The Simplicity of Wellness Podcast
The Simplicity of Wellness podcast is about learning how to bring your body into balance so that you get leaner, stronger and healthier as you age. Each week I'll share thoughts and ideas that help my clients build the self-awareness, self-confidence and self-reliance to lose weight, shed inches, manage muscle mass and master their mind so that they can stop dieting and enjoy living at their healthy weight with optimal wellness.
The Simplicity of Wellness Podcast
Regaining Your Center After Indulgent Celebrations
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Ever found yourself stepping off the scale, astonished by the number after a week of celebration? I, Amy White, have been there—after a family festivity filled with delicious Vermont Maple Creamies and a bevy of cheeses, my weight danced up by seven pounds. But before you start stressing about that number, join me in understanding why these fluctuations are part of our body's natural rhythm. In my latest episode, I'll share why it's not only normal but okay to have these changes, and how maintaining a comfortable weight range is far more vital than fixating on a singular goal weight. You'll walk away with an empowering perspective on how to handle post-celebration returns to routine, and the importance of keeping your kitchen stocked with foods that are good for you 'most of the time'.
Now, let's talk strategy—how do we navigate the endless food choices, especially when life's hustle and bustle barely gives us a moment to think? It's simpler than you might imagine, and it starts with being mindful of our eating. In this episode, I'll guide you through the process of becoming attuned to how different foods affect your well-being, and how this awareness can lead to better choices without imposing restrictions. Whether you're at home or facing the chaos of the outside world, I've got practical tips and resources for picking healthy snacks that don't compromise on convenience or nutrition. Get ready to learn how to adapt your diet on the fly and make peace with the ebb and flow of your eating habits for a happier, healthier you.
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Welcome to the Simplicity of Wellness podcast. I'm your host, board-certified holistic nutritionist and professional life coach, amy White. The purpose of this podcast is to share information that you can use to become leaner, stronger and healthier by losing weight, shedding inches, maintaining muscle and managing your mind, all while living your normal busy life in this modern, sugar-filled world. Hello simplifiers, today I want to talk about how six days of travel turned into seven pounds and why this is actually no big deal. It all started with college graduation weekend, so we had my nephew's college graduation in Vermont and then we had Vermont maple creamies with maple sugar sprinkles and so much cheese. But seriously, it was graduation weekend and there was just a lot of food. My sister and brother are amazing cooks and they were in charge of all the food and they did not disappoint. My sister also introduced us all to the Vermont Maple Creamy, which is a super high fat ice cream. I think they called it like double fat. It is delicious on its own, double fat. It is delicious on its own, but then they add these candied maple sugar sprinkles and it just moves to a whole new level and becomes very addicting, which is why we had a creamy every single day while we were in Vermont. As mentioned, I also ate more cheese than I've eaten probably in a single year. My sister loves cheese and she always has really, really great cheese. So there were blocks of cheese in the refrigerator in the house that we were all staying in and we would literally pull these blocks of cheese out. We would all stand there chatting and noshing on the cheese until it was gone. So, again, there was no shortage of food.
Speaker 1:It was a graduation celebration, but also a bit of a family reunion. So everyone was feeling really good and having fun and we were catching up and we were noshing for days on end. We were there for six days. I woke up on Tuesday morning, which would be day seven. We'd flown home. I stepped on the scale and I had gained seven pounds in six days. And you might be thinking, oh my God, but wrong. There was no oh my God about it. This was not a shock to me. This was not a surprise, of course. I put on scale weight.
Speaker 1:I spent six days eating beyond my body's needs and well beyond my hunger. I remember saying to my sister-in-law on Sunday that I can't remember the last time I felt hungry. I had just been eating sort of non-stop for the last four days and I never had that moment where I actually felt hungry. I also ate way more sugar than my body's used to and this increased the amount of stored sugar that I have in my liver. So that stored sugar is called glycogen. Now, when we increase the amount of glycogen that we're carrying around, we're storing water. Glycogen is stored in a hydrated form. All the extra sugar I was storing as glycogen was also storing water. So one gram of glycogen holds three grams of water. This is why often, when you cut your carbs and reduce your sugars, you lose water weight.
Speaker 1:When it comes to water weight, don't write that off as no big deal, because losing that water weight if you're carrying around extra water you're puffy, you don't feel great, your fingers feel stiff, they're hard to move because they're puffy. Your rings don't fit that water weight. When it goes away, you feel better, you look slimmer. It's a good thing. So typically for anybody who's on vacation or on this type of a trip where you're eating and drinking in ways that you don't normally do so maybe there's more alcohol, more sugary treats you're going to put on some water weight, it's to be expected. Do not go home and be upset or confused, it's okay, it is just extra water and it will go away. This is one of the reasons that those seven pounds weren't a big deal to me. The other reason and I think the bigger reason I don't think of these seven pounds as a big deal is because I don't have an ideal weight. I have an ideal weight range. In this weight range I have a level of self-confidence and body comfort that makes me feel really good. I like the way I look. I feel like I look the same when I'm within this weight range. My clothes fit really well, very comfortably. Nothing weird, nothing tight. My gut is happy. My energy is good. Again, this isn't a specific weight, it's a weight range. This weight fluctuation is a normal part of my custom lifelong body management process.
Speaker 1:I don't have forbidden foods. I eat ice cream and when I eat it I really enjoy it. I eat what I want because I know how to manage my body so that I feel and look the way I want to long term. I don't use temporary dieting trickery to manage my body. It's fun to live differently than you normally do some of the time. We've all done it. This is what we do when we go on vacation. But it's also fun to get back to normal life. Have you felt this toward the end of vacation? You have that thought? It will be so good to be home. For me, home is structure. Home is where I don't have to put a lot of thought into my food. Home is where my most of the time foods are ready and available. Home is where it's easy for me to feel my best without a lot of effort. When I got home, I felt a sense of relief because I was ready to enjoy my most of the time foods again. I was ready to get back to my normal. I missed my giant salads. I missed my cottage cheese. I missed my pork chops. I missed my tri-tip All the things that I normally eat on any given day.
Speaker 1:During the graduation trip, I ate almost exclusively my some of the time foods. These are the foods that generally are pretty neutral for my body. They don't typically make me feel lousy, unless I overdo it, because I was eating these some of the time foods most of the time, I was pushing my body a little too far. I felt pretty good and I looked like me, but I could feel my body sort of shifting toward worse. I wasn't pooping, I was starting to feel bloated, my sweet tooth was beginning to hum and my general hunger was ramping up.
Speaker 1:If I'd been staying on the east coast any longer, I would have made an effort to shift back to my normal patterns and my most of the time foods. I heard my body and I knew it was time to regain my balance. Fortunately, I didn't need to hit the grocery store and stock up on my favorite feel-good foods, and when I say feel-good foods, I mean the protein and the vegetables that shut down my sweet tooth and calm my appetite and regulate my gut. I'm not talking about what we all traditionally think of as feel-good foods right, cookies, cakes, chips, candy. I'm talking about my feel-good foods, and I'll explain this a little bit more shortly. So our trip was coming to an end. We were headed home. I knew that in only a day or two, my sweet tooth would calm down, my hunger would settle, I'd be pooping regularly and that excess water weight would disappear.
Speaker 1:My body management process has kept me lean, strong, healthy and around the same weight and size for the last 15 years. I actually still have clothes that I wear that are 15 to 20 years old, they still fit me. So 15 years ago, I knew dieting wasn't for me. I knew I wouldn't be good at trying not to do the things I like to do. I knew denying myself foods that I wanted wouldn't work. I knew I would never be able to change who I was and what I enjoyed just to get the scale to hit that specific number. So, instead of trying to change myself to fit into some arbitrary dieting rules, I learned to embrace me and what I like in a way that works for my body.
Speaker 1:I know how to eat and live for the body and the health I want, and that's what I do when I talk about my feel-good foods. Those are the foods that work for my body and make me feel my best. Those are my most of the time foods, not because I'm restricting other foods, but because these are the foods I crave and enjoy. My plan is custom designed for me because what I like and enjoy is different than what you like and enjoy. We could essentially be doing almost the same things when it comes to our diet and our lifestyle, but it would still be custom to me and custom to you, because I'm going to like certain foods that you're probably not going to like, and you're going to like certain foods that I'm not going to like, and we're both going to eat the things that we like and we're going to figure out how to make those foods work for us. And that's what I mean by custom designing your process. So if you want weight loss but also the ability to maintain your happy weight forever, you're going to want to build your own custom plan around what it is you like and enjoy.
Speaker 1:Cutting out your favorite things and labeling them as forbidden or bad will never create long-term sustainable results. Research shows that for most people, traditional dieting doesn't create weight loss. It causes weight gain. Have you or do you know someone who's gone on a diet and lost weight only to then regain back more than they actually lost? This isn't a fluke. That's the most typical body response to forced restriction and temporary changes. Nobody wants this, but I also get that the thought of creating a custom plan can feel overwhelming, especially if you have no idea how to do this.
Speaker 1:Figuring it out is worth it, because you become a woman who loses weight and manages her body without having to resort to tricks that don't work. Long term, you become that fit, thin, healthy woman that people think does crazy stuff so that you look in control around food. The truth is, you are in control around food. You are doing crazy things. You're not eating one meal a day, then binging when you get home. You're not fasting for two days after you have a big eating day. You're not doing crazy things. You're not turning your life upside down or altering your normal behavior. You're not miserable or feeling defeated because you're working so hard for a result that you know won't be sustainable. You're eating what you like and living the way you want because you know how to work with your body.
Speaker 1:It's very possible that you're feeling a little frustrated and kind of want to yell at me in your head at this point, because you're thinking well, how am I supposed to build a custom body management plan when I have no idea how to do that? I hear you. I'd be bashing me too, but the simple answer is you ask for help. Let's face it, if you knew how to do it, you would already have done it. If you really want to be done with dieting and learn how to adapt what you like to eat and how you like to live so that it all amounts to weight loss and long-term weight management without feeling overly restricted or having a list of forbidden foods. Then ask for help. I can help you, or if not me, then someone else. Start Googling. Look for a nutritionist, a health coach or even a dietician that you feel like you click with, someone who sounds like they know you and what you want. Talk to them, ask them for help.
Speaker 1:As for right now, at this moment, what I want you to take away from this episode is to first shoot for a healthy weight range rather than a strict, specific number. Figure out the body metrics you want to watch as a way to keep track of your body balance. For me, that's sugar cravings, level of hunger, energy, gut discomfort. Remember that some of your excess sugars will get stored as glycogen in your liver and with that you'll store water. So, yes, after vacation or indulgent moments, you are probably going to hold a little water weight. Nothing has gone wrong. It will go away. Dieting is the old, unsuccessful way to approach weight loss. Creating a custom body management process is your ticket to managing your happy weight long term.
Speaker 1:Step one start thinking about your food. What are your most of the time foods? What are your some of the time foods and what are those rarely or never foods? Again, your most of the time foods are going to be the foods that make you feel your best. Those are the foods that give you energy, that actually help you lose weight, that calm your gut. Those are your most of the time foods. Those some of the time foods are going to be the things that you pretty much can eat. You feel okay. They're sort of neutral, they don't cause discomfort.
Speaker 1:However, when eaten in excess, they push you in the wrong direction and they make you feel worse, not better. And then those rarely or never foods are the ones that you know if you eat it, you will feel sick. There will be a negative consequence to that food. These rarely foods still aren't forbidden. They're not something that you say to yourself I can never have that. They're just something that you make a choice about because you know how your body's going to react to it. It's all about the choices that you're making and what you know, how your body's going to react to it. It's all about the choices that you're making and what you want to do most of the time is make sure that the foods that you are eating and enjoying are the ones that work for your body.
Speaker 1:I will admit, the better you feel, the more you're going to want to eat better food, because once feel good, feeling lousy just is not acceptable anymore and you will start to want different food. You will want better food. Always remember nothing has gone wrong. You're always gathering information so that you can adapt, make changes and prepare for similar situations in the future, where you can then course correct in the moment. I will see you in the next episode. Life is busy and when we're busy, sitting down to a meal often isn't realistic, which means we're grabbing snacks If you're eating on the run more often than not, click the link below the podcast to grab my healthy snacks list. You'll find lots of ideas for mini meals at home and easy on-the-go travel snacks.
