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Episode 73 - The Food Police

What you eat is not a moral issue

Let’s start with what I teach till the cows come home, and that is, food is not to be seen in moralistic terms such sinful, bad, dangerous or wicked. It’s just food ya’ll. And you are not bad for eating past full or eating a food as you see as bad.

By working on the principle of  ""Challenge the Food Police" I could finally understand how my perception of the external food police might sometimes be nothing more than my own thoughts being a projection where I THINK people are thinking things. Of course, the external food police can also be very real – as in the case of my aunt telling me to lose weight or my husband would look elsewhere, or someone remarking at a party that Granny Keto shouldn’t be eating cake. 

This episode will go along way toward learning to challenge the food police in your own head, and how to handle the food police on the outside!

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Episode 72: Making Peace with Food

Making peace with food is a critical component of Intuitive Eating. Except for medical reasons and self-imposed ethical and religious reasons, it means that no food is off limits. That scares a lot of us because we often experience a loss of control when we eat foods that we have been depriving ourselves. From years of dieting, we have fallen into “Last Supper” eating, “Forbidden Fruit” eating, and “I blew it” eating.

This episode goes into all these behaviors which so often side track us from our intentions. I also share with you my own reflections about fears I have that are holding me back from finding my own peace. I was reminded that these are fears and not necessarily truths. It was also helpful to remember that this was only an exercise in awareness and not in passing judgment.

For this week's actionable coaching advice, I guide you through a food habituation exercise that is sure to help you get used to eating foods that you have 
 
Forbidden Fruit Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7142814/      

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Episode 71 - Eat Already!

The concept of self-nourishment is so important in helping you to identify your hunger and in using your hunger scale.  There are times when  NOT listening to your body for hunger cues might be your best course of action.  This might seem like it goes against the protocol of listening to your body, but in situations where your hunger cues are off-line, it is really a type of self-care in the form of nourishment.

It  might be when you are not feeling well but still need nourishment, or when you are in a very stressful situation and still need nourishment. It might be in more benign situations like at parties, holiday meals or when eating out. I also talk about, what I call, "pre-emptive" eating when you know you will not have time for a meal but if you entirely skip eating when you have the chance you will be in a world of trouble at the other end.  I also address food pushers and how nothing is ever really an all-or-nothing situation.

Your actionable coaching advice this week guides you to do non-judgmental reflections on why you may overeat or eat when you are not hungry.

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Episode #: 70.    Hunger Games – A Dive Into Awareness and Self-Care

A very interesting case is made for the fact that when the rules in your head conflict with the direct experience of your body, trust in your body is eroded, and confusion about whether or not you are hungry arises.  When you ignore hunger signals or try to trick them by eating air foods such as rice cakes or drinking water, you numb yourself to them and often eat for reasons other than true biological hunger. This is a lot of where binges come from. The way Tribole and Resch put it is that when you don’t eat and ignore hunger signals, or don’t eat enough by dieting or fasting, the result is akin to holding your breath under water until you are desperate for air. Instead of just breathing normally and quietly, you are gasping loudly for air, and you can’t seem to get enough for your body to quiet down.

In my course and book, and many of my blogs and podcast episodes, I teach about learning your biological hunger cues and also how head hunger and heart hunger can fool you into thinking you are biologically hungry. 

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Episode #: 69.    Letting Go of the Diet Fantasy

This episode starts with the exercise of taking an inventory of how dieting has interfered with my life.  If I wasn’t already convinced of the need to let go of dieting, the further exercises - the different costs of dieting and exploring how has dieting affected my mind and mood - cemented that thought. Part 2 of these workbook exercises, comparing “Fantasy Thoughts” with my history brought about interesting introspection and reflection. The answer to one of the questions just took my breath away - make sure to listen to find out which one.

The  episode goes on to explore the tools of dieting and the hidden forms of dieting - all very interesting. Personally, I have a belief system revolving around both of these and I didn't even realize how strong  and deep-rooted this belief system is - no wonder I am having a heck of a time letting go!

I am going to share with you, right in the show notes, what this week's actionable coaching advice is, because it is that important: This week write down a few of the dieting tools that you can’t let go of. Is it measuring your food? Is it being strict with a “no” list? Is it ordering only diet foods when you go to a restaurant? Is it preemptive eating so you won’t eat so much in a social situation? I am sure you can come up with many of your own. Pick one or two and work on letting them go this week.

Make sure you tune in next week to continue our Intuitive Eating journey.

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Episode #: 68.    Reject the Diet Mentality

The first exercise  I did this week was to look at what I typically do and what I say to myself when I am struggling with eating. I wrote that I tend to get deeply involved with whatever new diet or eating style I am trying out. I buy all the books, look up all the recipes, buy all the paraphernalia like the journals and card decks. I’m on its website constantly and join all the Facebook groups. I plan, I track, I cook, I shop, I do it all. Then of course, that rebel in me shows itself or I find that it just doesn’t fit my lifestyle. I start bargaining and hedging and trying to make it fit. I always tended to see that it was my fault that it didn’t work but in my old age, I am seeing that some of these diets and plans might have meant well, but had a piece of the puzzle missing.

In this week's episode hear about this exercise and others, based in  self-compassion and forgiveness. There is nothing to be gained from hating yourself and your decisions about what you eat. Once you let go of dieting mentality and the long lists of food you can or cannot eat, there is no sense of straying and therefore no sense of shame and guilt. I teach you and my clients about letting go of negative self-talk, so the first section of this lesson, entitled “Self-Compassion Exercises” was something I enjoyed working on. 

Listen to this episode to see how you can get started on letting go of the diet mentality and work with this week's Actionable Coaching Advice to see how your own dieting history plays out with letting go of diet mentality.

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Episode #67: Knowing Isn't Doing - the Best Lesson So Far!

In this episode I explore the work that we need to do before we even get started with Intuitive Eating and that is to learn that knowing isn't doing. Resch and Tribole, authors of Intuitive Eating,  say that, "Learning how to become an Intuitive Eater is a lot like learning how to write with your nondominant hand – it takes practice. Intellectual knowledge is not enough.”  Boy are they right! The exercise they give in the workbook underscores the fact that Intuitive Eating is a journey and a process - it's not a one and done diet.

Tune in to see my own experience with this!  Another dance lesson turned into a plate lesson!

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Episode #66: My Personal Journey with Intuitive Eating

In this week's episode I begin my own personal journey with Intuitive Eating. I reminisce about how I tried Intuitive Eating in the past but was missing most of the important concepts. I took "don't call foods good or bad" or "eat what you want" or "ditch the diet mentality" totally out of concept and only heard "eat all the things". Now all these years later I understand about concepts like honoring hunger and fullness and gentle nutrition, which will make this journey a successful one, albeit bumpy, I'm sure.

Join me for this journey, as I explore what it takes - and what it means - to eat intuitively. 

Please make sure to download the booklet on the hunger scale (resource link below). Once you are on my mailing list you will get a valuable lesson with sides and video that I created for a presentation by other health professionals. 

It is my gift to you in hopes that you will join me on this journey.

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Episode #65 - Your Mindset Matters

First and foremost, this episode starts with a tribute to my sister, who made all my work as Granny Keto possible. I owe her that, as well as a thank you for being a wonderful sister.

This episode goes on to explain that is not your relationship with food that determines if you can stick to a diet program, lose weight or accomplish any of your non-food goals. It is your relationship with yourself that determines any and all success that you have. Even if you don’t see it or don’t believe it now, you are capable of success. You are smart. You are worthwhile. 

I explain how an eating program is constructed like a jigsaw puzzle, and  what you need to do is shuffle the pieces around and see how they fit. You can't dump the pieces on a table and pound them until they are flattened. You have to take your time and examine each piece. You might even find a piece  from another puzzle that was thrown in the box by mistake! 

You are not broken, my friend... you just haven't put the pieces together.

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Episode #: 64.    Finding Your Balance with Kaizen

You’re Listening to the Keto and Low Carb Success, Episode #64, Finding Your Balance with Kaizen. 

When I was a professional dance teacher I learned about about making small changes for huge results. This has carried over well to the teaching and coaching that I do now. 

Use Kaisen to help achieve manageable goals 

 
Learn about Goal laddering

We making the mistake of thinking a goal is the endpoint and don't see it as a step in the overal process. We also make the mistake of not having patience.

The cost of making these mistakes is that we think less of ourselves rather than look at the situation from another angle and we give up too easily.

Calling out a new way of doing things 

 1.      If you are afraid of giving up something, don’t! 
2.     Focus on the one habit, not on the big picture.
3.     Don’t see yourself on diet. See yourself adjusting your nutrition.

Your Actionable Coaching Advice this week is to see how you can ladder your steps in a way that actually makes your goals get you to a final destination. SEE TRANSCRIPT.

Coming up next week I will be exploring mindset. 

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