245 Family From The Heart – That’s Not What I Said

Hi Cliff and Stephanie!

Your discussion of health and fitness struggles struck a chord with me. No surprise, since I wrote about my struggles on the old GSPN community Health and Fitness Accountability forum, even before the current GSPN Community forum was established. In October 2009, I reached my goal weight, and I give credit to Cliff at every opportunity because he was talking about calorie counting at the time, which is what made the difference. Before that, I had worn out a treadmill with 30-60 minute walking/running, and lots of attempts to "eat better."

I know you guys know how to do it. Your struggle is how to fit it into your schedule, and the emotional strength to keep going. At least, that's what I heard you saying. I am there with you, even now. Recently, I heard a woman caller on Jillian Michaels' current podcast, and the caller was saying, "I reached my goal weight, and I figured I could just start eating like everyone else again." Jillian's response? "Do you see what 'everyone else' looks like?" Unfortunately, it's a sad fact that our society has gone so far from how our bodies are designed to work, that healthy habits are "weird" and there are "traps" everywhere, as Stephanie was saying.

I have some suggestions if you want to hear them, but I am a man, so I will resist jumping to the "fix" right away. Please understand that I struggle every day with how much to eat, how I look, how hard I can work out, compared to other people who seem to have it all together... I think Stephanie said it well: "I am tired of thinking about food." That's a problem a lot of people have. It's part of the slow transition we have to make in order to get healthy. I know you can do it! I am rooting for you, just like you have been cheering us on all these years.

Hi, Ravenscrafts!

I've been listening to Family from the Heart and Authentic Life Radio for some time now, and enjoying both. Thanks for some great conversation to listen to while I'm playing "taxi mom" or making dinner. :) After hearing you both talk about struggling with healthy eating/exercise habits, I'd like to suggest that you look into a Primal or Paleo way of eating. I adopted this "diet" for myself a year ago, and age 42 I am back down to a weight I last saw in college. In the past, I was successful losing weight on Weight Watchers, but I got soooo tired of counting points and was hungry a LOT. (Then of course I got pregnant with our second child, so the weight struggle started all over again a few years later.) At first, the paleo/primal thing seems restrictive (no grains, legumes, sugar, or seed oils, limited or no dairy, depending on how your body reacts to it; no processed foods), but once I got the hang of it, it felt like effortless weight loss--no calorie counting, no feeling hungry because I had used up my points, etc. It does take being willing to cook more, which can be challenging.  If you're interested, check out marksdailyapple.com or balancedbites.com. The book that got me into this way of eating is The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson, but there are plenty of other books that put their spin on it, too.

I know this sounds like an advertisement, but I still get on the scale and marvel that I'm maintaining this weight without struggling against my own body's hunger and cravings. Hope this helps! Thanks again for sharing your lives with us. :)