Hi! My name is Lauren and I am a Registered Dietitian in Denver, Colorado. I love what I do, and I love sharing my knowledge about wellness and nutrition! What makes me different than the MILLIONS of other wellness bloggers? Well… first things first… I have a degree in this stuff. It’s one thing to have a passion for it (really, it’s great), but I’ve had 5 years of schooling, passed a registration test (woof), practiced as a registered dietitian since 2008, and I get re-certified every 5 years by completing continuing education for this stuff. So if you’ve ever wondered what the difference between a “nutritionist” and a “dietitian” is, just see above. Anyone can deem themselves a “nutritionist,” but not just anyone can call them self a registered dietitian. Stepping off my soap box now…
So now that I’ve differentiated myself as a dietitian, what makes me a unique dietitian? I LOVE DESSERT. Yep, LOVE it. Eat it every. single. day. Don’t get me wrong, I eat healthy. But I’m not unrealistic about it. So if you’re looking for a quirky, realistic wellness blog to follow, you’ve found the right place. Great to meet you!
-Lauren Ott, RD
Education, Career, and Media Presence:
- Lauren Ott, RD has been a dietitian for over 7 years. Lauren graduated from the University of Oklahoma with her BS in nutritional sciences. She has her certificate of training in adult weight management from the Commission on Dietetic Registration.
- Lauren has experience in weight loss, eating disorders, corporate wellness, cardiovascular disease, public speaking, classroom management, curriculum development, media relations, and overall wellness.
- She has worked for corporations such as the University of Colorado Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, The Cooper Clinic, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
- Watch Lauren on her bi-weekly 9 News Denver segment, as she is the 9 News nutrition expert. Lauren has written for or appeared on media outlets such as LiveStrong, NPR, The Denver Post, Thrillist, Women’s Running Magazine, and Today’s Dietitian.
- Although Lauren is passionate about health and wellness, she is a true believer that everything is ok in moderation (especially DESSERT).
Mathea Ford: [00:00:27] Hi there! It’s Mathea. Welcome back to the Nutrition Experts Podcast. The podcast featuring nutrition experts who are leading the way using food starts today right now with our next guest. It’s great to have Lauren Ott on the show today. Lauren, welcome to Nutrition Experts.
Lauren Ott: [00:00:43] Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Mathea Ford: [00:00:46] I’m excited to have you on the show and share expertise with my tribe. Today we’re going to talk a little bit about weight loss and things around that topic but I’d like you to start by telling my listeners a little more about you and what you do.
Lauren Ott: [00:00:59] All right. So, I’m a private practice registered dietitian. I do private practice but I also do a little bit of food and health blogging on the side as well. I’m based out of Denver, Colorado. So, I’ve been practicing as a registered dietitian since two thousand and eight and I graduated from the University of Oklahoma. I also have my Certificate of Training in Adult Weight Management. Although I’m passionate about health and wellness, the biggest thing I believe in is moderation especially with dessert. You’ll find that all of my blogging and social media sites are called The Dessert Dietitian because I love dessert.
Mathea Ford: [00:01:39] Yeah! I notice that you’re the Dessert Dietitian. What is the Certificate in Adult Weight Management for those who don’t know what is that certification?y.
Lauren Ott: [00:01:48] Yeah! So, it’s through the CDR and basically you learn all of the latest and greatest of weight loss studies and recommendations and really separating evidence based research on how to lose weight versus just what’s trendy today would be my way of something about.
Mathea Ford: [00:02:07] I wanted to pull out of you. What are your biggest weight loss mistakes? I think we talked so much about different types of eating and stuff but I’m thinking about the mistakes that people make when they’re trying to lose weight. So, do you have some of those that you can talk to us about?
Lauren Ott: [00:02:27] I do. I was just as I was kind of coming up with this list I realized these are things I could talk about all day just as things I’ve picked up over the years from my clients and my trainings and things like that but I’ve kind of narrowed it down to what I think are the big ones that I see the most often. And I’d say the first one and these are in no particular order by the way but the first one I think of is only focusing on the number on the scale. There are just too many things that go into the weight that we see on the scale. It’s affected by fluid intake, by salt, by carbohydrates, even traveling such as flying can lead to fluid retention which can affect the scale, hormones, humidity, bowel regularity, muscle gain and loss. There are just so many things that go into that number on the scale that if that is the only thing you’re focused on during weight loss you’re going to see to be disappointed at some point.
Mathea Ford: [00:03:23] It’s not even a differentiated number. It doesn’t tell you like how much fat and how much lean mass. It’s just a number.
Lauren Ott: [00:03:30] Exactly! Exactly. So, my recommendation when it comes to that. You know what else should I focus on would be measuring waist circumference would be one thing and then if it’s available to you finding somewhere that offers something like a Dexa scan or a Bpd Pod that is actually going to measure lean body composition like you just mentioned that’s as opposed to just a number on the scale. And that way you can have that rechecked every three to six months or so and you can see real changes in body composition and fat loss versus just a number on the scale.
Mathea Ford: [00:04:05] I think that’s a great tip because it really is a long, it’s more of a marathon it’s not a race.
Lauren Ott: [00:04:10] Exactly!
Mathea Ford: [00:04:12] Okay. What’s your number two?
Lauren Ott: [00:04:13] Number two is eating too many calories. Which may seem obvious but the studies show that we underestimate our calorie intake by 50 percent. That’s 5 0 percent. And we overestimate our calorie expenditure by 50 percent. So, my recommendation is if you’re keeping a food diary always err on the side of overestimating calories and food and underestimating calories burned from exercise. Because more often than not you’re probably correct in that over estimating calories in food. And I really don’t recommend when it comes to calories from exercise. I don’t recommend eating more to accommodate for calories from exercise. Obviously with the exception of something like a marathon or triathlon. We just don’t burn as many calories as people think we do from exercise. So, I recommend thinking of exercise more of a bonus not a green light to eat whatever you want.
Mathea Ford: [00:05:11] So, is that one of the tips that you usually tell people or have your clients do is to keep a food log, food diary?
Lauren Ott: [00:05:17] I do and that’s actually another thing on my list is keeping a food diary. So, thanks for leading me into that one.
Mathea Ford: [00:05:24] Okay. So, number three?
Lauren Ott: [00:05:26] Yeah. Number three: food diary. So, studies show that writing down our food and exercise leads to twice the weight loss versus those that don’t keep a food diary. So, you know they’re going to help us track calories, protein, fat and carbs all of which matter for weight loss. They also just help keep us accountable and we know accountability is such a huge part of weight loss as well. My only caveat to this recommendation is I’ve found that in some clients writing down their intake can actually increase their food obsessions and lead to overeating. So, my advice there is that you know yourself better than anyone else. If you start keeping a food diary and you notice that it is just increase your food obsessions and therefore has led to over eating stop keeping that diary. There’s no one size fits all for weight loss. So, just because keeping a food diary does help a lot of people it doesn’t mean that it helps everyone. So, really make sure that you are just aware of what’s helping and what’s hurting when it comes to weight loss.
Mathea Ford: [00:06:29] So, when you encourage people to keep a food diary what do you have them write down? Just the foods or do you write calories?
Lauren Ott: [00:06:36] At a minimum, writing food and portions you know having a three ounce chicken breast versus a 10 ounce chicken breast. Obviously, there’s a huge difference there in terms of calories and macro nutrients. I really like. I mean there’s so many resources these days in terms of online tracking devices. The one I might go to is My Fitness Pal. I just think it’s really easy to use and it does all the work for you. It’s going to track if you know if you can tell it the food and the portion it’s going to tell you the calories and all the macro and micro nutrients in there. That would be my recommendation is to use an app or an online food diary like that. But I’ve got some clients that still just prefer pen and paper and there’s nothing wrong with that either.
Mathea Ford: [00:07:19] I love My Fitness Pal because you can scan UPC codes.
Lauren Ott: [00:07:22] Yeah! I because some foods don’t even have the nutrition facts label right on the individual portion and so that makes it really easy for clients and it’s got millions of different brands in there so you can get pretty specific as to what you’re tracking.
Mathea Ford: [00:07:36] This great tip. So, what’s number four?
Lauren Ott: [00:07:39] Number four is eating too few calories. Just like it’s important not to eat too many. You also don’t want to eat too few. This can lead to muscle loss which in turn leads to slowed metabolism. And it’s also just not feasible or realistic to stick to this for a lifetime because you know weight loss after all should be a lifetime change not a quick fix. And eating too few calories is just not sustainable. And you know to take it a step further I have a background in eating disorders. So, I think it’s worth mentioning that eating too few calories can also lead to both binge eating or on the opposite end of the spectrum disordered eating or you know orthorexia, eating disorders that type thing. So, aside from just not helping with weight loss, it can also lead to a lot of other bad issues.
Mathea Ford: [00:08:31] So, how do people know if they’re eating too few calories?
Lauren Ott: [00:08:36] My biggest recommendation here would be to go see a Registered Dietitian. It’s probably cliche but they’re the ones that are going to really be able to tell you based on your height, weight, gender, activity level, body composition, how many calories you need and help you to figure out what is too few and what is too many based on your body type. Because all too often, I hear especially with women for some reason this twelve hundred calories has been thrown around so much over the years it seems like so many of my female clients think “oh! Well, twelve hundred! That’s the magic number for weight loss” and it’s just not I don’t have any clients that I have on twelve hundred calories for weight loss men or women. And so I think my biggest tip would just go see someone credentialed. Ideally a Registered Dietitian and they’re going to help you figure out what’s too few versus too many.
Mathea Ford: [00:09:28] Obviously, I agree with that because I’m a dietitian too.
Lauren Ott: [00:09:31] Oh yeah.
Mathea Ford: [00:09:31] All right. So number five?
Lauren Ott: [00:09:33] Okay. Not eating the right type of calories. You can lose weight on a fifteen hundred calorie a day diet of all doughnuts. But the issue there is that you’d be hungry all the time. You’d lose lean muscle mass and it would make sticking to this diet almost impossible with the fact that you’re hungry all the time. Instead, if you eat those same fifteen hundred calories but make sure to focus on wholegrain, healthy fats, lean protein, things that are actually going to lead to satiety and feelings of fullness and they’re also going to lead to more energy throughout the day which in turn is going to lead to less binges and therefore that ability to maintain lean body mass and weight loss. So, it’s not all about calories when it comes to weight loss, macro nutrients such as carbs, protein and fat do play a big factor in that as well.
Mathea Ford: [00:10:24] So, that’s interesting because when I became a dietitian in ’97, I believe that we kind of saw all calories as equal. So, sugar and starch both have four grams calories per carb. It’s the same thing. So, what has changed? And obviously I don’t still agree with that. But what’s the deal with how the calories how you do this intake affect you?
Lauren Ott: [00:10:54] It’s interesting I’ve gotten that question a lot from clients you know is the calorie just a calorie. And I compare it to some extent, I mean if I’m just going for an easy answer then yeah, you to some extent a calorie is a calorie but if we’re looking into things like how to affect insulin which in turn can affect fat loss and fat storage and also just how they affect our satiety because ultimately we’re humans and if it were just about calories we would never feel hunger or fullness. But but we do feel hunger and fullness and if you’re hungry all the time you’re not going to be able to sustain a certain diet which is why eating a diet full of something like sugar that does not induce satiety hormones versus something like fat or protein which do affect satiety or increase satiety hormones those are going to make a big difference. And we also have to think about lean muscle. If you’re not eating enough protein you’re going to ultimately over time start to lose lean muscle and losing lean muscle is what’s going to over time also slow our metabolic rate. So, yes calories matter but there are so many other things you have to think about satiety, lean muscle mass, hormones such as insulin and those hunger and fullness hormones that go into weight loss as well.
Mathea Ford: [00:12:14] Number six?
Lauren Ott: [00:12:15] People that have that all or nothing mentality. I could arguably say this might be the number one mistake I see in my clients. They come in and it’s just this black or white all or nothing type of thinking that’s just not sustainable for anyone because inevitably we’re human and we’re going to make a mistake at some point and these mistakes lead people to give up and fall off their plan and over time leading to this kind of yoyo dieting cycle of dieting, doing the all or nothing is sticking with it for you know a week, two weeks, a month falling off, getting upset and therefore saying “Oh! Well, I fell off so I may as well go binge on icecream tonight” and then a week later getting back on and it’s just this vicious cycle which is going to overtime lead to just distrust in yourself with food which again is overtime going to lead to no success in weight loss. Its just kind of that yoyo vicious cycle. So, instead of all or nothing thinking, give yourself permission to eat all foods and I know that’s probably crazy for some people to hear but there really should be no food. Obviously, food allergies to the side.
Mathea Ford: [00:13:28] Right.
Lauren Ott: [00:13:30] There should be no food that you cannot eat. And it’s also when it comes to exercise it’s okay to have days that you don’t exercise just like you don’t want to have all or nothing thinking with food, you don’t want to have that with exercise either. And so you want this to be sustainable. It’s probably cliche to say but moderation really is key to long term success. And also to building trust in yourself around food because ultimately if you don’t trust yourself around food you’re never going to be successful at weight loss.
Mathea Ford: [00:14:01] People sometimes say they have trigger foods or that cause them to kind of go off and then they’ll be like “No, I don’t have any willpower. I’m going to stop for today or whatever.” And that is a mindset thing like eating a doughnut might cause you to eat five but that doesn’t mean you have to stop first. You know you can choose to not eat the doughnuts but it doesn’t mean you’re ruined for the day either. You don’t get some sort of calorie reset at midnight.
Lauren Ott: [00:14:30] If and when you do fall off. I hate doing call it a plan because really it’s a way of eating. But if you do end up eating something or doing something that you didn’t want to do you haven’t ruined it. There’s no one day or even one week that’s going to throw you so far off that it’s worth just throw your hands up and say “I can’t do this.” And so realizing that you’re human realizing that we all make mistakes and being able to make those mistakes but then jump right back on that bandwagon and or plan and being resilient. I think resiliency is such a key to weight loss that you know you make a great point there too in terms of mistakes that I see people make.
Mathea Ford: [00:15:11] All right. Number seven.
Lauren Ott: [00:15:13] All right. And this can kind of tie into that all or nothing mentality. But it’s the good food, bad food mentality. In my mind, you shouldn’t have to cut out doughnuts. The reason that one donut leads you eating five donuts is probably because you have doughnuts on your bad food list. And any time you put a food on the bad food list you’re automatically putting it on this pedestal. And anytime you have something on a pedestal you’re going to obsess over it. It’s going to be all you think about. And so if you can get yourself out of that mindset of good food, bad food or yes food, no food whatever you’re calling them you’re taking the power away from that food. So, ultimately you don’t feel the need to eat five doughnuts. You can stop at one and still feel really satisfied after that one. So, I think you know self-control only goes so far when you’re obsessing about certain foods all the time. So, try to make it an even playing field for all foods and you’ll really see that you can take the power away from certain foods.
Mathea Ford: [00:16:20] You’re always going to have an event that you want to go to or something that is possibly going to have that opportunity to eat that food and if you have it like you said kind of on this bad food list, I can’t ever eat it. And you feel like you give that food more control, the food is neither good nor bad. The food’s not trying to rob you or anything like that it’s just food but we forget this sometimes but food is such an emotional experience.
Lauren Ott: [00:16:49] It is and I think you know ultimately so much of weight loss is not knowledge. I mean most people know “okay. I need to eat less and exercise more to lose weight. Right?” It doesn’t come down to knowledge as much as it does about really changing your mindset about food.
Mathea Ford: [00:17:09] Yeah, that’s great! Okay, so number eight.
Lauren Ott: [00:17:12] All right. This one is I put not listening to your body here. So, I think that so many of my clients love rules and I’m the same way we all to some extent we love rules because it makes things more black and white to us. But I think over time if you’re just following this set of rules versus actually listening to your body you can actually start to lose your hunger and fullness cues over time which can lead to a lifetime of just disordered eating and food rules versus intuitive eating which is always the ultimate goal right? Eating when we’re hungry and stopping when we’re full. One way that I really seen this in some clients is a lot of people subscribe to this whole small frequent meals mentality which is fine but if you’re eating if that small frequent meal mentality leads to eating when you’re not hungry that again you does your body and mind to not eat based off of hunger but instead eat off of this list of rules which in this case is time. And you know on the other end of that spectrum I’ve got some clients that try to restrict to two to three meals a day which causes them to be ravenous between meals and therefore they’re bingeing by the time they do get those two to three meals a day. So, there is no right or wrong number of times a day to eat. You know again there is no one size fits all for every person but it just depends on you, your metabolism, your activity level, how you feel. But my biggest advice is you know if your body tells you to eat twice a day, eat twice a day. If your body tells you to eat 10 times a day, eat 10 times a day but don’t force an eating schedule onto yourself that doesn’t fit with your hunger schedule really try to listen to your hunger and fullness cues and that again is just going to help further build up that trust in yourself around food.
Mathea Ford: [00:19:10] Well, that reminds me back to the not eating the right type of calories. You’re going to be hungry or have cravings or whatever if you’re not eating those healthy foods that are nourishing you and providing that fiber and fullness satiety feeling.
Lauren Ott: [00:19:26] All of these rules really can kind of play into each other or I shouldn’t say rules all these mistakes that I see here trying to get away from rules here.
Mathea Ford: [00:19:35] All right. So, number nine.
Lauren Ott: [00:19:37] Not exercising. This one probably seems obvious but so many of my clients think “Well, I’ve lost weight before by just dieting. So, why would I need to exercise when I know I can do it without?” But studies show that diet is important for weight loss. Well, exercise is important for weight loss maintenance and so “sure! You can 100 percent you can lose weight without exercising but what you probably can’t do is keep that weight loss off.” And in my mind weight loss maintenance is almost more important than weight loss itself because losing, gaining, losing, gaining that whole yoyo effect is so bad for not only your metabolism but also your mindset and again your trust in yourself. And so if you’re not incorporating exercise into your routine while you lose weight it can not only lead to muscle loss which can in turn decrease your resting metabolic rate but it can also make it nearly impossible to keep that weight loss off. So, exercise allows your body to lose more fat versus more muscle. We’re inevitably going to lose some fat and muscle during weight loss regardless of how much we exercise. But you can really kind of tilt the percentages by exercising and you’ll inevitably lose a little bit. But we want to maximize obviously the fat versus the muscle loss. So, exercising is huge both during weight loss and weight loss maintenance.
Mathea Ford: [00:21:04] I think exercise gives you benefits obviously outside of the calories that you burn as far as like more alertness, sleeping better, you know better able to complete your tasks so exercise just good for us all around. But you know I always hear sometimes that people are like “I’m so hungry all the time I don’t feel like I have the energy to exercise.” And that’s kind of leading into that you know you’re not eating the right foods or you’re not eating too many calories you’re not eating enough calories or the right kind. So.
Lauren Ott: [00:21:35] Yeah! And exercise can actually help with hunger levels as well. It seems counterintuitive but studies show that exercise can actually decrease hunger as we start to do it more consistently and it also helps with stress which in turn helps with weight loss. So, like you said there’s there’s a million different reasons to exercise. Don’t fixate too much on the calorie burn side of that.
Mathea Ford: [00:22:00] Okay. Number 10.
Lauren Ott: [00:22:02] This one kind of like with calories. There’s also such thing as over exercising or doing the wrong exercises. So, over exercising a few things there. First of all, it’s just not sustainable. Just like cutting, eating too few calories is not neither is over exercising but overexercising can also lead to muscle loss that can lead to injury. It can also lead to impaired adrenal hormones that can regulate that stress response that I just mentioned is so important for for weight loss as well. And then in terms of doing the wrong exercises, I see so many clients focusing on cardio for that calorie burn reason and really skimping on strength training but lifting weights although the calorie burn in that moment might be lower. It really is the most effective way to build lean muscle and lose fat which in turn is going to help keep that metabolism high. So, you don’t want to over exercise and you don’t want to just focus on the cardio either. Ideally, you want a mix of both cardio and strength training.
Mathea Ford: [00:23:07] What about people who don’t want to have you know a lot of bulky muscles or adding they don’t want to add weight because they weight trained and now all of a sudden they weigh another pound instead of lost?
Lauren Ott: [00:23:17] I would tell them that’s not going to happen. I mean if you’re if you’re a woman we just don’t have the testosterone to bulk up as much as people think we are. Unless you’re just you know in the gym for four hours a day which like I just mentioned you shouldn’t be doing anyways. You’re not going to bulk up as a woman and gaining weight from exercise. Sure, it can happen from muscle gain but you’re losing fat at the same time so if anything you might see a week or two plateau but you’re not going to see a weight gain just from strength training.
Mathea Ford: [00:23:50] Yeah and go back to number one the scale is not the only right?
Lauren Ott: [00:23:54] Very true. Yep.
Mathea Ford: [00:23:55] All right. Eleven?
Lauren Ott: [00:23:57] All right. This one I’m talking about the halo effect and here’s what I mean by that. I’ll have clients who eat well and exercise for a week and they thought this quote unquote halo effect that they’re like “you know what? I’ve done so well. I deserve something really great.” So, they’ll go and they’ll order a large pizza and they’ll binge on the whole thing and it may not even happen just after a week. I’ve seen this happen after one meal of eating right of “Oh well, I had such a healthy life. So, for dinner I’m going to get Chinese takeout and I’m going to order the large size and eat the whole thing.” You absolutely want to reward yourself with weight loss. Not rewarding yourself is actually another mistake I see people make on occasion but you shouldn’t be rewarding yourself with food. So, start to notice when you’re getting that halo effect when you’re feeling like “oh! I’ve done so well that I deserve to eat X Y Z.” If you want to eat whatever it is then great! But if you’re eating it just because you feel like you deserve it reward yourself with something else. Get a massage, you know take a bubble bath, have a Netflix binge night whatever it is that floats your boat but try not to reward yourself with food.
Mathea Ford: [00:25:05] Binge on Netflix not cake. Right?
Lauren Ott: [00:25:07] Yeah! There you go.
Mathea Ford: [00:25:09] Yes. All right. Last one 12th?
Lauren Ott: [00:25:12] Unrealistic expectations. This is such a big one. I’ll have clients come in and they’ll say “I want to lose 50 pounds by the time I’m 50” and they turn 50 in two months and that’s just not realistic. Most people can expect to lose anywhere from a half a pound to maximum two pounds a week and that all depends on how much weight you need to lose. The less you need to lose unfortunately the less you probably will lose each week and expecting to lose more than this can lead to disappointment and therefore giving up. So, and also keeping in mind that weight loss is not linear. You’re not going to lose the same amount of weight every single week because again there are so many things that influence the scale. And then they’re going to be weeks that you might even gain. So, having unrealistic expectations and inevitably not meeting these goals can again wear down confidence over time, leading people to fall off their plan and thus begin this whole yoyo effect of dieting. So, I think again this is just a really good reason to actually go see a Registered Dietitian and see what’s realistic for your body because 50 pounds might not even be realistic for you. There are so many things to take into account such as “when’s the last time I weighed 50 pounds less than this?” If it was in high school that’s probably not realistic for you anymore. You also have to look at genetics. If you come from a family of bigger built people or people that have a little bit more weight in their midsection than their thighs. That’s probably how you’re going to be built to so. Not to say you can’t lose weight but it’s not realistic to think that “Yeah I want to be 50 pounds thinner when no one in my family weighs that I haven’t weigh that since high school and eat when I was in high school I was on the track team running 10 miles a day or whatever it might be.” So, someone like a Registered Dietitian can really talk you through those things and figure out what an overall realistic weight loss would be and how quickly to expect to see that weight loss.
Mathea Ford: [00:27:24] How can people change their behavior related to food?
Lauren Ott: [00:27:27] So, I think kind of to touch on something we talked about earlier but so much of it is mindset or mental and I think people know these basics of weight loss. For the most part I think there’s always things that people can learn but the hard part is actually doing those things that you learn and sticking to it. And if you feel restricted you’re inevitably going to go off plan at some point. So, making sure that you know this is a lifestyle change and that you’re still incorporating your favorite foods there should be none of those No foods but I think really getting to the bottom of one thing I will have a lot of my clients do is most of the time when someone comes to see me for weight loss. It’s not their first rodeo right? They’ve tried before and so I think that looking back at those previous attempts and really kind of figuring out what went wrong that time. “Was it was it self sabotage? Was it all or nothing thinking? Did something in my life change that maybe I need to make a change in terms of diet and exercise? Maybe I was able to exercise five days a week but now I have a newborn baby and that’s not feasible anymore. So what can I do now to make life easier, weight loss easier this time around?” So, I think that looking back at previous attempts and learning from those is really important. I think figuring out what your road blocks are whether it’s distrust in yourself with food or self sabotage or maybe just actually name it sit down and look at your schedule and figuring out your priorities if time you know time for so many people is a roadblock. And if that’s the case for you really looking at your priorities and figuring out how to get your health and wellness at the top of that list. It’s amazing what you can find when you actually start looking at your day hour per hour. We’re all busy but I think we all have things we can cut out such as social media and TV and you know whatever it might be to make time for ourselves and our health. So, that would be probably my the first things I would do.
Mathea Ford: [00:29:35] So, when you’re thinking about weight loss is long term like you mentioned weight maintenance is important and it seems like everything I read says that that’s the hardest part. You know once you get over the hurdle of losing the 50 or 20 or whatever pounds keeping that off is really the next challenge. So, any any advice related to that for people?
Lauren Ott: [00:30:02] Yeah! I mean I think that first of all thinking about maintenance, your entire weight loss journey is important. I think in today’s culture weight maintenance is just not for lack of a better word it’s just not sexy right. Like you’re not reading in Cosmo Magazine, you’re not reading about “oh! This person has kept off 50 pounds for the last 10 years.” You’re reading about how they lost the weight in the first place so nobody really talks about the maintenance. So, I think that keeping maintenance top of mind in your journey from day one is so important because it doesn’t make sense to lose weight if you’re not focused on keeping it off. You’re better off just staying where you are than losing it only to gain it back. And so you know thinking about it from day one. Making sure your changes are sustainable so you’re not doing things like cutting, overcutting calories or overexercising. Making sure you are exercising because we know that that’s one of the number one predictors of weight loss maintenance. And I think having accountability is such a big thing too. So, having a support group whether it be friends, family whoever that know what your goals are both during weight loss and during weight loss maintenance because doing it alone is just not possible so make sure that you’ve got a really solid support group that’s going to be there for you. You know again not just in your time of weight loss but also in maintenance as well. And maybe that’s an online community too. People that are going through the same thing as you.
Mathea Ford: [00:31:31] That’s a great great tip. I think that accountability, that connection with other people. Thinking about our listeners, they may be practitioners working with people who are losing weight or they may be people who are thinking about eating healthier or whatever. How can they use the information we talked about today in their day to day life?
Lauren Ott: [00:31:51] You know I think that just setting up your environment to make these things feasible to you. So, kind of back to the weight loss maintenance thing, if you lose the weight and then all of a sudden you know these types of ice cream start creeping back into your house or you cancel your gym membership the day that you know you reach your goals or whatever it might be making sure that your environment is setup for weight loss and weight loss maintenance. You know not driving past your favorite fast food restaurants every day, not keeping kind of those binge foods in the house until you feel like you can keep them in the house. And then you know just making sure again that you’ve got the right mentality that you’ve got, someone to talk to to make sure if you have the right mentality whether that’s a Registered Dietitian or a friend. And then I think another thing is just to make sure what you’re reading because there’s so much misinformation out there from magazines to newspapers to whatever it might be. Just make sure you’re not filling your brain with misinformation that’s just going to further confuse you and discourage you. I always tell my clients if it’s not you know if it if it truly is a weight loss article if it’s not written by an M.D. or preferably an RD something like that don’t read it, don’t even let those things get into your brain.
Mathea Ford: [00:33:11] All right, Lauren, one of the things I always ask my podcast guests is their favorite food?
Lauren Ott: [00:33:18] This is like the hardest question you’ve asked me all day.
Mathea Ford: [00:33:22] Get that a lot!
Lauren Ott: [00:33:23] You know I built a career like you did around food. So, I love all food. But if I really really had to narrow it down I mean aside from dessert which I’ve already said I love I had to think of a non dessert food I’d probably see some sort of Asian food maybe like a curry or something like that. I could probably eat curry for every single meal.
Mathea Ford: [00:33:48] Wow. Okay. I love curry too. I’m so upset when Pei Wei stopped making a curry dish.
Lauren Ott: [00:33:53] Oh my gosh! Long story. I actually got sick off of their curry one time so I can’t eat it anymore. I didn’t even know they stopped making it.
Mathea Ford: [00:34:01] Oh! It’s been a bit several years but yeah!
Lauren Ott: [00:34:05] Yeah.
Mathea Ford: [00:34:05] Yeah.
Lauren Ott: [00:34:07] It was good though.
Mathea Ford: [00:34:08] Lauren thank you so much for being on the podcast today. It was a pleasure to have you on the show. I know my listeners enjoyed listening to your twelve weight loss mistakes and kind of the way to correct those. So, if listeners want to connect with you what’s the best way to do that?
Lauren Ott: [00:34:22] Yeah. So, I’d say two ways. I have an Instagram. It’s @theDesertDietitian. Dietitian with two T’s. There’s no C dietitian. Get that a lot. And I also have a website. So www.thedessertdietitian.com. Either of those are great ways to get a hold of me or follow along with what I’m doing.
Mathea Ford: [00:34:47] Well, guys this has been another great episode of the Nutrition Experts Podcast. The podcast is all about learning more so you can do more with nutrition in your life.
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