Why I don't worry about gaining weight after I eat ice cream anymore

Hi friends,

A long time ago, I used to over-think my food choices way more than was healthy. I tried to eat "healthy" all day, but inevitably I would eventually end up having a treat at some point, often late at night. That's life, we are all human, right? I realize that now, but back then I would be way too hard on myself if I didn't eat the "healthiest" foods all the time, and it was hard for me to envision a life where I wasn't being so hard on myself.

Fast forward many years, and a lot of personal development work as well as some therapy, and I have reached the point in my life that eating treats no longer makes me feel guilty whatsoever. But that's not to say I have gained a bunch of weight and just given in to all my cravings with abandon, turning into a couch potato who eats Ben & Jerry's straight from the carton. Here's the thing:

Despite eating less restrictively, I ALSO have a body shape that is leaner and stronger than it was back when I was so hard on myself. And here's a big component of how that happened for me: Strength training.

As we get older, strength training becomes even more important if you want to be able to have “treats” occasionally without feeling like you’re derailing your weight loss or healthy eating goals. This is especially true if you tend to have a slow metabolism, feeling like any ice cream goes straight to your belly.

Resistance training appropriately for your body will, over time, lead to more muscle if you do it correctly. When I say correctly, I mean:

*Lifting a challenging amount of weight for YOUR body, not someone else’s body, 

*Doing it regularly enough to provide a signal to your muscles to grow (but not so frequently that you’re never having enough time to recover)

*Using proper form, to prevent injury,

*Choosing at least a couple exercises that give you a “big bang for your buck” metabolically, like squats or deadlift variations.

What happens when you build muscle is that you naturally create more insulin sensitivity. That’s true whether you have diabetes, pre-diabetes, or no diabetes. Your muscles are one of the primary ways your body deals with blood sugar fluctuations. And having good insulin sensitivity is one of the best ways to reverse-- and prevent-- fat gain, especially in middle age.

Ice cream, popsicles, cake pops, and other sweet summer treats are concentrated sources of sugar– they are going to raise your blood sugar by definition. If you want to have a way to “deal with” and get rid of that blood sugar, you need to have enough muscle to do so. That way you don't have to resign yourself to never eating ice cream again if you want to fit into your skinny jeans.

So now, in the context of a regular strength training program, I eat ice cream in moderation, knowing that it will not affect my overall fitness goals.

I like knowing that my muscles will do the hard work of burning any ice cream cones off for me. While I sleep. Isn’t that so much better than having to think about doing extra cardio or decreasing portion sizes over the next couple meals to burn off more calories?

 You, too, can get the metabolic benefits of strength training and the flexibility in being able to eat what you want (in moderation) that comes from that. Shoot me a message if you want help figuring out how to make it work for you!

Sending lots of love and wishes for a beautiful week,

Nicole