Eat, Live, Thrive Diet: A Lifestyle Plan to Rev Up Your Midlife Metabolism

by Danna Demetre, Robyn Thomson

Overview

A sustainable lifestyle diet for women of faith that unravels the mystery of why we gain weight as we age and includes a practical, God-centered, science-based plan to change your habits from the inside out—from two veteran health and lifestyle coaches
 
Eat, Live, Thrive Diet shows women how they can not only lose excess body fat permanently—before, during, and after menopause—but also improve their overall health in critical areas such as brain function, resistance to disease, slowing down external aging, and increasing energy.
 
This highly effective plan that addresses body, soul, and spirit is presented in a compassionate voice by two experienced health coaches who share personal experiences of battling weight and emotional eating issues and how they came to celebrate lasting victory.
 
Whereas most diets are short-lived or require substantial upkeep to maintain, Eat, Live, Thrive Diet is a cyclic and easy to follow eating plan that women can embrace indefinitely. The first phase of the plan helps women discover their carbohydrate thresholds and the specific foods holding them back from weight loss. The lifestyle phase of the plan is easily customizable to promote ongoing weight loss or maintenance. The diet is not Paleo, Keto, or low carbohydrate but rather “carbohydrate controlled” based on each woman’s personal response.

The authors also emphasize the importance of getting to the root cause of unhealthy eating habits and the value of short-term intermittent fasting--a simple lifestyle change that makes it easier and more effective for many mature women to reach their health and weight loss goals. They also offer virtual coaching support through their Eat Live Thrive Academy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525653172
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/26/2019
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

DANNA DEMETRE, RN, is an author, speaker, and cofounder of Lean Healthy Ageless. She has been a guest on a variety of national and local shows to include, Fox News Dallas, The 700 Club, ABC News NOW, and Moody Broadcasting's award winning Midday Connection. Danna, who is in her sixties, lives with her husband in the foothills outside San Diego. ROBYN THOMSON, an advance clinical weight loss practitioner, has worked with cutting edge nutritional companies and received training from some of the top doctors and scientists in the industry. Through seminars, workshops, and coaching, she helps people lose weight, improve their nutrition, and get more active. She is in her fifties and lives near the beach in San Diego with her husband, Rob.

Read an Excerpt

You Are What You Think

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do
I do not do, but what I hate I do.
—­Romans­7:15

Do these words from the apostle Paul resonate with you? Do you wonder why it is so hard to make yourself do the things you know are good for you? You are not alone.

We all struggle with the “battle of the flesh,” and many of us succumb easily when it comes to
food or other forms of immediate gratification. It’s like there is an urge that cries out, “I want it. I need it. I’ve got to have it. Now!”

Making healthier choices is definitely easier said than done. Mustering an extra dose of will- power or motivation is not enough. We need to get to the core of the issue, which quite often is rooted in unhealthy thinking and bad habits. Our underlying perspective is more powerful than most of us realize.

In fact, the power of our thoughts influences us in so many ways we cannot begin to fathom, even changing our body chemistry!

Mind over Milkshake

Alia Crum, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor at Stanford University, wanted to know if a nutritional label could physically alter what happens to a person eating that food. She’d spent her early years as a student studying the placebo effect (i.e., how a sugar pill can physically alter a body if the person taking the pill believes it will).

In 2011 Crum devised an interesting new experiment using food. First, she made a large batch of French vanilla milkshake and then divided it into two. One batch was labeled as a low-calorie drink called “Sensishake.” The label reflected that the drink had no fat or added sugar and was
only 140 calories. The other batch was called “Indulgence.” Its label indicated that the shake contained a high amount of sugar and fat to account for the whopping 620 calories. The reality: both shakes were a moderate 300 calories.

The people in the study had their ghrelin levels measured before and after they drank their version of the shake. Ghrelin is what many health pros call the hunger hormone. When levels of ghrelin rise in the stomach, this tells your brain that you are hungry and that it’s time to find food. Metabolism also slows down in case the need for food is not met right away.

After a substantial meal, ghrelin levels will drop, signaling to your brain that you’ve had enough to eat, and your metabolism increases, allowing you to burn the new calories from the meal. If a meal or snack is small, the levels don’t drop very much and the metabolism remains less robust.

Most scientists have assumed that ghrelin levels fluctuate in direct relation to the actual nutrients the ghrelin encounters in the stomach. That is not what Crum discovered in her milkshake study. This is what she reported:

The ghrelin levels dropped about three times more when people were consuming the indulgent shake (or thought they were consuming the indulgent shake), compared to the people who drank the sensible shake (or thought that’s what they were drinking).

Wow! The ghrelin levels dropped more just because the participants thought they were consuming an indulgent shake. Just imagine what could happen if you rewired your thinking to consider healthy choices as “indulgent”!

This eye-opening illustration should motivate us all to cultivate healthy mental habits for a lifetime.

The Freeways of the Mind

Our brains were designed by our Creator to respond in specific ways. And the brain—just like the heart, liver, and kidneys—is designed to perform certain vital functions. It’s helpful to understand how God made this magnificent glob of gray matter work the way it does. We can better appreciate the complexity of our feelings and our behaviors when we understand the brain’s physiology.

With recent advances in medical technology, researchers have come to better understand that the human brain has an almost unlimited capacity to store information. Before we are born, we begin to develop billions of neural pathways. These are complex, microscopic circuits where our thoughts and experiences create an explosion of electrical activity. And it is where all our mental data is stored.

Some of these pathways can become physically strong and dominant because the thought or experience is frequently repeated. They become like superhighways in our minds, overriding many of the weaker pathways or less dominant thoughts.

The size of our neural pathways can physically change. Old dominant pathways can shrink and become less influential when they are neglected or overridden with new messages. And smaller, weaker pathways can physically grow and become like superhighways. How? They change through repetition. You’ve heard the saying that practice makes perfect. More accurately, the statement should be that practice makes permanent. How perfect will depend on the quality of what is being practiced.

Stewardship of Our Minds

Like computers, our brains do not place judgment on their data. They just store information, true or false, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. Ultimately, we come to believe the strongest messages—those messages that have played the loudest and most frequently throughout our lives. But what if that information is wrong? Well, just imagine what would happen if someone replaced the data that is stored in the NASA computers with wrong information. The result would be disastrous. The same is true with our minds.

This is what author Bob George refers to in his book Classic Christianity: “People . . . are locked in error, and that error has them in emotional and physical bondage.”

From Bible scholars to the most popular modern-day motivational speakers, those who have  studied human behavior know that how we think drives our choices and behavior. Though our brains function as storage centers for information, God has also given us the ability to think, reason, and apply knowledge.

God has, in effect, given us stewardship of our minds.

From our simplest habits to our most destructive behaviors, our actions are the direct results of our mental programming. Both psychologists and biblical scholars agree that it is almost impossible for individuals to behave inconsistently with what they believe about themselves. Your mind will naturally go in the direction of your most prevalent thoughts.

If this is true—and it is—there is no permanent way to change our behavior without first changing our minds. That’s why diets alone tend to fail. All the change is external. And when the diet is over, 95 percent of people revert to old programmed behaviors.

It’s essential to change the program!

If you don’t like who you are, don’t just change your behavior—change your thoughts. It may feel awkward at first, as though you’re lying to yourself, but your brain doesn’t know the difference. At a point, it will respond to that dominant message as if it were true.

Listen to yourself when you look in the mirror each morning. What words do you use as you resolve to lose that excess weight? How do you describe your body, your fitness, your energy, your self-control? If you keep telling yourself that you are fat and you hate exercise, you’ll continue to believe it. Those beliefs will sabotage your efforts.

Most of us have heard that it takes 21 days to change a habit. Unfortunately, many experts now believe that it takes 21 days for any change to begin to take place. For most people, it takes much longer than that for a new habit to become fully established. A 2018 study evaluated ninety-six individuals and concluded that on average it takes 66 days for a new habit to become second nature. However, the individual timelines varied from 18 to 254 days.

Renew Your Mind to Transform Your Body

Getting beneath the surface and discovering scriptural truths about who we are and how God sees us can help us overcome many of the lies we’ve been telling ourselves. Sometimes we know these truths intellectually but still don’t believe them for ourselves.

As a new believer still struggling with panic attacks and bulimia, I (Danna) was excited the first time I read Romans 12:2, which says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Wow, that sounded so good! Transformed. It’s a powerful word. But how do we do it? In my  journey toward wholeness, I learned that we are transformed by truth. When we see, hear, speak, and believe that truth over and over, it replaces the lies we’ve been believing.

In the first part of that verse, we are told not to conform to this world. What does that mean? Conforming means complying with a set of customs or standards. God calls us to be different and set apart rather than driven by our culture’s values. This can be very hard to do, especially when we are bombarded with ideas and images that tell us how to think and be.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part 1 Preparation

1 Yes, You Can Eat, Live, and Thrive!: How This Diet and Lifestyle Plan Works 9

2 Making the Program Work for You: : You Can Choose to Succeed! 17

3 You Are What You Think: Starting Your Diet in Your Brain 21

4 The Power of Self-Talk: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Habits 27

5 Fat-Burning Diet Trends: Will They Work for You? 35

Part 2 The Plan

6 The Eating Window: How Should You Approach Intermittent Fasting? 49

7 The Elimination Phase: Jump-Starting Your Health and Weight Loss 57

8 The Discovery Phase: Testing Troublesome Foods and Unraveling Food Mysteries 87

9 The Lifestyle Phase: Creating a Sustainable Nutrition Plan for Life 107

Part 3 True Food

10 Notched-Up Nutrition: Kicking Anti-Nutrients to the Curb 131

11 Amazing Eats: Eating Out/Healthy Fast Food / Packaged Food Suggestions 147

Part 4 A Thriving Life

12 What's Exercise Got to Do with It?: Motivation to Get Moving and Tips for Thriving Women 157

13 The Irreplaceable Power of Sleep: For Health, Weight Loss, and Longevity 167

14 Beauty and the Beast: Body Image and Your Identity 175

Part 5 Recipes that Satisfy

15 Meals, Snacks, and Sides 185

Tasty Recipes to Help You Stick with the Program

Breakfast and Grain-Free Goodies 186

Salads, Salad Dressings, and More 195

Entrées 200

Sides, Soups, and Sauces 218

Desserts and Treats 230

Beverages 235

A Note from Danna and Robyn 237

Resources for Your Journey 239

Acknowledgments 241

Notes 243

Index 249

Recipe and Ingredient Index 255

Editorial Reviews

This book contains cutting-edge information to revolutionize your health and well-being! Health and weight loss is best done by addressing the total woman—body, soul, and spirit. Eat, Live, Thrive Diet gives accurate and practical insights and applications that will help women not only lose unwanted weight but also enhance their health in ways that could produce anti-aging results.”
—Dr. Mark Stengler, naturopathic medical doctor, best-selling author, and adviser to Eat, Live, Thrive Diet

“This is not a book of theory; it’s a practical, day-by-day manual on living your best life. If, like me, you want to have a strong, healthy body to serve God for as long as you can, this book is a gift.”
—Sheila Walsh, author of It’s Okay Not to Be Okay

“In Eat, Live, Thrive Diet, Danna and Robyn have passionately researched, lived, and committed themselves to sharing trailblazing information to inspire women to soar over the increasing physical hurdles they experience as they age. They give us hope that we can thrive beautifully as we dance with the years.”
—Patti T. Milligan, PhD, RD, CNS, natural foods and integrative medicine nutritionist

“Danna and Robyn have provided a road map for a sustainable lifestyle. Proof that our best bodies—and lives—are still ahead of us, no matter our age.” 
—Nancy Stafford, actress, speaker, and author

“In this timely book, Danna and Robyn bring clarity to the guesswork, confusion, and contradictions that have puzzled eternal dieters over the years. Their candor, practicality, and encouragement bring renewed hope for all who want to glorify God with their bodies. This is a classic must-read!”
—Deborah Smith Pegues, CPA, TV host, global speaker, and best-selling author

 “Danna and Robyn have created a practical, encouraging, and vital resource that every woman needs to take her health and vitality to the next level. If you want to live longer and stronger, and be more vibrant, you should read this transforming book!”
—Pam Farrel, codirector of Love-Wise and best-selling author

“I am now down more than thirty-seven pounds since the first of the year and have set my second goal to lose thirty-five more on this plan, and I feel so much better! I just returned Saturday from a week’s vacation and am happy to say I did not gain a pound, thanks to tips from these two! In fact, when I weighed myself Monday morning, I was down a pound more!”
—LaCretia, a participant of the Eat, Live, Thrive Diet and Lifestyle Plan

“I was fifty-six years old and twenty-five pounds overweight. I was tired of carrying around menopausal weight that would not budge, no matter how hard I tried or what diet I chose. Then I stumbled onto this diet plan. After the first week, the weight began to budge and I felt better. My hair began to grow thicker and wasn’t dry anymore, and my skin had a healthy shine. At about thirty days into this diet, I decided to develop an intermittent fasting routine that fit easily with my lifestyle. Then the weight and inches started coming off even more easily. I had increased energy and felt healthy again, something I had not experienced for more than ten years. Within six months, I lost twenty-five pounds and twenty-eight overall inches. Now, one year later, I’ve easily kept all the weight and inches off. I feel as if I’ve rolled the clock back twenty years.”
—Sandi Thys, a participant of the Eat, Live, Thrive Diet and Lifestyle Plan

“I have known Danna for the past twenty years. She has a unique ability to speak to the need of body, soul, and spirit, giving her a strong practical impact. Eat, Live, Thrive Diet will help the individual looking for a significant change in their life to move forward. No fad approach here, just helpful tools to change the course of your life.”
—Dr. Tim Scott, president of Hope Rescue, Inc.

“Danna and Robyn were instrumental in advising me in the rebuilding of my wellness after a bout of foodborne illness. They helped me discover things my doctors could not, and my gut is thankful! I could not wait to read this book. They confirmed hunches I have had for years about the connection between my brain and my stomach. The research is thorough and fascinating. And their hearts are beautiful. This book feels like a personal coaching experience with the world’s foremost experts in body wellness for women, but it also feels like a fun conversation with two girlfriends!”
—Dannah Gresh, best-selling author of Lies Girls Believe: And the Truth That Sets Them Free and founder of True Girl

From the Publisher