How to Eat Out, Travel, and Live Your Life Without Gaining the Weight Back

Most people don't fail their diet because of one bad meal. They fail because of what they tell themselves after it.

In this final episode of the Permanent Fat Loss Masterclass, I'm giving you The Sanity Toolkit: three non-negotiables I use to handle weekends, holidays, travel, and social events without regaining weight.

In this episode:

• Why the thought "I ruined it" is so detrimental to progress and success
• How to use the scale as data, and not as a judgment on your worth
• The one breakfast habit that kills cravings and protects you all day
• Why a 10-minute walk after dinner is one of the most underrated fat loss tools

We're not doing all of this to stay home 24/7. You have to live your life. This episode shows you how to do both.

This is Episode 4 of the Permanent Fat Loss Masterclass. Start at Episode 50 if you haven't already.

Download the free Fat-Loss Formula Workbook referenced in this episode. 

Missed Part 1? Start HERE first. 

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👋🏻 ABOUT ME:
I'm Andrea, a certified nutrition and fitness coach and founder of Behind the Body. I spent years doing cardio and avoiding weights because I just wanted to be skinny, and I didn’t understand the impact it would have. At 40, I did a lifestyle overhaul, and I finally started lifting 3-4 times per week. Now at 45, I have the strong, toned, and healthy body I'd been chasing for decades. I've maintained these results for 10 years with the same simple approach. Now I help women over 40 stop overcomplicating fitness and start building sustainable strength.

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: The content on Behind the Body is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and should not be treated as such. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, exercise routine, or health regimen, especially if you have a pre-existing condition. Results vary. Andrea is a NASM-certified nutrition and fitness coach, not a doctor or registered d

Transcript

Welcome And Masterclass Context

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This is episode four of the Permanent Fat Loss Masterclass. If you haven't already, I recommend that you go back and start with episode one, which is Podcast Episode 50. And don't forget to download the Permanent Fat Loss Formula Workbook in Podcast Episode 51 as we use it in that second masterclass and reference it throughout. I hope you find this incredibly valuable for your journey and enjoy. Let's dive in. We are not doing all of this to lose weight and to feel our best and to look our best just to stay inside the house 24-7. We have to live. Welcome to Behind the Body. I'm Andrea, certified nutrition and fitness coach. In my 30s, I lost 20 pounds and I maintained it well through my 40s. Every week here, we talk about what's really happening with perimenopause and weight gain, what to do about it, and the brutal but beautiful truth about this stage of life. Whether you're just starting or tired of starting over, you are in the right place, and I'm so happy you're here. Let's dive in. Do you want to know the exact moment that most people fail in their diets? It's not when they eat a sleeve of cookies or a whole pizza. It's what happens afterwards. It happens to me still on occasion, where I've had a really good week, I've hit my macros, I've been on point with my workouts, but then I go out to dinner with some friends and have a cheeseburger and french fries and a couple glasses of wine. And then afterwards, we go get gelato. And on my way home, guilt sets in. I feel like I've ruined my entire diet, like I've just lost so much progress. And then I say to myself, well, like, forget it. I might as well just keep going all weekend and then start again on Monday. Actually, just deal with it on Monday. But that thought, I ruined it, is the only way that you gain the weight back. It's not the food or the meal, it's that drive for perfectionism, that perfectionism mindset that it's either all or nothing. And if it's nothing, then you might as well keep on going because you ruined your diet anyway. In this permanent fat loss masterclass, we've covered the science, the fat loss formulas, and the metabolism all in this series. But none of that matters if you cannot survive a Friday night out with friends or a vacation with your family or a really busy and stressful week at work. So today, in our final episode of the masterclass series, I'm giving you what I'm calling the sanity toolkit. And these are three non-negotiables that I use to handle weekends, holidays, travel, social events without regaining the weight because we're not doing all of this to lose weight and to feel our best and to look our best just to stay inside the house 24-7. We have to live. Rule number one is about trust. When we're dieting, we get obsessed with the scale. It is sometimes the end all be all. But in maintenance, the scale can drive you absolutely crazy if you let it. Here is a shift. And I say this with love to you and also to myself because I need to hear it as well. Stop using the scale to judge your worth and start using it as data collection. That may sound intuitive, but I bet when you step on the scale and you see a number that's higher than what you expected, you let it affect you emotionally. And I am saying this from experience because I have had the scale tell me something I wasn't prepared for and it literally ruined my mood the entire day. But I'm calling this weight data collection the daily check-in. I weigh myself every morning, but I don't care. Or at least I try not to care about the number. I care mostly about the range. My maintenance weight isn't 140. It's anywhere from 138 to 142. If I eat sushi the night before and I wake up at 141, cool. I'm still within range. But if I have an indulgent weekend and wake up at 145, well, then I need to rain it in a little bit. I don't panic or crash diet, but I do tighten up my diet for the next couple of days in order to flush out that sodium and to get rid of some of that water retention and get back on track. The daily check-in keeps you honest without becoming obsessive. And it prevents five extra pounds from turning into maybe 20 extra pounds awakening because you were too scared to weigh yourself and to look at the scale. But if weighing yourself daily is too much for you, which for a lot of people it is, you can take your weekly averages or take your monthly averages. Whatever works best for you, but it's the data collection that's important. Okay, rule number two is your safety net. And I know you've heard this before. If you follow health and fitness content in any social media or any platform, you've heard this probably a million times. But I'm gonna set you up by saying when life gets super busy with work and kids and stress and school and like everything else that's going on, your diet could be the first to fall apart. So if you're busy, if you have a busy schedule, by 10 o'clock your diet's probably already out the window. You probably grabbed a bagel on your way out the door, then you're starving by noon. And then by the time you get home from work before dinner, you're like ravaging through your pantry to see what you can snack on while you're prepping dinner. But the fix is simple. And this is what you've heard before. Try to get 30 grams of protein at breakfast. And I know this is not always easy. It takes a concerted effort and planning in order to get a large amount of protein at any meal, but especially as you're trying to get out the door in the morning. But anchoring your morning with 30 grams of protein will stabilize your blood sugar and kill your cravings for hours. And I know that seems crazy and too good to be true, but it literally will curb your cravings for a long time. That's one of the reasons why it's so effective. If you're going out for a big Italian dinner tonight, cool. Have 30 grams of protein for breakfast. If it's Thanksgiving, awesome. Have 30 grams of protein with breakfast. It's the one habit that protects you from the roller coaster of hunger and overeating. And rule number three is the easiest way to burn calories without exercising. And it's the after dinner walk. Most of us eat our biggest meals at dinner, and then we sit on the couch watching TV and scrolling through our phones. Hi, I'm most of us. That's literally what I do 80% of the time. But that creates a massive glucose spike and then a crash, which then causes symptoms like fatigue, irritability, and then hunger. So you become hungry sooner. Instead, all you have to do is go for a 10 to 15 minute walk after dinner. And this is proven to aid digestion, lower your blood sugar response, and it also gives you a moment of peace and fresh air before bed. But you're not doing this to burn off your dinner. We're just signaling to your body to use that fuel from dinner instead of storing it. And I want to leave you with this. Permanent weight loss is not about being the person who never eats dessert or cheeseburgers and fries. It's about being the person who eats it, enjoys it, and then is able to move on successfully with the next healthy meal. It's about not allowing those things to derail you because you have an anchor to come back to you. You don't need more willpower or more discipline. You don't have to rely on them when you have a system in place that helps support your life and your lifestyle. You have the staircase strategy, you have your calorie maintenance and your deficit numbers, you have the exit strategy. Now you know how to reverse diet. And now you have the sanity rules. Individually, they may seem easy and they may seem intuitive, but they truly make up a strategy or a framework or an anchor that can effectively help you lose fat and permanently keep it off by going back to this framework, back to the strategy, back to the anchor, and back to the numbers. And imagine being able to diet while living your best life socially and being able to enjoy vacations and enjoy social events without having to stress about losing all your progress and regaining the weight. So now you are ready for successful weight loss in the healthiest way. Trust the data, but most importantly, trust yourself. And this is the final episode of the Permanent Fat Loss Masterclass. If you've missed any part, go back to episode 50 and start there. Watch them in order, take notes, and consider which roles are you gonna start today? Where are you gonna focus and where are you gonna prioritize? And if you haven't done so already, I would love for you to join the behind the body community. Every Tuesday, you'll get a newsletter in your inbox full of value and insights about all things health, fitness, diet, nutrition, lifestyle for us women over 40. You can sign up for the newsletter at behind the body.com forward slash newsletter. I'm Andrea, and this is Behind the Body Podcast, and I will talk to you next week.