105- Weight Loss and the Anti-Diet Culture with Lucia Hawley

Bryan: [00:00:16] Do you know someone who gets obsessed with different diets? They try. Like last month, everything they did was all about the keto diet and now they are vegan eating high carb. I'm sure you know someone like this and there are so many of these diet cultures that people get trapped in. While these diets may be beneficial to some people, the cult-like attitudes around it can become a problem and this is where the anti diet culture started to come into play.

It is focused on the behaviors around food instead of just the food itself. What's up everyone. I'm Bryan Carroll and I'm here to help people move more, eat well, and be adventurous. And today we are going to talk about anti diets and how we can navigate this confusing world of food and dieting. But before we dive into this episode, this episode is brought to you by our friends at athletic greens, whose nutrient rich greens powder is full of immune supporting and stress reducing plants.

With over 75 whole food ingredients in each scoop. Athletic greens is a great way to support your body. To learn more, go to summitforwellness.com/greens. Now let's dive into my conversation with Lucia. Hawley. Lucia Hawley is a functional nutritional therapy practitioner, women's health expert with a master's in social work and clinical mental health, and her mission is to teach diet perfectionist how to bring calm back to their bodies from the inside out.

Thank you for coming onto the show. Lucia. 

Lucia: [00:01:50] Thanks so much for having me. I'm really, really excited to be here and to chat. 

Bryan: [00:01:53] Of course. And I always like to learn a little bit more about the background on my guest. So can you tell us a little bit more about you? And, I'm really curious about the clinical mental health aspect as well.

So tell us a little more. 

Lucia: [00:02:05] Yeah, definitely. So, yes, I have my certification. I'm a functional nutritional therapy practitioner. I also have my master's in social work, clinical mental health. So I'm a total nerd. Let me just start with that. When it comes to not only our guts and how our guts function, but also that connection, which is now kind of trending, I think we hear more and more about the gut brain connection.

So really, how the heck does our gut talk to our brain? And specifically, how does that work for women who are curious about releasing body fat and leaving. Wait. So I came to where I am now because of my own health and wellness journey. And before we started recording, I know, Bryan that you said that, yeah, that seems to be a pretty common theme for people who work in health and wellness.

There usually is some sort of turning point in their life with their own history where they had to figure out how to help themselves feel better. And that was really true for me. when I think about my health and wellness journey, there are definitely, like. I wish I had a 15 second elevator pitch about it.

It can be a long and winding road, but when I was a younger teenager, I experienced a weight loss of about 80 pounds. So that was a big part of an, is a big part of my history. what that experience was like. But then later in my teens, I also. You know, I was a pretty smart kid, did pretty well in college, and they had a year in college where all of a sudden I couldn't focus.

I couldn't do my homework. I couldn't, you know, do any of the extracurriculars that were easy for me. Every, all of a sudden my life kind of came to a. Stop. I had the privilege of moving back in with my parents, which was awesome research for me then. But something had changed when I was in my late teens and I didn't understand what it was, and I was going to doctors and medical medical community is awesome, so that's all good and fine, but I really was kind of getting the response that well.

You look okay and you act okay. So here's a Pat on the back. You probably just stressed out, right? And I was a kid. I had dealt with stress before. I knew that wasn't, it wasn't the whole story. Right. So I did some digging. And to make a long story short. This was back in 2009 being gluten-free was starting to be a thing, but there wasn't the kind of general consciousness about it that there is now, but I had found a study out of like Sweden looking at the mental health inventory of kids or like teenagers, kind of kids my age, and they were looking at two groups and one group.

They decided to have the kids go gluten free. For a set amount of time. And the other group, they were eating the regular foods and they looked at the, the inventory of the, you know, the distress and mental health distress that these kids were experiencing. And the kids who in gluten-free had a reduction in anxiety and kind of more depressive signs and symptoms.

So I figured, well, whatever this gluten free thing is, I'm, even then, I was a nutrition nerd. I was like, I can try that. I can try it for two weeks. See what happens. I tried it for two weeks, went gluten free and panic attacks, stopped anxiety attacks, stopped brain fog, stopped. Are they able to get back into my car?

Like, you know, I'm a nerd. I declined to be able to do my homework. Basically I was able to get back into it and I was like, if that was so life changing for me, this one tweak. I don't want to stop talking about that and not that everyone needs to go gluten free. I never believed that, but I knew that if one thing could change and make such a big impact for my mental health right back then, if it was all about, well, if you go gluten free and it's good for your gut symptoms.

I don't really have very many gut symptoms. So it was really this full body effect. that was life changing. So from there, that really spurred me to say, I get to investigate this that much more fully, and then I can really take what I'm learning and my own personal experience and hopefully support people and have them really come into a deeper understanding of what the heck is going on in their bodies.

Bryan: [00:06:02] I guess the doctor was right that I was stress related. They just didn't understand quite what was stressing you out, and that was the food you were eating. 

Lucia: [00:06:11] It was 

Bryan: [00:06:11] spot on in a way. 

Lucia: [00:06:13] They were. They were. 

Bryan: [00:06:15] So I want to dissect the. The 80 pound weight loss while you were a teenager? A little bit, was that your decision or was that decision made for you by a parent or someone else?

Lucia: [00:06:24] Oh, I love that you asked that question yet. So that decision was actually made for me by a parent. my parents put me on the Atkins diet. And what was interesting about that, you know, I think dieting and we'll get into dieting, cause I have lots of thoughts on that too, if you want to be chatting about it.

But what was interesting about that was. I was put on the Atkins diet because of my body weight, the scale weight, right? There was a desire for me to lose weight so I could feel more functional so I could go like do things and be a kid, right? As soon as I began that Atkins diet, I started to feel better, and again, I was a young enough teenager that I hadn't quite noticed that.

Changing what I ate could change how I felt and I didn't even know. When you grow up and you think, Oh, I have headaches every day, I feel like kind of tired and lethargic, if that's your norm, whatever age you are. You. That's your story, right? So you might not even know, Oh, I don't have to have a headache everyday.

I don't have to necessarily feel kind of overwhelmed by different physical activities. I can feel more embodied simply by shifting what I'm eating. So really there are parallels there between what had a supported that beginning of that 80 pound weight loss and then later a few years having that exploration of what it can mean to go fully gluten free.

Bryan: [00:07:47] Yeah. And I love talking to people that specialize in an area that they, I have also gone through a health issue, with such as a weight loss and you focus a lot with weight loss. So let's dive into, Oh, a little bit more about weight loss. Cause I know a lot of people focus on the number and that they forget about everything else.

So can you talk a little bit about that? 

Lucia: [00:08:10] Yeah, definitely. And that's really the focus. So I have a group coaching program. It's called lean and liberated. That's our big focus is saying what happens when we really validate that someone wants to lose weight. So when someone says that they want to lose weight.

Nine out of 10 times, like 9.9 to 10 times what they're saying that they want to lose body fat, right? So in really this work when we're releasing body fat, yeah. There are physiological processes that are happening there, but there's also emotional processes, right? There are whole stories and whole sets of habits.

That we have come to believe or I've come to enact as our norm. So really when I'm supporting women, I primarily work with women in fat loss. What we're doing is that we're understanding the different foundations of health and wellness. What is blood sugar? How like, what is that regulation there? How did the fluctuate, why is that important for my physiological health?

What. Is my digestive system. What are these different? Digestive Oregon's, how do they work? How do they work in harmony? Once we get those foundations of wellness, then that's, that's all analytical stuff, right? And that's actually why diets in general, those diets that promise us really quick results like, Oh, lose 20 pounds in a month.

Right? So exciting. Oh my gosh. Who doesn't get like lit up if you've ever wanted to lose weight, when you hear that you want a quick fix. Well, what those diets are doing for the most part. Is that they're really lighting up the left side of our brain and the left side of her brain is that analytical, logical brain.

The things that look really good on paper, which is what a lot of diets are, they're very structured, often pretty restrictive. They really give us like black and white, do this, don't do that information. Our left side of our brain gets pinged excited. We choose to do that and then often what happens is that we fall into that dieting cycle.

Right? So the dieting cycle of, I'm going to do this new thing. I feel euphoria. I do the new thing, which is typically a restrictive diet. Someone does a new diet, it works for a while. Maybe you see some results over time. What happens? The diet isn't necessarily integrating into that person's life. So inevitably either they get stressed out, they go on vacation, something happens where they fall off the diet, and then from there, once they fall off the diet, there might be feelings of guilt, resentment, frustration with oneself or one's body.

Oh, I didn't do it right. I, I'm not the person who can do a diet. Oh, that didn't work for me. My metabolism is too slow. So what happens? We stopped the diet and then. At some point we started a new one and there's that new cycle that begins again. So all of that is really kind of pinging and encouraging our analytical brain to come on board.

And so what I'm doing with women and what I'm finding is really helpful, is that we're actually integrating, in addition to this functional information about our bodies and learning what's happening in them. What we're doing to stop that dieting cycle that I just described is that we're bringing practices on board that helped to light up our emotional right side of our brain because there's a lot of power there.

Just like we were talking about the gut brain connection, we need to have like total brain connection, so that left analytical side as well as the right emotional side. 

Bryan: [00:11:27] It is kind of interesting cause a lot of diets do like a 20 day, 28 day, 30 day push. So it's like we're training people that a diet is only a month long.

And then if you look at the magazines in the grocery stores and it's like a six day push, six days to lose 15 pounds or whatever. So, with that in mind, what do you think that is doing to. The way we think about diets and how a diet should be. 

Lucia: [00:11:54] Definitely, well, it's definitely reinforcing the fact that all a diet is intended to do is make a short term change.

And that can be fine. Sometimes there are people, you know, I think about people who are in sports where they're cutting weight in order to like do this, like power lifting, right? You get into a weight class, okay, yeah. You know the drill. So we can have diets that functionally are short term and that we're using for shirt, short term purposes.

That's fine. We don't have to judge that. It can just be, I've, you've had that experience before. But what's happening is that, especially in this happens across genders, but because I work with women, I'm going to use the term women, but what's happening with women over and over again is that they're being unfortunately sold the idea that, Hey, just do this short term fix and then you won't have to worry about anything else in the longterm because you'll quote unquote using air quotes here.

Fix the problem. And the thing is, is that we're not actually learning tools and we're not actually changing anything in the long term. And then we're feeling bad and guilty that we were good, right? And we tried the diet and maybe we did it really like. 100% really like type a like I'm doing. If I'm doing a diet, I'm going to do it really well.

Unfortunately. The thing is, it's just, it's never going to be that longterm fix because they weren't designed to be the longterm fix, and that's that missing part is that we start to hear, well, if I just keep dieting at chronically diet, then then I'll get, you know, the weight loss or then I'll feel better, then I'll be more comfortable in my clothing.

They weren't designed to do that. 

Bryan: [00:13:30] So the interesting thing is a lot of people want to lose those 30 40 pounds in a super short amount of time because they say that once they lose the weight, then they'll go into maintenance mode. But we've never learned how to maintain our weight in the first place, which is why people are constantly increasing in weight every single year.

So it's definitely interesting that. We're kind of getting stuck in this roller coaster ride of diets. Yoyo dieting is essentially what it is. 

Lucia: [00:14:00] It is. It is 100% and yeah, it is. It's unfortunate, right? Because we spend so much time and so much brain power when I'm working with my clients and women in my community there, it's incredibly frustrating to feel like you're putting in this effort after, after effort, after effort.

To try a diet to try a different diet, to try to find the thing that is just going to make it all work. Right. And you know, there are stats out there that the average woman goes on about four diets per year. Every year, right? So if you're someone who's done a diet, you've probably done a lot of diets. So it's less of, I think it really has to come back to a perspective shift of both saying, well, the diet was never really intended to help you.

Yeah. Maybe you're going to cut some weight pretty quickly, and that can be empowering and that can be motivating. But motivation is short lived. So if we aren't really taking, like you said, those steps to learn, okay, how do I do the unsexy thing of learning these different lifestyle choices that are really going to position me to be in a place where I'm living and embodying the life that I'm saying I want to embody?

Then we're just unfortunately going to be stuck in that cycle again and again. Where the most exciting thing is to try a new diet. 

Bryan: [00:15:22] And so right now there's a term, the anti diet culture that's going around. And it's something that even I had to look more into because just the name of it makes me think of that.

People that are like, screw diets, I'm just gonna eat whatever I want. So can you talk a little bit about the anti diet culture and the product culture and how, The differences between the two and how we can bring them both together in a healthy way. 

Lucia: [00:15:46] Yeah, definitely. So I'll start with diet culture, because really the anti diet culture movement has come because of this more cultural awareness and consciousness around diet culture.

So diet culture in essence is really the culture that we're in that comprises of marketing and stories and ways of being that we might not have had. Really consented to being in, but it's just like our current culture where. Being skinny is being better, right? Being svelte, being more muscular, if you're maybe more male presenting, et cetera.

We have these different, silos and ways of being and appearances that we're feeling we should look like. So be tall, be skinny, be whatever else. And because of that marketing. Whether it's in magazines, whether it's more subconscious online, on Facebook, on Instagram, whether it's from an influencer, it's on TV, in a commercial, wherever it is.

The messaging and marketing is always in support of that. So. Diet culture means that really we're steeped in the idea that we are wrong and that we should try to change ourselves. That's what it often boils down to, and a lot of that comes back to, your appearance is wrong, your body is wrong, you should try to change it.

How do you change it? Use a diet, right? So that diet culture, it's really tiring. It's exhausting. And what it's doing is that it's trying to. More times than not. People who are jumping on diets, let's say, are trying to change themselves out of shame, blame, or guilt, and they're trying to motivate themselves using these negative motivators unconsciously and subconsciously, and they're trying to be good because they're being told, your life will be better if you are thinner.

If you eat in this certain way, right? You will be a better person. So antidiarrhea culture really in the last couple of years from what I've seen is. The ping pong effect of people who are very fully rejecting diet culture. And these people are saying, well, I didn't consent to being told that I should just be skinnier or that I should die it away and be this small person, right?

So diet culture, there's a spectrum that both diet, culture and anti diet culture fall on. So because of that, I think, you know, again, you and I were chatting before the show when we're chatting about anti diet culture. Even though that's on a spectrum, it can have its own spectrum as well. So for me.

Really what I want to help people to see is that it can be very helpful to reclaim your stance when you recognize that maybe in your life you've been consenting to and you've had perhaps uninformed consent to the rhetoric of diet culture, meaning. Maybe for a long time in your life you've consented to being on the diets because you really believed because of what you learned growing up, that you should be smaller or that you shouldn't have any body fat.

Right. So that part makes sense. 

Bryan: [00:18:57] It does. 

Lucia: [00:18:57] Okay. Yeah. So then from there with anti diet culture, the thing for me, cause I, I don't like to identify with either, I love to be in that gray area. I'm always telling people we're just dabbling in the gray area. Like that's what we're doing here, especially around weight loss.

Because what happens and what I see is that if we ascribe to having a label, if we claim I'm anti diet culture, that in one part is socially reaffirming. And it's socially reaffirming because as humans, we are social creatures. It's actually helpful and helpful that we want to stay safe by finding community.

However, I think the kind of unfortunate part of anti diet culture that isn't really been spoken to a ton right now is that when you identify as anti something. That automatically means that you're still thinking about the thing that you're anti. So I think the conversation can become that much more rich and actually we can embody these conversations much more fully if we say, well, what happens if I allow myself to move beyond the label of diet culture?

And beyond the label of anti diet culture and really to reclaim really that physical and emotional and even spiritual safety. When I recognize and see this landscape for what it is, 

Bryan: [00:20:16] I like how you talked about, The diet culture, how they'd tell you once you get to a certain size or a certain skinniness level, you'll feel better and you'll be more happy.

and what's interesting about that is I get a lot of people that come and they're like, I just wish I was the same size. I was back in my twenties and then I asked him, well, where are you happy with where you were at in your 20s? Well, no. 

Lucia: [00:20:39] It's like 

Bryan: [00:20:40] even, you know, so no matter what. Shape, size, whatever you want to call it, you are currently, it doesn't mean you automatically have happiness.

Lucia: [00:20:50] Exactly. Exactly. And that's, I think that's such an incredible point too, because then it really opens up our eyes to see, well, Hey, if I've been looking at my history with Rose colored glasses. What happens if I allow myself to take those glasses off, right? If I'm not having to chase my high school weight or my college weight, or when I fit into my wedding dress, or like whatever the scenario is, because I think a lot of people, they have a visual or they have a reminder, Ooh, it used to be like this and it isn't.

Right? Oh, before I had kids, my body was this way. And now after, here's the thing, if we allow ourselves to be in the present moment. That is going to help neutralize so much of that chatter because it is mind chatter and that mind chatter, right? Our brains kind of looping saying, Oh, it was better then it was better than I'm bad now.

I'm less worldly. Whatever it is. That is actually just a habit and it's a subconscious habit too. 

Bryan: [00:21:47] So, since a lot of this keeps coming back to habits, let's go through a couple of the common habits that prevent people from losing weight or feeling the way that they want to feel. 

Lucia: [00:21:57] Definitely. So a really common habit, especially for women, is first off.

Engaging in that dieting cycle that I mentioned a few minutes ago and not even understanding that that's habitual, right? Because every time we try a new diet, what do we tell ourselves? We say, Ooh, this is the one, like, Ooh, this time it's different. But if we actually step back and look at our history, most of the time, every diet that we've chosen has been because of the same reason.

So the diets and those subconscious diets can come back to our identity. And what I really find is that a lot of women are habitually identifying as dieters. But they maybe consciously haven't been identifying as that, but subconsciously they have had and have held a belief that they need to diet. They have to be the person who diets.

So that's the first habit that we look at when we really start to say, okay, how are we going to change things. And have things be different now, not because what you were doing before was bad. That's actually a really big part of the story is that we have to love and embrace, even when it's painful and it feels like gross and be like, Oh, I didn't want to embrace it.

I did 30 diets right over my lifetime or more. But if we actually embrace that and take the learning from that, that's when we can start to hold hands with an embrace our newer habits, because every time we try to break an old habit like, ah, I can't believe I used to do that. I'm going to be different this time.

Again, similar to what I was saying about diet and anti diet culture, if we keep focused on the things in the past, that's exactly where our attention and where we're training our attention to always go back into 

Bryan: [00:23:39] and then, okay. Let's go onto a couple more habits that you see. 

Lucia: [00:23:44] Yeah, sure. So first is, yeah, that habit, that subconscious habit of being a Deiter, having that identity.

The second is really the habit of this is this one might be a little triggering, but not having gratitude. Right. If we can start to shift the habit of really not being present with our foods and the foods that we're eating, that that's a big thing, right? When we're eating our foods and we're not even present, we're not connected with our bodies.

That's actually often comes to a lack of gratitude, and it's because we're habitually in a state where we're stressed out. We're in that sympathetic stress dominant state. So that's a secondary habit. So the first is identity. And the second is, okay, if you're habitually stressed the heck out. We have to adjust that.

So that then the third habit of really cultivating gratitude for the food through eating can come in and can start to work its magic. Because a lot of the times when, especially if we're going to bring it back to fat loss and weight loss, what we're doing is that we're trying to set our bodies up into a state of safety.

Into that parasympathetic rest and digest mode because hormonally, that's going to have a huge effect on our body's ability to release weight and to feel ready and prepared to release that weight. 

Bryan: [00:25:06] So, going back to  towards the beginning of this episode, and you talked about when you're living in your body, some of the symptoms that you might be experiencing, become a part of who you are.

Like if you're always have headaches, and that's just what you think life is. So thinking about stress and how much stress we put on ourselves, how do you, Teach people what stress looks like and when it's too much for someone. 

Lucia: [00:25:34] Mm, that's, yeah, that's a wonderful question. So a lot of this comes back to when I'm working with my clients, we have to come to it from a place of practice and with stress.

What is so fascinating is that a lot of us can be navigating our days. And our lives because our lives are just a series of days all strung together, right? We can be navigating our lives completely stressed out. Like really almost feeling like we're thriving and running on empty. We're thriving on that stressful experience, right?

It's how we muster up our excitement, or it's how we get through our days just by, like I said, running on empty, feeling like we are. That's just how we're wired. So when we start to cultivate practices or research to even have these dialogues, like you and I are chatting about around stress, if we actually relax.

Right? Let's say it's a little bit of self care or you know, someone tells you, okay, go take a bubble bath, like whatever, whatever. It's going to be. Mute the distractions, like you're doing something that's out of your norm and it's physiologically relaxing. That can be such a novel experience and such a novel stimulus that we actually intellectually find it stressful because it's such a different habit.

Does that make sense? Interesting. Yeah. So really, you know, for a lot of people who are coming to me, they might identify as being type a, really being like overachievers are very high achieving people. And. They've gotten to that because they've been able to run on stress and so it can almost feel, again, coming back to that identity, it can feel like an identity shift to say like, Ooh, what?

Ooh, what happens if I will actually like start to add in these practices that look good on paper, self care, right? Like getting enough sleep, hydrating myself, going for walks, reading books, like engaging in pleasurable activities. If I start to stop that stress process. Even though it can look good on paper initially, it is scary to confront because we're stopping a habit of stress that we've gotten so used to.

Right. 

Bryan: [00:27:48] So let's take. One of these habits that you were talking about, either identities, stress, or gratitude, and can even break it down into some actionable steps. So if someone wants to start working on this habit type today, how can they get started with it?  

Lucia: [00:28:04] yes. So the first thing to do, and I say this is true green, just because I feel like it is for people because it can be so starkly different than what our current culture tells us to do.

The first step.  too. Really embrace everything in your history that has brought you to this present moment. And that's really, that's like a macro level. Okay. So I know that that's like bigger, but it's really starting to say, okay, I am going to begin to cultivate a practice where everything I've done up until now is okay.

Because if I take away that judgment of all my previous actions, then. I'm no longer focused on those previous actions. So the first step is really starting to come into the present moment. From there. What is also really helpful then is starting to say, okay, now that I'm like not worried about that, like high school weight that I was at or doing the diet.

That worked for me once, but now I'm like, it's not working for me anymore. Ben. Once we were starting to break that cycle, we're able to look into our future and we can start to, I have a, I call it the perfect you plan, so we really start to break down like, what is your ideal future, right? Why? Why are you at this point in your life now where you're saying something has to change, because that's really what it is, right?

When people come to saying, Hey, I'm going to lose weight, but I'm going to lose it for good, what they're also, you know, kind of secondarily saying it's like. I don't want to be doing the things I've been doing because they haven't really gotten me where I say I want to go. So we have to both understand that we're going to be releasing things from the past, and then because of that, we're opening up our brain space to then focus on the future.

I 

Bryan: [00:29:53] like it. I like it. yeah. I love. Talking to people about how to break down habits cause everyone has a little bit different approach to it. But I think it's so important because if you tell someone, you know, just start eating better, well. How you know, people don't have the steps to get to point a to point B because they need a map.

So, I love that you're breaking it down into a way that people can actually follow the map too. figure out how to change their habits. 

Lucia: [00:30:23] Yeah, exactly. And you know, in terms of food and nutrition, so often we focus on the foods themselves. Right? We say, do eat this. Don't eat that. Like this is how you're going to build a new habit of meal prepping or of shopping at farmer's markets, like whatever it is that we want to shift around.

And that's great. That's really, really needed. But what I've started to identify too is that if we're only ever talking about building habits around our foods, I think we're actually missing. Part of the, it's actually can kind of get a little diety right? Where like just focus on the foods. Just focus on the foods, right?

Just start here. It's helpful to a certain point, but we actually have to look at, if we want to be learning how to build these habits for life and for a lifetime, we have to look at the other times of our days because we aren't eating 24 seven so we do have to talk about things like, well, what is your appetite telling you?

What is your relationship to your hunger, right? What are the stories you have around feeling hungry? What is your relationship with your energy and your energy levels? So starting to break things down to say like, yes, the focus on food and nutrition because there's so much learning there. It's so hugely helpful.

And again, for me it was life changing. It was so life changing to learn about the different foods that I was eating. But beyond that, when I was ready, then starting to say like, Ooh, I actually have stories around what happens when I get hungry and that plays a role when I am looking to lose weight, or I'm thinking about my body composition.

So yeah, it's definitely, it's habit building around the foods themselves. And then. Getting really comfortable. Again, coming back to that parasympathetic state of saying, okay, I feel good. I feel pretty well. I feel pretty good. Even I feel okay with my nutrition choices now, I'm comfortable with that and I can start to look into other areas of my life as well.

Bryan: [00:32:15] Yeah. It's kinda interesting because you bring up the identity aspect and then building habits around that. And if you think about it when. Some people when they make huge, composition changes in their body. . Their perception of themselves in the world changes a lot in that time. And then, like if you're going from a very large shape down to, a skinnier shape, sometimes you get confused and it's self sabotage because you don't know what to, how to be that type of person in the world as a smaller person.

so I think. The fact that you talk about identity, I think that's a great way to  people how to be themselves while they're going through different changes no matter what. The changes. 

Lucia: [00:33:03] Yeah. I love that you brought that up. It's so salient and it's so, I think that's so helpful for people to hear, because again, if we come back to some of the, you know, more diet culture lens of the world, which is kind of just like the common and conventional.

Stuff we have around like food and nutrition, right? It doesn't really get into like the alternative health and wellness. So commonly what we're told is that like the goal is to get to that end result, whether that's a 20 pound weight loss or like fitting into the skinny jeans, like whatever it is that our culture is saying is like, good.

And what that boils down to is it saying like you have to be the person who has these things, right? You've, you have the weight loss, you have the certain body type, you look a certain way, you have the appearance, and. Exactly what you were saying. If we can actually take that and say, yeah, people can have a certain thing, but in order to have that health status appearance, what, like whatever first off, there's, there's a lot that goes into that statement, but if we truly want to.

Have that. We actually have to go a step further and say, first off, I need to be an embody the person who is doing the things in order to have that right. And that starts to put the building blocks in the right order in order to then say. Oh, I'm actually like intrigued to build my habits instead of going on Walmart crash diet.

Right? I'm actually intrigued. She started to shift and tweak little pieces of my life that are here to serve me because it's not about anyone else in our lives. When we're making these changes, it actually does. It has to come to our back to us and our own. Really like autonomous and independent choices and desires and what we can do to start to get the ball rolling or get the ball rolling again to help us really embody those choices.

Bryan: [00:35:05] Well, Lucia, do you have any final things you want to touch on before we wrap up here? 

Lucia: [00:35:09] Yeah, I just want to say that this stuff, you know, I know with these conversations, things can sound a little bit nebulous, right? This is like the unsexy side of food and nutrition. A lot of us just want the plan on paper, right?

Give me this protocol. Give me that protocol. I don't want to be doing that emotional heavy lifting, but I just want to say for anyone who's listening, if this is resonating for you. This is actually such a beautiful cue that it might be time for that emotional brain. Your emotional brain might be like starved to be coming on board around these subjects.

So I just want to say this stuff can seem overwhelming at first, but once you come into it, I think you'll realize that. That overwhelm was just a story. And it's actually another one of those cultural stories. So I just wanted to throw that in there. Cause I know with my clients they can say like, Oh, I'm so excited.

Like, yeah, I want to lose the weight for good. Whoa, this has got really emotional. Like, Ooh, I didn't know that it was going to get this deep. It's okay for it to be deep because our bodies can handle that. 

Bryan: [00:36:09] Awesome. And my final question for you is, is there one health habit that you think everyone should practice?

And if so, what is it? 

Lucia: [00:36:16] Ooh, that's such a good question. Okay. this might seem really removed from weight loss, but I swear it is tied in and there's reason for it. The number one habit that I think everyone could start today is when you're drinking water, saying, thank you. And having that great like beginning that gratitude practice with hydration.

Same. Thank you for the water or thank you as you're filling up your bottle of water for the day, that's huge. 

Bryan: [00:36:44] Awesome. Well, people can find [email protected] you're also on Instagram. You have the devoured podcast, which you have over 80 episodes that are available right there. Is there anywhere else that you want people to find you at.

Lucia: [00:36:59] Yeah. Really. You know, Instagram is super fun place to connect. Lucia Holly there as Lucia Holly underscore, and the website, I'm always here for these conversations. I know that they can be nuanced, so I love to just be that resource for people to say like, Oh, if you're ready to have these conversations, they're ready for you and you can do this.

So I'm always down to connect on any of those platforms. 

Bryan: [00:37:21] Awesome. Lucia, thank you so much for coming on and talking all about the habits and, you know, a little bit about the anti culture and the pro culture aspects and how we can meld those together. So I appreciate it. Thank you. 

Lucia: [00:37:33] Thank you so much, Bryan.

This was a blast. 

Bryan: [00:37:35] So what do you think, do you think some of these steps will help you to view food in a different way? Let me know in the comments at summit for Walnut stock comment slash one zero five and also if you enjoy this episode, open up your podcast app real quick and leave a quick rating and review.

It helps to keep the show going and boost us up in the rankings. Next week, I have Angela Pifer on the show to talk about whether the FODMAP diet is as good for digestive issues as originally thought. So let's go learn a little bit about Angela. I am here with Angela Pifer. Angela, what is one unique thing about you that most people don't know?

Angela: [00:38:14] I am a spokesperson for the cat rescue in my local area is Neo cat rescue and it helped them raise over 75,000 at one of their local charity events. 

Bryan: [00:38:26] Oh, wow. That's awesome. Good for you. Well, what will we be learning about in our interview together? 

Angela: [00:38:33] Yeah, we're going to talk about IBS and CBO and, the overuse and, just over confidence of the FODMAP diet and use for those, two, conditions.

Bryan: [00:38:47] And what are your favorite foods or nutrients that you think everyone should get more of it in their diet, 

Angela: [00:38:52] herbs and spices. 

Bryan: [00:38:54] Any specific or just in general? 

Angela: [00:38:56] Just in general. Just in general. I don't think people flavor up their food enough. ginger, tumeric, Bazell, parsley, cilantro. I mean, they all have amazing compounds within them.

That, and part health and just, and I don't think people will think about them enough. 

Bryan: [00:39:13] And then what are your top three health tips for anyone who wants to improve their overall wellness? 

Angela: [00:39:18] You need to breathe, you need to move, and you need to sleep. And you need to put the screen down. 

Bryan: [00:39:25] That one's really important.

Angela: [00:39:27] Unplug. Unplug. 

Bryan: [00:39:31] And do you have recommendations on when to unplug? Like before bed. 

Angela: [00:39:37] I actually think that, blue screen usage should be curtailed after our six 30 or seven, which is really hard for a lot of people, that we are not meant to look at that bright a blue screen. Our phones are actually the worst offenders.

It's that, so basically you're saying brain, it's the brightest sunniest day you've ever seen in your life, but I want you to wind down for bed. Like it just, you're working opposite. If anyone's gone camping and it's dark at nine o'clock, everyone's tired. You've allowed, you know, your eyes have a lot, you know, adjusted into that darkness pattern, 

you know, produces what it produces, melatonin andL , and you'd get that change in cortisol and melatonin among other things.

And you get to sleep nicely. But inside our homes, we have bright lights and we, Blue producing lice. The TVs are so bright, I can't, you know, so turn, turn the blue down on your TV. You can get, my favorite, blue light blocking glasses or blue blocks. B, L. U. B. L. O. X. They are out of Australia.

They work amazing. And even order them, they ship to the States, very quickly. and where those from seven o'clock on, but do not have your phone up to your face. You, you can override that by having that bright device. Near you. So, you know, I have a really cool function on my galaxy, a Samsung, that I can turn it on gray scale and that just kicks in.

And so it's, it's just gray. 

Bryan: [00:41:01] I love it. I love, I love the, the example of camping. Cause every time we backpack right after sunset, that's when we naturally make our way into the tent and go to bed. 

Angela: [00:41:11] Yeah, it's crazy. But here, you know, like life lights up and here we go. And then people get their, their second wins.

It's really their adrenals kicking in, giving them an adrenaline hit because you've stayed up past the point. Your body has said 

you're supposed to go to bed, 

so you get that second wins and then you're not going to bed anytime soon. You're not going to sleep while you just had an adrenaline hit and people kind of ride that end.

I think it's a good thing and some people can survive on that. It's not everyone that's going to help us use, but for the people that have health issues, it really interferes with sleep. 

Bryan: [00:41:42] We'll be diving deep into some of the studies around FODMAPs. So until then, keep climbing to the peak of your health.