 So welcome to the Dr. Gundry podcast today. We're going to talk about yoyo diets one of my Favorite things to talk about so according to today's guests a staggering 80% of dieters fail to keep their diet or Eventually regain the weight there. They've lost. This is actually really true. So how do you stop that? So we're going to welcome Eliza Kingsford Eliza is a psychotherapist and weight management expert who argues losing weight and maintaining it in the long term is more about your brain and Less about what you put in your stomach, which is going to be very intriguing to have her explain this So Eliza welcome to the Dr. Gundry podcast. Hi. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here so your brand brain powered weight loss which is Fascinating and it says 11-step behavior-based plan that ends over eating So let's start with the word Dieting which I know in your book you talk about how you don't like the word and I hate it too What does it mean to you? About dieting and why should we reconsider this as a term? Yeah, you know, I think some might be surprised about why I hate the term and really It bothers me mostly because of what's happened in our culture And and sort of the mainstream culture when you when you say the word diet You think about in the 80s and 70s and sometimes early 90s Dieting was all the rage. Everybody was on it. Everybody was on a diet And it was very popular to be on a quote diet at that time The pendulum has now swung to the exact opposite end now. It's very uncool to be on a diet It's very uncool to even say the word diet, right? If you're dieting, it's almost become a four-letter word It's something that's seen as bad or we associate negative feelings with the term diet and and in reality Diet is it's just a word like any other. It's just feeding and so What I see especially in my clients is that as we attach as a culture positive or negative aspects to it It becomes something other than what it is It's just the makeup of food that you put in your body and now we've made it this Scary bad four-letter word that we can't even talk about or we shouldn't even say because it's it's some against public opinion right now Popular public opinion, I should say and who knows what it's going to be in 10 years from now, right? So we can't attach such emotion to a word. It's it's just a word. It's just what food makes up our everyday choices And so that's why it bothers me so much because I see the impact with the clients on What it's done emotionally to them Yeah, you know, I see on the internet all the time, you know diet contains the word die and Of course many people somehow associate the idea of going on a diet is dying But you know the word is very pervasive You know recently because of the you know first of the year there were a lot of articles out on the top 10 diets and Lo and behold the dr. Gundry diet, which I didn't know there was one was one of one of the diets discussed and I went What's funny? Didn't know I had a diet. So and now you do. Yeah now now I do and one of the top 10. So whatever that means Okay, so how do you get people? so obviously you're kind of long range goal in helping people is You know anybody can lose a few pounds and that's why these diets are so popular But as as I personally know losing a lot of weight and keeping it off is actually very different So and tell us kind of the statistics. What you know, what are the statistics about weight loss? Yeah, I mean depending on which statistic you read and believe it's it's up to as much as 95 of people Go on a diet and then we'll eventually regain that weight back again and as you said it it It is considerably easier To shed a few pounds or even a considerable amount of weight It's it's much harder to keep that weight off In the long term and that's both for biological and psychological reasons And if you're not looking at those two things two sides of that coin together I find that you're making a big mistake and it makes it much harder and to be successful long term So when when you use behavior in changing people's approach to this Do you do you have them have a long term goal? Or are we talking about action steps like the 11 step behavior plan that that you talk about in your book? Yeah, that's actually a really good question that no one has asked me yet but a fascinating one and I think it's both it is And actually rather than a long term goal It's it's actually changing a person's identity from someone who wants to get somewhere To someone who is just someone new right? So instead of my goal is to lose 20 pounds It becomes I am just a person who does these things And it may not sound like that big of a deal But if you are always engaging in this mindset where you there's a finish line involved or at this point I can stop Then subconsciously what you're telling your brain is I'm not really this person I'm that person and we want to flip that In and create a different mindset where someone just becomes a healthy person They embody the mindset and the behaviors and the goals Subsequently that a healthy person would have they they become someone new Yeah, I think that's a really good point. I blogged several years ago about my my wife absolute penny loves bread loves it and It's you know, one of the greatest evils known to mankind, but It was she was so, you know fixated on giving up bread And she said, you know, I know it's bad for me. You know, I love it. But I gotta give it up And so we finally turned it into a positive that you know, I am a person who doesn't eat bread And exactly and it was actually one of the best things that that she did Because then when the bread comes to the table as it always does you go, you know No, um, I I don't eat bread and of course they look at you funny In fact it happened actually this week at a restaurant. So but that's sort of yeah becoming you're not denying yourself any but You are this person who doesn't eat bread Because that denial is really powerful. You're right. Your wife can probably attest to it is when you keep saying I can't have You know, or that i'm not allowed to or that i'm not eating it right now you make bread Bigger than it is we make bread really special. Don't we and I can imagine that your wife would say That it's actually not that big a deal for her and maybe she says, oh, I know that bread would have tasted good or maybe there's the Normal amount of yeah, I did like bread and I do like bread But it is not as emotionally or psychologically impactful when the message is that she's telling herself on a daily basis It's how she's restricted From it right and that she can't have it and she's not allowed These are really powerful subconscious messages that we tell ourselves and and you made such a perfect point with it That it becomes I just don't eat bread and therefore bread becomes much less special and not that big of a deal So you you work with a lot of young people and you you've got a new camp that is starting up in the summer Tell me about particularly as you know, we have this incredible crisis in Kids and young adults in obesity and I I see them in my clinic as well and There's a there's a general sense is well kids can kind of eat in anything because they're going to burn it off and Eventually they'll grow out of this stage But that old way of thinking clearly isn't working now. That's right. That's right Let's go back and first of all tell me about the programs that you now have That you're just starting I guess and number two Specifically in those programs, how do you help kids? Get out of this mess we've created. Yeah, it is a mess that we've that we've created and Some of the pushback that I get for working with kids is that I'm sort of perpetuating this diet culture But in reality What I see in the families that we work with we work with with the child and the whole family Is that they're in a lot of emotional pain? They are struggling with Feeling like they're in bodies that don't feel right to them or that feel uncomfortable And they just don't know how to get out of that and all of the information that they get is conflicting And what do I do? And the parents feel guilt and it ends up being this big emotional mess And so if we just ignore it and keep saying that kids are going to grow out of this This crisis this epidemic that you're talking about is just going to get considerably worth We have worse we have to stop it where it's starting and it's starting younger and younger So empowered wellness is is the program. This will be our second summer that we're running But myself and my staff have been running these types of obesity and weight management programs for a combined 30 years at this point and what we have found is that During the summer we can provide an opportunity for youth and young adults to come to a program where there's a lot of Shared experience camaraderie. It really has this summer camp feel they're doing all the things you can You know, you would imagine we would do at a summer camp But we also provide a lot of education and experiential activities. So There's a body image group stress stress management groups social media literacy and learning how to be a conscious consumer of social media Understanding how food plays a role in their coping skills and coping mechanisms They do individual sessions with a behavioral coach to help them understand their specific unique individual barriers to success And all the while they're doing cooking classes and nutrition classes and playing dodgeball I mean it ends up being a really fun summer camp experience and One of the biggest takeaways that we hear from our parents is that these kids are learning self-esteem stress management strategies and coping skills that they're not learning anywhere else in their daily lives That are applicable to many areas of their lives and not just their weight and body image But weight and body image is of course where my heart lies and and I want them to leave feeling empowered To make to know how to make the decisions that will end up getting them to where they want to be Not just telling them what to eat or how to exercise. It's not as useful as teaching them How to make the best decisions for their stuff for themselves. So that's that's our focus Okay well, so we we know what you know from the biggest loser that Exercise clearly Does not Intense exercise does not result in long-term weight loss. Right. Uh, unfortunately Uh, although, you know, it's interesting uh, not to kind of veer off but years ago I was involved In this tracking of people who had successful long-term weight loss And we had to you know check in every year And one of the conclusions of that study was that you do not need to exercise to lose weight Number one That's been proven by hibernating bears as I like to remind my patients If you don't eat you will lose weight But what was interesting is most people who were successful at long-term weight loss Had an exercise program that they enjoyed So, um kind of take it from there. Let's talk about, you know Intense exercise to lose weight versus an exercise program that you like What's your thought on all this? Well, I think you said it right there Um, the the key word in all of it is enjoyment um, and and The enjoyment piece of it is not in my opinion just for sustainability But anytime In my opinion that you are fighting yourself and that you are forcing yourself to do something that you that you really don't enjoy Something happens psychologically emotionally and I believe physically that um that impacts your progress And beyond just the sustainability of it. We talk about it with food too that Anytime that we are Fearing food or fighting food in such a way. I believe it actually gets metabolized differently But as far as exercise is concerned One of the things that we do so well at empowered wellness is expose them to all kinds of different movement We call it joy of movement. Let's find, you know, I have 11 year old boys who end up loving zumba Who knew right and figuring out something that feels really fun and positive and for some people That's thrown on a podcast and taking a walk Um, but you're right. We teach them Right away that it's not about this strenuous Vigorous exercise that people feel like they have to fight themselves to engage in now me personally I actually really enjoy some strenuous exercise if I enjoy it It brings me joy. So okay, that's one type of physical activity But there's a whole array of other types of physical activity that if you can find Joy in it if you find it fulfilling if it releases endorphins and and and positive stress hormones And then now we're on a different path and it's not only sustainable But it brings you joy in your life. It reduces your cortisol levels The impact of it is less this calorie in calorie out equation And more from the holistic broader sense of what it brings to your life Good point so All right, so you've got these kids and you're teaching them Different feelings about body image and you're trying to get them into something they're going to like to do One of the other things that you stress in the book is developing healthy obsessions So What is that and how how do I get a healthy obsession? Yeah Well, if I had to guess you probably have one Already and tell me if you relate to this, uh, I do get some pushback on the healthy obsession as you can imagine but sadly once we have have gotten our bodies to this state of overweight and obesity as you know The biology perpetuates itself and it fights against Going back to a healthier weight And so you have these underlying mechanisms that are working against you when you're trying to maintain a healthy body weight, right? We have to and you know, I'm sure you would argue that there's certain food that turn on and off these mechanisms and all of these things but in reality In today's society and our modern food society and with the pace of life with which we're living If we aren't living with a healthy obsession if we just sort of go with the flow and eat what we're given and and You know the lack of moving and the lack of time we have in our lives if we just go with the flow We set ourselves up for obesity without really even trying we live in this obesogenic culture um We don't have enough time to move We don't have enough access to healthy foods unless we go out and seek it so The definition of this healthy obsession is just sustained preoccupation With planning and execution of healthy behaviors used to reach a healthy goal And all that really means is if you're someone who wants to be healthy You need to actively and daily and consistently seek out the choices in both Food and movement food more importantly as we just talked about That are going to bring you closer to your goals instead of further away I liken it to someone who is training for an athletic competition, right? If you think of Well, we'll take tom brady. For example, I don't know how you feel about the patriots, but here we are post super bowl Tom brady doesn't wake up one day and say I don't really feel like throwing the football around today. That doesn't get him to winning multiple super bowls He has created a healthy obsession In order to reach his goal He has planning an execution of his target behaviors every day to get there And people who maintain a healthy lifestyle and a healthy body in our current food environment And it's my belief They have a healthy obsession. They get up thinking about what am I going to do today choose today How am I choose to eat today and how am I going to choose to move in order to maintain my healthy form Versus I'll just see what happens, right? So, okay, so the the naysayers watching this You're in bolder colorado one of the healthiest places to live in america I live in southern california also depending on the smog level one of the healthiest places to live but What do you tell the person in Des Moines, Iowa And it's 20 degrees below zero and you may or may not live in a food desert Okay, how do we deal with this come on you, you know People from boulder and santa barbara be realistic How do I how do I accomplish this where things aren't perfect? I can't find the perfect food And maybe my thought of a perfect food is a pizza with only one topping of pepperoni rather than the extra three toppings of pepperoni Yes, well, you bring up a couple layers of good question there. I mean My definition of a healthy obsession is what is healthy for me, right? so the person in Des Moines, Iowa needs to Examine and be aware of and be really honest with what is the healthy definition for them? so You know a nurse who works the night shift and sleeps during the day or something like that is going to say to me Well, when am I going to exercise and I'm going to say to her. Well, what is applicable to your current environment? What are the things that you are willing to change in your current environment in order to get you to where you want to be Right and healthy obsession is not about perfection It is about a consistent and committed focus to the To the behaviors that are going to get you to where you want to be so for that nurse in particular and you made you made this The example about the pizza. I'm going to make the tough argument that A pizza with just pepperonis instead of a pizza with the seven toppings that they still put on before It's still a pizza that pizza is still not going to get you to where you want to be no judgment on my end But is it going to get you to your goal? Yes or no Then you make the decision that you're willing to make Within those guidelines, right? So for this person who's saying well, I took all the toppings off my pizza Isn't that better? I'm going to say well, sure. It's better But it's not my goal that I'm trying to get to it's your goal that you're trying to get to That pizza is not going to get you there that those are just Those are just facts. We don't have to attach any emotion or morality to that right? That's just the fact right So what what do we do with particularly the the kid the young adult? Who who's got a trigger and maybe it's shaming at school? Maybe it's on social media And that trigger hits them and they head for their comfort food whatever that might be You know back in the good old days. I could go through a pound of peanut m&ms without you know without without thinking I haven't done that in a while In fact, I think in 20 years So how do you help you know mentally with with those triggers? Yes, well, and that's um actually the the book there is uh is Exactly Well, it is and it's the it's sort of the the paths to It's less about not eating the m&ms ultimately that's the case, right? but it's more about how do we get to be the person who doesn't choose the m&ms and Backing up from that and and and looking at the steps to getting there. So first it's awareness, right? You somewhere along the way said, huh? I keep eating these peanut m&ms Maybe you said why maybe you said when maybe you took a look at if and when you used m&ms as a coping mechanism And this is these are some of the things that that the book walks you through you have to first become aware We have to understand our triggers. We have to be honest about our triggers We have to be honest about the people surrounding those triggers and we need to replace the coping mechanism That's not serving us read the peanut m&ms Right that ends up ultimately making you feel guilt and shame after eating them And not really helping the situation that triggered you to begin with so we make all these connections And then we replace the m&ms with a different And more adaptive coping skill that will end up working for them in the long term We try and take out the middle man, which would be the m&m So what would you replace the coping skill? Just let's stay with the m&ms. What's the coping skill to replace the m&ms that you would teach? Well, it's a good question. It depends on what the trigger was, right? So the coping skill needs to be Um, it is usually in a response to the trigger. So in in our kids In in our kids sense, it might be bullying at school, right? So they had somebody they they they were bullied at school Well, we break down and help them come to their the conclusion on their own Does the peanut m&ms help the bullying then ultimately through that process? The answer is well, no now I feel worse because Of all the you know, all the reasons that come with the guilt and shame after after eating all the peanut m&ms You know m&ms and then we brainstorm things that might actually help the bullying, right? Is it Talking to the friend that you do have that's close. Is it connecting with a family member? Is it doing something that makes you feel empowered? Is it writing? Is it journaling? Is it, you know, there's there's you connect Individually with each with each child and there will be some motivating factor that actually does make them feel good Or fills them up versus leaving them feeling guilt and shame like the peanut m&ms And then you end up teaching them how to replace that coping skill. How do I recognize my trigger? How do I replace it with a coping skill that actually does work for me? And how do I repeat that process over and over and over again? So, you know, I'm curious about your background. How did how did you how did you get started working in counseling in the weight loss space? There's usually a there's usually a trigger. There's usually a trigger You would be right about that. Yes. Well, I um, I when I was going through my graduate studies in in counseling I always gravitated towards eating disorders and disordered eating behavior Um, and certainly I struggled with my own Body image and disordered eating behavior. I couldn't quite figure out What I was supposed to eat. This is when all the diet craze was was around and when I was in you know, high school and junior high and and and just Developing a sense of body image. I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to eat And I became fascinated with that emotional connection with our with our body And our mind and our nutrition and how those interplayed off of each other And so after my graduate studies, I ended up working a lot in eating disorders But what I really gravitated towards were people who are struggling with excess weight Obesity and overweight and that's when I started working with kids who were struggling with with obesity Um, and I fell in love with this with this connection between the brain The conscious and the unconscious and the food that we And our nutrition and how it plays into our body image the way we show up in the world the way we relate to people How we interact with our lives has a lot to do with how we relate to our internal self So this is really applicable to every part of our lives and that was fascinating to me So do you so most of your work is in the The overweight and the obese Primarily kids or do you see all range of life? I actually see all range of life. Um, believe it or not. I do some private work with adults Our camps do young adults and In teens, um, but I have worked with all ages Every age you can imagine I have I have worked with them. Okay, so Speaking of eating disorders, there's always the fear That when we start talking about making food choices or when we start talking about weight That somehow that's automatically going to trip some switch in a 12-year-old girl that's going to turn her into an anorexic or a bulimic or both Uh, what say you what say I yes You know throw me like a lamb to the slaughter. Um, what I would say is I think there's a big misconception that as we start talking about Food and and bodies and body image that it automatically triggers a an eating disorder in my experience both working with Quite literally over 10,000 youth at this point in my experience There is a a percentage and it is a very small percentage of people that I have seen come through our programs Um, who have felt like they've struggled with an eating disorder and every single one of those kiddos came in with it And did not come in and then choir it right while while they were with us and what I'm in the point I'm trying to make there is that There is a very specific etiology or origin of an eating disorder To be categorized as an eating disorder anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa It is a very different etiology than what I see with the kids struggling with obesity and overweight There are also some um, you're sort of genetic and biological triggers for eating disorders. So While there is some relationship and small percentage I would say that it's the vast majority of kids that are that are struggling with something more like Disordered eating right that they have this Struggle with a body image in relation to their food decisions. That is a much higher percentage um, but the truth is this fear of Not discussing food and not discussing healthy behaviors is not helping either right so there is a Way to talk about it That certainly is not going to suddenly trigger an eating disorder in a child But not talking about it either is not that helpful I find okay, so So what do you advise? What sort of advice do you give to parents and kids about making Choices in the kitchen for instance You spend a lot of time on that or Not not so much in food preparation or okay. Here's our choices. Here's what here's what might work for you Yeah We do we spend a lot of time in it as you can imagine and as you also can imagine it has Changed through the years as the science and the research has changed and what we know now about A healthier diet there's that that word again Really when I'm working with families the most important thing that I stress is that Health is a family affair One of the biggest mistakes people make is oh, I have you know One son who can't keep weight on him and one son who can't take weight off of him And so we have special food for this kiddo and special food for this kiddo That's not going to work for anybody So fan so health is a family affair You either need to decide to be healthy as a family Or you need to decide to let food be free reign now I prefer everybody be healthy as a family But it doesn't help the kiddo who's struggling with weight and body image issues to become what's called the identified patient Right, there's something wrong with this kid over here So we lock this cabinet and they can't have access to that food Never helpful If you're asking about what we prescribe specifically nutritionally What we have found works best for this population and I'd be curious to know if you disagree But this this push towards nutrient dense whole foods Overall is is is what we adhere to and becomes really important to us. We think it's very important What the kids eat not just how much the kids eat in fact more important What than how much So we explain what a to us a nutrient dense whole food is Food in its purest form, you know, it's close to mother nature as humanly possible And if they're willing stay away from and and and there's no need to touch processed foods and foods without a sugar Um, and we talk a lot about what happens the brain and your ability to make Healthy decisions for yourself when you're consistently eating a lot of processed foods as you can imagine with teens This is a difficult conversation. These are the ones who Are very susceptible to processed food. And that's a whole nother whole nother conversation That's a wonderfully addictive stuff so speaking of teens What's what's your feeling about the impact of screen time on all of this epidemic? and any thoughts on how you help parents or even the kids develop habits with screen time I get this all the time at camp and Have seen the progression over it up It's seen the progression of it over the last 10 years And how that's actually changed our youth One of the first things I tell parents As much as I can is you are still the parent and so to the extent that you Are having struggle or finding trouble with screen time remember that Just because everybody's friend has the phone and the ipad and the tv and computer in the room Doesn't mean that you have to follow that those, you know those those same quote requirements I often tell parents to sort of take back the household in the sense that If your child is struggling with screen time, there should probably be some structured time around it I I always tell parents no screens in the bedroom I'm especially at bedtime, right? When when when it's so important especially for our teenagers to be sleeping and and what I hear is Yeah, but how will they wake up in the morning? They need their alarm and what about the music to go to sleep and I chuckle and I smile and I say Man, I had an alarm clock and it worked just fine And we buy them for all of our campers at camp and we say here's your alarm clock I'll teach you how to use it. Here's this news button Here's how you wake up, right? So we forget that We we don't have to go with conventional wisdom. You don't have to go with the flow I believe that screen time is just becoming another unhealthy coping mechanism for our teens another way to numb out another way to To find reprieve from whatever they're struggling with and of course when we were kids We didn't have things like that. So we were either outside Or we we sort of had to learn to cope with whatever anxiety or stress was coming up for us naturally as a teenager And our kids aren't doing that as much anymore. They're reverting to their screens In order to numb out those feelings I don't want to be I don't want to sound the alarm or anything But I think we have yet to see the long-term impact of how much Screen time is impacting our children's brains So speaking of screen time, are there any apps that you like for healthy eating behavior or God forbid tracking calories I Not a day goes by that one of my patients says this is the greatest app, you know I can look at my macronutrients and micronutrients and calories and what do you think? This is a tough one and I and I actually if I'm honest, I feel like my thoughts on it has changed through the years I believe especially with teenagers tracking is important Just because I think that it is so Quickly and unconsciously easy to overeat without even really trying Now I also don't believe that any one of us have a calorometer inside of our bodies And know exactly how much we're supposed to consume on a daily basis. So that's not the point It's not for restriction purposes whatsoever. It's for information. It's awareness, right? We sort of you can't monitor you can't manage what you don't monitor type of thing But we use tracking in a very different way It ends up being Was I hungry before I started eating and am I full now and did this amount of food Get me to fullness or was it really this amount of food that got me to fullness to help them really understand their innate hunger and fullness cues, which I think is really important And certainly with a lot of processed food those hunger and fullness cues are almost entirely turned off, right? We need to reduce that so Realize it's a wishy-washy answer But but I do think that if you're going to use an app to track I mean things like my fitness pal And and other apps like that are good for informational purposes only Right one of the things I don't like that they do is is set up the number of calories and then as you eat them It's something like You can have this many calories left throughout the day and you're relying on some computer to tell you Whether or not you're hungry or full or you've had enough or I can't have any more I don't like that piece of it, but I do think some Data and information is useful, especially when you're just starting out so you can say Oh, I didn't know I need this much or I didn't know I didn't need this much Yeah, you know, so speaking of Addictive foods you you come down pretty hard on food companies in the book Have you gotten any pushback from them? I know another woman food babe, certainly I think relishes the pushback from these companies What what are you here? I myself have not gotten personal pushback From the food companies yet think thankfully But I think My biggest issue is that I work with children and children are very susceptible To things like processed foods and added sugar. They're susceptible to the marketing They're susceptible to the addictive properties in the food and what we know is that You know, once you go down this trajectory It's very difficult to backtrack and these overweight and obese kids become overweight and obese adults So we're we're setting them up for failure And I know the food companies argue that we make our own decisions, right that it's free will and If you don't like this fake food then just don't eat it. Well, my argument Is and continues to be If there are food scientists whose entire job is to understand the part of the brain That lights up when you crunch this chip in a certain way How can we then not deduce that that would have a negative impact on someone's ability to make a good decision about that food? It doesn't make sense to me So I am constantly teaching these kids About what's happening there unconsciously on their part and and how to fight against it I find that once they're off the processed food, which they get when they come to us that it's easier for them to make Good decisions about that going forward Yeah, there was an amazing study published probably now 10 years ago about the appleton school district study, I'm not sure if you know about appleton, wisconsin Started a program where the kids would eat Their breakfasts and lunches in school and they would be all organic foods And then they would they taught the parents what would be appropriate to Serve at dinner, but they didn't have any control over that And they did this actually for a year and what happened was that behavior issues virtually Disappeared from school the testing scores went up and The trip the trips to the principal's office Dramatically went down and the truancy rate went way down what's really sad about the whole study which They then wanted to Institutionalize it so they brought in a major food service company to run this And I won't mention names But the minute the major food service company came in and started running it Went right back down to normal because they were basically sneaking in the process cheap foods again so But for anybody look at the appleton school study, it's Fascinating I will yes, so one last thing and I want to get back into the The 11 step behavior and you talk up you talk about the smart plan Give me one smart thing for our viewers to take away from all this sure so a a Oftentimes when people are becoming someone who is a is a what we call a long-term weight controller or a healthy person They stumble in making very nebulous goals. I want to feel better. I want to look better You know, I'm going to do this better And it doesn't serve them. It doesn't serve their brain, right? And so at our program And in the book I teach you how to make smart goals and people have probably heard that acronym before if not It's specific measurable attainable realistic and timely And there's a there's a really good reason for making a smart goal It teaches your brain not only The steps that it takes to achieve a goal, but the more times you achieve a goal the better you get at achieving goals, right? and so What you want to do in a smart goal is make sure that it's specific Measurable attainable realistic and timely. These are the parameters of the goal. So as by way of example One of your readers might say I am going to include two cups of leafy green vegetables In my dinner four times a week Very specific. You can measure whether you did it or not. It's attainable. You're not saying three pounds It's realistic if you hate vegetables now just adding it in is realistic You didn't make it seven times a week. You made it four times a week You made it just your dinner and timely, you know when that goal starts and ends And so We teach I teach my readers and we teach our kids at the program how to consistently set and achieve smart goals And how to adjust them To make sure that they are a stressful. They're you know, not something you already do every day But also something that's attainable on a consistent basis Okay. Yeah, that's that's great. I yeah, I I used to actually blog for jillian michael's uh many years ago and there was People would always ask me about setting goals And I I really think that the idea of setting a goal is really dumb because What happens when you get there? Now, what do you do? Uh, you know, okay, my goal is I'll lose 20 pounds Okay, now that I've lost it or you know, get in that dress for you know, grad for Prom or to you know, get to my tenth high school reunion in this dress or this suit The minute you attain that right Yeah, it's like well, it's like tom brady Okay, he's won, you know 12 billion super bowls and you can guarantee that tom brady after he went to disneyland Um got you know right back on his program because his program was really not about winning the super bowl Right, it was being the best tom brady can be and I Doubt 10 20 years from now he will change, you know at all because it won't be about winning super bowls anymore Yeah, so you make the point between an end goal and a process goal, right? So a weight goal when people are and I don't have people set weight goals either I think they're ridiculous. You don't have a lot of control over your weight goal But setting a process goal And it teaches you how to become the person you want to ultimately be And here is the process to get there rather than setting an end goal Like you said where there's an end in mine and then one so it's a process goal rather than an end goal That's a good distinction Okay, great All right Well, listen has been great having you on and as I mentioned when we start we always have an audience question at the end So, uh, let's take it and please feel free to chime in here So savannah asks I have a friend who wants to start the 30 day program That's the plant paradox 30 which by the way you can start at any time So she wants to start the 30 day program, but she's allergic to nuts Any ideas for on the run snacks she can eat during the first week of phase one Well, so there's all sorts of great snacks that you can carry with you Uh, I actually like to cut up broccoli and cauliflower and carry them, you know around in a little baggy when I'm desperate When I'm traveling on the road I'll often carry nuts So I think nuts are probably the best thing you can do But there's no reason you can't take certain bars. You can check out the bar approval list We won't mention any names today But take bars with you and you'll be you'll be fine for that and there are a lot of bars that do not have nuts Any thoughts for snacks without nuts? Those were the things I was going to say cut up vegetables and if there are any approved bars, although I prefer to eat You know real foods first. It sounds like you do as well A bar is always a good grab and go. It sounds like you have a list of approved bars that they could choose from Okay, very good Well, Eliza, it's been a great time having you on the show Where can listeners find out more about you and your work and your book? Absolutely. Thank you. Yes. Eliza Kingsford.com is the website empowered wellness.com is the summer program for teens And you can find all the information about where we are and what programs we have coming up on either one of those sites Hope to see you there And it's in santa barbara. So she's right down the street from me over next to UCSB my wife saw my mother so I can tell you santa barbara in the summer Can't be beat good place, right? All right. All right. Thanks again for being on and good luck with the program and teach the kids Huh? Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. All right This has been watching the dr. Gundry podcast and tune in again next time because I am dr. Gundry and I'm always looking out for you Exciting news my friends my new book the longevity paradox is out now Like the plant paradox. This will be a game changer in helping you live a long vital life So pick up your copy now at your local bookstore barns and noble or amazon or my audio book Which I actually recorded this time and make sure you tell your friends and family about it