74 Transcript: Health and Fat Loss for Women (with Beth Westie)
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J: You're listening to the Vibrant Happy Women podcast, episode number 74.
B: When I explain this to people and I'm like, “Yeah, you can just eat for your hormones. It's not hard and it's not, you know, really drastically different.” Like, I have 3 kids and I'm… you know, a husband and I… we cook like this and I eat like this all the time.
Intro: Welcome to the Vibrant Happy Women podcast, stories of vibrant women living happy lives. And now, your host, Jen Riday.
J: Hey there, welcome back to Vibrant Happy Women, I am glad you're here; I always am glad you're here. On our last episode, I talked with Nisha Moodly all about wholeness and alignment and sisterhood. She is super inspiring and she's living a really authentic life that inspired me a lot; so you need to listen to that one if you haven't already. Today, I'm talking with Beth Westie. Beth is a chiropractic doctor who studied nutrition for a very long time and she has figured out the strategies that help women lose fat. She says that so many weight loss programs out there are geared for one body type and it doesn't differentiate by male or female. Well, if you think about it, that doesn't really make sense because women have hormones, we have babies, we have more fat. She's figured out a fat loss program that helps women in particular. So let's go ahead and dive in and we can hear about what Beth has to teach us.
I'm talking to Dr. Beth Westie today and she's a chiropractor trained in health and acupuncture and Eastern medicine and she loves educating women on health and how their bodies work. She's a mom of 3 kids, married for 10 years, and lives in Bloomington, Minnesota. She grew up on a small goat farm (that is so unique) in Eagan, Minnesota.
[Laughter]
J: She loves to work out and have family fun days too. Welcome to the show, Beth.
B: Yeah, thanks, Jen! I am really excited to be on your podcast.
J: Yes, and we are really super excited because Beth and I had the opportunity to meet just 3 short days ago, which was super cool. She was in my hometown of Verona, Wisconsin, and so we…
B: Mm-hmm.
J: … got together. So this is really fun to really personally know the podcast, I guess.
B: Yeah! Yeah, it was… I don’t know, I travel and speak and, you know, to share my message and mission and it was so funny when I connected with you, I was like, “Oh, I'm going to be there in a few weeks, how funny.” (Laughs)
J: Yeah! Well, so we always start off with a favorite quote, and what quote do you have for us today?
B: So my favorite quote is, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” It's a Gandhi quote, I know it's pretty popular, but it always reminds me about how to be self-reflective, you know, look inward first when you're frustrated or struggling with something; it's all about looking inward to find solutions.
J: And so looking back on your life, what reflections have led you to change something in yourself or your world?
B: You know, there's a… I'll say a lot of different experiences that I've had. I was… you know, I grew up in a small goat farm, I was in 4H and, you know, just kind of had a, you know, kind of more natural childhood, I'd say. And then I was an athlete, so I was starting about middle school, high school. I really started getting serious about sports and that became my life. I… you know, I was a 3-sport athlete in high school and then I actually got a full ride scholarship to play volleyball in college at Northern Michigan. And then, from there, I actually got an NCAA continuing education scholarship for a fifth year to finish up school; to finish up my undergrad.
J: I love that quote. And how have you been able to reflect and be the change that you think the world needs?
B: Yeah. So a lot of different experience I've kind of been through in my life, you know, growing up on a goat farm and then going from that to being a really serious athlete in middle school and then high school and then into college. I was a 3-sport athlete in high school and, you know, was really successful on some different teams. And then I actually got a volleyball scholarship to play at Northern Michigan University, paid for my first 4 years of undergrad, and then got an NCAA continuing education scholarship for my fifth year; which was just to finish up school. So I did really well academically then for that fifth year scholarship. And after that, I went into graduate school, chiropractic school, and there was a really tough transition for me. At that point, I had identified myself as an athlete. I thought I was going to just play volleyball forever; like, What's wrong with that?” And there was a point where I realized after a knee injury that I was not going to be, you know, playing that; at some point, my career would end. And if you identified yourself as that, as an athlete for a long time, you sort of have to find who you really are again. And there was… you know, that was tough. There was also points… you know, I had actually been invited to play on a couple of different professional teams; one in Australia and one in Europe. And so I had to turn those invitations down because I wasn't able to continue playing at the level where I was, and, you know, that was the whole, “Okay, I'm going to shift my life, yeah, and do different things.” But there was… I mean, there was a couple of years where it was a lot of just searching for, “What's next? What am I going to do? Am I going to really like it? I don't know what this is going to turn into? Yes, great, there’s school, but, ugh, school.” (Laughs)
J: Yeah. So you… you kind of lost your identity to some extent.
B: Yeah.
J: Or you had to recreate it. So how was that shift…
B: Yeah.
J: … from being the fit amazing athlete to helping other women with their health? I mean…
B: Yeah.
J: … was that kind of the shift you made or were there other aspects?
B: Well, there was a lot kind of in-between too, because I started graduate school and then, after the first year in, school I got pregnant with my son. And then, all of a sudden, boom, then here we go. Then your body is… you know, my body went from being a trained athlete to being a student for about a year or 2, you know, just kind of sitting there. I was still working out, but it wasn't… you know, wasn't like I was training before 6 hours a day. And then going to being a mom, you know, and that was really, again, a whole new world that I… you know, you always had those thoughts, “Oh, I’ll have kids someday.” Well… and you have a lot of kids, you know; you know?
J: (Laughs)
B: “I'll have kids one day,” but I wasn't… you know, all of a sudden, it's like, “Oh, I guess that day is going to be sooner than later.” And so there was a lot of transition there and just kind of finding who I was and what I wanted and how I was going to shape the life that I wanted, you know, going through being a student. And then I had my first 2 kids while I was in school graduated, you know, I took my boards, passed boards, got licensed, started a clinic, and then a month later, got pregnant with my third, and then from there, built a business. So there was a lot of, I want to say, up-and-down struggle along the way that I constantly feel like I have to re… you know, I don't want to say ‘reinvent yourself’, but, you know, you're starting over with a new person. And then going through all those different transitions and changes, not always gracefully, but at least recognizing that, “You know what? Women do go through these different phases of life.” And, you know, it would have been really great to have some different tips along the way…
J: Yeah.
B: … of different health things that I could do I struggled with different health things after, you know, through pregnancy and after. And being in the healthcare field I really struggled just from getting the right answers and getting the right results myself. So that's why I dove into a lot of research and sought out different experts and I… you know, if there's a… I can't remember who said this, but there's a there's like a saying out there, “If you're searching for something and you can't find it, then create it.”
J: Yes.
B: Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah.
J: That’s great, yeah.
B: Yeah. So I did that. I was like, “This should be easier for me. You know, I feel I'm not alone here, I know I'm not the only, you know, mom out there who's struggling with, you know, health and weight and just feeling like I have energy and all these other things.” And then… and I was a… you know, I had a practice. I treated patients all day and getting through the day, the busyness of the day, you know, “What do I eat? How do I stay energized? How do I work with my body?” it was all these different… you know, through nursing, through babies, and… well, all that great stuff, you know? So…
J: So you went searching for something and you couldn't find it.
B: Yeah.
J: So, you know, what I read your bio, it mentioned acupuncture and Eastern medicine and chiropractic training and nutrition. So tell us essentially what you created that answered your questions about health, weight, and energy, and helped you help other women with those.
B: Yeah. So I was trained in Eastern medicine and acupuncture; I specialized in fertility. So I started… and fertility, the practice that I had was focused on… which was also a passion of mine, you know, it was focused on, you know, adjustments and active rehab and exercises which, you know, being an athlete, I fully understand the exercise portion of strength. So… but I… I really found a passion in women's health and then really starting with, you know, fertility and cycle issues and how the female body work, I totally dove into that and I started working with women, really over my lunch hours because I didn't fit into my normal day of, you know, a business, my normal business hours, to do these types of fertility treatments on women. So I would treat them in my… all my spare time, you know, over my lunch hours. And then in between treatments, I wanted them to continue doing something every day to help with their hormones, to help with their health and nutrition. And that's where I put together taking the concepts of Eastern medicine and I put together a nutrition program using whole foods, foods that you eat every day, just shifting them for what is going on hormonally in the body or what you want to have hormonally in the body at that time; which should change each week because your body hormonally changes each week.
J: Yeah. And I got to hear you share kind of your story of, you know, all those pieces coming together when you were in town in Verona here.
B: Mm-hmm.
J: And give us the (Laughs)… I don't know how we do this, but give us the 5-minute version of all those pieces and all the pieces we need…
[Laughter]
J: … we need to think about in regards to our health. Well, first let me back up. I'm the ideal person to talk to, Beth, because I've had 6 kids, each kid decreased my energy and add a little bit of weight, and then I feel like I'm a bit perimenopausal, I have a hot flash here there, you know, just tons of hormonal changes happening; age has happened, life has happened, stress happens.
B: Mm-hmm.
J: So what advice do you have for women like me and those listening, how did we pull all those pieces together? Because there's so many ideas out there.
B: Yeah, absolutely. And that was… that was also part of the problem, you know, when I got started and it's the whole like, okay, how to recommend for people to eat. I studied a lot of nutrition in school. In chiropractic school, we actually get about a year of nutrition, intense nutrition education…
J: Wow.
B: … on a deeper… yeah, it's a lot more than what people actually think of.
J: And it's a lot more than doctors get in medical school; I know that. (Laughs)
B: They… yeah, they get about 2 weeks.
J: Yeah.
B: They get about 2 weeks.
J: Right.
B: Yeah. And then from, you know, that piled on top of the years of being an athlete and studying different nutrition programs, I mean, every coach I had put us on a diet. You know, some of them were good and some of them were not good and not mentally healthy either.
J: Ah.
B: So, you know, and you look out there today, I mean, you type in any type of nutrition or searching for anything and you're going to get bombarded with a bazillion different things. And, you know, not all of them are creative for women. So… and this is, you know, part of my book that I have out now, ‘Female Fat Solution’, is the whole first chapter is on the history of nutrition, how it's all research done men and put together by men so the results are best for men (well, duh, of course).
J: Yeah.
B: Their bodies are essentially the same all the time. So for looking for something specifically for women was really what I… what I wanted to create and… and just to give women the opportunity to have and follow because exactly like you said, you know, your body changes you go through having kids and then you're like, “Okay, I did this other diet plan before,” or like, “I cleaned up my eating a little bit and I ran a few days a week and, boom, there I lost the 10 pounds that I thought I couldn't take off from before,” you know?
J: Yeah.
B: Easy-peasy. And then, all of a sudden, after kids, totally different game; you know, it doesn't work the same at all and that’s because your hormones are different. So, physically, from the start of your period, for the first 14 days, your body's higher and estrogen and it's just eating cooling foods that match with estrogen. Second 14 days from day 15 to 28 about, body's higher in progesterone and then it's really matching foods of progesterone; warming foods that really help progesterone work a lot better, and then you're going to really be more in sync with your body and get a better result overall. So that's… I want to say a very simple breakdown. I do a lot of education, you know, online and there's a lot of information I try to put out there because it's a different way of thinking about eating.
J: So a lot of women love the Paleo diet or whole 30.
B: Mm-hmm.
J: And why do many women struggle with those and how would this cycling and being aware of hormones help?
B: Yeah. So, you know, not that those are bad those are… you know, the whole 30 is basically just getting you to eat cleaner overall, being more aware of what you're putting in your body; good, that's awesome. Paleo, it also cleans up a lot of junk. That one is lower in carbohydrate, which for some women, if there's thyroid issues or there are hormone issues, it can be a little tougher long… especially long term and energy wise, or if you're under a lot of stress, your body does need a different amount of carbohydrate, which is really tough to get just on following a paleo routine.
J: Mm-hmm.
B: So, you know, not that those are bad, but again, they don't shift or change week to week to match with what's going on in the body. Another thing too that you'd mentioned, the stress aspect. I… I mean, women respond and react differently to stress than men do physically and mentally and emotionally, and our bodies really, really need different nutrition around that whole stress point to come out of it successfully and to not have, you know, weight gain and then weight that you can't take off.
J: Yes.
B: Because those are the 2 things that happen, right?
J: Yeah.
B: You get that weight gain and then, “Oh, yep, okay, now I put it on, that's fine,” or, you know, say it, you know, it's usually something that's, you know, bigger in your life; you move or there's a death in the family or you get injured or sick or something that’s some type of traumatic stressor. And then, weight gets put on, but then for whatever reason, no matter how hard you're working, you can't take it off and it's just your body's reaction to stress that it hasn't been able to reverse. So there's, again, different things for those… that hormone change in your body that you can go through to come out successfully on the other side of it.
J: Okay. So the first 2 weeks of the month, starting with day 1, is our period, right? And then we have the higher es…
B: Mm-hmm.
J: … higher estrogen.
B: Mm-hmm.
J: And you mentioned cooling foods. What does that really look like in real life and how would that help with stress?
B: Yeah! Okay, so cooling foods are going to be chicken, turkey, fish, you know, raw fruits and vegetables, iced water, and then you can always season your foods for cooling. You know, mint is very cooling, dill is cooling, rosemary is, cilantro is very cooling, just a way to really… your basal body temperature is lower at this point too so, again, you're working with your natural body's temperature. That way, you're tapping into the… the beneficial things of estrogen at that point. So you're getting more energy because estrogen gives you more energy, it's going to boost your metabolism naturally, you're going to recover faster from workouts. A lot of times, you'll have better mental clarity too, which means that it's a great time (that day 1 through 14)… great time to start a new habit if you're really wanting to, you know, “Oh, I really want to make a change,” this is the best time to do it.
J: Mm.
B: And then, estrogen also burns carbs. So, again, if you're going to be adding more carbs or say you're focusing on training for something, “Oh, I want to do half marathon,” or whatever it is, and you're working on getting more carbohydrate into your diet for different training days, if you're in the estrogen phase, there's days where you can have more carbohydrates because your body's burning them more naturally with estrogen.
J: Yes, that's so cool.
B: Who doesn't love carbs, right? (Laughs)
J: Yeah! Yeah, exactly. Well, kind of reading between the lines of what you said, it sounds like, you know, if you have the stress issues, “Hello, my hand is raised…”
B: Mm-hmm.
J: … you know, with 6 kids, I sometimes I feel like, every day, someone walks up screaming and my body reacts so fast; it's like goes 0 zero to 100, so I know I'm already at a bigger level of stress.
B: Mm-hmm.
J: So are you saying that for some reasons, women might need more carbs than men because of how we deal with stress?
B: For women, it's going to be really making sure you're getting the protein numbers in for stress; our bodies in the stress response specifically. So every other animal out there, you know, what has a natural switch to turn the stress response off. Like, you see a deer in the woods, it gets spooked and that stress response happens, so it heart rate is going to increase, its breathing is going to increase, and it's going to have all sorts of adrenaline running through its body. And it takes off through the woods, you know, to be safe from whatever danger, you know, that it sees. But you can see that deer 5 minutes later drinking at a stream, totally fine and calm because that stress response has automatically switched off. That’s how…
J: Wow, I want that. (Laughs)
B: Animals have that, right? Yeah.
J: I want that.
B: Humans… humans don’t necessarily have that.
J: (Laughs)
B: We don’t really have that on/off; it’d be nice if we did, but we don't really… we don't have that. So the great thing about that means like, just like you said, you wake up in the morning to somebody had a nightmare and immediately, your stress response get set off; boom, there it is. And then, you're going into the kitchen and somebody else tried to help make breakfast, but spilled everything all over the floor and you're like, “Ooh, dang it, now there's a broken dish,” and, “Don't step on the glass!” and, “Okay, everybody, over here if you don't have shoes on. I gotta clean,” you know? And then it snowballs from there, right?
J: Yeah.
B: And you're stress response then is heightened all day long. You can extend that one day into a week, into a month, into even years.
J: Ugh.
B: And your body's natural response then will be to take any type of nutrient that's coming into your body and store it as energy in fat cells. So there's a really fun process that your body does, it's called gluconeogenesis. It actually takes healthy proteins that you're trying to get in and it will take those and it'll turn it into sugars and store it.
J: Oh, no.
B: Just as a fun way; just as a fun thing for you, yeah, right? So I talked about protein a lot and women getting enough protein to support lean muscle, to increase metabolism and burn more fat and all these other good things, right? I want to say that's not… that's not a lot of new information out there, but I really believe women need to get more protein than what they're getting in. But in terms of stress and how your body reacts and responds, your body's taking some of that protein and it's turning it into sugars and storing it. So that's where you need to get an extra amount on top of that high amount of protein to react to that stress so you can come out of that stress response; yeah, first come out of it and then stay healthy from there on out.
J: Okay. So I think you have a lot of great steps for us; higher protein, following our cycle.
B: Mm-hmm.
J: And we can't possibly cover it all in this interview, but you've wetted the pallet, you know, so to speak, thinking of food.
[Laughter]
J: So, tell…
B: (unclear) [18:59]
J: I know tell us where we can… I know you have something cool on your website, and tell us where we can find that and what it is.
B: Yeah. Yeah, so my website is just www.drbethwestie.com and I have a free 7 day meal plan that takes you through the meal plan that I recommend women follow, which is clean eating, high protein, it goes through protein pacing, and then it will also take you through carb cycling, and then an intermittent fasting day. And there's so much packed into this nutrition plan that I have for women; it's amazing. And then once you actually sign up for the 7 days, as a bonus gift, I send you another 7 days.
J: Okay.
B: So there's actually 14 days that you get.
J: Okay, yeah. So, everyone, go to Beth's website at drbethwestie.com and get that free 7 day meal plan. And then she has her book, ‘The Female Fat Solution’, which…
B: Mm-hmm.
J: … you know, really it's so cool; finally, something that's for females. Why has everyone else been ignoring hormones? That's kind of the dumbest thing ever. We are not men, we are not the same.
[Laughter]
J: You know?
B: Yeah! I know, right? Like, when I explain this to people and I'm like, “Yeah, you can just eat for your hormones. It's not hard and it's not, you know, really drastically different.” Like, I have 3 kids and I'm… you know, and a husband, and I… we cook like this and I eat like this all the time. And it doesn't affect them at all because they can just either season differently or do… tweak things a little bit. But overall, it makes the biggest difference in your results. And it's so funny then people are like, “Well, that makes sense. Why haven't we been doing that all along? and I'm like, “I don't know, but I think we should.”
J: Yeah, it's great. Well, I think you're doing good things, Beth. Well, so advice to women who might be struggling with their health or weight.
B: Yeah. So the hardest thing for women… and I've been working with women for a long time on this, I mean, years; 5 plus years, really diving into the fertility piece of this. And number one thing that I keep seeing again and again with women is that they constantly keep searching for something and yet, they come up empty in terms of going through something and then feeling like it was the right thing for them, and then the next time, they're like, “Well, I really… like I really want to do this. I really want to feel better, to have more energy to get this… either the body that I know I can have, you know, I'm busting my butt at the gym, I've been working hard on my nutrition, why isn't this happening for me? What's wrong with me? What am I doing wrong?” And they look at themselves like they're doing it wrong, whereas, it's really what they're applying, you know, it's like following the wrong map, you know?
J: Yeah.
B: And I would… women get so discouraged and just beat down about going through this process again and again and it's exhausting; it's mentally and emotionally exhausting to continue to do.
J: Yeah.
B: And… but I want to encourage women to just like keep going, like keep trying new things, keep plugging away because you will find things that help. I mean, I try new health things all the time. Okay, so this morning… I will tell you about a health fail this morning. I tried to make my own peanut butter. I was really excited, I've been looking this up on Pinterest.
J: (Laughs)
B: I've been obsessed, right? I've gotten… I've got like 60 recipes done (not really that many, but a lot) and I was like, “I'm going to make my own peanut butter and it's going to be so great and da-da-da-da-da; it can't be that hard.” So I tried it last night and I was like, “This is not good,” I was like, “Maybe I need to soak the peanuts.”
J: (Laughs)
B: “Maybe that'll help,” and that made it worse. (Laughs)
J: Oh no!
[Laughter]
B: Awful! But, you know, I was like, “You know, that’s okay. I wasted, you know, a few dollars a peanut; that's okay,” you know? But it's one of those things that like it is defeating; I totally get it. You know, it’s defeating to feel like you're trying these things are doing these things and to come up essentially empty-handed, but like don't give up on yourself.
J: Yeah.
B: You know, you are worth more than that. There are things you can do, there's resources out there, and I know how frustrating it can be and how hard the struggle could be, but just don't give up on yourself and desire that you have for a healthier you.
J: Yeah. And do you ever think or talk about the mindset of being thin and having that identity of, “Hey, I'm a healthy person,”?
B: Yeah. Well, the first thing is to really kind of dive into a lot of the mindset piece of it. And the mindset piece, you know, I feel like I could write a whole nother book on.
J: Oh, nice!
B: Yeah. I had coaches that, you know, we'd have to weigh in before we could step on the court. And that's…
J: Oh my goodness! That’s so awful!
B: Yeah, like…
J: Wait, wait, I have to know, were these male coaches or female coaches?
B: Of course they were male coaches.
[Laughter]
J: Ugh, the jerks! The jerks; (Laughs) kidding.
B: I… I had some great male coaches.
J: I'm sure they're great.
B: I had some great male coaches, I had some great female coaches, I had other coaches where, you know, they just… they were different, I’ll say…
J: Yeah, yeah.
B: … in their philosophy. Yeah, you know, and it… and then the unhealthy whole mental image around that body image and girls and…
J: Ugh!
B: … you know, teenage girls and body image in and of itself, and… And so as… and, you know, and this is, you know, part of my book I go through, I call ‘the 7 bodies of Eve’ where your body goes through different bodies in your lifetime, and how to accept and love each one of those.
J: Ooh.
B: So, you know, this is just an example of me, you know, in my life. I remember at like 15, I was playing volleyball on a club team and… on a JO club team, and I remember before practice, I would only let myself eat half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
J: Uh-huh.
B: Because the whole one would be too much, right, because I would… didn't want to get fat, we were wearing little spanx all the time, you know, that type of thing, right?
J: Yeah.
B: And when I was in college or maybe this is just after college, I remember my mom, you know, was going through a bunch of my old volleyball stuff and she popped in a tape of volleyball. And I remember watching it and I was like, “This is so cute! This is my old JO team. Aww, look, there's so-and-so, there's so-and-so!” and then I was like, “Who is that skinny, skinny gal on the team? Who is that? I… I don't even know who that is,” and then she turned and it was my number.
J: (Gasps) Oh!
B: I didn't even recognize myself. I watched the play for a couple of minutes before I turned and I saw, I was like, “Oh my god!” and like my heart sank. And I, at that moment… because, you know, going through college, I… you know, I was bigger in college even, you know, than I was in high school in terms of like bulking up and weightlifting and all these other things. And I thought I had had a pretty good, you know, handle on my mindset; especially compared to a lot of other gals. You know, I had many teammates with eating disorders and other things like that and the mindset piece around that. So I always thought, “You know, I have a good handle on it. I'm… you know, it's not that bad,” I didn't recognize myself; I was so skinny.
J: (Laughs)
B: And… yeah. So the whole mindset piece on kind of getting started or how to really love your body is just to, you know, I think first recognize where you're at. Like, for me, I, right now, am a mom of 3 kids. I have had 3 C-sections and I've had an umbilical hernia repair, so I have scars all over my abdomen and… and it… you know, it is what it is.
J: Yeah.
B: And I'm okay with that, you know? Like, I hold value in my body for what it's done, you know, not only, you know, athletically, but for birthing beautiful healthy children. So there's… you know what I mean? Like, appreciate first and then kind of go from there, “Okay, like I love that this… my body has been able to do this for me, okay, but I… I want to feel stronger. I want to feel, you know, I can carry my kid on a piggyback ride and not get tired.”
J: Yeah, exactly.
B: You know what I mean?
J: Yeah.
B: Things like that. Like that's, you know, “Where are you at? What have you been through,” and then, “What do you really want from your body?” because just being skinny isn't, you know, going to, I want to say, provide you with anything except for, you know… you know what I mean? Like…
J: Yeah, yeah.
B: “What is that going to give back to you?” I want to say, you know?
J: Yeah.
B: (unclear) [26:44], “Okay, if I can fit into these pants again,” well, what are those pants going give back to you, you know?
J: Yeah.
B: Unless it's the confidence that you need or so… you know, something like that; great, but, you know what I mean? Like, “Where are you at and where do you… you know, what do you want out of it?” I want to say.
J: Yeah.
B: It's just a different way of looking at it.
J: Exactly. Yeah, and I think when you stop obsessing about the scale and what's lacking and shift into this idea of what you do want, “I want energy. I want vitality. I want to feel vibrant. I want to be able to play and play and play,” that's pretty cool,
B: Right.
J: That’s pretty cool.
B: Yeah. Well… and… well, I was going to say, “And men and women lose weight differently!”
J: Right.
B: Men will do something and the scale just goes down. Women, this is exactly the pattern you want to see; you want to see more energy, more… better sleep, you know, that shifting first and then your measurements are going to change, your shirts are going to get bigger, your pants are going to get bigger, and then the scale changes after that.
J: Yeah.
B: If you're just doing things to make the scale drop, that's not going to be a lasting beneficial change, and it… you know, and that's actually be doing more harm to the body than good, in my opinion.
J: Exactly.
B: So that's where you get that rebound and everything else, but, you know, everything out there so focused on the scale and it's like, “Well, yeah, I mean, you know, I could cut a ton of calories and drop 10 pounds very quickly in an unhealthy way, but that's not going to be good for me long-term.” Women go on an average of, you know, between 3 and 4 diets a year when diets have a 95% failure rate because you can't stick with it.
J: Yeah, right.
B: You just, you know…
J: You have to feel good.
B: … (unclear) [28:15] if you can’t do something.
J: Yeah, that.
B: It has to feel good. That was like the first thing that I made sure was a part of the nutrition program that I have for women…
J: Okay. Well…
B: … is that you feel good… (Laughs)
J: Yeah, yeah.
B: … and you're not hungry.
J: Yeah. Well, Beth, I hope you're okay with this, but one of the coolest things I got from talking to you was hearing how to eat right with a family. So can you walk us through kind of the way that you eat, where your workout fits in during the day, and how that looks as a mom?
B: Yeah, absolutely. So I would love to be one of those gals that like could work out anytime and go to any class and blah-blah-blah. But, I mean, my kids are 11, 9, and 7, so they're older than little babes, you know, so they can, you know, get themselves water or whatever. But, you know, when you get started on a day with them, things happen or come up where I'm like, “Oh, I'm going to go work out later after lunch,” and it just never happened. So I, to make sure I get my workout in, I do it at 5:30 in the morning, otherwise I can't guarantee it's going to happen. (Laughs)
J: Yeah, right.
B: And that movement, for me, is really important. I feel strong so I start my day feeling strong and good. And even if it wasn't a terrific workout, you know, even if I was dragging butt through it, at the end of it, I'm like, “I'm so glad I did it,” you know?
J: Yeah.
B: So that's where I start my day. My… one of the first things I eat is my coffee shake which I love, love, love and it's so healthy in the morning. And instead of using water, I just use coffee because… because coffee, and then I use a little bit of coconut oil and then I'll put some chocolate protein powder in there. I will put a little bit of cinnamon sometimes and then almond milk and it's like a latte; it's just chocolate delicious coffee latte. And… and then after that, I'll have, you know, my second breakfast kind of will be about 4 eggs. I'm pretty tall, I'm 6’2”, so I get a lot of protein in; so I have about 4 eggs.
J: Beth is a muscular Amazon. I just like… she’s…
[Laughter]
J: I love when I see…
B: Best!
[Laughter]
J: Well, I'm tall as well; I'm 5’11”. So seeing Beth, you know, muscular and a mom and I thought, “Hey, this is doable. I'm going to do this.”
[Laughter]
J: Anyway, go on, go on; the eggs.
B: Yeah. So I’ll… yeah, I'll get eggs. I'll put greens in with my eggs and then, depending on what I'm doing with carbs that day, sometimes I'll throw in sweet potatoes or, you know, something in there, but like an egg pile type of thing; it's really good. And then lunch, a lot of times, you know, my kids eat what I eat. You know, so my kids will be eating eggs and greens and sweet potato and they're just used to that. For lunch, we'll have like salmon burger and, you know, sometimes it's broccoli or cucumber some other type of green vegetable. And then, you know, depending again where I'm at for carbs, like sometimes I will have… make them either just a piece of toast if I'm not doing carbs or will have quinoa with it. One of my favorite protein hacks, by the way, is I keep a container of quinoa and ground turkey, like cooked ground turkey, mixed together in my fridge all the time to eat in case I'm in a pinch.
J: Ah!
B: You know, running behind. Yes, that is my favorite tip. So once a week, I will make a huge pot of quinoa, I will, you know, cook like 2 pounds of ground turkey (you know, sometimes 3), and I just keep it in a big Tupperware in my fridge, and if I'm late or on the go or I only have time to heat up some veggies or something, then I just, you know, put it in bowls, throw the veggie on top, “Here we go, people. Get in the car, we got to go to baseball.” (Laughs)
J: Yeah. And you told me you like to buy a lot of pre-made Patties at Costco…
B: Yes.
J: … and use the George Foreman grill. So like if you're walking through Costco, what do you pick up?
B: Mm, so many things because I love Costco. They have grass-fed beef burgers. They have organic chicken, organic beef. They have bison. I like salmon burgers there. They have bean burgers as well if you're… if you don't eat as much meat. They have cottage cheese; cottage cheese is really high in protein, so it’s another great snack, I'll have something in the afternoon. I’ll either do cottage cheese in a bowl with like some fresh fruit on top or I'll take Greek yogurt, which they also have at Costco in a big tub. Again, these are like 5 bucks for a huge container of it. And I'll take my Greek yogurt and thin it out with a little bit of water, but then add like strawberry protein to that (like a scoop of strawberry protein), mix that in and is delicious! And then you… I'm eating that, right? So some people don't like to drink their food all the time.
J: Yeah.
B: There's ways to eat it. So I either make protein balls, other things like that.
J: Oh!
B: You know?
J: Oh yeah.
B: Yeah. So… and I have a lot of those recipes online as well that you can just find and make. Yeah, so then I'll make sure, you know, after lunch or something like that, you know, a grilled salmon burger then a high-protein snack. And then dinner is usually something, again, high protein related (chicken). My kids really like a chicken curry that they have this mix at Costco as well, or will do something simple like tacos and I'll just make sure I'm seasoning it, for me, where I'm at in my cycle. You know, if it needs to be more warming, I'll put hot sauce and lots of peppers on it. If it needs to be more cooling, I'll just, you know, use a lot of fresh cilantro and lime and…
J: Yeah.
B: … there we go, it's more cooling.
J: And the warming is the second 14 days of your cycle when the progesterone is high.
B: Yeah, mm-hmm.
J: I think… yeah. I think we talked about that, but I can't remember if we got that far. So like if you're out and about and at the zoo and you're suddenly hungry, what do you eat then?
B: (Laughs) So I… I pack all my food with me because there's a lot of times when you're out about like at the zoo. And, you know, we're zoo members, I love the zoo, go all the time, but they have snacks of like pretzels or, you know, there's no protein there. So I will actually bring protein shakes or protein balls or protein bars. Yeah, I never leave the house and I've always got healthy snacks packed with me, just because I know, if I'm going to eat something or even if I let my kids have a treat or they're having popcorn there that we get at the zoo, there's not… there's no protein or healthy fat in that and they're going to be hungry like 20 minutes later. And when kids get hungry…
J: Yeah.
B: … they get crabby, right?
J: Okay. Well, Beth has tons more tips on her Facebook page, in her Facebook group, and on her website, drbethwestie.com. And don't forget to pick up her book, ‘The Female Fat Solution’. There's so much to talk about, but we've got to move on to your favorite things; favorite habit that helps you out in life.
B: My favorite habit, honestly, is reading. I read a lot. I read a lot of books, I listened to a lot of podcast. I get books, you know, not just nutrition books, but our, you know, our personal growth books or leadership books or finding inspiration in a lot of different places is one of my favorite things that sort of fuels me. And I feel like that's what, I think, there's a piece for a woman too that, you know, finding what kind of feeds your soul and then continuing to do that is important.
J: Ah, yeah.
B: Especially for moms, you know, because being a mom it's not about you all day long really, it's about your kids.
J: Yeah, right.
B: So, yeah.
J: And your favorite easy meal (Laughs); if we want to go there.
[Laughter]
B: Yeah, I would say that the quinoa and ground turkey and then I'll slice cucumbers running out the door on the way to some event for somebody, yeah.
J: Yeah. Okay, favorite kitchen gadget.
B: You know what's funny is I don't really use a lot of kitchen gadgets.
J: Hmm.
B: I… yeah, I'm pretty plain. I guess my magic bullet. I've had the same magic bullet for like 12 years.
J: Wow.
B: And I use it like… I know, right! I was like, “This thing is really old! It’s older than my son!” (Laughs)
J: Yeah!
B: So kudos to magic, but… so I'll use that thing for so many things all the time. So not just shakes, but… so I make scrambled eggs for my kids with it. So I will take… you know, crack eggs right in the container and then I'll shove spinach in there…
J: Yeah.
B: … and then some coconut oil and then (blending sound) blend that up so it's green eggs, but they're green from spinach.
J: And then you cook them.
B: So… and then… yeah, and then I cook them.
[Laughter]
J: It’s like, “Mm! Yum!”
[Laughter]
B: Just drink it.
[Laughter]
J: Oh my goodness. Okay, that’s… that’s kind of clever.
B: You can taste the spinach. Yeah, yeah, so little things like that I use that magic bullet like 8 times a day, I swear, first off.
J: Ah, ah.
B: Yeah.
J: So you’ll… whenever you're making anything, you'll throw in some veggies of some sort and some protein of some sort, essentially.
B: Oh yeah, yeah.
J: Yeah, yeah.
B: I… well, and there's also something. So, again, I… again, I was really looking forward to this was making my own peanut butter; it didn't work out.
J: Yeah.
B: But I will take the Costco peanut butter, the organic peanut butter that they have, and I will… you can get powdered greens.
J: Yeah.
B: And I will take the peanut butter and oil on the top, so you're supposed to mix it in, and I will add powdered greens to that and mix that in or I'll add protein powder to that, mix that in.
J: Yeah.
B: They can't taste the greens, but they're getting more greens!
J: (Laughs). Yeah. You know, what I love is some people are maybe paleo or health elitist, so they would say, “What? Powder? Protein powder?
B: Oh.
J: “Greens powder?” But the fact is, I don't have time to cook everything from scratch. So I think…
B: Right.
J: … yeah, throwing in the protein and the coconut oil and the green make way more sense than eating junk.
B: Right.
J: So, hey. (Laughs)
B: Yeah, yeah. I'm totally… so totally with you, right? Like, I run in circles of really, really extreme nutrition people, and they're all like, “Well, I’ll make it all from scratch and it's all going to be da-da-da-da-da,” and I'm like, “Do you have kids?”
“No.” I'm like, “Well, there you go; that's why.”
J: (Laughs)
B: “Because you don’t have kids.”
J: (Laughs). It’s so true.
B: “So you literally are just in charge of you,” you now? (Laughs)
J: Yeah, exactly.
B: I mean, is it best to do it all organic from scratch? Sure, but next, step down, you know, get the powdered green; sure, you know?
J: Yeah.
B: It's still green.
J: Yeah.
B: It still counts.
J: Right. Well, what's your favorite book, Beth?
B: I… ooh, that’s a hard one, I love to read. I am a big fan of like Napoleon Hill and Wallace Wattles, Jen Sincero is one of my newer favorite authors; yeah, ugh. I'm also reading a… I just started a book on Eleanor Roosevelt and your leadership style.
J: Yeah.
B: So I… I read a lot of random stuff.
J: You're cool.
B: I would say, again…
J: Yeah.
B: But it changes though like, yeah, finding what feeds your soul and if whatever book you need to read to feed your soul, do it. I used to, on break in chiropractic school, every break that I would have, I would read the entire Laura Ingalls Wilder series.
J: Whoa!
B: Yeah, for a break, for a mental break from studying, you know? (Laughs)
J: You mean… you mean you’d read it and then you'd start over, you mean.
B: Yeah.
J: (Laughs)
B: Like, I would read the entire thing, you know, in the like 2 week break I would have school.
J: Yeah. Oh, gotcha.
B: Yeah.
J: (Laughs)
B: Yeah.
J: I… I paused because I thought you meant your lunch break, and I was like, “What?”
B: Oh, no.
J: Okay.
[Laughter]
J: What's the best advice you've ever received?
B: It's simple; it's just, “Never give up.” You know, whatever it is that you want to decide you want to do, never give up on doing it. And if you decide that that changes, that's fine.
J: Yeah.
B: Just don't ever give up on whatever you want to have happen because you think it's not going to happen.
J: What makes you happiest?
B: Serving others. I mean, there's… part of that is like taking care of yourself, right? Like, you put the oxygen mask on you first, which women and moms tend to really forget a lot. But serving, then after that, it would be serving others and finding a way to give back. There's something to be said for whenever I've been in a bad mood or had some hard things happen or really been working through something or feel lost, I will… like, I'll go to Costco and I will… on my drive there, I will call the local women's shelter and I'll ask, “What do you guys need today?”
J: Nice.
B: And they'll say, “You know what? We are out of diapers and toilet paper.” I’ll say, “Great, I should be there in about half an hour with the packs of these sizes and some toilet paper,” you know?
J: Aww!
B: And it's not that… right? It's not that much money, you know, it's… a lot of times, I don't spend more than $100, but that act in doing that… and it doesn't take me very long, but I can't tell you what it does for my mood and my energy and everything else.
J: That’s good. Well, let's have a challenge from you to our listeners and then we'll say goodbye.
B: I would… I guess the number one thing for women that I love to tell women to do like you're experiencing right now is just getting more protein in. That piece on, you know, for… they're trying to do so many things through their health or, “I got to eat this salad,” or I'm going to go get this superfood blah-blah-blah at the grocery store,” great, right? But the base and foundation for women really turning things around, I found, has been protein and just finding ways to fit it into your day. So by even increasing your protein a little bit will change so much for you. So that would be the thing I would challenge women to start doing, just to notice how different they feel, how much energy, how much stronger they feel that, “I can go to the grocery store and carry the groceries in and I'm not completely exhausted,” because of course you're going to the store with all your kids, right? Like…
J: Yeah, yeah, right.
[Laughter]
B: Right? My husband goes and he’s like, “I got to run to the store. Here, you keep all the kids while I go,” I'm like, “Why wouldn't… why?” you know?
[Laughter]
B: “You can take them!” (Laughs)
J: Yeah.
B: You know what I'm talking about. But so that you feel like, “I can do all these things and then I'm not exhausted, and I don't have to sit down on the couch to take a break before I put the groceries away and start dinner or whatever.” It's that little thing makes such a big difference in women's lives.
J: Well, I love your advice and I want to thank you so much for being on the show. And, everyone, go out and find Beth's book. She's amazing, she's going to change lives, and she's finally come up with a program that's doable, that doesn't involve measuring, and that helps you feel great. So thank you so much, Beth.
B: Yeah, thank you, Jen. This was great.
J: Take care.
Everyone, be sure to go to Beth's website and grab that free 7-day health plan that she has; that's at drbethwestie.com. I have tried it and I think it's phenomenal. I love how I feel when I have more protein like she talked about and when I think about my hormones, paying attention to when I'm in estrogen phase and when I'm in progesterone phase. Also, be sure to join me next time when I talk with Anne Bogle, the modern Mrs. Darcy, and also the host of Podcast, ‘What Should I Read Next?’. If you love to read, you're going to love this episode because that's exactly what she does; she reads and she recommends books for people. I will see you next time, and until then, take care.
Outro: Thanks for listening to the Vibrant Happy Women podcast at www.jenriday.com.