Three Simple Habits for Moms that Inspire Healthy Eaters with Special Guest Tameeko Clark

Hey, welcome back. No problem, parents. Happy New Year. Happy 2023. Today's episode, we're going to stick with that healthy lifestyle theme. My guest today is going to share her three habits that will help you, the parents, stick to a healthy lifestyle that you actually love, you can see yourself keeping up with for the rest of your life.

So this isn't some sort of dieting thing, you know, that many of us get drug into at the beginning of the new year with all these, you know, diet goals and that sort of thing. We're not doing that today. But also that it's going to help you create the foundation of a meaningful health legacy for your kids. So rather than just getting your kids to eat vegetables by making them, the kids are going to actually want to eat healthy and they're going to start to feel that from the inside out.

You're going to hear all about that today with my special guest, Tomiko Clark. But before I introduce Tomiko, I want to thank our sponsor of today's podcast, Deerwood Bank. Deerwood Bank is proud to be a supporter of the No Problem Parenting podcast. Like many of you, Deerwood Bank's core values are rooted in trust and loyalty.

Recently named Best Small Bank in Minnesota, Deerwood Bank has 12 locations throughout the state. From the metro to the Northland, Deerwood Bank is where you need them. From your first savings account to life after retirement, Deerwood Bank's got your back and your family covered. Deerwood Bank, banking made nice and simple since 1910.

Member FDIC. Thank you so much, Deerwood Bank, for sponsoring us. I personally have my business banking through Deerwood Bank, and we set up our son's bank account through them as well. And we are so happy to have you sponsoring and supporting us, No Problem Parents.

Thank you, Deerwood Bank. Welcome to the No Problem Parenting Podcast. Turn behavior problems into no problem with Jackie Finneman. Are you ready to become the confident leader your kids crave you to be?

Do you want to learn how to make parenting easier and more fulfilling? Whether you are at your wits end or you want to have more fun as a parent, you're definitely in the right place. Now here's your host, Jackie Fineman. All right, parents, let me introduce you to Tamiko Clark.

Tamiko is a holistic nutritionist, health coach, wellness strategist, and the mom of two. She noticed busy millennial moms looking to break the cycle of on-again, off-again health practices that just weren't working and left them feeling discouraged mentally and had them swimming in self-guilt and disappointment energetically. Her tailored and comprehensive coaching programs help others take control of junk food cravings and teach them how to create a personalized culture of wellness to enjoy living healthy on purpose, with purpose, and without that periodic self-guilt and disappointment.

Why should someone take a holistic approach to their health and wellness? And in what ways does a parent's approach to their personal wellness impact their whole family? What's the big mistake to avoid when jumping back on the health wagon? We're going to cover all of that and three habits to put into practice for building a consistently healthy lifestyle for you, mama, and your family.

Welcome to the show, Tomiko. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Before we get into the three simple hacks that you have for us, why don't you just give us a little bit of background and why you decided to become a health coach and how you're helping families?

Sure. So I am a former junk food junkie and corporate dropout turned certified holistic nutritionist, health coach, wellness strategist, and mom of two healthy eaters. And coming from the background of me personally growing up on junk food, As a kid, I was delighted and it was lovely and wonderful. Going to Taco Bell and Burger King and Happy Meals at McDonald's, I loved it.

And Little Chef Boyardee, that's the kind of food that I grew up on and it was wonderful at the time. But as I entered early adulthood, that's when that foundation started to catch up with me. And because I didn't know what I didn't know, I didn't know what was going on. And I walked into the health and wellness clinic.

And after filling out that little questionnaire that you fill out in the waiting room, I asked the nurse practitioner frantically, what's going on with me? You know, I shouldn't be feeling this rundown as, you know, a young adult. Why is this happening? And she was just very frank with me and said, it's your lifestyle.

And which is a duh for many. But at that time, I didn't know. And so from there on out, I spent years trying to figure out how not just what healthy looks like, because I think we all know, you know, to live a healthy lifestyle, you need to eat well and exercise, move your body. But if you have developed habits that are not health promoting, it's hard to break those habits.

And so that's really the tough part that I struggled with for years. And I did really well. But once I got pregnant with my first child, all of the childhood habits that I had broken free of all came flooded back to me in that first trimester. And the only thing I could keep down were those foods that I started with as a kid. And I was back to eating chili dogs and french fries and pizza and chips and all of those things and soda.

And that's when I knew that I wanted something different for my kids. I wanted to make sure that I went into my healthy eating in a way that was sustainable for me and that could create a health legacy for my children. And so that it wasn't something where I was being that parent that was too loose with the food, you know, the food that they were eating. But then I also didn't want to be this authoritarian that was saying, eat your vegetables.

I wanted it to be something that they could embrace as a part of who they are. And that was really the first spark and what made me know that this is the life path that I wanted to be on and that this is something that I wanted to help other parents be able to do for their children in an effective way. I love it. This is so cool.

And it's so great that you like our body keeps the score. There's a book that I just love. It's one of my favorites. So the body keeps the score.

And it's so true that like our muscle memory in our brains brings us back to like habits and things from our childhood. And when you become a mom and you're pregnant and you're going, it's like those comfort foods or those those things that you just your go to is even if you haven't eaten them for years, all of a sudden your brain's like, oh, yeah, that that sounds good. we should eat that. That'll make me feel better. So it's interesting that you say that. But the other thing that I'm really curious about getting into today too, is, you know, cause you're right.

We do know what is healthy and what's not, we know what we should be doing and what we shouldn't be doing. And, but I love that you also say it's not just about teaching your kids all those healthy foods and what to eat. Like you don't want to be that parent. That's just like eat your vegetables.

Like you're making them do it. You want that to come internally from the inside out where the kids are making those decisions on their own. Right. So you have these three habits that help parents stick to a healthy lifestyle that they love. They can actually see themselves keeping up with for the rest of their lives. And one that creates the foundation of like literally a meaningful health legacy for their kids. So you're teaching them how to just naturally teach their kids to want to eat healthy. Right. Absolutely. Because one of the, and there have been studies that have proved this. One of the best things that any parent can do to set their kids out on the right foundation for eating healthy is modeling it, modeling the behavior, walking the walk,

because we all know that kids are more likely to do, you know, what we do rather than what we tell them or what we try to teach them. And so the natural rebel in all of us of all ages, you know, when we're told that we have to do something, we're more likely to rebel against that. And so really coming from a place of modeling the behavior that you want to see in them or to, you know, echo the, the old adage of, you know, be the change that you want to see in the world.

And, you know, what be the change that you want to see within your family. And that's the biggest, biggest thing. And as I talked about a moment ago, taking a more approach of authority, and being an authority on the subject as opposed to being an authoritarian, you know, someone that's telling them that this is, these are the rules and these are the things that you need to eat, but coming from a place of, you know, I'm walking this walk and them being able to see that you're embracing it so that it's something that they're wanting to do. And it becomes a part of who you are as a family. And the way, what I like to say is this is the way that we roll.

And this is how our family eats together, like that. It's just kind of this tribe that we have. And this is how we nurture our bodies. And the best way that we can be that and model that behavior, it starts with our mind and getting your mind right.

And one habit that you can start with is making the shift from telling yourself, oh, I should eat better and moving to, I want to eat better. and how you move to, I want to eat better is by really thinking about why, why are you doing this? Are you doing it because you think that you should be eating healthy foods? Are you doing it because you feel like, oh, I need to drop, you know, that pregnancy weight, or I need to, or that pregnancy weight that's lingered for, for years or whatever, you know, that's a good goal. That's a good concrete objective to lose weight, or if you are watching your cholesterol or high blood pressure, if you've got diabetes, those are good objective goals, but you need something that has more intrinsic value. You need something that means something to you. So if you have, if you lose the weight or you get your, your health numbers down or whatever it is that you're trying to achieve,

what kind of life does that create for you and get dig into that more. So that becomes something that you really want and what do you envision for your family and how do you want to move about through the world and allow that to be your driving force so that you can make that shift of I should eat better to I want to eat better. That's really good. And that makes a lot of sense too, because like you said, we're not going to resist it as much then if it's like, oh, you're sending yourself all these negative thoughts, like, oh, I can't believe, you know, I bought that and I brought that in the house again, or, you know, I'm telling yourself you're a bad mom or a bad parent because you allowed your kids to have fruit juice or, you know, have the soda at the, at the birthday party or whatever. And it's like, no, once you know that you want to do it and you're really intentional about that, it just becomes part of your lifestyle and it's not, I have to, it's a want to. Right. And that, because our kids, they sense that energy And if you're in that place, they're going to absorb that energy as well.

And then that's going to be a part of the way that they drive their eating behaviors and their attitudes towards food are going to mimic that. So definitely that is really the true secret sauce to everything, but especially with our eating habits. So the second one is get the vibe right. So that's a two-parter.

It's you want to get the Vibrate in your physical environment. So you want to make sure that you're creating a supportive environment that's health promoting. And so an example of one thing that you can do is look at your refrigerator and look at how do you, I mean, you don't have to have a super, you know, home edit or reconder like beautiful, perfect refrigerator because I know mine doesn't look like that. But at the very least, I make sure that the foods that I want to make sure that we're eating more, that we do enjoy, that those are easily accessible.

And so just as simple as when you come home from the grocery store, instead of just putting the fruit in the refrigerator, that you do the little extra step prep that you don't want to have to do when you just want something real quick to grab. So the example that I always love to give is strawberries. So if you grab, if you're getting strawberries, although they're not in season right now, but if you grab strawberries, just rinse them real quick.

I will just rinse them straight in the package. They have holes in there. And then I'll double up a paper towel and put that underneath just to make it a quick, simple, easy thing. And then if I'm feeling really ambitious, I will go through the extra step of just cutting off all of the stems and putting them in a cool little, like I got one of those containers on Amazon that it has a little drain at the bottom. And so, and then I'll just throw them in there.

And I kind of set up a little kind of like a factory set up with me and my son where he sits on his, or he stands at his stepstool at the kitchen sink and then he'll rinse and I'll chop and put them in the thing. And so we'll have like this little conveyor belt system. And then we get that done, it takes us maybe five minutes, but then when we want to grab a strawberry, then you just go in the fridge and you grab it real quick. And so it reduces one of those barriers. So what's one thing that you can do to remove a barrier to eating healthy? Like what's something that you'd like to eat, eat more of, um, or it could be just, you know, rinsing off your apples, pre-rinsing those. And they have those little, um, it's a, there's this thing on, I, again, Amazon, I love,

I love Amazon. But they have there's a little apple thing where you can just kind of set them in there and have them all lined up and then you can pre-rent them and just grab it and it's ready to go. So just figuring out what's something that you can what's one thing that you can do in your refrigerator or pantry to make the healthy foods more accessible. I love that. Totally. And then the other part of Get the Vibe Right is more more woo woo.

And so that's when it comes to our health and wellness, we're not just a body. It's not just about making sure that we're physically healthy. We want to make sure that our whole self is healthy. So it's not just physical.

It's also our mental health and our spiritual health or energetic health, whatever you prefer to call it. And we want to make sure that we're doing something that is caring for ourselves. And so putting a little bit of self-care, realistic self-care into our regular weekly or daily, if you can, lives. Because if you are in a low mental state or low energetic state, then your quality of thinking is lower.

And you're more inclined to make decisions that don't align with what your health and wellness goals are. And so it's super important that we're doing one small thing, that we're doing one small thing that helps us feel better. And so the one thing that I joke about is that makes me feel better is, you know, organizing a space in my home because I'm one of those people that I just really love organization and systems and things like that.

And so even creating a new system, that is something that brings me so much self-care joy. It doesn't have to be pedicures and massages. Those are lovely and wonderful. But as parents, we don't always have time for that.

So finding what's the one thing that really lights you up and making sure that you allow time for that, even if it only takes five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and having that be a part of your day to day so that you have higher quality thinking to make the kind of decisions that you would rather be making. The third habit is get into gear. And so that is switching from finding the best tactic or the latest diet trend or whatever, switching from tactics to strategy, overall strategy that fits your life.

Because one of the things that happens most often is that we try to stick to a specific diet plan or we try to follow the latest health hack and we aren't able to follow it because we don't have enough time or because it just doesn't align with who we are or it doesn't align with the type of lifestyle that we live. And then what happens is we can get a little bit down on ourselves because we couldn't make it work. And the truth is, there are a lot of really great things out there that we can try and they do work for some people, but they're not going to work for all people.

So if we move away from trying to find the best tactic and move towards finding an overall strategy that works for our life that we're living today and not the one that of, well, when I have more time or when things are a little bit less crazy, then I'll be able to get this, you know, a good go. Instead, we want to figure out what are the things that pop up in our day-to-day lives that stop us from being able to stick with our health goals and focusing on that and targeting a strategy that is going to help with that specific struggle.

I love it. So how do we put these three things into practice? like, can you maybe give us some examples of, of like some of the things that your clients are doing or that you're doing in your own life? You've given us a few things like the strawberries in the fridge and the, you know, making the decision to want, how does this kind of look, or what kind of resources do you have for parents to, to really put this into practice?

Sure. So one resource that I, one free resource that I have that's available that helps with that first habit, which is get your mind right, is I offer a wellness on autopilot roadmap template that helps guide you through figuring out what that big reason is that's beyond, I got to drop 10 pounds or, you know, I need to fix this specific thing about my health or I need to cut out things. And so it just really has you take 10 minutes to just sit down and ask yourself the right questions to figure out what that is. So, and you can find that at www.basiconpurpose.com forward slash roadmap. And then one of the things that helps with getting the appropriate supportive environment is just really starting small and thinking about what is the one area of your nutrition that you really want to target and tackle? Because one of the biggest mistakes that we make is, oh, I got to get it together with my nutrition. I really need to dial this in. We've been eating out way too much and we just need to get this right. And what will happen is we'll take on way too much and we'll fill up the refrigerator with all the healthy things and all of this fresh produce, which is amazing and wonderful. But then it ends up going bad because we're not cooking it right away. Or we felt really great in the moment when we were making that shopping list and shopping. But then in the day to day, when it comes to actually using

it and doing it, we kind of, you know, fall flat with that. And so really the most, the bulk of our planning needs to start with thinking about thinking in advance of what it is that we're trying to achieve and starting with something that's really small. And so I like to start with, I would say with breakfast or snacks, because that's something that, you know, we can't control how our day goes or how our day is going to end up, but we can control how our day starts usually.

And so most of the time we're able to control that. And so that's why I always say to start with breakfast and especially as moms, we need that sustainable energy. And when we start with breakfast, that meal is going to, you're going to have a lot more time to kind of burn through that. And you want to start with something that is going to give you sustainable energy.

And so me in particular, I really like oats and oats are a really great source of just energy and it gives you a good long sustainable energy and things like berries give you that burst of energy. And so that's a good place to kind of start out and with your snacks. And so choosing what's one snack that you find yourself going to very often. Mine used to be salt and vinegar chips.

And so one of the swaps that I would do would be I would just chop up a cucumber really fast and throw it in a little container with some vinegar and a little dill. And so I would just sprinkle some dill and then that would be kind of one of my go to snacks. And so just figuring out what something small that you can start with and don't go straight into filling up your fridge with all the healthy things. I love this because seriously, that's what I've done.

I don't know how many times I have done that. So I know there's lots of parents out there listening that can relate to that. You're like, OK, it's Sunday and you found this great recipe site. And so you're like making your grocery list and you go and you get all the things and you're going to like you're going to eat super well all week long.

And then the following Saturday or whatever comes around and you're like, oh, there's the rotting cucumbers in the fridge. And oh, there's, you know, the the wilted lettuce that I swore I was going to eat or the, you know, fruit that's going moldy because I never you know, I didn't eat the avocados. Like I said, I would. And I bought, you know, the big bag of avocados because I was going to do one avocado every day.

You know, it's like, and then there they sit and they're all mushy and now they've gone to waste. So I love that you say this, just start small and just slowly kind of incorporate it into, into your routine. This is great. And then you have a little, like a hack for number three as well.

And so for number three, with get into gear and your strategies, I would say one of the biggest things is with the produce is I like doing frozen vegetables, frozen vegetables, people. and I know I was one of them kind of turn their nose up at frozen vegetables and thinking that like, ah, frozen food, you know, that that's somehow bad, but frozen vegetables are actually picked at the peak of freshness. And, you know, because once you pull a vegetable or fruit from the plant, it starts to lose its nutrient value. And so when you think about, you know, the transport time and, you know, sitting on the shelves and all of that, it's losing its nutrient value. And so I am a huge proponent for fresh vegetables, but really the best vegetables are the vegetables that you're going to eat. And so if you buy fresh and then you don't have enough time to cook fresh,

then you're not eating fresh. So you might as well switch to something like frozen and have some frozen staples that you always keep on hand so that when you are in a pinch and I didn't plan for this week, you're not going straight to dialing up a pizza and ordering one of those. Instead, oh, I've got frozen broccoli in the fridge or I've got frozen bell pepper strips or frozen corn. And so that's something that is really easy to just kind of throw in a saute pan with, you know, some sort of protein or rice. And I, for my kids, I keep the individual brown rice bowls in the pantry at all times. And for my seven-year-old, that's something that's really easy because you just peel the top halfway. He pops it in the microwave for 90 seconds and you've got really good brown rice and I'm part Asian. And so I really love rice and I can be a little bit snobby about it, but I found that these ones are actually, there's, there's some brands that are better than others, but they're, they're pretty comparable for really quick, you know,

rice and 90 seconds, not too shabby. And, and actually my son, one of his favorite snacks is, it's a Korean dish called kimbap. And so he does a very pared down version. So he'll pop a brown rice bowl into the microwave for 90 seconds. He'll grab one of those seaweed snacks that are lightly sea salted, and then he'll put a scoop of rice in the seaweed, rolls it up, and then that's his little afterschool snack. And so those types of little things that you can incorporate that don't take a lot of time and you're still getting, you know, the nutrients in, you know, brown rice that has a lot of fiber and protein. And then with the seaweed has a lot of antioxidant properties. And so, and then with the sea salt, and so it's just, it's a good quick snack. And so I love it. Yeah, we, I am not Asian. I don't have any Asian in me and we eat a lot of rice in our home. So any little rice tips you could give, like we, I mean, we often make meals,

It's rice and veggies or I haven't done seaweed. So that's good. That's maybe not as popular in the Midwest. So you have a health habit blueprint done in a day.

So tell us a little bit about that. Yes. So one of the things that I used to do more often was I had a 12-week one-on-one coaching program. But one of the things as parents is we don't always have the time to stick with that, even though it's something that is hugely beneficial.

If we don't have time to sit down each week and work on that, then it kind of goes all out the window. Right. Just gives them more of a stress and you're already thrown in the towel, right? Because who has time for another weekly appointment?

Exactly. And so what I found is that if we can really just sit down for a day and it's we're not sitting down all day long, it's really it's broken up into two or three sessions where and they're really power sessions where we look at all three areas that are important to us creating sustainable habits that stick and ones that feel good. And the way that you do that is just really looking at it from a 360 degree perspective and looking at what your day-to-day life is.

And so that's what I do in these health habit intensives is you walk away with this blueprint that encompasses all of the three different areas that you want to focus on when you're trying to create the foundation for a health legacy for your family. And you want to feel better on a regular basis by really dialing in your personal nutrition and your personal wellness. And so it starts with a coaching session where we work on that mindset piece and figuring out what's the real big systemic struggle for you personally that you really want to unlock to be able to help you move from falling off the wagon on a regular basis.

where I hear so often, I was doing so good. And then it just stopped. And, you know, basically getting rid of that, because there's something that's keeping you stuck. And we, during that coaching session, we figure out what that is. And then where we talked about in habit number two, we look at your environment. And so you have me as a holistic nutritionist and health coach, where we look at your refrigerator and your pantry, and I help you kind of go through it and look at the areas that you want to target first and just kind of figure out a good laddered approach to tackling the kitchen. And then we look at your personal self-care and we put together a self-care menu and we figure out what your peak hours are. And we look at just really your what your weekly schedule looks like and figure out how do we make it work. And then finally, we do the strategy portion where that's I help you figure out what are going to be,

what's your arsenal of tactics. So not just one tactic that you're trying to, you know, make yourself stick to, but we figure out how do we fill up your arsenal of tactics so that you can apply a strategy that fits your everyday life. And then essentially that all comes together as a blueprint for you that's personalized to you, your taste preferences, your cooking skills, and your life. So great. This is so great. And how long does it take to do all that?

So that is really our improving our personal nutrition and our wellness is kind of a lifelong journey. But to get to a place where you feel confident about making food decisions and feel confident and sticking to your healthy lifestyle that is done within a six hour period. And so we have two or three sessions throughout that six hour period. And then I, we meet and then I put together materials so that you can take away those. And then we meet again and then we just kind of come together at the end with all of those things. So we meet, I work, we meet, I work, we meet and then I give you all in one day or is that spread out into a few?

It's it kind of spills over into a second day, but the bulk of it is happening all in one day. And so it is cool. What a great idea. Thank you. It's a really cool way to just kind of have a, an at a glance blueprint game plan so that you can walk away with, all right, this is, this is what I'm going to do. And then you can kind of just be, you know, on your own and, and get it going. And then I'm available. And if you want to add on coaching ad hoc, I also have like a little coaching session, like punch card, where when you need, you need me, you can use one of your punches on your punch card. That is so cool. So parents can go to basiconpurpose.com and they can find your links to schedule with you to do a free consult,

to learn more about how you can help them. The Wellness Roadmap is on that same site. You have a blog where you write about a variety of different topics. You're also at Basic On Purpose on Instagram, right?

So I can find you there. And what's the name of your Facebook group? Moms Taking Control of Junk Food Cravings. That's so cool too.

So we'll have links in the show notes today for people to go and find out more about you. Go to basiconpurpose.com. Thank you so much for sharing all your tips with us today.

Thank you so much for having me. This has been a blast. Thank you for tuning in to the No Problem Parenting podcast. Join Jackie next time for more tips, tools, and resources that will help you become the confident leader your kids crave you to be.

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