224: Fat Loss & The Four Agreements

224: Fat Loss & The Four Agreements

I’ve got another powerful book club episode for you today! Several years ago, I read the book The Four Agreements and recently realized there was a new book, The Fifth Agreement.

After re-reading The Four Agreements & listening to The Fifth Agreement, I knew I need to share my thoughts on fat loss and The Four Agreements.

The subtitle of the first book is A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom and I think that’s such a great way to describe the quest for our ideal body & incredible health.

We want to be free from food obsession. We want to be free from emotional eating, overeating, fear of missing out, guilt, deprivation & everything in between.

I’m excited to share my thoughts on the book and how we can apply these agreements to accelerate our progress towards our goals!

 

 

 

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Fat Loss & The 4 Agreements

In today’s episode we apply The 4 Agreements to health, happiness and fat loss. The 4 agreements include:

  • Be impeccable with your word
  • Make no assumptions
  • Take nothing personally
  • Always do your best

The 5th Agreement

  • Be skeptical but learn to listen

Resources

The Four Agreements

The Fifth Agreement

Jen Sinkler on Instagram (the post I describe in today’s episode)

Join me at ASCEND in Nashville!

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Fat Loss Travel Tips (My Recent Road Trip)

Fat Loss Travel Tips (My Recent Road Trip)

I’ve shared with you guys before that traveling used to be a huge struggle for me. Whether it was a day trip, a work trip, a weekend away or a full blown vacation, I’d throw caution to the wind & eat everything that wasn’t nailed down. Any lack of structure or change in routine was an excuse to overeat and overindulge.

I hated it. I dreaded travel. I’d inevitably come home feeling miserable & terribly disappointed in myself.

I felt out of control. It’s interesting, isn’t it, that I hated my lack of control and I hated feeling so terrible but I was the only one putting the food in my mouth!?!

Confusing, right? I hated feeling stuffed and bloated. I hated feeling out of control. Overeating made me feel self-conscious and often made me isolate myself, not enjoying my time away.

Yet every time, I’d stuff myself stupid.

Not anymore.

Today I want to share some of my personal fat loss travel tips. There are absolutely more temptations when you’re away and less of a feeling of confidence when you’re outside your element. It does take practice. It does take patience. It’s not about perfection.

It’s 1000% okay to enjoy a special treat but I want you to be able to travel with confidence and I want you to come home feeling amazing! Let’s work on that.

I enjoy my trips more, have more fun & have higher energy when I make food choices that are aligned with my goals no matter where I am. I also don’t fear travel, no matter what. I know that no matter where I am, with these fat loss travel tips, I can make great choices in any situation.

Fat Loss Travel Tips

To share some of my fave fat loss travel trips, I want to take you through a recent trip I took and how I thought through moments of temptation & indecision.

This particular trip included a 7 hour car ride, a 6 hour car ride, a hotel room that didn’t have a coffee maker (wtf!!!!), 3 meals out, a wedding and then some.

There are two overarching strategies that I find it INCREDIBLY helpful to travel with:

  1. Am I even hungry?
  2. Is this worth it?

One thing I noticed about my past travel experiences is that I often ate when I wasn’t hungry. On a road trip, I’d eat out of boredom. I’d eat as a distraction. Eating was an activity whether I was hungry or not.

Now, when my mind drifts to food (which happens often), I’ll start by asking, “Am I even hungry?”

If I am, I’ll eat. If I’m not, I calmly reply to myself, “E, you’re not even hungry” and then I’ll redirect my attention to something else – a song, a book, a travel companion, etc.

Here’s a beautiful thing I’ve learned – I don’t need to eat when I’m not hungry & I don’t have to feel like I’m missing out. I’ll get hungry again! And soon! And when that hunger comes, I’ll eat. Until then, it’s all okay.

Sometimes I’ll remind myself, “Don’t worry, you’ll get hungry again soon. You can have it then. You’ll enjoy it more when you’re actually hungry and you’ll definitely feel better afterwards than you would if you eat it when you aren’t hungry!”

The second question I repeatedly ask is, “Is it worth it?”

This is a big part of how I implement my mantra “I eat foods I love that love me back”. When I walked into the rest stop after 5 hours in the car and started eyeing all the snacks I asked, “Are these worth it?”

Heck no. Nothing I can buy in a rest stop is worth it.

If I’m going to eat, I want to enjoy it!

When I got to my destination, I was invited out to dinner. They picked a Thai restaurant. I love Thai food but of course nearly every dish comes with pasta or rice!

I caught myself feeling a little bummed and like I’d be missing out if I didn’t have rice.

As soon as I noticed the thoughts, I asked another one of my key questions:

When I get back to the hotel tonight, will I be happier if I have the rice or happier if I don’t?

For me, on this day, I decided I would be happier if I didn’t have the rice.

See, rice just isn’t worth it for me. It’s bland. It’s not special. I’ve had it a million times before and I’ve never thought, “OMG – that’s rice is to die for!”

So, I set out to find the most amazing protein & veggie option I could find. Salmon with a spicy coconut curry over broccoli. Perfect! Hold the rice.

It was amazing. The rice would have only been a vehicle for the curry. Not needed!

The next day we had a small dinner party (12 people) at an incredible Italian restaurant. Pizza. Pasta. Bread. Oh my.

When we got there, I was reeeeaaaaally hungry.

They ordered pizzas for the table. You know, the really, really good authentic pizza.

Would the pizza be delicious? Yes!

But, when I got back to my room later that night, would I be happier if I ate the pizza or happier if I didn’t?

Probably happier if I didn’t, and here’s why – I was also ordering an entree. If I’m going to eat pizza, that’s a meal! I didn’t want everyone else’s appetizer to be my meal.

Now, I could have sat at the table and felt jealous of their pizza and like I was missing out by not having it.

Or, I could order an appetizer more aligned with my goals that would curb my hunger and help me not focus on the pizza.

Charcuterie to the rescue! A few slices of meat & cheese was perfect! It was delicious, it didn’t spoil my appetite and I didn’t feel like I was missing out at all!

Every single person at the table ordered pasta…except me.

Could I? Absolutely!

But I asked myself, “What choice will make me feel best later tonight?”

What can I do?

Is there another option that I’d totally love & enjoy?

If there wasn’t, I’d probably have mindfully enjoyed some pasta without guilt.

But, there was a special on the menu – half a chicken over broccolini with a fried egg.

It was incredible. In fact, when it came to the table, I think a lot of the pasta eaters were jealous of my choice!

fat loss travel tips

The other fat loss travel tip that helps me so much is to make time to move.

Before I got in the car for the road trip, I made time to sweat. Doing something to take care of myself helped reinforce my resolve for the day. I didn’t want to indulge in rest stop candy bars after making time to work so hard that morning!

The following day when I woke up in the hotel, my knee was swollen and in a fair amount of pain. I could easily have talked myself out of a workout. Instead, I asked myself a powerful question:

What can I do?

I definitely didn’t want to run, squat or aggravate my knee. But that doesn’t mean I can’t work out!

I went down to the hotel gym and did a circuit workout of shoulder press, rowing and push-ups. It was perfect!

Sure, there was a lot I couldn’t do but there was also a lot I could do.

When there’s no gym, I can do a body weight workout in my room.

I can go into the hotel stairwell and do a stair workout.

I can walk to explore a new city instead of drive.

There’s always so much you CAN do.

If you feel out of control when you travel, remind yourself that you ARE in control. You might not be in the habit of making choices you feel good about, but you are in control.

Start by making one small improvement at a time, maybe by picking one of the questions in this post and bringing it with you when you travel!

For more of my thoughts on making good choices when you travel, check out these posts!

Overcoming Airport Binges

Healthy Eating on Vacation

Travel &  Your Fat Loss Goals

Travel Strategies for Weight Loss

Do You Treat Weekends Like Vacation?

Eating Out & Fat Loss

224: Fat Loss & The Four Agreements

223: How To Heal Your Metabolism

Yes! You can heal your metabolism! In today’s episode we’re talking about exactly how you can begin. Maybe you feel like you’ve always had a sluggish metabolism, maybe you’re recognizing that you’ve done some metabolic damage with your yo-yo dieting past, perhaps you’re noticing some changes as you get older or you just want to be proactive. No matter what you’re reasons, your metabolism is not set in stone. There is so much you can do to heal your metabolism and make it more efficient!

Unfortunately, most people go about it the wrong way and inadvertently do more damage. Most people figure they can speed up their metabolism by exercising more. That’s analogous to thinking you can make a car with a busted engine go faster if you just slam on the accelerator harder.

No. That’ll make it worse.

You have to fix it. You have to address the problem, not try to over-power it.

The same is true with your metabolism. We can’t just eat less, exercise more and expect our metabolism to respond favorably. It won’t.

Let’s dive into what your metabolism is, why it might need to be healed and specific diet & lifestyle strategies you can put into place today to help you heal your metabolism, increase energy and burn fat more efficiently.

 

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How To Heal Your Metabolism

Listen to the full episode to understand:

  • What your metabolism is (and isn’t)
  • Why it might need healing, repair or optimization
  • What common strategy actually damages your metabolic function
  • How to heal your metabolism

Strategies to improve your metabolism include:

  • Limit processed foods
  • Limit or avoid crop oils like corn, canola & safflower
  • Focus on stable fats including coconut oil, grass fed butter, ghee, full fat dairy and grass fed meat
  • Lift weights
  • Avoid toxins in food, water and personal products
  • Manage stress & sleep

Resources

Podcast on water filtration & water quality

Aquasana Water Filter

Are Obesogens Making You Fat

Eating Healthy On A Budget

Artificial Sweeteners

Carbohydrate Strategies for Fat Loss

Join me at ASCEND in Nashville!

Grady’s Cold Brew Coffee

Sizzlefish

Wanna Help?

If you find the Primal Potential podcast help, it would mean the world to me if you’d take a minute to leave a rating & review! That helps show platforms display my podcast to new listeners! Thank you so much for your support! I can’t tell you how valuable it is! 

224: Fat Loss & The Four Agreements

222: Weight Gain When You’re Doing The Work

There is very little that is more frustrating than feeling like you’re doing the work for fat loss, practicing self-discipline and putting forth your best effort only to step on the scale and see that it has gone up!

Today I want to share my answer to a listener emailed to ask, “Why am I gaining weight?” after being active and eating fat loss friendly meals.

Her email to me has something for everyone – questions about consistency, activity levels and clean eating. Here’s her email and today’s podcast shares my in depth answer.

Hi. I listened to the podcast on motivation and I’m working my way through the breaking barriers. But, here is what I notice, I am consistent and I do believe I can lose weight. But I’ve gained 2 pounds since Saturday while staying consistent with my 10000 steps and fat friendly meals. I even walked 7 miles yesterday. Any thoughts?

Listen below for my answers, tips & suggestions.

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“Why am I gaining weight when I’m doing the work?”

In today’s episode I share my thoughts & suggestions related to:

  • What might have led to the weight increase
  • Limitations of monitoring progress with the scale
  • More effective ways to measure progress
  • What consistency is & isn’t
  • When “fat loss friendly” isn’t fat loss friendly
  • The link between activity & water retention

Resources

How & where to measure – I recommend measuring every other week. Be sure to record your measurements so you can evaluate your progress over time!

 

where to measure for weight loss

Get a measuring tape

Join me at ASCEND in Nashville!

Grady’s Cold Brew Coffee

Spaghetti Squash Primavera with Basil Cashew Pesto

Wanna Help?

If you find the Primal Potential podcast help, it would mean the world to me if you’d take a minute to leave a rating & review! That helps show platforms display my podcast to new listeners! Thank you so much for your support! I can’t tell you how valuable it is! 

224: Fat Loss & The Four Agreements

221: Turn Off The Thought Faucet

Powerful motivational minisode on tap for you guys today! Yes, you read it right: I want you to turn off the thought faucet!

One of most destructive things keeping us from our goals and our highest potential is the way we leave reality, retreat into our minds and manufacture worries, problems, concerns, doubts and fears.

Not only does this generate a state where we feel anxious and powerless, it also takes us out of the moment, preventing us from seizing opportunities to take action in the direction of our goals.

In this motivational minisode I want to help you identify strategies to successfully turn off the thought faucet but I also want you to understand and accept a few powerful realities:

  • Your thoughts are not facts
  • You are not your thoughts
  • You are the thinker – you are in control

Don’t miss this motivational minisode! Click below to listen!

Listen Now

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Resources

Join me at ASCEND in Nashville!

Breaking Barriers

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