Let's Talk Wellness Now

Dr. Deb and Jennifer Powter discuss why it is we sabotage our eating habits. Mindset and self-talk affect how successful we are with diet and exercise. Do you understand why you reach for that chocolate, wine, and fast food? Do you do it even though you know? Jennifer shares her secrets to helping women become successful at healthy eating. Stay to the end to learn how to get her brand new book Completely FREE! 

Do not miss these highlights:

06:12 – About 11 years ago the big movement of  “Eat Less, Move More” lead Jennifer to Adrenal Fatigue

08:11  – We can’t exercise our way out of what we’re putting in our mouth

12:26 – We DON’T need a ton of food, we NEED Good food

17:48 – Don’t be disheartened if you fall back into bad habits, every day you wake up is a day you get to start over again

21:50 – Why Jennifer preferred to be a Weight Loss and Fitness Expert, instead of just being a Weight Loss Expert

22:43 – There’s a gap between Knowing and Doing

24:37 – The approaches older people can do things without feeling like it’s work, exercise, or activity

26:42 – The biggest MYTHS around weight loss that are out there today

29:11 – Why does Jennifer take a hard stand in her book against the Dieting Industry

33:40  – Our bodies are beautiful because they are OUR bodies

38:50  – We have to think about how we start to focus on experiences in our life that are beyond food

39:20 – Food has only so much power over you if you give it that power, but when you take that power back, then it’s JUST food

Resources Mentioned

Whether you are recovering from an illness or just looking to maintain your current overall health, schedule a consult with us at Serenity Health Care  by calling  (262)522-8640 or visit https://www.serenityhealthcarecenter.com 

About our Guest:

Jennifer Powter, founder of The Weight Loss Academy and best-selling author of Diet Disruption: The Weight Loss Solution for the Chronic Serial Dieter and Stop Sabotaging Your Weight Loss: Why You Do It and How to Fix It, is one of the nation’s top life transformation coaches. She works with high-achieving, driven women who want to feel good in their own skin and feel confident again. As a Weight Loss & Mindset Expert for women over 40, Jennifer has helped thousands of women reclaim their bodies (and their minds) by taking a truly soulful and scientific approach to weight loss and establishing a solid foundation for lasting transformation – one that empowers women and helps them stop sabotaging their success.

As well as holding a master’s degree in science, Jennifer is a clinical exercise physiologist, a double-certified health and life coach, and an emotional intelligence practitioner. She has also experienced her own transformational weight loss journey, permanently losing more than thirty-five

pounds that had held her back for years. 

Over the last twenty years, Jennifer has helped thousands of women reclaim their bodies and minds, using her proven Metabolic Profile Index (MPI) assessment to help every woman determine exactly what she needs, emotionally and metabolically – and she does so in a judgment-free zone, after all, she’s been there herself, and knows how tough the weight loss journey can be.

Jennifer lives near the breathtaking Rocky Mountains in Calgary, Alberta, with her family and their gorgeous St. Bernard, Harley.

Website: www.jenniferpowter.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/jenpowter

FB: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferPowter

Free FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DietDisruptionMovement/

Free Copy of Diet Disruption book: https://jenpowteronline.com/freecopy

Transcription to episode #150:

Debra Muth 0:02
Welcome to Let’s Talk Wellness Now. I’m your host, Dr. Deb. This is where we talk about everything wellness, and learn to defy aging, and live our lives on our own terms.

Debra Muth 0:26
So my guest for you today is Jennifer Powter and Jennifer is a weight loss and mind set expert. She is passionate about teaching women how to stop sabotaging their diet and their weight loss. So Jennifer powder is the founder of weight loss Academy and the best selling author of diet disruptions. She talks about the weight loss solution for chronic serial dieting, and as I said, sabotaging your weight loss, and why you do it and how you fix it.

Debra Muth 1:02
So Jennifer is an expert for women over 40. She has helped 1000s of women reclaim their bodies and their minds. By taking a truly soulful and scientific approach to weight loss and establishing a solid foundation for lasting transformations. I can’t wait to talk to Jennifer today. Because Jennifer is so spot on with what we do with diet and weight loss and why it works and why it fails us. And over the years I’ve looked for many different programs on how to help women in their midlife years lose the weight that they’ve they’ve gained. And we know it’s hormones, and we know its lifestyle. We know it’s activity. And we’ve all heard the things that work. Macro counting keto, paleo, get rid of gluten, get rid of this. It’s all about getting rid of everything. And then of course, doing more, right. So I’m going to talk to Jennifer today about this too.

Debra Muth 2:05
But I was just reading a weight loss program this week and the gentleman was talking about walking two to four hours a day. Well, duh, if we walk two to four hours a day, we’re going to lose weight, okay, that’s a no brainer. But we don’t have two to four hours a day to walk most of us. We are busy, we are running our lives, we’re running businesses, we’re working, we’re taking care of family. And we just don’t have that kind of time to devote to losing weight. And if that’s the answer for many of us, we’re just gonna say, I don’t have that time, I can’t do it. And we’re gonna throw in the towel and not even try. And I think there’s a better way in between this. That can help us figure out how we maintain our weight or lose the weight and change our bodies and not feel guilty about eating and not feel guilty about who we are and what we are. And I’m excited to bring you Jennifer, she is going to share with us how we get past that mindset piece of things. So I’m going to introduce you here to Jennifer and we’re going to get started having this fantastic conversation.

Debra Muth 3:20
Have you seen 20 Plus medical doctors only to be told your symptoms are in your head or you need an antidepressant? We understand your frustrations? Are you tired of feeling sick and tired? Tired of not getting the answers you need to regain your health? Tired of not feeling listened to by your doctor at Serenity Health Care Center, we understand and we will help you find the cause of your symptoms. Together we will create a path to health. We specialize in combining the best of conventional and natural medicine to get you back to doing what you love. We have worked with the most complex chronic diseases such as chronic Lyme COVID, long hollers autoimmune disease, mold toxicity, and hormonal imbalances. But if you’re not sick, that’s fantastic. We will work with you to maintain your health so that you can prevent illness. give our office a call to see how we can help you regain your health and vitality at 262-522-8640. Or check us out at our website at Serenityhealthcarecenter.com.

Debra Muth 4:39
Welcome back to Let’s Talk Wellness Now, I’m your host, Dr. Deb and I am with my dear friend Jennifer Powter and we are going to talk about women’s issues today. You guys know I love to talk about women’s issues. It is one of my passions. So I’m excited to talk to Jennifer today. She’s got a great new book coming out. She’s going to talk to us about that as well. But this is the perfect time of year for us to start focusing on ourselves. So Jennifer, welcome to the show.

Jennifer Powter 5:05
No, thank you. I’m so happy to be here. It’s yeah, thank you for having me.

Debra Muth 5:09
You’re welcome. This is gonna be great conversation. Because we can go really deep into a lot of different areas. So excited about that.

Jennifer Powter 5:18
Thank you.

Debra Muth 5:19
So tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got on this journey.

Jennifer Powter 5:24
Oh, you know, so many of us have our own stories. And I think it’s so great to share them because it’s easy to look at someone and say, Oh, it’s always been easy for them, or they’ve never struggled. And r eally, that couldn’t be more of the opposite truth for me. And, you know, I do specialize in weight loss for women over 40. And lots of most of my clients are in their 50s and 60s, but for me, I found myself carrying, you know, I stopped counting, but I’ve been, you know, good 40 ish extra pounds on my five foot six frame. And what’s the irony and all of this is I had been an Ironman athlete, a multi marathoner, I had advanced degrees in exercise physiology, like I was a personal trainer, I, you know, I had all of this knowledge. And yet, here I was, and so it was a very humbling experience. And back then, which was only about 10-11 years ago, there was this big movement, push, like, eat more, or eat less, sorry, eat less, move more. And I just thought I needed to run or somehow punish my way physically into into fitness. And it didn’t work. Instead, I was adrenal fatigue. I mean, I just, you know, I’m, I’ve just lost it. And so I, I was like, there’s something going on here that’s deeper than just the food, I know what to do. Why am I not doing it? And the dieting tactics that are out there, they’re so sexy, I think, because it’s a promise instantaneous results, they promises that it’ll be easy, it’ll be quick. And unfortunately, there are no shortcuts. There’s a you got to face yourself. And so for me, it took a lot of just getting real with what was really going on why I wanted the wine and the chocolate and the treats, you know, at night or through the day. And no matter how much I wanted to I could never out run what I was shoving in my mouth. I mean, ever no woman has enough time to do that. You got to figure out, you know, the the inner stuff. So I did. And yeah, figured out, you know, both from a science level and the psychology of behavior change level why I had been stuck. And then now I’ve spent my last decade, you know, teaching and writing your founding the academy and writing and sharing that knowledge with their women. I don’t want people to suffer the way I did.

Debra Muth 7:35
It’s so great. I’m glad you’re talking about this, because I look at a lot of different weight loss programs for my clients too. Because over the age of 40/45 ish, let’s face it, it’s much harder to keep our weight and keep our girlish figure that we want. And it’s so easy for us as women to just say, Well, I’m a grandma. Now I should have that grandma body, it’s okay, it doesn’t matter. But what you hear is, let’s do a quick fix, or like I just bought someone’s program this week, because I wanted to see what this anti aging person was talking about. And the diet part was great. And yes, we’re talking about, we can’t exercise our way out of what we’re putting in our mouth. That is so true. People who say it’s calories in calories out, it doesn’t matter what type of calories just stay within your macros. That doesn’t work for most people either. I’ve looked at those programs, I’ve tried those programs, they don’t work. But this latest program I bought, I’m looking at it and my god, anybody could lose weight if you’re eating 1000 calories a day and you’re walking two to four hours a day, if you’re over 50 and three times a week, you’re doing a 20 minute exercise, like major bursts. I’m like, Who the hell has two to four hours a day to walk or get out hiking every single day, seven days a week. I’m like, This is not realistic. And so if you’re now telling women over 50 This is what they have to do to get thin. They’re just going to throw in the towel and say, Oh, the hell with it. I’m not doing that. I can’t I don’t have time. And so they’re back to like what we were talking about a little bit earlier, they’re back to sabotaging themselves. Because it’s like, well, if I can’t do that, why should I do anything, then?

Jennifer Powter 9:15
I see all or nothing, right? It’s like, and then the all is so hard. You know, my first book was around diet disruption, like disrupting the dieting mentality because diets say gotta be perfect. You got to give up everything you can you got to be, you know, in this like 10 out of 10 pristine way of living and most of them are like wow, I kind of want my wine. I want to give up sugar and flour forever. Yeah, like why like cream? Oh my god V and so, so much of this is meeting somebody where they’re at. And then what I find is that we have to find what’s normal eating I think right now in North America, for sure. It’s so easy to overeat. You know, we do it all the time. And if there’s a lack of understanding just even about your own unique metabolic budget, if you will, kind of like it has a financial budget. We understand that Yeah, you’re you’re always fighting yourself. And then that quick those quick results. If anybody’s ever, you know, if anybody listening has ever had those quick results, 20 pounds, you’ve probably gained back 30 Or that and then you get tired and frustrated. And what women say to me is, I am so afraid to stay stuck like this, but I don’t have the energy to do that, again, that being the super hard dieting approach. And so thankfully, there is another way, there really is another way and my oldest client was 78. You know, I’ve got I’ve gotten so just think about this many clients in their 70s. So for any woman who’s 40 or 50 Right now, can you imagine spending the next 20 or 30 years, still struggling with your weight and then finally accomplishing weight loss at 78? Like, wow, you know, it’s never two year average world. It’s never too late. There’s always a way and it does not have to be that hard.

Debra Muth 10:53
Yeah. And I think that I mean, I am refreshed. Hearing you say that because for most people, you’re exactly right. It’s It’s too hard. It’s this. I don’t want to have to give up that. You know, COVID lockdowns, restrictions, initially, everybody was like, Yeah, we’re gonna eat right, we’re gonna cook at home, I’m going to exercise, this is going to be great. I’ve got time. And then it just kind of fell off. It’s like, wait a minute, I can’t go anywhere, I can’t do anything. And they’ll give me the wine bottle. We’re gonna start baking cookies started. And I heard this from all my clients. And, and it’s true, like you got stuck at home, and you’re trying to find something to do with the kids. So you’re baking and you’re doing this, and now you’re eating it. And yeah, there it goes. The COVID 15 or the COVID 20, as we’re calling it now. And now we’re starting to come into 2022. And we’re thinking my gosh, I can’t go into 2022 with this extra 20 pounds. And if we’re still going to be in lockdown, like they’re talking, I certainly can’t gain another 20 pounds. It’s like there’s no way.

Jennifer Powter 11:59
Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I, ditto. I mean, I hear you and my clients when they say that, I mean, I talk to them every day. And at first I would even hear friends and my joking like, Yeah, I’m just gonna drink my way through COVID. And then they did you know, and the sourdough bread craze and all that stuff. And again, we have to, we have to recognize that it’s not that that stuff is bad. But there’s you have a budget, and like, you know, your body has a finite amount. We don’t, fortunately, don’t really need a ton of food, but we need good food. And we need to, we need to work with our bodies. And we also need to start feeling I think that this last year and a half has been, I mean, unlike any long term period of chronic stress for most women, I mean, if you’re a career, if you’re working, if you got kids at home, and you’re trying to homeschool if you’re cooking 1000 meals, like all of a sudden breakfast, lunch and dinner for four or six, like, you know, then you’re like, not cooking a thing. I’m getting takeout, you know. So, you know, who knows what 2022 is gonna have in store but we got to get our we got to get like this right? Our head right and our hearts right. And the body follows that you cannot try to shortcut doing the inner work and create a physical transformation, the physical transformation is the reward, you know, for for starting to tune in and and turn on to what’s really going on for you. And that’s I think what women experienced, I don’t know if you see this, but sort of in their late 40s 50s. Even early, there’s like this, like, they’re done. They’ve done the career thing. They’ve done the parenting, they’ve done the, they’ve got the they’ve got it, they’ve got the house, things are. And they take a moment, and it’s like this about me, like, what am I like who’s there like there is no magic health fairy that’s going to come and do it for you. And that’s what I find is that they’re just ready. They’re like, I don’t want to live the rest of my like the second chapter, the third chapter like this, I deserve more.

Debra Muth 13:53
Yeah, I think you’re right. Like there’s this time of slowing for us after 50. Like, I’ve got all this stuff, my careers humming along, unless all of a sudden you’re sick of it, and you decide to change careers, which we see quite often at that 45/50 year mark. You know, and and that happens and that’s certainly okay. But it is a time for us to kind of go inward and focus on us a little bit more and be like, Okay, I need to be gentle to myself, I need to be nice to myself. When I was reading this other program, it was all about adrenal support, and that’s wonderful. But it was also kind of like, okay, you’re over 50 So now you just have to be quiet and you have to rest and you have to slow down and you have to do this because your hormones are such that I’m kind of like I’m a rebel inside so I’m kind of like a no screw you like, just because I’m over 50 What do you want me to crawl up in a ball and lay on the couch and die like no like, this is Rockstar time for me. My kids are grown. I get to play with my grandkids and they get to leave and then it’s me. I can, I can do all these amazing things that I’ve wanted to do that I haven’t had time. But now you’re telling me I have to slow down because I’m over 50 Are my hormones are gonna be all over the place. And I’m like, it was a little condescending, and I’m sure it was not meant to be that way at all. I’m sure it’s just how I took it. But I also don’t want women to feel like that too. Like, yes, we need to focus on ourselves. And yes, we need to go inward. We need to be gentle to ourselves. But it’s also a time that it’s not like the end of our lives just because our hormones are kind of waxing and waning. It can be an amazing time, from 40 to, you know, 80. And we can still do amazing things. There’s beautiful women out in the world doing this, and they’re living it all. We need to learn how to do that, right? I mean, how do you do it all?

Jennifer Powter 15:48
Well, and this is the kind of these are the thoughts. So what’s so hard about what you’re talking about is women may feel like you do, right have this internal, almost my women are like, have that inner rebel, which is fun. But then they read something like that, or their doctor says, Well, no weight loss becomes impossible. Now, you know, it’s your hormones, you miss menopause. And so then all of a sudden, it’s like, their bubble gets burst. And it’s like, wow, oh, and so we need this messaging so powerfully out there in the world. Because you’re right. This isn’t a time. I mean, I think it’s a time where you have to pay more attention. You’re not like in survival mode. Like when you have young kids and their sleep deprivation. And, you know, you’re you’re taking care of you get to take care of yourself and live a really great life. And let’s figure out what’s really going on for you. You know, like, there’s a way to do it. And I mean, the beautiful thing in the weight loss Academy is we see women doing this all the time. So many programs say weight loss results are atypical, and we’re like, everybody wins. Like we you know, everybody, everybody wins. And you don’t have to be weird about it. You don’t have to be punitive or in that I need. So self sabotage is one of the key factors of it is perfectionism. I need to be perfect at this if I’m anything less than perfect, which diets will give you those strict rules, right? Eat this, don’t eat that eat it this time, never eat after whatever stupid time they tell you. And then if a woman does she’s like I’ve blown my diet, you know, and it’s like, I one of the things I say is, you know, sometimes Well, life will happen to us like flat tire. But it’s like having a fixable I call a me or I go fix it. Or I’m gonna take a knife and go out and slash the other three tires. So now I have a big problem. You know, and that’s what we would do when it comes to their health. They stop before they’re successful, they quit before they see the result they give up on Thursday and start again on Monday. And that is exhausting. You know that start stop energy is so hard to maintain.

Debra Muth 17:48
Yeah, I tell women every day that you wake up is a day you get to start over again. So if you blew it the day before, that’s fine. Even if you blew it at noon doesn’t mean you have to blow it the whole day. So you blew it at noon. Okay, so you do better at dinner, maybe you go out and do a little more activity. And you just don’t blow the rest of the day. And tomorrow’s another day you wake up and you have a chance to start all over again. And I think the hardest thing is like they think if they put that one little piece of chocolate truffle in their mouth, they blew it. It doesn’t have to be that way. Like we can have that and not blow it. It’s just that you don’t want to do six of those chocolate truffles in that day. You know that? I think that’s the mentality. It’s an all or nothing type thing.

Jennifer Powter 18:38
Yeah, you know, one of the tools we’ve just given our clients and maybe this will help help your listeners is divided into quarters. You’ve got quarters, so each quarter you can do better. So you had a crappy first quarter. Great. You got three quarters left. Oh, you blew it on the end quarter your evening? Well, you had three good quarters. And it’s like football, you know, any game that you see a sports team playing they don’t. If they’re losing in the first quarter, first half, they don’t just go well, I guess you know, don’t give up. They come back and they they get their coaching or they get that support and they pump themselves up again to just be like, okay, yeah, I messed up that play. Okay, I’m gonna do it again. Because you always get the opportunity to do it again and just do it a little. I do put six things in your mouth. Maybe the next day, it’s for y’all to win.

Debra Muth 19:22
I love that analogy. Because even if you’re not a sports person, y’all know what’s happening to that team. When the first quarter is done, and they go to the locker room and the coaches like, they’re not screaming at them and saying you guys are worthless, your pieces of crap, hear this? No, they’re going in and saying, you guys, we got to get our head in the game. We could do this. You’re amazing. You’re wonderful. You’ve got this. How are we going to do this? And they’re strategizing what they’re going to do. Yeah, it’s so different than that. Okay, you’re terrible. Let’s beat ourselves up. And then we feel bad and sit on the couch with a whole pint of ice cream. No, go to the refridgerator and have two bites of the ice cream, if you have two to two teaspoons, you know, or two quarter teaspoons, and then you’re done. And you can move on and you can still have an awesome day.

Jennifer Powter 20:10
Yeah, I agree. I agree, you know, perfectionism as a, as a thing that in my community, a lot of women have been chasing it, they want to be perfect. They want to get their worthiness from it. That’s how love is delivered to them, it goes back even to childhood, sometimes you’re rewarded if you’re good with good grades with food, or you’re comforted if something goes wrong in your life, or you’re hurt with food. And so the patterns, you know, so many times women go, I wonder what’s wrong with me? And then they tell me their story. And I’m like, Oh, my gosh, well, it’s clear as day, you know, like this is, this is some programming. This is like some you know, and once you know that you can do a little bit better. But that support is critical, because you said something so powerful, which is the voice in your head that says the coach, right? So the coach has been pumping the players out, but a woman in her own mind, she’s just the litany of verbal abuse just gets unleashed sometimes, and that’s painful, it’s painful to say those things to yourself every day.

Debra Muth 21:06
Yeah, our self talk is so bad. We, I had a client the other day who admitted like, what I tell myself, I would never say out loud to anybody. But I can’t stop the self talk in my own head, telling me the negative things about who I am and what I look like, and how I’m living my life. And I, and she doesn’t know how to get past that. And it’s so true. Because, you know, we’ve been ingrained to do that to ourselves, so many of us as women, but trying to get out of that is such a challenge for so many women. Because if they haven’t done it to themselves, somebody in their life has probably told them things and that replays in our minds over and over again.

Jennifer Powter 21:50
Totally. It’s why you know, I resisted being a weight loss expert for so long when I first was doing this, I was like, but it’s so much deeper than that. So we I do, I was a weight loss and fitness expert. And now, you know, it’s everything I put out, it’s around being a weight loss and mindset expert, because if you’re not working with your mind, and you’re just trying to manipulate macros, calories plaints your body with I mean, it’s it just makes it so hard, and there is a way out. But normally, if you’ve never if you haven’t figured out yourself, then you need you need help. I needed help, you know, I had all of these advanced degrees certifications, it said all the knowledge in the world, but for so many women, they know it like if I when I teach my live events, I say, hey, how many of you, you know, if you what are the top five things you you know, you could do or should do to lose weight? Well, I mean, the answers fly, it may quicker than you can write them down. So women know. But there’s this gap between knowing and doing. And it’s that gap that I think all of us in this space we’re trying to close. Yes, we want to provide a bit more education a bit more clear way, the confusion with all the stupid stuff around keto, and IMF, like they’re all the tactics, and just come back to some basic common sense. And yeah, start to build a lifestyle like built how you lose the weight matters. If you lose it in a way that you don’t want to live. Well, then you’re dieting, and those results are gonna be hard to keep.

Debra Muth 23:17
Yeah, I agree. I mean, it’s, it’s so easy to do something for a week or two. But now if you’re thinking, Oh, my gosh, I have to eat this restrictive for the rest of my life. How do I do that when I go on vacation? How do I do that? When I have the famous family Italian dinner with homemade pasta and homemade sauce and sausage? And what do I do at that wedding when there’s this beautiful wedding cake there that I just don’t want to pass up. But I have to say no and, and that’s the stuff that you don’t want to miss those things in life, we have to figure out a way to work around that. And the other reality is most of us don’t have five hours a day to work out. But I totally get, you know, the whole over 40 thing activity versus the 25 year old thing of activity. When you’re chasing your kids around and you’re doing laundry and you’re doing this and you’re doing that and you’re at the playground. And for those women, you look at the steps they take in the day, and they’ve easily hit 25,000 steps and they haven’t even tried because they’re chasing and doing constantly. Now we’re in our 45 to 50 year old so we’re not chasing those little ones anymore. We don’t have to 20 loads of laundry anymore. We’re not having to run here, there and everywhere. So there is a difference between the the expenditure of our activity when we’re younger versus older and we’ve got to try to make that up somehow. But how do we do that without it feeling like work right or exercise or activity focus?

Jennifer Powter 24:53
One of the things I still I mean, absolutely even my own life. My kids are teenagers, right? It’s different than when they were toddlers. I’m driving It replaces not taking them out for walks to look at the birds. But one of the things my clients love so much is in the first 12 weeks, or the first phase of weight loss program. There’s nothing to do with exercise. Like I say, if you’re an exerciser already great have at it or keep going. Because so often, that’s what they’ve done, it’s like they get hit with a coach or somebody who says, Okay, you got to do all of this stuff in the kitchen, you got to do all this stuff with food, you got to do all that. And then when a woman gets overwhelmed, that is the precursor to quitting, because it’s too much, too quick, too hard. And for all the effort you’re putting in, you don’t see the results in the way that you want to see them. So you give. So after having done this for such a long time, I realized that my, my, when my clients are overweight, sometimes not just 20 pounds, 60/70, you know, 250, and they’re wanting, they’ve never seen them, it’s in the 190s and decades. And the idea, I mean, moving, their body is hard, they’re tired, they don’t have a lot of energy, or a lot of confidence. So the winds need to come so the confidence can build and then the excitement, and then the movement part does. I mean, if I’m an exercise as medicine, like, you know, level two practitioner, I, I’m only even exercise, but I also believe that we need to take on, you know, what the science says, and we need to make it implementable for, for the average woman, not someone who has a chauffeur and a chef and a child in a nanny, and, you know, we need to the average working woman with responsibilities and demands and maybe you’re looking after a sick parent like I was, or maybe, you know, you’ve had a hell of a year with grief. And, you know, I just think we pour so much into other people in our lives. And at some point as women, we need to go, you know what, it’s okay to get some support.

Debra Muth 26:40
Yeah, absolutely. So what do you think the biggest myths are around weight loss that are out there today?

Jennifer Powter 26:49
Well, that’s it mean, I, I really think that women are bombarded with messaging that weight loss should be quick. Yeah, that they so that, for me is the minute that you see those signs that say, lose 14 pounds in 10 days body back, you know, 30 pounds, gone in 30 days, or lose 20 pounds a month, they believe, Oh, we’ve got clinics all over the city that have advertisements and say 20 pounds a month. Like, they think that that’s what success is. So when they lose their five pounds or seven pounds a month, they think they’re failing. And that is completely they’re winning, but they don’t know it, because they’re comparing themselves to marketing claims, which are terrible. They’re not accurate. They’re designed to sell you. So I think that’s the biggest myth. The second one, I think we’ve touched on it is that, oh, I need to be I need to be exercising and our time to exercise. I don’t like exercise, I don’t feel competent exercise. So that’s what it takes to lose weight. I’m not going to do it. So I guess I’m going to say overweight. I think that’s the next one. The third one that I think is that oh, to lose, I have to give up everything I’m going to have to diet for the rest of my life is one of the big ones I hear. And what I talked about with my clients is listen, you’re going on, you know, all most people have flown somewhere that they really enjoy. Whether it’s to Maui or to an island, you know, you’ve gone on a vacation. Why did you go well, because you heard the destination was great. So you really wanted to get there. Traveling is not easy. You got to pack your bags, book, your tickets, etc. And then even then you have to get to the airport and get on a plane, that’s the same as weight loss, you got to do some prep work, you gotta get your mind and then you’ve got to get on the plane. There are some you cannot keep repeating everything you’ve done in the past and still see weight loss happen, right, you’ve got to change a little. And you have to be willing to change, you’ve got to believe it’s worth it, and that you can do it. And then when you get to your destination, I know this because I live it and all my clients love it. I’ve got complete food freedom. I’ve got complete freedom with my body, I eat and drink whatever I want. Because I know my budget. I know I my my house, my mental house. It’s strong, it’s clear. And I had to do a lot of work on that to get there and not used food to soothe me when I was sad not eat chocolate when I was lonely, not drink to take away the stress. I had to figure out some better coping tools. So I think you know, it life changes when you’re at your weight that you feel great at. And it’s wonderful.

Debra Muth 29:10
That’s awesome. You’ve taken a really hard stand in your book against the dieting industry. Why have you done that?

Jennifer Powter 29:18
Because it’s not just physiologically damaging for women. It’s psychologically it’s like psychological abuse is what I think the claims marketing I mean these companies and you just take a look on Google weight loss programs or diet and you’ll see new Weight Watchers Jenny Craig SlimFast like you’ll see all of the ones come up and feeding fake food these marketing budgets are multi million millions. And so they hook you and they prey on a woman’s vulnerabilities and when you do not feel good about yourself and feel desperate you see you know you see a picture of yourself and you like it or you walk by a mirror and you’re horrified by your ie you’re desperate to do anything and so you do and then I just feel like it starts this this Crazy Cycle of shame of that mean girl voice in your head and you spiral but you know when I know he’s been a chronic diaster also has a really awesome, strong sense of self and feels really amazing about themselves, even if there’s a million successes that they’re living in their life. And I guess after a decade of helping 1000s of women do it, I know that that is not the answer. I don’t have a multi million dollar marketing budget. I sure wish I did. Yeah. I mean, how amazing would that beat and change the whole scene at the biggest level, but I know that there’s a healthier way mentally, emotionally and physically. I love the message, we need the message out, right? So we do thank you.

Debra Muth 30:50
Well, and even if we look at the marketing that they do, you know, it’s always these Twiggy women, beautiful bodies. They’ve all been photoshopped, but most people don’t realize that quite yet. So they look like the picture perfect woman and they are the picture perfect woman for a marketing thing. But they are not a Picture Perfect Natural Woman, they are airbrushed. They are even them. They look at those people. You know, they look at those pictures of themselves as models. And they’re trying to be that, but they can’t be that when they’re airbrushed. And they’re tweaked. It’s not only for anybody.

Jennifer Powter 31:28
One of the things I say to my clients, I’ve been Dolly, I’ve been doing it. I’ve seen the I’ve seen the Victoria’s Secret models at parties, and they don’t even look like themselves. So when you see the model in real life, they don’t look the same as they do on the ads in Victoria’s Secret. You know, Deb, I tell a story on one of my books where my daughter and I were shopping. And we were in one of our local malls. And there’s like a placenta, Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie and Fitch and La Vie en Rose right all near each other. And my daughter’s 10 just holding my hand still, which is lovely. And then I noticed her just sort of looking around, and then she stops and she’s like, Mom, why are Why are all of these women half naked? And I look? And I say, Wow, that’s amazing. You notice that? I said, yeah, they are just like, why do they look so weird? And I said, Well, you know, they present images like this so that we buy things from these stores? And she’s like, Do they really think that we want to look like that? And I said, good question. She’s like, I don’t want boobs like that it would hurt when I run. You know, I squeezed like I just squeezed your hand a little tighter. And just thought the way I think we have failed to recognize how much we are showing what quote unquote, the perfect woman is. And it is. So it is so unhealthy. And it starts from a little right. So I don’t know what the answer is. I think that showing models who like in real life, and we don’t have any before and after pictures on my website, and I my stances, and I say it right on my website, I will never, ever shame the body that’s carried you to this point, you might have had children, you might have held the hand of a dying parent, like I have, you might have had an illness that you’ve overcome, you might have scars on that beautiful, but your body has gotten you here. And how grateful should we all be for that privilege, we’re alive. And now you’re just choosing to change it.

Debra Muth 33:28
I love that that is so empowering for women. Yeah, I went to Spain a few years ago and studied in a priestess program. And one of the things that we talked about was women accepting their bodies and recognizing that we’re all different. But our bodies are beautiful, because they are our bodies. And so many of us there, you know, had shame about who we were and what we looked like and all of that. And they brought in a couple of men to talk to us about what they see when we stand in front of them versus what we see standing in front of them. Because so many times women are afraid, you know, our husbands or our Lovers don’t don’t like our bodies, and they see the negative things that we see. But it’s incredible to hear from men saying, we don’t see that. Like, we don’t see a roll or a pudge or a scar or any of that. lights on or lights off. We see a beautiful woman that we love with a voluptuous body that birthed our children that gave us life that fed them, that take care of us. They don’t see what we see. And it’s crazy because we are all like, well, I have to look this way for them. Don’t have to look that way. For them. It’s it was an incredible gift to be given that to realize that what we think they think is the furthest thing from the truth. It’s only us that sees that.

Jennifer Powter 34:56
What a powerful experience. Yeah,

Debra Muth 34:58
It was amazing.

Jennifer Powter 35:00
wish every woman can have that opportunity. Yeah, you know, it reminds me this I hope it’s so I’m gonna if you can tell me about, but I was, I was listening to a radio interview in Canada, we have the CBC. So it’s our Canadian Broadcasting members was interview and they were interviewing a sociologist, from the University of British Columbia, I believe, and sociologists had somehow been able to access data from I would just maybe, say, porn sites, okay, so I was able to access the search criteria. And what he was saying there was a topic around sociology and morphol, or anthropology and body size, body shape and cycle was men were searching for larger women voluptuous, like the search term for that was beyond anything any woman could have ever said. And what he said was, men are also shamed for wanting what they want, in a culture where thin is the idea. Yes. And so here we are both double sort, you know, I just blew my mind because I’m like, here, women are chasing thiness. Men don’t care about that at all. They want to feel, you know, feel you and I just thought, Oh, what a screwed up world!

Debra Muth 36:12
Right!

Jennifer Powter 36:14
It is so crazy.

Debra Muth 36:16
Exactly. Even with my kids, my oldest son is pretty small. He’s like a, maybe 150 pounds. He’s a small guy, his wife is a little bit larger. And I remember when they were teenagers, my daughter is very small, like, she’s five foot three. And at the time, when she was like, 17, she was under 100 pounds. She had undiagnosed celiac disease, so she couldn’t put on weight. And she was very, very small. And she was asking her brother, like, why does this guy not like me? Like, I don’t get it? And, and he looked around, and he said, I wouldn’t go out with you, either. You’re too small. And I was like, what? Like, I can’t believe you just said that to her. But then I thought about it. And I’m like, in some respects, it was a gift to tell her that it doesn’t matter your size. It’s who you are as a person. But then at the same time, I thought, well, here we’re doing just the opposite. Now we’re shaming for being small, versus shaming for being large. And he was just trying to say to her, not everybody likes really small women, and she’s just got a small frame, and it’s part of our family history. And that’s who she is. But it was like, How to hear him say that to her. It was just the opposite of what we think men want.

Jennifer Powter 37:29
Yeah. Yeah. Stop, right. At the end of the day, you know, for me, yeah, part of my story, you’ll read it in both my books, but I talked about a lot. My first one diet disruption, where, you know, I was, so I was married. And I was so lonely in that marriage, I was so disconnected. The love that I wanted wasn’t the love I was, you know, I just was just sort of sad. And so at night, you know, I think what women don’t realize, and I didn’t, what I want to drive home here, and I didn’t realize this, I did not identify as an emotional eater. I thought it was what it looked like in the movies, where you fill a cart, all your stuff, and then you come home and you binge on it all. That’s what I thought an emotional eater was. But you know, it’s not eating when you’re eating beyond your hunger reasons to use to escape to numb the strapped to take away the stress to give yourself a treat. You deserve it. It’s been a hard day, I get all of that. And that’s what I’m seeing going on a lot right now is getting through the day, getting to that glass of wine at five, you made it through the homeschooling the home office working to zoom, you know, that you just and there’s such little external pleasure in our lives right now that we’re getting it from food. And so now for anybody listening who’s like, oh, man I’m in this place is we’ve got to start to get really creative. And we have to think about how do we start to focus on experiences in our life that are beyond food. That was one of the very first steps I took is how do I, you know, connect with a girlfriend not be like, hey, what am class wine? Hey, let’s go for a walk. How do I you know, create a Hey, kids, let’s do a puzzle. Let’s play. Sorry, let’s play Monopoly. Let’s not just make sure we can bake cookies. Let’s do it, like once a week or once a week, you know. So I think that that was helpful as people are moving into the new year. And like, what’s happening in 2022. Is we only food only has so much power over you if you give it that power. When you take that power back then it’s just food. Yeah. And that’s amazing. Yeah, right. So I, we’re so much stronger than we know. I mean, I hope that this podcast like the women remember, you know, you’re so much more. We’ve got much more in you than you know, you’ve just forgotten.

Debra Muth 39:40
Exactly. I’m so glad you mentioned that because I think once we pay attention to what it is we do and how we do it, we can change it. I noticed myself doing that too. In the middle of the day in a busy clinic. Things are, you know, happening all over the place. People are late. This one’s complaining, you know, the staff is quitting whatever. And I go to my office and open my drawer and pull out the chocolate And I’d be like, and then I was finally like, what am I doing? Like, I’m using this to soothe me and I don’t need it. I, it just feels good. And once I started paying attention to that I started going, Okay, no, I’m gonna go outside and I’m just gonna take a five minute walk, or I’m just gonna sit and do something else, you know, to soothe myself instead of grabbing for that chocolate. Because before I knew it, it was three or four times in my office, I was craving for that chocolate. Oh, crap. I’m late don’t have lunch. Oh, crap, so and so called in sick. Oh, wait, there’s somebody on my schedule I didn’t know about now I’m three people behind. It was like this cut. I got to doing it all the time. And it was like, wait a minute timeout. I can’t do this.

Jennifer Powter 40:48
Yeah, yeah. I mean, isn’t it beautiful? When you do what you do? And I do it? Why I do. I’m wrong. We’re human. So human. We’re all up against the same stuff. The only difference between me and a listener who maybe hasn’t tackled the weight loss or the mind is I’ve just practice more, right? I got some help. And I’ve had a longer period of time to practice and practice like yoga. You can’t just do yoga once and be like, Oh, I’m a yogi, right? Our health. Women say, I don’t have to have to think about I don’t have to think about food. I’m like, we think about all the other priorities. And I think that your partner, you think about your kids, think about your grandkids, think about your retirement, you get to have some bandwidth in your mind to think about you. It’s not a chore. It’s actually you know, the opposite. But dieting makes it a chore. There’s that you got to break free of that hangover.

Debra Muth 41:34
Absolutely. I love that. Well, this has been such a great conversation. We could just talk all day, Jen. So tell people that are listening? How do they get your book? What’s the title? And how do they work with you?

Jennifer Powter 41:47
Yeah, so the book related directly to this is the stop sabotaging your weight loss while you do it, how to fix it. And you can go to get a free copy and get the free PDF it is on. It’s going to be an audible in 2022 in the new year. But the free PDF is at http://www.Jennifer powter.com/book, and you can get it into your inbox. And I would love that because whether it’s weight loss or something else, health wise that you know you’re kind of sabotaging you know what to do. But you’re not totally this book. Absolutely said shed light on why and then what to do about it. I mean, a lot of people know why, but like, okay, great. Now what you know, that’s what I found in the research. So I give some really good tips and strategies and stories that you know, you’ll be able to relate to and connect with.

Debra Muth 42:35
That’s awesome. So we will have that link in the show notes. So if you’re driving, don’t worry about catching that. I can’t wait till it comes out on Audible. I’m a big audible girl myself. And they can also reach you at the weight loss Academy. Correct?

Jennifer Powter 42:48
Yeah, that’s the I found it that program and there is no direct URL for it. Somebody actually bought the URL in like Ireland or Scotland. But I know but the easiest way to come into my world is through my Diet Disruption Movement Facebook group. I’m there three times a week doing Facebook Lives answering questions, you can DM me your question, you can connect, you can ask me anything you want there. And so that’s a really easy, super safe space for women over 40. There’s no men it’s very, it’s an awesome group. So that would be the easiest place to come find me.

Debra Muth 43:17
That’s awesome. Ladies, if you’re listening to this, please take Jennifer up on this. Because this is where we make powerful things happen. This is where we make change happen with other people that that have gone through what we’ve gone through, they’ve gone through it before us, they could give us tips, they could give us tricks. You know, we need a tribe to keep us on task and help us be successful. So I’m so glad that you put this tribe of women together that can help each other and I’m so glad that you’re sharing this because this is truly what I think is the missing link in our weight and our diet lifestyle changes that we can make.

Jennifer Powter 43:53
Oh yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having me on your show. I so appreciate the opportunity. And just for the work you do. I mean, it takes a village to support women and I think there’s probably you’ve got your story and we all know we’re here to help, right?

Debra Muth 44:05
Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you.

Debra Muth 44:09
Hey, it has been really great sharing this time with you guys on the let’s talk wellness now podcast. If this episode has helped you or you feel as though this episode would help someone else we’d love for you to leave us a review, share this podcast. And if you don’t want to miss the most exciting episodes we have coming. We’d love for you to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or Google Play. Until next time, live every day to the fullest.