How Jewel Got Off The Weight-Loss Hamster Wheel Through A Weight-Inclusive Approach

Hola amigos! Welcome back!

Seeking weight loss is a hamster wheel! Are you ready to try something different? Jewel was ready for sustainability and self-love. Jewel broke up with diet culture and committed to her weight-inclusive approach to health.

Highlights of this episode:

• Childhood messages of weight
• Weight loss for relationships
• Dieting cycles
• Life stressors and dieting
• Weight inclusive approach to health

Episode Show Notes: 

*This is not a transcript and the show notes hopefully and respectfully reflect the guest speaker’s words and intentions. There is discussion of a weight loss experience, so if that does not support you at this time, please skip this episode. Also, a disclaimer: this is for educational purposes only, not a treatment plan.

[02:55] Weight Loss Messages

David: What was your lived experience with eating and your body?

Jewel: I was “overweight” as a kid and tried many many diets. Either way, dieting was about limitation and lack of maintenance. I came to you [David]. My therapist introduced me to mindfulness. I learned it was not really about food, but how I felt about myself. I was close to hating myself. I wanted to love people and love myself.

David: was there pressure around eating as a child?

Jewel: My mother’s aunt, a nurse, made a challenge around Christmas to lose weight for $100 until next Christmas. I was not able to do it and she felt resentment. I had feelings of failure. That was a message about my body not being okay. School kids were terrible. My message was I’m not good enough and my body is unacceptable. I didn’t fit in so I rebelled. I gathered my own clique in high school.

Although, I started not eating in the morning before high school. Mom bought nutrition shakes in the morning for her nutrition, despite living on a farm. An element of my personality is rebellion, and is a part of my strength. I told myself I don’t care what other people think.

[14:27] Jewel’s Time in the Weight-Loss Hamster Wheel

Jewel: Dieting started in work life and looking for a husband.  I had plenty of boyfriends, but not any I wanted to marry. I lived with a girlfriend constantly on low-carb diets, and when I ate her foods, I lost weight. Then, when I moved out and ate the way I wanted, the weight came back.

I moved to California and hired a personal trainer, and ate packaged food from a weight loss program. Very expensive and limiting because I could only eat those foods.

Once I was out of those structures, I gained weight. My husband started making comments about my body, not being as attractive. I started Weight Watchers (now WW). I wasn’t very serious, again, my inner rebel fought back. However, I lost weight…and then they changed their program structure and so, I dropped out.  Then, the weight came back.

I never considered my body has its own idea of what weight it wants to be. I thought it was always wanting to be thinner. My self-worth plumbed, my attention was to work and my son. In my stress, I would get a peppermint patty, every day. Although, the peppermint patty didn’t really relief my stress. My depression and anxiety increased. My therapist helping me work towards loving myself.

 [32:25] Jewel Started Weight Inclusive Care

David: When you came into my office, there was a few things going on, poor sleep, other health conditions, but what did we start on?

Jewel: interrupting the flow of my thoughts around physical activity. I learned physical activity could be joyous, and not a chore.

David: Your second degree black belt forms, helped us tap into that. It’s about rediscovery and unlearning and unpackaging those harmful narratives. What came next?

Jewel: From there, we moved on to sleep, and working on that took a long time. But, it did ripple out into big changes. On my poor sleep days, I did reach for more sugar.

David: What ripple effects did the focus on sleep have?

Jewel: First off, I was living in a basement apartment, and ironically, I could not sleep well in there despite the low light. I had to do things to promote sleep. I had to let go of sleep supplements. I remember you telling me about the interruption method. Like placing my bathroom on my hanging out chair to remind me to chill out.

David: Yes! Autopilot can blind us to new and helpful routines. But, you had other things going on that you had to deal with during all this work we did together.

[40:27] Weight Inclusive Approaches 

David: Tell us about your work stress during us working together.

Jewel: I had a vision board that helped me work on what to focus on. I loved my game store, but it is competitive. Especially during COVID-19, we shut down over a month. We shifted to online orders and no contact pick up services. My bills forced me to close the business and that time also I was divorcing my husband.

Focusing on sleep allowed me to be more aware of my body. I could start to hear more from my body. My chronic cough and GERD made me curious. Although, the curiosity lead to me eating differently to help my GERD.

David: Because you were listening to you, there was no rebel, you gravitated towards something that worked for you. The sleep allowed the space for you to listen to your body. What else did you discover?

Jewel: I’ve stopped liking chocolate actually…it is thick and it hurts my body ad it does not feel good. The rebel doesn’t have anything to fit against.

David: it’s like the force in Star Wars! You work with the flow. And then life opened up to another apartment, with more light.

Jewel: And without making dietary changes, I lost 10 pounds. That was impressive. And I work on loving myself.

David: you look more radiant now than you did when we first started working together.

Jewel: Feeling attractive has been challenging. I had to confront the things I didn’t like. I worked on mindfully accepting myself and my stress levels went down.

David: Yeah, that self-critic is unhelpful. Acceptance doesn’t mean stagnation and sustainability is really key. What are some of the challenges now?

Jewel: swimming upstream against what society views as attractive. The prejudice. I turn to self-compassion.

David shares a popular filled cup analogy, and how we each fill our cup can be contagious in our community.

David: What is the One Small Bite for our listeners from you?

Jewel: take a deep breath, in and out, in and out, and feel the difference.

David: Wonderful. Oh, you have to share your TikTok!

Jewel: I got a lot of great cat videos @jewelrubin495, with 5,475 followers! I would love more.

Important Dates for David’s book, One Small Bite

Presales on Amazon.com now!

April 12 – book available on Kindle

April 19 – book available in hardback and paperback

Get Unstuck Class

Starts May 10th 2022. Registration is going up on the website in a few days. There will be an early bird special. Classes are on Zoom, so no travel necessary.

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Once again, I greatly appreciate you for listening and supporting my show. Remember, it really only takes One Small Bite to start transforming your life.

Chop the diet mentality; Fuel Your Body; and Nourish Your Soul!