Welcome back to Rebuilding Trust With Your Body, I’m Katy Harvey your host. It’s almost Memorial Day, school is almost out, and you know what that means…Summer is coming!

I love summer, it’s my favorite time of the year, but it does bring a lot of challenges when it comes to our eating – all the summer cookouts, vacations where you’re navigating food on a road trip, or eating on a cruise or at an all inclusive resort, or maybe you’re staying in a hotel and you’re eating most of your meals out. Perhaps you’re doing activities like going to theme parks, or hiking, or camping, or baseball games (hot dog anyone?), or the state fair. Eating can feel tricky in these scenarios, and with diet culture all around us we might feel that pressure to diet leading up to a vacation, or to save up our calories to go to a baseball game. We might feel guilty for eating the funnel cake at the theme park or the state fair. The GREAT news is that with intuitive eating we get to enjoy these situations, while also listening to our bodies, and it doesn’t require you to restrict, save up, or beat yourself up afterwards. It gets to feel enjoyable and easy – which makes summer so much more fun!

Summer can also be really challenging from a body image standpoint. As we’re putting away our sweaters and pants, and getting out our shorts, tank tops and swimsuits we might be feeling more exposed and self-conscious about our bodies. Trying on clothes from last summer can be hard and scary, especially if your body has changed and you might have to get rid of shorts that don’t button, or shirts that are too snug. I want to remind you that BODIES CHANGE and that’s ok. You might need to get some new clothes that fit your here-and-now body, and set the old ones aside and donate or sell them. It’s ok. You are worthy of clothes that fit you right now – even if you don’t particularly like your body right now, and even if you wish you were smaller, and even if you’re hoping you’ll lose some weight. You deserve to have clothes that fit you TODAY. 

I know what you might be thinking, because I hear this objection all the time. You might be thinking, “But Katy, I can’t afford to keep buying a new wardrobe. I’ve already gone up a size (or a couple of sizes) since I started intuitive eating, and I don’t want to keep buying new clothes. I don’t have money for that.” 

I hear you. And I get that financial concerns might be a very real thing for you with this. I would also like to gently challenge you to consider whether you’d be feeling the same way if you lost weight and needed smaller clothes. Do this though experiment with me: Imagine that you lost weight this past year and got a bunch of new clothes in a smaller size. And you’ve since lost more weight and need new summer clothes in a smaller size again. Would you be worried in the same way about spending the money on new smaller clothes? How much of your discomfort with buying new clothes is about having to go UP in sizes, not down? Chances are this is part of it – the fear and shame about your weight going up. So I think it’s helpful to factor that in, and to challenge yourself to give yourself permission to buy bigger clothes just like you would smaller clothes. And if you need to get creative with how to get some extra cash to buy clothes, do it. Sell some stuff on FB Marketplace, have a garage sale, babysit for your neighbors so they can have a date night, If you get creative you can make some quick cash to get some new clothes. You don’t have to buy a new designer wardrobe. Get a few inexpensive articles of clothing that are versatile and build your wardrobe out over time. 

Having clothes that fit this summer is so important. And that’s not even one of my hot tips that I’m going to cover in this episode. That little tangent was a bonus tip – you’re welcome! Always happy to over deliver here on the Rebuilding Trust With Your Body podcast. 

Speaking of over delivering, I HAVE TO tell you about my brand spankin’ new mini-course called Stepping Off the Dieting Rollercoaster. I have been putting the finishing touches on all the tools that come with it, and not to toot my own horn, but IT IS SO GOOD. I was thinking to myself earlier that maybe I shouldn’t have called it a mini-course because it’s jam-packed with so many tools and strategies that you’re going to be like, “Holy moly, I can’t believe that I paid less than $100 for this.” It was one of those things where once I started creating the content I just couldn’t stop – because when you’re trying to get off the dieting rollercoaster it’s about more than simply telling yourself that you’re not going to diet anymore, or that you’re going to cancel your Weight Watchers membership, or that you’re going to let yourself eat whatever you want. Simply NOT being on a diet is not the same thing as eating intuitively, and inside Stepping Off The Dieting Rollercoaster I’m going to show you exactly how to make that transition off of dieting and get you away from those sneaky elements of the diet mentality that might still be lingering even if you’ve been dabbling in intuitive eating for a while, and I’m going to show you what it ACTUALLY looks like to change your relationship with food and to find peace and neutrality with it through intuitive eating. Whether you’re just getting started with intuitive eating, or if you’ve been doing it for a while, this is going to be great for you because we are going to look at where you’re currently at in your relationship with food, and how to move forward from right where you’re standing. And for the month of June I’m going to have a private FB group where you’ll get to have me right there with you every step of the way through the mini-course. That’s right, you’re going to get 4 weeks of direct access to ask me questions, to share your wins, and to have the support and accountability that it takes to stick with it on this journey. The course curriculum is all pre-recorded and self-paced so you can go through it at your leisure, and to have that live support in real time from the FB group is like having the best of both worlds. Just FYI, in the future I don’t know if I’m going to the FB group again for this self-paced program, so if you want that added support in a really budget-friendly way, THIS is the program for you. All the details and enrollment info are available at nondietacademy.com/rollercoaster. I would absolutely love to see you inside.

Ok, before we dive any further into our main topic for today, you know what time it is…We’ve got some Wellness Woo to talk about. 

Wellness Woo is the stuff that diet and wellness culture tells us we should do in the name of health, but it’s really based on pseudoscience, exaggerated claims, or just nonsense. 

Today’s Wellness Woo is: Carb cycling – s/o to Ashley who suggested this topic! 

This idea of carb cycling is historically something athletes will do to allegedly try to help their bodies burn more fat and less carbohydrate, but studies have shown that this actually hinders athletic performance and reduces stamina, endurance, strength and speed. 

At the elite level sometimes endurance athletes like marathon runners will do something called carb loading make sure they have as much fuel available as possible for their race, and if done in the traditional sense they will decrease their carbs for a short period of time before the carb load. For the average human and somebody who’s not an elite marathon runner or cyclist, this probably isn’t going to make that big of a difference and could do more harm than good. Now carb loading in the sense of eating a lot of carbs before and during a long event like a marathon or a century bike ride is a good idea because that’s going to be the body’s main source of fuel for those events, and they need to consume additional carbohydrate during the event. But most people even if they’re going to do that don’t benefit from the carb restriction phase ahead of time.

Some body builders also practice carb cycling and they’ll do cuts where they basically only eat protein and all sorts of other wild stuff. I’m not going to get into all that here, but I just wanted to acknowledge that as another subset of people who think this is a good idea, and I have many concerns about things the body building community does in the name of aesthetics, but that’s a topic for another day.

Now, carb cycling in the greater sense of our culture has become popular recently as a diet trend for weight loss. So what is carb cycling and can it help you lose weight?

You don’t have to look very hard to find a ton of articles about this on the internet. It’s very much a fad right now. Carb cycling for weight loss really don’t have strong research behind it, and there are a whole bunch of different strategies people will use. Sometimes people will do it on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. There’s not really a research-backed consensus on HOW to even do it – although there’s a lot of people out there who are more than happy to take your money to tell you the “right” way to do this “advanced fat loss strategy.” 

The problem with carb cycling is any “weight loss” that it looks like you’re experiencing on your low carb days is mostly water. What happens when you’re not eating enough carbs from food is your body burns through your stored carbohydrate which is called glycogen, and it’s stored in your liver and muscles. Each molecule of glycogen is stored with 2 molecules of water attached. So guess where that water goes when your body uses the glycogen molecule for energy? You pee it out. You’re basically just losing water weight. And then on the days you eat carbs, your body is going to replenish it’s glycogen stores in your body, including the water molecules attached to it, and it’s going to look like you “gained” weight, but it’s really just water.

The other problem with carb cycling for weight loss is that it can cause your body to break down it’s lean mass (your muscles) for energy. We don’t want you losing muscle mass, because that’s going to lower your metabolic rate, mess with your insulin sensitivity and of course decrease your strength. 

Carb cycling can also cause headaches, irritability, low energy, digestive issues and difficulty concentrating….BECAUSE YOUR BODY NEEDS CARBS TO FUNCTION PROPERLY!

Let’s also talk about an unintentional form of carb cycling – the restrict-binge cycle. You restrict your carbs up until the point that you can’t sustain it, and then you give in and eat that delicious piece of bread with butter or that cookie, or the donut in the break room, and you’re off to the races going overboard with carbs. You went from low carb to high carb, and it probably felt like crap. This just fuels the narrative in our minds that “carbs make me feel terrible” – when I’d venture to say that when eaten in reasonable amounts, and paired with protein and fat, you probably not only tolerate carbs just fine but you’d thrive with proper balance. But when the pendulum is swinging from one end to the other, yeah it’s gonna feel like crap. 

There are some people who should absolutely not be doing carb cycling because it’s dangerous: 

• If you have diabetes.
• If you have episodes of hypoglycemia, or reactive hypoglycemia
• Athletes and if you exercise regularly

Now some people who are active will do this thing where they eat more carbs on the days they work out, and less on the days they’re resting. This is not only unnecessary, but it can be harmful. Now yes, to a certain extent you may end up eating more on the days you work out, or if you’re training for an endurance event like a marathon you probably will ingest more carbs that day because of training, but telling yourself you can only have carbs on the days you exercise can be a slippery slope. Your body needs the carbs on your rest days, or your less active days, because the carbs are important for recovering from exercise, and they’re important for basic daily bodily functions. Your brain alone burns over 100 grams of carbohydrate per day. This can be a slippery slope because it sets up a thought process where you feel you only “deserve” or “need” carbs when you exercise and you haven’t “earned” them if you don’t work out. That’s not how the body works, and it’s not how we want to be thinking. It’s a recipe for disordered eating, binging, and having a messed up relationship with food and exercise.

Bottom line with carb cycling is that it’s another fad diet trend, it sounds fancy and scientific, but it doesn’t have solid research to back it up, especially for weight loss. It’s definitely wellness woo.

If you have an example of Wellness Woo that you want to share, send it to me at rebuildingtrustwithyourbody@gmail.com or DM me on IG.

Ok, that’s enough of that. Moving on to today’s main topic

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OUTRO:

Thank you SO MUCH for listening to this episode. As always, I am honored that you are here and I would love to hear any ah-ha moments or takeaways that you had while listening, so feel free to take a screenshot of the episode and post it in your IG stories and tag me, or send me a DM. I love connecting with podcast listeners – you guys are my ride or die peeps! 

Don’t forget to go check out my new mini-course Stepping Off the Dieting Rollercoaster where we can work together this summer and you can confidently make that transition away from dieting and into intuitive eating, without getting lost and going off the rails. All the details are at nondietacademy.com/rollercoaster – including some extra special bonuses when you enroll right now! If you have questions, feel free to reach out.

That’s all for today, we’ll talk again soon!