Developing an Anti-Diet Mindset with Astrid Naranjo

Paul Salter:

Hey, Astrid. Thank you so much for joining me today. How are you?

Astrid Naranjo:

I’m very excited. I’m very, very good. How are you?

Paul Salter:

I am doing wonderful. Like I was just mentioning, really excited to have the opportunity to learn from you, pick your brain, and just have a wonderful conversation, so thank you again for being here.

Astrid Naranjo:

It’s a pleasure. I’m really hoping to provide as much value as I can.

Paul Salter:

Well, just be you, and I know you will do that. We are going to dive right in. Your Instagram, your social media handle is the antidiet_dietitian. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that personally means to you and how perhaps your own unique personal journey with nutrition plays a role in that?

Astrid Naranjo:

Well, it is interesting because, initially, I was trying to find a name that would describe my style and my approach when it comes to nutrition coaching and everything around lifestyle transformation. When I was thinking about what are the main issues that are bringing people to have personal issues with nutrition and relationship break-ups with their own body and their nutrition, it seems like there is a deep connection with dieting itself, crash dieting, and just very poor protocols that they do to lose weight as fast as they can and then they just don’t know what the exit looks like or how to do a better job at, “Well, now the diet is finished. Now what do I do?”

My main idea for creating this handle, I think it was hard at the moment because it was trending, that anti-diet culture, and that anti-diet culture as well in terms of, “Diet is bad for you, and going into deficit weight loss is bad for you, and diets doesn’t work, diets are bad for you”. There was this HAES movement as well, the Healthy and Every Health in Every Size movement that was pretty much just trying to get people to not diet anymore, to just do whatever they wanted with their body with this body positivity.

Which I find is very powerful and it’s very amazing those movements, but I think they were a bit too far to the other end. It was either crash dieting, and just diet all the time, and just focus on changing your body, and this is all that matters, and tracking and everything, and there is the other extreme that went also too far from the other end.

It was just like I found that there was not a middle ground or something that can I just preach something that balanced everything out that has a bit of that intuitive eating that connecting with your hunger cues, connecting with your feelings and understanding that mindful eating is part of everything and also go to the other end and say, “Hey, it’s okay if you need to reduce your calories and if you need to track and if you need to or want to modify your body composition,” but let’s try to find a better way that is more sustainable and that teaches you not just to follow up meal plan but also to do it in the right way to learn what are you eating? What are you putting in your mouth to begin with?

What is the best way to learn about what you eating and just really finding a sustainable and more educational way of doing things so you just not change your body composition for a period of time, but you can get the skills to learn how to exit once you have gotten to your goal. Or even when it comes to overcoming challenges that are going to come every single time because life happens.

If you go out or you mess up or do you eat something that you weren’t meant to eat that that was not in your plan, what do I do now? It’s not about perfection or it’s not about all or nothing. “Oh, well I fucked up, whatever, this is all fucked up now.” But instead of thinking that way, “Well it’s okay, I fucked up today, I just get back on track the next day or right away.” Once you catch your thoughts, once you realize that something went wrong, then you going to say, “Hey, this is not in the plan and even though I cannot reverse it, at least I can make the decision to just do the next right thing right now, rather than just beating myself up or feel guilt about what I did, just move on and do the next right thing.”

What does that look like? That will depend on what your goals are. Maybe it’s just getting back on track and just continuing your nutrition as it was supposed to be like nothing ever happened and you just keep going. It’s not about just trying to pay the guilt next day and trying to sacrifice everything just because you need to reduce your calories to burn it off because it was a binge or whatever because that’s going to bring that vicious cycle that people fall into and then they find themselves really, really deep into something that they cannot get out of. And it’s just pretty much harder to get out of something that they don’t even know how to get out of.

I guess coming back to this long-winded question is honestly, the antidiet_dietitian is not to preach, “Don’t diet but diet purposely.” If you are actually going to go on a diet, why do you want to do it in the first place? Is there a purpose? Not just because you want to imitate what your neighbor did because that worked for them or because your mom or someone else is inviting you to do a diet for no reason.

If you’re going to commit to something, you got to go intentionally with an idea of why you’re doing it for and that it should be for yourself, not for anyone else and why you are doing it. It’s not just simply, “I just want to look good,” that is a fine purpose and fine why, but it’s not deep enough to actually get you consistently going. It is too superficial and sometimes that is not a strong enough to understand that there are going to be sacrifices that you maybe sometimes it’s in situations that are going to be very difficult and if you don’t have a very interesting deep why, you’re just going to quit because it’s not worth it.

It’s not worth the sacrifice or the effort. If you’re going to dedicate a time to lose body fat, if that is your goal, if you’re going to diet for some reason, the first thing is you want to understand why you’re doing it and it has to be something that is very meaningful to you. That’s why I sometimes want to talk with my clients, I ask so many times, “Why do you want to lose weight in the first place? Is it something that is actually driving you to wanting to achieve that goal?” It’s not just, “Oh, I just want to look good.” It’s fine. Everyone wants to look good naked and everyone wants to feel good within their body, but it is sometimes not strong enough to put in the work consistently because it’s fine that you get to the momentum the first four weeks when you start a plan or you start working with someone.

But it’s going to get difficult and harder as you move forward as your weight start stalling when things start getting a little bit difficult because initially when you’re a beginner or when you start something, usually your body weight drops relatively fine and the difficulties from your body to respond at lower, but as you get closer to that body goal weight or you already sort of put everything in place and you get that consistency going, your body adapts and that’s where some of the challenges are going to come through and that’s where you have to dig in deeper into, “Why I am doing this?” Because the challenges become much higher and it’s harder. That is one of the things.

And in the other end is looking at once you have reached your goal, this is not a diet that you just follow and it finished. You got to learn that these are going to be phases rather than unique specific diets that you follow. This is a phase that I’m just reducing my body fats to improve my body composition, but that doesn’t mean once I reach my goal I got that forever. You really need to understand that there needs to be an exit point and how do you strategically go and build up your habits around how do I sustain this now? Because it’s not like you just follow a diet and then finish, “Let’s go to my previous lifestyle because I’ve got already all the sacrifice. I already did what I need to do, just let’s go to party, let’s go.” And then that’s why habits and thinking about your continuing the same things that you were doing when dieting, but now you actually have to implement those with more calories but you still need to have some self-restraint.

You have to be so you still have to have some structure, you still need to train, you still need to continue in everything you were doing before. Now it’s just to implement things that maybe are just more sustainable and you find that a bit more a balance. But again, it all comes down to what are your goals and how fast you need to get there and have a realistic expectations. A lot of people have unrealistic expectations from day one and they’re expecting to see body changes and scale drop and everything in the first four weeks and then they’re complaining that hasn’t happened that fast. I’m like, “You have done so well. You need to catch up with your body. Your body needs to catch up with you and your expectations need to catch up with your expectations on your body so everyone is on the same page.” I’m sorry, I don’t know if I did answer your question but I think it was important for me to sort of clarify that antidiet_dietitian is just trying to find a middle ground to nutrition. I think that’s the best way to describe it.

Paul Salter:

I love that and your answer was packed with so many nuggets of gold. So for those of you listening, I hope you will stop it and rewind and replay if necessary if you didn’t catch all of them. But one thing that stands out to me that I think you hit on so well is I feel like whenever, let’s call it the diet industry first began, they maybe had the best intentions of helping people feel better, improve their health, but I always like to say they focused on the wrong definition of the word diet. You and I both know, everyone thinks of the word diet as intentionally trying to lose weight, but the secondary definition is just your habitual way of eating. It has no implication to trying to lose weight yesterday.

And I could only just imagine a world if we focused on the secondary definition. We had this beautiful foundation of eating habits that was unique to us. It was simple and it was flexible because when we put that in place before we actually try to diet to lose weight, we have that to come back to. So now our exit strategy comes back to a place of familiarity, therefore the sustainable aspect is much easier to attain and I know it’s wishful thinking, but if I could go back in time, that’s the one little tweak I’d make. I’d refocus on the other definition of the word diet.

Astrid Naranjo:

And I think it is so important to understand that when you are trying to let’s say go into a deficit, I prefer to rather call into a diet just like you keep your same diet and we are going to try to modify or swap things that may help you to get there without changing everything over. That’s why I don’t really like that setting up meal plans because people are expecting to change everything. “I’m going to tell you every exactly what you’re going to eat.” You don’t need to change what you eat unless there are certain things that are hindering your progress or impeding you to achieve a deficit. So what are we going to do? I’m going to look at what you eat and I don’t want you to change anything from it unless we can find things that we could swap or we can modify.

And if there are certain things that are probably not worthwhile to your health that are currently in your diet, we can either make them occasional thing, you don’t need to totally eliminate it if it’s something you enjoy. But how often, maybe the frequency needs to be more spaced throughout a period of time and you don’t still have to take it out of your diet. The only thing that sometimes I’d be a bit more strict about is alcohol just because it has very important health implications and consequences to your overall health and your liver and everything else in your metabolic health. But still that is something that you can healthily enjoy in a healthy diet provided that you’re aware of the frequency, the amounts and you honor those small rules that are going to at the end of the day benefit in a different aspect your adherence because when you drink a lot, this inhibition is higher so you tend to have poor choices and you tend to just go out of the rails and then it’s going to be harder for you to get back on track.

On top of that, alcohol is not satiating, has a lot of calories and if you are trying to be in a deficit, probably you’re going to, you can swap certain things and make it up for the calories coming from alcohol. But again, you’re not be satiated, so you still be hungrier on top of what the calories you already consume and you’re probably not going to be able to find easy to get or continue a deficit. And on top of that all the story of alcohol. But the main thing is it’s not about changing your diet overall, it’s about identifying what we can help you to swap or modify so you can continue with the thing, same things you enjoy just with a better structure with some guidance and just help you to hone in your diet a little bit better. Again, it’s preaching sustainability and it’s preaching a balance and I think someone who is very centered and trying to find the best for their clients is trying to get that 80/20 rule.

Perhaps if you want to use a rule or a guideline recommending 80% of your nutrition coming from the majority of the food that you can find that it is less highly palatable, is less alter processed and that just fills you up. It’s more nutrient dense. And then the other extra 20%, I call them soul foods because they just make you feel really, really good and maybe they represent a memory or they represent something that you used to do when you were a child or I don’t know, it could be something or it could be something that just makes you feel really good, but that extra 20% has to be, it’s okay to have it as a part of your healthy diet. But I want with that, especially with that extra 20%, I want to make sure you are really present and you are going to put all your senses to those times when you eat your soul foods.

So it’s not about just mindless eating but actually enjoying every single second because they probably a little bit more calorically expensive. So you want to make it worthwhile but at the same time if it’s something that really, really makes you feel good, make it worthwhile. Sometimes the problem is mindless eating and you just rush into eating whatever that is nice, but you didn’t even enjoy it, you weren’t even present, you were just snacking out of the back or eating a full block of chocolate with no particular understanding or putting your senses on top of it, smelling it, trying to connect with some memories or just making that specific moment very meaningful. That’s like the rule I like to use and to preach to my clients and even to myself if I am going to eat something that I find that it’s probably not within my normal eating but it’s something I want to eat, I am going to try to stay alone, being present, try to put all my senses, smelling it, slowing down and being in that moment.

that is going to change the experience because once you’re allowed doing that consistently, every time you eat something that is probably higher in calories, very sweet, it’s very highly palatable. If you are present, you are less likely to over consume it and on top of that you are conscious that you are allowed to have it. There is no scarcity mindset around it and you need to, this is the only day I can eat it within the week, so I’m just better eat it all. You know you can have it any time and you have the unconditional permission to eat things you enjoy. The most important thing is just to try just being present and making it worthwhile. And I think once you implement mindful eating and just slowing down, being present to being intentional, that changes the whole experience of eating your soul foods.

A lot of people would call it just ultra processed unhealthy food and I don’t think anything is necessarily generally or inherently unhealthy. It all depends on quantity and it’s a portion size. Most of the time I say there is no bad foods, there are just bad portion sizes. That’s the biggest thing. If you have a little bit of olive oil or coconut oil, whatever, that is not unhealthy. The problem is how much you eat and how much you pour into the food. That probably makes them overall not a very healthy option. Does that make sense at all?

Paul Salter:

1,000%. I love that. I know that I’ve noticed personally just the tremendous change in my relationship with food the past 8 to 10 years, once I started being very intentional, methodical, slowing down when I like to use the word a free meal, something that is free of anxiety, guilt and regret. I’m just extremely present there to enjoy it, savor every bite. I’m not distracted on my phone. I’m not overly distracted otherwise. I really love that you brought that up because it’s really what’s missing in today’s age where we’re 15 dings and notifications every single second. It’s hard to focus on ourselves and what we’re doing at the current moment.

Astrid Naranjo:

I agree. It is hard.

Paul Salter:

It is. One nugget, I just want to make sure that doesn’t get lost for everyone listening that you said that I just couldn’t agree more with is that you mentioned when we transition into a dedicated weight loss phase, that definition of the word diet, nothing changes other than maybe, not maybe, definitely the portions you’re eating or the overall caloric intake, depending if you do calories, portions, macros. But other than that, all of your same habits stay in place. You don’t have to go do 15 new things because you’re trying to lose weight all of a sudden. I like how you said that because I have found in all of my coaching that when it’s time to diet, so many people think they need to change their grocery list, change their meal prep routine, their workout, and it’s like “No, we’ve just spent 4, 8, 12 weeks building a phenomenal foundation of healthy eating that is unique to you. It’s simple and it’s flexible. Keep leaning into that, that’s going to be your saving grace to make sure all the success you achieve is actually sustainable.”

Astrid Naranjo:

Even when I start working with clients that have a lot of weight to lose that we’re talking about more than 50 pounds, I don’t change everything at once. I start working on what you said, you use a time, but I call it a foundation time. That it could really depend, really depend on how much you actually need to work on that phase, but it’s not like we’re riding to the deficit. You probably just by changing few things here and there, it automatically by defaults you start losing weight initially, especially when we’re talking about this large amount of weight loss that need to happen. And just by the fact that you start walking more, or you start being more mindful about your choices or you start just having a more structured diet throughout the day, there’s just more, you have a breakfast, you don’t skip meals so you are not starving by the end of the day and you don’t binge at night, automatically allows you to have a better routine and by default sometimes you start losing weight without even trying to.

And that is the foundation that I like to work with for the majority of the clients that they have a big challenge with their nutrition, with adherence, with everything that has to do with finding a nice balance with their life and nutrition. Sometimes it will be a shorter period just for baseline creation and just getting that baseline in a much better place before we even try to do anything else or even, and that can go even to clients that need to gain weight. Maybe they just have a very different lifestyle that won’t allow them to purposely put on body weight, muscle, AKA muscle mass or just having a better body composition just because their current lifestyle is not necessarily aligned with what they need, but it doesn’t mean it cannot get improved or have find what’s your baseline is so we can make it in a much better place and then we can start working towards that specific goal, whether it is muscle gain, fat loss.

Sometimes you’ll see clients that they have been dieting for years and the time is not a time to, they probably want to continue losing weight because they have some body fat to lose but they’re not ready. They need to probably dedicate time finding the real maintenance and educating the body that it’s okay not to diet for a while. It’s okay to eat more protein, it’s okay to use the calories you are consuming to build muscle because sometimes that’s all you need. You need just to build more muscle to. Then once you decide to reduce your calories and shed some body fat, you start seeing things that weren’t there before.

And that’s why we see those type of clients that some people call a skinny fat because they have been dieting for long years, but what their method has been is just cutting calories super drastically and doing a lot of cardio, but there is no real training in that scenario. Where’s the muscle? That’s why you look skinny, but you don’t really look the way you want to look and that therefore you feel not in the best shape. Those things like that is so individual and that’s why I love to concentrate with each client differently because everyone has a background, a story, a different dieting history, and when you start understanding all these aspects, you can sort of zoom out and collect all that information and sometimes your own clients are going to come with a specific goal, but it is not what I think is appropriate for them. And it’s trying to explain with science, with a good rational of why this is what we need to do before you want to work on this first.

Paul Salter:

I love that. I already knew heading into our conversation today, we were very aligned but then to hear just the way you described, you used the word like a foundation phase. I use pre-diet maintenance phase and then you use exit strategy. I use post diet maintenance plan. Just makes me that much happy to know that you are putting such phenomenal information out there because everything you just shared, I just took notes of like, “Oh my gosh, I agree, I agree, agree.” This is awesome to hear. Really love that. But one point I really want to dig deeper into is if someone were to open up their phone and head to your Instagram, they’re going to get an abundance of just really sound research backed nutrition information. But what I think really sets you apart from so many other people on social media is you do a great job acknowledging and inviting in that we have to do the work on ourselves too.

There is such a need to dig deep, peel back a layer of the onion and one quote I found that I really liked, you were talking about just the topic of disordered eating behaviors and you said, “Although you’ll see improvement over time, it requires an extra amount of self-awareness, self-reflection, self-compassion and realistic expectations for this normal relationship with food to stay healthy.” I was curious, can you share a little bit more about what someone who is struggling with the relationship with food should begin to work on within themselves? Not so much just continuing to try and acquire more information on the perfect diet or this nutrition or this recipe.

Astrid Naranjo:

It will come back all to what the personality is because we see that the majority of those who are show with the relationship with food initially we can see a very long dieting history that has been in the past. And that probably if we dig deeper into that, when did they start diet for the first time or a crash diet of those things. And if we go even deeper, sometimes it is that they are people pleasers or we find that the childhood, there was trauma in their childhood or their parents started dieting or they had a unhealthy relationship with food and that impacted this particular person, these clients when they were kids.

That has just been ingrained in their upbringing all their lives. That’s how deep can get, you cannot just understand this just, “Oh, you have an healthy relationship with food or you have an eating disorder or you have been dieting or you need to stop dieting.” That’s not the solution. You have to dig deeper because sometimes things coming from the past and things that you didn’t even choose and you just simply, you are just protecting unconsciously the way you were brought up pretty much.

One thing that I really tried is to empathize with that situation and dig deeper because sometimes you don’t even know that that’s the reason why you behave like that with food sometimes, unless you bring that awareness. I’ve started talking recently with a client that she just realized that everything that the way she behaved with food, the attitude she had towards her goals and why she was doing certain things and then failing or stopping midway through was just because of a ingrained deep trauma when she was a child. Until we unpacked that and we sort of debrief and talk about it, after that she has been able to stay super consistent, being compliant, know what their goals are and she’s been able to be compassionate with herself even if she has or she has not able to do 100% of everything because she’s a mom.

I think she has three special kids that she have to look after. There’s a lot of things going on. But on top of that, her past was just swallowing her alive. Understanding her past and letting things go, forgiving her brother or the people that were abusing her was a big thing for her to just let go. And once we did that, things were sort of falling into place without trying too hard. So it is just coming back to your question, sometimes it just depends on what the background is, but sometimes it could be just as simple as, “You’ve been restricting and dieting for a long, long time, we just need to find a sustainable way to fix this and slowly stop bringing that all or nothing approach.” Because they are either people pleasers or too perfectionists. And when they cannot follow things through 100% they feel they failed to themselves or they failed to someone else.

If you have a coach, “I failed my coach.” Then they ghost you, they don’t talk to you. They feel ashamed because they failed. And one of the first thing I speak with my clients when I start working them, “I want you to be 100% open and definitely feel you can talk to me about anything, even if you feel you fail, which I doubt it, unless you don’t get back on track and you give up. That’s the only time we fail, then I want you to talk to me. I want you to reach out because sometimes the only thing person who is judging you 100% is you and you’re your worst critic. So you have to, if you are working with me, allow someone else to take the will and to help you drive you for a while. So I can make objective decisions and you can just understand, learn, let me explain why, but let me take that responsibility out of your hands so things can get to a better place.”

I guess try to, going back to your question, it’s very personal, it’s very individual. And again, understanding backgrounds, story, diet and history, understanding that it could be years of dragging things and there is lack of self-awareness and lack of past awareness. Once you are able to understand what is really causing you to not adhere to something, where are your triggers? Why is that? Sometimes it is a bit of work that needs to happen with self-compassion and body image and expectations with where you’re at now with your relationship with your body. Because a lot of people hate their body. So how can we get from this hate to maybe just neutrality, understanding that your body’s capable of doing so many things and just having that compassion towards your own body, even if it’s not the way you want to look at and it’s not perfect.

You have two legs, you have two arms, a lot of people can’t even walk. So just acknowledging that they may not be in the best physical position, but being appreciative of what their body can do for them allows them to have just a more, I guess more appreciative perspective of their body and work with their body in the process to make it look better and feel better. And once you change the approach and the way you treat and see your body, so if you are going to exercise, it’s not because of the punishment, it’s not because you want to modify your body, it’s because you want to feel good.

So you change the purpose of why you do certain things rather than a against hate. You’re trying to do something such as building your body, getting, making, look stronger, feel stronger, feel better, the outcome if you change the outcome and the purpose of why you do certain things, that automatically reflects in a much better and healthier relationship, not just with food but also with your body. it’s fixing few things before sometimes we can even diet or we can even do anything else. Because if there is something here that here… I’ve been pointing my head for those listening.

The thing is, if you don’t fix your relationship with food and your relationship with your body and you don’t change your mindset and how you view your food and your nutrition, your habits, you can do any diet and you can follow and have the best diet ever and the best training and you are going to go get back to the first square one once you finish, “That diet,” because nothing has improved in there inside you. So that is why addressing mental health, health like your mindsets, how you view certain things, self-awareness is huge. If you actually want to get sustainable results, it doesn’t even start with a diet or a training. Starts with your mindset.

Paul Salter:

So well said. I appreciate you digging into that. ‘Cause I couldn’t agree more. I’m a firm believer and I think you’ll agree, the most important relationship we have is the one with ourselves. That’s the relationship that’s reflected in our relationship with food, our relationship with body image. And I found over the years that so many people keep hopping from one diet to the next or trying to find the perfect macros or calorie distribution because they’re fearful of doing some of that deep inner work. They’re fearful or hesitant to about what they might find.

And I’ll be the first to admit, it can be uncomfortable, messy, and chaotic at times to go back to your past to understand why you think and behave the way you do. But it is oh so rewarding. I can tell you that the fastest way to accelerate progress there is to work with the coach who is far more than just giving you macros and meal plans and nutrition numbers. Someone like Astrid who can guide you with the right questions, probe gently and compassionately in the right area so that you can do the inner healing and growth in your heart, in your mind, and see it manifest in the nutrition, ease, efficiency, and sustainability.

Astrid Naranjo:

Perfectly said.

Paul Salter:

Well Astrid, I’m going to have to have you back for a second episode because there are so many nuggets you have to share. But thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it.

Astrid Naranjo:

It’s been a pleasure and I love to speaking about my inner truth of my purpose and why do I do what I do. I thank you for the opportunity.

Paul Salter:

Where can everyone listening go to find more information about working with you and to learn from you?

Astrid Naranjo:

You can always get to my profile in Instagram, antidiet_dietitian. That’s the better place to get to know me with my content. I have in my link in my bio, I have a list of podcasts I’ve been invited to, hopefully yours. This one is going to be there as well on the top of the list. I also have a YouTube channel that I have been slowly growing, is very tiny. It’s very small at the moment. I’m trying to dedicate a bit more time to it with interviews that I’ve done, I do live with different educators, different people from social media that perhaps you follow, perhaps you don’t. But it’s pretty much bringing more education, more self-awareness. Sometimes I just ask questions that are natural to me to ask. This a very genuine way to interact with other educators to bring more information to you guys. I think that’s it.

Paul Salter:

Wonderful. For everyone listening, you are missing out if you are not following Astrid on Instagram. Definitely go connect with her there. Again, thank you so much for joining me today.

Astrid Naranjo:

My pleasure, Paul, thank you so much for having me.

Paul Salter:

Of course. For everybody listening, thank you for being here today. I know you found this episode valuable and I highly recommend you go back and re-listen because there are so many nuggets that Astrid shared that have the potential to truly alter how you feel and how you looked and ultimately will help you be and feel your best. Go make sure you listen to this episode and share it with a loved one, family member and friend who would also find it valuable. And if you haven’t done so already, my friendly reminder, it takes just 30 seconds to leave a genuine rating and review of this episode and podcast on Apple podcast or wherever it is you are listening. Thank you so much for being here today. Have a wonderful rest of your day. And as always, screw the scale.