According to a study published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 42% of the nation will be obese by 2030. Erika Nicole Kendall, who tipped the scales at 330 pounds, can relate to that alarming statistic. Kendall says she engaged in “emotional eating,” which was amplified by the stresses of having a baby and starting her own business.
“I began working out seven days a week, burning tons of calories at every session,” she says. “But even after six months, I hadn’t lost the amount of weight I thought I should have dropped. So I gave up.” As a result, she gained another 10 pounds, heading down the vicious yo-yo weight loss cycle filled with physical and mental frustrations.
At a friend’s urging, she read The End of Overeating by David Kessler (aff link) and realized she was an emotional overeater. “I was unhappy with how my life was going and I was creating my own little carnival with food, something that obviously affected my health.”
How Erika Nicole Kendall Turned Her Life Around
It didn’t take long for Kendall to realize that food was the culprit. Instead of junk foods (she used to think fast food taquitos with sour cream was an ideal post-workout meal), she turned to yoga to reduce stress. Instead of spending hours at the gym, she took walks or lifted some weights. But most importantly, she took up clean eating. She started to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and avoided processed foods and unnecessary sugars, a habit she continues to this day.
The result? She’s 170-pounds slimmer.
These days, she’s a clean eating advocate who offers her expertise (including her Clean Eating Boot Camp tips), experiences and recipes on her award-winning blog, “A Black Girl’s Guide to Weight Loss.” She’s also a personal trainer and nutritionist.
Shedding Myths to Shed Pounds
Myth #1: Avoid Fat to Lose Weight
Kendall is quick to point out that contrary to popular myth, it’s sugar, not fats, that should be cut from our diets. In fact, a Los Angeles Times article noted that additional carbs and sugar, instead of fat, are responsible for America’s obesity epidemic. The popular book, “Eat Fat, Lose Fat,” by renowned nutrition and wellness experts Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon, bucks the notion that eating fat makes people fat and instead, demonstrates the role good fats (like coconut oil) play in weight loss and overall health. And it’s no secret that some states have even banned certain sized sodas, or entertained taxing sodas, in an effort to curb people’s consumption of the sugary drinks.
Myth #2: All Sugar Should be Avoided
Many fruits are high in sugar content, which may seem to contradict the “sugar is the problem” point. However, it’s important to note the difference between natural sugars (better for your body) and refined ones (more harmful to your body), or sugars that are unnecessarily added (either by your own doing or by consuming processed foods). In fact, The American Heart Association has created recommended daily limits for added sugar (not sugars found naturally in foods and beverages) and as such, recommends that Americans do not drink anything over 36 oz. of soda or other sugary drinks each week.
Myth #3: Clean Eating Needs to be Bland to be Effective
Kendall also blows open the myth that clean eating means eating “boring.” She’s quick to point out that healthy eating is not synonymous with bland, saying, “. . . throw some cumin on that or something, jeez.” She adds, ” . . .I learned to appreciate foods that use sugars, fats and salts in a more minimalist fashion, optimizing a recipe for the best taste as opposed to what would make me feel the best.”
Myth #4: Control and Deprivation Help Weight Loss
She also suggests overcoming the need to have complete control over foods. “I’ll never be able to control the kinds of food at an event or a meeting . . . and I’m not going to not be social because I’m afraid of a binge,” she says. “I understand doing what you need to do for self, but that’s not clean eating.”
Sources for this article include:
news.yahoo.com
blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com
blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com
flabbyroad.com
www.eatfatlosefat.com
www.livestrong.com
