147 – Love to Lose with Camille Martin

This week I speak to Camille Martin about her journey with dieting, how this lead her to become a dietician, and writing her amazing new book ‘Love to Lose’.

About Camille

Camille Martin is a registered dietitian, health blogger, and senior technical editor for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is also a former chronic dieter who wasted nearly 25 years of her life on a diet. In her book, Love To Lose: Love Your Life and Watch the Weight Lose Itself, she uses what she learned on her own weight-loss journey to help other women stop wasting their lives on a diet, embrace everything about themselves, achieve what they’re truly capable of – and lose weight in the process. She received a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Georgia and a Bachelor of Science in nutrition from Georgia State University. She is a vegetarian, marathon runner, and proud mother of two daughters and two rescue dogs.

Camille’s Story

After years of struggling to lose the same 10Lb that started before her teens. Camille realised that her battle wasn’t with food or the weight, but about the conversation she was having with herself.

One day she made a promise to herself to be nicer to herself. To start to fill her time doing things she liked and wanted, and to be more conscious and take back control of her life. But most importantly, to stop trying to lose weight. And guess what – she became happier with herself and the weight sorted itself out naturally.

The real problem with diets

Both Camille and I are passionate about helping people understand that diets just don’t work. Her main three reasons are

Failure – when they fail to deliver, which they invariably do, we blame ourselves. It is not our fault – it’s the diet.
Not bespoke – we are not all the same, but every diet is written with it’s sets of rules of things we can and cannot do. If these rules don’t fit your life, your likes and your family the it simply isn’t going to work for you.
Resistance – all diets are built around things we cannot do, this automatically sets up resistance in our bodies.

Changing the story

Making small steps is key, instead of trying to stop eating ice-cream each night in front of the TV try just having a smaller portion or adding fruit. Then make another minor change until before you know it you have changed your habit totally. This is much kinder and easier to acheive.

Set yourself a big goal. Part of reconnecting with ourselves is to remind us of what it is that we want, rather than putting that of others first. Camille encourages us to spend a little time to remind ourselves of the big goals we have (importantly not weight or appearance related) and then do something each week that you know is bringing you closer to that goal.

What is in your weight loss kitchen?

Camille admits to being an organisation freak but even if you are not as tidy as her having things in certain places can help. Add blocks or barriers to foods that you want to eat less of – for example putting crisps in boxes on higher shelves. And having less barriers for foods you want to eat more of – for example having fruit ready to eat and on display in your fridge.

Learning to cook, even the most basic of things is key to taking back control. But also making sure you just have some basic equipment in your kitchen so you can create some simple dishes.

Keep your fridge clean and clear of perishable foods, and be honest, if you are not going to eat before it spoils then remove it. This was a lightbulb moment for me!

If you pop onto Camille’s website she has a link to share all her healthy kitchen tips with actionable steps to help you achieve it.