Joy+Full Weight Loss with Sarah Wells, MD: Recent Episodes
Sarah
A weekly dose of practical encouragement and science-backed strategies to help you persevere in your pursuit of health, wholeness, and joy. Tired of confusion, myths and pricey gimmicks keeping you from progress in lasting weight loss? The “calories in-calories out” model is outdated! Let's talk about the failure of diet culture and the diet industry, which shrink our wallets while obesity rates keep climbing. Lets talk about the hormonal shifts that can act like a key to unlock extra energy stored as fat, and get caught up on the most cutting-edge science surrounding weight loss and healthy habits. But knowing how science works on a cellular level isn’t enough to get your brain on board when it comes to sticking with habit changes…Go beyond the science, dig deeper to find the roots of what drive us to overeat. It’s never just about the food—we need minds steeped in true thoughts, hearts full of courage and perseverance, and souls that feast on goodness and beauty. Find the clarity and confidence to finally make progress with your health, so you can to do what you love, and show up as your best in your calling and for those you serve and love. This is about the pursuit of grace instead of perfection, wholeness instead of wellness, and surrender over self-care. This is about more than just that number on your scale. Join Sarah Wells, MD, a Christian physician and weight loss coach, trained in obesity medicine and certified in Lifestyle Medicine. She also brings the personal experience of years maintaining a 90+ pound weight loss, while enjoying life as a busy wife and mom of four, with the energy to run marathons. ©2020 Joy+Full Weight Loss and Wellness, LLC Disclaimer:This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and solely as a self-help tool for your own use. I am not providing medical, psychological, or nutrition therapy advice. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat any health problems or illnesses without consulting your own medical practitioner. Always seek the advice of your own medical practitioner and/or mental health provider about your specific health situation. For my full Disclaimer, please go to
I've spoken about being willing to try new strategies as needed, and different skillsets needed for different obstacles. In this episode, I give examples from my experience in what has looked like.
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There a a number of benefits to winter exercise outdoors, especially when it's cold.
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When you hear about the rise in obesity acrose the last 40 or 50 years, you may often hear talk about about how it's driven by an energy mismatch, where we just eat more than we should and don't move as much as we used to. Or maybe you hear about how we eat too many carbs these days, and that causes us to store too much fat. These are two of the common theories as to why human populations are increasing in weight. But when you look at data about what has been happening in animal weights across the last 40 -50 years, you may--like me--start to wonder if there is more to the story. That brings to to talk about obesogens--what they are, how they cause problems, and what to do about them!
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This episode, I focus on the benefits of exercise in terms of your BRAIN HEALTH, and highlight some recent studies that tell us how much it benefits us. Exercise impacts our memory, learning, creativity, and function through increasing the brain's neuroplasticity. There is also evidence that new brain cells can be born and that our brain size increases! Benefits of exercise extend to impact anxiety, depression, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
In short: our brains LOVE exercise. Give this episode a listen if you want inspiration to get out there in the cold and move.
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I keep running across more and more impacts that chronic inflammation has on our bodies. In this episode I share what I've learned about what it is, what drives it, and what diseases are impacted by it. The good news is there are things we can do to combat it and lower our inflammatory state! I'll talk about those too.
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In this final part of the episodes about the new class of anti-obesity medications, I talk about factors to consider in the decision to take medications or have surgery for Obesity. What about those who call it "cheating"? Is obesity a disease or is just driven by a set of lifestyle choices? Shouldn't we just "move more and eat less"? Is it that simple?
This episode is Part 3 of 3
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This episode we’ll revisit an approach to Christmas feasting where we get to strategically enter in to celebrations while learning to exercise restraint. Let's find ways to extract the wonderful feeling of the season in new ways that we haven’t been able to appreciate before, because we were SO focused on the food and the struggle of food decisions. I'll talk about tactical physical/food strategies as well as mindset shifts to make which will support the ability to feast with joy during the festive food gatherings of the season.
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This is something that bears repeating!
Science has revealed in recent decades that the brain is trainable and physically changes in response to training. This is called neuroplasticity.
This episode will cover what it is and how understanding how the brain functions in this way can help us improve our health building habits. I'll also give three specific tactics or strategies you can begin using right away to begin training your brain to support your decision to cultivate healthy behaviors. I include personal examples of how I use these tactics.
I'll also explore what the Bible says about the life of the mind and the training of the mind, and how it relates to what science has uncovered.
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I’m revisiting these tips myself as we go full swing into these season of celebrations! Here I'll give you 12 tips--things that have worked for me--in enjoying healthier Christmas seasons.
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The evidence has been mounting for the benefits of exercise in reducing the risk of cancer. How much risk reduction has been found to occur? And how much exercise do we need to see that? And why would exercise even do any good for preventing cancer?
Today I talk about all that and discuss the immune surveillance system we have in place that can be strengthened by exercise. Sometimes we need to know what is happening under the surface in our cells is meaningful in order to keep moving when we lose motivation because we don't see change elsewhere (like on the scale).
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This holiday weekend I've got a brief episode touching on the benefits of gratitude on our health all year long.
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What are these new anti-obesity medications that have been in the news lately? Do they really work? Or is this just another gimmick or fad? Here, I discuss what they are, how they work, and more.
This episode is Part 2 of 3
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What are these new anti-obesity medications that have been in the news lately? Do they really work? Or is this just another gimmick or fad? Here, I discuss what they are, how they work, and more.
This episode is Part 1 of 3
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Be it a new habit surrounding food, a new exercise regimen, or simply eating more vegetables, we want to find the perfect day to start working towards our goals. But the reality is, there is always SOMETHING around the corner than can convince us this is not the ideal time to start. So how do we work around that feeling, and what steps can we take to make progress towards health goals not matter what day of the year it is?
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Failure is part of the path toward reaching our goals. The question is, will we use it as a sign we should quit? Or an opportunity for growth. In this episode I talk about how failure means we GET to learn something. And I break down 5 steps to take to foster growth through failure.
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It's now estimated that up to 25%-30% of the US population is suffering from liver disease related to abnormal levels of fat in the liver, driven by metabolic dysfunction. This used to be known as NAFLD, but the name has recently been changed. What causes it and how can you prevent it? Is it treatable? And why the name change? This episode I dive a discussion of this increasingly common condition.
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I'm still waiting for the day to arrive when making healthy choices is easy all the time. That day hasn't arrived! I still struggle with the desire to overeat or eat the sort food that don't serve me best. So as a Christian, I ask myself: Why hasn't God taken those desires away? Why can't I just move on in freedom from them? In this episode I detail some purposes He may have in not removing them.
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Today I do a big picture review of some of the Keys to Consistency that have made a massive difference for me. Staying consistent when I feel motivated is one thing. But figuring out how to stay consistent in healthy habit when I absolutely don't want to? That's what makes the difference. And that's what I cover in this episode.
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Returning from Summer Break, I share what I learned over the summer, as well as about the plans for the upcoming season on the podcast. I describe why I've made the name change and how you can become a subscriber!
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I'm taking a break from producing new episodes over the summer, but I hope this is the start to a wonderful season for all of you!
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Understanding how our brain responds to inflammation triggered by certain foods can help us strategize how best to stick with our goals.
Bringing this episode from last year back for an encore.
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In this episode I discuss another key to maintaining consistency...by setting up an environment that supports not quitting.
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Sometimes we get in our own way by overcomplicating things. What is helpful in staying consistent is to take a minute and consider where we can simplify.
Usually there is something we can find to change to make it easier. Looking at our schedule, our kitchen set up, how we shop, and the steps we are taking to prepare to exercise each day can help us find things to cut back and streamline.
We also can decrease decision fatigue surrounding food choices we make all day by simplifying that process as well.
All these ways we simplify can help us stay consistent, which will get us closer to the results we desire.
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What if you could time travel to the future you image where you are enjoying the health you've worked for? And then, what if you could "borrow" some things from that future to bring back to the present that would help you stay consistent in the health changes you've been working on?
You'd have more motivation, and a vision for what steps to take next, as well as good reasons to stay consistent.
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Many of us struggle with quitting new healthy habit changes because they seem too hard. Too overwhelming. Too taxing for our energy or time. Or just too uncomfortable.
But what if we lowered our standards for what we "count" as achieving the healthy habit? You may think this would mean you won't reach your long term health goals. But if "lowering the threshold" of what you consider acceptable in a health habit keeps you consistent in doing SOMETHING in that health area, instead of quitting entirely, there's a strong case to go ahead and do it!
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Another helpful thing to use which can help us in staying consistent in healthy habits is tracking them! Having a visible scoreboard of our decisions benefits us in a lot of ways. We can celebrate success even when we don't see it in results. We can decrease the need for perfectionistic thinking. Tracking helps us NOT FORGET what are the actual habits we are trying to currently build. And tracking gives us the data we need to know what we actually DID across a period of time to give us the results we are reaping.
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When we can "swallow our frog" and do the hard thing we've been avoiding, we often found the task we've put off isn't all that hard after all.
Not only that, but we can then begin to enjoy the benefits of having completed it for even longer!
So deciding regularly to call out our own procrastination in putting the time or energy in to our health goals is key to cultivating consistency in our health habits.
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So we've talked about motivation and how to harness it to be consistent in making healthy decisions.
But what are we supposed to do when we feel completely UNmotivated? How do we stay consistent then?
We can make decisions WHILE we are motivated that do support us later when the motivation wanes. We can set up our environment, our systems, and tap into other people to help ups stay the course. We can also break up long goals into shorter ones to keep us from that lull in the middle where in the past we may have thrown in the towel. And there are more things we can do. The key is not quitting!
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We've been talking about things that support us across the days and weeks in being consistent in practicing healthy habits. Today's episode covers motivation. First, we can schedule the time to peel back the layers and uncover all the reasons that we are motivated to change and improve. We can collect those and write them down, and then use those to drive our consistency every day!
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Let's face it. We know it's what we do every day, day after day, across the years and decades that will make the real difference in our health.
So why is it so hard to be consistent? Why do we so often fall into an all-or-nothing mentality and then crash and burn with our goals and habit change attempts?
Today I open up a series of episodes that will be focused around these questions and uncover the keys to consistency, the supports we can put in place to get us where we want to be in terms of health years from now.
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What if you were playing a sport and aiming for the wrong goal? Not only would it be pretty embarrassing, but it would also not win you any points. And even if you did all the right drills in practice all week, and your agility and speed and skill was refined…if you are aiming for the wrong goal—-you’d hurt your team!
SO how do you know if you are accidentally aiming in your mind for the WRONG GOAL in a way that will keep you from getting the health or weight loss you desire?
Today I talk about how I discovered I was aiming for the wrong goal and what I did to fix that.
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Today is the final episode in a 3-part series about weight regain, where I discussed the common causes of weight regain. I then detailed what worked to help me keep 90 pounds off for 4 years, as well as what happened to cause me to deal with some regain this past year. Finally in this 3rd episode of the series, I'll talk about what I'm doing now to lose that extra regained weight. Hopefully this will encourage you that even if you've regained, there is a path forward and you can be successful. Entering into losing regained weight from a place of gratitude as apposed to anger can make a huge difference!
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Today is the second in a 3-part series about weight regain, where I discuss the common causes of weight regain. I then detail what worked to help me keep 90 pounds off for 4 years, as well as what happened to cause me to deal with some regain this past year. Finally in the 3rd episode of the series, I'll talk about what I'm doing now to lose that extra regained weight. Hopefully this will encourage you that even if you've regained, there is a path forward and you can be successful. Entering into losing regained weight from a place of gratitude as apposed to anger can make a huge difference!
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Weight regain is so very common after weight loss. But why? What is driving it? Why can't we just lose weight and keep it off?
Today is the first in a 3-part series about weight regain, where I'll discuss the common causes of weight regain. I'll then discuss what worked to help me keep 90 extra pounds off for 4 years, as well as what happened to cause me to deal with some regain this past year. Finally in the 3rd episode of the series, I'll talk about what I'm doing now to lose that extra regained weight. Hopefully this will encourage you that even if you've regained, there is a path forward and you can be successful. Entering into losing regained weight from a place of gratitude as apposed to anger can make a huge difference!
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Maybe you've seen these machines in your local gym or in a Physical Therapy clinic:
You look over and see someone standing on a small platform that is shaking them all over!
What are they, what do they do, and why would anyone use them?
Today's episode covers an overview of some of the reasons people may try them, and I'll discuss the data I found as I searched to understand if they really carry any benefit.
People try them hoping to increase muscle, or decrease fat, or both. They are used in hopes of increasing bone density and preventing fractures from osteoporosis. They've been used by people with pain stemming from knee osteoarthritis and chronic low back pain, as well as those with fibromyalgia. And they are used by many to try to improve lymphatic flow and drainage. Do the studies offer proof that they actually help with these issues?
Listen in as I discuss what I learned and talk about how and why I use one.
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I todays episode I discuss a study from Frontiers in Psychology about the mindsets surrounding healthy behaviors, and this week focus on finding surrounding our mindset around healthy food. How can we think differently about the food we know is healthy, to get to a place where we also actually desire it?
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If you took 10 minutes to adjust the way you thought about exercise, and it meant that in 7 weeks, not only would you have exercised more already, but you'd be signing up to KEEP exercising...what would that do for you?
I todays episode I discuss a study from Frontiers in Psychology about the mindsets surrounding healthy behaviors, and specifically: exercise. People studied who made some adjustments to the way they thought about exercise--to begin to believe it is fun, rewarding, enjoyable, relaxing--they kept coming back for more!
I'll discuss how they did it and what we can learn from it today.
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Its about that time of January again where many 'throw in the towel', so to speak, in reagards to their health goals for the New Year. We might get distracted with all the other things on our plates, or run out of motivation to continue.
But for many of us, perfectionism is rearing it's head! We can get tricked into thinking that if we can't do it perfectly, why even bother?
In this episode, I'll give all the reason why we SHOULD still bother. I'll explain how imperfect progress is STILL progress. When you get back on course, learn from mistakes, and keep trying, this is how you achieve lasting change in your health.
Don't let perfectionism keep you from cultivating a healthier life.
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We are in the season of the year where there are lots of bright, shiny, fancy plans available to offer you a healthier year. Some of them are great, others not so much. Some of them will only leave your wallet lighter! So what are actually the changes that need to be made to get the biggest bang for your buck (or for your time and effort?). Which 'hacks' are a waste of your time and energy and what gimmicks are just ripping you off?
In this episode I talk about some of the KEY CHANGES to consider and put your focus toward as you shift to a healthier lifestyle you can maintain. These are the low hanging fruit--pick them first as you focus on improving your health!
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So many of our plans when we set out to make changes in health, wether it be at the New Year or at other time, seem to have a lot to do with what we determine to cut out, or to cut back! Maybe its sugar, or desserts, or carbs, or chips, or diet soda, there is usually a temptation to focus on what we WON'T be doing or eating.
But approaching the changes we want to have by shifting our focus to what we can ADD to our lives and days and plates will both 'crowd out the bad stuff', as well as help us avoid a mindset that leaves us feeling deprived.
Today I talk through a few ideas about what kind of thing we can add to our plans, our days, and our plates that will help us see health results.
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Key to success for me has been having a written plan. It starts with creating a planned time on the calendar TO plan. Then starting with the big picture of a year of goals and goal-setting, then breaking that up in to quarterly and monthly goals and plans. From there, it works best to break it down further to weekly plans (I'll talk about my favorite weekly calendar format). Then dialing in the plans to the Day by Day level. I'll describe what I put on my daily plan and what I have learned to write on it to optimize success.
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This week I'm sharing my 3 top goal-setting strategies that WORKED for me in 2022, which I'm planning on utilizing to drive success for myself in 2023.
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What motivations can drive Christians in making decisions that benefit their health? Where does gluttony come in? How do we glorify God in our eating? Is it wrong to turn to food for comfort? And what are we missing out on when we do?
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Here I'll give you 12 tips--things that have worked for me--in enjoying healthier Christmas seasons.
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Let's take an approach to Christmas feasting where we get to strategically enter in to celebrations while learning to exercise restraint. Let's find ways to extract the wonderful feeling of the season in new ways that we haven’t been able to appreciate before, because we were SO focused on the food and the struggle of food decisions. I'll talk about tactical physical/food strategies as well as mindset shifts to make which will support the ability to feast with joy during the festive food gatherings of the season.
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What if you turned your hardest hour of the day, in terms of eating, into your most powerful hour? An hour where not only did you not overeat, but instead you flourished and fulfilled all the demands on your life within that hour with an overflow of joy. What would happen? How would your life change if you did this on a daily basis?
Today we are going to talk about and break down what is happening in that hour to make it so challenging, and flip it upside down, creating strategies and approaches that help you show up in that part of your day and thrive. This is something that’s been helpful for me as I’ve taken this approach, and I hope it can help you as well.
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I am so excited to talk about one of the KEY habits that has driven my personal success in weight loss and maintenance that has to do with this time of year. And it is gratitude! Practicing it regularly, and getting better at it has driven my success in actually enjoying healthy habits SO MUCH.
If you want to work on your health and increase success in enjoying healthier habits, you’ve GOT to approach beginning with gratitude. Gratitude is the path forward.
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Perhaps you've heard that Obesity is associated with an increased risk for a number of different cancers. Why is this? What is behind the connection, and what can be done about it? Does this mean that if you can't seem to lose the extra weight you are doomed to bear all this risk, or are there specific steps you can take to mitigate your risk even if the weight loss seems to stall? Understanding the potential drivers of this association can actually help us take practical changes in our lifestyle habits, and that can likely decrease our cancer risk even if the scale doesn't budge.
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Let's do a but of a dive into the topic of insulin resistance: What is it? What is happening in the body when someone developes it? Why is is dangerous? How do I know if I have it? What can be done about it?
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If you listened to Part 1 on cortisol you know that having chronically high levels of cortisol can really work against our health. But what can we do to lower those levels naturally? There are a number of strategies we can glean if we look at the studies on cortisol levels and what reduced them in subject of these studies. In this episode I'll review what some of those approaches can be.
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What really works when you have a house containing candy when it comes to sticking with the health and eating plans you'd like to maintain? This question might be closer to the front of your mind as Halloween night approaches. In this episode, I'll talk about ways to engineer your environment so you aren't maxing out your willpower, obstacles you can put in place to make it less likely you will overindulge, how to plan your evening to maximize enjoyment wether you are indulging in a little sweets or avoiding them completely. Either way, there are steps you can take to make this a better night for you than past years.
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What is cortisol and what does it do? This episode details how cortisol is designed to work, what it does in the body, and what happens when it gets out of whack. How does stress impact it? What does it have to do with achieving a healthy weight? And is 'adrenal fatigue' even really a thing?
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This week we'll revisit one of the most popular episodes last year!
This episode I explain the importance of playing the long game in terms of achieving health results. Nimbleness, or the ability to be flexible and shift approaches in terms of specific tools and strategies used, is KEY. But how do you know when it's time to shift strategies? How do you know what kind of tool to try next, when you find that what worked in one seasons of life isn't working anymore? I'll cover ways to use a flexible approach successfully as well as how not to let it trip you up.
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We know there are so many benefits to exercise in general, but what kind of benefits are specific to focusing on building strength and lean body mass? Is it really worth my time to focus on building muscle? In this episode I walk through an overview of some of the major benefits to strength training across so many body systems. I'll talk about what benefit surprised me as I've added it in more regularly, too.
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Once you've established a baseline exercise routine, and you are getting consistent movement into your day that is building your overall health, how can you "level up"? There are a number of ways to tailor what you are doing in movement to what your goals are, and for many people, there are benefits to adding a few sessions a week of brief high-intensity interval sessions. Are these for you? What are the benefits, and why would someone want to consider adding them? As someone who personally loves moderate, slow and steady exercise that builds endurance, I've always been a bit resistant to to my tried and true slow zone 2 runs. But after reading the literature surrounding the benefits of HIIT, I decided to commit to adding at least 2 sessions a week. What convinced me, and how is it going? That's what I talk about in this episode.
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Have you ever noticed something like a 'brain fog' after eating too much sugar or processed food? What is behind that? And you just don't seem to feel satisfied by what you are eating...And why is it that you sometimes completely forget the eating goals you set in the morning by the time 5 o'clock arrives? It turns out, not only is processed sugary food hijacking our reward centers in the brain and making it hard to enjoy the rest of life, but it is also causing inflammation in specific parts of the brain. Specific parts of the brain that we NEED to have functioning well when we are working toward living healthier. This is part of why processed foods end up working like self-perpetuating cycles that can be hard to break! Tune in today and I'll discuss the two parts of the brain that have been shown by fMRI studies to become inflamed by poor dietary choices.
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Is meditation really beneficial for our health? And if so, what does it accomplish? How is secular meditation different that Christian meditation? And how does someone go about Christian meditation? In this episode I'll give a brief overview of the scientific literature about the benefits of meditations, I'll discuss different approaches to what meditation is, and look at a Christian perspective on it.
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When healthy sleep happens, a cascade of events is occurring. Each stage of sleep seems to have a number of things happening that are vital for your long term health. This episode details what is happening in each stage, and what happens when you are deprived of sleep in the short or long term. The DNA in your brain cells gets signals that turn on and turn off various genes, and those impact so many things: your immunity, your ability to process memories, and your insulin resistance. This, in turn, will impact the extra fat stores you carry or don't carry. Understanding the way sleep works can help motivate you to prioritize improving the habits that cultivate healthy sleep.
This episode touches on just a little of what has been revealed about how exercise can be a helpful tool in the toolbox to fight addictive behaviors. Many studies have been completed surrounding substance abuse recovery and exercise...can they be extrapolated to help explain why exercise also seems to be a key part of maintaining weight loss in those who have achieved it? The evidence seems to support that.
This episode dives into what happens in the Dopamine receptor levels in people carrying extra weight. And why is it that sometimes the amount of anticipation you have for certain foods is completely out of sync with how much you actually enjoy it when you actually eat them? What does that mismatch have to do with dopamine?
Does it seem hard to get back on track after you've relapsed for a period of time to old eating and health habits? If so, you are not alone! Getting off track is a normal part of the process, and getting back on track is something that you have to practice over and over again. In fact, learning to get back on track, and practicing it over and over, is what moves you forward toward a long term healthy lifestyle.
In this episode, I cover a number of steps to take to move past discouragement and get back on the path you want to be on.
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Is it really true that 'pear-shaped' bodies are healthier than 'apple-shaped' bodies? What can be done about a larger waistline than is healthy?
This episode dives in to 3 things that impact the measurement of your waist, why they matter for health, and what to do about them!
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Its summer which means fresh sources of fiber from the tastiest fruits and fresh from the vine veggies abound. But what exactly is fiber and why is it good for you? How does it work to improve your health? And what does it mean when companies add it to their products--does that processed kind benefit our health as much as plants?
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What benefits can you expect to see when you "only" lose 10 pounds? Or even 5 pounds? Sometimes, like many, you might find yourself questioning whether your efforts are worthwhile if you lose 5% of your starting weight, when you've aspired to more.
Instead of quitting in discouragement, this episode is the one to pick when you are looking for some stats from the research that reveal just how beneficial these seemingly small changes can be.
The good news is largely explained by the kind of fat the body releases first as the weight comes off. It gets rid of the most dangerous fat first! This is great news, and drives all the health benefits that are associated with these little changes.
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This episode is all about expectations. We will talk about what sort of expectations we have in regards to weight loss, and what the studies currently find MOST people have when they start a weight loss plan. We’ll also discuss what typical weight loss happens when addressing behavioral changes in studies. Is it going to hamper your success if you are dreaming big in regards to weight loss? Or will that fuel your efforts more than if you were focused on a small amount of loss. Today we’ll unpack all of that and also review the data surrounding weight loss expectations.
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When there is a 'failure' or a 'misstep' in your progress towards your goals, how do you handle it? This episode walks through ways to glean the growth these opportunities can offer. If we breeze past the mistakes without sitting down to pull out the opportunities for growth they offer us, we will have trouble moving forward. We need to learn to consistently step back and take out the emotion we bring to them, to give ourselves the space and grace to examine what went wrong. We also need to record things in handwriting on actual paper, so we can process the scenario for the best results in coding the information into our brain's memory center. Then we can brainstorm other ways to handle the challenging situations and be able to move forward in building new neural pathways that grow out of these opportunities.
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What if you actually loved the foods that are good for you, the ones you "ought" to eat?
And what if you truly DIDN'T like the foods that are not-so-good for your health? What if you actually WANTED the good stuff and DIDN'T want the bad stuff? Wouldn't this make eating healthier SO MUCH SIMPLER? You wouldn't have to use nearly as much willpower on a day to day basis, since you'd find eating how you want to eat moved you toward your health goals.
The good news: there ARE ways to train your brain to love specific foods and dislike others. In this episode, I'll detail some steps you can take to do just that.
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DISCLAIMER
Let's think outside the box about what we can do with our food choices when we are on the go. From nice restaurants to quick gas station stops, we actually DO have options and choices we can make to nourish ourselves well and support our health, even when we are away from home.
Listen in to discover what one study discovered in people's kitchens that made a 20 - 30 pound difference in their weight! I'll talk about ways to apply what they discovered in our own kitchens to help decrease the amount of willpower we need to expend on a daily basis.
Today's episode is a little dive into the science of fat storage. What happens to fat cells when we lose weight? How many fat cells are there in the body? Are there some types of fat cells that are healthier than others? What do fat cells actually DO besides just store fat for energy? And how can we access the fat in them to burn it off? All this and more covered in today's episode
What sorts of things have we learned from medical and scientific studies about how our bodies respond to caffeine and coffee? Is it true they are actually GOOD for us, or is there more to the story? And what sort of things should we think though as we decide how much WE ingest on a regular basis? This is part 1.
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What sorts of things have we learned from medical and scientific studies about how our bodies respond to caffeine and coffee? Is it true they are actually GOOD for us, or is there more to the story? And what sort of things should we think though as we decide how much WE ingest on a regular basis? This is part 1.
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Memorial Day is coming up and with it the summer season is almost here. Whether you plan to get away or not, it can be helpful to figure out what you really want to get out of your vacation! There are ways to approach vacation that can help you arrive back having truly achieved rest and enjoyed yourself, while still cultivating improvements in health. Listen in as we get into the details.
There are ways to approach goal setting that can really make a difference in how motivated and engaged you stay with them throughout the year. Over the years, I've found incredible benefit to dividing my year into smaller "chucks" of time, call them quarters or seasons, where I revisit and reset goals for each of these periods of time. This episode I'll detail how my time divisions have shifted over the years, what I've found works and doesn't work, and ways to consider breaking your own year up in a way that works to drive success in your own productivity and goal setting.
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So much of our energy can be needlessly expended on exercising willpower. But when you set up the right systems in your life, willpower isn't as necessary in your work to have healthy habits. This episodes talks about the systems to consider as you plan meal, gather and store food, and prep meals. We can also set up systems that help us as we move through our environments outside of the home.
Not only that, let's think about how systems themselves can be contagious in a GOOD way that can even benefit those around us.
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There are a few lessons I learned while training and running marathons. Several of those have been incredibly helpful when it comes to making healthy lifestyle choices last. I'll tell you about a few of those in this episode.
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What would happen to your motivation if you thought a little bit more about the long term. What is it that you are working toward, in your 70's, 80's, even 90's? Granted, we don't know how long we have on this earth, but how would you want to make the best of those years? Deciding now how to invest for then, in terms of health habits, could pay off in decreased chronic disease when you get to those wiser years. In this episode, I talk about the general areas of health habits to think about that can set you up to be active and serving others as you age. Take seriously those small improvements and that consistency, because over the decades they really can accumulate into a lot of benefits.
What if one simple action you undertook every day could make a HUGE impact on your overall health, in a way that compounds results day after day? There is one daily practice you can take that can be a huge "bang for your buck" so to speak in terms of benefits. This is a stack of habits that can be completed all in one fell swoop!
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The process of dealing with many chronic diseases of our times involves going to the root of what patterns of behavior are driving the damage to our metabolism. But what is the root of those behaviors? Why do we chose them again and again? And is there an even deeper driver? Let dig back to the deepest level of change to see what is behind the way we live our lives, and ultimately determines the outworking of how we make even the small choices every day. This is what matters most.
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If you are heading to the tops of mountains, and there is no topography on your map, you may make the mistake of thinking the whole path will be flat! Perhaps easy and through meadows and fields, meandering beside streams. But when the destination involves uphill climbs, you need the expectations that challenges in climbing a mountain are a NORMAL part of this process. You will have to use various tools of different sorts to get to the top. Don't follow a map that tells you the process isn't what it really is, or the whole process can be that much harder.
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An assumed constraint is something that you thinkprevents you from moving forward with change, but in reality it's actually the belief itself in that constraint holding you back, when the constraint itself may not even be real.
What do I mean by this? First I'll describe this using a metaphor that involves a circus elephant. Then, I'll talk about how to uncover these tricky assumed constraints (which are really hard to see in ourselves).
Finally, I'll discuss two assumed constraints that are extremely common in people trying to lose weight. Dismantling these, which I help walk you through in this episode, may be the KEY for allowing to move forward and finally make the progress you've longed for.
There are definite rabbit holes we may find ourselves going down in our attempts to lose weight and improve our health that waste our time, energy, and money. And not only that, they don't even move us forward. There are also distractions that appeal to us because they are made to look easy and quick and promise SO MUCH, but in reality don't deliver what they promise. These are all the peripheral things that are made to LOOK central to weight loss but really just make money for the people selling them. How can you detect them? How can you avoid wasting money, time, and energy on something that just takes you down a rabbit hole or is just a distraction from what really needs to change in your day to day life to reach a place of better health? Listen in as I answer these questions and more.
It is so very easy to get waylaid in our work to improve our health by focusing on the wrong things! There are distractions everywhere and rabbit holes we fall in as we navigate all the information that is promoted surrounding how to lose the weight and improve our health. So it makes sense to revisit those core areas we MUST focus on if we really want to achieve lasting improvements in our health and weight. In todays episode, I'll discuss 5 foundation areas where we need to focus our time and attention as we decide what to do to move forward in healthier living. I'll also detail the practical steps to take that will help those new habits stick.
Did you know that there is a connection between allergic disease and obesity? And that there is also evidence that specific over the counter treatments for seasonal allergies can promote weight gain!?
In this episode I'll discuss the link that appears to exists between obesity and allergic disease, as well as some thing to consider as you chose how to treat the season allergies you may be dealing with as the pollen count rises!
There are SO many claims out there on the front of packaged foods. "Natural" "Organic" "Keto" "plant-based"
How can you tell which of these things is ACTUALLY worth your money and actually building your health? There are a number of products that might appear to be "health foods", but upon closer inspections, are actually taking you further from your health goals.
In this episode, I'll talk about how I navigate the grocery store, the nutrition labels, and the ingredient lists. I'll talk about the tricks the food marketers are currently playing that might be lightening your wallet and not benefiting you at all.
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I know, I know, it seems super trendy. But this amazing versatile vegetable is a GIFT to healthy eaters and cooks everywhere. In this episode, I'll talk about all the health benefits it carries, the ways to include it, some of my favorite recipes, as well as how to grow it! I'm planning on starting my seeds this week.
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There are a lot of ways that working toward long term health habits and losing extra weight can feel like you are climbing a big mountain! We can cultivate a love for the path and the climb and enjoy the process. Or we can cultivate a hate for the processes and make it a lot harder than it needs to be. In this episode I tell a story about a mountain I know well, and what it taught me.
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We all have days when motivation wanes. We can remind ourselves of all the benefits we'll get to our personal health when we don't throw in the towel. But we could also consider all the ways that our persistence may actually be doing something loving for the people we care about too. In this episode, I'll review several ways that our consistency in cultivating healthier habits even when its hard can support and benefit those we love.
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30 Day Weight Loss Course
Is a moderate approach to certain foods really best for everyone? Or are there some people who would do better if they avoided trouble foods completely? Should anyone abstain from whole food groups completely? Or is that just too....extreme??
In this episode, I'll discuss what questions to ask yourself to help you determine if you might benefit from a period of time in which you gave up certain foods or food types completely.
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Confirmation Bias is a powerful thing. We look around the world and don't even realize a part of our brain is always working to confirm what it already believes. So we unknowingly skew our view of reality. How is this working against us in our attempts to change our health habits? It keep us living on repeat and making the same mistakes over and over! There is good news...there IS a way to actually use confirmation bias to drive forward success, and in this episode I'll detail how to do just that!
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What if you approached your weight loss with the mind of a scientist?
You'd analyze past attempts and take key observations of what worked and what didn't.
You'd extract the data you need and create a hypothesis about what habits would work best for you next. You'd carefully design your experiment and then collect the data while the experiment runs. You'd view data objectively, unemotionally, and you would be able to step back and analyze the BIG picture to see where the data is headed. You'll actually view failure as information and be able to implement what it tells you into driving forward progress. Let's dig into all that this "scientist" approach to your weight loss do for you!
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Maybe you've found your groove with some healthier systems and go-to foods. That being said, you might be asking, how much variety do I need to keep in what I eat, in order to be successful in the long term? Is it bad to be repetitive for a while? When we are starting out with healthier eating, should we eat the same foods over and over again? Or will monotony become a problem?
In this episode I detail the benefit that actually come WITH monotony! When the repeated meals and foods are building your health and enjoy them, there are advantages to allowing some monotony for a while.
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Have you checkout out my 30- day course?
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It's January, which means there are so many of us who have habits they want to change, things we want to do differently. Let's take the approach that can make us actually ENJOY it! We need to find a way to view habit change in terms of all the good things we are adding to our life and our time. If we focus on adding in the "Good Stuff" we run out of room for the things we wanted to quit! We can move forward without those old thoughts and feelings of deprivation that like to sneak in and undermine our progress.
It's here! My favorite week of the year may be this week between Christmas and the New Year. It usually involved lots of family time as well as time to reflect on the year that has past, as well as cast a vision as to what we hope to do well with our time in the year to come. Today I talk about considerations to make as you look at your daily routines and how to approach an edit for them for the year to come.
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Today I talk a little about one of my favorites spices. It's used a LOT this time of year, but I love to use it all times of year. Cinnamon comes with several known benefits, and we know it carries a high amount of antioxidants. I'll get into the details in this episode.
Confession: I have been a food pusher myself! As a Southern Hostess, I am wired feel better the more you eat when you are in my house! So if I have learned to accept it when someone turns down my food, so can your loved one.
Today I talk about how to show love and gratitude to those offering us food that we don't want! It doesn't have to be complicated. I have 4 steps to help you be honest AND loving as you TURN DOWN that food you didn't want!
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Let's face it. When you are heading into a Christmas party that you know will be loaded with buffets...you gotta have a plan, at least if you want to leave feeling good. In this episode, I offer two different strategies you could use to help navigate the options. It is totally possible to leave feeling satisfied and also feel you didn't do damage to your health!
In this episode I share my TOP seven strategies to help you achieve a healthier Holiday Season magnificently full of Joy.
Thanksgiving week is here, so lets talk about how to feast more fully...
So often, we think only of the sense of taste when we anticipate feasting. But we have other senses we can feast with too! One way to amplify and truly relish occasions when we gather with loved ones to celebrate holidays is to cultivate appreciation using all those other senses. When we do that, we have another tool to help us crowd out those thoughts that we need to return to the table for more servings than we need.
I also discuss a fun tool included in the Healthy Holiday Workbook that can help with implementing this strategy.
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Today's episode covers how approaching weight loss with an attitude of gratitude can actually drive us to success in reaching new health goals.
I discuss the evidence that gratitude benefits the health, as well as introduce three practical ways to make incorporating it a habit that sticks.
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This is a "sermon to myself," where I discuss biblical truths that inspire me to press on in being faithful to be a good steward day by day. In this episode, I'll quote from one of my favorite daily entries of one of my favorite devotionals, by a Scottish teacher from the early 1900s, Oswald Chambers.
I'm sometimes tempted to think that God's purpose won't be fulfilled in the area of my health until I arrive at some kind of "success" or destination or goal. But in reality, His purpose is lived out in the day to day. That daily death to our choices in favor of the choice to be a good steward of our health, that walk of obedience...that every moment process itself is everything.
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I don't know about ya''ll, but I've heard growing concern over what many are calling ‘diet culture.’ And I myself mention it in the descriptor of this podcast. It's become more common got hear "Diet Culture' vilified. But what exactly IS diet culture? Is everyone talking about the same thing? What parts are harmful about it? Is there anything salvageable or even beneficial clumped into this category? This episode covers my observations on the good and the bad, and caution against one particular thing I've seen promoted quite a bit lately as being a good idea, when in reality may undermine your success.
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It feels like "Sugar Season" has arrived with the onslaught of fall--and October 31st brings candy to so many homes and front doors, and office table, and parties. So how to handle the ever present "treat" when you are working to build healthier habits? In this episode I'll talk through 10 Tips that have worked for me in building healthier habits even on a candy-filled holiday.
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In this episode, I cover some interesting highlights from a journal article that reviews a decade of studies surrounding weight loss maintenance. What it reveals can really work to encourage us that maintaining our weight loss is not only possible, but that our ability to believe we can successfully continue healthy habits may be part of what makes us successful. There are also a number of factors that did NOT predict long term success which are what I'd call good news!
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When is food logging an advantage, and for whom does it work best? Do some people manage to keep weight off without logging their food for the rest of their life? And how can food logging possibly lead to eating more than you need? I'll discuss the benefits and nuances of food logging in this episode, as well as how I'm able to maintain my large weight loss without using food logging over the long term.
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In this episode, I describe the specifics of how I lost weight over the years, and what sets of habits I used to lose weight. I describe what exactly I shifted in terms of strategies over time, and detail what I learned during each 'season' of approaches that I used. Losing and maintaining a large amount happens when you accept that you will need to be persistent, and recognize that you may need to be flexible about your approach.
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This episode I explain the importance of playing the long game in terms of achieving health results. Nimbleness, or the ability to be flexible and shift approaches in terms of specific tools and strategies used, is KEY. But how do you know when it's time to shift strategies? How do you know what kind of tool to try next, when you find that what worked in one seasons of life isn't working anymore? I'll cover ways to use a flexible approach successfully as well as how not to let it trip you up.
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They don't contain calories, but are diet sodas a good substitute for regular soda, which we know is causing diseases? So will diet soda help you lose weight if you make the switch? Or are there other, different problems they might be causing?
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What is all the fuss about Fish Oil? In this episode I dive into talking about Omega-3s. I’ll review some of the evidence that indicate they are beneficial, what benefits they seem to give us, discuss some potential reasons that might explain HOW they work in the body to decrease disease risks, and talk about what and how to increase our consumption. I'll also describe a test that can help you determine if you are getting enough.
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This episode focuses on how I approach using knowledge of the smoke points for my favorite healthy cooking oils. What is a smoke point? Does it matter? How hot can I heat my olive oil?
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Today I'm re-releasing my most popular episode. I heard SO many people telling me that this gave them a new perspective and freedom as they moved toward healthier habits. I had to share it again this week, as for myself, I sure need to revisit this mindset myself frequently!
In this episode I talk through something that has been a GAMECHANGER for me and for many others. Let's approach goal setting in a way that better drives health and weight results!
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Now that we know a little more about what the difference is between damaged fats, how do we make the shift from eating more of the healthy types instead? This episode covers a practical approach to making this shift. While you may be surprised at how pervasive damaged fats are in our food supply, it doesn't have to be overwhelming to cut them out. One step at a time--this is about progress, not perfection!
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This week's episode starts by going deeper into the discussion of what makes a fat "damaged," which fats that we might see on ingredient labels fall in this category, and what fats seem healthier. There follows a discussion of the underlying mechanisms causing damage to our cells which seem to result from these fats. Finally, recent evidence is described that these types of fats seem to be drivers or at least factors involved in developing obesity and metabolic diseases.
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This episode discusses the story of the research from the Minnesota Starvation Diets and Ancel Keys. A revolution in the food industry happened in the decades after his widely publicized conclusions. But in 2016, the British Medical Journal published more information that was found after looking at the data again, casting much of the blame saturated fats received into doubt. How much changed in the 50 years after Key's original conclusions were accepted, and those original records sat collecting dust? And how much does it impact us today? Turns out, quite a bit.
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There are so many different medical studies that seem to conflict, and the science of nutrition seems to change. Why is that? How can we look at different studies and understand how valid or invalid their conclusions are? How can we make decisions about what to eat for our health, when the science seems so confusing and nuanced? In this episode, I give a brief primer on the hierarchy of evidence, different types of studies commonly seen, and some types of bias to look for.
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In this episode I offer encouragements and tips on how not only to learn to start running or walking, but also on how to come to LOVE running or walking. I'll share some data that support an approach you might find incredibly DOable.
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This episode covers the benefits of including fiber in the form of natural plant foods. And the benefits are not small! The stats might just surprise you...
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We've covered many of the advantages to incorporating bouts of fasting into your days and weeks. This episode covers practical strategies and ways to inch your eating habits toward giving your body a break from round the clock eating.
Time-restricted eating and fasting exists on a spectrum, and almost everyone can benefit from taking some baby steps to solidify or stretch that overnight window of fasting you are probably already sleeping through. Some may want to take it further than that and see even bigger benefits.
I'll cover frequently asked questions like: how to make things easier, how to handle hunger, what to drink, and precautions to take.
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In this episode I go deeper in to more of the benefits of fasting and time-restrictive eating that go beyond weight loss.
We are talking about DNA repair, downregulating inflammation, increased resilience, increased motivation to exercise, increase Growth Hormone levels, and the big one...
AUTOPHAGY!!
Autophagy means "self" "eating" and it does what it says. I'll go into more detail about why all these benefits that are ramped up by fasting may bring a quadruple whammy to chronic diseases of many types.
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There are benefits to fasting that go beyond simple fat loss, and it's downstream effects. I'll talk about a few of those today, such as increasing our lifespan and healthspan, decreasing insulin resistance, and improving Brain Health. Behind all this are the mechanisms of change happening in our cells when they are forced to switch fuel sources, and a switch is flipped. It seems that flipping that "Metabolic Switch" brings some serious benefits.
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Last week the podcast released it's 25th episode! To celebrate, this week I'm sharing clips from the most popular episodes, and more specifically, the parts that listeners told me changed the way they're approaching fat loss and health habits.
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In this episode I will give an introduction to the use of fasting for fat loss. Is it a fad? Or is it a sound practice with evidence to support it? I'll cover a bit about the history of fasting, the common terms used when discussing various regimens, some of the advantages, as well as discuss the common objections.
Don't we wish for an "easy button" at times? We want to believe so often that there is some kind of remedy we can simply add to our current lifestyle to achieve the health results we'd like. But for many of us who struggle with obesity or metabolic disease, or the results of it, the lifestyle itself just needs to be rebuild from the ground up.
What does that look like? This episode, I talk about the "Big Picture." I discuss the key foundational areas to address in achieving a long term healthy weight, and give an overview of that that can look like. It isn't always easy, but it is SO SO worth the efforts.
What we do every day or don’t do every day, even little things, definitely impact how we grow or don’t grow over the years. Habits have the potential of achieving compounding results over time.
One strategy for achieving consistency with new habits is to aim for what's called an "Unbroken Chain." Otherwise known as a habit streak...practicing the habit every day without fail, and thus achieving an unbroken chain of days where you completed the habit.
I’ve now passed the year mark in my own Unbroken Chain of running at least a mile every day. In this episode, I’ll talk about what that’s been like, and what the benefits have been. I’ll also talk about things to consider if you are interested in starting your own unbroken chain of a health building habit.
How we round our our days can really make an impact on how we sleep at night. And as I've talked about the last couple of episodes, how we sleep makes a huge difference in our long term health and weight.
Today's episode examines the evening routines we have in place that either help or hinder sleep. I'll address shutting down work activities in a way that offloads our minds. I'll talk about ways to approach watching TV, reading news, and checking social media after work hours without letting it impact our sleep. I'll discuss ideas for great wind down activities to enjoy once the electronics shut down to help support our melatonin and achieving a restful state of mind. I'll touch on a couple studies that offered some interesting insights into little things we can consider to even future support getting a good nights sleep.
The impact of our sleep quality is so far reaching, ranging from the obvious ways we know we function better on a good night sleep, to the impact of sleep on our very cells and DNA, as discussed last week's episode. This week I'll dive into some very practical ways to support your circadian rhythm and sleep better! I'll talk about how to optimize light exposure, how to time eating to support better sleep, and how to address the most common ingested sleep disruptors. I'll also talk a bit about Obstructive Sleep Apnea, a common condition that is quite often undiagnosed, yet when it's treated can cause a whole cascade of benefits you won't regret.
Today's episode is all about sleep. Getting good quality and quantity of sleep has a watershed impact on so many areas of our functioning and health. Without good sleep, we won't be able to restore the metabolic health we need to see lasting weight loss and maintenance results.
I'll cover some of the data surrounding these metabolic impacts, on weight management, other dieseases, as well as what happens at a DNA level during sleep.
I'll discuss our circadian clocks, the recent science surrounding them, and how to optimize them.
You may be surprised to hear just how dramatic the impacts of getting good sleep can be--yet its freely available
We make so many decisions each day about food! This decision fatigue that goes on tends to wear many people down so that by the end of they day, all their healthy choices have gone by the wayside.
In this episode, I describe the competing parts of the brain involved in food decisions, and how to put the RIGHT part in charge more consistently. I'll introduce one of the most powerful tools there is in combatting the food decision fatigue that sabotages progress: daily food planning. Food planning can be done in a way that is easy, simple, and realistic. When we use it regularly, it will absolutely drive forward progress towards reaching the health results we hope for.
Once you get started exercising, how much should you aim to do over the long term to be sure you are maximizing your health benefits? How much is too much? And are there ways to maximize the fat oxidation (or burn) to set yourself up for better metabolic heath? I'll cover all this and more in this episode.
Deconditioning, or physical INactivity, if it was recognized as a disease, would be more common than Diabetes or High Blood Pressure.
And its has been identified as the 4th leading risk factor for death worldwide. Yet it is preventable!
But if you haven't exercised before, or in longer than you can remember, how can you overcome all the barriers holding you back from starting. And how would you even start?
In this episode I'll discuss all this, and address 5 common barriers to getting started in this episode, as well as give some simple practical tips to make the habit stick.
Many ask: If exercise doesn't help lose the weight, why bother?
Let me tell you why! From your head to your toes there are wonderful impacts. From longevity to bone health, from decreasing pesky abdominal fat to the helping the linings of your blood vessels, exercise benefits so much. Not only that, but recent research has unveiled a new hormone released by exercise (named after a Greek Goddess), which can impact your metabolism and cause fat cells to change and even self-destruct.
If you are wondering if its really worth the effort to get off the couch and get moving, this episode will convince you it IS worth it.
It's time to rethink how we look at exercise:
Instead of seeing it as a punative activity, to "burn off" some food indulgence, or as simply a way to lose weight....let's talk about all the things exercise can ADD to our lives.
This episode focuses on the amazing impact exercise has on our brains. It has the mental health benefits of decreasing anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as providing incredible concentration improvements and memory boosting.
Not only that, there are major long-term benefits in regards to aging and dementia risk. The evidence is compelling!
Lastly, I'll leave you with an action step to take this week in applying this information to your life.
Science has revealed in recent decades that the brain is trainable and physically changes in response to training. This is called neuroplasticity.
This episode will cover what it is and how understanding how the brain functions in this way can help us improve our health building habits. I'll also give three specific tactics or strategies you can begin using right away to begin training your brain to support your decision to cultivate healthy behaviors. I include personal examples of how I use these tactics.
I'll also explore what the Bible says about the life of the mind and the training of the mind, and how it relates to what science has uncovered.
How can we address the urges we feel to eat when we are not hungry?
In this episode, I present a tool in the form of a simple series of questions we can ask ourselves to help decide.
I use the acronym "THEEFFF" to help make these questions easy to remember.
It sounds like 'thief" for a good reason. When we follow our urges to determine when and how much to eat, we are being robbed of several major benefits, which I discuss in this episode.
The decisions we make about what to eat are different than the decisions we make about how much to eat. This episode continues to explore the decisions we make about how much to eat, and how to optimize our ability to be guided by our physiologic hunger.
This episode delves into the environmental cues that can interfere with our ability to make the right decisions about food volumes and portions.
What is the health halo effect?
What led to one group of study subjects eating 35% more than they were actually hungry for? And what can we do to set ourselves up for success in this area?
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In this episode, I use the analogy of dealing with a clutter filled house to help illustrate ways we can handle manage our emotions without using extra food.
How can we think about emotional eating? How do we stop doing it? When we stop eating extra, and there are more feelings to feel, how can we approach managing them? Are we missing opportunities for personal growth when we eat extra, instead of feeling and addressing our emotions and the things that drive them? Is there an anchor that holds in the seeming ocean of change that surrounds us? If so, what does that offer to help us manage our emotions?
These questions and more are addressed in today's episode.
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Last episode discussed the benefits of waiting for and honoring hunger signals to help decide when and how much to eat.
But what kind of things can interfere with those signals, and thus sabotage our efforts to improve our health?
In this episode, I talk about common disruptors to our bodies' hunger signaling systems. When these are addressed, our decision to listen to our hunger and eat according to it can be so much more effective in helping us achieve better health.
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Of all the habits we may chose to cultivate as we aim to improve our health, there are some that are foundational. They will impact our success at all the other health habits we work toward.
One of those foundational habits is that of tuning in to true physical hunger signals and cultivating consistency in the way we honor that true physical hunger.
Using hunger as a tool to help us regulate our food intake will benefit us immensely. In this episode I'll discuss advantages to prioritizing this, as well as address common concerns and objections.
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One of the processes that drives obesity and chronic disease is chronic inflammation. But what is it? What is it doing in our body to be such a problem? Is inflammation ever necessary? And how do we deal with it? What foods drive inflammation up, and what foods drive it down? And what does this have to do with the extra weight we would like to shed?
I'll answer these questions and more in this episode about inflammation.
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One strategy that makes incremental habit changes for health more likely to succeed involves swapping a not-so-good habit for a better-for-you habit.
In the case of a candy or sugar habit, swapping it out for a dark chocolate habit instead may offer some real advantages.
In this episode, I review the evidence in favor of dark chocolate's health benefits, as well as details surrounding HOW to leverage chocolate to work in your favor for weight loss.
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This episode is what I call a "sermon to myself."
I'll discuss why we still have a drive for perfection, even though it isn't necessary for health improvement.
How we were made in the Image of God.
I'll talk a little about gluttony, grace, and Jesus.
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Let's talk about antioxidants. You hear about the everywhere. But what ARE they? How do they work? Why do we need them?
I'll start with a simple analogy to help describe how human cells work. Then I'll explain what oxidation is, and how something called oxidative stress occurs. Finally I'll describe why antioxidants are so important for health.
Understanding what is happening inside your cells at a molecular level can REALLY inspire you to make healthy choices day after day.
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We have just passed the date many describe as "Quitter's Day" when it comes to New Year's Resolutions and goals.
One thing that causes many to throw in the towel? Perfectionism.
In this episode, I discuss the harm of perfectionism, how it inhibits progress, and three ways to combat it.
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In this episode I talk about how to maximize food enjoyment while promoting health, weight loss, and building better relationships with those we love.
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This episode describes why calorie counting alone misses a BIG part of the picture in weight loss. I'll talk about the history of the calorie. Why are we still using something that was a measure of fuel burn in steam engines to decide what to eat? Food impacts our hormones, and those hormones have a huge impact on our cells. They determine if we keep fat in storage mode, or burn it for energy. I'll discuss what makes you feel Hangry, and give 3 practical steps to use to shift your food choices. They can be applied to many different dietary preferences, and will help your hormones work WITH your metabolism, to drive fat burn, decrease your hunger, and access more energy.
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In this episode I talk through something that has been a GAMECHANGER for me and for many others. Let's approach goal setting in a way that better drives health and weight results!
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In this episode, I'll give my thoughts on popular approaches to weight loss and health that you may be considering as we start 2021. I'll give you 12 Hallmarks of healthy approaches and plans that could drive good results. I'll then share some Red Flags and Hallmarks of not-so-good approaches and plans that will likely frustrate you while making your wallet thin. Finally, I'll share the approach that worked for me and those I've worked with.
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