One thing I have all of my clients do is keep a food & activity journal. If friends email me for help accelerating their fat loss I insist they do it too. I get so many emails from listeners asking advice but not having any context of how they normally eat that I’m now doing fat loss consultations based on a 10-day food journal. And almost without fail, I am seeing the SAME thing in these food journals and it horrifies me.
It breaks my heart and it cuts like a knife EVERY time I see it. I see it every single day.
What is it? It’s not oreos or frankenfoods – it is the INTENESLY negative emotion, guilt, regret & shame associated with food. I sat down with a friend a few weeks ago after reviewing her 10 day food journal and I said, “listen – this amount of beating yourself up, feeling guilty, shame – that intensity of negative emotion is reserved for killing kittens or hitting an old lady with your car – This intensity of emotion has no place being associated with food of all things!” Good grief, I don’t care if you ate 7 pizzas and 14 pints of ice cream! It’s just food! Hear me! It is just food!!!!
I get it. You had a bad day, you made a bad decision or two or three or fifty seven. I understand and I’ve been there. And I’ve beat myself up for it – but what purpose does it serve? Does it make it better? NO WAY!!! It makes it worse! It is a vicious cycle that actually makes that behavior MORE LIKELY to happen again. Not less likely! I’m not even kidding.
Let me explain why. Here’s the scenario. You want to lose weight. You want to burn fat. You’re motivated. You’re determined. And then you have 4 slices of pizza, a bowl of ice cream and later go scouring for cookies – which you find and devour even though you aren’t hungry.
The second the last bite is swallowed you are beating yourself up. “I suck. Why did I do that? This is why I’m fat. I’m so gross. I feel so gross. I feel awful. I have no self control. Crap, why did I DO that??? I wasted all my progress. Now I have to be even more strict. Why do I always do this? Ah! That wasn’t worth it! Why did that happen? I suck. I always do this. I did it AGAIN!!!!!” Do you understand what message you are sending to yourself? Think about it. The entire time you are feeling guilt, shame, remorse, regret, frustration – you are sending incredibly dangerous and specific messages to your brain: You failed. You are a failure. You always mess up. You always overeat. You have no self control. You fall into the same trap over and over again. You suck. You always binge when you’re stressed. You have no self control once you get started. You can’t have pizza without losing your mind.
YOU ARE ACTIVELY CREATING THAT REALITY BECAUSE OF THE WAY YOU TALK TO YOURSELF! YOU ARE MAKING YOUR BRAIN BELIEVE THAT’S HOW YOU OPERATE! So, the next time you have pizza, your brain remembers: Hey Elizabeth – you have no self control. Once you start you can never stop. You live on this slippery slope and hang on tight because you’re on it now. You always overeat. You always lose control. You can’t stop. Where are the cookies?
So….you do it again. And then the guilt starts. And then you reinforce those messages all over again! You created this belief system with your own thoughts. That’s the bad news. And the good news. Because you can create a different thought pattern and therefore a different reality.
I am going to get to how you can change this pattern, but first I want to make an important point. I do not have children yet but I hope to one day. And I know this: I was not born with negative associations towards food. I was not born to associate guilt and shame to food. That is a learned behavior. You don’t develop it on your own. You learn it from somewhere. Maybe it’s your friends, maybe it’s TV. Maybe it’s your parents. And I know I can’t control everything in my future child’s life but I know this: I will not contribute to them developing unhealthy positive or negative associations to food. If you are acting like you have to “earn” a cookie or “make up for” pizza or “feel guilty” about ice cream – your kids see that, feel that, learn that and will very likely model that. I am not condemning parents – I can’t even image how hard a job that is, but I do want everyone to be aware of how this impacts other people as well as how it impacts ourselves. Much of my struggle with obesity, food obsession and very, very unhealthy dieting practices, poor self image and depression came from inappropriate emotional associations with food that I developed from my home environment.
So what do you do? How do you overcome this? I get it – it’s a natural reaction – for years, many of us have created these positive and negative associations with food – I’m good if I eat a salad and a piece of fish. I’m bad if I have pasta and bread sticks. How about: I’m human either way and my motivation, potential and self-worth are not in any way influenced by what I eat or don’t eat. How about: I make good choices and I make not so stellar choices but I’m learning from each choice.
Stop making excuses and justifying the choices you aren’t proud of
Let’s stop making excuses or trying to justify a decision we wish we hadn’t made. If you didn’t plan dinner (or your plans fell through) and you defaulted to Taco Bell – ok. Fine. So you ate taco bell. That is neither good or bad – it’s Taco Bell. Please stop with the justification and/or excuses. The “well, I just didn’t make it to the grocery store” or “it was a bad day and in the moment I just couldn’t stop myself” or “the kids were being crazy and I just broke down” – listen, it is what it is. It is Taco Bell. It is not a reflection of your self worth, discipline or potential and the justification or excuses aren’t necessary. Enjoy the meal. If you want to choose a different response next time then look at all the factors that contributed to the choice and make a plan to respond differently next time. Next time I’m going to remember that Thursdays are crazy with my schedule and I’m not as motivated or organized at the end of the week so I’m going to start doing Chipotle take out on Thursday nights or having a rotisserie chicken in the fridge to make with some sweet potatoes or putting a meal in the crockpot every Thursday morning.
Focus on being AWARE of your negative and positive associations with food
I know they are deeply rooted. I know they often start going through your mind automatically and you hardly notice them. But, sometimes you’ll notice and when you do, I want you to replace them. And the more you do that, the more often you’ll notice them and the more chances you’ll have to replace them. What do you replace those unhealthy, unproductive associations with? Well, if you’re thinking – “I’m so fat. I am an emotional eater. Such and such is a slippery slope. Once I start with this, I can’t stop. I lose my control around x. I sabotage myself.” STOP THE TAPE. STOP THE TAPE. STOP THE TAPE. What do you want your brain to know about you? About your choices? About your relationship with food? Write those things down. Recite them. Commit them to memory. Flood your mind with those thoughts and affirmations and don’t you dare stop. Don’t stop. Keep going.Replace your thoughts with things like: I am strong and healthy. I’m in control of my choices. I take responsibility for every choice I make. I am motivated and I am improving every day. I am so excited to create my healthier self.
Make your indulgences a conscious decision
Don’t just let it happen and respond later. Sometimes we just act on instinct and respond later. Learn to take a second to pause between your impulse to eat and the act of eating. Sometimes we let our animal brain takeover. See M&Ms. Want M&Ms. Grab M&Ms. Shove M&Ms down throat. Feel guilty. It happens in seconds. It happens without thought. Choose to create a space for thought. And the thought isn’t so that you’ll talk yourself out of the M&Ms. It’s so that you can CHOOSE them instead of just responding instinctively. You are a rational, evolved human. Act accordingly. Build in a pause. When you notice an urge or a craving, take just a second to pause and reflect. What do I want? Do I really want it? Is it worth it? Is there something I want more? If you want them, choose them and own the choice without guilt or regret. It is a choice. It just food. But, do you really want it or are you just lusting for it based on instinct? When you build in that pause, I guarantee you’ll choose “no thanks” more than you currently are because you’re allowing yourself time to pause and think about it. That’s a good thing. For me, I’ve used several different strategies to learn to pause and think. Sometimes I’ll make myself wait 5-10 minutes to see if I still want it. Or, I’ll journal for 30 second to a minute before hand. Other times, I’ll make myself stop and read my goals before indulging. If I still want it after 5 minutess or after journaling or reading my goals – great – I’ll enjoy it without guilt. Often times, just that pause and reflection time is enough to stop.
I hope this was helpful. Like I said at the start – the guilt, shame, negative emotion – they just aren’t warranted. They aren’t helping and they are holding you back. We teach those associations to our friends, our kids, our family – and that is very dangerous. Work on this. Eliminate any and all unhealthy associations. What you eat or don’t eat doesn’t make you disciplined, motivated, successful or productive – or not. It’s just food. You didn’t kill a kitten, after all.
What is one of the most common frustrations people experience when they’re trying to lose weight? Getting on the scale and feeling like your progress is not reflected in that number looking back at you. We place way too much emphasis on the number on the scale. In today’s episode we talk about how much daily weight fluctutation is normal, what contributes to it and some strategies for more effective ways to monitor your progress. I also share some of my most valuable non-scale victories.
The Challenge: Letting the number on the scale influence your emotions. Feeling incredibly proud of your progress and SEEING change in your body but throwing it all away when the number on the scale isn’t what you think it should be.
The Solution: The scale should not be your primary indicator of progress. Your body weight can fluctuate as much as 5-7 lbs each day depending on:
Glycogen Storage
Bowel movements
Water retention
Hormonal fluctuations
Beyond that, the scale is not an accurate reflection of what type of weight you’re losing. We want to burn fat. We might gain muscle along the way. That is a GOOD thing. That will make our body look BETTER. So we need to find ways to monitor and measure our progress that indicate our TRUE progress – fat loss.
Practical Implementation:
Take pictures of yourself
Find a pair of tight pants or a fitted dress and put it on AT LEAST every other week. Every week is fine, too.
Take measurements of your waist, hips, bust & thighs at a minimum.
Assess your strength and endurance in a standardized way
Mile walk or run for time
Situps in a minute
Pushups in a minute
Max on core lifts like squat, bench press, shoulder press, deadlift
Celebrate non scale victories
Improvements in sleep
Stress management
Cravings and hunger
Energy levels
Mood
Stamina while playing with your kids
Sex drive
Flying on an airplane without a seat belt extender
Are you wasting your time trying to change habits that won’t make a big difference or won’t help you reach the goal you’re pursuing? In this episode we talk about how most of us go about behavior change in the wrong way and why it leads to failure. We’re explaining how to identify what YOUR most effective fat loss strategies are and how you can tackle them. Then we dive into a step by step process for how you can create changes that will lead to effective fat loss and be EASY to maintain for the rest of your life!
If you enjoy the show or find it helpful, please take just a second to leave a rating & review in iTunes or Stitcher! It would really mean a lot to me to have your support!
In this episode we’re talking about how fruit today is VASTLY different from fruit even just 50 years ago. We’re talking about the changes in agriculture & how they impact our food. Then we dive into fructose, the sugar naturally found in fruit, and how it is the single most LIPOGENIC carbohydrate. What does that mean? It is most easily converted to fat when compared to ALL other carbohydrates. We discuss how fructose accelerates the aging process and what you can do about it.
The problem: Today I want to talk about fruit. It might seem like an odd choice because this certainly isn’t one of those nutritional big rocks that are either making people fat or preventing people from losing weight. However, I believe that the particular form of sugar within fruit, fructose, IS. So we’re going to talk about fruit and the sugar it contains, known as fructose. People have always viewed fruit as a healthy snack, but our fruit has changed. It hardly resembles the fruit our grandparents enjoyed – in flavor, size & nutrient composition – so IT has changed, but we haven’t changed our perspective. Not only that, but we have taken fructose, the powerful sweetener naturally found in fruit, and essentially used it for evil. Evil that is making us very sick and very unhealthy.
Our fruit has changed. It hardly resembles fruit from 50 years ago, nevermind 100 or 1,000 years ago!! In this episode we talk about the changes that have reduced the nutrient composition of our fruits including premature harvest, transportation, soil depletion, genetic modification and cross breeding. The end result is this: our fruit just doesn’t deliver as many nutrients as it used to. Now, it has much more water and much more sugar.
Fructose, the naturally occuring sugar found in fruit is now being used in almost all processed foods as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS is the #1 source of calories in the standard American diet! Ahhh! That’s horrifying!!! You can find it in soda, cookies, soup, yogurt, salad dressings, bread, cereals, protein shakes & bars, ketchup, bacon, peanut butter, mustard, beer….the list goes on and on. If you’re eating processed foods, you can’t escape HFCS.
The solution & the facts:
Fructose is THE MOST lipogenic carbohydrate. In plain English: when compared to allllll other carbohydrates, fructose is the most easily and readily converted to fat.
Fructose encourages muscle and fat cells to become insulin resistant. Remember that insulin dictates fat storage/fat release.
Fructose is 20-30x more glycating than glucose. What does this mean? We explain it in detail in the episode, but essentially, it accelerates the aging progress, leads to fine lines and wrinkles & impairs blood flow.
Fructose does not trigger satiety signals.
You’ve got to be very, very aware of all the places you’re introducing HFCS into your diet and start to eliminate it. You don’t need to eliminate fruit, but also don’t view it as this holy grail of health & fitness. It’s not.
Practical Implementation:
Choose locally grown, seasonal, organic fruits
Treat fruit as it is – a carbohydrate. For maximum fat loss, limit your consumption of fruit to your dinner time meal or post workout
Read labels. Look for HFCS in unexpected places like processed meats, condiments & protein bars
Limit or eliminate processed foods. THIS IS CRITICAL for health & fat loss.
Resources:
For detailed information on carbohydrate strategies for fat loss including more on fruit, wheat, oats, gluten plus strategies for improving your carbohydrate tolerance, check out the comprehensive carbs & fat loss ecourse! Follow the link below and use the coupon code Primal10 to get lifetime access for only $69 (including troubleshooting help from me on demand!) https://www.udemy.com/carb-strategies/?couponCode=Primal10
I get a ton of questions about gluten and weight loss. I wrote about it here but I felt like I needed to take a deeper dive and consider not just the fat loss implications but also the overall health implications. I could sum it up pretty simply: we don’t need to eat gluten. It isn’t providing any nutritive value that we can’t get from other foods that don’t carry the same potential adverse health effects. With that said, there are a lot of tasty foods that contain gluten and many people don’t want to miss out on things like bread and pasta unless they really have to. I get it. I really do. And if ever make my way back to Italy I certainly won’t skip the pasta out of fear of gluten. But….we need to understand the risks. We need to understand what gluten is, what it does in the body, the potential health risks and how gluten impacts our ability to burn fat and reach our health goals.
If I were to take it only a little bit further and make a recommendation without diving into the nuts and bolts of gluten, digestion, & inflammation, I would say this: your body holds the answer to what you should do about gluten. Your body is the most powerful resource there is. Not science, not blogs, not expert opinions, just your body. Some of you might already know that you have an adverse reaction to gluten. You might experience bloating, fatigue, acne or joint pain when you consume gluten. For you, it’s a no brainer. Avoid it. But for others, you might not know if gluten is a problem for you. Maybe you’ve lived for so long with chronic fatigue that you just think it’s your body’s standard operating procedure. Or maybe that eczema you’ve had just seems like your lot in life and you have no idea that it’s actually tied to your dietary habits. There’s no harm in eliminating gluten for 1-2 weeks and monitoring how you feel. That will provide you with every answer you need and will prove to be far more valuable than anything I could write here or any research you could find. Pay attention to how the elimination impacts your hunger, cravings, mood, bloating, body weight, fat loss, skin health, respiratory health, focus, attention span….Just start paying attention. If you feel a lot better then there is your answer. You don’t need to add it back in. If you aren’t really sure, slowly add in a small amount and monitor how you feel. Assess any changes. That is really the most impactful way to assess your own body and what is best for you. The only information that matters is the information your body will provide you.
I feel like I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t say that just because you don’t feel symptoms of gluten sensitivity doesn’t mean that you aren’t gluten sensitive and doesn’t mean that gluten isn’t potentially causing a problem within your body. Gluten could create a problem that you just can’t feel yet. Here’s a good example: There’s been a lot of research demonstrating that consuming gluten increases the presence of an enzyme called “zonulin”. Zonulin is in charge of your intenstinal permeability – determining what is allowed to pass through your intestinal walls. Now, if something gets through that isn’t supposed to, that can be bad news for your health. Your body can launch a counter attack, identifying that foreign substance and creating an immune response to annihilate it. Elevated levels of zonulin are associated with higher incidences of auto-immune diseases – diseases of the immune system that can potentially originate from excessive intensintal permeability – stuff getting through that shouldn’t. It might take years for you to feel that or experience those impacts.
Gluten consumption can also decrease blood flow to areas of your brain – specficially to the frontal and prefrontal cortex – parts of the brain that allow you to focus, manage emotions, plan/organize, and understand the consequences of your actions. It’s this particular mechanism – this impaired blood flow to the brain – that is the focus of a lot of research on why people with autism or ADHD often see major improvements when they remove gluten from their diets. (By the way, next time I do something stupid or that I regret I might totally blame it on gluten….just saying…it’s worth a shot?)
So what is gluten and where is it? Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barely, rye and other grains. So essentially, it is a protein found in many carbohydrates and almost all processed foods. Due to modern food processing, it’s also in most oat products. Knowing how widespread gluten is, you might be wondering why it seems like gluten is “all of a sudden” a problem. Well, its really just about how much more gluten we’re exposed to over the last 20 or so years with the advent and infiltration of processed foods. Gluten is in almost all processed foods and those are a staple in the standard American diet. It didn’t use to be that way. Our exposure and consumption are through the roof!!!
If you want to cut way back on gluten, the simplest way to do that is by avoiding wheat products & processed foods. That right there will drastically cut your intake. Completely removing gluten takes a lot more work. Gluten is in so many things these days! Seriously! Gluten is in salad dressings, soups, beer, grain alcohols, ketchup, sauces, spice mixes, processed meat & sausages, cosmetics…the list goes on! If it’s not a fruit, vegetable, non-processed meat or raw dairy product, you might as well assume it contains gluten unless specifically labeled “gluten-free”. A quick note about “gluten free” snack foods like cookies, chips, crackers and brownies: Gluten free junk food is still junk food. Just because it is labeled “gluten free” doesn’t magically make it good for you. Treats are treats, gluten free or not, and should be limited. I know, I know, that makes it really hard to eliminate. However, if you’re following primal diet principles – eating primarily meat, seafood, poultry, game-meats, fruits and vegetables, you’ll avoid it pretty easily. You can try to do this for a couple of weeks and closely monitor how you feel and what kind of progress you make towards your fat loss goals.
Remember – there is no nutritional advantage to eating gluten. The fiber, vitamins and minerals can be easily obtained via fruits and vegetables. That is now, however, an argument for going gluten-free. The best way to make that decision is by paying close attention to how gluten impacts YOUR health and YOUR body.
For detailed information on carbohydrate strategies for fat loss including more on fruit, wheat, oats, gluten plus strategies for improving your carbohydrate tolerance, check out the comprehensive carbs & fat loss ecourse! Follow the link below and use the coupon code Primal10 to get lifetime access for only $69 (including troubleshooting help from me on demand!) https://www.udemy.com/carb-strategies/?couponCode=Primal10
