Foodist with Darya Rose, Ph.D

Overall Libby is happy with her healthstyle. She stopped dieting, focused on Real Food, and cut out most of the processed foods (sugars and refined grains) from her daily habits. Her energy is up, her body is happy, and the chronic headaches she's suffered from for years have abated. While she feels great from these changes, Libby has only lost one pound over the last couple of months and in her perfect world she would lose another 5-10 pounds. This brings up an interesting question: Is it okay to keep trying to lose weight even if you're already pretty healthy? How can you accept yourself as you are and continue to strive for improvement? Many people making the move from dieting for external reasons to embracing health to align with your own personal values come up against this issue. From a behavior perspective the actions you take to achieve health and those you use to restrictively diet can look very similar. The subtley is in how you frame your values, goals and actions in your own mind that makes the difference. It's a tight rope to walk and there is a lot of nuance in the process. I believe it is possible to accept yourself as you are and still strive to optimize for your goals and values. In this episode Libby and I discuss the importance of psychology in this process, as well as the practical strategies she can use to continue to work toward her goals. Once you listen to the show I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

After years of yo-yo dieting, Ashley had finally got off the dieting rollercoaster after discovering Summer Tomato and Foodist. She learned to embrace the foodist lifestyle and joyfully lost weight without dieting. Things were great. Ashley's new habits were working great until she had a shift in her work life that enabled her to work from home. While she loves her new freedom and flexibility in her day, some of her more structured habits like lunch and snacks have fallen back into disarray. Together we discuss what has changed in her routines and come up with some strategies she can use to retake control of her choices. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

"With the hustle and bustle of working and being a mom and trying to fulfill all these duties I completely lost myself." - Rebecca Although she had never been completely happy with her physique, after having three children within five years Rebecca found herself over 100 lbs heavier than she was before starting a family. It wasn't until she ran into a friend who had lost 100 lbs of baby weight after working with a personal trainer that she changed her mindset and decided she needed to start investing in her own wellbeing again. Over a period of 8 months Rebecca embraced a new self-care routine of fitness and nutrition and lost all of the weight. The road wasn't perfectly smooth, and she struggled with some of the struggles that come with dieting including some binge eating. Ultimately though, she was able to find balance in her nutrition, stop bingeing and truly enjoy her healthstyle for the benefits it brings her. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

Elizabeth wishes she could form a more regular exercise habit, but every time she tries she finds herself lacking in motivation. While she describes herself as "not inactive" she wishes she did more "proper exercise" a few days a week. Sometimes she is able to put together a good streak, but inevitably her efforts are undermined by feeling she isn't up to the task. If she feels uncomfortable with her body or finds her workouts too hard, she starts to feel like a failure. This perfectionist streak causes her to negatively judge herself to a point where exercise becomes an unpleasant rather than uplifting experience. As a result she finds herself avoiding exercise completely. Together we discuss strategies to get out of the judgment loop and back into enjoying being active for its own sake. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

Keli has a great healthstyle, but there are a few lingering bad habits she'd like to break. After lunch and after dinner, she finds herself reaching for more (often not-so-healthy) food even though she is no longer hungry and it makes her feel sick afterward. While she doesn't have any particular health or weight loss goals, it bothers her that she maintains this habit even though it is something she doesn't like. Together we investigate what is triggering her to keep eating and develop strategies to help her choose different activities after meals. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

Over the years Saba has learned to eat healthy by cutting down on processed foods. But her new healthstyle has caused her to forego nearly all the foods she loved as a child since she has moralized them as "bad and unhealthy." Now she uses her "good behavior" to justify overeating "healthier" snacks like nuts, even though she eats so much she feels sick afterward. It's a cycle she would like to break. Saba's issue combines both food moralizing and emotional eating, which makes both issues more complex and difficult to unravel. Together we come up with a plan for her to move forward. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

"I call it adding life into living." When Mark realized his poor eating habits had been left unchecked for too long, he decided it was time to start taking his health seriously. Besides having gained a significant amount of weight, he was also suffering from digestive problems and low energy. To address these issues he decided to focus on Real Foods and cut most processed foods from his daily habits. Mark's process was pretty simple. He got rid of the processed foods from his house, started eating breakfast daily, cut out all alcohol except tequila (!), and started cooking most of his meals at home. Over the course of one year Mark was able to restore his energy, fix his stomach problems and lose 70 lbs, all while launching a new company. He also saved money by buying less prepared food and developed a deep love of vegetables and cooking. What is interesting about Mark's story is not so much the specific changes he made as his approach to solving problems. For instance, instead of seeing cooking as a chore, he uses it as an opportunity to listen to podcasts and strengthen his business knowledge while taking care of his health at the same time. He approaches everything with curiosity and an opportunity to learn, so he's never bored and actually enjoys the process. This mindset is a pattern for Mark, and his positive and flexible outlook is the main reason for his success. For complete show notes visit http://summertomato.com

Linda knows that cooking dinner more often would make her healthier and happier. But it feels like so much work for her to make the effort since she lives alone. Sometimes she manages to throw something healthy together, but other nights she just sits down with a bag of potato chips and calls it a night. For Linda one of the big obstacles is that when she does make the effort to cook one of her favorite recipes she ends up with way too many leftovers and gets tired of eating the same thing. Often it ends up going to waste. To solve this Linda has to reexamine her beliefs about what dinner is supposed to look like so that it is less daunting and easier to do on a regular basis. For complete show notes visit summertomato.com

Julie came to me with a mystery. Her eating habits are excellent at home and even in restaurants, but when she gets into a dinner party situation it doesn't matter what food is served or how hungry she is, she turns into a mindless eating machine. What could be going on here? We first explored whether she was actually satisfied with her normal eating routine. Is it possible she was still restricting herself too much and experiencing the What-the-Hell Effect at parties? This didn't seem to be the case, as Julie had already explored and tested this hypothesis using her foodist mindset. Ultimately we uncovered a subconscious cue that was triggering her overeating. This revelation that helped Julie feel much more at ease and in control of the situation, knowing it was something that was solvable. Julie's case is particularly interesting because she is triggered by positive emotions rather than negative emotions, which are more often the cause of overeating. Armed with this knowledge we came up with a strategy for channeling her feelings in a way that is more aligned with her current values. For complete show notes please visit summertomato.com

As a lifelong healthy eater, Sherry wasn't trying to lose weight. Sure she would have been happy to drop 5-10 lbs, but she was comfortable with her body and health. She even thought she was a mindful eater until a stressful event in her life caused her to start a consistent yoga practice. Yoga, it turned out, became a catalyst to help her relieve stress and let go of difficult emotions. As she developed this talent during strenuous yoga poses, she noticed it began to translate into her eating behavior. Without specifically trying to change anything, Sherry became more aware of her eating habits and started to eat more mindfully. As she did this she naturally started eating slower and being more thoughtful about her food choices. To her surprise, she discovered she had been eating way more food than her body actually wanted or needed. She also started slowly changing the composition of her meals to be more plant-based, since this was more in line with what she was craving. While she still enjoys sweets like chocolate cake on occasion, Sherry has embraced mindful eating and over the past year lost 16 lbs without actively trying to lose weight. For complete show notes please visit summertomato.com

Ruediger faces one of the most difficult questions related to weight control, which is how to maintain your weight after achieving significant weight loss as a result of strict dieting. Although he has already made huge progress finding an exercise regimen he enjoys, food is more difficult for him. He has only ever known subsiding on lots of junk food or restricting his calories to just 500 per day. Switching to a more moderate approach based on Real Food and not counting calories is appealing to him in theory, but he worries that he will not be able to maintain control of his weight without strongly restricting his eating habits. Another issue Ruediger faces is that he has a very limited palate as a result of eating mostly processed and convenience foods for most of his life. He's concerned that at the age of 44 he will be restricted to the handful of vegetables he actually enjoys and not have adequate nutrition. He also struggles with finding the motivation to prepare nutritious foods at home, since chopping, cooking and cleaning rarely feel worth the effort. Together we examine the limiting beliefs that make changing his eating habits seem difficult and come up with strategies to overcome them. For the complete show notes visit summertomato.com

As a grad student, Cailey knows how important it is to bring her lunch to work instead of buying something on campus. Not only would she eat healthier, she'd also save a lot of money. Her problem is she has trouble motivating herself to prep healthy lunches every day. And even when she manages to bring something, it is usually unsatisfying so she's not inspired to bring her lunch again. Although this is a straightforward problem, there are several subtle mental and logistical blocks Cailey identifies that have kept her from adopting this habit, including limited kitchen facilities at work. We help her find solutions to these barriers and I also offer some cooking tips that will make her meals more fun and satisfying.

"I always wanted to be that person who went to the gym regularly and ate whatever they wanted, I just didn't know this was how you got there. That person was in me all along." Bonnie grew up loving all kinds of foods, especially junk food. She never liked dieting and had come to accept that she would probably always be a size 12. Fear of developing diabetes like her father eventually prompted her to create a New Year's resolution to try to be healthier. She slowly added exercise and changed her eating habits, and the weight began to come off until she hit a summertime plateau. Stuck at the same weight for five months, Bonnie eventually found Summer Tomato and decided to give mindful eating a try. To her surprise she learned she was eating more than double the amount of food her body actually wanted, and that she had a true love for vegetables. Bonnie is now comfortably a size 8, though she's not sure what her final size will be. Although she still occasionally treats herself to fast food or sweets, her preferences have changed substantially. She's happy where she is, but feels like her journey is just starting. When I asked her if making all these changes was difficult she said, "It was the opposite of hard. It was the opposite of restrictive." For complete show notes visit summertomato.com

Mallory had a pretty solid healthstyle before a new job disrupted her mornings. She now hits snooze so many times that she barely makes it to work on time, making it impossible for her to have a healthy breakfast or get in a morning workout. With her day off to a rushed and frazzled start, poor choices plague her through lunch and dinner. Her workouts are suffering and she is fed up. In this session we examine both her morning and evening routines until we uncover the real reasons behind her reluctance to get out of bed each day.

Bugra was a university student in Turkey weighing over 350 lbs when he decided he needed to make a change. He moved to America to begin a masters degree program and started to count calories and exercise to lose weight. While he was able to lose some weight while dieting, he eventually realized the changes he'd made were not sustainable and that his poor nutrition was costing him energy and mental focus. His grades suffered and he gained much of the weight back before discovering Real Food. There have been many bumps in the road for Bugra, but today he is down 168 lbs while eating more. He's also getting a 4.0 in his Ph.D program while studying less than before. He focuses on the quality, not the quantity of the food he eats, and says his mental focus is so much better that he can learn more with less effort. He even reads more and is slower to anger than he was in the past. To use Bugra's words, "Everything changed."