To work toward a goal, we need two fundamental beliefs: It is worth it and I can do it. Type #10 of sabotaging thought strikes at one or both of those necessary elements. In some form or another, this type of thought implies it’s either not worth it to lose weight, or that we cannot do it. It may also take the form of not really needing to lose weight. Quick on the tails of this thought often follows the rhetorical question, “So why bother?” Take a scan over your list of sabotaging thoughts and see if the word anyway appears, if so, that can be a clue that you’ve got this type of sabotaging thought running in your mental playlist.

Think you can’t lose weight? Try to prove yourself wrong, just as you would if someone else told you you can’t.

Examples:

Type #11: Limited Opportunity/ Scarcity

That which is rare is perceived as more valuable. Reminding ourselves (or fibbing to ourselves) that we’ll never have this again, or not for a really really long time can help tip the scale of eat it or don’t eat it in favor of eating it. Several sabotaging thought examples below also hint that eating a certain food now represents getting our fair share or sticking up for ourselves.

Examples:

Type #12: The Physical Act of Eating

Sometimes the only draw of eating is that we want the mechanical action of hand to mouth. Or, we see the upside to keeping our mouth busy chewing so we don’t say something we know we’ll regret. Getting another plate of food can also be a social scapegoat to get out of an awkward part situation.

Examples:

Type #13: Quantity Saboteurs

Once you’re in the midst of eating something you know is a bad food decision, the game isn’t even over. With a healthy, logical, (if somewhat utopian) inner dialog, we’d realize, “Wait, I don’t want to be eating this ice cream! It’s more important to me to feel good about my body and meet my weight loss goal!” And we’d stop. I’ve saved this class of sabotaging thought for last because it’s a bit different from the others, which typically get us into trouble. The Quantity Saboteurs actually keep us going once we’re in trouble. These are the bad boys that twist our thinking so much that we decide we’ll just continue with the self-harming behavior.

Examples

“There’s only a little left. I might as well finish it.”

Rehabilitation

For Abandonment of the Goal thinking, it can be helpful to remind yourself of any evidence that you do, in fact, care about losing weight. When faced with “I don’t care about my weight right now” thinking, you may correct yourself, “I might not care right NOW, but tomorrow morning or Saturday when I weigh in I sure will care.” I cared enough to hire a coach, to join a gym, to pay a trainer, so I think 99% of the time I do care, let me not get sidetracked by this one second in time when I might not feel that caring.” You may also remind yourself of the reasons you wanted to lose weight or eat better by having them written down – seeing them in black and white can help you remember WHY it’s worth it to you to make a positive change.

If you are starting to feel like it’s too much effort to stick to your plan (and therefore not worth it), take a critical look at how many hours or minutes out of the day you are truly having to try very hard. If you are thinking “I am tired of this 24/7 job!” you might feel a bit different when you calm down and see it’s really only hard for a couple hours in the afternoon and maybe the 30 minutes after you get home from work. So for a small percentage of your day you are exerting some effort. Much of the day you are fine. Maybe right now when the “This is too hard” thoughts are popping up is just one of those isolated hard moments.

As for sabotaging thoughts that center on not being able to succeed, I would turn that right around as “Thoughts like that that lead me to eat junk are EXACTLY why I haven’t been able to succeed.” I’ll also point out that after working with thousands of people, I can verify that no one reaches a state of carrying excess weight by destiny alone. Sure, genetics and parenting influence make it harder for some than others, but it’s never true that there is nothing you can do about it. If you have excess weight to lose, there is something you can do about it. It’s starts with not believing those false thoughts that you have a broken metabolism or that even if you ate healthier would somehow keep you from losing fat.

Sabotaging thoughts that surround the scarcity of food (type #111) and well as Quantity Saboteurs (type #13) can also be refuted with some logic. Chances to eat indulgent, delicious foods abound. While you may not be at THIS restaurant again or anytime soon, there will be plenty of other opportunities to eat, both healthy and not-so-healthy foods. So what if you miss an opportunity to eat something? Is missing the last store bought muffin from the break room at work really a tragedy? Imagine yourself ten or twenty years from now, looking back. Can you see yourself saying, I wish I had eaten that ice cream when I had the chance….or is it more likely you would have regretted not living healthfully? When you say no to one thing, you also say yes to something. By choosing to not miss out on food you think is “special”, you might be missing out on having weight loss success. Note: It’s not that you need to turn down all treats to lose weight. But you can’t take every opportunity to eat them.

Furthermore, self-imposed scarcity (aka dieting) is never helpful. Swearing you will start a diet tomorrow will only increase your fears of impending restriction and make you continue eating. Better to stop, take a deep breath, and remind yourself that this food will not be gone from the face of the earth, ever. You could always have more tomorrow. In fact, you can’t eat all of the ice cream on the planet tonight, so don’t bother trying please. If you are going to get control over your eating, it’s not going to be because you exhausted the world supply of Chunky Monkey, it’s going to be because you learned to not be controlled by sabotaging thoughts.

The physical act of eating is a quick one to address. If you need to keep your hands busy, mouth busy or slip out of a conversation, there’s a lot of other ways. Fiddle with your hair, chew gum, excuse yourself to the restroom, or remind yourself you have control over what you say. You aren’t going blurt out a four letter word at your mom-in-law because you have tact and reason, not because you stuffed another biscuit in there.

Homework and What’s Next

As you did in previous installments, take a critical eye to your personal list of sabotaging thoughts and refute/respond to them as necessary. In the next post, the last in this series, I’ll provide a great big list cheat sheet of sabotaging thoughts I’ve compiled from my coaching clients, complete with responses. Feel free to cheat of my smart students and steal the tactics we know work!

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Associations are links in our mind between two unrelated things. This type of thought sabotage happens when we associate food, or a specific type of food, with a particular context. That context might be a particular event, holiday, time, or place. It might also be the company of a specific person.

Examples:

400 calorie drinks are okay, I’m on vacation.

Type #8: Giving Food Positive Superpowers

These are also a type of association, but unlike contextual associations, we associate food with a special power or trait, which it doesn’t have. These special powers can be positive or negative. Negative  superpowers can make us believe that eating particular foods makes us ethically bad in some way (which can lead to food phobias or a limited list of “safe” foods). Attributing positive special powers to food is more commonly associated with weight loss trouble. To see the positive association in one’s own sabotaging thought, you often have to read between the lines a bit. In the examples below you can pick out associations linking food with love, trust, fun, comfort, energy, calm and peace.

Examples:

This is not comfort. This is food. Don’t mix them up. When you need comfort, this is not what you need.

Type #9: Identity Issues

Foods and eating behaviors can be a way we communicate our identity. We may also identify ourselves by the foods we don’t eat. Our food choices can be worsened by sabotaging thoughts which confirm our current identity (“I’m a chocoholic”), make us feel closer to an identify we want (“I want to be the fun mom”) or make us feel more separation from an identity we don’t want (I don’t want to be one of those uptight dieters”). In those who have battled eating disorders previously, eating unhealthy foods can be a way to distance one’s self from the old disordered identity.

Examples:

Does eating this prove you can eat whatever you want? Or does it prove that you can trick yourself into eating things you really don’t want to?

Rehabilitation

All three types of thought sabotage that I covered today are some form of association, and luckily, the type of remedy for each is very similar. First, recognize the association for what it is: a creation in the mind between two things that are not related. Eating white rice doesn’t make you “more Chinese”, nor does the fact that it’s Friday night change the nutrition needs you had on Tuesday. Your identity is who you are, not defined by what’s on your plate.  Many of my clients have found it helpful to remind themselves: Food is just food. It’s not a surrogate, replacement or requisite for love, joy, adventure, or anything else you desire in life. Food. is. just. food.

Homework

Go through your list of sabotaging thoughts and pick out any you wrote down that associate food or eating with a particular context, identity or positive attribute (superpower). Next to each, respond with the truth. You might come up with responses like “Eating junk doesn’t make me more fun to be around”, “My goals still matter to me on vacation” or “Just because I haven’t lost weight before and kept it off doesn’t mean I can’t. I just haven’t found my way to do it yet.”

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Type#4: Appeals to your Other Values (Such as Fairness and Frugality)

We all want to live in line with our values. When we don’t, we lose a bit of integrity and self-esteem. It’s normal and healthy to have values that matter to you other than nutrition, and this type of sabotaging thought plays on those. Many people value saving money or not wasting food, values which can appear to be in conflict with the immediate decision which would be best for weight loss. Fairness in particular is an ideal which many people regard. If we feel like everything “should be” fair and equitable (and therefore we should all be able to eat as much as everyone else), that can also lead to food decisions that thwart our weight loss efforts.

Examples:

Are you really “getting your money’s worth” by overeating?

Type#5: Caving to Others’ Judgement or Opinion

We like to think of ourselves as nice people. This type of sabotaging thought is rooted, just like Type #4, in our values. When we act with other people’s feelings in mind, it preserves our notions of ourselves as kind and considerate people.  Unfortunately, it can be an easy scapegoat which gives us our own permission to eat unhealthy foods.

Examples:

My kids made these and will be so disappointed if I don’t have one.

Do you think people will REALLY notice and be upset if you don’t eat what they brought? Do you remember what they ate last year?

Type #6: Choice Blindness

An interesting thing I’ve learned about the human mind is how we love to feel in control, yet we equally adore feeling like we have no control. I think we just accept the former more readily. But denying or disowning the control we have is appealing at times because it relieves us of responsibility. All of the sabotaging thoughts in this category are actually false, because they are based on the idea that we had no choice but to eat unhealthy things. Really, what these are saying is “It’s not my fault!” so we can slough our guilt. We choose to eat whatever we do. Own it.

Examples:

 

Rehabilitation

If you determine that sabotaging thoughts types #4 or #5 trip you up, spend some time examining you priorities and seeing which are most important to you. You can’t always make a decision that fits in with every value equally, sometimes there is bound to be a little need to prioritize. Be careful of false logic as well: You don’t actually SAVE any money by eating extra at a buffet, and you don’t lose any money by tossing out the last few bites of popcorn in the bowl. The starving children in Africa don’t get any more food by you eating everything on your plate and gaining weight. You may *think* your Aunt Sophie will be upset if you don’t eat her pie at Thanksgiving, but truthfully, she probably won’t even notice. It may seem unfair that Sally can eat a lot more than you and not gain weight, but your overeating doesn’t restore metabolic fairness of the universe. It makes your pants tighter.

For sabotaging thoughts type #6, repeat after me: I am always in control. No food is forced into my mouth against my will. I can always take steps to find a better option or decide not to eat. I am responsible for what goes in my mouth as much as I am what comes out of it. I may decide to not go to undue efforts to obtain healthier food (for example, if at a catered even where leaving isn’t possible) but I am always in control of how much I eat, even in rare circumstances when I don’t have control over what’s available. Even for those times, I can usually plan ahead and exert more of my personal responsibility over my food choices.  I will not go crazy, lose my mind, or otherwise self-destruct without a food. Telling myself “I can’t resist (trigger food)” is just giving up, and denies me the chance to ever strengthen my self-control ad work on my relationship with that food. Instead, I can acknowledge that that food has been a problem for me in the past, but doesn’t always have to be.

Do long days happen, when you might feel too tired to cook? Sure! They happen to me too! You can choose to eat out, you can choose something healthy from a delivery menu or sit down restaurant, you can choose to cook anyway, you can choose to plan ahead and have the fridge/freezer stocked with ready-to-heat meals, or you can choose to order delivery pizza and fried wings.  But choose it and own it. Don’t say it’s not your fault or you “had to” do the unhealthy thing.

Homework

Read your sabotaging thoughts list and see if there any that fall into the categories we went over today. If you spot any thoughts that result from prioritizing a different value (or someone else’s happiness) over your good nutrition and wellness, consider if that’s really something you want more than eating better/losing weight, and whether your thought is completely true. If not, rewrite it.  If you see any items on your list which imply you had no choice or weren’t responsible, see if you can reword them into more factual ideas that reflect your actual state: always in control, always making a choice.

That’s all for now! Stay tuned for Part IV, where we’ll explore another three types of sabotaging thought and how you can defeat them in your own mind!

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Once we’ve got them listed, we can learn something about WHY these little buggers pop up. Most importantly, we’ll move on to rehabilitating those thoughts into helpful ones.

I’m going to introduce you to 13 different types of sabotaging thoughts you might have on your list:

• Denying the Damage
  
• Nutritional Reasoning or Hunger Prevention
• Reward / Entitlement
• Appeals to Your Other Values (Fairness, Frugality)
  
• Choice Blindness
• Creating Artificial Associations
• Giving Food Special Powers (Love, comfort, happiness)
• Identity Issues
• Abandonment of the Goal
  
• Limited Opportunity/ Scarcity
  
• Caving to Other People’s Judgments/Opinions
• The Act of Eating (not the food)
• Quantity Saboteurs

That’s a lot of variety, huh? Well, this part will focus in on three types of Sabotaging Thought, and then in subsequent parts of this series I’ll cover the rest.

Type #1: Denying the Damage

This type of sabotaging thought denies that a poor food choice counts, or makes us think it’s “not so bad”. It functions to prevent us from feeling our cognitive dissonance (the fact that what we’re about to do is at odds with our goal). It also gives us permission to go for immediate gratification.

Examples

“Broken cookies don’t count”

Type #2: Nutritional Reasoning / Hunger Prevention

Rather than denying that a particular food decision is damaging, these types of sabotaging thought go further to invent an upside to eating the food, such as a nutritional benefit. They function similarly to type 1 thoughts, in that they gives us reason to not feel so bad about eating the food. Additionally, this type of sabotaging thought often strikes people who have a fear of being hungry, preventing them from getting the calorie deficit needed to lose weight.

Examples

Type #3: Reward / Entitlement

This type of sabotaging thought may be a signal that somewhere else in your life, you might be shortchanging yourself. I’m not going to say that’s always the case, but it’s pretty common to use food rewards in place of other, more gratifying ones. For example, if you really want to buy a particular item, but feel like it’s too much money, you might buy food as a cheap alternative. Food thrills are accessible and inexpensive.

Often it’s not a physical object you’re desiring, but a feeling or experience such as being good to yourself, being indulgent, being irresponsible, or having what I want for once.  In working with my one on one coaching clients, we often discover that previously uncontrollable desires for specific foods lessen greatly when we work on reducing other self-sacrificial behaviors. As one put it marvelously, “I have never been rebellious, other than with food. I do what everyone says and wants, always go with the flow. Always the good girl. I never would have thought in a million years that learning to speak my mind and stand up for what I want could lessen my desires for junk food and help me lose fat, but it DID.”

Examples

Rehabilitation

For sabotaging thought types 1 and 2 (Denying the Damage and Nutritional Reasoning / Hunger Prevention), fight back at them with FACTS. If you have listed any thoughts that fit into these categories, odds are you can point out some holes in the logic you’re using. Here are some foundational facts to get you started:

All food counts. Calories count, it doesn’t matter if a food is low in fat or sugar free or paleo or gluten free, they ALL can make you gain weight. You are always in control and responsible for what goes in your mouth, no matter what you ate earlier, if it’s your birthday or if you call it a cheat day. [Your fat cells don't know it's a cheat day, and they definitely still work on holidays.] You are never off the hook or so off track that the only left to do is keep eating junk. To lose weight you need to take in fewer calories than you burn. Eating more of a specific food or nutrient does not “undo” or balance out other things that you ate.

For sabotaging thought type 3 (Reward / Entitlement), when you notice your thoughts turning to “deserving” or “earning” a food, remind yourself that all foods are ethically neutral.  It’s just food. You wouldn’t think you “deserve to wear yellow today”, would you? So why would you deserve less healthy food after a particularly hard day at the office? I’d replace it with “I deserve to feel good about what I eat tonight”, “I deserve to be good to myself when it seems like other people are all giving me a hard time” or simply “I deserve results, health, confidence, and self-trust”. Really, compared to the junk food your sabotaging thoughts are trying to justify, aren’t you actually worthy of something…. far better?

I suggest not using food as a reward as much as you can possibly avoid it, for yourself or your children. If you choose to eat a cookie, say I’m choosing to eat a cookie, or I’m going to eat a cookie, not I’m going to reward myself with a cookie or I’ve earned a cookie. You eat something or don’t eat something, leave the ethical words out. My advice:  You are not a dog. Don’t use foods rewards to shape your behavior.

A feeling of “entitlement to eat crap” is often the after effect of feeling like your were unfairly treated or infringed upon previously. Try looking backwards in the chain of events that day or week, to see if there are any circumstances in which you cut yourself short or lacked assertiveness, or could have treated yourself with more respect.

Homework

Read your sabotaging thoughts list and see if there any that fall into the categories we went over today. If you can write a fact next to any of them to refute them, do so. If you have ones with the word deserve, earn, reward, or prize, try to reframe them without those words.

Stay tuned for Part III, when we’ll delve into some more types of sabotaging thoughts and how to address them!

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I have all good intentions, and then I go ahead and do what I swore I wouldn’t.  I know I self-sabotage.  I know I’m doing it while it is happening…. but somehow I can’t stop myself from doing it.

So I thought I’d share my reply, and use it to kick off a new article series. We’ll look at the sabotaging thoughts that impede weight loss. We’ll examine them, learn where they come from and most importantly, how to defeat them.  Here’s my reply to my client, and I challenge you, if you are so inclined, to take up the challenge yourself. I think all of us have sabotaging thoughts of some form.

Dear [Client], Let’s start with a reframe. I would suggest that it is possible to stop yourself, only that in the past you haven’t stopped yourself because  you didn’t know how or didn’t have the skills. But you are not powerless over your behavior or thoughts! Don’t feed yourself the line of “I can’t do anything about it.” You can stop these sabotaging thoughts/behaviors, you just need some new skills to do it.  That’s what I want to help with. Chin up, we can do this.

Let’s figure out what thoughts get you off plan. I want to know exactly the words your brain uses.

Food doesn’t just jump in your mouth, you have to voluntarily go pick it up, open the cabinet or buy it, and feed it to yourself. You make a choice to eat things. What is the reason you made the choice to eat something off plan? Whatever it is, we have to get to the root of it to change it.

There is usually some thought that says “This is okay to eat because ________”.  What’s in the blank?

What sabotaging thoughts are the usual suspects that get you off track?

Go back in your mind to episodes where you chose to eat off plan and figure out what your reasoning was that at the moment you gave yourself permission to do it. Once we have a list, we can go through and start examining them. Then, I’ll show you how to kick them to the curb!

Here’s some samples to get your list started, but make sure to find out what yours are and write them down.

• “This won’t hurt because [it's low fat/sugarfree/paleo/whole grain/organic... and so forth]
• “This doesn’t count because [no one sees me/it's just a sliver/it's Saturday/it's a party... and so forth]“
• “I can’t stop myself.”
• “I want it.”
• “It’s my treat, I deserve this.”
• “I don’t really care about losing weight”
• “I’ve been doing so well, I lost some weight, I can have this.”
• “I gained a pound, obviously this plan isn’t working. It’s no use.”
• “I’m tired and need the energy.”
• “I’ll start fresh tomorrow and be REALLY on the ball.”

What YOU Can Do

Get out a piece of paper. Start naming your usual suspects. If any from the above list ring true, write those down to start, then see how many more you can add. Be merciless, be honest, call ‘em out and line ‘em up. Then, stay tuned for Part II… you’ll need your list and we’ll start seeing what types of thought-sabotage you tend to use, so you can take steps to lessen those thoughts. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your sabotaging thoughts and are ready for personalized support, read about my coaching services.

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Why Athletes Gain Weight When Injured or Sick

Many people have had the unfortunate experience themselves of being sidelined from physical activity for a while by an expected or unexpected medical reason, and getting regretfully out of shape. I’ve often seen injured athletes pack on 10 or 15 pounds in the 6 weeks following ACL reconstruction. It’s not hard to do. After all, your calorie expenditure plummets when you go from hours of daily exercise to zero, and the stress and emotional strain of not being able to do your normal routine can make food an appealing and convenient comfort. Plus, caretakers or well-meaning friends often try to cheer you up with…. food. Besides, it can be BORING while you’re recuperating from an injury or surgery. Food is a way of keeping ourselves entertained.

Nancy’s Story

Knowing firsthand the post-surgery weight gain story, competitive mountain bike racer Nancy Harris contacted me before she was scheduled to undergo a total knee replacement. She had lost considerable weight in the prior year, but still had about 10 lbs to go.  Each one of her prior surgeries had been accompanied by weight gain and she wanted this time to be different. We had more than 6 months before her surgery date when we started working together, so we had lots of time to get great habits in place. In our first six months she practiced her skills in using her hunger and satisfaction cues, managing impulses to eat that were not actual hunger, and we settled upon a level of treats that kept her slowly losing fat and inches. She found ways to manage stress and negative emotions without food, as well as enjoy herself and be entertained sans snacks. We also employed habits to get her sleeping better, which is essential for fat loss. A couple weeks before surgery, I charged Nancy with some special assignments: make freezable meals and stock her freezer for when she wouldn’t be able to cook, and to sit and discuss with her husband how he’d need to help with certain responsibilities while she was less mobile. She was also instructed to start drinking lots of water, since optimal hydration is necessary for recovery from any procedure.

Nancy’s Bionic Knee

When we got down to the wire, we really honed in on appetite and satisfaction. As her activity level changed from hours per day to very little, I knew her appetite would similarly reduce. So she committed to using appetite cues first and foremost, not calories or tracking of any kind, to guide her meal sizes after surgery. I also advised her strongly to NOT get on the scale for 3 weeks, because after surgery she would have persistent fluid retention and swelling, in addition to likely having post-anesthesia constipation. I also didn’t want seeing her weight to challenge her motivation and mental state, since she’d need her full toughness to get through months of painful therapy and not being able to ride her beloved bike. She promised. No scale.

And mentally prepared as well as she was, she did great. She hydrated, cooked her frozen meals, and asked for hubby’s help when needed. She lifted weights for her upper body almost every day. She entertained herself with movies, friends, and pouring herself into her rehab activities. She navigated emotional hurdles by contacting her coach and talking it out on the phone. When she needed to cry, she did. When she needed reassurance, she gathered it by reminding herself of her certainties. When the swelling had abated enough after 3 weeks, she stepped on the scale to see that not only had she not gained fat, she was at her lightest weight since high school. She wrote me a thrilled email, exclaiming, “Hey Coach! My brand new size 6 jeans are now baggy in the butt! And my tummy is flatter then ever!” In the following weeks, she was able to continue gaining strength and losing fat. At 7 weeks, she took her first ride on her stationary bike, grinning ear to ear. And 8 weeks after undergoing a total knee replacement, Nancy was outside, riding her bike in the California sun.  Her weight has stabilized at that same number she saw 3 weeks after surgery, and she continues to get stronger, leaner and more defined.

It’s not a rule that an injury or surgery destines you to gain fat. Let Nancy be your reminder. With good habits, planning and practice, you can maintain or even improve your body composition despite a layoff. I asked Nancy some questions below so she could share some of her experience with other readers.

Tell us a bit about your athletic background? What was your activity level like before surgery?

Nancy: I have been riding some form of a bicycle since I was 3, mini bikes at 5 and motorcycles at 10, horses at 13 and then water skiing, skiing and snowboarding. I discovered downhill mountain biking in 2002 and never looked back! Before surgery I was lifting weights 2-3x a week and riding my mountain bike 2-4 times a week.

After surgery you must have been in lots of pain and certainly your level of activity was reduced – that makes it really tempting to eat to comfort yourself right when you’re burning less calories than you used to! What did you do?

You have had prior surgeries and subsequent recoveries, how were those different or similar to this one?

This is the first time I have not gained wait after surgery (hysterectomy, shattered wrist, torn rotator cuff and bicep, dislocated finger and 2 knee surgeries). The difference is that I went in to this one mentally and spiritually prepared. My nutrition was dialed in, my fitness was the best it has ever been (I’m 56 years young) and I had a clear plan and my awesome coach Georgie to guide and reassure me.

What are your plans going forward?

Thank YOU Nancy, for inspiring many of us, and the privilege to work with you.

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*Note: If you have white pepper on hand this would be an ideal use for it and I’m sure it would be delicious. I just don’t have any!

1. Put cauliflower and 1 cup of water in a 10″ skillet with a lid, bring to a boil and cook until cauliflower is quite tender.

2. Drain water and turn heat down to medium-low.

3. Add everything else, folding/stirring to mix well and break up the cauliflower into rice-sized grains. Serves 2.

I have read several recipes for “African” soups or stews which use peanut butter or ground peanuts and sweet potatoes. They looked yummy but generally had a million and one ingredients. Not my style. Inspired by the flavors though, I created this. I chose pumpkin instead of sweet potatoes to keep carbohydrates and calories lower. I also added some spice and warmth with cayenne and ginger… we loved it. It’s hearty and warm and filling. Like a bear hug in a soup bowl. Enjoy!

10 oz skinless chicken breast, cubed
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup peanut flour (can substitute 2-4 tablespoons peanut butter)
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ground ginger

1. Heat oil in a soup pot and add chicken. Cook until golden.

2. Add the onions and carrots, and cook a few minutes until the onions are golden.

3. Add everything else, stir and simmer until carrots are soft. Enjoy!

Makes 2 meal-sized servings

Nutrition Facts (per serving): 300 calories, 9.5 g total fat, 17 g total carb (6 g fiber), 44 g protein

With 2 tablespoons peanut butter instead of peanut flour: 340 cal, 15.5 g fat, 17 g total carb (5 g fiber), 40 g protein)

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I’d like to share an issue that seems counter-intuitive but is actually quite common: How training for an endurance event can STALL your weight loss or even make you gain a few pounds.

Another great week indeed– inches and pounds still coming down!! I’m at 8.5 miles now doing just BCAAs during runs and feel great! Do I need to up my food/calorie levels on days where my runs are getting into the 1.5-2 hour ranges? I don’t want to stall my weight loss. FYI–I really liked the posts on Facebook from you and Roland about the error in thinking about “starvation” mode — I’ve heard that a couple times – people saying how I’m not getting in enough calories.  I’m ignoring them. But still wanted to check in if I should start eating differently or more on my high-caloric burn days.    Stacey

Hey Stacey! If the appetite is there, on your long run days, you can let yourself eat slightly more in the 6 hours following the run to enhance the recovery process and prevent stressing yourself with too great of a deficit. That means one or two meals you can add extra whole foods to satisfy your appetite, and then you just go back to the normal size meals you normally have.

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Layers of eggplant and zucchini stand in for carb-dense pasta in this recipe. We devoured this, and I can’t wait to make it again!  I topped it with Daiya non-dairy mozzarella and some fresh basil and it was a awesome side dish that stole the show. Next time I’ll try adding some ground beef to make it a complete meal.

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Slice the eggplant and zucchini lengthwise so they are about 1/4 – 1/3rd inch thick. Place on two lightly oiled or sprayed cookie sheets and bake for 15 minutes. (This step keeps the final lasagna from being too liquidy.)

2. While the veggies are baking, heat the olive oil in a saucepan and add the garlic and onion. Cook over medium heat until soft. Add tomatoes and Italian seasoning and simmer 5-10 minutes. Season to taste with black pepper/hot pepper flakes. You want it to be a nice thick sauce.

3. When the veggies are done baking, take them out and turn the oven down to 350. Spoon a little sauce into the bottom of a 13 x 9 glass baking dish. Use 1/2 of the eggplant slices to cover the bottom of the pan. If there’s gaps, fine. If they overlap, fine. Don’t worry, it’s just food. You’re not building a cathedral.

4. On top of the eggplant, put the spinach in an even layer (make sure to squeeze out as much moisture as you can, this will also prevent too-liquidy final product). Then, spoon about half the remaining sauce over the spinach.

5. Top that with the roasted red peppers, basil, zucchini, and finally, the remaining eggplant. Spoon the rest of the sauce over the top. Bake for about 20 minutes until the sauce is bubbling. Top with cheese if desired, and bake a few more minute to melt cheese.

Makes 6-8 side dish servings

Main Course Meat Lasagna

I can verify that this was simply incredible with the addition of 2 lbs extra lean ground beef. And also wonderful? With the beef in there, it’s a one dish complete meal, with protein, vegetables and healthy fat. No need to make sides to go with it. Hooray for leftovers making life easy!

To make it with beef, simply brown 2 lbs of extra lean beef in step 2, drain, and then add olive oil and garlic and continue the recipe as written. I upped the oil to 2 tablespoons as well to meet my macro targets, but it’s up to you.

Makes 6 main course servings

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