Can You Eat Pizza and Still Reach Your Fat Loss Goals?

Nikkiey: Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask you to do is leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

I remember the first time I had maybe my fifth cheat meal when I was bodybuilding. I got a pie of pizza and a stromboli and Dairy Queen. And I kid you not, I ate about 80% of the pizza pie, about 75% of the stromboli and about half of the Oreo Blizzard. I was in so much pain afterwards. I did not have the discipline to stop. I just kept eating and eating and eating. I say don't be an asshole because I used to be an asshole. And I know what it's like to feel like that. And I know what it's like to be uncomfortably full afterwards. So I can relate to those situations my clients have been in, or our babes have been in inside of WarriorBabe. And that's why I joke around with that, because I know what it feels like.

Yo, yo, yo. What is going on, you guys? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show. Or if this is one of your first episodes, welcome to the show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkiey Stott.

Welcome back to episode 150. Dang. We're 50 away from 200. And we're also about 80,000, maybe 75,000 now, away from half a million downloads on the podcast. Guys, I love you so much. Thank you so much for supporting this.

Anyways, today's episode was inspired by this past weekend, when I was at a mastermind with women in business. I was at the host's house chatting with some of the other women there. And one of the women was like, oh, I've got to get a body like you. We were talking and she's like, I've got to get rid of this, I've got to get rid of that. And she was like, I had pizza last night. And I'm like, God, see, man, this is what is wrong with the fitness industry, the fitness space, influencers online, the diets out there. Basically, having people exclude things, or having the mindset that people need to exclude things, or that there's bad food, as they're trying to reach their goals.

So in today's podcast I want to unpack that and share my thoughts. I was talking to her and I was venting, and I was like, I just need a podcast episode to vent on this. Because this is why so many people fail at trying to lose weight, or whatever it is your goal is. All of these things out there that people think they have to do, the concept is that they're restricting things or cutting out their favorite foods completely. And, dude, this eventually leads to cravings and bingeing.

It's like me telling you guys not to think about a pink elephant right now. What are you guys thinking about? A pink elephant, right? You tell people not to eat this type of food, and what is the person going to do? They're going to go eat this type of food. And then they correlate it to being bad, that this food is bad, and then they go on a freaking spiral. Again, this is what's just wrong with it. Because if you restrict, then you say this is a bad food item. And there's no such thing.

I just want to get that out right now before I get into practicing moderation and balance. You can have your favorite foods. You just have to have a more balanced approach that allows you to enjoy those foods in moderation. I want to talk about that for the majority of the podcast. But what I want to say right now is, nothing is a bad food. Carbs are not bad. Pizza is not bad. Ice cream is not bad. Sure, there's tons of sugar in them. Or sure, there's tons of unhealthy fats, the cheese, the dairy in the pizza.

But, dude, first of all, something is going to kill you in your life. Can we just accept that? There are so many things in our environment that are eventually probably going to lead to some type of pain, or the reason for your death later on in the future. But a piece of pizza, the makeup of it in the moment, is not going to hurt you. Right.

And I'm thinking about this because I just got a Starbucks drink. I needed some extra fuel coming back from travel. Not to go on a side rant here, but if you've followed me for a while, I had Starbucks 365 days straight. And then come 2024, I realized that Starbucks is just shit. It's kind of like McDonald's. But I have it in moderation. So I'm having this and I'm like, dude, yeah, it's just shit. That stuff is probably not good for me. Ice cream is probably not good for you on a regular basis. Pizza is probably not good for you on a regular basis.

But the point is that these foods don't deserve to be labeled as bad. The reason they're being labeled as bad is because people think they can never have them. But it is the behavior following the eating of it, or the continuous eating of it on a regular basis, that is bad. No food is bad. It's your behavior after it that makes it bad.

So what I'm trying to say is, you wanting a piece of pizza or some ice cream, in moderation, in balance, is OK. But with everything that's out there, the restrictive diets saying you can't have this, people want rapid weight loss. They want immediate results. And it's going to include cutting out foods, or people saying you can't have this type of food, or following highly restrictive eating patterns. They may yield quick results, but they're unsustainable. There are nutritional deficiencies, and then the psychological effects cause a negative relationship with food. That's what I want to vent about on this podcast. And also bridge the fact that you can have pizza, you can have ice cream, you can have Oreos.

I'll tell you, when I first started my fitness journey, dude, I was the queen of sugar. The queen. I remember working with my first coach, and he was like, tell me what you eat on a regular basis. And I basically was like, OK, well, I have sugar, and I have coffee with my sugar, and I have candy. Literally, my mom grew up having Smarties in her bedside nightstand. And same, before this, I would have bags of Smarties. I used to work at Hollywood Tans growing up in high school, and there's a picture of me eating a bag of Smarties.

And when I decided to embark on this journey, the day before cutting everything cold turkey, I went to Wawa, which is a local gas station up here, and I got candy. I got a strawberry milkshake. I had all of this sugar on a regular basis. So I feel you guys that say, I have these nasty sugar cravings, or I eat sugar all the time. I feel you. And now I'm nine years into my journey, because I made a choice, first of all. I did cut everything out cold turkey and embarked on the bodybuilding journey. And I would have cheat meals every now and then.

I'm actually going to talk about that. By the way, I know I talked about a sleep podcast a while ago. I'm going to bring that back. I kind of got off track, but I'll talk about sleep in one of these next episodes, and I'm going to talk about cheat meals in the following episodes. Anyway, side note.

So I would have cheat meals along my journey, and I would have sugar. But I went from having sugar every single day to only having sugar maybe once a week, to having sugar nowadays every so often.

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Without getting too scientifical, is that even a word? Without getting too scientific with you guys, the whole chemical reaction in my body is that my body no longer craves those things. When you cut back on it, it's the same thing as cutting back on alcohol. When you do it for so long, you don't really crave it anymore. You don't really need it anymore. There are different chemical processes and pathways that have been rebuilt or restructured, and also psychological components that go along with it too.

I talk to a lot of people who say, I have a lot of sugar cravings. And I'm like, yeah, me too. But nowadays I look at it and I'm like, I don't really need that. I can do without it, whatever. But my point is bringing it to moderation, using the example of what I have every single night. This isn't a ton of sugar. Either every single night or a couple of nights a week, I will have anywhere from two to four pieces of Dove chocolate.

So what I like to say is, incorporate, don't exclude. Instead of cutting out all your favorite foods, like when someone says, I had pizza last night, I'm like, cool, and then I went on a rant. Allow yourself to have them. However, develop the discipline and the ability to stop when you've had enough.

I used to joke around, and still do with some clients and some of the babes, and the coaches carry this on with their babes too: don't be an asshole. Have the food item that you want, give it to yourself, but have the ability to stop when you've had enough. A couple of bites of dessert while you're out at dinner. Do you need the whole thing? No. There's nothing wrong with not eating the whole thing, and knowing when to stop.

You can feel it. Personally, I'm so intuitive with my body nowadays, and you can be that way too, with years of doing what I've done. I can tell my body's like, all right, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. And then five minutes later I'm like, thank God I stopped, because it takes time for your body to process the food and for you to actually feel full. So allow yourself to have the things, but develop the discipline to know when you've had enough.

For example, the reason I only have those two to four pieces of Dove chocolate at night is that it's just enough to satisfy my urge for sweets. And then I'm good. You can take the same approach with pizza. We don't need to have five pieces of pizza. You can have a piece of pizza, and there you go. You're saving tons of calories and tons of macros just by developing the discipline to stop at one slice.

I've talked in previous podcasts about emotional eating and stress eating and those types of things. Once you can get past that, there are levels to this, you guys. There are absolute levels to you being in control of food and in control of your body. One of those levels is, OK, you've learned why you emotionally eat, you've learned the pattern of stressing out, you've learned the cues and the triggers that happen with those things. Once you understand that, now you can allow yourself to have said item. And then you develop the discipline, which is the next level, of being like, OK, I've had enough.

Literally, I've gone through this throughout the nine years. I remember the first time I had maybe my fifth cheat meal when I was bodybuilding. Oh my God, you guys. I got a pie of pizza and a stromboli and Dairy Queen. And I kid you not, I ate about 80% of the pizza pie, probably about 75% of the stromboli, and about half, maybe 75%, of the Oreo Blizzard. I remember this because it was painful.

I've talked about this a little bit in podcasts before when I talked about emotional eating. I'm sure I've had those things along the way of my journey, but I worked through them, like being unconsciously competent. I worked through them when they were happening and didn't really label the situation for myself. But anyway, I remember having that meal, dude. I was in so much pain afterwards. I did not have the discipline to stop. I just kept eating and eating and eating.

And this is what I mean. I say don't be an asshole because I used to be an asshole. And I know what it's like to feel like that. I know what it's like to be uncomfortably full afterwards. So I can relate to those situations my clients have been in, or babes have been in inside of WarriorBabe. That's why I joke around with that, because I know what it feels like.

And then again, you get to that level. What I'm saying here is, I have gotten to the level of being like, nah, OK, I've had enough. I'm going to stop. Like I said, there are levels. Fitness, nutrition, this is all a game. Think about it as a game.

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And you have to go through these things. This kind of segues into another topic, but people think those situations are setbacks, or that they failed, or that they're in this loop again. Mainly, people just think that they failed. And so they stop. And then all of the things afterwards get deemed bad, and there's the spiral afterwards.

But those situations that people think are failures or setbacks, along my journey, I've just been like, OK, I cannot do that again. That was a learning opportunity for me: I can't be an asshole when I eat out at a cheat meal like this, because I don't want to feel that way again. And sure, I'm sure another time I've done that and felt so full. But each time it's just a learning opportunity to approach the next circumstance or situation differently.

And that's how I've gotten to this level of being like, OK, I don't need to have a whole bag of Dove chocolate. I just want two to four pieces, because it's going to satisfy me. And that goes the same for you guys. If you want ice cream, if you want a piece of pizza, give yourself enough to satisfy that type of craving. So you don't have to say, oh, I can't have that, or no, that's not part of my plan.

Dude, every type of food item can be part of your plan. It's just the way you are interacting with that food, and the type of emotional attachment you are bringing to that food. It doesn't have to be anything bad. You just need to know how to control yourself. You are in control of it. You're in control of everything. You're in control of how you put food into your mouth. You're in control of what food you decide on from a menu. You're in control of how you order it. You're in control of all the things. So again, there are just limits.

There are a couple of things I want to talk about for how you can practice moderation. Again, it doesn't mean you can't ever have the foods you want and love. It's about enjoying them in a way that also respects your body, your health and the goals you're going after. Like the woman I was talking to who said, I had pizza last night. I'm like, cool. You can respect and enjoy that food and also respect your body and respect your goals. It's just about having it in moderation. And since that's how this whole podcast started and where the inspiration came from, I'm going to use pizza as an example throughout.

The first way I would go about this, if I was working with someone who needs to rewrite their narrative around food, to make it not restrictive and make it something they can enjoy, is setting clear limits. Decide in advance how much is enough. Just like any personal rule of enjoyment. For me, it's the example of two to four pieces of Dove chocolate each night. Set your own limits that satisfy your own cravings without overdoing it. As I said, there's no need to have five pieces. You can have one piece. So set clear limits before you go in and do it.

Here's what I typically do in these situations. If there's an untracked meal, or my friends are all going out to dinner, I'm going to intuitively conceptualize what I should be eating. I think about what I had in the day, and I think, OK, I've had probably around this many grams of protein, roughly this many grams of carbs and this many grams of fat. So I can go into this meal knowing I can have one or two slices of pizza. There, I'm setting clear limits. I can now naturally do this, but you guys can totally do this too. Once you've done the work and learned the levels of getting here, it's totally possible.

And think about it like this. I've done this in nine years. Some people are still struggling 10 years into their journey of trying to get this down. If you just put in the work and go through the hard times, the failures, the obstacles, and figure it out, you can figure it out. So first, decide in advance how much is enough.

The second one: anybody who goes out to eat with me will see me savoring and being so grateful for this type of food that I don't have all the time. I literally savor each bite. And that's what I would say you should do too. When you indulge, take the time to really savor it. At night when I'm having the Dove chocolate, it's like, damn, this Dove chocolate is so good. Or if I'm having a piece of pizza, I'm serious, anybody who's with me knows I make the most hilarious facial expressions and sounds. I'm weird like that. I just thoroughly enjoy food, especially items I don't have all the time.

So take the time to savor each bite and slowly embrace your enjoyment. It increases your sense of satisfaction too. It satisfies your needs and your cravings just by enjoying the bite.

Another tip, and I shouldn't have made the other tip a tip, but I'm going to say it here, is how I balance my meals throughout the day. Balance your meals. If you're going out to breakfast in the morning and having brunch, make sure the rest of your day is mainly protein and veggies. Or maybe you need a little more carbs throughout the day. This is how I approach cheat meals, so this is a segue into a possible podcast two or three episodes from now. But think about it: OK, I had this big meal, and it's probably mainly carbs and fats, so the rest of my meals around it need to be protein. I'm going to dive into that topic more, so I want to save it for that podcast, because I could literally ramble on that one point.

Then the last thing I would say is, assess your approach to moderation and to learning how to be moderate with food. Is it helping you maintain a healthy relationship with food? Are you able to enjoy occasional treats without guilt? Ask yourself these questions and assess the situation, because you should be able to maintain a healthy relationship with food. If you're allowing yourself to have these types of treats, what is your narrative around it? Is it still restrictive? Are you still thinking your results are going to be hindered by keeping it in moderation? Assess how you're feeling when you're trying to incorporate this, and then adjust if necessary to find the right balance for you.

Maybe you need to lower the quantity of what you're giving yourself so you can trust yourself a little more with it. Thinking personally, if I'm still feeling some type of way, if I still don't have a healthy relationship with that type of food and I still feel guilty afterwards, then maybe I had too much and the quantity just needs to be lowered. That would be the first thing I'd do.

And as you keep doing this, the goal is to teach you that you can diet, essentially. I hate that freaking word. But you can do it, and it isn't about restriction. You can totally have the types of foods you want, make informed choices and still get to your goals.

For example, when I was in the bodybuilding world, I had one cheat meal a week, and that led me to achieve amazing goals and amazing physique goals. And now I'm eating intuitively, so sometimes I may indulge a couple of days a week, and then I'll balance it out. It's all levels here, you guys. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that you can have all foods in your meal plan, in your day-to-day routine.

It's not about good or bad. It's about how much and how often. Think of it like that, and master the art of moderation. Again, there are levels here, as I keep saying, and I want to embed that into your brains. It depends where you're at. But once you get there and you're mastering moderation, it's so much more enjoyable. It's so much more freeing, and it's way more sustainable. And it gives you a healthier eating pattern in your day-to-day.

So enjoy your food, respect your body, you guys, and keep knowing that you can do this and still achieve the goals you want. It's about, first of all, eating enough, not restricting, and allowing yourself to have those treats when you want them. All in balance, all in moderation.

All right. I hope you guys enjoyed this podcast. It felt really good to talk it out loud after the conversation I had with one of the women at the mastermind I was part of this past weekend. It's one of my goals to rewrite the narratives in the fitness space, and this reminds me of why I do this day to day and why I come to you guys and talk about this stuff. Because these narratives are still out there. These women still believe these concepts, and there's still this fearmongering around carbs and around food.

It's my mission to spread this, to rewrite the narrative, and to have you guys look at food with moderation and balance. I'm one to many, but you guys as a team with me could be many to many. So share this podcast. Get it to somebody who needs to hear it, who may have this type of relationship with food. Maybe you heard a friend over the weekend, or with summer coming up, say, I can't have this food because I'm trying to get a toned body by summer. Send this podcast to them. I greatly appreciate you doing that. It gets to more women, so they can hear this and the word can be spread.

OK, I appreciate you guys, and I'll see you in the next podcast. Peace out.

Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask you to do is leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else. And I'll see you in the next podcast.