Joy and Full: Healthier with Sarah Wells, MD

Today's episode covers how approaching weight loss with an attitude of gratitude can actually drive us to success in reaching new health goals. I discuss the evidence that gratitude benefits the health, as well as introduce three practical ways to make incorporating it a habit that sticks. www.joyfullweightloss.com

This is a "sermon to myself," where I discuss biblical truths that inspire me to press on in being faithful to be a good steward day by day. In this episode, I'll quote from one of my favorite daily entries of one of my favorite devotionals, by a Scottish teacher from the early 1900s, Oswald Chambers. I'm sometimes tempted to think that God's purpose won't be fulfille...

I don't know about ya''ll, but I've heard growing concern over what many are calling ‘diet culture.’ And I myself mention it in the descriptor of this podcast. It's become more common got hear "Diet Culture' vilified.  But what exactly IS diet culture? Is everyone talking about the same thing? What parts are harmful about it? Is there anything salvageable or even...

It feels like "Sugar Season" has arrived with the onslaught of fall--and October 31st brings candy to so many homes and front doors, and office table, and parties. So how to handle the ever present "treat" when you are working to build healthier habits? In this episode I'll talk through 10 Tips that have worked for me in building healthier habits even on a candy-filled hol...

In this episode, I cover some interesting highlights from a journal article that reviews a decade of studies surrounding weight loss maintenance. What it reveals can really work to encourage us that maintaining our weight loss is not only possible, but that our ability to believe we can successfully continue healthy habits may be part of what makes us successful. There are also a number of factors...

When is food logging an advantage, and for whom does it work best? Do some people manage to keep weight off without logging their food for the rest of their life? And how can food logging possibly lead to eating more than you need? I'll discuss the benefits and nuances of food logging in this episode, as well as how I'm able to maintain my large weight loss without using food logging ove...

In this episode, I describe the specifics of how I lost weight over the years, and what sets of habits I used to lose weight. I describe what exactly I shifted in terms of strategies over time, and detail what I learned during each 'season' of approaches that I used. Losing and maintaining a large amount happens when you accept that you will need to be persistent, and recognize that you...

This episode I explain the importance of playing the long game in terms of achieving health results. Nimbleness, or the ability to be flexible and shift approaches in terms of specific tools and strategies used, is KEY. But how do you know when it's time to shift strategies? How do you know what kind of tool to try next, when you find that what worked in one seasons of life isn't working...

They don't contain calories, but are diet sodas a good substitute for regular soda, which we know is causing diseases? So will diet soda help you lose weight if you make the switch? Or are there other, different problems they might be causing? https://www.joyfullweightloss.com/

What is all the fuss about Fish Oil? In this episode I dive into talking about Omega-3s. I’ll review some of the evidence that indicate they are beneficial, what benefits they seem to give us, discuss some potential reasons that might explain HOW they work in the body to decrease disease risks, and talk about what and how to increase our consumption. I'll also describe a test that can help yo...

This episode focuses on how I approach using knowledge of the smoke points for my favorite healthy cooking oils. What is a smoke point? Does it matter? How hot can I heat my olive oil? https://www.joyfullweightloss.com/

Today I'm re-releasing my most popular episode. I heard SO many people telling me that this gave them a new perspective and freedom as they moved toward healthier habits. I had to share it again this week, as for myself, I sure need to revisit this mindset myself frequently! In this episode I talk through something that has been a GAMECHANGER for me and for many others.  Let's approach g...

Now that we know a little more about what the difference is between damaged fats, how do we make the shift from eating  more of the healthy types instead? This episode covers a practical approach to making this shift. While you may be surprised at how pervasive damaged fats are in our food supply, it doesn't have to be overwhelming to cut them out. One step at a time--this is about progress,...

This week's episode starts by going deeper into the discussion of what makes a fat "damaged," which fats that we might see on ingredient labels fall in this category, and what fats seem healthier.  There follows a discussion of the underlying mechanisms causing damage to our cells which seem to result from these fats. Finally, recent evidence is described that these types of fats se...

This episode discusses the story of the research from the Minnesota Starvation Diets and Ancel Keys.  A revolution in the food industry happened in the decades after his widely publicized conclusions. But in 2016, the British Medical Journal published more information that was found after looking at the data again, casting much of the blame saturated fats received into doubt. How much changed in t...

There are so many different medical studies that seem to conflict, and the science of nutrition seems to change. Why is that? How can we look at different studies and understand how valid or invalid their conclusions are? How can we make decisions about what to eat for our health, when the science seems so confusing and nuanced? In this episode, I give a brief primer on the hierarchy of evidence, ...

In this episode I offer encouragements and tips on how not only to learn to start running or walking, but also on how to come to LOVE running or walking. I'll share some data that support an approach you might find incredibly DOable. https://www.joyfullweightloss.com/

This episode covers the benefits of including fiber in the form of natural plant foods. And the benefits are not small! The stats might just surprise you... https://www.joyfullweightloss.com/

We've covered many of the advantages to incorporating bouts of fasting into your days and weeks. This episode covers practical  strategies and ways to inch your eating habits toward giving your body a break from round the clock eating. Time-restricted eating and fasting exists on a spectrum, and almost everyone can benefit from taking some baby steps to solidify or stretch that overnight wind...

In this episode I go deeper in to more of the benefits of fasting and time-restrictive eating that go beyond  weight loss. We are talking about DNA repair, downregulating inflammation, increased resilience, increased motivation to exercise, increase Growth Hormone levels, and the big one... AUTOPHAGY!! Autophagy means "self" "eating" and it does what it says. I'll go into...

There are benefits to fasting that go beyond simple fat loss, and it's downstream effects. I'll talk about a few of those today, such as increasing our lifespan and healthspan, decreasing insulin resistance, and improving Brain Health. Behind all this are the mechanisms of change happening in our cells when they are forced to switch fuel sources, and a switch is flipped. It seems that fl...

Last week the podcast released it's 25th episode! To celebrate, this week I'm sharing clips from the most popular episodes, and more specifically, the parts that listeners told me changed the way they're approaching fat loss and health habits. https://www.joyfullweightloss.com/

In this episode I will give an introduction to the use of fasting for fat loss. Is it a fad? Or is it a sound practice with evidence to support it? I'll cover a bit about the history of fasting, the common terms used when discussing various regimens, some of the advantages, as well as discuss the common objections. 

Don't we wish for an "easy button" at times? We want to believe so often that there is some kind of remedy we can simply add to our current lifestyle to achieve the health results we'd like. But for many of us who struggle with obesity or metabolic disease, or the results of it, the lifestyle itself just needs to be rebuild from the ground up. What does that look like? This epi...

What we do every day or don’t do every day, even little things, definitely impact how we grow or don’t grow over the years. Habits have the potential of achieving compounding results over time. One strategy for achieving consistency with new habits is to aim for what's called an "Unbroken Chain." Otherwise known as a habit streak...practicing the habit every day without fail, and th...