Episode 234:
Show Notes  

Episode 234: 
Transcript

Dr Mary Barson (0:04) Hello, my lovely friends. I am Dr Mary Barson.

Dr Lucy Burns (0:09) And I'm Dr Lucy Burns. We are doctors and weight management and metabolic health experts.

Both (0:16) And this is the Real Health and Weight Loss podcast! 

Dr Mary Barson (0:17)  Hello, lovely friend. Welcome to our podcast today. Dr. Mary here and I am joined in our virtual studio by the fabulous and wonderful, very clever, very talented Dr. Lucy. How are you lovely, Lucy?

Dr Lucy Burns (0:33) Ah, well, after that intro, how could I be anything but good? It is always nice to know that there is a champion in your pocket, a doctor in your pocket, actually, who is championing your well-being. So thank you, my love. 

Dr Mary Barson (0:49) Self-esteem. No worries.

Dr Lucy Burns (0:50) We all need our own cheer squad. Excellent. So no, I'm great. I am really great. Christmas is upon us in a bit over a week, Santa's descending down the chimney, all of that. So I'm great. What about you, my love?

Dr Mary Barson (01:08) Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. It is a busy time of year. By the time this goes out, I would have finally gotten the other side of the million and five dance concerts and recitals that we do at the end of the year with my beautifully gorgeous, fantastic, fun, talented child who loves to sing and dance and children who love to sing and dance do a lot of singing and dancing in December. Indeed. It's all good fun. And I've been, yeah, been volunteering at concerts and driving her around and putting makeup on my child, which is like very terrifying and all those things. And yes, Christmas, Christmas is coming in a little over a week.

Dr Lucy Burns (01:48) Indeed. And I'm also expecting that you have purchased your four-foot Christmas tree and decorated it by now.

Dr Mary Barson (01:53) Yes, yes. Look, we got a big one. I caved to the tyrannical pressure from the 11-year-old, and it is up, done, beautiful, and dropping pine needles all over my floor. And yeah, less said about that, the better probably.

Dr Lucy Burns (02:18) All right. Well, today, my lovely friend, I thought we'd talk to you about some tips and tricks that you can use for the next kind of two weeks of Christmas, because honestly, when the food season starts ramping up, you know, and many of you have probably already been navigating Christmas parties and work functions and, you know, extra barbecues and whatnot. But we thought we'd just give you some mindset tools that you can implement and make Christmas both a time of joy and fun, but also not a time where you're just on a bender doing all the things.

Dr Mary Barson (03:00) That's right. Yep. You can find a calm balance through multiple ways. There's not just one way to navigate Christmas. There are lots of ways to do it. And you can, you can really be calm, be happy, enjoy your food and stay true to your health goals. Stay true to your values. It's totally possible. It doesn't have to be one or the other. It's not like having fun or being healthy. Absolutely not.

Dr Lucy Burns (03:29) No, no, absolutely. So, okay, this is coming out. It's now December 17. Christmas is in eight days. And then we've got the post-Christmas sort of bonanza. So some people's Christmas includes Boxing Day or a couple of days afterwards, all the way up even to New Year. So let's talk about some tactics or some steps people can put in place in order to reach their goals or at least maintain their goals. And I guess the first step therefore is to determine and have a little think about, well, what is your goal for the next two weeks? How do you want the next two weeks to look?

Dr Mary Barson (04:10) I think that's a great idea to have an idea of what it is that you want. Do you want the next two weeks to be a time where you only nourish your body with helpful and healthy foods? Or are you happy to let that slide a little bit? Do you want to stay calm? Do you want to just let it all go and pick up the pieces in January? You are the boss of you. You can do whatever it is that you want. But having a good idea of what you actually want is useful. So you can navigate this time with intention rather than just being pulled along by the expectations of other people. Decide what you want and then you can go for it. So make a plan and your plan can be whatever you want it to be.

Dr Lucy Burns (05:03) Yeah, the plan doesn't have to be perfect. That's for sure. And I know for lots of us, you know, recovering perfectionists that years and years of, you know, dieting and diet language has always talked to us about things like, you know, having cheat days or breaking your diet or going on a bender or falling off the wagon. They're all the sort of words and phrases that we use, but they don't have to be like that. Part of our focus this month has been our digital advent calendar called Santa's Little Helper, as well as our Momentum Toolbox. And one of the tools in the toolbox has been a downloadable, what we call the Adult Star Chart. And that's really a way of just documenting your goals. So when we talk about that thing where you have to be, you know, have a concept of intention, you can have a think, right, well, what would I like to achieve? You know, well, I'd like to eat well for, let's say, of the next two weeks, 10 days. So if 10 of the days I stay on my low-carb plan, and I eat whole foods on those 10 days, then, you know, yeah, I've achieved my goal. Now, again, you get to then decide, well, on the four days that you're not on the low-carb plan, are you on a bender just eating everything in sight? Or are you kind of just going, well, I'm just going to be a little more moderate and, you know, I'm having my family Christmas and, you know, my aunt makes the best pavlova ever. So on that day, I'm going to have a piece of pavlova and, you know, maybe I'll have a couple of cocktails. That's quite different to going, oh my God, I'm out of, you know, diet jail. And now I'm eating everything I can grab my hands on and sort of almost just feeling that complete out-of-control scoffing that can be done.

Dr Mary Barson (07:00) Yeah, that's right. You don't have to have an entire box of Cadbury favourites on your day off just because you're deciding to have a day off staying perfectly on plan. That's not going to be helpful.

Dr Lucy Burns (07:12) No, I love the concept of all or something. So, you know, yeah, you don't have to go all in on a day that's not where you're not on your, you know, your perfect plan. You can still be moderate. And look, again, this is a funny story that's not related to Christmas at all, but I just, I vividly remember feeling like, oh my God, I've made it whatever this holy grail of sort of having food freedom is, which was when we were on holidays once and we were with a group and we ordered fish and chips. And I thought I'd ordered grilled fish. And anyway, my fish came battered and I thought, oh, so just ate the battered fish. I didn't really have any chips. I might've had two and there was a bit of a salad and then everyone else went and got ice cream as well. And all of me would have been going, oh, well, I've buggered it up now, you know, might as well have the ice cream. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, if I'm going to have ice cream, I'll have a triple and, you know, a thick shake and whatever else I've not had for the last two weeks, I'll have it all. And instead I just went, actually, I'm okay. I'm done with my one bit of fish. So you can decide at any stage exactly how it's all going to look.

Dr Mary Barson (08:29) Yes, absolutely. I reckon another important part of this, you know, planning to go off plan if you want to is to just recognise that you might feel a bit blah, you know, that day later on and that, you know, a bit of sugar can make you want to eat more sugar. And I think it's really important to be aware of that and that the next day in particular, you might, you might feel a bit tired, a bit achy and the particular sugar cravings after having a day where you eat more sugary food, sugar cravings can wake back up again. They may be asleep while you eat low-carb real food and, you know, and that's a lovely peaceful place to be, but they could wake up again. And just being aware of that and having a bit of a plan around that, I think is helpful.

Dr Lucy Burns (09:22) Yeah, absolutely. In fact, I was talking to one of my coaching clients about this exact thing this morning where she'd had a holiday away, had had probably four days off plan during that time, had come back from a holiday and yeah, had some body aches and was so interested in the fact that she used to feel like this all the time, but didn't notice it. And so we were saying, it's a bit like when you've got, you know, the air conditioner, or if you're outside, there's a pool filter going and you just tune out to it. And then it stops and you go, oh my God, it's so peaceful. This is lovely. So calm, peaceful. And then it starts back up again. You go, oh my God, it's so noisy. How can it be so noisy? And it's a bit like that when you reduce your carbohydrates, particularly processed ones, you go, oh my God, my brain fog's gone. My joint pain's better. My muscles are working. I've got clear thinking. I've got so much energy. This is amazing. I can't believe it. And then you eat some sugar again, or some processed carbs and blah. So yeah, I think you're absolutely right. Recognise that that might happen. And so when we, again, being the ex-diet lady, what I used to do was when I'd had a day like that then I'd go, oh, well, I've been so bad the day before. I'm not going to eat today.

And kind of try and punish myself. I wasn't even necessarily punishing myself. It was more about trying to, again, in my brain think, oh, I need to reduce my calories. I've had too many calories yesterday. So I'll balance it out with none today. And then it'll be okay. Except it doesn't work like that.

Dr Mary Barson (11:05) Yeah. You could be setting yourself up for a fall there. If you've had that a day of sugar and the next day, your insulin is going to be high.

Your cravings are going to be increased. Your cortisol is going to be increased. All of these things are going to happen. It's probably not the time to do fasting. And also we are strong advocates of never using fasting as a punishment or in any kind of punitive way. It should always be a loving act of nurturing. Nurture yourself with some intermittent fasting. So it's actually a great day to feed yourself. I can feed myself really well. Even if you're a two-meal-a-day person, that might be a time to have three meals, rich in protein, have some fats, make sure you get a bit extra fluid, a bit of extra salt, just really fill yourself up with good food. That'll help with the cravings back to sleep and help everything just get back into balance again. 

Dr Lucy Burns (12:00) Absolutely. Yes. So first step, visualise what goals you want. Don't just be a leaf floating down the river. Be proactive in your decisions for the next two weeks. Second thing, if you do plan to go off plan, that's fine. Just notice that you might have some physical effects of that and that's absolutely okay. And part of the physical effects of that is waking cravings up. So we're going to use real food, highly satiating and delicious. Okay. Again, don't forget it is delicious, highly satiating and delicious real food that will then just help pop. Those of you who know us well, know our analogy of Fluffy, the three-headed Cerberus dog from Harry Potter, who in the story is asleep when the music is playing. And in our story, he's asleep when our process calms are low and he wakes up when we introduce them again. And yeah, if you just have one little thing, it might be just one head waking up, but if you've had a few days or a few weeks, you might find there are three carb-craving heads. And so again, it's about having tools and strategies to put him or their back to sleep. So that's step two. Step three, what else have you got for me, Miss?

Dr Mary Barson (13:27) If you want to stay on plan, it's having some tips and tricks about how you're going to do that. So how are you going to navigate the potential minefield of attention? So having a few little tips in your metaphorical tool bag there. So one, I reckon if someone comes at you, you know, Aunty Mary, Aunty Mary, I made these, I made these, have some cookies, have some cookies, have some cookies. What are you going to do in that situation? What are you going to do for the potentially well-meaning people who want to push you to partake of processed carbs and sugary foods with them?

Dr Lucy Burns (14:09) Yeah. And again, I think it's about, again, you're the boss of you. So, you know, if this is a beautiful little child or someone who's really well-meaning, they've done this and they've specially bought it for you, you don't have to say to them, no, I'm not having that. I don't eat junk. You may want to say that. You may say that. Again, you're the boss of you. You can say whatever you like, or you can, you know, graciously accept them and then get rid of them in whatever way you want. And that may be regifting, might even be composting, might even be putting them in the bin. And people go, oh, I can't put it in the bin. They've made it for me. Honestly, they don't know. Like once, once you've gone home with them, you can do whatever you like with them. Doesn't take away from their joy of giving it to you and your joy of receiving it, what you decide to do with it once it's home in your house is up to you. So again, you're the boss of you. You can decide whatever you like. One of the things I think is super helpful, again, noticing is our exposure to images, visions, smells, whatever it is of a particular food, particularly around Christmas, where there's often, you know, the unique spices and all of those things that come with minced hearts or, you know, that cinnamon flavour or whatever it is, it might be unique to you and your images of Christmas. Recognising that you may decide you don't want to have it. And you might be able to stick with that decision over a couple of exposures. But by about the fourth or the fifth exposure, you kind of feel your resolve crumbling a bit. And so one of the things is working out, can I reduce my exposure to those sorts of foods? And for me, it has been life-changing online shopping, as in supermarket shopping, I have way less exposure to marketing tricks. And so again, at Christmas, they're everywhere, you know, there's little chocolate who has all over the place. And particularly post Christmas, when the chocolate Santa's half-price or the advent calendars are being kind of thrown out for 50 cents, your brain gets tempted and goes, Oh, that's a bargain, I better get it. When really, if you don't go to the supermarket, you don't get exposure to it, you don't need to make any decisions. Now, that doesn't mean I ever never, ever go to the supermarket, of course, I still go. But I've reduced my exposure so much that is no longer an issue for me. You've stepped away from the queue.

Dr Mary Barson (17:02) And how could we extrapolate that particular mindset strategy for like a Christmas buffet table or a family barbecue or something like that?

Dr Lucy Burns (17:14) Yes, I think there's a couple of ways. So the first thing is to again, you've decided to plan, let's say, again, you're the boss of you don't have to do this. But let's say you've decided that you want to stay on plan and that you want to continue with your low-carb foods. And if you're going somewhere, where you can bring a food product that you want to eat. So we now know that there is almost no food that you can't replicate with some sort of low carb version of it. You can make a low carb pavlova, you can make a low carb trifle, you can make low-carb just about everything. You can make fancy kind of charcuterie boards, you can make fancy Christmas wreaths with, you know, people that are very creative with cheese and salami and rosemary and all sorts of things. So it doesn't have to be that you're, you know, the negative Nancy sitting in the corner feeling like the, you know, the only person here who's not partaking, you can absolutely still partake. You just bring your own versions. And honestly, what you'll find is that probably you might have to fight people off for it.

Dr Mary Barson (18:26) Yep, totally. All those things are delicious. That's right. You can also eat around the food that's already there. I mean, meat, salads, they're going to be there. We're in Australia, it's summer. So, you know, that's barbecues, salads, white wine in the sun. This is kind of what Christmas is like. Down here, up north, I'm told that it gets cold around this time of year. So Christmas can be quite different, I imagine. 

Dr Lucy Burns (18:55) Yeah, Santa does seem to be kind of gallivant in some snow. 

Dr Mary Barson (18:59) Yeah, yeah. It's always very strange to me to imagine a cold Christmas. But yeah, you know, your meat and veg, you can absolutely do that. And it's totally doable. It's totally doable. And eat around the food that's already there. You know, you can absolutely partake of the veggies and just the meat and the salad and leave the bread. You can have a little bit of your low carb cheesecake that you took and not eat, you know, Aunty Sally's trifle if you want to. You absolutely can eat around the food, pick and choose and make it work for you. If that's your plan.

Dr Lucy Burns (19:33) And the other thing to recognise, again, scarcity is a mindset. So when our brain goes, oh my God, you're never going to have this opportunity ever again. You know, there are some very deep-seated reasons why our brain goes to that. Because in the past, that was survival tactics when, you know, we had very seasonal, and I'm talking about when you actually had to hunt and gather your food, not when the season was determined by, you know, whether it's Halloween lollies or Christmas lollies. But back when we did have to hunt and gather, there was scarcity. And it was helpful for our survival mechanism to be able to stock up on those particular foods while they were there. Because, you know, we may be in for the lean winter. Well, in these days, there's no lean winter. There's no scarcity. We're not missing out on anything. Every single food source is available all year round. Christmas shortbreads, you can buy any time of the year. They may not be in the shape of a tree, but they're still there. Christmas chocolate is there any time of the year. Scorched almonds, which I always associate weirdly with Christmas, they're also available all year round. Minced tarts, you can actually get them all year round. I don't know why, but you can. I mean, I know you're a minced tart fan, Miss. I'm not particularly. But everything, snowballs, they used to only be at Christmas. They're all year round. Everything's available all year round. So there's actually no scarcity. So a little mind thing that you can do is, again, it's not about denying yourself this. It's you can talk to yourself about the idea that, well, this is not my last opportunity, but I'm choosing or I'm wanting or I'm not partaking in it right now. And that can help your brain think, oh, my God, I'm never, ever, ever getting it again. Because you can. You just might not choose to have it now. And then later on, you'll go, actually, I don't really want it anyway.

Dr Mary Barson (21:50) I love that. Just delay. That's it. Yeah. Another tactic is to focus on all the wonderful things of nourishing your body with good food, nourishing your body with, you know, delicious food and why choosing the low carb cheesecake that is so helpful to your health. Just focus on all the wonderful, good things about that. And you can really focus and think about all of the deleterious effects of having the processed carbs that can also really help bring immediately into the short term, you know, the reasons why you want to stay on plan and not go off plan and make it just so much easier for your beautiful brain. It's like you cultivate a joy of missing out rather than a fear of missing out, which is so much easier.

Dr Lucy Burns (22:33) Oh, absolutely. And I think deflecting the focus away from food at gatherings to the connection, I mean, that's really what they're about. It's about the connection with your friends, your family, people that you want to be with. And the food is the sideshow. So the main event is the connection. And so as part of that, again, practical strategies are, you know, move yourself away from the buffet table if that's where it is. Like I tend not to stand there. I'm one of those people that can, food, I can hover, food hovering when food is right in front of me. There are people that have food in front of them that don't seem to have any trouble not eating it. A platter of something that you pick, if that's in front of me, I have a hand that just seems to like to reach out and get whatever it is and put it in my mouth. It's good self-awareness there, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I know. And it's not related to hunger. It's not necessarily even related to desire. It's just this thing that sort of seems to happen to me. And so it is a lot easier for me to not have a bowl of food in front of me or within hand's reach because for some reason, as I said, it's like a separate being.

Dr Mary Barson (23:55) It'll just find its way in there. Yeah.

Dr Lucy Burns (23:27) And again, you know, then I spend my whole time kind of feeling like I've got to sit on my hands. Then I can't connect with anybody because I'm spending my time sitting on my hands. So if I'm not near it, if it's out of my mind's, if it's out of my sight of vision, what am I saying? Field of view? My eyesight, my line of vision. Yeah, line of sight, something like that. Yep. Yeah. Then it makes my life easy. And don't we just want to make life easier?

Dr Mary Barson (24:26) Totally. I think that's a beautiful, gold trick. There are so many things you can do over this busy time to make that right thing easy and the unhelpful thing a bit harder and be the boss of you, have an intention, stick to your intentions, have fun, connect, do whatever you want. But if you want to stay on plan with your health goals, at least mostly, and you don't need to be perfect, it's absolutely doable.

Dr Lucy Burns (24:53) Absolutely. And again, just note that if you have a slip, let's say you've decided that you're going to stay on plan and for whatever reason that doesn't work out, again, we don't need to lose twice by then beating ourselves up about it. We want to go, okay, that wasn't what I wanted to do. What were the reasons? And maybe examine it if you want to, because the next day is still around the corner. Okay, what could I do differently? What do I need to do next? 

Dr Mary Barson (25:22) Yep. I love it. 

Dr Lucy Burns (25:26) Perfect. All right, lovely friends. Well, we'll see you all next week with a little episode just before Christmas. So have a spectacular week and let us know how you go. 

Dr Mary Barson (25:37) See you later, gorgeous ones. Bye.

Dr Lucy Burns (25:41) The information shared on the Real Health and Weight Loss Podcast, including show notes and links, provides general information only. It is not a substitute, nor is it intended to provide individualised medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, nor can it be construed as such. Please consult your doctor for any medical concerns.

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