Episode 052: The Random Show – Soy, Peanuts, Bananas and More!

Episode 052: The Random Show – Soy, Peanuts, Bananas and More!

Questions we’re tackling in today’s episode:

  • What do you think of soy products? Do you eat them? Why or why not?
  • Why do you always mention almond butter and not peanut butter? Do you avoid peanut butter? Why?
  • Is it OK to drink seltzer water?
  • Will a banana for breakfast take me out of fat burning mode?
  • I tend to get overwhelmed by how much weight I need to lose and how long it will take. This prevents me from taking action. Did you ever feel this way? How did you respond?

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Episode 052: The Random Show – Soy, Peanuts, Bananas and More!

Episode 051: Hunger: False Hunger, Real Hunger and How to Respond Intelligently

So many people struggle with hunger. They feel like they can’t be successful in weight loss because they are constantly battling hunger. Some hunger is real. Some hunger is not. Today we’re talking about how to know which you’re experiencing and how to overcome it effortlessly.

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The Problem: Your body can (and will) send false hunger signals. Hunger is hormonal biofeedback and is triggered when your body perceives that fuel is needed. That doesn’t mean it is. It just means that you have done (or not done) something that makes you body THINK it needs fuel. We need to understand the difference between false hunger, true hunger and how we can resolve both.

The Solution: Avoid the triggers of false hunger. These include eating processed foods and simple sugars in the morning (especially without fat and/or protein), drinking sugary drinks, caloric restriction and more. This will avoid false hunger but also help to manage true hunger.

Practical Implementation:

  • Avoid severe caloric restriction
  • Eat your veggies (especially ones rich in fiber + water)
  • Emphasize protein & fat at meals and snacks
  • Avoid fructose (mostly from processed foods)
  • Stay hydrated
  • Limit stress and/or improve your stress response
  • Exercise intelligently
  • Eat fatty fish
  • Understand that hunger is not an emergency nor does it rob you of your ability to choose

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Episode 052: The Random Show – Soy, Peanuts, Bananas and More!

Episode 050: Do You Treat Weekends Like Vacation?

In today’s episode we’re talking about the very common trap of treating weekends, holidays, dinners out or random Tuesday mornings like vacation. We create an exception, eat what we want and then beat ourselves up while getting frustrated with our lack of progress.

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Problem: You cannot achieve a physical, emotional or mental transformation if you continue to embrace excuses. If you’re always grabbing up any possible opportunity to indulge and never requiring yourself to exercise any degree of self control, you will not be successful. There will always be a reason to indulge if that’s what you’re searching for. Transformation is not difficult or complicated. It’s actually pretty simple. Not easy, but simple. It requires consistency and consistency gets easier if you just stop making excuses to NOT be consistent.

Solution: Understand that YOU are the only thing standing in the way of your transformation. You cannot move forward if you keep walking backwards. Shift your focus from all the reasons it is hard and all the opportunities to veer off track and instead focus on how worth it it is. You have absolutely everything it takes to make your transformation.

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On Mindfulness & Accountability

On Mindfulness & Accountability

Yeah, you know, I’m human. I am admittedly not as strict with my eating as I was a year ago. Have I achieved all my goals? No. Would I make faster progress if I got back to what worked for me so well before? Abso-freaking-lutely. And I’m working on it. Here is what I know to be true: If I do what I was doing, I’ll get what I was getting. Or, if I keep bending the rules and not applying my full effort, I won’t get the full results I want. I own it. I have room for improvement and I love that about this process. I really do.

Here’s what is different for me now compared to times in the past when I lost weight and regained it. In the past I wouldn’t be accountable. I wouldn’t acknowledge that my decisions weren’t good. I wouldn’t think about it. I certainly wouldn’t admit to it. I’d go into a “la la la I can’t hear you!!!” fog of denial until I was sooooo far from the progress I had made. That sucks. That will not happen to me again. How do I know? Accountability.

One of the best ways I stay accountable is by looking in the mirror. Naked. From all angles. Often. I don’t beat myself up if I don’t like what I see, though. I acknowledge it and then I empower myself: I have the ability to sculpt whatever kind of body I want. And that is awesome. And I can do it today. I can do it with my very next choice. That is far more productive and encouraging than the beating myself up I used to do.

On Thursday I aired a podcast interview (my third) with Tim Bauer of TinierTim.com and he made such a profound point. If you haven’t listened to the full episode yet, definitely check it out. But I wanted to share something he said that really resonated with me:

“A lot of people that I know, they hit their goals and then they say they’re done with the scale. The reality is that when we stop being mindful of where we are from a fitness [or fat loss] perspective, is when a lot of us start to regain. A lot of us start to go backwards because we lose the mindfulness that we had when we were in active weight loss mode…when we were monitoring where we were at…not just from a weight perspective but also from an eating perspective.”

Don’t lose the mindfulness at any stage of your journey. You need it to get started. You need it to make progress. You need it to maintain your progress. Always be asking yourself questions like:

  • Am I making the progress I want to make?
  • What am I doing (or not doing) that is hindering my progress?
  • What is one change I can make today to help move me towards my goal?
  • Am I practicing consistency today?
  • What do I want more: a momentary indulgence or the progress I deserve?

Practice regular accountability. Different accountability strategies work for different people so choose what works for you. Some of these you’ll find do not work for you, but that doesn’t mean you should ditch accountability all together. Have at least one and DO NOT make staying accountable optional. Don’t just be accountable after a good week. You MOST need accountability after a bad week! Accountability is not optional if you want to be successful. Try these on for size:

  • Checking your weight or having someone close to you check your weight
  • Waist and hip circumference
  • Body fat percentage
  • A tight fitting pair of pants
  • Underwear selfies #usecaution #iaintjudgingya #stayouttamyphone

As for me: I have recruited the help of a friend to keep me accountable to tight nutrition and intense workouts. I know what works for me and I am willing to do the work even when I don’t feel like doing the work. Why? Because results feel way better than excuses.

Episode 052: The Random Show – Soy, Peanuts, Bananas and More!

Q&A 14: Forecasting Failure

In today’s episode we’re addressing a listener concern about her habit of forecasting failure. We talk about how to handle feeling frustrated with your body and your lack of results while not being in denial but also not manifesting future failures.

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Question:

Hi Elizabeth 

I am kind of struggling over the last few days. I could use some guidance.

I feel like I am not making any progress. I have struggled with negative self talk. I continue to struggle with it. I am trying to become more aware of it. I just listened to your podcast in which you talk about negative self talk and becoming more aware of it.

I have gained weight over the last few months. I am going on a cruise in 5 or 6 weeks and am trying hard not to dread it at my current weight. It is hard to keep my eye on the long term ball – if that makes any sense. 

I am just kind of at a loss right now. I feel a little like that woman in the Udemy course who talked about adding more big rocks.

I know that has not worked for me in the past. It resonates with me when you talk about setting (unreasonable) weight goals so that you knew what you would fit in by that date. I am used to having goals and benchmarks – so I sometimes feel a little adrift.

I know everyone has difficult days every once in a while – and that is all this might be – but I do feel discouraged – and thought I would reach out to you.

Points Discussed in the Answer:

  1. Acknowledge where you’re at
  2. Empower yourself – you can change this if you choose to
  3. Act
  4. Stay present – don’t let your attention wander to the past or anything outside of your immediate control
  5. Stay consistent – stop creating excuses to take a day/meal/weekend “off”
  6. Repeat

Listener response to my response direct to her:

That was SUPER helpful. I changed my calendar view on my computer to only today…that is helpful. I definitely do get paralyzed looking ahead…and then kind of forecast failure. So I am going to work on focusing on NOW…and like you said build confidence on the small moment to moment successes – because that is what makes up a day…and then a week…etc.

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