Well with Arielle Lorre - 197: Weight Loss, Emotional Eating & Improving Your Quality of Life with Ilana Muhlstein

Episode Date: September 14, 2022

In this episode, I chat with Ilana Muhlstein, Registered Dietitian and one of the most sought-after weight-loss experts in the world, about all things health. We talk about the positive aspects of weight loss; her healthy approach to losing weight, the benefits of water, and how being healthy improves your quality of life. We also dive into the negative aspects of weight loss; obsessive weight loss culture, what to shy away from with diet plans, and emotional eating.   Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit article.com/BLONDE and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout.   Download the Alto app and use code BLONDE in the Promotions section for $20 off your first 2 rides.   Right now, LMNT is offering my listeners a free sample pack with any order. Get yours at DrinkLMNT.com/BLONDEFILES.   Treat yourself and your hair by searching “Conair SmoothWrap” on Amazon.com to try the new drying experience with SmoothWrap today!   Right now, Ritual is offering my listeners 10% off your first three months. Visit ritual.com/BLONDE and turn healthy habits into a Ritual.     Produced by Dear Media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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to the Blonde Files podcast. I'm your host Ariel Lorry and I'm here to talk all things wellness. From how to achieve optimal health and well-being to the best beauty tips and everything in between, no topic is off limits and I'm bringing it to you real and unfiltered. I know there is so much information out there, so I'm here to help you navigate it all. Thanks for listening. Let's get into it. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. I am in Paris and it's kind of noisy right now when I'm trying to record. So I'm going to make this intro quick and jump into it. But that said, I'm definitely going to do a separate episode on my travels, traveling alone, even though it's only been one day. I have thoughts. I have a lot to say. All good things.

So anyway, in today's episode, I am talking to Alana Molstein. Alana is a registered dietitian, an educator, author, a mom, and a health enthusiast. She has become a sought-after weight loss expert. She's an acclaimed public speaker. She's also an influencer. I found her through TikTok with her really creative recipes. And she sits on the executive leadership team for the American Heart Association. She has been lecturing for the Bruin Health Improvement Program at UCLA since 2013. She's a contributing writer for publications, including the Journal of Obesity. She's been featured in the LA Times, The Washington Post, Readers Digest, Shape, Health, and Women's Health, and more. And she comes to this with her own experience with weight loss. So by the time she was 13 years old,

she weighed over 200 pounds, she struggled with losing weight, she struggled with emotional eating and diets that didn't work. And while most kids dream, of becoming famous or doctors or lawyers or whatever it is. Alana's early inspirations were the registered dietitians that she met every summer at Fat Camp. And she talks about this on the episode. And she became one herself, the first chance that she got. And she used all of her life experience and her personal weight loss experience when she

lost the 100 pounds to develop a program to help other people and build a practice. So she has a private practice, and she also has her weight loss program called the To Be Mindset, which you can find on her website and on her Instagram. It's all based on her experience, her advanced education, her hundreds of personal clients, both at UCLA and in private practice, she's had over 200,000 participants that have joined the program since its inception. And she also has a book called You Can Drop. bit. So she has obviously a lot of experience with weight loss. And I just have to put a disclaimer or

preface this episode by saying that I know that weight loss has become kind of demonized, I think, in our culture, especially lately. Like it's become almost seen as a bad thing or a negative thing to want to lose weight. But the reality is that a lot of people, want to and a lot of people need to for health reasons. So I don't think I've ever put a trigger warning for any of my episodes, but this can be a sensitive subject. So if weight loss is a sensitive triggering issue for you, maybe you want to proceed with caution, but I promise that all of this is coming from a really good place. And like I said, she has a really healthy, realistic approach to weight loss. And so if that's something that you are trying to do or you're

curious about, this episode is for you. And we also get into emotional eating and diet, myth busting and just so many topics. So I hope you guys enjoy the episode. And that turned out to be much more long-winded than I planned. But anyway, please enjoy Alana Mollstein. Welcome, Alana. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for being here. I'm excited to talk to you. I've followed you for a while and just been familiar with your work. And yeah, so many things that I want to talk to you about today. I'm sure the majority of my audience is familiar with you and what you do. But for people who don't know, can you just kind of introduce yourself and let people know who you are what you do. I wish I could get faster at this. But it's like there's a saga. So I'll share it because a lot of people can relate to different aspects of it. But I'm born and raised in New York City on the Upper West Side. My parents got divorced when I was like four years old and all of a sudden I went from being like a three year old who was a normal size. All of a sudden I ballooned up and no one like knew what to do because my parents were going through their own thing.

So I just kept emotional eating even though I had no idea that's what it was. I was just watching Nickelodeon and eating all the food in the house as like a four and five year old. And I had very little supervision. My sister likes to say we were raised by wolves. I like to think they had good intentions. They were just, you know, their own people. And I started just eating and eating and eating as my way of, I don't know, getting through everything, super independent. And I got to the point where I was so obese that my pediatrician at a checkup sent me to Fat Camp.

She was like, to my parents, this is not working out. This girl's got to get help. She's like way over the 100th percentile for weight for her height and age. So I went to Camp Shane, which is the way. camp in upstate New York. It's the one that was on MTV and all the things. And I took the before pictures, the after pictures, went on the scale every week, had the nutrition classes with a dietitian three times a week, all the things, lost 30 pounds and obviously gained it all back and more. So I went back to camp, lost 30 pounds, gained 50, lost 30, gained 50 until I started like really

getting bigger and bigger year after year. I was doing the yo-yo dieting cycle that a lot of people do without even consciously realizing it because I was just young and in the throes of it. Until I really got to my highest point, I was 215 pounds at like 13 years old, going into high school. I was only 5 feet, 2 inches tall. I was wearing a size 20 that I had to, like, custom get. I'd like go to tailors if I was going to a wedding, like all these things. And I realized, like, enough is enough. I changed my mindset inside my head.

I remember I was doing like burpees or something in camp. And I was like, enough is enough. You only get this one body. You might as well make it rock. There's no one who's about to give you like this magic wand's new body, even though I was like praying and begging for it while crying alone in my room and all the things. And I decided, you know what, let me figure this out. So I went back into high school mode, having lost about 30 pounds at camp that summer and I was

like my first goal is to not gain the weight back. So I started really taking different strategies and tips that I learned from all the dietitians in the past, but working in my own modality because I love food, I'm a volume eater and eating like protein the size of a deck of a cards or eating as like the food guide pyramid was showing you with six to 11 slices of bread every day. It was definitely not working out for me. So I had to kind of maneuver my own lifestyle and make it work. So then over high school gradually on my own, I went from, let's say, like, 180 to really closer to like 150. I started losing 30 pounds over high school. My friends' parents were like, what are you doing? I'm going to Weight Watchers

meetings. I got to hear what you're doing. So I realized I started counseling my friend's parents and realizing I really want to make a career with this in order to do that. I want to get the credibility to do so. So I got my registered dietitian license. I got my master's degree in nutrition. Started teaching at UCLA, my weight loss seminar, having been a dietitian who was down about like 80 pounds at that point and leading weight loss seminars at UCLA, it was really successful. I taught hundreds of UCLA employees of all different demographics and ages of different struggles and lifestyles. And then I was like, I have to share this with the world. Like not just my private clients, not just UCLA. So I partnered Beach Body and turned it into a video-based program that now, thankfully,

hundreds of thousands of people are doing all over the world and it turned it into a book and everything. And now I wake up every day to help combat the obesity and diabetes crisis in a way that's simple, sensible, sustainable. And now it's like crazy. People are just so overwhelmed by having done not just one, but like some people have done like double digit diets at this point. It's really sad and crazy. So I feel like it's such a weird time. Like I'm not even helping someone fresh, which is why I love working with 13-year-olds and why I love my TikTok audience, because I feel like they're young and they haven't yet swamped into the diet culture. So, like, if I can get them young and fresh and just teach them healthier habits,

they'll be set up for life. But yeah, people are, it's a crazy time in 2022 after people have cycle through too much that they don't even know what to think anymore. As a woman, I think we are all probably a little bit wary of ride sharing. We've all heard horror stories. I personally double, triple, quadruple check license plates and everything whenever I am using a ride sharing service. But now there is a better, safer option with Alto.

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Yeah. And I definitely want you to help my audience, like, sift through a lot of that because we are like just so inundated with, so much information. It's hard to know what is legit and what it's not. So much more simple than people think. That's the craziest thing. When they learn my program and they read my book, they're like, oh, gosh, like, makes sense. Like, you know, it boggles my mind how many people do things that legitimately don't make sense, but it comes out of a form of desperation. And I get it. Like, I was there too. Desperation. And I think there's a lot of like sneaky marketing right now. And we were talking about Harley before we started recording, Harley Pasternak. And he's been on my podcast a couple times and he always says like it's common sense like use your common sense but right now it's so

easy to see the sexy things we want like kind of the shortcut or the sexy thing and not just the common sense of approach. Well what's so sad is what's been made unsexy in the first place. Like that's what kills me. That's why I have like my whole hashtag sexy salads, Lana sexy salads because salads are sexy and beautiful and amazing and you go to all their cultures and countries and people are like so happily eating beautiful veggie most meals, which is like my whole slogan, like what are first veggies most, like happily well with a positive mindset and like adding nuts and seeds and oils and meat and it's fine and feta. But here it's unfortunate that like so many diets called veggies like, you must have this and it has to be bland and if it tastes

good, you're doing it wrong. And like so what's sad is like we've changed and altered in America what's sexy and what's not sexy. And so, like, that's, like, my big thing I'm really trying to do is, like, make salad sexy. Like, I literally try to, like, add, like, all those, like, sexy emojis, like the fires and the flames when making, because veggies are delicious. Yeah, exactly. But, yeah, it's definitely a lot to combat out there. And I think if I can help anyone, it's really the new sexy short thing. Like, if it's not promoting what they're doing in cultures of the world that are living happier and healthier and longer, then don't do it. And they're eating veggies most, you know. Yeah, it was just in Italy a couple months ago. And I mean, they are eating pasta. They're eating bread. They're eating

meats and all of that with every meal. Like I remember the first few days that we were there for breakfast. I was eating like cured meats and like balls of barata, which I never ever eat here. And bread and fruit and eggs and avocado and all the things. And, you know, there's a broccoli. Yes, and there's a big emphasis on vegetables, even though there is all of that other stuff, too. You know, and also we tend to, like, go to Italy and eat like American. Yeah. So it's like if you stay there for long enough and you go to the countryside, you're going to see a little bit different than the hotel culture. Yeah, for sure.

But you really don't, and it's a generalization, obviously, but you really don't see, like, very much obesity there, which is interesting. No, it's, you don't at all. Yeah. It's unbelievable. I mean, we're at a point where it's like over 60% of Americans are overweight. or obese. I think it's actually closer to 75% or either overweight or obese. That's wild. So, you know, it's weird for me because I was the only heavy kid growing up. Like I was the outlier. But now it's like one in five teenagers are overweight or obese. Like versus when I was in the

stage, like it was really different. And now I feel like I'm at a point where it's like complete, my whole life has switched with the culture around me. Well, do you feel at all like the pendulum has kind of swung because also in this time that we're in right now, like, it's kind of a faux pa to talk about weight loss. Which is why I lean all the heck in. Yeah. Because I can. Like, I was really, I was morbidly obese. And I have more credibility in the weight loss space than I think anyone because I've lost 100 pounds. I'm a registered dietitian. I have a master's degree in nutrition. I've helped hundreds of thousands of people at this point with my tips and my recipes and my tools on my social media within my like best selling book, within my program. So like,

we can't shy away from it. And it stinks because sometimes I get pinned as people thinking, oh, just like another skinny white girl talking about weight loss and she doesn't get it. And I've actually been fed that from some trolls on social media. I'm like, oh, my God, I have to show my before pictures more. And also, I have three kids. Like, I've had to, I have a 10-month-old. I had to lose back my baby weight too.

I get the struggle so much, but I also know that. our bodies aren't designed to be carrying so much extra weight. So, like, we should feel happier in our bodies. We should celebrate them. We should definitely have clothes that fit people at every size and so people can feel sexy at every size because you really can't hate yourself skinny. You know, you've got to feel good every step of the way.

You've got to feel beautiful every step of the way. But at the same time, you have to keep going along the way of trying to get into a healthier body weight, which could be classified as the BMI overweight. Like, it doesn't have to be in the BMI classification of quote unquote healthy, you could be healthy and overweight, but it's really hard to be healthy in terms of your body all working optimally without ankle pain and back pain and inflammatory issues when you're carrying, you know, more than 60 pounds of weight on the body.

Like if you go to Harley Pastor, I can you see 60 pounds of weight, like, you know, it does at some point take a toll on your energy, your capabilities and other things. And I'm just obsessed with making people feel as vibrant and energetic as possible because I know I felt very trapped in my body. I felt like I was living in a body that didn't represent the energy and the confidence and the fashion forward love and interest I had. So I'm just obsessed with trying to make women feel more confident and more integral, like feel more in the body that they feel like represents them and their vivaciousness and energy

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in a way where it's not becoming like obsessive because I think so many of us can gravitate towards that end of it. But the word obsessive is tricky. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, let's talk about it. Yeah. The word obsessive is really tricky because we don't want to become, like, people are like, oh, you know, so my core four principles, I always want people to drink water first, have veggies most. So water first, veggies most like, that's my catchphrase. I'm a big proponent of these things. It's for everyone's health, not just for weight loss, but for overall sense of well-being.

We need to drink more water. We need to eat more veggies. So that's first and foremost. And then I have people write down their food of the day, not counting calories, not counting macros, not weighing, not measuring. There's no, it turns red and you start getting alarms when you're over anything. It's not, you know, there's nothing like that. There's no cheating. You have, like, I just had this, like, big chill, frozen yogurt and cookie dough on Sunday. You just write in, big chill cookie dough. Not a big deal. I have guidelines of what you want to be eating, but you could be

eating everything. There's no cheating. I always say treat, not cheat. But if you're having, like, four niblets of chicken nuggets from your kids high chair, like write it in because that will make you more mindful and even just writing down your food without guidelines has been shown in study to make you more mindful and help you lose weight in a really positive way. And then I do believe in the scale. I like the scale. I believe in the scale. I saw like Molly was on here. She's not a fan of the scale. She's also a supermodel that wears like really tight jeans with no stretch. And she said her genes are the way that she gauges where she's at. But if you go to like France and you see they have no stretch in those jeans. If you go to America, our jeans are basically like blue leggings. If you're

going to take the jeans approach, you have to really do it because I always, you know, said go by your clothes until I was like four or five months pregnant with my first child and still in my clothes. I'm like, oh, these things stretch. Like versus, you know, so you can go 13, 14 pounds, sometimes in the same size of jeans. But if you saw like five or six on the scale difference, you'd probably get like, oh, I should probably like rain it in. And I like the scale also because sure, you can gain six pounds, 20 pounds, 30 pounds while still using the scale. But eventually you aren't going to like totally. And I feel like in 2022 with our obesity crisis, also post-COVID, speaking of private clients, it's my role to help, especially private clients, learn how to not gain

weight. Because that's half the battle. Like there's a lot of ways you can lose weight. But through COVID, some people gain like 40 pounds unconsciously or going through a tough time in their lives and moving stuff like that. And then they get through it, which is great, but like plus 60 pounds. And I'm like, okay, so how could we have made it so that you still got through that time? You didn't overwhelm yourself, but you gained maybe nine pounds or 12 pounds because extreme weight gain, that can really mess with the person's health, like just having that spike and then mental aspect. So the word obsessiveness, I think people want to say, I don't want to be obsessed in my weight. So don't be. But, and like if you were obsessive on the past about hitting certain macros or

points or making sure you had like their delivered food packages or something that was unsustainable, then that you definitely don't want to become obsessed with. but there are certain aspects of, like, hitting your water goal. Like, if you have to be a little, like, obsessed with it in terms of telling your friends, like, you need to wait two minutes in the car for me to fill up my water bottle and go to the bathroom until it had come in. Like, that's a well-worthy thing to be focused on because otherwise we spend so much time and energy being obsessed with, like, the Kardashians and global politics and the next celebrity being canceled. And this is your health and your well-being. So making sure you're obsessed about, like, actually looking at the menu in advance and making sure that they're,

veggies on the menu. Like, that's like a two, three minute thing that your friends, my judge, is obsessed, but it will make you feel better. So I think that's a pretty well-worthy aspect of putting some extra time and attention. When I started working with Harley last fall, one of his non-negotiables was hitting 12,000 steps a day, minimum, baseline. And I started talking about it because it really changed so much for me. I didn't even realize how sedentary I was until I started doing that. And his whole thing is a lot. Yeah. So it was very daunting initially. But his whole approach is like, if you have a call or you have a Zoom, like, go walk around. Why do you have to sit at your computer and do it? And I found that I could walk on the treadmill for an hour in the morning while doing emails, while editing, doing whatever work I have to do.

That would get me to about 85. And then the rest I would get throughout the day. Like, no problem. And I made it work. And I understand like people have constraints and all of that. But when I started talking about it, I could not. believe the pushback that I got. Such a healthy thing to be walking 12,000 steps away. But so many people were saying, oh, that's too much, but, but, but. And I was like, First of all, you're from New York. When I'm in New York, like, twice that a day. 20,000 easily or any other city. And there are so many other cultures back to what you were saying in the beginning where in Italy, they walk after dinner together, you know, that you're walking everywhere. There's an emphasis on movement. We're here. We're so sedentary. Getting push back on walking,

right? Like people say. you're obsessed with water. You can't go three days without water. You can go up to, I don't recommend this. Disclamor, don't recommend this, but you can go three weeks without food. You can't go three days without water. Water makes up our blood. Like we're literally just essentially bags of water, our bodies. So the second you pee and sweat, you don't make back what was lost in how our just body normally excretes water from the body. You're out of balance. You're out of whack. You're tired. You're foggy. And then if you get things like skin dehydrate and all this stuff, that's a late stage indicator of dehydration. If your pee is yellow, like that means you are far not repleting the water that you need.

So like, yeah, you should focus on that. You should hit your water gall. You should get all that in. These are well worthy. That's going to make you think clear. Eat better and improve your digestion. All these things that people complain about constantly. A lot of it is preventative.

If you become a little obsessed with taking care of our bodies. Yeah. And it should be celebrated. God bless you. You hit 12,000 steps. You should own it. Like, if I got 12,000 steps, I'd wear a shirt. Oh, I made the Blonde Files Walking Club. We were all about it. It's great. You got to own it. Yeah. What are some of the biggest myths that you see out there about weight loss and just food and, like, wellness in general, I guess? One of the biggest myths I see in nutrition is like a one fits all approach. That doesn't work, right? Like just because your neighbor did really great with intermittent fasting and eating between like a five hour window, it does not mean it's going to work for you.

I think that that's a big myth that everyone needs to understand. And then they get frustrated. And honestly, it also goes if it worked for you 10 years ago, it might not work for you again. So that is like there's no one size fits all. Any program or thing like a packaged food delivery service or something like that that says this is what you're going to do or it's going to be 1,200. There has to be more uniqueness that works in. to your plan, which is by I never prescribe what to eat. I just give people like a framework. And then I encourage and empower them to kind of lose weight within my guidelines in the best way that works

for them. Thank God it's been really effective. But it's hard for some people at first because they're so used to being prescribed something on another diet that it's my program, it's almost like it makes you work a little bit. But what I always say is like the more effort you put in, the more effortless it becomes and then you actually keep it off because you designed it customized to your life. So it works. But I think a lot of people want that like, just tell me what to eat. I'm so desperate. And here you go.

So I have that built into the program, you know, like we have meal plans. Like you can really hold to it and people do. If you follow the meal plan in my book, apparently week three is so much cabbage, people can't. They can't be with their partner or spouse that week. But like you can definitely, definitely follow it if you need that prescription. But you need to have some flexibility so that you're not, like if you're so fixed on having your, you know, one cup of meat sauce and three cups of spaghetti squash. and that's your dinner, and then your friend invites you to sushi, like, you got to go to sushi and know what to do there. So it's definitely flexibility.

It sounds like kind of learning how to like trust yourself. I mean, I can think in my own experience, I've always been small. But my whole Instagram account, everything started back in 2016 because I was doing BBG. I don't know if you remember with Kayla at Sina's. People get massive results on. Yeah, it was crazy. But I was also like, okay, I just kept taking it further and further. further. So I was teeny, and then I got super lean. And then I was like, I'm going to start

counting macros. And oh, I can only, I can sustain it this much. Well, I'm going to cut it down. And it got very disordered. And it got to the point where like, I didn't trust myself. And I was that person where I was like, oh my God, like my friend wants to meet for lunch. Like what am I? I can't do that. And I would bring my tepperware. I mean, it was just like insane. And it completely disrupted that trust that I had with my body. And it was really hard to learn how to trust myself again. So I like that you kind of give people a framework and then they have the work to do. Totally. Because that way you're not, I think it's easy and I get wanting to just have the answers and I'm very compliant. So I'm like, tell me what to do and I'm going to do it.

And I don't want to think about it at all. But then at what point do the wheels come off like when you're left to make decisions for yourself? We all crave a sense of discipline and a sense of surrender. So it's finding that unique balance of discipline and surrender. You know, like one pillar of happiness, there's this brilliant doctor who studies happiness. And he says there's three pillars of happiness like a bar stool. I don't remember what two of them were. But one of them is a sense of control. So you really need to feel like you have that sense of control.

You have that sense of discipline, but you also need to surrender enough that it's livable, that it feels like you can keep with it. Because how I believe is like, I don't want anyone to have to do this again. It's exhausting dieting, right? So I'm so thankful that I figured out my program and approach. I don't have to make myself crazy. And when I have a kid, I'm not scared about losing the weight afterwards because I know that I'll fall off. Like, I know if I follow my program, like, it works.

And I want everyone to feel that sense of empowerment and know that you can actually get the best of both worlds within my program. And that's how I designed it. And if you feel like you touch too much of the surrender point and people get really excited with my catchphrases like, treat not cheat, then they'll just keep treat. Then they'll just keep treating and treating and treating. But then they realize like, okay, wait, I have to dial it back because now I'm no longer in weight loss mode. I'm in maintenance mode slash weight gain mode, you know, and they have to dial it back. And then I teach them, you know, you got to hang on to some of my other little catchphrases

I have. We call them a lonerism, right? So it's like my push-off method and things like that. Or I always say delay not deny. You're not denying yourself the cupcake. But like, do you really need to have it on a Tuesday afternoon? Like, you know that this weekend you have a party, like delay it. don't deny it, right? So you kind of have to play with that balance of discipline and surrender.

So you can get your results, but you can keep them. I am working with my nutritionist, Rob Yang, again. And we had our initial consult last week. And one of the first things he told me to do, which he told me to do years ago, was to add salt to my water. He said that when I'm having gut and hormone and water retention issues, a lot of this, can be traced back to lacking minerals and electrolytes, and that that in itself is a huge stressor to the system. So I personally cannot just do plain salt. I need a little flavor, and my favorite way to do this is through Element. So Element is a super tasty electrolyte drink mix with everything you need and nothing you don't. That means lots of salt with no sugar,

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What are some of the biggest mistakes that you see people make when it comes to their weight loss or just maintaining? Definitely overthinking. I think people make themselves crazy and the all or nothing is the worst thing ever. Like all or nothing gets you nowhere. That's what I would say. all or nothing gets you nowhere. Every single time a person says, I'm all or nothing, you don't get it, I'm all or nothing. I'm like, I do get it. I also get that it's getting nowhere. In fact, it's getting you so much further from your goals every single time you see that line. Because again, it's like

that discipline and surrender, right? You say, I'm all or nothing. But if you're someone who claims to be all or nothing, you know that all sucks. Like your picture of what all looks like, if it's not with my program, it probably sucks, right? You're probably getting up. You're working out super hard. you're like meal prepping, you're planning. It's taking hours and time and effort. You're cutting out your social life. Like it sucks. So you now are dreading it and we're more motivated to avoid pain than we are to

seek pleasure. So you're like you're in this state of nothingness, which stinks because we should never be in nothing when it comes to our health. You should always be at like, at least maintain like a 70% level of health, right? But people like literally can drop to zero in that thinking of like, I'm just going to literally eat garbage, which they, they're. never feel good in that state, but then there's like the point of all or nothing gets further and further apart. So, and then they're like, oh, I'm just going to really go all out because Monday I'm

going to start. And then they push off Monday and then they push it off and they push it off. So all or nothing really gets people nowhere. I think it's a huge mistake people make. And also, I love Molly Sim said this on your podcast, which is so great, is that which was really honest and true. And she said that if she realizes she has to dial it in, it doesn't take a weekend like it used to. Like now it actually takes a little bit longer and longer as she has three kids and it's getting older. And I think it's so important for people to realize, like, it does. Like when I just had to lose my weight postpartum with, you know, my third kid just now, I couldn't like think about breakfast, lunch, dinner, 24 hours in a day.

That's daunting. So I just focus on the first quarter of the day. How much water am I going to drink by 10 a.m.? What's my breakfast going to look like? Can I stay consistent with that? Once you have that going, like literally just start with water first and try to make one meal like based in veggies, like have a salad for lunch, then maybe work in writing it down, then maybe work, like you just have to, it is a gradual process. And even if you maintain that 70%, they'll probably

really prevent weight gain. And a lot of people are like, I hate the weight I'm at. I hate the weight I'm so heavy. I hate it. I had 30 pounds, you're not going to like that more, you know. So you have to be really conscious of sometimes you have to celebrate the fact that you've maintained your weight through a stressful time because, God, I've heard people really, really, really, gain exorbitant amounts of weight. So there's no all or nothing. Our health is too important to ever make nothing an option. So it has to be like maybe all or 95%, 93% to like this 80% range. And, you know, people like to think 80, 20. 80, that's a hard thing to just break down it to ratios. But you should always have some common sense of feeding your body what's good for it. So it doesn't

have to be about the scale, but like eating greens, like in drinking water, that should be because you love yourself, because you care about yourself in a decade from now. Yeah, I love that. I mean, back to what we were talking about before, I feel like people are, think that it's a little bit of a faux pa or like it's not, you can't care about your weight or, but it's not about that. Ultimately, it is about that, but it's also about like quality of life and like longevity. It is part of longevity because you want the best quality of life for the longest. time and that becomes such a big motivator in and of itself. Like people always ask me how I stay motivated to have a healthy lifestyle. And I'm not like perfect by any means. But it's like I want to feel

really fucking good. Like it's self, selfish in that way where I'm like, such a great word to say. It's such a beautiful phrase. I just did this like appearance in St. Louis and got to see a lot of people who are doing my program. And one woman was like, I was like crying when she met me. She was like, I'm so excited. The most amazing non-scale victory. And she showed, me a picture of her on the airplane. Literally was her on the airplane. So I was like, what, like, what am I looking at here? She goes, I'm not wearing a seatbelt extender. She goes, you don't know how big of a deal that is that I'm not wearing a seatbelt extender. Like, she's like, I was really busy. I was like running around before the flight. I didn't even think to bring it, but then I got

on the plane. I didn't need it. She's like, that's one last thing I have to think about, you know, is like, you know how embarrassing it is to like get kicked off a plane because you don't have a seatbelt extender? And I was like, that is a beautiful story. You know, I used to have chub rub that was debilitating. Like the insides of my thighs were, I had to wear a skirt to school. So I couldn't wear pants to school. You had to wear a skirt because I went to like a Jewish private school. And my friends and I, we would like take walks in the summer on the East Coast and all the things.

And I was like out all night because I had like baby powdered the inside of my thighs. Like it was another thing I had to think about that thankfully I don't have to think about now. It's just like it is a enhanced quality of life when you feel more comfortable and in your body 100%. And the non-scale victories are like, I mean, every day I feel like, wow, there's no way I could have done that when I was unhealthy. Not taking care of myself. So to kind of circle back to how we started the conversation, like you said that you started kind of emotionally eating, binging, eating everything in sight when your parents were divorcing. And that obviously became a coping mechanism. And it sounded like it just kind of snowballed a little

bit. So once you finally had that kind of breakthrough where you were like, I don't want to be doing this yo-yo back and forth, how did you then deal with the emotional stuff? Because I would assume that once that coping mechanism was kind of out the door, like a lot of that stuff bubbled up. And I know for so many people in my audience, because they always sending questions, like binge eating, emotional eating is a huge thing. Yeah. The bubbling up is a great way to put it. So it's interesting in my book, I have a chapter on emotional eating, which is emotional eating A to Z. I just defined like 30 different ways that people emotionally eat, right? I coined to this term that I think is still one of my biggest weakness points, which is procrastinate eating.

Like I will procrastinate doing something by just convincing myself that I must have a snack first. And then my husband is here will be like, stop eating. You don't need to be eating. I'm like, I do, I do. It's nutrition. And he'll be like, Alana, if I have to ask you like, won't. more time to read that contract. Like, I am going to get you. So it's definitely like, there's different ways we procrastinate. So over time, I've had to kind of face each one of my emotional eating and within

my book all these emotionally lonely eat and boredom eating, sense of completion eating where you just feel like you have to finish everything. I have so many different ones in there. FOMO eating, right? Like everyone's eating it. I must partake. There's so many things. And so I've identified these as and kind of overcome each one in one way or another. I still totally have emotional eating episodes, like we're human, and it is one of the most culturally, I wouldn't even say accepted. I'd say encouraged forms of coping, especially in America, right? Like, why be hangary? Grab a snickers or like, you see commercials of dove chocolate and it's a mom hiding in her pantry and her kids are slamming on the door. Like, how else you're supposed to cope with your kids being needy? You eat chocolate in a

closet, right? Like, what are we promoting? So I definitely. think like I have moments where I find that I'm eating just because I'm bored or whatever. We're all like that. But with time and identifying and using my tools that I share in my program, I've been able to overcome a lot of it. How would you suggest people bounce back? Because that's another question. Like whenever I do Q&A episodes, which I just did, which is why it's fresh in my head, a lot of people are like, well, what do I do if I binge eight over the weekend or something? Like I think it's hard for people to not have that punishing. Right.

Like, I want people to, okay, when you're eating a food, right, and it's the weekend. And you decide, like, I just spoke to a client, she went camping and she was like, I just got margarita mix, like that sugary high fructose porn syrup, like neon colored margarinex. She's like, I just wanted to have margarita mix. That's all they had. And I wanted to enjoy it. I'm like, as long as in your mind the whole time you're telling yourself, I'm fully enjoying

this, go for it. If your mind turns into a space of it's the weekend. I'll start Monday. Gosh, how bad is this? Oh my God. You know what? I already am over what I'm supposed to do. So now I'm going to go all out. Drop it. I always say just drop the fork at that point because you're now overthinking it. And now you're almost eating in spite of something else. You're eating just because you're not feeling like it's within your plan. So now that you're off, you feel like you should just keep pulling the thread. Enjoy it. Sit down. Allow yourself to enjoy it. I don't want to say forgive yourself. But like, I don't want to say forgive yourself. But like, Stop apologizing, you know? Like, say this is, like literally take a hard stop. Say, this is delicious. I'm indulging. I'm enjoying.

I'm living up this moment. On Monday or Tuesday or whenever I'm back for my trip or whatever it is, I'll rain it in. But at least, at the very least, fully enjoy it. And if your mind and headspace is not in the mantra of I'm fully enjoying this, this is delicious, I can't believe this chocolate is as smooth and rich and wonderful as it is or I'm having such a good time. and these cocktails are just really enhancing my night or whatever it is,

then just drop the fork. And then it's not worth it. And I think that that's like the biggest thing I want to help people do because people think that they might as well keep going. It's like that quote unquote, I might as well, you might as well enjoy yourself or you might as well stop. Right? Yeah.

There's nothing else you need to do. It's so simple. Yeah. And then if you do feel like you went up over the weekend and you want to, quote, unquote, rain it in or bounce back. on Monday, you should really have a good Monday to Friday routine. Like sometimes with my program, it's too overwhelming to think seven days, too overwhelming to think all day. Then literally just focus on Monday to Friday. Once you have a Monday to Friday in a good place, then you'll tackle

the weekends next. And then you could achieve my, what I call WLW, a weight loss weekend. And you can really get it all together. You know, I would definitely recommend more water. More water first. Like really think about 16 ounces of water first, prior to your meals. There's a lot of amazing research I share in my book as well of like how just drinking 16 ounces of water first within 30 minutes of your meal can literally just change the whole scope of what you're going to eat and how satisfied you are and your results that are going to come afterwards. Veggies most. Like don't like not eat. Eat more veggies. You know, there really is so much truth to eating more and weighing less, but really have like that big sexy salad lunch and have another maybe big sexy salad dinner or

sauteed zucchini or a stir fry or if you're going to a restaurant and it's, Like you want the chicken peyard and it comes with mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli. You ask for double broccoli. You're looking the sides. See that they also have sauteed mushrooms. You can swap out the mashed potatoes with all the butter and the salts for something like sauteed mushrooms. Don't be scared of the oil.

It's still a great choice. It's still the vegetables. You could ask them for laid on oil if you choose. But, you know, and then also it's hard. You know, a lot of people are like when this all or nothing mindset, they stay in this nothing, right? And in that state of nothing, they're just eating more and more of these addictive foods, you know? And so like, if you're going to be eating indulgent foods, like, go to a bakery, get something, get a literal, a delicious chocolate croissant, right? But buying like a pack of

Oreos inside your house that's like designed to finish a sleeve at a time, it's different. So that when you try to go back on on Monday, it's going to be a lot harder because you're fighting such a greater sense of addiction. So I definitely recommend, like if you're enjoying or going out or whatever you want to call it. Make it indulgent. Make it kind of something that's hard to get. Not something that you're buying buckets of pints of ice cream for your own house. Like you're making it, it's like a great pizza shop, not within three blocks of your house, but like, you know, you actually drove to Santa Monica or wherever you are to get it, indulgent it, enjoy it, allow yourself to dig in and fully enjoy it. And then you'll think about going into a healthier routine on Monday. But again, it doesn't

have to be 100 on Monday. It just means like 1% better every day. I feel like also that help so much with cravings, or at least it did with me when I was binge eating, because I would like restrict and restrict and not allow myself to have the thing. And then, of course, the one thing that you're not allowing yourself to have is the only fucking thing that you want. And then you're going to eat every other thing except for that thing. And it's like if you just eat that, then like, and I love your point about enjoying it. Then you can move on. Right. Yeah. And just make that thing that if you're really craving like a peanut butter and jelly or I don't know, whatever it is, like whatever is doing it for you, have it. And my best recommendation

is really go to the best place for it, you know? Don't like order a pie of whatever pizza to your house and feel like you're going to eat the whole, and you're alone and you're having like a bottle of wine and you're in like a depressed state. That's not going to fulfill that craving, right? Like call a friend or if you're going to go by yourself, go over yourself, find the best place, you know, make it a moment, really enjoy and indulge in that thing. then you can move on. But it's really out of sight, out of mind of your own space is a great, just honestly, I always say it doesn't matter how, you know, motivating I am or how many tips I am or how motivated the client is or whatever. Out of sight, out of mind, insight and stomach.

You know, I think it's keeping like pantries and pantries of food that really tends to throw people off or keeping things on the counter because then if you keep it on the counter, if you keep a like a bunch of cookies on the counter because you just baked, those cookies are going to stare at you. And then if you're kind of, constantly in this battle inside your house of like, don't eat them, don't eat them, don't eat them, people tend to eat the whole tray. And like that I feel like really messes with a person's mindset versus getting this best cookie in town, having to really enjoying it with a cup of milk or whatever experience makes it work. And then, you know, you can come back to your house and your house

is filled with water and veggies and Greek yogurt and grilled chicken and quinoa and whatever else. Although today there is postmates and Uber and caviar and all of the, you know, that stuff. So it makes it a little bit, yeah, like it's so accessible. You can just get anything whenever you want it. But I do like that tip. Those apps are tricky. Those apps are definitely tricky. So tricky. I've been terrible about ordering out everything lately. Yeah, I mean, if like people I work with who are like single, it's very tempting, right? Because like, why would you necessarily want to get all your cutting boards out and all the dishes and totally? And I absolutely get it. my best recommendation for someone like that is Trader Joe's has awesome. First of all, I have an

amazing solution, but I can't talk about it yet. But stay tuned for the fall because it's going to blow everyone's minds. Very excited about it. I think it's like the best thing I've ever had. Maybe I'll come back on the podcast and talk about it. It's super exciting. But in the meantime, you know, airfriars are amazing, you know, because you're not opening, like you're not turning on the whole oven and everything like that. Mini bell peppers, if you just take a bag of mini bell peppers, you throw them into an air fryer and you air fry them. Ooh. I've never done that.

Also, like, Trader Joe's I always love for like any bachelor, bachelor, I work with or someone who's just doesn't love to cook. They have these great freezer, like chili chicken lime burgers, freezer mahi mahi burgers, freezer turkey burgers. So, and then like the bag of frozen cauliflower rice, you could just microwave. So take the bag of frozen cauliflower rice, microwave it, air fry, the roasted bell buffers. They'll even have microwave brown rice, you know, in the freezer aisle. and then like you have the chili chicken line burgers and that way.

And then you could get any of their jarred sauces, kind of put it together and make it work. And it's just so much more affordable and easy. And honestly, even though it takes time and energy, those apps, if you're in an emotional state or like you went too long without eating and you're feeling really hungry, so tricky because it's like they're prying on all your cravings. But thankfully there's some categories that are like the healthy category. Yeah, and like nutritionist approved and all that. Yes. Definitely click on those. And my best tip for ordering out is always water while you wait.

Because you typically order when you're already hungry and then the food comes 45 minutes later. And you're dying. You're dying. And that's when like all those extra cartons of rice that you really don't feel like you need, it become like they're gone in three seconds. So water, sip water while you wait. Like that's my best advice is sip water while you wait because otherwise, like then you're dehydrated and you're overly hungry and it's 45 minutes later and everything goes

and keeping like a bag of baby carrots or even a can of hearts of palm to eat while you We'll also kind of curb that load so you're not at zero when the food comes. You're like at two or three. Love that. Okay, well, I always like to ask my guess one thing we should start doing today and one thing we should stop doing today. Okay. One thing you should start doing today is take your weight in pounds, divide it by two. So if you weigh 180 pounds, what is that? That's 50, 90 ounces of water, three liters of water. I always say drink three bottles by 3 p.m. drink three bottles by 3 p.m. try to hit that water goal, that half of your weight in ounces goal. And you're just going to feel better. Like your cravings will, like it just helps you feel slightly fuller, more energized, less fatigue and everything else. God, I can go on what you should start doing forever. But water first. I always say water first. So if you're not already hitting a

water goal, you absolutely need to and should. And that's the minimum. You can absolutely have more. And the next question was, one thing we should stop doing. You should stop eating just because, right? Like, I think that that I really want everyone to stop eating in retaliation to a previous diet rule. You know, a lot of people are like, God, I wasn't able to eat that on that diet. So no, I'm going to go hard. It's like that diet is still making money and still prying on innocent people. And you know what I mean? Like, eat for you.

Eat for you. Eat for what you need. Eat for your energy. What you're doing the rest of the day. How hungry you are, what you're feeling, what you're viving with, what, you know, what it is. but try not to eat in a sense of resentment or pain or negativity. If it's something indulgent, it should be uplifting a positive moment, not necessarily eating to help fill a void of a negative moment.

Love that. Well, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. Tell everybody where they can find you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate this. You're so great. My name, Alana Malstein, R.D. on Instagram,

R.D. is registered dietitian on TikTok, Nutrition Babe. And my book is on Amazon. drop it and all the things. What do you like better? TikTok or Instagram? They're such different audiences. I could post the same video on both platforms and they will do so shockingly different. Instagram is really for people who want to learn and be engaged and inspired and motivated.

People on TikTok have no interest in learning anything. They just want to be entertained and think as little as possible. And so I think that that's sometimes really fun too. And I also, I just, I love working with young kids. Teenage clients are my favorite just because I feel like they're so vulnerable and so open to whatever they're going to learn first. And I just really want to be at that point to teach them, just drink more water, eat more veggies. All like the kickats are fine. But like, is there another recipe that might hit that craving and actually help you build muscle and meet the protein and iron that you need to thrive and grow?

and optimize this really important period of growth and development and this stage of life, like, I want to give you that. So I really do love them both. They're like two different friends of mine. Like Instagram is my, you know, friend who's in the same stage of life, I feel like in some way. And then on TikTok, it's like my younger sister. I happen to have a 16-year-old sister and 17-year-old niece. So I'm like, I feel like I'm hanging out with them.

That's a really good way to put it. Well, thank you again. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you liked it, and if you like the show in general, please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes a long way, and it's actually the best way to support the show. Also, if you want to see more about each episode, you can head over to The Blonde Files

podcast on Instagram. I'm always posting about each episode there or over on my personal page at Ariel Lorry. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.