Well, my friends, the holidays are upon us, and as we all know, the holidays in so many ways are synonymous with food. We have spent the last few weeks talking about food. Hunger diets and weight loss.
Today, we're going to continue in that vein to talk about a very important aspect of healthy dieting that is often missed in the diet, weight loss narrative, an aspect that in my mind is more important to our success than the food that we eat.
In this episode of Health Bite, Dr. Adrienne Youdim emphasizes the importance of mindset when it comes to weight loss and healthy eating. She argues that our words and thoughts have a significant impact on our success in achieving our goals. Dr. Adrienne Youdim encourages listeners to shift their language from one of restriction to one of abundance.
What You'll Learn from This Episode
"Your views and your words matter more to your successful weight loss than the diet that you consume." - Dr. Adrienne Youdim
Connect with Dr. Adrienne Youdim
3 Ways to Get More From Adrienne
1. Subscribe to our Newsletter. Subscribe Now and get the 5 Bites to Fasttrack your Health and Wellbeing https://dradrienneyoudim.com/newsletter/
2. Buy the Book. The current weightloss strategies have failed you. Its time to address your true hunger. Purchase 'Hungry for More' https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-More-Stories-Science-Inspire/dp/0578875632
3. Leave us a Rating and Review via Apple Podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/health-bite/id1504295718
Well, my friends, the holidays are upon us, and as we all know, the holidays in so many ways are synonymous with food. We have spent the last few weeks talking about food. Hunger diets and weight loss.
Today, we're going to continue in that vein to talk about a very important aspect of healthy dieting that is often missed in the diet, weight loss narrative, an aspect that in my mind is more important to our success than the food that we eat.
In this episode of Health Bite, Dr. Adrienne Youdim emphasizes the importance of mindset when it comes to weight loss and healthy eating. She argues that our words and thoughts have a significant impact on our success in achieving our goals. Dr. Adrienne Youdim encourages listeners to shift their language from one of restriction to one of abundance.
What You'll Learn from This Episode
"Your views and your words matter more to your successful weight loss than the diet that you consume." - Dr. Adrienne Youdim
Connect with Dr. Adrienne Youdim
3 Ways to Get More From Adrienne
1. Subscribe to our Newsletter. Subscribe Now and get the 5 Bites to Fasttrack your Health and Wellbeing https://dradrienneyoudim.com/newsletter/
2. Buy the Book. The current weightloss strategies have failed you. Its time to address your true hunger. Purchase 'Hungry for More' https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-More-Stories-Science-Inspire/dp/0578875632
3. Leave us a Rating and Review via Apple Podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/health-bite/id1504295718
Well, my friends, the holidays are upon us, and as we all know, the holidays in so many ways are synonymous with food. We have spent the last few weeks talking about food. Hunger diets and weight loss. Today, we're going to continue in that vein to talk about a very important aspect of healthy dieting that is often missed in the diet, weight loss narrative, an aspect that in my mind is more important to our success than the food that we eat.
Welcome back to Health Bite. I'm your host, Dr. Adrianne Youdim. I'm a triple board certified internist, obesity medicine and physician nutrition specialist, and I help people redefine nutrition to include not only the food that we eat, but all the ways we can nourish ourselves physically, mentally, and emotionally.
And this week we are talking about how we view our food diet behaviors and ourselves, and I hope to convince you that your views and your words matter more to your successful weight loss than the diet that you consume. You all may know that words have a very special place in my heart. I grew up in a house, in which words were very exact.
My father, for example, would not say you are impolite if I were being impolite. Which was very rare by the way. He would use words like impudent and impertinent. I inherited this knack for using exact words and have always believed that our words really matter. It matters in our civil discourse as we're.
Learning all too well these days. It matters in the way that we speak to one another, and as I've, I have said on this podcast so many times, words matter in the way that we speak to ourselves. Nutrition, of course, is not just about the food that we eat, it's about all that we consume, and that doesn't exclude the way in which we speak to ourselves and when it comes to our food and to our diet.
This is most certainly the case. This may not be a surprise to you that we have this kind of cultural narrative around food that's very much linked to calories, weight loss, and while the desire to lose weight in and of itself is not a problem, the way in which we view. This most certainly impacts our ability to make lifestyle choices and to do what we intend to do for ourselves.
We spend so little time talking about the psychology behind our behaviors, the mindset of how we consume, even though it plays such a critical role in what we end up doing and how we end up doing it. Think of the word diet itself. What is diet? Diet is merely the food that we eat. However, we have come to use this term diet to equate to weight loss, calories restriction, and restriction is a word and an experience that backfires.
For those of you who've ever tried to lose weight with overly restrictive dietary interventions, you likely know firsthand how true this is. I know that every time I went on a SlimFast diet as a teen or the three day diet, and yes, believe it or not, that was a thing. It resulted in a binge. And that's what the studies have shown.
Excessive restriction does give way to binging behavior. In fact, a study showed that post VLCD and VLCD refers to a very low calorie diet in which usually protein shakes or prepackaged food is used to reduce the calorie intake to 800 calories or less, or in other cases to less than 50% of the person's usual calorie intake.
In this study, they showed that subjects participating in this VLCD and a baseline were identified as non binge eaters. 30% of them reported binge eating episodes thereafter. So here you're taking a group of people who are not binge eaters. You put them on an overly restrictive dietary intervention. 30%, one third turn into or experience binge eating afterwards.
It's also true that avoiding certain foods or certain food groups, or even referring to cheat days, is a contributor to binge eating and promotes the behaviors of binge eating disorder. So I wanna off, I wanna offer an alternative to this restrictive mindset and to this restrictive language. Instead of using language of restriction, I advise my patients to think of it in terms of abundance.
Think of food, in terms of abundance. Eat so much of what serves you. So that there is less room, less desire for that, which does not. An abundant eating mindset is a healthful strategy to eating well. Here's an example, eating in abundance of lean protein. Protein, in fact, is our body's own ozempic or semaglutide.
You know, semaglutide, that injectable that is being used to help people lose weight. Eating protein actually causes the release of GLP one, the very hormone that is mimicked in these drugs. The hormone that we naturally release from the gut signaling to our brain that we feel full and a single egg does not cut it.
An egg is six, maybe seven grams of protein. It's recommended and there's some variability here depending on your weight, depending on your activity level, but it's recommended that we consume closer to 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal in order to achieve successful weight loss. So again, thinking of protein in terms of abundance, because the more that you eat, the more you are able to satisfy that hunger.
And let's be frank, no one ever gained weight from consuming too much chicken. Same with vegetables. And I know, of course, everyone knows that they should eat a salad when they're on a diet or want to lose weight, but this idea has to go beyond the fact that veggies are low in calories because there are also replete in nutrients.
For example, arugula, which is something I love, love, love, and consume daily, has two calories per cup. However, it also has over 30 vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and antioxidants. So when we have this call to consume more vegetables, it is a call to nourish yourself more abundantly. And of course the types you consume, the more colors that you consume, the more varied the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that you get as a result.
So again, think about veggies in terms of abundance. This goes for carbohydrates as well, and we all know that we vilify carbs in our society. Keep in mind, by the way, that veggies are carbohydrates as well, so it is a very broad category, but so are things like beans and legumes and these foods, they make the bulk of the Mediterranean style diet.
This is the most studied and arguably the most healthful dietary plan known on the planet. Seriously, just Google, and I don't love Google searches, but Google Mediterranean Diet. You can go on Google Scholar and actually see the literature reviews, tons and tons and tons of articles that show how this type of.
This pattern of eating supports our health. Just one half cup of beans, for example, offers the amount of fiber that's needed to help ward off things like diabetes, heart disease, and even to promote longevity. To literally prolong life. Not to mention that fiber that comes from these kinds of legumes has also been shown to help reduce the risk of colon cancer, breast cancer, among others.
So when I give an example of a hearty weight loss inducing lunch. They often say, I can't eat all of that food. Surely that can't result in weight loss, but surely it does. I know this because I have been doing this work with my patients for nearly 20 years, so I want you to change your language around food from one of restriction to one of abundance.
Again, eat so much of what serves you so that there is less room less desire for that, which does not. Not only does this language change the way that you act and you engage with food, but it also prevents that. Reciprocal restriction and binging that happens thereafter. Thinking about abundance instead of restriction is the way in which we can create durability, longevity in the way that we adhere to healthy and weight losing dietary patterns.
So here's another mindset shift. And it stems from how we speak about food in terms of volition and choice. We often say when we're trying to lose weight, for example, oh, I can't eat that. I have to eat a salad, and my bringing up of a salad repeatedly doesn't mean that that's. All we should consume, of course, but that's part of our, you know, diet lingo.
But if we include a salad or vegetables as part of a balanced meal, then of course it is healthy and weight reducing as we spoke. But choice, knowing that we have choice is so important. If you have kids, you know that it is much more effective, for example, to tell your child. Hey Jolie, I want you to choose between these two outfits offering a choice rather than saying you have to wear this outfit.
Gives them a sense of agency, it gives them, say in the matter, it gets, gives them, it evokes a sense of eternal motivation, meaning that they've done something out of their own volition and therefore it's more meaningful, it's more sustainable. And that is a scenario that. Helps us adhere. It is a scenario of giving ourselves choice.
So instead of saying, I have to eat X, Y, and Z, rather say, I choose to, I choose to eat the homemade meal over ordering takeout from Uber Eats. And let's break this down for a minute, because the reality is that whether you're trying to lose weight or not. When we make that choice, for example, of eating a homemade meal instead of Uber Eats, we feel better in our bodies.
Compare the scenario where you've eaten a nutritious home cooked meal as compared to, let's say, I don't know, Chinese takeout after that momentary pleasure that we get from orange fried chicken or fried rice. How do you feel in your body? Chances are you feel bloated, heavy, maybe even sleepy and lethargic.
You may find that it affects your focus, your productivity, and even your mood throughout the day. Remembering this might help you choose to eat lighter the next time around. Not because you have to, but because based on how you feel you choose to and knowing it is a choice will empower you to do what's right for your body in a sustainable and durable way.
Forcefulness will power, grit. Coercion will not yield a sustainable. Pattern or a sustainable lifestyle, but choice will. So I want you to catch yourself. How often do you say to yourself, I have to, as opposed to I choose to. And if you wanna take it a step further, see how it feels in your body. When you use those words, I promise you that using the language of choice will settle in and feel better, not only in your mind, but in your body as well.
I'm gonna give you another example. An example that I often hear in the office. I know I have to exercise. And here's the thing, when it comes to weight loss, the truth is you don't have to exercise. You don't have to exercise in order to lose weight. And the studies have shown this time and time again, this is something I've talked about on previous podcasts, and so you can scroll back and listen to those episodes if you're interested.
I'm not gonna go into the details here. You can take my word for it right now. But the reality is that you don't have to. By the way, most of the time when we do exercise, or let's say we do just move our bodies, whether it is you go for a brisk walk or you go for a hike or a swim or a bike ride, it actually feels good in your body.
You feel the endorphins. You notice that you've cleared your mind. You notice the benefits to your mood, to your productivity, to your focus, because again, all the studies show that if you move your body regularly, that you'll reap all of these benefits. So why then do we insist that we have to do something rather than view it as a choice?
We can say we choose to move our bodies because it serves us well in all of these ways, mind and body. Not to mention that re regular exercise reduces the risk of virtually every disease known to man. But I digress. So I wanna reiterate that this is not just semantic. We know that the words that we use.
Very literally impact our feeling around the subject that we are talking about, and also it impacts our actions. So use words. That empower you. Use words that are aligned with what you actually want to achieve for yourself. Bring more choice and volition into your language as opposed to coercion and grit.
Another word bumble, let's say, that I commonly hear is. This view around, or the words that we use around dietary setbacks. So how often do we look at a deviation from our quote diet plan and say, oh, I blew it. Or there it goes. I ruined it. I fell off the wagon, or the myriad of ways that we describe setbacks.
Even the term setback is negative, but what if we choose or chose to view it or to name it in a different way? For example, I went on date night and ate a burger and fries and drank a glass of wine and damn, it was good. I even ate the bun. And by the way, that's pretty much my weekly date night with my husband.
Can you embrace that? You made a conscious choice to eat something you don't eat every day. You enjoyed it, and now you can move on. The reality is. Usually what we believe to be these great transgressions don't really have the effect that we think that they did. I cannot tell you how many times patients have come back into the office after a vacation, for example, or a long hiatus thinking that surely they have gained lots of weight only to find out that in fact.
They did not, we blow up these setbacks in mind, but let's just say for this example that you did, that you did experience weight, regain what? Then I would say that what really matters is how you view that. Situation because you're at a fork and you have a choice, you can either berate and badger yourself, in which case you feel terrible about yourself and take away all of your agency in steam about doing something differently.
Or you can view that episode or period or weight regain with self-acceptance. Self-compassion and proceed. And the study showed that this actually matters in real life. So there was a study where they asked individuals to rate their dietary setbacks on a scale of one to 10, with one being no big deal and 10 being super egregious.
They went on to show that people who rated their dietary setbacks in the 0 1 2 3 range as compared to those who viewed their dietary setbacks more harshly, like in the 7, 8, 9, 10 range, we're much more likely to resume a healthy lifestyle and more likely to lose weight as a result. As compared to the category or a group of people who rated their dietary setback seven or greater, were much less likely to resume their healthy lifestyle and were more likely to go on to continue and gain more weight.
So again, at the end of the day. It's not really the setback that matters, it's how you view that setback. It's what you call that setback, which directly affects how you're gonna handle them. Your thoughts and your words matter in terms of what road you choose to travel at that fork. And I wanna offer one last example of this phenomena, and it's related to the way in which we label ourselves the words that we use to characterize ourselves.
I shared at a recent workshop at Rancho La Porta that I was at a writer's retreat several years ago, and the group facilitator stood up in front of a group of a couple hundred people and asked, raise your hand if you're an author, and very few of us raised our hands. She then asked, how many of you have published a book?
And most of the hands went up. Now, would we not agree that people who have actually published a book can be called authors and yet we were reluctant to name ourselves as such. Oh, but we're not good authors. We're not famous authors. We're not well-read authors. I ask you, how might that terminology or narrative impact our ability to sit down and write the next book?
Owning up to our author, labeling ourselves as such, you can argue, would actually empower us to write more, to do the very thing that we intend to do. I share another example in my book, hungry For More. When I was in high school, we had to run the mile, and many of you either remember this for yourselves or have children who are now doing it themselves, and I was really slow and it was really painful.
So much so that the PE coach at some point asked if I wanted to grade papers instead, instead of participating in the weekly mile run, and I was all too happy to oblige. And then somewhere along the way I decided to start running on my own. I was a resident, I had a new baby and I had no way of getting to a gym.
There was a park nearby, and so I pushed myself to run around the park in my neighborhood as a way to get some exercise in. Just as I started getting into the rhythm of doing this daily, just as I started getting into the rhythm of running maybe one at most two miles per day, I got an email advertising a signup for the LA Marathon.
My first thought was thought, wow, a marathon. I wish I could do that, but I'm not a runner. Had I stuck to that label of not a runner, I would've never had the transformative experience of having run the LA Marathon, which I did about 10 years ago. Did I come in first place? Did, of course not. Was I a super fast runner?
No. I actually crawled across that finish line at mile 32, but then again, who caress. So I want you to ask yourself, how often are the words that you use to describe yourself, the labels that you give yourself, how often are those words getting in the way of you doing something transformative? How often have you said I'm not smart enough, creative enough, flexible enough, athletic enough, thin enough, pretty enough.
How often have you said I'm not an artist or a swimmer or an entrepreneur? I. How often? How often have those words gone in the way of you actually doing the thing, oh, I always cave. I don't have enough willpower to do X, Y, and Z. How often has that gotten in the way of you actually adhering to your health, weight loss, or lifestyle goals?
So I wanna tell you words matter. They matter in terms of how you feel about yourself in what you give yourself permission to do or not do, and words impact your actions. So as you head into the holidays and into the new year. And as you start getting bombarded with all of the new year, new you messaging and start thinking about your goals for 2024, if you're like most Americans, you probably are putting weight loss in there somewhere.
Committing to maybe. Getting off the few pounds you gained over the holidays, or maybe your pandemic weight, or the 10 years of slow weight gain that many of us have experienced. I wanna remind you that it's not just what you eat that matters. I wanna suggest to you that your mindset and your words might matter even more.
So that's it for health wide this week. If you loved what you heard, what you heard, consider heading over to the app and leaving us, leaving me a review on whatever app it is that you're listening. It really helps support and boost my content and my messaging. And I want you to come back next week where I look forward to seeing you right here on Health Bite wishing you a happy, healthy, joyful week, and watch your words.
Until then.