Real Food Stories
Real Food Stories is where we stop overcomplicating food, and start getting honest about what actually works.
Hosted by culinary nutritionist Heather Carey, this podcast is a grounded, real-life take on eating well in midlife. If you’re tired of conflicting advice, wellness trends that promise everything, and the constant pressure to “optimize” your body, you’re in the right place.
Here, we talk about real food - how to cook it, how to enjoy it, and how to trust yourself around it again. But we also go deeper. Into the stories we’ve been told about weight, health, and aging. Into the habits that no longer serve us. And into the noise of the wellness world that can subtley pull us further away from what we actually need.
Heather brings her experience as a nutritionist and chef, along with her own lived experience of midlife, to cut through the confusion. You’ll hear conversations about metabolism, menopause, food trends, and the everyday reality of trying to take care of yourself without turning it into a full-time job.
This isn’t about perfection, restriction, or chasing the next fix. It’s about finding a steadier, more realistic way to eat - one that supports your health and still leaves room for your life.
Because at the end of the day, food shouldn’t feel this hard, and it doesn’t have to.
Send questions and connect with Heather at heather@heathercarey.com or visit her website at www.heathercarey.com
Real Food Stories
From Diet Myths to Healthy Choices: Megan Gall's Inspiring Weight Loss Journey and Nutrition Insights for Women
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What if the key to lasting weight loss lies not in strict diets, but in understanding our personal food journeys? Join host Heather Carey as she welcomes the inspiring Megan Gall, who shares her remarkable transformation of losing and maintaining a 100-pound weight loss since 2018. Together, they delve into the complexities of weight loss and the pervasive diet myths that often set us up for failure. Megan's story is a testament to the power of small, manageable changes and the importance of cultivating a healthy relationship with food.
Megan candidly reflects on her early struggles with food and how a pivotal moment during her split shifts at work led her to recognize her unhealthy eating patterns. Seeking guidance, she turned to a cognitive behavioral therapist, who introduced her to practical strategies like drinking an extra glass of water and keeping a food journal. These simple yet effective techniques helped Megan to embrace sustainable eating habits without feeling deprived, allowing her to navigate her weight loss journey with joy and balance.
Throughout their conversation, Heather and Megan explore the challenges of maintaining weight loss in a world saturated with diet myths and unrealistic expectations. They discuss the vital role of community support and the necessity of approaching food with a balanced mindset, steering clear of perfectionism. Megan now empowers others through her coaching in meal planning, sharing valuable nutrition advice and healthy eating tips that emphasize the joy of food while navigating personal food beliefs.
This episode is not just about weight loss stories; it's about embracing a healthy lifestyle that honors our unique journeys. Megan highlights the significance of gradual changes and tracking food intake to better understand our habits, breaking free from the cycle of dieting and dismantling diet myths. Whether you're navigating menopause health or seeking to adopt mindful eating practices, this episode is a treasure trove of insights for women in midlife.
Join us for an enlightening discussion on how to cultivate a nourishing relationship with food, overcome emotional eating, and celebrate the empowerment that comes with understanding our bodies. Tune in to learn how to ditch the diet culture and embrace a sustainable approach to health, one delicious meal at a time. It's time to redefine your food beliefs and embark on your personal nutrition journey with confidence!
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Success Through Small Habits
Speaker 1Hey everybody and welcome to the Real Food Stories podcast . I have an inspirational food story for you today . Megan Gall reached out to me because she thought it was important to share her story about her 100-pound weight loss that she has maintained for how many years .
Speaker 2Megan , it's since 2018 , 2019 , so we're looking at , yeah , a good tree , okay .
Speaker 1Okay . So while talking to her , I agreed with her and I thought it was important , because weight loss can feel so complicated Sometimes . The diet industry absolutely gives you some radical ways to take off weight , with little or no solutions for how to maintain it . Which is the most important part , diets are typically so unrealistic that gaining the weight back is likely the unfortunate consequence , which only leaves you feeling defeated and confused and just even not just not great about yourself . So I wanted to talk to an expert and see how she has been successful so far . So , megan , welcome to the show . I'm so happy to have you here today and let's just jump in and hear your story .
Speaker 2Thank you so much , heather . Thank you for having me . My story really starts . It doesn't have a starting point None of our stories do but I would say when I first started to realize that there was something amiss with my relationship with food , it really came to a head probably when I was in my early adulthood , working in a job that had a split shift , a split shift in , and it gave me two hours in the middle of that split shift to start to do a behavior .
Speaker 2That really it really showed me that there was something amiss in how I was treating food and how I was looking at food . So what I saw myself doing is just going to a fast food restaurant different ones every time , but really just getting myself enough food to last me those two hours between my work shifts , so that I didn't really have to think about anything . And a little background is , I was kind of , you know , overweight at that point , but I really didn't see it as a huge part of my life . I didn't see it as a huge problem , at least not consciously . Um , so it really wasn't the weight so much that was top of my mind when I started to notice this difficulty with food . Um , it was that behavior of me not feeling like I could stop getting that , having that kind of numbing out period in the middle of my day . I don't know if that's something that you've experienced or your listeners have experienced , but it felt so demoralizing when I saw that behavior from the outside and that was in . You know , that was in probably 2017 , 2018 . And what that caused me to do was to kind of reach out for a little help , reach out for a second set of eyes on the situation , because , being in that place and seeing that behavior happening , it just felt like I was doing something wrong that other people were handling in a more productive way . It felt really demoralizing to be behaving that way , and so what I did was I reached out to a cognitive behavioral therapist . I was lucky enough to have um health insurance at that point . That let me do that . I think before I might've reached out earlier if I had had health insurance . That let me reach out to a professional who I could talk to about it .
Speaker 2But the question after meeting with her a couple of times , the question that she kind of asked me , she didn't jump right into like oh , do you want to lose weight ? Oh , do you , you know . But as we were talking , one question she asked me was do you think you could drink an extra glass of water a day ? And I think that question shocked me a bit because it seems so inconsequential and so non-related to the behaviors I was seeing myself doing . And I said , of course , of course I can , I can drink an extra glass of water a day . But what it really did and what ? When I look back on that moment , it it just stands out as a huge moment to me because it let me start to see a small behavior change that I I knew I was totally capable of . But I saw that I could do it seven days in a row , I could decide to do it and do it . And that made her next question to me so much easier to contemplate and do , because I had had that small win of hey , I did . I said I was going to have an extra glass of water a day and I totally did .
Speaker 2And the next question she asked me was do you think you could keep a food journal just to kind of see what's going on , to see what's happening in your day to day ? There's a lot of information that I'm sure feels mindless right now , but it could be nice to shine a spotlight on it . So to kind of zoom out a little bit , those two habits drinking water each day and then starting to keep a food journal I think really changed how I looked at my food each day , how I looked at how I was fueling myself , and it allowed me to look in a much more detached way at what I was choosing for breakfast , lunch , dinner , snack . I didn't change really a ton about the choices I was making . I didn't change the fact that I didn't , that I would have takeout most nights . I didn't change the fact that you know I was going to be eating sweets , eating , you know , having alcohol . I didn't change all that .
Speaker 2But what I did do was start to look honestly at that food intake and I think the excitement about getting that information about myself really helped spur me to take on weight loss .
Speaker 2First not really consciously , but once I saw that it was possible , it was something that became more meaningful to me as I kind of moved on with that . So , as I built those small habits and saw that it was possible to slowly lower my intake over time and kind of eat in a way that felt much more to me . It felt like it was some way that other people were eating . It felt like a more natural way to eat , you know , breakfast , lunch , dinner , snack , rather than just kind of . What I saw when I look back was I was really eating in a way that was , um , whenever I felt in the mood , whenever I felt like there was food around me and I wanted to chow down whenever it felt like there was something uncomfortable , my kind of go-to was was food . So I know that's kind of a broad way to look at it , but many of us are in that space . I don't know if that's something that you wanted to speak to also .
Speaker 1Yeah , well , I mean , I think these small tiny habits , right , are how it needs to start , right . And so your therapist is saying can you just drink one glass of water a day ? Sounds totally doable , right ? I mean that's not like , okay , what I need you to do is start food journaling and you know , cutting out gluten , dairy and you know , and like some like overwhelming , like diet thing that you're like I don't know if I can , I guess I can do that and you know it just becomes right . So , drinking one glass of water a day , yeah , I can do that , like that sounds like you know , a really tiny habit .
Speaker 1But I want to just go back . I just want to ask you just a quick question about how the you , just how it really started when you were younger , I mean when you were a child . I mean , did you know how was that for you ? You know , because then you know to get up to a point where you're you have , you know , a job , where you are in these , you know you have these shifts and your breaks and you're , you know , and then you're going to the fast food restaurant to grab food as a way of just maybe soothing yourself or , you know , giving yourself a break , or you know that's your reward . Is that something that you feel like started when you were younger ?
Speaker 2That's a great question and I think I think what I saw and I didn't obviously when we're in it we don't see it , but looking back I see a lot of . I see a lot of the theme I see is there was desire and there was the inability to get the stuff that I wanted and then kind of a rebellion .
Impact of Childhood Food Environment
Speaker 2So what I mean by that is , you know , I grew up in a wonderful family that , like we had pretty solid mealtime routines . You know we always had dinner together . We always we almost always had food at home .
Speaker 2We didn't really eat in restaurants very much and we didn't have a ton of sugary , sweet kind of things in my house . So inadvertently , I think that really put some of these foods on a pedestal for me , because I would see myself kind of . I remember one moment when I was maybe six , seven , eight , something like that moment when I was maybe six , seven , eight , something like that , and I told my brother , who was a few years older , I really want that , the cookies that we have , like I can't remember what cookies they were , but I was like I really want this and he's like why don't you just get it ?
Speaker 1And I'm like what .
Speaker 2I can't just get it . Because anytime we had a food the question would be like oh , we're having dinner in two hours , put that away . That kind of oversight felt very real to me as a six , seven , eight year old . You know , I'm not in charge of that . I'm not in charge of what food I get . So that question that my brother asked me , was it really kind of opened a door to like I can't have this food , I just can't really show other people that I'm having it . Like I can't have this food , I just can't really show other people that I'm having it .
Speaker 2And I'm sure a lot of people can relate to that , to feeling like having something that is outside of mealtimes or is sweet or , you know , is super delicious and hyper palatable . All that kind of stuff should happen , you know , without anyone seeing . So I , I definitely saw myself grabbing food to watch during , you know , when we were watching TV and then hiding the box behind the couch if my parents came in , that kind of thing . So , um , I think and it's it's funny , cause it can't all be because of you know , it's , it's not because of just one person in your life or one parent in your life , or one TV commercial you saw or one . It's the collective sum of the whole environment . You know , that impacted kind of how I see food and how we all see food .
Speaker 2But I think that theme of kind of not always being in charge of what food I could get , so if the food was available , really wanting to make the most of it , is really what I saw . Another example going to friends' houses who would just have food on the counter , like sweet food on the counter all the time or chips just in a bowl all the time . I would dart to those things . As a 10 year old , 12 year old , I would like grab all the mini candy bar candy bars out of the bowl to the point where I was like self conscious about it , like why isn't my friend going and just chowing down on this food that's here all the time ? I would , if it was in my house , I would chow down all the time and I think it really made me notice the different ways that people's food environments in their home is set up .
Speaker 2When they grow up that can have different you're more aware of the food and the heightened pleasure of effective food and I think that really made me gravitate towards identifying myself as a foodie , loving to go out to restaurants , all that stuff which really affected , you know , not just my weight but affected kind of how I saw fun in my life . I really put a lot of focus on food as fun in my life . And that's different for me now . So that's a big change that I've seen over the course of losing weight and maintaining that weight loss .
Speaker 1Yeah , I think everyone comes with with some kind of history around food from their family , just from their outside sources , and whether it's good , bad . You know , I mean there's you . You get imprinted right as a young child and how your family just sees food as food is , love is food , celebrated is , are , are people on diets all the time . I mean there's , there's right , it sounds like you know your parents are maybe like just kind of checking like what do you do ? You know you're you don't need to eat that now . You're like right , there was like some subtle maybe food limitations , restrictions .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 2And it doesn't have to be like a big harmful restriction . It doesn't have to be like neglect or over controlling or authoritarian . It can even just be something relatively harmless , which is I'm going to give my child a very reasonable routine , you know , because all of us as adults we have an eating routine . So why not model that for my child ? And I'm going to cook a lot of food at home , because restaurant foods , you know , can , can pack an unhealthy punch sometimes with the amount of oils and salt and sugar that's in it . So I think it , coming from very reasonable goals from a parent , can still contribute to us feeling restricted in some way . So it really makes me wonder . I don't know if it ever makes you wonder , like , what is the right way ? I'm sure there's no right way , but it makes it hard to imagine . How do we stop this cycle of giving our kids some kind of you know , relationship with food , that or you know anything that that feels off . There's no right way or perfect way to do it .
Speaker 1Yeah , no , I think that that many parents , you know , your parents , all , all with good intentions , right , you see you , the flip side was that your parents , your mom , was cooking at home a lot , right , she was trying to just keep you healthy , right . And so I mean all with good intentions and maybe just with telling , saying like , don't eat that before we're eating dinner in two hours , right , it's just , it's all . But it it might have , without them knowing it , might have just kind of had an impression on you and I , and and I totally agreed , I mean , how do you stop passing down , like you know , your food beliefs down to your kids , down to , you know , I have a daughter . I mean , I have two sons and I have a daughter , and all of them are very impressionable , you know , as to what I'm doing with myself , with my body , how I look at food , I try to stay very neutral about food never make a judgment on what they're .
Speaker 1they're eating or , you know , or drinking , and and and I'm doing my best , you know , because food is complicated it really is . We all have our own food , like , really like subtle beliefs around around food and how it should be , and , and you know , your parents might've grown up with their parents , who you know , so on and on . Yeah , so it starts there .
Speaker 2Any little choice you know we cause . We can't look at all at all those little choices and and judge each one individually at all . Like we . We shouldn't be doing that because there's there's just the I don't know that that's too much , uh unrealistic pressure to put on a parent completely , because we all know that , like you're going to grow up and there's a ton of influences on you that have nothing to do to do with your parents and your home environment and food .
Speaker 2So it's something that you know . I always hope parents can kind of take off themselves a little bit . But there's no , I don't have a solution . I wish we did .
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean for my parents , my father , you know , when I was about to turn a teenager , like there was talk about you might want to lose some weight to me , so you know , those kind of things I think are again not their fault . You know , that's just how I think they grew up . My mom grew up always there was just dieting , always subtle dieting , always going on , and her mother grew up the same way you know , and so it's , it is what it is , you know , but it's but I think it's something to be mindful of .
Speaker 1But anyway , so like so you have , we all have our food stories from our past . But here you are then as a young you know , an adult now and you go to your therapist and you are successful with the drinking one glass of water a day and that probably made you feel like in control of something , right . And then she's telling you to try the food journal . So I know that you just from us talking off air before , like you , were a big proponent of food journaling and this has really , really helped you a great deal . I I love the concept of food journaling too . I mean , I think it's . I'm an information gatherer , so if you like that kind of information , it really can tell you so much . So tell me about you and how you got into it and what changes you made with it .
Speaker 2Yeah , so like you , I'm an information gatherer . I'm a squirrel that way .
Speaker 2I love and I worked a little bit in data analysis in a nonprofit , so like I really got to hone my skills there and it became very fun . But I think what I really liked about it about food journaling is that you there are multiple reasons why it can help someone and I think one big piece of it is the information , so the very specific information you can gather from it . If you are like me , if you really love the numbers of it obviously all the numbers are estimations but looking at it with a step back , you can get some really good information from it . If you get detail oriented and nerdy with your food scale and your calories and what your body weight does over time , you can get some really helpful information about what your body responds to . Helpful information about what your body responds to Um . And that has really helped me in maintenance Um , because a lot of folks when they um finish losing weight or they feel like they've gotten to a place where they don't want to um , you know they don't , they don't want to continue kind of lowering their food intake . They're like this seems sustainable to me . I don't want to go any less than this Um .
Speaker 2I think a lot of folks get to that point and don't know sustainable to me , I don't want to go any less than this .
The Importance of Meal Planning
Speaker 2I think a lot of folks get to that point and don't know what to do . There's no support for them . There's , you know , weight Watchers doesn't really have it . They'll give you , like you know , maintenance points or some places I don't know . It's hard for me to imagine what , what the maintenance lot of uh , these programs are , because they never focus on that there's . There's no , uh , there's no help for us .
Speaker 1Yeah , there's really . No , I mean right . Most of these diets are like here's the way to lose weight . You know , suffer , starve , whatever , cut out food groups and then good luck , Right , I mean good luck .
Speaker 2You know you're on your merry way , yeah .
Speaker 1I mean honestly , in my whole , entire career , I don't know a single person who's been on some radical diet , who's lost significant weight and maintained it because of that diet . I'm not lying Like not a single person .
Speaker 2It's shocking .
Speaker 1There's no maintenance . Right , and that's the most important part , is maintenance . Yeah , the losing weight is I mean , is is still you have to have , you know , you have to be very committed , but the maintenance is a whole different .
Speaker 2It's almost it's the same . You continue the same habits , but the payoff of the scale is not there . So you're doing it for totally different reasons but all the same things . So that's a whole new journey . But what I really like about the food journal is that getting it in the very nitty gritty way , with the details and what your body does in response to different levels of calorie intake or , you know , protein intake . Um , that helps , that has helped me , because it gives it gave me a really good sense of what a day looks like of um . You know meals and snacks that support one weight range . So , for example , my meals and snacks supporting myself at 230 pounds looks completely different than the meals and snacks that sustain a weight range of 130 to 140 . Like that's completely different . And so having kept that food journal and having kept that information lets me know what the general range is to stay there . And then I can get really real with myself and say is that sustainable for me ? Stay there ? And then I can get really real with myself and say is that sustainable for me ? Look at what my month looks like , what my year looks like . There are some days and some weeks where I'm going to have a higher intake than that . There are some days and weeks where it's possible for me to have a lower intake than that . Is that sustainable for me ? So the information piece of the food journal with calories is very helpful for me , but the other piece of the food journal with calories is very helpful for me . But the other piece of the food journal which has nothing to do with the calories and you don't like , it's not necessary for everyone , I would say . But the other piece that's helpful about the food journal is you are giving yourself a daily practice of presence with what's happening , with how you're fueling yourself .
Speaker 2So one thing that a lot of folks say is that I feel mindless with my food . I feel like it's based on the situation . I don't really know what my meals were for the day . I can't even think about it . I was so busy with other things . I had to feed other people , I had to work 12 hours at my job . It feels like an afterthought and we just kind of got to shovel it in when we have the chance or have a bowl of cereal before we go to bed , just to make sure we had something .
Speaker 2So the time that we spend on making sure that our body is fueled each day is very small , like there's very little thought or planning that can go into it . So the food journal is kind of for me it was a way to increase that time , even just by 10 minutes a day . Now there's 10 minutes where I know what happened with my food today or I know what I'd like to happen with my food . I eventually turned it into kind of a pre-planning habit , so in the morning kind of jotting down what was realistic for that day , if I wanted to , during weight loss one , reach my weight loss goal over time and during maintenance , stay in a weight range . That's kind of what the pre-planning habit became with my food journal .
Speaker 2But it really helps you get in the habit of always devoting 10 minutes to thinking that through , which so few of us , especially in really busy seasons of our lives , give ourselves , and I think that also really encouraged me to spend more time on making sure I had foods that felt good available .
Speaker 2So if you're working on having your foods at a lower calorie intake than you used to , you want to make those foods count . You want to include vegetables , you want to include protein , you want to make sure that you're giving yourself food that feels good more than you used to . So for me that really showed up in another habit that I developed , probably a few months into starting weight loss , which was , every Sunday , setting aside time to make one batch meal for myself , usually for work lunches , and that habit is one that I keep to this day . I know it's something that if on a Sunday I see that I have a ton going on , I'm going to make sure I do my grocery shopping and my meal prep on the Saturday , or make sure there's time on the Monday . I don't let that week go by without saving that one or two hours for myself . And that is a big challenge for a lot of people . Is that something that you often like you see in folks that you work with too ?
Speaker 1Yeah , you can see me nodding a camera . I mean , yes , it is . I mean that , well , I know , just for me , I am , I am the same . I mean planning my meals and knowing what I'm going in for , right , and maybe getting things prepped and ready . Grocery shopping is high , high priority and I think it is a a secret , if you want to call it to healthy eating and weight loss , I mean . And so I just want to go back to the food journaling . I mean because the food journaling takes so much guesswork out of . When people come to me they're like I don't know what I'm doing , I just can't , or I'm plateauing in my weight and I don't know . And I will say let's food journal for a couple of days . People don't . A lot of my clients just don't like to food journal and they're not that into . You know they kind of roll their eyes and but I'm like it is so much information and not having it takes the guesswork out . When you don't know , it's stressful why am I not ?
Speaker 1losing weight . Why ? Why am I failing at this ? Why am I not losing weight ? Why am I failing at this ? Well , let's get the information down on paper , because it is calories in and calories out . It just is , I mean .
Speaker 1So another thing I wanted to mention , and you kind of touched on it , was that food journaling . You know , I'm a nutritionist , so I want to make sure that what you are eating , what those calories are eating , are not just McDonald's and ice cream . I mean , you can lose weight doing that , right , you can cut your calories and lose weight , but you're not going to feel good and you're not going to be healthy . So food journaling , then also you can see where you're maybe not eating enough vegetables , or I mean it can really help you eat a lot healthier . Yes , so I think that you know so , yes , and so then , and then food journaling , right , just helps with the meal planning and meal prepping and , and I know those weeks when I've been traveling , you know , all weekend , and I come back on a Sunday night and it just it's just kind of unravels my week a little bit you know , but you know , it's like .
Speaker 1I know that that's maybe going to happen and I have to start on a Monday rather than Sunday , but yeah , when I'm planning it . Just it doesn't feel good in my week at all .
Speaker 2Yeah , it makes you feel like , yeah , like you haven't given yourself a game plan , you haven't given yourself a roadmap . It's like past you didn't quite help future .
Cooking for Health and Balance
Speaker 1You and even people , right , people will say to me like , all right , I don't have time , I'm like , but you have time to schedule out your kids' soccer games , your work commitments , right ? You , you schedule those in , you schedule you know . Like , so , do the same with your food . Yeah , pull it in . Tell you know , tell yourself what you do . You have busy nights , then maybe that's a different kind of a meal than slower nights and so yeah , it's , it's a game changer yeah , yeah , and I'm a I'm a fan .
Speaker 2I love cooking as a hobby , like that's something I learned over time too . I jumped into it when I first started losing weight and then it just became fun . I always liked to bake , but this was the first time that I really got good at cooking proteins and cooking vegetables and started baking bread . I'd never done that before . But that's more of the hobby piece of it and that's not necessary to to feel like you're becoming a little healthier over time , like when I , when I have those weekends like you do , like you mentioned , when you are away for the week and you come back and it's Sunday night .
Speaker 2When that happens , there are what I always suggest , because what it's worked for me is either get that grocery order delivered or get the curbside pickup or have this list this is what works for me like having a list of the lunches and dinners that take almost no prep at all .
Speaker 2So for me it's like frozen meatballs , like the single serving veggie steamers that come with the sauce , like grilled cheese and soup , like these kinds of easy meals that you know if there are things that are slightly more processed , they have a little more sodium eat during the week in a way that that you know either supports your weight journey or allows you to not have to go out for takeout five nights in a row , then it's a better choice than doing nothing or like .
Speaker 2So it's something that , like there's a lot of resistance to getting those kinds of foods . Or even like pre-chopped vegetables there's a lot of resistance to that because , one , it the diet industry says that the more processed it is , you should cut it out completely . And two , sometimes those things are a little more expensive than the raw ingredients or the whole food versions of them . Right , like , getting a chopped butternut squash that's already in a container is more expensive than buying two butternut squashes . But the beautiful thing is that when you spend a little more money on the chopped butternut squash , then you eat it rather than letting the whole butternut squash rot on the counter for two months . That's a great point .
Speaker 2Exactly , then you eat it and then you've done the thing you wanted to do , rather than buying the whole food and then ordering you know dinner from the restaurant around the corner . So it's funny because we see that choice and our desire to be perfect with that whole foods mentality really bites us in the butt when we're trying to actually do the actions that support the goal . We're trying to actually do the actions that support the goal . So that's a big learning piece for me that obviously I'm . You know we're all still on this journey of reducing perfectionism . But that has been a big part of this process for me , not just with the food piece but with the managing stress piece and managing anxiety , because all of that really has to do with influencing your food decisions over time too and just influencing the way that you feel you're moving towards a better life in general .
Speaker 2So all of that is to say like perfectionism is something that can really work against us and it's worth it . It's worthy work to really unravel that the best we can every little um , every little chance . We have to kind of notice this . I don't have to be perfect here . What's a choice that feels like it's going in a positive direction , even if it's not exactly the way I want to see myself doing it . If I can't do my perfect five Tupperware meal prep , can I at least get a can of vegetable soup and some cheese for a grilled cheese so that I can eat from home this week ?
Speaker 1Yeah , no , I think that's such a good point . I mean that that a lot of women that I see are it's kind of this all or nothing , that I can't eat all organic and I can't prep it all , but I don't have time to do it but I can't . So there's just a there . We have to be reasonable with ourselves , right , and get out of that perfectionism mode . And we know that cooking is much better than ordering in , ordering takeout , going to a fast food restaurant . Then we lose control of what's in our food . We really don't know what's in our food when we cook at home . We know we can , we can track those calories and all of that information . And it's okay to eat frozen vegetables . So I mean , it's perfectly , they're perfectly healthy .
Speaker 2Actually , people say there are more nutrients in the frozen vegetables . Have you seen that ? There are like some studies , that it retains more vegetables .
Speaker 1Well , because they flash , freeze them , and so they . I mean , they're not texture wise , they're not great , but in a pinch I'd rather eat frozen vegetables than eat McDonald's .
Speaker 2And the interesting thing is like if you had told me in when I was 230 pounds and and just starting to drink that water , if you had told me in that moment , like you have to eat takeout much less than you do now , you have to stop that habit of getting tacos every night for dinner or getting um burgers or pizza , if you had told me that I don't think I would have started . I don't , I really don't think I would have and I still , to this day , do have tacos occasionally from a takeout place for dinner . I might get a burger from a restaurant . I still do . The difference is the frequency and the habit that I have of knowing six dinners that I could make from home at any given time . Like that's a different skill that I have now that helps me maintain where I am .
Speaker 2But if you had told me that when I was 230 pounds , I would not have started . I would have felt overwhelmed and felt like I can't become this person that you're you externally , you , the general sense , are trying to make me be . I can't become this person that you're you externally , you , the general sense , are trying to make me be . I can't become this person . I can't see myself doing it . I'm just overwhelmed , as it is every day with work . I just feel like I'm giving all my energy to that , and so I think what the other thing that food journaling did for me was help keep things simple . It gave me a minimum , and that minimum was writing down what I had . You can't always control whether you have a day that fits you know that works in your weight loss goal .
Speaker 2You can't always have that day , no matter how much you want and you plan and you cook for it . Life is not like that . But usually I still do have the power to write it down . And so it gave me one little baseline habit that I could keep daily and keep a boundary for myself , like a compassionate boundary for myself of , even though I can't do it perfectly , I can't make all the choices I want to , I can still write this down and that means I can tell myself you were successful today . You did what you set out to do , you got the information for yourself , you worked towards your goal .
Speaker 2And that's , I think , what many people find hard to do for themselves , especially when they're living in that uncertain place where they don't have the information . Like you were saying , they're working in the dark , they don't know where their calories are , they're not seeing the scale move because they don't have that information . It's really easy when you're in that place to say like this isn't worth it because I'm so uncertain and I don't know what's happening . And I had a cookie today . What am I going to do ?
Speaker 2It's easy in that point to kind of step back and say this is not working and then kind of revert to habits that if you keep in five years down the road you're going to be , you know , in a more unhealthy place . So that's what I think food journaling is for me , and it could be different for other people . Some people it might be like a walk around the block or , you know , a certain amount of water a day or a stretch when they get up in the morning , but a minimum habit that feels like . When I do this , I make sure I'm engaged in the fact that I want to take care of my body , I want to take care of my health . So that's what I think food journaling is for me . That's my version of that .
Speaker 1Yeah , no , that's a great summary of it and I think you know one thing you just mentioned was just if someone had told you at the beginning , like you are not allowed to eat pizza , burgers and any of that fast food anymore , that I imagine would have felt , I know , cause I've been , I've been here too Like I mean when , when suddenly you're on like a diet and they say , okay , like cut all that stuff out , that feels so restrictive and punishing , right , and and like that feeling of like how am I going to do this ? Like , and I don't want to , I like those foods , you know , and yeah , and so we have to be reasonable with food is food can be fun . It doesn't always have to , you know , always look like you know this , this restrictive thing , and it can be incorporated .
The Importance of Food Journaling
Speaker 1But you have to know the information right . We have to know how much , how many calories , actually is in a slice of pizza .
Speaker 2Yeah , pizza is the hardest one . I always say I still I do eat pizza , but it is the hardest thing to estimate completely .
Speaker 1Well , I know , and you're like well , how large is a large piece of pizza ?
Speaker 2It comes in eight different shapes and sizes and every town has its own . Like size of crust to cheese to filling ratio . What what the different layers are ? Connecticut has a certain kind , doesn't it ? Isn't there a town somewhere that has like a really ?
Speaker 1New Haven . Yes , it's like the world . Yeah , world famous pizza comes out of new haven is that the , the cracker crust one ? Oh , there's so much pizza happening in connecticut , like the fair , because I live . I live close to new haven , so it's like it's just there's so much .
Speaker 2There's so many pizza places with all different kinds of and I live in new york , like staten island , so we have like the brook , the Staten Island , the Manhattan , like all these different rivalries of the right pizza , and then my family's from Chicago . So you got that piece , that restriction immediately , that that it's like when I was back at eight years old . Like you can't have the cookies , like you know that the cookies are for after dinner , not right now . That feeling of restriction feels like I got to either sneak this or I got to get around it somewhere somehow , you know . And so what , what food journaling did to help me ? There was say , like I'm not going to be able to control what I have every day , what I uh , you know I'm going to want to include these wonderful foods in my , in my life . So food journaling is my way of like writing it down and getting information about it . Um , and I think I really leaned into that and had fun with it , because I kind of almost felt the challenge of like how can I fit all the foods that I really like in a day where my weight slowly turns down over time ? I very much purposefully do that because that's something that a lot of people nuts can really trip people up because they have a health halo around them , rightfully so . They're awesome . They have lots of micronutrients , some of them have like really good fiber and more protein than other nuts , you know whatever . But I think it's hard because they have that health halo . So they seem like a good snack . So then folks you know will eat a handful , two handfuls , three handfuls , as we tend to kind of like use food to just kind of keep ourselves busy . They'll just and that can . Because they're nuts , they will have much more calories per gram than other kinds of snacky foods and so that'll really make people think I'm working so hard towards my goal and they are . But they don't have the information to tell them that nuts are something that you can really plan in , but you have to be proactive in how you plan it in because you can go overboard super easily , whereas with lettuce it's very hard to go overboard . So that's something that like the neutrality of being able to fit in something that you super love , like I don't know .
Speaker 2I think there was . It was a few years ago . I wanted I've never had a fudgy the whale like cake and I'd always seen these like commercials as a kid . Fudgy the whale it looks like the best cake ever . And a few years ago we had a birthdayudgy the whale like cake and I'd always seen these like commercials as a kid . Fudgy the whale it looks like the best cake ever . And a few years ago we had a birthday party and my partner got it for the party and it was an opportunity for me to fit into my day . Like I have the information , I can even pop it on the scale if I want to . I don't think I did . I don't think I popped the fudgy the whale cake slice onto the scale , but but I could have and it allowed me to fit it into that day .
Speaker 2So it's something that , like , I found a bit of fun in making sure I could get these foods that have no health halo whatsoever into my day . Mcdonald's , too , like McDonald's fast food , taco Bell . I was like , let me , if I don't want to give these things up , when can I have them ? How can I make them work in my kind of new overall consumption of food ? Like , how can I make it work in this new slightly lower calorie average ? And it can be a challenge and it takes planning , but it was something that I felt was important to do Because if you said I couldn't have it , I'd feel restricted and that would lead to you know me feeling like this wasn't the right process for me .
Speaker 1I think we take away is that food journaling is really important . I know it's really important for me too , when I when I lost weight .
Speaker 1So I mean , it was I and I and I agree with you on that the health halo of some foods , because a lot of my clients will say , like I eat a handful of nuts every day , like I just always have nuts with me in my car and I'm like how much , this much , or like right , like a handful can suddenly right . So we've got the draw . Like you know , that can all of a sudden add up as far as calories , and we want to definitely keep it healthy , but we have to be mindful of how much we are consuming . So so it sounds like so food journaling the takeaway for you has been hugely successful . So let's fast forward a little bit .
Speaker 1You started food journaling , you were committed to it and I think committed is the critical word here . Right , that you stayed committed . Yes , diets don't make you stay committed , maybe for a couple of weeks , but so you stayed committed and you have to stay committed to lose weight it always has to be with you and then to maintain weight . So let's fast forward
Weight Loss Journey and Maintenance Strategies
Speaker 1. How long did this 100 pound weight loss take you ? Did you lose it ? Slowly , and where are you now ?
Speaker 2Great question . So I would say it took . I believe , if I look back at the data which I collected which is fun I believe it took me around 11 to 12 months to lose that to 12 months to lose that and I think , looking back , it seems on the fast side , um , and maybe it's . I think it's within . It definitely was within the one to two pounds and I think in the last few months it was more like a half pound a week .
Speaker 2I think I very intentionally went down to a half pound a week , um , because when , when you dieted and I didn't really know at the time about breaks like kind of taking maintenance breaks or diet breaks and I think I would have if I had been advising myself I would have but when you're eating less than your body needs to maintain its weight for many months in a row , you're going to notice that your kind of overall metabolism is dwindling down a little bit . You might need even less energy than you did before in order to maintain your weight . So as you do that , you slowly get to a point . I think I was aiming for an average of around 1300 calories a day , which , when you're trying to do that , it doesn't feel like you can fit much in . It doesn't feel like you can get a nice I don't know a slice of life . It feels like you can't Right .
Speaker 1I mean 1300 calories is pretty low . And then you're really focused on . You have to be really mindful of how much you're eating and is there any room for some fun in there ?
Speaker 2And that's important to me , it's important to all of us and I think and there are people out there who are older , shorter , more sedentary , who do in fact do that and , like some folks , have a really good relationship to that they just feel , you know , fine with that . Me as a beginner at that time , I don't think it would have if I had tried to continue that . I don't think it would have felt great for very long . So I was , you know , connect . The main way I connected with other people who were losing weight was on the MyFitnessPal forums . They had a lot of people connecting with information there about their journeys , what they were doing , a lot of question and answer , helpful threads , and so I connected with a lot of people there who love looking at the data of it and said , well , you can kind of adjust your calories and slow your weight loss down here . And said , well , you can kind of adjust your calories and slow your weight loss down here . And so I bumped everything up and I purposefully kind of slowed my rate of loss so that the feel of the week was more open , more forgiving . Because when you're trying to stick to a lower calorie number than you ever have before , open and forgiving are not the words that I would describe that , as Life just doesn't set itself up to make that easy . So I purposefully tried to lose slower at that point and I got to the point where I wasn't sure when I wanted to stop . But I think I aimed to go to maintenance . I aim to bump back up to maintenance and continued my habits of food journaling and measuring and meal prepping and with seeing myself slowly continue to lose weight , because I think many I don't know if you've talked to people who have achieved weight loss and then feel a lot of fear because they've never done that before , or if they have they've seen themselves regain quickly or slowly . Either way , they feel a lot of fear at that point .
Speaker 2So I was feeling it too and so I was saying should I really bump that ? I'm calculating with my information , that I could be eating around this level and be maintaining . Should I do that ? And I was not , because I was scared . And so a lot of people in my in the forums were saying very kindly like , well , look look at the information you've collected . What's holding you back from trying that ?
Speaker 2And I love that they did that because it really helped me kind of try to accept like , okay , no , I can , I'm an adult , I can try this , I can experiment with it . I can make you know I , if something feels like it's not right and I feel like slowly , over time I'm gaining weight , I can look at it again and I can adjust . I'm an adult , I have self trust . So I think that was . It was really nice to have some people who had either done it before or were on the same journey that I could kind of debrief with and really get a reality check on it , because that's a really hard transition to end your weight loss period and purposefully say I'm going to maintain here , I'm going to live within a certain range here . Um , so I , I I'm actually curious about your , you , you doing that as well , cause it it sounds like you know you've also had that experience . It's a hard one , yeah .
Speaker 1Well , I well , I mean right , it's like so much that that there definitely comes a point where there's like a fear , right , that you're going to gain it all back , you're going to then blow it , you're not going to be able to maintain it and and it's all all your effort for for nothing , or you know , or you like , you're just going to lose control . I , you know . That's totally understandable . I think that there's also I mean so . So a couple of things . I mean losing weight too fast .
Speaker 1You know , when I see my clients and I say it's one to two pounds a week like you want to lose it slowly because you want to maintain , maintain your metabolism or you don't want to drop too quickly , your metabolism is going to get all wonky and then it's going to try to hold onto every calorie that you have . People don't like to hear that they want to lose five to 10 pounds a week and just get , get it done already and that's not how it works , Not if you want to maintain it right and not if you want to maintain it . So I think and I love how you were into like the forums and talk to other people , I think that's you know , other , it sounds like successful people who were losing weight too . I mean , that's to have that community is really important , you know , just to get that support is . I'm just curious is my fitness pal what you use to track your your food ?
Speaker 2Yeah , that's my main journal kind of location . I have tried other things in the past , just because you know it's nice to shake it up every once in a while . So I've done the eight app , a-t-e , where you snap photos of what you're enjoying and you can put little notes on it , and so it's all like other ways to do that mindful check-in of I'm aware of what I'm having and how I'm fueling myself . Another way I have done it is there's a wonderful woman who's a health coach , a weight loss coach , and she has the podcast Half Size Me , heather Robertson , another Heather , and her method , one of her awesome methods , is like kind of a paper pencil journal where it has a pre planning element to it as well .
Speaker 2You kind of pre planplan your day and then you see at the end of the day you kind of give yourself a rundown of what has happened and you use that ritual of planning and reviewing to kind of give yourself . It allows you to really build habits that support what you want to do , because you're seeing that information , you're seeing how your day changes and you're getting a sense of what are those things that are changing my plans and you can really learn how to work around those things , which is awesome . So I've done that also . But yeah , I think , because I'm someone who loves having the certainty relative certainty I'm putting in quotes of of my calorie intake . I like having that . So my fitnessPal has been the free method of choice that I've used .
Speaker 1Yeah , well , I think the takeaway is that , anyway , if you like to use paper and pen , right . If you want to use MyFitnessPal , apps like that are really helpful because they've got so much information already in there . You don't have to do a lot of extra looking up of things . So , whatever I think works for you and I just to answer your question about just the like weight loss , plateaus and everything and like when to stop and like just start maintenance , I think for me in my story I got to a weight that it was becoming it sounds like for you too like it was just becoming harder to lose weight .
Speaker 1I think my body was just really comfortable at that weight and I was comfortable at that weight too . I didn't , you know , I wasn't looking to become a size zero , I just wanted to be at a healthy weight for me and I felt very happy and I I could just feel intuitively , this is where my body is settling and and otherwise it's going to take . It's going to take a lot of work . It's going to take like that I'm going to start to not feel good mentally and physically . If I have to , you know , if I want to like keep going any lower . So that's , that was my . My story as well .
Navigating Weight Loss and Life Balance
Speaker 2I love that you had that sense intuitively , that this felt right , because I think there's so much that confuses that intuitive intuition . For us , growing up in um a culture that really prizes women for how they look , there's so much that clouds up that intuition . I don't know if I had that intuitive sense . Well , I guess I didn't see it consciously . I think what was signaling to me that this was a reasonable place to be was probably the BMI chart , which I wouldn't go by these days anyway . I think that was signaling to me , and I think I think unconsciously , the fact that I could .
Speaker 2I had heard by that time a very helpful phrase which was kind of don't don't do something for weight loss that you're not willing to do for the rest of your life . Whatever way that was phrased , I can't remember exactly , but that was really helpful for me because I was saying like , okay , so in order to maintain this level of weight loss , I kind of have to plan out my week in some sense . I have to see what big events are coming up . I have to say , if there's a party here , if there's a crazy day here , there might be one or two days that are higher calorie , and therefore I'm going to find two other days that are slightly lower . You know I was seeing that there is a price to this level of leanness . I think that's a book actually , like the price of being lean or the cost of being lean . There's a level of oversight that you have to have A lot of . Like bodybuilders , fitness people , athletes will probably say and reinforce that there's a level of work and planning that has to go into maintaining a body of a certain type .
Speaker 2So ideally , many of us want to kind of eat fuel ourselves and then kind of keep that amount of time pretty low so that we can focus on the really important parts of life . We can focus on building our skills , being the best family members we can , making memories , planning trips , all that kind of thing . So we want to focus on those important parts of life . We don't want the food part to overtake those . So I think that's the point where we should be looking . Is the food piece overtaking these parts of life that I know intuitively are more important ? And once it does , it sounds like that's a place where we should stop or reassess or take a step back and say you know , is this worth it ? Is this , you know , the small difference in the size of my waist . Is that worth this amount of time of my day and my week and my life ? And it's different for everyone , but it's important to do that step back .
Speaker 1Yes exactly . I think that's that's a really great way , I think , to maybe end our conversation is that it's , you know , losing weight is a commitment , it's a , you know can be challenging , but we don't want it to get into . Some zone of this is going to take over my life and I think that's where you then , by the time , it's , that's when maybe you know when to pause , you know and maintain .
Speaker 2Because otherwise we lose sense of the reason why we did it in the first place . Like if if there's many of us have a weight loss goal because we want to feel more energy , we want to do more things in our life . We don't want to say no to things because it would be uncomfortable or we couldn't find the right clothes or we wouldn't have the energy or we'd be in pain if we did it . The reason we did this is so that we could make more of life , not take away parts of life to fit some ideal . So I think that question it's easy to lose sight of but always worth coming back to .
Speaker 1Exactly yeah . So , megan , you now coach women , or or women and men , right Um on weight loss and planning and your whole philosophy . How can people find you and how do they work with you ?
Speaker 2I would love folks to come join my newsletter , and they can do that if they go to my website , wwwpartakemealplanningcom . You can join my newsletter there . It's free , and I'm recently started a kind of meal , a free meal planning club . So this is going to be kind of a private Instagram live every week where we kind of it's like a co-work space . So I'm going to plan my week . You're going to get to ask your questions as you plan your
Meal Planning Club Membership Benefits
Speaker 2week . I have an awesome kind of template that I use that you all can print out for yourselves . So that's kind of . You get access to that if you join my newsletter . So come in and see me on my website at partakemealplanningcom , and you can also follow me on Instagram , which is partake , underscore foodie .
Speaker 1That sounds great . I love the weekly meal planning and that's a membership sort of like that people join yeah .
Speaker 2It's almost like a club . I'm calling it the partake meal planner club . So once you join the newsletter you you get the kind of weekly um link to to that club on it's a private Instagram live .
Speaker 1Okay , great . Well , I will put all of those links in my show notes too , so people can access it that way , and thank you so much for just sharing your story . This has been really inspirational , and I think and I don't think I know that people will get a lot out of hearing about you and how you lost 100 pounds and maintained it .
Speaker 2Thank you so much , heather . I love talking to other people who are just as passionate about this and , you know , just as focused on helping this become like a piece of life that doesn't overtake our lives . That's like the key it can be interesting to talk about , but the more we get people to kind of I don't know focus on the small habits so that they can then step back and enjoy more of life , I think that is the key . So thank you so much for having me on and letting me share my story .