EFR 845: #1 Tool to Keep the Holiday Weight Off, Mindset of Losing 100 Pounds, Childhood Obesity and How to Jumpstart Your New Year's Health Goals with Ilana Muhlstein

00:00 - Chase (Host) The following is an Operation Podcast production. What was the hardest part about losing over 100?

00:06 - Ilana (Guest) pounds. Yeah, I think the mindset piece Like just eat this and don't eat that, and it seems so simple. But then what do you do when you want to self-sabotage? The environment itself can make or break a person's weight loss journey. I find that there's a big environmental shift in December, with it being darker outside and kind of just gloomier, but you still have the joy of the holidays, you're off of work, there are more parties. There's also a lot of loneliness and depression that occurs Compensate healthily, right. So a lot of people, when they gain 15 pounds in December come January now they think they have to do something so extreme, they think that they have to cut everything out. They go on these like wild extreme cleanses that are unsustainable, unhealthy. You bite it, you write it, you drink it, you ink it, you nibble it, you scribble it, but it's without judgment and you keep moving on.

00:52 - Chase (Host) So are you saying the best thing I could probably do to make my environment as conducive as possible, no matter where I go this holiday season?

01:00 - Ilana (Guest) I'm Alana Molstein, registered dietitian nutritionist, and welcome to Ever Forward Radio.

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02:44 My name is Chase. I'm an Army veteran. I hold degrees in exercise science and health promotion and have been an ACE certified health coach since 2015. But beyond that, I'm a wellness entrepreneur and someone that just cares deeply about his physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. Ever Forward Radio is designed to bring guests like today, ilana Molstein, on to talk about unique areas of well-being. Ever forward radio is designed to bring guests like today, ilana Molstein, on to talk about unique areas of well-being and how we can develop or revisit physical and mental resilience so that we can learn how to introduce new tools and tactics to our daily life to help propel us forward or to remind us to come back to what works for us.

03:24 Ilana had an incredible 100-pound weight loss transformation that inspired her to be the most credible nutrition expert in the field, so that she could help others best. She also holds a degree a bachelor of science degree in nutrition and dietetics. She's a registered dietitian and has a master's degree in nutrition and dietetics, so I think it's safe to say she knows her stuff when it comes to eating well. She wanted to make sure that she was advising people on the best and healthiest way to live, backed by scientific research. Her mission, and what you can expect to hear on the show today, is to show people that a healthy lifestyle is, in fact, easier and much more attainable than you might think.

04:06 Unique to where we are going live here, december 2024, ilana and I are also going to be highlighting problems or unique areas that a lot of us might perceive as problems when it comes to navigating travels, holidays, holiday parties, different religious observations that seem to center around food, eating habits and just getting out of the routine of our norm. Lean into what Alana is talking about and you're going to go into any event, any party, any road trip, any travel, much more empowered, educated and informed to make the best choice possible, while not restricting yourself and not not enjoying life. Follow on whichever podcast platform you are tuning in today Apple Podcasts, spotify, wherever Tapping that follow button, that subscribe button, supports the show in a big, big way and also make sure that you're never going to miss another amazing episode so that you don't miss out on the best ways possible to keep moving the needle, to keep living a life ever forward. Thank you, elana. Welcome to the show.

05:17 - Ilana (Guest) Thank you.

05:18 - Chase (Host) I got a couple of icebreakers that I want to just have your nutrition expertise just go right into. Okay, let's do it. So, without hearing them in advance, I want to have you rank these in order like one through five. Okay, number one being the most important, five being not as important as number one.

05:36 - Ilana (Guest) Love it.

05:36 - Chase (Host) In terms of how much they influence our relationship to food.

05:40 - Ilana (Guest) Great Okay.

05:40 - Chase (Host) So time management? Okay, how would you rank that One through five.

05:44 - Ilana (Guest) Three.

05:45 - Chase (Host) Three Stress management.

05:47 - Ilana (Guest) Three.

05:48 - Chase (Host) Relationship with our mother.

05:52 - Ilana (Guest) Four.

05:53 - Chase (Host) Interesting, all right, and then relationship with a significant other in your life.

05:57 - Ilana (Guest) One.

05:58 - Chase (Host) If we're at that, then yeah, that's one she had no doubt, no doubt on that one Number one All right Last Then, yeah, that's one. She had no doubt, no doubt on that one Number one, all right Last. Proximity to a grocery store.

06:07 - Ilana (Guest) One to two.

06:08 - Chase (Host) Okay.

06:09 - Ilana (Guest) Yes, I'd say a grocery store. We'll say grocery store. One spouse to uh the others in terms of relationship with mother, we can get to five uh. Time management for stress management.

06:24 - Chase (Host) Three Okay, another question here Top three stressors on most people's minds right now, entering the holiday season, as they relate to eating habits.

06:35 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, a lot of people are nervous about gaining weight. You know, people are are very aware and conscious that they are gaining weight and are off routine in December typically, like, and so that stresses them out because they aren't ready to change it and they're going to push it off till January, but they're aware that it's happening, so that tends to stress them out. They tend to get stressed out by just family dynamics, like really tense, especially if they're remote workers. They haven't been as social for a long time. Then doing that big trip where everyone's reunited and you're spending some time off work like that tends to be stressful.

07:11 People get really stressed by the lack of routine or by the travels that are to come. People get stressed out if they're on a good plan and they have been consistent with their nutrition and they may have lost weight. They want to keep it up but they know their family members are going to push them and coerce them into eating things they don't want or shame them for being on a health journey. So I think people are stressed about politics getting brought up at Christmas dinner. So definitely, december brings a lot of highs and a lot of lows and I think people tend to be pretty stressed out throughout the month, while they're trying to enjoy themselves as well.

07:46 - Chase (Host) It's interesting in all of that answer I didn't hear you say once the type of food, the variety of food, the quantity or quality of food. It was all kind of the environment surrounding food. Do you feel like that is more of the case for most people? It is the stress around the environments and the people that you're going to be potentially enjoying holiday food and dinners and parties and things like that, not so much the actual food.

08:12 - Ilana (Guest) Right, I break down weight loss into three pillars and that's how I've always seen it personally in my weight loss journey and helping clients is weight loss is a three pillar mode.

08:21 So one third of it is the food, is the actual nutrition what to eat, what not to eat, and how you want to build your plates throughout the day. The second is your emotional responses to food. So how stressed you are, do you eat out of loneliness? Do you eat out of boredom? Do you eat out of, you know, panic, impulsive nature and that thing. And then the third pillar is your environment, because you could have low stress eating, you could be, you know, really healthy eater. But if your environment is set up to go against your healthy habits, then that's going to be the case, right, like if you keep soda on your counter versus a bowl of fruit, if you keep cereal and bread on your counter instead of fruit, if you don't have any fruits and vegetables in your refrigerator, if your roommates are constantly baking, if your spouse is constantly yeah, exactly, If your spouse is constantly pushing you to drink, if you're eating mostly at restaurants, if you are traveling a ton for work, the environment itself can make or break a person's weight loss journey.

09:18 So, like without the environment set up for success, you know, the emotional and the nutrition can get you pretty far over 60%. But that new, that environment will play a key role and I find that there's a big environmental shift in December, with it being darker outside and like kind of just gloomier, but you still have the joy of the holidays. You're off of work, it's more travel, you're with different sorts of people, there are more parties, so there's also a lot of loneliness and depression that occurs. So the environment is a tricky thing to master in December.

09:51 - Chase (Host) Let's say I'm someone that has really done a great job recently the last couple of weeks, couple of months of fostering an at-home environment conducive to my current health goals wellness goals, nutrition goals, and I'm going to be traveling. I'm going to be traveling. I'm going to visit friends and family. What can I do to set up the environment? I'm going to to be as conducive as possible without kind of rocking the boat.

10:16 - Ilana (Guest) That's my favorite question.

10:17 So I'm a big believer in the scale. I, you know, talk about my beliefs on the scale and all the evidence to prove how a scale could be very helpful, not just for weight loss but for weight maintenance and helping people prevent weight regain after they've lost weight. So if someone's going on a trip and they have a healthy relationship with the scale and they're going on a trip that's more than three, four days, they could probably benefit from using the scale. Because if you're going away for two weeks, the last two weeks of December, and you're going to your parents' house or something and you know it's going to be tons of comfort foods and you're on a lack of routine, hopping on the scale a few times in those last two weeks of the month can prevent a big eight pound gain that you now have to face come January. It could kind of keep you in that you know one to three pound weight gain range, which is something that's not as daunting, something that you know you can lose, something you know that you can just quickly get back to.

11:08 - Chase (Host) So are you saying? The best thing I could probably do to make my environment as conducive as possible, no matter where I go this holiday season, is to pack a scale with me.

11:19 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, they have travel scales on Amazon. They're $25. They're not much larger than an iPhone. They're smaller than a laptop. It could be so helpful to someone who has a healthy relationship with food to just keep them on track. There's a lot of research to show that it helps you just compensate healthily, right. So a lot of people, when they gain 15 pounds in December because they went off and they just shoved their face with sugar cookies and pies and things like that Come January, now they think they have to do something so extreme, they think that they have to cut everything out. They go on these like wild, extreme cleanses that are unsustainable, unhealthy, versus.

11:54 If you have a scale with you through December, you say, okay, I had one too many like eggnogs. I had a little too many hot toddies. I had a couple of cocktails at a couple of snacks, too much cheese at a cheese party at a holiday party. Okay, the scale goes up a pounds and a half, all right. So today I'm going to focus on having a breakfast, not skipping it. I'm going to focus on drinking more water. I'm going to focus on if I am drinking alcohol, I don't need the sugary mixers. And you then make these like slight changes to then, you know, bring it down into a healthy range. So I'm a big believer in tracking your food, keeping a little food journal, so just having that with you in December even still during the holidays, sure.

12:29 Sure, and it's not. It's not calorie counting, it's not restrictive, it's not, you know, using an Excel spreadsheet to count your macros. It's really just writing down the things you're eating, so it leaves room for, you know, I had an extra cookie, I had a cocktail or two, but it's without judgment and it's just accountability. And again, it keeps you with this healthy relationship with food, where you bite it, you write it, you drink it, you ink it, you nibble it, you scribble it, but it's without judgment and you keep moving on.

12:56 - Chase (Host) All right. What is the number one real life situation that you still struggle with when it comes to healthy habits?

13:03 - Ilana (Guest) Oh, great question. Listen, I'm a mother of three kids. They're young, they have their snacks all the time. They stress me out on occasion and so I think, just eating their leftovers, maybe eating a little bit more at dinner when one of them is having a temper tantrum and I'm trying to not stress, eat but, like you, can't ignore the tears in the corner that are probably impacting your stress hormones and your blood pressure while eating the food.

13:28 - Chase (Host) Um, so that came up yesterday if you can't tell, it seems really real.

13:32 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, um. So you know definitely that, which is something I can definitely relate to my clients on. I see a lot of moms right, so they have birthday parties and the lingering birthday cakes and all those snacks, so it definitely impacts me on occasion. Um, I can eat quicker, you know, sitting down, stopping for a lunch break, actually giving yourself 15 to 20 minutes in the middle of the day to have undistracted lunchtimes, like that's the goal. But sometimes I eat it quickly or while watching something or multitasking, and I have those rushed, mindless eating moments, so like we're all youasking, and I have those rushed, mindless eating moments so like we're all you know, we all have those times.

14:10 - Chase (Host) What was the hardest part about losing over a hundred pounds?

14:14 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, I think the mindset piece and I connect to so many people is because that mindset piece gets ignored so much in traditional diets. Right, Like, just eat this and don't eat that, and it seems so simple. But then what do you do when you want to self-sabotage and you get in your own way? What do you do when you know you encounter a really stressful situation and food has been the way out of that stressful situation for you for years in the past? What to do when a friend says stop losing weight you look so good Like you're getting too thin. Like, do you listen? Do you take sense of that? Do you actually, you know, think critically? Like there's so many people telling you to stop, telling you to, you know, eat the things that don't serve you. So, staying strong and confident through it, believing you can do it, believing you deserve to have the success that you're after I, that's really the piece that that takes some work.

15:01 - Chase (Host) Okay, now kind of flip question what was the easiest part about losing 100 pounds?

15:07 - Ilana (Guest) Oh, that's a great question. Um, I'm a foodie. So for me, I'm a foodie and I love volume. So for me, realizing that I was mindlessly eating buttered popcorn while watching TV, I could just take the same butter and salt and put it over broccoli and still mindlessly eat it and see some success was easy. Like that to me was easy, um, because I I love eating lots of food. So even the cloud bread cinnamon rolls on the cover of my cookbook, like those, are delicious. My, my son is obsessed with them and he's like six years old.

15:38 - Chase (Host) Which, by the way, everybody that's. When she handed me the book, that's the first thing I saw, immediately flipped over into the page. That's going to be the first thing I cook.

15:47 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, they taste really good. It's a pure protein, it's low-cal and so for me it was like oh, I could take the flavors of pizza and put it on a cloud bread pizza made out of egg whites, of protein, and it's actually much larger than a slice of pizza and it keeps me fuller longer, like. The food swaps for me were very easy. I know they're not the easiest for everyone, but for me that was a no-brainer. Using the scale was very easy for me because I never looked at it as such an emotional definition of who I am. So when the scale goes up I can look at it pretty objectively like, oh, it's because I ate birthday cake last night, you know, and it never defined me. So that was also fairly on the easy side for me.

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18:15 - Ilana (Guest) Oh so much. Thankfully not for my own children, because I you know I've been doing this for a long time with them and you know the families that I help with my kids' nutrition program. Like I feel pretty confident they're going to be just great For everyone else who is not making massive changes today with their children. I am very concerned about their kids' future. We are seeing studies that show that, for the first time in human history, this next generation will not outlive their parents, that they will likely have a shorter lifespan than their parents because of nutrition. And I see it every single day with some parents in my kid's school. Like I'm not judging them, I'm genuinely concerned for them and seeing what they are feeding their kids for breakfast, for lunch, for the snacks for dinner, it's like these are materials that are shaping their DNA. These are the materials that are shaping their mood, their habits, their behaviors, and we see that nutrition alone can really impact a child's mental health. And right now we have, like you know, social media crisis and our kids are addicted to screens and they're living more in the virtual world than they're living in the human world most of the day. So like there's so many big changes that we should be concerned about, but nutrition alone can help mitigate a lot of these changes and these problems, and so I'm really concerned about this next generation and their relationship with ultra processed foods and sugar and how their palates have been so poorly manipulated by these packaged foods.

19:40 You know, before we started recording, we were talking about Persian food and you know we go to a school with a lot of Persian kids and these kids will sit there on a plate eating olives, eating smoked nuts like, eating cucumbers, eating pickles like and all these delicious flavor foods, spicy stews, and then you see another kid who is snacking on an Oreo cake stir. I mean, this is nothing I've ever even seen before. It's a little kid, five to six years old kid, weighs maybe 40 or so pounds and is eating this package blue snack. That is not the size of an Oreo cookie. It's the size of like four Oreo cookie sandwiches. It's called a cake stir. It's like these two massive cakes, which is really four cakes because it's a sandwich and it has 240 calories, which I'm not concerned so much about the calories, even though that's closer to a meal.

20:26 - Chase (Host) It has more sugar than a kid needs an entire day.

20:29 - Ilana (Guest) There are so many unidentifiable and identifiable ingredients. They claim that these Oreos are like vegan. That's just because it doesn't have egg. It doesn't have real ingredients, you know. And these foods have so many added flavorings that are so different than flavors we find in nature. And so when you keep giving our kids these ultra processed foods with all these flavorings in it that are so unnatural, it's like their way to work back to broccoli, to chicken, to scrambled eggs.

20:54 It's such a further journey, and so it's not just how these foods are hurting them chemically and also just not helping them with their growth and development, it's also just it's manipulating their relationship with food and what food should taste like and all their expectations of what food can and should be. So I'm very, very concerned about the next generation. I think there's this collective think of whatever, they'll be fine, they'll grow out of it, and we're literally seeing in science it's absolutely not the case. We're seeing that puberty is starting so much earlier. We're seeing that they're being so harmed by these ultra processed foods in real time and a lot of parents like even in Los Angeles, where I live, it's just amazing how they just roll their eyes to it. Or they think it's fine, or they think it's okay, or they think they grew up with it.

21:43 - Chase (Host) I had it as a kid and I'm fine Right.

21:45 - Ilana (Guest) Even though the formulations of these foods have changed so drastically in the last, even just 20 years. These foods don't even taste the same Like. I had a Reese's peanut butter cup recently. It tastes like wax. It doesn't even taste like chocolate, because they're not even using vanilla and chocolate like they used to. They're using vanillin. There's even a cocoa shortage now. So all these chocolate companies are finding all these ways to try to mimic it. It's just not the same. Like the oils use the whole processing. If you make a, you know a dupe for a Reese's peanut butter cup at home by just melting dark chocolate and melting peanut butter, layering them in a cupcake mold and freezing them, it tastes so much better Like. It tastes like chocolate and peanut butter, which is what I remember I make that for my kids all the time.

22:34 - Chase (Host) I always have them in my freezers ready, so different than a package Reese's, it's wild. I'm curious in your kind of parenting technique. Right now it sounds like you definitely have a lot of conditions in the favor for you and your family and your kids when it comes to the quality of food and access to food. But how are you navigating the mindset and how are you kind of helping your children foster a healthy relationship and like the feeling, the emotional aspect, the connection to food, besides just the choices they have available?

22:59 - Ilana (Guest) Right. Well, there's a great example that happened last week. So right now I'm coaching my son's soccer team. Like I'm not great at soccer, they kind of twisted my arm to coach it, but I'm coaching the'm coaching the kids soccer team, which is really sweet, cause I'm seeing all these like five and six year olds and we're all playing soccer like twice a week.

23:15 Now it's very sweet and as someone who is a dietitian, who's counseled so many clients over the years, I have always had that type of client who works out so they can earn dessert, you know, and to this day they like literally every time they work out, they start gaining weight because they start justifying oh now I need my post-workout shake and now I kind of burned calories, so I earned more calories, and they have this very toxic relationship with exercise and food. I'm very grateful. My father always worked out, no matter what he, what weight he was, like he would cycle through diets, but exercise was a constant, and so I think I always have a healthy relationship with exercise and look at it as like a mental health thing, a good routine thing, an energizing thing, a longevity thing, and I'm really grateful for that. But seeing these again, like the snacks that some of these parents are giving their kids right after. I mean, imagine doing a great workout, being super sweaty, getting off of a treadmill, getting off of like a workout class, and then eating just a big bag of candy.

24:16 It's such an unhealthy relationship with food that they're fostering. It's like, oh, you just moved your body for an hour, you get this big bag of candy, so forget that. You know, from a cellular level it's not ideal. I just feel like the mindset is not right. You know, when my kids get off the field, we have water, we have string cheese we love to take, like go for a good meal. Like if their game ends at noon, like perfect time, let's get lunch. You know, let's let's. Even if it's burgers, let's get burgers. Let's have a side Caesar salad with it, like we don't need fries along with it. So things like that, I think, are just very easy and just not happening. When I was a kid, I just don't remember getting off of a court or getting off of a field and eating candy or having that be normalized.

24:58 - Chase (Host) And it's shocking. I mean, I played sports growing up and I think the extent to which we had that kind of example you're talking about was some parents would bring Capri Suns after our baseball game. You know every game the parents rotated through. Who brought you know Powerade or orange slices or something like that, but I don't really remember. You know getting crap. Capri Sun arguably is just, you know, sugar water it's not a birthday party. Like they just moved their body.

25:27 - Ilana (Guest) So I feel like that's like an easy place to set a healthy relationship with food and even if it is, you know, one sugary drink, like it's powery, but yes, paired with an apple, pair of cheese sticks, even if it's popcorn, like it can be popcorn, it can be crackers, but you know, so I think that's easy. Um, other things with my kids is we're really big on nature. You know there are a lot of really good studies to show that when you're stressed, when you're anxious, when you are having anxiety, go to nature. Nature will calm you. Seeing a bird fly, seeing the wind blow, it really calms your central nervous system.

26:00 And when you think that things are big and they're loud and you're screaming, you're having a tantrum. We're really big. Like opening the door, go sit in a thinking chair outside and thankfully we live where it's not too cold all the time or too rainy all the time, and even if it is, that's fine. Like stomping muddy puddles. It will really connect you back to a deep breath and to being calm. So we're really big on like you seem really stressed out right now. You're screaming, like go outside in the thinking chair and I think doing that and not saying you know, eat something, or or you know, raid the pantry. Do this to quiet them, to shut them up, to calm the mood. Yeah, yeah, so it's not. You know you're not creating stress eating habits that can happen later on if you're not giving tools, uh to, and not teaching kids tools on how to calm down naturally. Uh, there's so many things. I mean even just reading food labels.

26:47 - Chase (Host) It's crazy you have your kids read the food label, absolutely.

26:51 - Ilana (Guest) If they can read a book, they should be able to read the food that goes into their body.

26:54 - Chase (Host) This is genius.

26:55 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, my kids read a food label so beautifully. My son will be like mom, there's two grams of fiber in here. This is a good snack, Like yeah, Julian, you're right.

27:04 - Chase (Host) You have them, read the nutrition facts, the ingredients.

27:07 - Ilana (Guest) Absolutely, and it's crazy because I've posted this before. People are like you're creating eating disorders.

27:12 - Chase (Host) I'm creating intuitive eating Awareness and education. Absolutely, I'm taking such, I'm taking a hard mental note right now. I'm going to co-sign on that idea.

27:19 - Ilana (Guest) Absolutely. I love that. Oh my gosh, this is an awesome story that I only share within my kids' nutrition program. I in my kids' nutrition program.

27:26 - Chase (Host) I think this is the only other time I'm sharing it. Yeah, this is my safe space where I'm sharing it.

27:29 - Ilana (Guest) The only place behind that's not behind a paywall, because I feel like you know, you got to censor troll somewhere.

27:35 But it was really amazing. My daughter went to sleepaway camp this summer for the first time and they have something called canteen where it's basically a candy store and the kids get to go every single day and get two different items. So before she went to camp I was, like you know, a little nervous about it. But I it's camp, they're working out all day, they're moving around. It's a special opportunity. I wanted to give her free range, but I also wanted to just have a conversation with her before of what are you going to get there? This is what it looks like, you know. So I said to her you know, I think for a canteen what would make sense? You're going to have this opportunity to get to pick two snacks a day. Maybe pick one that's not so healthy, but then one that is more right. So like you have balance. So like maybe one is popcorn, that's like healthy, it's a whole grain, you see it at home and maybe one that's, you know, a chocolate or something.

28:21 - Chase (Host) I have to ask did you word it that way?

28:37 - Ilana (Guest) Did you know more like a silly fun thing that you're just enjoying.

28:40 - Chase (Host) Cause. Maybe one you would pick on your own and one you would pick if mom was watching.

28:44 - Ilana (Guest) Interesting Okay, but but I've tried to empower them so they actually think nutrition's cool and so that they actually want that healthy snack too, because they anytime. My kid has a tantrum, like I said, and then they have a good meal and they feel better. I make them very aware, like don't you see how the protein and eating this at like, do you see how much calmer you are now? So I really try to teach them, like how good food, good mood, and so that they will see when they're off in college or on a play date, when they're feeling cranky or anything and a parent is serving stuff that they know. You know what? Maybe I do need a snack. Maybe in this situation my mom would say, like you probably need to eat something, you're hangry. So I really want them to be intuitive. But it's very interesting because when I went to my daughter's camp to visit, she was like mom, look, I got the. The healthiest snack is the snack I've been liking all summer. So I was like what's the snack you've been liking all summer?

29:35 - Chase (Host) So she shows me instant ramen soup, which is like that was her healthy choice.

29:37 - Ilana (Guest) That was her healthy choice. And I was thinking for a second okay, I'm not going to judge her, I'm not going to say anything, Cause like she seems very proud right now, so I'm going to let her have her moment. Um, and I'm like, oh, okay, Like that's the healthiest choice. And then she turned it over and she showed me and like we'll go past like the sodium count, We'll go past like all the starches and whatever is in the soup. But she showed me she's like mom, look, there's five grams of protein in this ramen soup and there's two grams and there's one or two grams of fiber and I'm like heck, yeah, there is.

30:05 And then I looked at the selection and we're talking literally yeah.

30:10 - Chase (Host) I was curious.

30:11 - Ilana (Guest) Comparatively, that was literally the healthiest choice, Like and I was mesmerized because it literally was candy, like true candy, like just corn syrup and sugar dyes, like sour sticks and like Twizzler type stuff. Then it was chips, then it was other different fried snacks, like Dorito type things, and I just I couldn't believe it. I was like and then Slurpee, slurpee, like they were able to have every day, if they wanted, at canteen they could have gotten a Slurpee. So, all in all, she did really good and it's like wild that you're saying that that's a healthy choice, but and also it it's.

30:47 She liked it because it was more of a activity that where they get to take it, they get to go to the hot water maker, they get to fill it up. It sits for three minutes, so and then they have these drinking noodles. And then she actually got one. That day that I was visiting she didn't even finish it. So, honestly, all in all, it was like just a soup and she really, on her own, with me, not there with me, saying that you could get the candy. That's what she chose and I think that that's pretty cool.

31:11 - Chase (Host) That is, that's very cool and that's amazing, and that's what I think, even as an adult, what I always strive for, I think any of us. What we want to strive for here, in my audience at least, is, given my circumstances, given my options, what is the best choice I can make to move me forward towards whatever goal I'm working on? Hey, my friend, quick break from my conversation with Ilana to bring your attention to something that adds immense nutritional value to my daily wellness routine, and that is today's sponsor, timeline Nutrition, their particular product, mitopure, and here's why I have been loving it and taking it daily for almost two years. In fact, nearly nothing I've ever tried has given me an increase, a notable increase, in my daily baseline energy than Mito Pure. And in fact, to test it, I went off of it for about four to six weeks and I noticed such a drop in my daily baseline energy. I was like nah, nah, nah, I got to get back on it. I love it because of how I felt daily, but I love how they waited about 10 years to come to market with clinically proven evidence to show in humans how much it helps our longevity.

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33:18 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, and I always rather a savory snack than a sweet snack, because I find that the salty things do tend to have a little bit more protein, a little bit more fiber in there, like the sugar stuff. It doesn't make you feel full ever and it just makes you more addicted to sugar, like the more sugar you eat, the more sugar you crave. So the fact that this is like the lowest sugar, highest fiber protein thing you know, that's awesome. That she, at nine years old, can read a food label better than most adults.

33:42 - Chase (Host) I was just going to say. I feel like she's killing the nutrition facts game more than the average person out there. If you ask them to scan ingredients and nutrition facts for those keywords you know what has the most fiber, what has the most protein, what has the least amount of this they'd probably be kind of lost in the sauce a little bit, you know.

33:58 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, totally, and so I don't fear monger. You know like there are times where they have artificial dyes, there's times where they have, you know, there's plenty of seed oils, there's plenty of all this stuff, but uh, they're very educated about it when they have it, like they even had a uh, uh ice cone thing, like one of those, like it's ice, and then they put the syrups over the snow cones.

34:18 Yeah, and you know, one of my kids was like mom, this is like really healthy, cause this is basically just ice, cause all the dye just drips to the bottom and I'm not even getting all of them Like good call.

34:28 - Chase (Host) And the and the ice is the ice is keeping you, you know, hydrated.

34:31 - Ilana (Guest) Like, yeah, sure, the. They're like what's the syrup made out of? I'm like it's colors, it's sugar and it's flavoring, so it kind of tastes something like a strawberry or a blueberry, um, and so they're like, oh, that's not healthy. I'm like, yeah, but the fact that it's a little bit getting you to eat ice when you look at everything else in the ice cream cabinet, it's the same sugar, same flavorings, it's the same colors. But now it's like, on, you know, they I mean ice creams don't even melt anymore. They're not even ice creams. They're like these. There's so many viral videos where they're showing all these ice cream sandwiches. They never melt. It's like two days later it's not even melting Cause they're not made with cream. They're not even ice creams.

35:09 - Chase (Host) So many preservatives, kind of just yeah.

35:10 - Ilana (Guest) If you look closely at dryers and like all of these briars and like all these ice cream sandwiches you see in stores, it literally says like ice cream product or you know, a frozen dessert, like they can't even use the term ice cream because most of them are not even made with real cream. So, yeah, so I'd say, like the snow cone is the better thing, the the instant soup. I'm very moderate with my relationship with nutrition. I'm not an extremist. I really don't have big nose. So I really try to foster that with my kids too. Like, yes, there's times where we have treats, yes, there's times where we have dyes and sugars. It's a once in occasion. We enjoy it. We definitely don't make it a daily part of our day and my kids know why and they, I think they appreciate it.

35:51 - Chase (Host) That's such a fantastic point. Such a fantastic point, so kind of shifting into more of your world around. Weight loss Um, you know, many people attempt to lose weight and I think attempt is the key word there. Is that the best mindset when it comes to weight loss? The attempt.

36:06 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, I think the problem with the word attempt is that it's unsustainable from the start, right. So my whole methodology like when people lose weight with my program, I am not going to say I don't care, like I like when someone says I lost 70 pounds, your program, obviously that lights me up, but it doesn't light me up as much as someone who says I lost 50 pounds eight years ago and I've kept it off, you know. So I'm not as big about the number, I'm about the sustainability. And so when people attempt to lose weight, it just that whole phrase sounds very short term. You need to attempt to change your lifestyle around getting you to be a healthier weight and putting in the tools in place so you don't just lose weight but you keep it off. And as you lose weight you're happy along the way, you're not dreading it, it's not horrible, so that it feels joyful and something you want to stick with.

36:51 - Chase (Host) I got a pretty alarming stat I wanted to share with you, just kind of get your take, and this is from an NIH study. I'll have all this length in the show notes for everybody. In 2015, an estimated 93.3 million US adults aged 20 years or older and about 13.7 million children aged less than 19 were obese. Oh yeah, obese, and by 2030, a projected 115 million adults will be obese in the USA.

37:19 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, I mean right now we're about like 40% obesity. Um, it's wild. We're about 65% of Americans are either overweight or obese, which is why we want to be weird, like we're in a culture. Now you want to be the weirdest one. So you know, I always tell this to my clients yes, people are going to judge you for being the one at dinner who's not drinking as much. People are going to judge you at dinner for asking for the salad and not having the fries, or not wanting the fried appetizers and asking for steamed and making like all these modifications. That's okay. If you are doing something different than everyone else around you in America today, you are likely doing something right. So we have to change our mindsets right, because the normal thing is not. We have to change our mindsets right Because the normal thing is not, is not, should not be normalized, should not be normal, and I like to explain that to my kids too. Like we call it the standard American diet, it's the sad diet.

38:13 - Chase (Host) And it the fact that that acronym stuck and, like the powers that be, were cool with it being the sad. It's like staring you in the face, it's the chicken nuggets.

38:23 - Ilana (Guest) It's the chicken nuggets, it's the French fries, it's the hot dogs, it's the hamburgers, it's the pizza Like. These are our standard American foods. And so even last night for dinner we had shakshuka, which is like a Middle Eastern meal which is very easy to make and like, very inexpensive, because it's like eggs and tomato sauce, essentially with with pita, and I just loved that it wasn't a standard American food Like, even if nutritionally it's similar to a burger and fries with a side salad like. I just love that it's that it's a little different. We have to be going upstream in today's day and age because if we're not doing something that feels hard and different, we're going to be another one of these statistics.

39:01 - Chase (Host) Okay, interesting idea just came across my mind, so we were talking earlier. You know kind of like you know different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds and how they influence the home. Particularly when you're in, you know, a multi-ethnic, multicultural, multi-religious home, you have different foods from different cultural backgrounds different religious backgrounds Jewish background in your house, persian background in mine and I feel so much more confident about the future of our households because of the ethnicity difference in our foods, which kind of lands me at the point or question.

39:37 Had the point or question if we made more of a shift in America to prioritize ethnic foods, get away from typical quote American food, yeah, Do you think that would cause enough of a shift to get?

39:57 - Ilana (Guest) us on the right, healthy track. Oh my gosh. Yes, if you look at, even even like Indian food and Mexican food, which is heavy, right, like Indian food and Mexican food, you have a lot of naan, you have a lot of rice, you have a lot of tortillas, you have a lot of rice.

40:11 Um, you know, they can be very carby, they can have a lot of fried foods, but even still, just the fact that like you have Chile, like you have um, cumin, you have saffron, these foods that are spicy, first of all, they're incredibly anti-inflammatory and good for us. Like the turmeric one, they're just very healthy. The paprika, yeah, wonderful for us. But, two, they make you sweat, they make you react, they make you experience the food, they make you slow down so you don't eat as quickly. So, like just the just getting from quote unquote natural flavors or flavors to back to herbs and spices, even if you have the same composition of the main of the food, would be very helpful for us. Um, so yes, it definitely has the power to shift. Uh, I just read I'm reading right now, this incredible book. It's changing my world.

41:00 Her, the author's name is Bazoma St John. She was a top marketing exec at Uber, netflix and all these places. She just wrote this book that I'm sure will climb to be a bestseller. She's going to be on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills soon. She really is taking over. She was a chief marketing officer at Netflix Global. She really is the top of her game. Fascinating woman.

41:23 - Chase (Host) Looking her up right now.

41:24 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, she says she's about six foot, she's African.

41:27 - Chase (Host) The Urgent Life. The Urgent Life.

41:29 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, this is her book and she has such an incredible story so I'll just share it quickly. But she said that she's from Africa, she's from Ghana. So she's not just black, she's African, and her parents were obsessed with being African, with everything the music, the books, the culture, the style, the clothing and especially the food of like eating, like Ghanaian food.

41:53 - Chase (Host) Ghanaian yeah.

41:54 - Ilana (Guest) Ghanaian and they moved to Connecticut when she was 12 or 13 years old. So this like preteen defining time of her life.

42:01 - Chase (Host) What a stark contrast. Is 12 or 13 years old? So?

42:02 - Ilana (Guest) this like preteen defining time of her life. So she moves and she's surrounded by all these white kids and became good friends with this girl named Summer fair skin, bright blonde hair, like gold ringlets, bright green eyes. And here Bizzoma is. She's like six foot tall as of a 12 year old and she's very dark skinned. She looks completely different than Summer and she has a sleepover with Summer and she tells her mom mom, can we please have pizza? Can you please just order McDonald's? Like I finally got in to fit in with all these white girls I made this friend Summer, please can we just have quote unquote normal American food? And her mom says absolutely not, no way, we're going to have traditional food from Ghana. And Bazoma says that 30 years later she's now still good friends with this girl named Summer and Summer still asked for her mom's spinach stew.

42:52 And it wasn't just spinach stew, it was spicy, like she said that her fair skin friends were sweating eating this food in her house and I think the stew is called fufu or whatever it is. But I just love that her that her mom didn't want her to just accept that she's black and African. She wanted her to celebrate it, empowered yeah, empowered it, and she said that that really changed her whole mind and now she, this woman, is literally like at the top of her possible game and she's gone through so much else. So her book is amazing. But I love that story.

43:22 I told it to my kids because the whole concept that her mom taught her is like you don't bend towards others, you have others bend to you and you celebrate who you are and your background. And it really is sad and wild when you see how the shift towards these like bland tasting fried foods that are really just mostly carbs, and even the blue zones, which are the areas of the world where we see the greatest rates of longevity you see, even in these places like Ikaria, greece, and Okinawa, japan, even though these people live to like 108 and have some of the lowest rates of cancers and heart disease, their grandkids now are not eating those same traditional foods. They've gone so far away from what made their grandparents so healthy and vibrant for so many years, and it's just it's so sad to see that everyone's kind of gone to this standard American diet globally.

44:13 - Chase (Host) I have to kind of laugh, and I'll preface this by saying I do have a Middle Eastern wife, and so now I've become so much more aware of how white I am in terms of a lot. You know food, culture, upbringings. You know a lot of different things, and we were actually joking the other day talking about you know. She wanted to. I want to get this recipe from my mom and make more Persian food at home as we get ready to, you know, to grow our family, and I was like, yeah, I can probably contribute a casserole recipe you know, and I was just- like we were joking, but that's kind of you know.

44:47 I know a lot of people have family recipes and a lot more elaborate dishes. I'm just speaking personally, but I mean, I got a great broccoli casserole dish that I love. That, you know, came from my upbringing. But I was just thinking how easy that is. It's simple ingredients and it's easy right, which?

45:04 - Ilana (Guest) as a parent.

45:04 - Chase (Host) I'm sure easy matters in certain situations. But then I was thinking of the dishes that she wanted to make the fes and jun, the kabob the hash the halim, the things that take, yeah, hours, hours. But also you're in the kitchen, you know hours just you, or less hours with the rest of your family members, and it's it's bonding Totally, it's mindfulness, it's preparation.

45:27 It's slow and you're aware of every ingredient and you're, you're spending time with family and then it's that much more savory and enjoyable, me more excited about the choices that we are making by ushering in the next generation of children because of this kind of ethnic mashup. Totally.

45:48 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, I mean, that's like going back to my kids' relationship with food. I made a dish. I forgot what it was, but I spent a long time making this dish and one of my kids even requested it. And then I made it and it did take time. Like, let me tell you, it took time and some of my kids liked it. And then I made it and it did take time. Like, let me tell you, it took time and some of my kids liked it. And then one of my pickier kids did not and just like threw it off as like this is disgusting, and moved it and I lost it. Like I didn't lose it, I stayed calm.

46:16 But I'm like you're just not allowed to do that. Like, this is not a package convenient thing that you're buying for 99 cents at 7-Eleven. I was in the kitchen, I took hours, I showed a lot of respect for the food and for you by making this dish. You can show some respect to me by saying I need to get used to it, I don't like it. Yet I tried it. I'm not in love with it.

46:39 Like, give, like, show respect, and I think that that is also very healthy because, again, we're we're here helping. We want these kids to grow up and not embarrass themselves and us like out in the real world. You can't just go to a restaurant and just like, or a friend's house and just say this is disgusting, like and it's. It's a mutual respect thing and it's a behavior thing and our relationship with food thing. And again, like there are a lot of ethnic cultures, you're not going to see a kid that just can pull off that like spoiled, very American style, like eh, I don't like this, like, it's just so. I'm very in tune with teaching parents the same thing. Like when you raise your kids, even very picky eaters. They tend to be very picky with lots of things. The shampoo that they like isn't perfect, the toy that you got them they're not grateful for. Showing some gratitude towards food is a very healthy way to raise kids well.

47:35 - Chase (Host) And I have to imagine that kind of approach that you have helped them create of reading the label, the nutrition facts, is carrying over into the shampoos and the other products. I mean, it starts in the kitchen, starts with nutrition, but the level of awareness that you are helping your children and you know other children and families develop is going to has to have this, this carrier effect and everything Clean foods, clean products, clean homes, clean air.

48:00 - Ilana (Guest) You know, one of the interesting things is that, like, our air quality sometimes is worse inside our house than outside our house. So we always think, like poor air quality, we live by a highway, that type of thing, cleaning products that aren't so great, then that leeches into the air and sometimes literally in your own house the air quality is worse because of all the cleaning products. So you know, I, my husband, like, went to the store to get dish soap or whatever, and he went to the one that's like 50 cents cheaper and I get it. But you know, I was explaining to him and then explaining also to my kids, so they hold him accountable.

48:41 It's like a 50. And also there's so many cheap ways. Like we use vinegar and water and just essential oils like lemon balm, Like it definitely does not have to be more expensive. You can bulk buy and then put them in smaller containers. But yeah, I literally just explained this to my husband in front of all my kids and made sure that they understood at a really basic understanding level so that they are just more conscious about the world around them. I love that without judgment, but just you know trying to do better.

49:08 - Chase (Host) I have some quotes that I've found from your work and other interviews and stuff and we'll have to kind of just get your take here on the show with them. Living in America can sometimes feel like being on a conveyor belt towards weight gain. What does and we've kind of hit on this a little bit, but what does specifically living in America have to do with weight gain?

49:29 - Ilana (Guest) I mean, we are in an obesity-laden society.

49:31 Like everything around us is pushing us to be more obese, like highways or car culture, you know, not very walkable, um, like our screen time, our obsession with screens, like social media addiction, the fact that we don't spend as much time with family. We're becoming less and less religious as a culture. You know, um, people are having less kids. Like it's just, we're like moving away towards, like moving away from what's kept us healthy mind and and body. Um, and our shopping carts are getting larger. Like you know, I love Costco. I'm not going to shame on them. I didn't use Costco for a long time Now. I find it's great for healthy products and fruits and vegetables, but the big box stores where the potato chip bags are, you know, 16 servings.

50:19 And then if you look at our commercials, our commercials are pushing not just food all the time and pharmaceuticals, but they're also pushing emotional eating. Like there's chocolate advertisements where you see a mom in a closet and the kids are banging and she's like locked herself in the closet with a bag of Dove chocolates or Bliss chocolates and she's in Bliss like hiding from her kids. Like it's literally we are telling people to stress, eat because the food companies see. Well, people are always stressed. And now, if they eat every time, they're stressed and they're going to buy more food and we're going to make more money in our pockets. If you go to the French culture, they eat plenty of chocolate. It's not out of stress, it's actually out of joy. So, yeah, like it's really sadly, everything in our culture and our environment is really pushing us towards just sadly being more obese and everywhere you look. So again, you've got to be weird, you've got to be different in this culture.

51:13 - Chase (Host) I'm going to share a little story and your take on it. Two Christmases ago and New Year's, my wife and I went to Paris and, like it often does in Paris, it rains, and so I had this little morning rainy walk and I found a cafe and I ordered an espresso. And me, typical American, I'm expecting a double espresso. I want more, right, I want the bigger, I want more caffeine. And they gave me an espresso and it was a single.

51:38 And I caught myself and instead of going no, no, no, I wanted a double, which, in my mind, was just me pressing my American expectation, and I'm like no, chase, relax, you're not in America. This is the way they deserved it, enjoy it. And I sat there and the way that I savored that single shot of espresso, sitting on the cafe on the corner staring out in the rain, transformed what I already thought was a pretty healthy approach to to eating and to enjoying certain things when it comes to food and drink, and ever since then I've had this level of appreciation and savoring with food, with espresso, with drinks.

52:18 Um, now, when I get an espresso, I'll get a single. Now, when I I don't really drink alcohol that much anymore, but when I do I will specifically ask them to either pour me a glass and like a little carafe that way I can control the poor and I'll have maybe half a glass or at home I'll literally just do maybe like a three second pour. And I have just found this new appreciation well, two years not so much new anymore of just savoring.

52:43 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah.

52:44 - Chase (Host) And it has drastically kind of passively helped me cut caffeine consumption, alcohol portion control. What is your take on other cultures, other countries and the way that they seem to just have a level of savoring?

53:02 - Ilana (Guest) Right. Respecting we are lacking in America. Yeah, is it a respecting? It really is Like they respect eating times and not eating times, versus in America, everything is an eating time. Like you, when you're watching sports, you know. When it's Superbowl season, which is, I guess, coming up in January, it's unbelievable how they're literally every rest. There's millions of recipes for just watching a sports game. Like you can't just watch a sports game without it being an eating opportunity. When people are are walking on the streets, like I just went to Japan, you're not allowed to eat on the subway. Like it's. It's. They're so clean. They don't eat on the subway, even when there's. Like you know, they have their version of vending machine food and food truck situation, but no one's eating while walking.

53:45 They get it from the pop-up and then they sit and they eat. This is an eating time. This is a walking time. This is a working time, like right now. If you Google you know snacks to keep at your desk, like you're going to find bajillion, you know it's like we are always eating. We have no respect for eating times and our kids are constantly snacking. There's no meal time. They're not even hungry for meals because they've been snacking for so long. So, yeah, it's definitely wonderful to travel. I mean, there's so many things. That's definitely.

54:13 The mindset around food is different. They don't eat out of stress, like it doesn't. Even if you said that to people in different cultures, like they would look at you like why would you eat a chocolate or a croissant from stress, right, like, and and if you, oh, it's so sad, like, if you ever see videos of them interviewing, like, what do you think of America? And they always say like, so obese or eating junk food all the time. And you want to be like that's not true and you're like, I get it in a lot of places. It is Um, so, yeah, I mean just a respect for eating times and not eating times for sure, having family meals, sitting down enjoying it. Also, the food differences are massive.

54:46 Like almost every other country I visited, I see vegetables at a breakfast buffet. So if I stay at a hotel and it includes breakfast, you see vegetables everywhere. Like Iceland, even in the winter, when it's not sun and you can't really grow things on any farm, you still see, like beets, you know, a beet salad at breakfast, or sauteed potatoes with peppers and onions, you know. And then you go to Israel. It's like 80% vegetables. It's shakshuka even instead of scrambled eggs it's on top of stewed tomatoes. It's vegetables everywhere. Japan, they have like all these fermented vegetables at breakfast. There's they're having miso soup at breakfast with seaweed floating in it. So it's just in every other culture. In America, if you go to a standard breakfast buffet, it's literally just whites and graze, like you maybe get the sugary yogurt pastries.

55:34 - Chase (Host) Yeah, it's tons of pastries.

55:36 - Ilana (Guest) You get bagels, cream cheese, different cereals, milk, like you got maybe scrambled eggs which are half egg, half cream or butter or a modified version of them.

55:46 - Chase (Host) It's like it's just I won't get any. If they have it, I'll only do the hard boiled eggs Cause.

55:51 - Ilana (Guest) At least then I know it's a real totally, and then real fruit, like if you can get an apple and strawberries, like that's definitely the way to go about it. The single ingredient things that you know are great, but um, and yes, like you, single ingredient things that you know are great and yes, you might find a banana wrapped in saran wrap that you can get your hands on, but it's just so white and gray. And I think one of the worst parts of the American culture and how it's impacted our obesity epidemic that we have to reverse is the relationship with veggies, is the relationship with vegetables. I think every other culture and country I've ever visited they celebrate vegetables. It's part of the cuisine. It flavors the cuisine.

56:23 America People look at it as like, oh, you eat vegetables because you're on a diet or because you're trying to be healthy, not just because it has flavor, it's delicious, it's part of the meal. A meal is not complete without it. So, uh, that's definitely something with children Like you. You gotta make sure they they normalize eating vegetables, that it's not like a chore.

56:47 - Chase (Host) It's, it's, it's normal. It's normal to eat these foods. All right, Let me get away from the section where everyone assumes Chase is just crapping on America.

56:51 - Ilana (Guest) Um, I just I'll reiterate I think we need help, we need help.

56:53 - Chase (Host) We do, we, we really do but it is probably one of the most eyeopening experiences in terms of my, my mindset, but also my, my choices when it comes to healthy habits. Nutrition is travel, getting out of my zip code, getting out of the country and just seeing how other cultures and ethnic groups and just walks of life, how they build life around food in a totally different way. I think is just one of the most underestimated tools when it comes to healthy habits and behavior change.

57:25 You mentioned religion earlier. What role do you think religion plays in our level of obesity? Would you say the more obese we get in America, are we getting further away from religion? Do you find more religious people are less obese. How do they kind of connect there?

57:41 - Ilana (Guest) Well, you see it a hundred percent. You see different rates of longevity and you also see different rates of stress, right? So, like when people feel, when people are typically a part of a religion, there's usually community built in. So it's not always, but it usually is a piece of it. Like I'm Jewish and in order to pray, men need 10 other men. You need nine other men. You need to have 10 men together in order to pray, and the thinking was always that women tend to be social, as it is, but men can really get isolated, and so that's like one of the thinkings is that it keeps men engaged and social, and there's like a big crisis now in lonely men. Like you're literally seeing it in the suicide rate since 2020.

58:26 - Chase (Host) You know people got very isolated. A lot of guests and topics covering that this year.

58:29 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, it's really interesting. And even my husband, like he can, just I'll go out with girlfriends, I'll do meetups, I'll do these things, and then you know he works from home like you got to get out more and thankfully he has that accountability. You know that he goes to pray, at least, you know, once a week on Saturdays and, like, has that social engagement. So I think that that alone just makes people healthier. I mean just and we see that even with the blue zones and and people like and longevity rates is really feeling a strong sense of community.

58:58 - Chase (Host) One of them is the seventh day Adventist Absolutely.

59:01 - Ilana (Guest) So I think that the strong sense of community is key. Other ways in which religion plays a role in obesity, I mean there's so many. I mean I obviously know my religion the most, but we have a very strong concept of don't harm your body. It's one of the reasons why.

59:17 - Chase (Host) And obesity falls underneath that.

59:18 - Ilana (Guest) Absolutely. I mean, at least that's how I like to explain it to my kids and to, and if I'm ever speaking at any Jewish function, I always like to reiterate that um is it's literally written in our laws like don't harm your body, and there's so many examples of like you can't. Um, it's one of the reasons why Orthodox Jews don't get tattoos, cause it's looked at as like a harming the body. So to interpret it as I've spoken to so many rabbis about this, like to interpret it as you know, caring for the nutrition it really goes hand in hand. There's a lot of guilt people have about wasting food. It's considered a sin to waste food, and so a lot of people tell me like, oh I, you know, I kept eating and eating, eating because I didn't want to be wasteful.

01:00:00 But then I've, like, I had to speak to a rabbi because I had this issue with one of my Orthodox Jewish clients. I'm like, how do I, how do I? I mean, this can't be good, right, like. And so he said that it's actually a double sin to be eating food like just leftovers, when you're not hungry Because one you're still wasting. The food isn't going magically to a starving kid in China, like it's still. It's still being wasteful, like it's still more than your need, and you have the added thing where now you're harming yourself.

01:00:24 So I think, when you just look at being part of a community or just having a higher power or a higher purpose, I think it can definitely make an impact and I think, honestly, it doesn't have to be a religion, but anyone who shows gratitude for the world around them and is just very spiritual and connected with nature. It's very hard to be very spiritual and connected with nature which is an amazing part of Japan, by the way like forest bathing, and it's part of their longevity as well. They're very connected to nature and they, they, they have all these gods they worship to, to plants, they worship, to fish, like they have all these different parts of nature that they're really praying to a daily like to then go eat a packaged snack with hundreds of ingredients. It's so far away from food, and so I think it's doesn't have to necessarily be a religion, but just a respect of nature, where food comes from, um taking care of our own selves. I think it can be a protective uh, you know, protective against obesity.

01:01:19 - Chase (Host) Sure, yeah, and I don't disagree with the fact that I think should. Uh, however it happens, when a human being becomes obese, it causes harm on the body in a lot of different ways inflammation, just. You know everything. But then, when you add the religious aspect to it, do you worry that? You know it becomes more of a mental health concern because they don't want to waste food here. It's a double sin, um, so I now I'm gaining weight, but I'm trying. That's only counts as one sin, and excuse me if I'm mistaken.

01:01:52 It counts as one sin, but if I, you know, waste of food, it's a double sin. So then it's like the religious fear, like and I see that a lot. You know, I come from a Christian background.

01:02:01 - Ilana (Guest) It's a double sin to keep eating when you're full.

01:02:03 - Chase (Host) Okay, that's what he said.

01:02:04 - Ilana (Guest) Because it's still wasteful and you're harming your body Like the priority should be keeping your body healthy.

01:02:10 - Chase (Host) Okay, well, where?

01:02:11 - Ilana (Guest) I'm going with.

01:02:11 - Chase (Host) That is just you know kind of my upbringing in Christianity especially Southern Baptist, is there's a lot of that guilt around making the right choice with your life, with your body, sexual choices, you know, out of fear of shame and sinning and burning in hell kind of stuff. Um, that I think if it's stressful, that's.

01:02:30 - Ilana (Guest) That's a counter. It has a counter effect.

01:02:32 - Chase (Host) So how to then, you know, through the lens of religion, how do we make the best choice and the least simple choice? By an honor, our body, and not you know. Add on that potential future stress of, you know, the mental health weight of am I sending? More than I need to be.

01:02:45 - Ilana (Guest) You know what I always say mental health is priority. Like my husband and I, we always say mental health comes first. You know, even with getting presents, you know when he says like oh, I want to get you a present, it's our anniversary, I want to get you comes first. I think it's everything in in balance, like if the religion is causing too much stress, that it's causing you to stress, eat. That's, that's counter, counterintuitive. Um, so it should be the thing that's working for you longterm. I do think, though, that a lot of people think that the best thing to do is take the easy way route, like I don't want to uphold to these laws, cause that's because it's too hard and stressful, and sometimes boundaries create freedom and some discipline helps us in life. So you don't want to overstress yourself, but you don't want to make things too easy on you either, and so having some disciplinary things to follow that keep you in line and give you structure and routine, I think, overall, are better for mental well-being.

01:03:43 - Chase (Host) I agree, I agree. As we kind of get towards the end here, I would love to kind of have you share a little bit of your backstory because, you know, here you are, you're just this person sharing a lot of great information. You mentioned you're a registered dietitian, but you also have a really personal backstory with your own struggle with food, your own struggle with weight, weight gain, weight loss. And, if you could, can you take us back to that moment where you were sent off to quote fat camp and tell us about that? And is there anything you want to say to your younger self, to that little girl around her confusion around eating habits? Now?

01:04:17 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, I mean, I was always overweight as early as I can remember. My parents got divorced when I was, you know, three and four years old and I turned to food without knowing it. That, like food, was my source of comfort. I was very alone as a kid. My parents were off, dating others. My siblings were much older than me, so I was alone in the kitchen, completely unsupervised, eating my way through the pantry for just years of loneliness and sadness, to the point where I got so obese. My doctor sent me to fat camp at eight years old because my cholesterol levels, my blood sugar levels, like everything, was completely out of whack and I just lost 30 pounds in the summer, went right back to my kitchen stool, gained 50 back in the school year Can you go back real quick when you say fat camp like, what did that look like?

01:05:01 - Chase (Host) What did day and fat camp look like for you?

01:05:03 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, there was even an MTV special that was filmed while I was there. It was you know. You wake up, you have morning stretch, you get your portion controlled breakfast this sounds like the movie heavyweights it was heavyweights. It was heavyweights all thrown through, and the funny thing is they would have us watch heavyweights, like we watched heavyweights at fat camp on rainy days when we would watch movies lunch is canceled due to a lack of hustle. Yeah, literally heavyweights. We watched it there.

01:05:29 - Chase (Host) No, I mean, that's such a like mindfuck.

01:05:32 - Ilana (Guest) I know, I know so bizarre God, it's exactly the movie. If anyone's interested, watch it. It's hilarious and it's pretty spot on in a lot of ways. Yeah, we had aerobics, Taibo, you know, kickboxing. You get your portion controlled meal. You then had to like walk a mile after every meal, like up this massive Hill. So yeah, it was a super idealistic, unrealistic plan, right Like there was no way I was going to maintain that or sustain it.

01:06:03 I would go for nine weeks as an eight-year-old, which is insane to me Cause now my daughter was nine and I sent her for four weeks to camp and that felt like a big push. But I think camp is good. It taught me to be independent and it actually gave me at a very young age this positive relationship with weight loss, because when we would lose weight we would like high five each other and it became an activity. And summer camp became this like little escape where I would not have to stress or work so hard to get the results I think I wanted, but then I would just come back and gain it all. So I kept doing that yo-yo dieting pattern for years where it's hard to even think now like did I eat extra during the school year Cause I knew I was going to go back to camp?

01:06:40 - Chase (Host) Oh, wow what a interesting thought.

01:06:42 - Ilana (Guest) Cause I see people do that with dieting now where they almost like at the end of December.

01:06:46 - Chase (Host) I know I'm going to go on a diet.

01:06:51 - Ilana (Guest) So let me just kind of sprint to that finish, and I don't know if I was consciously doing that or not, it's just something I'm reflecting on and wondering if it was lingering there. Uh, but yeah, that became my whole childhood, essentially, until I was about 13, going into high school, where I had this you know change of mindset where I was like enough is enough. This is my only body, I only get one. I might as well make it rock. I have to really just change everything I'm doing. My parents aren't going to teach me what to do because they don't have a healthy relationship with food, so I have to figure this out on my own.

01:07:20 And it started working. All my little hacks and tips that I share within my first book you Can Drop it turned that really into a working system. I ended up losing 50 pounds through high school, another 50, you know through college and after and having my kids, and I've now kept it off this a hundred pounds while helping. You know, thousands of people around the world do it too with a very simple, sensible and sustainable approach.

01:07:44 - Chase (Host) You got me thinking. Something you said there kind of made me think about if there is, let's say, a child listening, you know someone who is still under the roof in support of their parents and they're going. I don't get this kind of support, I don't have this kind of conversation, these kind of conversations. There isn't this approach. What can a child do? What can someone do in that situation to really know that they can make choices without the supervision or guidance? Of their parent. They feel like they're not getting it.

01:08:25 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, well, one. I would ask your parents to get the program Raising Balanced.

01:08:30 - Chase (Host) Eaters, Get the book everybody.

01:08:31 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, my kids nutrition program. I just think like it's the program that I wish that my parents had and my parents wish they had. You know, like it wasn't ideal for them to send me off to weight loss camp. I think if they just watched, you know, these modules, I could have been a lot better off. So you know, I definitely created this nutrition program as that antidote for all the harms I was facing.

01:08:54 But I'd say to the kid, like your childhood does not have to define you. You know, like I looked a lot different as a kid. I feel a million times better now. So one is just knowing it's possible. I think that was really something I had to like grapple with. Like it's worth effort because you can do this. Just believe you can.

01:09:12 And every choice does make a difference. You know, sometimes people are like, ah, what's the difference? I'm so overweight anyway. Like why not just eat all the pizza and fries? No, getting the pizza with the side salad and not the fries, like it actually does make a difference. Every choice makes the difference. Drinking the water instead of the juices, drinking the water, sparkling water instead of the sodas Like it really does all add up. It's kind of amazing. So learn to love veggies. Don't stigmatize them, dip them in ketchup or ranch or put cheese on it. Whatever you have to do to start eating them and liking them, don't be picky Like. Be open-minded, because food is flavorful and at first tastes different, but that doesn't mean you're not going to like it after you try it a couple more times. So, um, keep going.

01:09:54 - Chase (Host) Keep going, get healthy what would you say if you were? You were nine years old when you went away yeah eight eight. Okay, you're looking at eight-year-old Alana. What do you want to say to eight-year-old Alana? To know that everything is going to be okay, and even kind of piggyback that, with someone listening right now struggling with weight loss and nutrition choices because they have been in those shoes, those eight-year-old shoes?

01:10:25 - Ilana (Guest) of whatever the household looked like being overweight as a kid.

01:10:29 - Chase (Host) How can you, how can we look at our inner child and help that version of ourself to help us here today?

01:10:36 - Ilana (Guest) Yeah, I think it's uh, knowing you'll be okay, but knowing it needs to be like one foot in front of the other, like don't move backwards and anyone starting a weight loss journey. You can lose weight. You don't want to regain it, you know. So I always focus on two pounds at a time, two pounds at a time, one day at a time, one step at a time. Just keep moving forward. Don't self-sabotage yourself, don't go backwards, don't make that a possibility. It's like every step you make it could be small, it could be subtle, but you want it to be permanent. You want it to be like you know. It could be subtle, but you want it to be permanent. You want it to be like you know. Keep unraveling the layers that have brought you here and get back to the core of what's going to help you moving forward. Like one layer, one step, every two pounds at a time. That's like what I would tell my younger self is like all right keep going.

01:11:22 - Chase (Host) Well, moving forward is what we're all about. So my final question ask everybody is ever forward, those two words?

01:11:33 - Ilana (Guest) what do they mean to you, alana? You know 1% better every day. You know, like, don't judge yourself about the past, don't beat yourself up for what your life looks like now, what things are going on now. Just be 1% better. You know there's a lot of times I get guilt I could have done things better. I wish I didn't do things, I wish I didn't eat things, say things, all this stuff. But, like you, just have to pledge to be ever forward, to just be 1% better the next day.

01:11:52 - Chase (Host) No right or wrong answer. Thank you for your interpretation. I'm gonna have everything linked in the show notes and the video description box for everybody. But you know your books, you can drop it. And the new cookbook love the food that loves you back. And if you're a cinnamon roll fanatic like me, you're just going to lock eyes on this. On the front, an incredible recipe inside is waiting for us. Where can they go to connect with you and learn more about your world?

01:12:14 - Ilana (Guest) I'm on all socials TikTok, nutrition Babe, instagram, ilana Molstein RD. Youtube. Pinterest website is ilanamolsteincom, so everywhere.

01:12:24 - Chase (Host) All right, well, thank you so much for coming on the show.

01:12:26 - Ilana (Guest) Thank you.

01:12:26 - Chase (Host) And I got to go cook these cinnamon rolls. Go for it. For more information on everything you just heard, make sure to check this episode's show notes or head to everforwardradio.com