Confident Sober Women

Slender for Good: Sustainable Nutrition Over Dieting

• Shelby • Episode 214

Share episode

In this transformative episode of the Confident Sober Women podcast, Dr. Ginny Trierweiler unveils a deeply personal and scientifically-backed journey of health transformation that will challenge everything you thought you knew about dieting, nutrition, and wellness.

Dr. Trierweiler shares her powerful personal story of hitting rock bottom at 55 - struggling with chronic pain, pre-diabetes, and feeling trapped in a body that was rapidly deteriorating. Her pivotal moment came while working in nursing homes, witnessing individuals in their 60s and 70s losing their independence.

Breaking the Dieting Cycle

  • Why traditional calorie-cutting approaches are actually making metabolic health WORSE
  • How 70% of food in our environment is processed and destructive to our health
  • The critical difference between calories and nutrients
  • Why intuitive eating can be dangerous for those struggling with health challenges

Emotional and Physical Transformation

Dr. Trierweiler candidly discusses:

  • Overcoming alcohol dependency
  • Dealing with chronic pain through nutrition
  • Reconnecting with her body's true needs
  • The emotional journey of healing beyond just physical symptoms

Revolutionary Nutrition Principles

Dr. Trierweiler breaks down her evidence-based approach to nutrition, revealing:

  1. Abundant Nutritious Eating: Contrary to restrictive diets, she advocates eating MORE of the right foods
  2. Nutrient Density Over Calorie Counting: Understanding how what you eat matters more than how much
  3. Holistic Healing: Addressing gut health, hormones, and cellular nutrition
  4. Sustainable Lifestyle Changes: Creating a approach that feels liberating, not restrictive

Mindset Shifts for Lasting Change

  • Breaking free from food and alcohol addiction
  • Understanding the dopamine vs. serotonin response to food
  • Creating positive emotions around healthy habits
  • Treating nutrition as self-care, not punishment

Connect:

Support the show

Support the show

Oh, and by the way, if you didn’t know, my remote Neurofeedback Therapy program is up and running. Learn more here!

If you aren't part of the Confident Sober Women Facebook group, it's a great place to be. There are over a thousand other sober women there building lives they don't want to escape from. Come on over and join us.

And if you haven't read my memoir, grab a copy today and maybe a second one for a friend. There is so much hope in recovery, and I shared my story so raw and vulnerable so that others would know they aren't alone and that there is a way to live well, manage relationships, parent your kids, and have a healthy body, all while staying sober. Grab a copy of Recovering in Recovery: The Life-Changing Joy of Sobriety wherever books are sold.

Speaker 1:

Well, hey there, sober ladies. Thank you so much for joining me today for the hey there, sober ladies. Thanks for joining me today for the Confident Sober Women podcast. My name is Shelby, I am the host of the show and today we have an incredible conversation with Dr Ginny Trio-Weller. She is an amazing woman in long-term recovery. She's the author of a new book called Slender for Good After 50, eating More, stress Less and Never Diet Again, and I can tell you that our conversation is pretty intense.

Speaker 1:

We get into some really interesting conversation about some of the old ways of thinking when it comes to weight loss, some of the models around kind of calories and eating less, and I actually made some statements based on the things that I just kind of know from that and she challenged me on that. You'll hear some of that in our conversation and what I wish I would have said in the middle of our conversation about that was that what we know today and if you've watched the documentary Fed Up which, if you haven't, I recommend it that a calorie is not a calorie. So, like, 100 calories of almonds and 100 calories of Coca-Cola do not process the same way in your body, so when you eat almonds you have to chew them, you're activating your complete digestive system. There's fiber and other nutrients that are going to take a long time for your stomach to break down, and when you drink 100 calories of Coca Cola, that just hits your stomach in a completely different way and accesses the parts of the brain that are related to cravings and increases your insulin levels because of lack of fiber. So what we know from just science is that you know, the same calories are not the same anymore, and so that old kind of way that I kind of grew up with and although I do believe that fundamentally, you know, most of the people would still say in order to lose weight, you do have to have less calories than you burn. However, it doesn't necessarily look like the same thing. So what she advocates for is we get to eat more, because we're eating incredibly nutritious whole foods that have a lot of nutritional value. They are cleaning your digestive tract. Cleaning your digestive tract, they're giving your body everything it needs to turn off those craving receptors, to keep your insulin levels stable and to keep you feeling satiated throughout the day. So we do have a great conversation. Just know that there's some kind of pushback from her, which I'm really glad that she did and I can tell you from my own personal experience, having worked with Ginny a little bit now, even after our conversation, on a personal level, she is very approachable. She is very compassionate and accommodating and just generally very kind, in addition to her incredible intellectual knowledge about this subject. We do have a great conversation. I think you're going to love it, and all of those women out there who are kind of in their forties, approaching 50 or later, and are very curious about this concept, I would really encourage you to grab her new book. It is out now in paperback form and I think you're going to really enjoy it. So grab your big glass of water or your favorite mocktail and join me for this incredible conversation with Dr Jenny.

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Confident Sober Women podcast. I'm your guide, shelby John. I'm the mother of three, wife to one and sober since July 1st 2002. As sober women, we have something huge in common and when we share our lives and our stories with each other, we feel that sense of belonging and connection. So we know we are no longer alone.

Speaker 1:

In this podcast you will hear real life talk about building confidence and transforming your life beyond recovery. So come on, let's talk. Hey, it's me Shelby. Have you ever wondered what's really happening in your brain during recovery? Are you ready to take control of your anxiety, sleep better and finally feel focused and confident?

Speaker 1:

I want to introduce you to a game changer that's transforming women's recovery remote neurofeedback therapy. I want you to think of this as a personal trainer for your brain. It's helping you build new neuropathways right from the comfort of your own home. So if you're dealing with anxiety that just won't quit, if you have ADHD that's making life chaotic, or sleep issues that leave you exhausted, neurofeedback could be your missing piece. It's science-backed brain training that works with your natural healing process, helping you regulate emotions and build lasting confidence. The best part is, you don't need to add another appointment to your busy schedule. My remote neurofeedback program brings professional guidance and support right to your living room.

Speaker 1:

Do you want to learn more about neurofeedback therapy? You can go to my website, wwwshelbyjohncom to download my free guide. Is Neurofeedback Right For you? Together, we'll create the calm, confident future you that you deserve. That's wwwshelbyjohncom. Take the first step towards training your brain for lasting change. Well, hey there, ginny. How are you today? It's great to have you on the Confident Sober Women podcast. I know my audience is really going to get a lot out of our conversation, and I know I will as well. It's a topic that's near and dear to my heart and I'm super excited to get into it. But I'm going to first share. I'm first going to turn the mic over to you and let you share a little bit more about your story, and then we're going to chat.

Speaker 2:

Okay, yeah, well, I get emotional when I talk about my story, so hopefully people will be kind about that. They generally are. But I guess I would say, about age 55, I started realizing I'm really in trouble with my health and my weight and my eating and my drinking and I had this idea that I would be in my 80s hiking in the mountains. That I'm a particularly youthful and, you know, attractive, successful person. It's going to be awesome. But by 55, I could barely walk anymore because I had so much pain and inflammation in my system and in my feet in particular. I was pre-diabetic. I was 60 pounds overweight. If I dated people, I wasn't doing that well. I was picking guys who were a couple steps down the ladder in a way, and then I wasn't wanting to stay with them. It just wasn't working well at all.

Speaker 2:

So many aspects of my life were being influenced by the way I was eating and drinking and how it was affecting my health. My sleep was bad. I had hot flashes. I was pre-diabetic by the time I really took this on. So in my head I'm like this youthful person and I had this wake up call moment. So I was drinking a bottle of wine every night I had this kind of special approach to eating. Something is yelling, I'm sorry. I had this attitude that my food and drink has to be very, very special. So I had to buy a special bottle of wine. I would spend time doing that, right. I would have special cheese and special bread and special olives, and it all had to be special cheese and special bread and special olives, and it all had to be special, special, special. And it was ruining my health, it was ruining my life, and so I was really scared that I needed to change it. But everything I was finding in the marketplace wasn't leading me well. I just kept trying to eat less, drink less, moderate everything, and it just wasn't. You know, it was just making things worse.

Speaker 2:

And my wake up call was I'm a psychologist, I'd started working in nursing homes and I thought these are going to be people in their eighties and nineties and I'm going to help them, you know, with the last years of their life. Way too many of them were in their sixties and seventies yes, they weren't that much older than me and they were saying to me you got to get me out of here, doctor, I don't belong here. My kids have taken my car and they're selling my house, and so I started looking into how can I help them get out of here. And none of them were getting out of there, because by the time you need 24-7 nursing care, you've passed a threshold. You're not going back anymore, and it was breaking my heart, but it also made me look at, this is actually where you're headed, ginny, you're not going to be hiking in the mountains. In your 80s. You already can't hike, you already can barely walk anymore.

Speaker 2:

And so I got this like real scared straight moment of okay, it feels like it's going to be scary and hard and I shouldn't have to give things up, especially my special eating and drinking.

Speaker 2:

But I thought, yeah, well, that's fine, you can argue for all this indulgence as much as you want, but you're going to suffer and you're not going to have a healthy future. So I decided I had to change it and I decided there's no one in the marketplace who is going to be able to teach me this, because they're teaching a bunch of things that just make things worse. And so, because I was trained in evidence-based practices, I went and studied what do we actually know about eating and drinking and weight and eating and drinking and heart health and eating and drinking and diabetes and all these things and hundreds of studies really surfaced four simple principles. Once I started following those for how to eat and drink, I stopped having all these problems. Everything reversed. The pain and inflammation I'd lived with for decades went away, the prediabetes reversed, the weight came off very simply, and I thought why isn't this what people are teaching? So once I really discovered what worked, I knew I had to help other people learn it. It's not hard.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, you're so right, it is not hard, it's actually very simple. I think it is hard actually.

Speaker 2:

It's simple, but not easy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, you know, I think it's not easy because we live in the land of the plenty. You know, we live in a land of abundance where in five seconds I can be out my door and get a whole pizza. In two minutes I can be down the street and get an Italian cold cut. I mean, there's just plenty.

Speaker 2:

With a bottle of wine.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, or a bottle of wine, like anytime we want anything, unless it's in some very remote area, we can pretty much get it, and that, I think, makes things. I'm not saying that that's bad. It's nice to have options, but it can be challenging to maintain our health.

Speaker 2:

It's a challenging environment for us. So people in my Slender for Good program tell me all the time this is actually simple and it's actually easy. So it's easy to eat in a healthy way, but it's easy to eat in an unhealthy way, eat and drink in an unhealthy way. So which is what you're pointing out? So for me it really is. You end up having to see the two paths pretty clearly and once you do, you can choose the path that leads to health and longevity and vitality and the things that we want. Like I have confidence. Now I'll be hiking in the mountains in my 80s, like all that came back, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Well, I love your story so much. Thank you for sharing that so vulnerably and specifically what you thought you were and what you thought you were going to be, and then how your choices in your lifestyle really led you to being just not that at all. And I think that's such a big, like you said, a wake up call or eye opening moment. But that nursing home example is kind of unnerving and sad really, when you said they were mostly in their 60s and 70s and that's scary and sad, but I know it's the reality for so many people. But the fact is, we can make a difference by just living well, living right, making good choices, and that's what we're here to talk about.

Speaker 2:

I'm so excited I hear people say, over and over, more than 70% of the diseases that make us sick in our later years are preventable, and I thought that sounded good, but I didn't know what they were talking about until I found these principles for eating and drinking. That changed things and I was like, totally Like, if you eat and drink, right, your body is made to heal all these things. But even if I'd been having a glass of wine every night, that's damage to my body every single day. It's damaging my cells, and I discovered very similar things about sugar damaging my cells, and I discovered very similar things about sugar, and, and and. The really great thing and maybe a lot of your audience has found this is you find I'm really scared of letting go of some of these things, but it actually feels so freeing. Yeah, let go of them. It's almost like they're a chain around our neck.

Speaker 1:

Well, you know, food is another source of addiction, right? Like we know this from science and just from our own anecdotal experiences, right, we know, just for sugar alone, you know it does hit the same brain receptors as the cocaine, right? I mean, like it is an addictive substance and it's designed that way on purpose and foods, to get us to feel addicted to them. And so I think that's where the hard comes in, sometimes comes in actually with that like kind of physical addiction to certain foods, where you're going to have and I've experienced this a little bit myself you're going to have some detox experiences to make the changes and that can be uncomfortable.

Speaker 1:

Maybe you can say I don't want to feel that, yeah, that discomfort. Yeah, maybe you could speak a little bit more to what that looks like, like, what happens when you kind of decide to go down this path and like people kind of reach out to you and I know we'll talk a little bit more about the principles in a minute but I'm curious, maybe we could lead with the kind of the yucky stuff and share a little bit about what that, what does that look like? So they typically have all those things that you kind of mentioned. And then what are some of the experiences that people go through when they make these changes?

Speaker 2:

at first, yeah, I mean I guess I just hear from people all the time this is so much easier than I thought it was going to be. But what I really vividly remember that I was doing this crying Like for one thing, I had no one to guide me. I was kind of finding things in the research and then implementing them the best I could. It even got clear how much protein and fat and how much fruits and vegetables and you know how much whole grains should I have, fat, and how much fruits and vegetables and you know how much whole grains should I have. And once I was following these clear principles, you know I would be crying because it's like this is so hard and I don't have anybody helping me. And little by little I thought this actually isn't hard. This actually is really rewarding and it's simple and it's easy.

Speaker 2:

That's what I hear from Slender for Good clients all the time. It's absolutely simplifying for my approach to grocery shopping, my approach to food preparation, my approach to meal prep Like it has simplified my life. I just don't. It's like you put food and drink in their place. They have a place in life, but they shouldn't be the be all and end all goals of our life to have the most exciting special food and drink all the time. That benefits somebody, it's not us.

Speaker 1:

Yes, you're so right about that. So do you take a little bit more of an eat for life approach versus like pleasure or aesthetic? I mean, is that kind of like where you're coming from?

Speaker 2:

You know I don't know if anybody here knows Jack LaLanne he was this really famous fitness guy a long time ago. He used to say if it tastes good, spit it out. And I think he was going a little too far with that. I think having pleasure from eating and drinking is important, but I think it was what is his name?

Speaker 2:

Epicurus, the guy that talked about pleasure. He said it's really important to have pleasure in life. But if your pleasures steal your life, like they become, the focus of life is going after those pleasures, like a drug, like food, like like alcohol then they're taking more than they're giving and you want to be careful. You want to go for more tranquil pleasures. So if you think about what we know now about dopamine and how we can get very addicted to things that give a big dopamine hit and we never get a sense of satisfaction, we just keep feeling driven to get more. He's saying don't go for that level of pleasure, go for a calmer level of pleasure so we can enjoy food and drink without going nuts over it, without I need more. I need more like.

Speaker 1:

If you find yourself in the I need more state, you're in trouble yeah, I think that's like a great way of saying it, like it's an indicator, right. Just like alcohol or any other problematic behavior, you know, if you're spending too much time scrolling or if you find yourself not being able to pull away or doing that, that's you're in trouble, right. So like it's kind of like anything that we do too much, or and so I like that you were, you're kind of putting in that way if you're finding yourself, you know, not having any pleasure or like wanting more, more, more, more, more. Yeah, that's a great indicator that you're in trouble and I'm glad that you are. You're saying that it should be pleasurable, one of the principles. I have some education in natural wellness and that concept is very much a part of like utilizing all of your senses, so and and also it talks a lot about just like the sun and air and water and just like a lot of other, a lot of other things from our earth and just that we need, as humans, to make our

Speaker 1:

systems work properly. Um, but one of the things that I remember very specifically and talk about um, my kids make fun of me sometimes, or they they used to their young adults now, but I would always. They talk about like that it is an aesthetic experience to to eat food, and so so we should be eating food that is like aesthetically pleasing, meaning it looks good, it's, it's beautiful, right? So there's color, there's texture, there's different kinds of things, you know, and that usually means like vegetables and fruits, and you know that look like they came from the earth and plants. And so I would make these big, huge salads and constantly say, oh my gosh, look at this salad, it's so beautiful. And they would be like what is wrong with you? I'm like this color. Look at this red pepper. It red like. God made that pepper red like wow, that is crazy.

Speaker 1:

Right like these colors but they talk about that like using all of our senses to be able to experience pleasure in a lot of ways, but specifically now we're talking about food and so that's how we can. Maybe you're, maybe you're getting used to, or your plate is, um, maybe smaller, you know, like maybe you're getting used to, or your plate is maybe smaller, you know like maybe you're getting used to having smaller portion sizes, or like you're just getting used to consuming what is, you know, appropriate for you or whatever. But like when you look at it and you stop and you slow down and you smell it and you notice, like all the things that are pleasing about it, it makes that experience light up all of your senses, not just your taste buds.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I love that, you know. And it's tapping into a different chemical system in our body. It's tapping into serotonin, which is another feel good chemical, but it's more of a satisfying, calming, feel good chemical as opposed to dopamine, which is like whoa. That was amazing. Where can I get more of it? Right?

Speaker 1:

right, right, and then hopefully it will like, like, and then over time we're just basically training our brains I'm assuming, like through neuroscience to become familiar with and then crave that serotonin release versus that only that dopamine spike.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think too. We know about habit change. Like if people find habit change hard, one of the things that helps is have make sure you have positive emotions attached to the habit change that you're doing. So when I'm hearing you talk about look at how colorful this is, look how amazing this is I'm hearing some intention to bring positive emotion to healthy habits. So we don't just wait for the world to give us that. The world is going to say you know what you want? This fat and salt and sugar altogether, which is something that doesn't exist in nature and triggers us so big. No, I want this. This looks like food. This looks like what people ought to eat. Yeah, it feels good. I feel good about it.

Speaker 1:

I mean it makes total sense when you really think about it. I mean it makes total sense when you really think about it. I mean, you know, like we all have that um, like maybe that dish that maybe our parents made, or like maybe we make it like some kind of something that makes a casserole or something, and maybe it doesn't really look like like Ooh, but it is really super yummy, and maybe it isn't even really unhealthy, but it doesn't like it doesn't have like that same appeal. And that's okay too, as long as the ingredients are good.

Speaker 1:

But I do think, when we can have joy and like they even talk about a natural wellness around, like you know, sitting down when you're eating you know, like making it an event, almost like eating that material that's going into your body, that's using, that's giving you energy, like its purpose is to fill yourself with energy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I've become so aware that you know our body needs calories for energy, but it also needs nutrients and we have plenty of calories in our environment.

Speaker 2:

I don't know if you know this statistic, but more than 70% of the food in our environment is processed. It's not healthy food. So we could get lots and lots of calories. And it changes our hormones. So our body keeps saying we're still hungry, get more food. So we could get lots and lots of calories. And it changes our hormones. So our body keeps saying we're still hungry, get more food. So we just keep eating. We can't get the sense of satisfaction. We should focus. Instead of on calories, we should focus on nutrients. How do I get tons of nutrients in what I'm eating? So when you talked about maybe we eat less, I actually teach people to eat more Because if you're, you need to eat enough of the nutritious foods for your body to go. I don't need to store excess fat anymore. It seems like we're getting plenty of food in this environment. Good.

Speaker 1:

Exactly yeah, I think they. I think some of the experts call those non-nutritive foods non-nutritive or something.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I call them highly processed, non-nutritive or something. Yeah, I call them highly processed, non-nutritious food, like substances, and the problem is is what we know too from all of the science that we have now, is that they destroy the microbiome in our gut, which then doesn't allow our bodies to properly absorb the nutrients, even when we do eat proper things. So if we don't eat these healthy things continuously, then we don't have the proper gut health to absorb the nutrients that we are consuming, and that can be frustrating, because then you're like, well, I am eating a big salad every day, or I'm eating lots of like, but you're also doing these other things, so that your gut isn't able to do its job, and that's frustrating.

Speaker 2:

So true, and like people will tell me I think I'm, I do okay, having one glass of wine, I go back to this. But one glass of wine you're putting alcohol into your gut and what's in your gut that you need is bacteria and you're killing the bacteria in your gut and that makes a huge difference for your immune system, for inflammation. Like I had no idea all that inflammation would stop that I'd had since I was a teenager when I changed my eating and drinking, I had no idea if I'd known how many years I could have had of being well and being more functional than I was.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 2:

I was drinking partly to treat the pain, right, because I had so much pain ever since high school. And that is a bottomless situation. Like all it does is feeds the whole system. That's making you have the pain, but you feel like, oh, but I need it because it makes the pain quiet down.

Speaker 2:

I have to say, too, I was so out of touch with all of my feelings, like I didn't know what I was feeling. I would get to the end of the day and I would have said in the morning I'm not going to drink tonight, I'm not going to go crazy, I'm just going to eat healthy food. And by the end of the day, driving home, yes, I am. You know, it's like I did that hundreds of days of my life and you feel like crap, right, like what is wrong with me? I thought I was a better person than this. I thought I had more integrity. You know, I just can't keep this promise to myself. But that idea of sitting with some of the feelings I was having, some of this discomfort, I would have to go. I feel upset. What am I upset about? Like I was just so out of touch, I would have to sit and think. And I'm a psychologist right. It's like this isn't good Right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I totally agree with that, it's. I always try to remind myself. I was, you know, raised as an athlete and I was a distance runner for a long time and my kids were all athletes and things. And you know I've been, I've been sober for kind of a long time, which is which is great, so I like I don't have that question anymore, like I don't have to really worry or think about whether alcohol is going to contribute or take away from my health at all, but then it's the food for sure for me. But one thing that I constantly remind myself of, or even say to other people if it comes up, is like, if you follow any you know, know, like fitness person, any athlete, any high level, like that's, like that's their job or fitness, they don't drink, they don't they don't drink because they can't.

Speaker 1:

They know. They know that it's poison. So right also know that it wrecks their entire health. So to me it's just like so odd, it's so obvious. You know you're well if these are like the healthiest people in our country or our world. Yeah, they're not drinking at all. They don't drink.

Speaker 2:

They're not trying to moderate it, they're not saying, but you know it's, you know, just here and there, just once in a while, which was always a lie for me. I couldn't do here and there once in a while, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So when you're like I'm super curious if you could say more about when people are saying to you constantly like, oh, this is so easy, and even you're saying like it simplifies your life and it's easy, what kind of things have, like, the people that you that have come into your world, maybe what have they shared with you in their history, kind of leading up to getting here? What have they tried that has been hard, like what were the things that they've done? That's that didn't work, and then why does yours feel so easy?

Speaker 2:

So many things. I mean any kind of calorie cutting, dieting almost. It produces temporary weight loss that never lasts. So there's really good research showing this just doesn't last. So if you look at people two years down the road, almost no one has kept their weight loss. So it's what the doctors and the nutritionists tend to tell us just cut your calories, and it just simply isn't an effective approach. And that's what I just. I'm publishing a book, I think next week slander for good after 50, eat more, stress less and never diet again. And if people take nothing else away, I want them to never diet because they are making their metabolic health worse, worse and worse and worse every time they do it, besides making themselves feel bad about why doesn't this work or why can't I stick with this.

Speaker 2:

It's not a sustainable approach because you already are undernourished in these times. If only, let's say, 50% of what you're eating is nutritious, if you're doing better than average, you're not getting enough nutrition. That's why your body's storing excess fat. Now you try to solve that problem by eating less. Your body is going to ramp up the hunger. It's going to slow down your metabolism, right, it's going to make you anxious and it's going to put more cortisol into your system. It's going to cause you to eat more. So until you learn how to eat the things your body actually is screaming for, if you eat what you know, what the society is encouraging you to eat, you're in trouble. You're not going to get there from here. It makes me so mad I'm getting passionate.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that, I love the passion. Yeah, I mean what you kind of touched on. The reality of our medical system is not in our favor. I'm hoping that maybe my kids' day or in their kids' day, that things will shift in that community, that the Western medicine model will change and they will get more than five minutes of training and nutrition and understanding. I think that there's glimmers.

Speaker 1:

Like I know there are some practitioners here and there who are curious and are wanting to consider these things a little bit more. I've heard a little bit here and there, so that's great.

Speaker 2:

It's not the mainstream.

Speaker 1:

but it becomes that way because they are not trained in nutrition. They're trained to deal with symptoms, they're not even trained to look for a root cause.

Speaker 1:

So that's not going to help us. So that's why you have to go out and do your own research. You have to find resources like you to help you in a very holistic way. So I'd love to get like kind of really into the nitty gritty and I don't want to give away all your secrets. I want people to read your book and kind of come into your sphere. But what are some of the tools, what are some of the steps that you share with your clients?

Speaker 2:

So I broke it down into four categories, four simple fundamental principles, and you were just asking about what are. What are some things that don't work? Like intuitive eating. Like if you ask your body what, what do you want, it's going to tell you calories, get me calories, get me sugar. Like the answers are not going to be what leads you to health, they're going to be what gets you through.

Speaker 1:

today I'm so glad you brought that up. I hate that because I said I always say if somebody told me and I'm an addict, right, so like it's even worse If somebody said you should eat intuitively, then I'm going to eat pizza and ice cream every day.

Speaker 2:

Every day.

Speaker 1:

I want pizza and ice cream. I don't care how healthy I am, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Your gut is yelling for calories and sugar. It's not thinking about the future. You have to bring your frontal lobe, the smart, wise part of your brain, online to make better choices and not ask your body. After you start eating really healthfully what I call it simply wise eating your body starts to really like it and trust you again. But just ask your body right now, living in these times, what does it want? It wants calories and sugar and, yeah, all the worst things that are going to ruin your health. So I people have to go away from that.

Speaker 2:

So I come from an evidence-based practices background and what I learned in all that research is there should be if you have an effective intervention, there should be a handful of guiding principles. You should be able to write it all out in a manual. People should be able to have a checklist. They could tell if you're doing it or not. So part of what people are saying when they say this is so easy is that it's super clear, like I know exactly what and how much to eat every day and how many meals and all those things, and that just saves tons of energy looking for answers and well, well.

Speaker 2:

But somebody else says this and somebody else says that I don't care. I'm just following Ginny right now, because what she's teaching makes sense and it just makes things simpler for them, right, and they're not trying to throw see what I see us doing. What I was doing is looking for maybe there's one more tip today that's going to change everything. It's going to just give me the answer, finally. I mean, I did that for a long, long time and then I thought this doesn't work in any other field, that you just throw hundreds of tips together and you get great results. That's not how the world works.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no it doesn't, and I totally think you're right. Like this is why I do think that the whole, it's simple concept is so powerful, because the whole calories in, calories out situation is the science of weight loss. Like that's how it works, like it's really just this model, so how you lose weight, you eat in the calorie deficit, right, and so it's really actually not complicated at all. I'm not saying that it's not emotionally hard at times, but, you know, I have somebody in my life that came to mind right when you said that that's constantly and this person is, you know, significantly older than me and they constantly are over the over lifetime would always be like, oh, you know such and such like lost so much weight.

Speaker 1:

Did you see that? Like I wonder how they did it, you know, and I'm like, ooh, like I'm going to guess. Like that she just ate less than she burned. Oh, I'd like. But every time so I'm like what are you looking for? Like, what answer are you looking for? Like she took the pill, she takes the shot. Now, whatever, what, like those things can be helpful tools if that's your thing, but like the real model is eat less than you burn.

Speaker 2:

I don't agree, no, you don't Okay.

Speaker 1:

I don't. That's the science behind weight loss, Tell me.

Speaker 2:

You tell me, that's the calorie that's the calorie model, the calorie deficit model. It might be, ultimately, that we end up having to have less calories to get lasting weight loss, but focusing on that is the wrong focus, right? So what? So? The first principle in my plan and you could say it's the whole principle the central principle is eat abundant. Say it's the whole principle. The central principle is eat abundant nutritious foods. And so abundant is a lot more than people think. Like our plates are full. When people look at us eating, they're like.

Speaker 2:

I have a client who graduated recently. She just had a great experience eating this way. She wants to do it the rest of her life. And she said when she goes out with her girlfriends, they're all calorie cutting focused. So they're all eating like birds and they have success in the sense of not being overweight.

Speaker 2:

And she is eating this plate full of nutritious food. So she's not focusing on eating less, she's eating a lot, but she's eating the things that her body actually needs and that don't hurt her body or make it fight back. So, um and like, as far as the number, the amount of vegetables, as I dug into the research, it was four to 10 times the amount that most of us are eating. Yeah, so when you fill your plate with really nutritious things that your body needs, your body reacts very differently, very fast, and the and one of the things that it does is it starts letting go of the excess weight. It may be that when we do this, we're eating less calories, but it is not our focus, and I think it's. I think the focus is not working for people.

Speaker 1:

Well, yeah, I think the science of the weight loss only works when you are eating less calories than you burn. That's the science. But the focus and the mental part like is, yeah, it's got to be shifted. Like, do you have to track everything? Like you're saying no. Like you're saying no, you don't just fill your plate with nutritious, healthy foods, eat as much as you want.

Speaker 2:

I'm not saying that either. I, I weigh my food because I won't eat enough. Otherwise, oh yeah, and that's what I find with most of us we will eat half as much as we ought to be eating. Okay, we don't weigh it. So, yeah, it's, it's abundant. So that really is the first principle. And I I can tell you I have three different proofs in my book about why cutting calories is not the answer scientifically either, because our body is not just following physics, it's following biochemistry. Okay, yeah. So anyway, yeah, we're, we're, yeah, maybe coming down differently on this, but I know it's it's a scientist, so I trust your experience with it.

Speaker 1:

I just know that that is a concept that we can all kind of identify with it's a concept we can identify with.

Speaker 1:

So, but I think what you're saying is is that there's so much more involved, like our like you mentioned already, like the hormones, you know our hormone structure, our microbe, our microbiome, so like if those things are kind of out of whack because we're eating the kind of the wrong foods, that it's not going to create an environment that allows your body to all function the best way possible. So then, even when you might be, even are eating in a calorie deficit or you're tracking, you're not going to get the results. I think that's what you're saying so true.

Speaker 2:

I have a client, lily, who's very, very disciplined person and it was very much a eat less, exercise more, and once she hit menopause, all she did was gain weight doing that, and that's one thing we find. So the body is not just dealing with the. You know, calories are a measure of heat and that is not the only thing the body's dealing with. The body is trying to get to homeostasis. That's its priority. So if we are starting to eat less or exercise more, our body is going to try to correct for that and it's got all these systems to do that. So, yeah, I think what we need to balance is are we giving our gut and are we giving our hormone systems, and are we giving our liver what they need and our cells what they need to heal and recover, etc. And then all those systems work really well, like they're supposed to.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, and all of us, if you're, if you're sober for any length of time like we win, first of all cause we've already done a huge service to our body and our gut by cutting out the alcohol and drugs and just being completely clean in that way. So then it's just a matter of like beginning to understand what are nutritious foods and then like, how do I get them? So I would really love to kind of end with that Like what are some of the kind of? If you were to give like a kind of a snapshot of a day or two meal plan, like in general, what would you normally eat or what do you advise people?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, we usually have a whole grain in the morning and a protein and fruit, and we don't have a tiny amount of fruit, we have kind of a lot of fruit, like six ounces. Some people feel like I don't want to have anything sweet in the morning, so then they might do vegetables in place of the fruit, but a lot of us are going to benefit from eating more fruit than we're eating too. And then at lunch we have a giant like a giant salad with protein and and fruit again and some fat, and then at dinner we have a protein, a fat and a giant portion of vegetables. And so we one of the things that makes it easy is we never feel hungry. Yeah, it's way easier to eat what works for weight loss when you're losing the weight and not feeling hungry.

Speaker 1:

Facts yeah Right, I can't stand the feeling of being hungry. That's a big, because I'm definitely always, always hungry. So the grain in the morning is that like oatmeal.

Speaker 2:

What grain do you use? I usually have oatmeal. Yeah, some, I don't know. People can do all different kinds. I tried buckwheat recently.

Speaker 1:

That was really good.

Speaker 2:

Oh, okay. Yeah, there's one or two cereals, but basically 99% of the cereals are not something that are really going to serve us.

Speaker 1:

Sure Right.

Speaker 2:

But a whole grain, so it could be rice, could be, you know, quinoa.

Speaker 1:

I don't know. I never like a glycemic value, like an insulin resistance and stuff. They're very against grain like grains. So I'm curious about what your thoughts are on that.

Speaker 2:

Well, from what I've seen in the research. So I'm very it's very research based like what works, is my question all the time. What works for heart health? What works for sugar health? What works for weight loss that doesn't come back is it looks like it's better for most of us to have some grain like on a regular basis. So people lose more weight when they have a grain in their diet. They have healthier hearts right and healthier blood sugar when they have a grain. So it might be the way people eat grain that they're trying to discourage them from doing, because if you're eating processed grain, it's not helping you Like buying any of those box cereals almost are just going to make things worse for your cells and your system.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they all have to be whole foods, which people are becoming more and more familiar with, but basically that means completely non-processed, like a buckwheat, like a, and you know, like you know a grain. That's like you have to cook yourself. What are some examples of protein sources? I would love to hear some of your favorite, like protein sources and fats for yourself.

Speaker 2:

Interesting. You know, the first year that I was doing this I was so scared I was going to feel like I was losing something, that I was making shrimp like grilled shrimp and grilled scallops and steak, like I just needed to make sure my protein was really delicious. And now it doesn't feel like that to me at all, eight years later, or whatever. Like I'd like to have a little bit of feta cheese and some nuts or seeds on my salad and I'm using a salad dressing. But I think even better is if you just eat like olives or avocados, if you eat your fat instead of having it processed like that. But I find it works like that's what I look at what works.

Speaker 2:

It works for people to have a tablespoon of dressing on their salad. The thing I watch out for is make sure it doesn't have too much sugar, because sugar will make me want more sugar, both because what it does in my brain and what it does in my gut. I hate that feeling of craving sugar and it's gorgeous when that just goes away Like, oh, I want to live here, I know.

Speaker 1:

You're so right, because then you're like, you're so unbothered by it, you can go out and be like in parties or do whatever, and you're just like.

Speaker 1:

You're like I don't even really like, want that, like, oh, give me some more veggies, you know off the tray. You know, um, and also you know, back to what we sort of started with. They are, you know, aesthetically pleasing Look at all the colors on that veggie, with the carrots and the green peppers and the cucumbers like there's just so much kind of beauty there, um, yes, awesome. Yeah, I think that, uh, we have so much access to good things too, like really good clean, like olive oils and things like that, so, like you could make I make my own dressing with apple cider vinegar and olive oil and lemon juice, and it was just very simple, um, kind of delicious. We're just used to it. You know, I kind of grew up on my dressing as well, but, um, and you know I think it's just nice because I don't really measure it or anything, but it's, you know I know everything in there is good.

Speaker 1:

I made it myself, so I I know what's in there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that helps yeah, dressings are trouble. Any kind of condiments are trouble, as far as how much sugar they add to them. Yeah, you really. Are you got to read every label? Yeah, I love that you're doing something super simple. I was thinking I need like a packet of seasonings, but no, I'm overcomplicating it.

Speaker 1:

So simple and I always have those things in my pantry, so like I just have like my little bottle, I could do my extra light olive oil with my apple cider vinegar. I usually do like some mustard or spicy brown, some lemon juice and then salt and pepper and that's it.

Speaker 2:

Oh, you know what? I used before too, is like hummus, and then I just put water in it to to make it like a dressing. Yes, nutrition, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and also, yeah, super nutritious. I love that. Oh my gosh, this has been such an important conversation. I'm so glad that we're having this and I'm so glad that you have your book out there and such such access for people. Whether you're, whether you are, you know, kind of over 50 or older woman or not, everybody can benefit from this information. So where do you like people to reach out and find you if they want to get more information?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they could go to slender for goodcom slash book waitlist. Oh, where the heck did I put that Waitlist book? Waitlist book.

Speaker 1:

Got it Awesome. I'll make sure I link to that in the show notes below and you know just. Thank you again for your expertise and for your time and your talent and I really hope our worlds cross paths again.

Speaker 2:

Yes, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Okay, yay. Thank you for joining me for this week's episode of Confident Sober Women. If you enjoyed this conversation, hit the subscribe button above so you won't miss any upcoming episodes. And, hey, if you really loved it, leave me a review. You can learn more about the sober freedom inner circle membership at wwwshelbyjohncoachingcom. Forward slash inner circle. See you next time.