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Nutrition Experts Podcast Episode 02 Mindfulness and Embracing The Challenges of Eating with Amina Altai

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This week, I am featuring Amina Altai about mindful eating and more on the challenges of eating well and healthy living.
Amina’s Bio: Wellness expert and business advisor, Amina Altai knows what it means to be a millennial on the move!  She began her marketing career at Cartier and Vera Wang, then co-founded her own marketing agency and worked with clients such as Samsung and Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, and later led the marketing teams of wellness leaders BLiss and Spafinder Wellness.  She was balancing an incredible business adn an enviable career!  She was also making herself terribly sick.
In 2009, when the stress of her “hustle and grind” lifestyle led Amina to be diagnosed with two autoimmune disease, she began to search for solutions for her own wellness, and discovered that she was not alone when it came to sacrificing self for success.  After studying nutrition at IIN, fitness through NCCPT and Mindfulness Training under Charlie Knoes to get herself healthy, she decide to combine her 12 years of marketing strategy experience with her wellness training to teach other entrepreneurs and brands to create healthy businesses that they thrive in!
Amina is sharing her free resource: Get Unstuck In Your Business: Nourish Yourself From Frustration to Fortune: http://getunstuck.aminaaltai.com/

This mini course covers so many things, including how to figure out and deal with your biggest stressors. There are even guided meditations and worksheets included so that participants can really incorporate those changes into their lives.

Mathea Ford: [00:00:00] Hi there. It’s Mathea. Welcome back to the Nutrition Experts Podcast. The podcast featuring nutrition experts who are leading the way using foods starts today right now with our next guest. It’s great to have Amina Altai on the show today. Amina, welcome to Nutrition Experts. I’m excited to have you on the show and share your expertise with my tribe.Amina Altai: [00:00:26] Hi Mathea! Thank you so much for having me. It’s such an honor to be here and an honor to share my expertise.

Mathea Ford: [00:00:33] Great! So, we were talking and you tell me that you’ve kind of done some research in nutrition, done a little bit studying, kind of an all around, different focuses but mainly towards Integrative Nutrition. What is it about food that most people are missing that causes some issues or problems?

Amina Altai: [00:00:56] That’s such a great question. I think many of us aren’t exactly conscious about the way we eat. Right? Sort of we grow up in these households and we learn from our caretakers whether it’s our parents, teachers at school, our peers what have you. We eat in a certain way and it’s generally learned right from the group settings that we’re in or [you know] what’s taught to us by our families but we’re never really conscious about what works for our bodies in particular. Right? And now we might read about the latest diet and nutrition information online but do we ever really check in with our bodies and say “OK, this is what feels really good for me or you know this is what I need for my body to work optimally.”

Amina Altai: [00:01:33] I think oftentimes we’re just not conscious enough about the way we’re eating and what it does to our bodies. And I think the biggest thing that we can do is you know create a plan that is both joyful and functional. Right? Because food [should] should be really joyful. You know a lot of the times when we stick to a particular way of eating there’s an absence of joy in it and we do want it to be a happy moment and an exciting moment and joyful as I say but it should also have a really functional role for your body. Right? Everything that we ingest on a cellular level should support our systems [you know.] Energetically, our minds so we can show up for our lives really fully. And I think just sort of reframing it and thinking [you know] “Is this going to work for my body? Am I being really conscious about what I’m putting in and is it going to help me shot for my life in in the biggest and best way possible?”

Mathea Ford: [00:02:23] A really great observation. Thinking through like [you know] I sometimes have ideas about food even of the dietician just little words that come into my brain when I’m eating something that I know with said to me as a child. For example, potatoes will make you fat! I mean that seems like a strange thing but I specifically remember being told that and so that comes into my mind and potatoes are [you know] they can do different things but the food in of itself is not bad. So [it’s] it’s just funny because that is something that most of the time were probably not even conscious of. So, what are some of those things that we can do to kind of do better with that?

Amina Altai: [00:03:16] Yeah that’s a great question and I love that anecdote that is shared and that so many of us right. So we’re programmed from a young age to think that certain foods are acceptable and certain foods are bad or what have you have or they’ve been labeled and we internalize that and that becomes our thinking and the way we move through life and through every meal. One of the biggest things that I can recommend is really being mindful at every meal. I do a lot of corporate wellness work and two weeks ago I lead a mindful eating lunch for one of my clients. And it was really an opportunity for us to get really present with what we put on the plate and how food even tastes for us and what was so interesting was you know I had basically participants [you know] you know plate themselves some food in them. I walked them through a process of eating mindfully and everything from the way we put the food in our mouth to the way that we chew, how much we chew, when we swallow. And by far and away the biggest comment that I got afterwards was most people put things on their plate that they don’t enjoy because they think that they should eat it. And it’s so interesting even if it’s you know something healthy and they think “OK, let me in abundance of spinach.” Well. Actually I don’t like spinach at all but I really like arugula. But we were not conscious enough.

Amina Altai: [00:04:26] We don’t take enough time and really spend time with our food to ingest it and assimilate with it and chew it properly to really understand what it is we need and what we like even.

Mathea Ford: [00:04:36] So what do you think is at the core of that dissatisfaction. I mean is it something that we learn as a child or is it somehow that we… Cause I know, we spend most of our life distracted. So, how does that play into this or affect it?

Amina Altai: [00:04:57] Yeah I think that’s a great question and I think it’s really two-fold. I think it’s that lack of consciousness so we’re moving through life so fast we often don’t take time to think and really choose and be present in the moment. And then I think it’s that programming too. So those two combined it’s like well, as a child I always ate this and I was told lthat this was good. I’m not present right now, et me just do this. But if we stop for a moment and we check in with ourselves and we say “OK, am I really hungry? Do I actually want to eat this? Is this what my body needs?” It’s a very different experience than just moving through life on autopilot. What’s interesting too is you know the amount of food we eat is really [has] has implications for that consciousness piece if we’re not really checking in with our bodies and saying “Am I really hungry? Is this what I really need?” We tend to overeat, right? We just sort of eat what’s on our plate or what’s been put in front of us.

Amina Altai: [00:05:44] So I think the being present and aware and sort of overcoming that programming are two pieces to really pay attention to.

Mathea Ford: [00:05:54] So what are some you know like I said “oh I have this voice in my head like hey that will make you fat!” So, what are some typical blocs or issues that people have regarding food or nutrition, like what are some common things you come up and here over and over?

Amina Altai: [00:06:13] Yeah, I think one is that [you know] fat is bad. That’s a really common one and of course there are good fats and there are bad fats. It’s about finding the right ones and working them into your diet. And then with people that have adhered to a particular way of eating for a long period of time, a lot of the times they think [that] that eating can’t be joyful or that healthy eating can’t be joyful. So you know for example, I have two autoimmune diseases – I have celiac disease and they have Hashimoto’s – and I have to eat in a particular way to support those two diseases. And along the way and along my journey I’ve found ways to incorporate little fun into those particular diets. But one of the things that I do encounter is that [you know] if somebody is on the autoimmune protocol for example or is eating gluten free or you know a Ketogenic diet, they think that it can’t be fun and it can’t be joyful but sort of being present and finding ways to get creative and bring joy back into that experience. It can be done for sure. I think it’s just reframing our thinking and again getting present and finding new and exciting ways to embrace the challenge.

Mathea Ford: [00:07:17] So that just plays right into my next question because you’re making a think what steps can people take to get out of a rut in their health or in what they’re doing.

Amina Altai: [00:07:28] Yeah! Another really great question Mathea. [You know] one of the interesting things is that most people come to me when they’ve already had, they’ve taken a hit for example like maybe they’ve taken a health hit [you know] where maybe their cholesterol has gone up or they’re not feeling very well or they’re super lethargic or they’ve taken a career hit let’s say where they can’t show up for their big and juicy job and career and they need someone to kind of infuse new life into their wellness routine. And so, I would love it if people would come to me before that point right because it’s a little you don’t want to see people experience tough times or pain or what have you. So, you know if people can get conscious and aware you know and just check in with their bodies every day you know meditation is such a powerful tool. And even just a simple body scan noticing if there’s places you’re holding tension or discomfort. [You know] places where you need to be kinder to yourself or take care of yourself a little bit more. We wouldn’t get to that point of burnout we wouldn’t take that big hit first so that would be I mean my biggest wish is that people come to me before that big hit. But I think one of the best things that we can do is and I keep saying this over and over again but it really does bring consciousness and awareness to the way that we move through our days.

Amina Altai: [00:08:46] So a lot of us start the day, we fly out of bed [you know] maybe we hit snooze on the alarm and [you know] we don’t really take time for ourselves and our morning routines are hurried. But what if we designed a morning routine that really supported our health and wellness. [You know] we get up at a certain time and instead of just having coffee on an empty stomach maybe we make ourselves a beautiful breakfast the night before. [You know] maybe we take some time to dry brush our skin and use some great body oils and really just like honor our bodies and take care of them and just be really aware about what we’re putting in and on our bodies and approaching every meal the same way you know not just grabbing what’s most convenient on the way to the office but really thinking ahead and designing something that’s going to support you in your highest potential.

Mathea Ford: [00:09:31] So what created your interest in this topic, Awareness of mindfulness and Nutrition and what kind of sparked your interest and wanting to know more about it?

Amina Altai: [00:09:45] Yeah I’m exactly the client I needed myself 10 years ago. So, I had a really crazy marketing career. I had my own agency for about seven years and I was working 80 hour weeks and I had no boundaries and I wasn’t taking care of myself whatsoever. I was skipping meals and [you know] fueling myself only with coffee, pulling all nighters. One too many unhealthy team outings, you name it. I was doing it and I was sabotaging my body in the process. And I eventually [you know] started to feel so sick I was. My memory was going, my hair was falling out and I was just so tired at one point I could barely lift myself off the sofa and I went to seven different doctors before I was diagnosed with the two auto immune diseases and Chronic Iron Deficiency Anemia. And at that point like I basically had no choice. It was you know eat healthy and take care of yourself, manage inflammation, manage these two diseases. Otherwise, you’re going to continue on this trajectory of feeling terrible and not being able to show up for the life that you really want. And that was a crossroads for me and the decision became very very clear. And at that point I felt like well my mission is to mitigate the learning curve for everybody else because we’re not taught how to take care of ourselves. We’re not taught how to eat. We’re not taught how to be conscious and mindful about designing what our bodies need. We don’t learn that in high school you know some people learn that in their families and that’s amazing. But it’s not necessarily something that we’re taught. But I think it you know desperately needs to be learned and that’s what I seek to teach. So, [you know] professionals or people that are entering the workforce they don’t have to [you know] have that crash and burn. I want to mitigate the learning curve for them so that they can take care of themselves and flourish because when we feel good so much more is available to us. Right? In terms of our families, our careers, who we are out in the world like when we feel good we shine so bright and then everything around us shines so bright.

Mathea Ford: [00:11:43] So what you mentioned [you know] I think that’s a great example of a crossroads. But when I think of my life like I know what to eat. I know better. But I have two children. I’m busy. I do lots of things. So how [you know] we have this hyperactive world. We live in this world where we’re constantly connected on our phones, where you know we come home and maybe you know you’re you want to disconnect from all that being connected so you can next to the TV or whatever. But I just I don’t. I need a little bit more about how I could because even I struggle with creating a meal plan for the family for the week. So, then I go to a grocery store and buy the right foods. Now if you don’t have them in your house and you don’t have them available. It’s hard to eat them. [You know] when you have no fruits and push hard to have a pizza food. So, what can’t people do [you know] I mean have that change? What sort of shift do they need to do in their life, in their day, in their plans whatever that would you know create that ability to improve this part?

Amina Altai: [00:13:05] Absolutely. So I think the first thing is reframing thinking and reframing the role of food in our lives. What is the role of food for you in this hypothetical. [You know] Is it a functional role? “I just need calories and I just need to maintain my blood sugar so I can move through the day.” Is it a joyful role?

Amina Altai: [00:13:22] A lot of people hide behind food too and use it as a crutch as an emotional crutch for use. The first thing is really identifying the role of food. And if it’s somewhat off balance it’s about reframing it. Right? So, yes it should be joyful and it should be functional. We should never hide behind or abuse ourselves with it. And so creating a plan from that but to really have a healthy relationship with food and to be able to manage it in our ever hectic queues so always on society and we need a sort of a plan for what we do at home and to plan for what we do out in the world. Right? So, depending on how we’re reframing that approach to food [you know] thinking about you know what you’re going to have at your home and having sort of your go to healthy pantry items, healthy fridge items. And if you don’t have those and if you don’t like to cook there is no shame in that game. It’s about what do I do when I go out. And how do I approach healthy eating out in the world as well because I can totally be done. I have clients that are management consultants or nurse consultants and they travel literally every week and cooking a meal and making a meal is not something that could even be in the consideration set. So, for somebody like that it’s about “OK, well, where are you going to be and when and what types of restaurants and what types of food will you have access to and how do we create the healthiest approach for what’s within your realm of possibility because everyone’s realm of possibility is different.”

Mathea Ford: [00:14:43] So this is something that your client had basically made a priority. There like I’m done being sick, tired, whatever else.

Amina Altai: [00:14:52] Totally! Totally and you know it also is [you know] how much of a priority can you make it right. So some people might be like I’m done being sick and tired and they’re like “Hey! I want to do this to 100 percent. I want to live my best life. I never want to feel sick etc.” And those are like my type A plus plus students. People that are like you know “Hey, I want to feel less crappy. I want to feel a little bit better. I can’t do everything to the letter of the law and I want to have fun and you know 80/20 or 70/30 feels good for me and that’s about doing the best with what we have and where we are. So it really depends on the client.

Mathea Ford: [00:15:28] I think you know on a good thing there like the 80/20 rule because you can totally change a small thing, just one thing and see that 80 percent improve.

Amina Altai: [00:15:41] 100 percent and it’s so interesting and astounding to see and of course everybody and their bodies and their biochemistry are so different. So [you know] the change that one person might make will be very different results than somebody else of course. But you know I had a client who simply gave up soda and lost 20 pounds and fell markedly different.

Amina Altai: [00:16:03] And then I’ve had clients that are you know for all intents and purposes have a really healthy BMI, they’re doing really well but they have maybe three to five stubborn pounds and that type of client generally has to work a little harder, do a little bit more to see more of a change because they’re already within [you know] a really really healthy space so it totally depends on the client. But yes even tiny changes like swapping soda for water you can see a big result.

Mathea Ford: [00:16:29] What would you say is next? Like what in this field that you work in, [you know] what’s kind of the next thing that are coming out?

Amina Altai: [00:16:39] What’s so interesting and I encountered this company last year. So, obviously in the world of nutrition and functional medicine, genetics are a big area of study as is the micro biome. [You know] with genetics basically 2 percent of our DNA is fixed. Ninety eight percent is expressed via environment and lifestyle. So you know you’ll see the emergence of a lot of genetic testing and you know giving people diet plans and healthy lifestyle plans based on that but they’re not specific enough because you don’t know, you know they say for example I have a gene for Alzheimer’s and so do you. But we don’t know if I will express mine at 40 and you’ll express yours at 80. We don’t know. Right? So, you know they’re giving us recommendations based on a what if. But there is an emerging field of study called MetabolomX which basically studies the metabolites our bodies produce. So based on the metabolites they can recommend a particular way of eating and moving and managing stress which is very very specific.

Amina Altai: [00:17:38] So it’s looking at our microbiomes and the metabolites produced by your specific microbiomes and it’s a snapshot and then they’ll give specific dietary recommendations so I think that you know the area is in or the the category in the market is getting really specific. It’s about nutrition and wellness advice that specific to me and my needs and it’s getting even more and more and more specific so I think gone are the days of the one size fits all this is good and this is bad. It’s really about what’s going to work for you and the current state of your body your microbiomes etc..

Mathea Ford: [00:18:13] Yeah I’ve seen some testing that people can do basically saliva, blood, whatever where it kind of tell you what allergies and what kind of foods your reacting to. And you can adjust those in your diet to see that reduction inflammation there [you know] affected change. So that’s awesome! I love that example!

Amina Altai: [00:18:38] Isn’t it exciting?

Mathea Ford: [00:18:40] That’s exciting! I mean, just to think how well we can measure on an individual level and make recommendations on an individual level or what you can do and it will make a difference.

Amina Altai: [00:18:56] Absolutely!

Mathea Ford: [00:18:57] Not like you exercise more, eat this differently because people react to to foods differently.

Amina Altai: [00:19:04] 100 percent. 100 percent. And it also really democratizes health care at the same time, right? You have the emergence of a lot of these companies that are trading at home testing kits that are really specific to you and your body. And so instead of going to your healthcare provider and them giving you this really templated approach. We’re basically putting it in everybody’s hands which is amazing and so empowering I think. We’re more empowered to make healthy decisions now than ever.

Amina Altai: [00:19:28] And you know we know which foods to choose for our specific body and our needs states and our disease states. And I think it’s really empowering.

Mathea Ford: [00:19:38] That is great. I’m so excited about that. Who would you say is best suited kind of for this type of change? Who do you find is like your A plus plus student like what type of person is going to be best to adjust to these types of things?

Amina Altai: [00:20:00] Yeah. So I would say. My clients really kind of fall into two buckets. So it’s somebody who is potentially just being diagnosed with a particular disease – be it autoimmunity or IBD or what have you. And then somebody who is that type A that feels like [you know] they have last five pounds to lose and they really need some fine tuning because they haven’t been able to get it right themselves. So, they really fall into those two buckets. [You know] as I mentioned before, I do wish that we could get to some people before they got to those disease states. That’s my big juicy wish to the universe. But you know that’s that’s why a lot of people have a wakeup call right? Because we’re moving through life and we think things are fine. And what’s interesting is actually [you know] a lot of people think that certain things are normal and they’re not normal like the idea of [you know] not going to the bathroom every day, [you know] chronic constipation something like that. Most people live with it and think that it’s entirely normal and it’s not. So, [you know] a lot of people are going through life and they think they’re fine.

Amina Altai: [00:21:01] But until you make some changes and they feel really great they have no idea how it even feels to feel great which is such an interesting thing and I was the same way. I had gone through life feeling fine you know getting headaches every couple of days thinking that was totally normal and it wasn’t until I [you know] adjusted my approach to eating and movement and my whole approach to wellness and I was like “Whoa! This is actually what it feels like to feel well?” That’s very different than the way I’ve been living. So, [you know] I do wish we could get to people earlier on but you know we get to people when we get to them – when they’re ready for it.

Mathea Ford: [00:21:33] Yeah go ahead of the pan and how ready they are for it too.

Amina Altai: [00:21:36] Exactly. Exactly.

Mathea Ford: [00:21:38] So Amina, I have one more question for you. What is your favorite food?

Amina Altai: [00:21:45] So this is a tough one of them. Do I have to pick just one?

Mathea Ford: [00:21:50] No. Pick a couple.

Amina Altai: [00:21:51] OK. OK. So I think I basically live on a diet of Cruciferous vegetables and dark chocolate.

Mathea Ford: [00:21:58] OK.

Mathea Ford: [00:21:59] So, I love the Cauliflower Rice is my absolute favorite it’s so versatile. Broccoli also so versatile. What I love about those two is that you can have them as whole vegetables or you can Rice them where you can even make your own pizza crust from them they’re so versatile and filling and full of nutrients and then dark chocolate because I do have a sweet tooth and if I’m going to have something sweet it’s also going to be something that has you know great health benefits so that’s where my dark chocolate comes in.

Amina Altai: [00:22:28] But I’m like I can’t go a week without it.

Mathea Ford: [00:22:33] I love cauliflower because it just takes on the flavor of so many things. You can just you know put it in. Like you said cauliflower rice regular cauliflower make into crust. It just, it’s very versatile. I mean…

Amina Altai: [00:22:48] So versatile. I agree. I actually recently made a Cauliflower Paella and that was I think hands down one of my favorite dishes so instead of using Rice like you would in a traditional Paella, I used the cauliflower rice and oh my gosh the way that it picks up the flavors of the saffron are just incredible. I think it was better than traditional Paella. Don’t tell any of my Spanish friends.

Mathea Ford: [00:23:12] Well just our little secret number nobody’s listening. OK so thanks Amina for being on the podcast today. I have so enjoyed talking to you. Is there anywhere that people can find you? How can the you know learn more about you and what you do?

Amina Altai: [00:23:29] Yes absolutely! Mathea thank you so much for having me today. It has been so much fun. You can learn more about me by going to aminaaltai.com. That’s A-M-I-N-A-A-L-T-A-I.com. And I also have a little gift, a little give away. That is all about helping people get unstuck in their daily lives and in their businesses and you know feeling well in their businesses and getunstuck.aminaaltai.com. So if you want to check that out that’s my little goody bag for you guys.

Mathea Ford: [00:23:58] OK I’ll put that in the show notes for everybody to be able to click on and go over there and get more information about you.

Amina Altai: [00:24:05] Amazing!

Mathea Ford: [00:24:06] Alright. Thanks Aamina!

Amina Altai: [00:24:08] Thanks so much Mathea. It’s been such an honor.

 

 

 

 

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Nutrition Experts Podcast Episode 01 Your Body Has Intrinsic Wisdom With Jenny Eden Berk

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This week, I am kicking off the podcast and talking to Jenny Eden Berk about mindful eating and more.
Jenny’s Bio:
In a culture obsessed with food and the “ideal” body image, Jenny offers men and women the chance to experience body love, pleasure with food again, greater self-esteem and total acceptance of self. Her work focuses on healing our often fraught relationship with our bodies and with tuning into intrinsic wisdom to learn how to nourish ourselves naturally and joyfully.
Jenny’s own journey of body-blame and food fear led her on a path of healing that inspired her to write her best-selling book, The Body Image Blueprint.  She earned her masters in psychology and education from the university of Pennsylvania and later went on to receive her certificate in Eating Psychology Coaching and Mindful Eating.  She resides in Boston with her husband, 3 spirited daughters and 2 kittens. When she’s not coaching, she loves to travel, hike, cook and entertain and spend time with good friends and family and languish over a delicious meal and a deep talk.  www.jennyedencoaching.com

 

Mathea Ford: [00:00:00] Good morning. We’re here today with Jenny Eden Berk of JennyEdenCoaching.com and today we’re going to talk with her a lot about the mind body connection and how things work. She works with people for different types of things. So Jenny tell us what you do and what interests you about the work that you do.

Jenny Berk: [00:00:26] Yeah I absolutely love the work that I’m doing. So I’m an eating psychology coach and what I do is I help women and men and teenagers too to really heal their relationship with food and with their bodies. So many people are confused and just frustrated and they’re listening to experts who change their mind all the time and people are left wondering like how the heck should I nourish myself. Like they don’t know what to do and I help people sort of tap back into intrinsic wisdom and to help them to make choices that really fuel their bodies, gives them joy and pleasure and awareness which makes a big impact on metabolism and stress response in stimulation of nutrients and also for other kinds of things. And I also work with people on body image. It’s a topic near and dear to my heart. So I just absolutely love what I do. It’s very rewarding to help people in this way because when you give power back to the person to trust their own intrinsic wisdom in their bodies. Just incredible things can happen. You know so that’s what is most meaningful for me.

Mathea Ford: [00:01:37] So you said you’re eating psychology coach. What’s your background what’s your field experience that type of thing.

Jenny Berk: [00:01:45] Yeah sure. I have a master’s from the University of Pennsylvania in psychology and education and I ended up getting an internship at the Office of Health Education there where I learned a lot of about behavioral change and supporting people. I actually worked with drugs and alcohol on campus and I did intakes and then I moved to Boston because I met my husband and I moved here and ended up working at a national health and weight management company for 13 years almost 14 years where I facilitated classes and I supported people. It was a very aggressive medically supervised weight management program. So essentially it was doing you know obesity treatment, bariatric treatment. However, I found that there were a lot of things lacking in the program. I started to wonder like if I was really helping people because yes they would lose weight and they would get healthier but we were not approaching any of the deeper root causes of why people felt called to overeat or to binge eat. And what I would see is a lot of recidivism meaning like people who lose a lot of weight but they weren’t given any tools really to understand why they were eating in the first place. So after a while you know the willpower can only last for so long. And I would see people start talking this weight back and feel very frustrated. And I started to feel like well there’s got to be something more like I want it. I’m very interested in psychology and behavioral change but I wanted to understand and have it come from a different place where we could really heal from the inside out one’s relationship with food.

Jenny Berk: [00:03:21] So I found this amazing program it’s called the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. And I got my certificate there. I also got a certificate in it’s called MBE which is Mindfulness Based Eating Awareness Training and I got a certificate in Mindful Eating Instructions. So that’s essentially what my background and training is.

Mathea Ford: [00:03:44] Yeah that sounds a lot like what I see as a dietitian. A lot of times. Just there’s a reason why we eat when we’re not hungry. Right? And so how do you when you’re coaching people when you’re working with them how do you help them to do that? I mean you can talk a little bit about the mindfulness stuff but I also kind of just want to know how do you get into that deeper?

Jenny Berk: [00:04:15] Yeah so I mean I don’t like market myself as like a weight loss coach or dieting coach or anything like that. I help, I try to help people. A lot people come to me and I like oh I just want lose weight. And I say well what do you really want. Well I want to lose weight. I said OK go deeper. Let’s really, like if what does the promise of weight loss give you? What do you want? Well, [you know] I want to go sailing again without feeling self-conscious. I want to [you know] get on the ground with my grandkids. I want to feel good on my clothes. I want to feel good good on my skin. I want to move my body in a way that feels. You know what I mean?

Jenny Berk: [00:04:53] So when we start to look at those things as opposed to weight loss we’re actually getting to the heart of what makes people happy and balanced. And that’s what I do. I go deeper because it’s not weight loss. I mean weight loss may occur anyway. When you’re happy and when you’re like you are living an aligned life and you’re doing the thing, pursuing the passions that you have. And [you know] a lot of times people that I work with, there’s something off balance in their life. Whether it’s like connection in community or it’s spirituality or they’re not pursuing passions or they have a bit of a stress response all the time and food becomes this really important – takes on a even more important role. It plays a surrogate role for a void that they’re experiencing in their lives right? So when we can sort of identify what that is and start to tune in and talk about those things that oftentimes food becomes much more about what it really supposed to be which is nourishment and pleasure. And so that’s what I do and you have to of course build a certain amount of trust beforehand with your client to be able to go there and [you know] I get into sexuality, I get into relationships, I get into spirituality and things you know all aspects of somebody’s health because it’s really a holistic way of healing somebody. And then I also do a lot of like behavioral modification but in a really heart centered place or not like this. “OK. You do that and then tell me by Friday that you’re doing good.” You know it’s not like that. It’s more like how can we identify what your habits are around food and your food scripts and start to you know short circuit.

Jenny Berk: [00:06:30] Or like rewrite the story rewrite the script and give people empowerment around their choices. And then a lot of also what I do is stress reduction techniques because a lot of what causes people particularly to binge eat is being in a stress response. And I often say to people like imagine [you’re] you’ve just gotten the most amazing massage in your life. There is aroma therapy, there’s soft music playing, you’re totally relaxed. You’re not going to jump on off that massage table and start binge eating on Doritos. Like most people when they are in a relaxed day will not feel called to binge eat. So I work with people on mindful eating techniques and I actually go do like one on one exercises that support people with learning their satiety cues and their hunger cues in a way that they’ve never even understood before. Which is very powerful because we are so used to being distracted when we eat. We’re driving or watching TV or reading or whatever, we’re working. And when you can really tune in to food and have a sense of gratitude and abundance around food it can be extremely powerful and pleasurable.

Mathea Ford: [00:07:41] Jenny, I love what you just said because it’s [really we do] we attribute so many things to food. You know, like “Oh! I’m excited and happy, I’m gonna eat [you know] Oh I’m unhappy, I’m gonna eat. Yeah. Yeah, its Thanksgiving I’m going to eat too much. So, we give food all these emotional value. We do. [I like] I love that you talk to people about disconnecting that and seeing food as the value it truly is which is nourishing your body but it’s not necessarily going to heal your mind to eat, you know six dove bars. But when you were talking [I was] I was thinking what are some of the food scripts you mentioned that people have? What are some of those that you see really commonly that maybe the listeners would identify with?

Jenny Berk: [00:08:40] Yeah absolutely. So once you start to tune into these you’re going to be like “Oh yeah!” I totally do that. And part of that is our own food scripts and part of it is outside food scripts. So like one example is your [you know] after a long day, [you know] maybe put the kids to bed just sit down on the couch with your spouse or partner and you start watching a show. Right? And all of a sudden a pizza commercial comes on. And that is a cue for you to go grab some food or order a pizza or perhaps every time the game is on, you grab some snacks like that is a food script. That’s something that you follow it’s almost like instinct. You’re not even putting much thought into it. It’s just like “OK go!” You know or maybe like one of my food scripts that I identified was every time if my kids were fighting I would be so stressed out. And I when I started to notice I was heading for the cabinets to eat chocolate chips or chips or whatever. And once I realized that I’m like “Oh OK,” my food script is like whenever my kids are fighting it makes me anxious and stressed out and my food scripts when I’m stressed out and anxious is to go eat something like pleasurable right? Or junky.

Jenny Berk: [00:09:53] And once I started to recognize the actual and isolating the emotion that I’m feeling and how that leads to over eating potentially or eating foods that are I really need in that moment, I started to opening up an expansive, more expansive way of dealing with that stress. So instead of heading right to the cabinet I do like a stop look and listen techniques like “Oh OK I understand what’s happening.” Let me go upstairs and listen to some music and like just lay down for a few minutes calm myself down. Right? So that’s that’s what it is. It takes extreme awareness because these food scripts lie within all of us and these cues but [we’re not] but we’re so on autopilot and it’s comes from like a very base part [of our] of our brains like this called the Basal Ganglia which stored all these habits that we have and unless we start to bring them to the surface and start to short circuit them or create a new pathway we’re sort of destined to follow them over and over again.

Mathea Ford: [00:10:52] So they’re kind of some of them I imagine being created when we were very young, like our parents [you know] “oh you’re not feeling good here have something to eat or [you know] I always on Sunday. Well I find it funny that we tend to eat popcorn like in my family when we’re watching certain shows like if you go watch a movie you’re going to pop a popcorn and sit there and eat it.

Jenny Berk: [00:11:20] Yup!

Mathea Ford: [00:11:21] Versus whether you may have just had lunch. You’re not really needing that. So yeah that’s..

Jenny Berk: [00:11:28] That’s a really food script. You’re not going to be like “Oh! Let’s go out and watch a movie. I’m going to make some brussel sprouts. Okay? Join me in a minute!” You’re not going to do that. So again that’s partially because of society, right? Because they’re not selling brussel sprouts at a movie theater. They’re not! You’re not getting those types of food. So those. Remember I said like part of it is like internal food scripts and part of that is internal food scripts.

Mathea Ford: [00:11:53] Yeah I can see that really how and the Stop, Look and Listen type thing because we do so many things mindlessly.

Jenny Berk: [00:12:01] Yeah. Yes.

Mathea Ford: [00:12:02] Eating in my car, eating on the run and grabbing you know food like you said when you’re watching your screen and you’re even to the point now with a lot of mobile devices where you’re seeing food ads on there. So that’s also driving I imagine some of the desires that they don’t advertise really healthy food, usually. All food has value. It’s just how much of it you eat.

Jenny Berk: [00:12:26] Right. And that’s another thing that I really stress upon with my clients is that food is there’s no morality in food like you or your twinkie didn’t just rob a bank. And you know I mean broccoli doesn’t have a halo on it’s all about the meaning that we ascribe to that food right. So if we can divorce ourselves from this feeling of good and bad I’m good if I eat some bad if I eat that. Then things become a little less powerful to us because especially if you sort of adopt a abundance mindset around certain foods whereas we usually kind of shut the door on certain foods like that’s not for me. I can’t have that.

Jenny Berk: [00:13:03] I can only have this which is very constricting and it makes us feel like rebellious almost like that food it’s like a teenager you are going to tell me not to have seconds of this cake. Well you are going to have seconds of this cake and then you’re like oh wait I’m just sort of hurting myself. [You know] so I try to with people and like you know not to restrict foods that really to start to tune in to with the foods that make you feel really good. And if and there’s like you said they’re room for all foods. There’s nothing like and there’s some value in all foods for the most part. I mean there is some that is you know peeps like I don’t know what the value is in that. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a peep once in a while. [00:13:47] Right? [0.2] Like it’s sort of about the balance it’s sort of about “OK, let me eat peep. Let me like and I really enjoy it. Let me like totally enjoy this and give myself permission and own this decision. But when we end up doing it feel so guilty about it that we almost like dissociate, distract and we have conflict. We’re not fully giving ourselves permission to eat it. You know I mean?

Mathea Ford: [00:14:10] Yeah or we eat it like when nobody’s looking and eat it really fast.

Jenny Berk: [00:14:13] Yes, 100%. Exactly. Exactly.

Mathea Ford: [00:14:17] I swear Dove Chocolate does not taste good unless you hold it in your mouth or let it totally melt.

Jenny Berk: [00:14:22] Oh my gosh! That is so true. My husband might refrigerate his chocolate I’m like “Honey, that’s beside the whole point. It’s supposed to melt in your mouth.

Mathea Ford: [00:14:31] Yeah you got to get that mouth feel and all that…

Jenny Berk: [00:14:33] That’s how your brain gets that message that it’s receiving pleasure.

Mathea Ford: [00:14:38] Chocolate is pleasure. It’s really it’s that has the value chocolate have.

Jenny Berk: [00:14:42] Me too.

Mathea Ford: [00:14:43] We won’t state that its a fact. But it is a strong opinion of mine. Now, I know you said you don’t do losing weight. You really do kind of the mental change and stopping those kind of mindless eating. What is wrong with… Because you said sometimes people do lose weight. So what is it that’s wrong with just counting calories and exercising and maybe it’s not wrong is not the right word but what’s different or [you know] an issue with the normal like calories in them and a track how many fifteen hundred calories. I’m going to burn 2000 calories and that’s going to help me to lose weight. What’s the difference?

Jenny Berk: [00:15:26] That’s a great question and I think because we’re such a dieting culture that people get really caught up in all of those things without taking into consideration all of the mind-body stuff that happened. So like your awareness, your eating rhythm, your how quickly you eat. [You know] your thoughts and beliefs about food and about you as an eater. Those are all things that actually affect your metabolism, affects your gut health, affect your stress response, affect your stress hormones. And I often tell people like [if your main] if you’re very focused on the outcome which is oftentimes weight loss right? You’re not going to find joy in the process. And oftentimes the sustainability lies in the process of making behavioral change. An example I used to exercise only – only to lose weight, only to burn calories. I didn’t really see any value in doing it otherwise.

Jenny Berk: [00:16:23] And when I was starting to shift and heal my own relationship with food and with my body I started to I would never consider yoga because it wasn’t enough calorie burn. Now I love yoga because I feel really good about moving that way and it makes me feel very calm. And I started to recognize that there’s joy in the process. It doesn’t have to always be an outcome only because when we are very obsessed or focus on the outcome, oftentimes it’s because we’re doing it with clenched fists like we’re so pushing and bullying ourselves to get that outcome that it’s not sustainable. Yes, there’s there’s great value in information about calories. And [you know] a lot of my clients use a food log. That’s fine I think it’s important because our culture certainly doesn’t make it any easier to have us lose weight right or eat healthy. But one part of my story and so I’ll give you another example. I have a client right now. You mean the first thing hebsaid to me was like I want to lose 30 pounds and I was like OK you know and I said the same thing. “Well what do you really want? What you know what can you do here?” We started to look at his lifestyle. How he was eating his eating rhythm. You know started to recognize he was skipping breakfast for instance and then being ravenous later on. So that’s a huge factor right there. And then I started to help him sort of identify his hunger cues a bit more and to tune into the foods that he really likes and dislikes.

Jenny Berk: [00:17:49] And I gave him some. It’s a mindful eating exercises of him and wouldn’t you know like without any effort. And I didn’t coach him on any of this. He’s a I’ve worked with him for almost three months and he’s down 30 almost 30 pounds just by tuning in by slowing down by looking at eating rhythm by having breakfast again. Thereby becoming less sort of ravenous later in the day and then potentially over eating. Because look when you’re starving, you don’t care what’s in front of you. You’re not going be like “Oh! I’m going to make a nice green smoothie right now!” When you’re starving you will eat whatever is there – fast, convenient. And a lot of times the fast and convenient foods are not the most nutrient dense ones. Let’s just face it. So that’s why I feel like [you know] calories is just one part of the story. And what I’m really interested in is everything else about you as an eater.

Mathea Ford: [00:18:41] It’s funny to me. How have calories in and calories out do matter. But it’s a matter of like you said it’s that mindless eating and part of when you start to write down what you eat. You start realizing how my mind boggling you are doing.

Jenny Berk: [00:18:56] Totally!

Mathea Ford: [00:18:58] You know that food log. If that’s the only way it helps if you don’t even count it. You just write down what you’re eating all the sudden you’re like “I stop and [you know] I drink full mocha latte, full of sugar every morning and didn’t realize that [you know] that was kind of that extra calories I was getting in the day and you’re not necessarily changing that because you want to reduce the calories, you’re changing it because, you’re like “You know what, I bet I might feel better if I didn’t have so much caffeine and sugar first thing in the morning maybe if I tried some different, you try it. If it helps you can start like you said changing those food scripts. Because we do have that. When you mention the food scraps that really hit me like we… It’s not that we don’t have control but we do have to make a lot of choices. We make so many choices every day just walking into a room. So you get tired of making those choices. So yeah just kind of…

Jenny Berk: [00:20:06] Yeah, you’re bringing up such choices’ important part it’s called Decision Fatigue and the fit decision anxiety because you’re absolutely right. A lot of my clients end up eating later in the day and part of it is because they’ve made so many decisions during the day, they don’t want to have to agonize about their dinner [you know]. And I read in the book I think it was Brian Wansink’s book which is called Mindless Eating. He says that Americans make like two hundred food related decisions a day. That’s a lot like how many bites and what to eat and when to eat. And yet it was exhausting and then you get home and you’re like “Oh! I’m just going to eat whatever! [You know] I’m tired.” Exactly! Yeah. And I think like food logs are really really interesting because it brings you cognizance of what you’re doing. Like you said, maybe you don’t realize some of the ways that you’re taking an extra calories without really knowing it or needing it. Right?

Jenny Berk: [00:21:01] And if you can be subtle changes like that and still you know allow for pleasure that you’re not restricting and denying yourself constantly. [You know] that’s a subtle way to lose weight too. A latte at for instance like that. [You know] I had one client who was like was having like three cups of coffee a day with cream with whole [you know] crepe in their coffee and they just need like one little shift and that was like they realized it was like a 200 or 300 calorie shift just that alone.

Mathea Ford: [00:21:31] I noticed on your information, you have a little bit of information about. I think we talked a lot about emotional eating because that’s all that kind of mindless eating and being true. So is there an exercise that you can tell people to do. Maybe that would help them to be more mindful when they eat?

[00:21:49] Yes, absolutely! And when in fact, I have a whole free mindful eating course that’s really a good jumpstart. And I can share that with your listeners too or you can visit my website it’s on there. But essentially there are some very basic things that you can do to start becoming a more mindful eater. First, it really just you have to be present and conscious during the eating experience. A lot of people check out. They’re that multitasking. They’re feeling emotional distress or conflict about what they’re eating. There’s a lot that makes us sort of want to dissociate from the eating experience so just sort of say “I’m here, I’m not in a rush. I don’t have to rush this meal. I own the decision to eat.” I have often tell people just to do that. So sit down bringing a little bit of gratitude to eating like “I’m so happy I get to eat this a balanced delicious meal right now.” And that’s some really basic things like taking some deep breaths before starting can get your body into relaxation response putting your fork down so basic but like [you know] I see my kids sometimes they like literally have their fork in their hand and it’s close to their mouth and they’re constantly like sugar shoveling stuff in. And hey [you know] we’re not in a rush, put your fork down. And even just that, it’s a reminder to stop for a minute and to check in with your body. Like am I still hungry? How is everything feeling? Am I enjoying this food? You know what I mean? So like literally just a few times during your meal just decide and be conscious and decide to put your fork or spoon down. Take a break, do a stop look and listen. How is my body feeling? Can be very very effective. And then, I often ask people to sort of envision a hunger timeline in front of them and to determine where they are within that time that hunger timeline. Now there’s no like right or wrong answers when to stop because that individual for every person. But generally, you know around a 5 or 6 sort of the sweet spot you want to feel energetic, you want to feel sort of light, you don’t want to feel weighed down, bloated, having fatigue, [you know] getting the distended belly.

Jenny Berk: [00:23:59] Those are signs those are signs that like OK I’m probably over that sweet spot area now [you know]. So those are just some basics and as just a jumping off.

Mathea Ford: [00:24:09] Yeah. Point…

Jenny Berk: [00:24:10] But that alone could help I think a lot of people.

Jenny Berk: [00:24:13] On the other side of that, is a little bit of binge eating or kind of shoveling food in or whatever, you talk a little bit about that on your website. Can you talk to people how to identify if that’s what they’re doing and then maybe some ideas for how to do our ability to change our behavior a little bit?

Jenny Berk: [00:24:35] Binge eating is a particular specialty of mine it’s something that I hope people alot with and it’s a very personal topic right? Because people feel very ashamed of binge eating and because of that shame and the feeling of being out of control, people often feel like there’s nothing they can do about it. But the truth is, there’s a lot you can do about it and the first part of that is to recognize that you’re in a stress response and it’s incumbent upon you to then let your body know that it’s not in a crisis. You’re not running from a lie and [you know] there’s nothing, there’s no place you have to be. So I often talk about the three D’s of binge eating. So it’s distraction, dissociation and culture. So the talk about those. Distraction – distraction leads to overeating and binge eating. Because if you’re not paying attention you’re going to overeat because you’re not listening to your body’s cues and then oftentimes it’s too late. Dissociation occurs when you literally it’s painful to be in the process of feeling out of control so our brain sort of we’re not dropping into our bodies.

Jenny Berk: [00:25:41] We sort of detach a little bit and then and then it’s almost like a wall flex swoops in and you’re like this big craziness and then you wake up almost and there’s like wrappers all over the floor and you’re like What did I just do and it feels very scary. And so a lot of what I do is help people to find self soothing techniques, stress reduction techniques, relaxation technique so that they can avoid that. And then a lot one is dieting culture. So when you and this goes into this idea of polarities of binge eating and restricting so if you have been a chronic dieter, if you’ve been somebody who’s judge your food choices, judge your appetite, restricted yourself, going on multiple diets. What happens is because of that feeling of restriction for so long, it’s almost like a rubber band and eventually it snaps and you end up binge eating on the very thing that you’ve been restricting all this time. So I certainly had done that. Like I had there was a period in my life where I had to give up gluten and dairy and I was already a vegetarian so I felt so restricted, I felt so miserable all the time [you know whole] I was hanging on for dear life trying to stay with this protocol. And then one day at our neighborhood block party I look literally lost it and I ate almost an entire pizza. Why? Because I had said no to it for so long. And it’s like what you resist persists in a way.

Jenny Berk: [00:27:09] So that’s what what I do is I try to help clients have an abundance mindset with food as opposed to restrictive mindset because if that twinkie all of a sudden you can have it anytime you want there’s no restriction. It also has a lot less power right? I mean you may binge on it or like for a little while and then you’re like oh I can have this whatever it, whatever I’ll have that when I really want it. You know what I mean? So I help a lot of people a lot of people that I work with.

Mathea Ford: [00:27:37] Oh good. OK. That was great! I think you are correct with the shame thing and I get that dissociation thing too. It’s just hard to because you know that it’s not the healthiest thing for you to do but you do have to kind of get a hold of it. So that’s a good, very good point. So last question for you because we’re almost in the end our time, what’s your favorite food? Tell me about your favorite food that you love to eat. Not, [you know] binge or anything like that.

Jenny Berk: [00:28:11] OK. It sound weird but I love a great macro ball of like Tofu and Brown rice with like a yummy like maybe Tahini sauce and likes and greens and broccoli and some nuts. I love it, love it, love it. It makes me so happy. Tastes so good. I love Tofu. So [I mean] that’s more of a meal than a food. And then the other thing that I would say is peanut butter. I love almond butter and peanut butter so much. I love cashew butter. I totally get that.

Mathea Ford: [00:28:44] OK so Jenny where can people find you if they want to know more about you from listening to us.

Jenny Berk: [00:28:50] Yeah, thank you so much. Best way to reach me and to find out more about me is to go to my website which is www.JennyEdencoaching.com. Thank you.

Mathea Ford: [00:29:02] And I’ll link to your site and the show notes.

Jenny Berk: [00:29:06] Thank you so much. It is so fun talking to you.

Mathea Ford: [00:29:08] Thanks for talking with us today. Jenny, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. It was a pleasure to have you on the show. I know that my listeners have learned a lot about the intrinsic wisdom that our body has and will share with us. Well guys this has been another great episode of the Nutrition Experts podcast. The podcast that is all about learning more so you can do more with nutrition in your life.

 

 

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