January 11, 2018 • 34 mins
Diet Expert Nicole Romanella O'Neal joined me for the podcast and breaks down the new Dr. Oz approved Pegan 365 diet. We also discuss the biggest obstacles most dieters face and how to get over them, emotional eating, how do you even start a diet, and Nicole's favorite quick grab-and-go snack. If you ever struggled with a diet Nicole and her Monday Dieter blog are definitely going to help you out.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
What is the biggest struggle in dieting and just keeping
a healthy diet? Also what I know firsthand why diets work,
why diets don't work, and how you can make them work.
You kind of debut a new diet plan with Dr
Oz put forty women on the top ten diets, and
we followed them for an entire year. If you're gonna
(00:27):
have pizza, then talk about pizza like literally and sit
down and enjoy it. Can I tell you my number
one piece of diet advice. Thank you for joining me
for the second Workout Wednesday podcast. I'm actually really really
excited for this one, mainly because not only um am
I super impressed by the work that the person I'm
(00:48):
going to talk to has put in and their experience
and their knowledge, but also the person I'm gonna talk
to is a very good friend of mine some when
I went to college with and I'll introduce her um
in a minute or so. But but last week I
challenged you to figure out how much water you're supposed
to drink on a daily basis and do that for
a full week. That was like the first basic thing
on this little journey that we're all going to go on. Together,
(01:10):
and I actually was surprised with myself because I'm usually
really bad at this kind of stuff, but I actually
did it, and I noticed a couple of things. And
it's only a week, so I'm not gonna say like
my life was changed, but I noticed that I was
full more often, I didn't necessarily need to snack as much. Also,
because I was consciously trying to drink more water, I
(01:32):
didn't drink things like sodas and iced tea is which
I'd have to assume is better for me. Anyway, if
you can stay away from those sugary drinks and drink
regular water, you're probably better off. So that was the
first goal for the first podcast. At the end of
the podcast, I'll have another goal that we'll try to
tackle together. And I know that the goal at the
(01:54):
end of the podcast this week is going to be
one of the hardest things for me personally to tackle.
But let's get into it. So I am going to
now introduce not only a fantastic diet expert, but also
a very very good friend of mine, Nicole Romanella. Hi,
thank you for having me. Nicole and I went to
college together, Seton Hall University, Go Hall. Her husband also
(02:17):
happens to be one of my best friends. And not
only is Nicole a superstar producer on the Doctor Ras show,
which you all know of. Um but you're now you're
a diet expert now currently at mount Clair State University
getting my masters to become a registered dietitian, and on
the show, I've basically become the diet and wingwass expert.
(02:39):
And the reason that I wanted to have you on
the podcast, um a, because you're a friend of mine
and I like you. But I am the worst at
talking about diets because I'm not necessarily the the most
conscious eater. I guess is the way I don't eat poorly.
I just don't really think about the things I eat
very often. I'm starting to try to be better at that.
(03:00):
But I've never been in the diet world. I've never
really done a lot of research on it. But that's
what you do now, yes, yes, and it's you know,
for me in the diet world, it's twofold, um A.
Because I researched it. I talked to the top experts,
I talked to women constantly who are dieting for the show.
(03:21):
But then also from an emotional standpoint, I'm a lifelong dieter.
I'm a female that has struggled immensely with my weight,
which is why I connect to so many dieters. But
it's also why I know firsthand why diets work, why
diets don't work, and how you can make them work. Well.
You have your blog Monday diet dot com. Ye, so
I read like the whole blog basically yesterday, thank you,
(03:44):
and the about me section. Even though I've known you
now for what ten years, I learned things that didn't
know before, and I learned struggles that I never imagined
you having. And I feel like that's important forever, because
everyone does struggle at some point, whether you're a dieter
or not. People, unless you're the luckiest person in the world,
people are going to struggle with the way they look
or how they perceive themselves exactly. And I feel like
(04:07):
one thing I learned early on was that a lot
of times dieting is like a dirty little secret. You
don't want people to know how much you're thinking about it,
how much you're doing it, because we all want to
appear confident on the outside. We want to have that
we have this idea of perfectionism in our head. But
when I started being open about my diet story, I
(04:28):
felt this sense of relief. It was almost like it
was weighing me down that I was keeping it in.
So I started being open and vulnerable with my story,
laying it all out there about what I've been through
in the past twenty years. It's absolutely amazing how many
people I talked to you you on a daily basis that
tell me their story. And I know that so many
of us we struggle with this every single day. What
(04:51):
I mean for the dieters that you speak to, and
we'll talk about the diet that you created UM with
Dr Oz because I think it's actually something that I
might try. UM. When you talk to the dieters that
you interact with, what is the biggest struggle in dieting
and just keeping a healthy diet? The biggest struggle is
emotional eating. I think that we all know what to eat,
(05:13):
we all know how to eat, we all know that
we should be exercising. But if it was that easy,
we would all be at our goal eights. And it's
not that easy. Is because emotions come into play. And
I always say, you know, I don't gain weight, My
weight doesn't fluctuate because I had one cookie. My weight
fluctuates because I have twelve in one sitting. And so
(05:33):
I think that we all talk about what to eat,
We talked about how to exercise, we talked about the research,
but we really don't bring in the emotional component the
way that we should. And I always joke that therapy
was the best diet I ever went on. Once I
started connecting you know, the over eating too emotions in
my life, I was able to get way more on
(05:56):
a handle on dieting and actually stay on the diet
because emotional eating is what takes off the diet. We
start out strong, we know what we're doing, we start
losing weight, and then all of a sudden we fall off.
And when we fall off, we fall off for days, months,
years at a time, and it's hard to get back. Yeah, exactly.
Out of the things you've learned in therapy, what is
like one thing that people can do to kind of
(06:17):
try to overcome emotional eating? Is there one thing or
is it like specific to every single person. No, I
definitely think a just being aware of it has been
super helpful, Like, you know, every time I'm eating more
than I should, like when I am you know, knee
deep in a bag of checks mix. I know that
that's emotional, and I have to stop and figure out
(06:39):
why I'm doing that. So when I can stop and
pinpoint it, it's it's been really really helpful. The other
thing to remember for me is that overeating is my friend.
It makes me feel good because when I eat, I
don't have to feel things, you know, like I don't
have to feel my anxiety. I don't have to feel
my stress because the food is numbing it. So when
(07:00):
you start feeling anxiety and you start feeling stress, you
realize that you're actually probably on your diet, which is
you know, it's like which one do you pick? Another
thing I will say, it's being aware, but it's also
stop blaming yourself for falling off the diet. Don't feel
like you failed, because over eating and falling off your
(07:21):
diet isn't a problem. It's a symptom. And I think
when we just remember that, it's very very helpful going forward. Well,
I think falling off your diet isn't and you've mentioned
this already. Falling off your diet isn't the issue. It's
staying off your diet. Really that screws you up exactly.
Not being able to get right back on. Having that
all or nothing mentality is what a lot of life
(07:45):
are long diet or suffer from. Because you know, if
you have one cookie at lunch, that doesn't mean that
you're off your diet and your entire day is bad.
You can pick up and eat better at your next
bite of food or next the next day. You don't
have to wait and start another diet. Well, when people
(08:05):
go like really off the rails on let's say a
cheap day, or if they break their their diet and
then say screwed, I'm going to go the rest of
the week and then I'll start again like you said
on Monday. That's like stubbing your toe and then instead
of like walking away and dealing with the pages, shooting
off your toil exactly exactly. It makes no sense. But
when you but if you correlate that logic to dieting,
they're like, oh now, I yeah, okay, I get it.
(08:26):
Now you kind of debut a new diet plan with
Dr Oz. Yes, then we did a year of research
and could you explain the name and why it's called
what it is? Yes, So last year we started a
project where we listed the top ten diets and we
(08:46):
put forty women on the top ten diets, and we
followed them for an entire year. We waived them in,
we waved them in every month, and we kept track
of everything from you know, how much weight they lost,
how they felt, the cost of the diet, how hard
was it to prep And slowly throughout the year we
started eliminating diets as people weren't succeeding, where they were
(09:07):
hard to stay on, or they were too expensive. For example,
we started eliminating of diets yep Survivor of diets. So
at the end of this year, we were left with
two diets um and the paleo diet and the vegan diet,
and two diets that are completely at odds. You know,
I joke that you either eat meat or you eat beats.
One is protein animal protein and one is plant protein.
(09:30):
So we thought, why does it have to be one
or the other. Why can't we combine the best of
the best, put them together and create the pagan diet.
So that's where we got that. And the second, the
three five part is because we did track these women
for a year and we did hope to find a
diet that was sustainable, and if dieters were able to
(09:51):
stay on their diet for a whole year, that proved
that it's a diet that we wanted to recommend to people.
So that the whole three talks to the research that
you put in four. This peakan diet, but it's something
that you believe people can do all year long. Right.
This isn't like a crash diet or a monthly thing, correct.
I truly feel like this can be a way of eating,
(10:12):
you know, as many days during the year as you can.
If you kind of think about this type of eating,
I think that you'll have success and you'll get away
from those big fluctuations you know, where we lose thirty
pounds by Sebruary, but we've gained it all back by March.
This is hopefully, you know, you lose weight and you
keep it off a lot of our dieters, for examples,
(10:34):
you know, they lost like twenty or thirty pounds, you know,
by mid year. But that was great. But it was
the people that kept it off that had a diet
that we knew was sustainable because a lot of people
lost the weight initially but then gained it back. Because
the diet wasn't sustainable. So I know a lot of
people listening are probably starting off diets for the first time.
Obviously it's still pretty new in the new year, UM,
(10:56):
and the question is gonna be Okay, my goal for
the year was to lose fifteen pounds on the Pegan
three diet. How long would that take me? Um? I
think you could probably lose it in the first months. Yeah,
I would say the first month to at least the
first two months. You'll definitely be able to you know,
see a different if you're if you're strict, you know,
(11:18):
if you if you comply, because you know, you really
are eliminating on majority of the days a lot of
the foods that are making you overweight. Okay, then let's
go into what what are the keys? What are the
ingredients of the pagan So every day we want people
(11:38):
to think five four, three to one, So that means
five servings of vegetables, four healthy carbs, three proteins, two fat,
healthy fast, and one dairy substitute. Because of one of
the biggest components of both the vegans and the paleo,
which is why it's on the pegan diet, is that UM,
(11:59):
it eliminates day. So the main components are fruits, vegetables,
healthy fats, and then what we're calling smart proteins. And
basically we encourage people to have to vegan proteins a day,
which is you know, beans to food and tempe, seeds, nuts,
and then we encourage people to have one animal protein
(12:20):
per day UM, which you know is a lean protein poultry, fish,
et cetera. And then the reason we did that is
because we looked at the research and you know, the
vegan diets and these plant based diets, there's so much
good research behind them about people, how people feel, how
much longer people live. UM. So our team is really
passionate about you know, plant based proteins. Okay, now, and
(12:43):
this might sound like a stupid question, but I've had
it forever, and I know other people probably do. UM.
Healthy fats and would you call them healthy carbs before? Yeah?
What are they? Okay? So, healthy fats are like an
olive oil, avocado, nuts, and seeds. It's anything that has
those mono unsaturated fasts that are heart healthy, and carbons
(13:06):
are interesting. We put these foods in the carbohydrate category.
We put UM starchy vegetables like corn and sweet potatoes.
We put those in the carb category. With grains like
vige o bread and oats, those are in the carbohydrate category.
And we also put fruit in that category because fruit
is something that does come with sugar and it does
(13:30):
have carbohydrates, so it is good to kind of keep
that in the carbohydrate category. So to me, I love
everything in the carb category. I love corn, I love
sweet potatoes, I love my fruit, and I love being
able to have my bread and my oath and my
kinlaw and all that stuff. If I was trying to
cut out wheat or something like that, we could I
(13:52):
do this diet and do like five servings of vegetables,
four servings of just fruit, and then move on to
the other two, the three servings of protein and the
two servings of healthy fats. Yeah, and you absolutely can,
because what we did is we made a checklist. We
didn't say every day you have to eat extra breakfast
and why for lunch. We gave you a checklist. That way,
(14:14):
you can just cross off every time you fill a box.
If you have a fruit for breakfast, you check off
a car. If you have a fruit for your snack,
you check off another car. If you have another fruit.
After dinner, you check off another carb, so you kind
of can completely personalize this and just you know, make
sure that you hit all those boxes so you're getting
all the nutrients and you're getting enough calories. And we
did that specifically because again, we wanted this to be sustainable.
(14:36):
We didn't want to feel like this was a quick fix,
or this is a fad, or this is something that
you were just doing for a short amount of time.
So this is really a lifestyle change. Yes, and I
know you pretty well. I know that you We've gone
out for drinks together, We've gone out and had dessert
and stuff. How do you fit that stuff into a
(14:57):
regular because you gotta think. For thirty days, it's easy, Sarah,
I'm not gonna drink for thirty days. I'm not going
to have a cupcake for thirty days. But for a
full year, that's a little difficult. Yeah, So what we
did is, first of all, everybody will be happy about this,
but we um allowed one cheat day per week, so
you can plan for that. It can become your backup
plan regardless. You know you have that if you want
(15:18):
to expedite your weight loss, you'd probably blow through that.
But if you are. You know, you just need to
go out with your friends, you need to emotionally eat.
You have your cheat day there when you're not on
your diet. Then we added rules for alcohol because we
felt like it was important that you didn't feel like
a social outcast on a diet. So there's two drinks
per week allowed. And then we did the same thing
with desserts. We allowed for two healthy desserts per week
(15:42):
because desserts are important. So what we did and my
the reason I'm so passionate about this diet is because
I looked at all the ways, the emotional ways we
fall off diets. We fall off diets because we want
to go out with our friends. We fall off diets
because we need to emotionally eat. We fall off diets
because as we're hungry, and because of that, we put
(16:03):
these rules in place, looked at the overall clerk intake
to see that you could do this and still have
we lost success. Okay, to drinks seems pretty simple to understand. Now,
are there drinks that people should lean towards or stay
away from? I always tend to give my friends the
advice this is just personal. Like Selter, for example, with
(16:24):
like a vodka because it's like low carbs. But surprisingly
the lowest carb wine type is actually prosecco. So that's
something that you know, a nutritionist that I saw, you know,
told me to kind of lean towards. But I think
just have what you want because that's why they're there. Okay,
(16:44):
so the drinking thing seems pretty easy. Could you allow
yourself to drinks per week? But the thing that I
mean I've definitely tripped up on I think a lot
of people do, is how do you how do you
have a cheat day but not completely ruin everything for
the next day, Like how do you have a stick
successibul tea day. That's a really good question and I
(17:04):
still think that, you know, people are looking to crack
the code on that, but I think that when you
start like understanding yourself, you'll start seeing that. You know,
if you're waking up at midnight and then eating until
midnight the next day, then you know, maybe we should
peel back the layers of the onion and see why
you're doing that. Um. And I also say when it
(17:28):
comes to a cheat day, like if I'm going to
have a cookie on my cheat day, I'm not going
to have you know, a cookie that I can get
any day at the store. I'm going to like the
best bakery in New York City and I'm having a
lavaine cookie. You know, Like if I'm having a cupcake,
I'm getting the best cupcake there is. I'm not going
to waste my calories on something that I can get
every single day. You know. If you're gonna have pizza,
(17:50):
then have the best pizza, like literally and sit down
and enjoy it. Don't feel bad about it. So are
we talking like one or two slices of pizza and
then kind of call it a day. Yeah. You know,
you see someone like the Rock posting on Instagram and
his cheat day is like seven pancakes and four pizzas,
But he's also working out probably three hours a day
and that's kind of his lifestyle. Is also six something
(18:12):
in two fifty pounds, Like it's different. So I never
knew kind of how to judge a cheat and I
think a lot of people when they have a cheat day,
it's the whole day exactly. And what it comes down
to is basic also basic science. You know, it's calories
in a pound, So you know, if you're having the
seven thousand calories and you're not burning any of that off,
(18:35):
then you know there is a good chance that you're
not going to be losing weight. But if you're having
a couple of slices of pizza, you know d calories,
that's nothing when you look at your overall cloric Okay.
I will tell you though that something that I always
think about is that every time you eat carbohydrates, which
is usually what we eat on cheat days, that comes
(18:56):
with water weight. So every time you put a carbon
your mouth, you have to think about the fact that
you're also holding onto water weight. And that's why I
say never weigh yourself after a cheat day, because there's
no point. It's not the real number, it's not the
real weight. There's water weight involved. So that's something to
remember because I know as a woman, I wake up
(19:18):
from a cheat day and like, my jeans don't fit,
I need to put on leggings, and that's because you
know I'm bloated. There's water weight. It all comes along
with that. So I know that I'm usually pretty bad
at keeping track of things. M If people want to
figure out, you know, what types of food, there's what
types of foods they're allowed to have, and get the
checklist you talked about, where should everyone go to to
(19:39):
find all that information. That's all on doctor us dot com.
Spell out the word doctor and then oz and then
we have every resource you could need on the website
and you can download it and you can keep it
with you and doctor as as an app um. And
it's just something that you can kind of start to
think in your head and do it for the people
(20:01):
that you tested for the full year of doing this,
you said you tested about what forty people. How many
of them had fitness plans that went along with this.
So interestingly enough, um, we didn't do uh strong um
push to have exercise, you know as part of it.
(20:22):
You know, we really focused on food. The results that
you saw were really just based on the diet itself,
not necessarily anything external exactly. Okay, because I've always been
a workout first person and then worry about my diet later.
But I feel like my life would have been a
lot easier and I would have seen goals that I
wanted to see faster had I worried about my diet
(20:42):
as well, or with the same intensity they're worried about
my workouts. I mean, as a female and as like
I said a lifelong diet or not only am I
someone who is an extreme diet or I'm an extreme exerciser.
You know. It's like I sometimes I always have to
talk myself out of the mentality, Well, if I can't
go to gym for an hour, you know, why am
I going to go to the gym at all? You know,
(21:03):
was the type of person who signed up for you know, marathons,
And I will tell you that when I was training
for my two half marathons, I was running you know,
ten miles five times a week. I was the heaviest
I've ever been. Really, because we're just not paying attention
to the way you ate. I think it was. You know,
I probably would go to the gym and burn five calories,
come back and eat six hundred. I think that was
(21:24):
part of it. Um. But I also just think that
certain people's bodies type mine. For example, you know, I
my body responded better to, like I do the bar workout.
Now that's my workout. I'm obsessed with it. I love it,
and my body just responded better to that, you know
than running. Running for me personally bulked me up. And
(21:46):
so I haven't run in four years. I've mentioned that
this podcast started because I did a workout Wednesday video
segment when I worked with Elvis a show. The goal
of that segment was actually to show people there's a
workout for you. Like not everyone can go to a
souls like a class because sometimes it hurts your back
or just doesn't. It doesn't affect you the way to
affects other people. But it is important to go and
find that one thing that, hey, you enjoy because if
(22:07):
you don't enjoy it, just like a diet, if you
hate every day of it, you're not gonna do it.
I do want people to check out your your own
blog Monday die Ter dot com um just because I
feel like your story. I sat down and I read
it yesterday. I think people will feel comfortable knowing that
you've probably gone through a lot of the things that
they've gone through. And on the podcast, I'm gonna have
(22:30):
people like I had Autumn calabaries last week and she's
a professional fitness person. You know, I'm gonna have people
who do that. But you're you're a mom. You have
a regular kind of nine to five, not a regular
because working in TV necessarily isn't the most regular thing.
But you have a nine to five job, You're not,
this isn't your number one profession, but you still found
a way to fit it in. And I think that's
(22:51):
important for everybody is you can find a way if
you care enough, and if you make the small changes
you need to make, you you can do it no
matter what your actual profession is exactly. And and it
just like I feel like when you just take time,
when you choose to do a diet, when you choose
to eat healthy, you're just taking time for yourself. You're
taking time, you know, and making yourself a priority. Um,
(23:14):
Can I tell you my number one piece of diet
advice go for because I'm gonna ask you some questions
from listeners in a second, So let's start off with that. Okay,
So my number one diet piece of diet advice is
to layer. Is that diet layer? Okay? So I am current.
My My current diet is weight Watchers Pagan Keto with
(23:36):
bar you know what I mean, Like I want seven
diets because like I don't believe that one diets or
one size fits all. So for example, I always have
my weight Watchers app. I love weight Watchers. I think
it's the greatest thing in the world. I always have
my Weight Watchers app. But then you know, I feel
like I don't like to do dairy that much, so
I eliminate dairy, which is a huge component to so
(23:58):
many diets. You know. For me, like I feel like,
if I've eaten too much, I need to reduce carps,
which is a very big proponent of the keto diet.
So I reduced carps. Then let's say I hear that
apple cider vinegar is great, and you know I need
like a little bit of a detox, I'll add apple
cider vinegar. So you have to layer your diet and
create your own diet at all times, because that's what's
(24:19):
going to ultimately make it sustainable. I'm not I've never
really been a diet The only time I really did
try a diet was I did a whole thirty and
and I did it for thirty days like you're supposed to.
I gave myself two days off because it was Thanksgiving
and I ate regular food. But I didn't get I
didn't go too far off. Um. And I will say
that it is something that different diets work for different people,
(24:41):
and it worked for me at the time. It's not
something I'd be able to sustain forever just because you
aren't allowed to have any alcohol or any refined sugars
or anything like that. Um, but there is truth and
Autumn said it last week and last week's podcast. Your
diet is going to be like of your goal because
you can't out train a crow be diet at the
end of the day, exactly. And as someone who just
(25:04):
had a baby, um, I you know, working out went
by the wayside for me. I had to choose you know,
working and being a mom and I can only get
myself to the gym once a week, so I really
you know, that's why I kind of downloaded my app
and kept tracking my food. And I did find that,
like I was able to lose the baby weight personally
without the strong component of exercising. But that's because I
(25:27):
was thinking about my food. So there is ways to
lose weight without working out. I think that, But I
think emotionally working out is everything. And when you talked
about later in your diet, you mentioned the Keto diet, right, Yes,
so a couple of people actually messaged asking about that
And I know nothing about this diet, so could you
(25:49):
as simply and I guess cohesively as you can break
that down and what it is and what the benefits are. Yeah,
so I worked, um and did some coaching on an
amazing uh keto diet called Ideal Protein. And basically what
you do is you reduce the amount of carbohydrates that
(26:09):
your body takes, so you go into something called ketosis.
And basically the simplest way to think about ketosis is
your body eating its own fat. So it seems like
a good thing. It seems like it's the greatest thing ever, um.
And so every time you eat let's say you eat
an apple for example, your body has to you know,
(26:31):
burn all those calories and then it gets to, you know,
your fat stores. So with the ketosis diet, basically you're
kind of going towards those fat stores at all time.
There's like a lot of chemical words and all these
things that you know, we learned about in class. I'm
sure you learned about them, the crib cycle and all
that stuff. Bottom line is exactly that this is all
(26:53):
the creb cycle. But the bottom line is is that
you're just limiting your carbs to get your body into
a state of ketosis and where it's burning, where it's
basically burning it's fat for fuel as opposed to burning
carbohydrates for fuel. And you know, people have amazingly rapid results.
My parents lost a ton of weight on the Keto diet,
(27:14):
So I definitely think I would always suggest it as
an amazing jump start. But I do think it's hard
to stay on for the long run, Like how long
can you do something like that realistically in your mind?
I mean I've seen people like when I was working
with the diet, I saw people lose a hundred pounds.
I saw people on it for a year. Yeah. But
(27:34):
for somebody who has you know, is social and wants
to drink, you know, you can't alcohol. You you really
limit a lot of things that people like. So for
other people, it may be really hard to stay on
it for a long time. But I definitely think it's
worth a shot. To me, that's a diet that's always
worth a shot. I think it's interesting. I think there's
a lot of resources about it, and for weight loss,
(27:55):
I think it works. Actually, if it's cutting out carbs,
isn't that similar to what the Atkins I used to be?
Is that is that similar? Yeah? From what I've heard,
this is like the new aptions. Okay, like, yeah, um,
what else do we have here? Oh? And actually Autumn
gave us one of these last week. Um, and I
guess people really liked it. Do you have a quick
whether it's a quick breakfast thing or a quick snack
(28:17):
that you could take with you throughout the day that
you can make in the morning. That doesn't because a
lot of people their biggest problem is they wake up
in the morning and they don't have time to make
what's considered like a healthy breakfast or anything. They have
to run out of the house or take their kids
to school or go to work. Do you have like
your go too quick recipe? Yeah, it's not a recipe
because I don't cook. Um. I love Quest bars. Um.
(28:41):
There might go to on Weight Watchers. They're the lowest
point um protein bar, which is very important for so
many people out there. Just to put it into respective,
they also and they make you poop, Okay, So the
only way you're gonna, I feel like, the only way
I ever see a return on the scale this is personal,
(29:03):
is when I poop, and these bars make me coop.
So I love Quest bars. The other thing I do
is I often keep a pound of um sliced Deli
turkey or sliced Deli chicken in my fridge at work.
And I'm a huge fan of turkey roll ups. Oh true.
I actually love those things, Like I'll have that in
my apartment exactly, and I feel like they're like lowing carbs.
(29:25):
It's super filling. And if you ate, you know, I
always try to think of things if you eat the
whole thing, because as a binge eater, as an emotional eater,
you know, if I ate the whole pound of turkey,
it's really not going to affect, you know, the scale
the way it would if I was to eat a
whole bag of chips. Very true? How do I start
to eat healthy? Like? What are the first steps? When
you talk to all your dieters when you created this thing,
(29:47):
what was the first basic scept that everyone had to take?
Was there something they cut out? Was there a change
they made? I think the first thing to do is
for everybody to write down what they're eating today, tomorrow
and the next day, Like figure out what you eat
on a daily basis, and then figure out how to
you know, eat healthier. So for example, it's every single
day you stop at Starbucks and get you know, one
(30:10):
of their breakfast sandwiches. Well, then you know you like
eggstra breakfast. You know you need a little bit of carps,
So can you switch to a zigel bread and egg
whites at home? So I think that's the first step.
But I think the second thing I always tell people
is what is your non negotiable? What is something that
you refuse to give up? And if you give it up,
you will not be successful. For me, it's a latte.
(30:30):
I have to have a lot to I have to
have a venty which is two cups of milk and
three packets of sugar. I need that every single day
or I'm not going to be successful. So how do
I work that into my plan? And then start eating healthy?
Because I think that if you do want to start
eating healthy, I think that's such an important word because
if you just go cold turkey, I think that from
(30:54):
what I've experienced, it's it's really hard, Okay. And then
one last one that I have is I've been working
out for a few months. I feel great, but I
can't figure out what foods to eat. And I feel
like this just goes back to your whole diet in general,
the whole um, Pigan diet, I guess could be a
basis for this person's answer. Yeah. Absolutely, I think that
(31:15):
any any diet that has the basic fundamental principles, which
I would say is fruits, vegetables, healthy fats. You know,
one thing that you know we all know is that
you know there's macronutrients that we all need to get in. Protein, carbs,
and fat are all on that list. So if you
find any diet that you feel like, you know is
(31:37):
giving you all those things, then that's gonna, you know,
completely complement what you're doing in your workout plan. I
do want people to check out um your blog Monday
diet or dot com. But also if they want all
of the pagan info that's on doctor like the word
doctor o z dot com right, yep, yep, it's all there. Um,
(31:58):
everything you need is there. And I even linked on
my site to it, and just so people know, Monday
diet or Again, it's about the emotional component to dieting,
because it's not just about what to eat and how
to exercise. You know, there is an emotional component to dieting.
Sometimes when we stopped waging a war against our bodies,
we are ultimately eating better for ourselves because we're not
(32:21):
putting that pressure on ourselves. We're not emotionally eating because
of how we feel about ourselves. So I think that's
really important too. Well. I took up like forty minutes
of your time, so thank you very much. I know
you needed to some dr oswork at some point, probably,
thank you, but thank you. I'm so happy that you
came out with this thing. It looks incredible. I might
actually have a diet for the first time in my life.
(32:43):
And tell Sean and I said, hello, I will, and
I'm as always, I'm so proud of you and Carla
Murray and everything you guys are doing out there. So
thank you, thank you, and I'll talk to you later
all right. As always, one of the reasons that I
was able to figure out the question is to ask
Nicole while she was here, and the questions that I
asked autumn week before and the questions that I'll ask
(33:05):
next week is because you did a fantastic job of
either emailing me or tweeting me or hit me up
on Instagram or Snapchat and asking me questions for the
Workout Wednesday podcast. So please do it again on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat,
and Twitter. I am at worst Anthony. You can always
email my Day Friday Show at gmail dot com. And
(33:27):
for this week's little challenge, obviously continue drinking the proper
amount of water for your body. We're gonna keep adding
onto these challenges every single week, and this one is
especially hard for me. Try to get to bed at
the same time every week and allow yourself at least
six hours of sleep, and six is like kind of
(33:50):
the bare minimum that you should be getting anyway. I'm
someone who doesn't sleep at the same time almost any day.
If I'm lucky, I'll get four and a half to
five hours this so this is gonna be probably the
most difficult thing for me, just because I'm not a
schedule type of person. But the whole point of this
is to challenge yourself and stop making excuses. So the
(34:11):
goal is to get to bed. What time would I
have to get to bed. I'd have to get to
bed if I'm up are usually around four or four fifteen.
I'd have to get to bed around ten o'clock, which
shouldn't be that difficult, but I usually stay up late
editing things like this podcast. And if you're someone like
me who doesn't necessarily get to sleep that easily. Maybe
your mind's racing a lot. It's proven that if you
(34:33):
get to bed at the same time every day, you
end up training your body to sleep. So that's the
goal for this week. That's the challenge on this little
journey around together. So drink your water, get your sleep,
Email me your questions my day Friday show at Gmail,
or hit me up on any platform at worst. Anthony,
thank you so much for spending like thirty forty minutes
(34:53):
of your day with me and this podcast. I appreciate it.
See you next week.
What is the biggest struggle in dieting and just keeping
a healthy diet? Also what I know firsthand why diets work,
why diets don't work, and how you can make them work.
You kind of debut a new diet plan with Dr
Oz put forty women on the top ten diets, and
we followed them for an entire year. If you're gonna
(00:27):
have pizza, then talk about pizza like literally and sit
down and enjoy it. Can I tell you my number
one piece of diet advice. Thank you for joining me
for the second Workout Wednesday podcast. I'm actually really really
excited for this one, mainly because not only um am
I super impressed by the work that the person I'm
(00:48):
going to talk to has put in and their experience
and their knowledge, but also the person I'm gonna talk
to is a very good friend of mine some when
I went to college with and I'll introduce her um
in a minute or so. But but last week I
challenged you to figure out how much water you're supposed
to drink on a daily basis and do that for
a full week. That was like the first basic thing
on this little journey that we're all going to go on. Together,
(01:10):
and I actually was surprised with myself because I'm usually
really bad at this kind of stuff, but I actually
did it, and I noticed a couple of things. And
it's only a week, so I'm not gonna say like
my life was changed, but I noticed that I was
full more often, I didn't necessarily need to snack as much. Also,
because I was consciously trying to drink more water, I
(01:32):
didn't drink things like sodas and iced tea is which
I'd have to assume is better for me. Anyway, if
you can stay away from those sugary drinks and drink
regular water, you're probably better off. So that was the
first goal for the first podcast. At the end of
the podcast, I'll have another goal that we'll try to
tackle together. And I know that the goal at the
(01:54):
end of the podcast this week is going to be
one of the hardest things for me personally to tackle.
But let's get into it. So I am going to
now introduce not only a fantastic diet expert, but also
a very very good friend of mine, Nicole Romanella. Hi,
thank you for having me. Nicole and I went to
college together, Seton Hall University, Go Hall. Her husband also
(02:17):
happens to be one of my best friends. And not
only is Nicole a superstar producer on the Doctor Ras show,
which you all know of. Um but you're now you're
a diet expert now currently at mount Clair State University
getting my masters to become a registered dietitian, and on
the show, I've basically become the diet and wingwass expert.
(02:39):
And the reason that I wanted to have you on
the podcast, um a, because you're a friend of mine
and I like you. But I am the worst at
talking about diets because I'm not necessarily the the most
conscious eater. I guess is the way I don't eat poorly.
I just don't really think about the things I eat
very often. I'm starting to try to be better at that.
(03:00):
But I've never been in the diet world. I've never
really done a lot of research on it. But that's
what you do now, yes, yes, and it's you know,
for me in the diet world, it's twofold, um A.
Because I researched it. I talked to the top experts,
I talked to women constantly who are dieting for the show.
(03:21):
But then also from an emotional standpoint, I'm a lifelong dieter.
I'm a female that has struggled immensely with my weight,
which is why I connect to so many dieters. But
it's also why I know firsthand why diets work, why
diets don't work, and how you can make them work. Well.
You have your blog Monday diet dot com. Ye, so
I read like the whole blog basically yesterday, thank you,
(03:44):
and the about me section. Even though I've known you
now for what ten years, I learned things that didn't
know before, and I learned struggles that I never imagined
you having. And I feel like that's important forever, because
everyone does struggle at some point, whether you're a dieter
or not. People, unless you're the luckiest person in the world,
people are going to struggle with the way they look
or how they perceive themselves exactly. And I feel like
(04:07):
one thing I learned early on was that a lot
of times dieting is like a dirty little secret. You
don't want people to know how much you're thinking about it,
how much you're doing it, because we all want to
appear confident on the outside. We want to have that
we have this idea of perfectionism in our head. But
when I started being open about my diet story, I
(04:28):
felt this sense of relief. It was almost like it
was weighing me down that I was keeping it in.
So I started being open and vulnerable with my story,
laying it all out there about what I've been through
in the past twenty years. It's absolutely amazing how many
people I talked to you you on a daily basis that
tell me their story. And I know that so many
of us we struggle with this every single day. What
(04:51):
I mean for the dieters that you speak to, and
we'll talk about the diet that you created UM with
Dr Oz because I think it's actually something that I
might try. UM. When you talk to the dieters that
you interact with, what is the biggest struggle in dieting
and just keeping a healthy diet? The biggest struggle is
emotional eating. I think that we all know what to eat,
(05:13):
we all know how to eat, we all know that
we should be exercising. But if it was that easy,
we would all be at our goal eights. And it's
not that easy. Is because emotions come into play. And
I always say, you know, I don't gain weight, My
weight doesn't fluctuate because I had one cookie. My weight
fluctuates because I have twelve in one sitting. And so
(05:33):
I think that we all talk about what to eat,
We talked about how to exercise, we talked about the research,
but we really don't bring in the emotional component the
way that we should. And I always joke that therapy
was the best diet I ever went on. Once I
started connecting you know, the over eating too emotions in
my life, I was able to get way more on
(05:56):
a handle on dieting and actually stay on the diet
because emotional eating is what takes off the diet. We
start out strong, we know what we're doing, we start
losing weight, and then all of a sudden we fall off.
And when we fall off, we fall off for days, months,
years at a time, and it's hard to get back. Yeah, exactly.
Out of the things you've learned in therapy, what is
like one thing that people can do to kind of
(06:17):
try to overcome emotional eating? Is there one thing or
is it like specific to every single person. No, I
definitely think a just being aware of it has been
super helpful, Like, you know, every time I'm eating more
than I should, like when I am you know, knee
deep in a bag of checks mix. I know that
that's emotional, and I have to stop and figure out
(06:39):
why I'm doing that. So when I can stop and
pinpoint it, it's it's been really really helpful. The other
thing to remember for me is that overeating is my friend.
It makes me feel good because when I eat, I
don't have to feel things, you know, like I don't
have to feel my anxiety. I don't have to feel
my stress because the food is numbing it. So when
(07:00):
you start feeling anxiety and you start feeling stress, you
realize that you're actually probably on your diet, which is
you know, it's like which one do you pick? Another
thing I will say, it's being aware, but it's also
stop blaming yourself for falling off the diet. Don't feel
like you failed, because over eating and falling off your
(07:21):
diet isn't a problem. It's a symptom. And I think
when we just remember that, it's very very helpful going forward. Well,
I think falling off your diet isn't and you've mentioned
this already. Falling off your diet isn't the issue. It's
staying off your diet. Really that screws you up exactly.
Not being able to get right back on. Having that
all or nothing mentality is what a lot of life
(07:45):
are long diet or suffer from. Because you know, if
you have one cookie at lunch, that doesn't mean that
you're off your diet and your entire day is bad.
You can pick up and eat better at your next
bite of food or next the next day. You don't
have to wait and start another diet. Well, when people
(08:05):
go like really off the rails on let's say a
cheap day, or if they break their their diet and
then say screwed, I'm going to go the rest of
the week and then I'll start again like you said
on Monday. That's like stubbing your toe and then instead
of like walking away and dealing with the pages, shooting
off your toil exactly exactly. It makes no sense. But
when you but if you correlate that logic to dieting,
they're like, oh now, I yeah, okay, I get it.
(08:26):
Now you kind of debut a new diet plan with
Dr Oz. Yes, then we did a year of research
and could you explain the name and why it's called
what it is? Yes, So last year we started a
project where we listed the top ten diets and we
(08:46):
put forty women on the top ten diets, and we
followed them for an entire year. We waived them in,
we waved them in every month, and we kept track
of everything from you know, how much weight they lost,
how they felt, the cost of the diet, how hard
was it to prep And slowly throughout the year we
started eliminating diets as people weren't succeeding, where they were
(09:07):
hard to stay on, or they were too expensive. For example,
we started eliminating of diets yep Survivor of diets. So
at the end of this year, we were left with
two diets um and the paleo diet and the vegan diet,
and two diets that are completely at odds. You know,
I joke that you either eat meat or you eat beats.
One is protein animal protein and one is plant protein.
(09:30):
So we thought, why does it have to be one
or the other. Why can't we combine the best of
the best, put them together and create the pagan diet.
So that's where we got that. And the second, the
three five part is because we did track these women
for a year and we did hope to find a
diet that was sustainable, and if dieters were able to
(09:51):
stay on their diet for a whole year, that proved
that it's a diet that we wanted to recommend to people.
So that the whole three talks to the research that
you put in four. This peakan diet, but it's something
that you believe people can do all year long. Right.
This isn't like a crash diet or a monthly thing, correct.
I truly feel like this can be a way of eating,
(10:12):
you know, as many days during the year as you can.
If you kind of think about this type of eating,
I think that you'll have success and you'll get away
from those big fluctuations you know, where we lose thirty
pounds by Sebruary, but we've gained it all back by March.
This is hopefully, you know, you lose weight and you
keep it off a lot of our dieters, for examples,
(10:34):
you know, they lost like twenty or thirty pounds, you know,
by mid year. But that was great. But it was
the people that kept it off that had a diet
that we knew was sustainable because a lot of people
lost the weight initially but then gained it back. Because
the diet wasn't sustainable. So I know a lot of
people listening are probably starting off diets for the first time.
Obviously it's still pretty new in the new year, UM,
(10:56):
and the question is gonna be Okay, my goal for
the year was to lose fifteen pounds on the Pegan
three diet. How long would that take me? Um? I
think you could probably lose it in the first months. Yeah,
I would say the first month to at least the
first two months. You'll definitely be able to you know,
see a different if you're if you're strict, you know,
(11:18):
if you if you comply, because you know, you really
are eliminating on majority of the days a lot of
the foods that are making you overweight. Okay, then let's
go into what what are the keys? What are the
ingredients of the pagan So every day we want people
(11:38):
to think five four, three to one, So that means
five servings of vegetables, four healthy carbs, three proteins, two fat,
healthy fast, and one dairy substitute. Because of one of
the biggest components of both the vegans and the paleo,
which is why it's on the pegan diet, is that UM,
(11:59):
it eliminates day. So the main components are fruits, vegetables,
healthy fats, and then what we're calling smart proteins. And
basically we encourage people to have to vegan proteins a day,
which is you know, beans to food and tempe, seeds, nuts,
and then we encourage people to have one animal protein
(12:20):
per day UM, which you know is a lean protein poultry, fish,
et cetera. And then the reason we did that is
because we looked at the research and you know, the
vegan diets and these plant based diets, there's so much
good research behind them about people, how people feel, how
much longer people live. UM. So our team is really
passionate about you know, plant based proteins. Okay, now, and
(12:43):
this might sound like a stupid question, but I've had
it forever, and I know other people probably do. UM.
Healthy fats and would you call them healthy carbs before? Yeah?
What are they? Okay? So, healthy fats are like an
olive oil, avocado, nuts, and seeds. It's anything that has
those mono unsaturated fasts that are heart healthy, and carbons
(13:06):
are interesting. We put these foods in the carbohydrate category.
We put UM starchy vegetables like corn and sweet potatoes.
We put those in the carb category. With grains like
vige o bread and oats, those are in the carbohydrate category.
And we also put fruit in that category because fruit
is something that does come with sugar and it does
(13:30):
have carbohydrates, so it is good to kind of keep
that in the carbohydrate category. So to me, I love
everything in the carb category. I love corn, I love
sweet potatoes, I love my fruit, and I love being
able to have my bread and my oath and my
kinlaw and all that stuff. If I was trying to
cut out wheat or something like that, we could I
(13:52):
do this diet and do like five servings of vegetables,
four servings of just fruit, and then move on to
the other two, the three servings of protein and the
two servings of healthy fats. Yeah, and you absolutely can,
because what we did is we made a checklist. We
didn't say every day you have to eat extra breakfast
and why for lunch. We gave you a checklist. That way,
(14:14):
you can just cross off every time you fill a box.
If you have a fruit for breakfast, you check off
a car. If you have a fruit for your snack,
you check off another car. If you have another fruit.
After dinner, you check off another carb, so you kind
of can completely personalize this and just you know, make
sure that you hit all those boxes so you're getting
all the nutrients and you're getting enough calories. And we
did that specifically because again, we wanted this to be sustainable.
(14:36):
We didn't want to feel like this was a quick fix,
or this is a fad, or this is something that
you were just doing for a short amount of time.
So this is really a lifestyle change. Yes, and I
know you pretty well. I know that you We've gone
out for drinks together, We've gone out and had dessert
and stuff. How do you fit that stuff into a
(14:57):
regular because you gotta think. For thirty days, it's easy, Sarah,
I'm not gonna drink for thirty days. I'm not going
to have a cupcake for thirty days. But for a
full year, that's a little difficult. Yeah, So what we
did is, first of all, everybody will be happy about this,
but we um allowed one cheat day per week, so
you can plan for that. It can become your backup
plan regardless. You know you have that if you want
(15:18):
to expedite your weight loss, you'd probably blow through that.
But if you are. You know, you just need to
go out with your friends, you need to emotionally eat.
You have your cheat day there when you're not on
your diet. Then we added rules for alcohol because we
felt like it was important that you didn't feel like
a social outcast on a diet. So there's two drinks
per week allowed. And then we did the same thing
with desserts. We allowed for two healthy desserts per week
(15:42):
because desserts are important. So what we did and my
the reason I'm so passionate about this diet is because
I looked at all the ways, the emotional ways we
fall off diets. We fall off diets because we want
to go out with our friends. We fall off diets
because we need to emotionally eat. We fall off diets
because as we're hungry, and because of that, we put
(16:03):
these rules in place, looked at the overall clerk intake
to see that you could do this and still have
we lost success. Okay, to drinks seems pretty simple to understand. Now,
are there drinks that people should lean towards or stay
away from? I always tend to give my friends the
advice this is just personal. Like Selter, for example, with
(16:24):
like a vodka because it's like low carbs. But surprisingly
the lowest carb wine type is actually prosecco. So that's
something that you know, a nutritionist that I saw, you know,
told me to kind of lean towards. But I think
just have what you want because that's why they're there. Okay,
(16:44):
so the drinking thing seems pretty easy. Could you allow
yourself to drinks per week? But the thing that I
mean I've definitely tripped up on I think a lot
of people do, is how do you how do you
have a cheat day but not completely ruin everything for
the next day, Like how do you have a stick
successibul tea day. That's a really good question and I
(17:04):
still think that, you know, people are looking to crack
the code on that, but I think that when you
start like understanding yourself, you'll start seeing that. You know,
if you're waking up at midnight and then eating until
midnight the next day, then you know, maybe we should
peel back the layers of the onion and see why
you're doing that. Um. And I also say when it
(17:28):
comes to a cheat day, like if I'm going to
have a cookie on my cheat day, I'm not going
to have you know, a cookie that I can get
any day at the store. I'm going to like the
best bakery in New York City and I'm having a
lavaine cookie. You know, Like if I'm having a cupcake,
I'm getting the best cupcake there is. I'm not going
to waste my calories on something that I can get
every single day. You know. If you're gonna have pizza,
(17:50):
then have the best pizza, like literally and sit down
and enjoy it. Don't feel bad about it. So are
we talking like one or two slices of pizza and
then kind of call it a day. Yeah. You know,
you see someone like the Rock posting on Instagram and
his cheat day is like seven pancakes and four pizzas,
But he's also working out probably three hours a day
and that's kind of his lifestyle. Is also six something
(18:12):
in two fifty pounds, Like it's different. So I never
knew kind of how to judge a cheat and I
think a lot of people when they have a cheat day,
it's the whole day exactly. And what it comes down
to is basic also basic science. You know, it's calories
in a pound, So you know, if you're having the
seven thousand calories and you're not burning any of that off,
(18:35):
then you know there is a good chance that you're
not going to be losing weight. But if you're having
a couple of slices of pizza, you know d calories,
that's nothing when you look at your overall cloric Okay.
I will tell you though that something that I always
think about is that every time you eat carbohydrates, which
is usually what we eat on cheat days, that comes
(18:56):
with water weight. So every time you put a carbon
your mouth, you have to think about the fact that
you're also holding onto water weight. And that's why I
say never weigh yourself after a cheat day, because there's
no point. It's not the real number, it's not the
real weight. There's water weight involved. So that's something to
remember because I know as a woman, I wake up
(19:18):
from a cheat day and like, my jeans don't fit,
I need to put on leggings, and that's because you
know I'm bloated. There's water weight. It all comes along
with that. So I know that I'm usually pretty bad
at keeping track of things. M If people want to
figure out, you know, what types of food, there's what
types of foods they're allowed to have, and get the
checklist you talked about, where should everyone go to to
(19:39):
find all that information. That's all on doctor us dot com.
Spell out the word doctor and then oz and then
we have every resource you could need on the website
and you can download it and you can keep it
with you and doctor as as an app um. And
it's just something that you can kind of start to
think in your head and do it for the people
(20:01):
that you tested for the full year of doing this,
you said you tested about what forty people. How many
of them had fitness plans that went along with this.
So interestingly enough, um, we didn't do uh strong um
push to have exercise, you know as part of it.
(20:22):
You know, we really focused on food. The results that
you saw were really just based on the diet itself,
not necessarily anything external exactly. Okay, because I've always been
a workout first person and then worry about my diet later.
But I feel like my life would have been a
lot easier and I would have seen goals that I
wanted to see faster had I worried about my diet
(20:42):
as well, or with the same intensity they're worried about
my workouts. I mean, as a female and as like
I said a lifelong diet or not only am I
someone who is an extreme diet or I'm an extreme exerciser.
You know. It's like I sometimes I always have to
talk myself out of the mentality, Well, if I can't
go to gym for an hour, you know, why am
I going to go to the gym at all? You know,
(21:03):
was the type of person who signed up for you know, marathons,
And I will tell you that when I was training
for my two half marathons, I was running you know,
ten miles five times a week. I was the heaviest
I've ever been. Really, because we're just not paying attention
to the way you ate. I think it was. You know,
I probably would go to the gym and burn five calories,
come back and eat six hundred. I think that was
(21:24):
part of it. Um. But I also just think that
certain people's bodies type mine. For example, you know, I
my body responded better to, like I do the bar workout.
Now that's my workout. I'm obsessed with it. I love it,
and my body just responded better to that, you know
than running. Running for me personally bulked me up. And
(21:46):
so I haven't run in four years. I've mentioned that
this podcast started because I did a workout Wednesday video
segment when I worked with Elvis a show. The goal
of that segment was actually to show people there's a
workout for you. Like not everyone can go to a
souls like a class because sometimes it hurts your back
or just doesn't. It doesn't affect you the way to
affects other people. But it is important to go and
find that one thing that, hey, you enjoy because if
(22:07):
you don't enjoy it, just like a diet, if you
hate every day of it, you're not gonna do it.
I do want people to check out your your own
blog Monday die Ter dot com um just because I
feel like your story. I sat down and I read
it yesterday. I think people will feel comfortable knowing that
you've probably gone through a lot of the things that
they've gone through. And on the podcast, I'm gonna have
(22:30):
people like I had Autumn calabaries last week and she's
a professional fitness person. You know, I'm gonna have people
who do that. But you're you're a mom. You have
a regular kind of nine to five, not a regular
because working in TV necessarily isn't the most regular thing.
But you have a nine to five job, You're not,
this isn't your number one profession, but you still found
a way to fit it in. And I think that's
(22:51):
important for everybody is you can find a way if
you care enough, and if you make the small changes
you need to make, you you can do it no
matter what your actual profession is exactly. And and it
just like I feel like when you just take time,
when you choose to do a diet, when you choose
to eat healthy, you're just taking time for yourself. You're
taking time, you know, and making yourself a priority. Um,
(23:14):
Can I tell you my number one piece of diet
advice go for because I'm gonna ask you some questions
from listeners in a second, So let's start off with that. Okay,
So my number one diet piece of diet advice is
to layer. Is that diet layer? Okay? So I am current.
My My current diet is weight Watchers Pagan Keto with
(23:36):
bar you know what I mean, Like I want seven
diets because like I don't believe that one diets or
one size fits all. So for example, I always have
my weight Watchers app. I love weight Watchers. I think
it's the greatest thing in the world. I always have
my Weight Watchers app. But then you know, I feel
like I don't like to do dairy that much, so
I eliminate dairy, which is a huge component to so
(23:58):
many diets. You know. For me, like I feel like,
if I've eaten too much, I need to reduce carps,
which is a very big proponent of the keto diet.
So I reduced carps. Then let's say I hear that
apple cider vinegar is great, and you know I need
like a little bit of a detox, I'll add apple
cider vinegar. So you have to layer your diet and
create your own diet at all times, because that's what's
(24:19):
going to ultimately make it sustainable. I'm not I've never
really been a diet The only time I really did
try a diet was I did a whole thirty and
and I did it for thirty days like you're supposed to.
I gave myself two days off because it was Thanksgiving
and I ate regular food. But I didn't get I
didn't go too far off. Um. And I will say
that it is something that different diets work for different people,
(24:41):
and it worked for me at the time. It's not
something I'd be able to sustain forever just because you
aren't allowed to have any alcohol or any refined sugars
or anything like that. Um, but there is truth and
Autumn said it last week and last week's podcast. Your
diet is going to be like of your goal because
you can't out train a crow be diet at the
end of the day, exactly. And as someone who just
(25:04):
had a baby, um, I you know, working out went
by the wayside for me. I had to choose you know,
working and being a mom and I can only get
myself to the gym once a week, so I really
you know, that's why I kind of downloaded my app
and kept tracking my food. And I did find that,
like I was able to lose the baby weight personally
without the strong component of exercising. But that's because I
(25:27):
was thinking about my food. So there is ways to
lose weight without working out. I think that, But I
think emotionally working out is everything. And when you talked
about later in your diet, you mentioned the Keto diet, right, Yes,
so a couple of people actually messaged asking about that
And I know nothing about this diet, so could you
(25:49):
as simply and I guess cohesively as you can break
that down and what it is and what the benefits are. Yeah,
so I worked, um and did some coaching on an
amazing uh keto diet called Ideal Protein. And basically what
you do is you reduce the amount of carbohydrates that
(26:09):
your body takes, so you go into something called ketosis.
And basically the simplest way to think about ketosis is
your body eating its own fat. So it seems like
a good thing. It seems like it's the greatest thing ever, um.
And so every time you eat let's say you eat
an apple for example, your body has to you know,
(26:31):
burn all those calories and then it gets to, you know,
your fat stores. So with the ketosis diet, basically you're
kind of going towards those fat stores at all time.
There's like a lot of chemical words and all these
things that you know, we learned about in class. I'm
sure you learned about them, the crib cycle and all
that stuff. Bottom line is exactly that this is all
(26:53):
the creb cycle. But the bottom line is is that
you're just limiting your carbs to get your body into
a state of ketosis and where it's burning, where it's
basically burning it's fat for fuel as opposed to burning
carbohydrates for fuel. And you know, people have amazingly rapid results.
My parents lost a ton of weight on the Keto diet,
(27:14):
So I definitely think I would always suggest it as
an amazing jump start. But I do think it's hard
to stay on for the long run, Like how long
can you do something like that realistically in your mind?
I mean I've seen people like when I was working
with the diet, I saw people lose a hundred pounds.
I saw people on it for a year. Yeah. But
(27:34):
for somebody who has you know, is social and wants
to drink, you know, you can't alcohol. You you really
limit a lot of things that people like. So for
other people, it may be really hard to stay on
it for a long time. But I definitely think it's
worth a shot. To me, that's a diet that's always
worth a shot. I think it's interesting. I think there's
a lot of resources about it, and for weight loss,
(27:55):
I think it works. Actually, if it's cutting out carbs,
isn't that similar to what the Atkins I used to be?
Is that is that similar? Yeah? From what I've heard,
this is like the new aptions. Okay, like, yeah, um,
what else do we have here? Oh? And actually Autumn
gave us one of these last week. Um, and I
guess people really liked it. Do you have a quick
whether it's a quick breakfast thing or a quick snack
(28:17):
that you could take with you throughout the day that
you can make in the morning. That doesn't because a
lot of people their biggest problem is they wake up
in the morning and they don't have time to make
what's considered like a healthy breakfast or anything. They have
to run out of the house or take their kids
to school or go to work. Do you have like
your go too quick recipe? Yeah, it's not a recipe
because I don't cook. Um. I love Quest bars. Um.
(28:41):
There might go to on Weight Watchers. They're the lowest
point um protein bar, which is very important for so
many people out there. Just to put it into respective,
they also and they make you poop, Okay, So the
only way you're gonna, I feel like, the only way
I ever see a return on the scale this is personal,
(29:03):
is when I poop, and these bars make me coop.
So I love Quest bars. The other thing I do
is I often keep a pound of um sliced Deli
turkey or sliced Deli chicken in my fridge at work.
And I'm a huge fan of turkey roll ups. Oh true.
I actually love those things, Like I'll have that in
my apartment exactly, and I feel like they're like lowing carbs.
(29:25):
It's super filling. And if you ate, you know, I
always try to think of things if you eat the
whole thing, because as a binge eater, as an emotional eater,
you know, if I ate the whole pound of turkey,
it's really not going to affect, you know, the scale
the way it would if I was to eat a
whole bag of chips. Very true? How do I start
to eat healthy? Like? What are the first steps? When
you talk to all your dieters when you created this thing,
(29:47):
what was the first basic scept that everyone had to take?
Was there something they cut out? Was there a change
they made? I think the first thing to do is
for everybody to write down what they're eating today, tomorrow
and the next day, Like figure out what you eat
on a daily basis, and then figure out how to
you know, eat healthier. So for example, it's every single
day you stop at Starbucks and get you know, one
(30:10):
of their breakfast sandwiches. Well, then you know you like
eggstra breakfast. You know you need a little bit of carps,
So can you switch to a zigel bread and egg
whites at home? So I think that's the first step.
But I think the second thing I always tell people
is what is your non negotiable? What is something that
you refuse to give up? And if you give it up,
you will not be successful. For me, it's a latte.
(30:30):
I have to have a lot to I have to
have a venty which is two cups of milk and
three packets of sugar. I need that every single day
or I'm not going to be successful. So how do
I work that into my plan? And then start eating healthy?
Because I think that if you do want to start
eating healthy, I think that's such an important word because
if you just go cold turkey, I think that from
(30:54):
what I've experienced, it's it's really hard, Okay. And then
one last one that I have is I've been working
out for a few months. I feel great, but I
can't figure out what foods to eat. And I feel
like this just goes back to your whole diet in general,
the whole um, Pigan diet, I guess could be a
basis for this person's answer. Yeah. Absolutely, I think that
(31:15):
any any diet that has the basic fundamental principles, which
I would say is fruits, vegetables, healthy fats. You know,
one thing that you know we all know is that
you know there's macronutrients that we all need to get in. Protein, carbs,
and fat are all on that list. So if you
find any diet that you feel like, you know is
(31:37):
giving you all those things, then that's gonna, you know,
completely complement what you're doing in your workout plan. I
do want people to check out um your blog Monday
diet or dot com. But also if they want all
of the pagan info that's on doctor like the word
doctor o z dot com right, yep, yep, it's all there. Um,
(31:58):
everything you need is there. And I even linked on
my site to it, and just so people know, Monday
diet or Again, it's about the emotional component to dieting,
because it's not just about what to eat and how
to exercise. You know, there is an emotional component to dieting.
Sometimes when we stopped waging a war against our bodies,
we are ultimately eating better for ourselves because we're not
(32:21):
putting that pressure on ourselves. We're not emotionally eating because
of how we feel about ourselves. So I think that's
really important too. Well. I took up like forty minutes
of your time, so thank you very much. I know
you needed to some dr oswork at some point, probably,
thank you, but thank you. I'm so happy that you
came out with this thing. It looks incredible. I might
actually have a diet for the first time in my life.
(32:43):
And tell Sean and I said, hello, I will, and
I'm as always, I'm so proud of you and Carla
Murray and everything you guys are doing out there. So
thank you, thank you, and I'll talk to you later
all right. As always, one of the reasons that I
was able to figure out the question is to ask
Nicole while she was here, and the questions that I
asked autumn week before and the questions that I'll ask
(33:05):
next week is because you did a fantastic job of
either emailing me or tweeting me or hit me up
on Instagram or Snapchat and asking me questions for the
Workout Wednesday podcast. So please do it again on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat,
and Twitter. I am at worst Anthony. You can always
email my Day Friday Show at gmail dot com. And
(33:27):
for this week's little challenge, obviously continue drinking the proper
amount of water for your body. We're gonna keep adding
onto these challenges every single week, and this one is
especially hard for me. Try to get to bed at
the same time every week and allow yourself at least
six hours of sleep, and six is like kind of
(33:50):
the bare minimum that you should be getting anyway. I'm
someone who doesn't sleep at the same time almost any day.
If I'm lucky, I'll get four and a half to
five hours this so this is gonna be probably the
most difficult thing for me, just because I'm not a
schedule type of person. But the whole point of this
is to challenge yourself and stop making excuses. So the
(34:11):
goal is to get to bed. What time would I
have to get to bed. I'd have to get to
bed if I'm up are usually around four or four fifteen.
I'd have to get to bed around ten o'clock, which
shouldn't be that difficult, but I usually stay up late
editing things like this podcast. And if you're someone like
me who doesn't necessarily get to sleep that easily. Maybe
your mind's racing a lot. It's proven that if you
(34:33):
get to bed at the same time every day, you
end up training your body to sleep. So that's the
goal for this week. That's the challenge on this little
journey around together. So drink your water, get your sleep,
Email me your questions my day Friday show at Gmail,
or hit me up on any platform at worst. Anthony,
thank you so much for spending like thirty forty minutes
(34:53):
of your day with me and this podcast. I appreciate it.
See you next week.
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