not another diet: the podcast Rebecca Thomas

Menopause is a hot topic (cue the flash joke).
Unfortunately, that hasn't resulted in helpful information for women and their weight. Instead, it's turned into an echo chamber reinforcing gender stereotypes and bad science. Because of that, what's marketed to us are menopause hairsprays and gummies that somehow (through wishful thinking and fairy dust) solve belly fat. 

Google 'is menopause making me...' and the full list of midlife travails pops right up; weight, irritability, mood, fatigue, and more. But is menopause itself the root cause of the issue? This is important to distinguish; otherwise, you're trying to solve (or medicate) the wrong problem. 

If you’re in your 40s or 50s and are now the heaviest you’ve ever been, you might be wondering if menopause is the real culprit for your midlife weight gain. That's a fair question. It does seem to be more difficult as time goes on.

And, menopause brings some real changes! Hair, skin, mood, and all sorts of issues can crop up, but the question at hand is: Is menopause making me fat? This is the one we're going to tackle so you can make real progress on handling this important issue.

 Host Rebecca Thomas is herself in menopause, and her program clients are in some stage of perimenopause or transitioning through, so this topic is of particular interest. It turns out there's good research on the topic of menopause and metabolism to draw on.

Join Rebecca as she explores menopause weight gain, offers some new ways to think about this challenging but natural life transition, and introduces the idea that listening to your body can open up one of the happiest times in your life. 

If you decide to listen.

 

Do you want to eat naturally, feel in tune with your body,and lose weight?
Get access to our FREE e-booklet right now with the exact steps we teach in our programs. 

Take action on your healthy weight -> https://www.notanotherdiet.co/thehungerpractice

 

Resources:


What We Think We Know About Metabolism May Be Wrong - The New York Times
Menopause Is Actually An Invitation | by Rebecca Thomas | not another diet
How Menopause Changes the Brain
North American Menopause Society

 

Intuitive Eating has a pretty sexy premise, you can eat whatever you want without rules or constraints. You can also skip quality judgments, meaning there are no good or bad foods (something referred to as the moralizing of food).  The idea is that food will lose its power if you stop trying to demonize or restrict it.

But is peace with food a purely mindset, or is the issue considerably more complex? And what if you actually do want to lose weight?   

Intuitive Eating falls prey to the same bad thinking as diet culture; that you can outthink highly processed foods (which is now most food) despite all evidence to the contrary. It also disregards the role of environment in what and how often you eat.   And, is putting guardrails around your eating the same thing as restricting your food?  

To be fair, IF isn't a weight loss method (although more than a few dieticians hint that you can reduce body size using this approach), but it relies on some similar mythology as diet culture, and that's worth dissecting. 

 

Do you want to eat naturally, feel in tune with your body,and lose weight?
Get access to our FREE e-booklet right now with the exact steps we teach in our programs. 

Take action on your healthy weight -> https://www.notanotherdiet.co/thehungerpractice

All of modern weight loss (except our approach) is built on willpower–that's exactly why the results are so dismal.
Put another way, willpower-based methods manufacture shame by ensuring failure.

The common understanding is that you and I have free will to make 'healthy choices,' and if we don't, that's the failure. There's just one problem, that's dead wrong. 

If you've secretly wondered why it's so much easier for other people to eat moderately and don't understand why you continue to struggle, this is a must-listen episode. 

This better and more nuanced approach to understanding willpower and what you can reasonably ask of yourself is how you can finally understand what's upending you. 

Join Rebecca as she dismantles the notion of applying 'will' to weight loss and what to focus on instead for results that last a lifetime.

 

Do you want to eat naturally, feel in tune with your body,and lose weight?
Get access to our FREE e-booklet right now with the exact steps we teach in our programs. 

Take action on your healthy weight -> https://www.notanotherdiet.co/thehungerpractice

 

Resources


Study Says Obesity Can Be Contagious (https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/health/25cnd-fat.html)
Why free will doesn't exist, according to Robert Sapolsky | New Scientist
Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain

Ozempic is inescapable, but is it a good idea?
It's all over the news, friends are taking it, and it's now offered alongside Botox at med spas. It's come up in group coaching in our main program. Hell, even our founder briefly considered what these drugs would do for her!

If you're trying to deal with chronic weight gain, it's impossible not to consider these drugs. The immediacy of the weight loss is pretty compelling. And yet, it's pretty serious business to inject yourself with a medication. So, how do you think through what you're really doing? What do you need to consider?

This episode is devoted to the questions that can bring clarity to the larger role Ozempic is playing in our lives (and culture at large). 

There's no medical advice (that's between you and your doctor). Think of this episode as food for thought coupled with some disadvantages that aren't immediately obvious about taking Ozempic for weight loss.

 

Do you want to eat naturally, feel in tune with your body, and lose weight?
Get access to our FREE e-booklet right now with the exact steps we teach in our programs. 

Take action on your healthy weight -> https://www.notanotherdiet.co/thehungerpractice

 

Resources: 


Big Food, the Diet Industrial Complex and now, miracle drugs?
Ozempic Can Cause Major Weight Loss. What Happens if You Stop Taking It?
Inside the gold rush to sell cheaper imitations of Ozempic
Opinion I lost 40 pounds on Ozempic. But I'm left with even more questions.

Have you heard the advice, everything in moderation?Total nonsense.
Modern food is designed to tinker with your satiation and self-control (and then we blame ourselves).

In this episode, Rebecca dives into food processing and understanding its effect on satiation, metabolic health, and weight. 

A few questions about you and food: 


Do you feel hungry most of the time?
Do you wish you could stop eating sooner in the meal?
Do you secretly think you probably overeat but don't understand why?
Do you eat past the point of fullness?
Do you find yourself reaching for sweets or junk even though you don't want it?
Is food part of how you self-soothe difficult emotions?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, I want you to know there's nothing wrong with you. You're experiencing the side effects of what modern food is designed to do.

Ten companies own your ability to stop eating.
Fact: 90% of all the brands you see on the shelves are owned by ten companies. This is what's meant as Big Food.

Big food's goal: sales through hyper palatability.

Your goal: eat naturally and have that produce a healthy weight.

Ultra-processing (stripping food of its beneficial and protective nature) makes up 60% of all food consumed, and its effects can be seen everywhere. Diabetes, obesity, and chronic disease. 

The problem is that we're so steeped in food processing that they've become normalized. But, they are what's standing between you and a healthy weight.

  

Do you want to eat naturally, feel in tune with your body, and lose weight?
Get access to our FREE e-booklet right now with the exact steps we teach in our programs. 

Take action on your healthy weight -> https://www.notanotherdiet.co/thehungerpractice

Modern weight loss is built on calorie counting and calorie restriction. This is precisely why it’s such a failure. 
In this episode, I delve into the actual effects of calorie counting (and, by extension, food tracking) on our psyches, behavior, mental health, and weight.

Tracking calories is a diet culture answer to deal with the effects of food processing. It’s an artificial boundary designed to make you eat less–temporarily. 

This practice leads people to believe there’s something wrong with their hunger or bodies as the weight returns (or they can’t deal with the restrictions anymore). Restricting food by simply forcing yourself to eat less can't ever be sustainable, but we return again and again to a damaging system.

Calorie counting creates erroneous conclusions about food and movement based on how few calories are consumed or how many calories are burned. This is why even when you're not dieting, you might be evaluating the world through the lens of calories. 

And that is where the harm begins. Grab your ear pods and tune in for an illuminating listen about the real effects of this outdated practice.

 

Do you want to eat naturally, feel in tune with your body, and lose weight?
Get access to our FREE e-booklet right now with the exact steps we teach in our programs. 

Take action on your healthy weight -> https://www.notanotherdiet.co/thehungerpractice