3 vs. 6 Meals A Day

If you're like me, unless you understand “why” you are doing something, you will find it hard to  accomplish your goal or find yourself questioning the process. In finding a new healthy lifestyle and creating new habits of health, it is important that we fully understand the science behind the idea of eating 6 time a day rather than the regular larger 3 meals a day that most of us have eaten throughout our lives. 

If you didn’t purchase Dr. A’s “Habit of Health” book I would really encourage you to add it to your next order. To be completely honest, I am a person that barely reads… besides my monthly publication of Southern Living and religious study materials. BUT - this book is worth the time, energy and effort while you work through your health journey and for being a health book it is a rather easy read and actually kinda fun to follow. 

In his book “Habits of Health”, Dr. A discusses the myth of 3 square meals and explains the science between consuming 6 fuelings a day. He shares about a study by David Jenkins, MD, PhD where researchers divided the subjects into two groups and had them both eat the same food and the same number of calories - but one group ate them in 3 meal increments and the other consumed smaller portions over the course of the day, broken into 6 meals. 

“Surprisingly, the group that ate small meals throughout the day lost more weight. It wasn’t that they were less hungry (although, in fact, they were less hungry). They lost weight because their blood sugar didn’t continually spike and then dip down to an even lower level, the way it does after a big meal. Their glycemic levels - the amount of sugar in their blood - remained steady… and their craving for sweets went down.” (pg. 62, Habits of Health)

In addition, they found that the group that ate every 3 hours reduced their blood cholesterol and blood insulin. This is key because regulating blood sugar levels means that our bodies metabolize fat in a more efficient manner and we are less likely to convert calories into body fat. Long story, short = "it's not just what you eat, it's when you eat it". Basically, by feeding/fueling the body throughout the day we are telling our bodies that it doesn’t need to cling to and store calories. In the same way, when we eat 3 larger meals, when we start to “lose fuel” our body freaks out and tries to hold onto calories and stores them as fat so that it can make it to the next destination (our next huge meal). 

This idea of “fueling the body” is huge in not only losing the pounds and reaching your healthy goal weight, but it is also an instrumental habit in maintaining our weight loss. It has helped me to visualize my body as a car… and rather than “topping off” my tank, I have learned to add the amount of fuel that is needed as I go along my journey.  This concept has helped me completely change the way that I look at food… and I trust that it will help you too. 

Pg. 62 - "Dr. A's Habits of Health"

Just do it and work it!

Have you ever had a thought that has flashed through my head numerous times and then all of a sudden it decides to stick? As if some huge mystery of life has been revealed… but in reality its practically a basic survival skills.  This past week I had an "a-ha moment" that helped me get through a rough patch…. and I am hoping that this idea might inspire some of you too. 

The past couple weeks have been rather hectic. Between some added emotional stresses and a crazy schedule I found myself returning to my old desires of carelessly eating and not taking time to plan ahead for success. I have an inside joke (with myself) and now call eating bread/pasta/chips "carb loading" - but it's no joke when you let a nibble become a meal. I just felt like laying around rather than moving and going to the gym... I even skipped my bootcamp class because I just felt too tired to get up. It was like my motivation had withered away. In just a few weeks I get to celebrate keeping 50 lbs off for an entire year... so you'd think would be motivation - but it wasn't. I was just plain old tired and wanted a vacation from life. 

Thankfully during this time of self-frustration I saw this meme and it really spoke to me and got me thinking about this health journey. In general, losing the weight and keeping it off hasn't been that hard for me - so losing motivation has been a wakeup call. Even without the gym and poor choices I didn't gain any weight - but I know that the road to a sloppy mindset only leads to disaster. 

So what do you do when you lose site of your goal... when you lose motivation? What choices do you have? 

Well, you can chose to keep going down the rocky road or head back uphill to the top of the mountain.

One of the many things that this health journey has taught me is that while I do not have control of all of the potential things that can happen to my body and my health, I do get to make the choices of what goes in my mouth and if I go to the gym. So basically I have learned the importance of taking responsibility for own my decisions when it comes to food. As with most responsibilities, it is discipline and consistency that lead to success. Discipline is based on making  calculated decisions - not just waiting for the wind to blow results my way. 

Faced with not having much motivation I had to turn on the power of discipline. This may sounds like a ridiculous "a-ha moment” but for whatever reason, in that moment I realized that motivation can only go so far… and continued success would require discipline. That night I was chatting with a new client that was planning to start the program the next morning. The last statement she made was “Well, I know this works… it’s up to me to just do it and work it.”

Yes! 

Just do it! 

Suddenly the message Nike has been implanting in my brain my entire life finally clicked. 

The next morning I got up early and went to bootcamp.  I still wasn’t necessarily motivated or feeling a deep desire to go sweat… but it sure felt great when I had finished. And thankfully it only took that 1 time and my new frame of mind to get back on track and refocused on continuing down this lifelong path of health. 

So this is my new mantra... the voice I'm planting in my head (and I challenge you to too) = "I may not always be motivated, but I can be disciplined!”

SaveSaveSaveSave

Open Arms To Fabulous 40!

Several weeks ago I turned 40. 

4-0. 

“Over the hill.” (Whatever.)

For most of folks this has been a birthday that they have dreaded and mourned. My husband spent a week in contemplation when he wrestled with this milestone and I’ve spoken to a number of friends that are spending this year evaluating life, goals and reflection of the past. 

But not me. 

I am thrilled and excited and I guess you could say I am proud to be turning 40. 

I remember the moment like it was yesterday, sitting in my oncologists office in August of 2011 when he explained that I had a 40% chance of surviving 5 yrs. In my head what I heard was that I had a 60% chance of dying before I reached 40… and that my life would be over before it had the chance to really begin. It took a while to adjust my thinking and focus on being in the 40% of survivors… and then it became a challenge to be beat the odds. 

So - I win!

Who knows what the future holds - but for now I will wear the trophy of greying hair (under my highlights) and new wrinkles and aging spots like a medal. 

To celebrate I was able to easily convince a group of family members to meet up with me in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. It’s funny how when you mention “all-inclusive resort” and “no children”, 6 of the worlds most precious women will jump at the chance to “escape” and take a few days to simply enjoy life! 

And enjoy it we did. 

So… since what happens in Mexico stays in Mexico, I will shift this blogpost to how I did handling the food/drink portion of the trip. 

I am thankful to say that besides way too many chips that I had the 1st night, overall it wan’t hard to make wise choices. I mainly chose meat and veggie options with fruit as a treat. We did have desserts with dinner, but we chose to order several small desserts to share and each of us had a small bites so it really was in moderation. One of my older, wiser cousins taught me how to make good choices when it came to mixed drinks… so while we enjoyed ourselves, I didn’t feel knocked totally out of control and out of striving for a healthy lifestyle. 

And I need to give credit and thanks to another one of my cousins (who found awesome success on this program) and helped keep me accountable to living a life of health and good choices. When she slapped my hand reaching for chips (and told me to just put a few on my plate) I was instantly grateful for her companionship in this quest to maintain the health we had worked for. Having others support you really does mean so much in success. 

When I got home I found that I had gained 1 lb. 

Just 1 cute little pound. 

I love that learning to maintain and stay focused on health goals means that when given a chance to totally jump ship I have discovered how to enjoy life and food in a healthy balanced way. In my past, on other programs, it was this kind of environment that sent me spiraling back to frustration with myself and into the bad the habit of blaming food or the resort or even my social group for my choices. 

Friends, the process of learning to maintain our weight loss is instrumental to long term success. Each of you are working so hard toward your your “physical goals” - this is also the time to work on your “mental goals”. 

We all need to work toward:

Remembering the importance of water. 

Looking at food as fuel rather than a reward. 

Seeking support from encouragers. 

Making wise choices daily. 

Oh - and enjoying life to the fullest because it is certainly a beautiful gift!

How Are Your Taste Buds Doing???

Hi friends! 

How are your taste buds doing??? Are you needing some ideas for healthy and new recipes to prepare for that Lean and Green meal that you look forward to everyday? I found that taking time to prepare a variety of Lean and Green meals not only added a little spice to my pallet... but also helped me learn more about what foods would become a part of my regular shopping list and have carried into the way that my family now eats on a nightly basis. 

While I've used cauliflower in the past,
last week I made up a tasty Spaghetti Squash crust pizza. 

Here are a few links to some great recipe websites that offer Lean/Green ideas that work with our program:

Sandy's Kitchen Adventure

Not only does this site have a TON of great lean/green recipe ideas, but at the bottom of the "Medifast Recipe Box" you will also find a section that gives a ton of suggestions for recipes altering the Medifast foods that we use. 

TSFL Client Health Tips 

You can look up these recipes by name, by the ingredients in the recipe or by categories (which are Game Day Ideas, Greens, Holiday Recipes, Lean, Maintenance, Soups, TSFL Meal Recipes). Lots of choices.

Lean and Green Recipes Facebook Group

This is a closed Facebook group where people post program compliant Lean and Green recipes. If you would like to be added let me know and I can easily add you. 

And my personal favorite way to search for Lean/Green recipes is to simply jump on Pinterest and go crazy. There are a gazillion recipes on there... at least hundreds anyways. Use the following terms to search and you will come up with lots of  options: TSFL, Take Shape for Life, Medifast, Lean and Green, etc. 

Food is going to be a part of our daily lives forever - this is a great time to learn to adjust how we cook and set ourselves up for a lifetime of optimal health!

The Importance of Transition

Are you getting close to your goal weight??? In the past 2 weeks I have spoken to multiple clients about the Transition Phase. One person has lost all her "baby weight" (20 lbs in about 6 weeks) and the other reached her goal of 40 lbs over several months of working hard to get to her healthy weight. It is exciting to journey alongside folks as they work the program and watch their bodies transform. When you have reached your goal weight, please reach out to me (or your health coach) and we can share a Transition Guide and helpful instructional video with you. 

As I have often shared, my favorite thing about TSFL is that our purpose isn't to be dependent upon the their food/fuelings forever as you find with most weight loss programs. I love that once you have reached your healthy weight/goal there is a Transition and a Maintenance plan ready to help you live a long happy and healthy life. And I appreciate that in reality we are never "done" with this journey. Our commitment to being healthy is a lifelong desire requiring a true lifelong change. Basically that means we will be making our health a priority until the day we die... isn't that what we want???

While the transitioning tools will help you in understanding how to make a healthy transition back to regular food, I wanted to share 2 of the main reasons why I found the Transition Phase to be instrumental to learning how to maintain long term weight loss. 

1. Transition Phase helps your body adjust back to regular food
This 1st reason is pretty obvious. In the transition phase you slowly remove the TSFL meals and replace them with different food groups over the course of several weeks.  Trust me... this transition phase is important. Possibly as important as the process of losing weight. As we slowly add back in additional vegetables, fruit, dairy, whole grains, etc., we also increase our calorie intake in systematic incremental increases. If you have been following the program strictly and suddenly jump back to regular food your body will go into a sort of freak-out shock. Lets just say your tummy will not be happy with you... transitioning is the healthy way to get into maintenance. 

2. The Transition Phase helps you learn HOW to eat in a healthy way and be sure you don't return to the habits that you have said good-bye to. 
If you remember back to your 1st conversation with your coach, or read Dr. A's book, you will remember that this program is largely based upon healthy habits used by the 15% of people in the focus group that kept 20+lbs off for 5+ years. So... if the key to keeping the weight off is to "fuel your body" and eat several small throughout the day, then it is vital that you learn how to continue this element of your new lifestyle. 

For me, during this time I learned what I could eat and what I wanted to eat in order to keep myself fueled throughout the day. Here's what a general day during transition looked like for me:
7am - Apple
10am - Lowfat String Cheese Stick
12:30 - Lunch that was based on greens and lean meat
3pm - TSFL Medifast bar (I eat this while I go get my daughter at the pick-up line. This is an easy fueling for me to forget, so making it part of my daily routine has helped. Plus, bars are easy and I like the taste.)
6pm - Dinner with my family - Lean and Green style meal
9pm - Either a Greek yogurt (look for low carb count), or TSFL Medifast Brownie (I just love those things) or a slice of meat and a little cheese, or a small bowl of popcorn

It was during this time of transition that I learned how to really read labels and not bring stuff into our house that was high in carbs or fat. I have also found more exciting ways to cook healthy - not necessarily just by the TSFL lean/green requirements - but healthy, fresh whole food meals. While re-introducing new foods I used the "My Fitness Pal" app on my phone almost daily to not only help me keep myself in check with calories, but also help me learn to understand what foods are high (or low) in carbohydrates, fat and protein. 

This time also helped me build the confidence in myself that I COULD actually keep the weight off. It is so much easier to give yourself back freedom in little doses rather than just jumping ship and hope you don't drown. Learning how to change up your order at a restaurant is exciting... but winning is when you learn to stay within a healthy guideline and eat the appropriate size portion. 

Maybe the most important thing I learned during the Transition Phase is that my old habits are still there BUT I have control and DO NOT have to be destroyed by them. Sure they miss me - we had fun together (sometimes too much fun together). But they were a bad influence  on this "good girl" and I need to keep strong boundaries from those old naughty habits. 

I have kept 55 lbs off for 9 months & if I can do it you can too!
I Believe it you!!!

If We Can Do It - You Can Do It!

YOU GUYS!! It’s my two year Healthiversary!! 

Hello friends! My name is Kristen Fullmore, and I have the privilege and honor of being Kelly’s Health Coach. You know a bit about Kelly’s journey, and you have watched her transform her health over the past year. Now, I’d love to share a little bit of my journey with you and how this path ultimately changed my life and led me to freedom! 

In 2015, I started the year in a pretty dark space in my mind. I had truly given up on myself as far as my health went, because for over 20 years, I had tried and failed and tried and failed over and over and over again to get “healthy”. Basically, I was a professional dieter. Riding that yo-yo up and down and up and down. 

Well, mid-January, a small spark of hope was lit in me, as a friend of mine started to share stories of hope and health on her Facebook page. They caught my attention, but I watched from afar, wondering if I could have a story like their’s.  After many conversations with myself, and with one last hope (and a lot of fear and skepticism), I reached out to my friend, and now health coach, having no idea what she could offer me or how she could assist me. All I knew was that I needed help, and I couldn’t do it on my own anymore. 

I decided that this was going to be it. I was tired of the yo-yo - done with trying and failing, losing and gaining. The thought of needing to lose over 100lbs was overwhelming, scary, and made me nervous, but for some reason, I was willing to run after it with everything I had in me. Why? Because this journey was different. I had a health coach to support me and teach me how to change my patterns from habits of disease to habits of health. She helped me to see that if I was going to truly make a long term change, I had to get out of the "diet"/"quick fix" mentality and move into the healthy lifestyle mentality. In doing so, I dropped my fixed mindset about myself and developed a growth mindset that helped me to see that health, for me, could truly be possible, as long as I kept working for it. Well, work for it I did, and success I found! Over the next 10 months, I managed to become 105lbs healthier and learned how to live a healthier life!  

Little did I know, this simple conversation with a friend two years ago would be the first step into a whole new lease on life. Yes, through this journey, I lost over 100lbs (something I never thought possible for myself), but what I gained surpasses that a million times over! 

Through this journey with my health coach, I gained... 

* a healthy mindset toward food and toward myself.

* the freedom to live and enjoy life outside the prison of obesity.

* healthy habits and patterns that have not only kept me living on the healthy side for a year, but will keep me here for life. 

* the confidence to say YES to adventure and living the life I've always dreamed of.

* a community of people who support, encourage, and challenge me in ways that spur me forward into greater things. 

* a new passion to help others find their own freedom in health too. Still boggles my mind that God groomed me all those years for THIS! 

* financial freedom. 

* the ability to work part time and be more available for my family. 

I think I could keep typing out my gains for pages and pages, but I think you get the picture. 

If you are interested in exploring if what Kelly and I coach could be a good fit for you and your health goals, please reach out to her. We've got nothing to sell you. No pills, creams, diets, wraps, or other short term band-aids. We’re here to help you develop a healthy mind and a healthy body. And if you're interested in taking it a bit further, we can assist you with creating healthy finances too. Optimal Well-being is our passion. It's what we do.

The Power of the Mind - STOP, CHALLENGE, CHOOSE

Something that I used to say when I would try diets and fall off the wagon was, “I have no willpower”. I thought this was great excuse. I was okay with blaming my lack of control on the invisible impulse in my brain that forced my hand to reach for “another” cookie. It wasn’t me choosing a bigger portion… it was my lack of control making decisions. I felt powerless against the unbelievable strength of this abstract force. How could I ever win against this concealed villain???

One of the main things that I have learned through this program (which has been different than the other attempts I have made to lose weight and failed to keep off), is how to get control of my willpower/mind. Early in my health journey I was watching a Habits of Heath video call and the speaker was sharing how he had trained his mind to resist temptation. He shared that he had found that he would see the temptation, STOP and literally breathe (like 3-4 deep breaths), CHALLENGE himself to remember (or even visualize) his health goal and then CHOOSE the option that would take him closer to his goal. 

BUT - the part of this that most resonated with me was when he said he had to practice that process about 20 times before it became an actual habit. WHAT??? The way my mind had worked for nearly 40 years wouldn’t be changed after 1 try? I would have to do this over and over again to see mental change? Boo. 

So the next Sunday after church when I walked past the spread of sin on the refreshment table I tried this tool. I STOPPED and stared at the platters of cookies and delicious no-bake peanut butter balls that I love so much. I took 3 deep breaths. 

During those breaths: 

I remembered my health goal. 

I remember how I had lost 25 lbs and that this program works. 

I remembered that all week I had been on program and my body was working efficiently in fat burn. 

I remembered that I had a growing pile of clothes to donate  that were now too big. 

I remembered that I can now paint my toenails without losing my breath. 

I remembered that I could now sit in our recliner with both mine and my sons rears fitting in the seat… rather than him “on” me.

I remembered that…. 1 peanut butter ball was not worth losing my focus on my goal and I CHOSE to walk away.

I’ll admit, I was kinda lame to not partake in the sugary indulgence.

But I was STILL IN FAT BURN. 

So that was a huge win!!! And I went along feeling like a champion and believe it or not, passing on that peanut-butter ball didn’t ruin my day or life. 

The next week, as I passed the sin table at church I did this process again. 

And the next week I did it again… and again… and again.

We went to parties and I did this process in my mind. 

We went to restaurants and when ordering I used this tool. 

My evil husband brought chips into the house (my favorite) and I walked my brain through this process. 

Learning to think like this was was not an instant change and honestly now 7 months into maintaining my weight loss, I still use this system when faced with temptation. (And sometimes, I chose that yes, I will have a glass of wine or whatever it is… but in moderation and in accordance to maintenance mentality). 

I learned during these past holidays that if I throw out this mind tool, my old habits are more than excited to take control and try to convince me that 2 pieces of cake are better than one. 

That old mindset is a jerk and a liar. 

My old mindset doesn’t like that I feel good and can run and play with my kids without losing my breath. 

My old mindset doesn’t like that a generational cycle is changing and my kids are learning to eat healthy. 

My old mindset doesn’t like the confidence I now feel when I look in a mirror. 

That old mindset is not my friend. 

We broke up and I never want to hang out with it again. 

I want to encourage you to try to use this tool when faced with temptation. When you get to the 20th time of trying it I betcha you have a new habit of health!

For more information to the practice of STOP, CHALLENGE, CHOOSE you can learn more on pg 241 of Dr. A’s Habit of Health or you can check out his website at this link: http://www.drwayneandersen.com/2012/11/17/exercise-stop-challenge-choose/