About Thyme Podcast Tammy Fogarty, Ph.D., RD

Are you tired of dieting? Have you tried several methods to lose weight but feel nothing works for you? What if I told you that you can lose weight without giving up your favorite foods?

Yes, you read that right. You can eat the foods you love and lose weight if you focus on how you eat. This strategy is called Mindful Eating and is one of the most effective strategies to promote a healthy lifestyle and weight loss.

Mindful Eating is a method that focuses on your thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations in the present moment. A goal of mindful eating is to slow the eating process to get in tune with how your body feels during a meal. You will learn to recognize hunger cues so that you stop eating when you are satisfied rather than eating until you are full. This technique allows you to consume the foods you love; however, it makes you aware of how much you eat and how those foods make you feel.

Once you have mastered mindful eating, you can determine what to eat, how much, and how foods make you feel. Doesn't this sound much better than following a diet restricting your favorite foods? Today's Podcast provides instructions to eat mindfully and the following three strategies to ensure that you are successful:

1. Disconnect and Connect: Learn how to disconnect from electronics and connect with your food.

2. Slow Down: Get my favorite strategy to order food at restaurants.

3. Make Intentional Choices: Ideas to prepare for situations so you don't unintentionally overeat.

Visit https://www.tammyfogarty.com/free-resources to download the FREE Gut Feelings Mindful Eating Journal.

Purchase my book, Limitless Health, for more detailed nutrition and lifestyle tips here: https://www.tammyfogarty.com/limitless-health

Do you want to master Mindful Eating? Join the Gut Feelings online course: https://www.tammyfogarty.com/follow-your-gut.

Thank you for listening. Cheers, my friend!

"I love walking into a restaurant and seeing what the chefs are cooking. One of my favorite restaurants has the kitchen smack dab in your face when you walk through the door. At certain times of the year, they make grilled artichokes. Because I see the delicious artichokes when I walk in, it is the first thing I order".

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They say the first bite is with the eye, and on today’s podcast, I am on a mission to share the secrets behind the art of eating visually, but I am not talking about just any foods. I am talking about foods that will nourish your body and delight your senses.

Eating with our eyes involves a multi-sensory experience where the visual appeal of food sets the stage for the overall enjoyment of a meal. From the artful presentation on the plate to the influence of social media and cultural factors, our eyes play a significant role in how we perceive and savor what we eat.

How We Eat with Our Eyes:

We get a little help from a hormone called Ghrelin. Ghrelin is produced in the stomach and triggers appetite by acting on a region in your brain known for controlling the amount of food you eat. When you see food, Ghrelin is released into the bloodstream, resulting in a spike in your appetite, signaling you to eat. Even the smell of food sends signals throughout the body that we are ready to eat as soon as we catch a glimpse, or a good whiff, of food. This is evident in restaurants because we see food all around us, but the same thing happens in your home. The foods you see will be the ones you consume. Unfortunately, what we place in the front of our refrigerators doesn’t always equate to a healthy snack or meal.

Make it Work for You:

The good news is that you have a choice of which foods you put on display. Today, your achievable action is to put the foods you would like to eat more of right in front of you.

• Plan ahead by purchasing pre-cut fruits and veggies, or

• Cut up your fruits and veggies when feeling energized, such as after the grocery store or early in the morning.

• Place the healthy foods you want to eat more in a location where you will see them. For example, a bowl of grapes on the kitchen counter, or a cup of blueberries on your desk.

• Create multiple spaces that invite you to reach for healthy foods, such as your kitchen, workspace, pantry, etc.

• Place cut-up fruit and veggies in clear containers so that you can see them.

• Place nuts and seeds in glass mason jars to remind you to add them to salads and oatmeal.

• Make the healthy foods so visually appealing that you can’t help but eat them.

• Declutter your pantry by throwing away half-eaten boxes of cereal, pasta, and cookies and replace them with healthier options such as whole grains, nuts, and nut butter such as almond butter or peanut butter.

• Place the healthy options in clear containers that will entice you to grab them for an afternoon pick-me-up or when you are unsure what to make for dinner.

Get Organized:

An organized and visually pleasing pantry is the starting point for creating delicious and nutritious meals. Your new environment will motivate you to prepare a healthy dinner with the foods that you have beautifully on display.

Get inspired! It all starts by creating an attractive space that motivates you and reinforces healthy eating. You can do this for your workspace, too. These tips are fun, visually attractive, and help to prevent food waste. I can’t wait for you to get started today.

I am going to leave you with this bit of advice: A healthy snack is just as convenient as an unhealthy one. It is just as easy to grab an apple as it is to grab a cookie. It’s all about making a healthy choice in the moment.

Visit www.tammyfogarty.com for more information and details.

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In today’s podcast, I am going to share an important tip before you settle on any health goal. This is your time, and this is the About Thyme Podcast.

We all set goals for ourselves, but achieving them is not always easy unless you have the know-how and tools to make it happen. But I want to discuss what must be attained before we set our sights on health goals. Self-efficacy. Self-efficacy reflects confidence in the ability to exert control over your own motivation and behavior. It means being in control of the choices you make. It means understanding your options and making informed decisions.

But, the first thing we must do is to define what being healthy means to you.


What are you striving for?
What do you need to understand in order to make the best choices?
In addition, ask yourself why. Why do you want to be healthy?
And most importantly, Who could you be when you achieve your goals?

The term healthy can refer to several aspects of a person’s life. To me, healthy refers to the overall physical, mental, and spiritual wellness that fuels the body and engages the mind-body connection. As a nutritionist, I focus on the role of nutrition in wellness. But “healthy” can represent any aspect of wellness, such as physical, emotional, spiritual, or financial wellness. Making the right choices for health and well-being can be challenging, so it is important to take a moment to identify what matters, why you want to make a change, and what your end goal is.

Keep in mind how you define health will evolve and change as you move through life experiences. Everything changes, just like our bodies, and so will your definition of health. What you define today is not set in stone.

Most importantly, your health goal must be something you want to achieve. This is your life, your goal, and your self-efficacy. So, choose something that has meaning to you. In each of my podcasts, I am going to ask you to do something. Your task today is to determine what is important to you. Each of us is unique, with our custom-sized hopes and dreams and definition of well-being. Rather than letting society's standards dictate the definition of healthy or the goals we must accomplish, I want you to think and dream for yourself. Real success means staying true to yourself and connected to your vision and goals, not society’s.

To get started, list the health priorities that mean something to you. Common health goals include:


Eat healthy
Lose weight
Sleep 7 hours per night
Manage stress
Be a role model for your kids
Get organized
Don’t drink so much wine

Okay, that last goal is for me. I love wine and enjoy having a glass or two with dinner at night. However, having a glass of wine every night is not the healthiest choice. But the greatest challenge we all face is letting go of what we enjoy. I enjoy making dinner and sipping on a beautiful cabernet; it relaxes me. But, as a nutritionist, I know that wine provides calories, impairs sleep, decreases motivation, and is a risk factor for cancer. Our internal struggle is doing what I enjoy vs. doing what is right. I am sure that you can relate.

However, when you know the risks associated with your behavior, you can make choices that serve you. This, my friend, is self-efficacy. It's the confidence in the ability to exert control over your own motivation and behavior. It means being in control of the choices you make. Deep down, you know how to achieve your health goals. The hardest part is to stop listening to the voice in your head that is making excuses to continue unhealthy behaviors.

But I know you are not listening to this podcast for the easy way out. You are not looking for the next fad diet or trend. You are looking to find a way to get it done. To jump off that proverbial cliff…rip off the band-aid…stop doing the things that drag you down…stop listening to the voice in your head saying, “You can’t do this.” Because you can do this. And I promise, once you get started,