Ceri Yates shares how she tried and then ditched the toxic diet culture before finding her own way to successful, sustainable weight loss. You’ll love her story in this episode of A Healthy Bite. (The podcast player located at the bottom of this post; you can also listen on iTunes or Spotify!)

Ceri shares a glimpse of what it was like to dip her toes into a weight loss multi-level marketing company after seeing a friend’s post on social media. However, she quickly realized it was more about making money than her health. The MLM, it seemed, was also part of the toxic diet culture of which she wanted no part.

To begin with, Ceri was comfortable with accepting her own body; however, want the stamina and energy to keep up with her loved ones. She also wanted to avoid some of the health issues that had been plaguing her for years when she ate dairy and wheat.

Ceri’s before and after photos from losing 80 pounds without participating in toxic diet culture.

Because Ceri was focused on wellness for herself and her family, she prepared meals at home with organic vegetables and even grew some of her own food in her backyard garden.

Ceri shares the four things she felt helped her improve her physical health by reducing her body weight. This eliminated the stress that had been put on her feet and allowed her to experience a heightened sense of well-being.

Ceri doesn’t buy into diet fads or fat-shaming either. She simply felt the pain that many of us do when walking around in larger bodies.

In spite of some already good eating habits, Ceri still struggled with weight gain. She believed she was already making some good choices and continued those when she implemented her new diet.

1. Sleeping 7-8 hours each night.
2. Moving her body. Ceri enjoys hiking and stays active with her kids.
3. Getting out in the sunshine.
4. Avoiding sugar, dairy, and gluten because they are inflammatory and cause her skin to flare up, as well as other symptoms that indicated she had an intolerance.

The Modifications Ceri made to her already healthy food choices

1. Mental Shift – Ceri says she quit making excuses and that was the most important thing for her.
2. Anchor Meals in Protein – ”Protein is an essential component of a healthy diet and is a focus of research programs seeking to optimize health at all stages of life. The focus on protein as a nutrient often centers on its thermogenic and satiating effect, and when included as part of a healthy diet, its potential to preserve lean body mass.” 1
3. Drink Water – Staying hydrated and reaching for water instead of beverages with calories, especially alcohol. Ceri is a fan of beer and still drinks the occasional craft beer, however, she drastically reduced her alcohol intake.
4. Eat within the first hour of waking – Choose a high-quality shake or another easy protein source then continue to eat protein-forward meals when hungry.

Why The Diet Culture is Toxic

Toxic Diet culture may trigger overwhelming feelings of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and fear. Meanwhile, it glorifies weight loss and dieting to the point that you may feel like a failure if you can’t adhere to its strict rules.

What do you consider diet culture?

The National Eating Disorders Association Health suggests that diet culture is a set of beliefs encouraging views that being skinny is ideal and that fat is bad. Health at Every Size (HAES) challenges the value of promoting weight loss and dieting behavior and argues for a shift in focus to weight-neutral outcomes. 2

The toxic diet culture can have a negative impact on self-esteem. In some cases, it can lead to disordered eating or eating disorders.

Disordered eating may include a heightened focus on appearance, insecurities surrounding the number on the scale, and skipping meals. Bulimia and anorexia are eating disorders.

Some examples of toxic diet culture include:

• following a restrictive diet with the goal of losing weight
• eliminating an entire food group for weight loss purposes
• obsessive calorie counting
• feeling guilty for eating
• over-exercising to burn calories
• feeling that you need to look a certain way to be accepted in society
• extreme long-term restriction of food groups
• fat-shaming
• taking laxatives or other quick-fix weight loss aids

Finding the balance with intuitive eating

Does diet culture make you feel like you have to be thin? Absolutely.

Diet culture glorifies thinness and exacerbates fatphobia. Healthcare providers may even participate in toxic diet culture by infusing weight stigma into medical care. So, rather than getting the evidence-based intervention that a thin person with the same health condition would get, obese people get diet recommendations.

Research shows many of these recommendations are unlikely to lead to sustainable weight loss. Yes, many doctors, dietitians, and nutritionists discriminate against people with obesity. Unfortunately, the medical industry is rife with toxic diet culture practices.

Anti-Diet

You want to be the healthiest version of yourself that you can be no matter what body size. Finding the balance means good mental health and a positive body image. We are all unique in our body types but the diet industry would like us to believe that is untrue.

Carbs are not the enemy and keto isn’t for everyone. Food doesn’t fix everything; whether you are adding or subtracting, food intake isn’t the only issue when it comes to changing our eating habits.

If you’re self-medicating with food, it’s your lifestyle that needs changing, not your diet. Practice self-love by learning to cope with emotions without using food.

If, like Ceri, you choose to work on your relationship with food and get real about what is causing you to be unhappy with your body size, seek a registered dietitian who will help you get to the root of your unique challenge. It may not have anything to do with food at all.

Ceri’s Top Tips

1. Sleep 7-8 hours per night
2. Move your body
3. Get a moderate amount of sunshine
4. Avoid allergens and triggers
5. Work on your mindset
6. Anchor meals in protein
7. Drink all the water and reduce alcohol
8. Eat within the first hour of waking, and every 3-4 hours when hungry (protein!)

Remember, quick fixes aren’t sustainable. Change your mindset & weight loss will follow.

Transcripts

Announcer: [00:00:00] Welcome to a healthy bite. You’re one nibble closer to a more satisfying way of life, a healthier you and bite size bits of healthy motivation. Now let’s dig in on the dish with Rebecca Huff.

Rebecca: I am excited today and have my friend Ceri here. We are going to be talking about something that she’s been doing to lose weight and I love. Don’t don’t click away yet because this is, not a toxic diet culture podcast episode. This is all about healthy weight loss and doing it without the toxicity of the diet culture that we see.

I’m so proud of what you’ve done. And I’m so thankful that you’re willing to share with us. So tell me first, a little bit about yourself and then we’ll get into what you’ve been doing and how much weight you’ve lost. 

Ceri: My name is Ceri. And I am turning 40 this year [00:01:00] and I have four children. We homeschool and I have a little home business that I work as well as some audio visual work. That is so to say I’m busy as I guess is no surprise, but I think being just a mom in general, your plate’s already full. And so I have cared for everybody pretty much exclusively since, since becoming a mother.

Becoming a wife or whatever for the past 13 plus years. And, and, I haven’t really taken the best care of myself, even when I felt like I was. And now arriving at 40 I’d decided that I wanted to do things differently. And, and that started pre pre third, I guess, 39. I started taking me into account and, and that just really changes.

Like my kids are finally at ages where they can kind of take care of themselves for the most part and then need less from me to Beck and call, I guess, answer all their needs. They can get their own drinks and get their own snacks and so forth. So that really kind of played into it. And, and I was [00:02:00] just really tired of being fat.

That sounds really stupid, but I have lived most of my adult life thinking that, well, God just wanted me to be a big girl and, and it must be the right thing to be anyway, because that’s who my husband married. I was a heavy when I met him. And, and so I just assumed that that’s just how I was supposed to be in.

And I don’t know, I, I think I saw a couple other friends in my life that were, that were doing differently and I was like, well, if they can do it and they’ve got kids and if they can do it, I can do it. And, and I had to really change my mindset. 

Rebecca: So if you don’t mind telling me, like, when you say you were tired of being fat, what were some of the things that you were tired?

Ceri: Well, I had basically every day I would I’d like my back would just tell me, like, getting up out of bed. I feel like, like a crotchety old woman. And like, it would take a few, few good steps before I would feel like I could like walk straight up and not be like crippled and [00:03:00] I have a really good bed. So like, I feel like that should never have been the issue.

And then like, I stand pretty much all day long between working in my kitchen or schooling or whatever. Active all the time. And so I basically put off wearing any shoes except my Birkenstocks, because my feet would just kill me. Like I love, I say, I love shoes. But I loved shoes and I just couldn’t wear anything.

Except my Birkenstocks, my back would kill me. My like, and I always keep up with my kids too. So if they’re skating, I’m skating. If they’re biking, I’m biking. And so I was always able to keep up, not necessarily. Yeah. Maybe as efficiently as somebody who was in shape could, but I always did what they were doing to go to the trampoline park on jumping and, and and so it just became part of the.

Hey, I didn’t want to buy bigger pants. I didn’t want to have to size up again and clothes. And I just, I just was at a point in my life where I just didn’t want to hurt. And I knew things. I knew things were like, I could be, could be better with small [00:04:00] changes. And so that was my, my like biggest starting point was like, you don’t have to be, I don’t want to be a skinny mini.

I don’t want to be a certain weight to justify. My health. 

Rebecca: I thought so when you were motivated to lose weight, it wasn’t like, oh, I want to look like this super skinny model.

I want to be, you know, this number on the scale or this particular size, it wasn’t that it was, we wanted to be able to keep up with your kids. You wanted to feel good and you. Buying new clothes when you gain weight, right? It wasn’t, it wasn’t this mental image of no fat shaming involved. You wanted to feel good enough to go about the mom life that you needed to do.

Ceri: Right? Yeah. 10 years ago, I really got turned on to specific bloggers and other people doing like whole food style. Yeah. Lifestyle is the food, babe. That organic mom and I, cause I feel like that was about the same time, the a hundred days of [00:05:00] real food. And those people were influential in changing the way that my diet already was.

And so the fact that I was still packing on weight, I can, I can tell you a lot of it was beer weight, but I like, I feel like there was no, there was no understanding for me between the last 10 years. Like I hate calorie counting. Doing those very, like, I don’t want to feel deprivation deprivation and along the way.

And so I’ve learned a lot, but, but I already was doing so much. Right. It was just, there was definitely some room for improvement.

Rebecca: So you were doing a lot of the right things. You were eating healthy, you were very active already doing all of those things with your kids. It wasn’t like you were sitting around all day or being sedentary.

Ceri: Right. Yeah. I mean I definitely wanted that a more fit body and I should’ve had it considering how much movement I get, how much, like we’ve love to hike. We eat whole foods. I mean, it just was, it was just, it was [00:06:00] really challenging for me to understand why I had gotten to the point that I had, but I think I had to get there in order to.

Understanding how to take care of my body. 

Rebecca: And so what did you learn? Like at some point you were like, okay, this clicks, I got to do something differently. I’m already eating healthy. I’m moving my body. I’m not sitting around what worked, what did you do? 

Ceri: Okay. So I’m gonna like get on that toxic culture, diet culture train for a minute.

I saw a picture of one of my middle school girlfriends. And she had posted like a before and current and there was dramatic weight loss. I knew that the, the, the reason for her post was clickbait. Like she needed, she needed to put that out there so that people would follow up with her. And, and and I did, I said, okay, what have you been doing to lose all this weight?

And she was like, oh, it’s great. None of her posts would draw back to, or turn back to the program that she was using. And I thought that was really strange. I was like, they would [00:07:00] say like average weight losses, this on this program. And, but obviously in the pictures, all the ones that are being shared or.

Massive drops. And so it was really kind of strange to me, but I had to know like the curiosity killed the cat. And I, messaged her I was like, all right, what are you doing? And well, I’m a, like a whole foods nerd, so I need you to tell me the ingredients.

Like if you have to take a picture of these products, cause she basically told me it was a, a meal plan where they, you eat five of their fuelings a day. And I mean, I was like, I’m going to need you to send me some nutrition facts. And so she did, she sent me a PDF file that was full of all like a lot of the products.

But I was looking at the nutrition labels. They weren’t perfect, but they, they weren’t terrible. And I was, I was like, okay, I think I could try this. Like I’m desperate to just start and doing something and I hadn’t quite started it. It was like I was too busy planning what I was going to do or, or thinking about what I was going to do.

And I just wasn’t doing [00:08:00] anything. I was like, I’m going to, I’m just gonna do. I had my products in hand. And, but what I really quickly learned as I’m learning about the ingredients and then I’m side researching like the effects of soy protein and, and other, other facets of it that I’m like, this just doesn’t core align with me and my, my needs because.

They kind of, kind of set up are to eat 900 to 1100 calories a day, which I feel like is really, really low. Like for anybody wanting to do a sustainable diet, that it just doesn’t make sense and about deprivation. Yeah. And so, no wonder why people are dropping massive amounts of weight, if they can stick to this because you’re in a huge calorie deficit.

And I don’t, I think the calorie deficit for weight loss is important. But it has to be done in a way that you’re not sitting around just thinking about how, what you’re going to eat. That’s I think that’s when most people fail, it’s like, you’re, you’re depriving yourself. And then you’re like, oh, I [00:09:00] can’t have that.

Can’t have that. But the biggest, I think impact for me was my oldest daughter. Who’s 13. She’s like, mom, you’re not eating like, like that’s a really healthy, healthy place to be, to show your, your kids who are growing up in this culture of, you know, they’re going to see the ads to have the skinny waist.

And I think the songs even reinforce it. , I don’t want to be that person who isn’t eating. And then they’re wondering why. I’m not eating for the sake of losing weight. They don’t see anything wrong with me at 240 pounds. They just have never, I mean, they’ve never outright called me fat.

I think my son was like, you’re a chubby mom or whatever, but he’s seven. So that’s typical. So I had these products in hand and I was working through their book or their homework. And they’re, I don’t remember how many lessons there were, but I had worked through pretty much all of them.

Like I was. Consuming it like a lesson a day, whereas you’re supposed to be like a lesson a week. And so I had gotten through basically all of the lessons up until their [00:10:00] maintenance lesson, like where you would switch over to once you’ve lost all the way you’re going to lose. And I had gotten through all that within just a matter of several days.

And. Six months or whatever it would have been. I don’t remember. Cause I was like, I’ve got to know all of that about this, but what happened was I, then I was like, number one, the food is expensive for what you’re getting. And like, and then also it’s not the greatest ingredients and just this doesn’t feel right to me.

 It doesn’t seem sustainable because expense wise, I can’t afford to buy like $500 worth of bars and shakes and then, and fake packaged items. It just doesn’t work for me. It doesn’t make sense. And so, and I’d finally gotten to the place in the book that was like, if you don’t want to buy our supplements, you could eat these foods.

 I was like, well, if they would just have told me this from the get go, I would have saved myself a lot of money, but of course that’s not how they make money. They make money on selling the products and. I was like, I’m not doing anymore. Oh, I [00:11:00] should preface the, say that the, my, my friend my up line at that point, she was like, after my first or box was ordered, like a week later, she was really encouraging, going ahead and ordering a second round because.

Shipping delays. And it’s just more, it’s more hurry up and make that money because you’ll find out real quick if people are going to stick with it. And and I don’t think many people stick with it, to be honest because I, well, again, it’s just, it’s not sustainable, but, but her up. I was already bulldog in me to go ahead and sign up as a coach.

So I can be part of the, or you just seem like you have the right attitude and you’re going to go far with this. And I was like, I haven’t even lost six pounds yet. Like calm down. I mean, the first week, you know, you lose all that water. We, anytime you start a new, new diet, usually that week is a waterway or whatever you want to call it.

I don’t know. But you usually do. Pounds that first week. And I did because that’s normal. And then the next week it was like [00:12:00] ma like tapered off. And I was like getting to where I was. I was, I was thinking, this is not doable for me. My kids are already asking questions. I, there was a lot of excuses I had made in trying to start with the weight loss journey anyway.

One being , we eat at my husband’s grandmother’s every other weekend and she cooks starches. So I was like, I don’t know how I’m gonna make this work. Every time I’ve ever tried to lose weight before it’s like, I can do great all week and then sabotage the weekend with the. Going to my husband’s grandmother’s house.

And I think for me, that was one of the things that I had to, I had to change. I had to decide that her food while it tastes good, it’s not doing my body any benefits specifically because I have an inflammatory, the psoriasis that I have. I know that all the starches don’t do well for that purpose.

And so very short-lived little stint. I decided that I would see it through for the six weeks. And then I think I ended up shipping most of it to my friend in Alaska, but I decided [00:13:00] that I was going to do it my own way.

 And I went into like massive research mode on. All of the diets that you can think of. WeightWatchers Atkins, ketosis, all the things and trim healthy mama.

I I was looking at basically the baselines of all of their, their plans and really, it just came down to eating a smaller meal. Separated out over the course of the day. Like, and so and then also protein focused. And, and then of course, what was important to me was keeping it whole food centered and keeping it simple in general because when you’re busy and you’re, you still know you have to eat, but you want it to be quality.

The first thing you can do is, is just cook that way. And like I said, it’s really easy for me to, just to go ahead and, and keep it simple. Knock out the white foods, essentially white flour, white potatoes, white rice, all the things that are like a loaded [00:14:00] with, with carbs are loaded with sugar, convert to sugar, et cetera.

And so that’s what I, that’s what I decided I would, I would make myself a, like a plan of attack and stay with protein as well. As my foundation and eat every couple of four hours or three to four hours, or when I’m feeling hungry. And, and then my biggest other crutch was alcohol. Like I had to, I had to stop drinking daily for just purposes of empty calories.

It tastes good, but, but it wasn’t worth it because it wasn’t doing me any favors, used to, I think when I would drink that at least get like the buzz, the, the relaxation or whatever, but any more. Commonplace and. No longer filling the need other than tasting good. So I I stripped it down and, and along with my coffee in the morning, I drink a shake and then I’m usually good until lunchtime.

And and then by lunchtime, I eat leftovers from whatever I cooked the night before. And if I don’t have that available, [00:15:00] I usually throw myself together a chicken salad. Then I have, maybe I have a protein bar for snack, or maybe I have then depending on which, what time it is by that point.

And then every night may my daughter likes to watch movies in the evenings. If I want a snack, then it will either eat a Lily’s chocolate bar together or I’d put berries and peanut butter, like natural peanut butter in a bowl.

And I call it my peanut butter and jelly bowl and it tastes amazing. , but mostly simplicity, just whole real food and, and frequent and protein based. I mean, that’s really my life. Big to do. And I didn’t start incorporating exercise really like formal exercise 

until like the beginning of this year, I decided to change my focus from weight loss to. Starting to get stronger, like stronger muscles, stronger just endurance or whatever. So, and I don’t do anything like gym worthy. It’s more like pick a few exercises, do them, do them and then be done. And we usually take after dinner walks just because we enjoy [00:16:00] that.

Not because we’re trying to like burn off some sort of. Dinner choice or whatever. So I will say I eat a lot of cauliflower these days that I like cauliflower rice and pizza crust I make, because I know I have a problem with gluten and dairy. Dairy will break my face out like a teenager if I consume even cheese and butter and things like that, it’s I, I don’t eliminate it completely, but I definitely am not sitting down with a bowl of ice cream anymore, even the keto kind, because it’s still got dairy base in it.

And, and then of course the sugar, but. I’m saying pretty far away from wheat, unless it’s, it’s like the sprouted grain kind or whatever, and that’s very minimal, so just pick, give me whole foods and I’m good. 

Rebecca: There was a couple of things that you said that I thought were important. One of the things with. Your kids noticed when you weren’t eating. And that’s, that’s one of the things, if I follow any kind of restrictive diet, whether it be keto or trim, healthy mama or low carb, even my kids notice.

And I sometimes kind of joke [00:17:00] around with my husband and say, they’re pushers, because if they’re eating popcorn, they want me to eat popcorn. If they’re eating ice cream, they want me to eat ice cream and kids really pick up on this. I, I shared this in another post, another video that I made about what causes us to gain weight.

And I read a really interesting article about former first lady, Barbara Bush, how she never talked about her own body weight, or put herself down in front of her kids. And her daughters were talking about how amazing that was and that’s something that I did wrong with my kids that always talks about.

Yeah, I didn’t like my appearance and being overweight, you know? And I remember how, when my mom would do like the fat-free diet or the cabbage soup diet, how I think how, you know, oh, wow. my mom never was over really overweight. She would always be dieting and it was a big deal.

And my dad always put down people who were. And I’m really lived in a toxic environment for, you know, [00:18:00] any I wasn’t overweight and I, it wasn’t ever directed at me, but what parents sometimes don’t get is that kids hear this stuff. If it, even if it’s not directed at them, it’s ingrained into who you become.

And so for me, because of my dad’s opinion about people who are overweight. It’s this, there it’s all their fault. They need to stop eating so much. They’re lazy. And it really got into my head. I never wanted him to not be proud of me. So if I was a little overweight or if I had to buy a bigger pair of pants, because I just gave birth to a child right then, oh, I’m a, you know, something’s wrong with me?

I’m my dad is going to think I’m slothful. And so it’s really important. And I think it’s so amazing that you notice that, you know, okay. My kids are noticing when I’m not eating and there’s nothing wrong with eating bars and having shakes if that’s what you want to do, but eating bars and shakes three meals a day while you’re making something else for your kids, it’s not [00:19:00] sustainable.

Ceri: Yeah, I think that’s why. Back when I dabbled in the trim healthy mama space, it was really helpful that most, all the food I was preparing from their cookbooks and stuff. We’re crowd pleasers. Like none of them, my kids, I mean, my kids are pretty good eaters anyway. And thankfully a lot of those have stayed in rotation.

And I like when they have, they have their different types of foods that are there S satisfying meals and they’re energizing meals. We tend to gravitate towards those satisfying meals. And, and so, like, it’s really easy because I refuse to make different meals

I could still make that same thing for my family and then add a side of sweet potatoes or brown rice or whatever I was making. And so I would just add to it cause I don’t want to make those different meals and I don’t want it to look different. The big thing, our family is a huge huge biscuits and gravy household.

So on the weekends I would be making biscuits and gravy for everybody, and I just wouldn’t have that. I would have my, [00:20:00] my whatever shake or bar or whatever that I didn’t think that was like, mom, you love this. Be gravy, like biscuits and gravy. Doesn’t love me back. And I said, I keep saying I had to break up with beer because beer doesn’t love me back the same way that I love beer and, and taking ownership of.

Those spaces, knowing, knowing how it makes my body feel afterwards. Like, I don’t struggle with any like IBS type swab I used to. But I don’t struggle with that. Those type of like, oh, it just tears my stomach up to eat a, B or C, but the next day I’m going to deal with the effects of it. And like, whether I’m broken out with.

hives like eating a bowl of ice fitting literally will make my whole face just itch and, and and then break out. And so like those, I don’t like to feel that way. It’s just not worth it. And so I think but not taking, not taking I can’t blame my problems on people or like my husband’s grandmother who is a phenomenal cook.

And she like at 93 years old, she’s still making a full [00:21:00] like Thanksgiving meal. Every time we come down. And it’s like, at some point, my kids now know that those aren’t the best choices for me and it’s okay, but I’m still eating. Like she will guilt trip me every single time and and be like, ah, I just don’t enjoy cooking because you can’t eat it anymore.

And, and I’m like like it is hard, but I have to take me into account for a change and, and, and knowing what suits my body the best. And so I think now having a healthy relationship with food in general has been really important so that my kids. No, like they know the difference between good food and garbage and, and they also know that like, I’m not going to let them just sit there and just in Gorge on, on garbage ingredients.

So I try not to even buy it. I mean, we still, we are not perfect. And we have, you know, our convenience chips and things like that. Ready to go in the pantry. So for the most part, they are expected to eat whole foods center diets too. So right. Not having differences [00:22:00] like that has been really helpful. I think like keeping it, keeping us eating all the same things like, 

Rebecca: yeah, that’s sustainable making two separate meals is not sustainable.

So there were a couple of things that you had said that I thought were really important. One was what we just talked about with the kids and how they noticed you were eating differently and that wasn’t really fun for them. My kids are the same way. The other thing you were talking about is which I feel like a lot of diet foods and things like that are made with less than optimal ingredients and.

 If you’re going to go through the trouble and the expense of buying all of this food, why not let it be like really good for you? Instead of unwrapping this substance, that’s, probably going to be helping you lose weight, but is it really adding nutrition? 

You had shared an Instagram post a while back and you had. [00:23:00] Four or five points that you made. And I thought Carrie wrapped that up really nicely. Do you know those off the top of your head? Could you repeat. 

So like I said, anchor your meals and protein don’t really care what kind. But I would say keep it whole food-based. I’m going to say avoid soy protein, isolate like the plague. And if you have milk sensitive, Stay away from whey, but protein a hundred percent. some people would recommend upwards of 50 grams per meal.

I’m more in the 20 grams camp because that seems like a doable meal. So that was my first one protein. 

Sleep. I like some people aren’t great sleepers. I happened to be a great sleeper. When I go to bed, it doesn’t take me hours to wind down. I’m I’m pretty good at that.

When I turn off the lights, I can go to sleep, but seven to eight hours every night, like don’t jeopardize on that, that means going to bed at 830. Like my husband has to, so he can get up at five o’clock. That’s what he needs to do. Like get good sleep and [00:24:00] then eat every, like I say, four hours.

That’s usually like that window three to four hours. Keep, and I would say eat when you’re hungry, like listen to your body. So that’s, that’s one of my big things.

I really do feel like one of my biggest detriments was that I was putting off eating until lunch time.

And then I was overeating and pretty much scrounging at that point, as opposed to just having like a. I think all of that. Okay. So we’ll go back to the mental shift and that, that mental shift is huge because you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink. It’s it’s the, the, the, yeah.

I want to lose weight. I want to lose weight, but if you’re not willing to do anything differently than you were doing yesterday, Then it’s not going to work. Like you don’t have to do it all in one day. I understood from the very get go that I, when I set out and I said, I wanted to be fit by 40. I started at 39, like the beginning of January with that mindset of, I [00:25:00] want to be different a year and a half from now, not tomorrow because it’s, it’s unrealistic.

Like I didn’t get fat overnight. i definitely have been a large person for a long time. But, but yeah, I knew that it wasn’t going to be. Quick fix. And I knew that that nobody could do it, but me and as much as I liked the idea of coaches and people doing along like the buddy system. When it boiled down to it.

Like I knew that I had to hold myself accountable. I knew that nobody in my house has weight issues that they’re, that are working on either. So to say, my husband needs to be on board. I mean, it’s nice to have his support and encouragement, but truly he’s not changing anything. He’s still drinking as much beer as he chooses to.

And he’s still smuggling in his little donut holes to work. And like, so like he, I knew it came back on me. And I had to want differently for myself and do differently for myself. My mom used to try and motivate me to lose weight by saying, if you’ll [00:26:00] lose the weight, I’ll buy you a new wardrobe.

 Because that was always an issue for me, because money has never been just abundant in my house. Like extra money. Doesn’t go towards towards new wardrobes. Thankfully, we were very, very comfortable with the thrift stores. And so that works out well right now, because like I have dropped six dress, six pant sizes or whatever 18 to 10 is like, I’m pretty sure I could probably go down again, but I’m like, I’ll keep wearing the clothes I got because it’s summer.

And I can just wear lots of dresses and be fine. So she used to try and encourage me in those ways. I can do this, but ultimately it just never, never, never stuck. So, so the mental focus had to change and I don’t know why it took me so long.

The weight loss part has really been easy. It was the mental, the mental shift. And maybe it was that I just had to get to the point that I was at in order to do it. I don’t know. But you can look at everybody else and say, Ooh, I want to, I want to lose weight like that person or Ooh. I want to look cute in said clothes or whatever. In order to make this, this weight loss shift [00:27:00] happen, it had to say it had to be for me. A big mental, mental shift and just saying, it’s your time to take care of yourself?

Like you’ve put off this for far too long, like just do it. Truly it was just the it was the conversations that I was having.

In those moments of hard, like I was having it with my sister and with my mom and with my kids. And like, like, this is really. It’s really hard for me to sit there and watch you guys like chow down on all the foods that I’m eating and I’m sitting over here, ina the bar, like anyway, so some of those hard conversations I had to have with myself in those moments and understanding that we really, as Americans specifically, I can’t speak to any other culture, but like we.

All the time. So like our, everything is celebratory. Everything has to have cake or dessert or like, so that culture is really, really, really dangerous, especially if you’re sensitive to gluten and sugar and, and things are [00:28:00] inflammatory, but cutting out inflammatories, like, Hey, guess what? I actually feel good.

Like, like I don’t hurt all the time. 

So that mental shift got you to where you need to be because you got yourself to realize that it’s not.

Deprivation. If the result for you is feeling better because your goal was to feel better. You weren’t shooting for, you know, being a certain size, you weren’t shooting for a number on the scale. You wanted to feel better. And in your mind, you’re like, okay, when I eat these foods, my face breaks out. When I eat these foods, I feel like crap.

So that mental shift got you to make better choices and really the weight loss was just a side effect because you feel better now. It wasn’t about the weight necessarily, which you’re kind of unsure. You’re happy that you lost weight, but for you, the motivating factor was feeling better and living longer and being there for your family.

Yeah. [00:29:00] And doing it. Yeah. It’s yeah. It’s definitely been I just didn’t want to hurt. Like it doesn’t, it’s like, it’s really annoying when I know others specifically in my family and so forth that like still do the grunts and groans and I’m like, I’m involved. Like I said, I’ve always kept up with my kids and done what my kids are doing even through pain, but I’m like, gosh, it’s so much better now.

Like if I can be an encouragement to anybody that like, just make one small change. I don’t care what it is. Just make one small change and go from that and see what happens. But I mean, doesn’t everybody want to feel better? Like, like, why is that so hard for people? It doesn’t, it doesn’t seem like rocket science to me now.

Right. And I, but now like for you, because giving those things up, like you talked about the alcohol seat, it can be different for anyone. I’ve never really been big on alcohol. It’s always made me feel bad, even if I did enjoy it in social settings or whatever I would try, but it always makes me feel bad from the [00:30:00] very first sip.

 That hasn’t been one of my vices, it’s different for everyone. And I think that’s where it’s so important. What you talked about with the mental shift is that you have to work through your own issues. And so now, like whenever you have the choice of, I mean, it’s not like you gave up every drop of alcohol forever.

Ceri: No, I very much, still very much enjoy it. I had had a bear yesterday and I’ll have a beer again probably today, but I’m like, I’m just. I don’t keep it in stock in my fridge. I’m like I do like my husband does and, and I, I like, I don’t seek it out. Like that’s like, not my number one priority anymore. I say that like, I used to be sweet tea for me.

My mom would bring me a sweet tea when we’d go to work. We’ve had sweet tea in my house, all growing up. That was our Kool-Aid. And so like sweet tea. I mean, gosh, if you think about just, just empty, it’s just empty calories. And I say that like, again, I’m not a calorie counter. Oh, I do journal. Like I, I use the little, my fitness pal thing to log my [00:31:00] food.

That’s more for me for accountability. Like a, did I eat and be. You can very much quickly tell if you start logging your food, how much about calorie-wise or eating each meal. And so, like, I know that if I ate a big lunch, I’d maybe. Don’t eat such, such an absorbent dinner or whatever, but like, ultimately at the end of the day, I’m just like, did I eat meat?

Did I eat protein? Did I like, did I put enough of those on my plate? If I put enough of that on my plate first and then fill it in with the rest of vegetables or whatever, then I’m pretty happy. Like I don’t fixate on any one particular thing, but, but as of like January I don’t remember exactly how much weight I’d lost by then, because I’m at 80 pounds right now.

And but whatever January came along and I started kinda like looking through my little postcards. I had made myself where had like, what were my whys, what are my goals to feel better to diminish some of my sorority. Buildup and I have I wish I could like [00:32:00] show pictures, but that’s a, it’s one of those, like, you wouldn’t know, unless I’d like draw documented all on the way and how bad it’s been in different kinds of my life versus what it looks like now.

And like I’m unmedicated on that. I used to use to do medication for psoriasis and it really didn’t help, but, but anyway, that’s sort of another sidebar story, but 

Rebecca: And you don’t go through it. Like you said, you were going through this mental shift. You weren’t like, you didn’t have a goal of a before and after picture, you were just trying to feel better.

So it’s not like you took pictures along the way, but also total, you’re saying as of right now, you’ve lost around 80 pounds. Okay. 

Ceri: I’ve lost about 80 pounds, but like I said, in January, I decided to to, to shift my. My mindset of now, now that you kind of have, I have my rhythm established my, my routine, so to speak I always keep an, like, I use those RX bars.

I keep those in my purse for if I’m going to be somewhere long cinches at the time where I don’t have to make a bad decision, like going through the drive-through and grabbing a greasy hamburger or whatever, you know, self up for success. Yeah. [00:33:00] So I’ve now established those routines. And so now. Like when I went on vacation, I had enjoyed a piece of term, a suit, no questions asked, like, that’s my favorite dessert.

It’s loaded with Barry and all the things that are like, not great for me, sugar and all the things, but I enjoyed it. Like every bit, every dry, dry, I didn’t even share. Like, it wasn’t even like that. So like, and then there was multiple times throughout, throughout my little 10 day hiatus. I took that. I was.

I’m going to enjoy this entire, I mean, it wasn’t, it wasn’t even like I’m doing disservice to my body at that point. It’s saying, you know what? You’re allowed to like live life on moderation and also enjoy abundantly all the garbage and it’d be okay. Right. I’m not appointing. 

Rebecca: It’s a conscious decision at that.

Ceri: Right. 

Rebecca: Awesome. Well, this was fun. I have watched this journey because you came over one night and we had cooked and eaten together. And we talked about that a little bit.

And [00:34:00] from there I’ve watched, you know, you go through the. Almost metamorphosis where you like came to all these realizations and, got to where you are today. I love the fact that you put the focus on not because you want it to look a certain way. I love that you put the focus on eating healthy because you wanted to feel better and you were doing it in a way that, you don’t have to explain to your children, like why you’re not eating and all of this.

I just thought you did it in such a way that was exactly the opposite of the toxic diet culture that I really want to get away from, because it’s so damaging, not just to you, but to the next generation. I know my kids hated it when I dieted, when I would say things about dieting or losing weight.

And I was just so amazed and so proud the way you did it. Clearly for our health losing weight is important sometimes, but yeah, [00:35:00] but I mean, just focusing on it from that perspective, as opposed to the toxic diet culture perspective, I thought that you did such a good job of that.

And I wanted to share that. There was other people out there that, you know, I mean, like we’re never the ones to body shame people at all. We’ve both been through that and we know how toxic it is, but there are times, like you said, with your feet hurting, I’ve experienced that. And it’s like, I need to lose weight for my health.

Ceri: I think I I want to be an encouragement to others and I want to find a way to help people similarly that the, some of these MLMs are doing, but I want to do it organically. And it’s really hard because people can look at you and say like, I just almost didn’t recognize you.

You’ve just lost so much weight. And how did you do it? And I’m like, well, it’s going to sound really silly. I ate right. And not exercise now. Like I say, exercise really is, I’ve always been active, so that’s been really hard, but really it does, you are what you eat. And so just skipping dessert may not be[00:36:00] 

enough, like, maybe look at what you’re eating and see if it’s doing your body a service, but I want to figure out how to plug into my, the people that have reached out to me and figure out a way to help them and, and, and like, but again, I really do believe that. You have to want it for yourself and you have to do it for yourself.

And I don’t, I mean, other than maybe listening to different people’s stories, maybe motivating enough to get you going, but ultimately it falls in your lap and you have to take responsibility and ownership for it. 

Rebecca: That’s awesome. I think that was a great note to end on.

Thank you so much for sharing your story with me, because I really do think it’s going to help a lot of people because it’s kind of a gray area. I feel like, yes we want to be accepting our bodies the way they are, but at the same time, we want to be the healthiest version of. Of ourselves that we can be.

And I think that you found that balance. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. We’re proud [00:37:00] of it. Awesome.

Thanks for listening. Please rate and review. So other people can learn about this podcast. Find out more about sleep, hygiene, eating healthy, tasty recipes, zero waste lifestyle, and lots more on that organic mom.com. Help us spread the word. And stay healthy.

Sources

1 Arentson-Lantz E, Clairmont S, Paddon-Jones D, Tremblay A, Elango R. Protein: A nutrient in focus. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2015 Aug;40(8):755-61. doi: 10.1139/apnm-2014-0530. Epub 2015 Jul 22. PMID: 26197807.

2 Bacon, L., Aphramor, L. Weight Science: Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift. Nutr J 10, 9 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2891-10-9

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