December 11, 2023 • 49 mins
Ever wondered what it's like to be a competitive bodybuilder, meticulously tracking macros, and then shifting to intuitive eating? We're back this week with Erin P. as our special guest host where we'll go on a journey from tracking every morsel to food freedom and intuitive eating.
As if that's not enough to satisfy your appetite, we serve up a feast of wisdom on mindful eating. Erin and I open up about our personal struggles with emotional eating and how we've learned to manage it. We share the tricks of the trade—competition preparation, tracking macros, and the most important ingredient, mindful eating. We also dish out tips on how to avoid mindless eating and the benefits of taking time to genuinely enjoy our meals.
Finally, we wrap up our conversation with a hearty discussion on weight maintenance and food freedom. We underline the importance of trusting your body to make healthy choices and the significant role of mindfulness in overall well-being.
Don't get weird, use your head, it'll all be OK!
Looking for a coach to help you be YOUR best self? Let's get in touch!
www.centerstagethleticscoaching.com
info@centerstageathleticscoaching.com
IG: @teamcsfp
FB: https://www.facebook.com/teamcsfp
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello, hello, Hi everybody.
Who do I have with me againtoday?
Miss Erin.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I gotta come back.
I just love it so much.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
You know we got so much good feedback, erin, on the
first podcast that ended upbeing two podcasts the interview
that we did with you so manythere was just like everybody
just really was like into it.
I just figured, since Brandi isso busy these days raising
children and with the holidaysand stuff, I thought we Erin
(00:36):
would be my co-host for a littlewhile and we have some other
topics and things we're bothreally passionate about, so I
thought it'd be really cool forus to be able to chat about a
few more things together.
What kind of feedback did youget from people on the podcast,
like competitors andnon-competitors, like?
Did you have like I'm curiousfrom your friend group or
(00:58):
whatever?
What the feedback?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
was the biggest thing was a lot of okay.
So they got a better picture ofwhat PrEP was like and like the
difficulties through it and howI was navigating.
Because you know when theywould check in with me and say,
hey, how's it going?
I would be like I'm tired butI'm good.
But they don't.
Nobody knows the inner workingsof it unless you're in it or
(01:20):
unless you are a bodybuilder.
So you know, having to explaineverything was hard for me, but
when they listened to it it wasreally interesting because a lot
of people resonated with thingsthat I said, even though
they're not bodybuilders.
So you know, like the tracking,I have some friends that do
track.
I have some friends that doweigh their food, obviously,
(01:43):
that weigh themselves, go intothe gym.
You know the motivation forthat and you know when they
wanna incorporate things likethe journaling and the
meditation and the self-carethings, they will everybody's
like.
So ready for part two.
So you need to drop that one.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Well, it came out on Monday.
Oh, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Because they were just like oh my gosh, we want to
hear more like you guys weregreat.
So I was so excited about it.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, part two came out this past Monday, so it was
the November 27th, so the Mondayafter Thanksgiving was part two
.
So it is out there.
But that's great.
I'm glad because I feel likeeven you know all the years that
Brandi and I have been doingthese podcasts, even our
competition focused ones and airquotes have something to take
(02:36):
away for everybody.
Right Like it's it really itjust comes down to lifestyle.
Yeah, some of the stuff is likereal specific to like you know a
particular show or we're doingfeedback on a show or something
like that, but there's always anugget in there that's going to
apply to somebody in their life.
Or even just being able to hearwhat competitive bodybuilders
(02:56):
do and overcome to be successful, right Like there's just
there's just how to besuccessful in life, kind of
things in that.
Right so health, fitness, mind,body, all of those.
So really what Erin and Iwanted to do was kind of
extrapolate some of those topicswe got into in her interview,
(03:16):
because I think sometimes what'slacking in some of the
conversational podcasts is like,okay, well, that's really cool
that Erin did all those reallygreat things and yay for Erin,
but I don't know how to do itright.
So what we wanted to do is kindof take some of those topics
and sort of maybe walk throughthe process and some of the
(03:37):
challenges right that come alongwith it and hopefully have some
like actual actionable stepsthat people can take from the
conversation about how theymight be able to apply that for
themselves right.
Like that's kind of our goal,so hopefully we'll achieve that.
Yeah, so the first topic wewanted to get into today, which
(03:57):
I think was it's a reallychallenging one for a lot of
people and it is really just Ikind of the way I wrote it out
in our podcast topics.
It was kind of like soup to nutshow Erin went from like she
wasn't tracking shit right Backwhen we first started to she
thought she was tracking ish tolike meal plan, to like super
(04:21):
tracker, like doing your ownmeal planning, to intuitive
eating right.
So how did you get from I'venever tracked a macro in my life
to intuitive eating right, withsome competitions in between
there.
And I'll first say there's beensuch a big push, like in the
wellness community, like youknow.
(04:42):
You see people like intuitiveeating and mindful eating and
like all these things cool,great, get it.
But there is no intuitiveeating without actual intuition
about what the fuck you're doing.
Yes, period, right.
You do not get to go from zero,right?
You couldn't have gone fromErin 1.0, right To Erin 4.0,
(05:05):
four years later with intuitiveeating, without all those things
that happened in between.
They had to happen.
You don't go from zero tointuitive eating or mindful
eating without understanding howto eat in the first place,
cause otherwise your intuitionis going to be to eat whatever
you've always eaten, right?
Intuitive eating is not aboutwell, I'm gonna eat whatever I'm
(05:28):
craving and I'm gonna eatwhatever my body tells me I want
I want to eat.
My mind tells me, oh, that'snot intuitive eating, right.
So I want to make that reallyclear.
So that's why I think it'sreally important to kind of go
through this process, because Ithink that the process you went
through is really exactly how itdoes go to the legitual place
of intuitive eating, right.
Yeah, so do you want to try to?
(05:52):
So we can kind of start from?
I mean, we talked a little bitof detail in the first half of
the podcast about how youstarted tracking and your
tracking wasn't really trackingright.
So how, I guess, maybe like whatdid you do and what were you
learning along the way, likewhat was clicking for you along
(06:14):
the way that allowed you to getwhere you are now?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So the beginning and this is before this is when you
and I first met and I rememberyou said log or write down in an
email like three days worth offood, don't think about me.
And like, oh, if I have somechips that Tina's gonna get mad.
Just log whatever you eat,right?
(06:38):
So I remember doing that and Isent them back to you and I had
worked with a trainer beforethis and she kind of told me to
do the same thing and both ofyou said you're under eating,
like you're not eating enough.
And in my you know and again Iwasn't trying to, like you know,
skim off things or like eatbetter or like healthier quote
(07:02):
unquote, because you guys werelooking at my logs but a lot of
people don't eat enough.
And that was the biggest thingfor me and that's one of the
biggest things I've learnedabout myself through eating is,
yeah, I'm eating a lot more andeverything and it's good stuff,
but, like you guys, we have toeat.
We have to eat.
(07:22):
So that was the number onething.
I was like whoa, so I'msupposed to be eating more than
this for breakfast and lunch andI'm supposed to have more than
one snack a day, because I wasthe one, just like many other
people, who I wasn't eatingenough during the day.
And then when I got home, thatthree o'clock before dinner time
(07:43):
it was oh my God, I am likeravenous.
I just want to eat whatever'sin the pantry.
I am, I don't care, you know.
And then dinner time comesaround and then you want big
helping at dinner, and then youwant a snack afterwards, and
then it's, the cycle starts allover again.
So I am definitely far fromthat person anymore.
(08:03):
But going from not tracking totracking was very hard because
I'd never done it before.
You know, nobody's taught mehow to do that.
I've never weighed my foodbefore, I've never had an app
that would kind of tell me howmuch I was eating and what I was
eating.
So that was hard.
And when I started doing it,like I said in the last podcast,
(08:26):
you know, I lied to myself likeI would weigh a certain amount
of food and I would be like,well, there's an extra spoonful
here, let me just put that inthere.
Nobody's going to know, kind ofthing.
And that was really bad for meas a person trusting myself too.
So you know, and after wefigured out, okay, that's not
(08:48):
working.
You're not losing the weightthat you need to.
Let's come back to the you knowstandard diet, like I'm going
to like map out what you'regoing to eat and then we're
going to weigh it and you haveto be exact.
And then, once the weightstarted coming off, then I was
like, oh, that's how you track.
Okay, that makes sense.
You can't lie, because it'sgoing to come out in the scale
(09:11):
and the in the pictures.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
So yeah, what I always tell people is like,
whether you track it or not,your body does right.
So, and and and also, to beclear, like my, fitness power
isn't the only tool.
There's lots of apps butthere's lots of ways to quote,
unquote track your food right.
So, whether you're just writingout on a napkin your food diary
(09:33):
or in a paper log or aspreadsheet or, you know, taking
pictures Some people do picturelogs you know you cannot go
anywhere without knowing whereyou currently are, right.
So like literally.
So just to kind of reiteratethat the number one thing is to
know where you are.
You have to do some level oftracking right.
(09:55):
It doesn't have to be to themacro, it doesn't even there has
to be some level of calorie andnutrition accountability.
To start, you got to know whereyou are to know where you want
to go, right.
So that's kind of the firstplace to start.
Yeah, Yep.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
So you know, after I got the hang of it, then I feel
like that's where I'm going tothrow the word addiction out
there.
That's where it was like I hadto have my phone on me at all
times to figure out okay, am Ieating an apple?
I need to weigh how much anapple is and log it.
But, honestly, part of that wasbecause of the competition prep
(10:33):
too.
You know you have to.
You know any other person?
No, I would never recommendunless there's some sort of a
special circumstance Like Iwould never recommend to any of
my family or friends to get myfitness powder to track their
food.
I think that's totallyunnecessary, but for the sport
of bodybuilding it has to be.
You have to do it because itmakes you accountable and it
(10:55):
keeps you on track, like youknow.
But so once I got the hang ofit you know it was I could do it
in my sleep, you know and itgot to the point where, you know
the last prep that I wentthrough, I could eyeball a
measurement of 100 grams of rice, like it was.
So it's really cool to see thattoo, like I would be.
(11:17):
So like, oh, my gosh, the scale.
I don't have my scale, but itwas.
I could figure out what I waseating and how much.
It was just based on all theother times I logged.
So I gradually kind of got awayfrom the scale a little bit and
there were times in prep wherewe didn't weigh anything and I
was still maintaining and thatto me was like really, really
(11:39):
big, because I was like, wow,I'm still losing the weight or
I'm maintaining my weight, I'mnot really logging anything.
I must have really grown from,you know, three years ago when I
started all this stuff and Idefinitely have because, like I
said, I wasn't weighing and Iwasn't tracking for a little bit
(11:59):
and I was still making thestrides that I you know of the
competition in the prep.
So and then eventually we werelike no scale, let's not do it,
let's not do my fitness pal, andthe biggest weight was lifted
off my shoulders.
From that I am so much happiernow that I'm not a slave to that
(12:23):
app or my little scale in thekitchen.
It is so nice and I don'tovereat.
That's the thing it's really.
I think I needed to weigh myfood for a little bit and kind
of track to get to where I amright now of not tracking,
because you know, for my entirelife I never tracked anything.
(12:45):
I never cared really enough tofigure out what I was eating and
you know if I was under eatingor overeating.
But this whole process made melike my eyes were wide open.
I was like, oh my gosh, yeah, Ineed to eat more here, or I
need to add a little bit ofstuff here, or I maybe skim down
a little bit here, and it'sreally nice to see that growth
(13:07):
that I had from the beginninguntil now.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
So we should probably talk a little bit about you
know so, like, how that allworks.
So, yeah, so for competitionpurposes, if we're talking about
, like a competitivebodybuilding athlete, nutrition
to the gram is important, right?
Like you're just not going toget away from weighing your food
(13:35):
and tracking it in some form,right, my fitness pal or
whatever app you'd like to use,so that aside, for the average
human being, right?
Or people who even mycompetitive athletes so you know
I do very much, you know, tryto help my competitive
bodybuilders in their growthseasons have periods of not
(13:57):
tracking, right Now.
So there are people who tendtowards under eating and there
are people who tend towardsovereating.
So having some accountability,even in a growth season, for my
competitive bodybuilders, right,tends to, you know, be
necessary.
But we still encourage, like youknow, untracked meals.
(14:20):
I do not say cheat meals.
You will never hear the wordcheat in my vocabulary unless
I'm cheating on a test.
My taxes are my husband, whichwould never happen, okay, so we
don't cheat on our.
I always say you do not cheaton your health and fitness goals
, right, you may have anuntracked meal, a treat meal,
you may just decide to eat moreperiod, right, but we don't
(14:41):
cheat.
It's not a cheat.
So you know you have to.
If your goal is to lose bodyfat, right?
If your ultimate goal is tolose body fat, some type of
calorie restriction is necessary, period.
Do you have to use my fitnesspal?
Absolutely not.
(15:02):
Do you need to in some waytrack your calories?
Yes, you do, right.
So again, start with the.
Let me just log what I'm eating, right?
Every single athlete, a clientthat I, lifestyle or a
competitive bodybuilder, I gottaknow if they're not already
tracking them, like just long,for a week or two, right?
My favorites are the ones thatcome back saying they're eating
1,200 calories and they're 50pounds overweight.
(15:23):
That's not a thing, right?
I just wanna make I wanna.
The harsh reality is you are noteating sub 1,000 calories a day
and 50 pounds overweight.
Your metabolism is not broken.
This is not how science works,right?
So I'm gonna call bullshit oneverybody and anybody listening.
I don't wanna hear yeah, butcause that's just not how it
works.
What's actually happening isyou're restricting, restricting.
(15:45):
You're restricting all day orall week, and then you're
blowing out your wide incalories on the weekends, or
again.
You're not being honest withyourself, right?
So, first and foremost, youhave to love yourself enough to
be honest with yourself.
Right?
It's not necessarily aboutbeing honest with me.
You're relying to yourselffirst, right, I can see that
it's not working.
(16:05):
So you're you know you're lyingto yourself before you're lying
to me.
So the number one thing is to behonest with yourself, love
yourself enough to reallyidentify where you are right.
Are you under eating?
Are you overeating?
Both are detrimental, right.
So see where you are and thentrack in some way, right.
So portion control right,there's so many ways to do
(16:25):
portion control.
My, putting your weight, yourfood, on a scale or in a
measuring cup or into my fitnesspal works.
But so do things like the handmethod, right, you could say the
palm of your hand, andeverybody's palm sizes are
different, and that's by design,right?
I have a smaller palm than Erindoes, so I probably should have
(16:47):
a smaller amount of protein formy palm size than Erin should.
Or the size of my fist, for youknow my carbohydrates, or my
fruit or my vegetables, whatever.
So there's lots of ways totrack.
Picture logging is a thing,right, so snapping a picture of
your meals to kind of track sothat you know what's going on
(17:07):
pen and paper, right, so all ofthose things.
So you just at least have anidea of what you're doing, or
start to reduce your calories oreven increase your calories if
you find out you're under orovereating for your goals.
But then right.
So then it becomes of okay,well, but how do I get from?
Now?
I'm tracking my food and Erin.
(17:29):
Maybe you can provide someinsight on how this worked for
you.
What changed for you that madeyou want to eat healthier, right
?
So it's not just you know toget to intuitive eating.
It really is about you knoweating for your goals, right,
eating for health, eating forlongevity right.
(17:51):
We're not talking about justyou know you were never eating
calories.
Just eat calories, right?
This is not a if it fits yourmacros approach, I don't.
I mean, fine, that's fine ifyou want to call it that, but
it's not about eating pop tartsand pizza and whatever fits into
my calories, right?
How did you get to that place?
So, tracking or not trackingwhat made if you had 3,000
(18:14):
calories, what made you want toeat 3,000 calories of something
more nutritious than crap?
When you have 3,000 calories,you could eat like two big macks
a day.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Right, and this is what's fun.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Or two impossible burgers or whatever that
bullshit vegan that veganbullshit is.
Vegans don't kill me, butthat's bullshit.
Don't eat that shit.
It is, and no, as a vegan.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
It is, don't eat it, Don't eat that, but it's so,
it's really.
It's sad because you know thestate of America right now
everybody's sick, everybody hassomething going on and
internally, and you know peopleare like, oh, we're living
(18:55):
longer and stuff.
And I think of my grandparentswho just passed within the past,
you know like a couple of years, and you know they weren't
living.
They were 85 years old, 90years old, and they were lying
in a bed.
They could barely talk, move,eat, and they were like that for
like five years.
And I was like I do not want tobe like that, I cannot, I
(19:18):
cannot see myself.
I'm about to turn 40 next yearand I'm like that's 40 years
away, that's really not thatlong of a time.
And I'm like I don't just wantto live another 40 years, I want
to live until I, you know, intomy hundreds and I want to be
moving and, you know, mobile andstill doing things on my own,
(19:39):
like I don't like thinking Ihave to rely on people all the
time, you know, and I justthought about my future and I
didn't want to be anotherstatistic and I'm like.
So I always ask myself I'm like, okay, if I eat this.
How am I going to feel an hourfrom now?
And when I did that I was like,oh my gosh, okay, yeah, an hour
(20:00):
from now I'm going to be likeErin, why did you eat that bag
of chips Like?
That's probably not what youshould have done.
So I asked myself these likequestions.
You know, is this going to helpme tomorrow when I'm training
you know, when I'm squatting,like eating these cookies and
these chips?
Is this going to help me buildthe muscle that I need to lift
(20:21):
heavier tomorrow or to besuccessful at school the next
day and sleep better?
So when you start askingyourself those kind of questions
, you're like, okay, yeah, andthen you stop for a second
instead of just going into thepantry and indulging.
You kind of have that pause,moment of okay, is this really
going to be helpful to me in thelong run?
(20:43):
Or, you know, is this?
I always talk about the emotionout of an eating too, because I
my mom is an emotional eater.
I was, I feel like I definitelywas, and when I first started
with Tina, 100% I would beeating, and because I was sad or
because I was upset and Ididn't process the emotions and
(21:06):
then I would feel bad aboutmyself a couple hours later,
being like, oh my gosh, I'm sofat, why did I eat all that?
And I would never fix thatcycle.
So, and then, finally, as Istarted learning, okay, let's
take the emotion out of it.
Am I sad right now?
Yeah, okay.
What can I do to help me withthe sadness?
(21:28):
What do I need to do?
Oh, let's take a walk, okay.
And if you're, if you feel likeyou want the chips after the
walk, then yeah, you can havesome chips.
And nine times out of 10,didn't want the chips.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
I would have chips.
I know I do love chips.
I know me, I love chips.
But you know, and to add tothat, erin, I would say you know
there's been the rare and Iwork only with females there's,
I would say there is a rarefemale athlete that I work with
or lifestyle client that is notan emotional eater or an
(21:59):
emotional not eater.
Right, that food is tied toemotion period.
Right, and I'm glad you saidthat and hopefully that's
something that you got from meat some point in our coaching
relationship, because that istrue, right Like you.
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'mgonna go both sides of the
emotional eating thing.
So I do very much believe thatwe take the emotion out of
(22:22):
eating, especially when we havea, an athletic purpose in mind.
Right Like that.
And I think that's somethingyou learn through this
competition process.
It's something you learnedthrough all of this tracking,
not tracking.
You know, whatever you learn tocontrol your emotions, cause
when you're in bodybuilding,when you're in competition prep,
you're eating to your macros.
(22:42):
You do not get the opportunityto emotionally eat.
Right Like I'm sad but Iliterally have five grams of
carbs left, so fuck my life,right Like there's no, I can't
do it.
I cannot eat my emotions rightnow.
So I think that's actually oneof the really cool things about
you know I talk about there's alot of.
You know we always talk aboutthe negative stuff, but there
are so many things that that youcan learn from this and I I can
(23:03):
speak from my own personalexperience, cause that's how I
learned to overcome this sort oflike disordered eating that I
had emotional eating, bingeeating, like just a lot of
mindless eating.
So that's a really cool part ofthe process and being able to
like hold yourself accountableto a set of macros or what have
(23:24):
you right.
And it is even an experimentthat anybody could do.
Right, like hold yourselfaccountable to a meal plan or
something of that.
That regards, right, that'sdoesn't feel overly restrictive.
Right, that says, okay, well, Ican't eat, that I decided I'm
taking decision fatigue out ofthis process.
This is what I'm eating todayand this is all I'm eating today
.
You take the emotion out of itand that's just what you do.
(23:46):
That's one way to do it.
The other side of the emotionaleating coin that you know I
always say I actually don'tsubscribe to the you can never
emotionally eat program.
I just don't, because sometimesit's okay to eat the chips,
because chips are comforting Ifyou have a healthy relationship
(24:09):
with your, if you love and trustyourself enough to make the
decision to consciously eat thechips, because it's just
something you really want rightnow.
I always used to talk about whenI would go to my grandmothers
and she would make fried porkchops.
I've talked about this so manytimes Fried pork chops.
She had an angel food cake.
It's mashed potatoes.
There's literally nothinghealthy about my anything my
(24:30):
grandmother would make, but itwas delicious and it was so
emotionally fulfilling to me tohave that meal.
It was emotionally fulfillingto my grandmother for me to have
that meal, and I never felt anyguilt about it, I looked
forward to it.
People were like, oh my God,you're eating angel food, cake
and fried pork chops.
Fuck, yes, I am, because itfelt so good in that moment.
(24:51):
And but again, so where we takethe emotion, there was an
emotional aspect to the eating.
But when you take the negativeemotion out of the eating I made
, when you use and so that pauseyou just told everybody about,
is mindfulness right?
So we'll do a whole anotherpodcast on mindfulness, so how
(25:12):
you develop that.
But that's what that is rightStopping and asking yourself
those questions Am I reallyhungry?
Am I actually thirsty?
Am I tired?
Am I emotionally eating?
How is this going to make mefeel?
Is it going to help me with mygoals?
Is it going to keep me furtherfrom my goals?
Is it going to enhance myexperience in this moment?
So those are the kinds ofquestions you ask yourself and
(25:35):
all that is is a moment, thatspace between stimulus and
reaction, which is whatmindfulness is right.
That gives you a minute tothink, right.
And so, yes, you have todevelop mindfulness skills, and
we'll get to that in anotherpodcast.
But when you have that ability,then you can make very conscious
decisions.
Do I go for the walk and theneat the chips or am I going to
(25:57):
fuck the walk and just eat thechips?
Right, and whatever you decidebecause you make a conscious
decision to do it, there is nomore emotion involved, right?
There is no guilt, there is noshame.
Trust me, I have made veryconscious decisions to eat four
more chips than I should andthen my stomach hurts.
But I can't feel bad other thanphysically going God damn it.
(26:18):
My stomach hurts, right, andI'll be like, oh well, right,
I'm not going to beat myself upover it.
I've made the decision to do it.
I knew it was going to make mystomach hurt and I did it anyway
.
Right.
So decisions and consequences,but there's no emotion in that.
Right, you just do right.
So that's kind of where that Ithink that comes from.
That's to take the emotion outof it.
(26:41):
But it's also okay to eat withemotion if that's what you're
choosing to do.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Does that make?
Do you think that makes?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
sense to people to say it that way.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Yeah, and to kind of piggyback on what you said about
your grandmother's food andeverything.
Totally get that, becausesimilar I mean everybody has
that meal that they remember afamily member, or like sitting
down with family or friends thatthey love to indulge in, or
they.
I mean it's December now, soeveryone's doing like the
holiday parties and the holidayfamily dinners and whatnot, and
(27:15):
like my family's doing a pastadinner next weekend, a big
Italian thing, and but we don'tdo that every week or every day.
So it's like those kind ofthings are fine to me.
Like if you're eating two bagsof chips every day, that's a red
flag to me.
Like, okay, what is happening?
(27:37):
Like there's something going onthere.
But like, yeah, that part ofemotional eating, totally great.
I think that's totally fine too,because food is love and you
make food because you love toprepare it for people, and vice
versa, you love when somebodymakes you food.
So it's like that connectednesstoo.
(27:59):
But I think it becomes aproblem when you're saying to
yourself oh yeah, I can havethese cookies today, it's fine,
my grandmother made these.
And then the next day, well, Ican have this cake too, because
my mom thought it was nice andshe would want me to have it,
and then the next day, oh yeah,I can have all these chips and
(28:19):
pretzels and popcorn because,well, my kids eat it, so I can
eat it.
So, it's like the cycle yougotta remember.
Okay, let me stop for a second.
Okay yeah, it's emotionalbecause I love my kids or I love
my grandparents or I love myparents, but am I getting what I
need out of it?
(28:40):
You know on a daily basis, kindof thing.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah, and into that point, right, like you don't
have to eat everything, right,that's made for you with love,
right, or all of the thingsright.
So I have a lot of clients thatare like, oh, this, I'm nervous
to go to this function and thisfunction and their love
language is food, but I'mrestricting food and all of this
(29:04):
.
I'm like you know, again, I'mgoing to go on both sides of the
coin here.
On one side of the coin, youagain, you need to love and
trust yourself enough to makethe decisions for you.
You do not have to eat foodthat other people offer to you
to be nice.
Yes, I don't.
There were plenty of things.
My grandmother God bless mygrandmother, I miss her so much.
(29:26):
But there's a running jokebetween me and one of my other
clients that, like mayonnaiseand mayonnaise is a food group.
It was my right, it's just.
Like mayonnaise.
And corn and coleslaw like it'sa coleslaw is a vegetable, corn
is a vegetable, mayonnaise is afood group.
That's just.
It's a joke, but it's.
But that's how it was.
So there were plenty of thingsthat I turned out right.
(29:47):
I chose the things that thatwere really nostalgic to me and
very important to me, and guesswhat?
I didn't eat pounds and poundsof it right.
I had a pork chop and a scoop ofmashed potatoes.
I don't eat.
I didn't eat everything thatwas offered to me.
And sometimes I said no becausewhen I knew it was going to,
really it just wasn't worth.
Right, it wasn't worth thestomach or whatever, whatever
(30:09):
that feeling was going to be.
So you have to make thosechoices.
So you can eat the food, butmaybe don't eat all the food.
Right, like you're going tohave this big pasta dinner but
you probably don't want to feellike super full and like shit
afterwards, so you're going toeat a reasonable portion, right?
Right, it's like going to arestaurant.
You go to the fucking what isit?
(30:29):
Cheesecake factory and like aportion of pasta is like 2000
pounds.
It's like who is eating that's?
That would be enough to feedfive people on one plate.
Right, if you're eatingreasonable portions, so you know
you don't have to eat all of it.
If you're going to potlucksthis time of year like potlucks
and holiday parties and stuff Itell my clients all the time and
(30:52):
don't avoid it, yeah, becauseyou're going to then you're
going to end up like runningback there in the room when
everybody's gone and woofingdown all the food.
You're going to get this likerestriction fatigue.
You're going to get thiswillpower fatigue.
We don't have.
We have finite amounts ofwillpower.
Allow yourself to go and eatsmall amounts of what you want
(31:17):
to eat.
Don't eat all the food justbecause it's there, right?
Have a small bite of everything.
Yeah, everything you want, noteverything, right, so I will.
I'm very choosy about like whatI'm like.
This looks good, that doesn'tlook good.
I'm not just going to pileeverything on my plate because
I'm going to be nice, becausepeople at work made this, so you
know.
So there's, there's ways tostill enjoy those things and not
(31:38):
over overdo it, right?
So again, it's about portionmonitoring.
It's about loving and trustingyourself enough I think really
that's the theme to maintainsome control and then getting
into understanding themindfulness of stopping, stop,
drop and roll, yeah, maybe weshould add that stop.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
And only make it like stop, drop and do push ups
before you yeah.
It's not a new thing.
Did we just come up with that?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
So it's not a form of punishment, it's just a means
to, like, make you stop.
You stop drop, drop and rollbefore you reach for any food,
right?
Just so you can stop and reallythink about, like is this
something you really want, right.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
And I and also to kind of go along with that too,
is I eat fast and that wassomething that I'm still working
on it to a degree, because Ihad gotten better, you know,
with that.
But you know, as a as aneducator, it was hard.
You know, like you only have acertain amount of time to eat,
(32:46):
so you have to wolf your bootdown in 15 minutes because you
got five minutes to get back toclass or whatever it was.
And luckily now I'm a littlebit more.
You know I can kind of be like,okay, I'm going to shut my door
and I'm going to eat for alittle bit, so nobody comes in,
kind of thing.
But I know a lot of peopledon't have that.
But when, when I was eating sofast, I didn't realize how full
(33:09):
I was actually getting, and thenby the time I was done my plate
and maybe had a dessert orsomething else with it, I was
like, oh my God, I feel so sick,Like my stomach was so full.
So eating slower has helped somuch.
So like, if you're at a holidayparty and you see all this, you
know the spread out like, yeah,take a couple things and then
(33:32):
wait 20 minutes and be like Okay, am I still hungry enough to go
back and get more?
If the answer is yes, and it'sa genuine yes, go back and get
more.
If it's now, I think I'm okay,maybe a little bit later, then
wait a little bit longer andthen go back.
We're not saying don't eat allthe junk food or don't eat what
you want.
I don't want to be like thatkind of person.
(33:53):
But at the same time, I wantyou to really like work with
your body and say, yeah, I'mactually really for it now.
Do I really want that cupcake?
I want it, but I think I'mgoing to wait, you know, and
then if I'm hungry now or laterand the cupcake's still there,
then yeah, I'll have it.
But I think that's reallyimportant too.
You know, taking your time andagain, that kind of goes along
(34:16):
with the mindfulness too, butlike taking your time and
sitting with your food, enjoyingwhat you have in front of you
and then evaluating if you wantmore or something else, you know
.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yeah and like and adding on to that.
So you know, slowing down isimportant for so many reasons,
not just to pay attention toyour hunger cues right, your
hunger and satiety cues but alsofor digestion.
I mean, it's just like if youfind yourself bloated and
indigestion and you know all youknow constipate or whatever.
You know it's a lot of timesjust slowing down and thoroughly
(34:51):
chewing your food, taking abreath between each bite, right
like.
If you really want a way to,like, make yourself slow down,
take a bite, put your fork downto your food.
Another fork bite doesn't goback to your mouth until you
chewed it thoroughly and youswallowed it.
That might sound ridiculous,but it is a way to train
yourself.
If you're eating in front of thetelevision, eating in front of
(35:12):
your computer and you're typing,and you're typing and you're
eating your time, if you couldsee me, I'm actually typing.
If I'm typing and I'm soanimated You're, you're going to
, you're going to.
You're shoving food in yourface.
You're not paying any attention.
Am I actually hungry, am I not?
Your body can't keep up andthen you know, all of a sudden
you're going to have indigestion.
(35:33):
You didn't actually enjoy anyof the food, you just ate, you
just walked it down and didn'tcare, right?
So, again, you're not reallybeing loving and trusting of
your, your body, when you'redoing that, and food is meant to
be nourishment for your body itis, you know.
Do we have to enjoy and loveeverything we eat?
No, right, Because a lot oftimes it is just food for fuel.
(35:54):
But you should enjoy it in thesense of what it's doing for you
right?
Or if you've decided to, youknow, emotionally, eat the fried
pork chop that your grandmothermade you, right?
That's that's enjoy thosethings, right?
So, yeah, so, eating to likeabout 80%, full slowing down,
that's, you know.
Again, using mindfulness, enjoythe food right Like, the taste,
(36:17):
the texture right, like,instead of like, whooping down,
like, if you want, if like, ifyou're a chocolate lover, like,
get some really good qualitychocolate, have a square.
I love those lit squares,they're such a perfect like
little piece and like the tazzais one of my favorites because
it's like dairy free.
But like savory, Don't shovethe.
I yell at my husband about thisall the time.
(36:38):
Like like goldfish, I also lovegold, so for sure, my son you
see, you know goldfish.
I kind of miss him not beinghere, but thank God the goldfish
aren't in the house anymore.
I'm a one goldfish at a time.
I'm a one in the name at a time.
I will eat something for an hour.
When it comes to like littlefoods like that, my husband
(37:00):
handful shove it in the mouth,right.
Like jelly bellies is anotherone.
And just like it sounds likeall I ate is junk food.
But this is how I'm, but itactually is strategy for me.
When I am eating something likejelly beans, I could shove the
whole handful in my mouth, but Itake one at a time.
I choose a jelly bean and thenI might have another one, right?
So there are ways to make yourfood last and savor it a little
(37:23):
bit longer.
When you're shoving handfuls inyour mouth, You're going to
overeat in a heartbeat, right?
But you know, really, slow downand enjoy what it is that
you're eating, whether junk foodor healthy food, right.
What, what am I?
What otherwise, what are wedoing?
Much for Right.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Exactly, exactly.
And the boredom too.
Yeah, that's another thing thatI hear a lot about with people.
They're like well, I just, youknow, got home from work and I
was just eating because I didn't.
I was just like walking aroundthe house and I didn't know what
to do and get myself into and Iwas just, I was just eating
whatever was in the fridge andI'm like, oh my gosh, that's
(37:58):
another problem.
If you're bored, don't go tothe refrigerator, don't go to
the kitchen.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Get the fuck out of the kitchen.
If you're bored, get out of thekitchen.
Do something productive.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Think of something and scrolling on your phone.
That's not something productive.
Just do something that's gonnagive you joy, or create
something like clean thebathroom, if you really have
something prepared For a walk Gofor a clean bathroom?
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yeah, do something more productive than that.
So just to wrap things up, sohopefully we gave people some
ideas of what they can do.
But listen, if you really havea goal of losing weight, we have
a goal of being healthier.
If you have a goal of gainingmuscle, being stronger in the
(38:43):
gym, what have you?
Tracking your food in some wayis important, right, because the
athletic goal that's involved,or the aesthetic goal that's
involved in the health goal, thehealth goal that's involved in
that.
If you don't know where you arecurrently tracking in some way
first, then learning how to eatfor your body, that was the
(39:06):
space in between.
That, the bodybuildingcompetition kind of right.
I think you realized throughthe competition process that
healthier foods because that'swhat fit in your macros made you
feel better, right, and whenyou, it wasn't about restriction
, it was about I have this goal,I'm gonna eat for my goal,
(39:28):
right, didn't mean you couldnever have pizza, pasta, cookies
or what have you.
You just you know.
And then you realize there'sthis meme that I saw years ago
and it's always stuck out to me.
It's like most people have noidea how good the body's
designed to feel, cause we'rejust a walk around in a
perpetual state of feeling likeshit, Like you said.
You know, and the epidemic inAmerica is everybody is sick,
(39:50):
Everybody has some things wrongwith everybody.
So you know, when you start tofocus more on like your health
and your longevity and howthings make you feel right and
even have food journal in thatrespect right, so not tracking
for calories necessarily, butlike here's what I ate today,
how did I feel?
Yeah, Right.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
I had energy.
That's a good idea.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Right, I mean, I do that with a lot of clients as
well, right?
So it's not about calories,it's about tracking this is what
I ate today.
And then there's actually somereally cool already pre-printed
journals you can get on Amazonthat are kind of like how did I
feel today, how did I sleeptoday, what was my exercise,
what did I eat?
And I think those are greatbecause then you can record like
emotionally, how did you feel?
(40:28):
Were you emotionally eating?
Did you feel like shit becauseof the food you ate?
Did you have indigestion?
Did you feel lethargic?
And then you can kind of keepthese like symptom journals
right, that kind of go alongwith your foods and start to see
what makes you feel good, payattention to those things, right
, yeah, and like the times thatyou eat.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
you know like people aren't eating when they're at
work because they're so likeinto their work and what they're
doing, and then when they gethome they're like, oh my gosh, I
don't know what to do.
Let me just eat.
So like you can track that too.
Okay, well, what can I do afterwork?
That's gonna be nice for me todecompress after work.
That doesn't have to involve,you know, eating a bunch of
(41:07):
sweets or you know bad thingsbecause I'm bored and I don't
know what to do.
Kind of thing, right.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Coming up with healthier strategies than just
diving into food, right, right,so there's, it's always good to
like kind of have a strategy inplace.
It's like, okay, well, when Istart to get the if I know, my
be-witching hour is like as soonas I get home from work, like
what is the thing I can do todecompress before I start making
(41:35):
dinner and get the kids topractice and all the other
things, right.
So it's like just replacing,right?
We're not saying you can't eatsomething, we're just saying
replace that with a habit that'sprobably that's going to help
you achieve whatever your goalis, right.
So, with something that's justa little bit healthier than
diving into the snacks and stuff.
So how do you so?
Just real quick, to wrap thingsup, how did do you feel now?
(41:58):
Like intuitive eating?
How do you base how you'reeating?
Are you still eating like gottaeat it at five and 10?
And you know, are you stilllike on the schedule?
Are you really paying attentionto your hunger signals and kind
of just eating when you'rehungry?
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Yeah.
So when I was on prep, I kindof figured out, you know, like
you just said, the timing.
I would have to eat at nineo'clock and then I would have to
let that spread through untilabout 11, 11, 30.
And then I would have a littlebit of lunch and then I would
take a little break.
It was very time-regimented,but now it's fantastic.
It's absolutely fantastic.
(42:35):
I have a smoothie in the morningfor, like, my pre-breakfast,
and sometimes that fills me upenough and sometimes it doesn't.
But when it does, I'm like okay, should I eat my oatmeal now?
No, you can probably wait alittle bit.
Or, you know, I actually amreally still really hungry.
I'm gonna eat this oatmeal too,or half of it, and save it, you
know.
So it's just really nice to seehow I'm working with my body
(43:01):
now instead of like telling itwhat to do.
You know, I think that's thebiggest thing we're getting
there.
Oh, I love that.
Yeah, it's so much, I feel somuch better.
I really do, and I just wisheveryone could feel like this,
because it is so nice to be like, yeah, I'm gonna have an apple
right now, or I'm gonna havethis right now, and because I
(43:23):
want to, and because I'm hungryor because you know what I mean,
I'm not at some sort of aschedule or anything like that.
You know, it's just veryfreeing and I love that.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
And I'll say you know me too, right, like we were
talking about before we got onthe podcast, I think, like I
have been tracked a macro andover a year too, aside from like
a spot check here and there,and you know, I'm just like let
me really see where my caloriesare.
Right, like I'm just like whyam I eating these days?
And I can tell you, it is likedead on the money the same thing
I was eating when I wastracking for the last five years
(43:56):
and, like you and I weretalking about, I had gotten so
addicted to tracking andclaiming that I like.
Well, I need all this data.
Yeah, but I wasn't using thedata for anything.
I was literally just trackingto track.
I use the data for nothing.
Right, I was like you know,yeah, I could look and say, well
, some days I'd eat like around1700, 1800 and some days I'd eat
(44:18):
2500.
So I probably average about2,300 calories a day.
But was I using that data foranything other than to go I know
how many calories I'm eatingtoday?
Who fucking cares?
Right, like I was like itwasn't changing my eating habits
.
I wasn't like using it to gainweight, lose weight, maintain
weight nothing, I was literallytracking to track when I it was
hard, like I will admit.
(44:38):
When I first stopped tracking, Iwas like, like you know, my
little fingers didn't know whatto do with themselves while I'm
preparing my meals and the scale, and like I'd go to get the
scale and I'm like, no, I don'tneed the scale, right.
And so, like I was like, andnow and then, when I would go
back and like spot check in thelast year, like I think I've
done it like maybe a handful oftimes, I'm just like the scale's
annoying.
This is annoying.
Trying to tear, you know, thetrying to zero out the scale and
(45:01):
then put this in, and this isjust too fucking time consuming.
I don't want to do this anymoreand I don't right.
So I literally have probablymaintained my weight.
I've probably maintained myexact weight for the last five
years.
Yeah, that's interesting,though, and even when I was
tracking, like I said, I wasn'treally using the data for
anything.
Great.
(45:21):
So, anyway, it is very freeingto be able to just, you know,
and it actually it took me along time, I mean, cause I ate
on this like schedule since Istarted competing back in 2005,.
Right, like I certainly hadmade progress, but I even still
I was like, well, okay, I justate, it's eight o'clock and I
should probably eat again by 12and I should probably eat again
by like three and I shouldprobably eat again by whatever.
(45:43):
And I just, you know, I just Istopped all that and now I
really do just like.
I mean, my body still is kindof like hungry right around
those you know the time it'slike it's been a couple of hours
spinning on the way, eight, butnow it's just very freeing to
just be like, oh, I'm hungry,yeah, I think I will eat
something right now, right,exactly, and it's still the same
principles.
You know, once you learn whatworks for your body, once you
(46:05):
learn how to eat, you have toknow how to eat first, and we
did not actually discuss indetail in this podcast what to
eat and how to eat.
Maybe we'll do that in anotherpodcast.
Yeah, but you know, I stillnearly every meal I have has at
least some lean protein in it.
Every meal has I'm obsessedwith, like vegetables and fruits
, like there are just certainmeals that I do not compromise
(46:26):
right, like I must have thesegreens and I must have these
fruits and I must have my mainproteins, because I love protein
, and then I might, and then Ican add the bag of chips later
if I want to.
But that's you know.
You still eat the same way.
I still eat the same way I'vealways eaten, and it's really
because it's what makes my bodyfeel good, it's what makes me,
(46:47):
you know, mentally feel good.
It gives me the energy to doall the things that I'm doing
and I, like you and having, youknow, watched, and my
grandparents were very active aslong as they could be active,
but I don't want to be sick,right, like I deal with lupus
and you know I already haveenough issues that I don't.
(47:09):
You know, I need to treat mybody with some kindness and you
know, again, love and trust,loving, and I think that was a
really good theme that youbrought up, because it really is
, to me, the biggest obstaclefor women being able to make the
(47:31):
right choices for themselves,to be as healthy as they can be
right.
It's not.
I mean, yes, a lot of that, youknow.
Learning the tools, that's veryimportant.
Getting to practice thesethings.
It's not easy, none of thesethings that we, erin and I, just
made this sound like we're justgonna glide right through.
This was years long process.
Right, we're still learning.
(47:52):
Right, I'm still learning.
I'm still adjusting.
I'm getting older.
I'm, you know, going into my51st year now.
I'm just like you know.
So I'm always adjusting.
I am never I'm not doing thesame things that I did 10 years
ago.
You're not gonna be doing thesame thing if you can't.
So you have to just listen toyour body and keep you know and
keep kind of analyzing what'sgoing on and using the
(48:14):
mindfulness that we're gettingready to talk about in our next
podcast.
Because I'm gonna say I go outon a limb and I say learning
mindfulness techniques is thekey to life period, it is the
key to having joy in life, it isthe key to being able to eat
(48:36):
and be healthy, it is the key tostress reduction.
To me, learning mindfulnesstechniques and is the longevity
key.
Yeah, no, I agree with you andI don't think my the limb I'm
going out on is very fragile.
(48:57):
I think it is pretty solid, Ithink.
But we'll talk about that nextand we'll see why it's so hard
for people to get into.
Yes, anything else?
You wanna add on the food stuffto our podcast that was
supposed to be shortened and ina new?
Speaker 2 (49:12):
No, Although I think we kept it less than an hour at
least, we'll stop here and we'llsee where the next one takes us
.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
All right, so I taught Erin.
I told her she's gonna be our,my co-host.
She had to learn the catchphrase.
I'm gonna let her say thegoodbye phrase today.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
All right, guys don't get weird, use your head, it'll
all be okay.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
Yay, bye, bye.
Hello, hello, Hi everybody.
Who do I have with me againtoday?
Miss Erin.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I gotta come back.
I just love it so much.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
You know we got so much good feedback, erin, on the
first podcast that ended upbeing two podcasts the interview
that we did with you so manythere was just like everybody
just really was like into it.
I just figured, since Brandi isso busy these days raising
children and with the holidaysand stuff, I thought we Erin
(00:36):
would be my co-host for a littlewhile and we have some other
topics and things we're bothreally passionate about, so I
thought it'd be really cool forus to be able to chat about a
few more things together.
What kind of feedback did youget from people on the podcast,
like competitors andnon-competitors, like?
Did you have like I'm curiousfrom your friend group or
(00:58):
whatever?
What the feedback?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
was the biggest thing was a lot of okay.
So they got a better picture ofwhat PrEP was like and like the
difficulties through it and howI was navigating.
Because you know when theywould check in with me and say,
hey, how's it going?
I would be like I'm tired butI'm good.
But they don't.
Nobody knows the inner workingsof it unless you're in it or
(01:20):
unless you are a bodybuilder.
So you know, having to explaineverything was hard for me, but
when they listened to it it wasreally interesting because a lot
of people resonated with thingsthat I said, even though
they're not bodybuilders.
So you know, like the tracking,I have some friends that do
track.
I have some friends that doweigh their food, obviously,
(01:43):
that weigh themselves, go intothe gym.
You know the motivation forthat and you know when they
wanna incorporate things likethe journaling and the
meditation and the self-carethings, they will everybody's
like.
So ready for part two.
So you need to drop that one.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Well, it came out on Monday.
Oh, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Because they were just like oh my gosh, we want to
hear more like you guys weregreat.
So I was so excited about it.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, part two came out this past Monday, so it was
the November 27th, so the Mondayafter Thanksgiving was part two
.
So it is out there.
But that's great.
I'm glad because I feel likeeven you know all the years that
Brandi and I have been doingthese podcasts, even our
competition focused ones and airquotes have something to take
(02:36):
away for everybody.
Right Like it's it really itjust comes down to lifestyle.
Yeah, some of the stuff is likereal specific to like you know a
particular show or we're doingfeedback on a show or something
like that, but there's always anugget in there that's going to
apply to somebody in their life.
Or even just being able to hearwhat competitive bodybuilders
(02:56):
do and overcome to be successful, right Like there's just
there's just how to besuccessful in life, kind of
things in that.
Right so health, fitness, mind,body, all of those.
So really what Erin and Iwanted to do was kind of
extrapolate some of those topicswe got into in her interview,
(03:16):
because I think sometimes what'slacking in some of the
conversational podcasts is like,okay, well, that's really cool
that Erin did all those reallygreat things and yay for Erin,
but I don't know how to do itright.
So what we wanted to do is kindof take some of those topics
and sort of maybe walk throughthe process and some of the
(03:37):
challenges right that come alongwith it and hopefully have some
like actual actionable stepsthat people can take from the
conversation about how theymight be able to apply that for
themselves right.
Like that's kind of our goal,so hopefully we'll achieve that.
Yeah, so the first topic wewanted to get into today, which
(03:57):
I think was it's a reallychallenging one for a lot of
people and it is really just Ikind of the way I wrote it out
in our podcast topics.
It was kind of like soup to nutshow Erin went from like she
wasn't tracking shit right Backwhen we first started to she
thought she was tracking ish tolike meal plan, to like super
(04:21):
tracker, like doing your ownmeal planning, to intuitive
eating right.
So how did you get from I'venever tracked a macro in my life
to intuitive eating right, withsome competitions in between
there.
And I'll first say there's beensuch a big push, like in the
wellness community, like youknow.
(04:42):
You see people like intuitiveeating and mindful eating and
like all these things cool,great, get it.
But there is no intuitiveeating without actual intuition
about what the fuck you're doing.
Yes, period, right.
You do not get to go from zero,right?
You couldn't have gone fromErin 1.0, right To Erin 4.0,
(05:05):
four years later with intuitiveeating, without all those things
that happened in between.
They had to happen.
You don't go from zero tointuitive eating or mindful
eating without understanding howto eat in the first place,
cause otherwise your intuitionis going to be to eat whatever
you've always eaten, right?
Intuitive eating is not aboutwell, I'm gonna eat whatever I'm
(05:28):
craving and I'm gonna eatwhatever my body tells me I want
I want to eat.
My mind tells me, oh, that'snot intuitive eating, right.
So I want to make that reallyclear.
So that's why I think it'sreally important to kind of go
through this process, because Ithink that the process you went
through is really exactly how itdoes go to the legitual place
of intuitive eating, right.
Yeah, so do you want to try to?
(05:52):
So we can kind of start from?
I mean, we talked a little bitof detail in the first half of
the podcast about how youstarted tracking and your
tracking wasn't really trackingright.
So how, I guess, maybe like whatdid you do and what were you
learning along the way, likewhat was clicking for you along
(06:14):
the way that allowed you to getwhere you are now?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So the beginning and this is before this is when you
and I first met and I rememberyou said log or write down in an
email like three days worth offood, don't think about me.
And like, oh, if I have somechips that Tina's gonna get mad.
Just log whatever you eat,right?
(06:38):
So I remember doing that and Isent them back to you and I had
worked with a trainer beforethis and she kind of told me to
do the same thing and both ofyou said you're under eating,
like you're not eating enough.
And in my you know and again Iwasn't trying to, like you know,
skim off things or like eatbetter or like healthier quote
(07:02):
unquote, because you guys werelooking at my logs but a lot of
people don't eat enough.
And that was the biggest thingfor me and that's one of the
biggest things I've learnedabout myself through eating is,
yeah, I'm eating a lot more andeverything and it's good stuff,
but, like you guys, we have toeat.
We have to eat.
(07:22):
So that was the number onething.
I was like whoa, so I'msupposed to be eating more than
this for breakfast and lunch andI'm supposed to have more than
one snack a day, because I wasthe one, just like many other
people, who I wasn't eatingenough during the day.
And then when I got home, thatthree o'clock before dinner time
(07:43):
it was oh my God, I am likeravenous.
I just want to eat whatever'sin the pantry.
I am, I don't care, you know.
And then dinner time comesaround and then you want big
helping at dinner, and then youwant a snack afterwards, and
then it's, the cycle starts allover again.
So I am definitely far fromthat person anymore.
(08:03):
But going from not tracking totracking was very hard because
I'd never done it before.
You know, nobody's taught mehow to do that.
I've never weighed my foodbefore, I've never had an app
that would kind of tell me howmuch I was eating and what I was
eating.
So that was hard.
And when I started doing it,like I said in the last podcast,
(08:26):
you know, I lied to myself likeI would weigh a certain amount
of food and I would be like,well, there's an extra spoonful
here, let me just put that inthere.
Nobody's going to know, kind ofthing.
And that was really bad for meas a person trusting myself too.
So you know, and after wefigured out, okay, that's not
(08:48):
working.
You're not losing the weightthat you need to.
Let's come back to the you knowstandard diet, like I'm going
to like map out what you'regoing to eat and then we're
going to weigh it and you haveto be exact.
And then, once the weightstarted coming off, then I was
like, oh, that's how you track.
Okay, that makes sense.
You can't lie, because it'sgoing to come out in the scale
(09:11):
and the in the pictures.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
So yeah, what I always tell people is like,
whether you track it or not,your body does right.
So, and and and also, to beclear, like my, fitness power
isn't the only tool.
There's lots of apps butthere's lots of ways to quote,
unquote track your food right.
So, whether you're just writingout on a napkin your food diary
(09:33):
or in a paper log or aspreadsheet or, you know, taking
pictures Some people do picturelogs you know you cannot go
anywhere without knowing whereyou currently are, right.
So like literally.
So just to kind of reiteratethat the number one thing is to
know where you are.
You have to do some level oftracking right.
(09:55):
It doesn't have to be to themacro, it doesn't even there has
to be some level of calorie andnutrition accountability.
To start, you got to know whereyou are to know where you want
to go, right.
So that's kind of the firstplace to start.
Yeah, Yep.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
So you know, after I got the hang of it, then I feel
like that's where I'm going tothrow the word addiction out
there.
That's where it was like I hadto have my phone on me at all
times to figure out okay, am Ieating an apple?
I need to weigh how much anapple is and log it.
But, honestly, part of that wasbecause of the competition prep
(10:33):
too.
You know you have to.
You know any other person?
No, I would never recommendunless there's some sort of a
special circumstance Like Iwould never recommend to any of
my family or friends to get myfitness powder to track their
food.
I think that's totallyunnecessary, but for the sport
of bodybuilding it has to be.
You have to do it because itmakes you accountable and it
(10:55):
keeps you on track, like youknow.
But so once I got the hang ofit you know it was I could do it
in my sleep, you know and itgot to the point where, you know
the last prep that I wentthrough, I could eyeball a
measurement of 100 grams of rice, like it was.
So it's really cool to see thattoo, like I would be.
(11:17):
So like, oh, my gosh, the scale.
I don't have my scale, but itwas.
I could figure out what I waseating and how much.
It was just based on all theother times I logged.
So I gradually kind of got awayfrom the scale a little bit and
there were times in prep wherewe didn't weigh anything and I
was still maintaining and thatto me was like really, really
(11:39):
big, because I was like, wow,I'm still losing the weight or
I'm maintaining my weight, I'mnot really logging anything.
I must have really grown from,you know, three years ago when I
started all this stuff and Idefinitely have because, like I
said, I wasn't weighing and Iwasn't tracking for a little bit
(11:59):
and I was still making thestrides that I you know of the
competition in the prep.
So and then eventually we werelike no scale, let's not do it,
let's not do my fitness pal, andthe biggest weight was lifted
off my shoulders.
From that I am so much happiernow that I'm not a slave to that
(12:23):
app or my little scale in thekitchen.
It is so nice and I don'tovereat.
That's the thing it's really.
I think I needed to weigh myfood for a little bit and kind
of track to get to where I amright now of not tracking,
because you know, for my entirelife I never tracked anything.
(12:45):
I never cared really enough tofigure out what I was eating and
you know if I was under eatingor overeating.
But this whole process made melike my eyes were wide open.
I was like, oh my gosh, yeah, Ineed to eat more here, or I
need to add a little bit ofstuff here, or I maybe skim down
a little bit here, and it'sreally nice to see that growth
(13:07):
that I had from the beginninguntil now.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
So we should probably talk a little bit about you
know so, like, how that allworks.
So, yeah, so for competitionpurposes, if we're talking about
, like a competitivebodybuilding athlete, nutrition
to the gram is important, right?
Like you're just not going toget away from weighing your food
(13:35):
and tracking it in some form,right, my fitness pal or
whatever app you'd like to use,so that aside, for the average
human being, right?
Or people who even mycompetitive athletes so you know
I do very much, you know, tryto help my competitive
bodybuilders in their growthseasons have periods of not
(13:57):
tracking, right Now.
So there are people who tendtowards under eating and there
are people who tend towardsovereating.
So having some accountability,even in a growth season, for my
competitive bodybuilders, right,tends to, you know, be
necessary.
But we still encourage, like youknow, untracked meals.
(14:20):
I do not say cheat meals.
You will never hear the wordcheat in my vocabulary unless
I'm cheating on a test.
My taxes are my husband, whichwould never happen, okay, so we
don't cheat on our.
I always say you do not cheaton your health and fitness goals
, right, you may have anuntracked meal, a treat meal,
you may just decide to eat moreperiod, right, but we don't
(14:41):
cheat.
It's not a cheat.
So you know you have to.
If your goal is to lose bodyfat, right?
If your ultimate goal is tolose body fat, some type of
calorie restriction is necessary, period.
Do you have to use my fitnesspal?
Absolutely not.
(15:02):
Do you need to in some waytrack your calories?
Yes, you do, right.
So again, start with the.
Let me just log what I'm eating, right?
Every single athlete, a clientthat I, lifestyle or a
competitive bodybuilder, I gottaknow if they're not already
tracking them, like just long,for a week or two, right?
My favorites are the ones thatcome back saying they're eating
1,200 calories and they're 50pounds overweight.
(15:23):
That's not a thing, right?
I just wanna make I wanna.
The harsh reality is you are noteating sub 1,000 calories a day
and 50 pounds overweight.
Your metabolism is not broken.
This is not how science works,right?
So I'm gonna call bullshit oneverybody and anybody listening.
I don't wanna hear yeah, butcause that's just not how it
works.
What's actually happening isyou're restricting, restricting.
(15:45):
You're restricting all day orall week, and then you're
blowing out your wide incalories on the weekends, or
again.
You're not being honest withyourself, right?
So, first and foremost, youhave to love yourself enough to
be honest with yourself.
Right?
It's not necessarily aboutbeing honest with me.
You're relying to yourselffirst, right, I can see that
it's not working.
(16:05):
So you're you know you're lyingto yourself before you're lying
to me.
So the number one thing is to behonest with yourself, love
yourself enough to reallyidentify where you are right.
Are you under eating?
Are you overeating?
Both are detrimental, right.
So see where you are and thentrack in some way, right.
So portion control right,there's so many ways to do
(16:25):
portion control.
My, putting your weight, yourfood, on a scale or in a
measuring cup or into my fitnesspal works.
But so do things like the handmethod, right, you could say the
palm of your hand, andeverybody's palm sizes are
different, and that's by design,right?
I have a smaller palm than Erindoes, so I probably should have
(16:47):
a smaller amount of protein formy palm size than Erin should.
Or the size of my fist, for youknow my carbohydrates, or my
fruit or my vegetables, whatever.
So there's lots of ways totrack.
Picture logging is a thing,right, so snapping a picture of
your meals to kind of track sothat you know what's going on
(17:07):
pen and paper, right, so all ofthose things.
So you just at least have anidea of what you're doing, or
start to reduce your calories oreven increase your calories if
you find out you're under orovereating for your goals.
But then right.
So then it becomes of okay,well, but how do I get from?
Now?
I'm tracking my food and Erin.
(17:29):
Maybe you can provide someinsight on how this worked for
you.
What changed for you that madeyou want to eat healthier, right
?
So it's not just you know toget to intuitive eating.
It really is about you knoweating for your goals, right,
eating for health, eating forlongevity right.
(17:51):
We're not talking about justyou know you were never eating
calories.
Just eat calories, right?
This is not a if it fits yourmacros approach, I don't.
I mean, fine, that's fine ifyou want to call it that, but
it's not about eating pop tartsand pizza and whatever fits into
my calories, right?
How did you get to that place?
So, tracking or not trackingwhat made if you had 3,000
(18:14):
calories, what made you want toeat 3,000 calories of something
more nutritious than crap?
When you have 3,000 calories,you could eat like two big macks
a day.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Right, and this is what's fun.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Or two impossible burgers or whatever that
bullshit vegan that veganbullshit is.
Vegans don't kill me, butthat's bullshit.
Don't eat that shit.
It is, and no, as a vegan.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
It is, don't eat it, Don't eat that, but it's so,
it's really.
It's sad because you know thestate of America right now
everybody's sick, everybody hassomething going on and
internally, and you know peopleare like, oh, we're living
(18:55):
longer and stuff.
And I think of my grandparentswho just passed within the past,
you know like a couple of years, and you know they weren't
living.
They were 85 years old, 90years old, and they were lying
in a bed.
They could barely talk, move,eat, and they were like that for
like five years.
And I was like I do not want tobe like that, I cannot, I
(19:18):
cannot see myself.
I'm about to turn 40 next yearand I'm like that's 40 years
away, that's really not thatlong of a time.
And I'm like I don't just wantto live another 40 years, I want
to live until I, you know, intomy hundreds and I want to be
moving and, you know, mobile andstill doing things on my own,
(19:39):
like I don't like thinking Ihave to rely on people all the
time, you know, and I justthought about my future and I
didn't want to be anotherstatistic and I'm like.
So I always ask myself I'm like, okay, if I eat this.
How am I going to feel an hourfrom now?
And when I did that I was like,oh my gosh, okay, yeah, an hour
(20:00):
from now I'm going to be likeErin, why did you eat that bag
of chips Like?
That's probably not what youshould have done.
So I asked myself these likequestions.
You know, is this going to helpme tomorrow when I'm training
you know, when I'm squatting,like eating these cookies and
these chips?
Is this going to help me buildthe muscle that I need to lift
(20:21):
heavier tomorrow or to besuccessful at school the next
day and sleep better?
So when you start askingyourself those kind of questions
, you're like, okay, yeah, andthen you stop for a second
instead of just going into thepantry and indulging.
You kind of have that pause,moment of okay, is this really
going to be helpful to me in thelong run?
(20:43):
Or, you know, is this?
I always talk about the emotionout of an eating too, because I
my mom is an emotional eater.
I was, I feel like I definitelywas, and when I first started
with Tina, 100% I would beeating, and because I was sad or
because I was upset and Ididn't process the emotions and
(21:06):
then I would feel bad aboutmyself a couple hours later,
being like, oh my gosh, I'm sofat, why did I eat all that?
And I would never fix thatcycle.
So, and then, finally, as Istarted learning, okay, let's
take the emotion out of it.
Am I sad right now?
Yeah, okay.
What can I do to help me withthe sadness?
(21:28):
What do I need to do?
Oh, let's take a walk, okay.
And if you're, if you feel likeyou want the chips after the
walk, then yeah, you can havesome chips.
And nine times out of 10,didn't want the chips.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
I would have chips.
I know I do love chips.
I know me, I love chips.
But you know, and to add tothat, erin, I would say you know
there's been the rare and Iwork only with females there's,
I would say there is a rarefemale athlete that I work with
or lifestyle client that is notan emotional eater or an
(21:59):
emotional not eater.
Right, that food is tied toemotion period.
Right, and I'm glad you saidthat and hopefully that's
something that you got from meat some point in our coaching
relationship, because that istrue, right Like you.
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'mgonna go both sides of the
emotional eating thing.
So I do very much believe thatwe take the emotion out of
(22:22):
eating, especially when we havea, an athletic purpose in mind.
Right Like that.
And I think that's somethingyou learn through this
competition process.
It's something you learnedthrough all of this tracking,
not tracking.
You know, whatever you learn tocontrol your emotions, cause
when you're in bodybuilding,when you're in competition prep,
you're eating to your macros.
(22:42):
You do not get the opportunityto emotionally eat.
Right Like I'm sad but Iliterally have five grams of
carbs left, so fuck my life,right Like there's no, I can't
do it.
I cannot eat my emotions rightnow.
So I think that's actually oneof the really cool things about
you know I talk about there's alot of.
You know we always talk aboutthe negative stuff, but there
are so many things that that youcan learn from this and I I can
(23:03):
speak from my own personalexperience, cause that's how I
learned to overcome this sort oflike disordered eating that I
had emotional eating, bingeeating, like just a lot of
mindless eating.
So that's a really cool part ofthe process and being able to
like hold yourself accountableto a set of macros or what have
(23:24):
you right.
And it is even an experimentthat anybody could do.
Right, like hold yourselfaccountable to a meal plan or
something of that.
That regards, right, that'sdoesn't feel overly restrictive.
Right, that says, okay, well, Ican't eat, that I decided I'm
taking decision fatigue out ofthis process.
This is what I'm eating todayand this is all I'm eating today
.
You take the emotion out of itand that's just what you do.
(23:46):
That's one way to do it.
The other side of the emotionaleating coin that you know I
always say I actually don'tsubscribe to the you can never
emotionally eat program.
I just don't, because sometimesit's okay to eat the chips,
because chips are comforting Ifyou have a healthy relationship
(24:09):
with your, if you love and trustyourself enough to make the
decision to consciously eat thechips, because it's just
something you really want rightnow.
I always used to talk about whenI would go to my grandmothers
and she would make fried porkchops.
I've talked about this so manytimes Fried pork chops.
She had an angel food cake.
It's mashed potatoes.
There's literally nothinghealthy about my anything my
(24:30):
grandmother would make, but itwas delicious and it was so
emotionally fulfilling to me tohave that meal.
It was emotionally fulfillingto my grandmother for me to have
that meal, and I never felt anyguilt about it, I looked
forward to it.
People were like, oh my God,you're eating angel food, cake
and fried pork chops.
Fuck, yes, I am, because itfelt so good in that moment.
(24:51):
And but again, so where we takethe emotion, there was an
emotional aspect to the eating.
But when you take the negativeemotion out of the eating I made
, when you use and so that pauseyou just told everybody about,
is mindfulness right?
So we'll do a whole anotherpodcast on mindfulness, so how
(25:12):
you develop that.
But that's what that is rightStopping and asking yourself
those questions Am I reallyhungry?
Am I actually thirsty?
Am I tired?
Am I emotionally eating?
How is this going to make mefeel?
Is it going to help me with mygoals?
Is it going to keep me furtherfrom my goals?
Is it going to enhance myexperience in this moment?
So those are the kinds ofquestions you ask yourself and
(25:35):
all that is is a moment, thatspace between stimulus and
reaction, which is whatmindfulness is right.
That gives you a minute tothink, right.
And so, yes, you have todevelop mindfulness skills, and
we'll get to that in anotherpodcast.
But when you have that ability,then you can make very conscious
decisions.
Do I go for the walk and theneat the chips or am I going to
(25:57):
fuck the walk and just eat thechips?
Right, and whatever you decidebecause you make a conscious
decision to do it, there is nomore emotion involved, right?
There is no guilt, there is noshame.
Trust me, I have made veryconscious decisions to eat four
more chips than I should andthen my stomach hurts.
But I can't feel bad other thanphysically going God damn it.
(26:18):
My stomach hurts, right, andI'll be like, oh well, right,
I'm not going to beat myself upover it.
I've made the decision to do it.
I knew it was going to make mystomach hurt and I did it anyway
.
Right.
So decisions and consequences,but there's no emotion in that.
Right, you just do right.
So that's kind of where that Ithink that comes from.
That's to take the emotion outof it.
(26:41):
But it's also okay to eat withemotion if that's what you're
choosing to do.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Does that make?
Do you think that makes?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
sense to people to say it that way.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Yeah, and to kind of piggyback on what you said about
your grandmother's food andeverything.
Totally get that, becausesimilar I mean everybody has
that meal that they remember afamily member, or like sitting
down with family or friends thatthey love to indulge in, or
they.
I mean it's December now, soeveryone's doing like the
holiday parties and the holidayfamily dinners and whatnot, and
(27:15):
like my family's doing a pastadinner next weekend, a big
Italian thing, and but we don'tdo that every week or every day.
So it's like those kind ofthings are fine to me.
Like if you're eating two bagsof chips every day, that's a red
flag to me.
Like, okay, what is happening?
(27:37):
Like there's something going onthere.
But like, yeah, that part ofemotional eating, totally great.
I think that's totally fine too,because food is love and you
make food because you love toprepare it for people, and vice
versa, you love when somebodymakes you food.
So it's like that connectednesstoo.
(27:59):
But I think it becomes aproblem when you're saying to
yourself oh yeah, I can havethese cookies today, it's fine,
my grandmother made these.
And then the next day, well, Ican have this cake too, because
my mom thought it was nice andshe would want me to have it,
and then the next day, oh yeah,I can have all these chips and
(28:19):
pretzels and popcorn because,well, my kids eat it, so I can
eat it.
So, it's like the cycle yougotta remember.
Okay, let me stop for a second.
Okay yeah, it's emotionalbecause I love my kids or I love
my grandparents or I love myparents, but am I getting what I
need out of it?
(28:40):
You know on a daily basis, kindof thing.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah, and into that point, right, like you don't
have to eat everything, right,that's made for you with love,
right, or all of the thingsright.
So I have a lot of clients thatare like, oh, this, I'm nervous
to go to this function and thisfunction and their love
language is food, but I'mrestricting food and all of this
(29:04):
.
I'm like you know, again, I'mgoing to go on both sides of the
coin here.
On one side of the coin, youagain, you need to love and
trust yourself enough to makethe decisions for you.
You do not have to eat foodthat other people offer to you
to be nice.
Yes, I don't.
There were plenty of things.
My grandmother God bless mygrandmother, I miss her so much.
(29:26):
But there's a running jokebetween me and one of my other
clients that, like mayonnaiseand mayonnaise is a food group.
It was my right, it's just.
Like mayonnaise.
And corn and coleslaw like it'sa coleslaw is a vegetable, corn
is a vegetable, mayonnaise is afood group.
That's just.
It's a joke, but it's.
But that's how it was.
So there were plenty of thingsthat I turned out right.
(29:47):
I chose the things that thatwere really nostalgic to me and
very important to me, and guesswhat?
I didn't eat pounds and poundsof it right.
I had a pork chop and a scoop ofmashed potatoes.
I don't eat.
I didn't eat everything thatwas offered to me.
And sometimes I said no becausewhen I knew it was going to,
really it just wasn't worth.
Right, it wasn't worth thestomach or whatever, whatever
(30:09):
that feeling was going to be.
So you have to make thosechoices.
So you can eat the food, butmaybe don't eat all the food.
Right, like you're going tohave this big pasta dinner but
you probably don't want to feellike super full and like shit
afterwards, so you're going toeat a reasonable portion, right?
Right, it's like going to arestaurant.
You go to the fucking what isit?
(30:29):
Cheesecake factory and like aportion of pasta is like 2000
pounds.
It's like who is eating that's?
That would be enough to feedfive people on one plate.
Right, if you're eatingreasonable portions, so you know
you don't have to eat all of it.
If you're going to potlucksthis time of year like potlucks
and holiday parties and stuff Itell my clients all the time and
(30:52):
don't avoid it, yeah, becauseyou're going to then you're
going to end up like runningback there in the room when
everybody's gone and woofingdown all the food.
You're going to get this likerestriction fatigue.
You're going to get thiswillpower fatigue.
We don't have.
We have finite amounts ofwillpower.
Allow yourself to go and eatsmall amounts of what you want
(31:17):
to eat.
Don't eat all the food justbecause it's there, right?
Have a small bite of everything.
Yeah, everything you want, noteverything, right, so I will.
I'm very choosy about like whatI'm like.
This looks good, that doesn'tlook good.
I'm not just going to pileeverything on my plate because
I'm going to be nice, becausepeople at work made this, so you
know.
So there's, there's ways tostill enjoy those things and not
(31:38):
over overdo it, right?
So again, it's about portionmonitoring.
It's about loving and trustingyourself enough I think really
that's the theme to maintainsome control and then getting
into understanding themindfulness of stopping, stop,
drop and roll, yeah, maybe weshould add that stop.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
And only make it like stop, drop and do push ups
before you yeah.
It's not a new thing.
Did we just come up with that?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
So it's not a form of punishment, it's just a means
to, like, make you stop.
You stop drop, drop and rollbefore you reach for any food,
right?
Just so you can stop and reallythink about, like is this
something you really want, right.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
And I and also to kind of go along with that too,
is I eat fast and that wassomething that I'm still working
on it to a degree, because Ihad gotten better, you know,
with that.
But you know, as a as aneducator, it was hard.
You know, like you only have acertain amount of time to eat,
(32:46):
so you have to wolf your bootdown in 15 minutes because you
got five minutes to get back toclass or whatever it was.
And luckily now I'm a littlebit more.
You know I can kind of be like,okay, I'm going to shut my door
and I'm going to eat for alittle bit, so nobody comes in,
kind of thing.
But I know a lot of peopledon't have that.
But when, when I was eating sofast, I didn't realize how full
(33:09):
I was actually getting, and thenby the time I was done my plate
and maybe had a dessert orsomething else with it, I was
like, oh my God, I feel so sick,Like my stomach was so full.
So eating slower has helped somuch.
So like, if you're at a holidayparty and you see all this, you
know the spread out like, yeah,take a couple things and then
(33:32):
wait 20 minutes and be like Okay, am I still hungry enough to go
back and get more?
If the answer is yes, and it'sa genuine yes, go back and get
more.
If it's now, I think I'm okay,maybe a little bit later, then
wait a little bit longer andthen go back.
We're not saying don't eat allthe junk food or don't eat what
you want.
I don't want to be like thatkind of person.
(33:53):
But at the same time, I wantyou to really like work with
your body and say, yeah, I'mactually really for it now.
Do I really want that cupcake?
I want it, but I think I'mgoing to wait, you know, and
then if I'm hungry now or laterand the cupcake's still there,
then yeah, I'll have it.
But I think that's reallyimportant too.
You know, taking your time andagain, that kind of goes along
(34:16):
with the mindfulness too, butlike taking your time and
sitting with your food, enjoyingwhat you have in front of you
and then evaluating if you wantmore or something else, you know
.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yeah and like and adding on to that.
So you know, slowing down isimportant for so many reasons,
not just to pay attention toyour hunger cues right, your
hunger and satiety cues but alsofor digestion.
I mean, it's just like if youfind yourself bloated and
indigestion and you know all youknow constipate or whatever.
You know it's a lot of timesjust slowing down and thoroughly
(34:51):
chewing your food, taking abreath between each bite, right
like.
If you really want a way to,like, make yourself slow down,
take a bite, put your fork downto your food.
Another fork bite doesn't goback to your mouth until you
chewed it thoroughly and youswallowed it.
That might sound ridiculous,but it is a way to train
yourself.
If you're eating in front of thetelevision, eating in front of
(35:12):
your computer and you're typing,and you're typing and you're
eating your time, if you couldsee me, I'm actually typing.
If I'm typing and I'm soanimated You're, you're going to
, you're going to.
You're shoving food in yourface.
You're not paying any attention.
Am I actually hungry, am I not?
Your body can't keep up andthen you know, all of a sudden
you're going to have indigestion.
(35:33):
You didn't actually enjoy anyof the food, you just ate, you
just walked it down and didn'tcare, right?
So, again, you're not reallybeing loving and trusting of
your, your body, when you'redoing that, and food is meant to
be nourishment for your body itis, you know.
Do we have to enjoy and loveeverything we eat?
No, right, Because a lot oftimes it is just food for fuel.
(35:54):
But you should enjoy it in thesense of what it's doing for you
right?
Or if you've decided to, youknow, emotionally, eat the fried
pork chop that your grandmothermade you, right?
That's that's enjoy thosethings, right?
So, yeah, so, eating to likeabout 80%, full slowing down,
that's, you know.
Again, using mindfulness, enjoythe food right Like, the taste,
(36:17):
the texture right, like,instead of like, whooping down,
like, if you want, if like, ifyou're a chocolate lover, like,
get some really good qualitychocolate, have a square.
I love those lit squares,they're such a perfect like
little piece and like the tazzais one of my favorites because
it's like dairy free.
But like savory, Don't shovethe.
I yell at my husband about thisall the time.
(36:38):
Like like goldfish, I also lovegold, so for sure, my son you
see, you know goldfish.
I kind of miss him not beinghere, but thank God the goldfish
aren't in the house anymore.
I'm a one goldfish at a time.
I'm a one in the name at a time.
I will eat something for an hour.
When it comes to like littlefoods like that, my husband
(37:00):
handful shove it in the mouth,right.
Like jelly bellies is anotherone.
And just like it sounds likeall I ate is junk food.
But this is how I'm, but itactually is strategy for me.
When I am eating something likejelly beans, I could shove the
whole handful in my mouth, but Itake one at a time.
I choose a jelly bean and thenI might have another one, right?
So there are ways to make yourfood last and savor it a little
(37:23):
bit longer.
When you're shoving handfuls inyour mouth, You're going to
overeat in a heartbeat, right?
But you know, really, slow downand enjoy what it is that
you're eating, whether junk foodor healthy food, right.
What, what am I?
What otherwise, what are wedoing?
Much for Right.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Exactly, exactly.
And the boredom too.
Yeah, that's another thing thatI hear a lot about with people.
They're like well, I just, youknow, got home from work and I
was just eating because I didn't.
I was just like walking aroundthe house and I didn't know what
to do and get myself into and Iwas just, I was just eating
whatever was in the fridge andI'm like, oh my gosh, that's
(37:58):
another problem.
If you're bored, don't go tothe refrigerator, don't go to
the kitchen.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Get the fuck out of the kitchen.
If you're bored, get out of thekitchen.
Do something productive.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Think of something and scrolling on your phone.
That's not something productive.
Just do something that's gonnagive you joy, or create
something like clean thebathroom, if you really have
something prepared For a walk Gofor a clean bathroom?
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yeah, do something more productive than that.
So just to wrap things up, sohopefully we gave people some
ideas of what they can do.
But listen, if you really havea goal of losing weight, we have
a goal of being healthier.
If you have a goal of gainingmuscle, being stronger in the
(38:43):
gym, what have you?
Tracking your food in some wayis important, right, because the
athletic goal that's involved,or the aesthetic goal that's
involved in the health goal, thehealth goal that's involved in
that.
If you don't know where you arecurrently tracking in some way
first, then learning how to eatfor your body, that was the
(39:06):
space in between.
That, the bodybuildingcompetition kind of right.
I think you realized throughthe competition process that
healthier foods because that'swhat fit in your macros made you
feel better, right, and whenyou, it wasn't about restriction
, it was about I have this goal,I'm gonna eat for my goal,
(39:28):
right, didn't mean you couldnever have pizza, pasta, cookies
or what have you.
You just you know.
And then you realize there'sthis meme that I saw years ago
and it's always stuck out to me.
It's like most people have noidea how good the body's
designed to feel, cause we'rejust a walk around in a
perpetual state of feeling likeshit, Like you said.
You know, and the epidemic inAmerica is everybody is sick,
(39:50):
Everybody has some things wrongwith everybody.
So you know, when you start tofocus more on like your health
and your longevity and howthings make you feel right and
even have food journal in thatrespect right, so not tracking
for calories necessarily, butlike here's what I ate today,
how did I feel?
Yeah, Right.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
I had energy.
That's a good idea.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Right, I mean, I do that with a lot of clients as
well, right?
So it's not about calories,it's about tracking this is what
I ate today.
And then there's actually somereally cool already pre-printed
journals you can get on Amazonthat are kind of like how did I
feel today, how did I sleeptoday, what was my exercise,
what did I eat?
And I think those are greatbecause then you can record like
emotionally, how did you feel?
(40:28):
Were you emotionally eating?
Did you feel like shit becauseof the food you ate?
Did you have indigestion?
Did you feel lethargic?
And then you can kind of keepthese like symptom journals
right, that kind of go alongwith your foods and start to see
what makes you feel good, payattention to those things, right
, yeah, and like the times thatyou eat.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
you know like people aren't eating when they're at
work because they're so likeinto their work and what they're
doing, and then when they gethome they're like, oh my gosh, I
don't know what to do.
Let me just eat.
So like you can track that too.
Okay, well, what can I do afterwork?
That's gonna be nice for me todecompress after work.
That doesn't have to involve,you know, eating a bunch of
(41:07):
sweets or you know bad thingsbecause I'm bored and I don't
know what to do.
Kind of thing, right.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Coming up with healthier strategies than just
diving into food, right, right,so there's, it's always good to
like kind of have a strategy inplace.
It's like, okay, well, when Istart to get the if I know, my
be-witching hour is like as soonas I get home from work, like
what is the thing I can do todecompress before I start making
(41:35):
dinner and get the kids topractice and all the other
things, right.
So it's like just replacing,right?
We're not saying you can't eatsomething, we're just saying
replace that with a habit that'sprobably that's going to help
you achieve whatever your goalis, right.
So, with something that's justa little bit healthier than
diving into the snacks and stuff.
So how do you so?
Just real quick, to wrap thingsup, how did do you feel now?
(41:58):
Like intuitive eating?
How do you base how you'reeating?
Are you still eating like gottaeat it at five and 10?
And you know, are you stilllike on the schedule?
Are you really paying attentionto your hunger signals and kind
of just eating when you'rehungry?
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Yeah.
So when I was on prep, I kindof figured out, you know, like
you just said, the timing.
I would have to eat at nineo'clock and then I would have to
let that spread through untilabout 11, 11, 30.
And then I would have a littlebit of lunch and then I would
take a little break.
It was very time-regimented,but now it's fantastic.
It's absolutely fantastic.
(42:35):
I have a smoothie in the morningfor, like, my pre-breakfast,
and sometimes that fills me upenough and sometimes it doesn't.
But when it does, I'm like okay, should I eat my oatmeal now?
No, you can probably wait alittle bit.
Or, you know, I actually amreally still really hungry.
I'm gonna eat this oatmeal too,or half of it, and save it, you
know.
So it's just really nice to seehow I'm working with my body
(43:01):
now instead of like telling itwhat to do.
You know, I think that's thebiggest thing we're getting
there.
Oh, I love that.
Yeah, it's so much, I feel somuch better.
I really do, and I just wisheveryone could feel like this,
because it is so nice to be like, yeah, I'm gonna have an apple
right now, or I'm gonna havethis right now, and because I
(43:23):
want to, and because I'm hungryor because you know what I mean,
I'm not at some sort of aschedule or anything like that.
You know, it's just veryfreeing and I love that.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
And I'll say you know me too, right, like we were
talking about before we got onthe podcast, I think, like I
have been tracked a macro andover a year too, aside from like
a spot check here and there,and you know, I'm just like let
me really see where my caloriesare.
Right, like I'm just like whyam I eating these days?
And I can tell you, it is likedead on the money the same thing
I was eating when I wastracking for the last five years
(43:56):
and, like you and I weretalking about, I had gotten so
addicted to tracking andclaiming that I like.
Well, I need all this data.
Yeah, but I wasn't using thedata for anything.
I was literally just trackingto track.
I use the data for nothing.
Right, I was like you know,yeah, I could look and say, well
, some days I'd eat like around1700, 1800 and some days I'd eat
(44:18):
2500.
So I probably average about2,300 calories a day.
But was I using that data foranything other than to go I know
how many calories I'm eatingtoday?
Who fucking cares?
Right, like I was like itwasn't changing my eating habits
.
I wasn't like using it to gainweight, lose weight, maintain
weight nothing, I was literallytracking to track when I it was
hard, like I will admit.
(44:38):
When I first stopped tracking, Iwas like, like you know, my
little fingers didn't know whatto do with themselves while I'm
preparing my meals and the scale, and like I'd go to get the
scale and I'm like, no, I don'tneed the scale, right.
And so, like I was like, andnow and then, when I would go
back and like spot check in thelast year, like I think I've
done it like maybe a handful oftimes, I'm just like the scale's
annoying.
This is annoying.
Trying to tear, you know, thetrying to zero out the scale and
(45:01):
then put this in, and this isjust too fucking time consuming.
I don't want to do this anymoreand I don't right.
So I literally have probablymaintained my weight.
I've probably maintained myexact weight for the last five
years.
Yeah, that's interesting,though, and even when I was
tracking, like I said, I wasn'treally using the data for
anything.
Great.
(45:21):
So, anyway, it is very freeingto be able to just, you know,
and it actually it took me along time, I mean, cause I ate
on this like schedule since Istarted competing back in 2005,.
Right, like I certainly hadmade progress, but I even still
I was like, well, okay, I justate, it's eight o'clock and I
should probably eat again by 12and I should probably eat again
by like three and I shouldprobably eat again by whatever.
(45:43):
And I just, you know, I just Istopped all that and now I
really do just like.
I mean, my body still is kindof like hungry right around
those you know the time it'slike it's been a couple of hours
spinning on the way, eight, butnow it's just very freeing to
just be like, oh, I'm hungry,yeah, I think I will eat
something right now, right,exactly, and it's still the same
principles.
You know, once you learn whatworks for your body, once you
(46:05):
learn how to eat, you have toknow how to eat first, and we
did not actually discuss indetail in this podcast what to
eat and how to eat.
Maybe we'll do that in anotherpodcast.
Yeah, but you know, I stillnearly every meal I have has at
least some lean protein in it.
Every meal has I'm obsessedwith, like vegetables and fruits
, like there are just certainmeals that I do not compromise
(46:26):
right, like I must have thesegreens and I must have these
fruits and I must have my mainproteins, because I love protein
, and then I might, and then Ican add the bag of chips later
if I want to.
But that's you know.
You still eat the same way.
I still eat the same way I'vealways eaten, and it's really
because it's what makes my bodyfeel good, it's what makes me,
(46:47):
you know, mentally feel good.
It gives me the energy to doall the things that I'm doing
and I, like you and having, youknow, watched, and my
grandparents were very active aslong as they could be active,
but I don't want to be sick,right, like I deal with lupus
and you know I already haveenough issues that I don't.
(47:09):
You know, I need to treat mybody with some kindness and you
know, again, love and trust,loving, and I think that was a
really good theme that youbrought up, because it really is
, to me, the biggest obstaclefor women being able to make the
(47:31):
right choices for themselves,to be as healthy as they can be
right.
It's not.
I mean, yes, a lot of that, youknow.
Learning the tools, that's veryimportant.
Getting to practice thesethings.
It's not easy, none of thesethings that we, erin and I, just
made this sound like we're justgonna glide right through.
This was years long process.
Right, we're still learning.
(47:52):
Right, I'm still learning.
I'm still adjusting.
I'm getting older.
I'm, you know, going into my51st year now.
I'm just like you know.
So I'm always adjusting.
I am never I'm not doing thesame things that I did 10 years
ago.
You're not gonna be doing thesame thing if you can't.
So you have to just listen toyour body and keep you know and
keep kind of analyzing what'sgoing on and using the
(48:14):
mindfulness that we're gettingready to talk about in our next
podcast.
Because I'm gonna say I go outon a limb and I say learning
mindfulness techniques is thekey to life period, it is the
key to having joy in life, it isthe key to being able to eat
(48:36):
and be healthy, it is the key tostress reduction.
To me, learning mindfulnesstechniques and is the longevity
key.
Yeah, no, I agree with you andI don't think my the limb I'm
going out on is very fragile.
(48:57):
I think it is pretty solid, Ithink.
But we'll talk about that nextand we'll see why it's so hard
for people to get into.
Yes, anything else?
You wanna add on the food stuffto our podcast that was
supposed to be shortened and ina new?
Speaker 2 (49:12):
No, Although I think we kept it less than an hour at
least, we'll stop here and we'llsee where the next one takes us
.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
All right, so I taught Erin.
I told her she's gonna be our,my co-host.
She had to learn the catchphrase.
I'm gonna let her say thegoodbye phrase today.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
All right, guys don't get weird, use your head, it'll
all be okay.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
Yay, bye, bye.
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