Lifestyle Change: Without An All Or Nothing Approach

Can meaningful change really be achieved without giving up the things you love? Join me, Amy White, on this enlightening episode of the Simplicity of Wellness podcast, where we uncover the secrets to sustainable weight loss and body transformation. Drawing from a recent consult, I share how one client managed to keep her cherished date nights with her husband, which included alcohol, by simply swapping out starchy fillers for nutrient-dense proteins. This episode emphasizes that the key to effective lifestyle changes lies in making small, manageable adjustments rather than overwhelming, sweeping changes.

Are you longing to become leaner, stronger, and healthier without feeling like you have to overhaul your entire life? This week, we delve into how thoughtful food choices can help you achieve the body you desire while still enjoying the foods you love. Learn how to reconnect with your body to gain the comfort and confidence you deserve. For those looking for personalized guidance, a free consult link is available in the show notes. Tune in to discover how you can make smarter, more sustainable choices and transform your body and life.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Effective Changes for Healthy Living
• 12:04 Body Transformation Through Food Choices

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

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.

Speaker 2: 0:31

Hello simplifiers. I recently had a consult call with a woman who was interested in losing weight, but I could tell from the start of the conversation that she wasn't fully committed to the idea of making changes to lose her extra weight. She had submitted a one-page food journal outlining her typical breakfast, lunch, dinner that she wasn't fully committed to the idea of making changes to lose her extra weight. She had submitted a one-page food journal outlining her typical breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and beverages. I could see from her food journal that her daily protein was being diluted by filler foods like toast wraps, potatoes, rice. As for beverages, she wasn't a soda drinker, but she did include alcohol. All of this is fine, there's nothing wrong with any of this, but it's important to remember she wants to lose weight. She wants something different than what she currently has. The foods she mentioned in her food journal are typical foods that most people eat. In her case, these foods have contributed to how she currently feels and looks, something that she wants to change. As we all know, if you want something different, then you have to be willing to do things differently. These days, the modern or fancy way to say do things differently is make lifestyle changes.

Speaker 2: 1:38

A couple of things about the phrase lifestyle change. First, I use this phrase. Second, I don't like it. It's too broad. What does it even mean? It's this umbrella phrase for healthy change, but it has zero context and because of that, it's actually really unhelpful. It's like telling people to eat less without being clear about what that really means and exactly what that would look like in their real life. I think most people get overwhelmed by the thought of lifestyle change, because our lifestyle is everything. It's what you eat, it's how you move, it's your sleep, it's your time at work, it's your time with family and friends, it's what you do while you're at home, it's what you do when you're not at home, and so much more than I'm sure I haven't even considered. Thinking about making lifestyle changes can feel very overwhelming, especially for those of you who approach things as all or nothing. It's a rare person who can totally reinvent themselves overnight. So let's talk about lifestyle change as a real-life concept and what this can look like without the all or nothing. Now I'm going to use the consult that I mentioned at the beginning as an example.

Speaker 2: 2:48

The woman I was talking with wanted to lose weight. However, she was also having a hard time seeing where she could make changes In her mind. She was doing pretty well. She didn't eat candy or drink soda and for the most part, she ate real whole foods. I asked a lot of questions so that I could really understand what doing pretty well meant.

Speaker 2: 3:08

As I mentioned, there appeared to be some discomfort about making changes, and I really wanted to understand where this discomfort was coming from. What was she worried about? Was there something specific that she had a hard line in the sand about, something she knew she was absolutely not going to change? So very quickly it became clear that this was the case. It wasn't that she didn't want to make any changes. It was that she did have a couple of things that she believed weren't really healthy choices, but she didn't want to give them up, at least at this time. I loved this so much. This I could work with, because it's not about making huge, sweeping changes. It's not about all or nothing. It's not about going in and changing everything. It's about figuring out how to make even the smallest impact with changes that don't feel excessively hard. There are different ways to approach a goal and how you choose to do that will impact the changes that happen, If you can trust the process and be patient, then it's more likely that small changes will work and last For this woman.

Speaker 2: 4:11

She and her husband had date nights that included going out for margaritas on Mondays and then on Tuesdays they had a craft beer date. She didn't want to stop doing this. She enjoyed this time with her husband and looked forward to it. We put those things aside, didn't touch them. They were off the table as far as change went. Instead, I went back and started going through her food journal. We talked about adding more protein, especially at the first meal. In doing that, I suggested one way to make room for more protein was to lose the toast. I continued to suggest dropping other filler foods that she was eating throughout the day Breads, wraps, crackers, starchy side dishes like rice and potatoes.

Speaker 2: 4:50

She said I see what you're doing. You're taking out the carbs. And I said actually I'm building up the nutrient density of your meals so that you feel fuller and eat less calories without even noticing. Yes, the carby starchy foods are the easy foods to replace, because those are the foods that dilute your ability to get the nutrients your body needs. The more carby starchy foods you eat, the faster you feel full, but the hungrier you'll be overall. The carby starches fill you up before your body has had the chance to get all the nutrients it needs. So you feel full, but very shortly you get hungry again. Your body needs a certain amount of protein and the nutrients that come with that protein. If you fill up on breads, crackers, potatoes, rice and other carby starchy, non-nutritive foods, your body will kick up your appetite and encourage you to keep eating in an attempt to get the protein and nutrients it needs. When you give the body the nutrients it needs, you'll feel less hungry and naturally eat less during the course of the day.

Speaker 2: 5:54

The big point is she had a lot of room to make some easy food swaps that would make her actually feel better and less hungry. Food swaps that would save her from eating excess calories. Alcohol, margaritas and beer have a lot of calories. At the time of our conversation, she was getting excess calories through her food and the alcohol. She didn't want to give up the alcohol, which meant we needed to look at other ways to balance her incoming calories so she wasn't overfueling.

Speaker 2: 6:24

In her mind, it was going to have to be an all-or-nothing situation Change what she was eating and give up the alcohol. It's not an all-or-nothing situation. It's about finding ways to make a few small changes that don't feel hard. She had no problem with the idea of dropping the toast and increasing from one egg to three eggs and adding chicken sausage for breakfast. Having taco salad instead of tacos or burritos also felt fine and easy for her. Skipping the starchy sides at dinner and having more protein and non-starchy vegetables also wasn't a big deal for her. These were easy changes. Instead of having all the excess calories from non-nutrient, dense foods and alcohol, now she'd only be indulging in the alcohol. This shift that didn't feel hard for her could very well be all it would take for her to start seeing positive change. Really, only time will tell, which is why you have to decide on a change you're willing to make and then try it, see what happens, evaluate and adjust until you get the result you want.

Speaker 2: 7:25

Earlier when I mentioned that this woman had a few specific things that she was unwilling to change, I said at this time One thing that I've noticed over the years with clients is one change always leads to more change. Even the things we think we will never give up can become things that we do eventually want to make adjustments with. As you feel better you want to keep feeling better you start to notice the things that don't make you feel great and in my experience, those things do eventually get some type of healthy upgrade. In this case maybe, instead of having margaritas and craft beer every week, she eventually shifts to one week as a margarita date night and the next week as craft beer date night. There are so many different ways these date nights could be included as part of her healthy lifestyle. It's just about being curious and getting creative. When I first started telling you about this consult call that I had, I mentioned that the client wanted to lose weight but she was feeling unsure about making changes and that she kind of felt like she was doing pretty okay and she really couldn't see where she was going to be able to make changes. As I started to go through her food journal and she jumped in and said I see what you're doing, you're taking out the carbs. Now, to her that was just like yeah, yeah, yeah, I know low carb, that's what everybody's doing. But it also wasn't something that seemed relevant to her. It didn't seem worth it. It didn't, it wasn't going to make a difference in her mind. Once I started explaining why I was addressing those carbs and those starches and saying let's take those out and replace them with something else. I didn't want her to be hungry. I just wanted her to eat in a better way, a way that was going to work better for her body, for less calories. I wanted her to stop overfueling and create a tiny calorie deficit. She wants to lose weight, so we needed to figure out how we could balance her incoming calories so they weren't excessive, so that she wasn't holding and gaining weight. We wanted her to start shedding that extra weight Once she saw that taking out the non-nutritive foods, which are those carby starches, would help her balance her incoming calories and do it in a way that didn't make her feel hungry, didn't make her feel deprived. She was getting plenty of food, and food that she enjoyed. She was just doing it in a different way. Then it actually made sense to her. Then, all of a sudden, cutting the carbs wasn't just about cutting the carbs. There was a reason she was cutting those carbs.

Speaker 2: 9:56

When you go into any kind of a diet intervention, if you don't really understand why you're doing it, it can seem silly and not certainly worth it. You know why are you actually doing it. You enjoy those foods, but when you understand how those foods are impacting your body and that there are other things that you enjoy more, then it becomes something that you're actually really considering and it makes sense. Then it becomes something that you're actually really considering and it makes sense. Now also remember this woman was looking for advice on how to lose weight. My advice was for that goal, for that result. Now if she came back to me, or if she's a client that works with me during my 12-week program, then things would shift as she lost the weight. What she was including most of the time in her diet would change as she got to a place where she was now maintaining rather than losing. So we do make changes, but they're not necessarily permanent changes. They're just shifts and adjustments and then you figure out how those shifts and adjustments are gonna work for you most of the time, some of the times, or rarely, I want you to be able to fit all food into your diet. I want you to have a very diverse diet, but I also want you to understand how to make all of those foods work for you.

Speaker 2: 11:11

If you want to learn more about protein, carbs, fats and how those impact your body and how you can use them strategically to manage your weight and maintain your weight, then go back and listen to the last podcast episode, the one right before this. It was called From Weight Loss to Lifelong Maintenance A Balanced Approach. So let me ask you when you think about making healthy changes, are there things about your life that you are currently unwilling to consider changing or giving up? Would you describe any of these things as less than healthy choices? If so, my question is why? Why do you want to include them when you know they aren't a best choice for you?

Speaker 2: 11:51

What is it about this thing that you need? What feeling do you get from it? Is there any other way for you to get that same feeling? Doing something else, something you would consider a healthy choice? Spend some time thinking about this. If you have any questions, click the link in the show notes to shoot me a message have a great week. I will see you in the next podcast. Do you like the idea of eating for the body you want? Is there a piece of you that's eager to learn how to become leaner, stronger and healthier without having to overhaul your entire life? If this is you, then you're in luck, because this is what I do. I can help you reconnect and work with your body so that you can enjoy the body, comfort and confidence you deserve, eating foods you love. Click the free consult link in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 12:42

Let's talk about where you are, what you want and how you can get there.