97- Metabolic Approach to Weight Loss with Mandi Green

Bryan:00:15As we start to close in on the new year, many people start to reflect back on different aspects of the year that they want to try and change up and as we all know, one of the most common new year's resolutions is usually health related such as weight loss, but how many times do you know someone who has gone on a diet or exercise routine and hasn't been successful? The majority of people who lose a bunch of weight tend to gain it all back plus a little extra and they just end up on a roller coaster ride with their weight loss goals, which is why this episode is important. There are a lot of different influences on weight loss, including metabolic processes and habit changes, which my guest today is fantastic at addressing what's up everyone? I'm Bryan Carroll and I'm here to help people who have an injury or illness that holds them back from enjoying the outdoors.

Bryan:01:08And I have Mandy green joining me today to help you figure out an approach to weight loss that will work for you. And before we dive into this episode, I wanted to quickly thank everyone who submitted my podcast survey, which will help to improve the show and to bring on amazing guests. And also congratulations to Rebecca for winning a $100 gift card to trader Joe's. Okay, let's jump into my conversation with Mandy green. Mandy green is a certified wellness and weight coach. She's the founder of the renowned at North Carolina based coaching program. Eat like you, love it in her podcast, weight loss for busy women. Mandy uses a sense of humor to help her listeners make the connection between the how their thoughts, feelings, and decisions create their current results. Nothing makes Mandy happier than teaching women how to become masters of their own wellness so they can feel better, lose weight, and have a ton of fun doing it. Thanks for coming on the show, Mandy.

Mandi:02:05Oh, thanks for having me, Bryan. This is so great.

Bryan:02:09Yeah, I love having other podcasters on because I think we just end up creating a wonderful interview together. And so let's dive into your background a little bit. Let's learn a little bit about you and kind of what got you started with a podcast of your own.

Mandi:02:25Oh yeah. Well, you know, what I found is since I'm an avid listener of podcasts, one thing is that when I'm listening to a podcast, I just learned so much about the host. You know, it's a great voice to have. And I feel like, especially in the health and wellness space where I am, and especially with weight loss because it's such an intimate experience for people, they really need to build trust. And it just is so nice. The feedback that I've been getting from people as they really get to my personality a little bit better. So that's how I, that's how I really got into that.

Bryan:03:04And then what got you so excited about being coming at certified wellness and weight coach?

Mandi:03:09Well, you know, I've been in healthcare for 15 years. I spent 10 of those years. I was a busy, busy massage therapist in private practice. And it's kind of interesting because I found like that for myself, I thought that I was really healthy. You know, I hiked all the time. I was doing yoga and I was helping other people heal their own bodies. But to be honest, I was working really long hours and I'd be exhausted at the end of the day and I would eat to relax, you know? And I did it. It wasn't really a problem until I was about 39 and that's when I started to notice that even though like I wasn't changing what I was doing as far as food, I was really gaining weight, you know, and I was getting frustrated. I didn't look the same. I didn't like feel good in my body. I didn't have the same energy.

Mandi:04:00So I started working with a health coach and that was kind of like a new thing. I hadn't really heard of it, but I you know, from word of mouth, from friends, I heard about this health coach and I thought, you know, I'm just gonna see what it's about. Check it out. And it was a really different approach. And having the support and accountability, I ended up losing, I thought I needed to lose like 10 pounds. I lost 40 pounds and it wasn't even hard. And so when that happens, everywhere you go, people start asking you, you know, like, Oh my gosh, look at you. What are you doing? And so all of those kinds of questions got me really excited and I just thought, you know what? I can help other people do this. So I've still had my massage practice, but I went ahead and got my coaching certification and then that inspired me to deep dive study into nutrition. And so fast forward to now wellness and weight coaching is what I do full time and I'm working, I've got clients all over the Southeast of the United States right now. I'm coaching them one on one over the phone every single week and they're getting great results. So it's really exciting.

Bryan:05:08Yeah. It's interesting that you brought up that right around the 39 Mark is when you started noticing that the pounds were starting to add on because it seems like every single person reaches some age threshold and it's different for each person. We can't just say at 35 this all changes, but they reached this threshold where things start to change in their body and they start putting on weight. So can you talk about what is going on in the body to make these changes start to occur and yeah. Tell us a little bit more about that.

Mandi:05:40Yeah. The thing is, Bryan, it's really a combination of our body's hormones and our lifestyles. You know, and the reason I say it's a combo is because our lifestyles affect our hormones all lot more than people realize, like how we manage stress, the environment that we live in, the thoughts we think on a daily basis, and in fact our, like our entire outlook on life. All of that impacts our body on a cellular and a hormonal level. So like, yes, your hormones are changing. You might even say that they're vulnerable to imbalances at different stages of your life. Like puberty for women, pregnancy, perimenopause, menopause, like that. Our lifestyle, especially if it's stressful or really fast paced, contributes to creating more hormonal imbalance during those times. And based on all the research and my experience working with one-to-one clients, about 90% of weight loss resistance for women over 30 is hormonal. Hmm.

Bryan:06:48Yeah, that's, that's pretty impactful. And yeah, a lot of us live a very stressed out lifestyle. We're always busy, we're always trying to do too many things at once, which can definitely have an impact on hormones. And when we're talking about hormones, are there specific hormones that cause these weight issues in the body or is it a combination of quite a few different hormones?

Mandi:07:12Well, it's a combination of a lot of different hormones, but the way I, you know, there's over 150 hormones in the body. So when it comes to weight loss, I think it really helps to just keep it simple. With my clients, I focus primarily on cortisol and insulin. Cause here's the thing, when you get some balance with those two hormones, we ultimately create balance everywhere else. So let me explain what I'm talking about. So cortisol is your body's stress response hormone and it's a great thing. You know, often when we hear about cortisol, we think it's a terrible thing, but it's important, you know, we have to have that keeps us alive, but there can be too much of a good thing. And in our fast paced, like high stress, we're always multitasking. What happens is that we're over-producing the cortisol and when that happens, not only does it lower our immune system, it inhibits our ability to shift into that rest and digest like parasympathetic nervous system.

Mandi:08:16But it also prevents us from producing oxytocin that feel good hormone. It's a pleats, our serotonin levels, it affects our sleep. You know, it makes us store fat, especially belly fat. You know, women are always conscious about that, you know cortisol keeps us feeling really anxious. Like if you ever feel scattered and overwhelmed, I know one of my clients said she felt scattered, smothered and covered. So like excessive cortisol is linked to your sugar cravings, your stress eating, your depression. So the result is like weight gain. And when you look in the mirror you're like look tired. Maybe it's that middle aged woman's like belly, you know, muffin top kind of belly. And that's just from the overproduction of cortisol. So it's a big one, you know, it affects your adrenals, your energy levels, your immune system. So that's the first one to address.

Mandi:09:11And then the second one that I think it's important to address is insulin. Insulin's responsible for taking sugar out of the bloodstream and listen, it's the fat storage hormone. So we always are producing insulin when we eat sugar and when we stress out, because cortisol stimulates insulin production too. So lots of times we're eating so much sugar though. Then we overproduce insulin. Our body can't even absorb it. And then we become insulin resistant, which basically means we're just, we're hungry all the time and we're storing everything as fat. So it's like those are the two main hormones that I'd like to focus on for my clients. It's not, it doesn't become overwhelming because if you start listing all of the hormones, we can get really complicated with things. If we just regulate the cortisol and the insulin, we can do a lot of that with food. You're going to get some really, really good results.

Bryan:10:13And going back to corridors also, cortisol is typically released to be a stressful event or when your blood sugar level is dropped to a certain threshold, then cortisol is released. So how can people start to manage their cortisol levels? Especially if they live a really busy stress out lifestyle?

Mandi:10:33Well, here's the thing. Okay. It's not just when we're actually in a stressful situation that cortisol is released, our bodies, our minds don't know the difference between what's actually happening and what we just imagine is happening. So I find that one of the most important things that you can do is bring awareness to that. Because here's the thing, we spend a lot of time worrying about stuff, worrying about stuff that's already happened, worrying about things that are yet to come. And that is probably the number one thing that you can do to help your life. Because if you're sitting in traffic, you really don't need to stress out about that. If you're going to be late, you're going to be late. You know, if something stressful happened at work that day, let us stay there. You know, because when you bring all that stuff home and you just, you sit there and worry, worry, worry, your body is, gets IX, like it's going to experience the effect of having the cortisol and you're not even having the experience. Does that make sense? Kind of.

Bryan:11:36It does make sense. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's super fascinating when you look at that cause you can continue to experience that same event if you don't work on a different ways to what's the word I'm looking for? How to

Mandi:11:54Spend more time with your emotions and figure out how to move through your emotions and then release them or let them go. Oh yeah, absolutely. And you know, there's different like mind body practices and I think for every person it's a different thing. You know? Some people find that peace in yoga. Some people find that peace riding their bike through the woods. Some people find that piece just being still, you know, in their own home in a quiet space. So anytime that you can get a little bit of management over your mind and have some awareness of what's going on in your mind, that can really help to shift your body into that place where you can have the oxytocin release and you can move into a more restful space where your body can digest and heal and all of those like really good, wonderful things.

Bryan:12:51So let's talk a little bit about the way food can react in your body. Cause you had mentioned people that are stressed out or very busy and they're worrying about, you know, all the world's problems. They typically end up getting more sugar cravings and they're kinda bingeing on food. So what foods are people typically going for? And then how can we change the quality or the types of foods that they're going forward to be something that's a little bit better for them?

Mandi:13:19Yeah. So I try to keep a real simple approach with this. The best way to get the hormones balance back is by changing what you're eating, definitely, but also by changing how you're thinking. So the simplest way that I encouraged clients to eat is like very simple to start. It's first, it's just slow down, eat when you're hungry and stop when you're not hungry anymore. And that's really step one because I find that when we start trying to eliminate foods, before we do step one, clients always struggle. So the first step is just, you know, to start planning ahead what you're going to eat regardless of what it is, regardless of the quality of it, just start planning it ahead and stick to that plan and then just eat when you're hungry, stop when you're not hungry anymore. That one thing is going to help you get so much healthier because you get more in touch with your body's own natural hunger and fullness feelings.

Mandi:14:16You start bringing awareness. You're not just mindlessly walking around eating all the time. Now step two, and this might be more what you're after. This is what people always want to know is like, well, what? What, what? What should I eat? So when clients kind of have mastered step one and they're ready to kind of Uplevel their health, then the best way honestly, is to add a lot more vegetables. And I recommend that 75 to 80% of your diet is greens and vegetables followed by healthy fats and proteins. Because here's the thing, when eating a lot of sugar and flour, you are going to be craving a lot of sugar and flour because sugar and flour give your body this like over delivery of dopamine, okay? And dopamine feels really good and dopamine is good when it's coming from a natural source, but sugar and flour are like a double dose of it, okay?

Mandi:15:15And so then the only way to get another double dose is to eat more sugar and flour. And so that's why you're craving the sugar and you're like on this like swinging pendulum of constantly craving and then resisting eating it and then bingeing on it and then feeling guilty because of that. The dopamine, the double dopamine release and then the craving of it again. You know I also advocate eating healthy grains like quinoa, Brown rice. But the thing you have to be careful about is that sugar and flour are literally like packed into our foods. They are, they have been, you know, I don't know if snuck is a word, but they've been like Synack in there into things that you think are healthy, like protein bars and granola bars and convenience foods. And so even though it says on there that it's healthy, you've really got to read your labels.

Mandi:16:10Okay. Because sugar and flour keep you like, it keeps your body starving on a nutritional level and it's going to keep you overweight. Okay. I also encourage clients to cut back on caffeine and alcohol. Nobody really wants to hear that, but it's true. Caffeine can mimic sugar in your body when you have too much of it, so that, you know, creates the insulin release. And then of course, alcohol really alters your metabolism, slows down your weight loss, and it just makes you, I think more prone to overeat, eat unhealthy foods. So any kind of cutting back is great. You know, that's the route that I go. [inaudible]

Bryan:16:53Okay. So you had mentioned looking at labels and if I remember correctly, I think there's over 75 different names for sugar on labels. So it can definitely be tough to at radio a label and understand that this ingredient right here basically means sugar. So are you also looking at like carb counts or something along those lines to indicate that there's probably sugar up some sort in that food?

Mandi:17:23Yeah, you know, looking at carb counts isn't a really easy way to do it, but the easier way to do it is to just eat foods that you know, what they are. And I think that's kind of a thing that happens for people is they, they start out and they're, they start reading the labels of everything that they've been eating. And so it's like, you know, sometimes I'll go to the grocery store when my clients are used to be all only in town. So I, that was one of the, that I used to do is I'd be like, okay, let's go to the grocery store together. So we would go and then they'd be like digging for their glasses and their purse. So, you know, they could see like read all the labels and it's like, it gets frustrating after a while because the label, the list of ingredients is, like you said, it's ridiculous.

Mandi:18:03So after a while that's a, becomes kind of, you know, wrote and it's like, how about if I just get the Brown rice? Oh, okay. That's much easier. Oh, I'm just going to get the chicken breast. I'm just going to go to the produce section. And you know, once you learn what your healthy fats are that you're going to eat, you season things and everything becomes delicious. And when you get off of all those preservatives and all those ingredients that you don't know what they really are, you lose a taste for that. And then when you do eat that you're like, what is that? You know, it's like you become far away from it, but it takes, it's the first steps that can be kind of tricky because when you're used to eating that way you think food is supposed to taste like that, but food isn't really supposed to taste like all those preservatives.

Bryan:18:54So I want to go back a little tiny bit back to step one. When you're talking about spending time with your food and recognizing when you're full and hungry and I am curious, what do you do for people that their hunger cues might be desensitized and they don't, their body no longer tells them they're hungry or maybe their go to is when they're super stressed out. They just eat whether they're hungry, full or not.

Mandi:19:21Yeah. So, you know, one of the things that helps clients a lot with that and that those are signs, you know, a lot of times when your, when your hunger and fullness indicators are off, a lot of that has to do with an unawareness of what you've been eating. Like a lot of clients will start with me and I'll say, Hey, you know, like, so what have you been eating? And maybe they'll make a food list. And then I look at that and I'm thinking, I don't know because is this what you've been eating or this is what you want to be eating. You know, it's kind of like that. And so what are the best ways to start getting back in touch with your hunger and fullness is to start writing down what you've been eating. Like old school food journal. But here's the thing to kind of amp it up.

Mandi:20:06It isn't about, especially in the beginning, isn't about judging what you've been eating. It's more about just writing down the food without judgment and then also writing down the thought around that. So like for example, if you had like the stressful day at work and you started craving pizza sometime in the afternoon and you came home and you wandered around, you ate potato chips for a little while and then you had the pizza and then you had a beer or something like that. Then at some point in that evening sit down and write all that down. You know, like I started crying, you know, you start writing. I started craving that at two 30 this afternoon I came home, not, I didn't even have that actually had the potato chips, you know, and I was feeling really out. And once you start attaching the thoughts and emotions and the foods and you put it down on paper and you can start, start to see it after like seven to 10 days, sometimes it takes longer, sometimes not so long. You start to see some patterns. And honestly that is one of the biggest eye-openers that I've seen for my clients. Like they may not be yet experiencing it in their body, but they start to see it on paper and it's a big eyeopener and that usually inspires them to make actual shifts in the food choices. And that's where you start to feel things more in your body when you start drinking more water and getting more rest and eating like a higher quality of food. Does that make sense?

Bryan:21:35That does make sense. So a lot of people, when they're on a weight loss journey, at some point they'll end up at some kind of a plateau where it seems like their weight just stalls and they can't get below that threshold if their hormones are working the way that they're supposed to. Do they still reach that plateau at some point? Or do they naturally just continue to progress until they get to where they want to be?

Mandi:22:00You know, that's a really interesting because I think that every body is different, but what I find that typically is happening with plateaus, I actually just did a podcast where I was talking a lot about the plateau. So yeah, it can be about the food. Like sometimes, maybe it's that your body has reached its ideal weight or its ideal weight for now, you know, that can be part of it. Like you know, you'll, you'll lose, lose, lose for a little while and then just kinda like hang for a little bit. And if you don't change anything with what you're doing maybe after two weeks and you still haven't lost any weight, that's when I might say, okay, it might be time to like shift some things with what you're eating or maybe change up your exercise routine. But what I find to be much, much, much more common is that it's a mindset shift that needs to happen when you have a plateau is if, especially if, if the client is eating really well, like the thing is, you know, it's kind of like any sport.

Mandi:23:05Okay. I mean weight loss isn't a sport, but it can feel like that sometimes. You know, it's a mind game. It's easy to get sidetracked on the food and like to obsess about the food that you should be eating or the food you shouldn't be eating and forget about the way you need to be thinking. And so for instance, one thing I see a lot is that clients will lose quite a bit of weight pretty quickly. Maybe they'll lose 20 pounds and at that point they're noticing the changes in their body and then their life, you know, people around them are noticing it, it's starting to affect their life. And so even though it's an exciting time, sometimes you know, change creates fear because our minds don't really like change. You know, it's like our primal brain is driving our life. Like 90% of our life is driven by that.

Mandi:23:56That primal brain that is in that habitual rinse and repeat state, right? So when you get to a weight loss plateau, you know, a lot of times it's like for example, I have a client who just broke through one, but she had gotten to one 72 and she couldn't remember anytime before that that she had gotten to one 72. So it was like she just stayed there, you know, and I mean that was far from where she, she was actually going to keep going too. There's like we've really had to work on that mindset around yeah, it's okay for you to keep losing weight past that, you know, and there can be all different reasons for somebody. And they can be deep reasons why they might not want to lose that weight. And when you say it, it doesn't even sound like it would make sense.

Mandi:24:45But there's all kinds of things. Sometimes for example, it could be like a social thing, you know, if all of your friends kind of weigh the same thing that you weigh, you know, and you guys all go out and socialize a lot together. There can be like a sort of a deep seated fear of like, well, what's it going to be like if I don't have that struggle anymore? Now how am I going to fit in to this group if I don't still have this struggle? I mean that's just one. I see that one a lot. You know, and so I think that's where the plateaus really come more so than the body being perfectly hormonally balanced and just something else is wrong.

Bryan:25:22Where would ideal weight come from? Like a lot of people, they have a number that they want to reach, but how do they know that that is ideal for them because their body might think a different way is more ideal.

Mandi:25:36Yeah. You know, that's a great question too because I think that a lot of times the client has their ideal weight and their client's doctor has their ideal weight. And I think like media, like mass media as that has its ideal weight of its expectation. And I think it's, Oh my gosh. Right? Yeah. So it's like, I think that's something that has to be discovered along the way. So when clients come, they for the, you know, 90% of the time when they're really serious about losing weight, their expectation with me is less than what I think they're actually gonna lose. But I let them go ahead and set that start because I can tell you know, when they probably have 30 pounds to lose but they want to lose 12, let's say, I can tell that it's like, okay, they're really starting to wrap their head around this, they're going to get serious about this.

Mandi:26:31And they're just sort of setting this lower amount because that's what they believe in this moment that they can actually achieve. And then once they hit that pretty quick, then they're like, well, you know, I can't get, can keep going a little bit. I'm like, Oh, okay, yeah, let's, that's fine if you want to. And so yes, every now and then somebody comes in and they, they really have this very ambitious amount and that's when I say, Hey, let's do this in smaller steps because I'd rather you experience like smaller victories than set yourself up for this big mountain to climb. Because the truth is, Bryan, you people really know how they're going to feel until they get there. That's why I really, yeah. So I really advocate for people to just take the slow and steady approach, get the mindset piece right too so that it's like a one time last weight loss journey rather than this diet mentality, you know?

Bryan:27:32Right. And so when people go more into a maintenance phase, does the program that you have for them, does that change at all or are they still utilizing these different principles even to maintain?

Mandi:27:46Yeah, you know, for everybody it's different. The tr, most people once they get really healthy, they like how that feels. Now I'm always like co-creating their food protocol with them and so it makes it sustainable. Like I'm never going to say to somebody, you're going to eat this, you're going to eat this, you're going to eat this because it just doesn't work. Like our body just, our brain naturally wants to revolt when we tell it. It has to do something that's called like rebellion is on the way self-sabotage. So it's always a process of like, okay, well like what's going to work for your schedule? Like let's create that meal protocol. So we're always evolving it. And usually when people get one where they feel like it's really doable for their schedule, it makes their body feel really good. They want to keep it the same. But again, you know, maybe they're going to have somebody come in town or they're going to I don't know, take a trip or they're going to do something different, like completely go off of it. I often get texts from clients that they've done that and they're like, Oh my God, I feel terrible. You know, and they jump right back into what they normally are eating. So once you feel good and you know how food affects you, you, you want that, you know,

Bryan:29:07Do you deal with people that they have their plan that they're working on and they do that during the week and then when the weekend comes they want to have fun or you know, life gets in the way and maybe they go hang out with friends or sporting events, whatever it is, and then their weight kind of goes up and down, up and down, up on the weekends, down through the week, up on the weekends, down through the week. Do you deal with that with a lot of the women that you're working?

Mandi:29:33Totally. I mean that kind of goes into that weight loss plateau situation where, you know, they'll go say for 10 days, you know, they'll go through a full weekend and they'll just be, there'll be jamming, you know, and they'll get to experience that. And then there's that kind of misguided or miss minded thought of like, like the old thought pattern of I'm going to celebrate, like I deserve to celebrate. And so then they want to celebrate with food. And then they fall into that pattern of like, okay, I'm going to be really strict through the week and then I'm just going to go haywire on Friday afternoon and from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon, it's like, you know, three to five pounds, you know? And so typically what I see happen is that that will go on. That's kind of like phase two because phase one is, you know, it's this, Oh my gosh, it's so hard to get started.

Mandi:30:25And then phase two is like, okay, I figured out kind of how I can do this and I can still lose weight, but so much slower than if I just stuck with it all the time. And they'll be in that phase two for quite a while before they get really bored with that because they're having to work so much harder during the week. You know, they're having to exercise more and they're having to be so like much more careful. And to be honest, it's kind of exhausting to do it like that. Like I usually tell them, if you're going to go off your meal plan every weekend, do it for one meal because one meal you really don't even notice that. It's just like your body's like, Whoa, what's that? You know, and then get right back into the groove of it. But once you go one meal to meal, three meal and then all of a sudden it's like, Oh they're, you know, they're way off track. So I see it happen and I coach them through it. But it takes them coming to that place of becoming almost bored with it or frustrated with that pattern in themselves. You know? And seeing their scale go up and down like that is, you know, it's kind of a wake up call.

Bryan:31:34Yeah. They ended up losing the same 10 pounds like 15 times.

Mandi:31:37Yeah. But yeah, but they never really lose the 10 pounds a math where they, that's why it becomes so frustrating cause it's really like a three pound thing. Like where they just stay stuck and they're like, man, I can't get past that three pounds. And it's like, yeah, that's because of every single weekend. And if you just, if, yeah, if you just reduce it to like, you know, whatever it is, if they've got to go to the bakery on Saturday morning, okay go ahead. You know, or if it's Saturday night, that's the thing. But tell do both, cause that's, that's, that's the problem, you know, and it makes them crave more, you know, cause once you go eat the sugar and flour, that's what you want, you know? Yeah.

Bryan:32:15Yup. The hyper palatable foods. So what about for people that you know, they go on a plan, they feel like they are all in and then they have one bad meal and now they're like, Oh I just ruined everything and maybe I'll start back on Monday or I'll start end tomorrow. How do you work through that with,

Mandi:32:37Yeah. Well this is, I always tell people right in the beginning is that there's going to be tons of failure on this journey, you know, and that is totally okay. Like we're not going to go into it and be naive and think that there's not going to be any failure because that's what a diet is. And so I don't sell a diet, you know, because diets don't work. I mean, there's even been studies out, I don't know if you've seen them, but like 99% of dieters all fail. So it's like, let's not do a diet cause we've already done a diet, let's do a lifestyle. And part of the lifestyle is it has ups and downs and failure is part of it. And especially in the beginning and especially during times of like change, like life changes, like stressful situations or holidays or vacations when they're navigating new territory.

Mandi:33:30So it's like instead of pretending like that's not going to happen, I try to be much more transparent about it and try to help them kind of have a heads up of what to watch out for before it happens. Like, look, this is what's going to be presented to you. This is how your mind is going to try to tempt you with this. And maybe you're going to give into it and maybe you're not. And so when you don't give into it, let's really celebrate that. And when you do give into it, let's just kind of acknowledge it and notice it with curiosity, not with judgment or shame, you know? And let's like move away from the negative self talk and because you're not going to beat yourself up to get them, you know, it just doesn't work like that. That causes cortisol, that causes stress.

Mandi:34:17So it's like, let's just chill and just roll with it. You know? It's much more fun that way too. And what's very cool to me is like, I'll get these texts from clients, sometimes they'll talk about it on an actual coaching call, but they love to text me and tell me how I'm, you know, like their, their experience with their own self-talk of where they've caught themselves. They're like, you know what, I've got this. And they'll have some little thing that they're saying to themselves and they're texting it to me and I'll just give them back like a little clapping emoji or whatever because I can see those are the steps, you know? Those are the steps to awareness and to growth and to heal it, you know? Yeah. And I think those are all excellent points and talk on because I mean that is the real life situations with people.

Mandi:35:02It's the small steps and trying to work through these, all these different changes because it is a big step for a lot of people, almost every single person. It's, you know, out of their wheelhouse and it's huge steps forward in their health. Oh yeah. And they don't realize when they're embarking on it, how it's going to impact all the other parts of their life. And that's part I think a big part of what makes it such a tricky kind of web for people. And I think it's a big part of why people stay so stuck. It's not just that the food itself is addictive because it is, I mean, the sugar and flour is like got a real hold on people, but it's also that the food has been so like integrated into their whole culture, their whole experience. You know, their family routine their history, their, their upbringing, their belief system about food.

Mandi:35:56Food is love. You know, food is comfort. It might be how they show people that they love them. And so it's like, we're kind of relearning a lot of things. It's like we're building a whole new relationship with food and you know, I always think, I always tell people it's like, it's kind of like if you have the negative relationship with food, it's like having a bad boyfriend, you know, and it breaking up with a bad boyfriend. It's like, it's going to be just as easy to love a nice guy as the bad guy. Like we can have, we can love the healthy food just as much as you think you love that stuff that is wreaking havoc in your body, you know?

Bryan:36:39Yup. And to go back on how ingrained this is in our just lives in society, think about all the achievements that you get back in elementary school. You would always celebrate that with like a pizza party or an ice cream party or something. So this goes away way, way back in our lives.

Mandi:36:59Oh yeah. Way back. I remember how this teacher, I think she was, I'm not gonna call her name out, but I do remember it, but I won't say it, but cause you have so many listeners, she's probably, she's going to know who she is, but I think it was second grade or third grade, she had this giant, like this beautiful glass sort of an urn thing and she had all these pretzels in it. And if you are good at the end of the day, you would get a pretzel. And if you can remember how hungry you would be when you were little, you know, because it was the end of the school day was so far from lunch. I can remember like looking at that thing and just like salivating, hoping I would get one of those pretzels, you know? I just think that by that, I think that's really messed up. You know, because pretzels are not good for you. Like they're, they're not good for you. There are no better than chips really. People don't realize that, but that's the flour, you know? So anyways, yeah, it goes way back.

Bryan:37:55Do you have any final thoughts on just weight loss in general and the metabolic approaches that it takes? Said cheap weight loss?

Mandi:38:02Yeah. You know, I might get a little pushback on this, but I just want people you know, there's a lot of people that, and I've heard this a lot lately with clients that are coming in and I've heard them feel almost guilty that they want to lose weight because they say that they want to be part of the body acceptance movement. In fact, I just have a new client. She just started with me Tuesday. She just was like literally feeling so guilty for wanting to lose weight, but she'd hit the 200 pound Mark and I to her, I said, okay, you don't have to feel guilty for wanting to be the best version of yourself and get healthy. You know? And I, I guess part of it is I just feel like we really all, as a society, we need to become more vigilant about being advocates for our own health.

Mandi:38:52You know, I think that jumping on the scale every morning is really as simple and responsible as brushing your teeth. It's the thing is, it's the thought that you attach to what that number on the scale is, what you let that number mean to you and about you. That's what creates the problems and the body images for people. You know, when it comes to weighing in, it's like it's okay to just want to be your best self. You can still love yourself without shaming yourself for wanting to improve. You know, it's not about self judgment, it's just about absolutely taking responsibility and self accountable. Accountability, like peak curious with yourself in a loving way, you know, without, you know, the thing that always scares me is when people won't weigh themselves. It lets me kind of know that they are ignoring symptoms like digestive issues or chronic stress or depression or headaches.

Mandi:39:52And when you just want to take a pill, you know, you just want to pretend the thing is going to go away. That becomes a big part of the problem. So for me it's like, let's just pull back the curtain. Let's allow ourselves to look at what's going on. You know, let's write down what we're eating, let's write down how we're feeling, like it's okay, all of it is, and let's just piece it all back together and just see that it's just what's happening. You know, it's we can actually start to have this like search for and treatment for the cause, you know, versus just the symptoms. Like for me that's true healthcare finding and treating the causes of things. Yeah, I love that. I think you did a really good job of explaining that entire thought process. I love it. Cool. So my final question for you is, do you have a morning routine and if so, what is it?

Mandi:40:51Oh, of course everybody does. I wish I could say that I drank a green drink or something like that. I don't do that because I typically wake up, I like to wake up really early. Okay. I like to wake up when it's still quiet in my house. Like there's something peaceful about that and I make I'll warm lemon water. I switched over to that. My 15 year old daughter was, I used to drink coffee and she kind of, I don't know, she was kind of giving me a hard time about it, like it was almost a dare. And she was just like, you know, she said, I think that I get the same amount of energy from my warm limit water that you get from your coffee. And I was like, all right, we'll see about that. So I just, one day I just quit cold Turkey.

Mandi:41:31I've never gone back. So I put my warm lemon water in my big giant had this really pretty red and blue coffee mug that the kids gave me one year for mother's day or my birthday or something. And the handle's been broken off and glued back on. It's really cute. It's charming and it has this matching saucer. So I have that and I kind of wander around for a little bit with that and I sort of think about the day for a minute. Then I make my daughter's lunch. I still do that even though she's 15, I make her this salad that she really likes for school. And then I do my meditation. So I'm really into, I'm Joe Dispenza right now and I'm somewhat obsessed with his his teachings. And I follow one of his meditations. I do that in the morning and I do a different one in the evening. But I feel like doing it in the morning gives me so much of like a grounding presence of the way that I then go about the rest of my day. And so that's the, my morning, you know, it's really just the warm lemon water and just wandering around and then my meditation and then everything else that happens from there is, you know, either on the calendar or it's divine, you know, just that's how it goes.

Bryan:42:43Yeah. You gotta enjoy your quiet time whenever you can get it. That's so important.

Mandi:42:48Oh, it's so important. It's so important to appreciate those simple things, I think.

Bryan:42:52Well, people can find [email protected]. And you'll also have your podcast weight loss for busy women. Do you want to talk about your podcast?

Mandi:43:01Yeah, sure. You know, so the podcast was inspired. Well, I guess have we talked about that a little bit at the beginning, but it was just like, you know, I just want it to be able to give people some very simple and lighthearted experiences that my other clients are going through because I know that it's inspiring when you hear about other people that are on the weight loss journey too, you know? So I always try to add that in. And it's really about building a belief in yourself because I know that for so many people it's, it's that they've tried everything, they failed and there's this big fear usually around beginning something again. You know, I even hear people say like, well, I've just kind of like have to accept it for the way it is. And it's like, you know, you really don't actually, like, it's really maybe that you haven't had the right approach yet. And so I offer a lot of information on that podcast. I teach on that podcast and it's really fun. You know, it's it's just been such a joy to have it and to get to experience it. So I would just invite everybody to come and listen to at weight loss for busy women

Bryan:44:11And that can be found at Apple podcasts, Google podcasts and Spotify. And which means it's basically an any podcast listening device or app that you have. So Mandy, thank you so much for coming on and talking about weight loss and how people can work with our hormones to improve their chances at being successful with their weight loss. I know a lot of people, like I said, that they reached that certain age and then all of a sudden things start packing on a little bit and they want to know what can I do. So I think these steps are great. They're very actionable and they will definitely get you to where you want to want to go. So thank you so much. Thank you so much Bryan. This has been a pleasure. I love how Mandy creates actionable steps that you can follow that will help you to succeed with your goals.

Bryan:44:59And if you haven't checked out her podcast, she talks through a lot of real life situations that you've probably been in before and how to work through them, especially if you want to reach your goals. So go check that out at eat. Like you'll love it.com next episode we will be wrapping up the year with sound clips from the top five episodes of 2019 it's been a lot of fun to see the battles going on behind the scenes between different episodes and guests who have been getting knocked out of the top five spot the last few months. So you'll just have to wait and see who finishes in the top five next week. And if you are ready to get support with your dietary changes and you want to make sure that you will no longer be on the diet roller coaster ride and your changes will stick for life and check out our nutrition coaching programs. We support you with guided and personalized nutrition plans and habit changing strategies to make you successful. To learn more. Go to the summitforwellness.com/nutrition. keep climbing to the peak of your health, and I'll see you next week.