Foodist with Darya Rose, Ph.D

Ashley says she's lucky that she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia at the age of 30. It's a diagnosis that isn't always easy to get, but at a young age Ashley felt she still had a lot of options to try to treat her illness without medication. After consulting with her doctor, Ashley decided to adopt a low-inflammation diet (lots of vegetables and fruits, no fried foods and minimal processed foods), along with a low impact exercise regimen of yoga and walking 10,000 steps per day. In this instance, Ashley's history of dieting may have actually been helpful, since she found it relatively easy to overhaul her healthstyle to make these changes, and it only took about three months for her symptoms to start improving dramatically. An added bonus is that Ashley's new habits have helped her deal with stress and emotional issues she has struggled with on and off throughout her life, and she's been able to stay off of antidepressants for four years. This is a fun conversation and we go into a lot of details about her morning routine, eating habits and favorite meals. Ashley was also kind enough to share with us a few of her favorite recipes below. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

"It's like 1000% or nothing at all." ~Rachelle Rachelle was in a snowboarding accident when she was 15 years old that cost her the use of both of her legs. After 18 years of battling both illness and body image issues, she is finally in a place where she is healthy and has a better relationship with food, and she's ready to feel strong and fit again. She'd also love to lose 20 lbs. Rachelle believes that being in a wheelchair makes getting enough exercise too difficult and time consuming to be practical for her busy life. She's juggling both a family and a career as a lawyer, so it's clear that both time and physical limitations create barriers for her workout habits. After a little digging in our conversation though, it starts to become clear that Rachelle's psychological barriers are the main obstacle. All her life Rachelle has been ambitious. Her previous attempts at getting fit involved intense exercise programs with personal trainers and sports like boxing––things that take a ton of time, energy and resources. She knows that with her career and family activities like this cause her to burn out, but when she compares herself to her husband who has lost 20 lbs in three months she believes she needs to be doing intense training like this in order to see results. Together Rachelle and I work to reframe her goals in a way that makes them compatible with her work and family life, while still allowing her to lose weight. We discuss specific mental exercises she can do to help maintain this perspective (often the hardest part) and give her the cognitive flexibility to be more creative in finding new ways to be active. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

With her first pregnancy, Sarah felt a lot of pressure from her doctor to restrict her eating to avoid weight gain and other adverse consequences to her baby. However, she found that abiding by these rules was virtually impossible for her, given how her body responded to hunger and fatigue while she was pregnant. This led to both extra stress and shame. Even though she was warned she might have gained too much weight, Sarah found that losing weight and making better food choices was much easier after the baby was born. So when her second pregnancy came around, she decided to take a less strict approach. This mindset shift enable Sarah to reclaim her ability to manage her own health (and sanity) on her own terms and at her own pace. While this may sound small, it is an incredibly empowering act that snowballs into a successful healthstyle. When guilt and shame are motivators and you feel like you can never do enough, most people will respond by doing less for their own self-care, not more. Sarah's approach bypasses this shame cycle and enabled her to lose her baby weight in a way she could manage. Sarah also has some Jedi mindtricks for getting her kids to eat what she serves them, along with some great tips and tricks for keeping her own healthstyle on track. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

Nicole loves to run, and has recently upped her training to include half and full marathons. While she has never run with the goal of weight loss, she has noticed that when she trains for longer races she has a tendency to gain unwanted fat around her midsection that she isn't happy about. Nicole's hypothesis is that the extra fat is a result of the additional refined carbohydrates (e.g. bread and pasta) that she eats during training periods. She said that she has tried to fuel her workouts with foods that contain fewer carbs, but that she notices a negative impact on her performance. After some investigating of her training and eating habits, Nicole and I conclude that this theory is inaccurate and that most likely culprit isn't the pre-workout carbs but the post-workout hunger and subconscious overeating that results from intense training. Extensive training both increases the body's calorie demands and hunger, while weakening willpower and normal social constraints on overeating. The end result is a subconscious tendency to eat more calories than you actually need to refuel and subsequent weight gain. Achieving balance in this case is uniquely challenging. This leads to a detailed discussion of the optimal ways to fuel her workouts and plan her post-training meals and snacks so that she doesn't inadvertently eat more than she needs to recover and feel satisfied. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

Jason is an old friend of my husband's who also happens to be the editor of this podcast. Since he's started listening the show he's become more and more health conscious, and when I launched the Mindful Meal Challenge he decided to give mindful eating a try. Jason is a perfect test subject for mindful eating, because as he was already trying to get his healthstyle in a better place he already has a set menu for breakfast and lunch. This means that what he was eating didn't change, so any change in his eating habits can be directly attributed to mindfulness. He found that his morning three egg omelet was in fact larger than he needed to be satisfied, so he has now cut back. He also found that even though he found himself consuming less for breakfast, he wasn't as hungry when lunch and dinner came around. Simply by eating one Mindful Meal per day in the morning, Jason lost 4 lbs in the first week of the challenge. Although he is still trying to figure out the best healthstyle for himself moving forward (which I help him troubleshoot in this episode as well), mindful eating is now a major part of his weight control strategy. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

Peg had a regular habit of drinking a couple glasses of wine every night and felt like it was a problem, like something that she needed. Not only did this habit impact her general wellbeing and ability to be at her best for herself and her work, she also knew this wasn't the person she wanted to be. At the same time, Peg knew that she couldn't just stop drinking all at once. So she decided to try slowly, a method that worked for her in the past to overcome bulimia. Kaizen is the Japanese principle of making continuous small, incremental improvement. For Peg, addressing her problems slowly removed the fear of the idea of stopping completely, which she knew she wasn't ready for. Starting with one small change––not drinking for one night, not purging for a few hours––gave her the courage and empowerment to continue. Her deepest motivation was to ultimately become the person she knew she wanted to be, and kaizen was her method to get there. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

Amy has been working on her healthstyle for over a year. Slowly she has changed her eating, exercise, sleep and mindfulness habits, and she finally feels like she's in control of her health. Now she's waiting for the other shoe to drop. Amy is a natural worrier, always ready for something to come along that negates all the hard work she's done. She knows this is a tendency of hers, yet it's hard not to feel like there's some truth behind her fears since even successful diets have always left her in a worse place. Her question for me today is what: does success look like from here now that everything is great? This is an educational episode whether you're a seasoned foodist or a newbie finding your path, since it will give you an idea of what the endgame looks like. Your brain judges success by what it expects it to look like. One great way to know this is by listening to someone who is already there. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

Rachel knew that having a baby would make it harder to maintain her healthstyle. But it's now been 18 months and she still hasn't found a way to regularly make the best choices and ends up eating out 2-3 nights per week. Her issue is that her old healthstyle––which she loved––required an amount of time and energy that simply aren't realistic for her anymore. She and her husband love to cook elaborate meals, but trying to fit it into their new baby life just isn't working. We also identify a few other invisible barriers that are blocking Rachel from fully utilizing her tiny New York kitchen. Subtle barriers can derail any well-intentioned healthstyle, but when you're exhausted and every single part of your life feels new and overwhelming, identifying and eliminating those barriers is extra hard. Together, Rachel and I come up with a few ways to simply her meals and make weekday cooking more practical. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

Graham started his foodist journey back in 2013 when he borrowed a galley copy of Foodist I had given to a friend. He had just decided to try and start getting healthy and by eating more Real Food, cutting back on processed foods, and being more active he proceeded to lose 40 lbs in a couple of months. Four years later Graham is now down 60 lbs from his original weight, defying the odds of a dieting industry that has a 95% failure rate. Today we talk about how he got started and how is journey has progressed to allow him to maintain a foodist lifestyle for good. I interviewed Graham back in 2013 when he first got started, so this is a follow up to that success story and a look into what long-term weight loss maintenance looks like. For complete show notes and links visit http://summertomato.com

Over the past nine months Agata has had some success in being healthier, but is disappointed that she hasn't lost much weight. She started slowly by being more active and noticed she had more energy and looked more toned. Despite the benefits she felt, her wedding was approaching and she still hoped to lose some more weight. Agata decided to focus more on her diet, although she didn't want to be too strict, so she started eating more vegetables and cut down on processed foods. She enjoyed this and didn't feel deprived, and proceeded to lose 5 more pounds. Her wedding came and went, and she was happy, but she's still wondering why she hasn't had more success with weight loss. She called to ask me, "Am I doing something wrong?" Agata's impatience with weight loss is something I hear often from new foodists, particularly those with a history of dieting who expect rapid weight loss. In this episode I help Agata reframe her disappointment with her results as what it is––success with room to improve––and help her identify new target habits to build on the progress she's made so far. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

After a move from Chicago to California, Mary found herself slowly gaining weight to the tune of 1 lb every 3 months. After awhile she was dismayed to find she was up 15 lbs, and wanted to find the reason. She tried several things to cut back a bit on calories without any luck. Her last resort was her evening routine of drinking several glasses of wine, a habit that's proving more difficult to break than any of the others. This worries Mary for a few reasons. Obviously she wants to lose the weight and feel back in control of her healthstyle. But we all know alcohol is an addictive substance, so part of her fear is that this may be related to why she hasn't been able to cut back. Alcohol is a difficult habit to work with, and as a wine lover myself I can definitely relate. Mary had done a few experiments and is fairly confident she isn't dependent on the substance. Together we come up with some strategies for her to cut back enough to feel more in control and potentially lose the weight. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

Jane is a wellness coach and has a deep and technical knowledge of nutrition, so by nature she eats super healthy and enjoys it. She also suffers from Celiac disease and has many other food sensitivities, so has to restrict her foods even more to avoid serious health problems. Her biggest issue is that because she knows so much about nutrition she feels guilty eating anything that contains starch, because of a lingering five pounds she'd like to lose. This tendency to moralize her food choices as "good" or "bad" causes her to second guess even some of her healthy choices and she feels terribly guilty eating some of the foods she loves (like oatmeal and sweet potatoes), even though they are nutritious Real Foods. So even when Jane "indulges" it is hard for her to truly enjoy it. For those five pounds, Jane has been suffering like this for eleven years. Together we dissect where her perfectionist streak is coming from and come up with a strategy for moving on. I also offer her a few ideas on solving her "last five pounds" issue that don't involve skipping out on the few foods she really loves. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

"It's been the easiest 33 lbs I've ever lost." ~Angela Angela just discovered Foodist a few months ago after a lifetime of being overweight and chronic dieting. By changing the way she approaches food and health, she's been able to lose 33 lbs in what she calls the easiest weight loss of her life. Despite her success, Angela still has progress to make and is trying to figure out some of the more subtle aspects of her healthstyle. Today she asks a question that every foodist must grapple with at some point along their journey, which is how to know if an urge to eat (or skip a workout or other healthstyle behavior) is coming from a place of physical need or some other impulse that should be resisted? This question is particularly difficult for people who have spent a lot of time dieting, since by its very nature dieting teaches you to ignore your body's basic signals and use willpower to stick to your plan. As Angela explains, it can be very difficult to trust the different voices in your head that are pushing you to care for yourself, especially if you believe they were what caused you to be overweight in the first place. There are several things to consider when you're learning to answer this question for yourself, including what situations are the most important to get right, how to learn from your mistakes when you get it wrong and how not stress out when you find yourself in a position of uncertainty. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

Shelbey came to me wondering why she has the habit of overeating when she's alone and supposed to be studying. She sits down to eat and turns on the TV, planning to finish dinner and then hit the books. But instead she usually keeps eating through the entire show until she feel so sicks she can't do anything at all. To her credit Shelbey has already thought through possible psychological reasons she's doing this, but hasn't come up with any answers. She's a very hard working woman who is always pushing herself for self-improvement. She's a good student, exercises regularly, and meditates often. What she never does is give herself permission to relax. One of the symptoms of being too productive is having anxiety about down time. All humans need to relax and recharge both physically and mentally, but highly productive people often feel guilty and anxious about taking these much needed breaks. If this goes on for too long it can lead to avoidance behaviors like overeating. It can be difficult to acknowledge that rest is needed, but Shelbey and I come up with a plan for her to recognize her anxiety and give her the space to unwind. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com/

Serena had always enjoyed cooking dinner and it was a Home Court Habit she highly valued. Then when her schedule got a little crazy her cooking habit fell by the wayside. While struggles like this are pretty normal when life gets busy, what stumped Serena was that her cooking habit never resumed even when her schedule got back to normal. Often what stops you from maintaining a healthy habit is that you view it as a chore rather than as something you enjoy, but this wasn't the case for Serena. She truly did love to cook and felt very strongly about all the ways it positively impacted her life that were now missing. It took some digging, but Serena and I ultimately discovered that she had lost one of her Supporting Habits––meal prepping––that gave her the edge she needed to maintain a regular cooking habit. It turns out that meal prepping is the difference between whether making dinner is easy when she gets home from work or feels like a big project she doesn't have the energy for. We then took a look at her current schedule and found a way to fit meal prepping back into her week so she could start cooking again. This episode takes you through how to go about identifying and reinstating Supporting Habits that are necessary for maintaining your Home Court Habits and long-term health. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com