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You're listening to episode number five of the Fat Fuelled Female podcast.
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Hello and welcome to 2022. And since it's a brand new year, we will be running a free five day live interactive keto challenge, starting on Monday, January 17, did I mention it is free and in the challenge, I will go over a five key ingredients to make keto a real effective and lasting lifestyle change.
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Understanding that keto is a tool you can use to really improve your metabolism and reclaim your health and get the health and goals you want and desire and deserve. So to join the challenge go to www.marjachow.com/5-day-challenge. I will leave the link in the show notes for you to join. Let's make 2020 to your best year yet and I hope to see you inside the challenge.
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Welcome to the Fat Fuelled Female podcast. I'm your host Marja Chow, a holistic nutritionist, personal trainer and proud dog mom of two. I am obsessed with helping women achieve their goals, feel confident in their skin and become empowered health advocates.
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This podcast is designed to help ambitious women thrive on a low carb, high fat lifestyle. So tune in each week as we talk all aspects of nutrition, improving your fitness enhancing your mindset so that you can take inspired action and live your best life all starting from the inside out I'm so happy to have you here. Now let's get started.
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Welcome back to the Fat Fuelled Female podcast. In this episode, we are going to talk about why you need to stop giving your power away to the scale and how we need to reframe the relationship you have with scale plus other ways you can track progress.
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So for many women, losing weight can be a lifelong battle or a really challenging process. Or even understanding the proper nutrition that works for your own unique body can cause so much confusion and self doubt.
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The media and society has really programmed us to think in order to lose weight, we have to eat less, exercise more and it's all about deprivation and calorie restriction. And let's be clear calories are a component of the weight loss story.
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They are a measurement of energy, okay? Macronutrients carbs, proteins and fats make up your makeup your calorie consumption, right.
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But your body is more like a beautiful chemistry lab over a basic calculator. When you focus only on calories opposed to food quality gut health hormones, you are missing the entire picture of how to have radiant long term health.
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So I like to look at calories as part of the story, just not the main character. So I have had my fair share of eating disorders.
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I was a chronic dieters for over a decade until I found keto and began my Keto journey back in 2016. So I totally get what it's like to want to hit a goal weight and want it so bad that it takes over your entire life.
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Before I found keto, I was always searching for that magic bullet or that one diet to hit that goal weight. And my thought process was if I just hit that magical number on the scale, oh my gosh, my life will be so great. And I'll tell you one thing when I hit my goal weight of 110 pounds, and that just sounds so crazy to say that number and be that low on the scale, the floodgates of opportunity did not swing open.
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I just didn't have this massive amount of confidence in my life just didn't become so amazing. Nothing really changed. In fact, I was actually a more insecure and critical about my body. And I was terrified about gaining the weight back.
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As the methods I used to be that light on the scale were not healthy or sustainable. And when I weighed this low, I was around I think 26 or 27 years old, and I was allowing external circumstances or forces to really dictate my level of happiness and self worth.
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I thought I needed to be 110 pounds to be confident and be happy and love myself. And confidence is an internal state. You can choose to be confident right now.
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You don't have to weigh a certain number on the scale or have a certain body fat, or have this status or this job or be in this relationship or drive this car, whatever it may be, you can choose to be confident and happy right now. And I can see it so clearly now, looking back at my 26, or 27 year old self, since I've done a lot of internal work over the last two to three years.
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But back then I had no idea I was giving all my power away. And my main focus was weighing a certain number on the scale, giving my power away to external circumstances, which are often out of our control. And so many women get caught up in similar patterns. And you know, primarily focusing on hitting that goal weight, and overlooking all the new habits and small micro goals. They're hitting each week.
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So I'm going a little bit off topic here. So let's get back to the scale. Let's get back to talking about the scale.
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Okay, so the scale is one variable, one form of data, this scale is a tool we can use to assess entire body mass. So it doesn't provide an entire picture of what is going on internally.
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So this scale only measure measures a person's entire mass. So your muscles, bones, organs, water, ligaments, tendons, adipose tissue, aka fat. So you have to look at improving your health, not based solely on a freakin number, even if your goal is weight loss, you know, what I also want to say is, if you have gained 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 pounds, it took x amount of time for you to gain that weight, right? It didn't happen overnight.
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So when people are actually like I'm committed, I'm ready to lose the weight, they think is just gonna come off super fast. You know, it's it's society, it's like gimmicky fad diets lose 10 pounds in 10 days, and like, it's going to take time to lose the weight in a healthy way.
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And in a way you can maintain it and not gain it back. Okay. So if you are making all these changes, by adapting to a high fat lifestyle, you're reducing your sugar intake, you're removing poor quality oils, you're eating real food and removing the processed crap, you're going to be balancing your blood sugar, greatly reducing inflammation, supporting your hormonal health, improving digestive capacity, all these things we can't see right away, you're making all these changes internally, changing your inner ecology.
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So by supporting all of these systems, will bring your body into a more balanced homeostasis state, which will ultimately support your weight loss journey and long term health, right.
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So we give too much power to this one number. The scale doesn't give us a clear understanding, I'm bet embedding this into your mind of our overall health.
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So the human body is made of more than 50% water, it can fluctuate hourly, daily, weekly, depending on electrolyte balance, fluid levels, stress levels, reaction to certain foods, the menses, you know, going through your period. So we need to stop putting so much emphasis on a specific number as it can clearly change. And remember, total weight doesn't give us a clear picture of our internal health.
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So many people when they begin their keto journey, they won't be able to see their health, change, health and change, health improve instantaneously, right?
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So we need to be patient, let the body do what it has to do, and not let the scale dictate how well we think we are progressing. If you have been a chronic died, or for a large part of your life, like I was, you most likely have put so much importance and stress on yourself about your weight.
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I know I used to weigh myself every morning. And the number that showed up on the scale would dictate the rest of how the rest of my day went. If I was happy with the number I was like oh my gosh, Marja, you are crushing it you got this girl like I was super happy and optimistic and positive.
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But if I got on the scale and the way the number wasn't what I wanted, I'd be upset. I'd obsess about it. And I think why isn't this moving? You're not doing enough you're not trying hard enough. And can you see how I allowed this measly little number to affect my entire day? How much power I gave it over myself? self worth.
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And there is absolutely zero room, no room on your health journey and healing process for self judgment, criticism, obsession, and comparison, that's all ego energy. And it's not going to serve you in the long run, we need to let that crap go.
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And I get it, it takes time, like anything, it doesn't happen overnight. But the first step is having the awareness and seeing how judgmental and critical you have been, or are being to yourself, you need to give yourself some grace and some compassion.
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So when it comes to the scale, I'm not saying to throw your scale, or screw the scale or toss the scale. What I'm saying is use the scale as one variable to observe your progress, and not let it dictate and create this entire narrative of how well you think you're doing.
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So I think it's important. If you look at your relationship you have with this scale, and reframe the relationship you have with it, look at it as a tool, one reference point, be okay with your number, it doesn't define who you are as a person.
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Even if your goal is weight loss, be okay with where you are today, the fact that you are listening to this podcast you are about taking action. And although the number may not be what you want, think of it as a starting point data for you to have.
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We cannot measure what we cannot see. So a starting point to see how far you progress. Today, I weigh around 121, 122 123 ish. And I'm okay with that.
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After years of tearing my body apart, and chasing a number that is not realistic for my body structure of composition, I have learned to love and accept my body.
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And if you are exercising, and building muscle muscle weighs more than fat and is a metabolically active tissue, it's healthy to have more muscle mass, which will increase your entire body mass.
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So learning to have a lot more love and appreciation for your body every day, I can walk, I can move my arms, I can digest my food, my body keeps me warm, just a lot more gratitude for these beautiful machines that carry us around and protect us on a daily basis.
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So when it comes to the scale, what I would recommend is, you know, your body fluctuates, right, but using the scale as one, data point, one reference.
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So I suggest to my clients to weigh themselves once a week, once a week usually pick the same day. Most women do it in the morning after a bowel movement. Okay, so you have that data. And you can see how you are responding to your nutrition protocol. Other measurements you can do is a hip and waist measurement.
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So while you're losing body fat, your waist will decrease. So for example, say your goal was to lose six pounds in four weeks. At the end of those four weeks, you lost two pounds on the scale.
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But you lost two inches in your waist and three inches in your hips, which is a huge freakin deal. And if you're only tracking progress, based on the scale, you wouldn't see this big win. So doing measurements are just as important because you're going to be able to see where you're losing inches, even if the number isn't decreasing what you expected on the scale.
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Another form of measurement you can do is a DEXA scan. So DEXA scan is a comprehensive analysis of your body fat compared to lead mass bone density, everything.
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So the most accurate way to assess body composition is underwater weighing and, you know, those are at universities, most of us don't have access to you know, doing underwater weighing.
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So DEXA scans are great. They kind of look like a tanning bed. You go in there, you lay down and then you get this full report on every aspect of your body composition, which is cool. So I used to do them you know, every six months now I do them once a year just to see where you are at.
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So other factors you can assess on your own are how is your nutrition protocol affecting your sleep, your energy levels, your mood, your digestion, your elimination Remember, it's not just the scale.
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So we need to give credit to ourselves. For all these small wins, we make daily, weekly or monthly, and not solely focus on the finish line and the end goal or the end weight.
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Because you're always you should always be creating new goals and having new actions and expanding. So at the end of the day, you're always going to have things that you're working towards.
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So let's focus on day by day, the process, not just the outcome, right? So when it comes down to it, it's all these small shifts in our behavior each day, each week, each month that create that permanent change, and get us closer to our outcome goals.
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So focus on the present focus on the now. So for example, like outcome goal is something like okay, I want to lose 50 pounds. Okay, great. We want to manifest that we want to work towards that. Or another outcome goal is I want to be able to buy my dream condo, great, beautiful, we want to have these.
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But outcome goals aren't absolute. There's no guarantee we're going to get there. So what we can focus on is process goals. These small bite size goals, we can tangibly hit each week, which bring us closer to those outcome goals.
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So that is everything for today's episode. When it comes down to it. Reframe the relationship you have with the scale. Use it as a tool, one variable, one form of data, and don't let it dictate how well you think you are progressing, have a lot more compassion, and gratitude for yourself. Thank you so much for listening, and I will catch you guys next week.
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Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, make sure to subscribe to the podcast. And if you feel you got some extra value from this episode, it would mean the world to me. If you can head over to Apple podcasts or whatever service you're listening to this podcast on.
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Drop a five star review and let me know your thoughts on the show. This helps more people like yourself find the podcast and if you're not already following me on social media right now is the time you can find me on Instagram at Marja Chow for all your nutrition tips, tricks and inspiration or visit my website at bat fueled female.com or you can download my free seven day keto meal plan with recipes. Thank you so much for tuning in. I will catch you next week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
