30. 10 Ways to Lose Weight Without Dieting

Have you ever wondered how much of your daily routine is automatic and how you can harness that to achieve weight loss?

Join us in this episode of Thriving Through Menopause as we unveil the secrets of turning habits into powerful allies for a healthier life. Learn how understanding the habit loop—cue, action, and reward—can help you effortlessly integrate weight loss habits into your daily routine.

I'll tell you all about my personal journey, offering insights into identifying triggers and associating positive rewards with desired actions, making the path to weight loss feel almost second nature.

Discover practical strategies for healthier living that you can start today. From swapping out your large dinner plates for smaller ones to practicing mindful eating, we cover simple yet effective changes that can help control portion sizes and curb overeating.

Drinking water before meals and ensuring adequate sleep are also highlighted as crucial steps in regulating hunger hormones. These actionable tips are designed to fit seamlessly into your lifestyle, helping you make sustainable changes without the need for drastic diets or extreme exercise regimens.

We also delve into the realm of food prep and smart shopping to support your healthy eating goals, even with a busy schedule. Quick meal prep ideas like oven-baked chicken and vegetables, and healthy food swaps such as opting for whole peanuts instead of peanut butter, can make a significant difference.

Embrace menopause as a period of growth and self-care, turning potential challenges into opportunities for renewal.

Tune in and get inspired to thrive through menopause and beyond with our practical advice and supportive community.

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Just in case you missed it:

Join my10:21 Day Weight Loss Boot Camp, to be apart of our vibrant community and kickstart your journey!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello, hello, welcome to my channel. We are talking about how to lose weight without dieting. Everybody wants to know this. There's several different things that we can change, several different habits that we can learn, and they can help you lose weight without actually having to read up on a diet or do much, and we will be talking about that today.

Speaker 2: 0:34

Welcome to the Thriving Through Menopause podcast, dr Inaka Yembe, your host and we will be talking about that today herself who has helped thousands of women experiencing the significant life stage. She understands the unique challenges you face. Listen in as we explore a wide range of topics aimed at supporting you in your health and wellness journey. Hopefully, the practical tips and strategies offered potentially help you adopt an empowering approach towards menopausal weight loss and belly fat reduction. And now here's your host, dr Inaka Yembe.

Speaker 1: 1:09

Today's topic will be 10 ways to lose weight no dieting, no exercise. You know the studies show that up to 40% 4-0% of our daily activities are automatic. So these are our habits. For example, if you had to go to work today, you can probably back out of your driveway, without really thinking too much, Make your way to work after you have been working there for a while, because you're now used to working there. Now it's a habit. You get there without putting in too much intentional or putting in too much intentional activity. You're not thinking too much. So when we think about losing weight, we can harness the power of habits. If we look directly at how the brain functions, the study showed that up to 90% of your brain activity is automatic, for example, your heartbeat, your breathing and things like that. Those are all automatic habits that do not actually require thinking. So again, today I'm going to show you some of the habits that you can change and I want you to harness the power of habits. Get those in your brain so now your body can start to perform some of those habits without you actually thinking about it, and you can be successful in weight loss. So one of the things that I know for sure.

Speaker 1: 2:35

I was born. You know those of you who don't know my story. I'm a family medicine physician working in Louisiana. I work full-time in the emergency room and I have a part-time weight loss clinic. I also have an online weight loss bootcamp. I was born at 10 pounds, grew into an obese adult and my highest weight was about 300 pounds. Right now I am 125 pounds lighter than what I was back then. It's taken me a long, long long time about 12 years and it all boils down to the habits that you have and the way you think about these habits.

Speaker 1: 3:13

So let's look at exactly what is a habit. A habit has a well-studied loop. It has a defined loop. It has specific portions of every habit that you may want to know. Number one is a cue. There's always a trigger. There's always something that triggers an action. So the first part of any habit is a cue, that trigger. For example, I'm sitting here I smell some coffee and I'm thinking, wow, probably it's time for coffee. Or you're driving down the road and you smell some barbecue, thinking, wow, maybe I'm hungry, I may have to stop by and get something to eat. Those are triggers.

Speaker 1: 3:55

So, if you're taking note, the first thing that you want to think about is what are your triggers? That's the first thing in a habit. The second one is the action, the routine. Something triggers me and now, all of a sudden, I follow that through with an action. I get to work, I'm tired, I'm stressed and all of a sudden I'm sitting at my desk sipping coffee with a donut. I'm thinking I was on a diet. These are habits that we have, not, I'm thinking I was on a diet. These are habits that we have. So there's a cue, there's a routine and this one is the most powerful and that's the reward.

Speaker 1: 4:35

Our brain chemicals have something that tells us this feeling is so nice and that, when it comes to food, is built around dopamine and the happy feelings that we have when we eat certain foods. So, again, I get to work. I was so stressed, I'm late, I am tired, didn't eat my breakfast and I know that I want to be eating healthy. But I am sitting at my desk right now with a donut and drinking coffee and I'm thinking I mean, donut doesn't taste too bad. So reward, your reward is intrinsic to a behavior. Every single reward that we have is built around a specific behavior, and that's how habits are formed. There's a cue, there's an action and there's a reward, something that makes you feel good. That script gets written in your brain and says okay, next time this happens. Now your body is going to automatically perform this without you even trying. So this is why in my bootcamp, I train my bootcampers Don't try to fight your cravings.

Speaker 1: 5:33

Why? Because this reward is stored in the bigger part of the brain that's actually most immature, so you can't fight it. The part of the brain that reasons everything is so small. So next thing you know you're thinking I should not eat that donut, I should not eat that donut. Wow, look at that. I ate three donuts. Because you're trying to fight this habit the opposite way. The way to do it is to increase your reward, increase the good feelings around the things that you want to learn. It's not an easy thing to do, but hey, just like building muscles, practice, practice, practice and determination and telling yourself that you can do it. With time, your body gets to learn all these new habits and all of a sudden you're losing weight without trying. Why? Because you've learned some cues, you've learned some actions. Most of all, you have learned and tied rewards to the things that you want to change. I hope that makes sense. So as we move along, we're going to learn how to develop a set of personalized habits around the things that we want to change that can sustain us long term when it comes to weight loss.

Speaker 1: 6:48

So back to our topic of the day 10 ways to lose weight without dieting and without exercising. This is a big one, the biggest one, and I made this mistake when I started losing weight. I started my healthy lifestyle about 12 years ago. First thing that I did was I had a personal trainer and my thinking at that time was I'm going to go see this person. They're going to take me, fix me, get all my weight off and I'll be good. Of course, I mean six months down the line. He was working hard, he was putting me through the workouts, he was telling me what to eat. It wasn't working because I felt there was something extrinsic to me that's going to come into me and fix me. So listen carefully. If you're trying to lose weight, we've got to come back into our minds and develop what I call a weight loss mindset. In order for things to work, we're going to have to change something in here, and not that you cannot do it? Yes, you can. If I can do it, everybody can.

Speaker 1: 7:53

So now, the first thing to do when it comes to changing your mindset is just being mindful, being aware of the things that you are doing, being aware of the things that you're eating. Most of the time, we've got this mindless thing going on. We're not thinking really, we're expecting. Well, I'm in the program, or I went to see the doctor and the doctor gave me some medicine. That medicine is going to come in my body, fix me, take my weight off. I'm in a program, I'm going to the gym All of these things outside of us. We are not relying on ourselves. We've got to come back inside of ourselves.

Speaker 1: 8:30

Remember, the hallmark of a habit is your awareness. Your awareness, not coach, not all these other people, is you being aware? So, in order to change a habit, you've got to be aware of it. So now we've talked about mindfulness. How do we practice mindfulness?

Speaker 1: 8:51

One of the things that you don't want to do is to try to practice mindfulness when you're stressed. You're hungry, got to eat. You're thinking okay, I got to be mindful. It doesn't work like that. Find a quiet time Now. You're rested, you're lying in the bed, you've got a little time to rest and now you're relaxed, you've got your Bible, you prayed, you thought about different things and then now you can sit, do some breathing exercises and say, okay, I'm really struggling with drinking water, I want to put this water in front of me and I want to think about it, because that's something that I want to do repeatedly is drinking water. Practice mindfulness, because it would help you with your habits, but just don't do it in the spur of the moment. It doesn't work like that. Remember 40% to 90% of those habits are engraved, so you don't want to fight it when the battle is on, because you're going to lose most of the time and then you get discouraged. You want to practice things when you are calm and rested and then you have a higher chance of being successful. Go to YouTube and read up on mindfulness. Go listen to a video on mindfulness, but just practice it. So number one is practicing mindfulness and bringing into your awareness the habits that we want to change.

Speaker 1: 10:18

Right behind mindfulness, let's talk about the second way to lose weight without really trying is to develop a growth mindset. I was stuck in this fixed mindset Even when I was registered at the gym and when I was spending my money hiring all these trainers and I was going out there and buying some foods that were in the program. It says eat this at this time, eat that, eat that, eat that. And I was not even believing that I could lose the weight. Why that? And I was not even believing that I could lose the weight. Why? Because I knew I was born at 10 pounds. Most people in my family are overweight. I mean, you come to eat my table. You see all these people look the same. So I, in the inside of me, I felt that nothing could change. In addition to that, the worst part of a fixed mindset is believing that you don't have the ability to change. Now stop it. When you send your baby, little Johnny, to school, and he's only four years old, little child, you say baby is going to graduate to kindergarten and middle school and high school. Next thing you know, little Johnny is now 22, 23, 24, graduated university and he passed. Why is it that you now are 30 years old, 40 years old, 50 years old? You stop telling yourself that you can pass. No, develop a growth mindset around your habits.

Speaker 1: 11:37

Example of myself I'm a huge coffee. You cannot hear me do a video without talking about coffee. I love coffee. At a certain point in my life I was drinking creamer and sugar with a little coffee. I mean, it was ridiculous. I loved all the flavors. And then, when I decided to get healthy, I said you know what? I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to buy the sugar-free. Stop it. That does not exist. Because why? I kept telling myself that coffee is not coffee without all these things. And one day I said you know what I'm going to try? Intermittent fasting. And so, of course, right off the bat, I had to eliminate all these things from inside my coffee. Today I am able to drink the coffee black when I want to, or I'll put some stevia and some half and half in it when I want to Develop a growth mindset.

Speaker 1: 12:28

A fixed mindset tells yourself, because you have the most conversation with yourself. That fixed mindset is telling you that you cannot change. Let's not do that. Let's tell ourselves we can, because everybody, everybody, was born with the God-given ability to reach that highest potential. So once you tell yourself you can, you will. It's not going to be easy. You may have some speed stops, you may fail, you may struggle a little bit, then you keep doing it and you will succeed. Okay, so develop a growth mindset.

Speaker 1: 13:07

Africans, my brothers and sisters, africans, we have a habit of eating soup and fufu, and we tell ourselves we are not able to eat the soup without the fufu. Why is that? Why is that you can do anything that you want? One thing I know, though in order for you to see a change, you got to change the things that you're doing. Have a growth mindset, open up your mind that tells you I will be able to do certain things, and then you would notice that your habits start to change. All right, so that's two things we've talked about.

Speaker 1: 13:42

Number three is eating from smaller plates all the time. Let me give you a little visual and think about this. Have you ever gone to an all-you-can-eat buffet and see these big old plates like they have in restaurants? No, you go to the Chinese buffet. They have handy-dandy little plates that you can hold in your one hand. Why is that? Because they know that you can only put so much on that plate. And the way our brains work whenever your brain looks at a plate, it imagines it full. It starts to tell yourself once I eat all of these, I'm probably. I'm full and even if you go for seconds, you're not going to get that much. The buffet people they have mastered this art. Go to a buffet. The plates are always this certain size. They're never these huge plates like in a restaurant. I mean a restaurant plate. It comes like in a tray. So your brain has this visual of more space. So I need to put more food compared to the bowl is full and I've had enough.

Speaker 1: 14:48

Another trick that I read if it's too unhealthy, if it's too unhealthy, serve it on the red plate. Red plate says danger, so you may not eat as much. So if you're having a party or going somewhere else, always think about that red plate, red plate. If it's unhealthy, put it on a red plate, all right. Tip number four Got my show notes here, so I'm looking at those.

Speaker 1: 15:11

Tip number four is turn off distractions. Okay, this comes back to mindfulness. If I'm eating and I'm sitting here looking at my phone and I'm eating over here, this is called absent-mindedness. I'm absent-minded and studies now show that when you eat and you are absent-minded, not only do you consume more food now, because you don't even know how much you're eating, you're over here and you're texting or looking at your phone. The studies also show that your next meal will also be bigger. That's a study that was done. So again, you want to be mindful. Turn the TV off, turn your phone off, come back to your plate, look at it, chew slowly, not all those good things, chew slowly. That way you don't eat too much. It will help you eat less during that meal and in the next meal. All right, this one here is a no-brainer.

Speaker 1: 16:04

Tip number five. Tip number five is just drinking water. 30 minutes before you eat, go ahead and drink about eight ounces of water. Of course that's going to take up some room in your stomach so you don't have too much space to pack things. So that's almost like you have an immediate surgery cut a part of your stomach before you eat. But practice that. Remember all these little habits. Imagine if, before every single meal, you drank a bottle of water. Every single meal, all right. All of a sudden, over time, six months, you're losing weight without even trying because you're coming to the table, part of your stomach is already full of water. Number six tip number six this one we've talked about it and you cannot hear anyone who talks about health and wellness. You hear this all the time. The next two tips sleep.

Speaker 1: 16:57

Lack of sleep causes disruption in your hormones. There's two hormones that are involved in your hunger. So lack of sleep causes disruption in your hunger hormones. Growling, growl, growl, growl. You don't sleep enough, you have that growl Ghrelin increases your hunger and makes you binge eat. So increases cravings, increases that risk of binge eating if you don't sleep enough. Those hormones are produced when you are sleeping. So try to plan your sleep Again, think about ways to improve your sleeping habits.

Speaker 1: 17:33

I'm not saying that anything is going to be 100% perfect. Why we're not, jesus Christ, we're not going to be perfect. I go with the 80-20 rule. So I always ask my patients, my clients you know what You're going to be about? 75% to 80% accurate and that's fine. If you're looking at things to be 100% perfect, I mean that's fine. If you're looking at things to be a hundred percent perfect, I mean that's how we start to fail. Make one mistake, give up. I mean you have children. I've had children.

Speaker 1: 17:59

What happens to little jane? She tries to walk. She fell, she tried to walk, she fell one day. Little jane never gave up and she was only 10 months old. She tried to to try. She tried and one day, wow, she took three steps and fell. Then she took 10 steps and fell and wow, all of a sudden, little Jane is running forever and ever without stopping.

Speaker 1: 18:21

Can you imagine if the babies gave up walking after they had tried, say 10 times? We're going to have all these 80-year-old people crawling around the whole world. How about that? All these 80 year old people crawling around the whole world? How about that? It's not possible. Why is it that you fail once or twice and then you quit? Let's not do that. Let's tell ourselves okay, this happened, I'm going to pick up and get better, because you can only get better than yourself. But tell yourself that you can. You really can, can? I promise you the next one, tip number seven. Don't worry, we're almost at the end.

Speaker 1: 18:56

Tip number seven is reducing your stress. That's a big one. It's a really big one, because a little bit of stress is good. That's a fight or flight mechanism. Gun fires, pow, you run. That's a good thing, it's meant to save you.

Speaker 1: 19:13

But then chronic stress. Chronic stress just increases those stress hormones. They hang around too long. And then cortisol, which is your stress hormone, hangs around and its job is to help you build belly fat and also to help you keep your fat storage. So now you're struggling and you're doing all these things and the weight's not going anywhere because of just too much stress.

Speaker 1: 19:35

When it comes to your stress, it's important that you lower your stress levels. How? By doing things like meditation, positive affirmations, because most of the stress you may be doing it to yourself, just reminiscing over things that you have no control. And then, if it to yourself just reminiscing over things that you have no control, and then if it's really really, really hard for you to manage your stress, please, please, please. This is when you go out there and reach for help. Talk to your pastor, talk to somebody who has the experience in helping people, talk to a counselor. But the truth is scientifically proven Chronic elevations in stress cause increase in the hormone cortisol and increase in storage of belly fat and increase in another hormone called insulin. So all around, you're storing fat, you're building belly fat, you have increased risk of developing diabetes, heart disease and all these things that you know, just because of stress. So think about that. It's worth your while to try to work on your stress levels if you are stressed.

Speaker 1: 20:45

Tip number eight this is another nice one, and this is one that you come to my clinic for weight loss. This is one of the documents in your folder. You get a food diary. Everybody, seven year old to 72, they've got to write down everything that you eat or drink. There was a study that was done, though, that showed that the people who documented everything that they ate over a 12-week period lost about 40% more weight. Very, very important. So, again, keep that food diary so important.

Speaker 1: 21:20

Why? Because the food diary does a few things for you. Remember, we talked about awareness in the beginning, so when you're writing it down and I encourage you to write down everything you're thinking, hmm, probably I shouldn't eat that. Or you're thinking, oh, wow, I did such a good job today. It's feeding your memory. Number one, telling you that you are on this path. Number two, it is bringing your awareness to the things that you should not be doing and the things that you need to do more of. And lastly, now you've got a memory that's kept somewhere when things went well, you can say, hey, I lost about five pounds last month. What did I do? I don't remember. You go to your food diary, open it up. Aha, that's what I ate. Okay, that's me. Go back and it keeps in memory.

Speaker 1: 22:08

We do that in the clinic routinely. My patient the longest standing patient in my practice, 14 months has lost 80 pounds. Of course, after 80 pounds, you think you're used to things. Things may start slowing down, you may hit a plateau. So we say, okay, let's go and look and see what happened to your weight. Okay, this was an awfully good period these past two months. Let's print out the food diaries that you brought back.

Speaker 1: 22:32

Here you go, this is what you did, take it, look at it and see if you can do just about the same thing. You know Tony Robbins. I love that man, but he stands up there and he says success leaves clues. He's right. Success leaves clues. And if you immortalize them in a document see how I'm doing this because I'm old fashioned, I'm used to writing things. But there are apps like MyFitnessPal that you can use to document things. There are apps that you can even purchase. I always say just go for the free ones, or you can use your notebook.

Speaker 1: 23:04

Tip number nine this is another big one. This one is my thing. I love it. I do this all the time. But remember, before I tell you, think about the growth mindset. We've got to learn to grow and to do new things, because that's how we are going to change. If we don't change the things we do, then we're not going to see any change.

Speaker 1: 23:26

So here you go Eat at home. Why is that so? The restaurant portions are huge and, by the way, I don't want to go to a restaurant and they serve me this tiny little plate. I'm thinking is that my money? So this is. These are habits and traditions that we have learned with time. Eat at home Consumer survey reports that the top most successful way to lose weight is to eat at home.

Speaker 1: 23:58

That was at the top. This survey was done on millions of people. The most successful way for you to lose weight and keep it off is for you to eat at home. Keep it off is for you to eat at home. Now, of course, life is here. I'm not used to cooking at home. I hear this all the time. I don't cook, that's fine, I get it. You don't have to cook. But consider this Now. We want our minds to grow. We want to change things, because when we change, that's how we see things change.

Speaker 1: 24:32

So if you don't change and start making you simple things, I did not say go out and study 10 recipes, that you're going to make a meal plan for the whole seven days. Let's not do that. Take it one day at a time. Say I want an easy meal that I can make today. Always go, go simple. The simpler you make things, the better you have a chance of doing the same simple things consistently over a long period of time.

Speaker 1: 25:01

Even me, while I was preparing for this video, I did the third simple thing Took the chicken, peeled all the skin off real fast, threw it in the bag. All the seasoning cooked it, shook it in there and threw it in the oven. The seasoning cook it, shook it in there and threw it in the oven. Why I'm not gonna put on the grill? I'm not gonna do all that. I don't have time for that today, but I have to eat after this video. So I stuck it in the oven so, and then I added the vegetables to eat one pan baking. It's very easy. I do that on boot camp, on my bootcamp. My bootcampers come with me once a week on Sundays into my kitchen to see how I prepare what I prepare. It's very important. Restaurant cooking tends to be quite delicious because they have to add a little bit more fat, a little bit more sodium, a little bit more sugar and things like that to make it more palatable. So, very important. Now, talking about eating at home very important, and I'm talking about eating home-cooked food.

Speaker 1: 25:58

So if I'm going to work as most of you may know, may or may not know I get to work in the morning on Monday morning and I leave work on Wednesday morning In the morning sometimes I have long hours with no sleeping. So, yes, of course, remember we talked about being 80% accurate and 20%. You know it's right there, there's that window. But here are some of the things that I do to secure myself and limit my margin of error during the tough times that I'm working a 48-hour shift straight. I have my emergency box Little box here. It doesn't have to be a box, but you know, when I get to work, this thing right here sits on my desk immediately I come back from work and within two days it is packed and loaded. This is how I decrease my margin of error, because I've got an emergency box that comes with me.

Speaker 1: 26:53

I know I will be tired, I may get sleepy, I may get stressed, I may get different ways, so I've got to have something on hand so I am not stuck with eating other people's stuff, who knows what. So I load my box up with stuff that I want. You know, sometimes I will have cheese sticks in here, sometimes I'll chop up vegetables, but it all goes in here. This thing here keeps it at whatever temperature you put it in, so it's going to stay right here. This guy stays on my computer right by me. So when I get tired, I get stressed and I'm thinking maybe I should eat something. I reach in here. I've got a protein powder. I can just put water and ice shake it or, if I feel like doing this, really just anything in here.

Speaker 1: 27:39

It's your journey. You've got to learn the things that can help you wherever you are. We've got to get a point where we take control, take back control of your life. Why your life? You've only got one body and one life, so you've got to ensure it in many different ways. Whatever you can do, I get my nurses. They are night shift nurses, just like me. I'm going to work two nights in a row, 48 hours, no sleep, but I'm not running around binge eating on different things. Why? Because I've got mine. You don't need to have a box. You can put it in a Ziploc bag, you can put it in a Walmart bag. Take your own.

Speaker 1: 28:15

If I'm going shopping in the morning on Saturday night if you're like me I get in the grocery store. I've got a list. Next thing I know I'm picking up 10 different things that are not in my list. My shopping was supposed to be an hour. Next thing I know I've been walking around like this for about four hours and I want to eat something. I want to chew on something. I know I've got something in my vehicle. I will eat my snack or whatever I have before I go into the grocery store.

Speaker 1: 28:43

So I'm not in there trying to do like I used to do pick up something and open it up and start Okay, last tip, last one Healthy food swaps so important, healthy food swaps. Now, we're not talking about a diet, we're just talking about swapping things so that, instead of this, think about that. It's going to help you in your journey. So I'm not sitting here just thinking about diet, diet, diet and how many calories and caloric deficit. Just swap things out.

Speaker 1: 29:19

I have a little show and tell here for you peanuts, unsalted, dry, roasted peanuts. This thing right here says peanut. If you're a peanut lover like me, I encourage you to not eat out of the container. Pour it out into a plate of bowls so you can eyeball how much you're eating, because you know. Back then I was like you're doing this. Illustra one thing peanut butter. Okay, now, instead of eating this one, if you don't measure it carefully, I would encourage you to go with the peanut itself. Why? Because you may tend to consume just a little bit more. Most of the problem that we have sometimes is just underestimating exactly how much you're eating. So you may be eating a little bit more and saying, well, I had just one tablespoon. No, maybe you really really had about three tablespoons without realizing it. It's not you, it's just the way our brains think. Okay, this is another very interesting swap.

Speaker 1: 30:21

I picked this up today. This guy right here these are original apple chips. I mean, it sure looks very healthy to me. It says apple chips. Most of the time we get this and I get my moms who bring their children. They want the child to have a healthy snack. So someone might go through the grocery store and say I'm getting this down for my child and sending little johnny to school with a healthy snack. It also says so on here, made from fresh apples. Now when we come to the back, it's's got different things. It's got apples, canola oil, corn syrup Anytime you see corn syrup on a package, run, run. It is the cheapest form of sweetener, sugar, whatever it is, and it is bad for you, making store belly fat weakly. So it's got corn syrup, citric acid and all these things. Instead of this, this is what you want to give little johnny. One apple this is an apple this guy right here is is about a hundred calories. I'm just guessing that here. So go with the whole fresh fruit.

Speaker 1: 31:35

This guy right here, little johnny, did not look at the bag. Look how small this bag is. So if somebody's going to eat this, they probably eat the whole thing. I mean, it's just like a little tiny little bag of things. But actually on the container which little johnny did not read it is two and a half servings, I'm like. So it's got 360 calories and total carbohydrate 51 grams 5-1 grams. So now, if you were looking at my now, it's got 51 grams of sugar and 25 grams of added sugars. So if you're female and you watched my previous video, now you know that your limit of added sugars for 24 hours is 24 grams. In this little guy here, you already consumed 25 grams of added sugars. You surpassed your limit for the whole day. And it's not enough, it's not even much. What happens when you eat this? Your insulin level spikes and then it quickly takes this glucose out of your system and first thing you know is two hours later and you're like I might need another snack. This one right here is gone. That's how we may gain weight without even thinking so.

Speaker 1: 32:50

Making healthy food swaps may help you. I'm going to show you one more example, this right here. Of course, we know that lemons have almost no calories. This is one thing I love I put in my tea, put in my infusions. One of the big things that I do a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot is lemon water. Add some ginger to it and you can be drinking water all day long. Lemon and ginger nice, it's nice. It would help you with your water consumption. Drink it to the bathroom, drink it and then, if you add some mint to that whole mix, you really really will enjoy it. Now look at this guy. It says Simply Lemonade. Why do they have Simply I mean I'm saying all natural, simply Lemonade? It looks so nice and fresh. I feel like I could just pour this over ice or stick it in the refrigerator and when I drink it it's going to quench my thirst. This is what most people think. This is only 340 mls and the back of it says one serving is one bottle. So if we look at the sugar content here, it has got 40 grams four and total added sugars, 39 grams of added sugar. So again, if you are a female, you have all of a sudden consumed 15 grams of added sugar more than your total daily requirement. If you are a male, you have consumed three grams more than your total daily requirement in just this. Make some healthy food swaps, they will help you. This is the last one and the biggest big one.

Speaker 1: 34:29

I love how this juice here is green. I say green juice I'm thinking I mean this thing is just vegetables. It's probably so good for me. They have these things so pretty much in most grocery stores here in the United States. When I started my weight loss journey, this is one of the things that I used to go for because I didn't have time to be making green juice at home. The children were now doing sports and things. I was running all the time, walking full time, single mom, all these things and I always just thought I could go get this naked green juice. And, by the way, there's a big sign right here says no sugar added. That's nice, but when I look at the nutrition facts, it has got 63 grams of carbohydrates 63. I mean you're better off going to McDonald's get you a double pounder compared to this green juice. And then dietary fiber we all know fruit is good for you, but right here in this little green juice it says dietary fiber is zero, none, zero, and it's green. And then total sugars 58 grams. 58 gram five, eight grams of total, you won't be careful. It is delicious, yes, I agree, but do not go for this. You're better off, like I said, walking around with this.

Speaker 1: 35:56

Other things, like rice. You love to eat rice. I have even started taking my cauliflower because, of course, if you know me, I'm the cauliflower queen, self-crowned cauliflower queen. I can make anything out of cauliflower. Now you can take cauliflower and use it to water down the calories in so many things. Say you like mashed potato, potato, all right. How about you eat mashed potato made out of sweet potato the yellow one? How about you take even your mashed potato? Take just a fourth of it and mash cauliflower and add. Time may not be that bad. Grow your mindset. What about pizza? Same thing when you make your own pizza at home.

Speaker 1: 36:35

We talked about home cooked, foodooked food. What about rice? I do the same thing. I'll even take brown rice and take just maybe a tablespoon of it and add the whole cauliflower rice, because I know I can eat a plate of cauliflower rice and not consume that many calories. Okay, so very, very important. I hope these 10 tips help you.

Speaker 1: 36:59

Remember practice, practice. Practice does not make perfection, but practice only helps you learn habits long term. So keep practicing, keep trying. You're going to have some setbacks, you're going to fail, but you want to keep trying, because why we don't have any 80 year old babies walking around? Because they tried to walk 80 years ago and they fell and stopped walking. So don't be that person. So here are all the tips summarized. I've got my show notes here.

Speaker 1: 37:32

Number one practice mindfulness. Bring your awareness to the things that you are doing. Number two have a growth mindset, because that's only the way that you learn things. If you don't learn new things you are doing. Number two have a growth mindset, because that's only the way that you learn things. If you don't learn new things, you want to stay in your old habits. Of course, nothing will change, not even your weight is not going to change. All right. Tip number three was use smaller plates. That's automatically going to cut down your portions Now. Number four is turn off distractions. Bring your mind down to what you are eating. Eat slowly, because then you will be aware of what you're eating. You have a smaller chance of eating too much now and a smaller chance of eating too much in your next meal.

Speaker 1: 38:13

Number five drink water before every single meal. Always, always, always, drink water. When I went to China and every single time we sat down to have a meal, they brought this huge quantity of tea and I'm thinking, what's the tea about? What's the tea for? And then later on I got a little smarter and I'm like, okay, wow, that makes sense. No wonder they drink so much tea before they eat anything. They don't have room for much more food.

Speaker 1: 38:37

Number six sleep. Sleep seven to nine hours. Those hunger and satiety hormones are produced during sleep. You want them balanced, so sleep seven to nine hours. Stress was number seven. Work on your stress. Why? Because stress levels. When they're too high, those hormones are high. They're causing your body to starve. Back hormones are high. They're causing your body to store fat, even if you're trying to lose it.

Speaker 1: 39:04

Number eight keep a food diary. It would help you be aware and it would immortalize a good time. So you want to keep a food diary. And number eight eat at home. You got good control over what you eat if you cook it. Eat at home. And there are so many ways that we cannot get into right now of eating at home and making your own food. Even if you're not used to it, you can learn. And tip number 10 is healthy food swaps. All right, I will save this video. If you're not following yet, go ahead and follow me, because I share tips every day. I I get a brainwave, I get questions from you and I want to thank you. Thank you for the questions that you have, because I have a list I'm going through and I am coming with the videos and the reels to answer your questions. Once more, I want to thank you because it is because of you that I also stay consistent with my weight loss journey. Thank you, thank you everyone. Bye.

Speaker 2: 40:06

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Thriving Through Menopause. We hope you found valuable insights and practical advice to support your journey. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast, share it and review. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Remember, menopause doesn't have to be a challenge. It can be an opportunity for growth, renewal and self-care. Connect with us on social media, where we share additional resources, tips and advice to help you along your path. Once again, thanks for listening in and we hope you'll join us again on the next episode of Thriving Through Menopause. Until then,