Top Strategies That Actually Helped Me Beat Sugar Cravings, Heal My Gut, Lose Body Fat & Love Myself

Worrying about my weight was the epicenter of my life for as long as I can remember for about 3 decades. I’m 40 years young today 🙂

From an early age, I struggled with food & body image issues. From being told I needed to lose weight by my doctor to being called chubby by friends & family…well, that stuff sticks with a young, impressionable girl.

I remember counting calories excessively in high school & college, & seriously undereating, especially as I transitioned into a more competitive CrossFit athlete in my early 30’s. I was severely under fueling & my health suffered metabolically, hormonally, & digestively.

In the past, I experimented with Weight Watchers & other extreme diets like crazy “detoxes” & diet pills. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve even bought “tummy-slimming” teas & would exercise for hours to burn off calories. I also suffered with binge eating & bulimia.

Having such obsessive, restrictive thoughts around losing weight made health & fitness feel like a chore. But, upon approaching my late 30s, I had a miraculous epiphany: I needed to fully change my mindset & lifestyle in order to embrace new habits & become the abundant, healthy version of ME!

Once I cultivated these important mindset & lifestyle shifts, I lost weight without thinking much about it 7 have kept it off for over 3 years adopting the carnivore WOE (way of eating).

I hope you find what works for you & these tips can serve as a beacon of hope! 

Resources to help you are available in the link in my IG bio. My DM’s are also always open to listen!

4 Important Mindset Shifts That Actually Helped Me Lose Weight

1. “All or Nothing” Perfection → Grace with Myself: When I attempted to lose weight before, I maintained a toxic, all-or-nothing mentality that left me striving for unattainable perfection. If my diet started that day & I “fkd up” by eating ice cream or not exercising, I would mentally beat myself up. The perfection mindset made me crazy & left me in a constant cycle of yo-yo dieting. But when you have grace you understand that you are just a human, doing your very best. If you miss a workout one day, it’s okay. You can always try again tomorrow. Perfection is not the expectation — progress is.
2. Exercise as a Punishment → Exercise as a Celebration: Far too often do we allow ourselves to view exercise as an obligation or worse — a punishment. With this connotation of it, why would we ever want to exercise? Back in college, I would force myself to run 5 miles on a treadmill every weekday. Why? To punish myself for the calories I ate or drank the day prior. When I shifted my mindset to seeing exercise as a celebration rather than a punishment, I started finding workouts I loved, rather than workouts where I felt I was going through the motions. Soon, I started finding gratitude in movement. Gratitude for my body, its strength, & what it could do. I started finding joy, especially with the release of intoxicating endorphins.
3. Viewing Food as a Treat or Reward → Viewing Food as Fuel & Eating Healthy as a Form of Self-Love: Once you start eating a little healthier, something beautiful happens: you start to feel better, overall. Your energy levels increase. Your mindset has newfound clarity, inflammation is down, your gut feels better. Feeling these natural benefits to eating well made me want to continue doing it, as it was no longer an obligation, treat, or reward. It was a form of self-love & life fuel to be my best! Food is not a treat, reward, or something that needs burned off. It literally makes US! The better I felt the more I began to love myself exactly how I am.
4. Numbers-Focused → Feeling-Focused: Seeing the numbers can make us feel like we’re on the right track. But, weight fluctuates hour-by-hour. If you’re constantly stepping on the scale to gauge your progress, you may feel defeated more often than not. That was the case for me, I had to take to take a break & make peace with the scale. Instead, I started viewing numbers simply as data, I took the emotion out of it & focused on how my body & mind were feeling. How did I feel during & after my workouts? How was my sleep? How did I feel after consuming certain foods & drinks? Staying attuned to my feelings helped me gauge my progress more than the numbers on a scale ever could.

Lifestyle Changes That Actually Helped Me Lose Weight

1. Low intensity, stress relieving movement all day: Our bodies were not made to be sloths. Break up periods of sitting. Ideally, for every 25–30 minutes that you sit, you should move for 5 minutes. But at an absolute minimum, get up every hour. I have a non-negotiable goal of taking at least 10-15k steps/d. Find a goal that is achievable for you — something you can achieve every day, but not too easy. Set alarms if you have to. I walk circles around my CT machine & around the building in between patients at work. I also workout in the morning.
2. Weightlifting – pick heavy sh*t up & put it down: Lifting weights is an effective way to increase metabolic efficiency, as well as increase muscle mass. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you will burn on a daily basis. Lift heavy things 2–3d/wk. Focus on compound movements, such as the big 5 — deadlift, back squat, bench press, barbell row, & overhead press. These movements engage a lot of your muscles all at once, making the lifting benefits even greater.
3. Get your heart rate up a few times per week: One of the biggest benefits of getting your heart rate up (HIIT) is its impact on boosting the metabolism. Not only does it burn more calories than steady-state cardio of equal length, but you will also continue burning calories long after your workout is finished. Incorporate cardiac conditioning into your workout regime, 1–2x/wk. If you like group classes, there are tons available out there like CrossFit, F45, Orange Theory, Spin, etc. You can also YouTube & Google search HIIT workouts! Do your own life admin.
4. Reduce sugar, processed food, & veggie oils: I’ve adopted the carnivore diet as my lifestyle of choice to suit my Crohn’s disease & special autoimmune needs. Sugar is highly inflammatory, & leads to large blood glucose spikes & crashes. This can lead to issues such as insulin sensitivity & diabetes, & an inflamed body is more likely to put on fat & hold onto it. Processed foods & vegetable oil essentially clog up your metabolism & makes it really hard for your body to burn its own stored fat for fuel.
5. Eat optimal protein: Protein is vital, whether we’re exercising or not. It is the building block of our tissues, from muscle & skin to our DNA. Protein also has a thermic effect, meaning we burn calories breaking down protein during digestion & metabolizing; protein takes energy to digest. Furthermore, protein is highly filling, meaning if we’re eating adequate protein, we’re likely to be too full for other, less healthy foods. Aim to consume at least 30g-50g of protein at each meal during the day. Pick a meal routine that works best for you. Most have 2-3 meals/d. The primary driver of muscle protein synthesis is leucine (an amino acid), not total protein. We need 3g of leucine to trigger MPS. Protein is ~10% leucine, so we need to eat 30g+ of protein to hit this.

Tips & Final Thoughts

• Get the trigger foods & temptations out of your house & environment. Set your environment up for success. Communicate your needs to family, friends, & coworkers if you need to but remember you don’t owe anyone anything or an explanation. You are ultimately in charge of what you put in your body.

• Remind yourself you’re not going to stay stuck in the restrict/reward/binge cycles because they do not serve you in a positive light. Our habits make US. Thoughts & the story we tell ourselves become our reality. So what are you telling yourself?

• Do not “save” calories, excessively fast, or let yourself get too hungry in between meals or social functions. Eat regularly scheduled meals centered around protein. Keep meats on hand & meals simple.

• The answer is always WALK & SLEEP! We tend to think we’re hungry or need carbs/sugar when we get bored, we feel we lack purpose, we’re thirsty, we’re stressed, lacking sleep, numbing emotions, & wired ourselves to want these things like after dinner, in front of the tv, in certain social situations, or if we see or smell food.

• Make sure you’re eating enough food to support optimal body function and your activity level. Under eating is a huge culprit of disordered eating, metabolic & hormonal imbalances. Also make sure you’re getting ample fat. Add fat like butter & tallow to meals if you have to. Choose higher fat meats like ribeyes, ribs, salmon, 80% ground meats & whole eggs. If you’re constipated, adding fat will help that too.

• Remove or significantly minimize artificial sweeteners. The more sweet things you consume, the more your brain is wired to want them. The sweet taste is like a drug, it’s a dopamine hit. Especially if you’re an abstainer when it comes to food. The “right” way is to abstain – that’s what that means. It’s ok if you’re not a moderator, you’re not alone. Do what you need to do to be successful.

• If you’re bored with your food, increase your variety of meats, change the way you cook them, add different seasonings. Be mindful of cheese & dairy too, they are also addictive similar to sugar. You can airfry, pan fry, bake, instapot, slow cook, crockpot, smoke, grill, etc. There are tons of seasonings without carbs & all kinds of different meats & eggs. If you manage to resist & reset, the cravings will get weaker over time & eventually disappear, I promise!

oxox Coach K