Nicole Cheak (00:54.926)
Alright, it is the middle of January and you may be feeling a lot like me and feeling like...
Nicole Cheak (01:06.51)
Okay, it is the middle of January and you may be feeling a lot like a lot of my clients and a lot of my friends that I've talked to and it's like this, ugh, I can already feel it. I'm starting to slip feeling. And so I need you to hear what I'm about to tell you. You are not the only one because last week,
was the second Friday of the month, and that means it was National Quitters Day. And that is when basically a lot of people quit on their New Year's resolutions. And look, it's not just this cute internet thing, because there is actually studies that have shown that about 88 % of people who set New Year's resolutions stop within the first two weeks.
So if your routine is already starting to feel a bit wobbly, there's a common timeline and it's called National Quarters Day. So if you're sitting here and you're like, okay, but why can't I just stick with something? I want you to think about this other perspective. A Washington Post poll earlier this month talked a little bit about how half of the adults in their 40s and 50s made this resolution or made a resolution in general. so
I want you to know that, like I said, it's not just you, it's a lot of people. And what we're seeing are the most common goals. And it's the exact stuff that you and I talk about all the time. It's exercise, it's weight loss, it's eating healthier. So if you started this January and you had a lot of energy and you're like, yep, I'm ready to go. I'm going to make this the year that, you know, this goal happens, whatever that goal is for you. And then real life has started.
and school is back and your kids routines are back and work happened and schedules and exhaustion. Yep. Then right now is exactly probably where you're feeling like you're losing that energy because maybe your morning workout didn't happen and maybe you had a few decent days and then the weekend hit and you're like, well, I'm done. Or maybe you're just standing in the kitchen and you're like, okay, I already messed up this week. So what's the point of even trying to
Nicole Cheak (03:26.082)
feel better and prioritize myself. And this is where most people, you know, they make that same move. They assume it's motivation and they quit quietly or they're gonna wait until the following Monday just to start over again. So not today. We're not gonna do this anymore because this episode today is not about pushing harder. It's about understanding what actually happens right around now.
which is why this is the exact point so many women fall off and I want you to do some things instead so that you don't throw the whole month away. And just so you know, I'm not saying this from a high horse, okay? I've had plenty of years where the middle of January has, you know, I felt behind. And the difference now is that I don't treat a messy week like it's a messy week, right? I just treat it.
Like it's a piece of my life and I know how to move forward. So if you're starting to feel discouraged, I want you to stay with me because by the end of this episode, you're gonna have a simple way that you can work to reset. So here's what's going on with a lot of you right now, okay? You had that fresh start energy on January 1st and then it just crashed into reality. Okay, we talked about that. And you...
may have had super busy days or unrealistic expectations. And that friction that you're feeling right now is totally normal. OK? I want you to know that. Because the thing is, that it's the problem is about thinking that motivation is supposed to carry you through. OK? And if you remember, I did a whole podcast on this back when I first started my podcast, episode 12, How to Stay Consistent When Motivation Fails. I'll link it in the show notes because we
We talk more about it there too, but I want you to, I want to paint a picture of what I'm seeing right now. Okay. It's this relatable scenario of who's all in for new year's resolutions. This is the year I'm going to drop my 20 pounds or this is the year that I am going to work out five days a week. You started strong. Okay. But what probably happened is that you are trying to do it alone. You're winging it and you're hoping something sticks. So if that sounds familiar.
Nicole Cheak (05:46.274)
That's because of what happens with a lot of people. And maybe you're doing, you know, different workouts that you saw on Instagram or YouTube. You're trying some new eating plan that you found on Pinterest or that your friend told you about. And maybe those things worked for someone else, but, know, it's there's no real plan that's holding it all together. You've got no support and you're just continuing to try harder. And so you go into this loop over and over again. And I want you to think about it this way.
Okay, so January 1st is like this honeymoon phase, okay, of a relationship. Everything feels so exciting and so new and possible, but real relationships are not built on butterflies, right? They're built on showing up when it's boring, when you're tired, and when you don't feel like it. And I want to give you a couple of examples of what this actually looks like. So maybe you meal prepped that first Sunday and you were like, this is so good. I am totally this meal prepping person now.
but by week two you were staring at the containers and you're like, ugh, no, I am not doing this. Or maybe you committed to working out every morning and it worked for a week, maybe even two weeks. And then your kid was up all night or you hadn't really meeting and you hit the snooze button because you were just exhausted. So here's what I need you to hear. This motivation is not disappearing because you failed.
It disappears because motivation always disappears. That's what it does. So look, I get it, right? The reality of being a beginner, it sucks. Learning new things is uncomfortable. I get it. But I want you, I want to put it into a different perspective for you. What sucks more is being in the exact same spot next January, still confused, still starting over, and maybe hoping this time this is going to be different. So
It's exactly why I built Real Food Made Easy The Collective, but I'm gonna tell you more about that later because I wanna show you what the cost of actually staying stuck is doing to you. I want you to think about the movie Groundhog Day. Bill Murray wakes up in the same day over and over again and...
Nicole Cheak (08:11.606)
Okay, I want you to think about the movie Groundhog Day, the one where Bill Murray wakes up day after day, same day, living it all over and over and over again. And that's what staying stuck feels like. Okay, you wake up with the same frustrations and the same confusion and the same, okay, you know what, screw it, I'm just going to start again next Monday. Except in the movie, Bill Murray eventually figures it out. And so I want you to think about how many more Januaries you're going to repeat.
before something changes. Because next January, life is going to look like this if you stay on this path. You're still going to be Googling, this healthy impairment a pause? While you're trying to make breakfast, you're still going to be avoiding pictures because you don't feel like yourself. And you're still going to say, I really need to get my energy back. And you're going to repeat it to your friends for the third year in a row. And you're going to buy the same snacks.
thinking that they're fine, but then wondering why you're exhausted in the afternoon. And a year from now, you're going to still be exhausted, still confused about what to eat, and you're still gonna be wondering if whatever you're eating is even okay to be eating where you're at in life right now. Look, I get it, I've been there. I used to love Cheez-Its, okay? Like I would buy a box of Cheez-Its.
Sometimes not even for my kids, but for me because they were like a great snack, right? Who doesn't love a good Cheez-It? And I genuinely thought they were fine, right? Except then I saw a video of how Cheez-Its were made and recognizing that there's not a single real food ingredient in the Cheez-Its. It's really just carbs and inflammatory oils disguised as cheese. And I was eating them almost every day and I was feeling like crap. I was bloated.
And I was thinking that that wasn't a big piece of it. But I had no idea that something like that could be crashing my energy and sabotaging me. And that's the thing about staying stuck. You think you're making OK choices, but you have no idea what's actually working with you or completely against you. And you don't understand how to actually plate your foods.
Nicole Cheak (10:34.358)
You don't know what's helping you versus what's hurting you. And every single food decision takes some sort of mental energy that you don't have. Because it's not just about the food itself. It's the thinking about the food that drains you.
Nicole Cheak (10:56.706)
I want you to...
Nicole Cheak (11:03.712)
It's the thinking about the food that's draining you. And every single meal then becomes a decision that you have to make from scratch, right? And you are trying to understand food labels, you're trying to get better at them, but you really don't even understand what you're looking at. And by the time dinner rolls around, you're just so mentally exhausted. And so you just decide to go back on your defaults.
And the thing that I want you to really understand is this isn't about willpower. And I really actually hate the word willpower. It's one of my least favorite words because there's like no such thing as willpower, okay? It's one of those words to me that is just out there and it doesn't mean anything. But what it really is telling you is that you don't have the skills, the support or the plan to actually make something like
eating healthier or having more energy or moving your body, you don't have the skills to make them stick. And so what happens when you stop trying to do this alone? I want to, I want to talk to you a little bit about that because to me, it's one of those things that you see over and over again, but I'm going to frame it back to something that I know that you can relate to. that's riding a bike. Remember when you first learned how to ride a bike?
Okay? You were probably like me and you were young and it was wobbly and it was, you know, a little scary. And then when you took the training wheels off, you probably fell a few times. And, but all of those failures and falling, they all lead, led to you learning how to ride a bike and you didn't have to think anymore. You just got on and you put, you pedaled and you rode. Okay. And then when your kids were starting to learn bikes,
You taught your kids how to write it, okay? And you knew exactly what they were gonna go through. You knew that it would be wobbly at first. You knew that they would fall, but you also knew that once they got it, that's a skill that they would have forever. And that's what happens when you build actual skills instead of just following somebody's plan. And you're not dependent on the plan anymore. You just know what to do. And so I want you to picture something.
Nicole Cheak (13:29.64)
It's the middle of the week and it's a few months from now and you're not having to feel motivated anymore and you're not having to feel like you have to get back on track like you did in the past. But you woke up and you just had a normal day. Okay. But here's what's different. I want to, I want to talk to you about what's different in this day. Okay. You're not exhausted anymore. You actually grab breakfast and you're
Like, okay, I know I need to eat this because it's gonna make me feel better the rest of the day. You just eat because you know what works for your body. Then like that afternoon dreaded crash hits and you know that you usually are gonna like tear through the pantry or you have a snack drawer at your desk that you're just gonna be like looking for something. But you already have a go-to snack and you know what to eat. And then the nails on the chalkboard question, the what's for dinner question.
That is like my dreaded question every week, every day, because it's like sometimes I get it before my kids even walk out the door and they're like, mom, what's for dinner? And instead of you feeling like, I hate that question, you already know. And then your week gets crazy and busy because it always does, right? Your kids get sick or you've got crazy sports practices or maybe you had a last minute work deadline that was thrown on your plate and life just happens.
Here's the biggest difference. You don't bail on yourself then for three weeks in a row. You have backup options and you are not starting over anymore. That's the thing that changes because you have options. You have support when you need it. And the biggest thing that I want you to understand is that it's not just about knowing what to eat. It's about trusting yourself again because I have so many clients and women and moms and friends tell me
that they're like, I know I eat healthy, but then I just, don't know how to stick to it, or I just don't trust myself when I'm trying to hit this goal or whatever that case is. So you do trust yourself again, and you're like, okay, look, I know this is like, sounds great, but.
Nicole Cheak (15:54.166)
Okay, but here's the thing. It's not just about knowing what to eat. It's about actually trusting yourself again, because I have so many moms and clients who tell me, you know, I just can't stick to it, or I like, I'm second guessing all this stuff. And when you do have the confidence about all of this, you stop second guessing it. And you stop feeling guilty about yesterday. And you stop thinking, but I'm really just so bad at this. I'm never gonna stick to it.
And look, I get it. It probably sounds like so boring and not exciting. But for me, the thing that actually changed everything wasn't some fancy meal plan. It was having some go-to breakfasts and lunches on repeats. Some of the same things week after week. I get it. It sounds super unsexy. It doesn't sound fun. But those are the things that move the needle in everything, OK?
not that New Year's exciting energy and the beginning of a romance and all that stuff, right? It's not about the perfect meal prep on a Sunday. It's the boring and the consistent stuff that you just do. And look, it's also not about meal plans, okay? Meal plans can help and they're helpful sometimes, but that's not the point. The point is that you stop standing in your kitchen and you're guessing and like, you're like, okay, well, what do I need to eat? Is it even healthy? You know, why is this so hard?
And instead, you're building these options so that decisions get faster and backup plans so busy weeks don't like totally knock you on your butt. And the biggest piece is the confidence that you know that you can do this and that you can build the skills. And this is what we do inside Real Food Made Easy, the collective. I know I mentioned it earlier, but I want to talk to you a little bit about what it is because this is different. This is different than a lot of other things out there.
It's a monthly support system for midlife moms who are just done Googling and second guessing and starting over because in perimenopause, food is not just food anymore. It's your energy. It's your mood. It's how you go through the day. And when you're trying to figure this out alone while your body is changing, it's awful. So the collective is going to shift that for you. I
Nicole Cheak (18:18.626)
look, we're not gonna try and overhaul your entire life in one week, right? Cause it's not attainable. So every month we focus on one thing, just one thing. And maybe that's how to actually grocery shop with a plan. And maybe that's the plan for the entire month. And so you're not trying to also learn how to meal prep and start a new workout routine and drink more water and go to bed earlier and read more books and wake up at 5 a.m. and all the things, right? You're not doing all the things. We're going to focus on one thing.
So every month you're going to get a 14 day challenge that focuses on the one thing, okay? And you're not just gonna be learning about it, you're actually gonna be doing it so that you build the habits. You're also gonna have, we're gonna have two live calls. I'm gonna want to teach it, want to get you set up, want to make sure that you're really ready to go. And then one to troubleshoot when you're stuck and then like you wanna ask the questions. You're also gonna have daily coaching inside of my community.
which is not a Facebook group, and it's where your questions are not gonna get buried. I'm gonna be answering them in real time and real support, but also other moms are there to help cheer you on because the community aspect is so incredibly huge to me. Other moms who get what you're going through and know what it's like to live your life because everybody feels the same pressures.
And so you're also going to get resources and templates because I don't want you to start from scratch. I want you have a place to build from. Okay. And I look, I know you're thinking, okay, but yeah, whatever, Nikki, I don't have time for this. I don't have time to eat healthy. I don't have time to put myself first, but I want you to think about that Taylor Swift song in anti-hero. And I'm not going to sing because I'm a terrible singer, but it's me. Hi, I'm the problem. It's me. And that's what we do with time.
we convince ourselves that we're the problem, right? And you're not the problem. But what if you just don't have the right support and the right skills and likely the right backup plan for when things get a little chaotic? So at the end of the day, real food made easy is not about adding more to your plate. It's about making the decisions that you are already making every single day, but making them faster and easier and way less exhausting.
Nicole Cheak (20:38.338)
So I am so excited to finally announce that I am opening the doors on March 3rd, but I am also opening my wait list now because if you get on the wait list, you are going to get first access to when doors are opening. You're gonna get founding member pricing locked in for life. my plan is to eventually raise prices, but when I do, you will not have to worry about that because you will stay in the same founding member pricing forever. And then also you're gonna start to get
to vote on the topics that we're covering first, your biggest pain points, the areas that you're so stuck with that you're like, okay, Nikki, we just need to work on this. And that is the monthly shift, right? So you're going to get to vote on some of these topics that is going to be so huge. And so I'm going to drop the link for the waitlist in the show notes. I really want you to get on that waitlist because here's the thing. Remember at the beginning of the episode when I talked about Groundhog Day?
and Bill Murray waking up every single day to the same thing. Well, guess what? You're going to be waking up to the same struggles and the same confusion and the same all-start-again thoughts, like, year after year after year. In the movie, he finally figures out how to break the cycle. So this is the chance for you to break your cycle. OK? And maybe it's something that you need for three months, and you're like, OK, great. My goal is not for you to have to necessarily need me forever.
My goal is to help you build the skills so that you know what to do so that you can walk away confident and feeling like you have the energy and knowing how to build it into your life because everybody's life is different, okay? So you can keep trying to figure this out alone and hoping that something finally sticks or you can start to get the support and build the skills that you actually need for your life because you don't need my permission to take care of yourself or anyone else's.
But if you're waiting for permission, here it is. Okay? You're allowed to get support. You're allowed to stop doing this alone. And look, I am not promising that you're never gonna have a crazy busy week again because my weeks are mostly crazy busy. And I'm not promising that you're gonna meal prep every Sunday and feels amazing 24 seven. But I am promising that you're gonna have the tools and the support and the skills that actually work in your life.
Nicole Cheak (23:01.376)
even when the weeks are crazy and busy and you're not even sure how you're gonna get things done. Because look, at the end of the day, if nothing changes, nothing changes. And I don't want you sitting here next January feeling the exact same way that you might be feeling right now. Because being a beginner sucks and learning new things is uncomfortable. But you know what sucks more? Being in the same spot next year. join the wait list for Real Food Made Easy The Collective.
I'll link it in the show notes and let's do things differently in 2026.
