is going to hit even tougher, even though you feel quote unquote rested, right? And honestly, none of that is really about willpower. It's about your body never getting grounded in the first place. So if you want this shift, this is the moment that matters. And I'm not saying you need to wake up at 5 a.m. and make this like gourmet breakfast, but I'm saying when you do break your fast,
whether it's at 6 a.m. or 10 a.m., I want you to make it with real food. Something that tells your body you're good, we're fed, we've got what we need. And there's so many different ways that you can do this, right? And you know that I've talked about having protein and carbs and healthy fats, right? Making sure that you're getting something with all of these. And that could be as simple as maybe you have a smoothie.
Nikki Cheak (09:31.457)
with protein and berries and some chia seeds and maybe some nut butter, right? And some spinach, or maybe it's a couple of eggs and some egg whites, turkey sausage. It could even be leftovers from last night's dinner because why not? Like make it easy. I've definitely been that person to eat my dinner for breakfast the next day. Because listen, if you're just doing all of the things before,
then you're going to crash fast. But when you're eating the right things, it's not just about how you're starting your day. It's also helping your nervous system regulate and your metabolism feel supported. And then you're creating this rhythm that your body can count on, right? So by two o'clock, you're not like, crap, I just totally messed up, right? You're, feeling good. And that is honestly one of the biggest shifts I made myself.
Once I skipped, you know, stopped skipping my breakfast and just relying on coffee and started fueling on purpose with intention, everything changed and I was more steady. I was more clear and I just felt so much better. So if you're sitting here thinking, okay, like I need to start doing this. I need to be better. And this is what's one of the things that's happening to me right now. This is where I'd start.
I put together a freebie of protein packed meals that is going to make this so much easier for you. It's 10 doable meals, 10 breakfasts, 10 lunch, 10 dinners. And guess what? I include 10 snacks also that will help you hit your protein goals without standing at the counter, Googling what to eat again, or just staring off into the pantry like I don't even know how I'm going to do this because you just need a good starting point to get started. And so if you're listening and you're thinking,
might need more than a guide. I need somebody to actually help me follow through. This is where my six week reset comes in because it's not a diet and it's definitely not a quick fix, right? It's a structure that you live your lifestyle around that's going to give you the support that your body's been asking for. And I walk you through all of it step by step. So you're going to find both of these in the show notes and I want you to, you know, grab the guide, check out the reset. And if you're not really sure where to begin, just send me a message.
Nikki Cheak (11:59.18)
shoot me an email at nicki at intentionalwellnesscoaching.com and I will happily help you figure it out. I want you to start small, but I just want you to start something. So next week on real food, real energy, real life, you know, that version of you who felt steady, like she had energy, confidence, and a little bit of a spark. If you've been missing her, this next episode is going to be for you because the truth is
You don't have to wait to feel like her again. You have to become her by taking action that matches who she is. So next week, I'm going to be walking you through the belief shift that changed everything for me, the nervous system science behind why we lose momentum and the small 15 minute shift that can help you get it back. It's not really about motivation guys. It's about momentum and how you create it. So I'll see you next week.
