How I Broke Free From Living in Chronic Weight Loss Mode
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How long have you been living in a perpetual state of "needing to lose weight," and how has it impacted various aspects of your life?
Welcome to this episode of the Embrace Your Real Podcast. if you've ever felt trapped in the cycle of diets, restrictions, and the constant pursuit of weight loss, this episode is for you.
In this episode, we’ll explore the detrimental effects of living in perpetual weight loss mode. We’ll discuss the importance of macro counting, resistance training, and letting go of preconceived notions about your body. Tune in to learn from personal experiences and practical tips on how to shift your mindset and habits.
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with Me, Julie Ledbetter. A podcast where I empower you to just be you with each episode and issue a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned. If you're ready to embrace your real, let's get hands, girl. Hello and welcome back to another episode on the Embracer of podcasts. I need to ask you a question. How long have you been living in this constant chronic weight loss mode? Like, how long have you been saying, I can't do that or I can't eat that or, you know, I can't go here or, you know, I need to miss this so I can do this. And it's why Oh, it's because I need to lose weight or I can't gain weight. I mean, you have everything in your life is constantly ruled and designed around this thought, right? You are in this perpetual weight loss mode that isn't just about wanting to fit into a smaller dress size or this societal pressure to attain a certain physique. It's a commitment that over time starts really dictating every facet of our life from the food we eat to the social events that we attend or don't attend to the very way that we perceive ourselves. You know, everything starts to revolve around this singular goal of weight loss. But to what end? Like, for how long will we continue this? And this is what I want to dive into in today's episode. I want to share with you how I was finally able to break free from constantly needing to lose weight and finally able to build the body that I wanted, but also build the most healthy relationship with my body. [00:01:49][108.4]
[00:01:49] I think that is a key part that is missing in so many people's desire and in their game plan to change. But before we dive in, I wanted to share this review. It comes from Glory Alum one She gave a five star review and said Great podcast for self-care and self-love. Julie is so inspiring and allows a safe space to embrace self-care and self-love. Just a little reminder of being kind starts with one's self. That is so true. I couldn't agree more with you. Thank you so much for tuning into the podcast and leaving and rating review. They really do mean the world to us and our team. Not only kind of just know how the podcast is helping you and serving you, but also people stumble upon the podcast. They always tune in and look at the reviews first before they decide to. You know, everybody's time is valuable and there are so many podcasts out there. So the fact that you guys are tuning in and loving the podcast just just means so much. So again, if you could scooch over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review, that would mean absolute world to me. I love you so much. Okay, so let's dive into constantly living in this weight loss mode and not only how hard it is psychologically, but it can take a huge role on you socially, physiologically, and so many other aspects. So physiologically, the toll that it takes on our bodies immense, like the need for rapid weight loss, often pulls people towards these fad diets or these severe caloric restrictions. And while these diets might offer these quick results, in the long run, they will lead to long term health problems like hormonal imbalances. They can destroy your metabolism, more weight gain, loss of period, having issues with fertility and so, so much more so whether you are constantly depriving yourself or bouncing between deprivation and overindulging, the imbalance in and of itself will take a huge toll on your health. [00:03:42][112.8]
[00:03:42] Like the longer that you live in this state, the more damage you will do and the harder it will become to build the body that you want. Now, kind of more for like the psychological impact so it can be equal, if not more damaging. Like imagine starting every day with the sense of dread, the morning ritual of stepping on the scale, letting those digits decide whether you feel elated or deflated. And over time, this is going to spiral into this chronic stress, this anxiety and this extreme cases that really lead to this eating and body image disorders. Like I don't like to use the phrase on this podcast because I'm no expert, but it genuinely can lead to that severe of cases. And when we live in weight loss mode, we inadvertently begin to equate our self-worth with our weight because it's the foundation for our self esteem or lack thereof. Like this constant state of self scrutiny also affects our social interactions. We might avoid social events altogether for fear of overindulging or because we feel self-conscious of our appearance. But how long are we going to do this? Like for how long are we going to keep saying, Oh, I need to lose weight? You know, when will you reach a point of happiness inside the body that you've been given, the only body that you've been given? This is the same question that I asked myself a decade plus ago. Like for how long? Am I, Julie, going to live in this constant weight loss mode? How much longer am I going to let it dictate my life? And I can say today, you know, by the grace of God, honestly, and with so much sweat, blood and tears that I no longer live in this weight loss mode. [00:05:21][98.5]
[00:05:21] It didn't happen overnight and it wasn't one moment. Like this one moment of epiphany that I had. Instead, it was this series of conscious choices and a commitment to understand my body rather than constantly battling it. Let me repeat that again. It was a series of constant choices and a commitment to understand my body rather than constantly battling it. So today I want to outline the three things that I did to break free from weight loss mode and finally build the body that I wanted. Number one, I learned the tools of macro accounting. I embraced it at its core. Macro accounting is really about understanding the nutrients our body requires. It isn't about these crazy restrictions, but it's ensuring that our body receives adequate proteins, fats and carbohydrates. It's about ensuring that our body receives exactly what it needs to be healthy, to build muscle so that we can finally build the body that we want and therefore break free from this weight loss mode. For me, this wasn't a diet. It was a simple lifestyle choice. It was applying science. It offered flexibility and a roadmap to understanding my body's own nutritional needs. No longer was food the enemy. It became a source of nourishment and the tool that I needed to build a healthy relationship with both food and my body. So I can assure you at the beginning, just like anything that we implement. It wasn't easy. I was scared to eat more. I was scared to allow myself to eat things that I restricted for so long. It's really hard to switch your mind from believing that so many foods are the enemy to then now being on limits and allowed to be eaten at any time. So if you are new to macro accounting, I want to make one thing very, very clear. [00:07:06][104.6]
[00:07:06] Trust that journey when you do it can honestly be one of the most healing things that you do. For me, it was one of the best tools that I had available in my toolbox for building a healthy relationship with food. And from breaking free from weight loss mode. And also for me, just recognizing that I was so in the dark about food and I was not I mean, when the thought of food came into my mind, it was like this crippling thought. And it was because at its core, I was not educated about it. I was educated in the sense of, oh, from a magazine saying only eat this. You know, here's a 1200 calorie meal plan or don't eat these foods after seven or don't eat these foods. If you have goals like this and it was just this constant do and don't list. But it wasn't truly educating myself based on true food and the science of food. And man, when you nerd out and you learn about how God created our bodies and how our bodies absorb nutrients and how our bodies need X, Y and Z to do X, Y, and Z, it is just that a well-oiled machine and it just gives you even more gratitude. In my case, I believe that there's a God. I believe that there's a creator and He created me in my mother's womb and that I am carefully created and it just gives me so much appreciation to all of the design that goes into our bodies. And so I can just tell you, hands down, you know, learning the tool of macro accounting and educating myself felt so empowering. And when I felt empowered around food, I no longer felt this need to shrink down or this need to completely shut off because I was so stressed. [00:08:41][94.8]
[00:08:42] I now felt like I could walk into a room and I could feel empowered around food and I can make educated decisions around food. And it was so liberating and so freeing. Number two, committing to resistance training. So before prior to me, you know, breaking free and living in this chronic state of weight loss mode, I my exercise routines were primarily driven by one goal, and that was to burn as many calories as possible. It was so satisfying for me to see a big number burned at the end of the workout like I could comprehend. Okay, if I ate X that I needed to burn X and it was this simple math, right? It might seem simple, but that is so far from correct. That is so incorrect. Because here's the things. Resistance training actually burns less calories while you're working out, but it can trigger your body to burn more calories throughout the day overall. And the more muscle that you have, the more calories your body actually burns at rest. And this is what we need in order to build the body that we want. Again, switching from cardio to resistance training was also scary. I'm now eating, you know, so much protein and I'm now lifting weights and aren't I going to gain weight and are only going to get bulky? This is not what I want. Like, that's what I was thinking when I first started, but it really took some time to understand that eating more protein and lifting heavy things wasn't going to make me bulky. It was actually going to change my body composition, which would lead me to appear as a leaner. And that's the one thing that I don't think most women understand still to this day, even with, you know, the day and age that we live in with Tik Tok and podcasts and so much information, they don't understand that that resistance training is actually going to make you appear leaner, not bulkier, like it takes a ton in order. [00:10:25][102.8]
[00:10:25] Order for you to genuinely bulk up, you have to be very, very intentional at that. And even, you know, when I say bulk up a laugh, oftentimes, you know, it's a caloric surplus and maybe you're adding some body fat. I mean, these women, I think in their mind and this was me, you guys. So I'm speaking from experience. When I first started, I thought, oh my gosh, I'm going to look like the woman hulk. Like, you know, with the amount of protein that I'm eating and the amount of weights that I'm lifting, like I'm bound to look like woman hulk. And it's crazy, you know, after a year and a half, two years, three years, four years into that, and now, you know, over ten years, I look back at my photos and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I couldn't be further from the truth. Like, yes, I could have done cardio the rest of my life, but it would have never shape my body into the way that resistance training has shaped my body. And really, once I understood this, it, I also understood that it wasn't about how many calories I was burning in an hour, but about building strength, building muscle, reshaping my body like every weight that I lifted, every squat, every lunge, became a testament to my body's capabilities. And it was empowering, way more empowering than cardio ever was for me. I finally felt strong. I finally felt capable. I finally started to appreciate my body for its abilities rather than constantly tearing it apart for what it wasn't. And when I combined macro pounding with resistance training together, that's when I really started to see something happen within me. Which leads me to number three, which is I let go of what I thought I needed my body to be and really breaking free from this perpetual weight loss mode that I was living in for a decade plus was really more about a mental shift than anything else. [00:11:59][94.6]
[00:12:00] It was about realizing that I didn't need to force my body into being anything other than what it was. I realized that if I nourish my body with what it needed through macro accounting and if I moved my body the way that I needed to do it through a resistance training plan that my body was naturally going to become what it was meant to be. And if I gave it what it needed, then it would become what it needed to be. And by developing these amazing habits of nourishing and movement moving my body regularly, I started to feel amazing. And the more amazing I felt, the less I even began to care about what I genuinely look like. Like feeling amazing does not compare to anything else. The stronger and healthier that I became. I no longer strive to be skinny or to weigh less. I started to love my strong, healthy body. So essentially macro counting and resistance training taught me that my body is beautiful and that I no longer needed to deprive it, to punish it in order to build the body that I wanted. And at the beginning of my journey, when I went into this, I thought I wanted to have a skinny body. But at the end of the journey where I'm at, I've learned, Oh, what I actually am looking for is a strong, lean, capable body that I feel amazing in. I feel energized in. And man, if I would have realized this sooner, I would have saved so many years. But I'm grateful that I learned it, even if it took me a decade plus because I'm able to experience and share my experiences and rather share with my experiences with you so that you don't have to take all of the time that it took me living in this weight loss mode. [00:13:36][96.1]
[00:13:36] And maybe you're there. Maybe you're like, Julie, I am a decade in or I'm two decades in or I'm five decades in the hating my body and living in this chronic state of weight loss. I want to tell you that there is hope. I want to tell you that you absolutely can turn a new page and you can finally break free from this, because the one thing that it took was determination. And the second thing that it took was education. If you have those two things, you are determined to no longer be living in this weight loss mode and you are educated, you're educating your body on how to nourish it properly and how to move your body. I mean, man, those that is a killer combo that will allow you to finally break free. And so if there's one thing that you can take away from this, today's podcast is that it's possible. If it's possible for me, it's 100% possible for you. I mean, I can't tell you how many days I was sitting in my college room, 21, 22, 23 years old, sitting there bawling my eyes out because I hated the way that I looked. I hated and even more than the way that I looked, I hated the way that I felt. I was bloated all the time. My period was, you know, nonexistent for part. And then it was in and out all the time. My nails were brittle, my hair was brittle, my face was breaking out. I mean, there are so many things that my body was just signaling like, hey, please, please do something else because what you are doing is not working. I had brain fatigue. I had energy fatigue. I mean, I was like sleeping for so many hours a day and still not feeling like I could get any energy. [00:15:16][99.7]
[00:15:17] And it was because I was depriving myself of so many things that I was overexercising and under nourishing and so, so much again can go down. To two things. Your nutrition and your movement. And I do have programs for both of those. The macro accounting made simple. Online Academy is my nutritional program. So not only do I help you outline as to how do you count your macros and also how to alter them as your body begins to change, but also how you can make macro accounting a sustainable and enjoyable lifestyle long term. So if you want to learn more, you can go to macro accounting made simple.com. And then also for the movement portion. This is exactly why I created my movement with Julie App. You know, it started out with me getting so fed up with the gym and being so inconsistent with my workouts in my season of life where, you know, I was starting to really nail down my nutrition. But then, you know, the new phase of my journey, kind of the next chapter of my journey was, Oh man, I'm so burnt out at gym workouts. And I felt like, you know, what was such a safe haven for me for 6 or 7 years in this. And going from being scared of the weight section to then feeling empowered and doing that consistently to then feeling like I'm dreading driving to the gym and dreading going into the gym and actually getting my workout in. I had to figure out a different solution, and that's where I came up with dumbbell workouts for women, and I just started doing dumbbell workouts in my basement with some dumbbells that my dad gave me before he moved to California. And man, am I so grateful that he gave me those dumbbells on that cold November day because it was one of the best decisions that turned a new page in my journey. [00:16:51][94.6]
[00:16:52] And now, you know, birthed the movement with Julie App and five brand new workouts every single week. All you need is a few pair of dumbbells and a small space. I program, you know, lower body, upper body, cardio and core shoulders and glutes, full body, brand new workouts every single week. So you never get the same exact workout twice. Now, with that being said, you can absolutely still implement that progressive overload because we are doing the same foundational movements from month to month. But you're not feeling bored. And the number one thing that I hear, women who are consistent and, you know, a woman just to me and she just crossed over the 400 mark of workouts inside the app and she said, I can tell you the number one reason why I've stayed consistent with these 400 workouts is because I don't get bored. And it's super easy to implement and integrate into my life. And that's what I wanted. And that's my that's my goal. That's my prayer for the workouts and the app and the programing is that it can seamlessly integrate into your life because the easier it is and the more convenient it is for you to get it done, the more consistent you're going to be and the more consistent you're going to be. That's when you're going to start to see results. And especially when you're following both a time efficient and effective programing. Man, that to that combo, that's ultimately what you need to see results both paired with proper nutrition as well as consistent, effective programing. So if you want to learn more about my Julie app, I do have a sale going on for brand new subscribers. If you're a brand new subscriber in the app, you get 50% off your first month so you can go to sale. [00:18:24][91.9]
[00:18:24] That's Sally Dot movement with julie.com. And I will also link both of those things in the shownotes below. But I hope that this was helpful for you. I hope that this gave you some hope. Again, whether you've been living in this chronic weight loss mode for less than a decade, a decade, five decades, six decades, I want you to know that it totally is possible to break free from it. I believe that it is. I'm cheering for you and you can do this with the right tools in your toolbox. All right. That is all that I have for today's episode. I love you so much. I mean it. And I'll talk to you next one. All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram. Be sure to do so, Julie. A lot better. Yes, it's with an A in the middle for that Daily Post rail talk. Healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it. [00:18:24][0.0]
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