Stop Dieting to Lose Weight
January 6, 2020
We’re debunking diet trends that often lead to worse health than you started with, and more weight too. We touch on what diets don’t work and how to take back control of your health by throwing out the trends and focusing on real food in balance.
Similar Podcast Episodes:
Transcript:
KARA: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition. This is brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness and Happy New Year. It is the new year. This is the first show and the first podcast if you're listening to the podcast for the year 2020. So of course we knew that our show had to have the topic with a weight loss success story for the new year. Today, almost three-quarters of adults in the United States are overweight or obese. Most of these adults have been doing things like counting calories, counting points. Sadly, people are more overweight than they were before they started dieting with that type of approach: with that low-fat, low-calorie, and point-counting approach. So no wonder that several books have been written about how diets don't work. And we do; we agree with those authors. So this morning we're going to be sharing our real food approach to weight loss. And the majority of people in the U.S… really here's the title of our show today: Stop Dieting to Lose Weight. Since the early 1950's we have just been inundated with this information to eat low fat foods, count calories, eat low-calorie, and you know, dieters are always told to kind of follow this approach. And it's really lacking… first of all, it's lacking in key nutrients. And for a lot of people it can be like a starvation plan. So how did that work out? Not great because again, more people are overweight and obese than ever before. So I'll introduce myself and then my co-host. My name is Kara Carper. I'm a Licensed Nutritionist. I have a master's degree in Holistic Health and I'm also a Certified Nutrition Specialist. And I'm really excited to be here today with my co-host and weight loss expert, Nell Kauls.
NELL: Oh expert, huh?
KARA: You are an expert. Nell, you are the, you're the testimonial to Nutritional Weight and Wellness who lost 90 pounds eight years ago. You've been able to maintain that 90-pound weight loss by eating real food.
NELL: Yes.
KARA: And Nell, as you know, less than 10% of people who lose weight keep the weight off. So you're the unicorn.
NELL: Yeah. We were just talking about the unicorn status.
KARA: Really what you've accomplished is amazing and I mean, you should be very, very proud of yourself. And maybe even you should be written up in a weight loss book. I know you're a testimonial to our company.
NELL: Absolutely.
KARA: Maybe that's good enough.
NELL: Yeah. I put my energy there, so yeah, I don't, yeah, thank you so much for that phenomenal intro; a boost to my, my ego this morning. But I don't think being featured in a weight loss book is necessary. I just want to, you know, for you within the sound of my voice, inspire you to give up dieting and eat real food several times a day to lose weight.
That's a different message than you've probably heard this time of year. No more starving yourself. It is a known fact that as we get older, and I am getting older, our metabolism slows down more and more every year. I also know that eating protein several times a day boosts my metabolism for a few hours, so I practice eating grass-fed protein several times a day to keep that fire stoked; to keep my metabolism fired up.
KARA: Nell, I think our listeners would love to know what is been one of your biggest struggles maintaining the 90-pound weight loss? So I guess it's, it's one thing and we'll get into that a little bit later about the weight loss, but what's, what is it like with the weight maintenance phase?
NELL: Yeah, we were just talking about this before the show that the biggest struggle is not to get back into that dieting thought pattern, which you would think after eight years of losing the weight and then keeping it off that I would have broken through that and I have. But really those messages are very sticky for people because low-calorie and low-fat eating slow down my metabolism. And it's really challenging I think this time of year to not see some of the ads coming out and you know, they're, they're everywhere. They're on Facebook. They're on TV that say, you know, “We have the answer: low-fat, low-calorie eating. But I want to tell you, before I came to Nutritional Weight and Wellness, I had many years of dieting and with each of those diets that are being advertised so readily right now, I did lose weight, but I quickly gained that weight back and even more. So I would get this quick hitting, it was always 12 pounds for me. So I would immediately start to feel better, feel like my pants were fitting better. And it was within a few weeks or months that I would be heavier than before. So I would get that quick hitting, “Hey, you know, this is working.” And what was so cruel about it is that it would come right back on as soon as I, because what they don't tell you is that you're losing water and you're losing muscle. And it's so frustrating when you have that, you know, first little bit of success. And then it starts to stop and then you start gaining. And you start gaining more than before. So how did I gain that extra 90 to a hundred pounds, is because I would go on those diets and then I would gain, you know, 20 pounds more than before. So you do that, you know, I say 15 times and I’m in my 25 years of dieting, you know, that extra 20 pounds, 10, 20 pounds at the end of each of those yo-yo diets is going to add up.
KARA: Sure, sure. And it, and also we know just biochemically, with all the training, nutrition training that we've had that that really impairs metabolism, kind of the ups and downs, the spikes and the losses, right?
NELL: Yes, yes; very, very frustrating.
KARA: Well, Nell, how old were you when you first started dieting? And then I, you might've already answered this in your, in the last segment, but did you lose any weight like the very first time that you started dieting?
NELL: Yes, and it was because I was 12. I could have done just about anything and, and lost weight. But that was the first year I went to Weight Watchers. I had to be, I had to be sponsored by somebody because I was so young. So my mom took me. I was desperate. I was coming into my eighth grade year and I was the chubby kid and so depressed and I did lose weight. But I had a miserable summer and I actually just, I just recalled this story of being… there used to be a Kmart in Burnsville, and we were, my mom and I were walking into the Kmart and I had been, you know, really existing on, tuna with no mayo; just, just plain tuna and lettuce and really starving myself. I took it too far and I fainted.
KARA: Oh no.
NELL: …in the Kmart parking lot. So talk about biochemical damage. I was really young and I was really taking that low-calorie, low-fat message. So dry tuna basically with dry lettuce and I was depriving myself. And then I, that's where it began really. So then you do that long enough and then you start to rebel. Your body starts to rebel and I gained all the weight back. I started eating, eating, eating, eating, and really couldn't stop. So for those reasons I want to share with you what I didn't know then, which was the important biochemical fact that we teach in our Nutrition for Weight Loss series, which I am one of the teachers. When you go on a low-calorie, low-fat diet, it creates a stress response in your body. I mean, think about that. I'm walking along and I drop over. I'm 12, 13. It’s so sad, actually; and probably quite common still to this day. I would hope it wouldn't be, but it's, it's probably very common still. But really my body was telling me, “I don't have enough here to go on.” Because of that stress response, the adrenal glands, were releasing the hormone cortisol and that excess cortisol creates more insulin resistance. So that's what started all of that insulin resistance in my body, which then, you know, initially led to weight loss but then started showing up as belly fat. So personally I don't want to create that cortisol response. So now I eat every two to three hours. And I'm not eating dry tuna on dry lettuce. I know when I skip a meal or snack, I gain weight because that cortisol, that when my blood sugar is getting too low, that cortisol response is going to help me to gain weight, which I don't want.
KARA: Sure, especially around the midsection, right? That belly fat. And you had… I think a lot of our long-time listeners have heard the term insulin resistance. And we won't go into too deep of a dive with that. But insulin resistance just means that it's harder for your body to get the glucose into the cells, out of the bloodstream and into the cells. So you're just more likely to gain weight to store fat. It's more difficult to lose weight.
NELL: Yeah, we have this great visual in one of the classes of your cells. And there’s locks, padlocks all over the cells.
KARA: Right, right.
NELL: So if you think about it, you're, you're locking your cells in. Nothing really gets in or out. That's, you know, making that happen. So essentially what was a light bulb moment for me is when I was on these diets, my cells were locked up and that glucose that I was getting from my diet could not be used for energy. So I feel low energy, I felt, you know, fainting.
KARA: Fainting is the epitome of low energy, right? Well it's already time for our first break. We'll talk more with Nell when we come back. But you're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. And because we know that it's a new year, we also know that many of you are looking for a weight loss solution, which is why we have our topic today: Stop Dieting to Lose Weight. And again, our special guest is Nell Kauls, who lost 90 pounds eight years ago and has remarkably been able to maintain that weight loss. So stay tuned. You don't want to miss the next part of our show because she has more to share.
BREAK
NELL: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. If you are looking for a weight loss program but you're too strapped for time to take it in the classroom, we have a solution for you. Take our Nutrition for Weight Loss series online. Our Nutrition for Weight Loss program is 12 one-hour classes plus two individual nutrition appointments with a nutritionist or dietician. I was actually one of the instructors so you'll see my face on that series. Sign up online at weightandwellness.com and get started today. No better day than today.
KARA: Yes, today is a good day for that. I love that we offer that online as well. How convenient, you can… I always think of people like in the winter live in Minnesota doing it in their jammies with their hot tea.
NELL: Absolutely; fantastic.
KARA: Yeah. Before break, you know we were talking about insulin resistance. Well, first of all we were talking about how low-fat, low-calorie, kind of starvation eating for as a weight loss approach backfires because of the increased cortisol and the stress response. And then you know, subsequently, the weight gain that happens after that.
NELL: Yes.
KARA: And so what Nell was saying: it's really important for everyone to understand that if weight loss is a goal of yours, so we're just going to go over that information again. When people skip meals and their blood sugar level gets too low, that actually does create a stress response in the body. So it triggers the adrenal glands to release cortisol, which is a fat-storing hormone. And so to lose weight we really need to avoid stress, especially this stress response that comes from a starvation diet. And frequently skipping meals will result in low blood sugar. And so then you had mentioned that kind of the first place people see that is weight gain around the midsection; that belly fat. What else can create a stress response that you know might make it more difficult to lose weight, might cause more belly fat from cortisol? What is, can you think of like…? One stress response was the low-cal.
NELL: Yeah.
KARA: Are there other stress responses?
NELL: Yeah, one that I became very aware of years ago, I discovered whenever I was short on sleep, I gained weight or I just felt like I wasn't able to really say no to those gooey high-carb foods that we all are faced with at the office, for example. So even if I had not eaten any differently than usual or had not eaten extra food, I would gain weight from lack of sleep. Now that is not a message you hear in a lot of diet plans, right? So after I learned that lack of sleep, which is less than seven and a half to eight hours, could also recreate that stress response, releasing the fat-storing hormone cortisol that can increase belly fat, I understood why my pants would start to get tighter.
KARA: So essentially you weren't changing anything. Let's say your food was the same and your activity was the same, but you weren't sleeping enough and you were gaining weight.
NELL: Absolutely.
KARA: So, and that's basically if you're not sleeping seven and a half hours on average per night. In the Nutrition for Weight Loss classes, that's one thing that we do teach. We teach about the importance of getting adequate sleep for weight loss. In Dr. Matthew Walker's book, Why We Sleep, he quoted some research that was conducted at the University of Chicago Sleep Center. And the study reported, “People who sleep only four to five hours a night, they were hungry all the time.” And then people who consistently are lacking sufficient sleep, they actually kind of lose their hunger control. And this is all hormonal. Our hormones get out of balance. Inadequate sleep decreases the hormone called leptin. Now leptin is supposed to make us feel full and satisfied, and on the other hand, lack of sleep will increase the opposite hunger hormone called ghrelin. So that sort of intensifies hunger. So we're just flipping everything the wrong way.
NELL: Right, so that's why I was craving those doughnuts. You know, the sugary foods: just had no defense against them because I wasn't getting sleep.
KARA: Right, right. And so it's very, again, it gets back to being biochemical and hormonal. We can't maybe see these things, but that's why people have these strong cravings when they're not sleeping. Then another study from the University of Chicago Sleep Center found that when participants were not sleeping enough, they ate more food and those foods were more processed foods. So those were the foods they were craving were kind of the high-sugar processed carbs. You had said the “gooey” carbs; that kind of describes it perfectly.
NELL: Yeah, like gooey caramel. Yeah, I mean think about it. How are, if you haven't slept the night before, how good does that sound?
KARA: I’m thinking glazed doughnuts, you know, you name it.
NELL: Absolutely bad, bad, bad. So I think one reason I have been able to lose the weight and to keep the weight off is because of Kara. Kara was my first, first and favorite nutritionist at Nutritional Weight and Wellness. And you did teach me about the importance of getting adequate sleep. Back when I first came to you when I had all the weight to lose, I do remember being, I would almost say I was almost insomniac. I was not sleeping at all very or very well most nights, but I was really not sleeping. And thanks to you, I now know the importance of adequate sleep. So for me, adequate sleep is at least eight hours most nights. And I feel that's increasing as I get older. I feel like if I don't get that, it's really hard for me to live my best life. I actually feel the best and my metabolism works the best when I get, you know, eight and a half to nine hours of sleep most nights. However, this has been a hard habit for me to practice. So the last couple of years I've been working on getting my MBA. I work full time. I have a family; have a couple of dogs.
KARA: You did a house remodel.
NELL: I know.
KARA: There's always something going on.
NELL: There's always something going on. So I do have to prioritize sleep. And why I need to get that eight hours of sleep is to maintain my 90-pound weight loss. So I know very quickly when I'm starting to lose touch with my sleep or not getting enough sleep because the weight really does come back fast. So I have had to make that a priority to lose weight, but also to keep it off. So think about it. Can sleep become a priority for you?
KARA: And it really does have to become a priority. It doesn't, for very few people does it just happen. You have to be very intentional about, you know, preparation of going to bed, getting to bed at a certain time, you know, having… you kind of have to map out your schedule.
NELL: Turn the tech off.
KARA: That's a big one; the screen time for sure. Today, so many people struggle with their sleep. Many of our clients are only sleeping four to five hours per night, especially those who are carrying extra weight. And as a nutritionist, the very first supplement that I recommend for sleep, it's called Magnesium Glycinate. And when I was doing research for the show today, I came across an article and the article just listed some signs and symptoms of deficiencies of being deficient of magnesium. So I'm going to share a few of those symptoms with you because you might be someone who has a magnesium deficiency. And because the list is so long and I'm getting notified that we're, we need to take a break pretty soon, I think I'm just going to go to break and we'll give you those magnesium deficient signs when we come back. You're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition and for the past 25 years, the plan that we created at Nutritional Weight and Wellness to help people lose weight and restore their health has been to eat high quality real food in balance. And research from the National Institutes of Health just from this past June, found that when people ate processed foods, they gained weight and craved more food. So when people eat real food in balance, that's when weight loss occurs, people feel better, have more energy, better moods and fewer aches and pains.
BREAK
NELL: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Our Nutrition for Weight Loss 12-class series starts the week of January 13th at all seven Nutritional Weight and Wellness locations. If you sign up by January 6th, you can save $50 with our early bird special. The Nutrition for Weight Loss program is based on eating real food that you can buy in your local grocery store and you can cook for your family. It is also a plan that will support your memory, your energy, your moods, and so much more. Sign up today by calling our office at (651) 699-3438 or online at weightandwellness.com.
KARA: All right Nell should we go back into talking about sleep?
NELL: So interesting. Yes.
KARA: Yeah, love this connection. Again, lack of sleep leads to weight gain and difficulty losing weight, cravings for carbs and processed sugar; so that's what we were talking about. And then I had recommended that my first go-to supplement for lack of sleep is Magnesium Glycinate. So here's a list of signs of being deficient in magnesium: The first one is muscle cramps or muscle spasm; eye twitching. Do you see a pattern here? Anything kind of twitchy or muscles twitching, spasms, headaches and migraines, anxiety and depression and insomnia, or really any type of sleep-related problem, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, also known as an arrhythmia, osteoporosis. So as you may have noticed, one symptom of magnesium deficiency that I listed was insomnia. And for insomnia, I usually recommend taking 400 milligrams of Magnesium Glycinate at least an hour before bedtime. Now not everybody needs that 400 milligrams. For some people, two or 300 might be sufficient. But I also want you to know that there are people that need as much as six to 800 milligrams of Magnesium Glycinate. As nutritionists and dietitians, everyone at Nutritional Weight and Wellness is an expert that can help you to get sufficient sleep. So I want to tell a noteworthy story that will grab your attention. And this was a client that came to Nutritional Weight and Wellness. She was only sleeping four to six hours a night for decades. Can you imagine? I don't know if that was you.
NELL: Yeah, it could have been.
KARA: That's a long time to not be sleeping more than four to six hours. So she met with a nutritionist and after hearing about the importance of getting that at least seven and a half, eight, even nine hours of sleep, she actually decided to leave her stressful job, which was really a root cause or one of the root causes for the insomnia. So for the next three months, she slept nine to 10 hours every night. And guess what?
NELL: Yeah.
KARA: She lost 20 pounds.
NELL: Wow.
KARA: She wasn't counting calories or restricting. She didn't even change her diet. She didn't change her exercise habits. She just increased her sleep from like four to six hours per night up to nine to 10 hours.
NELL: Wow.
KARA: And that created a 20-pound weight loss.
NELL: Wow. That is a great story.
KARA: So her hormones got balanced, right?
NELL: Yeah, yeah. Just, just through sleep, you know. Who doesn't love sleep? And in addition to taking Magnesium Glycinate, I need my bedtime snack. So to keep my blood sugar balanced throughout the night, my snack is a well-designed snack for blood sugar control. So if I ate popcorn at bedtime, I would wake up around 3:30 and would not be able to get back to sleep. Popcorn is so high in carbs that it would raise my blood sugar.
And then around three to 3:30, my blood sugar would crash. And that causes your brain to wake up. So my brain would have no glucose and I'd wake up full of anxiety and staring at the ceiling. So to keep my blood sugar in balance and to avoid experiencing any of that, my snack is very, it's almost like medicine. It's very prescriptive. So I need about a half a cup of fruit and lots of natural fat. So for example, you take half an apple and put a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter, or my brain healthy snack is half a cup of fresh berries with two tablespoons of heavy whipping cream: yum!
KARA: I love that snack.
NELL: I do too. Sometimes I throw a half a cup of frozen berries and the blender and heavy cream and blend it. That is almost like an ice cream treat to balance my blood sugar all through the night; and no insomnia for me. So back when I was dieting, I was told to eat only low-fat foods and don't ever, ever eat after 7:00 PM. But unfortunately I'd wake up starving with anxiety and I could not get back to sleep. And it was really a test of my will to be able to gut that out.
KARA: So what you're saying is, so you were being told to, you know, cut calories, cut the fat, you know, stop eating at a certain time in the evening, but then you weren't sleeping, which was sabotaging weight loss efforts.
NELL: Yeah. And most weight loss plans or weight loss talk don't ever mention the sleep component. That’s really at the forefront of what makes Nutrition for Weight Loss so different is that we incorporate that discussion of sleep and really troubleshooting, being a detective about why you're not sleeping when you meet with the nutritionist. And that's really, really important so you can get your sleep because of the very, very well-researched links between sleep and weight loss.
KARA: Yeah, Right. And it's not a “one size fits all” approach. There are a lot of factors that go into insomnia. That's why like you said, meeting with someone can be super helpful.
NELL: Definitely.
KARA: And some people who eat, you were talking about this overly restricted diet and they eat that way and they wake up in the middle of the night completely starving because their blood sugar is so low. They're not getting glucose or blood sugar into the brain. And a lot of these people end up becoming night time eaters and could be even binge eating at night. They might go to bed and even get up in the middle of the night and just eat a pint of ice cream sort of out of desperation or whatever else they can find to satiate them, you know, endless cheese and crackers. And so I'd like to talk a little bit more about that because I really think that this is a serious issue is not eating enough during the day. But when we say not eating enough, we're not just talking about like cereal and bagels. We're talking about not eating enough protein, vegetables, and healthy fats.
NELL: Yup.
KARA: …skipping meals and then getting to night time and feeling like you're out of control and don't have any willpower left.
NELL: That's right. Your tank is empty.
KARA: Your tank is empty. And so I think now we've made our case of why people should avoid dieting to lose weight, but our listeners might be wondering, “Well, what do I eat?”
NELL: Right, right. That is a very important point. So first of all, I think people have to decide what their priority is when it comes to their health and weight loss. I knew my eating habits and my weight of about 270 pounds when I started were not good for my health. I realized I would have type-two diabetes in a few years. That was really a big driver for me to come to see you that first time. I was scared to death of diabetes. My joints would break down. My risk of cancer would go up and my blood pressure would skyrocket. So weight loss and weight maintenance became my priority. So in addition to my eating habits and my weight, I knew I had to deal with a little secret of mine. So every time I was on my way to Home Depot to get something I needed for the house, right; light bulbs, nails for my husband so he could complete a project, I would start to think about that bag of chocolate-covered peanuts at the checkout counter. Somehow they would always appear in my bag. So I would drive home slowly so I could eat every single one of them in deep shame before I got home and no one would ever know. And essentially it didn't happen, right? I didn't want anyone to know that I was a secret eater or you may have heard of a closet eater because I was so ashamed. I know I'm not alone here. I recognize that I needed help and ongoing support. So I set up an appointment with Kara. And she had been become my nutritionist for many years, helping me troubleshoot sleep, helping me troubleshoot my diet. So I actually set up many appointments with Kara. I remembered my health was a priority. So I still see a nutritionist every couple of months, even though I'm in maintenance mode. I also took Nutrition for Weight Loss series several times to get to my goal. And then I went to a teacher training at Nutritional Weight and Wellness and I'm currently going through an advanced teacher training so I can help others on their weight loss journey. I know personally I cannot even start with one piece of candy or one cookie or one glass of wine because one is never enough for me. And I think we were talking about before the show started, the, you know, the new spate of, of commercials and one very famous one is with Oprah clapping the bread together saying, “I love bread!”
KARA: Oh my goodness.
NELL: This is one of those things that gets me hopping mad is because one is never enough for me. If I ate one of those loaves of bread she's gotten her hand, I would never lose weight. And I think it's a really bad message for people to see.
KARA: Yeah, I agree with you and it's already going to be time for a break here, but when we come back, I'd love to talk just a little bit more about the whole “everything in moderation”.
NELL: Yes, let's do it.
KARA: Ok. You're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. When we sit down with an individual client, we look at many aspects of their health and metabolism that may be cause for carrying the extra weight. So here are just a few potential causes that we look at. Like Nell said, we're investigating. We look at blood sugar, insulin resistance, thyroid function, cortisol response, stress, sleep, water. We look at other beverages like soda and alcohol consumption, food sensitivities, hormone imbalances, medications, even past history of trauma. You know, oftentimes many lifestyle habits and nutrient deficiencies may also need to be overcome to get your metabolism back on track. We can help you by developing a plan that will support your health and your metabolism. And you have to be realistic. If you didn't gain the weight overnight, you know, there might be a lot of causes and it may take a lot of sessions with a nutritionist to restore your metabolism. But like you're hearing from Nell today, it can be done. So I encourage you to take that first step. Call (651) 699-3438 to set up your initial appointment. We'll be right back.
BREAK
NELL: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Listening to Dishing Up Nutrition several years ago got me started on my personal journey to get healthy and lose weight. The best hour of my life was when that happened. It was by far one of the best decisions I ever made. I hope my story will help you create your own story of weight loss, good health and a new sense of wellbeing.
KARA: I remember the story that you tell about when you tuned in.
NELL: Yes, and it was Gary Taubes and I was tricked cause I didn't want to hear Dar telling me I couldn't eat pasta anymore. And I was like, “Oh…”
KARA: You thought it was a different show.
NELL: I thought it was a different show because there was a guest on… and it was like, “She tricked me,” and it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
KARA: That’s amazing.
NELL: So when we left, we were talking about, you know what, you know, “in moderation.” You might've heard all of this. And those of us who have maintained a significant weight loss or trying to lose weight hear it all the time. “Oh, but you can't deprive yourself. You have to have everything in moderation.” But what I sometimes say to those people is one piece of candy or one cookie or one glass of wine sets me down a cravings path. And it's never enough for me. I am somebody who needs to, you know, really, really watch those foods for my health and wellbeing. I'm not alone here. Most of you struggling with your weight are like me. You need to really abstain from certain foods. And so the orchestrated bread dance that Oprah’s doing on the new commercials is not okay.
KARA: Right, right; because one piece of bread leads to two pieces of bread leads to dessert.
NELL: A loaf.
KARA: Yeah, right. It’s never enough.
NELL: Never enough; never enough. So that, that, that particular message makes me kind of… it's just so misleading. So one thing I know for certain is that high sugar processed foods are always calling my name. But I remember my priority: my good health, my energy, my sense of wellbeing, my clear head, my memory, my ability to play games with my family and friends. I also get the ongoing help and support I need to stay on track with my eating plan of real food. Is it hard to eat real food several times a day? No. It's actually a joy because I know how great I feel and look when I put myself first, and avoid those addictive process foods high in sugar. Melanie always has that saying “nibbles and bits”.
KARA: Yes.
NELL: And whenever I know I'm getting into trouble with, “Oh, I can have a few in moderation.” It's always like those little mini candy bars or a handful of full of candy here; because you work in an office, you're going to see many, many candy dishes throughout the day. So if you're struggling with your eating and your weight, I encourage you to make an appointment with a nutritionist and take the Nutrition for Weight Loss series to lift that heavy burden of eating addictive processed carbs and sugar has on you. So say no to the “nibbles and bits”.
KARA: Can you talk, can you go into a little bit more about the “nibbles and bits”?
NELL: Yeah.
KARA: Melanie is a dietician who would be on the radio and talk about this.
NELL: Yeah. Yeah. And it's, and I love the concept of “nibbles and bits” because it's like, “Oh, it's just a little bit. It’s a little bit. It's in moderation. I can do this.” And it's, and it's really, for me, it's like the very tippy top of the slippery slope when that starts to happen. And I just, just to give you a very specific example, it's when I'm walking through the office and there was a person in my row who had those little mini Mr. Goodbars, Crackles, Special Darks and the milk chocolate Hershey bars. You know, those little teeny tiny bars. They're “nibbles and bits”, you know, they're just a tiny piece of chocolate. And I started with one like, you know, I can just have one. And then in three weeks I realized I was making several trips by her. This is recently. This isn't when I was struggling with the weight. I was making two or three trips a day, having one or two of the “nibbles and bits”, and pretty soon then I'm eating a doughnut. And I'm like, “What happened?” So I had to get back on track and having that self-awareness of that, I am not the person who can eat in moderation or eat just one. I need to stick very, very, very closely to my real food diet.
KARA: I was just having this conversation. And again, you said, you know, people, you're not alone in this know.
NELL: No.
KARA: On New Year's, I was with one of my best friends, and we were talking about how we had kind of gone off the rails this holiday season just with maybe sugar, gluten, just processed carbs, mostly just kind of the sweets, which is usually not like me, but I kind of went off the rails this year. And she did too. And she said, you know, “I can't wait until January 1st”, which is sort of a cliché time to start fresh, but it's great, you know. We're not saying that's a bad thing. And she's one of those people, she said, “I am cutting out everything starting on the first. And we had this whole conversation because her fiancé said, “Well, just have some things in moderation. It's a lifestyle.” But we discussed how that doesn't work for her. She needed, she wants to abstain from sugar and gluten; bread. And a lot of people need to do the same thing.
NELL: Absolutely; for their best health.
KARA: Kind of stay on the straight and narrow.
NELL: That’s right.
KARA: And Nell, I guess you were, you were kind of asking what I eat, right?
NELL: Oh yeah. For years I was like, “Look at you. I want to be what you are. What do you eat?”
KARA: So I'll just give a snapshot of, you know, what I might eat in a day. And I always eat breakfast before I leave the house. Typically it's going to be two to three eggs with some sautéed spinach; maybe some broccoli. I kind of like the broccolini lately.
NELL: Oh yum.
KARA: And just sauté that with my eggs, cook it in butter of course. And then I might either have half a cup of sweet potato or a small piece of fruit. And that I really like making protein shakes ahead of time that I'll drink as a snack, you know, maybe two to three hours after breakfast. And on our website, weightandwellness.com we have a variety of recipes for protein shakes. You know, I never get bored because there are so many great recipes. They're very convenient. And then a new thing that a bunch of us are doing instead of putting fruit into the shakes, a few of us have started putting pumpkin; a third cup of pumpkin and then you can add a little pumpkin pie spice. It's really, really tasty.
NELL: Yum.
KARA: And because you know, like everyone else, I have a lot of long days and I would rather eat kind of a bigger lunch maybe than instead of a bigger dinner. So I usually do five ounces of protein, whether that's meat, chicken, fish, two to three cups of vegetables. That could be a salad or it could be like steamed green beans; put some butter on that. And then an afternoon snack; you know, it doesn't have to be a “snacky” food. I will often have like one cup of chili with some avocado slices or sour cream; and then for dinner I'll have a real animal protein again, organic vegetables and some healthy natural fats. So for your health at Nutritional Weight and Wellness, we do often recommend eating organic vegetables and we recommend eating any meat that comes from a grass-fed animal. And if you can avoid, you know, as much as possible, we want you to be able to avoid pesticides, food chemicals, GMO, things like that. And we do, we find that people lose weight better because chemical-free foods reduce the stress on your liver. And just a side note: the liver is really the organ that is breaking down fat and working on our metabolism. So that's, we want to have our liver functioning as good as possible. So the less stress that you have on your liver coming from pesticides, artificial estrogens, the greater ability your liver will have to break down body fat.
NELL: That's right. That was a light bulb moment for me. I wanted to support my liver. So as you have heard today, losing weight is a complex process. It's so much more complex than calories in, calories out. It's biochemical. We have complex bodies, therefore, all need complex solutions that are really unique to just me, just you and specific; specific to you and your struggles and our own complex food triggers. So we need to be aware of that.
KARA: And I think that the main message from our show today, and Nell, I would just like to, again, thank you for being here.
NELL: It's great.
KARA: …being honest with your listeners and sharing your story. But the main takeaway is just that low-calorie counting points, low-fat eating is not the path to weight loss.
NELL: Say goodbye to that in the new year.
KARA: We want you to stop dieting to lose weight. And our goal at Nutritional Weight and Wellness is to help each and every person experience better health through eating real food. It's a simple but a powerful message. Eating real food is life changing. Thank you for listening. And may 2020 be your best year yet.
NELL: Thank you.
