Podcast appearances and mentions of traci mann

Through Harper's journey from dismissive doctors to eventual fibromyalgia diagnosis, I explore how weight stigma, medical gaslighting, and inadequate pain management create layers of trauma for patients in marginalized bodies. I break down the science of fibromyalgia in accessible terms and explain how the nervous system's "volume control" for pain gets stuck on high. Key moments:Medical Trauma Discussion (20:52) - An examination of how repeated negative healthcare experiences create lasting trauma (the bag of sh*t)Understanding Fibromyalgia (25:59): Explanation of fibromyalgia which affects 5% of the global population and is still so poorly understoodEverything You've Been Told About Weight Loss is a Lie (31:31): Part 2 of my analysis of a 2013 study by Tomiyama, Alstrom and Mann examining the relationship between weight loss and health outcomes.Ask Me Anything (36:49): Discussion of glucosamine sulfate's role in preventing osteoarthritis, based on a randomized controlled trial.Community Information & Closing (40:43): Information about The Weighting Room community, on demand fibromyalgia masterclass, and consultation services.This week's paper is  Tomiyama, A. Janet, Britt Ahlstrom, and Traci Mann. "Long-term Effects of Dieting: Is Weight Loss Related to Health?" Social and Personality Psychology Compass, vol. 7, no. 12, 2013, pp. 861-877. Wiley Online Library, https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12076. Visit Asher's website and check out all his FREE RESOURCES. You can also book a consultation, join a course, find out about upcoming events, or join their exclusive online community The Weighting Room. If you enjoy this podcast and would like to support Asher so that he can continue making them, you can become a Patron. You'll find Asher on all the usual social media channels including Instagram, YouTube and Tik Tok.

You can't control your health any more than you can control the weather. In this episode, I explore how holding individuals responsibe for their health is a relatively recent phenomenon tied to capitalism and neoliberalism, contrasting it with historical perspectives where health was viewed as a collective responsibility. I talk about the benefits of moving from body control to body trust, while addressing systemic factors affecting health and the importance of building supportive communities. Key moments:The Control Illusion [1:31] The Historical Perspective [11:17] What Actually Shapes Our Health? [15:53] Reframing Health as Collective [19:39] Moving from Control to Trust [23:40] Everything You've Been Taught About Weight Loss is a Lie [28:49] Q&A on Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (36:25)Learn more about my Free Course "Redefining Health"Join The Weighting Room before the 19th February and get a free 30 minute chronic pain consultationThis week's paper is  Tomiyama, A. Janet, Britt Ahlstrom, and Traci Mann. "Long-term Effects of Dieting: Is Weight Loss Related to Health?" Social and Personality Psychology Compass, vol. 7, no. 12, 2013, pp. 861-877. Wiley Online Library, https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12076. Visit Asher's website and check out all his FREE RESOURCES. You can also book a consultation, join a course, find out about upcoming events, or join their exclusive online community The Weighting Room. If you enjoy this podcast and would like to support Asher so that he can continue making them, you can become a Patron. You'll find Asher on all the usual social media channels including Instagram, YouTube and Tik Tok.

In this episode I am continuing my investigations into the evidence linking nutrition and health. What does the science say? My previous guest, Dr. Valter Longo discussed the data on intermittent fasting and cellular regeneration. I've also spoken with Dr. Traci Mann regarding the observation that fad diets don't work. Today I'm going to be interviewing another dietary guru who believes that his diet can extend lifespan and reverse the course of diseases.    Joel Fuhrman, M.D. is a board-certified family physician, seven-time New York Times best-selling author and internationally recognized expert on nutrition and natural healing. He specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional methods. Dr Fuhrman is the President of the Nutritional Research Foundation and on the faculty of Northern Arizona University, Health Sciences division. He coined the term “Nutritarian” to describe a nutrient-dense eating style, designed to prevent cancer, slow aging, and extend lifespan. For over 30 years, Dr. Fuhrman has shown that it is possible to achieve sustainable weight loss and reverse heart disease, diabetes and many other illnesses using smart nutrition. In his medical practice, and through his books and television specials, he continues to bring this life-saving message to hundreds of thousands of people around the world.   Dr. Fuhrman also operates the Eat To Live Retreat in San Diego. At this residential facility, people from all over the world come to stay for 1-3 months weeks to recover from conditions ranging from cardiovascular disease to autoimmune disease, food addiction and more. They also gain the skills and knowledge to make these changes permanent when they leave the retreat.  Support the podcast at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Join the Facebook discussion @TheRationalView Twitter @AlScottRational #TheRationalView #podcast #nutritarian #diet #health #nutrition #disease #diabetes #food

In this episode I continue my exploration of the science of nutrition and food by exploring one of the most controversial money-making phenomena to exist. Diets. Body image is a central problem to a large fraction of the population, and people are willing to spend a lot of money trying to get thin and be more attractive.  In this episode I interview a leading expert on the science of dieting to cut through the flab and get to the firm core of this issue. Traci Mann is Professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota. She received her PhD in 1995 from Stanford University, spent ten years on the faculty at UCLA, then moved to the University of Minnesota and started the Health and Eating Lab. She is interested in basic science questions about cognitive mechanisms of self-control, in applying social psychology research to promoting healthy behavior, and in busting commonly accepted myths about eating. Her research has been funded by NIH, NASA, and the USDA. Her book, Secrets from the Eating Lab, was the 2016 winner of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Book Prize. Support The Rational View at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView Join the Facebook discussion @TheRationalView Twitter @AlScottRational TikTok @TheRationalView #TheRationalView #podcast #dieting #health #food #bodyimage #willpower

This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter! If you appreciate the content here, please consider supporting the newsletter by subscribing and/or sharing!In 2018, Weight Watchers changed its name to “WW” added the tagline “wellness that works” and started using language about “health” and “wellness” and “beyond the scale.” Per a Fast Company article this happened because “In this new era of body image acceptance and feel-good wellness communities, Weight Watchers learned that the term “diet” was rife with negative connotations.” Another way to put this is that weight-neutral health and fat acceptance advocates had made tremendous headway in pointing out that, even according to Weight Watchers' own research, their program almost never creates significant long-term weight loss. Thus, this seemed to be a fairly transparent attempt to co-opt the work of weight-neutral advocates and fat acceptance activists in order to keep selling a program that almost never works. The thing that they seem to have going for them is an uncanny ability to convince their clients (and everyone else) to credit Weight Watchers for short-term weight loss (the first part of the biological response to restriction) and then get their clients (and everyone else) to blame themselves for the weight regain that almost everyone experiences (the second part of the biological response to restriction.) In this way, they convince people to keep coming back for multiple rounds, which forms the nucleus of their repeat business model.According to an article by Traci Mann called “Oprah's Investment in Weight Watchers Was Smart Because the Program Doesn't Work”:“[Weight Watchers] brags about this to its shareholders. According to Weight Watchers' business plan from 2001 (which I viewed in hard-copy form at a library), its members have “demonstrated a consistent pattern of repeat enrollment over a number of years,” signing up for an average of four separate program cycles. And in an interview for the documentary The Men Who Made Us Thin, former CFO Richard Samber explained that the reason the business was successful was because the majority of customers regained the weight they lost, or as he put it: “That's where your business comes from.”Their rebrand to wellness builds on this scam. Which brings us to the postcard I received in the mail recently.Image Description: A postcard with a gray backgroundText: At the top left is the WW logo next to the words WeightWatchersIf you want to lose weight, we're ready for youGet your special offer at [redacted]·         Proven nutritional science·         A supportive community·         Build healthy habits for life·         Weight loss that lastsImage:A smiling woman in a blue long-sleeve crop top and beige drawstring pants carrying a canvas bag with a scarf in her hair smiles with an open mouth. Beside her it says “New Member Naomi M -68 lb*” The * says “People following the WW program can expect to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week.Here we see their old and new tricks on display:Old tricks* Showing someone with a relatively large amount of weight loss with an asterisk that goes to a disclaimer.* The disclaimer is completely unclear. It makes it sounds like the average Weight Watchers participant will have the same results as the model within 34-68 weeks, but the research absolutely does NOT support that* They claim “weight loss that lasts” even though their own research (and a century of data) say that it is a straight-up lieNew tricks:They market publicly about “health” and “wellness” to avoid the negative connotations of diets, but when it comes time to really sell, they bring out the weight loss talk:* It says “Weight Watchers” right there at the top (even though they “officially changed their name” to WW)* The model has their weight loss listed, but absolutely no information about their health* “If you want to lose weight” is at the top, in the largest font* “Build healthy habits for life” only rates as a small font third bulletWeight Watchers, or WW, whatever they call themselves, they are not about health. They've never been about health, because they've been very clear that their profit model is built on weight cycling which is independently linked to harm. If they actually cared about people's health, they would have either moved to a weight-neutral model or, preferably (at least to me,) just shut the whole mess down. I'd bet all the money in my pockets that this whole switch to marketing about “health” is about finding a way to co-opt the work of weight-neutral advocates and fat liberation activists, gloss over Weight Watchers' utter failure at creating long-term weight loss, and trying to get people to stay on their program even though they are gaining the weight back, all while continuing to convince their customers to blame themselves for having the outcome that about 95% of people have.Essentially, Weight Watchers is a highly profitable scam. The fact that they have wheedled their way into corporate wellness programs and health insurance is proof of the utter failure of corporate wellness programs and insurance companies to properly vet Weight Watchers and/or proof that they are actively putting profits above people. Either way, it's inexcusable. As for Weight Watchers, the only thing most of the clients lose is their money.In part two of this two-part series, we'll do a deep dive into the research that Weight Watchers claims shows their long-term efficacy.Did you find this newsletter helpful? You can subscribe for free to get future newsletters delivered direct to your inbox, or choose a paid subscription to support the newsletter and get special benefits! Click the Subscribe button for details:Like this piece? Share this piece:More ResearchFor a full bank of research, check out https://haeshealthsheets.com/resources/*Note on language: I use “fat” as a neutral descriptor as used by the fat activist community, I use “ob*se” and “overw*ight” to acknowledge that these are terms that were created to medicalize and pathologize fat bodies, with roots in racism and specifically anti-Blackness. Please read Sabrina Strings: Fearing the Black Body – the Racial Origins of Fat Phobia and Da'Shaun Harrison: Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness for more on this. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Shanon and Cat discuss the reasons why making lifestyle changes are difficult and what can be done to push through those barriers. In this episode, they talk about: Effects of how we identify ourselves (04:20) Setting boundaries and the power of ‘NO' (09:45) Picturing your ideal self (16:30) It's not the banana, taking care of your mental energy (20:23) Comparing yourself to others (30:08) What are the next steps to change (34:18) If you're ready to break through all the barriers holding you back from being the best version of yourself, click the follow button and prepare to transform in a way you never imagined to be possible. Books Mentioned: Secrets from the Eating Lab by Traci Mann, PH. D.Breaki the Good Girl Myth by Majo Malfino Our Links: Learn More About our Services Follow us on Instagram!Like us on Facebook!

Episode Overview Self-control. The diet and fitness industry's FAVORITE catchphrase! And perhaps you feel like you struggle with your own self-control. Maybe you're often grappling with the thought of “just eat one” or feel like you're in the fast-food drive-thru line more often than you should be. In today's podcast episode, we're talking about the four main reasons we see women struggling with self-control around food and sharing the steps they can take to change it. Because, believe it or not, you CAN have more self-control around food! Let us share how! We're also offering our FREE download, 5 Reasons You're Craving Sugar. Just click here to get it sent right to your inbox so you can start managing those cravings for sweets today! Key Points Why deprivation causes us to make poor decisions Why environment plays a huge factor in our self-control Why your all or nothing mindset is keeping you stuck How knowing what truly matters to you can help you stay the course Mentions: 5 Reasons You're Craving Sugar download Episode 140: The Minnesota Starvation Experiment: What You Need To Know Related Content: Episode 151: How To Curate Your Environment For Weight Loss Success Episode 53: Secrets From The Eating Lab: Dr. Traci Mann

This week I'm replaying an amazing discussion I had one year ago with registered dietitian Glenys Oyston.  She lost weight, kept it off for years, and was considered a true success story. What people didn't realize is she didn't feel successful at all but instead was a full-time food and body obsession. Details on the episode are below. I'll be back next week with a new episode!!!  * * *  I am so excited to bring you this latest episode of Speaking of Hungry! I’ve been listening to the Dietitians Unplugged podcast with Glenys Oyston and Aaron Flores for quite some time now. Recently I was reading Christy Harrison’s Anti-Diet book and Glenys popped up. Then I was listening to the Pursuing Private Practice podcast and Glenys was the guest. I am beyond thrilled that Glenys, a Los Angeles-based anti-diet dietitian, joined me to chat on Speaking of Hungry. I know you’re going to like this one! Glenys joins me and talks about her relentless pursuit of weight loss, how losing weight was never enough, and that keeping weight off for several years meant taking obsessive measures.  We talk about: Her dieting history starting in her early 20’s that led her to sign up for the National Weight Control Registry. How Glenys was a weight-loss “unicorn” who kept the weight off for over five years but this wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies.  She explains the obsessive measures required to keep her weight off.  How her weight loss journey led her to pursue becoming a registered dietitian.  How her reaction to stressful times in her life was to tackle her weight and try to shrink her body.  When her weight loss pursuit took a “dark turn” and persisted despite the struggle to keep losing.  Her work with clients and Health at Every Size (HAES) program for diabetics currently in the works with Rebecca Scritchfield. Take your mind off of all that’s going on in the world right now. While most of us are in quarantine, we must be mindful that we still have needs and we still have our recovery to work on. We may not be able to give it 100% at this time but we have to try to give it something! Mentioned in this episode: Glenys’ website DareToNotDiet.com HAES Care for Diabetes Concerns Glenys on Facebook Dietitians Unplugged podcast Traci Mann’s Secrets from the Eating Lab Kate Harding’s The Fantasy of Being Thin  * * *  Need more resources to help with the restrict-binge cycle?  Grab my free workbook: 5 Steps to Ditch Diets!! What will you get in this guide? This is a sample of work I do with my private, 1:1 clients. I’ll take you through: #1 - examining your personal history with dieting #2 - reflecting on how diets interfered with your life #3 - how to slowly get rid of dieting tools you may still use. #4 - identifying hidden forms of dieting you may still engage in but don’t realize you are and how it interferes with your work to become more intuitive.  #5 - a worksheet on how to stop the self-critical talk.  GRAB THE GUIDE HERE! ***** If you love the show, please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts! Please go to iTunes and leave a rating and review!! ***** Curious about working with me? You can schedule a complimentary 20-minute Zoom with me to let me know what you are struggling with and determine if my program is a good fit for you! Need MORE help healing your relationship with food AND exercise? Consider joining my FREE Intuitive Eating & Body Compassion Facebook community!!! 

Some of the things Shawn and I got into include:Shawn's Health at Every Size journeyIs this a book a body positive book or a diet book?Why dieting is stressful and what that means for our bodiesWhy diets don't workSet weight range - what is it?  How do we know if we're in it?  Is it something that is accepted in weight science?The word Obesity and the Obesity ParadoxHow to read studiesWeight stigma and how it affects our healthThe Minnesota Starvation ExperimentShawn's BooklistHealth at Every Size by Lindo BaconIntuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse ReschWhy Diets Make Us Fat by Sandra AamodtThe Mindfulness Based Eating Solution by Lynn RossyThe Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee TaylorFearing the Black Body by Sabrina StringsLinksSecrets from the Eating Lab by Traci MannBiggest Loser StudyObesity Paradox studyMinnesota Starvation ExperimentShawn's websiteShawn's Online CourseShawn's NEW podcast: Motivation Made EasyShawn's Free ResourceMy website and FREE Virtual Book Club sign up

While Ally and James are on vacation for the week Dr. Jenn takes over Drop The Subject to answer your questions. We also bring on Dr. Traci Mann to discuss healthy weight loss and why diets don't work.   Thanks for listening! See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Muszę cie rozczarować, diety nie działają. Z psychologicznego punktu widzenia, potwierdzone wieloma badaniami (zwłaszcza Traci Mann) zostało potwierdzone, że diety nie są skuteczne, ba powodują powrót do wcześniejszej wagi. Dlaczego tak się dzieje? I czy to oznacza, że nie ma możliwości zrzucenia zbędnych kilogramów trwale? Zapraszam na nowy podcast, gdzie pod lupę wzięłam najpopularniejsze sposoby odchudzania, które są też najmniej skuteczne.

I am so excited to bring you this latest episode of Speaking of Hungry! I’ve been listening to the Dietitians Unplugged podcast with Glenys Oyston and Aaron Flores for quite some time now. Recently I was reading Christy Harrison’s Anti-Diet book and Glenys popped up. Then I was listening to the Pursuing Private Practice podcast and Glenys was the guest. I am beyond thrilled that Glenys, a Los Angeles-based anti-diet dietitian, joined me to chat on Speaking of Hungry. I know you’re going to like this one! Glenys joins me and talks about her relentless pursuit of weight loss, how losing weight was never enough, and that keeping weight off for several years meant taking obsessive measures.  We talk about: Her dieting history starting in her early 20’s that led her to sign up for the National Weight Control Registry. How Glenys was a weight-loss “unicorn” who kept the weight off for over five years but this wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies.  She explains the obsessive measures required to keep her weight off.  How her weight loss journey led her to pursue becoming a registered dietitian.  How her reaction to stressful times in her life was to tackle her weight and try to shrink her body.  When her weight loss pursuit took a “dark turn” and persisted despite the struggle to keep losing.  Her work with clients and Health at Every Size (HAES) program for diabetics currently in the works with Rebecca Scritchfield. Take your mind off of all that’s going on in the world right now. While most of us are in quarantine, we must be mindful that we still have needs and we still have our recovery to work on. We may not be able to give it 100% at this time but we have to try to give it something! Mentioned in this episode: Glenys’ website DareToNotDiet.com HAES Care for Diabetes Concerns Glenys on Facebook Dietitians Unplugged podcast Traci Mann’s Secrets from the Eating Lab Kate Harding’s The Fantasy of Being Thin ———————————————— If you are enjoying my podcast, please go to iTunes and leave a 5-star rating and review!! Send me a DM on Instagram or Facebook (@AlisonBarkmanRD) with your comments or a question you'd like answered on the show!  -------------------------------------- Need help healing your relationship with food AND exercise? Consider joining my FREE Intuitive Eating & Body Compassion Facebook community!!!  I am currently booking clients for my 1-on-1 online intuitive eating program! You can schedule a FREE 20-minute call with me to tell me more about where you're at in your intuitive eating journey and ask any questions about how we can work together!      

I was a diet "success". I was someone who hated herself skinny - who lost a bunch of weight and transformed her entire body ONLY because she wanted it to be a certain weight and look a certain way. And I spent 8 years helping other women lose weight, talking about lifestyle changes and sharing their weight loss before and afters. And now I spend my life talking about why those things don't work. All you'll ever hear me say about dieting now is that diets don't work, and that body hate and obsessing over being skinny are the worst ways to try to change your health and your body. How can she be so hypocritical? You may be wondering. It's a fair question if you are and that's what I'm diving into in this episode. --- Want more science? As one of the leading researchers who has been scientifically studying eating and dieting for decades, Traci Mann sums up the science better than I ever could in this powerful lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uELVWHeFWk

New diets come out every year, each claiming to be the end-all solution to lose weight, but as one expert argues, all are short-term solutions that have long-term negative effects on one’s body and mind. Traci Mann, a professor of health and social psychology at the University of Minnesota, joined “ Take Care ” to talk about diets -- what they are and why they fail.

Health Beyond Diet and Weight Loss For many of us in this community, our first encounter with dieting wasn't a concern with health. Similarly, for me and all the women I work with inside of my programs, their first diet was strictly focused on being in a smaller body. That is to say, we dieted for aesthetic reasons, not health. As women, we do not want to diet. Instead, we want to be in a thinner body. Our modern society believes that being thinner is better, smarter, and healthier. In other words, all of us have been taught at a very young age that health = thinness but is it true or is it just an assumption? What if health wasn't the outcome of the weight on the scale? Would you still want to diet? Does “Obesity” Cause One to Be Unhealthy? As of today in October 2019, there isn't one study or research evidence that directly points to being overweight (BMI-based status) as a causative factor in diseases. That said, many studies will link/correlate obesity to health risks. In other words, weight status is never the sole factor in any health condition. In this groundbreaking research on BMI and metabolic health, one-third to three-quarters of people classified as obese were metabolically healthy. Four health factors were measured and evaluated to achieve health status. These include blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and plasma glucose. Moreover, when BMI categorized an individual as obese, this study showed that obesity did not affect the risks of cardiovascular diseases, stroke, and mortality. However, it did increase diabetes risk although cumulative incidence remained low in healthy people. In fact, the problem with considering weight as the main factor to your health is our inability to lose weight and sustain the weight loss. Hence, 95-98% of dieters regain all of their weight loss within 1-5 years.  Dr. Traci Mann, a UCLA associate professor of psychology and lead author of this study said, “We found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more. Sustained weight loss was found only in a small minority of participants, while complete weight regain was found in the majority. Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people.”. Is Health Beyond Dieting Possible? The short answer is yes. Based on research, it would appear that health isn't attributed to the weight on the scale, therefore, we can say that health is possible without seeking weight loss. A 2016 study by researchers at UCLA published in the International Journal of Obesity looked at 40,420 adults in the most recent U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. It assessed their health as measured by six accepted metrics (not including BMI). The metrics include blood pressure, triglyceride, cholesterol, glucose, insulin resistance, and C-reactive protein. It found that 47 percent of people were classified as overweight by BMI. Twenty-nine percent of those who qualified as obese were healthy as measured by at least five of those other metrics. Meanwhile, 31 percent of normal-weight people were unhealthy by two or more of the same measures. So, if weight isn't what ensures our long-term health, then what is? Studies that have actually controlled for fitness have found that it is more predictive for mortality than weight. This study defined ‘fit' as 3-4 hrs/week of walking. In this episode, we will cover how we can as women seek health beyond dieting and weight loss. Likewise, we will explore everything we can do today that can and will impact our health long term. What you'll learn listening to this episode: What is health? Does “obesity” cause one to be unhealthy? Is health beyond diet and weight loss possible? What is Health at Every Size? What is a weight-neutral approach to health? Body dissatisfaction & shame and health behaviors Shifting from weight management to health behavior What happens if we take the Going Beyond The Food Method™️ approach to health? Who is the ideal candidate for The Going Beyond The Food Method™️ Health approach? How to get started with a weight-neutral approach to health Mentioned on the show: Register for the free workshop: 8 steps to health beyond dieting and weight loss Get Started with our FREE Intuitive Eating Introduction Course   Links & studies mentioned on the show: Research on BMI and metabolic health Cardiometabolic Disease Risk in Metabolically Healthy and Unhealthy Obesity Promoting Public Health in the Context of the “Obesity Epidemic” Research on Health Assessments on Adults Beyond BMI Relationship between low cardiorespiratory fitness and mortality in normal-weight, overweight, and obese individuals Impact of non-diet approaches on attitudes, behaviors, and health outcomes Healthy lifestyle habits and mortality in overweight and obese individuals Greater Weight Satisfaction Report More Positive Health Behaviors and Have Better Health Status    

Health Beyond Diet and Weight Loss For many of us in this community, our first encounter with dieting wasn’t a concern with health. Similarly, for me and all the women I work with inside of my programs, their first diet was strictly focused on being in a smaller body. That is to say, we dieted for aesthetic reasons, not health. As women, we do not want to diet. Instead, we want to be in a thinner body. Our modern society believes that being thinner is better, smarter, and healthier. In other words, all of us have been taught at a very young age that health = thinness but is it true or is it just an assumption? What if health wasn’t the outcome of the weight on the scale? Would you still want to diet? Does “Obesity” Cause One to Be Unhealthy? As of today in October 2019, there isn’t one study or research evidence that directly points to being overweight (BMI-based status) as a causative factor in diseases. That said, many studies will link/correlate obesity to health risks. In other words, weight status is never the sole factor in any health condition. In this groundbreaking research on BMI and metabolic health, one-third to three-quarters of people classified as obese were metabolically healthy. Four health factors were measured and evaluated to achieve health status. These include blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and plasma glucose. Moreover, when BMI categorized an individual as obese, this study showed that obesity did not affect the risks of cardiovascular diseases, stroke, and mortality. However, it did increase diabetes risk although cumulative incidence remained low in healthy people. In fact, the problem with considering weight as the main factor to your health is our inability to lose weight and sustain the weight loss. Hence, 95-98% of dieters regain all of their weight loss within 1-5 years.  Dr. Traci Mann, a UCLA associate professor of psychology and lead author of this study said, “We found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more. Sustained weight loss was found only in a small minority of participants, while complete weight regain was found in the majority. Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people.”. Is Health Beyond Dieting Possible? The short answer is yes. Based on research, it would appear that health isn’t attributed to the weight on the scale, therefore, we can say that health is possible without seeking weight loss. A 2016 study by researchers at UCLA published in the International Journal of Obesity looked at 40,420 adults in the most recent U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. It assessed their health as measured by six accepted metrics (not including BMI). The metrics include blood pressure, triglyceride, cholesterol, glucose, insulin resistance, and C-reactive protein. It found that 47 percent of people were classified as overweight by BMI. Twenty-nine percent of those who qualified as obese were healthy as measured by at least five of those other metrics. Meanwhile, 31 percent of normal-weight people were unhealthy by two or more of the same measures. So, if weight isn’t what ensures our long-term health, then what is? Studies that have actually controlled for fitness have found that it is more predictive for mortality than weight. This study defined ‘fit’ as 3-4 hrs/week of walking. In this episode, we will cover how we can as women seek health beyond dieting and weight loss. Likewise, we will explore everything we can do today that can and will impact our health long term. What you'll learn listening to this episode: What is health? Does “obesity” cause one to be unhealthy? Is health beyond diet and weight loss possible? What is Health at Every Size? What is a weight-neutral approach to health? Body dissatisfaction & shame and health behaviors Shifting from weight management to health behavior What happens if we take the Going Beyond The Food Method™️ approach to health? Who is the ideal candidate for The Going Beyond The Food Method™️ Health approach? How to get started with a weight-neutral approach to health Mentioned on the show: Register for the free workshop: 8 steps to health beyond dieting and weight loss Get Started with our FREE Intuitive Eating Introduction Course   Links & studies mentioned on the show: Research on BMI and metabolic health Cardiometabolic Disease Risk in Metabolically Healthy and Unhealthy Obesity Promoting Public Health in the Context of the “Obesity Epidemic” Research on Health Assessments on Adults Beyond BMI Relationship between low cardiorespiratory fitness and mortality in normal-weight, overweight, and obese individuals Impact of non-diet approaches on attitudes, behaviors, and health outcomes Healthy lifestyle habits and mortality in overweight and obese individuals Greater Weight Satisfaction Report More Positive Health Behaviors and Have Better Health Status    

Our guest today is Glenys Oyston, registered dietitian, and food therapist who co-hosts the podcast, “Dietitians Unplugged”, with fellow anti-diet dietitian, Aaron Flores.  Listen in as Glenys and Marielle talk about fat-positivity, body acceptance and eating intuitively instead of dieting. While we are all born with the ability to sense our internal hunger and fullness signals if you have a history of chronic dieting or disordered eating you may have lost touch with these signals. There is a way back and it involves patience, putting aside the desire to lose weight and connecting with others who are on a non-diet path.    Show Highlights: Fat isn’t inherently unhealthy, despite what we’ve been told We come in all shapes and sizes. Body diversity is a real thing! Trying to fix larger bodies is detrimental How disordered eating habits have become the norm Reclaiming the word “fat” as a neutral descriptor of a body size The words “overweight” and “obese” pathologize and medicalize larger bodies  Addressing eating concerns without a focus on weight The HAES (Health At Every Size) philosophy Intuitive Eating principles Eating disorders happen in folks of all sizes The myth that people put on weight as a protective factor How the fear of weight gain makes it harder to eat intuitively  The misconceptions of “Body Acceptance” Dealing with fat-shaming doctors and setting boundaries The risks of weight-cycling The importance of connecting to the robust fat-acceptance community online It’s actually ok to be fat   Links & Resources:  https://cookierevolution.org https://daretonotdiet.wordpress.com https://www.facebook.com/DareToNotDiet https://www.facebook.com/glenys.oyston http://dietitiansunplugged.libsyn.com Aaron Flores & Glenys Oyston Podcasts https://lindabacon.org/health-at-every-size-book/ - Linda Bacon https://benourished.org - offers programs, workshops, retreats, and e-courses for individuals looking to reclaim Body Trust® https://danceswithfat.org/blog/ - Ragen Chastain http://www.secretsfromtheeatinglab.com - Traci Mann

In our media-obsessed culture, the emphasis on having a trim figure is constant and overwhelming. Almost all of us have been frustrated, at some point, by not being able to achieve the perfect (or, let’s face it, just slightly improved) body, but nobody remains more stubbornly committed to winnowing away those extra pounds than Luke “LB” Burbank. Christy and Ann are ready to do a run-down of many (but certainly not all!) of the fad diets, kooky nutrition ideas, and far-out strategies he’s employed over the years in an effort to build his beef castle. From extreme calorie restriction, to cheeseburgers and booze-ahol, to part-time veganism, he’s willing to try just about anything, although his enthusiasm usually outpaces his preparation. Along the way, we remind ourselves that it’s a “cheat meal,” not a “cheat day,” get annoyed by Bridget Jones’s Diary, and wonder exactly what Luke was doing with those pickles. If you’re interested in reading about the truth of dieting, why it doesn’t actually work, and what you can realistically do to be happy with your body, here’s the book Ann mentioned: Secrets from the Eating Lab, by Traci Mann, PH.D.

In our media-obsessed culture, the emphasis on having a trim figure is constant and overwhelming. Almost all of us have been frustrated, at some point, by not being able to achieve the perfect (or, let’s face it, just slightly improved) body, but nobody remains more stubbornly committed to winnowing away those extra pounds than Luke “LB” Burbank. Christy and Ann are ready to do a run-down of many (but certainly not all!) of the fad diets, kooky nutrition ideas, and far-out strategies he’s employed over the years in an effort to build his beef castle. From extreme calorie restriction, to cheeseburgers and booze-ahol, to part-time veganism, he’s willing to try just about anything, although his enthusiasm usually outpaces his preparation. Along the way, we remind ourselves that it’s a “cheat meal,” not a “cheat day,” get annoyed by Bridget Jones’s Diary, and wonder exactly what Luke was doing with those pickles. If you’re interested in reading about the truth of dieting, why it doesn’t actually work, and what you can realistically do to be happy with your body, here’s the book Ann mentioned: Secrets from the Eating Lab, by Traci Mann, PH.D.

Do you ever feel like you would be more successful in your journey to better health if you had more willpower and motivation? Does it feel like everyone else has more willpower and motivation than you? Does it seem like all these changes are more difficult for you than other people? You’re going to want to tune in for this conversation with Annie and Jen for the truth about willpower, motivation and what action you can take to feel more successful.   What you’ll hear in this episode: The definition of willpower How decision fatigue impacts the quality of choices we make What’s the difference between motivation and willpower? How preparation sets you up for success Meal planning - why it can be helpful What to do when you can’t rely on motivation and willpower How waiting for motivation gets in the way of change that matters to us The magic in boredom The Habit Hangover - what is it? What keeps successful people going What a study of soda and water in a hospital teaches us about habits How to curate your environment for success   Resources: Atomic Habits by James Clear 53: Secrets From The Eating Lab: Dr. Traci Mann Secrets From The Eating Lab Arms Like Annie Learn more about Balance365 Life here Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, or Android so you never miss a new episode! Visit us on Facebook| Follow us on Instagram| Check us out on Pinterest Join our free Facebook group with over 40k women just like you! Did you enjoy the podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Google Play! It helps us get in front of new listeners so we can keep making great content. Transcript Annie: Welcome to Balance365 Life Radio, a podcast that delivers honest conversations about food, fitness, weight and wellness. I'm your host Annie Brees along with Jennifer Campbell and Lauren Koski. We are personal trainers, nutritionists and founders of Balance365. Together we coached thousands of women each day and are on a mission to help them feel healthy, happy and confident in their bodies, on their own terms. Join us here every week as we discuss hot topics pertaining to our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing with amazing guests. Enjoy. Welcome to Balance365 Life radio. Have you ever felt like if you just had more willpower, self control or motivation, you would finally be able to reach your goals? We get it. We hear this a lot and it's no wonder. The diet and fitness industry have led us to believe that willpower and control are characteristics of driven, successful, healthy individuals. And if we just had more, we wouldn't struggle. But is that all we need? Do we really just need more self control? And if so, how do I get it? Cause sign me up! On today's episode, Jen and I dive into the theories and the truth behind willpower, motivation and self control and offer tried and true practical strategies to help you stay on track with your goals even when you're just not feeling up to it. And by the way, if you want to continue this discussion on willpower, motivation, and self control, we invite you to join our free private Facebook group. Healthy Habits, Happy Moms. See you on the inside. Jen, how are you? Jen: Good, how are you? Annie: I'm great. We are talking about willpower and motivation today, which is something that comes up so frequently in our community. Like how do I get more motivation? How do I get more willpower? Right? We hear this a lot. Jen: Yeah and everywhere, right? Even the messages we get out of the fitness industry talks about getting motivated and having more willpower. And sometimes those phrases are used in a way that can feel really hurtful, right? Like you're doing something wrong and everybody else, everybody else around you seems to be very motivated and have a lot of willpower and you feel like it's something you lack. Annie: Right? And if you just had that, if you had willpower and determination and motivation and self discipline, then you could achieve anything. Jen: Right? And how many times have we heard, "I just have no willpower and that's my downfall. No willpower." Annie: Right? Yeah. And so we've done a fair amount of investigation into what really is behind willpower, what's behind motivation, what's behind self discipline? Do you really just need more of it? Because that is the message. Like you said, that we've been sold by the fitness industry that like, "Hey, if you just stick to this thing, if you can just have enough self discipline and motivation to stick to this plan, then you'll achieve your goals." And so then that becomes a way in which people feel like they're feeling like, "Oh, I did this." Like you said, "I'm wrong. I'm a failure. I'm lacking in this element of my life and everyone else is doing it. And I'm not." And is there any truth behind that? And I think what we're going to share today might surprise some people. Jen: Yes. Annie: Foreshadowing. Jen: Yes. Annie: And I want to say, like, you've done a lot of writing on this too because a lot of this is in the first phase of our Balance365 programming called Diet Deprogramming. Jen: Yes. Yeah. Annie: And that's the phase in which we kind of challenge, not kind of, we challenge some of the beliefs that you might hold sold to you by the diet and fitness industry, right? Jen: Yes. And the science around willpower and motivation is very heavy. And so I think today we're going to try talk about it in less scientific but more practical terms. Annie: Yeah. Jen: That make sense to everyone. And they can implement in their lives immediately. Annie: Well, yeah, I mean, we're not researchers! Jen: That's the goal! Annie: I mean, I like to think that I'm pretty smart, but definitely not researcher level. Okay. So let's start with the definition of willpower. Let's just get really clear on that. And the definition of willpower is the ability to exert control and resist impulses. And the truth is that we all have varying degrees of willpower. And on one end of the spectrum you'll have people with almost perfect willpower. And on the other end of the spectrum, you'll have people with almost no willpower. And the vast majority of us are- Jen: Somewhere in the middle. Annie: And like Jen said, there have been a lot of studies done on willpower and a lot of theories and it's kind of an ongoing process and you might find some that kind of disagree with each other. So like Jen said, we're just trying to give you more practical advice on how you can reach your goals without maybe relying on willpower and what is clear is that one of our mentors, Steven Michael Ledbetter, he is an expert in the science of human behavior. It's said that people reporting high levels of fatigue are the ones whose lives require high levels of mental energy expenditure. And do you want to give us that marriage example that you share in Diet deprogramming? Can you walk us through that and so we can see what Steven Michael Ledbetter says applies to real life. Jen: Okay. So yes. So, you had just talked about how people who have high levels of fatigue are the ones whose lives require high levels of mental energy expenditure. So this might include having to make many small decisions or choose between similar options all day long, and so what this, what we talk about in diet deprogramming as we compare two people. We've got a stay at home dad and a working mom and I put out this situation where a working mom, she gets up early kind of before anyone else is awake and she has some quiet time, has her breakfast and then she dashes out the door and on her way out she grabs her gym bag, which is packed and ready to go right by the door and she heads up the door for work. Her day is, you know, maybe not a super high stress job. She has some responsibility, but it's not super high stress. Her lunch breaks are always scheduled. She goes to the gym on her lunch breaks. It's a automatic habit and then she returned home around 5:30, six o'clock. Meanwhile, stay at home dad. This is my dream life. That's why I use this as an example. He wakes up tired because he's been up with maybe a toddler a couple of times in the night. He wakes up to lots of noise too, maybe a baby and a toddler crying "Breakfast!" And immediately he's going, "What am I going to feed these kids for breakfast?" And gulping back coffee and then trying to get those kids dressed because they have an appointment at 10 o'clock and then trying to get himself dressed. And it's just the crazy, right? I think we've all been there. Annie: That sounds familiar. Jen: Yes. And then just getting those kids out the door getting, and then one of them saying they got to poop. So then coming back in to change a diaper, like just like madness constantly. Right. And despite his best intentions to do a workout during nap time that afternoon, he is just so mentally fatigued from everything that happened between 8:00 AM and 1:00 PM that by the time the afternoon hits scrolling Facebook and the couch have won him over. And then of course the afternoon to get up from their naps. Similar stuff, making dinner, just that whole crazy and working wife gets home at 5:30 and dinner is almost ready and they sit down for a nice family dinner. They get the kids to bed that night. They go to unwind on the couch. They might share a bag of chips and working Susie goes to bed at a reasonable hour. But stay at home husband is just mentally fatigued, is so sick of being around kids. This is the only time he has in a day to not be with kids and he ends up staying up til midnight like he does every single night. Just hoarding those hours for himself and that might lead to more chips, maybe a beer, watching TV. Then he goes to bed around midnight and it starts again the next day. And so this example I think is typical of what might be happening in a lot of people's households is, you, I don't want to say typical. I'll say it was typical for me for a long time. I don't know if it was typical for you, Annie, but and I would say that even though my partner had taken on the responsibility of earning and that was an enormous responsibility, I felt like my life was chaos, very hard to find a routine when my kids were all little, little. I had three kids under four and it was just that I felt like my mental energy was just, just chipped away at all day long. Just all those little decisions you have to make dealing with unreasonable little kids all day. And it was very hard for me to get the physical or mental energy together. And then it's a downward cycle, right? Like then you have staying up late then broken sleep, can't get up in the morning, can't get going. And you know, we know that spiral, right? Making not so great food choices. Annie: Yeah. it's hard to make great choices when you're exhausted, when you're mentally and maybe even physically fatigued, you're kind of not in a prime position to make a good choice. And the mental fatigue that comes with a long day of decision making, whether it be you, Jen, when you were staying at home or the husband that we described in the last situation, the long day of decision making chips away at your energy and your willpower. So you have the contrast of the working mom who didn't have to make a lot of choices or maybe she made those choices ahead of time. So when she was fatigued- Jen: Right? So she packed her lunch, you know, she packs her lunch the night before, packs her gym bag. Doesn't have to think about those things. And maybe, you know, I think about my husband when he would go to work, there were lots of decisions that needed to be made and he did work in a high pressure environment, but he had assistants, receptionists, you know, like there was a lot of people pushing the ball forward with him, and yeah, so, and I don't want to like create this comparison game. I just might help with conversations between partners or just reflection, right? And so yeah, like, “Wow, how can I reduce the amount of decisions I have to make in a day?” Because what we know is all those decisions is actually contributing big time to your mental fatigue. Annie: Right? And so that's why we talk a lot about things like habits. So when you walk to the fridge, you have your, maybe your lunch for the week, you know, you've got all your power bowls. That's why our power bowl challenge was so successful and we loved it so much is because you don't have to then think at 12 o'clock when you're already starving and like, "Oh gosh, what am I gonna eat for lunch now? And do I want to cook something? Do I want to go grab something?" Because convenience wins. We know that over and over and over again, that whatever is most readily available will likely win out, which we'll talk about how your environment impacts your habits in just a little bit. But essentially what this boils down to in real life that this means, although it may appear that some people have higher levels of willpower than you do, it's probably they've just have just less mental energy expended during the day on large or small decisions. Jen: Right. So that may mean they have less decisions to make, or it may mean that they have habits in place so that they are not making those decisions, right? So you know, if you've listened to our podcast for a long time, you'll know exactly what that means. But if you're new to our podcast, it's sort of how when I open up my phone each time, I don't have to think about what my passcode is to get in, right? But when you go to change your password, you put in your old code, you're like, and then you have put it in again, and then you put it in again. And then all of a sudden you're like, "Oh yeah, I changed my passcode." So that's just an example of where energy is expended in one little way, right? Until that new habit is formed and then it takes no energy for you to do that. Or I was on another podcast, a couple months ago and a farm podcast actually. And, I said to the host, I was trying to explain habits and I said, "What happens when somebody moves the silverware drawer?" And the host, the a male host, Rob, his name was, he goes, "10 years later, you're still reaching to get it out of the old drawer." And that's the thing, right? So habits, having habits set up, like packing your gym bag before bed, if that becomes a part of your night routine and then you don't have to think about it in the morning, "Oh, where's my pants? Where's my shoes? Where's?" Do you know what I mean? And so it's looking at it, you know, case by case. You think, well, these aren't big decisions. Like who cares? But it's actually adding up all those things through the course of a day where you're just like, "Ugh, brain done." Annie: Yeah. Like, you know, the term that comes to mind is just this like exasperated. Like "I can't, I just can't. I can't, I can't." I think I've said that to my husband before like, "I can't make a choice right now. I just need you to do this for me. Like I don't even care." And then he picked somewhere to eat and I'm like "But not that place." Self control is similar. In that when scientists analyze people who appear to have great self control, similarly, it's largely because they're better at structuring their lives in a way that does not require heroic willpower and self control. And in short, they spend time, less time in tempting situations. And that was pulled from also one of our mentors, James Clear, his new book, Atomic Habits, which if you haven't checked out that book or his blog posts they're great. He's hopefully similar to us really applies information to your lives really easily. Jen: Yeah. But ps, he may not know he's a mentor of ours. We may just be like silent mentees Annie: It's not like we're buddies. Jen: Annie, you took his course a couple of years ago. Annie: Yeah, I did. Jen: Yeah. Anyways- Annie: Maybe admirers. Jen: Admirers of his work. Stalkers? Annie: Creepers. Jen: We're not quite at that level. But and we also talked about this in our podcast with doctor Tracey Mann. She's actually done a lot of research on willpower and she talked about it in that podcast and what she had said is nobody has good willpower. You think, you know, nobody does, in different survey she's done when she asks people to rate their own willpower. Everybody scores themselves low on willpower. So nobody thinks they have good willpower. And this is just an excerpt from her book Secrets From The Eating Lab, which is another book we recommend all the time. "Humans were simply not meant to willfully resist food. We evolved through famines, hunting and gathering, eating whatever we could get when we could get it. We evolve to keep fat on our bones by eating food we see, not by resisting it? So is that a good segway into- Annie: Well, I think the takeaway is there, like you can take some of the pressure off yourself for not having like iron man or whatever, like discipline and willpower like, the truth is no one is like that. That's what we're trying to say is that people that you think have really good willpower have most likely, again, created their lives, created routine, created habits that make other options less tempting. They've made the choices that they want to make the most readily available, the easiest to choose, and the most obvious choice in their lives. Jen: Right? So instead of putting all this energy into kind of shaming yourself and getting down on yourself for not having perfect willpower and motivation, put your energy into what we know matters, which is curating your environment and setting yourself up for success, which I do almost every night with my nighttime routine, I kind of start getting things ready for the next day. Annie: Yeah. And motivation is also something that kind of goes, seems to go hand in hand with willpower. And we've kind of been using these terms thus far interchangeably, but motivation is actually our willingness to do things. And the thing about motivation is at times it can feel abundant. Like you have all the motivation and like, "Yes, we're going to do all the things." And then at other times it's like "I'm just so unmotivated, I can't, I can't do anything at all." Jen: Right. Annie: You've felt like that- Jen: Totally. Annie: You've felt that burst of motivation and I think the myth is, again, it goes back to that people that are achieving their goals or they're going to the gym five, six days a week and they're meal planning and their meal prepping and they're eating the foods that the meal plan and plan and they seem so disciplined also have unlimited sources of motivation. And that is not the case either. No one, no one is riding this motivation high all the time, every day. Jen: Even people who, say, prep meals in advance, I prep some or portion of food I'm usually on the weekends and that sets us up for success during the week, but by no means am I cooking and preparing all of my food. You sometimes see on Instagram, you know, like, people who, like, have all these dishes and they line them up and they post meal prep Sunday Hashtag motivation. Annie: It makes for a great photo. Jen: Yes. And they have all their breakfast, all their lunches, all their snacks, all their suppers lined up for the week. Which, honestly, all the power to you. Some weeks I probably could use that. I just don't have time on the weekends to do in depth preps like that. But I do perhaps some and I do meal plan so I know what's coming. That's when meal planning can be great because it takes away the mental energy of deciding what you're going to eat. But what I will say is even the stuff I do prep, I'm not, I don't always feel motivated to eat it. I'm not like, "Oh, can't wait!" I'm like- Annie: Yes! Amen! Jen: And I think even the people who prep all those meals in advance, they might seem really motivated on Sunday cause they've got all these prep meals, but I bet you by Thursday they're eating the same lunch that they had all week and they're just like not thrilled. Or drowning in BBQ sauce. Annie: I can't tell you how many times I have and this is something I would have done back in my deep dieting years is, you know, this on again off again thing, I would like clean out the kitchen. I'd have this like motivation usually triggered, I mean, let's just revisit the diet cycle here. Triggered by shame. I'd see a photo of myself and like, "Ugh, got to lose 10 pounds!" Clean up the kitchen. I'd run to the grocery store, buy all this produce and lean meats and veggies and fruits and like I'm going to do this so well this week. And then, like, come Thursday I'm like, "Ugh!" Because you get this burst of motivation and then to, like, continue to the follow through is, like, that's much harder and when you rely on motivation to do the things that's bound to happen. That's exactly what we would expect from a human because again, no one is riding this high of motivation, seven days a week, 24, seven hours, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It's unreliable and it's fleeting. It comes and it goes, it ebbs and flows. It rises throughout the month, throughout the day. And, like, I notice it, my motivation rises and falls throughout the day and even in particular to do certain things. If I wanted to have motivation to go work out I know that it needs to be mid to late morning. If I wait until 6:00 PM to work out, it's probably not going to happen. Maybe some days, but probably not. Vice versa, if I try to work late at night, I can't work late at night. It needs to be like three, four o'clock seems to be like a really productive hour for me. So if I have something important to do, like, you know, kind of stack your day to where the motivation fits that task. Jen: Which can work. For me, the only realistic time I have to work out is super early in the morning. So I get up at 5:30 and I work out from six till seven three days a week. And I am never, ever, ever hopping out of bed excited, like "I can't freaking wait." It's just become a habit and which can lead us into a discussion about values and goals. But ultimately for me,I made a commitment to do this to my future self. So when I get up in the morning, I just don't let myself question it. Obviously if I've had a rough sleep or a sick kid, I will not get up at that hour. You know, I have grace with myself and I'm realistic. But yeah, I'm never motivated to do it. It's just simply become a habit for me. And something that's very important to me. Annie: I think that's a common mistake people make is they're sitting around waiting for motivation to strike them like lightning from the sky and as a result they're at the mercy of motivation. So they can't take action until they're motivated. That's like this belief that they have in their head. But you can also flip it and action leads to motivation, which research has proven as well. And I think just anecdotally, you would probably say the same thing. I would say the same thing. Like you get that first set in, you get your workout clothes on, you get into the gym and you start the workout and it's like, "Okay, I can do this now." And then you'll do it, and then it snowballs and it's like, and then you retrain your habit loop in your brain, like, I get up, I do the thing. The reward is I feel good. I may be more productive during the day, in the long term I'm improving my health, I'm increasing my strength, I'm learning new skills and then that's how habits are formed. Jen: Yeah, absolutely. Annie: Without relying on motivation. Jen: Right. Yeah. Annie: Boom. Jen: And that's why a lot of people give up on workout routines, right? Like how many people start something new and within three weeks they're done because they just, they lose, they're super motivated at the beginning, everybody is, when I started this new lifting program, well, its Arms Like Annie, it's your program, Annie,, I was very motivated but that really it doesn't last. And then you, then it's boring because then you're just putting in reps. But that's actually where the magic starts happening, I think, is actually those boring stages when you don't want to, that's when you're starting to, you're not relying on motivation anymore and you are truly training in that habit cycle and you might feel yourself resisting and trying to go back to old habits. Right? When my old habit is to sleep till seven, not get up at 5:30. But that's truly when the magic starts happening. That's truly around even where the tipping point starts happening, right, into forming a habit. And so that's why it's important to push through but not push through in the way that push through and find more motivation. It's like just push through like you're there, like this is, this is where it's going to happen. Annie: So that's, inside Balance365, that's something we call the Habit Hangover often. Like, we see that it's pretty common. Like, because people- Jen: This isn't fun anymore. Annie: Yeah. When they're motivated and they're like, "Okay, now this is just hard work and I'm not near as excited as I was when I started three weeks ago. And the newness, the shininess has worn off. Jen: Yes, new and shiny is gone. Yes. Annie: And again, that's another vote that we've said it before on the podcast. We say it all the time in our community. That's why we start habits small because when that motivation falters and it will then you're not relying, you don't need like this Richard Simmons level of willpower and motivation to do the thing that you're supposed to be doing if you start a little bit smaller versus like doing all the things at once. Jen: Yeah. So actually because I had struggled with, we moved a couple of years ago, a year and a half ago, I guess, and since we moved, I really struggled with my workout habit. So it was kind of last fall sometime where I just epiphany, "Look, this isn't working. I'm not being consistent because I haven't been able to find a time in my day that this really works for me. It definitely does not work at night for me." And that's something I just kept trying to do, trying to do, trying to do and then finally I was like, "Look, you're not going to work out at night." And so that's when I started getting up in the mornings and I actually kind of had the epiphany that's really what time works best for me and I had to start going to bed earlier and I started with twice a week actually. I was doing Mondays and Wednesdays only and that felt very realistic for me. And when things did get hard, I would say, "You know what? It's just two mornings a week. Like you, you can do this. It is just two mornings a week." And then when I felt ready, which is about two months after I started, I added in Friday mornings and now that's going really good. And we're going to add in a cardio, just a cardio session. And yeah. So, and that's just, that's really how habits form, right? Like that's so boring. But you scale up as you solidify new skills and habits, then you can add in something else and something else. And then all of a sudden you're living it and you're going, "Oh, this is happening and I'm doing the thing." Annie: I'm doing the thing. Jen: Yeah. Annie: Or the things. So to recap thus far, willpower and motivation is not what keeps most "successful people" going. It's their habits. And the next kind of layer I want to add on to that, which we've already touched on, is that your habits are highly influenced by your environment. And I want to share this study, I think we've shared it before, but really quickly, this is again, something inspired from James Clear shared before, but they did this study of soda and water consumption in hospital. And what they did was they let people choose their soda and their water consumption for two weeks, three weeks, whatever. They collected the data on the sales of each. After three weeks they added, they didn't change anything about the soda. They added water to different locations, more convenient locations throughout the hospital cafeteria. So again, all they changed was made water more available. And as a result, water sales increased and soda sales decreased. And I think that's just such a simple example of how impactful your environment can be on your habits. They didn't say, they didn't promote or push the water or give any marketing about how soda was "bad or harmful" and water was better. They simply just offered it in more places. And people are like, "Oh, there's water. I'll take a water now." Jen: Totally. So in my house, Oh boy, we talk about this all the time. My veggie tray. Annie: Yes. Yes. Jen: So fruits and vegetables are often things that people struggle to get enough in. And you have to make them convenient and part of your environment. One way I do this is one, I buy bagged salads and I just kind of have no shame around that when my salads are pretty much prepped for me, I'm eating them and enjoy them, but I am just not going to start from scratch every single meal to create a salad. That's a lot of work. And or maybe, maybe it's not a lot, but it's too much for me. And a second is I make a veggie tray every, that's kind of part of my meal prep. On Sundays I make a Veggie tray. I've got like an old one of those old Tupperware ones. I make a Veggie tray and then I'm usually restocking it by Wednesday morning. And I bring that out for most meals, lunch and supper for me, my kids. And I also pull from it when I'm packing lunches for my kids school lunches. And I keep all our fruit, most of our fruit, if it doesn't have to be refrigerated, I have it on the counter in just a little fruit basket and we go through fruit like crazy around here. But I have made fruits and vegetables very, I have put my energy into making those two things very accessible and then I don't have to think about it during the week. It just happens naturally. And that's what we're trying to say here, right? Annie: Yeah. And I think the other aspect to that is visual cues are really, really important. So because when you open up your fridge, you see the Veggie tray and it's, like, there. Jen: It's there. It's right at eye level. It's not tucked, you know, it's not tucked away. It's not in the back. I don't have my vegetables tucked in the drawers and the bottom. It's like right there. Annie: Exactly. I even remember you talking about, which you've seen my Instagram videos, you know, my kitchen also houses my dumbbells and kettlebells. But, but you did the same thing too, you were like, look, I'm not getting in a lot of movement and I want to, and it would be simple to incorporate some kettlebell swings, but in order for me to actually do that, I need the kettle bell in my kitchen. So every time you walked by it, so you ended up doing, you know what, 10 swings a handful of times throughout the day. Jen: Yeah. So yeah, so I have a big round Moved Nat yoga mat off my kitchen island. There's kind of just a space off my kitchen that's just blank space. I know not everybody will be able to find a space, but there's other ways to do it. But anyway, sorry, I have this huge round Yoga Mat. The boys use it to sit and play cars on or they sit on it and read. But I also use it, like, it's just there. So if I feel like doing some movement, whether it's getting on the ground and doing some glute bridges or pushups or whatever, my mat is right there and I don't have to go on my gross floors. But, and then I also have just, you know, I have my garage gym,, but I have one kettlebell that I keep up in the kitchen and it's kind of on the lighter end, but I can do, you know, I can do lots of things with it in my kitchen and I, yeah, I see it and I'll do it right. Which I know it sounds silly, but if I'm waiting for water to boil on the stove, I'll go over and do a couple of kettlebell swings or a couple of pushups or, yeah. And I mean that just works well for me. I'm not saying it'll work for everybody, but it just works well for me. And other people might find benefit in having a yoga mat in their living room and some weights, you know, beside the TV. And so when they're watching TV, they might just feel like, yeah, I could get down on the floor, do some bridges, some presses, some, you know, some yoga stretches, anything, right? Because if it's, but it's just about looking at your environment and say, how does my environment support more of what I want in it? And then on the flip side of that, which we talked about with Traci Mann, is how can I put small barriers in place between me and things that I want less of in my life. So for me, I keep, like all our nuts and seeds and chocolates, like really high calorie, high energy foods. I keep a lot of those above my fridge in the cupboard and then I don't, I can't see them. There's no visual cue to eat them. I'm having them when I want them, right. When I think of them and want them and reach for them. Annie: Right. And then you know that if I want them it's because I actually want them, not just because I see them and then I want them, which is like marketing 101. We think that we're in control. We think we're like making the choice. But a lot of times it's like the power of suggestion. Like I've said it before, my kids don't want the Goldfish at Target until they see the Goldfish at Target, at the end cap. Jen: It's why grocery stores put all that stuff right at the checkout. Right? All the trashy magazines, all the indulgent foods, like the chocolate bars, they put it there because they know you're going to be standing there awhile, waiting at the checkout and you're just more likely to grab it the longer you're standing there. Annie: Right. And the other thing about habits too is that, habits and your environment is that we often have a set of habits per the location we're in. So if you think about the habits you have in your bedroom, the habits you have in your kitchen, the habits you have in your, in the gym, the habits you have in a grocery store, you probably grocery shop the same path every time. You have your routine, right? You like grab your produce, you move to meats or whatever it is. Same thing with the gym. You walk to the same space every time, you put your bag down, you go use the same equipment, you probably have a favorite treadmill or a favorite squat rack or whatever. The thing is important to know is that it can be easier to change habits in a new environment. So if possible, like I'm not saying go out and buy a new house, but could you rearrange your furniture so maybe, or take a TV out of your bedroom or rearrange your furniture so it's not facing the TV and it's more conducive to reading or whatever habit you're trying to change. Or put a kettle bell in your kitchen or go to a different grocery store. Like would your shopping- Jen: Rearrange up cupboards or, yeah. Annie: Yeah. You don't have to like completely like burn everything down and start from new. But can you think outside the box of how your environment shapes your habits? Like even, James Clear, and I'm guilty of this, was talking about your environment should have a purpose. So, you know, he was working at his kitchen island. But he also wants to eat in his kitchen. And then it's kind of like, there was no boundary. That's like, now I'm working, now I'm eating, I'm eating and I'm working. So he created a new small environment out of his bedroom for an office or whatever. And like that's his work. When he's working, when he's there, he's working. When he's in his kitchen, he's eating and you know, on and so forth. So- Jen: I just- Annie: Go ahead. Jen: I posted about this in Balance365 a couple of months ago. I totally had that epiphany in the wintertime when it was chilly out, I started working at my kitchen table near the fire instead of my office. And I started snacking more and more and more. And then one day I realized, it's because you're just staring at the kitchen all day. You're just staring at the cupboard, staring at the kitchen and you're just triggered to go grab something to eat. Right. And so I moved back down to my office and that problem is gone. I'm not snacking between breakfast and lunch anymore. Annie: Right. Jen: And it's crazy, right? You think, you know, you think this comes to motivation and willpower again, but you just can't believe how much your environment influences your choices. Right. And again, my goal is not perfection. My goal is balance. So I'm not like saying take all the treats out of your cupboards and all of that. I feel like I have an appropriate amount of treats in my house stored in a space that aligns with the goal I have of balance, right. Annie: Right, right. Yeah. And I think that it's, you know what all of this really boils down to for me and I'm assuming for you is that self control and willpower and motivation can work in the short term. They can be a great short term strategy. And I wouldn't want anyone listening to this to think I'm super motivated, but I somehow have to like contain that motivation or pull back from that motivation because I don't want to like misstep or whatever. Like, no, if you're motivated to do something, you can follow that. Like you can explore it. It's not that it's a bad thing, but the point is, is that a better, in our experience, a better long term strategy for reaching goals boils down to habits and environment. Jen: Right. I don't, sometimes I feel super motivated to go for an extra run or walk or I do an extra workout. But another thing I just want to note is you don't want to, when you're feeling motivated, that's not where you want to set your bar, right? Like you don't, you know, some weeks I have my baseline habits, say, like my three workouts a week and that's just kinda my minimum at this point. I miss the odd one. We just took two weeks off, actually, me and my workout partner and that's all good. We're right back to our three times a week. But the odd time when I feel like an extra run or I feel like an extra workout, I don't bring my bar up there. I don't say, okay, now I'm at five times. I just, you know what, I recognize it as a week, even a month sometimes where I had a burst of energy and I utilize that and that felt great, but I don't bring my bar up there. I just recognize. Annie: Yes. It was just a bonus. Jen: I just feel motivated. Yeah. It was just a bonus. Annie: Yeah. That's great. This is good. I hope that this helps clear up a lot of the questions that we get about willpower and also helps reduce some of the shame and guilt that people might be experiencing if they don't feel those emotions or if they don't feel like they have those traits or those characteristics innately, and then, because I think I, you know, just on a personal note, I think people think that I am motivated, for example, to go to the gym three, four times a week or five times a week. I'm not. Like Jen said, like, there's days where I'm like, "Eh, I don't know." Like I'll text my girlfriend, it's like, "I need you to talk me into this." Jen: Right. Annie: Or "This is workout really doesn't look fun. I don't think I can do this," but it falls back to habits. I dropped my kids off at school, I'd go to the gym and if I can just get my kids in the car, I know that that trigger loop or that habit loop has started with my trigger of getting kids to school. And I know the rest will just fall in naturally thanks to habits. Jen: Yes. And I do think it is really key too, I don't think a lot of people do this and I think it's such a great thing to do is to stop, pause, especially if you've gone through any life transition, like had a baby, changed jobs, moved and think about where you can decrease the decisions you're making in the day. So my nighttime routine consists of, you know, washing my face, brushing my teeth, getting my workout clothes out, putting them right beside the bathroom sink so that when I get up in the morning, the first thing I do is get dressed. I get my coffee pot out, the coffee out. So you know, so just in the mornings, I just, I don't have to think. I just get up and do, and then I head down to the gym. Annie: That's great. Awesome. If you want to continue the conversation on willpower and motivation, come to our free private Facebook group with our Healthy Habits Happy Moms on Facebook. Jen, Lauren and I are in there frequently along with some really, really rad community members that have been around for a while and have great contributions, so we hope to see in there. Jen: Yes. Annie: Alright, thanks, Jen. Jen: Bye, Annie. Annie: Bye. Bye. This episode is brought to you by the Balance365 program. If you're ready to say goodbye to quick fixes and false promises and yes to building healthy habits and a life you're 100% in love with, then checkout Balance365.co to learn more.  

Following our recent podcast with Dr. Traci Mann, Balance365 Life radio listeners had additional questions about the weight set point theory. In this quick solo episode, Jen Campbell attempts to answer these questions, providing additional clarification and hope for listeners as they explore the messy middle.     What you’ll hear in this episode: What is weight set point theory? Does everyone agree with weight set point theory? What is the difference between physiological and psychological pushback to weight loss Why habits of convenience are easier to integrate Questions to ask yourself to help determine if you are overweight Lifestyle setpoint - what it means to you Seasons of life and how they impact weight How stress can affect your weight What Dr. Sharma and Dr. Freedhoff have to say about determining if you are at a healthy weight   Resources: Secrets From The Eating Lab book 53: Secrets From The Eating Lab: Dr. Traci Mann Dr Sharma and Dr Freedhoff paper Learn more about Balance365 Life here Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, or Android so you never miss a new episode! Visit us on Facebook| Follow us on Instagram| Check us out on Pinterest Join our free Facebook group with over 40k women just like you! Did you enjoy the podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Google Play! It helps us get in front of new listeners so we can keep making great content. Transcript Annie: Welcome to Balance365 Life radio, a podcast that delivers honest conversations about food, fitness, weight, and wellness. I'm your host Annie Brees along with Jennifer Campbell and Lauren Koski. We are personal trainers, nutritionists and founders of Balance365. Together we coach thousands of women each day and are on a mission to help them feel healthy, happy, and confident in their bodies, on their own terms. Join us here every week as we discuss hot topics pertaining to our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing with amazing guests. Enjoy. Jen: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Balance365 Life radio. For those who don't know me, I'm Jennifer Campbell, one third of the founding members of Balance365. Today is going to be a quickie, but also a pretty big topic. Are you overweight? And I don't mean where do you fall on the BMI scale because that is not a measure of health. It's a measure of size. I mean, are you above a weight that is healthy for you? We did a podcast a few weeks ago with Dr Traci Mann, author of Secrets From The Eating Lab. In that episode we did a deep dive into weight set point theory. That's episode 53 if you want to go back and listen. Weight set point is a theory that says our bodies have a programmed and largely predetermined weight range where we function best. When we try to live outside of this, our body will fight to get back to that range. The feedback we got from that podcast in and outside of our community is that it was depressing. For many women they felt as if it meant the body weight they are at currently is what they are destined to be the rest of their life. So we want to clarify. It's important to note that while there's plenty of evidence for weight set points, there's also critics. One of the most vocal critics is Doctor Yoni Freedhoff, an obesity medicine doctor here in Canada. If you follow us on social media, you'll know we have been slightly stalkerish lately, publicly asking him to come on our podcast. He speaks often of the psychological aspects of weight loss and the resistance that people have to change and how that is actually what's keeping people at higher weights than what is healthy for them. As usual, I want to invite you to explore the messy middle of weight setpoint theory with me. The tricky part of this discussion is that I know people crave black and white answers, but we cannot provide them. Nobody can. You are not a mathematical equation. You are a complex human being with your own unique genetics environment, lived experience, stressors and set of habits. What's right for you may not be right for the next woman and that's okay. So do we have a physiological weight setpoint? Absolutely. Just ask any bodybuilder about their experience getting down to unhealthy levels of body fat for competitions. That's a temporary state they're in for a few hours and their bodies are fighting it. But do we also have a psychological pushback? Yes, we totally do. And just because you find yourself resisting a new behavior doesn't mean your body is at its healthiest weight. It means your brain is like, "Hey, this is hard. Let's not do this." Human beings are wired to conserve energy, which is why habits that make your life more convenient solidify so quickly. So let's get back to the main issue. Are you overweight? We want you to look beyond the charts and graphs and instead look inside yourself. Today I have a series of self reflection questions for you. Here they are. Number one, do you struggle with the all or nothing mentality and the all or nothing behaviors that follow? Number two, do you have chaotic eating habits? Number three, do you have binge eating episodes? Number four, do you graze on food? Number five, do you frequently eat out of habit rather than due to hunger? Number six, do you frequently eat until you are stuffed? Number seven is emotional eating something you find yourself struggling with? Number eight, do you have poor sleep habits? Number nine, do you eat out regularly or do processed slash refined foods make up a large part of your overall diet? Number 10, does life feel very stressful? That could be your job, your relationship, financial stress, trauma, et cetera, and number 11 are you mostly sedentary? If you found yourself nodding along to this list, then you might, fine print, might be at a weight that is higher than your natural healthy weight range and honestly, it wouldn't be uncommon to find someone who answered yes to every question. To what degree a person is overweight, I don't know. That probably depends on how long the behaviors have existed and to what frequency they show up day to day. For example, if you find yourself emotionally eating a bag of chips once in a while it probably has had no effect on your weight or your health, but if you find yourself emotionally eating high energy foods every single day, then yes, it probably has had an impact on your weight and your health. So for you to change that behavior would likely result in weight loss. In the spirit of being in the messy middle, as we always are, at Balance365 we like to say "lifestyle set point" and that's because it acknowledges that there is a range of weights that are healthy for each person and that that range can change. So people are going to go through different seasons of life where the weight range that is healthiest and possible for them is different from the next. What your weight is when life feels easy may not be what you weigh when life feels hard and that is okay, it doesn't mean you are unhealthier and it doesn't mean you have less value. You can't necessarily control your weight, but you can adjust your behaviors during seasons of life to care for yourself in the way you need. We have to accept that sometimes the way we need to care for ourselves, the healthiest path for us in that time could also involve a weight fluctuation and maybe that's up or down. What we know undoubtedly is that the behaviors we use to achieve any weight loss must be done forever or the weight will come back. That's why working on habits, not diets is so important and that you choose those changes because you enjoy them or at least can accept them as part of your life forever. And lastly, I want to leave you with just two more questions. And this came from a paper by Dr Sharma and Dr Freedhoff and Dr Freedhoff, I had mentioned earlier, he's an obesity medicine doctor in Canada out in, I think it's Ottawa and Dr Sharma is also an obesity medicine doctor in Edmonton. And in this paper they have two questions to help people determine if they are at the right weight for them or not. And number one is, can you eat less calories than you are now while still enjoying your life? Number two, can you exercise more than you are now while still enjoying your life? If the answer is no to both of these questions, then you're there. If it's yes, then you'll likely see more fat loss if you make the changes. And I thought that was just so beautifully simple. I hope this podcast was helpful and maybe a little eye opening. Either way, we please leave us a review on iTunes. We appreciate them so much and I know Annie, when we're doing our longer podcast, she is always looking at the reviews and reading out the new ones. Alright, thanks everyone. Bye. Bye. Annie: This episode is brought to you by the Balance365 program. If you're ready to say goodbye to quick fixes and false promises and yes to building healthy habits and a life you're 100% in love with, then checkout Balance365.co to learn more.

Can alcohol be a part of your life of moderation? Jen, Annie and Lauren sit down and discuss how alcohol can impact your health and fitness goals and your life, how to assess if it’s time to make a change and how to implement that change if needed. Cheers to moderation! What you’ll hear in this episode: How the United States Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee defines various levels of drinking Mommy wine culture - what it is Habit replacement as a way to break a habit Identifying the components of a habit loop - reminder, routine, reward   Using small obstacles to interrupt a habit Curating your environment for habit success The relationship between ease of access of alcohol and consumption Tracking consumption to make decisions about how much is too much Separating emotion from tracking How alcohol impacts hunger or perceived hunger Questions to ask yourself around your alcohol consumption How alcohol impacts your next day food and movement choices Deciding what’s negotiable and non-negotiable for you personally Physiological effects of drinking   Resources: Episode 15: Habits 101 – Hack Your Habits, Change Your Life Episode 22: The Oreo Cookie Approach To Breaking A Bad Habit 53: Secrets From The Eating Lab: Dr. Traci Mann Learn more about Balance365 Life here Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, or Android so you never miss a new episode! Visit us on Facebook| Follow us on Instagram| Check us out on Pinterest Join our free Facebook group with over 40k women just like you! Did you enjoy the podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Google Play! It helps us get in front of new listeners so we can keep making great content. Transcript Annie:  Welcome to Balance365 Life radio, a podcast that delivers honest conversations about food, fitness, weight, and wellness. I'm your host Annie Brees along with Jennifer Campbell and Lauren Koski. We are personal trainers, nutritionists and founders of Balance365. Together we have coached thousands of women each day and are on a mission to help them feel healthy, happy, and confident in their bodies on their own terms. Join us here every week as we discuss hot topics pertaining to our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing with amazing guests. Enjoy. Annie:  Do you need to give up alcohol to reach your goal? Improve your health? On today's episode, we are talking all about booze. People drink for a variety of reasons. For many, alcohol just tastes good. It can help us unwind, connect socially, and maybe even increase creativity. In my experience. Drinking in moderation can be fine. I absolutely enjoy a glass or two of wine here and there, but maybe you found yourself wondering if cutting back or eliminating alcoholic beverages altogether from your diet would help you reach your health or weight loss goals faster. Or maybe you've noticed that a few drinks on a Wednesday night snowballs into poor sleep, missed workouts, and less than desirable food choices the following day. If that's you, you've got to give this show a listen. Jen, Lauren and I discuss how alcohol impacts our health and questions to help you decide if your intake is helping or harming your lifestyle. Enjoy. Lauren and Jen, we are back together. Lauren, how are you? Lauren:  I am wonderful. How are you? Annie:  I am golden. Coming in hot after a lost a microphone or lost headphone fiasco to laser tag guns, but I recovered them and I'm sweating now but I'm here. Lauren:  That's what's important. Annie:  Yes. Jen, how are you? Jen:  I'm good and I'm so glad to be back because I had to miss our last recording day because of sound issues, which was super frustrating, but our sound girl, her and I worked it out and here I am. Annie:  Yay. Three best friends. Anyway, we're back together. So, we, I just sang on the podcast, you guys. We are talking about alcohol- Lauren:  Leveling up, leveling up. Annie:  Leveling up and alcohol. Both. We're doing both today. We're talking about alcohol because alcohol comes up a fair amount in our community and how does it factor into one's lifestyle and can you have alcohol and still have weight loss goals? Can you have alcohol and still want to improve your health? How does alcohol affect your health? How does, and when I say health, I'm talking about mental, mental, physical, emotional. So we just wanted to, three of us have all had fair amount of experience with alcohol and how much we use at various points of time. And I think it's gonna make for a really great podcast today. You guys excited? Jen:  Yeah. Lauren:  Yeah. Annie:  Awesome. So drinking a moderation can be fun. And I want to start this podcast episode with a little bit of a disclaimer that this podcast is not a substitute for professional help. If you suspect that you have, an abuse or alcohol addiction problem, that we would absolutely refer you out to a professional, whether that be a doctor, a therapist, a counselor, a group, whatever sort of treatment you feel that you need. We're talking about specifically light to moderate drinking and how to assess if maybe you need to change some of those behaviors to reach your goals. Right? Lauren:  Yeah. Annie:  Jen and Lauren, do you drink, do you drink at all, Lauren? Lauren:  To be honest, lately I have not. I will have a couple of drinks on the weekend if we're going out or doing something. But during the week I don't. Annie:  Jen, what about you? Jen:  I rarely drink either. I used to drink more and I actually, which we can get into in the podcast, but last October I cut back significantly. And so now I just drink just socially probably. And I'm not very social, so. I don't have very many friends. So- Annie:  Kinda introverted. Well I guess I'll, I'll take one for the team here. I drink a fair amount and then it ebbs and flows depending on what's going on in my life. But, it's not uncommon for me to have a glass or two of wine a couple times a week, just with dinner or after dinner or after work or whatever, a little happy hour. So, I guess I'll be the kind of the drinker of the three- Jen:  Right. You'll be the heavy drinker. Lauren:  I used to drink more before I had kids and like Jen said, when I had more of a social life. So, it kind of ebbs and flows too. Like in the summer I usually have more drinks than in the winter because we're out at barbecues and just doing things and out more than I am in the winter. Jen:  Yeah, I would say it's, we're hopefully getting into spring here in Canada and in the summer I tend to drink a bit more than I do in the winter too. There's just something about, I dunno, a deck, sun shining, fire and when I'm with you two. Annie:  I have no clue what you're talking about. Jen:  Yeah. Annie:  We do enjoy good, which we can talk about later. But we do enjoy good meals when we're together. And sometimes that's just like- Jen:  We do. It's very nice. Annie:  It's like a treat. It's a luxury. It feels like a luxury. Jen:  Yeah. Totally. Annie:  And I do just want to also clarify, according to at least the United States dietary guidelines advisory committee, moderate drinking for women is up to seven drinks a week with no more than three drinks on any single day. For men that's up to 14 drinks per week with no more than four drinks on any single night. Heavy drinking is eight or more drinks a week for women or 15 or more drinks for men. And then binge drinking is kind of its own separate category and that's the consumption of about two hour window of four or more drinks for women or five or more drinks for men. And Jen, when we were actually, I was sharing the podcast outline with them and Jen was asking about why do men and women have different guidelines? Annie:  And she noted even women are the same size as men. Like me, which I am the, I am the same size as a lot of men in my life. And I actually had to do some research on this. And what I found out was it's men are generally larger and build in general, general quotes, not in my case, but that gives them more blood volume. They also generally have less body fat, but they also have, regardless of their weight, higher enzymes that help them break down alcohol and the concentration of water, I did not know this in the body of an average man is around 61% and a woman has considerably less water content and about 52%. So as a result, a man's body is just naturally equipped to dilute alcohol more efficiently than a woman's body regardless of weight. Lauren:  That's really interesting. Annie:  I know, I thought that too. Because like Jen, I'm like, "Well, I'm the same size. I can go drink for drink, right?" Like, no, I can't. I tried that in college many times. Didn't work out well for me. But also how you can metabolize and how alcohol affects you can also be affected by your age, your sex, as we talked about your race or ethnicity, your physical condition, the amount of food you consumed before drinking, how quickly the alcohol was consumed, the use of drugs or prescription medications and then family history of alcohol problems. So I just wanted to kind of like throw out some like baseline, like what's moderate drinking, what is heavy drinking? What factors go into play with how we metabolize alcohol. Just so we can have, level the playing field, so to speak. Does that make sense? Jen:  Yeah. So, question, Annie, this information is from, where did you say this is? Annie:  This is from, well it's from a variety of sources, but the drinking guidelines was from the United States Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which actually now that you say that, I'd be curious to know if the guidelines vary from country to country because drinking as a culture is very different in European cities versus American cities. Jen:  So versus like Russia or- Annie:  Yeah, be curious to know. Jen:  I think alcohol consumption is very cultural, which we might get into a bit later too. So I think a lot of people that I know would be surprised to read this and see that they are considered heavy drinkers based on these guidelines. I think they would feel like, "Wait a sec, I'm not a heavy drinker." Lauren:  I am considered, according to these guidelines, a binge drinker, which is weird to say that just because like I don't, I'm not the type that will just have like one wine after dinner. Like I'm a social drinker, so like I'll go have a few and then I won't drink for the rest of the week. And I'm just finding that interesting to read. Annie:  Well and the other thing that I think is important to note is serving size, you know, a serving size, what they're counting as a drink would be five, four to five ounces of wine, a 12 ounce beer, five ounce cocktail. I don't know about you, but when I pour a glass of wine, it isn't never five ounces. Jen:  Right. Annie:  It is always way more. So- Jen:  I don't even know if that's standard in restaurants. Like, I don't know if a restaurant even ever pours five ounces. Lauren:  It is they're supposed to- Annie:  Right. Because when I go to a restaurant, I'm like, one of us is doing this wrong. I'm pouring a much bigger class than they are serving me at the steak restaurant down the street. Jen:  So from my memory of going out and having wine is that you can order either a six or a nine ounce at restaurants. That's in, where I live. Lauren:  Oh, we don't have that. Annie:  No. Jen:  Oh, you don't? Lauren:  No, you can order, like, a tall or a short beer, but you, it's just one serving size of wine or like a drink. Jen:  I, yeah, no, you can order size six or nine ounce, which is six ounce sounds like it's considered larger than your standard serving. But yeah, I kind of live in wine country, a wine region of Canada too. So maybe that's why they have that. Well, yeah, interesting. Annie:  It is. And I mean to be full disclosure, there's nights where I'm like "my serving size is a bottle." Jen:  Yeah. And I mean you have to, everybody has to understand, these are guidelines. They aren't, just like nutrition recommendations are also guidelines. It doesn't mean, you know, you want to roughly make sure you're in the range of the guidelines, but just because Lauren goes out once a month and has four drinks in two hours and sees that those align with binge drinking doesn't mean she is a binge drinker. Lauren:  It doesn't, right. It doesn't make me unhealthy. You know what I mean? Like it's balance, you know? Jen:  Yeah. You gotta, like, you gotta zoom out always and put everything in perspective. Annie:  Well, and I think that hopefully what we'll get into in a little bit here is that we're going to pose some questions to help you determine if your alcohol consumption, your alcohol intake is serving you positively or if it's affecting you negatively. And then what you do with that information is for you to decide because, true to Balance365 form, we believe in body autonomy and that you get a right, the kind of the owner's manual and what works best for you is all that's really in our best interest. We're not here to tell you to cut out alcohol together, although that might be what you decide after listening to this podcast or evaluating your intake or to reduce it or, you know, I think there's, there is some, I don't want to say misinformation, but there's, there's plenty of articles that would say alcohol is good for you and they're a little bit gray. Annie:  I don't think that the general guidelines from, you know, the source that I mentioned earlier, the United States Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee noted that there might be some benefit, but that they wouldn't encourage anyone to start drinking because of it. So, this is really just like a more tools in your toolbox to help you evaluate again as this serving you. Is this moving you where you want to be? Are you comfortable with this? Is this problematic for you or is this adding to your life in a way that you're enjoying it and you're comfortable with? So, reasons that you might want to reconsider your intake though. We have a couple here and the first one is that you're stressed. And I think we see this a lot. People are stressed out. They're feeling anxious, they're feeling the overwhelm and they pour a glass of wine and it's almost habitual. Lauren:  It's become, like, in the mommy circles, right? It's become a thing. Like I need wine. Jen:  It's actually called, it's called mommy wine culture. Lauren:  Yes, thank you, I couldn't remember the name. Jen:  Yeah. And we've, there's a lot of people have been talking about this in the last year about how alcohol companies or even marketing to moms now in as far as "Here's a way to manage your stress, here's some wine, have some, it's okay." So I have mixed feelings about it. I think it is a slippery slope and based on personal experience, I mentioned earlier that I really peeled back on drinking last October and I was going through a very stressful time. We had moved in August and I had basically done that move by myself with kids and, you know, new city, just everything was new and I was struggling with some anxiety and my consumption just went way up. And then I, here's some, here's some, here's some honesty for you. Jen:  I met you guys in October, remember we met in Detroit and we went out to that concert and I got, like, wasted like just like 19 year old university frat house drunk. And I was, I don't know where it came from, but I was mortified the next morning, like, "Whoa, that was too far!" And, when I got back from that trip, I just really tried to have an honest talk with myself about my consumption going up and up and up and I just was so stressed out that it had become toxic for me. Like it really was a way for me to manage my stress and anxiety and that's a slippery slope. So, and people do this all the time with lots of different things, right? Like, whether they, sometimes with food we talk about that quite a bit. Jen:  And so yeah, I just had an honest talk with myself and I set some boundaries for myself, which is when I, at that point I said, you know what, unless I am socializing, then I don't need to be just drinking wine on a Wednesday night. And, I'm just going to keep it to two drinks. Um, even when I'm socializing for now. That was sort of the guideline I set for myself and now a year and a half has gone by and I feel really good. I feel in control of my consumptions but I don't have that stress and anxiety anymore so it doesn't feel compulsive to me. But yeah, it was just a really good choice for me. It was a really, really good choice. Annie:  And you know, it might be a really great opportunity if you find yourself drinking because you're stressed to explore, expand your toolbox, so to speak, of other ways you can manage your stress. And that might mean taking a shower, going for a walk, meditating, reading, knitting. Jen:  Or going to therapy. So I used that experienced and reflection and to go, you know what? I need to start going to see a therapist and I'd been thinking about it for a long time and just not executing, not executing. And then I use that as sort of a turning point for me. So then I started therapy and you know what I've done in the last 18 months, I cry significantly more. I think, it's because it is great and I just find like I'm, you know, I just went through, I just, I'm a crier and I process my emotions when I'm crying and it's not a negative experience for me. It's really positive for me to cry. So I've noticed since I pulled back on drinking and started going to therapy, I've just learned that how to process my emotions in a more healthy way. And it's been really great. Lauren:  I find crying is a stress reliever for me too, for sure. Like when I'm stressed, like I will just have like a mini breakdown by myself in my roommate and I'm like, "Whoa. Alright." Jen:  Yeah. Like that was just so great. Lauren:  Everything's okay. Annie:  Yeah. I agree. Maybe, I just, I attribute it to therapy as well, but feeling your feelings is quite nice, sometimes even the ugly feelings, even the really uncomfortable feelings. Um, okay. So another reason that you might be drinking, and that you might want to reconsider your drinking is because it's, you're doing it out of habit, which I think I've told this story many times, but I got into a habit of drinking shortly after Blair was born because she was probably eight weeks old or so and really fussy and hard to get to sleep. So I would like spend all this energy and time and mental effort getting this baby to sleep. And the minute she would like go to bed, I would come down and I would just pour a glass of wine and sit in the kitchen and talk with my husband. Annie:  And I realized pretty quickly that there was, there was a habit which we've talked about in our Habits 101 podcast and How to Change a Bad Habit that there's a habit loop there. And in that habit loop is the reminder, the routine, the reward, the three Rs. And the reminder for me to drink to have a glass of wine was putting Blair to sleep. It was like super stressful. I was tired. It was just like, "Oh my God, I just, I can't do anything more right now. I just need this glass of wine." The routine was drinking the glass of the wine and the reward was, is that it kind of felt like it took the edge off. I got to spend some QT with my husband in the kitchen. It was kind of our own little happy hour and once I realized that there was this loop replaying almost nightly, that I could replace the behavior. Annie:  The best way to change a bad habit or an unfavorable habit or a habit that you want to decrease is to replace the routine with something that elicits the same reward. So for me, instead of drinking glass of wine, it was immediately going and taking a shower or going and taking a walk and then coming back and having a Lacroix or a Diet Coke and still sitting in the kitchen with my husband, still having some QT, our own little happy hour. I just replaced the routine with something else that still took the edge off, still gave me a little breather, still take, like, some downtime. Still felt like that reward that I was getting from the wine, but served my goals a little bit better because ultimately I don't want to be, I don't want to drink every night and in order to get the same kind of take the edge off feeling I was having to drink more and more and more. Annie:  So what started out as one glass of wine was quickly becoming three glasses of wine, like, over the course of a couple months. And before you know it, I was like quasi tipsy, putting my other kids to bed and I was like, this isn't something I want to do every single night. Like that's not for me. It was affecting my sleep and I could go on and on about the ways that it was affecting my life negatively. But that was one way that I addressed the habit loop. Just swap in the routine was something that elicits the same reward. Lauren:  Yeah. Jen:  Sorry, go ahead, Lauren. Lauren:  I think that kind of what you described happens really frequently. So like we were talking about the stress, right? That was part of your story, right, was stress? And then you had the drink to like take the edge off or whatever. But then what happened is that became a habit. And I think that happens really frequently. And so I love that story too. And I tell it all the time too. Annie:  Remember when you were drinking all the time? Jen:  I think that people, so if you haven't listened to our Habits 101 podcast, you people don't understand how strong habits are, right? They think they just have horrible willpower and I, they just can't make good choices, et cetera, et cetera. But, habits are just like, they're like primal. They're deep in our brain and they're basically, they're practically a survival mechanism, aren't they? Jen:  Because they allow us to do things without wasting time and energy on them, right? So when you form habits, it's really important to identify those three hours. Like, and he said in this can apply to anything, right? So for Annie, her, she was putting her kids to bed and then her brain would like light up and go time for a drink. But sometimes that is time for a chocolate bar or time for some TV. Like it just, and you just, you go through the motions of life because are we just, our brain has so many habits running on repeat and in order to change them, you have to identify them and identify what your reminder is, what your routine is, what the reward is, and then try and transition to a different habit that you'd like to replace it with as Annie did. Jen:  But yeah, so it's not nothing to do with you personally, you know, and your willpower. It's important to acknowledge. I think that this is like, you know, I used to close my kid's door, but them to bed close the door. I'd be walking down the hall and I would start salivating. Like it was like my brain was just like "snack time." Like I wouldn't be hungry, but it just was a deep routine for me to snack at night and so I would just go straight to the kitchen and get some food. Lauren:  So very timely. Last night I watched The Office episode where Jim does that with the Altoid with white with the noise in his computer Annie:  Like Pavlov's dog. Lauren:  Yup. Annie:  Same thing, same, same. The other kind of element that also some plays into why you might be drinking and also habits is environment plays a strong strong element and a strong role into drinking. And when I say environment, it could be like your physical location. It could be the people you're spending time with. It could be the time of year, it could be like a restaurant, like where you always, it triggers these same sorts of behaviors. For me in the particular case of putting Blair to bed, part of the environment was that we just always had wine on hand and in fact, we would buy boxed wine because we thought that that was like an easier way to serve us wine and save money in the long run. We'd get more use out of it. We wouldn't let it go bad. What ended up happening was it was just like wine on tap all this time and that element of our environment made it just a little too easy to pour wine all the time or a half a glass of wine and then another half a glass of wine. Annie:  So a simple swap was we just started buying bottles of wine and a bottle of wine for my husband and I is about two glasses each when it's gone, it's gone and trained. Traci Mann actually talked about this in our podcast with her about the small obstacle, like make something, put it in a position, make a small obstacle to whatever you're trying to do. So it's a little bit difficult or a little bit more difficult than it would be otherwise. In my case, the wine was just too accessible. So making it less accessible made the habit harder to implement. Lauren:  Yeah. I think a key when you're thinking about environment in the habit context is to think about, if you are trying to change a habit that you don't want to be doing, just make it a little bit harder to engage in that behavior. And if you are trying to create a new, healthier habit, you want to make it as easy as possible to engage in that behavior. Jen:  So I keep, I don't actually keep wiring in the house as much anymore and, but when I do have one in the house, I have it in a high cupboard. Same as I keep our treats in a high cupboard, but I have my tea in a low eye level cupboard. And because the habit I want to have is when I'm feeling like something in the evening, I just make myself some te, and so yeah, I just keep the tea really accessible right there. Yeah. So the other thing I wanted to mention around environment is just sort of on a grander scale is Canada used to not have alcohol in, like, grocery stores and places. It was really only accessible. You'd have to go to a liquor store, like a special store that only served alcohol. And when I moved to New Zealand in 2010, New Zealand has alcohol in their grocery stores. Jen:  And I walked, I remember into a grocery store and seeing an aisle of wine and being like, "What?" and just from there, it was just so easy to buy. And then they have like their bargain bin wine that was like $6 a bottle. And so that's another time in my life. I remember when my consumption increased because it was just so accessible to me. Suddenly it wasn't like you have to make a special trip to a special store to get alcohol. Anyways, things have changed in Canada and it's now, now you can get alcohol in many grocery stores, which I know isn't kind of new for us. I know it's not new for you guys. I think when I go to you, you can get it in the gas station, it's just like, you know. And so it's just recognizing that, and we talked about this with Traci Mann, I think it was Traci Mann. Yeah, we talked about this with Dr Mann as well around treats, right? Like you can go to staples or an office depot and there's chocolate bars at the checkout. They're like, you start noticing that all of these foods that people actually struggle with moderating, they're sort of, they're in our environment everywhere, right? Like you don't go to Office Depot and have apples and oranges at the checkout, right? You have, you know, these processed foods. I don't want to demonize any foods, so I don't want anyone to thinking that's what I'm doing. But you know, it's chocolate bars and bags of chips and you know, things that keep for a long time. But so alcohol is kind of the same thing. I think if you are struggling with your alcohol intake, it's just something to take note of. Jen:  Like, "Oh, like it's at the gas stations. It's at the grocery stores? It's for-" Yesterday when I was, we were messaging about this, the three of us, but my kids were at their ski and snowboard lessons yesterday. So we were up on the mountain and I sat down to do some work at the lodge and there's a bar right there. And I was like, "Oh, I should get a glass of wine while I'm working." But it was just that. Then I actually just did that pause as we discussed in the Traci Mann episode. And it was like, "No, you know what, I'm good with the coffee." But I just noticed that all around me there's people coming in from skiing and they're sitting there having a beer and yeah, it was just there and I realized, you know, it was just, it was just, it was just there. Right. And I was going to have some just cause it was there and I just took that second to pause and I was like, "Nah. Yeah." Annie:  That's was exactly my experience with wine in the home. I mean, and you're right, you can get wine in the gas station, at least in Iowa. I think it's different from state to state, who can sell alcohol where and at what times, but- Lauren:  You can get alcohol everywhere in Michigan all the time. Jen:  The other thing that just floored me was when we moved to Australia, you could, like, get in the movie theaters, I was like "What?" And then it's this novelty, right? You just, you want to get it. But now in Canada it is also available in, things sure have changed in the last decade here in Canada. But you can also get it at movie theaters in Canada now too. Lauren:  I remember a few years ago, it was all like a big thing that you can now buy beer at the zoo. Jen:  Oh Wow. That's crazy. So I don't know if this is good or bad, right? Like we all have to be responsible. You know, there's the personal responsibility piece, but then there's also the environment piece. And we know that, we know through, you know, there's tons of research done when you remove things from people's environments. So they've done things, you know, they've done studies in hospitals, they've done studies in big sports arenas and they've manipulated the food and the drinks that are being offered. And it significantly changes what people choose. Right? So even at a sport, I think there was a study on a sports arena where they didn't remove the soda machines, but they cut back on how many soda machines there were and they increased the water machines and suddenly consumption shifted to people drinking more water than soda. And so, I don't know if it was a terrible thing in Canada that you had to go to a liquor store to buy liquor. I don't think it was a terrible thing, but anyways, times are a-changin. Annie:  In addition to like your physical location, another element of environment, which I think I kind of mentioned beforehand, was, it can be people and it can be totally, it could be it could even be like situations like you're at your family's Christmas or your office work party and it may be like, you know, that one office work party a year. Like, you need a gin and tonic, or you need a glass of wine or whatever to make it through with whatever gusto you need. Jen:  Yeah. Annie:  And it could be people, you know, I have girlfriends that I don't drink with ever. And then I have girlfriends that we seem to, every time we seem to get together, we always have a glass of wine or whatever. Jen:  Yeah. We had a Balanced 365er talk about that recently. She was talking about how that's what her friends do. They get together and drink on the weekends. So for her to try to cut back on her alcohol consumption was very, very, very hard. Just, you know, the peer pressure I guess around it. And also like, that's what they do. So- Annie:  Yeah. Yeah. And, and you know, again, it's not necessarily that you have to do anything with it, but just creating some awareness like, "hey, this is our pattern. Every time we get together we do x, Y, Z, or every time I'm with this person, you know." And the same could be said for desserts. You know, like every time I go out to dinner with Heather, we always get a dessert or you know, for example or whatever. It's just creating awareness of how your environment affects your habit is really awesome. Jen:  And there's nothing wrong with any of it. It's more about the frequency, right? If you go out to eat every single day with Heather for lunch and you guys are sharing cake every single day for lunch, well then that might be something you examine. If you and Heather go out once a month for lunch. Are we talking about Heather Osby? Different Heather? Lauren:  Hi, Heather! Annie:  Actually, I actually don't, we do go out for lunch, but Heather just came to mind. But yes. Heather and I don't, I don't think we share a dessert though. I don't actually. Jen:  Anyways. Anyways, Heather's a fitness professional that is a good friend of Annie's in Iowa. Anyways, yeah. So it's more about the frequency. Like how often do you do this? Annie:  Are you comfortable with the frequency? If you are, great, if not, then maybe it's time to make some changes. Speaking of making some changes, I do want to, kind of move on. So if you're considering making some changes, you heard all of this and you're like, "Huh, yeah, maybe I should kind of examine my consumption." We would encourage you to gather some information on the situation before you make decisions. And step one can simply be like, take note of how much you're drinking. And as I mentioned, portion size is key here because a serving size of wine is four to five ounces. And in my house that's, like, not happening. So to really be honest about like "how much am I really drinking?" can be your step one. And that could just be like a food journal. It could be like a note in your phone, it could be a tally mark on your cover, I mean, whatever that looks like for you. Annie:  You don't have to track calories, you don't have to track macros, you don't have to do anything with that. You could just, just take note of the quantity. And then step two would be to review the data. And this is where I think a lot of women get tripped up is they, we would encourage women to look at the data as just like, "This is just information. This is just data." It doesn't mean that you're a good person or a bad person or that you are a failure or that you did really well or that you did anything bad. It's just like, like, "Let's just look at it as objectively as possible." And some questions to ask yourself when you're reviewing the data, "Am I drinking more or less than I thought? Are there patterns that we discussed earlier to your drinking? The people, the places, the days of the week?" Annie:  This is really key. Is it bringing "unwanted friends" to the party? Which that could mean binge eating, emotional drama. Like, are you fighting with friends or your spouse or are you short tempered with your kids? Are you enjoying, you know, an extra dinner after you started drinking when you're aren't hungry to begin with because as I've experienced many times, alcohol actually does suppress leptin, which is the hormone that tells your brain when you're full and it negatively affects other brain chemicals that are involved in appetite suppression. So, it's easy to see why like, "Yeah, pizza sounds great!" At 2:00 AM after a couple drinks, college Annie knows that very well, but it really is harder to read hunger and fullness cues after a few drinks. Jen:  We also don't, you know, we typically pair alcohol with higher calorie foods. It's not like, you know, it's not like you go to a party and everyone's having wine and there's veggie tray and salads on display. Like it's usually chips and candy or you know, dips and bread and that kind of thing. And so a Balance365er did recently share this as well. She was talking about how it's not actually the alcohol for her that she thinks she's over consuming. It's that she has a couple of drinks and then she eats, she just mindlessly is eating at the snack table and pretty soon she's gone through like a party size bag of Doritos. Right. And so that's sort of where it can affect your over consumption or if you have weight loss goals or that- Annie:  It can just lower inhibitions. But, I mean, really, as I noted it does make, alcohol makes it harder to read hunger and fullness cues. Jen:  Right. Yeah. Lauren:  For me, it also went beyond that, right, for like the next day, cause I would be tired and crabby and craving more, like, high fat comfort foods. Jen:  Right. So then you want, you get up and you're like, "Oh, Mcdonald's- Lauren:  McDonald's breakfast. Jen:  Yeah. Annie:  What is it about fast food the next day? That Lauren:  It's so good. Annie:  Makes you feel better. Lauren:  I don't know. Annie:  Is that just habit? I wonder if there's science behind that. Like a higher fat, higher calorie meal. Jen:  I actually don't crave fast food when I'm hungover, I crave like Booster Juice, like a smoothie, something like- Annie:  Oh, no way. Lauren:  That would never happen. Jen:  For me, that's like, hydrate. I'm just drawn to it. Lauren:  Genetics, like some genetic cause, like, that's honestly what you crave, right? And I honestly would never have that the next day. Annie:  I am honestly disgusted by your hangovers. Jen:  Who are you? Annie:  So yeah. We get, let's circle back to that in just a little bit, but when you're reviewing the data, additional consideration would be how is it affecting you physically? Is it affecting your sleep? Is it affecting your workouts? Do you generally feel good before and after you drink? Do you feel in control of your drinking? If you had to give it up for a week, how would you feel? Would you feel panicked? Would you feel calm, cool, collected about it? And then are you in choice of your drinking or is it your friends and your family controlling how much and how when, and I mean, ultimately, we want to be the ones that are in control of how much we're drinking, that we want to feel like we're in choice. We're not pressured, we don't feel obligated. We don't feel compelled to participate in consuming alcohol if that's ultimately what we don't want. So alcohol and weight loss, like can they go hand in hand? And Lauren, do you want to, do you have any thoughts right off the bat or do you want me to jump right into it? Lauren:  You can jump right in. I think what I was going to say is, probably you're going to get into it. Annie:  Yeah, because It ultimately boils down to calories, calories in, calories out. And a lot of times people might find their calorie intake increases with additional caloric drinks like alcohol, especially if you're mixing them with like Daiquiris and you know, like high calorie mixers. Jen:  Like it would be nothing for a Pina Colada to be like a 400 to 500 calorie drink. Annie:  Right? Jen:  And like a standard glass of wine I think is about 200 calories. And so, and caloric drinks don't improve or are, you know, they're not, they're not satisfying as we touched on. And so that's why it's easy to over consume them. Annie:  Right. And alcohol does have calories. It has about seven calories per gram of alcohol. So, but usually like Jen said, we're mixing them with other elements that can increase the calories. So it's not that you can't lose weight and have alcohol as part of your diet, it's more how does that intake affect your overall caloric intake over the day, over the week, over the month? And additionally, I do want to share that when alcohol is broken down, that it will burn out, your body will burn alcohol before any other calories consumed are stored, including fat or sugar. So even if you drink and consume more calories, if you drink and consume more calories than you need, you're more likely to store the fat from the wings, you ate or sugars from the monster cookies you ate because your body is getting all the energy from the alcohol. Annie:  And additionally, it's possible the alcohol temporarily inhibits lipid oxidation. So in other words, when alcohol is in your system, it's harder for your body to burn the fat that's already there. So again, with all that said, it's really an issue of calories. And looking at the chain of events, which we kind of touched on, that happens once alcohol is consumed. So if you're having two or three glasses of wine a night and then you indulge in late night snacking, you sleep poorly, then you skip your am workout cause you're tired, you feel crummy because you skipped your workout and you slept like crap. So now you're opting for higher fat, higher carb foods, and then it just sets off this chain of events that affects your entire day. So it's not just like that two or three hour window where you're consuming alcohol. It's, like, now a 24-48 hour thing. Right. Jen:  RIght. I don't have, and I don't have, for me, I don't have the luxury of time anymore. Like when I was younger to recover from being hungover. Annie:  Where you could sleep. Jen:  Yeah. Where I could lay on the couch all day. I just don't have that luxury anymore. So for me, you know, when it comes to any choices we make nutritionally or drinking alcohol or workouts, it really comes down to what is negotiable for you and what is non negotiable, right. And so I knew I wouldn't quit drinking. That wasn't, I wasn't going to just crank the wheel and quit drinking. But I, you know, when I was really honest with myself, I knew that that a lot of my alcohol consumption was actually negotiable for me. It's non negotiable for me to, you know, get together with you two and have a glass of wine. That's just something I really enjoy and I'm not going to do something crazy like cut that out. Jen:  So yeah, but my, you know, my Wednesday night making separate glass of wine, that was negotiable for me. And the more, the other thing too is that, you know, there's no bad foods but you, what we talk about people is, you know, there's kind of foods you want to have more of and then there's foods you maybe want to have less of. And that's simply because if you say you need 2000 calories per day, the more you know, whether it's chips and chocolates and alcohol that you have in a day, it crowds out those other foods that you actually want to have more of like fruits and vegetables and whole grains and lean proteins, like the things that actually support your health and feeling good. Right? And so it's sort of like making sure your ratios are right when it comes to moderation. Annie:  Right. And that goes back to the question I posed earlier. When you're reviewing the data, like okay, over the last seven days I had x amount of drinks. Did you generally feel good? Were you able to do the things that you still wanted to do? Or like we said, are you sleeping poorly? Is it affecting your sleep quality? Is it affecting your mood, is affecting your stress levels? Is it, you know, are you able to get your workouts in like you had planned, are you keeping up with all the other things that you want to do? Like it's just trade offs. It's, you know, you're saying yes to this couple glasses of wine tonight, are you saying no to anything else or vice versa? And are you okay with that? Jen:  Yeah. The other thing to note as far as weight loss, there was a Balance365er who, she really, she had been in Balance365 for several months and she really did not feel her alcohol or, or her weekend intake was a problem. Her, I should say her weekend, caloric intake, her overall, but I feel like the three of us just really kind of knew, like, when she was, she joined Balance365, this particular Balance365er had fat loss goals and you know, we troubleshoot in the group, here's what she's doing, here's her habits, here's what her week looks like, here's what her weekends look like. And I feel like we knew it was her weekends, but we just, you know, we can't really tell somebody, you can sort of guide them to making their own decisions. But she went through a season of her life that was very, very busy. She's a student, she had to cut back on drinking significantly and she went down two pants sizes, like, immediately. And even though prior to she had been, she didn't think her weekends were a problem. However, she also hadn't been willing to, like, track her alcohol intake or her food consumption on the weekends. She, I think she was just, there was a blind spot that she wasn't willing to look at it and she just wasn't willing to do, which is fine. Everybody has to go at their own pace. But that was such a wake up call for her to how high her calories were on the weekends. And again, it wasn't, she's, I'm talking about the same person I had mentioned earlier, so it actually wasn't about necessarily about the drinking was that she was eating so much on those nights when she was meeting up with friends and drinking. Jen:  So anyway, so it was a huge wake up call for her to actually how much she was consuming. And so she decided, you know, again, for her, the process of going through what's negotiable, what's not negotiable. "Can I pull back on drinking a little bit? Can I bring the veggie tray to the party instead of the chips? Like, can I use Diet Coke as my mixer instead of regular coke?" Cause you know, there's like an all or something in there too for people if they want to, you know, they don't want to quit drinking. They don't have to, there's lots of changes we can make inside of that behavior to just pull back a bit. Annie:  And it's not in our manifest or ethos to say "Just stop drinking." Like, yeah. I mean the three of us have tried to cut out a variety of things and white knuckled it for a while, but ultimately like, I want to live a life in a body where if I want a glass of wine, I can have a glass of wine and it's my choice and I can enjoy that in moderation and feel no guilt or shame, knowing it's not going to derail me from anything that I'm trying to do ultimately. You know, like that I just, that I have the tools in the toolbox to decide how much quantity and frequency alcohol gets to play in my life or how little it gets to play my life. Jen:  Yeah, totally. And everybody's situation might look a little different. I cut back on alcohol and that was totally fine for me. But you know, there's, you know, I know what wine I like and I'm a quality over quantity kind of person. So I would rather have, you know, the wine that I know I enjoy than like there's these other wines on the market that get more, advertised like skinny wine or whatever it's called. I can't remember what the brand is called but they have a low calorie wine. But it is gross. No, like I'll just pass. Right. So for me I'm like that's a non negotiable for me. But everybody's negotiables and non-negotiables are going to be different and you just have to find out what yours is. Annie:  And so that's why it doesn't make any sense for us to say, "Here are the rules. Do this, this way." Jen:  Right. Annie:  I mean, it's very person specific and as you can see that among the three of us, Jen doesn't drink at all during the week. And it's not uncommon for me to have a glass or two on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I'm not working in the evenings. And in fact, that's when I do my best Instagram writing. Lauren:  And Lauren will have six once a month- Annie:  And we're all healthy in our own right. Lauren:  Right. Annie:  Alright, well, anything to add on our alcohol podcast? Jen:  I don't think so. Annie:  Alright, this was good fun. This is fun. Next time we record something on alcohol, maybe we should do it in the evening though and we could, like, share a glass of wine. I mean, not share it. Lauren:  I was thinking that when we first started the podcast and I'm like, "Well, it's like 11 o'clock." Annie:  Yeah. But you know, if we were in Switzerland, I feel like that would be totally kosher, so you know, to each their own. Alright, thanks ladies. Good talk. Jen:  Bye. Lauren:  Bye. Annie:  This episode is brought to you by the Balance365 program. If you're ready to say goodbye to quick fixes and false promises and yes to building healthy habits and a life you're 100% in love with, then checkout Balanced365.co to learn more.

Can you really control your weight? There are two schools of thought on this: one believes that nothing is within our control and the other believes everything is within our control. But what if the truth is somewhere in the middle? Annie and Lauren explore just how much control we have over our weight and provide helpful perspective on an age-old question. What you’ll hear in this episode: What studies say about how much genes influence weight What studies say about how much genes influence height Twin Studies, The Secrets of The Eating Lab and The Minnesota Starvation Experiment How we adjust our eating when we feel we are being observed The two camps: we can control all the things and we can control none of the things How much control do we really have over our weight? How your body responds to decreases in calories Ideal weight vs ideal weight range What happens when you try to “pause” on an escalator Process versus outcome goals How weight range relates to body composition Getting clear on your goals How your pre-disposed body type relates to your weight How to find your weight range     Resources: 53: Secrets From The Eating Lab: Dr. Traci Mann Secrets From the Eating Lab Episode 9: Two Sisters, Two Bodies: Growing Up Together In A Body Obsessed World Episode 4: What A 70-year-old Starvation Experiment Taught Us About Dieting Body Respect Learn more about Balance365 Life here Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, or Android so you never miss a new episode! Visit us on Facebook| Follow us on Instagram| Check us out on Pinterest Join our free Facebook group with over 40k women just like you! Did you enjoy the podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Google Play! It helps us get in front of new listeners so we can keep making great content. Transcript: Annie: Welcome to Balance365 Life Radio, a podcast that delivers honest conversations about food, fitness, weight, and wellness. I'm your host, Annie Brees along with Jennifer Campbell and Lauren Koski. We are personal trainers, nutritionists and founders of Balanced365 together we coached thousands of women each day and are on a mission to help them feel healthy, happy, and confident in their bodies on their own terms. Join us here every week as we discuss hot topics pertaining to our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing with amazing guests. Enjoy. Welcome back to another episode of Balance365 Life Radio. Before we dive into today's topic, I want to share a super sweet review we got on iTunes last week from Blonde Lauren, which I promise it's not our Blonde Lauren. She says "This podcast is nothing short of life-changing. With all the negative information and images thrown at women in regards to our bodies this podcast is like a ray of sunshine. I listen to this podcast religiously as I walk the neighborhood and it always puts a smile on my face and helps me conquer the day. Jennifer, Annie and Lauren are so relatable and I feel like we were really friends and I just love that." Thank you so much. To everyone who takes the time to drop us a note in our email inboxes or leaves us a review on iTunes, we read them all and they all mean so much to us. Okay. Let's talk about today's episode. We have been talking about this topic in a roundabout way on previous podcasts, but we wanted to dive a little bit deeper into the topic. Can you control your weight? A lot of fitness professionals think you have all the control while some of them think this is a losing battle, why even try? On today's episode, Lauren and I discussed how much control you really have over your weight and I think you might be surprised. Enjoy! Lauren, how are you? Lauren: Good. It's us again. Annie: It's just us again, poor Jen is having some audio difficulties and she wanted to be here, but we are sticklers for sound quality on our podcast and it just wasn't gonna cut it, right? Lauren: Yes. She likes to compare her sound now to my sound when mine wasn't working because she thinks it was terrible. Annie: Well, you know, we've had this, I think we've talked about this on the podcast before, but sound quality. And I thought when we started this podcast, like you would just plug in a microphone and hit record and then you just piece it together. Lauren: I feel like it should not be this hard. It's really fun for us. Annie: It's really hard and especially because you and I have both moved and, maybe Jen's even moved, but when you move, like then you're changing a different recording location and that can affect the acoustics and so, yeah. Lauren: And then the technology on top of all that, sometimes it just does not work out. Annie: Yeah. But we're not complaining Lauren: It might sound that way. Annie: We actually, I really enjoy the podcast. I really, really enjoy doing it. But it's just been a little bit more difficult than we anticipated. So, and especially getting the three of us together in three time zones, like, you know. Lauren: There's always some disaster. Annie: Always. Lauren: The morning of recording. School's canceled or sick, a kid is sick or the heat went out, but we always figure it out. Annie: Yeah. We piece it together. Lauren: Yeah. Annie: We're scrappy in a good way. So we're talking about a really interesting topic and it comes up pretty frequently in our community and that is, can you control your weight? And I think it's really interesting because it seems like there's kind of varying answers to that question and it kind of depends on who you ask. But there's this idea that we can control everything, right? And we can absolutely control our weight. We have total control. On the other side of the spectrum there's this like, "No, you don't." There's people that say you don't have any control at all. You don't need to bother with trying to control your weight or manage your weight. It's just, it is what it is and you're just stuck with it. Whatever it's at and we wanted to dive into like what the real answer is. Do you have any control of your weight? And it's something that we've kind of, I feel like, talked about in a roundabout way with various guests on the podcast, but we haven't specifically addressed like this. Lauren: Right. This one question. Annie: Yeah. And on paper it seems to boil down to simple math, right? Which I think is where we get kind of the, "Yes, you can control everything about your body and your weight." It's "Eat fewer calories than you consume and weight loss will happen," right? And you'll get the desired outcome. And we have- Lauren: And we talk about that too, right? Like we talk about its weight loss does come down to calories in versus calories out, but that's not the whole story. Annie: Right. And we have professionals in our industry that will say that you just need dedication and self control and commitment and then you can have the body of your dreams, right? Like, whatever, whatever body you want, which I think is where we see a lot of the, I don't know if this is still a thing, I don't actually read these sorts of magazines anymore, but at one time, health and fitness magazines used to have like a celebrity on the cover of their magazine. It was like, here's the Jennifer Aniston Diet, or here's the Jennifer Garner diet or whatever. And I used to think like, "Oh, if I just eat what she eats, if I work out, like she works out, then I will then look like Jennifer Aniston. Lauren: Right. And, I can't remember her name. Do you remember the actress's name from that movie? Zack and Miri? Annie: I don't even know that movie. Lauren: Okay. It's a funny movie. I can't say the whole name of it because it's not appropriate. But she was on the Ellen show and, they were showing a picture of her own magazine and talking about like what she eats or whatever. And she was like, you know, it doesn't matter what I eat, this is genetics. Like, this is what I would look like regardless. I would look pretty similar to this. Annie: Right. Lauren: So, you know, people are congratulating her and she's like, "I didn't do anything special. This is just how I'm built." Annie: Yeah, exactly. But you're jumping ahead of the outline. Lauren: Oh, I'm sorry. Annie: Okay. I guess we can sign off now. No, we'll use that as a great segue because it does, it sounds really easy on paper that if you just do what she's doing or, you know, I think, yeah, I get questions, you know, like about my arms. Like what, what arm workouts are you doing? Lauren: Yeah. Annie: It's genetics. Like, maybe years of softball has played into this but it's where I carry my fat. It's how easily I build muscle. And, I think, it's known that our genes control or have an effect on our weight, but it's a little bit, we've been a little bit gray on how much control. Lauren: Right? So we have, like you said, the two camps, the "you have total control" and "you have no control." And surprise surprise, we fall somewhere in the middle. Annie: Yeah. And if you listen to Traci Mann's podcast, which if you haven't listened to it, we'll link it in the show notes. It is a wonderful podcast. She is just a wonderful woman professionally and personally. She's just a good human. She wrote the book The Secrets of the Eating Lab and inside there she compared, she shared a study and it compared the weight of more than 500 adopted children with their biological parents and their adoptive parents. And so this, the idea behind the study was that if learned eating habits, if you could just willpower and self control and you know, do all the things, if learned eating habits have more of an impact on weight then the children should have a weight that mirrors more like their adoptive parents and if genetics had more of an impact, then it should, their weight should be closer correlated to their biological, their birth parents. But what they found was that the children's weight correlated strongly with the weight of their biological parents and not all with the weight of their adoptive parents, which I think is fascinating. Lauren: It is fascinating. Annie: And additionally, a study also she shared in the science, studies, Secrets from the Eating Lab, study from the Secrets of the Eating Lab. They did a study of identical twins that were raised in separate homes, which I think is like interesting enough that there's twins that were raised separately enough to study. Lauren: Can we get the story behind that please? Annie: But there is, there were enough studies, as a way to make sure that they didn't share the same eating environment. Right. So it was a way to tease out that environment was a role in this study. The study looked at 93 pairs of identical twins raised apart and then a 154 pairs of twins raised together. And the results showed that the weights of the twins, whether they were raised together or apart were highly correlated, which again goes to show that our genetics, our biology has a large impact on our weight and those studies and in addition with some other studies what largely contributed, to scientists concluding that our genes account for about 70% of the variation in people's weight. Lauren: Right. Which is huge. Annie: Which is, yeah, which is huge and I don't know, some of you may be listening in and think that that's way more than you anticipated and some people will be like, "Oh maybe I have a little bit more control than I thought." Like it kind of depends on where you fell on that spectrum. If you were like, I can control all the things and, and get whatever body I want if I just have enough self willpower and dedication and self control, this might be shocking news for you. On the flip side, if you were like, I don't have any control, I'm stuck. I come from a long line of people that look like x, y, z. This is just as is what it is. You might have a little bit more wiggle room than you thought. Lauren: Right. So you have about 30% of your body weight is in your control. Annie: Yeah. Lauren: Is what this is basically saying. Annie: And what I think is interesting about this is, Traci Mann also shares, I mean obviously we're not researchers, we're not scientists. So we're pulling this information because we are evidenced based. We don't want to just feed you information because it sounds convenient or because it works for our philosophy or our brand. But for reference she also compare us that genes play about an 80% role in height. And I think that's such an interesting study because you don't see anyone being like, "Oh, I just wish I could, if I just had more self control or willpower, I'd be taller." Lauren: I could get taller. Annie: Yeah. But so often we see people talking about their weights like that. Like, "Ah, I just, I need to quit being lazy or I just need to get my butt to the gym. And then I, you know, I'd get rid of this, you know, fat on my hips or whatever," you know, but you don't hear people talking about their weight or their height, like they do their weight, but it's pretty comparable in how much control we have. Lauren: Right, right. A little less in height. But still really close. Annie: Like you're not over there trying to be taller. Lauren: No- Annie: I mean, maybe heels. Lauren: It's interesting that both of my parents are relatively tall and both of my sisters are, well, they're all like more average size and I am smaller. Don't know where that came from, but it did come from somewhere. Annie: Yeah. Well, and you know, we kind of talked about this, how genetics in the two sisters podcasts where we had Janelle and Jen, cofounder Jen, had her sister on and they have very different body types and they were just, they had a really beautiful story about how Jenelle looked like all the women on one side of the family. And Jen looks more like all the women on the other side of the family. And I just, I think there's a lot of beauty in looking at your family tree and like seeing that. It's not just like body parts, it's like seeing your grandmother, your aunt, your sister, like elements of them. And I think that's just beautiful. Lauren: Not to throw a wrench into this discussion either, but now there is, sort of, more relatively new study called epigenetics, which is like how your environment can turn on or off certain genes, which is also really interesting and I'd love to, I haven't looked into this yet, but I'd love to kind of look into that too that aspect and that might be the 30% that you can control, right. I'm just making that up, but it's something to consider. Annie: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That is, I've never, I don't even think I've heard of that term, to be honest. So I'm curious to learn more about that. Lauren: You know, it's relatively new. I think it's, they're learning more and more about it but there is some studies out there. Annie: Fascinating. Lauren: Yeah. Cause we have, we have a lot of genes and different things determine which genes get turned on and which genes don't. Annie: Yeah. Lauren: Just a little side note. Annie: Interesting. And I feel like I'm now distracted by that. Lauren: I'm sorry. Annie: Refocus. So our genes, just to recap that first point there, our genes have accounted for about 70% of the variation in people's weight. So, again, that's just saying that our biology, our genetics make up a lot of, determine a lot of how we weigh or what we weigh. But that doesn't mean that you're totally out of control. But additionally, our genes can even control how much weight we gain. And this was another study from the Secrets From the Eating Lab that there was even studies where participants were fed the same amount of calories, and the twins gained varying amounts of weight for it. So for example, pairs of twins that were overfed by a thousand calories. Again, if this boiled down to just math, if it worked out on paper, you know, a thousand calories equals this percentage of pounds of body mass gain a week, they should have all gained the same amount of weight. But what happened, pairs of twins that were overfed by a thousand calories a day gain to anywhere from nine to 29 pounds. So in other words, we aren't in conscious control of how our bodies use calories or energy, which I think is fascinating. And you know, if you're listening to this and you feel like I hear this a lot, women comparing like what they eat to their girlfriends or what they eat to the men in their lives and it's like, "Oh, I feel like I look at a Snickers and I gain weight" or you know, "My husband has trouble." I just met with a personal training client yesterday and she actually is having trouble putting on weight and I'm sitting here on the opposite end of the spectrum. Like, I have no problem putting on weight, it seems. Lauren: Right. Annie: And so I just think that that's again to show that our genes can even control how easily we gain weight, lose weight, put on muscle mass, don't gain muscle mass. Lauren: It's super interesting too because we are still learning about how all of this works. Like even now, researchers are still asking questions and they still don't know everything about how all these genes play into weight and metabolism and metabolic rates do differ between people. I think it's, it's not as significant as maybe some people have been led to believe, like if someone has a fast metabolism but it can differ a little bit. Annie: Right. Lauren: Which is what's happening probably with, you know, your client who can't gain weight. Annie: Yeah. And there's so many factors to be considered like environment and like what they do for their, what their, like, habits are, and how their relationship with food and their relationship with exercise. So it's like oftentimes multifactorial. But in the studies of these two are really interesting, especially because we've talked about, we have another podcast, The Minnesota Starvation Experiment, you know, studies like that just aren't even allowed anymore because they're considered unethical. Like, and it can be hard to study people's eating habits. And Traci Mann talks about this in her book because the minute people think that their eating habits are being studied, they change their eating habits. They like get all self conscious and they start doing different things that they wouldn't normally do if they didn't think that they were being watched for eating. I mean, I do that when, like, when I'm out and I feel like, you know, all of a sudden I'm at this nice restaurant or whatever and I think people are looking at me, I'm like, "Oh, I better put my napkin on my lap and not spill and use the right fork and put my fork down between every bite. Breathe. Not just inhale all my food. Annie: Anyways, getting back to our genes. Lauren, this is something you've talked about a lot in our workshops and our podcasts and our program, but that your body has a pretty kick butt weight regulation system and that can often override conscious efforts to change your weight. So for example, you cut calories, your body may in response slow your metabolism, resulting in fewer calories burned or you ramp up exercise and your body secretes hormones to increase hunger, which happens to me all the time. Like I exercise, I actually get hungrier. And so I often eat more and you've talked about that before, that your body's like pretty smart like that. Lauren: Yeah. Well your body, its main goal is to keep you alive, right? And so when you cut calories or you're not eating as much, or cut calories drastically, I should say, because that's what most fad diets do, your body thinks that you're starving. It doesn't know that you are doing that on purpose and that you're going on a diet. And so it does everything in its power to help conserve what energy you have and get you to eat more calorie dense foods. So that's another big reason why you crave high energy foods when you cut calories, you know, because your body wants that energy. Annie: Exactly. And many dieters, I know I've experienced this, I'm sure you have too, have maybe experienced a feeling like your body doesn't want you to lose weight. Like you're fighting against your body and it usually looks like something like this. You cut calories, you experience some excitement and exhilaration of initial weight loss and that's followed by an increased drive to eat and/or not move as intensely as you have been, which leads to weight regain because you go back to eating the food you were eating or not moving as much. And then that's followed by guilt and maybe even this sense of hopelessness. And that's something that Linda Bacon talks about in Body Respect, which is another wonderful book if you haven't read that and she just note that that's because you can only cheat biology so long. Like as you were talking about, your body is trying to, it cares about you a lot. it wants to keep you alive. Lauren: And that's like the unconscious part of ourselves. I think it's the reptilian, it might be the reptilian part of the brain, right, that controls that. And so you literally don't have control over those things. Annie: Right. And Linda Bacon has this, I think it's really kind of refreshing, it feels like it just takes the pressure off of me personally. But she has the quote in her book, again, Body Respect that "Diet failure is no more a sign of gluttony or lack of character than breathing deeply after exertion indicates lung failure or shivering in the cold weather evidences weakness." Like that's, this is the desire to eat, the desire to not move as intensely, the weight regain, that is all what exactly what we would expect from someone that's dieting, that's trying to cut calories. This is what your body is made to do and it's trying to do this because it's what it thinks is best for you. And it's a normal and expected response. So, I guess what we're just kind of boiling this all down to say is that you might not have as much control as you, some people lead you to believe. And what we talked about in the Traci Mann podcasts was that you have a little room, a little wiggle room, and one of the things that she suggests, because I know some of you might be listening and thinking like, "Crap, I wish I had more control over my weight" and we don't want you to feel discouraged from making changes if that's what you decide. But Traci Mann really encourages people to have a weight range versus a specific weight. And, I think that that's a really great idea because so often we hear women that they have this like ideal weight and that ideal weight is pulled out of thin air. It might be their pre-pregnancy weight, the weight when they got married, the weight they graduated high school. It might not even be realistic. And to think that your body can sit at one stable weight throughout the day, the week, the month, the year is just not attainable. That your weight ebbs and flows throughout again, the day, the week, I mean, if I weighed myself in the morning versus night versus Monday versus Friday versus the first of the month versus the end of the month, I would probably get six different body weights. Right. And it could range, you know, and you know, fluctuate five, six, seven pounds. And that this is normal and especially seasons of life, you know, if you're, you've got to, you've just given birth or you know, maybe it's winter and you're not as active, you're not outside as much. Your schedule is really busy because you're an accountant and it's tax season and you're working more and not hitting the gym as much. It's normal. And for this reason, a range seems to be a lot more realistic versus maintaining a single number throughout the year. Lauren: Yeah. So if you just kind of are aware but also going with the flow, like if your weight is up five pounds or down five pounds and just being okay with it instead of again pulling back that pendulum cause that's going to start that extreme pendulum swing over again. If you can just, like Jen says in our workshop that we do, in her Mario Kart example, if you can just move the wheel slightly to the right or to the left instead of extremely turning right or left, you'll be much better off. And also, Traci Mann also talks about this weight range. So there's a certain weight or there seems to be for people a certain weight that is dependent, like we said on many different things that if you go below that, that's when all of those biological changes start happening. Like your appetite increases and your metabolism starts to slow down to conserve some energy. So instead of, she says there's a weight range that your body is comfortable at and you can make changes to get to the lower end of that weight range. And so that's where you have, that's where you can control. So you can't control exactly what rate, but you can control where in that range you say. Annie: And the beautiful thing about that weight range is when you find it, you'll often find that it feels effortless to maintain or that you don't have to work near- Lauren: or close to Annie: -as hard. You have the perfect analogy in our workshop, that we share every now and then about riding an escalator. And when you're dieting hard, when you're trying really hard to maintain a weight that's below that range, it often feels like you're riding, trying to go up a down escalator and like, you're working, working, working, working, working. And the minute you want to take a break or rest or hit pause, it's like you're right back to where you started. And the idea is that when you find that range, you can move it around, give or take a little bit, but it's not like exerting all of your effort, all of your brain power, all of your energy to achieve this weight, either above or below that range. Because she also found in that book, she also found that the opposite was true to that getting people to gain weight out of their range was also equally as difficult as trying to get them to live below the range. Lauren: Yeah. Annie: Yeah. So with that being said, another suggestion we have in addition to the weight range versus a specific weight is to focus on your health behaviors versus weight. And, we've said this for a while, that your weight is not a behavior and for so many reasons we can't always control our weight and trying to do so is really, really difficult. And one of the things Jen talks about too is a lot of this can boil down to are you valuing your weight or are you valuing thinness or are you valuing health? And, you know, and again, no judgment Annie: There's been, I spent a lot of my life valuing thinness. I wanted, I didn't care if I was healthy, I wasn't even thinking if I was healthy or what I was doing, the behaviors I was utilizing, the tools I was utilizing to get to a certain weight was healthy if it was sustainable. I wasn't really even concerned with that. I just was so focused on getting that weight or getting that look, my body to look a certain way that I kind of forgot about health unfortunately. And again, I could just, I have a girl crush on Traci Mann, I could just talk about her all day but at the end of that podcast, she encourages that if you're eating balanced meals most of the time, not getting too full, you're not under eating, you're exercising a little bit throughout the week, you're managing your stress that whatever weight you find yourself at doing those things is good enough. And I think that, like, gives me like a, almost, I can almost breathe like a big deep breath, like a sigh of relief. Like I don't have to do all of these things and then I'm validated by reaching that goal weight that like, "Okay, I did enough." It's like, well, let's focus on what, like, actually our behaviors are and if those encourage health, then we're on the right track regardless of what we weigh. Lauren: Right. When I was at my thinnest, my behaviors were not healthy. Annie: Right. Lauren: And when I was at my heaviest, my behaviors were not healthy. Annie: Right. Lauren: So, you know, focusing on those healthy behaviors, I have settled in the middle. Annie: Yeah. And, you know, one of the ways, we've talked about this before, one of the ways, I think the easiest ways to kind of what we're talking about almost is process versus outcome goals. And a lot of times women have outcome goals. They want to be the size eight. They want to be the size four, they want to be 130 pounds, 150 pounds, whatever it is. And those are all outcome based goals, which are fine. But I think what's really, really a key is to, if that's a goal of yours, to also think about how you're going to get there and write goals around the how. So okay, you want to run a marathon? Like how am I going to get there? You want to drop 10 pounds, how am I going to get there? The how is the behaviors. Lauren: Right? And if you're in our Balance365 program, you'll notice that that's how we set up our program, right? So when you're checking off your habits, that is a process based goal. So you're checking off whether you had that, you know, half plate of vegetables or quarter plate of vegetables or whatever your goal is, you're going to check off if you did whatever your movement goal is. And those are process goals and not outcome goals. Annie: Yeah. And those are things that we can control more often than not. Lauren: Right. Annie: Versus our weight. Like I can do all the right things and for whatever reason, still not hit that goal weight. And I see that happen a lot. We see that happen a lot where women are exercising, they're eating some more fruits and vegetables, they're getting more sleep and they step on the scale and their weight hasn't budged and they feel like deflated. They're like, "Ugh, this was worthless. I didn't do anything. I'm not any further along towards my goal." And it's like, "Wait a minute, you're exercising, you're eating fruits and vegetables, you're sleeping more, you're doing all these really great things for your health and your body. Like, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater just because you didn't lose a pound." Lauren: Right. Annie: The last point I want to make when it comes to, can you control your weight? And I just, this has been absolute ultimate freedom for me is to accept the body type you have and work with it, not against this. And we oftentimes make the comparison between Jen's body and my body because Jen and I are pretty close in age. We've both had three babies. We're both personal trainers. We're about the same height, but there is probably, I don't know what she weighs now, but, there's probably about 50 pounds, 40, 50 pound difference between the two of us and for Jen to look like me or for me to look like Jen is just, like, ridiculous to think that that could happen. That's kind of what, going back to what we were talking about it at the beginning of the podcast about, you know, to think that I could just diet like Jennifer Aniston and therefore look like Jennifer Aniston is just absurd. Right? Lauren: Right. Yes. Annie: But honestly, this has given me, accepting my body type has given me so much peace of mind and like, I can just own my big thighs and my broad shoulders and I don't feel like I have to, like, whittle them down because I'm not, like, I'm not going to, I can, again, like Traci Mann says, I can maybe be a little bit heavier, a little bit lighter within that range. I'm still going to have thick thighs. Like it just, you know, and for a girl that her first diet and exercise book was Thin Thighs. Like, that's all I've ever wanted was the long lean legs. My mom had long, beautiful lean legs and I was like, "Why didn't I? Why did I get my dad's legs?" But now that I'm like, "Okay, I'm going to have thick thighs and that's just the way it is and this is what works for my body and Oh, guess what? They can actually be a really powerful asset in the gym. And these are some aspects that I like about them." I don't love everything about them. That's okay. But again, like I don't love everything about my kids all the time. I still love them. Lauren: Right. Annie: It's like, it doesn't have to, like, you don't have to love every single aspect of your body to love it as a whole, which is something we've also talked about. But, making peace with like, "Okay, I've got a big nose or I've got small hands or big trap," I don't know, whatever it is that you feel like you've been working to fight, like, making peace with that has been really, really impactful in my body acceptance journey. Lauren: Yeah. And one thing I want to circle back to because, I was going to mention this too and you mentioned it and I think it can be really powerful for people, is taking your body type, right? Cause like we have mentioned multiple times in this podcast, you can change a range of your body, your body fat, your weight, but you're not going to change your body type, like that is not going to change. So looking at your body type and think you can think about like, okay, so what is with this body type? Like what am I going to be good at? What does my body type give me an advantage in? And like for Annie, that's like weightlifting and powerlifting and being strong and so you can look at what is that for you. And it might help with this acceptance piece and this body love piece because it's not all about what you look like, but at the same time being, having your body help you be good at something can be really empowering too. Annie: Yeah. That's, we say when you look at your body like an instrument instead of an ornament. Lauren: Yeah. Annie: You know, what? Like, okay, what does, you know and being grateful for what my body does allow me to do or can help me do, can also be really, really special. But, I think that that's, you know, there's a lot of ways you can work on self love and body acceptance, but, that has been really, really powerful for me to just say like, "This is my body and it's, you know, maybe not what I've spent a lot of my years working towards. But like it's, it's still pretty great. It's not better or worse than any other type of, than your body, then Jen's body, than Jennifer Aniston's body, like this is my body and I'm going to take care of it the best way I can, like, thick thighs and all. Lauren: And you know, it's, it's funny because there are a lot of women out there who idolize your body type. Annie: I know. Yeah. That's been, so people, the funny thing is, is this happens to me a lot, which I love, I'm appreciative, but women will comment on the things that like I feel the most self conscious about. You know, like, oh, I, you know, or the funny thing is about my arms. I'll get a lot of comments about my arms. And it's like, well, if you look at the back of my arms, they're covered in stretch marks and it's, which I'm fine with. I again, I've made peace with, it's like I had stretch marks way before pregnancy. I had stretch marks on my arms and my hips when I hit puberty, I just, you know, just genetics and growing and- Lauren: I do too, I have them on my legs. Annie: Yeah. And I think it's just so interesting. And I do this to other women. Women can see beauty in my body or find appreciation in my body or aspects of my body. And then the same elements on their body, they hate on, they berate themselves, they have shame about, and it's like, "Hey, you know what? We all have a lot more in common than we probably think we do stretch marks and cellulite and pimples and gray hairs and wrinkles. And should I keep going?" Lauren: All of it. It's all normal. Annie: It is all normal. If you have a body, you probably have a lot of that or all of it. Some of it. If you have none of it, then that's cool too. Lauren: That's fine too. We love all bodies. Annie: We do. We are pretty inclusive here. So anyways, so I just want to recap. You know, it boils down to what Secrets from the Eating Lab Traci Mann showed, that Linda Bacon and Body Respect has done some extensive research on is that our genes and biology play a pretty big role in our weight. And it's not as simple as you can control it all and you can have the body you want. It's not as simple as you don't have any control at all. It's somewhere in the middle. And what we would encourage you to do is find the weight range that you can live your best life at, your healthiest life at, where you aren't working tirelessly to, you know, maintain a certain weight that's above or below that weight range that allows you to do the things, the activities, the behaviors that you want to do and feel good about yourself. Lauren: Can I add one more little thing? Annie: Absolutely. Lauren: Can we talk for just a second about body composition changes? Because this is a hunch I have because I don't think any studies have been done. I asked Doctor Traci Mann on that podcast, and I don't, I don't know of any studies that have been done, but this weight range seems to be not totally, like it's weight, right? It's not just like a fat percentage range, right? Like we have seen people change their body composition and their weight stays the same. And, so I was talking with someone in our Balance365 program last week, who was worried about working to, she wanted to lose weight for many reasons and different reasons, health reasons, and just not feeling comfortable in her body, right. And, but she was put off by this whole weight range topic. Like "Should I even bother?" Was like the kind of talk we were having. And one thing is acceptance, doing your healthy habits, your behavior-based goals. And then also I think for a lot of people, something really important is building muscle, is keeping your muscle. And I know Annie you have experienced with that, even more than I do if you want to just talk about that. Annie: Yeah. Well, my weight range, has, I guess since since I've quit dieting, which has been six, seven years, it's been a process of over the course of six, seven years, has stayed probably within 10 pounds. But I think, I've also had, you know, some babies in there, my body composition within that 10 pounds has changed pretty dramatically. And, you know, I attribute, so when Dr Traci Mann is talking about a weight range, I feel like that is absolutely me. For me to drop below my, that 10 pound weight range, it takes a lot, a lot of effort and I cannot sustain, I've tried it many times, just more just as an experiment. I've had some performance goals that I've had a hunch that maybe if I were a little bit lighter doing things like Crossfit, gymnastics would come more easily. I just can't do it. Like, and I shouldn't say I can't, I'm not willing to, to make the sacrifices and the changes that would go along with achieving that weight loss, at least not in this point in time. And I say that very objectively, I'm not, I'm not emotionally tied to my weight anymore. But my body composition has changed quite a bit. And I would say, although my weight is in the same range, my body looks different. I have considerably more muscle and less fat. Lauren: And I would echo that too. I'm about almost a year and a half postpartum and I am sort of getting to the lower end of my weight range. Like I can just tell based on my past experiences and you know, and, but my composition is different because I have not been working out as much as before I got pregnant. Right. Because I had a baby and a lot of things have changed and I've been doing the minimum exercise that, you know, I've just been doing what I can and that's good enough for me. But I know that if I want those body composition changes, it's not going to be me losing more weight. It's going to be me adding more muscle, pretty much. Annie: Yeah, absolutely. Which, you know, just in my experience when a lot of women come to me and they say they want to lose weight or they want to look more muscular or they want to look like they lift, that's something I hear common. You know, I just, I want to look like I lift, I want to have more muscle. What they mean is they want more muscle, less fat, not even necessarily weight loss. They and that's, you know, to each their own. But that's me, that's, you know, I really don't care what the scale weight says. I want to be able to do the things that I want to do in the gym and do the activities that allow me to play with my kids and go skiing and, you know, have the stamina and the energy and do fun tricks to with the kettlebell. Lauren: Yes, that's the best part. Annie: One arm push ups maybe eventually. But yeah. So, but I think that's just getting clear on what you really mean, you know, when you're talking about like, if the scale said x amount of weight, would that really change anything if you look the same or, you know? Lauren: No. Annie: Yeah, it wouldn't. Yeah, that's a good point. Lauren: Yeah. So I just wanted to add that little caveat because I've heard people in the interwebs, I've read conversations about this being a negative thing, right? This set weight range and it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be a negative thing. One, It gives you a lot of freedom, right? When you realize, like you had said, it's not all on you, like you can try as hard as you can try, but you're not going to change your body type. But also you can, even though if you may not be able to change your weight any further, you can change your body composition if that's a goal of yours. Annie: Absolutely. And yeah, I really side on the, like, if you feel like you've been dieting and your body is really, like, fighting you because it's, you feel like you're hungry all the time or you don't have a desire to get up and move or exercise because you don't have any energy or your sleep is crap. Like these are things that we would expect and that's normal. And to me that's like, "Oh good. It's not me. It's everyone. It's, like, I'm not just lazy. I'm not just weak. I don't need more self self discipline or willpower." Like, that's, you know, I think that's honestly, I think that that's as a fitness professional, I think that's a lazy excuse to tell a client like, "Oh, this is your fault. You know, you did this, you just need to be more dedicated. You just need more willpower." It's like, if that's the only solution or the only answer I have for someone that's coming to me with some goals, that's like, I'm not a good coach. Lauren: Right. And this is where, you know, education comes in, right? Because for that specific, you know, for that personal trainer, it may be easy for them, right? Because that's their genetics and that's their weight range that they can easily maintain. But that doesn't mean that that's true for everyone else. Annie: Or fitness and food are their profession. And- Lauren: and they work tirelessly. Annie: They work tirelessly to be in the gym and they get a lot of movement because they're, you know, in the gym, from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM working and helping people exercise and their environment is curated to support those goals. You know, that's, I would try to be really cautious about how I talk about my exercise because, you know, I find myself just with my job in the gym multiple times a week. So it's easy for me to show up 30 minutes early and get a quick workout. It's not like that for everyone. You know, I have a little bit of a leg up just because of my profession. Lauren: Right? Annie: Yeah. All right, good talk. This was good. Lauren: Good talk. Annie: Good chat. Lauren: We got a little off track, but- Annie: Well, let's, no, you know, sometimes it goes sideways but I think- Lauren: Hopefully they enjoy the conversation. Annie: Yeah. Well yeah, I mean if they made it this far. Lauren: Congratulations to you! Annie: You win! If you want to continue the discussion, if you want to, you know, revisit the podcast with Traci Mann, we did ask her like, "Okay, how do you find this weight range that's right for you?" And really what she's offered was trial and error. It was like, it's really person specific. There's no, like we can't offer a flow chart, you know, like, is this, you know, is this yes or no? That would be really cool if we could, but if you want help navigating and exploring like "Am I in a weight range that's comfortable for me?" Maybe it's a little bit higher than you thought or you want to move to the lower end of that weight range and you need some help with your habits and your behaviors. Please join us in our free Facebook group Healthy Habits Happy Moms, we'd love to help you. There's a lot of really great women in there, we're in there. Lauren, Jen and I are in there often answering questions and we'd love to see you in there to continue with the discussion. Yeah? Lauren: Yes, please. Annie: Yeah. Alright. Thanks, Lauren. We'll talk to you later. Lauren: Alright, bye.

There is a tremendous amount of pressure on women to bounce back after baby, and that can have a negative impact on new moms during an already stressful time. It doesn’t have to be that way! Jen, Annie and Lauren get together and brainstorm ways to fight the postpartum body blues, move past shame and into acceptance. Tune in and get practical advice, much needed perspective and renewed focus. Enjoy!   What you’ll hear in this episode: Changes in the portrayals of the postpartum experience Media and cultural messaging around postpartum bodies and how they should look Postpartum as a chapter in your life where your body looks different The role of comparisons in body shame Advertising messaging in pregnancy magazines When women dread the obligation to lose weight postpartum The impact of dieting stress on the body The stress associated with having a newborn The temporary nature of postpartum body feels Timing of fat loss goals postpartum relative to other stressors Achieving body neutrality postpartum The constantly changing nature of our bodies Practicing non-attachment to our body shape The prevalence of postpartum body dissatisfaction and what you can do about it   Resources: Secrets From the Eating Lab Episode 29: A Therapist’s Advice On Asking For What You Need Mindfulmft Instagram account Episode 9: Two Sisters, Two Bodies: Growing Up Together In A Body Obsessed World Learn more about Balance365 Life here Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, or Android so you never miss a new episode! Visit us on Facebook| Follow us on Instagram| Check us out on Pinterest Join our free Facebook group with over 40k women just like you! Did you enjoy the podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Google Play! It helps us get in front of new listeners so we can keep making great content. Transcript Annie: Welcome back to another episode of Balance365 Life radio. Before we dive into this topic, I wanted to share a really sweet review we got on iTunes and this is from Becks H and she says "As I learn more about the damage that diet culture has done and is continuing to do in my own life and in general, these ladies are a breath of fresh air. It's like having a chat with encouraging girlfriends who can answer all of your questions. I always learn something and I always an up in a good mood plus listening while I work makes tasks and chores more bearable." Thank you so much, Becks H, I appreciate the review and to everyone else who has left a review for us on iTunes or Spotify, we read every single one of them and they mean so much to us, thank you. Alright, let's dive into this postpartum topic. The postpartum period can be a time of great love but it can also be great sadness. If you've had a baby you've likely experienced the insane amount of pressure placed on postpartum women to "bounce back" quickly after giving birth, from magazines to media, to even well intentioned friends and family, women are praised and applauded for making it appear as though they never even had a baby. With such high expectations for women it can feel impossible to feel like you aren't failing. Our bodies go through so many changes in the pregnancy and postpartum stage, it's common to hear women in awe of their body's ability to grow and birth a child but on the other hand, insecure and confused about how their post-partum body looks. On today's episode of Balance365 Life radio, Lauren, Jen and I discuss our personal experiences with postpartum body shame and suggestions on how to cope and if you want to continue this discussion, we'd love to see you inside our free private Facebook group Healthy Habits Happy Moms. Enjoy. Ladies, the gang's all here. Yay! All three of us are back together. Lauren: Yay! Annie: Jen, how are you doing today? Jen: Good. Annie: Good. Lauren, how are you? Lauren: Good. Annie: Again. You know, we act like I haven't talked to Lauren twice already on two different podcasts. I've done this intro already. Lauren: I'm still wonderful.   Annie: Good, good. I'm happy to have both of you here with me today because we're talking about a topic that comes up frequently in our podcast or in our community and I'm kind of surprised we haven't already dove into this in our podcast but that is postpartum shame. Which kind of used to be our bread and butter, that was like how, we were then Healthy Habits Happy Moms, we really started as pre/postnatal talk and training experts. Jen: Yeah, I mean we still do talk about pre and post natal health, women's health, we've just expanded from there. Annie: Yeah, but it's like kind of going back to our roots today, like we used to talk about this so much and we still do inside of our Facebook community which is Healthy Habits Happy Moms on Facebook, if you're not a part of it, it's a pretty a free private community which if you have more questions or you want to continue the discussion on the podcast today inside there is a great place to do it. But we want to talk about postpartum body shame because it's something that the 3 of us have absolutely experienced at various stages in our life and it's something that we hear from a lot of women in our community that they also experience and that's large in part because there's an insane amount of pressure on postpartum women to "bounce back" after giving birth and it's not surprising because we live in a culture unfortunately that fonds over women who lose the baby weight and don't even look like they've had a baby or they are able to slip on their pre-pregnancy jeans shortly after leaving the hospital and intentionally harmful or not this message, the message to women is clear that women are encouraged and applauded for having a baby and then essentially destroying any evidence of having done so and it can feel incredibly hard when you see all of that to not feel like you're failing if you don't achieve those results, right? Jen: Yeah, I mean, I think the message that we get becomes an expectation almost like if you aren't one of those women that "bounces back" then there's something wrong with you. Lauren: Or you better at least be trying your hardest. Jen: Yeah. Lauren: If you're not trying, what's wrong with you. Annie: Absolutely and I just, I do want to be clear that there's a lot of ways that shame can kind of show up or present itself in the postpartum period and that can be, like, function related which we've talked about a lot in our community as well as far as diastasis recti, incontinence, hernia, pelvic floor dysfunction, sexual dysfunction. It can also show up as mental and emotional related shame which is something I know Jen's been very vocal about postpartum depression, anxiety, O.C.D, just general sadness or depression but we really want to focus on shame as it relates to your appearance or your body today on this episode and some of the ways that can show up is, you know, feeling like you still look pregnant after giving birth shortly or a while after. It can change your belly shape. You can feel shame or embarrassment or concern about stretch marks, your skin, your hair, maybe carrying additional body fat or weight, more cellulite, baggy or loose skin, which, to me ,I'm reading this, listen, I'm, like, "Yep, that sounds pretty par for the course for pregnancy, postpartum." Jen: Or you, just, you know, you've never had a baby. Annie: You just have a body. Jen: Yeah like so these are just trigger things for women and you know, we, you know, we talk about this so often but really we have been set up for failure in postpartum, as women, you know, women get set up for failure in that, first of all, nobody talks much about postpartum and two, there isn't a very realistic portrayal of postpartum. I mean, it's coming, it's coming, I think we've got more pages, like social media accounts of stuff that popped up with women sharing a more realistic postpartum but I mean, when I was having babies, I started in 2009 and ended in 2013, there was nothing out there like there is now. There was a lot of women going viral, like, I mean, I'm talking across the world for how they looked postpartum. Just, you know, international headlines, it's crazy. Annie: Well and that's one of things you wanted to share, you found a couple studies that kind of reflects your experience because I remember one of my first conversations with you was you had, would it have been your third round Heidi Klum? Jen: I had my first around the same time as Heidi Klum I think had her fourth or her third and she was on the Victoria's Secret runway at 10 weeks postpartum and all the power to Heidi Klum, for sure, it's just that, you know, she probably spent 10 weeks preparing for that, she was probably preparing for it in her pregnancy and it just wasn't a realistic, you know, postpartum journey, you know, not many women, you know, would look like. Lauren: Not many women's lives look like Heidi Klum's, right? Jen:  Yeah. Lauren: She has help in every area of her life right and a lot of us are doing this more or less on our own, so it's not going to look the same. Jen: Right and also after she was on the runway I mean everybody made such a huge deal out of it and then there was articles everywhere talking about, interviewing her on her diet and exercise regime leading up to that and she was on a very strict diet and she had, she was working out tons and so there was just no gentler message out there at the time and I really thought that should probably be, like, I should have, I clearly should have been doing that kind of thing and I did feel really ashamed. Annie: Right, there's this like inferred, like, standard, like, this is the standard for her when, in reality, like, she gets paid to look a certain way and do a job based off of the way her body looks which we can dive into a little bit later. And like, and you don't, so like the expectations are just different, you know and the standards are different but there is that, when you see that put on a pedestal, her put on a pedestal for doing this thing with her body after pregnancy, there's this inferred "I should be doing that as well" or that's what's expected. Jen:  And I also wanted to note that postpartum body shame is incredibly complex but most women headed into postpartum at that are feeling ashamed about their bodies already carried quite a bit of shame beforehand, like the shame, the body shame always existed and it does exist in millions upon millions of women and postpartum just intensifies it. Annie: Absolutely, I know just on a personal note, I felt like, as you noted, starting right away in pregnancy that my body was changing faster than my thoughts and emotions and mind could process and it was just, you know, and that carried well into postpartum and I'm 2.5, who says that, 2.5, 2 and a half years postpartum and I still feel like I'm seeing changes in my body with like my hair and my skin, like, I feel like my hair is starting to grow back a little bit and it's like your body is just changing and I just remember thinking that it was changing faster than I could process, I could emotionally, like, keep up with it. It seemed like I got comfortable with one aspect or the way my body was feeling or looking or functioning and then "Oh, we're going to pivot, we're going to change ,we're going to grow a little bit, we're going to expand a little bit or shift a little bit" and it can be challenging. So we, but you know, with all that said we also understand that a lot of women at this stage have a desire to feel more confident and you know, ultimately I remember feeling like I wanted to regain some sort of control because as a mom, it felt like so much of it was out of my control and I just wanted to control something and a lot of times, in our experience, we see women trying to control their bodies or their food or their exercise as a way to like do that thing, to gain some control, so we just wanted to share some steps, essentially that might help you overcome or work through some postpartum body shame. Yeah? Jen:  Yeah. Lauren: Yeah. Annie: OK, alright, let's go. So the first one is to quit comparisons and this can be on a couple different levels but we would encourage you to let go of comparing your pre-pregnancy body with your postpartum body and also comparing your bodies with other women, which is just good advice in general but a lot of times we hear women comparing their prenatal, their pre-baby body and their post baby body and we would offer that it doesn't have to be better or worse that it's just different. Jen:  Yeah, I mean a lot, there's, this conversation happens constantly but it's women comparing, you know, how long it took them to get back to their pre-pregnancy weight or, that's a goal, right, so it's like "I'm 5 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm 15 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight." It seems to be the goal for a lot of women postpartum. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, it's just that, it's sort of like believing you can predict what your body is going to look like and feel like after puberty. It's a major, major hormonal event, major physical changes happening and you don't really know what your body is going to look like on the other side of pregnancy and into postpartum and the other thing, you know, we've kind of touched on this but our own postpartum body standards is that postpartum is yet another chapter of a woman's life where her body is going to look different so there is, one study I pulled that actually interviewed a whole host of women in Australia who were giving birth and inside that study women talked about their utter, like, their, just, their shock around postpartum, like, their their prenatal classes had all revolved around labor and delivery and nobody had really talked to them about postpartum, like what they would look like, how they would feel and there was an acceptance of their body changing during pregnancy because it was very functional. But postpartum they felt, they didn't feel there was a function for that changed body anymore and it and they were shocked at their bodies didn't go back to how they looked pre-pregnancy and so I always encourage women to look at postpartum like another chapter right, so pregnancy is a chapter of life where your body will be changing and may not look or feel the way it had before but postpartum is also another chapter where your body definitely has a function, where now you are recovering from birth and many women will be nursing a baby, some women not, which is fine. But that's just another chapter where your body has function and and a job to do and it's going to look different. Annie: Yeah and we always say in our community too that postpartum is forever, like once you're postpartum, you're postpartum forever so there's no, like, timeline for, at least we wouldn't prescribe or suggest or a timeline for which any of this is normal. It's all very individual base and person-specific. Like some women change, gain weight, lose weight for a variety of reasons, at a variety of rates and it's not, like, prescriptive, like, this is what you should be doing. Lauren: I think for me, what really, something that really helped me was exactly what Annie said, realizing that "pre-baby body" like, that's gone, like, I will have a post baby body forever, like, it's never, it's always going to be different and it's not better or worse and it doesn't mean I can't get, you know, some semblance of, you know function back. I can still lose the some extra fat that I put on. I can get stronger but it's always going to be different than it was before. And that's OK. That's how it's supposed to be. Jen: Yeah and it's also important to remember that fat has a function as well, it's not just, you know, excess weight that we've put on that's unnecessary and it's like, it's crazy out there on social media that, you know, what women become consumed with. There was a period of time where every time I logged into Pinterest the very 1st pin at the top of my feed was how to lose fat during pregnancy and I could see that it had been pinned thousands and thousands of thousands of times and it's just, it's just such a symptom of what women are so concerned about in pregnancy, right, it's yeah, it's just become this massive concern because we live in this society- Annie: That fears it. Jen: Yeah that has set up this expectation for us but it's no different than everything we've talked about on this podcast before, it's just during a different chapter of your life. The marketing machine is still the same and the marketing machine is still there for pre and post natal women so it is, you know, holding up an unrealistic standard for women, making them feel ashamed that they don't meet that standard and selling them something in order to try and meet that standard. And you see there's like all these things like stretch marks creams on the market that really don't have any evidence behind them whatsoever. Because whether you develop stretch marks or not is probably mostly based on your genetics. I had stretch marks well before I hit pregnancy. I got them in puberty so I knew some would probably be coming during pregnancy. My sister had stretch marks, my mom has stress marks, you know, and there's all these industries that have popped up around women's bodies being wrong, even during pregnancy and postpartum and one other study that I pulled was a media study done on 3 popular pregnancy magazines and upwards and over 50 percent of the advertising inside those magazines were ads about weight loss or getting your body back. So you're already being bombarded with this messaging during pregnancy that your primary goal postpartum should be erasing any signs that you have become a mother. Lauren: And it causes a real fear even during pregnancy. Jen: Right. Lauren: About what's coming, what's going to happen. Jen: Right, absolutely. Annie:  I just had a phone call with one of my closest friends, she is pregnant and she's struggling with gaining weight during pregnancy and I assured her over and over and over again that this is exactly what your body's supposed to be doing, like, this is your body's job, like this is normal, this is an expectation but she's already kind of bracing herself for, like, weight loss postpartum, like, I'm putting on all this weight and I'm going to have to lose it and it's like, "You know, actually, you don't have to. You don't have to." Jen: Yeah, you don't have to do anything different, really postpartum and a lot of women's bodies will settle in. So I look at my three experiences and in my third experience I was not dieting and in my first two I was just, you know, hyper focused on the weight loss postpartum and in my first two I lost weight very quickly and you know, again my whole goal being finding my "pre-pregnancy weight" but it just consumed me, right and I had, especially in my second pregnancy, I had all these pelvic health issues going on but I could not pause to deal with those because I was just, I just was obsessed with losing this weight. And then by my third one I wasn't dieting so I wasn't hyper focused, I wasn't doing anything differently than I had maybe done in pregnancy as far as just, you know, eating balanced meals and all of that and guess what? I lost the weight anyways, like, you know, without stressing over it and so what we say is like, you know, we always say this, but, "Cultivate healthy habits that work for you in that season of your life and let your body be what it's going to be. Let your weight be what it's going to be and that is probably what's healthiest for you." Annie: Well and especially to consider that as a mom, new or not, whether it's your first or it's your fifth, babies are stressful, you know and then maybe you've got some other kids on top of that, maybe you're returning to a career in the home or outside the home or whatever but I mean, at the bare minimum, caring for a baby and yourself in that stage of the game is stressful and then so many women want to throw additional stress of dieting and workouts, which dieting is a stress on your body, it creates psychological stress. I mean, Traci Mann is coming on our podcast this week, it's echoed in her book Secrets From the Eating Lab, like it's additional stress on your body. Jen: Yeah, measurable, you measure your stress levels, that when people are dieting their stress levels go up. Annie: Yeah, their cortisol is higher and it's, like, you know, cut yourself some slack. Jen: Yeah, absolutely and then it leads into a cycle, right, so there's this the stress cycle where, like, you're super stressed so your cravings intensify, which Lauren can talk more about that if she wants to and then all those cravings intensify and you end up in that binge and restrict cycle, right, even postpartum and it's so intense because you are already so stressed, fighting those cravings, then trying to restrict, which leads to more stress, which leads to more urges to binge eat and yeah, it's just a really messy, messy cycle that I think if more women were honest, they would say they were very, very stuck in in the postpartum chapter. Annie: Absolutely. Moving on, I know I just said that once you're postpartum you're postpartum forever but with that said, I also want to offer that now is not forever and what I mean by that is how you're feeling now about your body, hopefully, likely, I mean, assuming it's, if you're listening to this you might be feeling some negative emotions about your body or maybe you've experienced that in the past or you're kind of preparing for it in the future but know that feelings ebb and flow and as uncomfortable as it can be to lean in and shine a light so to speak on the dark feelings that you're feeling, it could be the thing that helps you step forward from self loathing to self-love and Vienna Pharaon was actually on our podcast, if you don't follow her on mindfulmft which we can link into the show notes on Instagram, she's a just a wonderful uplifting account. She's a therapist but she encourages, a couple weeks ago she had a post about how to cultivate self-love and her answer was the only way to love yourself is by exploring all the things you hate about yourself. The practice of self-love can't be fully successful if we hide and reject the parts that actually need it and so I guess with that, what comes to mind for me is when I'm feeling some type of way, when I'm feeling a negative emotion or shame about a body part or an aspect of my life or trait of myself, instead of kind of running and hiding from it or distracting myself with other thoughts or behaviors to actually kind of explore, like, what is this, where did this come from, why am I feeling like this, where did I learn this, when did this start and see what answers you come up with and in my experience, the more I do that, the more I'm able to lean into those emotions, the quicker they pass. Jen: Right, the other thing is to understand that self acceptance is such a crucial component of body satisfaction and self acceptance does not necessarily mean you love every part of your body and this goes for postpartum, so full honesty here, I don't love the way my postpartum body looks and I don't love the way it feels so I just find it extremely uncomfortable, not just my stomach but like big breastfeeding boobs, I just can't handle and I'm not used to because I'm actually very small chested normally. I just, all of that stuff just is very uncomfortable. Lauren: Yeah so....sorry... Jen: Self acceptance isn't about loving every part of your body or even necessarily loving the way it looks, it's just about accepting, accepting it all and taking it all in, right? Lauren: Right, yes so for me, I am the newest postpartum out of the 3 of us. I have a one year old and I remember this very, very clearly because when I had Benny we were already, we had already started this company, right, I have been in this process for years but I remember, just not, I was maybe 2 months postpartum and I just didn't feel like myself, right I didn't, I didn't love the way my body looked and like you said, I didn't like how it felt, it felt foreign to me and I didn't feel like myself and what helped for me is to realize that now is not forever, like Annie mentioned. It was, it opened my eyes because we have a lot of people come into the Facebook group and talk about, you know, I haven't lost the baby weight yet and I, you know, I don't feel like myself or whatever and we're like well how far, you know, how long ago did you have your baby and they'll say, you know, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks, whatever and as a non postpartum Mom, you look at that and say "Well, that's a blink of an eye, right, like you are so newly postpartum" but I remember being in that space and to me, it felt like it was taking forever. And I knew, like I knew all this stuff, right, but still being in that place, having your hormones changing, your body still constantly changing. I just need anyone in that space to remind themselves that now is not forever and it does, in the moment, feel like a long time but it will pass. Like, I'm a year postpartum now and I'm still going through postpartum changes but I'd say probably for the first 6 months or so I was like kind of in the thick of it as far as my postpartum body went for sure. Jen: Right and actually in Balance365 we don't even recommend anyone even be thinking about anything fat loss related until they're out of the thick of it, which for some, you know, that differs for every woman, I know we kind of said ish, around 6 months postpartum, like if you're thinking about fat loss before 6 months postpartum you're just probably in the wrong area of your wellness wheel at that point and then I think it was, when you're around 6 months postpartum, Lauren or had you said you kind of came out of think of it around four months postpartum,  I can't remember now. It doesn't feel like that long ago. Lauren: Yeah it was like between 4 and 6, like, there was, I mean, it was kind of cyclical, right, like the baby would sleep through the night then he wouldn't sleep through the night and  so it just kind of depended but between like 4 and 6 months is when I started even working on, you know, anything fat loss or even really health related. Jen: Right, it is just survival, right, survival. Lauren: Yeah, I started just by, like, "Well, let's get some veggies in everyday, Lauren. Let's get some protein." Jen: Which is a very realistic look at what postpartum looks like right and on that sleep front, my third, he didn't sleep through the night until I weaned him when he was one and I honestly didn't feel like I was coming out of the thick of it until then. So I really think like you know it's just so dependent from woman to woman on what that feels like and but that's why that acceptance piece, that self acceptance piece is so important, right, like now is not forever and you can wake up in the morning and you can acknowledge that your breasts feel really heavy and you do not like that feeling or your belly feels, you know, very large and it's in the way and you are not, you know, it's just and you just, you don't enjoy that and that's not where you want to be but just that acceptance can wash over you of this is just, "this is not forever, it's just right now." Annie: And I think that moves you into a space of being very neutral about your body which I know we've talked about with Janelle on the sisters podcast that she really felt like neutral is a good place for her to be at various points that she wasn't able to, like, as you said, love all aspects about her body, which I don't even think is the goal, I don't even know if that's possible, if it is possible I haven't experienced it yet but you can just be kind of like "Oh, this is what it is." Jen: Like, well, if you don't pour all your self-worth into the way your body looks then self acceptance can be easier, right? But when you've poured all to yourself worth into how your body looks then it is absolutely devastating to have to endure postpartum. Annie: Absolutely which is a great segue into our third recommendation is to remember that your body isn't the problem and this is so easy for the three of us to sit here and say now that we're a year plus removed from giving birth but the antidote to your postpartum body shame is way less about dieting down to your pre-pregnancy weight and way more about cultivating self acceptance and Lou Ullrich, I hope I'm pronouncing that right, this, I love this quote of hers. She says "Bodies inevitably change, the more attached we become to their shape, the more we will suffer" and that's essentially what Jen was saying, that, I mean, even, you know, from puberty to college to, you know, high school, college, pre-pregnancy, baby 1, 2, 3, like, I mean, my body is just like, it is constantly evolving, you know. Jen: If we lined up our bodies from, you know, if we had a picture taken on all of our birthdays and lined them up from ages 0 to age 99, you would start to see that your body is always evolving, we are always changing whether it's your shape and size or you know, your skin is changing and that's just it. There just needs to be an acceptance around that, period. Bodies change. Period. Annie: Yeah, you can't stop it. Jen: So never get too attached to any one way that your body looks. Annie: Yeah, absolutely and again this is easy for us to sit here and say but I want to remind our listeners that this is something that we, the three of us, have been practicing for years and years and years and years. This didn't just happen overnight where we're just like "Oh, we're done dieting, we're done with self-loathing, we're done with, we're done you know with shaming ourselves." Like, this has been a practice and I think, you know, the three of us were being honest that we still have days or moments, you know, where we're not loving everything about ourselves or we're struggling a little bit more than others for whatever reason and but now we have the awareness to say "Look, this is just a bad body image day or a bad body image week or I'm feeling in this type of way because X, Y, Z happened and it will pass and it doesn't mean that it needs to affect my behaviors or my actions or how I'm moving forward." Awesome. OK, well, anything else you ladies want to add? I feel like we could talk a lot more about other aspects of postpartum shame as well. Jen:  Yeah, I think this is a good initial dive. Annie: Dive into at least appearance which is what brings women to us, because again, we've been conditioned to think that our body is the most important aspect of our ourselves and so we get a lot of women in our community, especially with the name Healthy Habits Happy Moms that are like "I'm a new mom and I had a baby and now I need to, you know, lose my weight- Jen: I want to get healthy so that means I need to lose all this baby weight and it's like, "Is that healthy?" Like, we just need to pause here and let's just question that a little bit, like is that healthy for you, right now? Especially as quickly as possible, right? Like, we talk about this on this podcast constantly, losing weight as quickly as possible is about one of the most unhealthiest things that you can do to your body and postpartum is no different. Annie: Absolutely. Lauren: Yeah. Annie: OK, good chat, I hope we left our listeners feeling uplifted because I feel uplifted like, "Hey, like this is this is all normal." Jen: "This is all normal and we've all been there." So we get you, girl. Annie: Yes and if you want to, like I said at the beginning, have more support, you know, doing things like a media fast could be helpful. It could also be helpful to join our community continue the discussion here as I mentioned already, Healthy Habits Happy Moms on Facebook. We have a really, really great community of women that would love to work out any sort of emotions you're feeling about your postpartum body or even if you're pregnant or even if you're 5 years, 10 years postpartum, every woman is welcome in there. So we hope to see you on the inside and thanks for joining me ladies. Lauren: Thanks. Jen: Bye. Lauren: Bye.  

  Secrets from the Eating Lab Author Dr. Traci Mann, professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota and an expert on the psychology of eating, dieting and self-control joins Jen, Annie and Lauren in discussing the science behind the hot topics of self-control, temptation, diets and the alternative to dieting.   What you’ll hear in this episode: How much of our weight can we influence? How much of our weight is influenced by genetics? The concept of the Leanest Livable Weight Goal weights and reasonable ranges Weight regain and dieting – how common is it? Why you regain weight after dieting What happens to your body when you go on a diet What you start to notice when you go on a diet Is weight regain guaranteed? Characteristic of people who keep weight off The role of healthy movement  you enjoy in maintaining weight loss Self-control: who struggles with it and can you increase it? The obesogenic environment: what it is Temptation free checkouts and apple bins, reducing the need for willpower at the grocery store The role of small obstacles and inconveniences Making healthy choices convenient to increase compliance Keeping the focus on health instead of weight   Resources: Secrets from the Eating Lab Dr. Mann’s Facebook Page Dr. Mann on Twitter Episode 4: What A 70-year-old Starvation Experiment Taught Us About Dieting Learn more about Balance365 Life here Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, or Android so you never miss a new episode! Visit us on Facebook| Follow us on Instagram| Check us out on Pinterest Join our free Facebook group with over 40k women just like you! Did you enjoy the podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Google Play! It helps us get in front of new listeners so we can keep making great content. Transcript Annie: Welcome back to another episode of Balance365 Life radio. Before we get into today’s podcast episode with an amazing guest, I want to share with you a super sweet message that we received from one of our community members on Facebook today. Christy says “I have been a part of Healthy Habits Happy Moms for almost 2 years now and a Balance365er since May of 2018. I am all in to the way this group thinks and believes. I’m at the point now that when I workout I channel Annie Brees, when I mention establishing habits to coworkers I channel Lauren Koski and when I’m trying to give some perspective to friends about diet culture and treating myself well I channel Jennifer Campbell. I can’t thank the three of you enough for how you have changed my outlook and daily life. I’m chipping away at the program but at this point my greatest takeaway is the way I live out each day because of this new perspective. I can go on and on but I just have to give a big thanks to Jennifer, Annie and Lauren. Thank you so much, Christy and I want to share with all of our community members that any email, any message, any direct message on Instagram we read them all and we are so appreciative of any reviews that you share on the podcast. We love them all. We cannot thank you enough.   Alright, let’s jump into this podcast because I’m super excited about it. I’m not sure if we have referenced any other book on this podcast as much as we have her book, Secrets from the Eating Lab by Dr Traci Mann. Dr. Mann is a professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota and an expert on the psychology of eating, dieting and self-control. In addition to all her impressive professional experience, she’s also a mom who loves those ice cream, super relatable, hey? If you’re curious about how much control we really have over our weight, how you can avoid temptation and why diets don’t work and what to do instead then you have to listen to this interview with Dr Mann. Enjoy! Jen and Lauren, we have a special, special guest are you two pumped for the show or what? Lauren: So pumped. Jen: Yes, I’ve been waiting. We arranged this well before Christmas I think so I’ve just been like vibrating waiting for it. Annie: Yes and what our listeners didn’t catch before we started recording was Jen gushing for about 10 minutes about how she loves Dr Traci Mann. Welcome to the show, thank you for joining us. Dr. Mann:  Well, thanks for having me, you guys are so nice. Annie: We, the 3 of us have read your book, The Secrets from the Eating Lab and we reference studies, quotes, information from this book so often in our community and our podcast if they haven’t read it, if listeners haven’t read it we would highly recommend it and it’s heavy on the science because you’re a researcher but I wasn’t overwhelmed by the science when I was reading it. I felt it was very like, I could understand the concepts that you were sharing. So, thank you so much for joining us. Dr. Mann: I would also say I’m sure I shouldn’t say this but it’s free Kindle right now. Jen: OK. Annie: Oh my! How long is it going to be free for? Dr. Mann: You know, I have a vague memory of agreeing to this with my agent like a year ago thinking it was like a month long thing and I think it’s possibly forever, I don’t know. Jen: OK we will Dr. Mann:-never sell another book. So, whatever, it’s fine. Annie: Well I will- Dr. Mann: Better people read it than buy it. Annie: say if you look at the 3 of our copies they are highlighted, like top to bottom, they have been like, right, like, they’ve been used, they’ve been well loved. Lauren: I think the name Traci Mann has been on probably 90 percent of our podcast. Jen: Yeah and this, so I have this page highlighted, what I was gushing about before we hit record was how Traci, Dr. Traci, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to- Dr. Mann: Just call me Traci. Annie: We’re besties now. Jen: So you are very much a messy middle writer in that you really objectively look at the research, you haven’t gone headfirst into any kind of movement or philosophy and just looked at research to support your philosophy, you’ve looked at the research which has allowed you to come up with a very objective, balanced message. Dr. Mann: That was the goal for sure. Jen: And so I just I highlighted this a long time ago because it was perfect. It says, it’s on page 20 and so what we hear a lot and what our audience is very aware of is that we hear two things, we hear that you cannot control your weight, you should not even try to lose weight, it’s pointless, your weight is predetermined, what you have, what you’ve got, that’s what you’re going to have forever and then on the other side of the spectrum, we have this whole industry of transformations that it is totally realistic and sustainable to lose half your body weight forever etc, etc. When what we actually know and what the research provides is is that you, it’s actually like in the middle but what you had written and I feel like I was waiting for this message. When I found your book I felt like “I have arrived. I am home. Like, this is what I have been looking for, somebody who is just sensible.” And you say, “I’m not saying you can’t influence your weight at all, just that the amount of influence you have is limited and you’ll generally end up within your genetically determined set weight range” and I thought that was so perfect in that you’re not willing to say you cannot control your weight, you’re trying to say “Hey, we can influence our weight, it’s just not to the level that you have been led to believe by the fad diet industry.” Dr. Mann: Exactly. That’s right so it’s partly genetic, but not 100 percent genetic.   Jen: Right and isn’t there a percentage? Dr. Mann: I think it was 70%- Jen: Yes I think it was 70% but you have a, there’s about a range of 30 percent in there that you can influence your weight. Dr. Mann: Yeah and I mean, it’s not just that and it’s really interesting that people are staking out these extreme positions, you know, it’s like, “Come on, people, nothing is black and white like that.” Jen: Right. Dr. Mann: But with the weight thing, it’s not just, it’s not the case that you can’t maneuver your weight around to some extent, obviously you can’t, like you just said, you can’t lose half your body weight but you can move it around to some extent but the problem is that it’s really hard, it’s hard to move it around a lot. It’s not hard to move it around a little. Jen: Right. Dr. Mann: And that’s mostly what we talk about in the book is ways to move it around a little without it taking over your life. Jen: Right. Dr. Mann: But to move it around a lot, it’s not that it can’t be done, it’s just that it’s really, really hard. Jen: And it’s very, it can be hard on us physically and psychologically to be trying to move our weight around to those different extreme ends. Dr. Mann: Yeah, exactly. That’s why I like to talk about this Leanest Liveable Weight idea. By Leanest Livable Weight I mean it’s the lowest weight that you can comfortably have without having to work so hard at it. Jen: Right. Dr. Mann: Because the leanest weight you can live at comfortably, now that has been misinterpreted by the lovely people like GOOP.com – the lowest weight you can actually survive at without dying. Jen: Right and that’s not what any of us here are trying to talk about. That’s what a lot of women are trying to be and they might they may not even realize it, that that’s what they’re actually trying to achieve but that’s definitely not healthy, physically or psychologically. Annie: And I just want to add to that we’ve worked with thousands of women across the span of the globe and one of the common themes that keeps coming up for women is goal weights or they have this like ideal body weight and oftentimes if you asked them, like, “Well, where did that weight come from?” it’s, like, so, like, not evidence based, it’s like, “Oh I weighed that when I graduated high school or that’s what I weighed on I wedding day or that’s my pre-pregnancy weight” and it might not be realistic. Dr. Mann: Or it sounds good. Annie: Yeah, or that’s what I read on some chart in, you know, I even remember coming across a scale in the mall bathroom, why there was a scale in the mall bathroom I don’t know but it had a chart of, like, body weights and like this is if you’re large frame, small frame. And it’s really not realistic, usually not realistic for those goal weights. So we love the idea that you have a range because as a woman I know that my weight can fluctuate you know 10-15 pounds versus in a month, in a year, how would you recommend going about determining a reasonable range of weight for someone? Dr. Mann: Yeah, that’s a really good question. That’s the hardest question to answer and the question I’m least likely to be able to satisfy you with an answer to because there isn’t, like, a scientific formula to figure out your sort of set range, so instead you have to just kind of make a guess based on your sort of knowledge of what your weight has done over your life and a lot of people notice that there’s a certain weight area that they keep coming back to. So they lose some weight but then they come back to this weight or they gain some weight but then they plop down in this weight without even trying very hard and so if it’s, you know, the weight that your body seems to keep wanting to come back to that’s probably right there, right there in the set range, right where your body is trying to keep you because you’re good at it. Annie: Yeah, in your book and I know there’s going to be people they’re going to say, they’re going to scoff at this but you didn’t just look at people that have lost weight and then regained it, you also looked at people that were trying, studies that have tried to get people to gain weight and it was hard to even maintain a weight gain as well, which further supports the idea that, like, this is where your body can effortlessly live or with minimal effort. Dr. Mann: Right, it’s true and then the weight gains that are particularly interesting because so many people think, you know, I am so careful with what I eat, if I wasn’t this careful I would for sure gain a whole ton of weight. Lauren: Yes, we hear that all the time. Dr. Mann: Yeah, you do, you know, I think people really worry about that and I think partly why they worry about it is because if they do eat a lot more than normal for a while, they do gain weight, but they only gain a certain amount of weight, you know what I mean? So maybe you’ll gain your 5 pounds or 10 pounds but you’re not going to gain 50 pounds, you know, or if you do you’ll come back down pretty easily. Jen: Right,  we see a pendulum swing happen quite often with women who are coming off dieting, if they have spent a decade of their life dieting. We see this pendulum swing where they go from, you know, one weight and the pendulum swings up to a higher weight that they are comfortable with or that is maybe within their set point range but then it settles down somewhere in the middle and we talk about that and you reference this in your book, The Minnesota Starvation Experiment. Dr. Mann: Right. Jen: So if you are coming from years and years and years of restriction, you look at, we have a whole podcast on the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. So if you are coming from a period of very severe restriction, the pendulum swing is almost an expectation, it’s almost, like, we would say it’s a normal and natural response to dieting. Dr. Mann: Oh exactly, it exactly is. I mean, we all need to reframe how we think about dieting. When people think about dieting, they think of that initial weight loss and that’s their image of dieting and then they assume once they have that initial weight loss, they just stay down there. Jen:  Right. Dr. Mann: But actually, if you followed all the research looking longer at dieters, you see it’s completely predictable that the weight comes back on. Jen:  Right. Dr. Mann: There’s a tiny, tiny minority of people who keep it off. Jen: Right. Dr. Mann: But for the majority of people, it just comes back on, you know, over the next like 2, 3, 4, 5 years. So we need to realize that that is a normal part of dieting and not a failure by any particular individual dieter. Jen: Right, right. Dr. Mann: And the thing is they always blame themselves for that. Jen: For that pendulum swing. Dr. Mann: That’s just what happens. Your body needs that to happen, your body is making that happen. Jen: Yeah, it’s like, I think you also, I think we’ve used this analogy and I think it came from your book, it’s like gasping for air after holding your breath. Dr. Mann: Right, I didn’t invent that analogy but I did include it, yes. Jen: Yes. Dr. Mann: Yes, it’s true. I feel like anything I say you’ve already talked about but I mean the things that happen when you restrict for a while. Your body, of course, doesn’t know you want to look thinner, your body thinks you’re in the process of starving to death and so it makes these alterations to save you which is so kind of it and yet everyone gets so mad about that because all those changes that save you from starving to death, make, basically make it very, very, very easy to regain the weight. Jen: Right and it probably, well, you can correct me if I’m wrong, it doesn’t really matter what size you are, if you are 120 pounds or if you’re 220 pounds when you do that restriction, your body still, you know, it doesn’t matter how much body fat you have, your body still thinks you are starving. Dr. Mann: Right, if your body detects that much less is coming in than it than expected then it just, all these changes just click on, you know, your metabolism changes, uh oh, now you have to eat less to keep losing weight. Jen: Right. Dr. Mann: Hormone levels change, uh oh, you’re going to feel hungry. Jen: Yeah. Dr. Mann: When you eat an amount of food that didn’t used to make you feel hungry, you know and then there’s all these attention changes too, right? So you notice food more if it’s around, you can’t get your mind off it once you start thinking about it, so all those things make regaining the weight way too easy and keeping it off way too hard. It doesn’t make it impossible, though and so this is a key, another key thing that I think people sometimes don’t realize. Any person who knows someone who has lost weight and kept it off, you know, comes and says to me “You can’t say that your body does this stuff, you can’t say your body makes these changes that cause you to regain the weight because I know people who’ve kept it off.” Well I’m not saying that these changes make it impossible to keep off the weight, I’m saying these changes make it really, really hard to keep off the weight. So hard that most people can’t do it. Jen: Right. We were talking before we hit record, again, another thing I had brought up is that because we are, you know, we try to navigate that messy middle and help women figure out what’s right for them, I had said, you know, hearing these two, I remember when I was first getting into this and starting to read about it like 4 to 5 years ago, I would start hearing that extreme messaging “You can’t keep off weight, you just can’t” and actually my husband has lost about 60 pounds, he was, I think, he was about 300 pounds when he graduated high school and now he sits at between kind of 220 and 245, I think. I mean, he’s going to be horrified that I’m talking about this but anyways but that just, that comes very naturally to him to kind of sit around there and so I would, you know, I was the same as those people. I kept hearing that it’s impossible to lose weight and I thought, he has now kept that off for 20 years and he’s not working, like, I don’t see him get up every day and like work at it, he’s not like, he’s not micromanaging his food, he’s not, he has some great habits, he, you know, he eats balanced meals, he tries to get to the gym 3 to 4 times a week but he’s lived a high stress life like the rest of us, he’s had kids, gone to grad school, all of that and so that just didn’t sit well with me and I thought, instead of looking at everybody who is failing, what are these successful people doing? Like why are they able to do it? Which kind of comes why, again, why your book is so refreshing, because you sort of, you’ve got that sort of nailed. Dr. Mann: Well, you know, I mean, I don’t even know and it’s interesting how you describe your husband as not having to work at keeping it off. Because what the research shows of the people who lose weight and keep it off is that those people are, you know, fairly obsessed with every little calorie that goes into their body and with every little bit of exercise they do to burn calories. So that’s what I expect to hear when I hear that people kept it off for a long time but one thing that I’ve been wondering about lately and no one has done the study that I know of and I don’t actually even know how to do this study but I’ve been wondering like, the people who lose a lot of weight and keep it off are those people who had happened to recently gain a bunch of weight but weren’t normally really heavy? You know what I mean, like I’m wondering if those who end up taking, you know, people who have had this unusual weight gain as opposed to people who are just always some high weight and took it off. Lauren: Yeah we see. Jen: I have theories. Go ahead, Lauren. Lauren: Yeah, we kind of see this and this is, I think, kind of in my story too, we see people who start dieting at a young age, right and then they just keep putting on weight as they do the rebound and you know, their weight wasn’t maybe supposed to be quite that high but because of the dieting it keeps going up. Dr. Mann: It got inflated from their- Lauren: Yeah and so for me, when I, after I stopped dieting and I did gain a lot of weight, when I finally went came to this place of balance my weight did go down and I think it’s kind of just like that it came back to its normal range. Jen: My husband also, I haven’t seen any research on this, he has put on a significant amount of muscle over the years so he, you know, at 18 years old, he didn’t go to the gym. He just, you know, his body composition is completely different, he, you can just tell by looking at pictures of him that he had a substantial amount of body fat and then after he left high school he got into boxing and ended up boxing professionally or sorry I should say semi professional, he’s just going to die, when he listens to this, I’ll just give him a little plug, he won the gold medal at the Canadian games in 2007 for boxing. Dr. Mann: Wow. Jen:  I know, amazing, but he just gets so embarrassed when I talk about this. Dr. Mann: You know, just to revise what I was saying, he’s an elite athlete. Jen: Well, he wouldn’t, I wouldn’t say now, I think he’s got more like Dad bod now but he did, he just, he got into, so what we tell our girls in Balance365 is to find movement they like, like if you and you talk about this in your book that if you don’t like what you’re doing you’re never going to stick to it and so when I say my husband doesn’t work at it, it’s not that he doesn’t prioritize exercise and doesn’t prioritize a balanced way to eat, he really enjoys that so it’s not that, so I think what what happens is there are people out there that are just never, they’re never going to enjoy my husband’s lifestyle. I’m not athletic and I am not competitive. I would never have enjoyed training for a boxing match like that or several boxing matches so, but through that- Dr. Mann: I don’t think I would like that either. Jen: Right and so you have to kind of go, you know, and Annie, for example, Annie crossfits like 4-5 times a week which helps her to sustain that 40 pound fat loss that she has done but and so it’s like Annie, personally, doesn’t feel like she wakes up in the morning and micromanages her weight loss, however if I had to get up everyday and go to Crossfit 4-5 times a week, that would feel like I was micromanaging my loss, do you know what I’m saying? Dr. Mann: Yeah, it’s true, so everyone needs to just find a sort of a set of lifestyle habits that aren’t soul crushing for them. Jen: Right, for them and that’s the sort of key that it’s like, what do you like to do and it may not be what somebody else does and so you won’t get the results that person has gotten but hey, that’s OK, like, let’s just be sensible here kind of thing. Dr. Mann: True, I mean, like in the last year or so I’ve had this just chronic hamstring injury, just won’t get better no matter how long it just doesn’t get better and you know, finally my physical therapist was like, you know, it doesn’t hurt when you do spin class, doesn’t hurt when you do yoga, it hurts when you run. It’s like exactly that part of the answer and she’s like “You have to not run” and somehow, her saying that I don’t have to go all winter onto the treadmill, it’s like so freeing to allow myself to do the kinds of exercise that I, I don’t want to say enjoy but that I don’t hate. Annie: Right. Dr. Mann: Even though to me they don’t seem as potent You know, I mean like, my brain is running this but I feel like, you know, all signs are that I’m just as healthy as if I were running as long as I’m doing these other activities and it’s not miserable. Jen: Right. Dr. Mann: So thank you, Christina, for freeing me from feeling like I have to use the freaking treadmill. Lauren: Can I, can I go back to, I want to go back to something that Jen said because this. is something that I’ve been wondering about when we hear this about the set weight range is that total weight or is that like fat percentage? Because we do see people who do build muscle, right and they’re the same weight but their body composition is very different, like, how do you know how that plays into this? Dr. Mann: I don’t. I don’t recall ever hearing anyone talking about set weight ranges in any way other than referring to weight. I’ve not heard anyone describe it in terms of muscle mass. Lauren: OK. It’s always something I’ve wondered. Dr. Mann: I don’t think people have, yeah, at least I’ve not encountered it. Jen: Yeah, I’m curious. If you end up putting on this muscle mass and it leads to your total body weight being, you know, a little bit- Lauren: Are the same as what your mass was with less muscle then is that sort of like a “trick” for your body in that it’s like, oh, we’re, you know, we’re the same weight and so you see people that change their body but your body is like “But I still weigh this much and I still need this amount of calories to sustain me.” That might be a future research project for you. Annie: That would reflect my experience, for sure because I have, like, probably a 6 to 7 I would say pound weight range that I have not budged from for maybe a couple years but my body composition has changed within that. A couple of percent, I mean, to me it’s been noticeable but I cannot, like, I have to work really, really hard to get out of that range either above or below it. Dr. Mann: That’s really interesting. So yeah, that might be a good trick, you know, don’t worry about the number, just try to replace some more of that fat with more muscle. Jen: Yeah and I think my husband probably has benefited hugely from his, his body composition is completely different than when he was 18 and I think he’s still a very heavy man, right he’s still like 240 pounds, he’s a heavy man but he’s not, he just has way less fat mass and more muscle mass on him, right? Dr. Mann: That’s great. I never thought about that, very interesting. Jen: Alright. Annie: We will come be your test subjects. Jen: Yes. Lauren: Yes. Annie: Be happy to take a trip to the eating lab up north or kind of down south. Jen: Down south for me. Annie: Yeah, for Jen. Dr. Mann: You’re in Canada. Jen: Yeah, I’m in British Columbia. Yeah. Annie: Yeah, I feel like that’s kind of a good segue talking about, you know, how much your habits or lack thereof kind of consume you because one of the most common comments we get from members or of our community is that they feel like they just need more willpower, more motivation, more self-discipline and if they have those things then they could, like, just stick to their diet, they could stick to their plan, they could reach their goals, right and I know that as a researcher of self-discipline you’ve noted that you’ve heard that echoed as well, that when you share with people that you’re researching that they’re like “Oh yeah, I want more of that” or “How do I get more of that?” In your experience, is more willpower needed? Is that what people are missing? Dr. Mann: No, no, people are missing, so every dieter thinks they are uniquely bad at resisting tempting food, you know, I mean, like, something you sort of alluded to it but constantly people come up to me after talks and or like before talks, “Oh God, self-control, I need more of that, you know, that’s a good thing that I happen to need, me alone, you know,” but everyone is bad at self-control. Everyone struggles with their willpower, thin people, fat people and everyone in between. It’s not the thing that tells us who is going to end up thin and who’s not, you know what I mean, everyone struggles with it, in fact, there’s these, this group of psychologists called positive psychologists that study, like, human strengths, so things like kindness or creativity, or thoughtfulness and what they find is that like the kinds of things that all range really highly kindness, thoughtfulness, people generally believe that they are kind and generally believe they’re thoughtful, the one that comes in dead last every time is self-control. People do not think they have self-control and they’ve repeated that kind of survey in like 53 countries. Jen: Wow. Dr. Mann: It was always at or very, very near the bottom. Nobody thinks they have good self-control, it’s not, it’s not unique to dieters, it’s everyone and it wouldn’t matter if everybody had great self-control because of the environment we all live in and there’s probably no amount that would be enough to survive the onslaught of temptation every minute of the day. Jen: Is this what you would say is the obesogenic environment? Dr. Mann: Yeah, exactly and that is what we’re living in and I mean, I shouldn’t have to try to resist buying a candy bar when I’m in Office Depot, buying paper for my printer. Jen: Right and you don’t. Dr. Mann: That should not be a temptation challenge, you know. Jen: Right. Dr. Mann: You know, it’s everywhere, all the time. Jen: Right, there’s candy, I don’t know if you guys have staples down there but we have Staples and it’s like an Office Depot and there is candy at the checkout, it’s everywhere. Dr. Mann: A huge selection, I mean and really kind of awesome candy selection. Jen: Yeah. Dr. Mann: At office supply stores for some reason. Jen: So there’s and there’s, I don’t know if this is same down there, but in Canada there is a push to have, like, basically temptation free aisles, so candy free aisles specifically for parents bringing their children to shop because I just argue with my kids nonstop about not buying candy, so then it becomes this thing that children begin to focus on and then they develop these scarcity issues or because there’s just candy and they see it and you’re saying no but and so the other thing that they’ve started offering in grocery stores here is they have apple bins for children so when you are shopping with your kids you take your kids to the apple bin and they can munch on an apple while you’re shopping and this kind of stuff is brilliant, I think. Dr. Mann: Definitely, you know, it all fits the sort of general basic strategy of rearranging things so that you don’t keep encountering temptation. Jen: Right. Dr. Mann: If you don’t encounter it, you’re not going to have it. Annie: And that was kind of like a, I don’t want to say a will power hack, but that was one of the things you mentioned in your book that, like, you don’t have to rely so much on willpower or self-control or self-discipline or say no all the time if you can curate your environment to reduce those temptations, right ? Dr. Mann: Yeah, exactly. Ideally you don’t want to ever have to say no, you know, ideally you just don’t want to come up, you know. Once a food is on your plate, for example, forget it, you’re eating it. Jen: Right. Dr. Mann: If you want to keep things from getting to that point where there’s no hope of resisting it. Jen: Right and we, like, even small things, we were talking about this with our Balance365 community the other day. Simple things like dishing up dinner at the island or on the stove and taking it to the table rather than having all your dishes on the table to dish up from is just a really small hack that you could use to not have seconds or to not, you know, over dish up kind of thing. Dr. Mann: Yeah, exactly and that works because, as we talk about a lot in the book, because people are lazy and small obstacles slow us or stop us. That’s a small obstacle. I could get up from the table and walk 4 feet. That is shocking how many people that stops. Lauren: And I’ve heard you talk about it’s not even just getting up but just moving it further than your arm can reach. Dr. Mann: There’s actually a study that shows that one of my colleagues in the Netherlands literally straining your arm is enough to slow people down. Annie: That’s like the, there’s, I have a salt lamp on the opposite side of my room when I turn it on at night and half the time I get into bed and I’m like “Ugh, that lamp is still on” and I swear more often than not I just sleep with it on because I’m too lazy to get out of bed to turn the lamp on, so like I cannot be inconvenienced. Dr. Mann: I am going to one up you on that sometimes I’m in bed on my back but I really prefer to sleep on my side and I just can’t muster the energy to like just friggin roll half my body over, half! Annie: That and you actually, you actually cover small inconveniences or small opticals is also covered in your book because you tell a story about is it toilet paper. Dr. Mann: Yes, I read that online, as, I was so excited when I read that online so it was a budget tip for strapped households was to when you get the roll toilet paper to smush it a little so that it doesn’t turn easily. Jen: Brilliant. Dr. Mann: You know, so when you go to pull it off it tears off right away, so that leads people to use less toilet paper. Jen: That, I need that for my children. Dr. Mann: Actually it’s good for if you have kids. Jen: They plug the toilet. I’m in there with the plunger once a week. Dr. Mann: It would also help with that but you know, just the fact that it stops a regular adult person from using more toilet paper is another example of how small, miniscule obstacles actually really slow us down. Jen: And Lauren, Lauren only buys single servings of ice cream so that was another one. Lauren: Well, they have them at Kroger, like the little ones ,they’re, like, you know, like, this big instead of the pint or the gallon. Annie: They’re like a little cup or like six ounces or something, 8 ounces. Lauren: Yeah or I just go out to like Dairy Queen or something instead of buying the whole gallon in my house. Dr. Mann: Buy the one. Lauren: Or even just for me is like if we make cookies or something, just putting them in the cabinet and sort of leaving them on the counter, right, we used to just leave it on the counter but if I just put it in the cabinet where I don’t see it every time I walk in the kitchen I end up just forgetting about it. Dr. Mann: Yes, keep temptations out of sights. Jen: We have a saying in our community. We also have a free Facebook community that has 40000 women in it, so they just participate in our philosophy, they haven’t bought our program but one thing we talk about in there is there’s this whole veggie tray revolution and so I started it a couple years ago and my aunt gave me a hand me down, an old circular Tupperware veggie tray and I stocked that veggie tray Sundays and Wednesdays because, like, we just eat it all by Wednesdays now, so that has substantially, and having that front and center in my fridge has substantially increased my family’s vegetable intake and I even take it out during meals. If we’re having grilled cheese sandwiches, the veggie tray will go on the table. Dr. Mann: And so it’s all prepared, like, they’re all clean. Jen: Yes, I have washed them, I chopped them I and I just it’s like, if I just need to do the minimum to set us up for success for the week it’s just that veggie tray takes me under 10 minutes and so we open the fridge and it’s just right there and we’ve also moved our treats to the cupboard above the fridge so I need to get a stool out to get out chocolate and chips and you know, people, you know, these things are simple and they work, you know, and but people just, you know, you tell them but they just, if they’re not, they’re still looking there’s like this magic pill thing going on. They don’t think it can be that simple but it is. Dr. Mann: And so the veggie tray is a good example of removing the obstacles to do something healthy. Jen: Exactly, yes, exactly. Dr. Mann: If you look in the fridge and you want a snack, you’re not going to like pull open the veggie bin, you know, get out the beats, break them, clean them, cook them- Jen: No, I’m not. Dr. Mann: But if you do that ahead, and you have a little bowl or tupperware of roasted beets, you will eat them. Jen: Yes, absolutely. Dr. Mann: Vegetables are hard work. Jen: They are hard work and so is protein. So the other thing we’ve tried to bring to people’s attention is that carbs and fat are readily available to us in convenience form everywhere, so if you want to be eating a more balanced diet, focus your energy on getting protein and vegetables and fruit prepared and as convenient to you as the nuts and the seeds and the bread and you know all of that kind of thing, because they take a lot of prep work, right. So the other thing I do is I just throw some chicken breasts in a slow cooker on Sunday night and then I take it out and I shred it and I just have a little container of shredded chicken breast which I can throw in sandwiches or wraps or do you know what I mean? So- Dr. Mann: Yeah. Jen: So yeah, it’s little, little things like that have made the biggest difference in my life and in our Balance365ers as well. Dr. Mann: That’s great, that’s good, that’s just making it easier to do the healthy thing.  Jen: Just environment. Dr. Mann: Harder to do the unhealthy thing. Jen: Yeah, just acknowledging that we’re lazy. Annie: And that’s across the board, like, your research has shown that it’s across the board, like humans in general are lazy, it’s not like these people, like, you know it’s not just me, Jen and Lauren that don’t want to prep our veggies or whatever, it’s like this is human nature and so and I feel like that’s kind of refreshing to hear because it’s not kind of, it’s very refreshing to hear because again, so many people are blaming themselves for why they can’t follow the diet, why they can’t stick with the program, it’s like, look you’re just human, like, you’re asking yourself to change a lot of things at once, to do a lot of stuff that’s really not in your wheelhouse. And it’s normal if you struggle with that. Dr. Mann: And also, can I just add, because sometimes people are like, well, all those strategies you’re saying just sound like, you know, dieting tips. Jen: Yes, they do. Dr. Mann: I don’t really mean them to be dieting tips, I mean them to be, these are just little things that you can just kind of have as habits in your life that will just help you stay in that sort of the lower part of your set point. I’m not saying that by moving the cookies to higher shelf you’re going to lose a ton of weight. Jen: Or that you should never have cookies, right. It’s not about, yeah. Dr. Mann: Right, exactly I’m just saying these are just some things that help you to just kind of stay on an even keel or maybe just aim for that slightly lower part of your set range that you’re already within. Jen: There’s, I wanted to address that too, as well because I feel like there is, as far as environment, there is a lot of tips you can use and they can be used as tools or they can be used as weapons against you, right and so in diet culture these things are often used as weapons and it’s funny because I used to some of the tools I use today to stay healthy, balanced and at a leaner weight, I used to use when I was dieting trying to live a weight below what was healthy for me and I was going hungry all the time, so what would happen to me was I wouldn’t buy the cookies, I wouldn’t buy the ice cream. I didn’t want any of that in my house because my cravings were so strong because I was going hungry all the time, so when that stuff was occasionally brought in my house I would eat it all. I would go nutso on a pint of ice cream in a night or a gallon and so it’s kind of like talking in a nuanced way, right, to go like, “You can use these as tools or you can use them as weapons, it all depends on where you’re at and what’s going on inside your head.” Dr. Mann: That’s really true and that’s a really important point that when you deny yourself something, when you restrict certain categories of foods or certain foods it’s going to eventually backfire. Jen: Right. Dr. Mann: It’s amazing how fast you start to want those things you restrict. I mean, we did a study like this, I think I talk about it in the book where we forbade people from eating a food that they didn’t even love, right, it was sort of in the middle for I can’t remember how long- Jen: 3 weeks I think. Dr. Mann: Yeah. Annie: Radishes. Jen: I feel like I just know your book. Annie: Radishes and chocolate for 3 weeks? Dr. Mann: I better know my details well, in any case, the point I was trying to make about that, the main point of that study just was that very quickly they started really wanting those things that they couldn’t have. So not worth it to deny yourself certain things and instead try to just eat those things in reasonable portions. So I cannot live without ice cream and there’s really no reason to do so but my ice cream trick, when you guys mentioned some of yours, I’ll add one more is I make my husband serve me because he will serve a reasonable portion and put it away and our freezer is crazy cold so it’s not even going to be easy to take more because it’s just, you know, he’ll wait and do what you need to do. So let people wait on you, folks. Annie: That’s just good life advice. Jen: Yes, the other one thing for your freezer- Lauren: I can get behind that. Jen: I bake for my kids for their school lunches and I keep it in the freezer so I, if I want banana chocolate chip muffin it’s totally fine but I have to think about that, right, I have to take it out and then I have to unthaw it in order for me to eat it where, you know, just talking about those barriers in environment, just putting a little bit of barrier between you and that thing causes you to pause and go “Do I really want this or is this just an impulse?” Dr. Mann: Exactly, you need that pause. My 14 year old son is obsessed with baking. Well, you know, classic pre-teen boy, you know, scrawny, looks like a paper clip, you know, no body fat at all. But he’s killing me there are constantly baking here and the good news is he’s obnoxious and doesn’t always let me have any because he wants to take it all the school because he brings it to a certain class, you know, there’s 24 kids in that class. Jen: Right. Dr. Mann: Every recipe makes 24 so he often doesn’t let me have any, thank God, but a lot of the time he does and it’s like once or twice a week this is going on in my house. Jen: Yeah. Dr. Mann: That’s a lot of like baking. Jen: Extra baking. Dr. Mann: That’s a lot of baking. Jen: Yes. Annie: So, Dr. Mann, I know we’re approaching an hour, I feel like we could do this for the whole time though or a couple hours at least, just to kind of wrap up, all of your research and your experience, personal and professional, inside your book as we’ve shared so much already, you provide a lot of gold little nuggets as to how people can improve their health, reframe their mindsets, even thinking about food in terms of healthy and unhealthy, how to alter their habits to support sustainable weight loss if that’s what they’re after but really, you seem to boil it down to just, as Jen said, sensible no-fuss advice, like exercise regularly and create reasonable eating habits and that you believe that that will help you reach your goals with minimal effort, is that really it? Because if so, that super refreshing. Dr. Mann: That is it. But I will elaborate a little bit because here’s where we have to get our heads and our heads are not there yet but  where we need to get our heads is if we are exercising the recommended amount, which is 150 minutes per week if we are eating, you know, a reasonable number of servings of vegetables per day and if we’re keeping our stress level under control, not smoking, if we’re doing those things, whatever we weigh when we’re doing those things should be where we want to be. We need to define that weight as our perfect weight because that is what you weigh when you’re behaving in a healthy way. So, I don’t know, this comes up all the time with people. Everyone thinks “if I do the exercise I’m supposed to do I’ll get thin,” but that’s not true. Exercise doesn’t necessarily make you a lot thinner but it does make you healthier. What I keep pushing on people is “Behaving in healthy ways makes you healthier, even though it might not make you thinner or as much thinner as you want it to.” So whatever we weigh when we’re behaving in healthy ways we have got to find a way to be OK with that. Jen: Right, except you have a whole section on acceptance, right and let your, do what’s good for you and let your body be what it’s going to be and just accept this, like it’s actually so freeing. Dr. Mann: Yes, just if you keep the focus on health and not weight everything makes so much more sense. Jen: Yeah, I love that. Dr. Mann: You do these healthy behaviors, they make you healthier, but then again, maybe not thinner, maybe not as much thinner as you want. Annie: I wonder how many of our listeners minds are just like blowing right now hearing that. Like, behaving in a healthy way will make you healthier, it might not make you thinner but it will improve your health. Dr. Mann: Isn’t it crazy that that’s mind blowing?  I said that to some radio guy one time and he’s like “I don’t know, that’s kind of a hard sell.” Lauren: You know, well, it’s only a hard sell because you have, you know, diet companies telling you the opposite everywhere all day, every day. Dr. Mann: Seriously, you know, And because people don’t actually value their health the way they all say they do. Jen: Yeah, they value thinness. Dr. Mann: Yeah, if people truly valued health, that wouldn’t be a remarkable thing to say at all. Jen: We had a psychologist post in our group the other day she had read your book preparing for this podcast and she said “I’m a psychologist and I’m reading this book and I feel my resistance towards it, like, I feel it” and she, but you know, she’s acknowledging, like, “This is programming. This is diet culture,” so she was trying to tell everybody, like, “I am a professional and I am resisting this, like, I have a mental block there that I don’t want to hear it. I still want to believe there’s a magic pill out there” and so of course, the general population that isn’t even educated with psychology, you know, of course, there’s a massive block there, massive. Dr. Mann: And I see that and I see that in anonymous comments out there, the people who come up to me are like, “This is freeing, this changes everything, hallelujah” and the people who are like, “I can’t, no, I must believe that I can lose a ton of weight and keep it off.” Yeah, I don’t hear from those people I just hear mean comments. Jen: Right, but they just pursue people who that, whose ideas support their, you know, how they want to see the world right and you know what, honestly, when I embraced these ideals, it was, I went through a pretty big slump of emotion, like, it was like grief. I had to grieve and because it was, yeah, it was, it was an idea that I had based a lot of my life around and spent a lot of time energy and money and the more invested you’re into something, the more you resist that it doesn’t work and trying to convince different gurus or fitness professionals that have built their whole careers and social followings on selling thinness, trying to convince them of that will be even harder because they are so deeply invested in it. Dr. Mann: Oh yeah, they’re the worst. Jen: And so I think a grieving process is like pretty normal when you, like, you have the freedom but then it’s like, you know, you go through these different stages of, like, “Oh, well that sucks” or you feel somebody shame come up and your trigger, that’s kind of your trigger that typically will take you into dieting behaviors to feel like you’re actually in control of that but you’re not and you’re just realizing, “I am not in control” and that can be very depressing, right but but also very freeing on the other side once you fully accept that/ Dr. Mann: Yeah, again, we just have to remember the one thing that truly, truly matters is our health. Jen: Yes. Absolutely. Dr. Mann: You know, have someone close to you die too young and suddenly it becomes very, very real, you know, you have nothing without your health. Jen: Right. Dr. Mann: So keep that in mind as the goal. The goal is health. Not some number on the scale and they don’t measure health with that number on the scale. Jen: Right and and including psychological health in that because I have had people around me succumb to eating disorders and that’s a very real thing in our society and it has very, anorexia has very high mortality rates and so- Dr. Mann: The highest of any mental illness. Jen: Yes and so and it’s just a horrible life, right even if you don’t, even if it doesn’t lead to you passing away and dying, it’s a horrible place to be and it is not healthy and it’s, you know, this is very real as far as, you know, a lot of people think of unhealthy as, you know, very large and morbidly obese and eating and eating but there is the other end where there’s a lot of people succumbing to eating disorders as well. Dr. Mann: Yeah, it’s true. Annie: Dr. Mann, I cannot thank you enough. This is so much fun. Is there a place that people can connect with you? Do you hang out on, I already stalked you on Instagram it doesn’t look like you’re- Dr. Mann: I never post, I’m basically on Instagram to spy on my 14 year old. I don’t expect he’ll see this. Annie: Excellent. Are you on Facebook or your website? Where can people catch up with you or stay on top of what you’re working on? Dr. Mann: I guess I’m on Facebook or Twitter more but again, on Facebook I post but mostly political stuff, on Twitter I only lurk, I’m there,  if you want to find me, if you want to talk to me, tweet at me. Annie: OK. Jen: OK. Dr. Mann: Or do the same on Facebook. Annie: Awesome we’ll put that in the show notes so people can connect with you if they want to follow up with you but this was so fun. It was just like talking to a friend that knows a lot about nutrition. Dr. Mann: It sounds like you’re doing awesome stuff so I’m so glad you’re out there doing it. Annie: Yeah, we’re trying. Jen: Thank you. Lauren: Thank you. Annie: OK, we’ll talk soon ladies, thanks for joining us. Jen: Bye. Lauren: Alright, bye!   The post 53: Secrets from the Eating Lab: Dr. Traci Mann appeared first on Balance365.

In this episode of the Escape Diet Prison Podcast, I am joined by professor Traci Mann. She is also the author of the book, Secrets from the Eating Lab. The post Why You Should Never Diet Again with Traci Mann appeared first on Anne-Sophie Reinhardt.

This month’s deep dive on the podcast is into the wild and seriously misinformed world of dieting. I appropriately titled the theme of this month’s podcast: The Death of Dieting. Dieting sucks and more importantly it doesn’t work for the long haul and to better help us understand why that is the case, I have invited Traci Mann to be a guest on the show. Traci is a professor of psychology, founder of the Health and Eating Lab at the University of Minnesota and author of Secrets from the Eating Lab: The Science of Weight Loss, the Myth of Willpower and Why You Should Never Diet Again. We cover a tremendous amount of ground in today’s interview including: Why diets don’t work. Why you should focus on living on the low end of your set weight range The Myth of willpower Strategies for what will improve your relationship with food Why “obesity will not kill you” The incredible health benefits of exercise and why weight loss should not be the primary goal of exercise Click here to learn more about Traci and listen now! >>Are you loving the Grace & Grit Podcast? Help us keep the mic on! Then head over to iTunes and leave a review so the Grace and Grit message can spread to more women who need to hear it. Looking for more Grace & Grit? Visit GraceandGrit.com

Are you or is someone you know affected by PCOS? I have some bonus episodes for you! Listen now for the first bonus episode all about which diets are the WORST for PCOS management. Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds. This episode is brought to you by my online course, Your Step-by-Step Guide to PCOS and Food Peace™. Sign up now to get on the waitlist for the next enrollment period on January 25th, and receive my FREE road map: Your First 3 Steps Toward Food Peace™ with PCOS. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how. Product links may be affiliate. If you click and make a purchase, there's no extra cost to you. Episode's Key Points: The primary treatment for PCOS is dieting... but diets don't work long-term! So what do we do? We're going to look at three different diets and break down why they don't work for PCOS management... Low-calorie diets: if you have PCOS, reducing calories below a certain point promotes inflammation, which is ultimately super harmful for our health, contributes to extreme exhaustion, drives up insulin levels, and encourages weight gain in the long-term. The Keto diet: Keto diets promote a low-carb, low-fat, low-protein eating style, and if you have PCOS, you need more protein in your diet than the average person! Plus, there's ZERO published research looking at folks trying Keto plans who also are managing PCOS. The majority of the research also doesn't look any further than 4-6 weeks, which isn't long enough to claim long-term weight-loss success!! Long-term, Keto is going to promote weight gain and obsession over your food choices (which can ultimately lead to eating disorder behavior!!). Weight Watchers: WW is similar to the low-calorie meal plan, but it may actually be the WORST for PCOS! That's because it's super accessible, and it co-opts body-positive language to pretend it's not a diet. Plus, they encourage low-fat and low-protein consumption, and remember, if you struggle with PCOS, you need more protein!! Less protein contributes to fatigue! Plus, WW has done their very own diet research that shows that 80% of their participants regain the weight within two years (and it's probably higher than that!). You deserve a recommendation that's going to be health-promoting in the long term. So what do you do?? Any kind of style of eating that you're doing should promote energy and make room for connection with family and friends. You should also make sure to choose something that has been shown to work long-term through the research (including through your personal evidence!). The number one predictor of weight gain is dieting, and the more we diet, the more we gain! But this is NOT your fault!! You've been given the wrong tools. Letting go of dieting is NOT letting yourself go... it's letting yourself BE. Wondering how to promote health with PCOS without dieting? Tune into the next Love, Food bonus episode to find out! Show Notes: Julie Dillon RD blog Link to subscribe to the weekly FREE Food Peace™ Newsletter. It is sent out every Tuesday morning. By signing up, I will also send you Love Food's Food Peace™ Syllabus. Traci Mann's research, including Secrets from the Eating Lab Eating Disorder Dietitians can help your Food Peace™ journey. Get access to one near you here. Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com.  Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue! Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

Are you trying to find food peace, while also struggling with a chronic illness that requires food restriction of some kind? Do you have fear around certain foods making you sick? Have you struggled with the deprivation and binge cycle? Listen now for some strategies to tackle these food peace challenges. Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds. This episode is brought to you by my FREE PCOS video training. Get connected now and be the first to get it when it releases in mid-September. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how. Join our Facebook group to get extra support! Episode's Key Points: Elyse Resch joins to talk about intuitive eating! We all are the experts of our own bodies. Feelings of betrayal from food and your body can make finding body trust and connecting with your internal wisdom that much harder. Have self-compassion and gratitude for what our bodies CAN do! Let's shift our thinking... instead of listing all the foods you CAN'T eat when you struggle with something like celiac disease, figure out all the foods you CAN eat. Intuitive eating isn't JUST about flavor (Elyse calls it "the tongue")! It's also about tuning into how we FEEL when we eat certain foods. Intuitive eating is a combination of instinct, feeling, and thought! How do we use our body, education, taste, and intellect to help guide us in our choices? Healthy eating includes pleasure and satisfaction!! If we don't honor our hunger, we'll put ourselves in a situation where we're ravenous, and then we can't find satisfaction in our food. Likewise, if we eat without hunger present, food just doesn't taste as good! It's all about finding the middle ground with hunger. Feelings of deprivation lead directly to bingeing! Shifting our mentality can open the door to profound healing. Dieting doesn't work!! Lean into compassion... whatever we've done, we've done it because it's what we thought we needed to do at the time. It was a way to cope! We can't get mad at ourselves for doing our very best, even if it didn't turn out to be a sustainable path for progress. Come from a place of curiosity, rather than judgment. Show Notes: Julie Dillon RD blog Link to subscribe to the weekly FREE Food Peace Newsletter. It is sent out every Tuesday morning and no spam EVER. By signing up, I will also send you Love Food's Food Peace Syllabus. My appearance on Dietitians Unplugged and Nutrition Matters Evelyn Tribole's Love, Food Podcast episode Fat is a Feminist Issue by Susie Orbach ---> This week's Food Peace Syllabus addition #1 Secrets from the Eating Lab by Traci Mann ---> This week's Food Peace Syllabus addition #2 The Intuitive Eating Workbook by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch ---> This week's Food Peace Syllabus addition #3 Ms. Magazine Elyse's website, email, and "Words of Wisdom" Eating Disorder Dietitian Julie Dillon RD blog Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com.  Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue! Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

Today's guest, Traci Mann, a professor of social and health psychology and the principal investigator of the Health and Eating Laboratory at the University of Minnesota, sheds light on the truth about self-control and dieting.  She talks about the relationship between dieting and weight gain with the aim to identify and understand the behaviors related to eating and a person’s body image. Traci also shares her work at the Eating Lab and how her team studies the mindsets people have about dieting and its effects.     “Weight gain really needs to be thought of, not as an unfortunate screw up after dieting, but it should be looked at as an expected result of dieting.” - Traci Mann      This Week on the Every Body Podcast:  What brought Traci to focus on eating for her life’s work  Detrimental effects of dieting and its inevitable consequences  How your body responds to keep you in a certain weight range  How historical famines changed people’s metabolism to survive  Things that change and problems that occur when you’re dieting below a set range  Why it’s so hard for people to believe the facts about dieting  The result of a study made by Katherine Flegal that show the link between people’s weight and mortality. Read study   Clarifying the obesity paradox and the relationship between people’s health and fitness level  Persuasive evidence about obesity being not a good indication of a person’s health  The truth about willpower as backed by years of experiments and studies  Effect of removing obstacles when eating healthy foods     Connect with Traci Mann:  Secrets From the Eating Lab book by Traci Mann     Check Out Our Instagram Contest!  Join our  contest on Instagram and receive a copy of Dr. Traci Mann’s book Secrets from the Eating Lab when you win!    Rate, Share, & Spread the word to  Every Body  Thank you for joining me this week on the Every Body podcast. If you enjoyed this week’s episode, head over to iTunes, subscribe to the show and leave a review to help us spread the word to Every Body!  Don’t forget to visit our website, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and join our mailing list so you never miss an episode!   

with Traci Mann.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

with Traci Mann.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you've ever wanted to lose weight and are on a diet, tried a diet, failed at a diet, or put all the weight back on afterwards, then do we have the myth-busting show for you! Today we'll talk with Traci Mann, PhD from Stanford, the Founder of the Health and Eating Lab at the University of Minnesota. Her research has been funded by the NIH, the USDA, and NASA, and is published in dozens of scholarly journals. She's also unique in that she doesn't run a diet lab, and hasn't taken any money from any commercial diet companies, She's also the author of a fascinating new read, Secrets from the Eating Lab. Today we'll be talking about the science of weight loss, the myth of willpower, and why you should never diet again. That plus we'll talk smart strategies for eating, and what you might order at the White Spot, when you're drunk, Mars rockets and chocolate pudding and what you can learn from French dog poop. Secrets from the Eating Lab – Science of Weight Loss How do you trick a child into eating a veggie? Why is everything we think was true about weight loss and dieting isn't true Why obese people don't eat more food a day than thin people. Why studying eating requires deviousness Brian Wansick and the never-ending-bowl of soup Why don't diets typically work and why don't diet studies typically work? Why you lose weight initially with just about any diet What happens with dieters after about 6 months Why are diet's a set-up for failure What's the role of biology What's the role of motivation and will-power Why it's not about motivation and will-power Why donut's get bigger when you diet What does genetics have to do with weight? What can we learn about the starvation (diet) study How did people in diet studies become obsessed with food What do set points have to do with diets Why hormone changes make you hungrier when you're dieting What does yo-yo dieting have to do with death? How geographic barriers can help keep your eating down. How to save millions of M&M's at Google How to be more mindful in your eating decisions Why getting food out of the house is a great diet changing habit What's the importance of savoring or being mindful with your food What's the importance of eating with healthy eaters Why calling food healthy chases people away How healthy labels can be a negative What are i-intentions What's an if-than plan Why comfort foods aren't really comforting How they were trying to fatten up NASA astronauts What we can learn from The Ordinary Spaceman about eating in space tracimann.com and http://www.secretsfromtheeatinglab.com/ and http://mannlab.psych.umn.edu/ Why you do NOT want to diet Traci Mann PhD Shares the Science of Weight Loss & Why You Should Never Diet Again! How to Lose Weight & Stay Fit w/out Dieting! Inspiration | Motivation | Motivational | Health | Fitness | Dieting | Exercise | Self-Improvement | Self-Help | Inspire For More Info Visit: www.InspireNationShow.com

If you’ve noticed that diets don’t work and that you can never muster up enough willpower to resist those cookies, this episode is for you! Traci Mann, Ph.D. gives you the hard data and science to explain why diets can actually... Learn more about Secrets from the Eating Lab: My Interview with Traci Mann Ph.D. at Wholify.

On the show this week we talk to Traci Mann, professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota and author of the new book Secrets from the Eating Lab: The Science of Weight Loss, the Myth of Willpower, and Why You Should Never Diet Again.iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943RSS: feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-mindsStitcher: stitcher.com/podcast/inquiring-mindsTumblr: inquiringshow.tumblr.com

As much as social scientists have learned about what drives people’s decision-making, we still haven’t found a silver bullet for changing people’s behavior. Yet at a panel co-presented by UCLA at MOCA Grand Avenue and moderated by The Atlantic contributing editor David H. Freedman, L.A. County Director of Public Health Jonathan Fielding, University of Minnesota social psychologist Traci Mann, and UCLA health economist Frederick J. Zimmerman agreed that it is possible to get people to make better health choices—if you give them time, and you engage them on several fronts.