Episode 042: Fat Facts: Is Your Lack of Dietary Fat Keeping You Fat & Risking Your Health?

Episode 042: Fat Facts: Is Your Lack of Dietary Fat Keeping You Fat & Risking Your Health?

Are lies about fat keeping you fat and putting your health at risk? In today’s episode we get into fat facts. We discuss the myths and misconceptions about dietary fat, the truth about calories, saturated fat, cholesterol and much more. Plus, we talk about the whole food fat sources that can help you reach your goals!

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Myths: Most of us believe that fat makes us fat, eating cholesterol raises serum cholesterol and fat intake leads to heart disease. None of those things are true. In today’s episode we go through where these myths came from, what the facts are, and how dietary fat can actually keep you healthy and lean.

Facts: Fat is structurally and functionally essential in the body. Listen to the full episode to understand how fat improves your mood, increases satiety, strengths your immune system, supports hormone balance and much more. We go into the difference between saturated, unsaturated and trans fats and which types of fats are healthiest for life and fat loss.

Practical Implementation:

  • Track your food intake, hormonal biofeedback and progress
  • Focus on whole-food fat sources like coconut, avocado, grass fed beef, wild-caught fish, hormone-free dairy products and whole-food derived oils
  • Limit trans fats and processed foods
  • Eat fats in their whole food form when possible

Resources:

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Eat the Yolks by Liz Wolfe
Deep Dive into Cholesterol
Bulletproof Coffee 

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Episode 042: Fat Facts: Is Your Lack of Dietary Fat Keeping You Fat & Risking Your Health?

Episode 041: How To Start Your Transformation (Starting, Staying the Course and Achieving Your Goals)

In today’s episode we’re talking about practical strategies to create and, more importantly, achieve your own transformation. We talk about building habits, staying consistent, and navigating obstacles and roadblocks along the way. And don’t forget to sign up for the VIP e-newsletter so you can be a part of the free 1-a-day to transform in May challenge!!!

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The Problem: We are where we are because of our habits. Our degree of success in any endeavor is a reflection of our habits. We can’t expect to achieve transformation in any realm of life without creating habits reflecting of the success we’re after.

The Solution: Start small. Identify one daily commitment you can make to practice building a new habit and do it every single day whether you want to or not – whether it is easy or difficult.

Practical Implementation:

  1. Take an honest look at the habits you currently have that might be holding you back. What is one degree of improvement you can make? Practice it every day.
  2. Define the person you want to be. Define what you want every aspect of your life to look and be like. Now evaluate that person. What kind of habits would you imagine that person has? How can you begin to adopt one of those habits?
  3. Ideas for habit building:
    1. Monitoring and tracking
    2. Fat loss breakfast
    3. Affirmations
    4. Carb backloading
    5. Boundaries with indulgences
    6. Cruciferous veggies
    7. Evaluating & understanding emotional eating
  4. Expect obstacles. Understand that considerations, fears and roadblocks will always arise but you still have a choice.

Resources:

Fat loss breakfast recipes and ideas
Carb strategies for fat loss e-course 

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Airport Binges…The Way, The Truth & The Light

Airport Binges…The Way, The Truth & The Light

The other day on facebook I posted a confession. I was sitting in the airport on my way to Austin and thinking about how travel days *used* to be for me. I binged like crrrraaaaaazy on travel days.

I was almost like a kid who covers their eyes and thinks it makes them invisible. Traveling alone, stuffing my purse with multiple snacks and treats, surreptitiously eating them out of my purse so the person sitting next to me didn’t judge my over-indulgence….it was a total nightmare.

I can honestly say that I did it primarily out of boredom. After all, what could I possibly do with my time if I wasn’t stuffing my face during a layover or while stuck on a plane?

It was my guilty pleasure. I’d get through security and immediately go to Hudson News or the like. I’d buy a soda, some kind of chocolate, some kind of non-chocolate sweet and something crunchy. Duh…I needed options. What if I got bored of the chocolate? What would I do when it was gone? I never left with just one thing. Never. Then I’d go park my butt at the gate and start eating. I never took the packages out of my purse. Like that invisible kid…if they couldn’t see my haul, it didn’t exist.

The mere idea of sitting for hours in an airport and then on a plane without food seemed impossible. What would I do? How could I resist Cinnabon? I’d go crazy! Heck, I might starve!

I looked forward to it. So many options! Frozen yogurt or Cinnabon? How about both? Auntie Annies? Oooh, my fave! Gotta have options, gotta have options. And, of course, I justified the indulgence by saying I’d be extra strict as soon as I got home. This was the “last time”. I was seemingly incapable of seeing that for what it was – the same story I had told a million times before and not followed through on. A convenient lie to allow me to indulge with less guilt. A primary reason I was fat despite wanting desperately to lose weight.

The result? Travel days exhausted me. I felt bloated, disgusted, frustrated and embarrassed. I had no energy. I could hardly keep my eyes open. I was mad at myself. I turned what was left of my energy toward planning for my super-strict diet that would begin in a few days. M.I.S.E.R.Y.

It wasn’t fun but I kept doing it. I didn’t consider how I’d feel when the last bite of food was gone. I only considered the escape I’d feel as I worked through it all. If I had maybe asked myself how I would feel 5 minutes later I might have made a different choice. But for years that was my routine.

Airport = binge. Binge = guilt. Guilt = restriction. Restriction = deprivation. Deprivation = binge. Gaaaahhhhhh. Such a waste of time and energy.

It wasn’t until I began to really question my behavior and my airport process that I was able to change it. I asked myself questions like:

  • Is that food even worth it? (No)
  • Is it totally delicious and am I savoring each bite? (Not at all)
  • What else could I do? (Jussssst about anything)
  • Am I hungry? (Rarely. Just bored)
  • How does it make me feel afterwards? (Disgusting and embarrassed)
  • What would make me feel amazing? (NOT doing any of that…)
  • How could I spend that time differently? (Again….so many options)

Know what I realized? It wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t like I was going to my favorite ice cream shoppe and slowly savoring my favorite flavor. That would be worth it. This was Cheetos, Twizzlers and peanut butter cups. Cheap thrills. And I wasn’t enjoying each bite. I was mindlessly working my way to the bottom of the package while reading or watching a movie. I didn’t feel good afterwards. In fact, I felt terrible. Emotionally and physically.

I wasn’t hungry. I didn’t need it. And if I was going to indulge, I want it to be an A+ worth-every-bite kinda thing. Not freaking Twizzlers. Ya know?

What else could I do with the time? Anything I want!!! I could call a friend, listen to a podcast, read a book, get work done, clear out my email, walk….you name it! Boredom is a choice and it was one I didn’t have to make.

I realized that if anything, I should probably eat less on travel days because I’m so much less active! And, with the number of restaurants in most airports, I could probably make it through just about any travel day without changing my normal eating routine much at all. Plus, if I could do that, I’d have far more energy, I’d be in a better mood, my clothes would look better and I’d be happier! Duh!

So I did it. Now, I keep my eating pattern on travel days just about the same as any other day. I have plenty of coffee in the morning whether I’m at home or the airport. If I’m at the airport I’ll often ask them to blend butter in it. They look at me weird, but they usually say yes. I’ll order a burger without the bun or a salad with some chicken at an airport restaurant. Or a steak if I’m feeling indulgent. Either way, there are no reasons for me to make excuses unless I choose to.

I don’t want cheap thrills. I’m not going to waste an indulgence on something that isn’t EPIC. Like this weekend in Austin I had salted chocolate & olive oil ice cream. THAT was worth it. Cheetos? Not worth it. Just not worth it.

I value feeling great. I value worthwhile indulgences. I value creativity and productivity. I value self-respect. I value moderation. What do you value?

Episode 042: Fat Facts: Is Your Lack of Dietary Fat Keeping You Fat & Risking Your Health?

Episode 040: Overcoming Your Unhealthy Relationship with Food

In today’s episode we’re talking about how to identify if you use food in an unhealthy way. We talk about food addiction, how to do know if you might have some unhealthy coping mechanisms and, most importantly, specific implementation strategies to help you overcome these potentially dangerous behaviors.

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The Problem: Many of us use food for purposes other than fuel. For some people, that’s ok. For others, they want to make some improvements. I’m not a big fan of defining food addiction in one narrow way. Instead, I encourage people to ask themselves:

  • Do you use food? (to cope, to escape, to numb)
  • Do you want to change?
  • Do you feel like you have control over your food choices at all times?

The answers can provide a lot of insight into your relationship with food and if there might be room for improvement. Life can be much more pleasant (and we can reach our goals much more easily) if we aren’t using food in an unhealthy way and if stay in control of our choices.

Evaluate your relationship with food and ask yourself:

  • Do you constantly justify your food choices?
  • Are you hiding your indulgences or binges?
  • Are you regularly breaking promises to yourself?
  • Do you often have intense cravings?

Many foods, especially sugar and processed foods, do have addictive qualities. They trigger the same pleasure centers within the brain that many narcotics trigger.

The Solution: Awareness is a powerful first step. Identify what influences your food choices. It is rarely about food and more often about routines, emotions and patterns of behavior. Begin to study those behaviors to learn your triggers and identify areas for improvement.

Practical Implementation:

  1. Keep a tracking document. Monitor what you eat, how much, when, your hormonal biofeedback, your emotional shifts and your progress towards your goal
  2. Identify your triggers
  3. Consider whether you’re a moderator or an abstainer
  4. Eat to balance your blood sugar
  5. Focus on fat & protein at breakfast
  6. Sleep more (and improve the quality of your sleep)
  7. Eat less processed food & sugar

Resources:

Get on the VIP e-newsletter list!
Moderators vs. Abstainers
Breakfast options for fat loss
Improve the quality of your sleep

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Episode 042: Fat Facts: Is Your Lack of Dietary Fat Keeping You Fat & Risking Your Health?

Episode 039: Understanding the Science of Fat Loss

In today’s episode we break down the nitty gritty behind the science of fat loss. We look at exactly what has to happen to burn fat completely and keep it off. We talk about energy deficits, how to create the right hormonal balance, what triggers fat to be released from our fat cells, how it travels to be burned and how we can support the entire process.

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 The Myth: Fat loss is simply about eating less and/or moving more. If we simply take in less fuel than our body needs we’ll go into fat burning mode. Not true!!

The Facts: Your body actually needs a number of things to happen in just the right way and the right sequence to successfully burn your stored body fat.

  1. A moderate caloric deficit
  2. Hormone balance
  3. Breakdown and release fat from fat cell (lipolysis)
  4. Fat travel through the blood to another target cell
  5. Fat entry into new cell and oxidation (burn)

Practical Implementation

  1. Assess your results. Is what you’re doing working for you?
  2. Evaluate your food intake
    1. Quantity
    2. Quality
    3. Timing
    4. Composition
  3. Follow the Golden Rules of Carbs & Fat Loss 
  4. Control inflammation
  5. Walk more
  6. Consider high intensity interval workouts

Resources
Are you on the VIP e-newsletter list yet? That’s the best way to ask your questions and make suggestions for the show!
Your Questions About Calories
Metabolic Effect
Sleep & Fat Loss
The Golden Rules of Carbs & Fat Loss 

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