Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / #HURDLEMOMENT: Answering Your Questions About My 70-Pound Weight Loss

Transcript

#HURDLEMOMENT: Answering Your Questions About My 70-Pound Weight Loss · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: You know, I wish that I could shout this from
0:01
Speaker 1: the rooftop sometimes that if you were trying to use
0:04
Speaker 1: quick fixes, that's not going to work. If you want
0:08
Speaker 1: long lasting weight loss, if you want to make a
0:11
Speaker 1: change that's for life. If you want to maintain, then
0:14
Speaker 1: you've got to think about lifestyle. You've got to think
0:17
Speaker 1: about how you can incorporate healthier habits into your regular
0:21
Speaker 1: routine in a way that you enjoy, in a way
0:24
Speaker 1: that feels sustainable. And remember that these healthy habits, this process,
0:30
Speaker 1: it's going to look different for you than it will
0:33
Speaker 1: look for anybody else. And you know what, that's just fine.
0:52
Speaker 1: Hey everyone, Emily a body here bringing you another installment
0:55
Speaker 1: of Hurdle Moment from Hurdle. It's been a it's been
0:59
Speaker 1: a few weeks since I have chimed in solo for
1:04
Speaker 1: one of these Wednesday episodes. But it dawned on me
1:07
Speaker 1: recently that I've somehow, in three years of recording the show,
1:15
Speaker 1: I've never done an episode talking specifically about how I
1:21
Speaker 1: lost weight and kind of all the things I go
1:25
Speaker 1: along with that, how much weight I lost, what I
1:28
Speaker 1: did to lose the weight, how I've managed to keep
1:32
Speaker 1: it off for the most part, the strategies that I used,
1:36
Speaker 1: et cetera, etc. Now, I bring you this episode today
1:41
Speaker 1: with a few caveats. First and foremost, I do want
1:46
Speaker 1: to make sure that we're on the same page here.
1:48
Speaker 1: What worked for me when I was losing weight may
1:52
Speaker 1: not work for you. Although I am a certified trainer,
1:57
Speaker 1: I'm also a Level one precision nutrition coach as well
2:00
Speaker 1: as a run coach. I am not, in any way,
2:05
Speaker 1: shape or form a registered dietitian or nutritionist. So while
2:11
Speaker 1: I'm here to offer you my experience, my takeaways, I
2:16
Speaker 1: am not here to recommend that you follow them to
2:20
Speaker 1: the t. If you too want to lose weight, if
2:24
Speaker 1: that is something you are interested in, then I highly
2:27
Speaker 1: highly encourage you to consult with an expert. I also
2:32
Speaker 1: one more caveat here. I want you to know that
2:36
Speaker 1: just because I have a chapter in my story that
2:38
Speaker 1: looks like this, just because losing weight was something that
2:42
Speaker 1: I needed to do for myself to fine happiness, that
2:46
Speaker 1: does not mean that you cannot find happiness at another size.
2:51
Speaker 1: That does not mean that someone who is at the
2:54
Speaker 1: size that I was before I lost weight can't be
2:58
Speaker 1: happy in their own body. I'm also going to answer
3:02
Speaker 1: a ton of the questions that came in on social yesterday,
3:05
Speaker 1: from how do you keep it off? Do you have
3:07
Speaker 1: loose skin? Do you struggle with binge eating? How much
3:11
Speaker 1: do you exercise in a week? Go to meals and
3:13
Speaker 1: snacks when you are losing weight? All of that going
3:16
Speaker 1: to get into it in today's episode because I want
3:18
Speaker 1: to bring you this all uninterrupted. I do want to
3:22
Speaker 1: give some love to my sponsor at Element, who helps
3:25
Speaker 1: make this show possible. Element makes a science a backed
3:29
Speaker 1: electrolyte drink mix with everything you need and nothing you don't.
3:33
Speaker 1: Let me tell you. I have tried my fair share
3:36
Speaker 1: of electrolytes over the years, as I have trained for
3:39
Speaker 1: marathons and navigated one hundred mile bike rides, and Element
3:44
Speaker 1: is my favorite to date. They Oh my goodness, they
3:47
Speaker 1: recently sent me their new watermelon salt flavor. I took
3:51
Speaker 1: it on my first bike ride of the year the
3:54
Speaker 1: other day and I may or may not have come
3:56
Speaker 1: home from that bike ride around five o'clock and mad
4:00
Speaker 1: a skinny margarita with it as well. I love the
4:04
Speaker 1: sweet combination of salt and citrus, and they have a
4:07
Speaker 1: ton of great flavors to satisfy every taste and the
4:12
Speaker 1: best part is Element is plant based with no sugar fillers, gluten,
4:17
Speaker 1: or sketchy ingredients. Head on over to drink Element dot com.
4:21
Speaker 1: That's d r i n k l m n t
4:24
Speaker 1: dot com slash Hurdle and get a free Element sample
4:28
Speaker 1: pack which includes eight packets of Element for just five
4:32
Speaker 1: dollars shipping. Again, head on over to drink Element dot
4:35
Speaker 1: com d r i n k l m n t
4:38
Speaker 1: dot com slash Hurdle and try it for yourself. Get
4:41
Speaker 1: a free Element sample pack today. If you like what
4:44
Speaker 1: you're listening to, if you love the takeaways from Hurdle,
4:47
Speaker 1: it would mean the world to me if you would
4:49
Speaker 1: do two things. One make sure you rate and review
4:53
Speaker 1: the show in Apple podcasts, and two make sure you're
4:56
Speaker 1: following along with Hurdle over on social media. Yeah, with that,
5:01
Speaker 1: let's get to hurdling. So if you're relatively new to
5:12
Speaker 1: being a hurdler, then you may not be entirely in
5:17
Speaker 1: the loop on my backstory today. If you follow me
5:21
Speaker 1: on social media, you see a woman who is a podcaster,
5:25
Speaker 1: she's a journalist, she's a runner. She enjoys being active,
5:28
Speaker 1: getting up and moving, but back in high school and college,
5:34
Speaker 1: I was really struggling on the movement front, and I
5:40
Speaker 1: looked entirely different than I do now. And that's because
5:45
Speaker 1: when I got on a scale in the spring of
5:49
Speaker 1: my freshman year, I weighed in at over two hundred pounds.
5:55
Speaker 1: I weight cycled pretty much my entire adolescence. You know.
5:59
Speaker 1: There were years where I played on a travel soccer
6:03
Speaker 1: team and I was quite fit, and then there were
6:05
Speaker 1: other years where I felt really defeated and I couldn't
6:08
Speaker 1: fit into the biggest size genes that they sold at
6:12
Speaker 1: American Eagle at the time. In high school and early
6:16
Speaker 1: on in college, I felt as though my size was
6:19
Speaker 1: really limiting for me and made me really uncomfortable. I
6:23
Speaker 1: was really self conscious, especially when it came to boys
6:27
Speaker 1: at the time, and really frustrating, you know, growing up
6:31
Speaker 1: going to summer camp. And I'll talk a little bit
6:33
Speaker 1: about summer camp in a little bit, but girls would
6:36
Speaker 1: just share clothes, right, Everyone would get dressed to go
6:39
Speaker 1: to dinner and trade outfits. And I couldn't participate in that,
6:43
Speaker 1: especially when I started to like clothes, you know, like
6:46
Speaker 1: when you were a preteen. Because I was much bigger
6:49
Speaker 1: than the other girls. And again, like I said in
6:52
Speaker 1: the intro, for some you know, being a certain size
6:56
Speaker 1: maybe something that you enjoy, Maybe it's something that you
7:00
Speaker 1: feel really comfortable at that size, comfortable in your body.
7:03
Speaker 1: For me, being a girl over two hundred pounds, I
7:07
Speaker 1: didn't feel comfortable. I didn't feel accepted. But most importantly,
7:12
Speaker 1: the dialogue in my head was so negative. I felt
7:17
Speaker 1: unhappy often, uncomfortable often, and I knew that I needed
7:22
Speaker 1: to make a change. And so, as I alluded to,
7:25
Speaker 1: that change happened in the spring of my freshman year.
7:29
Speaker 1: I was working on a term paper, as I tell
7:31
Speaker 1: this story pretty often, and I looked to my right
7:34
Speaker 1: and I saw a scale under the bunk bed in
7:37
Speaker 1: my freshman dorm room. And so, because who doesn't like
7:40
Speaker 1: to get on a scale when they're procrastinating working on
7:43
Speaker 1: a term paper, I got on the scale and I
7:46
Speaker 1: saw a number over two hundred pounds, and I, completely
7:50
Speaker 1: counterintuitive to everything I was used to at this point
7:55
Speaker 1: in my life, through on a pair of sneakers and
7:57
Speaker 1: a high school volleyball sweatshirt, and I ran down the
8:00
Speaker 1: street outside of my dorm until I couldn't run anymore.
8:03
Speaker 1: It lasted for about like forty seconds, and then I
8:06
Speaker 1: collapsed into the grass. It was nighttime, and I remember
8:09
Speaker 1: the grass was wet, and I was like instantly soaked,
8:12
Speaker 1: and I just looked up at the sky and at
8:16
Speaker 1: the stars, and with tears in my eyes, I was
8:18
Speaker 1: just like, I don't want to live like this anymore.
8:22
Speaker 1: I knew that I needed to make a change, and
8:27
Speaker 1: so the change happened in a couple of different segments,
8:30
Speaker 1: as I refer to them. The first segment was me
8:33
Speaker 1: learning how to eat better. Now. As many can relate,
8:37
Speaker 1: you go to college, you go to the dining hall
8:40
Speaker 1: three times a day. For the most part, there's so
8:42
Speaker 1: much to choose from there, so much to you know,
8:45
Speaker 1: make your way through. I was constantly eating things like
8:49
Speaker 1: French fries and having ice cream after lunch and dinner
8:52
Speaker 1: every day, and so really the first part of my
8:55
Speaker 1: weight loss journey was really learning how to eat better,
8:59
Speaker 1: exercise portion control, and something I'm really proud to say,
9:03
Speaker 1: even looking back on it now, was that I never
9:05
Speaker 1: completely cut anything out right. Like I loved ice cream.
9:10
Speaker 1: I just came to understand that I didn't need to
9:12
Speaker 1: eat it after every single meal, just like I would
9:16
Speaker 1: make time sporadically for things like French fries, like my
9:20
Speaker 1: grandmother's sauce on Sunday's, like pancakes on the weekends, all
9:25
Speaker 1: things I believe firmly can be in your life in moderation. Also,
9:31
Speaker 1: I mean the college storyline here. Never during this chapter
9:34
Speaker 1: of my journey did I ever completely eliminate things like alcohol, right.
9:39
Speaker 1: I mean, I was in college to have the college experience,
9:43
Speaker 1: and the college experience that I desired involved, you know,
9:46
Speaker 1: recreational drinking, and so that was a part of my
9:50
Speaker 1: regular routine as well, within of course, moderation. So I
9:55
Speaker 1: would say it took me about a year to lose
9:57
Speaker 1: thirty five pounds and about two years and change to
10:01
Speaker 1: lose the seventy. So after the first year, I felt
10:05
Speaker 1: as though I got my eating under control, and that's
10:07
Speaker 1: when I really started to take a look at my
10:09
Speaker 1: exercise routine. Having made a decent amount of progress at
10:13
Speaker 1: this point losing thirty five pounds, I was feeling better
10:16
Speaker 1: in my body, definitely feeling healthier and excited about you
10:20
Speaker 1: my own potential. And I also feel like it's important
10:23
Speaker 1: to throw into the mix here. I didn't start out
10:26
Speaker 1: on my weight loss journey saying that I wanted to
10:28
Speaker 1: lose seventy pounds. I started out on my weight loss
10:31
Speaker 1: journey saying I want to feel better in my body.
10:34
Speaker 1: So I never set a goal along those lines, which
10:39
Speaker 1: isn't necessarily you know how I would advise someone probably
10:42
Speaker 1: to go about it. Today, I think it's really beneficial
10:45
Speaker 1: to set smart goals when it comes to weight loss.
10:47
Speaker 1: So maybe your smart goal is I want to lose
10:50
Speaker 1: ten pounds over three months. There's a bunch of different
10:54
Speaker 1: feedback about what I quote unquote healthy amount of weight
10:57
Speaker 1: is to lose that you can keep off regularly. Experts
11:00
Speaker 1: will say between one to two pounds per week can
11:03
Speaker 1: be sustainable. So a goal of ten pounds over three
11:07
Speaker 1: months definitely definitely achievable and certainly smart because again time bound,
11:14
Speaker 1: and I would argue realistic anyway. I feel like I'm
11:16
Speaker 1: going to go off on a lot of tangents in
11:18
Speaker 1: this episode. So the first part learning how to eat right,
11:22
Speaker 1: the second part working on my relationship with exercise. So I,
11:28
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, was used to going to either the
11:31
Speaker 1: local on campus gym, or if I was back home
11:35
Speaker 1: staying with my parents, I would go to the Planet
11:37
Speaker 1: Fitness in town and when that second summer came about,
11:42
Speaker 1: when I was going into my junior year, I was
11:45
Speaker 1: working as a programming director at a summer camp, and
11:49
Speaker 1: I knew that I wanted to keep on moving and
11:53
Speaker 1: to keep up my positive progress, and so the only
11:56
Speaker 1: viable option that I had at my disposal that I
11:59
Speaker 1: knew that I could work with was running. Let me
12:03
Speaker 1: tell you this, I hated running, like absolutely hated it.
12:07
Speaker 1: Felt like I was awful at it. I didn't make
12:09
Speaker 1: my sophomore year volleyball team because I couldn't run a
12:13
Speaker 1: mile in under ten minutes, which made me feel as
12:16
Speaker 1: though from that point forward I was incapable of running
12:19
Speaker 1: a mile period. Such an awful benchmark for joining a
12:23
Speaker 1: team if you ask me anyway, I committed to running
12:26
Speaker 1: every day for an entire summer, and that looked like
12:31
Speaker 1: going out at the same time every single day at
12:34
Speaker 1: one thirty in the afternoon, about give or take, and
12:37
Speaker 1: running a mile, and that was it. I didn't set
12:41
Speaker 1: an insane goal to run a marathon or even a
12:44
Speaker 1: five k. All I wanted to do was move my
12:47
Speaker 1: body for a little less than twenty minutes and be
12:51
Speaker 1: done with it. The funny part about this story is
12:54
Speaker 1: that I actually measured that distance at the end of
12:57
Speaker 1: that summer, and what really had been happening was that
13:00
Speaker 1: every day I laced up my sneakers and put on
13:03
Speaker 1: my black target caught in spandex and a Haines white
13:06
Speaker 1: v neck and I went out and ran the same
13:08
Speaker 1: route and that root wasn't a mile at all. In fact,
13:12
Speaker 1: it was a half mile, and I couldn't even I
13:16
Speaker 1: couldn't even be mad about it, honestly, because what happened
13:18
Speaker 1: that summer was that I learned to love running, and
13:21
Speaker 1: I never thought that that was something that would even
13:24
Speaker 1: be even remotely in my wheelhouse. I digress. The weight
13:31
Speaker 1: continued to come off that summer. I think I lost
13:34
Speaker 1: probably another twenty or so pounds, so we're at fifty
13:37
Speaker 1: five pounds, and the last fifteen or so kind of
13:41
Speaker 1: trickled off in the weeks and months and whatnot after that.
13:46
Speaker 1: By spring semester of my senior year, about three years
13:50
Speaker 1: after I started, I felt and admittedly looked like a
13:54
Speaker 1: different Emily, and Emily that felt happy in her body, comfortable,
14:00
Speaker 1: I felt healthy. Something I haven't mentioned here is that
14:04
Speaker 1: at different times during my weight loss journey and I
14:07
Speaker 1: mentioned this in my episode with Mindy Grossman, who is
14:10
Speaker 1: now the CEO of WW. But I did use weight
14:16
Speaker 1: Watchers as it was called at the time at different
14:18
Speaker 1: points in my weight loss journey, and admittedly I never
14:22
Speaker 1: really followed the points plan, so to speak, But especially
14:26
Speaker 1: during my junior year of college, when I was still
14:28
Speaker 1: working on my relationship with running, I had signed up
14:31
Speaker 1: for my first half marathon checking in at weight Watchers.
14:35
Speaker 1: I think I went on like Tuesday mornings or something.
14:38
Speaker 1: That was my opportunity to stay accountable, to show up
14:42
Speaker 1: somewhere where I knew that I was investing in myself,
14:45
Speaker 1: and like that accountability just it made a world of
14:48
Speaker 1: difference for me. And so really, I mean, that's it, right.
14:52
Speaker 1: So this weight loss chapter of my life, so to speak,
14:56
Speaker 1: and it's a journey that is still continuing to this
14:58
Speaker 1: day in some guards and I'll talk about that in
15:01
Speaker 1: a moment. But that journey, the chunk of my weight
15:04
Speaker 1: loss ended in I would say twenty ten, and here
15:08
Speaker 1: we are eleven years later. Now am I still down
15:12
Speaker 1: you know, a total of seventy pounds? Definitely not. I
15:16
Speaker 1: would say these days, I feel more comfortable being down
15:20
Speaker 1: about sixty ish from where I was back in college.
15:24
Speaker 1: But that ebbs and flows, for sure. I'm going to
15:28
Speaker 1: answer some of the questions that came in in a second,
15:30
Speaker 1: but one of them was, have you ever struggled with
15:33
Speaker 1: putting some of that weight back on? For sure? Like?
15:37
Speaker 1: For sure? For sure? I think that no matter if
15:40
Speaker 1: you are currently in your own chapter of weight loss
15:44
Speaker 1: or if it's in your past, that weight is a
15:47
Speaker 1: really emotional thing. You know, A lot of my emotions
15:51
Speaker 1: were a big part of the reason why I was
15:55
Speaker 1: over two hundred pounds to begin with. For me going
15:58
Speaker 1: through some personal trauma in my teens, I reached to
16:02
Speaker 1: food as an outlet. I reached to food because it
16:04
Speaker 1: was something that was always there when maybe other people
16:07
Speaker 1: or things were not. And so especially over the past
16:11
Speaker 1: year during the pandemic, being home so often, having direct
16:16
Speaker 1: access to food and drinks and my and my cabinets
16:21
Speaker 1: and my pantry and all this stuff. I mean, I
16:24
Speaker 1: felt myself at times definitely slipping into some of those
16:26
Speaker 1: old habits again. But what can't be taken away from
16:30
Speaker 1: me at this point are the lessons I learned during
16:33
Speaker 1: that time. I now have strategies that I can go
16:37
Speaker 1: back to to help myself get back on a healthy
16:41
Speaker 1: path when I feel like my habits are spiraling, right,
16:45
Speaker 1: I know that it helps to talk to a friend.
16:49
Speaker 1: I know that it's important for me to maybe keep
16:52
Speaker 1: a food journal, to write things down, to stay accountable
16:56
Speaker 1: and actually see what I'm putting into my body. I
16:59
Speaker 1: also know, you know, the benefits of movement and making
17:02
Speaker 1: sure that I'm moving my body, and that doesn't have
17:05
Speaker 1: to be you know, a six mile run every day
17:08
Speaker 1: can literally just be a long walk in the morning
17:11
Speaker 1: and that time for myself. That's me prioritizing my own
17:15
Speaker 1: well being, my mental health, my physical health. You know,
17:18
Speaker 1: there are just so many strategies that I learned over
17:21
Speaker 1: that three year weight loss that I will carry with
17:24
Speaker 1: me for the rest of my life. Now. To get
17:27
Speaker 1: into some of the other questions that came in, how
17:30
Speaker 1: do you keep it off? You know, it really is
17:33
Speaker 1: just remembering how much better I feel at this size
17:38
Speaker 1: than where I used to be. For me, movement is
17:41
Speaker 1: my medicine and I can't imagine my life without it.
17:45
Speaker 1: I am not a slave to the scale. In fact,
17:47
Speaker 1: at one point over the last year, I decided to
17:49
Speaker 1: throw it out. I've since acquired another a company sent
17:52
Speaker 1: me one, But I think every person needs to establish
17:56
Speaker 1: their own boundaries when it comes to maintenance that feel
17:59
Speaker 1: really comfortable and good for them. I'm probably getting on
18:03
Speaker 1: that scale maybe once a month or so. I know
18:05
Speaker 1: that weighing myself every day is definitely not good for
18:08
Speaker 1: my mental health, and I incorporate other good for me
18:12
Speaker 1: practices that I know help me keep my body in
18:15
Speaker 1: some sort of regular pattern. Right, So, something like drinking
18:19
Speaker 1: my Athletic Greens every morning. I know I talk about
18:21
Speaker 1: it all the time on the show, but literally, it
18:23
Speaker 1: is something in my morning routine that I heavily, heavily
18:27
Speaker 1: credit with helping me feel excellent in my body. If
18:31
Speaker 1: you haven't gotten on the train yet, I can't recommend
18:34
Speaker 1: it enough. I'll plug it here. Head on over to
18:36
Speaker 1: Athleticgreens dot com slash hurdle to get it today, and
18:40
Speaker 1: if you order through that link, it'll come with a
18:42
Speaker 1: bunch of free stuff, including travel packs and Vitamin D
18:45
Speaker 1: and a cool container. But that is a habit, you know,
18:49
Speaker 1: taking that all in one daily supplement that I acquired
18:52
Speaker 1: in my adult years. I finally homed in on a
18:55
Speaker 1: wellness routine where I feel as though I know I
18:59
Speaker 1: have the rest to my quote unquote best body that
19:03
Speaker 1: includes rest when I need it, fueling better does hurt,
19:07
Speaker 1: in moderation wine on Fridays. Like everything I list here,
19:12
Speaker 1: they contribute both to my mental wellbeing as well as
19:15
Speaker 1: my physical well being. The next question, do you have
19:19
Speaker 1: a loose skin? So it's funny. I remember when I
19:22
Speaker 1: lost the first bit of my weight, my chest stayed
19:26
Speaker 1: the same, and then in the second bit of thirty
19:29
Speaker 1: five pounds or so, that's when I felt like my
19:32
Speaker 1: boobs completely deflated, and so I went from being a
19:36
Speaker 1: double D to being a small C. So I feel
19:39
Speaker 1: like I have a little bit of loose skin in
19:41
Speaker 1: that area. And I also have, you know, a ton
19:44
Speaker 1: of stretch marks all over my body, from the back
19:46
Speaker 1: of my hips to my thighs, to my glutes to
19:49
Speaker 1: I mean, you name it. Next question, how much exercise
19:53
Speaker 1: did you do in a week? Again, I mean when
19:56
Speaker 1: I was really getting quote unquote into exercise in the
19:58
Speaker 1: middle of that journey, I was running a half a
20:00
Speaker 1: mile a day. I think the biggest lesson that I've
20:03
Speaker 1: learned over the years, you really can't over exercise a
20:06
Speaker 1: bad diet, and if you try to it won't serve
20:09
Speaker 1: you well. So incorporating movement more regularly is super important.
20:14
Speaker 1: I also live in a walking base city, I have
20:17
Speaker 1: for the past ten years. I think the CDC, the
20:19
Speaker 1: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they recommend about one
20:22
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty eight minutes every week of modern intensity
20:26
Speaker 1: aerobic activity. I would say I was definitely getting that,
20:30
Speaker 1: whether it was from running or going to the gym
20:33
Speaker 1: and getting on the elliptical or what have you. And
20:35
Speaker 1: it wasn't until after that chapter of weight loss in
20:38
Speaker 1: college that I really got into strength training. I dated
20:41
Speaker 1: someone when I graduated that was heavily into CrossFit, and
20:44
Speaker 1: so that triggered a fun little phase for me. But
20:46
Speaker 1: for the most part, the desire to lose weight is
20:49
Speaker 1: what led me to running. And I would say that
20:51
Speaker 1: running is a piece to my maintenance puzzle, but it's
20:54
Speaker 1: certainly not why I run. I'm not running to lose weight.
20:58
Speaker 1: I'm running because running makes me feel happy and strong
21:02
Speaker 1: and confident, and it brings me closer to the awesome
21:05
Speaker 1: running community here in New York. Another question that came in,
21:09
Speaker 1: go to meals and snacks when you were losing weight? Oh?
21:12
Speaker 1: My goodness, rice cakes with peanut butter, Oh my god,
21:16
Speaker 1: guilty pleasure. McDonald's dollar cones, which used to be like
21:20
Speaker 1: ice cream phones. By the way, they used to be
21:22
Speaker 1: on the menu as like one hundred calories. I think
21:25
Speaker 1: now they've like up that to one hundred and seventy five.
21:29
Speaker 1: I was always big on keeping like endless amounts of
21:32
Speaker 1: sliced vegetables in my refrigerator. Popcorn at weight Watchers used
21:36
Speaker 1: to be zero points. I think watermelon, any other fruit
21:39
Speaker 1: that they would always talk about the water content being
21:42
Speaker 1: super high. And in terms of meals, like a lot
21:45
Speaker 1: of the same meals I eat regularly today from stirfry
21:48
Speaker 1: with like loads of veggies of protein and some rice,
21:51
Speaker 1: to baked salmon and always messing with different recipes. You know,
21:55
Speaker 1: you don't need to eat bland food to eat healthy,
21:58
Speaker 1: And I think often when we get too regimented in
22:02
Speaker 1: that you think you just need to eat grilled chicken
22:05
Speaker 1: and steam vegetables and brown rice and whatnot all the time.
22:08
Speaker 1: Like that's not a sustainable lifestyle. At this point, I'll
22:11
Speaker 1: also answer the question that came in, have you ever
22:14
Speaker 1: counted macros? No? I have never been that person. I mean,
22:20
Speaker 1: I suppose that kind of hand in hand with weight
22:23
Speaker 1: watchers is loosely based upon those concepts, But for me,
22:29
Speaker 1: getting that strict about how I was keeping track of
22:32
Speaker 1: my intake just never really felt like the Goldilocks fit
22:35
Speaker 1: for me. Another question that came in when did you
22:38
Speaker 1: hit the point where you felt like you had a
22:40
Speaker 1: normal relationship with food. That's an interesting question because I
22:45
Speaker 1: think I have a good relationship with food these days,
22:47
Speaker 1: but as I mentioned earlier, there are definitely, you know,
22:50
Speaker 1: weeks or months at a time where sometimes I feel
22:54
Speaker 1: like I'm slipping into some of my own old habits.
22:57
Speaker 1: And again, when that happens, you have to identify the
23:00
Speaker 1: strategies and the tips and the tricks that worked for
23:02
Speaker 1: you to get back on track. I think in the
23:05
Speaker 1: years immediately following college, I was living with my mother
23:08
Speaker 1: before moving to New York City, and then I moved
23:11
Speaker 1: to New York City out on my own for the
23:13
Speaker 1: first time, and in that first year in New York
23:17
Speaker 1: I really came into my own when it came to
23:19
Speaker 1: making legitimate meals, figuring out how to meal preps, so
23:23
Speaker 1: to speak, so that I could like have my breakfast
23:25
Speaker 1: writing in the morning to get ready to go to work,
23:27
Speaker 1: and then bringing my lunch with me to work and
23:28
Speaker 1: coming home and having dinner and just getting into a
23:31
Speaker 1: routine here in New York, especially when I was younger
23:34
Speaker 1: and I didn't have the funds or the means to
23:37
Speaker 1: really go out to eat all the time. And it
23:39
Speaker 1: was in that time where again I found those staple
23:42
Speaker 1: meals for myself, and I started to feel really comfortable
23:45
Speaker 1: knowing that one night of pizza, one ice cream cone,
23:50
Speaker 1: one whatever, like that's not going to deter all of
23:53
Speaker 1: this progress. I am at a point now where, for
23:56
Speaker 1: the most part, I've kept this weight off for eleven
23:59
Speaker 1: plus years, and I Am not going to go back
24:03
Speaker 1: to being that Emily. It's just, you know, it's not
24:05
Speaker 1: going to happen for me. I also think a part
24:07
Speaker 1: of that conversation, a part of this like ever evolving
24:10
Speaker 1: relationship that I have with my body is is having
24:13
Speaker 1: some grace with myself. Right, you know, there are going
24:16
Speaker 1: to be those hard days, and I refer to that
24:18
Speaker 1: time in my life as a chapter, because I think
24:20
Speaker 1: that this journey is ongoing forever. Another question here, what
24:24
Speaker 1: were your mantras or affirmations while you were on your
24:27
Speaker 1: weight loss journey. I honestly wasn't super int mantras when
24:31
Speaker 1: I was going through that time in my life. These
24:33
Speaker 1: days I lean into remember when you wanted what you
24:36
Speaker 1: have now, Also do good and be kind and one
24:39
Speaker 1: of my favorites, you didn't come this far to only
24:42
Speaker 1: come this far? What did you do? In moments of plateau? Oh,
24:46
Speaker 1: trust me, those definitely came, especially, you know, when you're
24:49
Speaker 1: on a journey like that for two to three years,
24:51
Speaker 1: they come what felt like decently Often for me, it
24:54
Speaker 1: was really getting to a place where I felt comfortable
24:57
Speaker 1: switching up my routine. If I felt like I was
24:59
Speaker 1: like eating the same stuff constantly time and time again,
25:02
Speaker 1: then kind of mixing that up as well, and not
25:05
Speaker 1: being afraid to consult with my doctor, consult with experts.
25:08
Speaker 1: At the time, I had none of these certifications to
25:10
Speaker 1: get feedback on what I could be doing differently that
25:13
Speaker 1: you know, there were definitely times when I would be
25:15
Speaker 1: going to weigh in at weight Watchers and I would
25:18
Speaker 1: get on the scale and I would lose point two
25:21
Speaker 1: point four instead of something that I wanted to see
25:23
Speaker 1: like one point four or two point four. I had
25:26
Speaker 1: to just get to a place where I truly understood
25:29
Speaker 1: that it was all part of the process. You know,
25:31
Speaker 1: I wish that I could shout this from the rooftop
25:34
Speaker 1: sometimes that if you were trying to use quick fixes,
25:37
Speaker 1: that's not going to work. If you want long lasting
25:41
Speaker 1: weight loss, if you want to make a change, that's
25:43
Speaker 1: for life. If you want to maintain, then you've got
25:46
Speaker 1: to think about lifestyle. You've got to think about how
25:49
Speaker 1: you can incorporate healthier habits into your regular routine in
25:54
Speaker 1: a way that you enjoy, in a way that feels sustainable.
25:58
Speaker 1: And remember that these healthy habits, this process, it's gonna
26:03
Speaker 1: look different for you than it will look for anybody else.
26:06
Speaker 1: And you know what, that's just fine. The last question
26:10
Speaker 1: I'm going to answer here today, I feel like there's
26:12
Speaker 1: gonna be another episode coming with this down the pipe.
26:15
Speaker 1: How did you talk to yourself about body positivity and confidence? Before, during,
26:19
Speaker 1: and after? Listen, the conversation that we're having with ourselves
26:22
Speaker 1: is always ever evolving, and for me, my inner dialogue
26:26
Speaker 1: got better as I feel felt more comfortable in my
26:29
Speaker 1: own skin. That's not to say that even these days
26:32
Speaker 1: I don't struggle with negative self talk. I literally released
26:35
Speaker 1: an episode on that pretty recently, but I recognize that
26:39
Speaker 1: I am the person that I hear the most on
26:41
Speaker 1: any given day. It is up to us. It is
26:45
Speaker 1: up to me to be my own biggest cheerleader. I
26:49
Speaker 1: think that's it for now. I mean again, it's not
26:52
Speaker 1: like this is really something that I can just completely
26:54
Speaker 1: unpack in one episode of a podcast. But I'd love
26:59
Speaker 1: to answer or of your questions. If you feel like
27:01
Speaker 1: this insight is helping you, to ask me a question
27:05
Speaker 1: that I will answer in an upcoming episode, click on
27:08
Speaker 1: over to the show notes and leave me a voice message.
27:11
Speaker 1: There's a link that says leave me a voice message.
27:14
Speaker 1: Please click it. It's important to me to help other
27:17
Speaker 1: people understand that whatever they're going through, you know you're
27:21
Speaker 1: not the only person that's going through something like this.
27:23
Speaker 1: And I have been on this weight loss journey for
27:26
Speaker 1: a long time and I will be on it for
27:28
Speaker 1: the rest of my life. So know that you're not alone.
27:31
Speaker 1: Know that you have an entire community behind you. If
27:34
Speaker 1: you are struggling as well, I would highly encourage you
27:37
Speaker 1: to head on over to the Secret Hurdler's group over
27:40
Speaker 1: on Facebook. I'll put the link to join that in
27:42
Speaker 1: the show notes as well. Another hurdle conquered. Catch you
27:46
Speaker 1: guys next time.