#77 Is it possible to eat too much healthy food, all about Whole 30? How to lose weight and keep it off, and are cheat meals good or bad? With Adam Schaeuble!
Audio Version: https://chantelray.podbean.com/e/wa77/
Video Version: https://youtu.be/P967FR38tXk
Adam’s Website: https://www.transformationcoach.me/about-adam-schaeuble
Chantel: Hey guys. Welcome to this week’s episode. I’m so excited. This guy Adam has so much energy. I actually met Adam. I appeared on his podcast a few weeks ago. It’s called The Million Pound Mission. He really is on a mission to help people collectively lose one million pounds, which he’s going to tell us about. He’s just super-passionate. I fell in love with him as soon as I met him. It’s my honor to have Adam on the show. Welcome.
Adam: Chantel. I am fired up. You brought it on my show, so I feel that pressure. I’ve got to bring that fire to the Chantel Ray Way here.
Chantel: Awesome. I know you lost a bunch of weight which basically kick started this whole mission. Tell us about this transformation and how you did it.
Adam: About 12 years ago I found myself in a place where I was in that rock bottom moment that a lot of us hit. I remember I was standing in a grocery store. I weighed 327 pounds, and I had $40,000 worth of credit card debt. My relationships weren’t going well. I’d fallen in love and then this woman was moving away, so that was going bad. Then my career wasn’t going the way that I wanted it. That rock bottom moment hit me, and it was funny because I think my friends had taken notice that I was becoming what I now call a crap magnet. I was drawing in all those negative things.
They kept on sliding across Tony Robbins’ books, and that personal growth stuff. I’d be like, “I don’t need that.” I didn’t read much else besides the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. Then one of my friends lent me a DVD called The Secret about the law of attraction. I dusted that sucker off after it sat on my DVD player for a couple of weeks. I put it in, and it just lit me up. It was my first taste of personal growth, personal development material and I watched it three times in a row.
Then that night I sat down and I mapped out exactly what I wanted my life to look like five years from that date. That was July 12th, 2007, and I made a game plan for the next five years, July 12th, 2012, who I would be, how I would be living, and who I’d be connected with. That’s when it all kicked off. One of my goals was obviously to lose weight. Now, initially as what I refer to as a PHD, a previously heavy dude. I’m wearing my PHD hat for you also.
Chantel: I love that.
Adam: Weighing 327 pounds. I’ve talked to other PHDs and we all think that if we just get under 300 we’ll have abs. That was my initial goal. I’m like, “Just get below 300 and the dates are going to be flying in because I’m going to have abs.” That didn’t work out that way, so the goal adjusted over the five year period. I ended up losing 100 pounds. That night that I sat down and I mapped out my life, I created something that I call my lifestyle rehabilitation statement.
I took all my goals, I put a giant why and energy behind each goal, and then I took the statement and I read it every morning and every night for five years without fail. I never missed an AM or a PM reading out loud with energy. The law of attraction, you can’t spell attraction without action, so if you apply action behind that positive thinking, that’s when you can chip away every day and create daily momentum. That’s exactly what I did. I was sweating every day. I was doing my affirmations every day.
I was looking for connections with business every day. I lost 100 pounds in that five years. I got rid of all my debt. Zero credit card debt after that. I ended up getting married, starting a family. I started helping other people lose weight. This bootcamp formed because people saw me transforming my body and my life, like, “Hey, can you help me?” I got 13 friends together. I rented some space from a local martial arts studio, I’m like, “Let’s do this bootcamp thing.” Sounds like a good idea.
They ended up losing over 300 pounds in eight weeks. They’re like, “When’s the next one?” I did another one, and 50 people showed up, and then I did another one and 100 people showed up. Over that five year time span I helped my hometown lose 35,000 pounds which is just insane. 15 people lost over 100 pounds including myself. It just started steamrolling. It was just very basic stuff. When you talk about the transformation, it was positive thinking. It was always staying plugged in, chipping away not putting that pressure on myself to solve everything and lose 100 pounds in one day.
I would show up for my goals on a consistent basis, and I feel like that’s something that a lot of us can get better at.
Chantel: You know one thing that I’ve realized is that everyone is strong in a certain area of their life. What I mean by that is like no one tells me to get up and go to work every day. I’m just driven. When it comes to work, I get here early, I leave late. I bust it out every single day. That’s just an area that I’m strong in. I think some people struggle in that area. They aren’t that disciplined in this area. I think everyone’s strong in one area of discipline and they might be weak in another area.
I know you wrote this book, it’s called The Third Component, where you just share your amazing results formula. Tell us about the book.
Adam: First of all, it’s the worst cover of a book ever.
Chantel: I want to see it. Do you have it with you?
Adam: I think we’re fresh out of books. The book and similarly with my podcast, I just have all this energy inside of me. I have all this stuff that I need to get out. I’m like, “I’m writing a book.” I sat down over a spring break and I wrote a book. It’s like a 100-pager. I was like, “I need some serious marketing behind this.” I look at my bookshelf, I’m like, “What color do I not have on my bookshelf? Lime green.” I made it just all lime green, no pictures.
I’m like, “That’ll stand out on a bookshelf and people will buy it.” It’s just me brain dumping for 100 pages. Like you mentioned, I talk about my amazing results formula, and one of my special superhuman powers is I like to name things, and just things that somebody will remember, “Ooh, an amazing results formula. What is that?” There are four components. I feel like you can apply these four things to any nutritional style, to any fitness style and you’ll get better results. That’s something I’m big on is not going, “I’m a Weight Watchers guy. I’m a keto guy. I’m a crossfit guy.” I feel like we need to do the right tool for the right job.
With the amazing results formula, component number one is we have to be committed to a nutrition plan. What I mean by that is for the next 28 days I need you to be committed to one plan. What we do a lot of times is program hop, especially our podcast listeners. They listen to other podcasts and like, “Well, Chantel told me about intermittent fasting on this day, but then by Wednesday I listened to Rich Roll and he said, ‘Vegetarianism,’ so I switched to that.” Then they’re bouncing around and never give anything a chance to work.
You got to put a ring on the finger. Don’t be dating around on your other nutrition plans for 28 days and get committed and let’s just see how it works. That’s component number one, committed to nutrition. Component number two is same thing with exercise. I need you to know what your regimen’s going to look like for the next 28 days. Maybe it’s personal training three days a week. Maybe it’s you walk at lunch a couple of days with friends. What is that regimen going to be like?
Chantel: Well, consistency is key, right?
Adam: Exactly.
Chantel: That’s really it.
Adam: Exactly. It’s that [inaudible 00:08:03]. I own a fitness center, and we charge people that sign up for classes and don’t show up. I have to do that because no one ever said, “Hurray. The alarm just went off at 5:00 in the morning. I’m going to do burpees.” No one ever does that. Just showing up and being there, having that motivating factor to get your butt out of bed and get there, that’s huge.
Chantel: I think you should write another book and put what you have in the first one. I really think you should call it The Million Pound Mission. Because otherwise you have two different brands going. You know what I’m saying?
Adam: Yeah.
Chantel: I think that million pound mission is so powerful.
Adam: Yeah. The exercise component, that’s component number two. Component three is where that’s what the book is about, the strategic thinking. That’s where I vary it a little bit from the traditional fitness expert, is I feel like if somebody, it doesn’t matter if they have 100 pounds to lose or 5 pounds to lose, the pattern I see is what I refer to as the black hole of fitness doom. They start a new program. They get some initial results. Life happens. They’re not ready for it. They crash and burn and go right back where they started, and around, and around, and around they go.
Every time they go through that cycle, they deplete the resources of time, money, effort, energy, but also hope and willpower. It gets harder mentally and physically and they start to beat themselves up, “I can’t do this. Maybe this is just me.” Thinking strategically means we look at the life happens moment. So many times, and I’m sure you see this a lot with your listeners, it’s like, “Well, intermittent fasting didn’t work for me. Weight Watchers didn’t work for me.”
Maybe it didn’t, but more often than not it’s that life circumstance. It’s that vacation that you go on and then you don’t show up at the gym for three months afterwards. That’s the danger zone. That’s thinking strategically and going, “How do I build a bridge over that hole in the road instead of just walking into it time after time after time?” If we can do that, then we can get better results from any program. Understanding what throws us off as a primary focus point.
Then the fourth component is doing the first three consistently over time. We show up for nutrition, we show up for exercise. We thinking strategically, solve those danger zones. It applies across the board, we’ll get better results.
Chantel: Well, I think sometimes when people put it outside of, when you give them an example outside of weight loss, because they have such a debilitating wall when it comes to weight loss. What you can say to people is, “Let’s pretend an agent said.” We might have said to an agent, “If you want to be a successful real estate agent, you should come into the office every single day. Be ready, be dressed, and so forth.” The second piece of it is that when you get to the office you need to be picking up the phone and making calls to leads and prospects and working it.
What happens is people only hear, a lot of times people go, “Well, I was at the office every day for a week and didn’t get this, that, and the other.” Well, it’s not just showing up to the office. It’s also A, B, C, and D, and I think what happens with weight loss is people go, “Intermittent fasting didn’t work for me.” It’s like, that’s true, but we also have a portion in there that says even though I’m intermittent fasting, the Bible says do not be glutinous and don’t overeat.
They’ll do a piece of it, but then they’re overeating till they’re blue in the face and going, “Well, that plan didn’t work for me.” It’s like you can gain weight doing keto. You can gain weight doing intermittent fasting. You can gain weight doing all these if you’re overeating. You’ve got to nip that piece. They take a piece of the puzzle, but they don’t take the whole puzzle.
Adam: That’s huge.
Chantel: Before we get started on listener questions, we always like to ask our guest what does a day in the life look like for you. What did you eat yesterday? What did you do? What’s your day look like eatingwise and fitnesswise?
Adam: I’m highly structured. I’m an implementation machine. I’m a structure machine. I always take at least 10 minutes at the end of each day to map out the next day. I usually have everything mapped out generally a week in advance, and then from day-to-day I hone in a little bit tighter. Typical day, like right now I’m experimenting with what I call true hunger. I only eat when I am truly hungry. I’m just doing it as an experiment, like a low pressure thing. Like let’s learn about my body. I like doing things like this.
Yesterday, and within that I’m doing some ketogenic diet work. I’m sticking to keto and only when I’m hungry. Yesterday I woke up and I was hungry, so I had some oysters. I really enjoy drinking the juice [crosstalk 00:13:11].
Chantel: You had oysters for breakfast.
Adam: Yeah.
Chantel: That is so disgusting. I don’t like oysters, but definitely I don’t like them for breakfast.
Adam: I put it on my Instagram story of the spoon coming towards the camera, and some people were like, “Oh my God.” I get up at between 3:45 and 4:30 AM usually because I’m just up and going. I wake up and I’m energized, ready to go. Oysters. I love the Keto Bricks that my friend Robert Sikes put out. Did a little bit of Keto Brick, and then I do fish oil, my olive oil. I do shots of that.
Chantel: What is that? I have not heard of the Keto Brick. What is it?
Adam: It’s awesome. It’s a brick. You have to be careful going through TSA, like airport security with this because it looks like a block of dynamite, like C4 or something. You just chop it up. It’s perfect macronutrient profile for keto. It’s 75% fat, and then I think there’s like 5% carbs and the rest is protein. It’s 1,000 calories.
Chantel: Does it taste good?
Adam: Yeah. It’s delicious. It’s delicious. You can chop it up to whatever portion size you want. It’s 1,000 calories. If you’re going to do 250 portions, you’ll slice it into four pieces. I do 500 calories slices. I just cut it in half and eat it. I did one of those, and then we did, what did we do yesterday? We did the leg workout yesterday. Again, I own a fitness center, and I head to the gym and get after it with lots of dead lifts and squats and lunges and things like that, hit the spin bike for a little bit for some cardio.
Then in the evening, I had a nice little rib eye, some broccoli, I put some butter over the top of it and a little bit of sea salt and it did me right. That was my couple of bigger meals was all that I needed yesterday and I was good to go.
Chantel: That’s awesome. Well, I love that you say that, and I mean that is really the premise of my book is all about how to figure out what true hunger really is. I did a great interview with one of my thin eaters and posted it just recently. If you go to our Facebook page you can see it, and the girl’s name is Lindsey. This is what she said, she said, “When I’m hungry, I eat. When I’m not hungry, I don’t eat. It doesn’t matter if it looks good or smells good, or whatever. If I’m not physically hungry, why would I eat?” Everyone thinks it’s rocket science. For people who struggle with it, it really is.
Let’s jump right into the questions. Sean in Tampa, I’ve never had a problem with losing weight. I’m able to cut weight anytime I need to by modifying with diet and exercise. My problem has always been maintaining my weight. As soon as I hit my weight loss goals, I let the foot off my gas and it slowly gains it back. What advice do you have for me to help make my weight loss last? Sean in Tampa. I’m assuming this is a guy, because I saw this really funny post on Facebook. It was about a guy and a girl and the differences in losing weight.
It was like the guy cuts out one little snack and loses 40 pounds. The girl’s like, “I eat nothing but chicken and broccoli and lost one pound.” You know, something like that. Something funny. I don’t know if it’s a girl or a guy or not. It doesn’t say. What do you think about what he or she is saying, I let my foot off the gas and just slowly gain it back.
Adam: I see this a lot, I just put out my 200th episode, and I talked about the eight stages of gaining it all back. That’s perfect for this sort of a topic. It doesn’t matter if you’re somebody, again, that loses 100 pounds or somebody that gains and loses 10 pounds. What it breaks down to me, the determining factor whether we actually achieve a goal or maintain a goal is the balance of why versus why not.
We’ve got our goal. Let’s say that Sean set a goal to lose 10 pounds. The why, the size of his why to achieve that goal or the why behind it has to be larger than the combined force of all the why nots. The why nots are just starting to win where maybe he’s bored with the diet. Maybe he’s sick of working out. Maybe he can’t afford it. My schedule, the kids’ schedule, things like that, work schedule, work shift changes. All those why nots start to add up, and we start deprioritizing our fitness goal, and it just gets smaller and smaller and then we gain it back.
That’s something where you have to level up your why, or delete some of those why nots and maybe get more efficient, get a different work schedule, increase your financial position, things like that. That’s the balance that if you have ever achieved a goal and backslid, look at that relationship of the why behind the goal versus all the why nots attacking you at once. Think about that, and that’s something that you can usually, again, level up that why and it’ll make a huge, huge difference.
Chantel: I also think that deprivation has a lot to do with it. For example, I just went to Miami for two days with my husband for our anniversary. When I ate there, I ate so clean, cleaner than I eat when I’m at home. I ate the most amazing food. I think the main thing is getting this idea out of your mind of depriving. Anytime you feel like you’re depriving, the next move is going to be a binge.
Now, if I want a burger, I eat a burger. I don’t do it with a bun and I have it wrapped in lettuce, and I don’t put cheese, but only because I don’t feel good when I have dairy and when I have gluten. I know that for my body only I can’t have it. If someone’s in perfect health, I would say go ahead and have the burger with the bun and eat half of it.
It’s getting rid of this idea of the deprivation, because that deprivation is what usually ends to the binge. You want to get rid of that deprivation mentality that you just go, “This is what I want. My body is craving this. I’m going to eat it when I’m hungry. I’m going to stop when I’m full.” For me I have to constantly say to myself, “I’m not depriving myself when I’m not having gluten and I’m not having dairy, because I know how I’m going to feel after I have it. I’m going to feel terrible. Why would I want to feel terrible?”
Jerry, in Harrisonburg. I’ve been trying to be more mindful of my sugar consumption and apply the two bite rule, not having more than three bites of anything super-sweet. I want to know if I should be applying the same rule to fruit. It seems like everyone is so divided on this topic. Some people say I should eat as many fruits and vegetables as I crave, while others say I need to eliminate or severely limit my fruit intake. What’s your opinion on this? Jerry in Harrisonburg.
Adam: With that, being a PHD, a previously heavy dude, one of the reasons I was heavy is I had trigger foods. Some of those were “healthy” foods like yogurt or bananas. I could eat as many bananas as you put in front of me, and that’s calories. That’s sugar. That adds up. Those are carbs. The yogurt, I used to get the little six pack of yogurt and that would be, I’d like, “There’s one spoonful. There’s another spoonful,” and just go. I could put them down.
Then once you start doing that, we’re getting our head of, “Well, the floodgates are open. Might as well keep going now.” I feel even healthy foods, we have to be careful of what’s the trigger food and then how does that open the floodgates to more calories, because we say, “Well, I’ve already blown it. Might as well just have it out now.” I feel like that’s something that, whether it’s sugar or not, just do an assessment of is this a trigger food that ends up leading to more of a binge type situation, and that’s more important versus whether it’s fruit or veggies or whatever. That would be my recommendation there for Jerry in Harrisburg.
Chantel: I would say for me, I mean I don’t limit my fruit. If I want fruit, I have it. I do try to make sure that I’m not eating too much of it. I do think that certain people when they’re … Because fruit still brings your blood sugar up, and once your blood sugar gets up too high, that’s what happens. You just want to keep it going. I definitely think I look at how much. I wouldn’t say I limit it, but I just make a conscious effort. I’m not going to eat too much of it, but if I really want it, I have it.
This one’s from anonymous. In your book you talk about not depriving yourself of the foods that you love and how you allow yourself to eat what you’re craving on occasion. My problem is that I can’t stop once I start. If I’m craving chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-A, just five won’t do it. I will eat and eat 20 nuggets. For this reason I rarely allow myself to indulge. I wish I could have just a couple of nuggets, for example, and be satisfied. Do you have any tips to help me stop? I need to find the balance between deprivation and binging. Anonymous.
Adam: I’ve got a good tool for this, and it’s one of my favorite things that seems to work for almost everybody that implements it. I call it my cheat bank strategy. It’s like a bank account, and we say at the beginning of the month, I say, and I love a 28 day cycle, four week cycle. That’s how I have my clients think, just four weeks in advance, let’s map things out. We look at those four weeks and we say, “When am I going to take cheat meals where I break protocol?” I go off Weight Watchers or I have a little bit of ice cream that’s not gluten-free or whatever. They’re meals, not days.
Let’s say somebody puts five cheat meals in their cheat bank. They go through that 28 day cycle, but they go, “On this date I’m doing a date night. Then I’m doing my kid’s birthday. Then I’ve got a work thing. Then I’ve got a little bit of vacation. I’m going to save one for break the glass in case of emergency cheat.” What that does is it causes us to take ownership of the situation instead of in the moment I’m craving something, I’m giving in, I’m crashing, I’m having this emotional moment. I’m sitting in my truck eating a bucket of KFC and crying.
That’s the opposite of what we want. If you take control and say I’m owning the situation. I’m not going off plan because this is a part of the plan, so I don’t have to beat myself up about it. I’m going to have cake at my kid’s birthday party. That way what anonymous is saying here is it sounds like every once in a while they allow themselves just to go buck wild. In the cheat bank mindset, you are in control and you’re choosing when to do it. It’s not just like, “I better do the jailbreak, quick sprint and get as much down as I can.” It’s integrated into your lifestyle.
This is where I like to help people find balance between being healthy and still having a lifestyle that they enjoy it. I’m sure you’ve seen it too, you get people going at the beginning and you have to really make some big lifestyle changes. They come back at you and like, “Chantel, I can’t maintain this. This is too hard on my lifestyle. It’s too big of a change.” What I say is, good, I don’t expect you to maintain this, but right now we’re just shifting your momentum.
In order to do that, we have to make some big sacrifices now, but we use tools like the cheat bank to find that nice balance. We go through a 28 day period, if we put five cheat meals in the cheat bank and we still lose seven pounds and we’re like, “Cool. I can get away with that and I felt good. Maybe I can add a sixth and let’s see what happens there.” We take that experimental mindset through the next 28 day cycle, and maybe we maintain weight, and we’re like, “Cool. I’ve got a recipe and a formula I can use to maintain my weight and still be happy and not beat myself up about going off plan.” Which most people do, including our friend anonymous.
Chantel: My thing is, I would say if, first of all, he or she says that five chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-A won’t do it. What I would say is if that’s what I was craving and I really wanted Chick-fil-A, I would go there. I would get the five nuggets and I would take them to go and then take them home, slowly eat those nuggets and then there’s no chance for you to eat 20 nuggets because you’re not at Chick-fil-A anymore, because if you eat those five.
Again, the biggest thing is that if you constantly say to yourself, “I can have the Chick-fil-A nuggets but there’s two guidelines.” Number one, I can only have those Chick-fil-A nuggets when I’m truly hungry, not because I’m stressed, not because I’m upset, not because I’m angry, because my body is physically hungry. My stomach’s growling. I want some food. Number two, I may not at any time overeat. Those two principles, following those two, then have the Chick-fil-A nuggets but just take the five home until you get to the place where that’s not …
It’s that changing of the mindset, like you’re talking about, “Okay, I’m going to have the five and be done with it.” Heather in Chesapeake. I’ve been doing intermittent fasting and steadily losing weight for almost a year now. I’m super-close to my goal weight during this year and I really haven’t done much exercise. Now I’m starting to work out consistently, the problem is now I’m not losing as much weight and I think I’m gaining muscle from my workouts. Do you think this is a case?
I always remember hearing that muscle weighs more than fat. Is this really true and when will I start seeing the scale drop again? Heather in Chesapeake.
Adam: Yeah. Heather, you’re actually in an awesome situation. You’ve seen steady results. I love the fact also that you’re adding in one variable at a time. If you imagine Robin Hood pulling all of his arrows out at once and trying to fire them all at once, and we don’t know which one was the most effective arrow. I like that you are dripping that exercise in. That’s a new variable. Now your body’s responding. You are most likely adding lean muscle tissue which is amazing.
Here’s the scenario, Heather, in Chesapeake. How do you say it, Chesapeake?
Chantel: Yeah. It’s Chesapeake.
Adam: See, my Indiana came out. Chesapeake. Chesapeake. Heather, if I told you, if we were going to sit down and I’d be like, Heather, here’s the deal. In the next month you’re going to drop five pounds of pure body fat, and also you’re going to add five pounds of pure, lean, beautiful muscle, you’d be psyched about that, right? Yes. Everyone would be psyched about that. Until we got on the scale and the scale says zero. We have to realize what’s actually happening, and what’s most likely happening.
If you’re getting sore also, there’s going to be some water retention and things like that, but your body is going to regulate. It’s not like strength training is making you gain body fat. We know that’s a fact, unless you’re eating donuts after every workout or something like that. What I would recommend is let’s give it some time. Let’s go through a 28 day cycle, maybe a couple of them. Don’t change anything. I almost guarantee your body, the way you look in the mirror is going to start looking different.
The way your clothes fit is going to start to be different. You’re going to notice some awesome improvements there. Then your cardio sessions are going to be better because you have better overall endurance, better strength. If you do bootcamp classes or something, you’ll be like I can do full pushups now instead of knee pushups. The overall quality of your workout’s going to get better across the board. That body fat’s going to start dropping right away too.
Chantel: I agree 100%. The only other thing that I would say, see, I’m like a real musclebound girl. If I wanted to, I could join one of those, you know those weightlifter competitions? I could totally do that. I could go to the gym for three days and just really pack on muscle. My body’s built that way. For me, when I’m doing the working out with the weights, the one thing that really helps me balance that is to take walks.
At night when I take walks, every time, like long three to four mile walks, 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minute walks, it really helps help me lose that weight a little bit more still while building the muscle. My only suggestion for you, Heather, is to add some of these hour-long walks at night, and power walk, or adding some other cardio, and you’ll see a little bit of a difference there. Again, what would you rather be, 140 pounds of chiseled muscle, or 140 pounds of just fat?
Angela in McKinney Texas. On my journey to cut back sugar, I’ve come across some sugar substitutes that I really like. My favorite one is Swerve. I know that Aspartame is really horrible for you, but I’m wondering on your opinion on Swerve. What is your opinion on things like coconut sugar and monk fruit?
Adam: As far as I’m concerned, I’ve always been caught in the trap of along my weight loss journey over the last 12 years there was always that new sugar substitute that comes out. I’m like, “Sweet, this is great. It doesn’t spike insulin.” Then a year later they’re like, “Gives you cancer.” I’m like, “Oh no. Fooled again.” I get nervous. I give it time. Anything that just brand new comes out, I’m like, “I’m not putting this in my body for at least six months. I’m going to let things happen and see what really comes out.”
I’ve heard really good things about Swerve. A lot of people in the keto community are really onboard with this. I actually just got connected with the owner of the company, and they’re going to come on the show and I’m going to do an interview with them. I’m interested to dive a little bit deeper on that. I don’t know a whole lot about it, but coconut sugar, any sugar from a real food source I feel like that’s got to be way, way better than all the synthetic stuff that ends up making us grow two heads and stuff like that. I would avoid the artificial stuff.
Chantel: I agree. I feel like I have heard good things about Swerve. My first choice, I do love coconut sugar just because I feel like it’s so natural. So you know, one of the things that Swerve is made from is, how do you say, erythritol.
Adam: Erythritol. Yeah.
Chantel: Erythritol. It’s made from fermenting glucose. It’s done in literally brewery tanks. It’s similar to the way that beer and wine are made. The nice thing about it is that it has zero calories. It’s calorie-free, it’s sugar-free. It’s supposed to not raise your blood sugar. It has zero net carbs. It’s supposed to be certified non-GMO and non-glycemic, which means it doesn’t raise your blood sugar. It’s supposed to bake the same way.
I’ve heard great things, but I agree with you. It’s like everyone says, “It’s so great, so great.” The next thing you know, you’re not sure. I don’t have a final opinion on it as of yet. I feel like coconut sugar, even though it’s going to raise your blood sugar, at least it’s natural.
Lauren in Chesapeake. I have a bunch of friends doing The Whole30 this month, and are posting all about it. I’m shocked how things like potatoes and corn are encouraged in this plan, and appear to be unlimited. I know that these things have a lot of carbs in them, and even corn is really closer to being a grain than a vegetable. If these things are prepared naturally, obviously not deep fried, LOL, should I be concerned with my intake? Also, what is your opinion of Whole30?
Adam: That’s an interesting question. It kind of depends what your goal of doing Whole30 is. If the goal is to be grain-free versus the goal of losing weight, there’s going to be different opinions on this. If you’re just wanting to get rid of grains and processed foods, then adding things in like the potatoes and the corn, those are [crosstalk 00:34:54]-
Chantel: She’s making a mistake, because corn isn’t allowed on Whole30.
Adam: Is that right?
Chantel: Yeah. Potatoes are, but there’s no grains on it, and fresh or cooked corn is still a grain and no grains are allowed on Whole30. That’s actually a mistake. There’s lots of people who have corn allergies, or at least a corn intolerance. What she says about potatoes is true, but not corn.
Adam: I’m a big fan of sweet potatoes. I’ll cook those up. My kids’ll eat them. The thing is, again, if your goal is weight loss, if you eat 12 sweet potatoes every day your insulin’s going to be spiked all day long, and that’s not going to be a good thing. I would do those in moderation. If you’re just doing it just to do the detox, Whole30, grain-free type of thing and get rid of a lot of those sugar cravings, it’ll probably be okay to have a few potatoes in there.
Chantel: I am a big fan of Whole30. That’s really how I live. My diet is just mostly fresh. It’s vegetables, fruit and lean meats and grains unfortunately I don’t feel good when I eat them. There’s only one grain that I actually feel good with, and that’s quinoa. I can eat quinoa and still feel fine. I’m a big fan of it. Potatoes, when I eat a potato, like a sweet potato, there is so much nutritional value in a sweet potato, it’s not even funny.
There’s so much potassium, I feel like, “Aah,” when I eat one. I’m a big fan. I agree, it should be definitely in moderation.
Adam: Chantel, before you get to the next one, I have a funny side note. I called quinoa “quin-oh-ah” until about five years ago.
Chantel: I know. I love it. It’s really good. Paris in Northern Virginia. I want to get your opinion on cheat meals. I seem to get mixed reviews. Some people tell me they are awesome to give a little shock to your metabolism and help satisfy whatever you’re craving. Some people tell me that they’re not good. What do you think? My personal issue with cheat meals tends to be that they can often turn into a cheat day, then a cheat weekend. LOL.
Adam: I think the cheat bank philosophy, again, is a great implementer here. Tracking and owning. What happens a lot of times with cheat meals or cheat days is people aren’t tracking them. They’re like, “Well, cheat day. Messed up.” Then there’s no consequence. I like changing the conversation. For example, if you have your four cheat meals for the week, or for the month booked out in advance, and then somebody brings pizza to work, there’s a different conversation inside of your head.
It’s not, “Whoops, I messed up. I had pizza.” It’s, “My cheat bank is booked out. My balance is four out of four meals. I cannot cheat at my son’s birthday party or not take my wife out on that date night, or I can have pizza. That’s the balance. I have to make that decision and I have to think about this.” That changes the whole game and the whole mindset around this where I can do the pizza but there’s a trade out, and that’s the important thing. There are consequences to our decisions and not just, “Whoops. I messed up. Whoops, it was a cheat weekend.”
One of my favorite things, we’re in January as we talk here, but we just got through the holiday season. I have to remind people, I’m like, “It’s called a holiday not a holiweek, people.” We don’t have to have Thanksgiving every day of the month in November. I feel you on the cheat meal, the cheat day, the cheat weekend, the cheat month situation. That’s easy to steamroll.
Chantel: I think what it is, is I don’t like the word cheat. After interviewing literally, you know I’m still interviewing people and now I’m putting them on video, and I interview people, like you know, that have been thin their whole life. They don’t have an issue with food. There’s not a word. They never say a cheat meal. They go, “If I want it, I have it.” Even though they also understand that it’s like a bank account. They’re like, “Well, if I really, really, really want it, I’ll have it today but I’m not having it every day.”
They don’t use that. There’s never that terminology. In their mind they really look at it just like shopping. If you have a healthy relationship with shopping, if I went shopping on Saturday and I got myself a new pair of pants, that doesn’t mean that Sunday I’m going out shopping and buying new pants, and Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday. You know what I mean? I might go on the weekend and I might have it. They have a different relationship. They don’t use the word cheat. In their mind they go, “You know what, I really want this. I’m going to have this today but I’m not having it every day.”
It’s that mindset change of even how they’re saying that to themselves. It’s amazing, because as I’ve listened to all these women, you listen to their mindset over and over again and to even guys, and you hear how they’re talking to themselves and what they’re saying in their mind. It’s changing the relationship you have with the food. The food doesn’t control you anymore. If you want it, you can have it. If you don’t. It’s the same relationship I have with alcohol.
We have a bar, and it’s a huge bar inside my house. It has every alcohol, every wine, every whatever. If I want it, I can have it. If I don’t, I can put it away. As you start shifting your mindset, it just changes and it’s no longer that cheat. Courtney in Florida. I love intermittent fasting. I’ve been eating from 12:00 to 6:00 every single day. I’ve lost 20 pounds in three months. Congratulations Courtney. The weight was coming off steadily, but now it’s starting to stall.
The one thing I do enjoy during my fasting hours is a sugar-free coffee syrup. I assumed it was fine since there was no sugar and very few calories, but I’ve been reading up a little on how sometimes these artificial sugars can trick the body into believing they are real sugar and causing the insulin to rise. Should I completely avoid this while I’m on the fast? I love having this every morning. It really helps me power through the fast.
Adam: I would say you’re thinking along the right lines. What I would do is just do an experiment. You probably don’t even have to do 28 days. Maybe give it two weeks. Just take it out and let’s see what happens, because maybe that’s the thing that’s causing this. Maybe it’s not. The only way we figure that out is … Let’s not change any other variables, also, though. Don’t change that and then add a new workout. We just take that one variable out and then maybe that changes things, maybe it doesn’t.
Maybe nothing happens, so we know that’s not the issue. We can put that back in there and we’re cool. I think that’s the most obvious answer that I’m coming up with is let’s experiment with it. Let’s take it out for a couple of weeks and let’s see what really happens.
Chantel: I agree with that advice too. I would say as I’ve been interviewing people, I feel like a good portion of them can still have a sugar-free coffee syrup or something like that in the morning and it does not affect their weight loss at all. There’s a couple of people that them removing it did make a difference. I would say the majority of it, it did not make a difference. I think that this is a lot about your blood sugar levels. Everyone’s blood sugar levels are different, and so my suggestion is the same, is to try to remove it.
If I had to guess, that’s probably not what’s causing it. I have seen it in a few people who’ve made that change, and it has made a difference. My suggestion is to really try on your other meals to just really focus on eating less. Keep that window, but just taking your portion size and just going, “Let me push the food away sooner than I normally would,” and just stop eating right before you’re full is my suggestion.
Thank you so much for coming on the show. You were amazing, as always. Tell us, if someone wants to, do you do coaching, or what would be their next step if someone wanted to learn more about you, Adam?
Adam: Well, first off, thank you so much for having me Chantel. I know what a big deal it is to share a platform as a podcaster, so I really appreciate it. The tip of the spear to get in touch with me is just millionpoundmission.com. That’s the best place to go. The cool thing is we’re actually tracking the million pounds. People can go on there and donate their weight loss. If they hear this conversation and they do something, and like, “I implemented that tip and I lost two pounds.” Go on millionpoundmission.com. You can donate your weight loss, and you see the ticker go up.
There’s no opt-in. I don’t need an email address, nothing. It just goes there and you can donate your weight loss. It’s pretty cool. I do coaching. I have some online communities. One of the things I love to do most is connect with people and just create clarity. I do it with a lot of people that are beaten up by that black hole of fitness doom scenario, that weight loss regain, and I love to just say, “Hey, let’s shine a light on this, and let’s provide some clarity.” To see their spark return in their eyes, there’s no compensation better than that.
I know that you feel the same way Chantel, about all the people that you’ve been able to help. Connect. Hit me up on Instagram, Million Pound Mission. I love to connect there too. If I can help out in any way, I’d be glad to.
Chantel: Awesome. Well, thanks again. If you have a question that you want answered, go to questions at chantelrayway.com. See you next time. Bye-bye.