Meal Mentor

Weight-Loss Tips & Nutrition Teachings from Ellen's Vegan Trainer, John Pierre

John Pierre is an amazing guy and a vegan personal trainer to the stars! (seriously! you wouldn't believe his star-studded client list!)

JP & I met through mutual friends and I cherish our friendship. Put simply, he inspires me to be my best self! Just being around him is crazy motivating! He gives off the best energy. (If I could bottle it, we'd be millionaires and the world would be full of smiles) Now I just like a groupie ;)

Anyway! JP has a book titled Pillars of Health that debuted last week! (I highly recommend checking it out!)

JP also has some great tips and insights on his Facebook page that I'm sharing today.

JP wrote, "I am getting many questions about how my clients have lost over 100 lbs. The funny thing is, no one ever asks how they became healthier or got off handfuls of medication.

Weight loss is meaningless if done in an unhealthy manner.

When you can lose body fat and also become happier and healthier at the same time, then you have something.

There is no magic pill or potion.

You need to live an active life, eat a low fat vegan/raw based diet and don't fret about your weight. Focus more on greens than grains. Some fruit, especially grapefruit and berries. Get rid of all oils and use some avocado and a few nuts per day. Olive oil is not a health food, like sugar it is processed. Eat olives. Almonds are great if chewed to a cream consistency. Eat nuts in very small amounts. Drink green juice and pure water. Move your body all the time!

And most importantly learn to love yourself for who you really are inside."

We practice what JP preaches with the meal plans. Get started today!

Weight Maintenance. Can you add cheats back in? (+ How to Know When You're Too Thin)

A client emailed:

Have you written any blogs about maintaining your weight? Or do you feel like it is just permanent weight loss mode with more occasional baked goods or other otherwise "off limit" foods? I am 15 pounds away from my goal and am working on my mindset so it is a permanent weight loss. I am sick of yo-yoing. And I just wonder if it will be different when I reach that weight or if I need to stay at a low calorie diet always.

Congrats on all your success this far!

That said :) One of the reasons I preach "lifestyle" and not "diet" is because diets only work as long as you're on them.

As soon as someone goes off a "diet" and back to their old ways of eating, old bad habits, they start letting things back into the diet, the diet is over and the weight comes back. I've seen this so many times with my clients and even with myself. I've had to re-lose the last 10 lbs at least twice and every time the culprit was me getting a little more relaxed.

It's never a whole cheesecake that sends you off course and brings 5lbs back, it's the little things here and there that add up.

With my meal plan users, for example, even once they hit their goal, they stay on the meal plans.

I tell my clients: If it's working for you, why stop it? Keep doing what's working for you. If you've lost as much as you need to, your body will regulate. You won't lose anymore weight and if you do, and you feel like you've lost too much, add in more calories. Eat more beans, more grains, more fruits. If you don't have heart disease, diabetes or other medical conditions, you can try adding some fats back in like nuts or avocados, but just a little. Putting slices of avocado on my salad every day and eating pb&J's is what caused me to regain 10 lbs. (As soon as I stopped eating those foods and went back on the lower fat meal plans, the weight slid off). (See this post: Not Losing Weight on a Plant-Based Diet? Here's Why. 10 Culprits)

Here's what Dr. McDougall says in his book, Maximum Weight Loss:

"One of the most common concerns I hear from people who follow the McDougall Program faithfully is "I've lost too much weight." Many people just thing they're too then when they're really not. For years, their mirrors reflected an image of a much larger person. Now this new, thin body looks unfamiliar."

I find a lot of my clients are surprised that they continue to lose weight, even after they reach their goal, too. Sometimes they worry they've lost too much, but they haven't. I had one client who dreamed of her ideal weight as 135 lbs. She got there, then kept up her good practices and found herself down to 125. She said to me, "I never thought this was possible. At 135 I would have said 125 was grossly thin but here I am and my god, look at me! I've never felt so good! All my friends say I'm hotter now than I was 25 years ago in my 20s!"

It's also really, really important not to get caught in the numbers game because the numbers on a scale really mean very little in terms of your health and your appearance.

If you are really unhappy with your appearance and you feel you really are too thin, start adding in high fat foods like nuts, soy and avocado. Add dense calorie sources like flours and dried fruits. See this post, How to Gain Weight on a Plant-based (Vegan) diet.

If you're looking to lose (or maintain!) I can't recommend our meal plans enough!

They're how I lost the 10 for the third time, and have now kept it off for almost a year! Success feels sexy! Get on board now.

How to Stop Eating When You've Had Enough (End Overeating "I'm Full")

After my post about Finding True Hunger. I received this great email from a meal plan user that brings up a related, and equally important, topic:

"Thanks, Lindsay — this is very helpful. If I don't want salad, I'm not really hungry. Ok — next challenge — how to walk away from the food when I'm not hungry. And how to walk away from the table when I have eaten enough to take care of my physical needs."

Here was my advice to Susan:

1. (Most important) Do not keep food on the table. Family-style is a recipe for disaster. Keep the food in the kitchen or in a designated serving area, NOT on the table just a short reach away. Make yourself physically get up for seconds or thirds. Studies show that if the food is in front of you, you'll keep serving yourself. (This is also why buffets and standing around the food table at a party can lead to overeating).

2. Practice leaving a little food on your plate. Our human brain wants us to "finish" things. The last slice of pizza, cake, etc. just calls you. We tend look for context clues about when we've had enough and emptying something clearly gives an answer. (Sadly, it's usually not the correct one). Try leaving a little bit behind every meal (save it for later) so you get used to listening to yourself and not your environment. Don't forget, you can lose 10 lbs. a year by simply skipping 100 calories a day.

3. Slow down. Chew everything to a cream (better for digestion that way!) and drink plenty of water during your meal. Take a pause when you're about 3/4 full. Give your stomach and brain a chance to catch up with each other. Put a napkin over your plate when you're done or taking a break so it's not starring at you!

4. Say, out loud, "I'm not hungry, but I'm going to eat this anyway." This practice works best when you're snacking in between meals, but it can also work well at meals, especially if you're going for seconds. You'll be surprised how effective this is. Even when I'm home all by myself with no one to judge me but my dogs, I often can't bring myself to admit out loud I'm going to eat something when I'm not actually hungry. It really keeps me in check! Try it!

5. Brush your teeth. Seriously. After you've eaten, get up and brush your teeth. It'll really nip snacking between meals in the bud. Plus you're dentist will be delighted!

Having a plan makes a world of difference! Get the latest meal plan now.

Why you can't lose weight from exercise combined with caloric restriction

I received this email recently, from a woman wanting to know if the meal plans can help her. (yes! absolutely!)

"I have followed the plant-based diet for the last two years and love the way I feel. I have lost 80 pounds so far but I am stuck. For the last month I have greatly restricted my caloric intake. I am also exercising daily but my weight hasn't budged for a month!"

First a big congrats on the weight loss! That's amazing!!

Second, as I have found with many of my clients, caloric restriction in and of itself is not always enough. It depends on WHAT more than total calories. (*I found this particularly true as my clients started reaching their goal weights (less than 25 lbs to go).

For example, I've had clients who insisted they could eat "whatever they wanted" as long as they stuck to a certain caloric budget. Sometimes this worked initially but it always faltered in the end. They had to clean up their diet to get results.

Eating plant-based can have it's traps, too. For example, eating too many fats like nuts and seeds can inhibit weight loss even when you're counting calories. (See: Not Losing Weight on a Plant-Based Diet? Here's Why).

Third, if you're exercising and greatly restricting your calories, that could be the problem. When I was a personal trainer, I found the heavy restriction + exercise combo often slowed my client's losses (and that also led to them not feeling their best).

If my clients insisted on heavily restricting their calories, I generally advised them not to "exercise" (only walk). Once they achieved a desired weight/body fat loss, and they were willing to stop restricting, then we brought exercise back in.

Exercise is great, but it's not required for weight loss. It also requires more of a juggling act than if you try to lose based on diet alone. If you want to exercise, by all means do, but make sure you're eating enough and be careful not to deplete your glycogen.

I also do not recommend daily exercise. Any trainer will tell you working out every day is too much unless it's light activity like walking or gentle yoga.

Lastly, remember that the scale is not the best method for tracking losses. You could be gaining muscle in addition to fat loss from all that exercise, in which the scale won't move down. (Related: What Weighs More: A Pound of Fat or a Pound of Muscle (& Why the Scale is a Frenemy)).

The meal plans make it so easy and I'm thrilled to have so many success stories.

For those looking to lose weight, stick to the meal plan as close as possible and choose the lower fat options!

Get the latest meal plan now.

How to Avoid (and Fix) Loose Skin After Weight-Loss

I received two emails last week from our meal plan users about saggy skin after weight-loss that I thought I'd discuss it on the blog.

The good news: You've lost weight! Congrats!!!

The not-so-good news: Your skin feels saggy, mushy or there's just extra skin hanging around.

Is there anything you can do about it (and without surgical intervention)? Probably!

I say "probably" because there are a number of factors at play -- factors that determine whether or not your skin will "bounce back" naturally without surgical intervention.

From the following 7 factors, I find "time" (how long), weight (how much) and speed (how fast) mattered the most with my clients and their ability to "tighten and tone."

FACTORS:

Time - How long you carried the excess weight (i.e. 9 months pregnant vs. 9 years being overweight)

Weight - How much excess weight you carried (i.e. 40 pounds vs. 100 pounds)

Speed-ON - How fast you gained the weight (i.e. 30 pounds in 6 months vs. 30 pounds over 3 years)

Speed-OFF - How fast you lost the weight (slow, gradual weight-loss vs. drastic weight-loss in a short period).

Age - The elasticity of your skin decreases with age.

Body Composition - the ratio of lean mass to body fat. Even someone who looks "trim" or "slender" can have a minimal amount of lean muscle. I've trained a number of women who looked slim/skinny, and didn't need to lose any weight, but they had very little muscle on their beautiful body. We joked that they were "soft" when they came to me, but "lean and shapely" when I was done with them :)

Diet - a healthy diet filled with vegetables (like on our meal plans!) and staying hydrated matters! Every case is different, but I find most people, once they have reached their total weight-loss goal, find their skin starts to tighten and "bounce back" within 90 days, provided they maintain their loss.

If you lose the weight slowly and gradually, your skin will also tighten and "bounce back" progressively with the weight-loss. You and your skin will "shrink" together.

I lost a total of about 35-45 pounds. I plateaued after the first 25 or so, then lost the last 10-15 a few years later (after adjusting my diet further).

Even though I was young (mid-to-late 20s) and had lost the weight gradually, I had some loose "mushy" skin, particularly in back, thighs, and hips, especially the first time when I lost the most weight.

I talked to trainer at the gym (this was before I was a personal trainer), asking what exercises I could do to firm up.

After some embarrassing pinching and prodding, the trainer said, "this is just lose skin from weight-loss. It will tighten up on it's own, just keep exercising, building muscle, eating right."

He was right. Both times it cleared up on it's own, especially as I continued to lean out by increasing my muscle and chipping away at excess body fat.

If you've reached your goal, and are maintaining it, but your skin is feeling saggy or mushy, I recommend consulting with a personal trainer and paying for a few sessions so you can learn a workout plan and how to do the exercises properly, targeting certain muscles. The trainer should be able to help evaluate whether exercise can help, and to what extent. If you stick to the program diligently for 6-8 weeks, you'll see results and whether or not strength training is going to help your skin "bounce back" or if you may need to consider another alternative.

For example, many of my women clients complained about their breasts after substantial weight-loss or breast feeding. Nature can undoubtably be cruel: breastfeeding and weight-loss can cause our breasts to look like a de-flatted balloon. Still, most of my female clients found improvements by doing chest exercises (working on those muscles) as well as tightening their overall body. (For example, increasing the muscle in their arms and back also help with the breasts beyond chest exercise -- "spot training" is fairly ineffective).

Some women (myself included) also found the utility of a good bra :)

Finally, try brushing the area with a dry brush. I've read enough reviews online to think this technique is at least worth a try. The idea is to brush the skin with a dry brush to help improve circulation. The increased circulation (supposedly) brings nutrients to the skin that improve the quality of collagen and elastin. A friend of mine also swears routine massages have helped, particularly with cellulite.

Get the glow. Eat right. Get the latest meal plan now.

I deserve a treat (a new way to think about "food rewards")

I just loved this email from one of our meal plan users and had to share it with you. Her observations are eye-opening!

You may remember my tale of a frappuccino, about how one of my clients, even after she hit a plateau, wouldn't give up her weekly treat at Starbucks. Finally she started losing weight again and it was because she'd found new ways to reward herself, like getting a manicure, that didn't involve "food." I think Claudia's observations sing to this.

Hi Lindsay! I've lost a lot of weight since following the meal plans and others at work are noticing. The other day, one of my coworkers remarked that although she had started the day in a foul mood, she treated herself to a pastry from McDonald's, and was feeling much better now.

Then she said to me, "Don't you ever feel the need to "treat" yourself?" I was dumb struck by the comment. Consuming something I know to be unhealthy is not a "treat"! Every time I eat now, I am TREATING myself. Beautiful fresh fruits and veggies. A variety of complex flavors. Healthy legumes, seasonings and herbs. Since eating this way my cravings are gone and I no longer have that empty feeling of hunger.

Junk foods don't play fair: They're loaded up with fat, salt, and sugar, which gives us intense pleasure -- especially sugar which triggers a dopamine release (dopamine is responsible for everything that feels good). And that pleasure? That's what makes us "crave" and want sugary foods when we're depressed, sad, moody... in need of a little anesthesia. (A great book to read about this is Breaking the Food Seduction by Dr. Neal Barnard.)

We all need a treat sometimes as a pick-me-up or to celebrate something, but I always encourage my clients to find "treats" that don't involve food. Don't settle for the artificial happy stimulant, do something that will really make you happy and will last longer than the 20-minute sugar high or 10 seconds the food is in your mouth ;)

Be like Claudia. Get the latest meal plan now.