April 28, 2024 • 32 mins
Sick and tired of constantly dieting, only to find that keeping the weight off feels like an impossible task?
This is an all too familiar concept to many people. Including today's special guest, Brooke Palamo. From trying every diet under the sun, battling with the scale and societal pressures, to finding true joy and freedom in food and movement - Brooke shares her inspiring journey.
After having faced many challenges, she didn't just overcome the hurdles; she turned them into stepping stones toward a new way of living.
Imagine learning a new language, where instead of counting calories and feeling guilt over every bite, you listen to your body and no longer feel controlled by food. That's the magic of intuitive eating. And Brooke is living proof that it's not only possible but life-changing.
Join us as Brooke shares the valuable lessons learned from her dieting and post-pregnancy journey, where old habits clashed with new revelations. Proving that the road to recovery is never a straight line.
Want to feel more in control around food? Check out my Stop Struggling With Food Guide, currently on sale for 40% off.
You’ll also find 50 of my favourite recipes to get you inspired!
Get my Free 5 Day Course to help you stop binge and emotional eating.
Looking for more support to feel in control around food? I'd love to support you in my Binge Free Academy.
Come follow me on the gram at @nude_nutritionist (no nude pics, sorry).
Want to share some feedback or have an idea for an episode, I'd LOVE to hear from you - hit me up at hello@lyndicohen.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
No one ever stays on a diet forever.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I find it wild how diet companies are allowed to
use those highly curated beforeand after photos.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I just got to the point where I was like I don't
have the emotional capacity todo that anymore.
So that's when I needed tochange.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
A piece of toast with avocado is cool and all, but
it's not as grabbable.
Yes, it'll take an extra fiveminutes, and that is just
perhaps five minutes too longsometimes.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
One thing that made me want to snap out of it was I
saw my four-year-old get on thescale and I was like okay, we're
not doing that so I've hiddenit away in the wardrobe.
I've gotten to a point whereI'm enjoying how I'm feeling,
I'm enjoying eating, I'menjoying my exercise, and that
thought of the scales is fadingaway.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Hi everyone and welcome to no Wellness Wankery.
What you're hearing right nowis a conversation between a real
person, brooke Palamo, who wenton a journey from dieting
mayhem something you probablyfeel very familiar with to
discovering intuitive eatingnon-dieting and in today's
episode she is sharing some ofthose really key insights that
(01:24):
she learned, stuff that I reallywant you to know, that I'm so
glad that she shared with you.
So thank you, brooke, forsharing your story, and I hope
you enjoy this real conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So I was thinking back to when did this all begin?
And I don't know if there's aparticular moment in time, but I
recall when I was in primaryschool, grade four, so I was 10.
We had an activity in theclassroom.
We were learning aboutstatistics, and I remember it so
vividly.
And so in this particularinstance, the teacher wrote on
(02:05):
the chalkboard 20 to 29, 30 to39, 40 to 49, like in columns,
and then what we had to do?
Each child went up to the frontof the room, stood on a scale,
weighed themselves and then hadto put their tally where they
fell.
And so I'm a tall person.
In general at school I wasalways a.
(02:27):
I wasn't wasn't fat, I was just.
I was that kid that was likejust solid, like I was taller
and I was just built a bit moresolid.
I, from the get-go, was likeI'm in the category here of the
bigger boys in the class, and soI remember I went up to the
front, I put my foot on and offthis because I knew where I was.
(02:48):
I'm like probably in the 60s or70s or war, probably late, I
don't know 60 to 70 kilos.
And so I just went on and offand was like put the tally up
there, like I just I didn't even, and I don't remember what
happened after that.
I don't know if she asked me toredo it, but I was was just
like, and then I'm looking atthe board, after 30 kids have
gone up, there's all thesetallies together in this bunch,
(03:11):
and then I'm like the outlier onthe end and I've just been like
, well, if I like I've hadinternal weight issues, being
the bigger kid, and then I'mlike and there it is in all its
glory on the board for my wholeclass to see, and I was just
remember, like that's just stuckwith me and something I've
reflected on a lot since we'vebeen speaking.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
It sounds like before getting on the scale, you were
already aware of the fact thatyou felt like the bigger kid,
like as though you knew that inthe scale was going to give you
the wrong answer.
Was that moment, then, justbringing it all home, and did
you do anything differently as aresult of hopping on the scale?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I don't think I did anything differently.
I just I've just felt differentand like I was never excluded
and I was always in like goodgroups of friends at school and
all that sort of stuff.
I was never excluded from beinglike I wasn't overly an overly
big kid, I was just.
I just knew that I was what wasback then like the solid kid,
and I just remember thinkinglike this is not, and I'm
(04:13):
probably feeling the way nowthat I did back then, like I'm
not comfortable, I'm likeshallow breathing, I'm just
going.
It's just not a very fondmemory, what with the teacher
probably thinking oh, it's aninnocent task and it meets the
purpose of what we're trying todo here, but they don't
understand.
Just by doing that, that canjust set you off for the next 20
, 30 years, rest your life, likethings like that can just mold
(04:36):
you in such a way in yourformative years.
Yeah, so it's one thing thatI've chalked up.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
When you wrote to me, you said I'm now 35, got two
kids and I've had a life of fatburner tablets as a teen, tony
Ferguson as a teen, weightWatchers as a teen, many and
varied shake diets with a vomitemoji, excessive training with
restrictive diets, steak forbreakfast what HC?
Hcg diet, which is dangerous,and I can't believe.
(05:05):
This is legal.
And you said that I lost 10kilograms in a month and I only
ate a very small number ofcalories a day.
And no one busted an eyelid andof course you did, jenny Craig.
You had then went on to havethis rich I don't know if that's
the right word rich and varieddiet history for many, many
years.
Do you want to tell me aboutthat?
Speaker 1 (05:28):
I forgot to add in that I also did the skinny teas.
So add that on the list.
And I'm not exaggerating orlying when I say that I did all
of that.
I've been there, I've done it,I tried it, I was humiliated by
it.
It made me sick and I think now,mid-30s, with the
(05:48):
responsibilities that we've gotwith working kids and all those
sorts of things, I wasabsolutely exhausted by that
like hamster wheel of just notonly weight going up and down,
but the emotional roller coasterand the absolute guilt that I
would put myself under and beatmyself up.
And then you go great for fivedays of the week.
(06:11):
It'd get to the weekend andyou're like, oh, things might go
, hey, why here?
And they go sideways.
And then you beat yourself upand you're like I'm not gonna
eat for two days or whatever,and then you wonder why it just
goes back around again.
And I think I just got to thepoint where I was like I don't
have the emotional capacity todo that anymore.
(06:31):
So that's when I needed tochange, do you think?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
it was clear that going on these weightless
attempts was actually not evengetting you to lose weight.
And keep it off.
It's the keeping it off.
It got me to lose weight andkeep it off.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
It's the keeping it off it got me to lose weight,
sure, but it was only ever goingto last a short while.
So it's kind of like I'd bewilling to do it for a block of
time and then be like, okay, orI'd think that it would be
different.
Well, this time it'll bedifferent.
And so, after the birth of myfirst daughter four years ago, I
(07:06):
got onto Jenny Craig and I waslike, yeah, I can do that.
And I think it was actually atthe time Jelena Dokic was the
ambassador.
I don't know what it was, but Isaw myself in her and I was like
she can do it, I can do it, notto compare myself to like a
world-class sportswoman, but Idon't know what it was.
I was like all right.
(07:26):
And so I saw that on theweekend, the next Monday, I went
to the journey cake or I sentthem an email, whatever, signed
up, lost 16 kilos in four monthsand gained it back in probably
half the time.
And I've never known a weightloss plan or diet or whatever to
last any longer than six months.
Because you either see thatyou're getting all these like,
(07:49):
oh look, I've lost all theweight, as I did and I stopped,
and then I gained it back.
No one ever stays on a dietforever, and so, yeah, that's
where I found myself.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Did you see other people having success and wonder
why you couldn't um?
Or did you?
Were you aware of the fact thatother people were also going on
diets and the exact same thingwas happening to them?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
I'm not too sure.
I would often compare my like,always compare myself to other
people in different ways, andI'm not too sure, like I would
probably look at some people andgo like how can they do it?
What am I doing wrong?
And I just thought, like,because at the end of
particularly in Jenny Craig, atthe end of it they wean you off
(08:33):
the meal plan, to put you onmaintenance, to basically just
go and live your life.
Now you're free and go, be free.
I know we're you, we've done,we're done with you, move on.
Um, and I just you learnnothing on a meal.
So long as someone says,microwave this box of food, eat
it, have an apple, go to bed,whatever.
As long as you do that and youdon't have to think and you're
(08:55):
not learning, sure it'll work.
And as soon as I finishedbecause I'd lost my 16 kilos and
I was looking great, I was like, oh, what do I do now?
And then, like externalpressures and stress would come
in.
And I'd looking great, I waslike, oh, what do I do now?
And then like externalpressures and stress would come
in and I'd fall back into my ownways.
Because of four months of doingthe journey, craig, I learned
nothing.
I was back into my old waysalready.
So there's no education in that.
(09:16):
Sure, it does what you want todo in the way of losing the
weight.
And then I was like I would endthat.
And then I would look aroundand go, okay, well, maybe that
wasn't the diet for me, likethat, okay, that's not the one I
can maintain.
What's the next one?
Sure as hell, tried enoughshake diets over and over again,
thinking that maybe I canmaintain this one, and it would
(09:37):
just never.
And after a six month periodit'd be done and I'd find myself
, okay, what am I going to donow?
Sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I find it wild how diet companies are allowed to
use those highly curated beforeand after photos to endorse
their product, which they'recapturing a moment in time.
They're not showing you whathappens after the after photo.
There is no requirement forthem to show you what happened
to that person after the afterphoto.
For example, Yolanda Dockage.
She's very much come forwardand talked about her binge
(10:07):
eating experience, herdisordered eating, and she was
the poster girl for a dietcompany, and what they basically
do is they're not looking.
Okay.
Well, listen, a thousand peopledid this program and here's how
many people kept the weight offafter five years.
They're never, ever, revealingthat to you because that would
make them look really, reallybad, and most people that I
spoke to have tried thesedifferent approaches again and
(10:30):
again and again.
You then ended up having I don'tknow if it was in a hot moment.
It kind of sounds like fromwhat you and I have spoken about
.
You said around this time youstarted following me, maybe in
2020.
You were still dieting at thetime.
Can you tell me about that?
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yes.
So I started following you,yeah, in 2020.
And that was after I'd had mydaughter in 2019.
So I may or may not have beenon Jenny Craig at the time, may
have finished it, and was like,okay, here's a healthy structure
or some inspiration that I canthen follow.
And I remember at the time Itook a screenshot of one of your
(11:11):
lunches that you'd prepared andI was like, okay, I can do that
, I like the food in that photo,let's do it, and I would.
Then I started making you knowmy lunches based on those sorts
of things, but we're still stillbinging, so I didn't ever have
that moment of going.
I've seen the light.
Let's go with what Lindy'sdoing.
I was, I was trying, but I wasfalling back into old ways and I
(11:36):
don't know what it has taken.
But I've found that, likeexternal stresses and things
like that, when I get stressedor when I get emotional or
whatever, that's my sort of myoutlet I then go to the club and
go.
I can't handle whatever's goingon and I just shove food in my
mouth and so, while it was okay,yeah, my lunches are good, but
(11:59):
I get home in the afternoonafter work and I'll just eat
half a box of chocolate, it'slike, okay, that's, yeah, the
mix of the binge eating.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Still, I think that's the hardest thing to do.
When you learn about intuitiveeating and you really like the
idea.
You like the idea of notdieting but at the same time
you've spent so many years,decades, dieting that it's what
you know.
It's how you know these foodrules dominate you.
So sometimes I see people theytry and do a bit of intuitive
(12:30):
eating but they're still doingquite a bit of dieting and then
they feel like it's not working,I'm not getting anywhere.
And then they kind of feel likeI gave non-dieting a shot and
it didn't really work.
But it sounds like for you.
You kind of did this littlehalf in, half out thing for a
while, but progressively, themore you learned about not
(12:51):
dieting, intuitive eating, themore you went okay, this is
making more and more sense to meand it wasn't like there was
this big aha moment where youwent okay, finally we're
quitting diets.
We're never going back.
It was a slow relearning andswitching back into diets, right
.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah.
And then after the birth of myson, which was July last year, I
found myself at that pointwhere you are bigger than you
are normally and you probablyneed to start a diet to lose the
baby weight and all those sortsof things.
And I was like, all right,we've got two options here.
Like I was just exhausted, I'mlike I can pick a diet, what's
the latest, what's going on?
And I'd actually just hung outwith a mum friend who had got
(13:33):
onto Ozempic and thankfully shetold me that it was how many
thousands of dollars it was.
And I was like, okay, well,that's probably not an option.
And then I was like, or I canjust do better than what I'm
doing, and if that's not eatinghalf a block of chocolate, then
let's just start with that.
And I found that if I'msatisfied or if I'm full, I can
(13:58):
keep those little like hungergremlins at bay.
If I plan that I've always gotsnacks on me like nut bars and
things like that and get aheadof my hunger, then I don't turn
into this crazy binge eatingperson.
That was a bit of a slowrealization too.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
The strategy number one I'd say is what you're
saying is you decided thatprevious you would have tried to
be good all day right, whichwas kind of code for being on
diet or eating like reallyhealthy food that was allowed,
and what you're doing now is yougo.
No, I have to be satisfied bymy meals and I can't let myself
become overly hungry.
(14:37):
Because you saw the pattern ofwhat was happening with the diet
mentality you were gettingravenous and, as a result, you
were binge eating.
So now you are preemptivelyeating, not preemptively eating.
I assume you're waiting untilyou feel hungry, but then you
have those options on hand.
You know the nut bars in yourpantry that you can easily grab,
and I think that's a really keypart of it is the grab ability.
(14:59):
Like sure, a piece of toastwith avocado is cool and all,
but it's not as grabbable.
Yes, it'll take an extra fiveminutes, and that is just
perhaps five minutes too longsometimes.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Absolutely.
And so I got used to being like, okay, you know, our bodies are
smart things, I know whatthey're doing, it's going to
tell me when it's hungry.
And so first of all, I realizedI wasn't eating enough at all.
I'd be having a piece of toastfor breakfast and then it would
get to lunchtime and then Iwould eat.
Like if I was at work, I'dprobably go buy like a wrap and
(15:31):
chips and like big stuff.
So that was way too lateBecause you were so hungry,
right?
Yeah, exactly, and it's funnywhen I'm at work and I'd sort of
feel that it's not a hungerpain or anything, it's just like
, oh, I could eat now, or like Ineed to start thinking about
eating.
I'd be checking the time andit's like 10.30, 11 o'clock and
(15:54):
I'm like I'm gonna eat a nut barnow, because in the next 15, 20
minutes I'm gonna get hangryand I am not pleasant when I'm
hangry.
So, and then back to havingstuff on hand.
I would always have snacks andthings, because I know that
between now and the next 15 20minutes is when things can go
south for me.
So yeah, like you said,preparing nice meals is a lovely
(16:18):
thing to do and it's great andI do it when I have time.
But there are also times whenI'm like I open the pantry and
I'm like I need to eat something, when the old me would be like
there's a bag of chips there,there's half a bag of chocolate
there, there's some sweetcookies or whatever there, where
I'm like okay, now, if I havethat situation again, I'm like
I've got a nut bar, I've gotsome sultanas, I've got a piece
(16:39):
of fruit, I've got somethingjust to put in my mouth and like
walk away for a minute, becauseI've been doing that for so
long.
So it's yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
There are so many good points here.
The second strategy you'retalking about is intuitive
eating.
And just a reminder aboutintuitive eating.
It's not just eating whateverwhenever it is very much about
tuning into your hunger andgoing oh, am I hungry?
And the interesting thing, likeyou're saying, brooke, is that
you develop patterns.
You kind of go all right.
(17:09):
I generally do get hungryaround the 10 am, 10.30-ish and
I know myself, I know that it'srealized.
It's taking me 20 minutesbefore I become way too hungry,
which is actually quite a quicktransition period.
And you've identified whathunger feels like for you.
Because if you've been dietingfor so many years, majority of
people go.
I don't even know what hungerfeels like and, as you so
(17:33):
rightly said, sometimes it justis.
It's just this feeling of Icould eat right now, it's just
this gut feeling.
It doesn't.
Sometimes it's not a grumble,it's not hanger, that's too much
, it's so subtle, but you'relistening out for it and then
you are responding to it.
And so the third strategyyou've talked about is this eat
more to eat less kind of concept.
So it is about going.
I am done with all or nothingthinking when it comes to
(17:55):
nutrition.
Old me would have thought I'monly allowed to have a hundred
calorie snack right now.
It would have said it has to bean apple, it has to be
something allowed.
What you're saying is I'm goingto have something like a nut
bar, which, yeah, has a littlebit more calories, but it's
really truly enjoyable.
It's very satisfying to me.
So I've added in more calories,but it's going to mean I avoid
a binge later.
(18:15):
Then you can see how you'resitting much more in that middle
in that balanced kind ofterritory, as opposed to the
health pendulum swing, which iswhat you were doing before.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yep, yep, you've nailed it.
And I think and it goes againstwhat we're told about eat more
to eat less sort of mentality,and it's never perfect you've
got to know what your triggersare and you've got to know what
works and what doesn't for you.
And it's got to be enjoyable,like you said.
(18:46):
It can't just be 100 caloriesnack that I'm allowed or not
allowed to have.
I get so much pleasure andenjoyment out of eating and it's
got to be things that I amhappy to eat, not that I am told
to eat.
Things that I enjoy.
And if there's a day where I'mlike I feel like something a bit
more substantial for a morningtea, like a yogurt and granola
(19:09):
or something that's a bit morelike that, I'm allowed to
because I'm not countinganything, because that's what my
body wants and I know that bythe end of the day I'm not going
to be binging and things likethat.
So that's been an adjustmentand it's a constantly working
thing.
It's not just one of thesethings that just happens and
you're a changed person.
It's something that you'reconstantly thinking about.
(19:29):
But I think, tuning into thatwhat your body's telling you,
because it's a smart thing andit knows what to do.
It's interesting to see when Iget hungry throughout the day,
because for the past 20 yearsI've not been hungry, because
I'm always eating, because I'malways binging and things like
that.
So I've not known whatintuitive is.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Because when you're coming out of diet world, I
think we feel so scared to behungry.
I felt very tainted by thefeeling of hunger.
I truly believed that food waskind of running out in a way,
and so I just felt compelled.
Now I think what is alsointeresting you mentioned in a
previous chat you and I have hadis how you start to think about
exercise differently and yourealized I'm going to do the
(20:12):
exercise I actually enjoy.
Can you tell me about that?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah, what I found that I enjoyed is 10 or more
years ago I had a back injuryand herniated disc and I had all
this rehab and got into thefirst time I'd ever tried
reformer Pilates and I was like,oh okay, this is a injury rehab
situation.
And then, moving home, I foundthat there's places that offer
(20:36):
that and then so I found aclinic nearby that does it and I
love, I truly love doing that.
I'm not the traditional Pilatesstyle body but I love that it's
low impact and it's constantlya lot of variety in a class and
I'm getting weight training.
It's not that I can put my headbehind my head or anything
(20:57):
crazy like that.
I'm not a very flexible person.
I really do enjoy that and I'vedone.
I've done the CrossFit and I'vedone all those things.
And you know I'm 35, I'm notthat old.
But there comes a time in yourlife where it's like I can't do
a lot of that high impact stuffanymore.
I don't want to, because Ican't afford to be injured,
(21:18):
because I've got kids that I'vegot to run around after, like.
So it's just it's somethingthat I found that I enjoy and I
find, even even if it's justgoing for a walk, I throw a baby
in the pram and I'm like I'mjust going to head out for an
hour, and if it's not an hourit's 20 minutes, but it's a lap
around the block and I find thatwalking and Pilates are what
work for me and I think you'vegot to enjoy what you do.
(21:39):
Don't just go for the walk orthe run or whatever because
you're being told or you thinkthat's what you have to do,
because you're not going tomaintain it.
And if you don't have pleasurein what you're doing, you're not
going to maintain it.
So it's got to be somethingthat you enjoy.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
So strategy number five is you have finally gotten
to this point where you'verealized the importance of
enjoyment, the key tosustainability being enjoyment,
and being able to ask yourselfthe question of even if I didn't
lose weight, I would still wantto go to my reformer class,
even if I didn't lose weight, Iwould still want to pop my baby
in the pram and get some freshair and get that headspace.
(22:15):
And that, I think, is why, overthe last several months, you
have just very slowly but veryconsistently been getting
somewhere where it comes to yourhealth, and perhaps is this for
the first time.
This has been about whereyou're kind of going.
I can see this is a new way.
Do you still feel like you getthe idea of going on a diet
(22:37):
feels appealing?
Will you ever see anyone who'slost a lot of weight and you
kind of feel a pang of I'd liketo do that as well.
Tell me about what's happeningthere.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
No, the thought of another diet like fills me with
dread and displeasure and likeI'm just.
I'm at a point where I have alot, of, a lot more mental
clarity and capacity in my headto deal with other things.
That's not constantly worryingabout what I'm going to eat,
(23:06):
what I should or should beeating I shouldn't have eaten,
that, I shouldn't have done that.
That's not in my head anymoreand that's given me a lot more
peace and a lot more clarity andcapacity, like I said, to deal
with the mental load.
That's got enough going on.
And so I just find I lookforward to going for a walk now,
like if it's been three or fourdays, and I'm like, oh, I'm
(23:28):
going out of the house like I'mwanting to because I've set
those habits and it's not like Imust do it three times a week
or I must do it.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Your body then wants to, because it's like, hey, I
enjoyed doing that, I want to doit again.
What would you say to someonewho was still in diet land, who
had one foot in intuitive eatingbut was scared to make the big
jump, to kind of go right, I amgoing to commit, I'm going to
finally go, I'm done with thatold world.
Is there anything you could sayto try and convince them to do
that?
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I do think you have to come to in your own time and
I do think that you can't betreating your Lindy's approach,
your approach, as a diet.
Like you can't be going.
I'm going to go on Lindy's dietbecause what you're doing,
that's not a diet, it'sintuitive eating, it's going
back to what our bodies are madeto do and I think you just got
to take it slowly like.
(24:19):
It can't just be you know theold way of I'm going grocery
shopping, I'm only buying fruitand veggies.
I'm only gonna eat that for thenext week.
Still get the foods you enjoy,but just like slowly layer them
in each day, like find a lunchor a variety of lunches that you
like that you can swap in andout and make sure that you're
(24:39):
eating enough to fill yourselfup so that you're not binging at
the end of the day.
I just think you got to take itslowly, because anything that's
worth doing long-term orforever like is not worth doing
quickly.
You got to take it slowly.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Last time you emailed me, you said that you'd lost 10
kilograms in about three months.
You were never feeling hungry,but looking at the scale was not
a priority, and I guess that'sthe interesting thing about
coming back to this idea of thescale and using the scale as a
metric for success.
Where are you at now withthinking about the scale and
(25:15):
thinking about your weight?
How has that changed?
Speaker 1 (25:18):
um, I think probably I'm now at the point of having
lost 12 kilos, 10 or 12,whatever.
I've not stood on the scalesfor a few weeks now, but when I
first started that startednoticing that I was losing
weight, I was obsessing withthat scale and I was like, okay,
if I've got the eating rightand I've got the exercise in a
(25:41):
good space that I can manage.
I was finding that that scalewas still a bit of a gray cloud
over my head.
One thing that made me want tosnap out of it was I saw my
four-year-old get on the scaleand I was like okay, we're not
doing that.
So I've hidden it away in thewardrobe, was barely getting to
seven days before I'd jump on itagain.
(26:02):
I'm like, oh, what is it now?
What is it now?
But then I've gotten to a pointwhere I'm enjoying how I'm
feeling, I'm enjoying eating,I'm enjoying my exercise, and
that thought of the scales isfading away.
And, like I said, I've not beenon it for, let's say, three
weeks now and eventually I'lltake the batteries out.
(26:22):
But we'll get to that.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
It's such an interesting one because you can
hear from like the age of 10,like how hopping on the scale we
think it's, I don't know.
Sometimes it can be motivating,but mostly it can throw us off
pathway, it can make us feelanxious.
It can make us feel anxious, itcan make us feel obsessed with
it when it is kind of going inthe right way.
It can be a very turbulentrelationship.
But I understand this idea offeeling like people still want
(26:47):
to check in on the scale.
I think the thing is that ifyour body's changing, you very
much feel it and then for somereason we kind of need the scale
to confirm what we already know, and I guess this is the
definition of the intuitive partof you kind of going no, I know
I don't need validation from ascale to be able to tell me
these things.
And if you're kind of listeningright now and you're going, I
am, I'm having a hard timeletting go of the scale.
(27:08):
I know that that can be scarybecause in a way it feels like a
sense of control so oftendisordered eating, it's like
it's about having a control oversomething and I think what
you've done, brooke, quitenaturally, is you have
recognized that it wasn'tactually that helpful and
distanced yourself from howfrequently you were weighing
yourself, because in the bestcase scenario I'm saying to you
(27:29):
you don't need to weigh yourself, but, as I said, scary.
But what you did is you went alonger distance between weighing
yourself.
If you're someone listening,you're weighing yourself every
day, maybe you go all right.
What would it feel like toweigh myself once a week?
Could I go to once every threeweeks, once a month and then,
and then move it out from there.
Sometimes that can feel alittle bit safer and I think
(27:50):
that is already a far bettermove than doing nothing at all
and staying stuck in thatobsessive kind of headspace.
And, brooke, for you, I wouldlove you to get to the point
where you don't even think aboutwhat your weight is until you
have to go to get a blood testor something and they want you
to hop on the scale.
And anyone who's listening ifyou don't already know you can
(28:10):
do something called a blindweigh-in.
If you do have to go to anappointment with a doctor, you
can say listen, I have a historyof disordered eating, I'd like
to do a blind weigh-in, and whatyou do is you step on the scale
backwards, they look at thenumber and they do not tell you
the number, and that issomething you are all able to
request and ask for and that isbest practice.
Brooke, I'm so grateful of thetime you've given me.
(28:32):
I know you've got two kids.
I know everyone listening isgoing to be really grateful,
nodding their heads, going yep.
Okay, I can relate and I haveprobably learned a lot from you.
Is there any last story orthought or tip you'd like to
leave listeners with?
Speaker 1 (28:47):
I just think your life and your mental wellbeing
and all of that is moreimportant than putting yourself
through any sort of restrictivediet that's such a depressing
and sad place to be and can beso detrimental to your mental
health.
What I wish I had done 20 yearsago in my teens is just trust
(29:12):
that I knew what my body wasdoing, like it knows what to do
with what I'm feeding it.
And if I stick to healthyeating and had gone on to
intuitive eating as a teenager,maybe I wouldn't have gone
through what I have in the past20 years.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
A scary leap, but so worth it.
Brooke, I am so grateful foryour time.
Thank you for chatting to usand anyone else who's listening.
If you want to share your storyon no Wellness Wankri, I would
love to hear from you.
If you could email me, hello atlindycohencom.
Tell me a little bit of yourstory and hopefully you can
share what you've learned witheveryone else as well.
Thank you, brooke.
Thanks Lindy.
No one ever stays on a diet forever.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I find it wild how diet companies are allowed to
use those highly curated beforeand after photos.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I just got to the point where I was like I don't
have the emotional capacity todo that anymore.
So that's when I needed tochange.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
A piece of toast with avocado is cool and all, but
it's not as grabbable.
Yes, it'll take an extra fiveminutes, and that is just
perhaps five minutes too longsometimes.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
One thing that made me want to snap out of it was I
saw my four-year-old get on thescale and I was like okay, we're
not doing that so I've hiddenit away in the wardrobe.
I've gotten to a point whereI'm enjoying how I'm feeling,
I'm enjoying eating, I'menjoying my exercise, and that
thought of the scales is fadingaway.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Hi everyone and welcome to no Wellness Wankery.
What you're hearing right nowis a conversation between a real
person, brooke Palamo, who wenton a journey from dieting
mayhem something you probablyfeel very familiar with to
discovering intuitive eatingnon-dieting and in today's
episode she is sharing some ofthose really key insights that
(01:24):
she learned, stuff that I reallywant you to know, that I'm so
glad that she shared with you.
So thank you, brooke, forsharing your story, and I hope
you enjoy this real conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So I was thinking back to when did this all begin?
And I don't know if there's aparticular moment in time, but I
recall when I was in primaryschool, grade four, so I was 10.
We had an activity in theclassroom.
We were learning aboutstatistics, and I remember it so
vividly.
And so in this particularinstance, the teacher wrote on
(02:05):
the chalkboard 20 to 29, 30 to39, 40 to 49, like in columns,
and then what we had to do?
Each child went up to the frontof the room, stood on a scale,
weighed themselves and then hadto put their tally where they
fell.
And so I'm a tall person.
In general at school I wasalways a.
(02:27):
I wasn't wasn't fat, I was just.
I was that kid that was likejust solid, like I was taller
and I was just built a bit moresolid.
I, from the get-go, was likeI'm in the category here of the
bigger boys in the class, and soI remember I went up to the
front, I put my foot on and offthis because I knew where I was.
(02:48):
I'm like probably in the 60s or70s or war, probably late, I
don't know 60 to 70 kilos.
And so I just went on and offand was like put the tally up
there, like I just I didn't even, and I don't remember what
happened after that.
I don't know if she asked me toredo it, but I was was just
like, and then I'm looking atthe board, after 30 kids have
gone up, there's all thesetallies together in this bunch,
(03:11):
and then I'm like the outlier onthe end and I've just been like
, well, if I like I've hadinternal weight issues, being
the bigger kid, and then I'mlike and there it is in all its
glory on the board for my wholeclass to see, and I was just
remember, like that's just stuckwith me and something I've
reflected on a lot since we'vebeen speaking.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
It sounds like before getting on the scale, you were
already aware of the fact thatyou felt like the bigger kid,
like as though you knew that inthe scale was going to give you
the wrong answer.
Was that moment, then, justbringing it all home, and did
you do anything differently as aresult of hopping on the scale?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I don't think I did anything differently.
I just I've just felt differentand like I was never excluded
and I was always in like goodgroups of friends at school and
all that sort of stuff.
I was never excluded from beinglike I wasn't overly an overly
big kid, I was just.
I just knew that I was what wasback then like the solid kid,
and I just remember thinkinglike this is not, and I'm
(04:13):
probably feeling the way nowthat I did back then, like I'm
not comfortable, I'm likeshallow breathing, I'm just
going.
It's just not a very fondmemory, what with the teacher
probably thinking oh, it's aninnocent task and it meets the
purpose of what we're trying todo here, but they don't
understand.
Just by doing that, that canjust set you off for the next 20
, 30 years, rest your life, likethings like that can just mold
(04:36):
you in such a way in yourformative years.
Yeah, so it's one thing thatI've chalked up.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
When you wrote to me, you said I'm now 35, got two
kids and I've had a life of fatburner tablets as a teen, tony
Ferguson as a teen, weightWatchers as a teen, many and
varied shake diets with a vomitemoji, excessive training with
restrictive diets, steak forbreakfast what HC?
Hcg diet, which is dangerous,and I can't believe.
(05:05):
This is legal.
And you said that I lost 10kilograms in a month and I only
ate a very small number ofcalories a day.
And no one busted an eyelid andof course you did, jenny Craig.
You had then went on to havethis rich I don't know if that's
the right word rich and varieddiet history for many, many
years.
Do you want to tell me aboutthat?
Speaker 1 (05:28):
I forgot to add in that I also did the skinny teas.
So add that on the list.
And I'm not exaggerating orlying when I say that I did all
of that.
I've been there, I've done it,I tried it, I was humiliated by
it.
It made me sick and I think now,mid-30s, with the
(05:48):
responsibilities that we've gotwith working kids and all those
sorts of things, I wasabsolutely exhausted by that
like hamster wheel of just notonly weight going up and down,
but the emotional roller coasterand the absolute guilt that I
would put myself under and beatmyself up.
And then you go great for fivedays of the week.
(06:11):
It'd get to the weekend andyou're like, oh, things might go
, hey, why here?
And they go sideways.
And then you beat yourself upand you're like I'm not gonna
eat for two days or whatever,and then you wonder why it just
goes back around again.
And I think I just got to thepoint where I was like I don't
have the emotional capacity todo that anymore.
(06:31):
So that's when I needed tochange, do you think?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
it was clear that going on these weightless
attempts was actually not evengetting you to lose weight.
And keep it off.
It's the keeping it off.
It got me to lose weight andkeep it off.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
It's the keeping it off it got me to lose weight,
sure, but it was only ever goingto last a short while.
So it's kind of like I'd bewilling to do it for a block of
time and then be like, okay, orI'd think that it would be
different.
Well, this time it'll bedifferent.
And so, after the birth of myfirst daughter four years ago, I
(07:06):
got onto Jenny Craig and I waslike, yeah, I can do that.
And I think it was actually atthe time Jelena Dokic was the
ambassador.
I don't know what it was, but Isaw myself in her and I was like
she can do it, I can do it, notto compare myself to like a
world-class sportswoman, but Idon't know what it was.
I was like all right.
(07:26):
And so I saw that on theweekend, the next Monday, I went
to the journey cake or I sentthem an email, whatever, signed
up, lost 16 kilos in four monthsand gained it back in probably
half the time.
And I've never known a weightloss plan or diet or whatever to
last any longer than six months.
Because you either see thatyou're getting all these like,
(07:49):
oh look, I've lost all theweight, as I did and I stopped,
and then I gained it back.
No one ever stays on a dietforever, and so, yeah, that's
where I found myself.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Did you see other people having success and wonder
why you couldn't um?
Or did you?
Were you aware of the fact thatother people were also going on
diets and the exact same thingwas happening to them?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
I'm not too sure.
I would often compare my like,always compare myself to other
people in different ways, andI'm not too sure, like I would
probably look at some people andgo like how can they do it?
What am I doing wrong?
And I just thought, like,because at the end of
particularly in Jenny Craig, atthe end of it they wean you off
(08:33):
the meal plan, to put you onmaintenance, to basically just
go and live your life.
Now you're free and go, be free.
I know we're you, we've done,we're done with you, move on.
Um, and I just you learnnothing on a meal.
So long as someone says,microwave this box of food, eat
it, have an apple, go to bed,whatever.
As long as you do that and youdon't have to think and you're
(08:55):
not learning, sure it'll work.
And as soon as I finishedbecause I'd lost my 16 kilos and
I was looking great, I was like, oh, what do I do now?
And then, like externalpressures and stress would come
in.
And I'd looking great, I waslike, oh, what do I do now?
And then like externalpressures and stress would come
in and I'd fall back into my ownways.
Because of four months of doingthe journey, craig, I learned
nothing.
I was back into my old waysalready.
So there's no education in that.
(09:16):
Sure, it does what you want todo in the way of losing the
weight.
And then I was like I would endthat.
And then I would look aroundand go, okay, well, maybe that
wasn't the diet for me, likethat, okay, that's not the one I
can maintain.
What's the next one?
Sure as hell, tried enoughshake diets over and over again,
thinking that maybe I canmaintain this one, and it would
(09:37):
just never.
And after a six month periodit'd be done and I'd find myself
, okay, what am I going to donow?
Sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I find it wild how diet companies are allowed to
use those highly curated beforeand after photos to endorse
their product, which they'recapturing a moment in time.
They're not showing you whathappens after the after photo.
There is no requirement forthem to show you what happened
to that person after the afterphoto.
For example, Yolanda Dockage.
She's very much come forwardand talked about her binge
(10:07):
eating experience, herdisordered eating, and she was
the poster girl for a dietcompany, and what they basically
do is they're not looking.
Okay.
Well, listen, a thousand peopledid this program and here's how
many people kept the weight offafter five years.
They're never, ever, revealingthat to you because that would
make them look really, reallybad, and most people that I
spoke to have tried thesedifferent approaches again and
(10:30):
again and again.
You then ended up having I don'tknow if it was in a hot moment.
It kind of sounds like fromwhat you and I have spoken about
.
You said around this time youstarted following me, maybe in
2020.
You were still dieting at thetime.
Can you tell me about that?
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yes.
So I started following you,yeah, in 2020.
And that was after I'd had mydaughter in 2019.
So I may or may not have beenon Jenny Craig at the time, may
have finished it, and was like,okay, here's a healthy structure
or some inspiration that I canthen follow.
And I remember at the time Itook a screenshot of one of your
(11:11):
lunches that you'd prepared andI was like, okay, I can do that
, I like the food in that photo,let's do it, and I would.
Then I started making you knowmy lunches based on those sorts
of things, but we're still stillbinging, so I didn't ever have
that moment of going.
I've seen the light.
Let's go with what Lindy'sdoing.
I was, I was trying, but I wasfalling back into old ways and I
(11:36):
don't know what it has taken.
But I've found that, likeexternal stresses and things
like that, when I get stressedor when I get emotional or
whatever, that's my sort of myoutlet I then go to the club and
go.
I can't handle whatever's goingon and I just shove food in my
mouth and so, while it was okay,yeah, my lunches are good, but
(11:59):
I get home in the afternoonafter work and I'll just eat
half a box of chocolate, it'slike, okay, that's, yeah, the
mix of the binge eating.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Still, I think that's the hardest thing to do.
When you learn about intuitiveeating and you really like the
idea.
You like the idea of notdieting but at the same time
you've spent so many years,decades, dieting that it's what
you know.
It's how you know these foodrules dominate you.
So sometimes I see people theytry and do a bit of intuitive
(12:30):
eating but they're still doingquite a bit of dieting and then
they feel like it's not working,I'm not getting anywhere.
And then they kind of feel likeI gave non-dieting a shot and
it didn't really work.
But it sounds like for you.
You kind of did this littlehalf in, half out thing for a
while, but progressively, themore you learned about not
(12:51):
dieting, intuitive eating, themore you went okay, this is
making more and more sense to meand it wasn't like there was
this big aha moment where youwent okay, finally we're
quitting diets.
We're never going back.
It was a slow relearning andswitching back into diets, right
.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah.
And then after the birth of myson, which was July last year, I
found myself at that pointwhere you are bigger than you
are normally and you probablyneed to start a diet to lose the
baby weight and all those sortsof things.
And I was like, all right,we've got two options here.
Like I was just exhausted, I'mlike I can pick a diet, what's
the latest, what's going on?
And I'd actually just hung outwith a mum friend who had got
(13:33):
onto Ozempic and thankfully shetold me that it was how many
thousands of dollars it was.
And I was like, okay, well,that's probably not an option.
And then I was like, or I canjust do better than what I'm
doing, and if that's not eatinghalf a block of chocolate, then
let's just start with that.
And I found that if I'msatisfied or if I'm full, I can
(13:58):
keep those little like hungergremlins at bay.
If I plan that I've always gotsnacks on me like nut bars and
things like that and get aheadof my hunger, then I don't turn
into this crazy binge eatingperson.
That was a bit of a slowrealization too.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
The strategy number one I'd say is what you're
saying is you decided thatprevious you would have tried to
be good all day right, whichwas kind of code for being on
diet or eating like reallyhealthy food that was allowed,
and what you're doing now is yougo.
No, I have to be satisfied bymy meals and I can't let myself
become overly hungry.
(14:37):
Because you saw the pattern ofwhat was happening with the diet
mentality you were gettingravenous and, as a result, you
were binge eating.
So now you are preemptivelyeating, not preemptively eating.
I assume you're waiting untilyou feel hungry, but then you
have those options on hand.
You know the nut bars in yourpantry that you can easily grab,
and I think that's a really keypart of it is the grab ability.
(14:59):
Like sure, a piece of toastwith avocado is cool and all,
but it's not as grabbable.
Yes, it'll take an extra fiveminutes, and that is just
perhaps five minutes too longsometimes.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Absolutely.
And so I got used to being like, okay, you know, our bodies are
smart things, I know whatthey're doing, it's going to
tell me when it's hungry.
And so first of all, I realizedI wasn't eating enough at all.
I'd be having a piece of toastfor breakfast and then it would
get to lunchtime and then Iwould eat.
Like if I was at work, I'dprobably go buy like a wrap and
(15:31):
chips and like big stuff.
So that was way too lateBecause you were so hungry,
right?
Yeah, exactly, and it's funnywhen I'm at work and I'd sort of
feel that it's not a hungerpain or anything, it's just like
, oh, I could eat now, or like Ineed to start thinking about
eating.
I'd be checking the time andit's like 10.30, 11 o'clock and
(15:54):
I'm like I'm gonna eat a nut barnow, because in the next 15, 20
minutes I'm gonna get hangryand I am not pleasant when I'm
hangry.
So, and then back to havingstuff on hand.
I would always have snacks andthings, because I know that
between now and the next 15 20minutes is when things can go
south for me.
So yeah, like you said,preparing nice meals is a lovely
(16:18):
thing to do and it's great andI do it when I have time.
But there are also times whenI'm like I open the pantry and
I'm like I need to eat something, when the old me would be like
there's a bag of chips there,there's half a bag of chocolate
there, there's some sweetcookies or whatever there, where
I'm like okay, now, if I havethat situation again, I'm like
I've got a nut bar, I've gotsome sultanas, I've got a piece
(16:39):
of fruit, I've got somethingjust to put in my mouth and like
walk away for a minute, becauseI've been doing that for so
long.
So it's yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
There are so many good points here.
The second strategy you'retalking about is intuitive
eating.
And just a reminder aboutintuitive eating.
It's not just eating whateverwhenever it is very much about
tuning into your hunger andgoing oh, am I hungry?
And the interesting thing, likeyou're saying, brooke, is that
you develop patterns.
You kind of go all right.
(17:09):
I generally do get hungryaround the 10 am, 10.30-ish and
I know myself, I know that it'srealized.
It's taking me 20 minutesbefore I become way too hungry,
which is actually quite a quicktransition period.
And you've identified whathunger feels like for you.
Because if you've been dietingfor so many years, majority of
people go.
I don't even know what hungerfeels like and, as you so
(17:33):
rightly said, sometimes it justis.
It's just this feeling of Icould eat right now, it's just
this gut feeling.
It doesn't.
Sometimes it's not a grumble,it's not hanger, that's too much
, it's so subtle, but you'relistening out for it and then
you are responding to it.
And so the third strategyyou've talked about is this eat
more to eat less kind of concept.
So it is about going.
I am done with all or nothingthinking when it comes to
(17:55):
nutrition.
Old me would have thought I'monly allowed to have a hundred
calorie snack right now.
It would have said it has to bean apple, it has to be
something allowed.
What you're saying is I'm goingto have something like a nut
bar, which, yeah, has a littlebit more calories, but it's
really truly enjoyable.
It's very satisfying to me.
So I've added in more calories,but it's going to mean I avoid
a binge later.
(18:15):
Then you can see how you'resitting much more in that middle
in that balanced kind ofterritory, as opposed to the
health pendulum swing, which iswhat you were doing before.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yep, yep, you've nailed it.
And I think and it goes againstwhat we're told about eat more
to eat less sort of mentality,and it's never perfect you've
got to know what your triggersare and you've got to know what
works and what doesn't for you.
And it's got to be enjoyable,like you said.
(18:46):
It can't just be 100 caloriesnack that I'm allowed or not
allowed to have.
I get so much pleasure andenjoyment out of eating and it's
got to be things that I amhappy to eat, not that I am told
to eat.
Things that I enjoy.
And if there's a day where I'mlike I feel like something a bit
more substantial for a morningtea, like a yogurt and granola
(19:09):
or something that's a bit morelike that, I'm allowed to
because I'm not countinganything, because that's what my
body wants and I know that bythe end of the day I'm not going
to be binging and things likethat.
So that's been an adjustmentand it's a constantly working
thing.
It's not just one of thesethings that just happens and
you're a changed person.
It's something that you'reconstantly thinking about.
(19:29):
But I think, tuning into thatwhat your body's telling you,
because it's a smart thing andit knows what to do.
It's interesting to see when Iget hungry throughout the day,
because for the past 20 yearsI've not been hungry, because
I'm always eating, because I'malways binging and things like
that.
So I've not known whatintuitive is.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Because when you're coming out of diet world, I
think we feel so scared to behungry.
I felt very tainted by thefeeling of hunger.
I truly believed that food waskind of running out in a way,
and so I just felt compelled.
Now I think what is alsointeresting you mentioned in a
previous chat you and I have hadis how you start to think about
exercise differently and yourealized I'm going to do the
(20:12):
exercise I actually enjoy.
Can you tell me about that?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah, what I found that I enjoyed is 10 or more
years ago I had a back injuryand herniated disc and I had all
this rehab and got into thefirst time I'd ever tried
reformer Pilates and I was like,oh okay, this is a injury rehab
situation.
And then, moving home, I foundthat there's places that offer
(20:36):
that and then so I found aclinic nearby that does it and I
love, I truly love doing that.
I'm not the traditional Pilatesstyle body but I love that it's
low impact and it's constantlya lot of variety in a class and
I'm getting weight training.
It's not that I can put my headbehind my head or anything
(20:57):
crazy like that.
I'm not a very flexible person.
I really do enjoy that and I'vedone.
I've done the CrossFit and I'vedone all those things.
And you know I'm 35, I'm notthat old.
But there comes a time in yourlife where it's like I can't do
a lot of that high impact stuffanymore.
I don't want to, because Ican't afford to be injured,
(21:18):
because I've got kids that I'vegot to run around after, like.
So it's just it's somethingthat I found that I enjoy and I
find, even even if it's justgoing for a walk, I throw a baby
in the pram and I'm like I'mjust going to head out for an
hour, and if it's not an hourit's 20 minutes, but it's a lap
around the block and I find thatwalking and Pilates are what
work for me and I think you'vegot to enjoy what you do.
(21:39):
Don't just go for the walk orthe run or whatever because
you're being told or you thinkthat's what you have to do,
because you're not going tomaintain it.
And if you don't have pleasurein what you're doing, you're not
going to maintain it.
So it's got to be somethingthat you enjoy.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
So strategy number five is you have finally gotten
to this point where you'verealized the importance of
enjoyment, the key tosustainability being enjoyment,
and being able to ask yourselfthe question of even if I didn't
lose weight, I would still wantto go to my reformer class,
even if I didn't lose weight, Iwould still want to pop my baby
in the pram and get some freshair and get that headspace.
(22:15):
And that, I think, is why, overthe last several months, you
have just very slowly but veryconsistently been getting
somewhere where it comes to yourhealth, and perhaps is this for
the first time.
This has been about whereyou're kind of going.
I can see this is a new way.
Do you still feel like you getthe idea of going on a diet
(22:37):
feels appealing?
Will you ever see anyone who'slost a lot of weight and you
kind of feel a pang of I'd liketo do that as well.
Tell me about what's happeningthere.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
No, the thought of another diet like fills me with
dread and displeasure and likeI'm just.
I'm at a point where I have alot, of, a lot more mental
clarity and capacity in my headto deal with other things.
That's not constantly worryingabout what I'm going to eat,
(23:06):
what I should or should beeating I shouldn't have eaten,
that, I shouldn't have done that.
That's not in my head anymoreand that's given me a lot more
peace and a lot more clarity andcapacity, like I said, to deal
with the mental load.
That's got enough going on.
And so I just find I lookforward to going for a walk now,
like if it's been three or fourdays, and I'm like, oh, I'm
(23:28):
going out of the house like I'mwanting to because I've set
those habits and it's not like Imust do it three times a week
or I must do it.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Your body then wants to, because it's like, hey, I
enjoyed doing that, I want to doit again.
What would you say to someonewho was still in diet land, who
had one foot in intuitive eatingbut was scared to make the big
jump, to kind of go right, I amgoing to commit, I'm going to
finally go, I'm done with thatold world.
Is there anything you could sayto try and convince them to do
that?
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I do think you have to come to in your own time and
I do think that you can't betreating your Lindy's approach,
your approach, as a diet.
Like you can't be going.
I'm going to go on Lindy's dietbecause what you're doing,
that's not a diet, it'sintuitive eating, it's going
back to what our bodies are madeto do and I think you just got
to take it slowly like.
(24:19):
It can't just be you know theold way of I'm going grocery
shopping, I'm only buying fruitand veggies.
I'm only gonna eat that for thenext week.
Still get the foods you enjoy,but just like slowly layer them
in each day, like find a lunchor a variety of lunches that you
like that you can swap in andout and make sure that you're
(24:39):
eating enough to fill yourselfup so that you're not binging at
the end of the day.
I just think you got to take itslowly, because anything that's
worth doing long-term orforever like is not worth doing
quickly.
You got to take it slowly.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Last time you emailed me, you said that you'd lost 10
kilograms in about three months.
You were never feeling hungry,but looking at the scale was not
a priority, and I guess that'sthe interesting thing about
coming back to this idea of thescale and using the scale as a
metric for success.
Where are you at now withthinking about the scale and
(25:15):
thinking about your weight?
How has that changed?
Speaker 1 (25:18):
um, I think probably I'm now at the point of having
lost 12 kilos, 10 or 12,whatever.
I've not stood on the scalesfor a few weeks now, but when I
first started that startednoticing that I was losing
weight, I was obsessing withthat scale and I was like, okay,
if I've got the eating rightand I've got the exercise in a
(25:41):
good space that I can manage.
I was finding that that scalewas still a bit of a gray cloud
over my head.
One thing that made me want tosnap out of it was I saw my
four-year-old get on the scaleand I was like okay, we're not
doing that.
So I've hidden it away in thewardrobe, was barely getting to
seven days before I'd jump on itagain.
(26:02):
I'm like, oh, what is it now?
What is it now?
But then I've gotten to a pointwhere I'm enjoying how I'm
feeling, I'm enjoying eating,I'm enjoying my exercise, and
that thought of the scales isfading away.
And, like I said, I've not beenon it for, let's say, three
weeks now and eventually I'lltake the batteries out.
(26:22):
But we'll get to that.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
It's such an interesting one because you can
hear from like the age of 10,like how hopping on the scale we
think it's, I don't know.
Sometimes it can be motivating,but mostly it can throw us off
pathway, it can make us feelanxious.
It can make us feel anxious, itcan make us feel obsessed with
it when it is kind of going inthe right way.
It can be a very turbulentrelationship.
But I understand this idea offeeling like people still want
(26:47):
to check in on the scale.
I think the thing is that ifyour body's changing, you very
much feel it and then for somereason we kind of need the scale
to confirm what we already know, and I guess this is the
definition of the intuitive partof you kind of going no, I know
I don't need validation from ascale to be able to tell me
these things.
And if you're kind of listeningright now and you're going, I
am, I'm having a hard timeletting go of the scale.
(27:08):
I know that that can be scarybecause in a way it feels like a
sense of control so oftendisordered eating, it's like
it's about having a control oversomething and I think what
you've done, brooke, quitenaturally, is you have
recognized that it wasn'tactually that helpful and
distanced yourself from howfrequently you were weighing
yourself, because in the bestcase scenario I'm saying to you
(27:29):
you don't need to weigh yourself, but, as I said, scary.
But what you did is you went alonger distance between weighing
yourself.
If you're someone listening,you're weighing yourself every
day, maybe you go all right.
What would it feel like toweigh myself once a week?
Could I go to once every threeweeks, once a month and then,
and then move it out from there.
Sometimes that can feel alittle bit safer and I think
(27:50):
that is already a far bettermove than doing nothing at all
and staying stuck in thatobsessive kind of headspace.
And, brooke, for you, I wouldlove you to get to the point
where you don't even think aboutwhat your weight is until you
have to go to get a blood testor something and they want you
to hop on the scale.
And anyone who's listening ifyou don't already know you can
(28:10):
do something called a blindweigh-in.
If you do have to go to anappointment with a doctor, you
can say listen, I have a historyof disordered eating, I'd like
to do a blind weigh-in, and whatyou do is you step on the scale
backwards, they look at thenumber and they do not tell you
the number, and that issomething you are all able to
request and ask for and that isbest practice.
Brooke, I'm so grateful of thetime you've given me.
(28:32):
I know you've got two kids.
I know everyone listening isgoing to be really grateful,
nodding their heads, going yep.
Okay, I can relate and I haveprobably learned a lot from you.
Is there any last story orthought or tip you'd like to
leave listeners with?
Speaker 1 (28:47):
I just think your life and your mental wellbeing
and all of that is moreimportant than putting yourself
through any sort of restrictivediet that's such a depressing
and sad place to be and can beso detrimental to your mental
health.
What I wish I had done 20 yearsago in my teens is just trust
(29:12):
that I knew what my body wasdoing, like it knows what to do
with what I'm feeding it.
And if I stick to healthyeating and had gone on to
intuitive eating as a teenager,maybe I wouldn't have gone
through what I have in the past20 years.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
A scary leap, but so worth it.
Brooke, I am so grateful foryour time.
Thank you for chatting to usand anyone else who's listening.
If you want to share your storyon no Wellness Wankri, I would
love to hear from you.
If you could email me, hello atlindycohencom.
Tell me a little bit of yourstory and hopefully you can
share what you've learned witheveryone else as well.
Thank you, brooke.
Thanks Lindy.
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