Hello my friends. Welcome back to the Healthy Eating for Busy Women podcast. If you are new here, my name is Kat Rentas and I’m a life and a health coach who has spent the last almost 10 years, which is crazy, helping very type a […0.4s] professional busy women […0.5s] eat healthy naturally and lose weight for the last time. And I am here to help you not dabble in solving for your eating habits, but I’m here to really […0.6s] make sure that y’all are healing at that route level where we’re leaving no stone left unturned. So I am very straightforward. I am very, no frills in my approach, but I also deeply understand where you are coming from because I also wasted many years struggling with my health and with my eating habits. So […0.5s] you are in good hands.And if you are someone who has loved the podcast for some time or you listen to an episode that has really helped you, if you could do me a ginormous quick favor […0.6s] and scroll down and give this podcast a five star review with a little note of something you like about it, it really helps this show get in front of more women. It could help around the world and it lets any podcast platform know that this is a valuable podcast to follow.So thank you in advance and let’s just get right into the to today’s topic. […0.6s] I’m excited about the concept of clean eating being a waste of time and energy.And of course this is a polarizing topic and I want to be really real with you guys today because I think the biggest struggle I see […0.4s] with you guys who are really intelligent but still not feeling stable with your eating habits and it was my struggle too, right?I was someone who, not to, puff myself up, but I really was always very smart and intelligent and intellectually. I knew I could understand things very quickly, but I really struggled so […0.7s] much with food and with the results with my body. And I know so many of you are feeling the same way.And sometimes the things we are drawn to and the things we are really good at as Type a really logical women may not be what’s needed […0.5s] to solve this problem for the last time.And I think what’s happened is we live in a society where intellectualism and being very organized and, […0.5s] using that part of our brain gets us very far, but we’ve totally lost touch as a society with how to match that part of us with healing our body.And I think what I’m able to bridge the gap with really well for my clients and hopefully for you, is to make healing work with your eating habits, your body, your nervous system accessible for your type a logical brain.I think […0.5s] sometimes when we talk about inner healing, it sounds really ooey, gooey, fluffy. What does that even mean? And it is really my mission to help you understand the intellectual side of how that works and why it’s necessary.And this will very much tie into our topic of clean eating today. Cause if y’all didn’t know a really fun fact about this podcast, it’s been going on for a handful of years now.And one of the first episodes that really blew up this podcast was an episode I titled Clean Eating, just clean Eating in the past. And I’m just gonna tell you guys it’s been a long time since I’ve listened to some early episodes, but you will notice the difference in my speech and how much more comfortable I’ve gotten, right? But that episode really hit for so many early listeners because […0.5s] essentially what I talked about is why clean eating is a lot of wasted energy. Because, in different terms, I spoke about how we’re more focused on performatism rather than the result with our body. And so I want to preface today’s discussion with that concept that any focus on clean eating […0.4s] with, without healthy eating behaviors is wasted energy.And I want you guys to consider what your aim is when you’re focused on eating clean. And this might be following a meal plan exactly right. It might be focusing heavily on the nutritional quality of the foods, maybe it’s having your meals perfectly prepped. So I know most of us will equate clean eating with the ingredients in the foods we eat. But I also think we can use this as a lens to discuss […0.5s] clean eating practices that we might associate as being better or more healthy than others. So it’s really interesting about a lot of Type a women I coach, including myself in the past, is will associate following a food plan as more healthy than not following one, will associate tracking or counting our calories as more healthy and higher level than not doing that, right? Will associate eating foods that are of higher nutritional value with being healthier.And I think it’s really important to understand when that is the aim you’re having when it comes to your eating habits. You’re actually not solving for a specific result with your body at that point.You’re solving for […0.5s] performance, and you wanna feel like that you are doing a better job, you’re doing it correctly, you’re doing it right, and notice how that’s not the same thing as solving for a result with your body.And the trick here is that if we are going about eating healthy as a way to perform better and get an a right that feeling of doing good enough and doing it right.We’re never gonna quite get there, because even if we’re doing all the things right, and we’re eating, […0.5s] very nutritious foods and following a food plant to the tea.There’s gonna be something missing, because chances are we won’t get the results with our bodies that we want. And we’re gonna burn ourselves out in the process, cause we’re gonna get so discouraged. And any focus on eating healthy when it comes from this clean eating lens, is gonna be wasted energy.Cause what I want you to know is that with this focus, you’re not solving for your eating behaviors. So in other words, focusing on clean eating doesn’t mean […0.4s] you’re changing your eating behaviors.The most common example that I had with myself as well as a lot of you, […0.5s] when you coach with me is you will know all the things about nutrition. You will know everything. Some of you could even teach a class on it if you wanted to. I was no different.I took all the courses, I had all the certifications, and I was that person who could quote the latest research to you. You know what I mean. I did all the courses, and I constantly was romanticizing filling my […0.6s] grocery cart with all the organic, sugar free, minimally processed foods. I would shop at Whole Foods. And, for the record, when I couldn’t afford to shop there when I was very young, but like would in itself make me feel like I was doing it, right?And I would really, put on a pedestal this concept of clean eating. And I did that intellectually too, because I had all of this knowledge and this research that I could share and what was so interesting, right, you guys, is none of it mattered. I still didn’t feel good in my body. I still was having inconsistently healthy eating habits. So I would really have it look perfect on the outside for a period of weeks, only on weekends or for a period of weeks to binge and to feel like I just didn’t, it wasn’t a good time to eat healthy, right? And it was this very all or nothing were either looked pretty and perfect or it didn’t look like I was putting in any effort at all. And none of that performance and clean eating mattered for me or for y’all who I coach until you learn […0.6s] how to eat.Okay, and I wanna say that very clearly, it wasn’t what I was eating. That was the big problem and it’s not the problem for so many of you. It’s how you’re eating, it’s how you’re treating the food, it’s what you do when you get in front of a plate of food. And how do you stop, and stop that meal.How are you when you’re experiencing that meal? And this is something that not enough of us are taught.I know that […0.4s] when I watched my mother and friends, and when I watched myself really struggle to eat healthy and have results with my body, we weren’t focusing on our eating behaviors. We were focusing on a food plan or the diet or the nutrition and like was our focus, right? So what we did is we just filled our informational vault with more and more facts facts and research about what we’re eating versus what if that was never the problem, y’all. What if it really is just how you’re engaging with the food?So here’s what it looks like when you trade up focusing on what you’re eating for how you’re eating. These are very just common examples. So instead of stress eating after work, let’s say when you change how you eat, you instead […0.6s] learn to regulate stress, so cravings barely exist anymore.Alright, this is a real thing. This is one of the main things I teach my clients. When you solve for stress regulation, your cravings naturally go down. You don’t feel urgency with food anymore, so that will solve for stress eating after work. But what do we do instead? We create a food plan to follow when we get home from work.We meal prep, so we have dinner in front of us when we get home from work, so we don’t stress eat.I think that works the first week, first month, or maybe first year for us, right? But then I know when I was really having emotional urgency, no prepped salad or lovely dinner was gonna stop me from ordering take out at my favorite comfort food place. Right?And I know that’s the same for so many of you guys. So […0.5s] this is trading up the you can have the cleanest meal ready for you at home, the cleanest meal plan, all the nutritional knowledge you can ever have. And that’s not what’s you gonna stop you stress eating after work is to regulate stress. Master that skill and then your cravings will barely exist.Which for those of you who have never done this might sound like a fantasy. I would not have believed myself 10 years ago, but this is something that, you for my clients quite quickly.I have a client right now who she’s doing so awesome and a lot of our clients are doing really amazing.But she’s lost, I think, almost seven pounds in the past couple of weeks, and she’s not doing any dieting. She’s just really focusing on the emotional work. And her body is releasing weight, and she’s not having this urgency to eat two weeks, you guys, two weeks.And by the way, if this is something where you’re like, cat, just tell me what to do next.Right now, we are just starting our, um, first 90 Days challenge experience in my membership, and so it’s not too late to get in. This episode will be coming out a little after we’ve started, but you can still get in now, catch up […0.4s] and, um, get the experience of that. So go to cat renters.Com forward slash membership and get in there, and you can start doing all these things. Okay, what I mean you guys is when you just trade up this, what for the, how things will happen really, quickly, and this doesn’t mean it’s a quick fix.It just means this is kind releasing the pressure on a pressure cooker. Your body is begging you to trade up your intellectualism and knowledge and the what of the foods for changing how you’re eating them.Another example when you trade up the how is instead of overeating. What’s gonna happen […0.6s] is you’re gonna be able to feel and honor when you’re actually full.And the reason why this will happen is actually an extension of the first part I just told you. Because a lot of you are trying to intuitively eat and notice when you’re hungry and full.When your stress is really high, which is not gonna work. Because […0.4s] when your stress is high, that urgency to comfort from the comfort eat from the brain, right, is going to completely take precedent over any body cues you’re having. Cause those are a lot softer.So you will not be able to intuitively eat without the skill of stress regulation. So once that’s happening, then naturally you’re not gonna over eat a lot anymore, cause your fullness is gonna be very, obvious to you. And then the cravings are not getting in the way of that. So you can actually […0.7s] acknowledge what your body’s telling you properly, and you’re not gonna have to feel lost wondering why am I feeling so hungry when I’m starving and I’m only feeling full when I’m stuffed. That’s not gonna be a problem anymore.It really is the path of least resistance. And when we’re just focusing on what we’re eating or we’re skipping steps for that matter, we’re gonna be like a boulder up a hill, right. The moment we let go, it’s all gonna come crashing down.And then lastly, instead of using food as, as an escape, this is how, you trading the what for the how. Instead of using food as an escape, you’re gonna start savoring it.Okay, much of when we focus on the, trying to, kind on eating the right things, which there’s nothing wrong with this nutritionally valuable food is so important, but this doesn’t solve the problem that we’re still depending on foods. We love to regulate stress, right.So when you do all of this work, and you change how you’re eating you change that focus foods no longer an escape anymore.And what I want you guys to know, which comes as a surprise to all my clients is when food is no longer an escape, you can actually enjoy it more. Haha, you can actually savor it, whether that’s more nutritionally valuable foods or foods that you love, but aren’t actually that nutritional, right.You savor food at a higher level because you can eat food slower, you can be more deliberate in your choices, you don’t have this like urge, this quick urge to get as much […0.5s] of it as possible, right.You really can just slow down and actually experience your meals, and this is where you stop feeling like you’re addicted to certain foods. You no longer will have that experience. You just associate foods you love with the fact that you enjoy them.So I really am hoping you guys can start to get a picture of why a focus on quote unquote, clean eating practices is really gonna be a leak in the cup of effort you’re putting into solving for your health. Because you’re gonna put in a lot of focus there, and it’s gonna feel productive. It’s kind of like the cup will fill, but then there’s a leak in it, and it slowly starts coming down over time. And like don’t know where that leaks coming from, why it’s going on.Hear me, you guys, this is what the leak is. It’s cause you haven’t solved for eating behaviors. So I really am hoping you understand the shift. I’m giving a broad overview for today, but what I want you to understand is without these root changes of eating behaviors, no healthier food choices nutritionally […0.5s] are gonna make a difference because you haven’t addressed that root issue.And I always like to say, um, I say on this podcast, right? Is not one size fits all. All of you are gonna be in unique situations. And I wanna acknowledge those of you who really have positive experiences of changing your nutrition and focusing on that, right?That is incredible. If you have found value in that, and I get value in that in my life too, right? That is very important.What I am addressing here is if it feels like something is missing or changes are inconsistent, or you still feel like you’re constantly falling off track because of things that you don’t know, you don’t know where they come from, right?You don’t know why you’re not consistent. It’s because focusing on what you eat isn’t enough.It’s not that invalid. It doesn’t invalidate that it matters. It’s just that it’s not the well rounded experience of solving this problem for the last time. So it’s important that we acknowledge that the nutritional value of food does not matter if you’re over consuming it.Okay, it’s intentional or not, if we are over consuming nutritional food, it’s the same experience relatively as if we’re over consuming food. That is not healthy, […0.6s] and it’s going to stop us from losing weight. It’s going to put our body in a condition where it’s really, tough for it to get healthier and crave more nutritional foods.So if we’re over consuming it, y’all, that’s an eating behavior problem that is not a nutritional problem. And there are some things that will be offered to us, like the nutritional quality of the food, whether it has sugar, whether carbs, makes it, um, more prone to over eating it or not.There is an element of this that relates, cause some foods will provide more dopamine than others. But what I want you guys to know, this is the real deal. It’s not the dopamine in the foods that causes you to over consume them.It’s the fact that you’re relying on those dopamine from the foods to stress regulate or to regulate your stress, right. So that’s still about eating behaviors, even if you find that less nutritionally valuable foods, you’re more attached to them. It’s because you’re not regulating stress.So I know I’m going hard with this today, but I really want you guys to hear me, cause it’s gonna save so much of your time and energy to actually solve this problem the foundational way.So what I want for you, […0.6s] right, and what I would have wanted for myself in the past, when I was struggling was to stop wasting energy and to stop over complicating this problem.Because the thing that, […0.6s] you understand when you solve for eating behaviors is that long term weight loss is not actually hard. Like, not inherently hard. It’s just when you are solving for the wrong problem, it’s an ongoing struggle. And I want you to consider what, if that is all that’s been happening is, it’s not that weight loss is hard. It’s gonna be grueling, it’s gonna take endless amounts of time, right?What if that’s not the case at all? You can have results today, it can feel useful today, you can have relief now. You’ve just been solving for […0.5s] the wrong problem.And like I said, it’s like pushing a boulder up a hill instead of finding the path of least resistance. So when you solve for how you eat, […0.5s] changing what you eat will become infinitely easier.And this is why for those of you who don’t know my work, when you work with me and join my membership, one of the first things you’re gonna learn is the pyramid of priorities.And this talks about exactly […0.6s] what takes priority in solving this problem. And the very foundation of that is stress regulation, getting our cravings down, removing urgency from food. Then we go into the body cue work and healing signals from the body.And at the tip of that pyramid, you guys is what we eat. And it is going to be infinitely easier to choose […0.5s] nutritional options with food when you are not having urgency with it, and when you can communicate with your body properly with it.Okay, know this makes sense to you guys. I know this is clear, and if this is the first time you’ve heard this, I am so happy you are here with me. Because now we are gonna get you solving this problem where you’re gonna stop wasting energy. I am thrilled for you.So […0.6s] by that point, when you have healed these things, you are also already seeing results. So my clients, even when they don’t solve for what they eat at all, they’re already losing weight. They’re already […0.4s] having almost no cravings.They are healing so much that when they do eventually decide to eat more nutritional foods, they don’t have this pressure to do it, because they know they don’t have to eat that way in order to see results. Right, we wanna eat healthy foods, but now they don’t have this pressure to be perfect with the nutritional foods, because they’re already seeing results with the core work, with the foundational work.So I’m so serious, you guys. Every single day […0.4s] you spend not focusing on solving your eating behaviors, and instead only focusing on clean eating, is another day of lost time, effort and mental space.And I think what I’m most passionate about with y’all here on my podcast is, I know you are someone who does not have mental energy to waste. Maybe you are a business owner, you’re professional, you are a mom, I, don’t care what it is, I know […0.5s] that you do not want to waste an inch of your mental capacity in solving this problem. You deserve to have a life where it feels done. You can show up to all areas of your life better because you know exactly how to get the results you want with your health. And that requires us to just change who you are being each day as an eater.Okay, I will say again to solve this problem with that period at the end. Make sure you get inside my membership. You can go to cat runtas com forward slash membership.It is called own your eating habits, which is very appropriately named. And you are gonna start solving this today and you’re gonna stop wasting time. But I love you all so, much.I really hope that there’s elements of this episode today that gave you some thought nuggets, some value nuggets to walk away with into the rest of your week. And I hope you’ll have a really good rest of your week, and I’ll see you in a future episode.