Episode 12. Ten Things You’re Doing for Your Health That Aren't Actually Healthy

Ever wonder why the things you're doing for your health feel like they're not working?

We know you want to be healthy and work hard on it—even if it's just sometimes! If you find yourself on a roller coaster with your health habits, this may be why. 

Let's chat about why these behaviors may be harming your health instead of helping it—even if "everyone is doing it."

Thank you for listening! We love you latte!

Get your FREE Download Hunger Blueprint + BONUS Emotional Hunger Blueprint

Find us:
Learn more about our POD SQUAD!
Instagram @selfcarecafe_official
Facebook Group: Self-Care Cafe
-Ashley & Carrie
This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice.

Transcript

[Music]

hey it's Carrie and Ashley we welcome you to the self-care Cafe we are both

health professionals and moms and nature lovers and food lovers and love helping

women get over dieting and just start living we think that talking about

bodies and perfect bodies and dieting is just oh boring

I'm gonna put you to sleep there Carrie yes so if you are ready to ditch dietitian and get to living and talk

about more important things than you are in the right place we don't put shame and guilt on the menu here we don't even

have to tip us nope come hang with us the advice is free we

want to have a bunch of girlfriends to just hang out with and get real with and

it's time to start living ladies

hey Ashley hey Carrie how are you I'm great how are you

great awesome what's on the menu this week well we thought we would talk today

about behaviors that appear healthy on the

outside But ultimately are not really healthy or can lead to

harm yeah either mentally or physically it's a great topic I love this one because

and I think I probably say it a lot so if you've heard me say it great

but I think a lot of these things that we're going to talk about are very what we call normalized which means that a

lot of people do them despite the fact that they're actually like Carrie was saying unhealthy or can cause harm

either now or in the long run right right yeah and it you're gonna see

like all of these things are on social media and are made to look like this is

a great thing to do but we're gonna give another side of it of why

maybe it's not so great yeah to do and just give you some food for thought to think about right

um food for thought new pun intended never yeah I like this

topic too because it's really hard to weed out what is

like quote unquote good information for health and nutrition because of all of the noise that's out

there around it um right like anybody can tell anybody

some Health Nutrition and fitness information and should we listen to them

um or is what they're saying a good idea and in one of our previous episodes I

think it's called how to spot diets in Disguise we talk a little bit more about like trying to watch out for different

um language and what that actually means so

these are some other things that don't necessarily fall under like signing up for a plan program or

whatever but it's just like the mindset pieces of it because some of them like Kerry said kind of may

appear to be healthy and they're very normalized and a lot of people do them and so we don't really

understand the risk we're taking when we start doing it um

yeah well and I one of the governing bodies I want to say it was a CDC but do

not quote me on that just came out with a warning about these Fitness influencers for example on social media

and their credentials yeah a lot of them don't have any right so it's important

to um and it doesn't necessarily mean that someone who doesn't have you know the

letters after their name or a specific certification that they don't

know what they're talking about but you're gonna get more science-based uh

research-based evidence-based information from someone who does right and it's the same for nutrition like

absolutely anyone can give out nutrition information because we all eat right so

everyone has personal experience with nutrition and a lot of times people are just putting out like what worked for

themselves um or really like what only worked for

them for a short amount of time um we'll talk about that another time probably but yeah so that's kind of what

we're gonna tackle today and just to generalize like why these things aren't

a good idea is we've talked about this a little bit already in some of the other episodes but they all really rely on

external cues about what to do with nutrition or Fitness or health or any

piece of that and it's not listening to your body which is what we're all about here

um and yeah Carrie anything to add about before we jump into it jump in we've got

a whole list so you're right how many are there one two three four five six seven eight nine oh man there's not an

even 10. we had to cut well we'll probably come up with a tenth as we're talking that's right so

really there's more but we wanted to kind of just so that you get an idea and

again start noticing like where maybe you are um using these external cues instead of

listening to your body and what it's trying to tell you yeah and we don't want to keep you on here for three hours

right all right we'd love to the but yes we would but we know you like that I want

to listen to us that long so the first one is tracking everything

right and there's there are apps for this that so many of us have or have had

in the past um that track our calories what we've eaten macros

you name it right right um how many calories we took in how many

calories we burned right that's a big one yep um and what kind of mindset does that

create oh it I feel like anytime humans have data we just get in this like obsessive Zone with it and we create

this like pass fail situation so let's say it's calories and I'm not really

going to say a specific number but let's just say um your fitness app or your food logging

app or whatever first of all you're putting in probably like your metrics like your height and weight um and then they're telling you your

goal to begin with like it's not even your own goal most of the time um so that's one not helpful because

we're not machines we're all different and we've talked about that before but

once we have this number we have this idea that like

we can't go over it and we try really hard not to and so that changes our

entire outlook on food and what we're eating and we make our decisions based

on those numbers and if we go over then we're internalizing that like you

couldn't do it kind of mindset um what's wrong with you um

that shame it also it reduces food to a number right right and so I remember

someone once was on uh Weight Watchers the point system

she figured out how many uh donuts and

pieces of cheesecake and for like for this is for real that she could eat within those points

um pretty sure if you subsisted on those you're not going to get the nutrition that you need right oh so so it was like

her daily amount of points but only in donuts and cheesecake

so she met her points but is she meeting her nutrition right she get all the

nutrients that she needs because we kind of we try to hack the system right because ultimately it's restriction so

ultimately we're gonna be like well we want the higher calorie stuff because it tastes good and it's that forbidden

fruit mindset like we've talked about on here in the past so we're gonna find a way to do it and hacking the system to

just subside off of donuts and cheesecake like Kerry said is meeting your points and your calories but is

that really your goal like what is your goal and I think that is what it boils

down to like sometimes it is important to track things um like if you're running marathons or

if you're training for something yes it's kind of important to track your progress so that you're prepared for

your race and I'll let Carrie talk more about that because she's Fitness Pro but

um as far as nutrition goes I feel like

some medical conditions we can definitely track things like trying to keep track of carbohydrates for people

with diabetes and blood sugar but we also don't have to be so strict and rigid about it there's room for

flexibility even with all of those goals right well and think about it like

that reducing food down to a number but we do it to ourselves too by constantly weighing ourselves we reduce ourselves

down to a number so it's it's just that um it's that past fail

that obsession with the past fail um that we get into and what a

in my opinion a horrible way to live if you're constantly just reducing everything down to a number

takes a joy out of it it totally does and I think most of the most of the points we're going to touch on today

would be true for that too like it all of it takes the joy out of it

um because it takes away your body signals like we said they're they're all

external cues and when we're relying on external cues we're more focused about quote-unquote are we doing it right

right exactly and there's not one way to do it right with right when it comes to

eating and exercise and um you know there's some guidelines some general guidelines

um you know sleep and stress and stuff but there's not one solution to off to all of it at all and it drives me crazy

that is one thing I'm going to just say talkers how we reduce things down to a

number it's like I I'm not a numbers girl uh maybe you know because

um I have recovered from an eating disorder and used to reduce things to numbers I just see the damage that it can do yeah and and from my perspective

too like I'm a dietitian and so everyone probably thinks that like I know how many calories I eat in a day I know how

many calories are in everything and it's like that couldn't be further from the truth I don't care and I honestly have no idea like if I

sat and thought about it I could probably come up with like a ballpark but it is not something that I even

consider or think about at meal snacks or anything right

all right next number two intentional weight loss

yes so intentional weight loss why it puts us into that diet cycle

right so like we're restricting something and then we're feeling

deprived and then we're having all these feelings and then we're gonna have

whatever we're restricting anyways and then we're gonna

have guilt and shame about that and then it starts all over again right right and

research shows that this diet cycling also known as yo-yo dieting

over time you you gain the weight and then some so that is true like you you

go this diet you might lose some weight

but then because it's so restrictive you gain the weight back because you get

tired of your body's like come on give me what I need here right so then you overdo it and then you gain more weight

back and then you go on the next diet and that cycle continues and that is why people see their weights gradually creep

up over the years and then you and again it's all based on those external cues you're letting a

diet tell you what you should eat um and eventually do give into your internal cues because your body's like

we need more here yeah our bodies that's what our bodies are supposed to do like they're so smart we're trying to we're

trying to trick them or like manipulate them into doing something it doesn't want to do and

it doesn't know the difference like our survival mode you know our bodies have a

pretty smallish range of where it wants to hang out as far as weight and body size and

when we try to change that it fights us back pretty hard and our body's probably

going to win most of the times right right which I actually just thought of another one because we make

it an even 10. right Bailey Wayne right we do have one auditory but for a different reason but um daily weighing

to try to make sure you're staying for accountability right that that um

again people think that that's healthy but it takes away all that body it's

another external cue it takes away your body Trust we've discussed why you should smash

your scale in previous episodes um so if you haven't listened to that I can't remember which one it is actually

probably knows um but you can look you can go and look at

it right the Smasher seven and eight I think okay

um and and so we explain in those why weighing yourself

uh can be more harmful than good and it kind of fits into the tracking everything that number piece so yeah

this is all related right just like to talk about how all the areas of our lives are related

um at this same same yeah and just a couple more points on the intentional

weight loss one is when we repeat this cycle over and over

and over again one if our weight keeps creeping up it's like well why

why am I doing this and how come I couldn't stick with it right so it erodes like our self-trust

and that doesn't help our Mental Health and not to mention dieting is usually

really bad nutrition right like if we're restricting stuff then we're missing out on stuff

yeah it's really difficult to get all the nutrients that you need in a much smaller

window of calories right because nutrition isn't just about calories it's about a lot of other things too

absolutely so the next one would be which is very

big or in the fitness industry is clean eating and actually we didn't really talk about

this and what we were going to talk about but um there's actually kind of

um a subset of an eating disorder called orthorexia and orthorexia is basically like

the obsession with only eating healthy food and like not eating anything else

um it's very rigid it's very restrictive very obsessive and

so while the foods that you're eating aren't necessarily unhealthy

the mindset is what is unhealthy about it right why don't you um Define what clean

eating actually is oh yeah so clean eating is basically like not eating any processed foods a lot of times

um different types of food groups are left out ones that might be um construed in social media as quote

unquote inflammatory which side note there is not actually great evidence to show that but things like Dairy might be

cut out or things like gluten might be cut out sugars probably definitely cut out

um and focusing only on like um Whole Foods like fruits and

vegetables um whole grains really lean proteins

um things like which again as Ashley said in and of themselves those foods are awesome right like they're

nutritious um if your body can tolerate them if your body can tolerate them yes and

um but it's it's really that mindset that is like you become obsessed with that is

the only food you can eat any other food will make you sick kind like some of them take that attitude like it's gonna

make you sick um it's it is orthorexia is real it's another eating disorder and um

so that that obsession with clean eating is is also harmful like all the rest of

this yeah definitely and again it's those external cues because you're only allowing

yourself certain foods and it's very rigid and it's not flexible at all

um which is what is really important about nutrition right like variety and flexibility and patterns are really the

key things to nutrition and you're not kind of getting most of that right and

the thing to keep in mind too is that on social media or commercials and advertisements all of these things are

packaged in this beautiful these beautiful stock photos and

um you know photographs and just you know tied with a beautiful bow they make it look appealing

but to practice these things long term is can really be harmful to you

especially if it's like some people even take it further where it's like they don't necessarily maybe eat even cooked

vegetables or fruits or whatever raw only or um

do they consider frozen veggies to be processed foods and let me tell you my

life would be so much more chaotic if I only ate fresh fruits and vegetables like frozen

veggies are so helpful because you're getting your you're still

getting them it doesn't really matter what form they're in yeah I used to I way back when I used it you know beans

which now I can't eat many of them anyway but um I used to do the dried beans because

I thought that that had to be better than the canned right so much more work and so much more time

and half the time they wouldn't I don't know I remember this one with kidney beans and they were just hard like why

did I do this like yeah beans exactly yeah they are budget Savers so

again it depends on how everything fits in for you or if you have the time or if you prefer them that way like honestly

and truthfully not because you think you have to right right

amen yeah so what number are we all right one two three we're on number four four get this I'll let you take this one

Carrie because it's about it exercising to burn calories

as Ashley likes to say you are not a math equation yeah right if you put

something in and then you take the same amount out we're not going to equal zero

right wait when I was in college for my undergraduate work

um at so 30 years 30 35 years ago

um the calories and calories out was a big that that's what we were taught

um but my mind the way it works I was always like yeah but what about right and thankfully over time

so it has caught up some but there are still

things that the calories and calories out is oh still a big thing just eat

less eat less and move more right it's still like it's like but how was my body

supposed to be supported if I'm eating the same amount of calories as I'm putting out

right like and you you brought that up calories you don't need to be at zero like a zero uh

more to be called um I don't know I'm not an accountant but you know I know what you're saying

but I can't think of anything to zero you zero out at the end right like it's supposed to be but people that get super

obsessed with it that is they try to do that and listen like the amount of

calories and food it's an estimate for one thing right because you're not gonna get exactly the amount no and even the

nutrition facts labels like they're not exact like Carrie said like they're

pretty close because their foods are analyzed in labs and all that but they're not like precise

yeah and the number of calories you burn with exercise again also not so if you're on that treadmill or elliptical

or whatever at the gym or you're just you're putting into your fitness app how

far you walked or whatever there are so many different components that determine how many calories you actually burn now

that is definitely a math equation but it's not truthful to what's actually happening in your body and quick side note so I'm not

sure if anybody's following me on social media but um yeah I got a Peloton a couple of

months ago and have been using it here and there I mean I've been sharing a little bit about how that is going or

not so much but anyways um I was really bummed out to see that

it's just like every other piece of exercise equipment that shows you how many calories are being burned or how

many you've burned at the end or whatever and I stuck a sticky note over it

because I was like I don't care like this is not helpful at all right and if

you know that let's say you've worked hard to get out of that mindset

it is still very easy even if you worked your way out of it to fall right back into it when you start

so that's so I think that's brilliant to just cover it up yeah uh the other thing too is

um on exercise equipment I know that I've seen your fat your fat burning

heart rate oh yeah right like the intensity level you need to be at yeah right so there's a seat of Truth to that

however when you are going more vigorously and burning more like it there's there's

always like these seeds of truth but there's so much misleading in in the industry you know because if you're

exercising more vigorously um you're gonna burn more overall calories which means you're also going

to burn more fat cow you know like it it's but even that is like it's not like it's

calculated perfectly in your body like it right again don't get obsessed with

those things again it does it takes all the joy out of moving that's what I was going to ask you to carry like when we

think like this what happens that's exactly what happens like you don't enjoy it all all of you listening

to this if you're like I freaking hate exercising I hate it but you do it

I would ask you why why are you doing it because when you shift your mindset and

you're not doing it to burn calories or to attempt to get that six-pack which

genetically most people cannot get um if your reasons why you're doing it are

anything like that externally to change your body then you probably are gonna hate it yeah

and you're probably doing activities just for that reason not

things that you actually enjoy right and not to mention like we said you need

calories you need to eat you deserve to eat and

so feeling like we can't have calories sitting around in our body

or whatever is just not helpful it's not science it's not how our bodies work

right right get to know your body that's right and

find something that you like to do for activity right yeah absolutely there is chances are

there's something um and our bodies are made to move and there are a lot of health benefits to

moving our bodies um so finding activities that you enjoy

makes all the difference does what's the next one number five is

weighing yourself to determine how much food and or exercise to do or eat or

whatever that day and it's similar to what we were just talking about because again we're not

that math equation so if we're not happy with the number on the scale we might restrict our calories

more or whatever we're doing for our food and then we might end up over

exercising um even if we're feeling miserable or

even you know no matter what that's the piece that's really important too is if we're saying I have to I don't know

run on the treadmill for x amount of minutes to burn this many calories because the scale is telling me this

number and I don't want it to be that number um that is just misery here's a great one

how many times during the holidays let's say say Thanksgiving do you see beforehand oh if you eat

the slice of apple pie here's how many miles or how long you have to go right

to burn that off yeah it drives me insane

and not to mention just the holiday but because you brought it up it's one day

you're supposed to enjoy yourself and you're supposed to eat what you want

like and the topic of Thanksgiving is just a whole nother anyways like the base of the holiday and

everything but um we're supposed to enjoy our food we're

supposed to have the foods that we like we're and here's another thing about Thanksgiving just to throw it out there

who says you can't have that stuff any other time of the year right right well and and isn't the point

also to enjoy the company that you're with yes I realize sometimes there are people around your table that you would

rather not have there right um but and and also the holidays a lot of times

certain holidays are the time that only certain dishes are made right like you said to say that you can't make it but a

lot of times family traditions you know with uh it's just a time when only

certain dishes are made you know you have a certain an ant that only makes that dish a certain time and enjoy it

like yeah no you're not gonna get it again right but that's the part that I think a lot of people struggle with like

I feel out of control around it because I know that I'm not going to get it all the time so I feel like I need to eat it all right yeah yeah right anyways that's

another changing right right right right but um you know which Taps again tapping

into you know to or or can I take a slice of that home with me right

some different solutions um yeah or ask Aunt Betty to make it

you know at another time also for you hey I'll take one of those when right

yeah but yeah that isn't a whole other topic you're right

all right anything else about the weighing yourself to determine how much food or exercise to do I love this next

one okay what is it during a certain time period for example

how often do we hear do not eat after 7 pm so many times

and you know what there's no evidence to support that at all

you're bought like like we said your body doesn't like turn off at the end of the day

and then it can't talk it can't like um process food anymore your body's

always on whether we're sleeping or not and I think you are always burning calories no

matter what you're doing and uh some people do feel better if they don't eat late because

sometimes if we're eating really big meals before right before we go to sleep it can feel heavy in your belly but that

would be true no matter what it just makes it hard for you to sleep so it's just right well and if you have

um you know sleep apnea orgastic reflux or anything like that it's probably wise

not to eat a large meal right before right but that but individually yeah

that's getting to know your body right and what works for you exactly so yeah and then

um also if you're if you have that rule for yourself and you are hungry basically

this one is talking about like ignoring your hunger cues that's what it boils down to and if you're hungry past seven

but you have that rule for yourself and you get hungrier and hungrier and hungrier as the night goes on and you

can't sleep well you're probably gonna end up eating at some point and it might even result

in like a binge eating episode and the guilt and shame spiral happens with that so

it would have been better to honor your hunger when it happened yeah or a lot of

times we're hungry in the evening like that because we haven't eaten enough during the day or maybe you're doing

intermittent fasting and you only have that window of time and your body's just like uh yeah one you

didn't give me enough during that window yeah uh and so now I'm hungry again

um so it's it's again it all comes back down to notice in your cues getting to

know your body listening to your body um sometimes I feel like a broken record

it's okay that's okay and yeah not ignoring your hunger like your cues are there for a reason

right exactly so tell me Ashley because you came up

with this one okay um tricking your body with coffee low

calorie foods smoking gum Etc yeah so I've seen a lot of people

in client sessions on social media all over the place trying to like suppress your appetite

basically so you don't feel hungry drink a glass of water yeah that's another good one thanks for bringing that one in

um so it's true that some of those substances do curb your appetite but

your body is smarter than you and it's going to figure out what you

did and it's going to be hungrier at some point so again it kind of ties

into the one we just talked about where if you're drinking coffee all day and you're eating really low calorie food

all day and then you get home and I see this all the time like this is probably one of the most common

struggles people have around this kind of idea is like not eating enough during the day because that's what they think

they quote unquote should be doing and then they get home and they are

starving and they're confused because they ate during the day they did what

they were quote unquote supposed to be doing as far as they were concerned um but your body

does know how much food it needs and it knows that you didn't give it enough right it's

like we we try to trick our biology right right we kind of try to manipulate all the time right right and

um it typically our biology wins yeah and it's so hard because we're sent all this

messaging from everywhere that if you quote unquote just do this um you'll have this whatever it is

um you'll have perfect toes make it sound very simple yeah and it's not and that's what is so frustrating because we

don't know what else to do because that's the messaging we've always heard and we do it and then it doesn't work

for us so we think something's wrong with us right it's not us it's it's the it's a

diet it's um it's the things that we try to do to

um trick our bodies or change our body or yeah yeah it's um

yeah that's a good one yeah I'll take the next one too so cutting out entire food groups and we

mentioned this a little bit with the one about clean eating but if you're cutting out entire food groups

and it depends on why right like if you have food allergies or food sensitivities obviously they bother you

and that's probably a good idea for you but that's part of the process right it's figuring out exactly

because when you cut out entire food groups you're cutting out entire nutrient groups because each food group

has different nutrition in it like meats and things like that have a lot of

protein and fruits and veggies have a lot of fiber and vitamins and minerals and carbohydrates have a lot of B

vitamins um and the list goes on and on so if we're cutting an entire food group out

we're probably missing out on a lot of that nutrition and so if you're doing it for allergies or sensitivities it's

really important to figure out how to get that nutrition back in with other things um but when we're doing it on a diet we

typically don't take the time to figure that out and so if we're

cutting out food groups we're probably lacking in nutrition we're not getting enough variety

yeah like I always I when the the low carb craze started

with some of these uh name brand diets

I just scratched my I'm like so you're not allowed to eat apples and carrots right like

it just doesn't make sense those are again unless like Ashley said unless you

have a true like a sensitivity or an allergy to them they're very nutritious Foods

um but it was their carb content which is also kind of silly because they also

have fiber um you know yeah it doesn't it never made sense to

me yeah anytime there's a red flag we should have talked about in one of our other episodes anytime

fruits and vegetables are restricted run the other way

unless well like we said with sensitivities right exactly like you

know I have to watch fodmaps right but it's also again figuring out because sometimes it's just the amount like

right you know overload on certain fruits and vegetables but I can have a little bit um but that is has been my journey with

figuring that out also exactly what works so you've been listening to your body

oh sometimes it shouts out loud loud and clear sometimes it does

it doesn't oh all right okay you take the last one

all right the last one that we have is working out every day like working out

hard every day the reason this is not a good idea and is not healthy for your body is your

body it requires recovery time it requires rest

when you work out hard and you're working muscles that you're not used to working or even if you are but you're

you know progressively giving it more um resistance uh more intensity you're

actually breaking down muscle fibers during that time during the workout and because you're breaking them down they

need recovery time to rebuild and repair um so if you are working out hard every

day you are probably predisposing yourself to injuries

exhaustion burnout um and

over training um so whether you are training for some race

or competition or you're just you know exercising for yourself

um your body it needs recovery time right and Carrie doesn't taking rest actually help your performance in the

long run yes absolutely yeah because if you're not resting your muscles you're not giving it that time you're not

giving them time to recover and repair themselves and because that's how they

also build strength and size is during that recovery time so if you're not ever giving it that

time to do that you're you're actually could lose strength right so you're basically not getting the benefits from

your hard workouts exactly yeah yeah so Carrie does that mean like so you said

hard hard intensity so that means I can still walk my dog every day right okay yes yes

you can walk that Maple girl needs it yeah

awesome anything else foreign

yes yeah I think that we covered a lot

um as usual and we want to hear from you like is there something that you're

doing that you're wondering like is this a good idea or maybe some of the things we mentioned is something that you're

doing um there's definitely other ways to take care of yourself to like focus on your

nutrition and nourishment focus on your Fitness um like Kerry said too earlier sleep and

stress are an important part of our health also yeah and and

um I mean there's so many other things we can get into yes what are you listening to for music or you know what

do you feel in your your brain with um you know that that could be harmful too all those you know some of

it um might not be externally necessarily healthy but

um I'm sure that we there's more stuff too but what it really all comes back around to is just taking responsibility

for your body and your brain and um listening to it getting to know it

what is your body need not based off what someone else said works for them

um or you know this just this constant cycle of dieting and beating our bodies

up through you know obsessive exercise and things like that definitely

great well that was a great conversation Paris great

fairly quickly too we were not we were not expecting that we thought we were

going to be on for quite a while today because you know us and our tangents yes we had a few but not too bad yep

we done good that's right awesome so and if you want to chat with us or whatever

you can find us on some different places so we're on Facebook at self-care Cafe

um we have a free Facebook group um we're on Instagram at self-care Cafe

all one word underscore official we're on patreon and all the links to

everything um are in our show notes and don't forget to go grab your free Hunger

blueprint also um there's a link for that down below and there's um episode

to listen to about what that is if you want to do that

great well we'll see you next time Carrie love you latte love you latte

thank you foreign [Music]