Confident Eaters

From Weight Loss to Lifelong Maintenance with Kerry
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Georgie: [00:00:00] Welcome to Confident Eaters in case we haven't met yet. Hi, I'm Georgie, registered dietician. Many of the real life client calls that I share on this show center around a client and their current struggles. Those conversations typically include drawing out the details of a problem through questioning, talking about potential solutions and strategies they could try, as well as coping mechanisms, which might be a good fit.

Today's call, however, is a bit different because my client, Kerry, is close to graduating. We only have a couple weeks left of working together, and she has lost weight successfully and steadily. She's been through this process diving into the challenges one by one, practicing new skills to manage them.

You could think of today's episode as a glimpse into what it looks like once someone has moved pretty far into successfully changing their behaviors and losing weight. Kerry is a really great example of someone who is paying attention all the time to cause and affect relationships, and she adjusts her behaviors as needed.

As she says in this episode, I know myself, Kerry notices how her habits impact her emotions and downstream how her emotions impact her eating choices. So even when she's not working with me, she'll be able to make adjustments on her own. She knows what sabotaging thoughts have derailed her in the past, and she calls them out.

You'll hear her talk about in this episode, oh one won't hurt or the other thought, I can slide through the weekend, but neither of them pull the wool over her eyes anymore. She just doesn't buy 'em. Kerry has established some really helpful routines such as meditating for five minutes before work, and she notices what happens if she moves this to a different time of day or skips it all together.

She knows that she needs comfort and slowing down at the end of the day, and we've discussed ways that she can do that. She knows that when she hits her weight goal, her mind is [00:02:00] going to open up space to potentially justify decisions that will make her regain weight. That's one of the future problems we are heading off in the conversation today. I hope you enjoy this episode and that you find Kerry a really helpful example. You too can reach this level of knowing yourself and working with your needs and tendencies to reach your eating and weight loss goals. Best of all, from knowing yourself and working with your tendencies, you'll be able to maintain results for the rest of your life.

Welcome to the Confident Eaters Podcast, where you get proven methods to end overeating, emotional eating, and stressing about food. We are heading for harmony between your body, food and feelings, hosted by me, Georgie Fear, and my team at Confident Eaters. Hi, how's it going?

Kerry: How are you?

Georgie: I'm good.

Kerry: Good.

Georgie: How's your day so far?

Kerry: So far so good.

Georgie: Nice. All right, so great job on keeping your tracker going.

Kerry: That's a lie. I just did it right now, but

Georgie: Okay.

Kerry: I have it all on my phone, but I never put it through so I like

Georgie: Okay. So it's accurate though?

Kerry: Mm-hmm.

Georgie: Okay.

Kerry: It is. I keep track of it on my phone. You know, 'cause I have an emotional check-in. I moved it to two o'clock. That was very helpful. Great to get ahead of it. 'cause even today I thought of you 'cause it went off. It be dinged me at two. You know, emotionally check in. I was like, because not only five minutes beforehand, I was like, ugh. You know, it was some treats my coworker brought in from Trader Joe's. She stuck them in my desk like two weeks ago and she's like, you know, just free, free. I'm like, no, no, no. But I, I was like, it was one of those things right around five minutes or two, I was like, one won't hurt. I was like, no, no, no, no. And all of a sudden emotional check-in, I'm like. That was perfect timing. [00:04:00] It was saved by the bell.

Georgie: Cool.

Kerry: Before it got to like three o'clock. So it was like, okay. It was just a reset. It was a reminder saying, okay, hold on. And it wasn't even like, I was feeling bad. I was working, we were having a good day and getting some stuff done at work. And so it was more of a, you know, it wasn't even congratulatory. It was me just wanting a taste of something.

I wasn't hungry for it, but I have to say, I only had. You know, bad day. I had one, it was one of those days. I just like, ate quite a bit. It was more at, it was all work but I didn't let it derail me. But, you know, 'cause I started thinking about it the next day, like, ugh, you know, I could just slide through the weekend.

You know, like, no, no, no, no, no. So I'm rebounding much quicker. And, not letting it get away from me. And you know, of course I lost three pounds that week on Monday, it was one of say, I'm like, you know, son of a bitch, if the body isn't a weird thing.

Georgie: Yeah. So what's, what's your scale saying now? Sounds like you're seeing p rogress?

Kerry: For the two weeks. Four. So

Georgie: Four pounds lost?

Kerry: Four pounds, yeah. Over the two weeks.

Georgie: So you're at 1 54 ish.

Kerry: 154.8

Georgie: good for you.

Kerry: Yeah.

Georgie: That's really excellent.

Kerry: Yeah. 154.8.

Georgie: You say that like it's nothing

Kerry: No, it feels good that, you know, I got back to, I'm tracking much more concisely, but I'm not letting it get away from me.

Because the plant treats with my meals. So like today I had like a really good salad. I was excited for the salad, but I had crackers on the side with it 'cause I need crunch. I would be horrible if I ever broke my jaw and had to have a liquid diet for the rest of my life.

Georgie: Yeah.

Kerry: Like I'm, I'm not a protein shake person.

Georgie: Yeah.

Kerry: They just don't do anything for me. So, had the planned crackers, had a little planned treat, you know, for dessert with my clementine and it was like this, hit it, you know, felt good. Because I'm planning those so I'm not scrounging for 'em later 'cause I miss them. And so that really has helped. And honestly, I've only had. So, let's see. Last week was a teaching week with a ton of tornadoes. But I'd never let it get to me. [00:06:00] I stayed, you know, away from all the snacks. But even Wednesday, and Thursday, 'cause I usually have a protein bar on the way home from work. I was like, let's try half. And I brought a full one just in case, but I half did it.

So I had half of it Wednesday afternoon, half of it, Thursday afternoon, I was like, okay. I just wanted the taste, and I, I don't eat it in two bites. I eat it like in five, like 10. You know, I just, and it's hard to savor when you're driving, but I, you know,

Georgie: yeah, I understand that.

Kerry: I do slowly eat it. I don't gobble it down. So I actually tasted it and that made a difference. So I'm like, okay, half a protein bar that did it

Georgie: Great! And it, doesn't mean that every single day, you can only have half now, forever more, but like sometimes half will do it.

Kerry: But I've noticed, I've found that those afternoon snacks, shocker. I don't need them.

Georgie: Okay.

Kerry: My, you know, I let my stomach growl for five minutes and usually that's immediately when I went for a snack. And, usually it was a, yogurt bowl with fruit or something like that. But I was like, okay, you can growl a little bit. It's okay. Simmer down, have some water, and it goes away.

So I haven't, those are the only days I have an afternoon something is the days I drive home. And so that's only six days a month.

Georgie: Okay.

Kerry: Really, for the most part, for the afternoon. So I haven't had any afternoon treats. And so I enjoy having like on average 500 calories with three meals a day, you know?

Georgie: Right.

Kerry: It's like, okay, let's beef up my meals a little bit. Let's have a little treat with my meals.

Georgie: Yeah. All right. So most days you don't need an afternoon snack. Just days driving home. Six a month. Great.

Kerry: Yeah. Like after teaching, just because it's, it is what it was.

Georgie: Sure. So the day that you said the eating just felt like it went poorly. Any insight into what sort of led to that happening?

Kerry: What was I doing? Okay. That was an, it was teaching again and I was at work and so that was a different, that was an off cycle teaching week. And so it was, again, I just fell [00:08:00] into bad habits. It was one of those have one and I'm like, oh look, everybody else is having snacks. You know, but they're not you. You know, they have different goals than you. It's okay.

Georgie: Is that something that you're exposed to on other days as well?

Kerry: Just at work. Yeah, just at work. Not here. I mean, my husband's snacking doesn't bother me. So, it's just at work for the most part, so,

Georgie: what do you think is different about your husband snacking versus other people's snacking?

Kerry: I'm used to him. I don't, because honestly, it's different stuff that we keep at home. You know, it's like he'll eat stuff at night, you know, pretzels or some sweetss, you know, or protein bars, you know, he is trying to, not to, instead of ice cream, he is just substituting with other stuff. But, it's stuff at home that I could have.

Georgie: Yeah.

Kerry: And I think that's the, the taboo of the, you know, eating at work. It's stuff that I don't have at home. It's a novelty, you know? So it got the better of me that day, but I was good. I mean, I, I didn't fall to the trap the other days,

Georgie: so other days you've seen it and just decided not.

Kerry: Yeah. This, this week I was like, I did my meditation because I kept forgetting to do my meditation. But I find if I sit in the car, you know, traffic doesn't kill me. If I sit there in the car, just reset my brain before I go into work, you know, it's like, okay, five minutes.

And it's like, I picture how I'm gonna feel at the end of the day and feel how I'm gonna feel proud, not deprived. I'm gonna be like,

Georgie: yeah,

Kerry: You got through it. It was a game. Yeah. And if I start my day that way, I feel that it gets, I can reframe it better. So I think I notice that I didn't do that at the beginning of my day that week I was doing at the end of the day. And

Georgie: yeah.

Kerry: So last week I switched it and tried to do it in the morning, so.

Georgie: That's a really powerful technique, thinking I'm gonna be proud of myself for doing this, or I'm gonna be disappointed in myself if I do this.

Kerry: Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm, I have a list on my phone, like how I feel after, if I binge, you know, and it's like. [00:10:00] Feel sluggish. I, my joints hurt, you know, I feel like I have the flu, you know? 'cause it really affects your body when you get older, you know?

Georgie: Yeah,

Kerry: just too much sugar and it's amazing. It's not like when you're 20 and so it's like just even physically, not just mentally, but even, you know, it's like disappointment, shame. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's like, no, all these other things happen too. You know? It's not just that.

Georgie: Right, I think that's so much more powerful than just focusing on weight because many people are like, oh, I'm just gonna get fatter. I'm just gonna get fatter. Which loses its, it loses its motivational potency. When you've.

Kerry: Yeah.

Georgie: Made the same threat to yourself, don't eat it. It's fattening. Don't do that. You're gonna get fat. Like you tell that to yourself enough times. Eventually you're like, I don't care.

Kerry: Right. I'll have a piece. I'll just live fat. I see everybody else doing it, they're doing fine.

Georgie: Yeah. Susie over there seems to be really enjoying her life and she's larger than me, so like, clearly I can be happy too, at any weight, which is true. I'm not saying it's not true, but connecting to like actual costs, like feeling sluggish. Feeling like you have the flu? Feeling disappointed? Yeah. I think those are actual costs that are more worth avoiding or you're binging to spare themselves. All right. And how's stuff going with the accountability group?

Kerry: With the what group? I'm sorry?

Georgie: The accountability group.

Kerry: Oh, good. Good, good, good. And I've been talking offline too.

Georgie: Good, good.

Kerry: Just kinda check in a little bit just to kind of see, but good. And we've had some good point, you know, good back and forth, so I think it, they've been helpful. So it's been fun.

Georgie: Yeah. It's helpful to have some people who are engaged in the same sort of project. You are trying to do the same things.

Kerry: Mm-hmm.

Georgie: So some days, you're getting even more than the five minutes of meditation or relaxation.

Kerry: It was probably one of those things I'm better make up for it.

Georgie: Like after three days of missing, you know Sunday, Monday this week a little heavy.

Kerry: Yeah. Maybe it's a weekly average, well, I've been trying just to see, okay. Like not just a five minute [00:12:00] guided, but what if it's more, if it's a little bit longer, it's a little less speaking. I mean, percentage wise.

Georgie: Mm-hmm.

Kerry: You know, it's probably the same amount of talking, but it's spread out over 10 minutes. I'm like, okay, let's see if I can get a little bit more silence in there to kinda sit with that a little bit.

Georgie: Yeah,

Kerry: so I've been experimenting a little bit, trying to see,

Georgie: you are averaging 5.07 minutes a day. I don't know if you did that on purpose.

Kerry: No, but that's, that's kind of how I look at my calories too.

Georgie: Racking up that 16 minutes yesterday really helped.

Kerry: Yeah, I set my watch to five minutes. I'm like, okay, let's just sit here and listen to birds for five minutes.

Georgie: Hmm. Do you find your mind wanders a lot?

Kerry: It does when I'm not focused on like it is tougher than just a guided, even if it's guided with long pauses in the middle of 'em. I found myself. I was getting antsy because I'm like, okay. Now I'm just sitting here for me, you know?

Georgie: Right.

Kerry: It's like I'm not expecting someone to talk. So it was it's a learning learning experience.

Georgie: Yeah. So you mentioned like you might just sit there and listen to the birds.

Kerry: Well, yeah. The calm app, after you let like a meditation play through, it has the background noise. It keeps playing the background noise of birds and nature.

Georgie: Okay.

Kerry: Without talking. So I was like, okay, let's just listen to that for five minutes. Put my headphones in. Yeah.

Georgie: Do you feel like that helps?

Kerry: Wasn't as easy as I thought.

Georgie: Yeah. It, it can be really tough. Do you feel like that helps with sort of calming your body and your mind? Is it a wasted five minutes?

Kerry: Doesn't, I'm not gonna say it's wasted. I don't find meditation that calming. I think it's more because I don't know if I'm expecting anything out of it or I don't wanna feel like I need to check a box, you know? Okay. Done, you know, for the day.

So I'm trying to get something outta it. What I find that it does for me, it helps me realize where my thoughts are going throughout the day. And so if, if I focus on how my thoughts are coming in and outta my brain while I'm meditating, I'm like, okay, wow. My brain's really thinking, really? You know? 'cause I did this at three in the morning [00:14:00] you, this morning I woke up and I just couldn't fall back asleep. And it's like how I get a lot up there. I ended up actually thinking about a work physical that I had back in like the year. Two, 2006. I'm like, why am I thinking about this right now? I'm like, has no relevance, but

Georgie: yeah.

Kerry: You know.

Georgie: So why is it helpful to notice where your thoughts are going during the day?

Kerry: I think just to recognize where my emotions are coming from.

Georgie: Mm-hmm.

Kerry: Because if I'm not recognizing my thoughts, right, I don't realize what I'm doing. Like, if I'm just grabbing food, What's going on? Do I need something? What's going on up here? And if I can't recognize that, I can't stop this. So I'm trying to loop it all together. 'cause that's, what I've been finding over the last year, I'm lacking something, something somewhere up here. Like I know you're usually looking for comfort or boredom or something.

I'm like, you know, so many years I was like, I don't know, I'm just hungry. I, I just wanted to taste something different.

Georgie: Yeah.

Kerry: I'm like, as soon as like I turn 50, I'm like, no, that's not it. No, there's something going on up there. You know, there must be. So it's, helping me understand what it is that I need or what it is that is going on.

Georgie: Do you feel like you're coming up with an answer to that question?

Kerry: No, I mean, not really. Because I recognize the boredom eats now. That I do.

Georgie: Okay.

Kerry: And so that was usually on the weekends when I was boredom eating. So those I recognize.

Georgie: Okay.

Kerry: As far as the emotional ones, as far as needing comfort, and it's not comfort like emotionally necessarily. It's more of comfort like slowing down at the end of the day, kind of like the work dump and then all of a sudden you have to pick up your homework, you know, and start cooking and all that kind of stuff. But, so I think that sometimes is a break because, that's how you kind of shut off the brain a little bit, just to kind of eat. But I don't think it's not like an, you know, sadness type thing. I'm not a sad person, as you can tell from all my, you know, I'm just, and that was comfortable. Not, you know, I'm [00:16:00] more lazy if anything.

Georgie: Okay. So it sounds like sometimes it's working just as a rest, like a brain rest.

Kerry: It is, yeah.

Georgie: Alright. Needing a brain rest. So sometimes boredom, sometimes needing brain rest. Is it ever like procrastinating or like putting off doing something else?

Kerry: Yes.

Georgie: Okay. I got another one there.

Kerry: That too. I am the biggest procrastinator. Hence why I just did two weeks of all this tracker five minutes before the call.

Georgie: Yes. But you kept all the data elsewhere, so you still recorded it. So yeah, that can definitely be something that contributes to eating.

Kerry: Mm-hmm.

Georgie: How do you manage it if, let's say you did your, time with the CALM app, listening to your thoughts and noticing where they're going, and you realized like, oh, I just want to eat because I don't wanna do this task like. Then what? Then what do you do?

Kerry: Well, lately it's, I just choose to not do either. I mean, honestly, what I have found. 'cause there are some things around the house I need to, like, I need to replace a toilet seat. It's been sitting in the bathroom for, three weeks now. Not that there's not a toilet seat on there. It's there's a perfectly good toilet seat.

Georgie: Yeah.

Kerry: Just need to replace it. So there's like little stuff like that and it's like, okay, I'm not going to eat, but I'm not gonna do that. Let's go read or play a game on my phone.

Georgie: Nice. Yeah. So you stall in it a different way.

Kerry: So it's like I'll procrastinate all of it.

Georgie: Yeah. And that's okay. You know, it's sort of like a harm reduction thing, like it's not harming your weight loss progress to stall by reading on your phone or playing a game.

Kerry: Mm-hmm.

Georgie: And if we look at it like the guiltier, we feel sometimes, like the worst things get, ' cause then we feel less and less capable. But if you think of it like, you know, I've been doing a lot of things, my brain just might need a little bit more rest to gather up the gusto to do that task. Then like, let me take a little bit of time to just do something recreational before I can

Kerry: mm-hmm.

Georgie: Do a little bit. It's helped a [00:18:00] lot of my clients and me personally to think about doing like very small pieces of tasks.

Kerry: Mm-hmm.

Georgie: Instead of procrastinating, because when we're procrastinating on something, it tends to keep popping up in our minds. So let's say I'm putting off doing my taxes, not that that would ever happen, and it will keep popping up like, oh, I gotta save those receipts. Oh yeah, you gotta enter that into a spreadsheet. Oh yeah. You gotta organize these numbers. Oh yeah. Like if I just keep pushing it down, pushing it away, it's still gonna pop up numerous times.

Kerry: Right.

Georgie: Throughout the day or week. So, sometimes it's helpful to do a small piece. Like, oh, if I have a prescription receipt in the upstairs bathroom and I see it and I go, oh God, I gotta do taxes. But the envelope where I file those receipts is in the file cabinet downstairs. When I go from the upstairs to the downstairs, I might take the paper receipt and at least put it on the kitchen island. I've moved it closer to eventually where it needs to go.

Kerry: Right.

Georgie: Just those little, like chipping away at tasks or like folding one piece of laundry, instead of walking past the basket and being like, oh God, I've just left that sitting there for so long. so if you need to replace the toilet seat, it might be like, I'm gonna put it outside the bathroom door.

Kerry: Right.

Georgie: So that maybe next time I'll put it in the car or wherever it needs to go.

Kerry: Right. Bring the tools inside the house and put it right.

Georgie: Totally.

Kerry: Yeah. That's, true because I did read 'cause I need to declutter. That's, you know, for two people we have a lot of junk and so we just kept moving it. And now we haven't moved from this house. We bought it, let's see, 15 years ago. And that used to help declutter whenever we moved. So

Georgie: yeah,

Kerry: it's because you just dump it and now we haven't moved in 15 years since we bought this house, so now it's just building up. And I did read, and there's a couple groups like decluttering and they said, set a timer for 15 minutes. Just start. Just start. I'm like, okay, maybe five.

Georgie: That's totally what my brain went to, it was like, why not five? Why does to be 15?

Kerry: I know, I'm like negotiating already. Like I haven't even started, I'm negotiating already. I'm like, okay, maybe five. Let, let's just shoot five. And I do the same thing with exercise. I mean, I [00:20:00] used to, I usually don't have a problem with exercise I do at five o'clock in the morning, just get it done. Because I know myself.

Georgie: Yeah.

Kerry: But that's one of those things. It's like, okay, just start for five minutes. Give yourself the excuse. If you don't wanna do it anymore, you don't.

Georgie: Yeah.

Kerry: You know, and I've only stopped maybe three times in my life, but

Georgie: Good, good. So you've got some skills there. So you don't really need the procrastin-eating to stall 'cause you can stall in other ways or you can just decide to get to the task even if it's just a small piece. All right. And how has exercise been going?

Kerry: Good, good. Changed up my workouts. So yeah, I do it, you know, five o'clock this morning I was up. Yeah, I mean that, it's one of those weird things I don't have a problem with. You know, it's the eating part because I think working out just feels utilitarian and like I said, since I do it first thing in the morning, it, I don't give myself any. It's just wake up, roll out of bed and just go do it, you know? And it's no arguing up here yet, so.

Georgie: Okay, great, great, great. Feeling hungry before eating. Looks super consistent. Like there's only really one exception there, which is due to scheduling.

Kerry: Yeah, well, the day the 27th, I definitely was not hungry for dinner.

Georgie: Oh yeah. I see.

Kerry: After all the snacking, but yeah, yesterday morning I ate, we didn't eat breakfast until like, ate quarter to nine, something like that, but I had a one o'clock meeting.

And like a one to two and then a two to three. And so I was like, I had to eat lunch, you know, before I started my eating.

Georgie: Yeah.

Kerry: So, you know, I was like okay. I haven't overeaten though, so I, I stopped before I'm full.

Georgie: Great. That was, the next thing to look at was the really quick eating and eating just enough.

Kerry: Yeah. And I've been practicing eating slower too. I tend to be a faster eater. But I've been definitely slowing down, you know, I still eat the same amount, but it's like, okay, let's savor it. Let's slow down. We'll just be sure that you're, satisfied.

Georgie: Yeah. Very good. Is there anything left that you wanna make sure we [00:22:00] work on over the next couple weeks?

Kerry: I need to start thinking about, because the trouble I ran into a couple years ago is when I got to. I don't wanna say maintenance, but when, like, I still had goals, you know, like body composition wise, but my weight was where I wanted, it was attainable. I know there's a difference between attainable and maintainable, but I need to kind of work on mindset. Like when I do get to, goal setting, you know? 'cause it's easy to say, I wanna lose this much weight, and that kind of stuff. But okay, when I get there, what was I reading the other day?

There's oh, there's a term for it . When athletes kind of reach their goal and it's like you have like almost a depression after, like you've competed and it's all done. It's like. Now what?

Georgie: Yeah. It's like a,

Kerry: you know, and so I think I hit that a couple years ago, and so I went back up and it was like, okay, went back down. Then last year it was just a mess.

Georgie: Right.

Kerry: Because when I did do that, I was like, I started giving myself more leeway into, oh, well, you know, you lost your weight. You know, we're just working on building more muscle, losing a little bit of fat, but kind of maintaining, like, go have an extra protein bar, go have an extra, you know, I found myself eating more than maintenance, should I say?

Georgie: Yeah, that's a really common issue for a lot of people. They're sort of motivated by seeing the scale go down and seeing the progress, and so all of a sudden if you're not making progress and you're just maintaining, it's easy to feel like you sort of take your eye off the project.

Kerry: Right.

Georgie: Like, oh, this isn't that important to be focused anymore. 'cause I'm just maintaining, I'm not trying to make any more progress.

Kerry: Right. And so I started it with, and I guess this was about a year and a half ago. I was like, okay, let's maybe do a pull up challenge.

Let's, let's see if I, how my unassisted pull-ups. Let's see. You know, and they just didn't hit home for me. So I gotta kind of figure out like, you know. And I'm not there yet, but it's like I need to start thinking about, you know, plans, for that.

Georgie: Yeah, so I've guided a lot of people through that transition, so,

Kerry: mm-hmm.

Georgie: What I recommend is continuing, and you're not gonna use the tracker for the rest of your life.

Kerry: Right.

Georgie: But to get you through [00:24:00] that transition until you're very comfortable with what works for maintenance, it's great to use the tracker.

Kerry: Mm-hmm.

Georgie: Because we have data on how consistent you need to be with these habits to see progress.

Kerry: Mm-hmm.

Georgie: And you don't wanna change them drastically. So for example, if somebody's feeling hungry for 30 to 60 minutes before eating, which is really commonly what I recommend for consistent weight loss, and they go, I don't need to be hungry anymore. I can eat anytime.

Kerry: Right.

Georgie: Because I'm not trying to lose weight anymore. You can't just like throw out everything at the same time. So it looks more like, let me just see how it works. If I feel hungry for 15 to 20 minutes before eating instead of the 30 to 60. So stages

Kerry: Gotcha. Okay.

Georgie: Of change instead of throwing out any of the skills.

Kerry: Right. Okay.

Georgie: People sometimes also find like, so for you you have only worth it treats and only with a meal.

Kerry: Mm-hmm.

Georgie: That may be the sort of thing that just feels good to continue. Like some things we may keep doing unchanged like eating just enough. For many people feels good and they don't want to go back to eating more than enough.

Kerry: Right. Right, right, right.

Georgie: Now that I'm comfortable here, why would I want to go back to eating past comfortable, like don't miss the bloat and,

Kerry: right. Well, and I know my stomach and your levels kind of level out after a while, and even if you went back to just eating a little bit more. Sometimes I'm like, oh, I'm distressed. You know, it's like almost when you have had pizza for like months and all of a sudden you have like a couple slices of pizza. Like, my stomach ain't used to that. You know, I can't do that. But it's one of those things I don't wanna go back, you know, but that, was the trouble I had last year, you know, or the year before. It's like, okay, I gotta come up with some goals.

But I like the consistency, you know? I like the tracker and, you know, I'm good with, the treats. You know, I think that, you know only if they're worth it because, I mean, honestly, why eat anything if it's not worth it?

Georgie: Exactly. Like why would you? So sometimes people's, what they have on their tracker for [00:26:00] treats is a number.

And so then we can say like, okay, so instead of that, maybe you have like a little more wiggle room with treats, but obviously you don't wanna triple that number.

Kerry: Right.

Georgie: Because you're gonna maintain your weight, you're gonna start regaining.

Kerry: Right.

Georgie: But talking like going from seven to eight treats a week.

Kerry: Right

Georgie: that sometimes can fit in there, but. We don't wanna, obviously I already said don't throw out everything, but like some things you may keep exactly the same and other things you may feel like, you know, I would, I would enjoy a little more wiggle room here, like not being hungry. The full 30 minutes. It'd be nice to just feel hungry for a little bit less than that. Fine. So treats and hunger are usually where people are drawn to see if they can have a little bit more flexibility and keep collecting data on your weight.

Kerry: Mm-hmm.

Georgie: So that you can see if I changed this habit to be hungry for 15 minutes did my weight continue to maintain?

Kerry: Right.

Georgie: Let's say you decided, I am only gonna feel hungry and then I can just go eat immediately. I won't sit with hunger at all. If your weight started to go up, then you're like, okay, I probably took a little too much wiggle room there for my activity level and everything else. So maybe I wanna, you know, try and find that, that level of each of them, and you can write to me with a question like, I tried this and it's not working for maintenance. What should I try instead?

Kerry: Okay. I like that because I like being accountable to myself because there's nobody else I have to be accountable to. You know, it's like I don't have a lot going on in my life, you know? So it's like if I like having the accountability and some people are like, oh, you shouldn't, you know, shouldn't track all your life.

And I'm like, but it's okay. You know? I enjoy throwing a huge handful of walnuts on my oatmeal this morning. I was like, yeah. Yeah, it's like Pixie dust, but you know, it's like I'm looking at the fats, you know? It's like, okay, I didn't have as much fats for my breakfast this morning. I didn't quite hit 20. I'm like, oh, but I don't know when my lunch is gonna be. 'cause I had a, I had a meeting at one and I'm like, I don't know what was gonna happen. So I was like, I. We need something to carry over.

Georgie: Yeah.

Kerry: And so made sure I had a good amount of walnut. So

Georgie: Nice. Yeah. Anybody that's like, you should do this, you should do that. Question [00:28:00] it.

Kerry: I know. Well, and now you've probably seen like the latest thing is like, you know, all menopausal women are, women of certain age have to have something you know, eat something before they work out. That was doctor or whatever case is, but. That's just not me. It, I'm not saying it's right or wrong for anybody or if that's right or wrong information, but it'll never happen 'cause my workouts will never happen.

And like I said, I literally wake up, roll outta bed, go pee and go work out. So where am I supposed to get that banana in there? Something, you know, 'cause I don't wanna.

Georgie: This is not broken. We might not need to fix that individual piece. So yeah, I think that's a really good mindset to keep figuring out what works for you. Also, just to acknowledge what you did previously to lose weight, was it less comfortable than what you're currently doing?

Kerry: Yes. I think because, I went back to, I have to admit, two weeks ago I went back to just straight up calories. But I allow my treats. Figure them in. I'm like, oh, let's put some crackers in here at lunch.

Let's put my little chocolate in there at lunch. You know, it's like evenings don't bother me, but if I get it at lunchtime or around there, it seems to help me through those afternoons. You know, that's my, that's my downfall as the week is the afternoons. So I've planned them in there. I'm like, this is working.

I feel not restricted, you know, I, because I'm putting 'em in there. I never felt restricted before, but I don't know what it was. I think I had the good, bad food mental mentality, even though I didn't think I did.

Georgie: Yeah.

Kerry: I must have because I was doing some secret eating in there, you know, hiding it. So I'm like, those things run deep, you know, when you grow up in the age, the day and age, we all did, but

Georgie: yeah.

Kerry: You know, so my mom was the same way

Georgie: and that makes it harder to maintain weight loss, and what we were doing was more uncomfortable.

Kerry: Right.

Georgie: If you're relatively comfortable, then you're like, okay, I can just make a subtle shift here, a subtle shift there and see how it goes. Whereas if you've been like white knuckling, hating the level of effort that you're [00:30:00] putting in, you're like, I can't wait to stop this.

Kerry: Right. Well, and I think that's what it is, even the last couple Sundays, I've been making burgers, but it's like we have a lean burger. I air fry potatoes at like fries, you know, and they taste us as good.

I'm like, it's fun to actually make a meal, not that my meals are bad, you know, it's like to look forward to 'em, but it's like, you know, my husband said, he said, oh, cool, we're having burgers again. I'm like. It's fun to have a fun meal. You know, it's like we don't have to just cram in the veggies all the time, you know, like I've kind of enjoyed that the last couple Sundays. I still put, you know, a bunch of veggies on there and pickles on the side, but it's like, you know, air fried potatoes, it's still tastes just as good.

Georgie: Sounds awesome.

Kerry: Well, yeah, I've been looking for ways to make things fun and to have a competition a little bit with it, you know, to keep it interesting.

Georgie: Yeah, that's keys to success. That is why you're gonna be successful and stay successful. /So you're doing an awesome job, Kerry.

Kerry: Working, working, working. Well, thank you. I appreciate it.

Georgie: I appreciate you. I'm always an email away if you need me. Okay?

Kerry: Sounds good. I appreciate it, Georgie. Thank you.

Georgie: Bye-bye.

Kerry: Bye.