Homemade program for sustainable weight loss & healthy lifestyle changes

How can I achieve sustainable weight loss?

The good news is that you can easily reverse the damage that following a poor diet in the past has done to your body systems in order to achieve sustainable weight loss and a stable, healthy body weight.  It takes time, patience and practice but the end result is freedom from carrying excess weight and the mental torture of constant yoyo dieting.

The Homemade weight loss program will teach you how to awaken, recalibrate and prime your body’s systems and your thinking so that losing weight and maintaining optimum health is no longer a battle of willpower and is something you can sustain and control with ease for the rest of your life.

How does Homemade for sustainable weight loss and optimum health work?

Our weight loss program is based on the following 3 simple principles:

1.    Cook your own food and know what goes into it!

2.    Eat natural, whole foods, as close as possible to the natural state.

3.    Practice the Homemade eating philosophy based on intuitive eating – which means learning to listen to your body and letting it guide you in what and how much to eat.

We know that making healthy lifestyle changes is hard – that is why we designed Homemade to make it easy, sustainable and fun to follow these principles.  You don’t need to be a chef or a nutrition expert because we help you to prepare a week’s worth or healthy, portion controlled meals in each session.  You will learn more about each of these principles and how to apply them in your life through the Homemade program.

 

                     Every week, we cook a week's worth of healthy, portion controlled meals
for each member to take home - in 2 hours! 
We provide all recipes, ingredients and cooking instruction

Why am I overweight….and why can’t I lose weight and keep it off?

 Your body is an incredible machine designed to maintain homeostasis or balance – and that includes your optimum weight and health. 

Unfortunately, by following a diet containing too many processed foods, simple carbohydrates and refined sugars and by eating for reasons other than hunger such as stress, boredom, being overly tired or emotional reasons, we constantly override our bodies’ incredible regulatory systems.  Over time, they start to break down.  Your metabolism, insulin regulation and hunger hormones stop working for you and start to work against you.  You don’t burn fat or calories as effectively, and you constantly crave sugar and simple carbohydrates – making you want to reach for a candy bar, bagel or fries!

Most people turn to diets, calorie counting or restricting particular foods to try to reverse their weight gain.  The problem is that this is basically pitting your willpower against your broken or sluggish body systems.  That is, you are telling your body not to eat when it is screaming at you to eat more.  This is why losing weight is hard.  And although willpower can win out for a while, it eventually fails - leading to binge eating or falling back into your old patterns, which can quickly undo any benefits (and more). 

                                     You can lose pounds by depriving yourself from food....

                              BUT then you put all the weight back on (and more!) when you stop

Develop and live your ideal self image

If you see yourself as an overweight or obese person, then that is what you will be.

If you believe that there is nothing you can do to change your shape or lose weight- because of your genes / age / job / lack of willpower / lack of time, then nothing will ever change.

Repeat after me: There is NOTHING wrong with you.  You CAN achieve the body shape and health you dream of....

We learn to associate ourselves more with the person who isn’t fit or who eats too much or who makes unhealthy food choices. The effect of this is that we become our own self fulfilling prophecies.  You start to believe that there is something wrong with you - YOU can never be one of those effortlessly slender people, who seems to eat whatever they want....

Yes, you can.

The starting point to achieving and maintaining your ultimate body FOR LIFE (with minimal possible effort) is to determine and develop your ultimate self image. What does the ultimate you look like and act like?

Is it:

• a healthy, outdoorsy, sunny, beachy person who bounces around and eats fresh fruit and nicoise salad? 
• an introverted bookish person who listens to classical music and eats homemade stews and porridge? 
• a gym junkie in the latest expensive nikes and lycra who has protein shakes and tuna salads? 
• a combination of all 3? Or something different entirely?

For me, what I really connect with is living the most healthy, natural life I can so I know I am giving my body and mind everything they need to perform at their best and so I feel my best. This means that I love being in the fresh air and sunshine and ocean. I love exercising with fresh blood and oxygen being pumped through my body and my lungs, muscles and joints working. It also means that I love eating fresh fruit and vegetables and grains and meats and fish and eggs and home cooked food made from scratch. 

 It is entirely a PERSONAL CHOICE. Figure out your own ideal self-image and then let it guide your food decisions.  This is one of the most important steps you will ever take on your journey to sustainable weight loss and optimum health.

Come back to this post whenever you need a reminder. :)

Building partnerships with Local, Organic Farms!

About 5 years ago I subscribed to my first CSA box.  CSA is a program which brings you beautiful fresh produce right to your doorstep (or local pick up spot).

Little did I know how life changing it would be! Not only did I start receiving abundant, fresh, local organic produce of the highest nutritional quality, but I started to understand - and pay attention to what was in season.

Before I got my local boxes of goodness, I would go to the grocery store and try to be adventurous but always end up buying the same 5 or 6 items - lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, mushrooms... and I would never think twice about buying oranges in summer or grapes in winter.

Once you have received really juicy fresh seasonal produce for a few months or years you start to regard most of the produce in the supermarkets with suspicion - how long and far has this orange (from AFRICA!) travelled to reach me... how many carbon emissions has its delivery created... and how early was it picked to get it without going off... and how much nutritional quality could this poor orange possibly have left!?

Most of all though, you start to realize how BAD most of this produce tastes - and how AMAZING fresh local in season produce tastes with comparison.  IF YOU REALLY WANT TO EAT HEALTHY AND ADOPT LIFELONG HEALTHY EATING PRACTICES THE FIRST STEP IS TO START WITH THE MOST DELICIOUS, FRESH RAW INGREDIENTS!

Now I am a co-founder at Homemade and I am building partnerships with local (hopefully organic) farms to source our produce  I had the privilege to go down to Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale yesterday to meet some of the people behind the beautiful farm.

I am so much look forward to creating and building these partnerships.  I feel so lucky and excited to be combining some of my personal values with some of my greatest joys with our business, Homemade!

Introducing: Homemade for weight loss!

I started this blog almost 3 years ago because I wanted to do something to help empower men and women with their weight loss struggles.

At the time I was working as a commercial litigation solicitor in a big law firm.

Now... I am pursuing my life's greatest passion and am the co-founder of a business, Homemade, which is dedicating to helping all men and women achieve sustainable weight loss and optimum health.

Homemade is a weekly cooking community for sustainable weight loss.  Every week, we bring our members together and we teach them how to cook healthy meals from scratch.  We provide structure and convenience for healthy eating throughout the week because our members prepare 18 healthy meals to take home in each weekly 2 hour session.  We provide recipes, ingredients and cooking instructions.  Our members support and inspire each other in a real life community.

Weight loss with Homemade is easy, convenient and sustainable because it is not a diet - It is a new way of life, and a totally new relationship where you discover the joy of cooking and eating healthy homemade meals and how completely satisfying that can be!

We developed the Homemade model after nearly 8 months of research, testing, getting feedback.. and speaking with people like YOU who have struggled to achieve and maintain their best weight.

We are launching our next intake in mid-June. It is so exciting!  Check out our website: homemade-cooking.com for more info or to leave a comment.

We love feedback and real stories, so we would love to hear from you!!


Chloe prepping for a Homemade healthy cooking session:

Our venue in Menlo Park - sweet serenity before the cooking storm begins!

Some of our lovely Homemade members and supporters

An example dish: Kale and beet salad with parmesan and toasted nuts

 

 

Above: An example of a week's worth of healthy meals you get to take home after a 2 hour cooking session with Homemade - Yum!

Low fat and low sugar does not aid weight loss

One of the most frustrating things I regularly see is overweight people eating low fat, no fat and low / no sugar foods. Especially so called 'healthy' versions of junk foods. Think 'low fat' ice cream or chips and no sugar chocolate bars and you are on the right track.

Let me say this clearly so there is no doubt: 'EATING LOW FAT / SUGAR VERSIONS OF JUNK FOODS WILL NOT HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT'.

But there is more; 'IF YOU ADOPT AN INTUITIVE APPROACH TO EATING, THEN NOR IS IT NECESSARY.' You can eat the full fat, full sugar unadulterated version and still look and feel your best.

I have never actually seen a very good explanation for why the above is so true and so important on your journey to optimum health, so let me explain.

Although the primary reason people buy low fat / low sugar versions of foods, is to consume less calories (and therefore to lose weight), the reality is that almost everyone ends up simply eating MORE of the product - significantly more. I am talking 2, 3, 4 times more (if you have ever sat down with a tub of 'low fat' ice cream and ended up eating a liter, then you know what I am talking about). The reality is, that low fat / low sugar versions of junk foods generally don't have that much less calories than the original version. So you actually end up having more calories. And, as I'm sure most people understand, it's ultimately your consumption of kilojoules - or energy - that determines whether you put on or lose weight.

Further, even where the low fat / sugar version does have significantly less kilojoules, the reality is that most people end up eating an amount of kilojoules AT LEAST EQUAL- if not more- than the full fat / sugar version. Or if not immediately,then you make it up by eating something additional later in the day or the following day. It is like our head does a calculation of how much we would ORDINARILY eat (in kilojoules) and then matches it by eating more of the lighter version.

There are 4 problems with this approach. Firstly, the very reason you brought the 'light' food was to try to eat less kilojoules but your overall tally is equal to or exceeds what you set out to achieve. Secondly, because you have been eating a 'light' food, you don't actually acknowledge that you have been eating junk food. You actually think you have been healthy / good today - leaving you anticipating your 'unhealthy / junk reward' when in reality you should be cutting back in the days to come. Thirdly, and most significantly, you are UNSATISFIED and left craving the real thing. Finally, you have actually accustomed your brain (and your stomach) to eating larger quantities of food than it would otherwise consider normal. What this means, is that when you do eventually cave in an eat the 'forbidden' junk food you eat A LOT - completely blowing your weight loss objectives. The guilt kicks in, and so beings the vicious cycle once again.

Oats for breakfast

If you want to begin your journey towards intuitive eating, resulting health benefits and weight loss then there is a very simple way to start.

Commence each day with a bowl of oats. As much as you want. Cook it or have it raw. Add milk, yoghurt, fruit, honey, nuts, whatever you want. Most of your bowl should always be the oats though.

Have it every morning without fail. If you wake up in the morning and you are not hungry, it means you ate too much last night. Stick to your bowl of oats, but maybe have a smaller bowl or add a few less bits and pieces to it.

What is the point of this? Eating oats is a wonderful nutritious way to reconnect with your true hunger. You probably won't overeat it (but don't even think about how much you are having - your body will work out what is right over time). And you will be astonished how after just a few days, you will feel even tempered, experience even energy throughout the morning, have regular easy bowel movements AND not crave junk food all morning after a good breakfast of oats. A true wonder food.

If you do get hungry before lunch. No problem! Have a healthy snack..or an unhealthy one if you wish to. The point of this approach to eating is not to get quick results or to deprive yourself or strarve yourself. The point is rather to teach you a relationship with food which will leave you in perfect shape and will last for the rest of your life and which still lets you eat for pleasure.