Dr. Kerri Fullerton ND

Intuitive Eating. Health At Every Size Doctor

Blog

How is this legal?

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I’m reviewing some documents given to a patient by a medical doctor. The claim on the website says “weight loss maintained” and I’m like “What? Really?” 🤨

Thankfully they provided citations to this claim. Kudoos there 🙌 (PUBMED ID21673653)

Being the geek that I am, I read the research and I’ve included an image of the long-term data.

You’ll notice that the initial weight loss in year one looks pretty exciting right? That’s what we see in virtually every weight loss intervention. The first 4-12 months are pretty ‘impressive’ (for those who’re able to stick with it). This is what they use to tell you that it’s scientifically proven to work.

But then look what happens to the line. It steadily increases over the next two years so that by year three, they are ‘almost’ back to their starting weight. It’s reasonable to assume by this line and from other longer term studies to show that this like will continue to rise BEYOND the initial starting weight 🤦‍♀️

How is this legal?
Don’t we have measures for accuracy in advertising?
Do you not see this as misleading?

Is this what you imagine when you start on your weight loss journey? Is this what you call successful weight loss?

I have yet to meet anyone who wants to lose weight TEMPORARILY.

They KNOW that you’re going to gain the weight back. And they’ll sell it to you anyway 😤

Please hear me. There is NO scientifically reproducible way to KEEP you thin.

BUT! There are MANY scientifically reproducible ways to improve your health that don’t require you to go through another round of weight cycling 🎉

If you want to talk, I’m here. Connection calls are free.

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When you’re brain just won’t stop

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Back in February Patrick got Covid. Since he had to isolate we decided to let Moose spend the two weeks upstairs to keep him company. Normally Moose is not an upstairs dog. He’s a big hairy beast and upstairs is carpeted so he’s only allowed up to cuddle right before bed ie: he’s only allowed up when he’s invited to do so.

Well, after spending two weeks up there with Patrick, he kinda took a shine to being an upstairs dog. So he started to wander up there at any time of day – with or without invitation. It didn’t matter that Patrick was back at school and not up there – Moose liked being upstairs.

It took a few weeks of consistently sending him back downstairs before he understood that the rules had gone back to before. During that time this 100 lbs dog was like a ninja – he tried every which way to get upstairs without our noticing.

This is what it’s like to train your brain. 

YOU decide when you’ll worry NOT your brain. That won’t stop your brain from trying every which way to ferret it’s way in. Just like Moose kept trying to sneak his way upstairs.

It takes time. It’s annoying and frustrating.
You’ll have to be vigilant for while.
And in time, just like Moose, your brain will learn to follow the rules.
Most of the time 😉
Just like Moose, it’ll need reminders from time to time. 

Click here to read the step by step training instructions on how to train your brain to stop worrying at 3am.

You can do everything ‘right’ and still not get the outcome that you desire. That makes it hard to stay in the game. So what if you changed your focus to what is within your control?

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We’ve been told that all we need is grit and will power and we can have any outcome that we desire.

Guru’s abound with the secret formula for weight-loss, list-building, six-figure launches…you name it, it’s out there.

The trouble is, outcomes are not within our realm of control.

We can do all of the right things and still not get the outcomes that we want.

An athlete can train right and still not make the olympic team.
A musician can do all the right things and still not make it big.
An entrepreneur can follow the script and still have a launch fall flat.
You can exercise every single day and not need smaller pants.

There are too many variables outside of our control to guarantee a particular outcome.

This is why I focus on behaviours.

Behaviours are within my realm of control (my OWN behaviours anyway 😆)

This shift in focus allows me to celebrate my success based on whether or not I performed the behaviour, not on whether or not it produced a predetermined result. I can define my own parameter of success.

By not being single minded in my outcome (ie. lose xyz by such and such date), I’m able to see the many other beneficial outcomes from said behaviour. This motivates me to stay in the game instead of my self-esteem being chipped away. I’m far less likely to say eff it and let the pendulum swing way too far the other way.

This is the heart of weight-neutral care. It allows the space to focus on behaviours. After all, it’s the long-term behaviour changes that actually improve health outcomes. No one has ever achieved a long-term benefit from a week long behaviour 🤷‍♀️

Let’s chat

Breakfast can be a very confusing meal.

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We understand the importance of protein for keeping our blood sugars steady and brains going for the day. But and we’ve been told that eggs have too much cholesterol and meat has too much fat – especially breakfast meats as they tend to be processed meats. We hear we shouldn’t eat those because they might cause cancer. So we turn to vegan sources only to be told that soy is genetically modified and not good for us…

Bread. Poor bread. It’s certainly not safe or appropriate because, you know, it’s bread so…

What on earth are we supposed to eat for breakfast!

Lots of people have turned to smoothies. Then again you have to decide on the protein source (whey is dairy, soy is soy, pea – is it a carb or a protein?), how much fruit is acceptable to go in it, and are you allowed to use milk or yoghurt or is that no good either? What about nut milks? I’ve heard some rumours stirring around about those…

Eating has become complicated and confusing and downright scary at times.

It used to just be that the’diet’ world told us to eat nasty food and avoid tasty food. We would ‘suffer in the name of thinness’. That’s not cool anymore though. So we have the wellness industry on board preaching health instead of thinness but the end result is the same: confusion, fear and stress.

Since we know that stress contributes greatly to all kinds of health issues (including but not limited to: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health, gut health, and inflammation) AND we’re told to reduce/manage our stress at every turn….why is nobody talking about how our food rules are contributing to ill health?

If trying to feed yourself is causing stress, fear or anxiety then it’s not contributing to your overall health.

Sometimes we have to STOP thinking about what we’re eating in order to positively impact our health.

Let’s Plan Breakfast

Permission Slip

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Some times I just can’t.

I just can’t do social media; I just can’t do the dishes or clean the house; I just can’t show up for that Zoom coffee we planned. That was hard for me to wrap my mind around let alone give myself permission for.

The pressures of ‘being enough’ are hard to live up to anytime. But when my tank is empty, it’s glaringly obvious that I cannot keep up. And I’ve finally acknowledged that I never should’ve been trying to in the first place. Not being able to keep up caused me a lot of heartache.

I would judge myself harshly for not keeping the house clean enough; for not spending enough quality time with my family; for not stimulating my child’s learning enough; for not feeding myself or my family ‘healthily’ enough; for not working out enough; for not sleeping enough; for not working enough; for not posting enough on my business page or in my group; for not having enough followers on Instagram…Enough!

After I had my baby I experienced severe post-partum anxiety. I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t even know it.
The fact that I couldn’t sleep, was binge eating daily, and I was angry at my husband all the time didn’t register as a ‘real’ problem to me. After all, didn’t all moms struggle?

Part of my journey back to mental health and getting out from under my binges was acknowledging and accepting that some days I just could NOT.

I had to get super clear about what REALLY mattered, to ME. I had to stop living into someone else’s definition of ‘winning at life’.

I know now that if I have enough energy to play catch OR do the dishes, that I’ll choose playing catch every time. The difference now is that I don’t experience guilt about it.

And you know what? Somehow we always have clean dishes to eat off of and clean clothes to wear.

As I healed I found my own version of ‘clean enough’ for my house and ‘done enough’ for my business. I’ve had to decide what MY definition of a win is.

So, until you can give yourself permission to ‘Just Not’, please borrow mine.

You are allowed to ‘Just Not’ today.

Tomorrow you can choose again. And again, and again, and again.

Questions? Let’s Chat.

Put Your Thoughts to Sleep

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When I ask “how long does it take you to fall asleep,” I often get “OMG! If I could just shut my brain off I’d be fine!” If you’re one of those people who solve the problems of the world as your trying to fall asleep, or at 3 am, then this is for you.

Dedicated worry time is a strategy that I’ve used since I started Naturopathic Medical School back in 2000. While it may seem counterintuitive to worry on purpose, it can actually be an incredibly useful tool. I liken it to training the dog. As the adult in the relationship, I get to decide what the rules are. Same goes for my brain. I get to decide what and when we’ll think about certain things.


Now, if you’ve had a dog without training you can appreciate that it doesn’t always feel like you get to decide. “They just don’t listen!!”. Your brain may feel the same way – like it’s in charge instead of you. Over time, both the dog and your brain can be trained to follow your schedule. At first it will take constant reminders and it will feel exhausting. But persistence and patience pays off.

Here’s how you train your to brain to worry at 7pm instead of 3 am:

  1. Choose a worry time. Preferably this will be at least two hours before bed. We want to make sure that any stress response that gets triggered has time to settle down and cortisol has a half life of about an hour. Since cortisol interferes with melatonin production, we don’t want to cause a spike right before bed.
  2. Set a timer for 10 minutes.
  3. Worry. I mean it. Worry about everything that you can’t get out of your head when trying to fall/fall back to sleep. The kids, work, politics, that thing you said to that friend in grade 5…all of it – write it all down. Or if you just cannot journal, do it verbally – dictation or voice notes on your phone work great for this.
  4. When the timer goes off, stop. Take a deep breath and then move your body – dance, walk, stretch – what ever suits you.
  5. Every time your brain tries to address these worries out side of your worry time, you say – Nope, we do that after supper not at bedtime.

Over time it’s like the dog jumping on the bed. You kick them off. They come back. Rinse and repeat. As long as you don’t let them stay, they do eventually learn to stay off of the bed. Your brain will try to keep worrying outside of this time. But if you keep redirecting it, it will eventually get easier and less intrusive.

The next extension of this is to decide exactly what you’ll think about instead, but I’ll save that for another post.

Catherine Darley is an ND in Seattle with sleep focused practice. She’s the one that named this strategy “Putting Your Thoughts To Bed”. I love it. Such a cool visual. Tuck them into your notebook and then carry on with your evening.

Not sure how to tuck your thoughts in for the night? Let’s chat.

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