Balancing Blood Sugar with Cassie Black, RD [Ep. 36]

Cassie: 0:00

when it comes to weight loss especially, we're so like, tell me what to do, what do I do? What are the rules? Like, you know, I wanna make sure I'm doing everything just right. And there is a huge element, like if your goal is sustainable fat loss, if you wanna lose weight and keep it off and stop the whole dieting madness, then you have to learn what works for you. And to, to get to that point, you have to have some trial and error. So you have to have those moments of, wait, that didn't. That didn't go the way I wanted it to. What can I do differently next time?

0:28

I've got registered dietician, Cassie black on the podcast today. And we are talking all about balancing your blood sugar. I've spent the last couple of weeks focusing on. Our movement in our podcasts and that live well pillar. So today we are back in our eat well, pillar and Cassie is going to help us Take a look at exactly what is on our plates to help with balancing blood sugar, which is going to help you lose weight and reduce your cravings. Let's go.

Lisa: 0:59

Welcome to Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well; the podcast for women who want to lose weight, but are tired of counting and calculating all the food. I'm your host, Lisa Salsbury. I'm a certified health and weight loss coach and life coach, and most importantly a recovered chronic dieter. I'll teach you to figure out why you are eating when you aren't hungry, instead of worrying so much about what you are eating.

1:23

Hey, before we jump into this interview today, I want to remind you that registration for my group program is open. We start April 18th and I'm so excited to meet you and help you get started with losing your first five pounds and more. And that is guaranteed. By the way, if you don't lose your first five pounds, you will get your money back. Most of my clients lose more in their time working with me, But you've got to lose that first five before. There's more right. Plus you will understand how to handle your cravings and you will improve your relationship with food. I don't have any clients that come out without a better understanding of food and how they think about it matters. That link to register is in the show notes. And if you have more questions, please don't hesitate to schedule a free session with me. Now for my interview with Cassie.

Lisa: 2:12

all right. Welcome everyone back to the Eat Well Think Well Live Well podcast. I have the privilege of having Cassie Black on the podcast today. I'm so excited to meet her. I landed on her on Instagram and I was like, yes, everything you're saying, yes, it's so perfect for what we talk about here on the podcast. So I invited her on and I'm gonna let her introduce herself and then we'll get into our conversation.

Cassie: 2:38

Yeah. Thanks Lisa. So I am, um, a registered dietician who kind of lost, uh, get better weight in high school. The unhealthy way, not on purpose, but um, kind of led me to have. lots of frustrations in my own journey and that inspired me to study nutrition and dietetics so that I could help other people kind of avoid those same frustrations and get from point A to point B a little bit easier and happier, if that makes sense.

Lisa: 3:05

Yeah. What do you mean by the wrong way? like eating disorder kind of way or something?

Cassie: 3:12

possibly like going into more of like the disordered eating, I wouldn't say eating disorder, but eating disordered, eating like 1200 calories a day. Uh, really limiting things out of my diet, that type of thing. And I think my metabolism just took a toll in general.

Lisa: 3:30

Yeah, there is. It's good to designate between having an eating disorder and eating in a disordered way because lots of us with our years and years of dieting have. I, I can name several diets I tried that were definitely eating in a disordered way. One of my favorites was when I had a certain food list on Monday and Tuesday and then a different one on Wednesday and Thursday and a different one on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, where like some days of the week broccoli wasn't allowed. Like that's disordered. That doesn't make any sense.

Cassie: 4:00

It's crazy. Yeah. No, and I mean, I obviously studied with lots of other women, you know, when I was going through school and I would say, I mean, what I learned was I felt really alone in, you know, kind of my own journey in losing weight, quote the wrong way or whatever. But I would, I would argue that, probably most women have experienced disordered eating at one point or another. So if that, if you feel like that's the case for you, you're not alone in that at all.

Lisa: 4:26

right, totally. Most fad diets, and I covered fad diets last week on the podcast. it, whenever this airs a couple weeks ago, so I, I did cover fad diets on the, on the podcast, and I think you can recognize yourself in a lot of those characteristics that we just, we jump on these things. They offer fast promises and we just find ourselves being, for lack of a better word, like sucked in.

Cassie: 4:53

Yeah, I mean, we we're human. We want what we want and we want it right now. And a lot of those fad diets advertise like those really flashy, sexy results really quickly too. So it's like, you know that that attraction makes sense.

Lisa: 5:07

Yeah. So if we're gonna avoid all that, tell us what is more appropriate. Like what is your nutrition philosophy?

Cassie: 5:15

that's a great question. Um, so I mean, here's the thing, like nutrition can be really complicated and confusing. Um, in general, and especially when we start thinking about how personal nutrition is. You know, what works for one person doesn't work for another person. And so my goal when I work with clients is to make nutrition simple. right? Because, you know, complicated is never gonna be sustainable. Um, so I really do this by helping clients apply like needle moving principles that I know are effective through, you know, education, my personal experience as well as like the years that I've spent working with clients. So we're applying those things to my clients, or two lifestyles in a way that works for you, right? Because when you know exactly what to do, when you know in a way that works specifically for you, then things. And, and it starts to feel simple. And the best part about that is when you, you start to feel better as well, and then you have more energy and more presence and more excitement for life. And that gives this deeper sense of motivation to want to continue with these habits. Um, because you wanna keep feeling good. And the ironic thing is, is when we shift that focus away from like the obsession with weight loss and more into, I want to feel good weight loss generally happens.

Lisa: 6:34

I, I love that. I love having just a more inclusive view of nutrition. you mentioned that nutrition is pretty individual. I call that bio-individuality, and we definitely don't know what's best for each person until they test it out. Right? One of my nutrition philosophies is the very best nutrition study you'll ever read. is your own food journal because that's going to give you the information on what works for you, what you maybe have sensitivities to, like what keeps you full, all those kinds of things. And so just keeping an accurate log without the need for counting calories or macros or any of that. Just like what did you eat? Like that's how I discovered I was sensitive to bananas. I thought I didn't like green smoothies, but no, it's the bananas

Cassie: 7:23

That's so funny because actually I had the same realization At one point. I used to have this horrible stomach pain and all of a sudden I was able to like trace it back to, I was like, bananas. This is what does that as bananas. But yes, you're totally right. It's like when you're paying attention to your habits, then you can go back and reflect on what works and what doesn't work, and that's so important. So,

Lisa: 7:42

Yeah. So what are some of the needle movers that you use?

Cassie: 7:46

So in my program we focus a lot on balancing blood sugar, um, because that is, because honestly your body wants to burn fat when your blood sugar is balanced. So why would we not lean into something that's gonna help us get from point A to point B easier and with less effort? Um, and then increasing metabolism is a big thing that helps as well. So we don't, you know, the whole principle of like, eat less, move more is. I feel like a little outdated and, and work smarter, not harder or work harder, not smarter type of mentality when it comes to things like, why would we not just try to create a calorie deficit by increasing our metabolic output? Um, so those types of things. And then I also really focus on leaning into kind of an 80 20 mindset so that we're not so obsessed with being perfect.

Lisa: 8:35

So 80% of the time you're like on track?

Cassie: 8:38

Totally.

Lisa: 8:38

that what you mean?

Cassie: 8:39

Yeah.

Lisa: 8:39

So, let's get into a little bit of that balancing blood sugar, like what are the nuts and bolts on doing that, because that's probably something a lot of people have heard or they, they can kind of feel like when their blood sugar is low. I think that's kind of where we get into what some people call like hangry, where you're having some emotional symptoms, your head is hurting, you're maybe a little dizzy, that's like a blood sugar issue, but how do we know if it's in balance? Like what are some of. Ways that you do that specifically?

Cassie: 9:08

Yeah, I mean, I don't think that we always know that our blood sugar is imbalanced. Um, I mean, what you're saying is totally accurate and you have that blood sugar attack like that. The symptoms and signs are pretty clear, but what's happening a lot of times when you aren't eating to support blood sugar, you're not being intentional about trying to balance blood sugar. We're having. Big and frequent spikes in blood sugar throughout the day, which can kind of lead to that crash back down. And that's not, the symptoms of, that are not as obvious as like a blood sugar attack itself. It's more like, oh, I feel hungry an hour later, or I have this little dip in energy, I feel kind of tired, or I really want some carbs. You know, like that type of thing. Um, so I would say that those would be signs that maybe blood sugar is. Balanced in an optimal way. and that's, those, those things are the exact reason why we focus on building meals to support blood sugar. So I do this with clients by including protein, fiber, and fat at each mealtime. So we can prevent those really big spikes in blood sugar and instead have just like baby little tiny humps and blood sugar so that things normalize a little bit quicker because when you're, when you eat your blood sugar spikes and when that happens, your body releases insulin. And what that process does is basically tell your body like, Hey, let's stop burning fat right this second. Cause we have this other thing to focus on. So if we can have smaller spikes in blood sugar and allow your body to like normalize blood sugar a bit quicker because the spike is not so large, then we can fat burning mode sooner after we eat. And the best part about that is you stay full longer too. So you're not constantly feeling that hunger every single hour and then spiking blood sugar. So it all kind of, it comes full circle in a way.

Lisa: 10:58

So you wanna include protein, fiber, and fat at each meal, but then you also can include carbs. But those are just the building blocks. Is that what I'm hearing?

Cassie: 11:07

Totally carbs. Are we, we do include carbs a lot of times. Fiber can be carbs as well. Um, I mean my main thing is, um, I mean carbs are definitely not bad. We love carbs. Your body loves carbs. Her body's favorite energy source. Um, and they're fun, but we don't wanna do naked carbs cuz that's not supporting blood sugar. So,

Lisa: 11:26

Mm. Naked carbs. That's funny. So carbs without the, without the protein, fiber and fat along with it.

Cassie: 11:37

Mm-hmm. or at least, you know, at least in protein, will work fat for sure.

Lisa: 11:41

Yeah. I think that, for me anyway, because I do have a history of macro counting and. I don't know. As someone who's been interested in nutrition for years and years and years, I'm pretty clear on what protein is. It's, to me, protein isn't that hard. It's pretty obvious if you're a vegetarian or vegan, it might be a little more difficult. But you know, protein animal sources is, are kind of your best. It feels pretty obvious to me. Fiber is the one that trips me up a lot. I'm like, I mean, it seems like this has fiber, like I j it's not something I've strictly tracked in the past, so I'm not as good at recognizing it. What, what kinds of things do you like to like for sure, include generally speaking in your diet and where do you find like kind of the best sources?

Cassie: 12:29

Yeah. Um, I mean, I typically encourage clients to think of fiber rows, mostly fruits and vegetables. Um, so we're making like half your plate fruits and veggies at mealtimes. When, when that's possible. But there are other things that we can do to add fiber into our diet. So I mean, then unfortunately fiber is becoming kind of, um, popular these days. We're talking more about fiber. There's more of an emphasis on fiber. So there's different things that you can add in. Like I talk about high fiber tortillas a lot. Really love these tortillas that have a good bit of fiber. and that's like, I think they have like 15 grams of fiber. So that's a good way to like, yeah. And there's lots of products that are similar to that. You can find like breads and even chickpea pasta is gonna pack more fiber than like a traditional pasta. So those are good ways to like increase daily fiber. But I would say meal to meal, just including some. fruits and veggies. Uh, I will say you're not alone in that. Like what? Like what is considered fiber? How do I know I'm getting enough fiber? Um, and I think that that's a way that, like, I noticed with clients, we like to, we get so analytical about food, um, and we wanna make sure we're doing everything just right. Like you brought up macro counting. Like that's, I mean, that's a game of like trying to get everything just right. You're playing Tetris almost in a sense. Um,

Lisa: 13:50

It made me crazy.

Cassie: 13:51

Yes, yes, yes. But then we get into this mindset of like, oh, like wait, fiber, how much fiber? What is? And, and those are good. We wanna be educated of course, and aware. But at the same time, like that's when I'm like, okay, let's take a step back and not necessarily think about the number, like the grams of fiber here. Like let's make half your plate fruits and veggies, or one or two cups, fruits and veggies.

Lisa: 14:15

Yeah. What about whole grains? Like I love oatmeal for breakfast. I always consider that fiber.

Cassie: 14:20

Yeah. Whole grains do tend to pack a bit more fiber, especially like compared to more refined carbs like white bread or whatever.

Lisa: 14:31

I think, um, when you were saying fiber's kind of having a moment right now. My concern with that is that it's because people are using it to like somehow cancel out the carbs. Like there's fibers that will give you, you look at the package and it's like net carbs, and I think we just don't need to worry about that sort of thing.

Cassie: 14:52

Yeah.

Lisa: 14:53

So I worry that it can be a little bit, that these high fiber things can come out of a little bit of the diet industry kind of situation. You know what I mean?

Cassie: 15:02

So I do think that there is like this total obsession with like low net carb and like keto friendly and all of that stuff. Um, I, I, and I think there's a time and place for it, honestly. Like, you know, there, I don't think that we should be obsessed with net carbs, but I do think that there are certain situations where, especially if you're looking at blood sugar, like low net carb can be advantage. Um, so I think it's like finding that line of like what feels comfortable for you and what doesn't feel diety and what doesn't feel restrictive and what doesn't feel obsessive almost, especially when we start talking about carbs.

Lisa: 15:40

Yeah, I think that kind of lines up sometimes when my clients are like, well, I want this type, this type of meal. I'm like, you know what? Use other people's crazy diet philosophies to your advantage. If you're looking for something that's high protein, Google a paleo recipe. If you're looking for something that's. You know, high fat, obviously you're gonna Google a keto recipe like I use, or, um, my clients that are like dairy free. I'm like, look for a whole 30 recipe. You don't have to be on these crazy diets to take advantage of those Google search terms. You know what I mean? And it's kind of the same thing with net carbs and fiber. Like, Hey, I know I function well, am I keep, can. blood sugar imbalance with some high fibers. So I'm gonna take advantage of this marketing on the outside that's giving me a label and, and me knowing this is just what works well for my body.

Cassie: 16:33

Yeah, no, that, and that's a really good way to look at it. It's like we can take, like, we can pick up some of the good, like, you know, my mom often talks about like, you have to learn how to take the good and leave the bad. And so that's almost what you're saying about these diets. Like, let's pull what's helpful and like le, you know, leave the rest behind. So,

Lisa: 16:50

my biggest low carb diet that I did was the South Beach Diet. I did it several times. Um, the first couple weeks are basically zero carb, and one of the things that I used to make, I had the whole cookbook and everything, and there was this Turkey breakfast sausage, and it is so good and I still make it. and like, I don't, I don't, I don't need to be on the south beat diet to be like, Hey, this Turkey breakfast sausage is actually really good. It doesn't have any of the garbage that, you know, pre-prepared type Turkey sausage ha or regular sausage rather. And I almost always have ground Turkey on hand, and so I don't have to buy something extra because a well stock spice cabinet and ground Turkey and I'm good to go. So I think that also it's, it's just pulling, pulling things that are great from what you've done in the past. You don't have to be on that diet to still do it, and that's how we can maybe use these kind of products too.

Cassie: 17:41

Yeah. And I almost think of it like, I talk to clients as like, is it an easy swap for you? You know, because I mean, if it's hard, like, um, I don't know, like, uh, this is just a personal preference, but I really love Jeff Peanut butter. Like that's just kind of what I love and that, you know, I know it's got some not so great ingredients in it, but it just makes me happy and it still has healthy fat and all of that good stuff. So, swapping for a cleaner peanut butter with fewer ingredients and no sugar and all of that stuff is not an easy swap for me, but for one of my clients, it is, you know, when we start thinking about. how can we pay attention to ingredients and reduce exposure to some of these like not so ideal ingredients. She's like, yes, that I can swap that. That's easy for me to do. Like a almond butter that is just natural, quote unquote

Lisa: 18:28

right. That sounds like one of those like needle movers. Just like an easy thing to, to switch out. So you mentioned a min a minute ago about like restrictive rules. Can you tell us, I think, I think we all, as women, struggle with the idea and. I can tell I haven't asked you, but I can tell you're a lot younger than me. By the time we get to my age, which is late forties, we, the studies show we've been on some crazy amount, like 40 to 60 diets. Like it's, it's all over the place really. But it's a high number in every study that you look at. Whether, I mean, 40 is a lot, sixties, a lot. So I feel like we have this idea that if we're not on a restrictive rule, typical diet, We're not gonna be able to lose weight. So how do we drop some of that? How can we lose weight and not be so obsessed with these kind of restrictions?

Cassie: 19:20

Yeah. No, I, that's a really interesting statistic. 40 to 60 diets. That's kind of crazy. Um,

Lisa: 19:26

I think to clarify that, I think that what that means is like, I, like for example, when I said I tried South Beach Diet every time I started over, that would be counted as.

Cassie: 19:36

Oh,

Lisa: 19:36

So every Monday morning that I'm like, here I go again,

Cassie: 19:40

Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, but still impressive either way. Um, you know, I mean, we know that restrictive rules don't last, like they're not sustainable. We don't tend to be able to follow them very well, so. I think that's where we have to do a little bit of mindset work and really think about like, what, what can I stick to 80% of the time? Like, what feels good for me to be able to, you know, what are these habits that feel good and help me feel good, that are reasonable for me and my lifestyle to stick to 80% of the time? Right? And so for a lot of people, that would mean, you know, you're not, like, it's not gonna be those restrictive rules. Um, it's not, it's just not, you're not going to eat. I mean, going back to the South Beach diet, be able to eat boiled eggs and sugar-free jello and Turkey all day long, every day. 80% of the time it's just not gonna work. Um, so, you know, when you do shift your mindset and realize that like, we don't have to have restrictive rules, we just have to be consistent. I think that that's where things really start to shift, but I think that it's a little different with it. It really depends on, on your history, you know, to how much undoing we have to do around some of our mindset with the idea that in order to lose weight, you have to be very restrictive about it.

Lisa: 21:00

Mm-hmm.

Cassie: 21:01

Does that make sense?

Lisa: 21:02

Yeah, totally. I, because I think, like you mentioned, from high school, we have this 1200 calorie. thought because, and I personally think it has a lot to do with My Fitness Pal, that was pretty much the recommendation that it gave everyone. And, um, you know, that never worked for me because I could stick with that for. A few days, but it just, it wouldn't last. And so my overall calorie deficit wasn't there because I could not keep up with that 1200 calorie situation. And so I think that that is some of where these restrictive rules come in. It's like, well, that's what it told me I had to do. And if I'm not hungry and miserable, there's no way I'm gonna lose weight.

Cassie: 21:48

yeah. No, I, yeah, I hear, I hear that all the time with clients. Um, but you know, what's interesting is, is that like when you are striving to eat 1200 calories, I mean, I'll hear people who are like, oh, I. I only, I only eat 1200 calories and I exercise all the time and I'm not losing weight. And sometimes there's like some metabolic components about that, but a lot of times what it actually is, is that you're trying to eat 1200 calories and you're lying to yourself about it. And I think that like, you know, you're doing these like bites and nibbles and stuff in between meals and you know, maybe eating more than a portion size because you're hungry and like that's not. W, that's nature almost. But you're not reporting like your actual intake back to the app, which is often why you're not seeing that progress. So it's almost like when we do implement these restrictive rules, we, you know, we do make ourselves miserable, but it's almost like it's not even getting us anywhere.

Lisa: 22:43

right? Yeah. So I know you kind of mentioned before like calories in calories out is a little bit outdated. There's definitely some metabolic situations happening, but. Weight loss is an energy balance situation. Like if you cut get down to the biology of it, like you said, unless there's some metabolic disorder happening. For most people, typically we have to be in what would maybe be called a deficit,

Cassie: 23:10

totally.

Lisa: 23:11

we need to be eating less than what we are expending in energy. And if your energy expenditure is somehow off, as far as like the metabolic conditions, like that would be needed to be addressed by a medical doctor. But if you feel like you're a pretty typical woman and you don't have any like health concerns, then getting into a deficit is the way that we're gonna burn some fat. But I don't wanna count calories, I don't wanna count macros. How do we. How do we know if we're there without these restrictive roles?

Cassie: 23:44

Yeah. going back to the whole like, calories in versus calories out, or eat more. eat less. Move more is outdated. You know, I heard something recently that like really made that click for me. It's kind of like telling, telling somebody who is obese, or not even obese, just overweight or just wants to lose weight, to feel like their most comfortable self, to just eat less and move more is like almost telling an alcoholic to just stop drinking. Like it's just not helpful advice. Like really doesn't mean anything almost. Um, so that's kind of what I meant by that, but you're totally right. Like there is, like calorie deficit is something that's gonna be important for weight loss. So how do we create that deficit without counting and tracking and obsessing and playing? Tetris with our food, basically. Um, well this is something that we focus on in different ways, uh, in my program. So one is to create a calorie deficit by increasing metabolism. So when we're focusing on increasing metabolism, then what we're really doing is helping your body burn more calories. Each day, what we really wanna do is help your body burn more calories at baseline even. So increase your basal metabolic rate, which is your B M R, which is basically just the energy that you burn at, at rest, at baseline. So if you were to lay on the couch all day long, like that's the energy that your body's burning, um, and what you would need to eat to maintain your weight, right? So if we can build muscle and increase metabolism, then that means that that BMR is going up, so you're burning more energy at baseline. So um,

Lisa: 25:18

lifting weights is right. We're building muscle. Okay.

Cassie: 25:22

lifting weights is a really good, great way to increase metabolism. Um, and then there's other ways too. So we focus on neat movement a lot in my program, which, it stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, which basically just means any movement that you're doing outside of like intentional workouts. And what's cool about NEAT Movement is that it can actually make a bigger impact than workouts themselves.

Lisa: 25:49

Which is crazy to me.

Cassie: 25:51

Yes. Yeah. Well, that's because. you know, there's neat and there's eat. So EAT stands for exercise activity thermogenesis. And when we start to look at the hierarchy of how your body burns energy each day, you know, basal metabolic grade makes up about, uh, 70% of your daily energy burn, which is why we wanna increase muscle to increase B bmr, because that's gonna be, that's gonna make a big impact. But then second to that, you have, um, Your, like your movement category, so your exercise and knee and all of that stuff. And NEAT movement actually accounts to, for 15% of your body's daily energy burn, whereas eat, or that intentional planned workouts that you're doing, that accounts for like 5% of your body's daily energy burn. So it's like if you're focusing on increasing movement, you know, Taking a 10 minute stroll after lunch, or, parking further away from the grocery store, taking the stairs at work, that type of thing. Like you, you're building more energy burn in a, in a bigger way than like, let me go hop on the treadmill for 30 minutes and run. so that's a big way. And then there's another way that we can actually increase metabolism too, and that's with thermic effect of food. So that's basically the energy that your body is burning by digesting food. Um, and we.

Lisa: 27:15

reason to really prioritize protein cuz that's got your biggest t e F. Yeah.

Cassie: 27:20

correct. So it's really piecing those things together and kind of trying to create that calorie, well create part of a calorie deficit with by increasing metabolism. Um, but another way that we're creating a calorie deficit is by balancing blood sugar. So we kind of talked about how when you're balancing blood sugar, you tend to stay full and satisfied a bit longer. Um, most of my clients go from. I would say six plus times a day to eating maybe four to five times a day. Um, you know, generally most of my clients can do three meals and one snack a day. So there's spiking blood sugar four different times throughout the day. Um, they're given their body the energy that they need, which is what we want to be sure we're doing, but they're not getting these extra calories in from the, the nibbles and the snacks and the bites here and. Um, so that's another big way when we're focusing on blood sugar balance, we actually tend to create a calorie deficit.

Lisa: 28:18

Awesome. I, I love the, the idea of just waiting for hunger. And I think when you are prioritizing protein and you have that increased thermal effect, it does take a lot longer for you to get hungry again and, When we get off that eating six times a day roller coaster I, feel like that's really, really common in the diet industry because it used to be taught, well, I think it still is taught, but I used to really listen and, and. Key into the idea that eating six times a day kept your metabolism revving. I can't remember who what diets told me that, but the idea that you, you've gotta eat all these tiny, small meals to keep it going, and I just have found that is just not the case.

Cassie: 29:08

Oh, not at all. No, totally. Yeah.

Lisa: 29:11

you think that, I mean, how did that get started? Like why was that the idea and why is that so incorrect?

Cassie: 29:18

Hmm. I really don't know how it got started. I mean, I do remember like most of my life hearing like, oh, you need to eat every couple of hours to keep your metabolism going. And I'm not exactly sure where that comes from, but that's just like, so that's so far from the truth because we don't, your metabolism doesn't need you to eat a certain amount of times. A day to stay functioning. Um, and it's, it's unhelpful advice to tell somebody to eat every couple of hours because then you're specking your blood sugar more often throughout the day. And again, when you spike your blood sugar, your body stops burning fat for a while until it normalizes blood sugar again. So by eating every couple of hours, you're really making it very difficult for your body to do anything except balance your blood sugar back out.

Lisa: 30:05

Yeah. Okay. So circling back to the deficit question you talked about, one way is to just increase your metabolism. Secondly, we can increase the thermal de the thermal effect of food, which is great. Um, anything about like the quantity of food that we're eating or if we, or do you find that if we're doing those two things, the deficit kind of naturally happens?

Cassie: 30:27

Yeah, I would say, I mean, definitely increasing metabolism, balancing blood sugar, those types of things. But then also listening to hunger, fullness cues too. Um, and I think that that's something that is not.

Lisa: 30:38

that

Cassie: 30:39

Yeah. Or we just don't talk about it very often, you know, and it's something like, your body is so, so smart, and if you're listening to it, it's gonna tell you what it needs. And so if we can get in touch with hunger, fullness cues and start honoring them, then I think that that, um, that also helps create a calorie deficit as well. Because if you feel too full, I mean, this is something I talk about with clients all the time, like if you, if you felt too full after a meal or you were full for, you know, six plus hours after a meal, that's a good sign that maybe you're doing a little bit too much. How can we adjust that? You know what I mean?

Lisa: 31:13

Yeah. Yeah, I, I mean, both are so important to wait for hunger and then to honor those fullness cues because, Waiting for hunger, I think just ha has gotten, again, such a bad rap because how many times did we see advertisements for do this diet and never feel hungry? Like why? Why has hunger been villainized? It's a natural bodily response that we want to pay attention to. I always think it's kind of similar to like, The urge to have to pee, like that's a natural bodily response. Your bladder's like full, and then it signals you, Hey, I'm full, we need to empty. And you're like, okay. There's no drama about that. You're just like, okay, I'm just gonna go when my body tells me I need to go. And I think that somehow, like if you know, you can imagine like learn to never feel like you need to pee again. Like what? No Why would you want.

Cassie: 32:09

Like that.

Lisa: 32:10

I think it's just the same thing, like hunger is just a natural bodily cue that we want to feel and it. Once you start really paying attention, it feels good to be hungry before you eat a meal because you're like, oh yes, this is right. My body is ready for a meal. It's telling me. And then for me, a good fullness cue is I could get up and take that 10 minute walk. I don't every time after every meal, there's sometimes that doesn't work for me, but I could if I needed to. I'm not so full that that would be uncomfortable. But people ask me a lot like, well, what, what are those good fullness cues that tell me I'm right? I use a hunger scale, so I use numbers, so I ask them to eat to a positive three or four, and that's back in my podcast. But, um, what else do you think is a good way to tell that you are at kind of the right quote unquote, the rightfulness?

Cassie: 33:07

Yeah, that's a great question. So, I mean, what I encourage clients to do, so when we start focusing on, um, eating protein, fiber, and fat at each mealtime to support blood sugar, we've, we are focusing on eating it. Certain amount, like with some ranges so that we have some room to listen to your body from there, um, and let your body tell us what you need. Um, so we build, we build those meals, eat those meals, and then kind of give your body just a second to process that you've eaten some food. Um, you know, maybe wait 10 minutes or so, so some water and, and just get in touch with how you're, how you're feeling. And if you feel. like in 10 minutes, if you're still not thinking about food, you're not like, you know, oh, I'm still hungry. I need to go back like then go eat some more food. But if you're not thinking about it, then a lot of times that's like, that's a good sign that like you're comfortably full. You know what I mean? So I think it's like, I think that it's really slowing down enough to read the signs, uh, because we don't do that very often. tend to, I mean, we're go, go go society in general. So we're like, let me eat and, and go. And if you don't feel full after you eat initially, it's like, oh, I need to eat more. But do you though, you know,

Lisa: 34:22

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cassie: 34:23

are we, you know, has your body had enough time to register that you've eaten the full meal? So I think that that, I don't know if that answers your question, but that's how I help clients kind of start to recognize fullness cues.

Lisa: 34:37

And I, I think too, like they're individual for each person, so I'm always. Overshoot. How does that feel? Undershoot? How does that feel? Like let's test it out. It's okay for a couple days if you need to eat after just a couple hours because you under ate that previous meal. Now you know, like that's not enough. And so just kind of test it out and play with it. Like again, there's no rush here. Like we're not like, Slim and six plans. So there's plenty of time to like test out these hunger and full cues and kind of let yourself get more hungry and let yourself get less hungry and just kind of test it out, you know,

Cassie: 35:14

No, and I love that you hit on that because there, you know, we're, so when it comes to weight loss especially, we're so like, tell me what to do, what do I do? What are the rules? Like, you know, I wanna make sure I'm doing everything just right. And there is a huge element, like if your goal is sustainable fat loss, if you wanna lose weight and keep it off and stop the whole dieting madness, then you have to learn what works for you. And to, to get to that point, you have to have some trial and error. So you have to have those moments of, wait, that didn't. That didn't go the way I wanted it to. What can I do differently next time? So,

Lisa: 35:47

And I think with sustainable weight loss, we are trying to create a life that we want to live, which I think speaks a lot to that 20%. You were talking about when we're eating 80 20, that 20%. Keeps us living the way we wanna live. Like sometimes I wanna have cake, sometimes I want to, you know, have a donut for whatever reason. And so I listen to my cravings and I'm like, okay, I'm noticed that. My cravings have said donut like every day for the past two weeks. So I guess it's time to plan one of those. So that's, you know, kind of part of, part of that 20% I feel like is keeping things that we like to eat just for the pleasure. Is that what you consider your 20%?

Cassie: 36:32

yeah, for sure. And you know, a lot of clients want me to quantify 20% is the question I'll get, you know, how many, how many times a week can I eat? X, Y, and Z, you know, and still meet my 20% goal. And that's not exactly the way that I like to think about 20%. I mean, 20% is kind of like, I want it to flow into your life naturally in an ideal situation. So it's that day where it's like, hey, I really, you know, maybe somebody brought donuts to work or whatever and you know, kind of ask yourself. Do I want one? You know, does it sound good? And if the answer's yes, it's having that freedom and flexibility to say yes and no, that you're not derailing your diet. You don't have to feel guilty about it, like you have the room for that and you're not doing anything wrong. But the other side of that is like 20% is also those times when life is just insane and you know, You have no choice but to go through a drive-through for whatever reason. Or another example is I've had clients who have had family members in the hospital, um, you know, and, and it's like you're eating what's available. You're eating right. You know, whatever is in front of you. That's another example of 20%. Or it's even like, Hey, would not enjoying whatever it is, like, take away from my experience. Because if the answer is yes, then you should enjoy the thing, you know? So it's kind of. learn. It's learning those instances and what matters most to you, and making room for them in a guilt-free way so that you can keep your life the way you want it, like you said.

Lisa: 38:03

Yeah. And just really. Really emphasizing that what matters most to you? Because every time, um, a treat snack, something that might be considered part of your 20% comes up, I think I probably offered those things, or those things are available to me more than 20% of the time. And so just really deciding what's worth it to me. You know, I kind of have a no day old cake policy because day old cake's not. You know,

Cassie: 38:35

Yeah. No.

Lisa: 38:36

like if it's not really good, if it's not freshly baked or you know, homemade or whatever, like it's, it's not worth it to me. I just don't, I'm not going to enjoy it that much, and so I don't. Want to include it. And I think the idea that, uh, here, you know, well, I just wanna eat whatever I want, like, let's get really clear on what we do want. Because the truth is we don't probably feel great on more junk than 20% of the time.

Cassie: 39:06

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that like having the ability to decide what you actually want, want, um, in my experience comes down to two things. I mean, when you, I know I keep talking about blood sugar, I will always talk about blood sugar, but when you

Lisa: 39:20

I, I think it's fascinating. Keep going,

Cassie: 39:23

Well, when you're not balancing blood sugar, you are overwhelmed with cravings. I mean, you just are, that's just the nature of the game. So it's like that pool for the donut or the cookie or the cake or whatever, that's gonna be so loud. And so when you do start balancing blood sugar, you notice that a lot of those cravings go away. Um, and then when you know that nothing's off limits and you have the freedom and flexibility to have the things that you actually do want, it actually gives you. the freedom to decide what you want, you know, because when you are like, oh, this is off limits, I can't have it. This is bad, or it's going against my diet, it's like all of a sudden you're in your head like there's this, almost this scarcity mindset like, let me have it now because I'm not supposed to have it, or I don't know when I'll be able to have it again, type of thing. And it's this weird mindset reverse thing with it where it's like, Knowing that you can, allows you to choose and it's just, it's really cool. Freeing is the word that comes to mind.

Lisa: 40:26

It's true. And people don't understand that When you really give yourself permission, like really, truly, I can absolutely have that. It sounds like you might just go ham on it. You don't. I promise. you really really don't because. If there's anything underlying in there that's like, well, but only just for now or, but, but I'm being bad doing it. Like, we gotta drop all of that and really, truly give yourself permission.

Cassie: 40:56

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I agree. I mean, I, I think that that is a, a misconception, especially as we start talking about like. or as you hear people talk about intuitive eating and things like that, it comes up a lot. Like, that's a big concern that I hear associated with intuitive eating is that if I give myself permission, then I'm going to just eat all of these different things. And I think that when you give yourself permission and you're fueling your body and you're consistently staying full and satisfied, not, you know, not starving all the time, then like you don't necessarily want to just. Pam on whatever it is, you know, the cookies or the donuts, et cetera.

Lisa: 41:38

Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. I think, um, especially this information on balancing blood sugar is not something I've covered before, so I think that that's gonna be really helpful for people. So I really appreciate your time and your expertise. So why don't you tell people where they can connect with you or learn more about what you do?

Cassie: 41:58

Yeah. Yeah. So you can find me on Instagram at Fat Loss Dietician. Um, that's a great place to start. I put up all kinds of reels and posts and stuff regularly so that you can do that. And if you are looking for some guidance, just starting your fat loss journey, there's a link in my bio to get a free four step guide to Sustainable Fat Loss.

Lisa: 42:22

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Cassie: 42:26

Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for having me.

42:29

Thanks for tuning in today for this episode in our eight, well pillar, let me know if you have any questions for Cassie or just about how to build your meals in general for balancing blood sugar, but also food freedom. Like we talked about. Don't forget to secure your spot in my group coaching program. Even if you haven't had a chance to get on the wait list, there is still room for you. If you are feeling on the fence about it, be sure to schedule a call with me so I can get your most burning question answered and get you out of that. Limbo of deciding what's best for you. All those links are in the show notes. And again, if you're loving what you're hearing from me, don't forget to rate, review and share the show.