Ultra Processed Foods and Finding Your Why with David Greenwalt [Ep. 29]

0:00 Hi, welcome back to the eat. Well think well live well podcast. I'm Lisa Salsbury. And my mission is to help women stop obsessing about everything they eat and feel confident about their ability to lose weight without a diet app. Today, I've got David Greenwalt as my guest, and we are going to be discussing ultra processed foods. What are they, why they can be considered addictive and what you can do to avoid them. We discussed strategies for starting out and getting real food into your diet. We also introduced the concept of obesogenic factors and how to manage those. David. And I have a lot of the same concepts, but we express them differently. So I'm excited for you to hear another take one thing I didn't mention when we are talking about great ways for people to get started on improving their health.

0:49 Is my go-to meals concept. This helps you to know what to eat when your brain is telling you there isn't any good options. I've made this into a free ebook for you, and you can download that from the link in the show notes. Now let's get on with that interview with David. 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.

1:33 Welcome back everyone. Today I have David Greenwalt as my guest. I'm super excited. He reached out to me and he is just a wealth of information. As always, I liked my guest to introduce themselves, so I'm gonna turn it over to him to give us a little intro and tell us what he is all about. All right, thanks, uh, Lisa. It's so, uh, so good to be here. So I am David Greenwalt. I. I'm a Midwesterner, born and raised in, uh, Illinois and still live there, but right now I'm, we're outta state enjoying some sun. Um, but, uh, married, uh, three grown kids, 28 to 33. Got our little dog scoop. He's a little malteses. Um, and I have been involved in fitness and coaching for over 30 years.

2:18 I've been online coaching as a virtual health coach for 23 years. I. This business in 1999. Um, in the past I was a former competitive bodybuilder and powerlifter and police officer. And, uh, no longer do well. I, I don't compete in those. I, I, I play around, but not in power lifting. But anyway, still, very enthusiastic about fitness and, and helping people and taking care of, myself as well. I've been been doing this a long time and I really enjoy it, and I just love helping people get from where they are to the place or a better place, what, whatever that may be. I definitely relate to that. I get off client calls and my family's like, why are you in such a good mood?

3:00 I'm like, cause I just love helping people. I'm such a dork, yes. No, no. Not at all. I get it. well, tell us a little bit about how you coach, or what your philosophy is with, health and weight loss, those sorts of things. So, you know, I had a, you know, I had a major breakthrough early on, fortunately, um, in my coaching career I was in my early thirties then, and that's, you know, in 99. So, uh, I, I was wondering what was going on with people my, at that time I was like, why are these otherwise really successful?

3:41 Good, smart, everything going for'em in every other way. Struggling so much to eat less and exercise more. You know, I'm throwing that in quotes. You can't see me doing air quotes it, you know, and calories in, calories out. Eat less than exercise more. And yes, we need balance. um, what is going on? What is what is so difficult? And fortunately, I, ran across at that time I was interviewing people, uh, for my coaching program back in the nineties. And I would put the, I would put the recordings out on cassette tape, and I would send, I'm not kidding you, and I would put the, I would send out cassettes by the hundreds to people because there was no internet, you know, or it was just coming in and.

4:22 So, but I met Kay Shepherd and Kay Shepherd is a food addiction expert and author and, a self-admitted, food addict. I'm not saying anything out of turn here. She, she writes about it. She's an expert on it. She has an inpatient treatment facility and so on and so on. Anyway, I had read her book and I thought, I've gotta interview this woman, because she really helped me understand a part, just a part, but a big part of what was going on and. Made this seemingly very just logical, rational thing of calories and calories out, eat less, exercise more, uh, be very much not that, and, and gave a very good explanation as to at least one factor, um, that was contributing to the compulsive overeating and, and compulsive food behaviors.

5:07 So that was very early on, and since then, I've just continued to obviously grow and learn and work with people every day. I'm an avid, peer, peer reviewed, published, uh,, you know, science reader. And anyway, with all that said, where we are now, cause you were asking, you know, what's your philosophy? I, I've obviously have taken that plus so many other element. and I have a, a very good understanding, I believe, of what's going on in this incredibly obesogenic environment that we're all living in. And it's very much underrated. It's very much, minimized, or underappreciated at, at how incredibly driving it is externally and internal, all those external and internal obesogenic factors.

5:52 And by obesogenic just means all of the factors that contribute to behaviors that drive obesity, external factors, internal factors, but there's a, there's so many of them. And so, um, we come at it from a, uh, a, a very comprehensive position and we wanna look at all of those factors, and we wanna look at everything from, you know, addiction to emotional fitness. We wanna make sure people do have, you know, good solid evidence based foundation on their nutrition and their activity components. and then we look at, uh,, you know, the primary driver of willpower and, and things like that. So, it's really, those are big umbrellas.

6:35 When I say obesogenic factors, there's a number of those. When I say emotional fitness, there's a number of factors. yeah. obesogenic factors isn't something I've talked about, um, on the show. Let's talk a little bit about that because I think a lot of people are feeling like. what you said in the beginning, they, they're so capable, they're so intelligent, you know, it's like, if I'm so smart, why can't I figure this out? It's like the one thing in my life, you see these really well, you know, really high power people that still struggle seemingly with their weight. And it's not because I'm, um, body judging them or just, you know, body checking, just deciding that they're overweight. They, they come to me and they.

7:17 I want to change, right? it's not it's not that I'm just talking about people that I see, I'm talking about actual clients that say, you know, I, I want to make these changes. So what are some of those factors that we're seeing in our culture today? Yeah, it's a great question. So we've got. Biogenic factors within us. Not anything that we can control. It's just something to be aware of. There is a biological drive? There is. It has been with us since we've been upright, you know, since we've been homo sapiens and it drives us for calorie dents. Foods. Um, and that's, you know, back way back when, when food wasn't plentiful. It wasn't 24 7, it wasn't on every corner. It wasn't in convenience marts and fast food and you name it.

8:00 We needed that to help keep us alive because it, you know, it being driven to calorie dense, uh, food, uh, could sustain us for a period of day two, three, whatever it took until food was available. Again, in our modern environment, it's hurting. because it's available everywhere. It's 24 7, but we're still driven for, so we do have a biological drive. So because that's not anything we can do really anything about, it's just something to be aware of. But that is an obesogenic factor. Okay. That hasn't changed in eons. Um, so we have just our of what's, sorry? What's changed though? It's like the environment has changed though, right? Because that has worked. That has actually kept us alive for eons, but it's only been in the last a hundred years that there's a grocery store and a McDonald's or Carl Jr.

8:48 Whatever is the one on my corner like mine. The nearest restaurant to me is there's literally two fast food restaurants on the corners of the main intersection where I live, and so our brains, like evolutionary wise, have not caught up to that. right. So, yeah. right. And so, you know, when we get into factors that have, that have changed greatly over the last 50, you know, or to a hundred years, but definitely in the last 50, 60 years, it is, you know, the number of fast food restaurants. So the availability of it, the 24 7 aspect, the convenience, the convenience, Mars with all of the things that are in there. And the other thing is that the quote in quote food supply has changed dramatically as well.

9:33 Um, the research is saying, in the United States, adults are about 60% of what we consume is ultra processed food. I'm gonna say they are behind. I'm gonna say they have missed it. And I'm gonna say that's way too low. I think, I think, based on, because I live and breathe this every single day, and I have for so long, I think currently in the United States, adults are at about 90% ultra processed food, maybe 10% real food. And so one of, so as far as the obesogenic factors, what I say is collectively all factors that contribute to the overconsumption of ultra process food, including the fact that ultra processed food is addictive itself.

10:19 All of those factors collectively are the single greatest reason why we are in the position we are in the United States for obesity that we are, and it's not good. Today. We're at 43%. In 1970, we were at 15%. By 2030, we're supposed to be 50%. So we are losing this battle and all of those factors that contribute to the overconsumption of ultra processed food, all of those factors which are biogenic again, including the fact that ultrapro food is addictive in and of itself, are the single greatest contributors to why we are where we are. So, um, yeah, I put a lot of emphasis on that, that ultra processed food and the factors that.

11:00 Yeah, So tell us what you consider ultra processed food, because you're saying researchers saying we're eating 60 some odd percent ultra processed, but are, when you say you think it's more like 90, is that based on when adults come to you and say, Hey, this is, this is what I'm eating, and so you're taking a look at their food journals and figuring It's about 90%. Yes. And, and, uh, general polling, uh, The clients that come to me, like you were saying, the clients that come to you, um, you know, you're, it's very exciting when you have a breakthrough. Uh, we ask, you know, we get very personal as they are willing to, and they want to only at the level that they're comfortable with.

11:43 I think it's easier to give a definition of real food and then kind of look. not quite. Everything else is ultra processed food, but we really start tilting that way pretty fast. So as far as real food goes, my working definition is adapted. From a food classification called the Nova Food Classification System. Nova Food Classification System was developed by a, a professor in Brazil. It's been around now at least 10 years, and it's not perfect, but of the food classification systems out there, um, it's. In my opinion, the best one we have so far, it doesn't just rely on nutrients.

12:23 It doesn't just say that if it's nutrient, if something's nutrient rich, which is a nutri centric approach. In other words, if it has the vitamins and the minerals and the fiber and the protein and the whatever, if it has those things in it, then we're okay. As long as it's, as long as it has those things, we're okay. That's a nutri centric view, and don't get me wrong, nutrients are very important. Sure. The Nova Food classification System looks at processing and looks at the impact of processing and then categorizes foods based on the level of processing. Okay. So my working definition of real food is adapted from that. So I like to say that, and it is a working definition. It's, it's one where, You know, I could say it fairly easily and people can remember it fairly easily once they hear it a couple times, you know, so it's, otherwise there's so much nuance and granular detail if we get into the, the real science.

13:16 Okay, so my working definition of real food adapted is the whole or minimally processed, edible parts of plant and animal. where. anything has been added to it. It is only the whole or minimally processed ingredients commonly found in kitchens. Okay. All right. So we start with a whole or minimally processed, edible part of plant or animal. Okay? You know, a chicken breast, broccoli, strawberries, fa, you know, fish, you know, whatever. And if anything's been added, it's only the whole or minimally processed ingredients commonly found in kitchens.

14:02 So would you consider, um, sauces like, uh, say like a soy sauce as you know, you take that chicken and broccoli and you add soy sauce to that. Is that a commonly found ingredient, or would those things be considered processed for you? I would wanna see the ingredients, you know, because that's always gonna be important. Um, Once I see the ingredients, we can answer it, you know, uh, a lot easier. Um, that could be, a minimally processed, it isn't gonna be a whole or natural, uh, compound, you know, or substance, but it could be minimally processed But something like maybe more singular ingredient like vinegar, um, that's gonna be made like from a fruit Yeah.

14:43 Would be something commonly found in a kitchen. Yep. Salt, pepper, spices, vinegars, some condiments, um, you know, oils, you know, thing, things like that. As far as like the, the easy ones, those are your easy ones that are more single ingredient, you know, kind of thing. But, uh, you know, a, a multi ingredient, you know, packaged food that would still, could still be real food and hit the definition. It's just think of like a marinara sauce or something. Tomatoes, basil, garlic, oreg. So on, so on. Right. And, and nothing else added for preservatives. It's in a glass jar, so on and so on. Right. and there are, there are a number of things where when you look at the ingredients, you go, yeah, all those are things commonly found in kitchens.

15:24 And the, and the base of it, whatever it was, was the minimally processed, edible part of a plant and animal. once we've got. We stopped looking at the front of the package, you know, well, you can start, you can look at the front of the package, but that's where the marketing is. Yeah, Yeah. That's what all those words are. Just advertising right. But if we spin it around and look at it, then we can start to look at is it, is it real food? And this isn't in any way, shape, or form. I wanna make, make sure I'm clear. It's in no way, shape, or form. Is this any kind of a, someone's better than someone else if they eat real food versus Ultrapro. There's nothing. Zero. It's all about the research continues to mount and comes out daily, weekly, monthly, and over and over and over.

16:09 We see that the people who are consuming the most ultra processed food are just simply doing the worst in every way imaginable. Their health is the worst, their mental health is the worst. Diabetes is the worst. Uh, non-communicable diseases, cardiovascular disease, uh, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, autoimmune. Just, just take your pick. I mean, seriously take your pick if those, not every single person, of course, but when we look at the mass numbers and we start to stratify people based on whether they are large consumers, I should say large users of ultra processed food, because it really becomes that no longer consumer, it's more user based cuz it's, they're so addictive.

16:55 All of the, all of the negatives go up and the people who consume the least, the negatives are minimized or much. Yeah. So ultra processed food is, definitely something that we wanna work to start eliminating from our diet. So, as we're doing that, you know, people might be thinking, well that's, that's great, but right now that's kind of what keeps my kids alive. It what ke keeps me able to like, get food on the table because we might think it's our only option. Um, I've had clients that tell me they don't know how to cook. You know that, which is a problem today. So what could be kind of the first thing we want to eliminate if we're like, well, what do we wanna start with before we're jumping all the way from fast food every day to only chicken and broccoli which of course we're not advocating, but like what would be the most important thing to start with on that kind of ultra processed food?

17:49 Is it a particular ingredient or a particular type of food? right. So we typically, well, first of all, you're absolutely right and no one, no one I would in a million years would I recommend that they try to go from, like you said, 90% or a hundred percent ultra processed food to. I don't want anybody going to chicken breast and broccoli, you know, I mean, it's it's just not gonna happen. You know, maybe a bodybuilder three days from their their show or something. But I mean, other than that, no. Um, so it's, it's about increasing real food and having that displace the ultra processed food because what's happened is the reverse has happened. What's happened is ultra processed food has displaced real food the way we ate for hundreds of thousands of years.

18:38 real food. You know, there's a, there's a, there's kind of a, a, you know, a meme that goes around that says, what your great grandparents call, you know what we call real food is what your great grandparents call just food. You know? And so it's just about moving in in that direction. So if, if we can increase vegetables a bit, if we can increase. Whole real fruit a bit. If we can increase real, you know, meat, whatever it is, if you're, if you're an omnivore more of the real, you know, and of course you want, as you can, you want the animals to be grown humanely and you want'em free of, and you want pastured and da da da da da, all that.

19:19 Um, grassfed and all that move more toward, and this isn't about being perfect. No one's gonna get this perfect. We don't have to be per, our bodies are amazing, but we are overwhelming them with this 90%. I'm saying 90 research is, again, it's always two, three years behind, but they're saying 60 based on a study, but we've overwhelmed it. And so if we can just, you know, hide our, hide our vegetables, rice, cauliflower in something that's got a stronger. You don't even know Rice cauliflower is in Chile, Oh yeah. Yeah. Don't pretend.

19:59 I, I like that because I don't like to pretend it's rice or pretend cauliflower is pasta. But I, I totally agree. I actually used rice cauliflower in other things to increase the vegetable content. And I, I like what you were saying too before it, I call that crowding out rather than when, you know, my clients are like, I probably shouldn't be eating this or shouldn't be eating that. And so instead we say, what do you want to be eating? Yeah. Let's talk about what we wanna add in. And then that naturally will crowd out the other foods when we're adding in like, okay, we wanna add in another serving of vegetables, well that's gonna crowd out a serving of something else. If we're really paying attention to our hunger and fullness cues, then Yeah.

20:41 And that's, and that's, and that is exactly what's happened in reverse. Right. We've crowded out the food, we lived the real food that we lived on for hundreds of thousands of years. We've crowded that out. Um, and, and the other thing too, if I can say too, is I, I take a view, people will say, you know, they have this good or bad connotation or healthy, unhealthy connotation to food. And it starts to become an feels, it can feel yucky or like, it's a, it's got a moral base to it, you know. because then we label ourselves good or bad for eating those Right. And so I really, look, I don't look at good, bad, healthy, unhealthy. One of the things that I do, especially not you've got, at least my working definition of real food, is I just look at two things.

21:27 Is it real food? Does it work for you? Because even if it's real food, it doesn't mean that it will. Um, you know, an example could be, I can't eat bananas. They make me nauseous. I don't know why. they do not sit well. Right. And, and, and, and a lot of people have their thing. And sometimes, uh, for my clients that are interested in, um, going from someplace heavier to someplace leaner, uh, it could be something like peanuts. You know, you take a jar of peanuts and it says peanuts and salt. It's real food, whole or nada, da da da. Only thing added to it was salt. Commonly found in kitchens. Got it. Minimally processed. Had to get it there to get it in the jar.

22:07 Got it. Does it work for you? Not if they open the jar and eat the jar. And I can speak from that, you know, perspective because like for me, 25 years ago, um, I lost 50 of my own excess pounds and, and fortunately I've kept it off for 25 years. But prior to that, if I had peanut butter in the house, a serving of peanut butter for me is a cup and a half a tablespoon, you know? And so you could say, Dave, it was peanuts and salt, and you know, that was the ingredients. Well, does it work for you? And my answer would be no. So it could be, and also it could be an allergy, it could be, like you said, it could be nausea, it could be whatever, but it could be something that you overeat easily.

22:49 Maybe it, and in that case, we just have to. It's not bad or good, but does it work for you? Is it real food and does it work for you? Or kind of the two questions that I, I like to ask. I like that. So we decide we want to start to eliminate some of those ultra processed foods. We've made some promises. We've started again on Monday. I always tell my clients the best time to start as. At your very next bite, but most people instead, they wanna start on Monday. And that's fine. We're actually just coming off the new year. We're just, we've just passed Quitter's Day, which is I think January 19th. So, um, you might be ready to start again by the time this episode comes, if, if you don't know what Quitter's Day is, it's the most common day that people quit their New Year's resolutions.

23:29 And it's somewhere around, uh, January 19th. We know that staying on track is a challenge. We know people make promises to themselves and then they don't. They don't do it. So how do you think is the best way for people to stay on track? Well again, Because of these obesogenic factors that we've touched on. It's what's driving willpower is what I, I say. It's why power drives willpower. Okay? So people have willpower. Anybody listening has achieved something big in their life, whatever it may be, education, family, some kind of some job, whatever it may be.

24:09 They've accomplished things. Anything that took a lot of effort and time and, and sacrifice. It was done with incredible willpower. But what was driving that was why power? So, you know, one of the things I'll ask, just people to just ask themselves is if you worked for someone else, when was the last time you were late for work? Most people say, Well, are you always in a good mood? Why are, how come you're never late for work? You know, are you never sick? Are you always happy to go in? Are you just fired up? You know? And the answer is no, no, no. Then why do you go, well, because I need the job, because of this, because of this. And, and they, and they can give you a list that's maybe 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 things long.

24:53 And those things are incredibly important. Those things being their why for going to work are incredibly important. And that why power drives the willpower. And the way I think of willpower is doing what needs to be done and when it needs to be done, whether you feel like it or not. And so what's gonna drive that? Cuz you don't always feel like it, you know, but they. I was curious, let me jump in a little bit here. I was curious how I was gonna act, actually ask you do I, um, to define willpower because I'm always trying to take, get my clients off of willpower. Cuz I think the way most people think of it is willpower is like that, that like grit or, uh, the holding tight and just like powering through kind of the forcing.

25:34 That's the type of willpower that runs out. It's like a muscle that fatigues what you're talking about is what I consider, the emotion of commitment, but you're calling it willpower, which is your whypower. So I, I just wanted to kind of throw that out there. For those of my listeners that are familiar with how I define willpower, you're definitely defining it a little differently, so that's totally fine. You keep going, but I just wanted to jump in with that a little bit. So w w we have a very strong why driving our willpower to go to work. Another thing is like for anybody who's got. Or had kids of school age or whatever. When was the last time you needed to pick them up from school or for soccer practice? And you just said, nah, I'm done.

26:14 You know, never. You know, or again, were you always in a good mood? Did you want to do it? Did you feel like it? No. You did what needed to be done, when it needed to be done, whether you felt like it or not, because the thought. of not being there for your child when they needed you and all that, you know, the, the potential ramifications that we play in our heads and, and actual ramifications for not being, you know, reliable for our kids is devastating. And so it's not that nobody ever makes a mistake and oh my gosh, I was late one time, or I did, people we're human. But as far as kind of any kind of, uh, consistency to that, absolutely not. So we have demonst. Incredible, incredible willpower.

26:56 If you've achieved, you know, an advanced degree, incredible willpower, if you've achieved some kind of profession that is incredibly difficult to get into, incredible willpower, if you've build a business, incredible. I mean, just the list goes on and on and on. But what's driving that each time? The reason you'll lose sleep for the reason you'll be there, for that person who's counting on you. The, the reason you'll show up for yourself is because in each of those instances where you were successful in doing, your why for driving willpower was incredibly strong and I can't emphasize enough how strong your why is gonna have to be in our current environment to help overcome these obesogenic factors and keep driving the why and having it be consistent because, you know, I'm not gonna get any kinda nitty gritties on nutrition, but what, I'll just say this, and this again is not, um, literal, but I say I can teach you what you need to know about nutrition in about an hour.

27:56 I can teach you what you need to know about exercise in about an hour. But what keeps those two things going in the direction they need to go? the behaviors that drive the nutrition and exercise components in the right direction to take your body anywhere you want it, health, weight, whatever you're looking to do. What keeps those two things consistent? Why power is one of'em? Why power driving willpower is one of'em. Uh, when the why is strong enough, we find a way, and when it's not, we find an excuse that's universal for all of us. Um, We need a, A stronger why than people think. Why do you wanna lose 30 pounds? Just like to feel a little healthier.

28:36 Yeah. And that's not enough. Yeah. We're not gonna remain committed with. Yeah. I'm always like, why? Why do you wanna feel healthier? and you're drilling down. So, you know, it's one of the things we do is we just keep drilling and drilling and drilling and we, and we've got strategies and whatnot that, that help our clients get to the real root of what's really driving them. Um, and we have to have that. And it's, it's, again, it's, it's minimized. It's overlooked. It's thought of as, eh, you know, I just want to do. right. not gonna be enough because of all of these other factors, including, again, like I said, addiction, you know, being one of'em because of the ultra processed food. I'm, I'm just curious.

29:16 Just cuz I, I like to hear some of them. Um, I have like a list of my clients of some of their like big strong whys because they go, I, I wanna be healthier. Well I wanna live a long time. Like, why, why? And I like the ones and this happens to be mine, but I have another client that is like, yeah, that's definitely mine too. Is I wanna be an influence for good on my grandchildren. Like, I'm only 47 and none of my children are married. I have one that is almost marriage age I would consider. So I'm not, I'm not close to, to grandchildren and I'm not even close to an age where grandchildren would be influenced. Right. You can't even influence a baby. But so like that's.

29:57 That's a compelling why for me and for some of my clients. Like I don't just wanna be around when I'm 90 for no reason I wanna be around so that I can be an influence for good on my grandchildren. Um, I'm just curious, what are some of these really massive whys that you've heard from your clients? You know, it, there's so many, it's hard to even, you know, ha have something that jumps out at me. What? What I'll. This is this, A lot of'em are gonna be prefixed in some way with self, self-confidence, self-pride, self-worth. They, there's, that's some kind of element there.

30:38 Um, there's going to be a lot of times some, uh, some aspirational component to it. Not always, you know, I want to be able to, you know, I want to be able. Fit comfortably in a plain seat. I want to be able to hike the Appalachian trip. It can be really huge or it can be, oh, it's an everyday thing that they just don't feel comfortable, but they want to. It's aspirational. Um, I wanna be able to slide down the slide with my child or grandchild. I wanna be able to do that. And I, you know, I just had someone pop into my head when you were just now asking that and I can picture her cuz she sent a video of her doing that when she couldn't before.

31:19 Just something you go, well that's pretty simple, is it? You know, it's it can be really, really powerful, Yeah, that stuff is huge. I had a client, he was like, I just wanna be able to play pickleball. yeah. He's a youth leader and he's like, you know, the boys were playing pickleball and I thought I might break in half if I did that. He's like, I just, I just wanna be able to play pickleball if they wanna play. And I think that's so true. Like that aspirational, and you gotta keep those things in mind. And I've seen them, it's so personal for each person. I have seen Wises that read. Amazing and just are full of emotion and they're lengthy and I've seen whys that are two short paragraphs, Mm-hmm.

32:08 both as compelling for each individual. It just, it varies so much, but we're gonna look at. You know, when we're looking at developing the why, we wanna look at things like health and longevity. What are some things that are, that are possibly, you know, impactful to you? How might relationships improve? Is there any fa is there any factor there? There may not be, but we do. We wanna at least explore that? You know, are there relationships that could improve? Is there any kind of professional, aspect that may improve? You know, cuz people a lot of times say, cause I work with. You know, leaders a lot of times and CEOs and they say, I wanna feel confident. These are that self again, self c I wanna feel confident when I come into the room.

32:52 I wanna feel confident that people see me as someone they should believe, someone that they should trust. And all of these things, they're not, not anything I think, but these are what, this is what they say to me and have for, for all these years. Um, are there any financial benefits for doing it? there could be cost reduction, there could be who knows, you know what, what it could be. Um, then again, the aspirational stuff. Anything fun, kind of recreational, you know, like what might you want to do? Uh, we just wanna explore it. There may each person's so different, there may not be. And then also, What about just things that are kind of more a part of the physicality, the body, if there is anything, you know, um, I want to be able to wear the sleeveless dress and feel blah, blah, blah.

33:34 You know, it's not, each person's different, but some people might have that. I wanna wear the little black dress, or the guy says, I wanna be able to wear the 34 waist jeans or whatever. If there's any aspect to that, you know, so there's a lot of elements that go, go into it. It's very individual and we want to explore and ring out every single drop out of it and not assume that because someone wants it, I want it, I want to lose 30 pounds. I want to, you know, we have to know why. If we do, we'll move a mountain. And here's the thing. you know, with kind of the blueprint and the path already laid out before them.

34:18 It isn't moving a mountain as someone may have to do if they're alone. And it's confusing and they're, and a lot of people as we know are dealing with misinformation that's out there and everything is do this one day and don't do that the next and which way do I go? And up is down, and down is up and holy cow, it's confusing. But when we remove that, this really complex. thing called managing our health and weight and whatnot in 2023, uh, becomes easier and it becomes something that is doable and makes sense. And it also for my clients, what I've noticed so much, and it is so I get so much satisfaction from'em, is when they understand why, not their why, but why they have not had success so far.

35:09 but it was based on eat less and exercise more. Mm-hmm. I mean, it's not enough. it's not enough. And yeah, the math is the math, that's fine. But how do we do it and how do we, how do we become better life managers? Cuz that's the emotional fitness part. How do we become better life managers? So that we can, again, make that better decision when we're tired at the end of the day, when we're frustrated, when anxiety is high and so forth. And so we look at all of those components to help our clients make those better decisions to stay on track more often. Because that's when you fall back. When you're tired, you fall, have to fall back on your commitment, which is that why I just like to, give examples.

35:51 Even though, like you said, it's, it is very individual, your why will look really different. I do like to give examples to get people kind of that jumping off point of what we mean by that. But I think one of the keys to finding it, to finding your why is to just keep asking why. And I think that's what you're saying with drilling down, like, why do you wanna be healthier? Why do you want to, you know, be confident? Why do you, what, why does that matter? Until you really get down to that base reason. And I think that can be really powerful. like you had said too, you know, just, you know, in processing in just another couple minutes that you and I have been.

36:32 So often, um, if it's a professional and they're, they may be somebody in the health field. When I first had a medical doctor come to me in the late nineties, I thought to myself, wait, what? What, why, what do you, how come, you know, again, I, if intelligence was the answer, they, they'd be, they'd be whatever they wanna be because they've got it, you know? Um, but that's not it. It's, it, it is, you know, it is all, all the other factors, you know, that we're talking about. So yeah, it's, it's gonna take, it's gonna take everything but not over in an overwhelming way, in a step-by-step, you know, um, bite size way, so to speak, so that they can, you know, kind of assimilate everything and just kind of grow little by little to being able to make those, those better decisions.

37:24 Yeah. So it's kind of how we're, we stay on track with the Y power. But one thing that you said, which I really love this saying, is it's the start that stops most people. And I, I think that there is so much information out there, it, like we've said there, it's not a lack of information, it's not a lack of intelligence. It really is. Our brains and our thoughts and our, a lot of that emotional fitness that keeps us from doing these things. But it is that start, it's like overcoming the, inertia of beginning. So what, what would you say are a few things that, maybe are some easy ways to get started with all of this?

38:05 Yeah. So, you know, if we kind of look at each thing, um regard to like nutrition and exercise and, and then maybe the emotional fitness, you know, components. Um, again, nutritionally they have made. Some ready to go pre-packaged real food items that are vegetable based and fruit based, really easy to access now. It didn't exist 30, 40 years ago. Yeah, and that's a good thing. You know, again, just using the rice cauliflower example, but any of the vegetables where you've flip it around and it says ingredients, zucchini. Ingredients, cauliflower ingredient, whatever, green beans, any, any way that that can be brought in and used.

38:49 Please do. You don't have to get fresh green beans. cut'em. Wash. I mean, you don't have to. And you know anything that's ready to go. Um, that is real food. If you're able to, I'm all about it, you know. Um, and. Again, just bringing that in and again, hid bringing in more vegetables, hiding vegetables in things that are, have a stronger flavor th way. Any way you can hide them at all, because it's gonna add bulk, it's gonna add nutrients, you're gonna feel fuller. And um, it's gonna be improving health all along the way too, because again, like you said, we're displacing, we're doing the reverse of what's happened. We're displacing ultra processed food as we bring in more real.

39:31 um, fresh fruit, of course, frozen fresh fruit. Great. You know, anytime you can bring that in, bring that in. The other thing I would say is that my clients do a lot of, batch cooking on one day, maybe a couple hours of batch cooking, and enough where it lasts them four or five days where there's just stuff's ready to grab and go, and the the easier things. To grab and go. I'm that way still, and I've been doing this a long time. If vegetables in the fridge are not grab and go ready for me, I'm way less likely to eat'em. If I gotta pull it out, wash it, cut it, prepare it, get it to go. What happens is you go, oh my gosh. I, it's, it's a couple hours of prep time on a Sunday or whatever, but the time, it saves you.

40:14 And then also just. Minimal investment in your health and the behavior. Um, it's just a win-win, win all the way across, and it really is a success strategy. So as far as nutrition goes, those are some of the things that I would say. What have you found as, as far as a starter, well let me just make a comment on the batch cooking. I'm not very good at. Batch cooking like on a Sunday. But the way I get around that is I will double things all the time. So like, if I'm making a sauce, I double it, I freeze half. If I'm making enchiladas, I double it. I freeze half if I'm making, um, or especially if I'm roasting vegetables. There's only four of us at home now cause my two older boys are in college.

40:55 I still make the same amount of roasted vegetables and I put half in the fridge because I, that's what I wanna eat for lunch. I love roasted vegetables, but I'm. roast them at lunchtime. So anytime, especially that I'm doing vegetable preparation, if you don't have time or, or batch cooking isn't part of your life right now, or even if it is anytime you're cooking, just make more and utilize the freezer. Cuz, although in the technical definition, I think that. Things that are frozen are supposedly processed, but I don't think, like your definition does not include that at all. I would say Use Use that It's not. It's not an ultra processed food though, depending. It just depends on the ingredient.

41:36 Yeah. So if you are using frozen vegetables or if you are able to prep some and freeze some, that is a really great way. honestly, as far as starting, I think, one of the easiest ways really is to just make the decision that on your very next bite, You're going to eat according to your hunger and fullness cues. This always gets people when they say, you know, well, I've messed up now, or I'll just wait until Monday. Like, you can actually start on your very next bite, which or your very next meal. If you messed up, if you are like, I feel gross. I did not eat something that works well for my body, the next time you get hungry you can eat something that works well for your body.

42:23 It's just that very next bite can be something that works for you. And I think that making a big, dramatic. Entrance is unnecessary. And so we need to kind of do away with the dramatic entrance of starting. And so I kind of love starting on a random Wednesday afternoon because you, we don't need to have that dramatic Monday start that dramatic January 1st start. and I think that's what stops people is they don't know when. And like I'm just here to say it. Today is a good day. Thursday afternoon is a good time. Tuesday morning is a good time. Like it's always a good time to start and I, I think just dropping the idea that it needs to be the perfect time because truthfully, something will always come up.

43:12 someone will always have an emergency. Your kids will always be part of your life. There's never really a time where you're not busy, It's just, you know, it's just part of our lifestyle these days, and so waiting for things to calm down that that's not gonna happen. That's just your brain's way of putting it on. there's um, Another thing that, that I wanna just say on the nutrition side for starting too, is if you are on a multi soda, multi pop, multi whatever, kick, don't try to, I'm not saying don't, I'm not gonna say don't do it if you want, but cut back one, not cut it back to one. cut. Just cut back one and start there and say, Hey, I was doing six a day.

43:53 I'm at five now. Great. That, and since we're talking about starting, that's a great pla uh, a great thing to add in. Just start, just bring that down a little bit. Bring some, bring your water up a little bit. We try not to just take away, like you said, um, bring it up, bring up the good, bring up the real food, um, and, and let it displace the other. But with regard to the, the, uh, the next. Um, there's an acronym that I use called I, my students know that I, I say we need to call Dr. F and it's just an acronym that helps me remember, which is, okay, like you said, you just had the whatever and it wasn't on plan. You're like, oh, crap. You know, Mm-hmm. D is do no further harm.

44:35 Okay, so R is recover quickly. do the next right. You know, recover quickly. Do the next right thing. Not like you said, not tomorrow, just do the next right thing, whatever that would be. But do no further harm it, you know, if you've got a flat tire on your car, let's not slash the other three, Exactly right? So we don't, you know, we don't want to have, you know, if you've, you've probably heard this, but, uh, a couple of researchers, uh, maybe 10 or so years ago, came up with this phrase called the, what the hell? and we all know we've all said it, but I didn't know it was an actual thing until a few years back, but it's called the what the hell effect and it's where you go, well I already had the thing. What the hell?

45:16 I've already blown it. I may as well, you know, whatever. We wanna it Might as well eat. Yeah. Well I might if I did that, I might as well eat Fill in the blank. And so we're gonna slash the other three tires when right now you just got, you know, a tire with low air, not even flat, and then you, you know, you slash the other three. So D is do no further harm ours, recover quickly, do the next right thing, and F is fail forward with forgiveness and by failing forward. The way I think of that is only take, only look in the rear, rear view mirror enough to see if there's something to. not judge yourself, beat yourself up and all that. But is there something to learn from it? Is there something we can take away that might help us prevent it in the future?

45:57 Is there something we can take away? What set us up? What was going on? What were we feeling? What was the circumstance? So, um, fail forward with forgiveness. Um, be self-compassionate. The, the research and my real world experience really come together strongly in that way, that if beating ourselves senseless was the answer, no one would be heavy. People are really hard on themselves. Yeah. If beating yourself up was, was effective, I, yeah, I don't think we, you and I would have jobs, to be Right, right. are so hard on themselves and we would never say the kinds of things that we say to ourselves out loud to another person.

46:37 And people, people then will say, yeah, but if I'm not hard, I need to be hard on myself cuz I'm too easy on myself. And there's a difference between. Holding yourself to some account as a friend would, treating yourself like a good friend and, and really beating yourself up, which can be quite negative and usually goes the wrong way. Um, and it's one of the reasons that it hasn't worked. So definitely go compassionate. But Dr. Ref is an acronym that people can, can kind of use to, uh, just goes along with what you're saying, but like you said, it is the next right thing, you know, if, if you're able, whatever that is for you is something to do. Yeah. That's great. I love it.

47:17 Thank you so much. So why don't you tell us a little bit more about what you do or how people can find you. Sure, no problem. so we've been doing what we do virtually again for 23 years, so, Um, if, if someone does come into our, our program, we do meet you where, where you are, whatever that may be. We've got people that are already very active, already doing things quite well and they still want to improve leanness or they wanna lose 10 or 15 pounds or whatever it may be. But they've been struggling for a while and they haven't been able to do it on their own. We'll meet you where you are. maybe it's 30, 50 pounds. Maybe the behaviors are a little different. Maybe nutrition isn't quite there. Or maybe it is, maybe exercise isn't quite there.

47:59 Maybe it is. Maybe the, the, uh, the emotional part, um, needs, uh, some, uh, some attention and it goes all the way up. So each person, although we're all human, fortunately that works. A reasonably good degree in medicine, and it works to a reasonably good degree in coaching. We are at least all human. Our heart is located in our, you know, chest cavity here, you know, and generally speaking, it's always there. But that doesn't mean that we all respond in the same way, and it doesn't mean that we all need the exact same thing. It's the same in medicine. You know, physicians try to treat us the best they can, but we're all unique in, in certain ways. Certain medicines work better for one than another.

48:41 Certain treatments work better for one than another, and it's the same here. but we, we are gonna meet each person. We're gonna make sure they, they, uh, have accountability. Um, have the education to really get the right information, uh, solid evidence-based information on the nutrition and exercise component. Once those are are taught, then we are going to focus on three major legs in, in a way that that person needs unique to them. How much, why, you know? Needs to be gone through. How, how deep do we need to go with that? How's it working? You know, it could be really strong from the get-go. Maybe it needs a lot of work because it's really superficial and we're gonna look at are there compulsive overeating things regarding, you know, uh, processed food addiction.

49:29 There isn't food addiction, but there is processed food addiction. So is there anything there? Not every single person who's overweight or obese has food addiction, so we'll, we'll look at that and kind of see if there's anything. And then the other thing is just really this, this big area of emotional fitness where we want to help our, our clients feel authentically good. More often with better self-regulation as they're doing it. And so there's regretfully good. And that's where, you know, for that moment, we ate whatever, and it felt good for about 30 seconds, but we regret it later. You know, we can have, um, shopping, therapy, retail therapy and we feel good, but we spent$700 we didn't have.

50:12 So we regretted it later. There's certain behaviors that you can feel regretfully. you feel good in the moment. You regret it later. We want to move more and more toward feeling authentically good overall, and then continuing to just kind of grow the inside, um, personal growth oriented in all of these emotional lifestyle factors so that ultimately it comes down to on the emotional fitness side. Feeling authentically good, better self-regulation to honor, uh, the, the, the goals that you have, not that you know we have for you, but the goals you have. But ultimately, it comes down to when the stimulus, whatever it may be occurs, there's a space between the stimulus and the response and when we're emotionally fit and when that's strong.

51:00 We can slow things down a little bit. We can bring down catastrophic, we can improve our thought processes, and we're being driven by that strong why. Whatever the stimulus is within that space we have, we all have the choice to determine what the response is going to be. So it's about helping them create that little bit of. So that they can make the better choice on the stressful day, make the better choice when they would ordinarily be triggered by whatever it may be. Um, you know, an argument with a spouse or the situation here, or the work environment or whatever the kids or whatever it may be, where normally it's just like a light switch, it just goes right.

51:40 And it's like, that happened. I go right to this every time. And if we can we can help with it, you know, with, with stronger emotional fitness and awareness in, in all of that and support. when that stimulus occurs, they're, they can see that there's that space where they at least have the ability to go, no, I, I'm gonna do this instead. Uh, there's an alternative. You know, there's a, there's a different coping mechanism, there's a different way, uh, and it's just enough space to make the better choice where all of a sudden the pattern starts to be broken. So we come at it from all of that in, in a very supportive, uh, way that meets our clients where they.

52:21 and uh, they can find us real simple at lluniversity.com. Okay. Sounds good. I love hearing how people describe similar things to what I do with different words, like just some of your terms. I'm like, oh yeah, I do that. I just call it something different. I just love that it's really fun to, just get a lot of other people, who are out to help people in the same way. You know, we're really, I love your words there about emotional fitness. I think that is so key here with health and weight loss because it really is, I feel like the missing link that has not been given to us. With all of the meal planned diets, all of the food lists that I've followed over the years, no one ever said, oh, and hey, if you don't feel like eating this, here's what to do.

53:12 And I think that's where this emotional fitness comes in, because guess what? A lot of times I didn't feel like eating that Yeah. and then I thought I was broken because I. Follow their, their food list and their diet plan. And so I think that emotional fitness piece is so important. It's one of the things I focus on as well. So I'm so glad to hear that, that that is a key piece of your program. So thank you again so much for being here and I look forward to following you as well on Instagram and all of the places that you are linked. And we'll put the all that in the show notes. You bet. Thanks so much for having me. It's really been a.

53:53 I really hope you enjoy this conversation with David Greenwalt. I really do love the way he talks about emotional fitness, such a great way to express the type of coaching I do as well to have your intentional thoughts where you want them. And to be able to process cravings through the tools I teach. That's all emotional fitness. Don't forget, I've got that go-to meals free ebook for you. And that is also a great way to get started with healthy eating It's a good way to eliminate the drama of what you're going to eat. And make it easy to plan your meals. So the link to that of course, is in the show notes. So grab that today. hey, thanks for listening today.

54:34 If you're ready to get some personalized coaching from me, I'd encourage you to schedule a free strategy session. Visit www.wellwithlisa.as.me or it's easier just to find that link in the show notes. We'll talk about where you currently are with your weight loss goals. And I'll give you some actionable tools. You can start implementing right away. Before you go, make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you can receive new episodes, right when they're released. And if you're learning something new and enjoying the podcast, I'd love for you to leave me a five star rating and a review. Thanks again for joining me, Lisa Salisbury in this episode of Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well.