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

by Danna Demetre, Robyn Thomson Narrated by Danna Demetre, Robyn Thomson

Overview

From the well-known health and lifestyle coaches of the widely popular website Lean Healthy Ageless (formerly Ageless Woman Living) comes a practical, science-based diet book that unravels the mystery of why women gain weight as they age and includes a sustainable plan to permanently lose the pounds and inches.

Eat, Live, Thrive Diet*shows women how they can not only lose excess body fat permanently 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 eating plan is presented in a compassionate voice by two experienced health coaches who share personal experiences of battling weight and emotional eating issues. Whereas most diets are short-lived or require substantial upkeep to maintain,*Eat, Live, Thrive Diet*is a viable eating plan that women can adhere to indefinitely. In addition to minimizing sugar intake, the plan emphasizes the importance 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. The book also highlights health risks and drawbacks of many popular fad diets that can be harmful on a long-term basis.

Includes a PDF of recipes, menu-planning guidelines, and shopping lists.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

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

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171821234
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	03/26/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,127,857

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
We are all so different. If Danna burns more calories than she eats, she sheds fat and her weight goes down. Not so for Robyn. Like many (perhaps most) women over forty-five, she is highly sensitive to grains. But unlike many women, Robyn is not insulin resistant, so she can eat a normal amount of carbohydrates and still lose weight. She just can’t include many grains or legumes because her body hates them and revolts by triggering digestive symptoms, water retention, mental fogginess, and weight gain.

In contrast to both of us, our friend Janice can barely look at a starchy carbohydrate without gaining weight. She is highly insulin resistant. More on that to come, but it means that her muscle cells don’t allow insulin to transport carbohydrates (converted into glucose) to be stored (as glycogen) for future energy. Because survival requires that glucose not accumulate in the blood, it gets diverted to Janice’s fat cells, which happily convert it to more fat. Even when she eats what she considers normal amounts of grains and other starches, such as potatoes, Janice gains weight.

Counting calories does not work for Janice. Fortunately, the Eat, Live, Thrive Diet does.

Like the three of us, you are unique. So, what are your dietary stumbling blocks? Those can be difficult to figure out on your own. The ELT Diet can help you discover the foods holding you back from reaching your goals.

The Reality of Weight Gain After Forty-Five

Women over forty-five are often faced with these issues when it comes to weight loss:

~  a lower carbohydrate threshold, which declines steadily with age

~  insulin resistance, which increases over time and promotes diabetes

~  unknown food sensitivities

~  hormonal imbalance

~  slower metabolism due to muscle atrophy

After the age of thirty, as women, we lose the ability to utilize and burn carbohydrates as well as we did when we were younger. The decline is slow and insidious and can go unnoticed into our forties and perhaps fifties, but it is happening. Foods that we once could eat are now causing undue inflammation in our bodies and disrupting our digestion, joint health, and metabolism.

God has provided us with a sophisticated healing system. Focus on the building blocks of what he has provided, such as sound nutrition, exercise, sleep, attitude, and prayer.

—Dr. Mark Stengler, ND

All the while, as we are edging toward menopause—or in the midst of it or past it—our hormones are being greatly influenced by many of the grains and processed foods we eat, making it more difficult to maintain any level of hormone balance even if we are using the latest and greatest bioidentical hormones and supplements.

That’s the reality. What can we do about it?
The ABCs of the ELT Diet

If you want to be lean and healthy, look younger than the years on your birth certificate, and have energy to embrace life fully, you must nourish your body with real food. Our diet plan will help you not only burn fat and drop pounds but also rev up your energy. It also provides a nutritional foundation to slow down and perhaps even reverse some of the aging process.

Our ELT Diet and Lifestyle Plan is designed to:

   ~  Activate your metabolism and promote steady weight loss

   ~  Balance your blood sugar and cravings

   ~ Cleanse your body of toxins and decrease inflammation

Our eating plan is especially effective for mature (ageless!) women who’ve experienced continued difficulty losing weight on portion or calorie-controlled diets. It is strategically designed to promote a robust metabolism, which enhances fat-burning capability no matter one’s age. Our participants are amazed at how much they can eat on our diet and still get excellent and steady results.

Step-by-Step Guidance

In the ELT Diet and Lifestyle Plan, we will guide you through three progressive phases, culminating in a realistic and enjoyable lifestyle eating plan that will serve you well for the rest of your life.

We’ll show you how to use the first two phases to reboot your lifestyle when you veer a bit off track. (Let’s be honest—who doesn’t? Our strategies help you address that reality so you can keep moving forward.)

We will teach you how to make your body shift from being predominantly a carbohydrate or sugar burner to a metabolically agile burner of all fuels, including fat.

We’ll introduce you to the power of intermittent fasting and all its benefits and our kinder and gentler version called the Eat, Live, Thrive Eating Cycle. While short-term fasting is optional, we know from our own personal experiences and from the testimonies of many of our clients that it can be a game changer. And the benefits go far beyond weight loss to include brain health, higher energy, and disease prevention.

And just as important, we’ll teach you how to design a lasting lifestyle eating plan that will be your foundation for life. Yes, there’s room for a few empty calories. No, you won’t follow your ideal plan perfectly every day. But you will discover the best plan for you and know that if you practice it moderately well most days, your body will reward you with great results!

Although our diet was designed specifically for women, it works great for men as well. We’ve been pleased to learn that many husbands and boyfriends are so impressed with their wives’ and girlfriends’ weight loss and health improvement that they decided to participate with them on the diet. They love the recipes and healthy substitutions we recommend to replace the foods that are troublesome. But beware: men lose weight faster than women, so don’t let that discourage you!

Figuring Out Good and Bad Foods

After years of coaching women, we have seen the greatest breakthroughs when specific troublesome foods are eliminated for a period of time and then reintroduced strategically based on the body’s response. Most women have no idea that they have sensitivity to certain foods because they’ve not identified a direct correlation between the food and its negative effect on their bodies.

It has been documented that more than 20 percent of people in industrialized countries have food intolerances that disrupt their health and contribute to weight-loss challenges. Additionally, it is estimated that approximately 65 percent of adults have some level of lactose intolerance as well. It is impossible to know how many undocumented sensitivities exist considering the steadily increasing number of individuals struggling with leaky gut and other digestive issues. And quite frankly, most of us are simply consuming too many processed foods and realizing the effects of all the additives and preservatives.

Some women don’t remember what it’s like to feel great. They have no clue that removing certain foods and adding others can help them look and feel years younger. Just imagine turning back your biological clock by simply eating the right foods for you. It is not only possible but also relatively easy to discover how to do just that using the personalized approach we teach in this book.

An Almost-New Body Every Eight Years

God designed our bodies with perfect blueprints that tell them what to do with the fuel we give them. They know how to build new blood cells, skin, muscle, bone, and so on. In fact, our bodies are constantly regenerating. We slough off dead skin cells hourly and replace them with new ones. We regenerate red blood cells within 120 days. We even build an entirely new skeletal system over time.

Unbelievably, the majority of living cells in your body today will not be present in your body eight years from today!

Just as you cannot build a brick house out of straw, you cannot build a healthy body out of chocolate chip cookies and potato chips. The quality of the skin, bones, muscles, and cells of your body depend on the quality of the building materials you choose to supply, meal after meal! You truly are (and will be) what you eat.

We hope that fact motivates you to see each food you put in your body for what it is and choose wisely based on what you learn as you experience the ELT Diet.

Beyond Gluten Sensitivity

Many have jumped on the gluten-free bandwagon, and for good reason. It is estimated that much of the Western world is showing signs of being highly sensitive to an overabundance of processed wheat products. These include commercially made breads, pastas, crackers, packaged sauces, salad dressings, and, of course, desserts.

Many of the most well-respected health experts believe there are no significant nutritional benefits found in commercially made products and that everyone would be better served by removing these products from their diets. Patti Milligan, the ELT Diet’s functional nutrition advisor and a registered dietician with a master’s degree in nutritional biochemistry and exercise science, agrees. She believes that the quality of mainstream wheat products in the US is troublesome for everyone—not just those with actual sensitivity to wheat—because conventional wheat is washed in chlorine. Additionally, many packaged wheat products use additives and preservatives that wreak havoc on our bodies.

Unfortunately, the solution is not just to go gluten free. Many people make the shift and end up eating excessive amounts of corn- or rice-based products, which also creates a high carbohydrate load and other challenges for their bodies. Additionally, food sensitivities go far beyond gluten. Many of our clients are flabbergasted to realize that some of the “healthful” foods they’ve been eating are problems for them.

Even when true sensitivity is not an issue, sugar addiction, carbohydrate overload, and toxic buildup (from all the commercially processed foods) can send our bodies on a downward health spiral. The strategic elimination of food culprits and plans to test each to determine our reactions are key factors in discovering the ideal diet suited to our bodies.

In the Western world, we eat the quantity of carbohydrates as if we’re training for a marathon, but we never run the marathon!

—Patti Milligan

Therefore, if you have cut calories and still not lost weight, reduced all fat and gotten fatter, exercised your tail off and the fat hasn’t budged, watched the fat around your middle increase over the past decade, gained and lost and gained and lost, then it’s time to turn your attention to the type and quality of foods you eat regularly. Also, it is very likely you’re exceeding your carbohydrate threshold and converting those calories quickly to stored fat.

Insulin Resistance and Beyond

Excessive carbohydrate intake and insufficient carbohydrate metabolism (in other words, insulin resistance) is at the root of many women’s weight issues. Patti Milligan believes the average woman consumes about 300 to 350 grams of total carbohydrate per day. That amounts to almost 1,400 calories in carbohydrates alone, which is about 82 percent of a woman’s total caloric needs for one day.

Insulin resistance (IR), also known as metabolic syndrome, can range from minimal to extreme. It is a progressive disease if not treated with proper diet modifications. It has become synonymous with prediabetes. IR puts you at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and it triples your risk for heart disease. Losing weight becomes almost impossible unless you change your diet consistently.

An individual is considered to have insulin resistance (IR) if he or she has three or more of the following markers:

   ~  blood pressure ≥ 130/85 mm Hg or use of medication for hypertension

   ~  fasting glucose ≥ 100 mg/dL or use of medication for high blood glucose

   ~  HDL cholesterol ≤ 50 mg/dL

   ~  triglycerides ≥ 150 mg/dL

   ~  waist circumference ≥ 35 inches

Your body must maintain a very narrow blood-sugar (glucose) range at all times. Blood-sugar spikes occur when you consume more carbohydrates than necessary to meet immediate energy requirements. When this happens, the excess glucose produced must be promptly transported and stored elsewhere. That is the job of insulin. It converts that excess into either glycogen (an energy source stored in the muscles or liver) or fat. Fat becomes the primary storage if glycogen stores are full and/or you are insulin resistant.

IR is caused when muscle, liver, and fat cells do not respond effectively to insulin. Research reveals that this problem increases as we age and is closely related to lifestyle habits. The most important of these habits is the quality of our nutrition. That means we can have control over this ever-increasing metabolic syndrome by changing our diets.

At least 50 percent of Americans have some form of insulin resistance, according to Dr. Robert Lustig, professor of pediatric endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco. That percentage is even higher in adults older than forty-five. “In contrast to popular false beliefs, weight loss and health should not be a constant battle uphill through calorie restriction, which simply doesn’t work,” says Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt in an article on his blog. He then goes on to quote Dr. Lustig:

Following current dietary advice is counterintuitive to achieving a healthy weight.

The reason is the myth of energy balance. If you believe this, then you believe that obesity is a physics problem; too much energy in, too little energy out. Energy balance assumes that all calories are equal, no matter where they come from. Rather, obesity is about energy deposition into fat tissue. Obesity is a biochemistry problem, and where those nutrients came from determine where they go in the body. It’s called nutritional biochemistry and it shows that all calories are not created equal.

Even for women who are not truly insulin resistant, excessive carbohydrates can create a roller-coaster effect as blood sugar levels peak and then fall throughout the day. Thus, cravings increase, energy decreases, and immunity declines.

Milligan also alerts us to the important role that a sedentary lifestyle plays in insulin resistance. Just increasing movement to three ten-minute spurts of intentional activity within your day can improve the sensitivity of insulin to your cells significantly because it stokes your metabolic furnace. In chapter 12, we’ll share the importance of leading an active lifestyle and tips to easily improve your fitness.

Now let’s take a look at an overview of the three key phases of the ELT Diet and Lifestyle Plan.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Eat, Live, Thrive Diet"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Danna Demetre.
Excerpted by permission of The Crown Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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