2015 Best of Primal Potential

2015 Best of Primal Potential

I thought it would be fun to do a compilation of the best of Primal Potential from from 2015 with the most popular blog posts and podcast episodes. If you have a favorite that didn’t make it to the top of the list, make sure to tell me what you loved in the comments!! What was YOUR favorite podcast episode or blog post? Which ones were the most helpful to you in 2015?

But even more importantly than that – if there is a topic I haven’t hit yet that you want to hear about, make sure to let me know so I can tackle it to start the new year!

best of primal potential

Most Popular Podcast Episodes:

#5 Episode 003 – Do Less To Get More

#4 Episode 001 – Diets Don’t Work

#3 Q&A 5: What Is Bulletproof Coffee & Why Do You Drink It?

#2 Episode 002 – Hormones Trump Calories – Why, How & What To Do About It

#1 Q&A 6: How To Make Breakfast A Fat Burning Meal

Most Popular Blog Posts:

#5 Popular Recipe – Chipotle Chicken & Cilantro Cauliflower Rice

#4 Are Beans Healthy?

#3 The Golden Rules of Carbs & Fat Loss

#2 Why I Let Myself Go & How I Got Myself Back

#1 Why Eat Carbs at Night for Fat Loss

Don’t miss another Primal Potential moment! Let’s work together to crush your goals in 2016! We’ve got a bunch of great stuff happening!

  1. I kicked off the New Year with a detailed training on how to identify what is holding you back & permanently overcome it. Don’t miss the encore presentation!
  2. I’m going to really be pouring value, tips, recipes & strategies into the folks on the free VIP email list. Are you on it yet? If not, don’t miss another week!
Ep 118: How To Stop Emotional Eating

Ep 118: How To Stop Emotional Eating

You can do this. You do not need another food list or meal plan. You need to understand and implement strategies to stop emotional eating, self-sabotage and over-indulgence.

I used to be a serious emotional eater. And binge eater. And any-reason-at-all eater. I am not anymore. It’s not about willpower. It’s about strategy & practice.

Let’s PLEASE stop focusing exclusively on food & exercise and start addressing the real issues!

Listen Now

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How To Stop Emotional Eating

First you really want to understand the behavior. If I were to ask you why you do it, “I don’t know” isn’t an option. “I don’t know” just means, “I haven’t paid enough attention yet to understand it well enough”. Start to pay attention. I want you to be able to answer the following questions:

  1. What am I doing? (Related to emotional eating, overeating, binge eating, etc)
  2. Why do I do it?
  3. Where & when does it happen most often?
  4. What does it do for me?
  5. Is it working?
  6. Is it true?
  7. Is it worth it?

Really invest in answering those questions. If you feel like you’re stuck, keep asking the question “why?” and you’ll be surprised by what you uncover.

Then, there are some practical strategies you can implement (one at a time) to help you stop emotional eating. I describe & explain the strategies in detail in this episode so make sure to take a listen to the full episode!

  1. Pre-define your daily or weekly indulgences. This will force you to pause, consider your options and select things that are truly worth it. The number of indulgences depends on your baseline (I give concrete examples in the episode).
  2. Mandatory questions. You don’t have to answer them all, but pick the ones that resonate with you and answer them on paper prior to emotionally eating or over-indulging.
    1. 3 series: How do I want to feel in 30 minutes? How will eating this make me feel? Given those answers, is this indulgence worth it?
    2. Is this choice reflective of the type of person I want to be? If it’s not, is it worth it?
    3. If I make this choice every day for the next year, where will I be then?
  3. Mandatory pause. You can have it be a micro pause or a long pause, but consider the following before you indulge or make any decision:
    1. Wait 30 seconds
    2. Journal for 60 seconds
    3. Take a walk
    4. Get in a workout
  4. Practice self-discipline in other areas not related to food. Build your self-confidence and influence your food choices without every focusing on food. Some examples of things you might work on include:
    1. Making your bed every day
    2. Not hitting snooze
    3. Walking more often
    4. Cleaning the kitchen every day
    5. Maintaining a budget
    6. Flossing your teeth

Make sure to check out the full episode for detailed suggestions on how to implement these strategies to help you stop emotional eating, binge eating or over-indulging.

Resources

If Emotional Eating is an issue for you, please watch this detailed training on how to get out of your own way & permanently change your relationship with food so you can reach your fat loss goals.

Breaking Barriers – Overcome Self-Sabotage & Emotional Eating

Support the Show

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Hate Your Christmas Pictures? Please DON’T Diet!

Let me first say that I used to avoid pictures like the PLAGUE. I’d become so uncomfortable. I’d leave the room or offer to take the picture. Often, I flat out refuse to be in it. I’m such I seemed like a total b*tch.

But I was embarrassed. Really embarrassed.

I hated seeing myself in pictures. I hated being unable to deny how big I was. I hated seeing how other people saw me. It was painful.

hate your christmas pictures?

I can’t imagine that I’m the only one.

Are you hating your Christmas pictures? Or did you intentionally stay out of them, limiting the memories you’ll have? Limiting the memories that your kids will have of you all together as a family?

Limiting what exists of your past?

Sigh. I know. I understand. I still struggle with pictures even after losing almost 150 lbs.

But listen: PLEASE DON’T DIET. Please don’t see those pictures, get disgusted, and react in the way you always do: “time to get strict”. No. No. Just no. That approach doesn’t work.

That’s the old pattern. Motivational trigger (like pictures), all-or-nothing approach, focus fades, back to old habits, repeat.

It doesn’t work.

Instead, I want to challenge you to identify just ONE change you can make. Just one. Make you can work towards drinking less soda. Maybe you can work on having just one indulgence each day instead of several. Maybe you want to try one new, healthy recipe each day.

The key is to slowly & gradually build new habits. The all-or-nothing approach ends with nothing.

I know that’s easier said than done. I know it’s tough to imagine how you can actually get there. If this is a struggle for you, please don’t miss this free, detailed training video on how you can begin to get to the root of what is holding you back.

Ep 118: How To Stop Emotional Eating

Ep 117: How to Make 2016 Amazing In Every Way – A Motivational Message

I want 2016 to be different for you. I don’t want you to struggle in the same ‘ol ways, being obsessed with weight loss, frustrated, stopping & starting, trying & failing. I want you to be free from food obsession.

I am admittedly a little tough in this episode. I’m ok with that. I’m ok with that because I believe this is the key for how to make 2016 amazing in every way.

I want you to use this short episode as a daily mantra to make this the LAST year you struggle. The last year you feel obsessed with food. The last year you stress about and wish for weight loss.

I want this to be the end of wishing but not doing. I want this to be the end of inconsistency. I want this to be the end of  your “all or nothing” approach.

Give your full attention to this episode so you can get really clear on how to make 2016 amazing in every way.

Listen Now

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How To Make 2016 Amazing

how to make 2016 amazing

  1. Pick ONE thing. One habit you know that if established will help you reach your goals. I give plenty of examples in the episode.
  2. Do it every day.
  3. Do not wait for motivation.
  4. Do it anyway.

What would happen if you applied your “food approach” to other areas of your life?

What if you didn’t take care of your kids until you felt motivated? Until there wasn’t a better option? Until you were no longer tempted by things like sleeping in or going out with friends?

What if you only showed up to work when you felt like it?

What if you only went to meetings when there wasn’t something better you could do?

It’s just one thing.

Ritualize & habitualize it.

If you wait until you feel like it, you’ll be wishing for the same changes 5 years from now.

You won’t feel like it. Do it anyway.

Resources

Q&A 6: How to Make Breakfast A Fat Burning Meal

Your Top 10 Breakfast Questions & Recipes

Why Carbs at Night?

Sleep & Fat Loss

Primal Manifesto

Motivational Minisode – Stand Up & Fight

Fat Loss Food Guide

Support the Show

Subscribe in iTunes

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How To Overcome All or Nothing Thinking

How To Overcome All or Nothing Thinking

(Would you rather listen to an audio version of this blog? I’ve gotcha! Click here to listen)

The “all or nothing” approach to food & fat loss is a problem. It is a legitimate threat to your goals.

It is counterproductive and wastes a ton of energy.

I think we all acknowledge that it doesn’t work, however, we can’t seem to break free from it.

We set out to have a perfect day. We plan our meals. We give ourselves a pep talk. Then we eat a cookie.

Damn.

Ruined the day.

Might as well have pizza and try again tomorrow.

This makes no sense at all. And honestly, understanding how illogical (nevermind ineffective) it is tends to be the first step towards how to overcome all or nothing thinking once and for all.

Can you indulge me in a relevant football analogy?

What is the point of a football game? To score more points than the other team so you can win the game.

What if the goal was perfection? Everyone would walk off the field after the first penalty, sack, fumble or failure to convert.

They don’t. There are failed plays and lost yards and no one walks off the field. They can still win the game.

You fumble the ball, get tackled, get injured, miss field goals, drop passes and still win the game.

You can’t, however, walk off the field and expect to win.

The same is true of fat loss.

What is the goal? Physical improvements in your body, weight loss and improved health.

Does that require perfection? No. Is perfection what we’re going for? No.

But, at the first sign of struggle we walk off the field. We declare that we’ve lost. We give up.

You will make poor choices. You will give in to temptation. You will hit plateaus. You will have bad days.

All those things are part of the journey.

The goal is progress. Progress does not require perfection. Progress does, however, require that you stop quitting.

Think of  your days and your choices as plays in a football game: how can you make forward progress? What is even one small improvement you can make?

Fail to convert? It happens. Here’s another play. Another chance to make forward progress.

Don’t walk off the field. Never walk off the field.

(PS: If you want a jump start on breaking through your own barriers, do NOT miss this killer presentation on identifying your walls & tearing the down)

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