LadyGang - LG QUICKIE: Healthy Eating Goals with Jess Part 1

Episode Date: December 29, 2022

As the year comes to an end, holistic health coach, Jess Suchan is sharing the importance of becoming in tune with your body to find a life of bliss. Learn how she focuses on the mind to promote action in a healthier lifestyle. For 10% of Body Bliss by Jess superfood latte mixes and Sexy Swaps & Recipe guide use code LADYGANG10 at https://www.bodyblissbyjess.com/latteblends or https://www.bodyblissbyjess.com/sexy-sugar-cleanse-product-page/sexy-swaps-amp-recipe-guideSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's time for a quickie. Podcast One presents The Lady Gang, The Hollywood Girl Posse with Lady Gang Quickie. Here's Kelty Knight, Becca Tobin, and Jack Vanek. Let's make this quick. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to The Lady Gang Quickie. I'm Becca here with Jack and Kelty,

and we have brought to you yet another wonderful guru, if you will. Kelty, who's joined us today? Well, I just want to start this episode by saying that, as you can see, we're in a year-end sort of like getting our shit together type of way on Lady Gang. And I wanted to bring this guest on because she is, you know, incredible and super smart and we've known her and I'm working with her. And so we're, you know, there's so many things going on, but with every sort of medical-ish body person we have on,

And I just want to start this episode by saying you do you, and what is right for one person is not right for everyone. And we are going to be talking about food and constipation and bloating and working out and all of those things. So if that's triggering for you, then go listen to a different episode of Lady Gang. This is just, we're just here to offer tips and tricks of like how to make your life better. And this is the new year. And so we want to get everyone on the right page for them.

So today we are joined by Jess Sukan. She's a board certified holistic health coach who coaches her clients towards finding a life of bliss, free from fad diets, over-exercising and burnout. She spent a decade yo-yo dieting, exercising for punishment and ignoring the messages her body was sending her. This lifestyle connected with a bunch of stressful jobs left her to develop debilitating migraines, which she eventually cured with a holistic approach. She discovered the power of food and lifestyle as medicine and decided to become a health coach via the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and dedicated her time to helping others find that 2.0, 2.0, I think is what you say, version of 2.0 version of themselves. And so Jess is here today and we're just going to

talk about swaps and sugars and lattes and all kinds of great stuff. So Jess, welcome to the podcast back to the podcast. Thanks ladies. I'm so excited to be here. So first let's talk about your story. Obviously you like are this gorgeous girl and it's hard to believe that you ever were doing it wrong, but I would say that many people can relate to yo-yo dieting, uh, exercising for punishment. The way you said that is very lead strong. And so what was your breaking point and and what's your goal with this new position? Yeah. Well, so I yo-yo dieted for almost 12 years, which is crazy to think about that such a long time. And it just became normal for me. I was always trying new fad, whether it was Atkins or South beach diet, like I was first

in line for all the new diets. And there was a point where my friends are calling me like the diet girl or being like, Oh, what, what can you eat now? Cause we're not sure. Like, are you able to eat this brunch with us or do we need to go somewhere else? And it was like, you know, almost in a snarky way, which I totally understand because it was impossible to dine out with me. It's like, I either would just like pick out my food or I would like pretend like I ate before, or I was modifying every last thing on the menu. Um, and then on top of it, like you said, I would go, you know, Monday through Friday being quote unquote perfect. And I would say that I had orthorexia, which is like the obsession with being perfect with your food choices.

And if I fell out of control, I would like, I just had so much anxiety around it and I couldn't be in the moment. I couldn't be present. I honestly, like my mood was all over the place because I felt so restricted and I was probably missing so many nutrients. And then, you know, on the weekends I would just blow it and go crazy, especially in college and like five years after college or more, just like binge drinking on the weekends with my friends.

fourth meal was like a non-negotiable thanks taco bell and um I mean yeah I mean there was like one night my husband loves to remind me like when we were first dating I like vomited all over the outside of the taxi cab like out of the window like because I just like binge drank and then ate so much and then made us go to taco bell and just that was like a normal thing for me and um and then you know come Monday I would be like okay I'm back on this extreme diet and I would go to the gym and it was like never for seeing what my body was capable of not like oh wow that would be so cool to get stronger or that would be great to improve my confidence or my mood or just see what I'm capable of it was always like okay should I do the elliptical for 45 minutes

and how many calories can that burn because hopefully that burns off like that extra glass of wine that I had. And, um, you know, just the whole time be in my head, like you need to go harder and like, you know, increasing the speed, trying to play songs that were like, would amp me up so that the time would go by faster and make me run harder. And then, you know, try a lot of times not to eat before I would go to the gym or in certain phases of my life, I would literally take eggs and like carve out the yolk. Cause they had more calories and fill that with salsa and eat like egg whites with salsa in it before like an hour and a half workout. And that was just really my life. And so the breaking point was really, I taught English in South Korea with

my husband for a year and I was obsessed with tracking everything into an app. And if the food wasn't in the app, I would have a panic attack. And there was one point where my husband tried to take the app away because we were trying to make a nice dinner together. And I was like, give me my app back. And I grabbed it and was like, literally shaking that he wasn't allowing me to enter my food in. And he was like, Oh my God, Jess, like relax. And it just got to the point where I was micromanaging other people's food. Like if my family was trying to lose weight, I would comment on, Oh, really? Like you guys are going to order carrots. Well, you know, carrots are the highest in sugar of all those vegetables and just, and it honestly wasn't me

trying to be awful to them. It was me feeling so restricted and in my own head and resentful that I felt like other people could let loose and live their lives. And I couldn't. And so, yeah, I mean, honestly, there wasn't like one specific moment, but when I kind of dug deeper into my health, like in my late, like probably 29, around 30, I was working in this insanely stressful marketing job, um, at this entertainment firm in West Hollywood. And I just had these horrible migraines and I was dealing with so much stress and I was restricting my food. And I finally got to a breaking point with it where I had to change my habits. And that's when I really started to dig, go deep and kind of evaluate, like, why am I doing these things? What am I doing them for? And just really started forcing myself to, you know, channel my mom, basically, who was always into like really balanced eating and was never, never restricted us. and just went, went back to my roots and started to change my habits and started to feel a whole

lot better. And then I realized I needed to help other people do the same. So I went and got my degree to become a health coach. Well, this is interesting because, and this is why I wanted to have you on that. We live in this world and we were just recently talking about this where, you know, we, it's like all or nothing. And then like, here's what you do. And, and none of it actually treats the emotional bandwidth that goes along with being your best self. And Becca just had this incredible year where she just ran this half marathon and she had said, well, you can talk about it, Becca, but like she had said, like it was the first time since she'd been a dancer where she really started appreciating what her body could do.

And you like get in tune with that. And it's a special place to be, you know? Yeah. And so emotional eating, like what, why is our brain wired to like be this way? Like when you were talking about like the, you know, being perfect with your eating, like Jack was like this, and I know this is very triggering for you, Jack, but like, you know, this is a, this is a thing people do. Yeah. And I mean, I'm not, I'm not sure why it's triggering for you, Jack, but I will say that if it is, you're not alone. I think more women than we realize are very triggered by this topic. And a lot of us just shove it down or normalize it. So we don't even realize that it's a trigger or we don't even realize that it's what we're doing because there's so much

pressure in society. I mean, you guys know, like you're camera facing all the time. And I know for me, even just being on Instagram, it's like this pressure of like being put together and looking a certain way. And as a health coach, I used to put a ton of pressure on myself to be like, I have to look, you know, I have to be thin if I'm going to be a health coach for wherever that came from, like as if to be healthy and to coach others, you have to look a certain way. And I've gotten over that, but yeah, I mean, I think because unfortunately, especially for, for us women, there is still so much pressure and we are constantly being advertised these different diets and we're constantly being fed messaging, especially around the new year of like

new year, new you, or like the summer where it's like summer body, bikini body, which by the way, like anybody can have a bikini body, just put on a bikini. And it's, you know, it's really, it's, it's skewed our perception of what normal is and what healthy is. And we've gotten so far away from focusing on how we want to feel like, Oh, I want to feel energized. I want to feel confident in my own skin. I want to be able to get up in the morning without having to race to a coffee pot because I'm so low energy. Like I don't want to have a midday crash. Like I want to feel strong in the gym. I want to see that I'm progressing. Like, you know, those things versus always focusing on, I want to see the number on the scale, not go above this number. I'm,

I think so many women are constantly not even happy with the number. It's like always trying to go lower, lower, lower, and not focusing on like, well, would the number even matter to you. If you felt the way that you wanted to feel in your clothing and, you know, energetically and the way that you interact with people, like, I don't think the number freaking matters at all, but for some reason, diet culture has made us obsessed with numbers on the scale, the number of our genes, like all of this. And so we just are. And then we go on Instagram, we go online, we listen to even podcasts. We'll have ads for like these extreme weight loss measures. We see the Kardashians losing like 20 pounds for the Met Gala, whatever

to fit into a dress. And so then we feel like we have to do that. Otherwise we're inadequate and it's normalized because then we get with friends and our friends are doing it too. And then we're sort of like bonding with them over it asking. And I don't even really engage with that anymore. I still have friends where I go out with them and they'll be talking about whatever lymphatic thing that they're doing just to lose weight for the weekend and stuff. And it's like, I just don't really engage with that anymore because I don't find it to be positive. And I don't want to be encouraging one another to be constantly chasing that. And so I think it comes to, it's kind of like our brains are geared towards the negative, just that's how biologically,

that's how we are. And I mean, that was a good thing back in the day when we needed to be aware of, you know, famine and these dangers and threats, like we needed to be geared towards the negatives that we were ready, but now our brains just geared towards the negative. So we have to really train our brains to think more positively. And that's why gratitude is really, um, empowering and can work, but it's the same when it comes to our body is like, we've trained ourselves to constantly be seeking a smaller body to constantly be looking for the flaws to never be enough to be looking at like what we can do next next next to lose weight and so it truly is like a retraining of your brain and the simplest switch for me is instead

of focusing on how I want to look I always try to focus on how I want to feel first and taking action from that place instead of taking action from a aesthetic place the lady gang when Kelsey was like oh that's triggering you triggering to you I actually resonate with your story so much. Like I felt like I was just, you're, I was looking in a mirror because I was the exact same way. My friends used to say I survived on like Aaron sadness when I was younger, because I was always, I, ever since I was like 16, I started with Atkins diet and I was doing South beach diet, paleo. I went vegan, gluten-free, um, nut free, all of these kinds of things. Um, and was just looking for like any way to find a new way to like restrict

to myself because that's where I found that I could control something. So I just really resonate with that. And when it comes to, you know, the number on the scale, it's like, I haven't weighed myself in eight years, maybe at this point, because that is a triggering thing, looking at a number. And even if you feel like you're over it and you're like, I'm not going to focus on it. Like we're so ingrained in our minds to attach some kind of a meaning to that number that I think the best thing for me was kind of just trying to let go of that control and the obsession and like staring at yourself in the mirror and picking apart all of your of your flaws because it sucks it's like we're set up to fail and we're like the worst generation because we just were fed

so much bullshit our entire lives so i love it and um like it's just such an important conversation to be having i think yeah definitely no and i mean i'm i'm sorry that you went through that but i also think it's probably I always try to remind myself like that's my my my story is my message it's my gift no one else has my story I wouldn't be who I am without it and so like what you went through and what we've all experienced like unfortunately we had to go through that but hopefully there's a lesson and something that's made you stronger and made you feel more confident in who you are without the number being such a focus um and I congratulate you for that because it's not easy to ditch the scale but that's definitely a step that I recommend for people

is to just try to throw out the scale or at least like dial back to where you're like, I'm only going to look like once a month or something, or for some people, they check their weight multiple times a day. So even getting them down to like once a week is a huge step in the right direction. But ideally really just not caring about the number at all is, is what I think should be the goal for, you know, for most of us. and you want to say something hun yeah i just i just like for i know kelty mentioned that i sort of developed a new relationship with my body because i was sort of having this like weird i think part of it's i didn't carry my child i had a surrogate but i became a new mom and

suddenly like my health exercise all that stuff goes out the window when you're like figuring out how to take care of another human so i know i could have gone through like a million times more of a little bit of an identity crisis. But like for me, my, I hate the term rock bottom because it's not rock bottom, but like my, my realization came similar to you where you're like working this job, you're so stressed out and you needed to make the change. Mine was like, why do I, why do I suddenly feel these things about my body that I've never felt before? The negative talk is coming up so often and I don't know why. So I turned to my therapist and it was like, how do I figure out how to navigate through this? Cause I don't want my existence to

be this forever. So what would you tell girls who are in that moment right now where it's like, they're aware, at least I know that I've been aware at the times that I'm scooping out the egg yolk and putting salsa in an egg. And I know that I'm counting the calories on a treadmill. And I know I'm manipulating my whole life around this sole focus of losing weight. And you know, you're aware that it's not a good thing, but how do you get yourself to the place of stopping? Yeah, I mean, I think number one, it's what you've done is acknowledging that it's an issue, right? That it's something that's controlling your life in some way, because a lot of women aren't actually acknowledging it. Because like I said before, it's normalized and our friends or community can normalize it as well. So number one is just acknowledging like, okay, this is how I'm feeling. And this is actually a problem. And I really want to rewire these thoughts. And I really want to feel more confident

in my body. And I want to change, I want to make a change. Like I don't want to be stepping on the scale three times a day. Like I don't want to be controlling every bite, lick and taste. I don't want to be like counting down the seconds on the treadmill. And then that's step one, because until you acknowledge that it's a problem, then you can't change it because it's just in your subconscious. So you have to bring it from your subconscious to your conscious. And that's where change can happen. But then step two is telling someone else about it because that then gives it less power and you're able to get it off your chest, tell someone. And it's almost like when you set goals, you know, it's like, you're much more likely to accomplish that goal when you say

it out loud. And then when you write it down and then when you tell someone else, cause you have that accountability. So I think like, those are the two biggest steps. And that's actually really hard for a lot of people to be that honest and that vulnerable. But then once you share it, especially with someone that you really trust, a lot of times you'll find that they're feeling the same way. So you can start to have more open, honest conversations with your friends. And that creates an even deeper relationship and connection that you have with those people and more built in accountability. So I think those are two really great places to start. And then from there, it's just making little shifts, right?

Like, I don't think that it's necessarily helpful to be like, oh, you have to change everything you've been doing overnight because you've been so unhealthy with your mindset. It's like just little shifts. Like I said, maybe, you know, maybe it is throwing out the scale or maybe it is like hiding it for a week and then your husband has to give it back to you after a week or something like that. or it's, you know, for some of my clients, I, a lot of clients have a fear of carbs. Um, and so I'm really trying to change that narrative because cards are extremely important

for women and I can talk about why. Um, but before I do, you know, realizing like a lot of these women have been restricting carbs for sometimes over a decade. So like, okay, we're going to just start by adding one serving of carbohydrate into your day for a week like where do you want it breakfast lunch or dinner if you imagine like your favorite meal that you never get to have because you always restrict it because you're scared of carbs like it could be as simple as avocado toast I know so many women are afraid of avocado toast that was me like I used to look at friends and be like how do they eat that I'm so jealous I just want to be a basic bitch but I can't and um so maybe and starting there and okay let's not add in french fries maybe because that

freaks you out a little bit but let's do something like a whole grain bread which you know has fiber and nutrients and then teaching them how to pair it so it helps balance their blood sugar levels but like we're just gonna add that in and like see how that feels for the next week okay nothing happened you feel good you actually feel a little less deprived you're not necessarily thinking about carbs all day long and so maybe let's add in another serving at lunch and just go slowly but then have them track how they're feeling you know write down in a little journal what are your cravings improved like is your mood better are you thinking about carbs 24 7 are you sleeping better looking at these biomarkers beyond just what the scale says and really trying to get

away from the number equating to your self-worth because it's not. And instead looking at these other biomarkers, which most of us don't do, there's so many other things I could say, but that's where I might start. Why are carbs important for women? I'm sure everybody's waiting with bated breath. Tell us more about the carbs. Yes. So I used to be like, so, so afraid of carbs. And so I totally get it. And I think the keto culture has really, really taken over. And as a result, you know, a lot of people are actually unhealthier because they're trying to find all of these alternatives, which then end up having all of these preservatives and processed ingredients and a list of a hundred ingredients versus five that you would get if

you just went for the regular thing. So that's one issue. Um, but carbohydrates are our energy's preferred fuel source. Um, it's a quick source of energy. And that's also why people will try to demonize them because it's like, Oh, you use that energy. You spike your blood sugar levels. Then you start crashing and then you start gaining weight. And it's really not that simple. Your body has to work harder to, you know, convert to fat burning instead of carb burning. Your body wants to go for that energy source. And it gives you energy, you feel good when you eat carbs. And you also typically feel more satiated from a mental perspective, but also physically. You know, I know for sure, I feel so much better when I eat carbohydrates. And when you really

start to take note of that, you know, and write it down and attach how you feel when you eat them, then you might be surprised, but carbohydrates also, um, are really important for especially nutrient rich carbohydrates. So if you're focusing on carbs that are higher in, uh, protein and fibers, so things like quinoa, um, things like sweet potatoes, chickpeas, steel cut oats, bananas, you know, fruit carbs, those are all going to come packed with micronutrients. And so not all carbs are created equal. So it's so weird to say like, Oh, carbs are bad. It's like, okay, well, you take a processed French fry and you compare that to a whole grain piece of sprouted bread or a homemade sweet potato fry.

Those nutrients are going to be so different. And so for a lot of women that have restricted carbs for years, they are really micronutrient deficient because they're not getting all the vitamins and minerals that you get from carbs. They're also eating very low fiber. It's much easier to hit your fiber goals when you're eating carbs because there tends to be more fiber, especially in the more nutrient rich ones. and fiber is imperative for detoxifying excess estrogen out of the liver. If you have high

estrogen in relation to progesterone, that can lead to weight gain, that can lead to mood swings, that can lead to sore, tender breasts, painful periods, low moods. And so we're seeing a lot of that low fiber diets when you cut out the carbs, which then impacts your metabolism. You're not feeling as full for as long. And then I love it because I always say like, I was so hangry when I didn't eat carbs. And a lot of women are men and women. And a big part of that is that serotonin can be produced from carbohydrates. And serotonin is our feel good hormone.

So no wonder if you're not eating carbs that you have low mood. Um, and so especially the week before, uh, for those who have a period the week before your period starts that late luteal phase, or what you might refer to as like the PMS week, which by the way, PMS is not normal, but the premenstrual week, um, a lot of women feel very low mood. They start to get really anxious, kind of depressed. And, and so that's when you actually need some more of those nutrient rich carbohydrates, cause that's going to help support your mood.

um so those are just some of the cliff notes but I will say um my number one tip with carbs is dress up your naked carbs so instead of having a carb naked like a piece of toast with jam because that's basically just all carbs if it's if it's a whole grain you'll probably get some fiber obviously too but primarily let's say it's white bread with jam that's all carbs So instead of having that, take your bread, add some protein, fat, and fiber. So maybe that's some avocado, some grass-fed butter, a couple of eggs, and put some microgreens on top. That way, you're going to stabilize your blood sugar levels, and you're not going to so quickly spike and crash having the carb by itself. That's really going to support your insulin, which is going to support your hormones.

you're not going to have that crash where you're craving. Typically when you're eating carbs solo within an hour or two, you have a crash. Then you want more carbs. You want caffeine. You're looking for that quick hit of energy. And over time that can lead to things like insulin resistance, blood sugar balance is the key to hormone balance. So it can dysregulate a lot of your hormones, including your thyroid, which is responsible for your metabolism. And so it's truly the type of carbs and how you pair them. And so even if like you're going into a celebratory dinner and you're like, well, I'm not going to have a nutrient rich carb. I want those fries or I want that pizza. Sure. Okay, cool. Have that pizza, but then add some protein, fat, and fiber to it.

Make sure maybe you get the sausage pizza or you get, you know, you, and you have a salad on the side that has olive oil. And then that way you're still pairing that carb with protein, fat, and fiber. And that's really going to make a huge difference for you long-term. And you're also going to find that you don't eat as much of that carb because you have the other nutrients to support you. All right. Here's where we break. This is part one. So this is part one. I'm calling this the mental, like this was the mental we needed to get our minds right. And in part two, which is going to happen next Thursday, we're going to talk about some of the things that you guys brought up in the Facebook group about immunity, hormonal acne, bloated sugar cravings,

pooping, thyroid, PCOS, all those things. So stay tuned for next week. Jess is going to be back. We appreciate you coming on so much. There's so much to cover. I love that we're doing part one and part two. Um, and you guys can, if you're more, if you're interested in Jess and her way of thinking, you can follow her at body bliss by Jess on Instagram and her site is body bliss by Jess.com. So we'll see you, uh, next week. We weren't here for a long time, but we're here for Carbohydrate time Thanks for listening The Lady Gang is produced by Alex Ingber

Steve Delameter and Jared Monaco Make sure you subscribe, rate and review Our podcast and if you love it Share it with your friends on social media Like oh my god I just listened to Lady Gang This episode's so great, swipe up to listen And if you really want to, which we know you do Please follow us on social

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