The Holy Grail of Weight Loss III

...CONTINUED FROM THE LAST POST

ME: This ties in to one of my strongest philosophies on money - it's better to make a little bit of money doing what you love than making a ton of money doing what you hate. The same could be said of living a "healthy lifestyle." A pound lost doing something enjoyable is worth more than 10 pounds lost doing something excruciatingly difficult - like starving yourself or doing unwanted exercise. The word 'sustainable' is sheer poetry - up there with 'unprocessed.' And this concept is really important when you consider the fact that you have been losing weight consistently for almost 2 years steady. Who could do unwanted exercise and deprive themselves of food for 2 years? Not me. And as you know, the metabolic consequences of doing so can be quite severe.


Now I'm sure everyone is curious... Could you tell us what kind of foods that you enjoy and were able to eat? What did a typical day of eating look like for you?

SASHA:  You are absolutely right. Chronic dieters have this imaginary wagon or track that they like to talk about being on and there are always a myriad of reasons for them to "fall off the wagon" or "go off-track." I've seen a lot of this in the past two years of associating with people who diet, which to me is very different from people who heal their bodies. A lot of this has to do with food. I love talking about the way I eat because I love food and both my husband and I love cooking and looking for new sources of whole food. At first it was difficult, we had to spend a little time and research to suss out our sources for the right kinds of foods. I wanted to stay away from grocery store foods for the bulk of our shopping, so this meant the local farmer's market, local produce sellers, people who sell pastured chickens and eggs, etc. We found a couple of butchers, and while the price is going to be a little higher, it’s worthwhile to have local product. We even managed to find a fish monger where we buy our seafood. We taste the difference and the nutrient value is also a plus.

Surprisingly we've done this all on a budget with a few extravagances like buying ghee and coconut oil from our local health food store. We just stay away from the processed "health" foods and expensive organic produce. If my produce is a little damaged but in season and comes from a local source who raises smaller crops organically, this is going to be cheaper than a large chain like Whole Foods. Learn how to shop locally and according to season for the best prices.

Typically we favor yogurt and in season fruit for our breakfasts or pastured eggs. We normally eat a second large meal but not a third, skipping dinner. We favor beef and game meats, our butcher carries a large selection of meats; fowl, buffalo, elk, sausages made in house. We're especially fond of braising meats because there are so many ways of braising and the "low and slow" method in the BBQ during the summer. Legumes, sweet potatoes, squash, locally-grown corn, chard, greens, whatever is in season, with plenty of butter. A little fruit but not too much. We live where berries are plentiful and we incorporate these into our diet when they're in season. We make our own pizzas and ice cream so we can control what goes in them, but again, this is not to make food necessarily less fatty but to avoid processed foods. The bottom line is, we keep things very simple and basic.

I talked about the lack of quality product coming out of fast food restaurants and chain/corporate restaurants. Our bodies need nutrient dense, fatty foods but we eat bad quality foods that are doctored up with a lot of sodium and HFCS. How do you think a place like Red Lobster is able to afford to sell you lobster for $9.99? Bad quality food and bad nutrition leaves your body lacking and still craving so you eat more bad food and so forth. Obviously I have a vendetta against these types of restaurants but I'm so well fed and satiated, there's no danger that I'll binge on packages of diet cookies because of uncontrollable cravings. There's no imaginary wagon or track for me to fall of off. Not once in two years have I ever thought of my weight loss in those terms.

I just want people to know that this is real and I'm not crazy. I really do EAT.

ME:  You say that you weren't eating dinner. Was this something you did all along or started up recently with all the talk about eating light in the evening? Did you eat anything at dinner at all? And how long did it take for your body to adjust to this eating schedule where you really weren't hungry in the evening? I'm very curious about this because it could be a pivotal maneuver in your weight loss, AND I'm even thinking about re-working RRARF to advise overfeeding until 2pm and then coasting into the evening with a very light meal - to reap the same rewards, but make weight gain a less frequent occurrence. Do tell…

SASHA:  To be honest, the meal schedule wasn't deliberate at all but rather accidental. It started a little over a year ago mostly due to my husband's weird schedule and also because we had become used to eating when we were hungry and noticing that our hunger was greatest after 11 and before 2 in the afternoon. We thought it was because we would cycle, hike or run in the mid-mornings, but regardless of what we do or don't do, this eating pattern simply seems natural. I imagine that people who eat a lot of "lite" processed diet foods and non-fat foods are constantly fighting their appetites (and probably why they just give up on losing weight). The more you get into the habit of eating whole foods and nutrient dense meals, the less time the body begs to be fed constantly. At first you may overeat and gain weight but eventually your body's mechanism gets the signal that it is being fed. My personal experience has told me that obeying my body and appetite should be a priority. If I seem to gain a couple of pounds one week because I was hungrier a couple of days and ate more, the weight comes back off the next week then drops even further. The weight doesn't stay on a logical schedule which I know makes a lot of people crazy, but it will continue a downward trend.

Any eating after 2 is very light and this schedule seems to give my body a chance to catch up and rest during the evening hours and overnight. Some days, if there's a need or desire, I can switch things up and have a heavier dinner if I eat lighter during the day, but I don't do this often, probably once or twice a month at the most. I've learned to be flexible.

ME:  Amen on not being hungry when you have nourished yourself properly earlier in the day. My most recent studies have highlighted just how truly natural this eating pattern is. And I do believe it's a useful tool for weight loss - not starving yourself at night that is, but eating enough early to naturally be satisfied in the afternoon and evening. Once again, the focus is on eating more at the right time, and allowing the "eating less" part to occur spontaneously.

Anyway, this is exactly what I have sought after all along - trying to get people to ignore everything and focus on nourishing themselves, answering the physiological call of their hunger with quality nourishment, and letting things fall where they may. If anything, you seem to have succeeded because you are even MORE dedicated to that self-commitment than others. It's amazing to see the trust that you've developed for your body, nourishing it and letting it sort things out on its own. I think a lot of people, by the time they get near 400 pounds, have an extreme DISTRUST for themselves and a strong love-hate relationship with food. Congrats to you and your husband for overcoming such barriers. Very few people at your former weight and age ever have the kind of success that you have had. But I hope this interview will lead to many more light bulbs going off, and more people will have the courage to do what you've done, and display the kind of patience you've displayed. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this Sasha. Can't wait to see where you are in another 2 years.

The Holy Grail of Weight Loss II

Interview continued from yesterday's post...

ME:  Beautiful... And I'm glad that whatever you managed to squeeze out of my materials worked out for you. As you know, not everyone loses weight when they go all 180D. In fact, many gain weight - at least for the first few months as their metabolism comes up towards normal.

What did you do that you suspect is different from others who haven't had such results? If you could give them advice, or share how you did things specifically, what would you say?

In other words what I'm asking is, what makes you so damn special!!??

SASHA:  180DegreeHealth often hurts my head (in a good way of course!) but I understood enough that I knew I was finding answers to my questions. There are reasons for the massive allure and subsequent failure inherent in the diet culture. I needed to know why and how I was going to do things differently. I think if people really want to succeed at fixing their metabolism using this method, above all they need to be persistent and consistent. Fixing your metabolism and eliminating cravings happens, but it takes time. It took me about three months to eliminate cravings and about two more months before my metabolism kicked in and I started losing the bulk of the weight. Many people don't have the patience for this, which is why fad diets are so popular. A lack of patience and a lack of food and body knowledge is how people end up as lifelong dieters who never reach a goal.

But I'm not special or even particularly intelligent or well-disciplined. I believe anyone can do this. Personally, I think it's most beneficial to restrict yourself to whole, traditional foods. Absolutely no fast food and no processed foods. I even go so far as to not eat breakfast cereals, I don't care how natural they claim to be, they're still processed and in a cardboard box and most taste like the box. One big mistake I see people make is that they fail to see the problem with eating at corporate/chain restaurants. You can't go to an Olive Garden and eat healthy. How do these restaurants maintain consistency from restaurant to restaurant? Much of their food is heat n’ serve. Obviously these types of restaurants are one of my pet peeves. I'm married to a professional chef who's worked in every type of restaurant imaginable and we avoid these restaurants for the plague they are.

Eat fat. When I tell my friends that I just ate a gorgeous piece of fatty grassfed ribeye or pork belly then lost a few pounds the same week, they think it's a joke. It's no joke. I'm proof of that. My body tells me when I need to eat more or eat fat and I listen. People don't listen to their bodies anymore. Train yourself to listen to your body and it will tell you everything you need to know.

Retrain your palate. On a regular basis I complain about how people have trashed their palates with processed foods. Source the grassfed beef, butter, pastured chickens and eggs. Cook with lots of ghee and coconut oil, buy vegetables in season, learn how to cook. After you learn to eat at home you'll find you're going to make better choices when you eat out. I've lost count of the number of people who are trying to lose weight that can't maintain any kind of consistency in how they eat. They're either eating some nasty chicken breast with lettuce and lite dressing at home or gorging out on really bad food at Applebee's or Chili's. The quality of your product at home should be consistent with the quality of product when you eat out.

Be physically active but don't exercise. I know that makes no sense but I hate exercise. I've only been to a gym once several months ago when my husband and I got a free one-month trial. It was dull, boring, my muscles were uncomfortably sore all the time and I stopped losing weight. We never went back. My advice to people is to find a few fun activities you like to do and enjoy. Bicycle, hike, run, kayak, do yoga, whatever you enjoy. Avoid massive amounts of useless cardio, overtraining with weights and silly fads (Zumba, yuck). I do a lot of bicycling, hiking and yoga but not to the point that it becomes loathsome.

(This is right in line with this conversation on exercise from early this year....)


Once your body finds its rhythm and your metabolism mends, the body's weight finds its own level, like water. I'm amazed at how almost effortless the weight loss has become. I say "almost" because sometimes I get thrown off balance, but the correction is always pretty simple. Every individual is different but what works for me has had an equal and amazing affect on my husband who has lost 88 pounds along with my 127 pounds. He ended up coming along for the ride, so to speak, when I started my new way of eating and understanding food and my body and he has reaped the benefits too.

ME:  Great answer - and I knew you were going to say something about retraining your palate and being really committed to eating unprocessed foods. My research has led me increasingly in that direction. I've found that there is a huge difference between a mostly unprocessed food diet and a 100% unprocessed food diet. And it has everything to do with retraining the palate.

You mention not doing exercise but being physically active. How much of a role did exercise play in you and your husband's weight loss? Were you really making a point to move your body more? If you had to estimate, what percentage of the weight loss do you think was attributable to getting more activity, and how much was the diet? Or do you really think it requires both to realistically succeed?

SASHA:  I like this question best because I think the distinction I made is important and deserves some clarification. Just like appetite, a morbidly obese person loses the ability to gage what is a normal activity level so we wind up terribly underactive while still thinking of ourselves as fairly active. How many times have you been told by a morbidly obese person, "Well, I'm pretty active for a big guy/lady, but I don't seem to lose the weight". It isn't because this is true, but because our perception of what normal activity is, is warped. I know my judgment of what it's like to be hugely overweight seems insulting, but it really is like being myopic in a fishbowl. You lose sight of so much.

At my heaviest when I started losing weight, I knew I needed to move more, but because I feel about the same toward the exercise/fitness business as I do about the diet/weight loss business, I wanted to do things opposite of what the mainstream would tell me to do. My plan, pick activities that I imagine myself doing at any weight and for reasons other than weight loss. Make sure it's something I enjoy and something that I can see myself doing for many years to come. This, for me, started with walking and evolved into hiking. I live in the Pacific Northwest so this was a natural evolution. Last winter I started running, then trail running and eventually I bought my bicycle. Every activity I've picked has evolved in some way, either in intensity or mileage, and this is important, because as your body fixes and repairs itself due to the obesity, your body will naturally want to move more.

So, my way of eating and losing weight and my physical activity are not mutually exclusive of one another. When you eat to appetite and eat what your body craves, your physical activity will naturally feel inclined to match that by either doing something more intense, less intense or by wanting more sleep. It's an almost 50/50% relationship between the two and I can't imagine one without the other. It is important to understand what kind of energy your body is "into". I'm more of a slow steady burn with more endurance while my husband has become inclined toward shorter, high energy bursts, which is probably why he enjoys mountain biking and running. Whatever it is, you're going to want to be active.

I know some people would argue that you can lose the weight without any of this, but how long will that last? I've seen enough people go the wrong route in both directions so it's easy to know what to avoid. I see the people who do nothing or very little, lose a few pounds or more, but beyond that not much changes for them physically. I have also seen people engage in frantic and large amounts of cardio, losing large amounts of weight quickly after which they burn out, gain some back and struggle, never to find that momentum again. I guess the bottom line is sustainability. What are you going to eat or do that will become a natural part of your life from here on out? I approach both my food and my physical activity with this in mind.

Continue to PART III...