"What's not sustainable is starting a new program every month and giving up after two weeks. It's the pattern of choosing to avoid discomfort - not the eating program - that's not sustainable." - Dr. Tonia Winchester

Have you ever tried to create a new, healthy habit and started off really well, but quickly lost your momentum and found yourself back when you started or even worse off?

It’s something I see commonly with the people I work with - and I’m not immune to it myself either!

When patients or clients bump up against new ideas or explore new habits (often a by-product of working with a naturopathic doctor or mind-body healing coach), they tell me some interesting excuses - errr…, I mean reasons, why the new thing just won’t work. Or they tell me why they tried it and even though it was working - they were getting benefits - there was no way it could work into the future.

And that’s exactly the little life moment that inspired the big life lesson in this… Episode of the Wonder with Me Podcast.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is not in any way, shape, or form designed to be therapeutic, clinical, or medical advice. This episode isn't specifically about bioidentical hormones and advocating for them or not. The two conversations that inspired this episode related to that topic. If that's something that you're wanting to talk about, please see your naturopathic doctor in your local area. If you're local to me—that's Central Vancouver Island, British Columbia—I’d love to ⁠meet you as a patient ⁠and help you out with that or at least have a conversation about it. But that's not what this conversation is about today….

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If you'd prefer to read an approximate transcript scroll to the bottom of this post.

SHOW NOTES:

• EPISODE S1.E03 - How My Body Finally Decided To Release Weight

• EPISODE 39 - Doing Your Future Self All Of the Solids

• EPISODE S1.E12 - 4 Steps To Change Bad Habits into Good Ones

• FORMULA FOR HEALTH

• HISTAMINE: You’re Body’s Secret Frenemy Pt 1

• HISTAMINE: You’re Body’s Secret Frenemy Pt 2

• BOOK: Thinking Kindly: 7 Steps to Stop Self Criticism and Turn Negative Thoughts into Positive ones

• WORK TOGETHER

• SHIFT session

• LIFT session

• 3 month Breakthrough

• Naturopathic practice (for British Columbians) 

• FREE AUDIO: LISTENERS

• BOOK: The Metabolism Plan By Lyn-Genet Recitas

Thank you so much for being here and tuning in.

🧠💗💫May you choose to make all your dreams come true!

Dr. Coach Tonia Winchester, ND, NLP

APPROXIMATE TRANSCRIPT (AI generated summary)

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Wonder With Me podcast. I am your hostess, Dr. and / of Coach Tonia Winchester, and this is episode 44: Choosing Sustainability Over Discomfort. This episode was inspired, as many of my online sharings are, by conversations with clients and patients. These interactions often provide rich material for messages and opportunities to learn. One of the core aspects of the Wonder With Me podcast is turning little life moments into big life lessons—lessons you can incorporate into your own life if they resonate with you.

I'm not going to describe the conversation in this preamble because I'll discuss it in the episode itself. So, with all that being said, let's get into it. Let's get wondering.

Okay, so this patient has been coming into my office for years, complaining about her body weight and how she keeps trying different diets without seeing any lasting changes. It's a common story among many people I work with. Interestingly, she's never specifically asked me for help in this area, and I'm not keen on giving unsolicited advice. You might hear a tone of laughter in my voice because here I am on my podcast sharing experiences. I don't consider myself to be giving advice; I'm just sharing things. If they resonate and land, great—take them on. If not, leave them behind. Totally fine.

Within the last three or four months, she came in for a visit and said, “Gosh, you're looking good! You've lost a lot of weight. What are you doing?”

A common question. I usually explain that an important step was getting trauma out of my physiology that my body was holding onto as stress-related weight gain. Also, I have very good habits. She specifically asked about my habits around food. I shared that for the last 20 years since starting naturopathic college and becoming a naturopathic doctor, I've carefully curated what my body wants to eat and what type of activity it likes.

I primarily follow an eating program called the Metabolism Plan by Lyn-Genet Recitas, which I've found to be incredibly effective over 17 years of practice. I'll link this up in the show notes; it's not the first time I've talked about it. I shared how the system works with the patient, and she was very inspired. She came back with the book and said she already had it because I'd mentioned it to her about three years ago.

She said she thought the argument and theory in the book are compelling, and I agreed with her on that point. We finished our session, she went away, and when she returned next time, she showed me a picture on her phone saying, “Look at how thin my face looked! Look at how clear my skin was.”

I said, “Wow, yeah! Look at that.” She said this was only after two weeks on the Metabolism Plan. Amazing! But then she said she had to quit because it wasn't sustainable.

Before going further into this story, I want to talk a bit about how this program works. It's genius because it's individualised nutrition and eating. Lyn-Genet has figured out that certain foods we consider healthy are actually pro-inflammatory and disease-causing for many people—foods like oatmeal, salmon, asparagus, Greek yoghurt, cauliflower, black beans, turkey, etc. According to her data from tens of thousands of clients and book readers, only 15% respond favourably to these foods; 85% will actually increase inflammation and gain weight.

Since being introduced to the Metabolism Plan 10 years ago, this system has changed the lives of many of my patients as well as mine and several family members'. In her book, Lyn-Genet walks you through a 20-day eating program designed to eliminate problematic foods and introduce new ones to see what your body likes or doesn't like.

It's really hard to pinpoint which foods trigger health problems because food-related reactions can take up to three to five days to manifest symptoms like headaches or skin rashes. Lyn-Genet's method helps people understand that when they eat reactive foods, their weight goes up the next day due to fluid retention caused by histamine release.

I used to dissuade daily weighing because it could psychologically affect people negatively. Now I see it as data—a sign indicating whether what you did the day before worked for you or not.

Serendipitously, since starting my own weight release journey three years ago without an initial target but later creating one as I saw progress—it became fun and easy—I surpassed my goal and set another one which I've met today. Coincidentally, this is episode 44 on day 44 of me being a patient on the Metabolism Plan.

After confessing all these positive results from her 2 week journey on the Metabolism Plan she had to quit citing sustainability issues.

In all frankness, sometimes when people drop limiting beliefs like,” It's not sustainable,” I cheekily respond that thousands are sustaining this way of eating globally! If you're choosing to say this program isn't sustainable what you're choosing instead is sustaining uncomfortable symptoms, pain, weight gain etc.—woof!

What needs addressing here isn't sustainability but moving through discomfort necessary for change. A healthy uninflamed balanced body is the most sustainable thing we can achieve as we age, ensuring vitality, flexibility, strength, endurance, etc. What’s not sustainable is starting and quitting new programs every month, perpetuating the same cycle forever!

When building new healthier lifestyle habits, expect initial discomfort and even chaos as you’re re-patterning neural pathways. It will most likely be uncomfortable at first and a necessary sign of change.

Our unconscious minds choose the past of least resistance, that’s to say that they choose comfort over long-term sustainability. This is important to understand intellectually when making these types of lifestyle changes. Acknowledge your growth and keep going to make sustainable progress!

This person’s pattern of quitting helpful programs prematurely citing unsustainability reflects avoiding discomfort rather than a genuine issue of sustainability.

TWO QUESTIONS TO LEAVE YOU WITH:

1. If you find yourself saying, “This isn’t change isn’t sustainable, “ I really challenge you to pause and ask: Is this a question of sustainability? Or is this a question of discomfort?

2. If you're choosing to say that something is unsustainable, what is it that you're choosing is sustainable? What are you sustaining instead?.

If you’d like help or support for any of the things I shared in this episode then visit toniawinchester.com to explore various ways we can work together.

These include the:

SHIFT session

LIFT session

3 month Breakthrough

Naturopathic practice (for British Columbians)

I’m also offering a free audio experience download to invite you to release negative emotions and promote sustainable, positive living and healing.

That’s available at coach.toniawinchester.com/listeners

Thank you for being here, and being curious about healing and wellness. I’ll catch you in the next episode of the Wonder With Me Podcast and in the meantime may you choose to make all of your dreams come true.