Liz Wolfe: Why Dieting Steals Happiness, The Challenges of Homesteading, & Thoughtful Omnivorism
Abel James Show (aka Fat-Burning Man)
Liz Wolfe is a nutritional therapy practitioner certified by the Nutritional Therapy Association, blogger at CaveGirlEats (now RealFoodLiz.com), and is the author of the new book, Eat the Yolks. She's also a real-food cook and amateur homesteader raising goats, chickens, and pigs. In this episode, Abel and Liz discuss:
- Happiness (not appearance) and enjoying food as part of health;
- The danger of obsessing over "vanity pounds" and weightloss;
- Transitioning from a modern, urban life to a farm as a bad cook;
- Ancient bread and the pitfalls of conventional farming;
- Thoughtful omnivorism and a rant against the "Paleo Police";
- And more about former diet dilemmas to cooking real food.
Enjoy the show!
[powerpress channel="podcast"] Show Notes- Six years trained with Michael Rutherford, Bootcamp Fitness, Kansas City.
- Coach Rut introduced Liz to Robb Wolfe who was breaking out on his own.
- Started her own blog talking about Paleo and sharing what she was eating.
- Her appearance used to be at the expense of health, but later flip-flopped.
- Misery and restriction diets she was on made her terribly unhappy.
- Maintained a "thinspiration board" with skinny pictures for motivation.
- Had skin issues and disorders (like acne, eczema, etc) tied to her food.
- After five years of eating well, she's never been happier and healthier.
- Don't picture yourself thin, picture yourself in full health instead.
- Our body's expression of full health may not be what we want to see.
- Once you learn to love real food and health, you'll also love your body.
- You can't put a number on feeling good (e.g., scale, tape, calipers, etc).
- When you try to lose "vanity pounds," you lose the point of this journey.
- Strive to be functional and happy your whole life instead of preoccupied.
- Was on The Zone, Low-Card, Ketogenic, etc and something was still missing.
- Grass-fed beef was her first introduction to this new healthy lifestyle.
- In city, farmer markets were plenty; once rural, food is paradoxically bad.
- This led to developing her farm, growing her own food, and homesteading.
- Conventional farming and conglomerates are changing the food landscape.
- She says she's more about real food, without processed stuff, than Paleo.
- "Paleo" is just a label for a diet, but it's not about the lifestyle.
- Paleo is about a vast body of information, science, and common-sense.
- Ancient bread is made with rhizome, which is not a grain at all.
- Modern wheat is not like ancient, wild wheat (like Einkorn) or grains.
- Paleo is not a historical reenactment, there's still science on our side.
- Today's food are fundamentally different than our grandparents' food.
- Wheat sourced in America vs. sourced traditionally (like in Italy).
- Fermenting, properly preparing foods such as sprouting, and organic.
- You don't have to be a good cook to start making and enjoying real food.
- Breakfast used to be FiberOne, soy milk, with Aspartame sprinkled on top.
- So there is a learning curve but it gets easier and you find favorites.
- One way is to find great restaurants that support local producers.
- Liz coined the term "thoughtful omnivorism," which Abel likes.
- It's thinking about where your food comes from, giving back to the soil.
- Excusing ourselves from the food chain is making us sicker, less happy.
- "Where does my food come from," and then "where can I get better food."
- "Embrace the suck," and be outside rather than on the treadmill.
- Quit talking about weightloss at all costs, or whether caveman ate bread.
- Focus instead on real food, where it comes from, and how it makes us feel.
- We should stop "Paleo-policing" each other about dumb, little points.
- Went to high school with Lewis Howes, a past guest on the show.
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