Amy Andrews' journey offers valuable insights into achieving sustainable weight loss and cultivating a healthy relationship with food. Her experience underscores the importance of mindful eating, intuitive eating, and a holistic approach that encompasses both mental and physical well-being. This article explores Amy Andrews' weight loss tips, drawing upon her personal experiences and insights into intuitive eating, mindful cooking, and the benefits of workplace wellness programs.
The Foundation: Mindful Cooking and Eating
Andrews emphasizes the significance of cooking with "real, grown-in-the-ground" food. She finds joy in the colors, textures, smells, and tastes of natural ingredients, connecting with nature's seasons through her culinary endeavors. This mindful approach to cooking fosters a deeper appreciation for food and its role in nourishing the body.
When she doesn’t plan in advance, she can get over hungry and end up eating things that don’t sustain her or aren’t satisfying and then-watch out!-afternoon munchies that are less than mindful, hangry-ness, not good. With a little forethought and some low-key cooking this can be avoided.
Recipes for a Healthier Lifestyle
Andrews shares several recipe ideas that promote healthy eating habits:
- Sonoma Chicken Salad: A delicious and versatile option for lunches. She suggests experimenting with different mayonnaise and sour cream alternatives, such as vegan mayo or oat milk yogurt.
- Soba Salad with Almond Butter Dressing: A nutritious and flavorful salad.
- Poached Chicken/Shrimp: Lean protein sources that can be incorporated into various meals.
- Boiled Eggs: A simple and protein-rich snack or addition to salads.
- Egg Salad: A classic and satisfying dish.
- Hummus: A healthy and flavorful dip or spread.
- Lemon Beans: A flavorful and nutritious side dish or main course.
Intuitive Eating: A Path to Food Freedom
Andrews highlights the principles of Intuitive Eating, emphasizing that it is not about eating whatever you want without regard for nutrition. Instead, it's about trusting your body's signals and honoring your hunger and fullness cues.
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Rejecting Diet Culture
Andrews cautions against the dangers of dieting, which can lead to a "war with your body." She recalls learning to ignore her hunger as a child, a common practice in diet culture that can damage one's relationship with food.
Embracing Your Genetic Blueprint
Intuitive Eating helped her “accept my genetic blueprint” and stop tormenting herself with dieting. Regardless of how you look on the outside, if you struggle on the inside, she recommends reading the Intuitive Eating book:Since 1995, Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch
Weight Loss as a Secondary Goal
Weight loss can be part of your Intuitive Eating journey, but it needs to be a secondary goal, not the primary goal. Respecting your body is #1 with Intuitive Eating and by learning to be there with yourself you will set yourself free.
Andrews' Personal Journey: From Dieting to Food Freedom
Andrews candidly shares her struggles with dieting and her journey towards a healthier relationship with food. She acknowledges that her food relationship hasn’t always been smooth sailing. The photo above is from 2018, 15 years after her ED ended, five years after she stopped dieting and weighing herself, but still in her “action pants” so everything seemed fine. Her sheath wedding dress from 2013 could no longer zip up the back but her peace of mind with food was worth it. She considers this Part 1 of healing her relationship with food: Mind.
Menopause and Body Image
Within a year of this photo, menopause hit, somewhat ironically right as she began to train with the co-founders of Intuitive Eating. Rather suddenly, it seemed, her action pants no longer fit-not just muffin top, but there’s no way the zipper will close! Reluctantly she passed the pants on to her daughter. She didn’t feel good in her body. Was it disordered to want to lose weight?
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Finding Peace and Calm
Through her struggles and by God’s grace, over the past 22 years she has come to a place of peace and calm, joy and presence. In the past 7 months she’s even lost weight, the 14 pounds that make all the difference with the action pants (which is thrilling!) Weight loss was never her goal but rather a happy outcome to coming closer to her body and how she want to feel. This is Part 2 of healing her relationship with food: Body; and it has required brutal honesty, courage, and trust.
The Role of Workplace Wellness Programs
Andrews' experience with UGA’s Biggest Loser program highlights the benefits of workplace wellness initiatives. She appreciates the structure and accountability that these programs provide.
Benefits for Employers and Employees
Andrews thinks it makes sense for employers, like the University of Georgia, to help employees lose weight and prevent diseases like Type 2 diabetes, she said.“The bottom line is, you can prevent a lot of these conditions,” she said. “It ends up costing so much and really decimates somebody’s health. If you can prevent that and save money at the same time (that makes sense).”
Mark Wilson, who heads UGA’s College of Public Health’s department of health promotions and behavior, believes that people are our business and that we need to take care of our people.
Comprehensive Wellness Programs
Stacy Connell - before she became the assistant director for fitness and wellness at UGA’s department of recreational sports - helped implement a campus-wide wellness program in Fort Worth, Texas, that helped all employees, she said.
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