Josh Elledge - Chief Executive Angel
Hi! I’m Josh Elledge, the Chief Executive Angel of SavingsAngel.com and welcome to the SavingsAngel show! I’m podcasting to you from a windy and chilly Orlando, Florida.
I am an extremely busy consumer expert, money-saving advocate, syndicated newspaper columnist, and the guy that turns digital entrepreneurs into media celebrities with UpMyInfluence.com. I love what I do and can’t wait to get going on today’s episode.
In order to help you save more, earn more and live more abundantly on today’s show I’ll be covering:
- Eating For Busy Parents
- Finding an Ideal Balance
- Anti Inflammatory Diet & Intermittent Fasting
- Mindful Eating Strategies
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And as always, if you have any specific questions, or if there is something you’d like to hear me talk about, you can drop me a comment in the podcast feedback, write me on my Facebook group, or call my podcast hotline at 407.205.9250 and leave me a message. I’ll answer your question, write you back, or – with your permission – I might even share your question or story with others on this show.
Have a wonderful week – full of saving more, earning more, and living more abundantly – and thank you for listening!
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00:02
Right with us right now we've got Amanda ward. Amanda, you are from awarding light.com you're a personal friend of mine. And you, you know, you kind of like you're kind of like your own Oprah right? You help people live their best life. And
0:19
I've heard it said like that, I'll take it.
0:20
Yeah. And I should. I'm very, very delighted to have Amanda, in this conversation. This is part two of a three part series. And in this conversation, we're going to talk very specifically about eating for busy parents, and why when we're really really busy with life, how that impacts our eating what we could be doing instead that can really help us to live healthier, if we have extra weight that we'd like to shed, how you can what changes you can make better actually really going to work. And I should say, Amanda, that you and I have been working together. In my first 43 days of following your program, I was able to drop three and a quarter inches off my waist. And all I did was just follow what you said to do. And I committed to it. And you know, it was helpful. I had some check ins with you that helped with that process. But it really wasn't rocket science. And when I say it wasn't rocket science, honestly, the eating is not that complicated. And that's going to dovetail there that's going to feed into what this conversation is all about. As we get started, I want the person who's watching this to know if you're watching this video, there's a link on the bottom of the screen and it's savings angel.com slash 2020. If you're listening to podcast and you want to see the video, Amanda and I talking so far, it's been me going blah, blah blah a lot but trust me, I'm gonna let Amanda have the stage here. But if you go to savings at dot com slash 2020. Amanda, you have a wonderful group was a coaching program, but a community that you've built with accountability and coaching and support and education. And anyone can go to that link right now. And you can get 30 days free. If you decide that you'd like to stay a part of this community, then it's just $10 a month. And I can tell you firsthand that that support that that program, that community is really what's allowed me in and this is just in the past couple months now I've now it's three and a half inches, as if when we're recording this and I suspect it's going to be more because again, it's all about what I did is all about what we're going to talk about in this in this episode in regards to eating. But Amanda, again, thank you so much for joining us, but I want to start off by one question and that is terms of someone says, I would like to lose weight. What percentage of the effort would you say is attributed to what you eat? As opposed to? I'm just going to go exercise.
3:19
Baseline.. 98.9%.
3:25
Wow. Wow, that is that's i and i believe it. So I've done that, like I trained for one of my goals. So I lost a bunch of weight a long time ago, like 11 years ago. And then I gained some of it back. And then I'm like, Well, I'm going to lose that last, I'm going to lose that weight again, and I'm maybe even a little bit more. And so I started training for a marathon. And so I was doing a lot of exercising, constantly running. And you know what, Amanda? I didn't lose any weight I gained weight. In fact, during that training program, and it's, you know, I would look and I'd say, Well, I burned 800 calories today, I should be able to eat 800 more calories of food, and it doesn't work out like that, does it?
4:13
Oh, no, not even a little bit. It's so much more complicated with that. I can't even like that's funny because I hear a marathon here, right? Like I run a marathon so so I totally get it and and that's the thing as somebody who just kind of offered us a tiny bit of self disclosure to this point is that I'm, I worked out most of my life. But over the past year, actually, last summer, I kind of say kind of because I didn't it wasn't all or nothing but I really took a big hiatus from my intense exercise I basically entered into a season of rest and that was to deal with my own autoimmune struggles and some energy deficiencies that I had. But my I'm human doesn't matter that I'm a wellness coach or therapist. It's I'm human, and I had that initial gut fear of Oh my goodness. I'm going to gain weight, I'm going to get fat because my body isn't moving, it is not the metabolism, all those things we've been taught, right? I'm healthier now than I was when I started. And I did not gain a pound. And it's, it's so that's what I mean, when I so confidently say 98.9% of it is food. Um, it's not as simple as, as calories and calories out the way even though we're starting to be taught differently, and there's a lot more mainstream functional alternative medicine being taught. We really have it ingrained in us that calories in calories out is how we lose and gain weight. But it's really about energy, right? Like to your point, you know, if you start working out at a level that has you burning so many calories per day, your diet, your body's going to adapt to that it's going to learn it has to function at that level. And so maybe maybe there's a little bit of weight fluctuation as you start or stop working out either side of that spectrum, but it's not very long before your body is going to find its new set point. It's going to find a new way to To live and stay at its new homeostasis, whatever that is.
6:04
So, what about the advice? Eat less, move more.
6:11
That advice makes my skin crawl.
6:16
The government gives that advice.
6:18
I know and I don't watch the news so there's that,
6:23
but um I can't tell you how many people have come to me and have said you know that has been recommended to me please help me find a workout please find it helped me find a fitness schedule that fits this need right. And and what we have found in almost he said, you know, mentioned some people you've worked with, like, I can't tell you how many people I've worked with where I've actually had to coach them to eat more, and train less. I you know, I have these avid every now and then I get a beautiful woman who comes to me and she's like, I'm a triathlete. And I'm at this and I run six days a week and then I lifted this and I go to work. theory or CrossFit or whatever, and it's like, That's awesome, so glad you're pumped about that, how you feel, you know. And so really what we end up doing is, is finding the balance that works for that individual. And it is not always eat less and more.
7:15
So we'll talk about that 1.1% of the filler formula. In our next episode in this one I want to speak specifically about eating is but so just look for Episode Three because truth be told exercise as on a lot of benefits. But weight loss is, you know, just one of the benefits and honestly, if you really want to shed weight my experience, Amanda is you in you can you know kind of go much more into this. It's and it's not. I have let me let me just let me let me share my story real quick on on the first time that I shed my fifth seven pounds of weight or 60 pounds of weight. It was sheer white knuckling. really low calorie didn't really do any exercising, but it was just just calorie restriction. And I stuck with it and I was so miserable during the process. I lost the weight. But guess what? I gained immediately. Like I dropped all that weight immediately gained 15 to 20 pounds back. And calorie restriction alone is probably not the best strategy for long term health and vibrancy and and staying at a healthy weight.
8:46
Why is that? Oh my gosh. Well, I mean, you just nailed it right there with the long term peace. Again, when we talked a little bit about human psychology in the in our first conversation, but in an Change is going to create an initial reaction, it doesn't matter what area of life we're looking at, right? So if you start restricting calories from your body, it is automatically going to say, Oh, we have Oh, well, no, we don't have enough. And that's where weight loss comes from, right? Like it's burning more than it's taking in, right? Well, after a period of time, your body was made to adapt. Like, this is the way we are made. And if we weren't made to adapt, then we wouldn't be here, we'd all be dead. Because we wouldn't adapt to all of these challenges and stresses and changes in life. So your body goes, Oh, you're changing things up on me. Okay, I'm going to learn how to operate at a lower level. I don't need as much food called metabolic adaptation. When you get to that point, that's what people call plateaus. It's go Wait a minute, what's working, why isn't it working anymore? And suddenly, they find they have to either restrict more, right or be okay, gaining their weight back. And that's a new way to live.
9:56
That's exactly what happened to me. And so I'm so Now with your group coaching program what you do is you teach healthy eating principles. You and I were able to do some individual coaching as well which you offer and by the way and this is not I don't make any affiliate This is an affiliate relationship or anything like that on your $10 group $10 a month group coaching program which is amazing. And if you just the person who's watching or listening to is again savings Angel comm slash 2020 which is the year you will be able to get 30 days free to and they they've got what what do you have in terms of like the the education like you've got videos that you offer? What can you kind of share what what is included in that, Amanda?
10:46
Yeah, actually just just in the past year, we've launched an online classroom component to the group coaching program and you can go into that that classroom and it's ever growing it's ever developing and keep accumulating over time. But there are user friendly guides that are reading sources, there are modules where what we cover in the platform, the communication platform of the group, which we'll talk about in a second. That stuff is being added to this online library. Because the communication really does happen inside of a Facebook group. It's kind of that channel of communication where I pop out some education every day. And then I put a check in a daily accountability posts at the end of the day. So we book in the day with influence, and accountability. And then everything that happens in between is up to you in your life. You're checking in, you're asking questions, you're not you're waiting until the end of the day and then reviewing your day. You're getting that that first. Several of my clients tell me first thing in the morning, you know, we talk a lot about routine and so I'm a big believer in routine creating structure and security. And when I say security, I don't just mean safety. I mean, it secures the rest of your day being what it needs to be. So a lot of times I have people tell me that they get up, they drink their water, they do their repetitions of whatever it is And this is all very individual work. And then they check into the group and they say, Okay, what is my focus for the day, you know, maybe I'm teaching about intermittent fasting, or maybe I'm talking about anti inflammatory foods, or maybe I'm reminding you what lunch could look like today, that sort of stuff. So it's kind of constant influence that is not only available as needed, but available in a consistent manner, so that you're building a cushion around your your core desire, which is to be healthier and to be your best year.
12:29
You know, a lot of people will be tuning into this, and you know, they're just looking for, you know, information on what to eat, or what they shouldn't be eating. And that's very, very common with what people are looking for. So let's talk about a couple things. Yeah, the first thing I want to talk about Amanda is something that you stress a lot and even though I was like wow, okay, I guess I'll do it is this is kind of an anti inflammatory approach to eating. Why are you a proponent of that?
13:05
Oh my gosh. Okay.
13:08
I mean, all I can say is it works even if I don't agree with it at work. Right. I don't agree with it. I just didn't, I don't really have a lot of information on an inflammatory diet, but I could just tell you that, you know, cutting out dairy and caring, cutting out peanuts and cutting out, you know, a lot of the gluten in the breads and that sort of thing. first season. Right. Right. I was like, Okay, I can't argue with the results. I I feel great. I'm not crashing. Okay. I'm answering your question. I'm so sorry. Amanda, I'll let you I'll let you explain why you are a big fan of anti inflammatory diet.
13:46
Well, and it's fun that you're answering the question because that means that that means that you didn't just follow a program, lose some weight and be happy about it like you are a completely different vessel of knowledge now because of what you've gone through. And that's point we glean information for ourselves and we become what we know. So anti inflammatory, maybe it's not a word you see plastered all over the next big diet. But at the end of the day, what that means is eat real food, because our bodies were made to process real food. And truth be told so much of the food industry has become about creating the tastiest, quickest, cheapest version of whatever it is that people are wanting. And, and that stuff is stuff, it's not food. And so what you what you get is what we've already talked about, there's a there's a parallel effect with how we're made and how we live there for any stimulus. There's a reaction. So here comes this food that's not really food, and it's additives and its colors and dies. And maybe the animal it came from was pumped full of chemicals, whatever, there's a million different ways this could happen. And your body goes oh, I don't know what to do with that and it reacts to it. And it reacts with inflammation. And you don't have to look very far on Google to find out that inflammation has been identified as the number one source of illness, weight gain, you know, chronic disease, pretty much every problem we have comes from inflammation. And so when we address physical health from a standpoint of inflammation, we Okay, well, I have to stop putting in what my body is inflaming around. And as soon as you do that, all of that inflammation goes down. And not only do you get your initial spike of what we see on the scale or in our pants as weight loss, you also start to feel differently and you start to feel more. And so anti inflammatory diets not only help us lose that inflammatory bloat and puffiness that we're carrying around, they also open up our consciousness and help us to understand ourselves better. And remember, that's a huge component about the way I teach wellness is you have to be able to read yourself you have to know your body and what it means and how it's feels best. So anti inflammatory diets are really the gateway into understanding what I can eat what my body doesn't like. And so that that brings us to, you know, understanding even some food sensitivities. And this is where I go back to that umbrella statement of like, one specific way of eating is not for everyone. You know, there are some people who can eat grains and who can eat dairy. And that's amazing. Good for y'all. And then there are some people who know how much of each thing that they need to not eat, because they've opened up the space to be able to discern within themselves what's best for them.
16:34
Yeah, you know, another thing, Amanda that I think a lot of people have been hearing about a lot lately, especially Gosh, over this past year is intermittent fasting, which if you're not really familiar with it, or it sounds either scary or weird, like whoa, I'm not going to eat during a period of time. What that seems unhealthy. Can you kind of share a little bit about your insight on IAAF. And I should say that that I am a proponent of it in a very way. And apps, I could just tell you from a user experience that yeah, it takes a few days to week to really kind of adapt and like, respond to what you thought were hunger sing signals differently. So it used to be that I would have these what I felt or felt like hunger signals at night, and I say, Oh my gosh, hunger, I need to take care of this. And then I would go and I would eat a bowl of cereal and, or something right and something. And so through the exercise of, you know, being in an eating window or not an eating window. I've learned to acknowledge What really is hunger? And what is, you know, just kind of like this pattern that I had developed? Boy, there's so many benefits health benefits to allowing your body to rest. And like you maybe I wouldn't even know I just finished a book by Dr. Jason Fung. So like my brain is like, you know, floating with, you know, knowledge about the benefits of allowing your body to rest and but I could just tell you that from from again one more user experience from this is that it's just a lot easier to stay on a healthy eating program and not mindlessly eat things that don't support me in my eventual goal, which is weight loss.
18:56
Yeah, absolutely. And I mean that's the ticket right. There is different galloping mindfulness, which is a skill, and we can all access it, but truth be told our influences in our environment and diet culture, kind of deter us from from building that skill. And that's where a community of support and accountability comes in, like, you know, and really is very helpful. But with regards to the intermittent fasting piece, I'm going to throw a blanket statement out there first and say that, you know, individually speaking, it's not for everyone, and there are many reasons for that. And it's not that Oh, it's healthy for some and it's not healthy for others. No, I mean, you know, Dr. Fong is an expert in intermittent fasting and you know, probably from reading that book, but you could also do a quick you know, PubMed search and see the research is there. This is this is something that's good for us cycles, seasons, bouts of rest and bouts of doing right. This is, again, I'm talking parallels, but it mocks the way that we're supposed to be living and in that regard, so many of us are already practicing some level of intermittent fasting already. Unless you are eating through the night, right, the the occasional midnight snack here or there, whatever. But in general people are not eating between the hours of hopefully like 8pm and and when they wake up in the morning, but but the research is showing us that your body actually hasn't even fully processed or digested or detox the things that you took in yesterday for a little bit longer than that. So it's super simple like the way that I recommend it first for people to play with. It's not health, it's not dangerous or risking your health at all is to practice what would be considered like a 14 to 16 fasting, our fasting window followed by that that next level of eating so I call it 16 eight, so maybe you finish your dinner at 7pm Okay, the goal now is not to eat until 11am the next day and so you give yourself that 16 hours to really allow everything to happen and I'm we just talked about inflammation but this is a big big factor in decreasing inflammation in our body is actually giving your body the time and space, it needs to get things where they need to go, and to get things out. And so maybe that's a little bit of a struggle for someone at first, but so they usually breakfast at 7am. And they're going to push it back till eight and see how that goes. And then they're going to push back on that and see how that goes. It's not an all or nothing fail or succeed process, you dip in and out of it over time, we just develop a cycle for the way that we give our body time to do what it's supposed to do.
21:30
You know, you know, and I just had a friend asked me, you know, which is better keto or intermittent fasting, and I'm like, why is it an either or thing. And so I think he's just looking for a way that he could do this right. And so, an easy way that you can, you could just dip your toe in the water is a great place to start with intermittent fasting is it is what's known as a 16 eight which basically says you're going to eat within an eight hour window. So for me, that was generally 10am to 6pm. And that was my eating window. And then if it's after 6pm That's great. I'll just wait until tomorrow morning, and then I'll eat then. And so just that exercise alone. And you know, do that for a week. Do that for a couple of weeks. Do that for 30 days. And don't worry about set going to I'm only going to eat, you know, matter one meal a day. Right? Yeah. Or, you know, start doing you know, 2436 hour fast. Oh, yeah, it about that stuff at the beginning. Like, just get comfortable with the, you know, just being much more aware of, well, you know, what you thought was, and again, this is for me, this is user experience. It's training yourself to not freak out when you have that slightest tinge of Who am I hungry right now. You know, maybe I should No, you actually don't need to and what I found Amanda, is that because I responded differently to those very quiet, you know, you know what I would consider hunger before I just don't freak out ever that I you know, if I don't eat, like for let's say it's like I ate a 10 and I was just really busy at work and I'm like, Oh my gosh, it's dinnertime. I don't even notice now. That is one of the gifts that intermittent fasting will give you is it you're not a slave to your hunger pains or suppose it hunger pangs.
23:43
Yeah, now I couldn't have said that better. It definitely frees you up from food. It is a strategy to distract yourself from the obsession of food that we've gotten caught in and you know, you hit on that mindset and psychology piece again, with we we find ourselves in the trap of scarcity, you know, it's like, oh, I gotta eat now or I'll never eat again or Oh, right, I gotta go because the hot and ready sign is on. So I have to go now, you know, we get this. And it's just this urge that comes up and we respond to the urge and that's that immediate gratification piece. So again, this is a great place to say that when you have the accountability system in place, you know, oh, yeah, I have to talk about this. This is a thing like I'm working to not do that anymore. becomes a conversation.
24:28
Yeah, well, man, I know you've helped a lot of great people with your your community and again, savings Angel members, you get 30 days free. Don't be telling all of Amanda's out there people about this. It'll be our little secret. But you can get those 30 days free if you go to savings angel.com slash 2020. And again, there's a save I don't make any money on that. I just absolutely love the work that Amanda is doing. I believe in it, it works. I was able to drop over three inches in 43 days. off of my waist, so I mean it, the anti inflammatory program, Amanda that you coach and again, you could just go in, watch other videos, you know, jump into the resource join the community get going. And if you decide you want to stick around, it's just $10 a month. And Amanda, what are some results of some people that that you've been able to work with? Like what what kind of stories have you been able to be a part of?
25:28
Guys they make me smile and I you know, you get a little a little off guard there but just a couple. One one person dropped 30 pounds and ran a marathon within a year had had Yeah, and it's so fun. The reason that one pings in my mind so quickly is because I also teach fitness classes locally and she happened to be a local but also a member of the virtual community. And, you know, every time she picks up a 30 pound dumbbell, she'll go, Oh, this used to be me, you know, so that one sticks very close to my heart. Several marathons have come out of the coast. coaching group. That doesn't have to be your goal, but you know,
26:03
right, right? That's
26:04
a thing. And then I could never do that, right? Yes, you can.
26:08
I think I saw a band like that. For me. That was one of those things that I felt like I could never do. And by the way, I listened. You don't have to do a marathon like a half marathon. 10 k five K, like, if that's your big, audacious, like, Oh my gosh, I don't know if I could ever do that. Like maybe or ride a bike for 20 miles for me, Amanda, my first goal in running was to be able to run without stopping, run to the back gate of my big neighborhood subdivision area and back, and that was four and a half miles. And that was like, I can't imagine doing that because running around the block is painful. Yeah, I know what that's like. And so being able to run four and a half miles without having to break into a wall The first time I did it, I cried, because I was like I, you know, I've never been an athlete in my life. I was the heavy kid in school, and I was never good at sports, and to be able to do something like that. And then eventually, you know, for me, I did have a goal of wanting to see if I could run a marathon. What provoked me was at the time, we're not going to talk into it, because we know, we know how this ends, but biggest I was watching Biggest Loser. And we'll keep our commentary, pithy on that. But one thing that they did do in season seven is at the end of it, they all ran a marathon. Yeah, you know, they're doing some running and walking and that sort of thing. And I'm like, man, if these guys can do it, I can do it. And sure enough, you know, I dropped a bunch of weight train for and finished my first marathon. And I ran the Disney marathon here in Orlando. And one of those things, I thought, No way, no way. I do It's like if other people can do it. And again, marathons. You know, that's
28:05
right. You know, your marathon today
28:08
is a huge, huge deal for a lot of people and now might be your thing.
28:14
Well, and you know, it doesn't even it's not even specific to running like, I think just the words like I could never because I am too unhealthy to have too much body weight, whatever. The idea is, is that that's your marathon. And you know, it's coming up running my
28:29
way with my kids in the park for an hour dad
28:31
to do five push ups on my toes. I had there's a woman in the group who quit smoking because she was scheduled able to get so close to understanding how her body felt that she used that support to be able to stop this habit she didn't want to do anymore. There have been people who you know, this is not a claim. I am not a medical professional, but there have been people coming off of certain medications because they no longer need them. So your marathon is specific to you just like your wellness is
29:01
Well, Amanda Ward, my friend, thank you so much for for joining us and having this conversation about eating for busy parents and how we can eat in a way that will support our health a little bit better. Again, I I'm going to sell you I love that you shared that 98.9%
29:23
of the my number. Yeah, yeah,
29:25
yeah. But for again, Episode Three, we're going to talk about that 1.1% we'll talk about all the other benefits that you get from exercise too. And and I'll share some of my own experience with that as well. So Amanda Ward again, just go to savingsangel.com/2020, 2020 and you could join Amanda for free for 30 days. And then if you decide you'd like to continue to be a member, then it's just $10 a month. It's a wonderful support community that's going to help you hit all of your health goals for 2020. Amanda, thank you so much for that. offer. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. And we'll chat with you in about a week or so for part three. Thank you.
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