EP. 121 Mom Hacks for Weight Loss - An Interview with Dr. Jade Mitchell Davis

If you are a mama, you're going to love today's interview with Luxx Life and Stop Dieting Forever Coach Dr. Jade Mitchell. You're going to hear Dr. Jade talk about losing weight following the process as a mom. Just because you're a mom doesn't mean you can't prioritize yourself to lose weight. You're listening to the Stop Dieting Forever podcast with Jennifer Dent-Brown, episode 121. What if it were possible to achieve your goal weight and stay there permanently without dieting? Welcome to the Stop Dieting Forever podcast, where you will discover the key components that most diets won't tell you because they want you to keep coming back. Not here. This is your last stop on the weight loss struggle bus. I am your host, Jennifer Dent-Brown, life and weight loss coach, and I am going to show you how to stop dieting forever. Let's jump into today's episode. Hey, LuxeLifer, if you are a mama, you're going to love today's interview with LuxeLifer and Stop Dieting Forever coach Dr. Jade Mitchell. We lovingly call her Dr. Jade inside Stop Dieting Forever. But you're going to hear Dr. Jade talk about losing weight following the process as a mom. So Jade leads our quarterly virtual Luxe Moms meetup inside the group. And I thought it would be helpful for her to come on and just talk about some of the mom issues that come up that are quite common in the group. So in this interview, we talked about the kiddie bedtime routine and how that can be stressful. She gives us some really good time-saving meal hacks. In fact, at the very beginning of this interview, she tells us what she was eating for lunch and how it took her like 6 minutes to make or something like that, and it sounds delicious. She talks about how teenagers are like toddlers because she was raising a teenager and a toddler at the same time. And most importantly, we talked about this sneaky self-sabotaging thought that lots of moms have. It is, I can't focus on weight loss, I can't join Jennifer's membership, I can't because I have to X, Y, and Z for the kids. Oh, and she shares a very interesting pudding recipe made from scrambled eggs that her littlest one absolutely loves. So moms, enjoy this interview, and when you're ready to join a supportive group of moms who are losing weight and learning to be flexible with their plan as they plan around their kids, I want you to come join us inside Stop Dieting Forever. Just because you're a mom doesn't mean you can't prioritize yourself to lose weight. We show you exactly how to get that done once you become a member. And by the way, if you don't believe that's possible for you, look at Dr. Jade. She has lost 40 pounds working full-time and raising 2 kids, and she's been maintaining her weight loss for well over a year. So she knows what she's talking about, y'all. So go to jenniferdent.com/stopdietingforever for more information. And to sign up and join us inside Stop Dieting Forever. But now enjoy this interview with my good friend, Dr. Jade. Hey, Lux Lifers, we've got Lux Life for Supermom, Stop Dieting Forever coach Dr. Jade Mitchell Blackwood here. Before we started talking, he's waving very vigorously to y'all. She was eating lunch. So Jade, tell us, what are you eating for lunch? Great question to start with, right?

I made a cauliflower crust pizza. Purchased the cauliflower thin. It's not one of the bready ones with flour. It's one of the ones that's like, like they puree the cauliflower, it's just vegetable. And then I made a pizza on top.

Oh, that sounds very delicious.

And I had a salad.

That sounds good.

The thing about it is it takes 6 minutes in the air fryer before you put the toppings on, and then 5 minutes after you got—

oh, perfect.

So it's whole foods and it cooks super fast. It's not microwaved. So on a day that I am working and I need to eat lunch fairly quickly, yeah, it's perfect.

Let's see, with the time hacks, this is why you're like super mom. Thank you. You know all the tricks. All right, so maybe you'll have some more for us as we have this conversation. But I wanted to bring Dr. Jade onto the podcast. And is this your first time on the podcast? I think so. Which is crazy because you're like one of my oldest clients. You've been with me forever. You're one of my oldest and dearest best friends. And you're like all up in the Lux Life community. So I wanted to bring Dr. Jade on because she facilitates our quarterly Luxe Moms Meetup.

Yes.

Tell, tell the people, what is that? What is the Luxe Moms Meetup?

Well, I'd like to think about it as a safe space. So when I'm introducing it, I let everyone know that I'm not necessarily going to do any coaching, but that could happen. But it's a touch point, as you said before, a place where we can just make contact and have some conversation and dialogue and keep the connections flowing, but especially around topics that seem to show up consistently for parents and moms in the group.

Yeah, I remember there was— I forget, maybe it was a boot camp or, uh, something going on in the Facebook group, but there was like this thread that was happening, and all the moms were chiming in like, I hear you, girl, that happened to me. Like, there was this whole thing happening. Do you remember that? Do you remember what that was?

I can't remember the exact topic. I wish I could.

Yeah, but that was like, okay, I was like, clearly we need a place for mamas to connect because I am not a mother. I'm not a— I don't have any children by birth. I'm a dog mom, and I'm a bonus mom that I've never birthed any children. So I don't have that experience. So when I was like, OK, we need to do something for the moms, I was like, clearly, Dr. Jade is the one to facilitate and kind of own this meetup. So tell us about your role as mama. [SPEAKING SPANISH] Of the moms group? Well, no, your, your role as a mother in real life. What makes you qualified to lead this discussion?

Gotcha. So I have a 22-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter, no children in between. But having that space has actually given me room to like reflect on different stages, like quite often, like how the teenager is really similar to the toddler, just in a different way.

Right.

They're both testing boundaries, but different boundaries. So yes, I've been a parent for a really long time.

And you've been working this process for a long time. So you have reached your goal weight. I have your before and after pictures on the website if anybody wants to go be nosy. Dr. Jade has lost— how much weight have you lost?

40 pounds total. I think the last In those before and after pictures, I was holding my daughter, or you were holding my daughter.

Oh, right. I had that yellow dress on. Yeah, that's right.

So that was— yeah, my maximum weight to now.

That was post, post-baby Brooklyn weight.

Yep.

And you lost 40 pounds. You look amazing. And you did it being a mom, raising—

I did, like, all the way through all the stages from toddler to now. But having that teenager at the same time brought up other issues, right? Like, I would plan for leftovers and wake up and my son had eaten everything at 2:00 AM. And it's like, oh, great, we have to start all over.

You're messing up my schedule.

Exactly.

That's right. I remember that. Oh, in addition to being a mom, you also have a full-time job.

I have a full-time job, yes.

Taking care of other kids. Kind of.

It's a very demanding one at times.

Yeah. Tell everyone what you do.

So I'm a professor. I primarily do research, which is sort of like having your own startup, right? Like I've got to bring in the funding and hire the people and supervise them and get the results out so that we can keep doing this. And I also teach. So teaching means that I have like 30 to 40 people to answer to at one time. And I try to keep the questions down by doing a good job, but they like to be in touch with me too at all hours sometimes.

So you just have that mama energy. Even your students pick up on it.

I think they do. Um, they definitely think that I'm more relatable than some others.

So let's talk about, because I've never attended any of the Luxe Mom Meetups, like you totally run the show. What are some of the common obstacles that moms come up with? And by the way, let me just clarify, like, the Luxe Moms Meetup originated, like, with thinking of members who have young kids, but there are members who are taking care of grandkids, there are members who are taking care of elderly parents. So if you're a caretaker, I think all of these things can be applicable. To whatever circumstance you're in. But what are some of the, the biggest obstacles that you see?

I was gonna say even educators. So educators in the group have shown up because they're dealing with smaller children at the same time that they're running through their process. Yeah, I think, let's see, I have to think about in stages. With the little people, a lot of it has been Scheduling. So you have a plan, but your child doesn't. I mean, they do, right? You set it up, but you don't always know what time you're going to wake up in the morning. So you don't know how much sleep you had that day, though, like, you've made this whole morning routine. So just, you know, being flexible and giving yourself grace when it doesn't look exactly the way that you wrote it out. But also tips on how to fit in doing everything that you want to get done in terms of following the process while you're being a parent. And then with the older ones, I think that's been a lot of like letting go. And I've actually had some of those issues and experiences myself this year, like with my oldest moving out for the first time to go into the army. Yeah, people have talked about like, now I can do things, but like, what are those things? And it was almost like, like you have to do the parenting, right? It's always there. But when you do get the time to do stuff on your own, if you don't really have a plan for it, it's very easy to distract yourself with, I could be doing all this other parenting stuff because it's the kind of job that, you know, it could take, it could take up all your time, right?

It never stops. Yeah, yeah.

We've also talked about some emotional regulation types of issues because with kids, I think, and parents, everything feels so extreme, right? It's like to the core of your being that you have to like be this awesome mom.

And I was like, give me an example. Yeah, it's just like the mom guilt.

Yes, especially if you are a working mom. Yeah, so those are some of the things that we've talked about.

Okay, and like you said, the point of the group is not to like coach somebody, but it could happen, right? But it really is just like a place to vent and I don't say commiserate, but just share your experiences? Or is there like any— like, you all like share hacks and tips and like, oh, you should try this and try this?

So I think we were doing that a lot early on. Oh, one of the big ones I remember is your kids don't eat the same foods that you do. So now I have to be like a short order cook and make all these different meals. There were lots of tips on how to just make one thing or make one meal or one—

What? How do you do that? Because I just remember, like, your son wanted one thing and then your daughter wanted something else. Then you have a very specific plan that you are following. So what's the tip?

So one of the things that we used to do all the time was like have a Taco Tuesday. So most of the ingredients are the same things that I would eat. But the thing that changes is I'm probably not going to have the dairy or the cheese or sour cream, but I have a dressing that I might put on it, or I might use a lettuce wrap or cauliflower wrap instead of a tortilla. But the meal could be the same and the experience of like, "Everybody make your own taco," you know, it's still like it's family taco night, but you don't have to cook a whole bunch of different things.

I love that. I have another client who does Maybe y'all talked about it because she does Taco Tuesday too, and she has young kids. Maybe that just— it sounds like it just makes things a lot easier.

Absolutely, because I think anytime you can have a meal that has many different items when everybody doesn't eat all the items, it just works out better.

Another thing that I'm thinking of, kind of along the similar lines of Taco Tuesday, would be like make your own grain bowl.

Oh yeah, that's a good one.

Right, so you could like make brown rice or make quinoa and then your vegetables and then your protein, and everybody can just make their own bowl based off of what their dietary needs are.

That's a great one. Yeah, I think we were also sharing recipes at one time. I found this recipe for making pudding out of scrambled eggs. Oh, which actually sounds awful.

That's what everybody says.

It's actually not that bad. And pudding really is like a custard, like it's supposed to have egg in it. It's just we got so accustomed to like pouring it out of a box, out of the Jell-O pudding box, and just adding the milk that nobody really realizes that it actually does have a lot of egg in it. Okay. I don't know how many people have tried it, but I definitely got my kid to eat scrambled eggs that way.

Interesting. What else is in it?

Milk, some type of sweetener of your choice, and then like vanilla or cocoa powder, you know, whatever flavor you want to make it. And then you just blend it all up and, uh, put it in the fridge.

Interesting. Okay.

Yep.

Scrambled eggs. Well, if you have the recipe, we'll put that in the show notes because somebody might be interested in making scramble egg pudding for their kids.

I'll do.

So I love the fact that we do this. I think we— like, I'm a part of it— but that we offer this group within the community, because community is everything. And sometimes when you're on this weight loss journey, especially if you have young kids, you don't always have time to like check into the Facebook group and do all the things and on all the group coaching calls. Like, you may not have time to do that. So to be able to just say, on my calendar once a quarter, I know that I can like connect with other moms, it does give you a sense of like, I'm not in this alone, I'm not by myself. And it also just allows you to reconnect to the process too, because you can talk about what you're struggling with, you can talk about what the kid did.

Exactly, it's a touch point. I got that term from you, by the way, that it's a way that you can check in, you know, even if you can't check in for everything or you can't show up for everything.

Yeah. So I love that you, you volunteer to do that. But because of that, because we just had our second one, right, our second Luxe Moms Meetup, because of that, I decided to like, you know what, I think we should to do just like a community meetup every single month. So in September, we're having our first group virtual meetup. And for anyone who might be confused, this is virtual. But one of the things that I really want to implement, because we had such an amazing client event— client experience— a Luxe client experience in Philadelphia a couple weeks ago, is really emphasizing the community. Because when you have people with you, right, who are all working towards the same thing, it does make the process a little bit— it makes it easier. And we get to cheer each other on and support each other, and it's just nice to have that support and that success— or success— it's nice to have that support. So we're now having monthly virtual meetups. Our first theme is going to be Sunday brunch. Happening in September.

Nice.

Yeah. So it's just an opportunity. Yeah. For everyone to connect and you will come with your favorite brunch theme, whether that's like sharing your favorite brunch recipe or coming dressed to your— in your like brunch best, coming to the call dress. You can sip mimosas if that's what you do at brunch time. Like it's just a fun get-together. To meet other people, meet the new people as they come in, meet the new members. Old members get to connect and see each other. And it's just, you know, a chance for us to have a touchpoint and to reconnect.

Yeah, I think that'll be great because I've often wondered, like, what about everybody else who isn't a mom and wouldn't necessarily join the call? And there have been people that, you know, like I said, if you're an educator, like, you might jump on because, you know, we're going to be talking about small children. But the types of topics that come up are really things that benefit everybody. Because I think one of the things early on is that people with young kids have in the back of their head, like, I can't do this because I have to— like, there's always a fill-in-the-blank as a mom.

That's a sneaky self-sabotaging thought right there.

Yep, it is.

How do you deal with that?

So I think when they hear what other people have done and how, or see how it's actually working for other people, that, you know, there's evidence now that maybe I can do it. You know, you switch your brain to how can I do it and start asking questions like, how are you other mothers doing it?

Or, and I think the other thing is too, because I'm just remembering this example from one of the Luxe Lifers who has young kids, and she— I was— Dr. Siobhan, she mentioned it on podcast when I interviewed her, but she mentioned that she just gave herself permission to eat her kids' pizza crust. Like, she was eating it anyway, but she was beating herself up for it. So she was like, I'm not— she's like, I've tried to like not eat it. They have pizza every week. So every week she's like having this internal battle of like I need the pizza crust. So she decided to just give herself permission. She put the pizza crust on her plan. And so it just like relieved so much of a burden that she was like putting on herself about the darn pizza crust. She just gave herself permission to eat it.

That's a great one. We've definitely talked about eating the rest of your children's food.

Yeah, and like inhaling their snacks when you're having an emotional moment because— yes, you can't like keep snacks away from your kids because mama's on a diet, right? We can't have any, any of this stuff in the house because I'm trying to lose weight. That's not the environment that you want to bring your kids up in because all you're teaching them is that, oh, there's certain foods that are bad, and when you want to lose weight, you can only eat these things and you have to avoid everything else. And that is It's not how we roll and stop dieting forever, right?

Or that we can't trust ourselves and we— the only way is to not have the food in the house, right?

Right. I always say that I want everyone, all of my members, all of my Lux Lifers, to be able to exist in the house with that food, right? You know, the food that calls your name in the middle of the night.

I know what that food is for me.

I know what it is too. You want to talk about that?

Well, it's really anything gummy, but it started with fruit snacks, and kids love fruit snacks.

And right, so who, who was— who do I have fruit snacks for?

Exactly, they were supposed to be for the kids. Yes, that was a progressive issue.

Yeah, I think sometimes as parents we indulge in our food desires through our children.

Oh yeah, even like Halloween candy, because the kids actually forget about that candy that you took away anyway because you know they shouldn't eat all of it. So you're like, oh, we have to put all this away, but who knows that it's there and starts indulging, right? That's you.

You're like, the candy's in the shoebox in the top of the closet. I think I hear it's calling my name.

So many times, like, at least my daughter, she's completely forgotten about where the Valentine's Day candy was or the Halloween candy. Like, it's on to the next thing.

But you remember, right?

I remember, and it's in the house.

But you want to get to the point where you are now, where you can exist in the house Right? Not deprive your kids of the candy, but you can exist in the house with the candy, with the pizza, or with whatever.

Well, it's funny now because now I probably don't even know where all the candy is because I'm not really thinking about it.

Like, why keep the candy?

So usually she'll ask, like, can we save this? So I'm like, yeah, let's put it away, and then never go back to it. But at some point it's my responsibility to throw it out because I know we don't need it anymore.

Yeah, it's interesting. Okay, I just remember as a kid I was the one with Halloween candy. I would like get all the candy and I would hide it under my bed and I would just have like— I would eat like a piece a day because I didn't want to eat it all because then I wouldn't have anymore. So I would just like drip it out. Slowly. So I was like still eating Halloween candy in like January.

Okay, I'm not surprised because I know that you've had that type of self-discipline forever.

I guess it was— I don't know, I don't know if it was self-discipline or just like I wanted to show up my brother because like, hey, I still have Halloween candy, you ate all yours. Yeah, who knows, who knows what's in the mind of a child, the rationalization. Yeah, that's funny. All right, so when is our next Luxe Moms Meetup? So if someone is a mom, is out there listening to join, and she's like, I'm interested in the Luxe Moms Meetup, when's the next one? And I'm totally putting you on the spot. Okay.

Um, I don't, I don't know.

It's okay, we'll do it. We do it once a quarter.

Yes. So we just had one.

It will be on— so we'll do one in quarter 4, but it'll be on the calendar when you join.

Yes. I, I'm sorry, I don't have the date off the top of my head. Okay.

I was just putting it out there as I look at my calendar. So what else would you tell a mom, especially the mom is thinking like, I don't have enough time, I can't do this because I have kids. I remember there was one member of the last boot camp, she had 5 kids. And someone like who is that focused, like who had— doesn't really have a lot of time to dedicate to themselves, what would you tell them? Like, how would you tell them to approach the process?

First of all, telling yourself that you can't do it or that you don't have enough time is just going to result in you not doing it and never having enough time. Right, so like the mindset and letting go of the drama. And then I think the next thing is coming up with, or allowing yourself to ask, like, how is it possible that you could do it? Because it might not look the same way as it looks for somebody who doesn't have any children, so it can look different for you, but You can absolutely do it.

And it can look different from like season to season, right? Summertime—

Oh, summer's totally different.

—schedule looks different. Like what you're doing is different from how you would maybe follow the plan during, say, the school year. Absolutely.

Right. So this cauliflower pizza recipe that we started with, that's not something that I would do during the summer because I have plenty of time to make a fresh salad during the summer. But now that school's back second session. Yeah, my breaks are shorter, packed in with other stuff.

And I love the fact that this process is flexible. Like, it just— you make it work for you, whatever your circumstances, whether you're a night worker or a shift worker, or whether you're taking care of kids. Like, you make it work for you, and it always works when you follow it.

Exactly, because if somebody else writes it for you, then you're like fighting with how do I make this fit into my life. Um, when you make it work for yourself, like, it is your life.

So yeah, I think that's maybe where that sneaky self-sabotaging thought comes from with moms, like, because they think they have to do it in a very regimented way. It's very easy to be like, well, I don't have enough time to do 'cause I've got to do all these other things for the kiddos. Right. That's why we dismantle those sneaky self-sabotaging thoughts in the beginning, like the beginning of the process.

Yeah, I definitely think it comes from the diet nurse mentality because, you know, if you go look up some other program, like there's something that you have to do at a certain time in a certain way for it to work. But this isn't that.

So it's a lifestyle, right? We're creating a lifestyle. And lifestyles— lives are not the same every single day. They ebb and they flow. Circumstances change. And so you want to be able to create the mindset and the knowledge that allows you to still create— lose the weight, create a healthy lifestyle, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what's happening.

And they evolve like sometimes slowly. So I've been doing this for a long time. My process looks totally different than it did in the beginning. And it is definitely a lot easier too.

Hmm. Tell me more about that. What's easier? Really?

I think it's like letting go of the resistance. Like the easier is just, I can't say that it's different. I know that it's possible, but I didn't think that it was possible in the beginning. So it took more energy, like just more— I think energy is the best word— to make sure that I was doing all the things that I needed to do for myself. Whereas now it's very much automatic. Yes, yes.

When you said it's easier, and I'm like, I know why it's easier. It's because you learn the process. You learn what works for you. You learn how your body loses weight, and you've been working on being consistent. And so now the consistency is just what you do. It's no longer like I'm trying to lose weight. I just am a healthy individual. I'm not trying to eat a salad for lunch. I just really want a salad for lunch. Yeah, exactly. And that's that shift from your 1.0 brain to your 2.0 brain. Yay!

And I no longer have the desire for like a quick fix, like to go through a drive-through or something. Actually, not eating is like the fastest thing you can do.

Yeah, yeah. And I'm okay. Yeah, I coached a mom on that. I remember who it was, and I forget what her thought was, but it was something around like, I don't have time to cook, the toddler, this time of day. Like, it was between like 5 and like 8 when he went to bed. It was like crazy time for her. And I was like, well, you know, the easiest thing to do is— oh, she was like, the easiest thing to do is like go fast food, order food. I was like, yeah, the easiest thing to do would be not to eat. She was like— I was like, really? That's the easiest thing to do? It really is. Oh, especially if you know you're like— your emotions are heightened because you're taking care of a young child during a certain period of time, and you're just— if you're an emotional eater and you have all this food around you, guess what you're going to do?

That is definitely something we talked about, that bedtime routine thing for small kids. By the time you get them to sleep, sometimes you're just, you know, you're done. And that's the time when a lot of moms will go and grab a snack or like, you know, whatever their routine is, watch a TV show and grab a snack and pour a glass of wine and pour a glass of wine.

Like, woo, I made it through another day.

Goodness, that child is sleeping finally.

Oh my goodness. Well, Dr. Jade, thank you so much for popping in during your busy day to record this podcast about the Luxe Moms Meetup. Is there any last things you want to share to the mamas out there who maybe are on the fence?

Join, join, join. You won't regret it. I know, right?

Easy. Yeah, I love the fact that this group is so supportive of one another. Me too.

Like, in every aspect of our lives, including parenting, because it all relates.

It all relates. Yeah, yeah. Because when you're— I always say your weight is just an external manifestation of all the unbalance that's happening in your life. It totally is.

And you also say, like, how you do one thing is how you do everything. And I've seen that show up over and over again, um, talking in the moms group.

I love it. All right, so you have— you've got to skedaddle back to teach your student children. Yes, I have to get ready for that.

This is the week.

All right, back to school. All right, well, thank you so much for joining, and I'll see ya in all the places.

All right, thank you.

Bye-bye. If you like today's episode of the Stop Dieting Forever podcast and you want to learn more about creating a lifestyle instead of following a diet to lose weight permanently, be sure to visit jenniferdent.com. There you'll learn more about my unique weight loss process and how it can work for you. Go to jenniferdent.com. Www.dietevent.com to discover what you can do to stop dieting forever.