5 Ways to Lose Weight Without Dieting

With the holidays coming and hectic lives, we can all use simple reminders on losing weight and staying healthy. Heidi outlines five ways to lose weight without dieting in today's episode. Enjoy!

Take Aways

• Take breaks from eating. This helps with insulin resistance and allows your body to access fat to use as fuel rather than sugar.
• Eat less ultra-processed foods (UPFs).
• Stop eating your feelings. 
• Stop eating by 7 pm and wait until 11 am to eat. Drinking water is okay.
• Write down your cravings
• Ingredients matter. Check them. 
• Our feelings don't usually need to be overanalyzed, but they do need to be noticed. 

Resources promised

• Download my 5 Ways to Lose Weight Without Dieting printable.
• Sign up for How to Lose 20 pounds in 20 weeks call.

Want to feel better? I'd love to help. Book a 30 minute call with me (Heidi) here. 

Heidi's links:

• Heidi's website
• Heidi's Instagram

Are you here for pmdd support? I've got you.

• 5 Ways To Feeling Better with PMDD: I created this free download to help women with pmdd feel better. I wish it had been around when I first learned I had pmdd. 
• Semaine PMS and Period Support Supplements: These supplements have reduced cramps and helped level emotional downs that I (and my teen daughter) experience. Book a one off support call Just need some friendly advice about your pmdd journey? A support call is Free support call with me. 

Music 

• Music- Island Breeze by Surf House Productions |...

Transcript

Episode 76: 5 Ways to Lose Weight Without Dieting

[00:00:00] Hello, this is the Living Well with PMDD podcast. I'm your host, Heidi Bradford, certified life coach, mom of five and PMDD Survivor. Happy to have you here. This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered health advice.

Hello. Thanks for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed your long weekend. We sure did. We got to go camping, I did a little post from the campsite on Instagram, which was kind of fun. And it was our first time desert camping, so that was different. We wondered if we like it, but it was really good and very simple.

Getting back into school. The swing of school is a little bit tougher. We had three of our kids had fall break last week from their school. So [00:01:00] yeah. You know, getting back into the swing of school was a little difficult this morning, but we did it and we are here and ready to get going again.

I chose today's topic, five Ways to Lose Weight without Dieting partially because I created a little flyer on this topic last week and put it out to,, those that follow me. I will add it to the notes for this episode too, so you can get that downloadable thing.

Also because I'm opening a program for women that are wanting to lose weight so I just wanted to give some ideas on that here in this setting. Living a healthy life and having a healthy lifestyle, we can never really stop trying for that because when we do, we digress. So it's good to hear these things even if you aren't trying to lose weight, [00:02:00] they will help you to be healthier overall as well.

, Another good reason to download the Five Ways to Lose Weight Without Dieting is so that you get on my email list. I would love to be able to send things to you, communicate with you, inspire you in your inbox. That's another good reason to download that.

Alright, five ways to lose weight without dieting. I'm gonna just give you the five ways and then I'm gonna go into detail about each of them.

One, take breaks from eating. Two, eat less ultra processed foods.

Three, stop eating your feelings.

Four, stop eating by 7:00 PM and wait until 11:00 AM to eat. And five, write down your cravings.

, There's , one other [00:03:00] point I wanna hit on here. And it's the amount of food we eat, especially in America, or in the us. I was reminded , of an experience I had when I visited my sister, and I'm not sure if I was visiting or if we were living with them during my husband's deployment, but it was either during high school or sometime after, like, so kind of a big window. But she and I, we were making dinner or , maybe doing a grocery list together, something like that. And the food guide pyramid came up , in our conversation. And I said that is just way too much food to have that many servings of grains and that of fats and that of, uh, dairy and that of meats.

It's just too much [00:04:00] food. She agreed and she was like, yeah, there is no way someone really should be eating that much food. I guess maybe bodybuilders or whatever. But I remember that even in high school goal, seeing the food guide pyramid and it being taught as , the way to eat healthy, it was just too much and I knew that.

Listen to yourself and your body when something doesn't quite seem right for you.

Okay. In general, we overeat so eating less is usually just fine. Now don't, don't go be like anorexic on me, but that's an in general.

Some of this information comes from the Stop Over Eating course that Brooke Castillo put together and I certified with her, so I'm allowed to use [00:05:00] it.

Okay, number one, take breaks from eating. there are three main hormones to consider when it comes to weight gain and weight loss.

The most important hormone is insulin. The obesity epidemic is caused by too much insulin in the blood. Insulin is a storage hormone. So whenever it is elevated in the blood, the body cannot use fat as fuel. , I wanna repeat that whenever insulin is elevated in the blood, the body cannot use fat as fuel.

Insulin, insulin resistance and diabetes have skyrocketed with the increase in consumption of high sugar and high starch foods. Insulin also affects the presence and effectiveness of two other hormones, leptin and ghrelin, and those are the three main hormones to consider when you are wanting to gain weight [00:06:00] or lose weight.

Insulin, leptin, and ghrelin. Leptin is the hormone that lets us know we're full. It also lets us know it's time to move and it's blocked by an excess of insulin. Ghrelin lets us know when we're hungry and when we're no longer hungry, and it's negatively affected by concentrated food because it doesn't recognize caloric intake.

When you get hungry, it will normally come on as a wave and then retreat. If you don't eat right away, your body will access fat storage for fuel. If you have too much insulin in your blood, your body will be unable to access your fat stores and you will get hungrier.

When you have too much insulin in your blood, it blocks the leptin. Leptin is what lets your brain know you're full. It tells your brain you have plenty of fat storage and don't need to keep eating. , By eating [00:07:00] a lot of refined foods, it keeps ghrelin from working properly. So the goal is to keep your insulin as low as possible during a weight loss journey.

Insulin rises every time we eat. Insulin drops when we aren't eating. Insulin is artificially raised when we eat sugar and flour. Insulin is released in response to any large amount of glucose in the blood. Liquid, sugar and soda is one of the main culprits of insulin excess. By eating little to no sugar and flour insulin levels drop dramatically. By eating less Often we allow insulin to drop and resensitize, leptin to start working and ghrelin to adjust. When our hormones rebalance are hunger does too. So just gonna read that last part again by [00:08:00] eating less often or taking breaks in our eating. We allow insulin to drop and resensitize, leptin to start working and ghrelin to adjust.

We want to allow our body to eat in, to use the fat as fuel rather than, um, our body burning the sugar for fuel. When you need to lose weight or want to, and you'll still be healthy, body fat needs to be your main source of food . It needs to be what's burned. 

That's what I have from for you on taking breaks from eating 

Second, eat less ultra processed foods.

Our brains are designed to be rewarded for life preserving activities. Makes sense, right? Our body wants us to stay alive and it wants to be able to function. Food [00:09:00] provides that reward in the form of serotonin, dopamine, and or desire. All the cues around food create neural pathways that remind us how important it is to seek it again and again. When you concentrate and refine food, you concentrate that response in the brain. This leads your brain to believe that concentrated foods are much more important to eat than they really are. Dopamine creates more desire for the food, sorry, excuse me. Dopamine creates more desire for the food as we eat it.

The flood of dopamine, downregulates the receptors perpetuating the desire. The more you do something and the more you practice something, the stronger the corresponding neural pathways become. Eventually we get so good at it that it becomes an unconscious habit. This is why we often feel out of control and as if and as if we're eating against our will.

This is never true. It just feels that way [00:10:00] sometimes. Our brains are plastic. We can change these ingrained pathways by replacing them with new ones and by interrupting the old ones, by changing our actions and denying the unhealthy rewards.

It isn't a bad thing that our body wants food. It's very cool actually, that we get a reward in the form of serotonin, dopamine, and or some desire. But when we have ultra processed foods, concentrated foods, then. It creates just , more desire, more dopamine, more serotonin, and then in time our receptors become less sensitive.

I wanted to read you something from the ancient nutrition website, so bear with me just a second as I pull it up. This [00:11:00] is@ancientnutrition.com and as of today, today is, , October 14th, 2025. This is on their website.

The classification of foods into different categories like ultra processed and processed can sometimes lead to confusion. Let's clarify the distinction between ultra processed foods and processed foods. So processed foods are foods that undergo some form of processing to make them suitable for consumption or to extend shelf life.

Processing can include washing, cutting, freezing pasteurizing, and other methods that do not substantially alter the original form of the food. Examples of processed foods include minimally processed items like bagged salad, canned vegetables and cheese.

Ultra processed foods refer to food and drink products that have undergone extensive processing, and often contain a long list of ingredients, including additives, preservatives, [00:12:00] flavorings, emulsifiers, and other substances. These foods are typically manufactured and formulated to be convenient, ready to eat, ready to eat, and have a longer shelf life.

The term ultra processed is used to distinguish these foods from minimally processed or whole foods. Here are characteristics of ultra processed foods, the ingredients. They often contain a high number of ingredients, including additives and preservatives. These ingredients may not be commonly used in home cooking, the industrial processes.

They involve techniques and processes such as extrusion, molding and pre-processing of ingredients. Another characteristic is their low in in nutrients. Despite often being energy dense, ultra processed foods may lack essential nutrients compared to whole foods. They may contain high amounts of added sugars, unhealthy fats, and [00:13:00] salts.

And then a fourth uh, characteristic is convenience. They're designed for quick consumption and are often ready to eat or require minimal preparation. Think fast food items, soda pop, packaged snacks, instant noodles, and ready to eat meals. So that was from ancient nutrition.com.

On this topic of ultra processed foods and concentrated foods, I wanted to add a note about food dyes. , They are bad for us, so that could be another thing that will show up on these ingredient lists to look out for. You know,, blue six, uh, red 40. , So yeah, you don't want that in your food either , try to avoid them.

I also noticed last week , that my frozen corn, just bags of frozen corn versus my canned corn had a huge [00:14:00] salt difference. The frozen corn had, I believe, no added salt. The canned corn had a bunch. Also in the beans, black beans. I was looking at my black beans. I was comparing two different types of black beans because I had bought that I thought, oh yeah, this is what we normally get. And then I had put it in a soup and it was so salty and I thought this can't be the right beans. Then I found the ones I normally buy and I compared them and it had, I think twice as much, if not four times as much salt than the ones we usually use.

, Our family personally doesn't need to like watch our salt intake and my personal health needs are , I need salt, so it's not like a huge deal, but for you, that might be a huge deal. So be aware and [00:15:00] look at ingredients. It does matter. It can be a simple way to just eat healthier overall.

Okay. Third, stop eating your feelings. This probably doesn't surprise anyone, but really, I did not know that I used food as a distraction from my real life until I found life coaching.

So I was considering what feelings lead me personally to eat. When I'm excited, I tend to wanna eat. When I'm sad, I want to eat. When I'm happy content or I've just achieved a goal, I wanna eat something. When I'm depressed. Sometimes I want to eat. Sometimes when I'm depressed, I kinda wanna punish myself, and that means not eating.

[00:16:00] So there is that, but that's not good either, right? When I'm bored, I want to eat, and when I'm anxious, I will have a tendency to eat. Now, yours may be different than mine, but it's good to know that almost any emotion can lead us to want that dopamine or serotonin reward. I kind of think of our body and our mind is it loves us so much, it doesn't want us to be in pain and it wants to protect us.

So when we're sad or anxious, it's like, here, just have a little something to eat. If you think of. Your mom or maybe your grandma, like when we're sad, they wanna comfort us and food can act in that way as well.

And also just a different kind of thing that I've observed with, um, different members of my [00:17:00] family. When you're eating, it can feel very productive. It feels like you're actually doing something. And so try to notice that , if you are eating, because you're a very task oriented person and you just need the next thing to do, um, you might be filling that with eating.

Feelings and emotions are meant to be felt. They're not meant to be chased away by a dopamine or serotonin fix. They're meant to be felt and considered. We can sit with them. We can take them with us as we go and do the things that need to be done that day. , Often feelings need to be noticed and once they are noticed, they're like, oh, good.

Kay. You noticed how, we're just feeling a little sad [00:18:00] today. I just wanted to communicate that to you. You can think of it coming from your mind or your brain or from your body. Usually our feelings don't need to be overanalyzed, but they do need to be noticed.

We need to give them some airtime and allow ourself, our body to feel them. There are processes for feeling our emotions. , I do that sometimes, with clients and it can be really, really effective, especially if you have a certain feeling in your body that keeps coming. Um, when you can identify what that feeling is that goes along with that body response, um, it can really help you in other ways.

Number four, This is really a practical application of number one, take breaks from [00:19:00] eating. stop eating by 7:00 PM and wait until 11:00 AM to eat. Drinking water is okay during this time. Many of you have probably heard of intermittent fasting. This is just a version of it. It gives your body a break from insulin. You don't want diabetes and you don't wanna have to take intense drugs to prevent diabetes. So give your body breaks from insulin.

There's a few other reasons why this method has really helped myself and my clients.

Once you start eating in the morning. Or whenever you start eating it. Eating it can be harder to stop when your habit has been to overeat. ,

It also helps prioritize sleep. If you're not eating after seven and you realize you wanna have a little snack while you watch your show, [00:20:00] sometimes you can just watch your show and allow, the cravings for some sweets or something salty. Other times you can just be like, you know what, I'm going to bed and we'll start again tomorrow.

Sleep helps everything, right? It will help your weight loss too.

And number five, write down your cravings. Or your urges. , My clients receive a 100 urges sheet, , but you can just do it in a notebook.

you're gonna record the, the urges you have. Say you are in the kitchen and you glance over and you see, , a granola bar sitting on the counter, and your thought or. Maybe it's a craving or an urge is to go grab the granola bar, or maybe it's just to eat it. [00:21:00] Or if you're haven't been noticing cravings and urges, you might not notice until you're eating the granola bar.

But , at whatever point you recognize, oh, I wanted that. Then you pull out your notebook and you write down anything that happened related to it. , It can be good to kind of reverse engineer what happened. I saw the granola bar on the counter and I wanted to reach for it, right?

That's the urge. The urge was to reach for it. , Or I was eating a granola bar. I realized I was eating the granola bar and looking back. I saw it on the counter, I must have grabbed it. I don't even remember grabbing it, and I put it in my mouth. And what will happen over time is that you'll be able to start recognizing your urges sooner, [00:22:00] and then you'll be able to just write the urge.

I wanted to grab the granola bar instead of. It being in your mouth, or instead of you not realizing that you were grabbing it. , You're gonna record the, the urges you have: I wanted to grab the granola bar. The interesting thing is the brain really likes to keep status quo. So whatever you've been doing and whatever it's been, um, kind of receiving as far as what you're putting into it, you kind of , wants to keep it. That's its default.

So when you don't reach for the granola bar and instead you write it down, good job. Awesome way to go, you're probably gonna get another urge. And it might be, I should make lunch right now or. I should, um, cook a bag of [00:23:00] popcorn, or I should go get some chocolate chips.

And you're going to write those down as well. , I have had urge after urge after urge when I've done this for myself. This is really, really cool. One of my clients just this morning told me it's her game changer. It's so incredibly telling and helpful, so don't dis it. Try it out. Um, it's to help you recognize your actions. Or the actions you want to take, but it can be feelings. It helps you recognize your thought tendencies, your desires, and your distractions.

I went to do this and then I wanted to go eat this. It's like your mind kind of thinks it's protecting you from doing that icky task that you don't really wanna do by just going and eating something. In the, in the coaching world we call it our toddler brain [00:24:00] that just kind of throws a fit when we try to change anything. As you try to resist those urges or, I mean, yes, you are, I guess resisting by not giving into them, but we're also allowing them by writing them down, by acknowledging them. So that is different from just white knuckling? No, I'm not gonna do that thing that you gave me the suggestion of brain, that would be resistance and that would be like using your willpower, which you can try to do too.

But allowing and then writing down the urges will be super helpful. It will also be uncomfortable. Especially if you're not used to saying no to yourself. It can be a big change. You, you get to say no. You get to remind your brain, Hey, we're on a weight loss journey right now. No, I'm not gonna [00:25:00] go get that right now.

But thank you. Thank you for letting me know that was there and I could get it. When you write them down, ideally you do not do them okay? But there will be times that you might still do them. Please still write them down. It's good information for you. And information helps us improve and become, uh, better at what we are trying to achieve.

Alright? Remember to download the five ways to lose weight without dieting. That little printable. And also if you want to lose weight , sign up for how to lose 20 pounds in 20 weeks call this Friday. I'm running it. It will be live over Zoom.

Go ahead and sign up for that. I would love to have you there.

Thanks so much for listening to the Living Well with PMDD podcast. [00:26:00] To learn more about life coaching with me, visit my website Heidi, H-E-I-D-I, bradford coaching.com. Until next time, keep hoping, keep loving, and remember that you are not alone.