19. Diet Starts Tomorrow (My Food and Fitness Journey)
In this episode, Merritt shows an up close and personal look at her kinda rocky wellness journey over the years. From the ADHD meds that kept her skinny as a youngster (and potentially stunted her growth), to the realization that she can't just eat whatever she wants and still fit in her clothes, this episode is full of personal stories! In addition to personal stories regarding diet and fitness, she shares personal updates from the last week/weekend, including some of her favorite restaurants, a couple places worth meeting guys around Dallas, and more.
In this week's Beck and Call segment, Merritt answers listener questions on what to pack for a trip to Carmel, and her thoughts on the La Vie Style House caftan craze! Call into the hotline (214-620-0473) to ask Merritt anything!
Follow along on Instagram @beckandcallpodcast, and hit up the website www.beckandcallpodcast.com for more information, to listen to episodes, and connect!
Topics covered in this episode:
Some content creation apps Merritt learned about last week for the podcast (Canva, Waave, Otter)
A few of Merritt's favorite restaurants in Dallas
The Duchess of Cambridge's 40th Birthday Portraits
And Just Like That, Station Eleven and Euphoria on HBOMAX
A look at Merritt's diet and fitness journey from childhood to now
EPISODE AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION
Hey guys, welcome back to the beck and call podcast. I'm your host, Merritt Beck. I am a fashion and lifestyle blogger. And on this podcast I'm talking about all things life work and love as a single woman in my 30s. I saw a meme today that said this week is the official week of 22. And that last week was just onboarding, which I completely agree with. I had such a hard time getting back into the swing of things and wasn't very productive last week. And I think part of that is because I had Liza work from home for three days, usually she spends all week at my house. And when she's at my house, I'm pretty much on my computer working on the podcast the entire day. But when she's working from home, I tend to give myself a little flexibility to do things around the house run errands, schedule appointments, and I'm generally still able to get a lot of work done. But some, for some reason, my ADHD was like really going strong, and I just like wasn't able to get much done, I did get a few things done, but just not at my usual level of productivity. And I'm just attributing it to post holiday lag. As I mentioned, last week, I made some changes in terms of my posting schedule for my blog and newsletter for the new year. And so I spent a good deal of time last week working on things for this podcast. Last week, I had a call with Courtney, who is my podcast consultant slash agent slash, you know, advertising manager when you know that starts happening. But we had a call last week and she introduced me to a few new things that will help me create more content for the podcast specifically on the beck and call podcasts Instagram page. And on my website. One of the things she suggested was to add transcripts for every episode on the website. And this is for SEO, which is search engine optimization, but also for the hearing impaired to be able to read my podcast episodes. So I signed up for otter, which is one of the apps she suggested and they automatically transcribe audio files for you. So one of my projects this week is to go through all of those files to edit all of the transcripts have already uploaded them all into otter. So now I just need to go through and edit them. Because as much as the technology is amazing, it misses some words, you know, you might have to edit a few of the sentences or the spelling is incorrect. So I'll be doing that this week. Another thing she suggested was to create some templates in Canva, for promoting podcast episodes on Instagram and create more shareable content in addition to the visual guides I've been doing, and I've heard of Canva before from other influencers, but had never investigated it myself. And I am so blown away and impressed. And I'm mad at myself for not checking it out sooner. I've been doing all of my Instagram Stories templates, and unfold, which is a great app. But it's not totally customizable, like it limits you know, the number of fonts you can choose from. It's not an endless number of colors and templates. And Canva really allows you to kind of do anything. And they also have a ton of different templates to choose from that are already gorgeous. And then you can just tailor them and tweak them to fit your particular branding. And so I'm really excited about that new discovery slash information from Courtney and spent a good deal of time on Friday playing with that, and I'm hoping to get some templates done this week. So I can start sharing that shareable content on the podcast page. You may have seen this. But so far, I've just been taking screenshots from Apple podcasts of the new episodes and placing those screenshots in the unfold templates that I had. And it's just not visually attractive. And these are going to be much more pretty. So stay tuned for those updated promos. And then the third app, Courtney suggested I check out Waave. And this one allows you to turn audio clips into branded social media videos. So this will allow me to share more engaging content than just static posts promoting new episodes. And it'll be great to have a mix of content for promoting the podcast as well as content you guys can share. I did have some of you request, I share videos of me recording. And while I'm totally open to that idea, I'm not sure I'm quite ready for that. I'm still getting the hang of all this. So it may be a while before I introduce video into the podcast page, but just wanted to let y'all know I hear you. And as I create this new shareable content with Canva and wave, I've decided to open up the beck and call podcast Instagram page to a public business page. So I started it as a private account because I wanted some semblance of control as I started this new venture and one of the first topics I did was on my egg freezing journey and I just was sharing a lot of personal details and as this as a new venture and I'm sharing personal details. I didn't really just want everyone to be able to see it. I wanted the people who were actually taking the time to listen to have access and so Now that I know that I'm going to continue doing this podcast, I want to open it up to everybody. And I also want the content that I share on there to be shareable for you guys. So if you're loving a podcast episode, I want to make it easy for you guys to share the infeed posts, I post on stories, which right now you can't do because it's a private page. But this week, I'm going to open it up to the public. So this is a good time to remind you guys to follow me on Instagram at beck and call podcast. And we'll be sharing a bunch of new content every week, starting this week. And while I'm on the subject of podcast, I did want to share a new podcast with you. So my friend Emma, who I've mentioned on the podcast before she's at Emma's thing on Instagram, relaunched her own podcast last week. And she originally started it a few years ago with her mom, but relaunched it last week as a solo podcast, and she formatted it just like mine. So if you're really enjoying beck and call and the format and lay out in the different segments, you'll definitely like Emma's podcast, her new podcast is called that's what he said. So definitely go check it out after you finish this episode. Now back to my week slash weekend recap. So TMI ahead. But I had my fourth session at house preservation for laser hair removal on Thursday, I've been told it can take a while for it to really work. But I'm a little worried, it's just not going to be super effective on me, because I'm blonde, I do think there has been a reduction in the amount of hair growth. But still, I haven't seen like a major difference. My friend who is also having this done, so it can take like six months to really start seeing a difference. So I'm still holding out some hope I'm going again in six weeks for another session. And I think after that the appointments are a little more spread out. So we'll see I'll report back if there's any success with this. But like I said, I'm seeing a I'm noticing a little reduction in hair growth, which I'll take. I'll take that. But honestly, we'd love to see it all gone. So hopefully it'll be a little more effective over the next few months. My mom flew in for a quick one night trip on Thursday. And since her flight was coming in on the later side, we knew we weren't going to be able to go out to dinner that night. And I'd been trying to think of where it could get us dinner that she could have once she got in and while I was at House of preservation I realized Georgie was down the street. And Georgie if you don't know about Georgie, it's one of my very favorite Dallas restaurants these days I want to say it opened right before the pandemic or maybe mid pandemic. It's pretty new to Dallas, but it's an elevated restaurant concept by Curtis Stone who's a pretty famous Australian chef and like random side note I did a project with HSN last year and actually got to choose some saute pans that he I guess had designed and they really are great, very separate side note but anyway, he is the one who came up with Georgie this restaurant that I love. I've been from been multiple times for dinner and brunch and have yet to be disappointed. The service is fantastic. The menu is diverse and so delicious. They have incredible cocktails and the bread. I'm not usually someone who goes for the breadbasket at dinner but this is one of the few places I do and I will fight for it. It is so freakin good. And it comes with salted butter. I mean truly they could just be a bakery. The bread is that good. It's almost better than some of the food it's so delicious. But honestly everything about this restaurant is on point so I highly recommend it. But anyway Georgia has a small to go shop behind the restaurant called the butcher shop and it came to mind when I was thinking about where to get dinner for my mom and myself that night and the butcher shop sells ready made foods for every meal they have like chia pudding parfaits and yogurt and granola bowls and fresh fruit and juice for breakfast. You can also get green salads and grain salads and other kind of lunchy kind of things. And then they also have heavier dinner items and one of the items we got was a turkey shepherd's pie and it was so good and all we had to do is he did in the microwave, no baking required. We also got a Ferro bowl with marinated mushrooms and two green salads. Also delicious and like I said ready to go. But the butcher shop also has charcuterie items cheese wine. If you're like looking to host something and want gourmet stuff last minute the butcher shop is also a sandwich and a coffee shop so like big really have it all so if you're looking for a quick lunch to go or you want to grab stuff it's kind of like an an eat sees a smaller eat sees there's not nearly as much as you can get in an eat sees but kind of the same vibe gourmet foods that are ready made ready to go so quick and easy. So yum. And then on Friday before I took my mom to the airport, we went to lunch at rise which is another one of my favorite restaurants. It's one you've probably seen me post about on Instagram a bunch my friend Rachel and I go so often I feel like that's one of our go to spots. We both love a souffle but this time my mom and I split the rice salad and we each got a truffle mushroom souffle. They always have special seasonal souffles too but the truffle mushroom is one of my go twos as is the ham and cheese that is obviously classic. And then during the fall when I went with Rachel more than once I got the mac and cheese souffle and honestly I'm mad that it's not on the permanent menu. It was so amazing and so decadent. It was delicious. But rice is such a great spot for a lady's lunch. The inside is so cute and cozy. They have these pretty string lights up and it's kind of dark in there. So definitely a cozy winter spot. But there's also a covered patio which is great for lunch with lots of natural light and can make a great venue for like a baby shower. So for example, we hosted my friend Natalie's baby shower there a few years ago and it was so fun. We kind of took over the outside patio area. And when I say covered patio, it's totally closed in so it's got like air conditioning and heating and all of that you're not like sitting out in the cold but it's just a lot more light light and bright out there.
And then after lunch at rise, I dropped my mom off at the airport before spending a few hours working on those Canva templates I was talking about and working on other podcast stuff that I mentioned earlier on in the episode. I did have a glass of wine at lunch so had a bit of a sleepy spell in the afternoon but I did thankfully managed to get a second wind in time for dinner, which was good because I had a big night planned. So Friday night I had dinner with my friend Alyssa and two new friends that we met at my meetup in November. I had them over for wine before going to Shinsei which is another favorite spot of mine how many times can I say that in this episode but it really is. People are always asking me what I ordered there. So I thought I'd go ahead and share what I do. Some of my favorite things include the Katinas crispy rice the tempura spicy tuna roll. I love that one. It's like crunchy on the outside and there's no seaweed or anything. It's really delicious. The Press sushi is excellent and then the Thai fried rice can't miss that either. The past two times I've been though Shinsei is also a number of really amazing specials including two different truffle dishes and you guys know I love me some truffle. One was a yellowtail sashimi with like a lemon ponzu with black shaved truffle and it was such an interesting combination of flavors because you know truffles are certainly more savory, kind of a rich flavor and then lemon sort of cut that it just was the best combo and I was sort of hoping to see that on the menu this time but this time they had a black truffle spicy tuna roll and both were incredible. So my suggestion is if they have a special with a truffle edition on the menu, do it order that after stuffing ourselves with sushi we walked over to in wood tavern which is right next door for a few more drinks which was so fun. We were done with dinner around 10 And I figured it would be like an hour or so before in would tavern would get busy but I was so wrong. It was poppin right when we got there. Lots of you guys were there too. So if you're looking for a spot to meet people in Dallas, definitely check out in wood tavern, another fun one that's right down the street is timeout tavern, it's a little smaller, but they have some games and things they have pool and they have like photo. If you're familiar with those raunchy photo games, I've done that a few times recently. It's really fun. But both of those are great places to go. If you're looking for somewhere new and you haven't been there. Definitely check those out on the weekends at night. Lots of Ben go there. The weather was pretty gross on Saturday. So I took it easy all day. And when I say that I kind of alternated between watching TV and taking down Christmas decor. I normally would wait until the end of January. But with all that time, I figured I'd go ahead and get it done. I'm a little bummed it's all put away now my mantel looks especially sad without all the bright garland covering it. I really need to get a pretty fire screen or something to add some pizzazz to that area. I'm not sure I'm into like mantel decorations except for on the holidays. But the space needs something. Now that's certainly not going to happen before I buy other things like I need a breakfast table and chairs before I need a fire screen. But I do think I should get something for that space. Saturday night I went out with my friend Katie for drinks and dinner and neither of us have been over to the Greenville area in quite a while. So I suggested we start with drinks at LLILAS I have not been to that place. I feel like it's been open for a long time. I've heard it's especially great during the holidays. They have great holiday decor but obviously wasn't there during that the holiday decor is down now but we had a couple of glasses of wine there. And then we hopped in an Uber over to SR which is a new restaurant by the same people who opened the Charles in the design district but SR is on Greenville. It's like right across from Terrell ease. We didn't have a reservation there and they put us on the list for a couple seats at the bar and the wait was around an hour so we didn't end up actually eating until like 915 But while we waited we popped into to release for a drink which I hadn't been to either but that's like a popular neighborhood Italian spot. And I actually have a story for you about to really so we sat down at the two available seats at the bar at two rallies for a drink which just so happened to be next to a cute and tall guy sitting there alone. My friend went to the restroom right after we got there, instead of pulling out my phone like I normally would, I actually started chatting the guy up. I'm pretty outgoing. So while this isn't totally out of the norm for me, I'm, the conditions have to be right. Like, I'm not just gonna do it. Like we obviously were seated next to each other, it was clear he was there by himself. I don't know, I'd already had a couple drinks. Because there's a little liquid courage going on. I should also say, I wasn't necessarily interested in him for myself. I'm kind of talking to somebody right now. So that made it a little easier for me to start a conversation, I guess. But anyway, by the time my friend got back, we were having a full blown conversation and he'd ordered food to go and upstate and cook the entire time, we were there to talk to us until we left for our dinner an hour later. While no numbers were exchanged, we had enough info for a LinkedIn search and found him and my friend was hesitant, but I think she should message him you just don't know what's gonna happen. I just I don't think he would have stuck around just to chat with us. He didn't order anything else while he was sitting there with us. He like had his to go order and he was just hanging out and chatting. So I don't know I just feel like the worst he could say is no and that like you'd never see him again. So it's whatever. All of that to say I was sort of impressed with myself for doing that and thought that would be a great place to meet someone not specifically to release but if you're single and want to meet people in your area or in your neighborhood, grab a seat at the bar of your favorite restaurant and have dinner alone or just grab a few drinks you just never know who's gonna sit down next to you or who you might sit next to just might be worth considering. After trolleys we walked back over to SR which like I said is across the street and the restaurant was so cute. The menu definitely reminded me of the Charles and while I thought the food and service were both great. I do think the food is a little better at the Charles but SR is worth going for the ambience alone. It is a darling restaurant. I highly recommend making reservations though because we didn't get out of there until like 1130 We sat down at the bar for dinner. We were the only ones at the bar at that point. But that was the earliest they could fit us in anywhere in the restaurant was at the bar at 915. So definitely make a reservation if you don't want to eat that late. This is so exciting. We actually have some royal news this week. So the Duchess of Cambridge aka Kate Middleton turned 40 On Sunday, in celebration of her birthday Kensington Palace released three new photographs of her taken by fashion photographer Paolo reversi. In all three portraits Kate wore custom gowns by Alexander McQueen, a designer She's worn repeatedly over the years, most notably her wedding dress that was the best. Her makeup was really simple. Her hair was down and all three but it wasn't her usual smooth shiny curls. It looked natural almost as this as if it had been air dried, which I'm sure it hadn't. But it just was a much more windswept natural look on her. Each portrait I thought evoked something very different. My personal favorite was the closest shot of her wearing the one shoulder dress with the layered ruffles have tulle her smile just looked so natural and genuine and the whole the whole photo just felt joyful and a cereal. I just thought she looked gorgeous in that shot. My second favorite was of Kate in the red one shoulder dress. I love that dress because I feel like we don't see her and playful silhouettes like that. I feel like maybe because of all of the different engagements she has most of her dresses are on the more conservative side a little more modest and I loved this like volume and the Cinch waist and the like oversized draping of off the shoulder and the red color obviously so fun. Her hair looks particularly windswept here too, which gave off sort of a wild carefree vibe. I really liked that about this photo. And then the final portrait is definitely more in keeping with past royal point portraits. So she's like looking off into the distance not looking at the camera. And while this photo is beautiful, it definitely feels like a stark contrast to the other two. Her body positioning and facial expression are far more serious and regal looking in this photo, not playful or modern, like the other two felt like and she's not fully smiling. There's more of a smile situation going on her eyebrows are a little furrowed and like I said I think it's a beautiful photo and she certainly looks very elegant but it does feel a little stuffy and old fashioned to me. With that said I thought the gown was stunning. And I loved that she chose more subtle jewelry options for all of these but specifically for that one because if you look at all the past royal portraits, they're just decked out in Bejeweled. So this was sort of a nice modern update to that. The one thing I didn't love about the photos is how the photographer edited the photos. Kate looked gorgeous in all three photos. I loved her dresses, I loved her hair and her makeup. However, the filtering he used totally washed her out and added sort of a vintage old timey feel to the pictures. And while that makes sense for the photo of Kate and the off the shoulder gown with the bows it didn't read the same and the other two pictures for me.
Like I think I would have liked to see the red gown as it was, it felt like very muted, the color felt muted and not saturated in the photo. It's just like, made the whole look a little less vibrant and happy to me even though it's like such a pretty fun photo of her it just looked subdued. I also would have liked to see more color in her face. You can tell she's wearing a more colorful lip, but it's hard to tell because the photo was so washed out and her skin looks so pale. Like where's the rosiness? Her cheeks? I don't know. There's just a lack of color. And the close up shot I love so much has kind of a blurry quality to it. It's not totally crisper clear. And it's such a striking portrait. So I would have loved to see it a little more clearly, I guess. But that's just my two cents. To be honest, I haven't started any new shows or books this week to update you on I'm still working on Glennon Doyle's untamed audio book. I've been listening to podcasts a lot the last week but I did catch up on a few shows that I started several weeks ago and took a break from so after cringing my way through the first three episodes of and just like that, I took a break to watch other things and kind of forgot about it. And so on Sunday, I was like, What am I gonna watch, I was like getting bored with the Vampire Diaries since I've been watching that on repeat for like the 100th time. So I decided to catch up on and just like that, there's still a ton of cringe worthy moments going on. But it is starting to feel a little more like the old Sex in the City with each new episode I watch. So there is hope. At the moment. I'm still kind of hate watching it. It's kind of like a train wreck. It's like so bad, but you can't look away. But like I said, I have hope I do think it'll get better. It's just, there's just a lot going on. After I cut up on and just like that I picked up where I left off with station 11. And I mentioned this show in a previous episode as well. It has an apocalyptic slash post apocalyptic storyline. So it seemed like a no brainer for me that's very on brand for me. And I enjoyed the very first episode, but that got bored with the traveling Symfony storyline of the next several episodes. So I took a break from that. But then again caught up on Sunday, and I'm liking it more and more. So I'm currently preferring the moments during and mid like pre and mid apocalypse. More than the the storyline that happens 20 years later. For example, I liked the first episode, I loved Episode Five it took place in an airport and shows the timeline of when everything started happening. And I mean, they're basically stuck in this airport for days and days and months and months. But each time they jump ahead to the 20 years later storyline. I'm like I get bored. I just like don't care. I hope eventually I'll start to care about this traveling symphony. But I've just like every time that comes up, I'm like snooze.
I think I'm about to get to the point of liking it though as things are kind of starting to come together. But I'll report back once I finished the season. And then euphoria. Season two started Sunday, and I actually haven't had a chance to watch it yet. I was so tired last night so I didn't get a chance to see it. But I loved the first season so I'll definitely be tuning into season two. I'll also report back on that but you can watch it and the other two shows I mentioned today on HBO Max.
Since it's January and many of us have goals for the new year, I thought we could do an episode on diet and fitness. Now I'm certainly not a health expert. And I'm not giving anyone any advice but more so sharing my history and experience with food and exercise. So I'm going to share a little bit of a trigger warning as I will be talking about some disordered eating habits in this episode. Like many people, I could eat whatever I wanted as a child. I had a major Sweet Tooth just like I do now. I hate candy cookies, ice cream, Dunkaroos everything in between. And I'm sure it was partly my metabolism just being a kid but I also was so busy and energetic, also known as a very hyperactive kid. My mom always said I'd be running around like a crazy person all day and they just pass out after dinner from sheer exhaustion. I never once thought about healthy versus unhealthy food until I was in high school. sure my mom cooked us healthy meals for dinner These usually like consisted of meat and vegetable and maybe a more starchy item. So think grilled chicken, broccoli, mashed potatoes, something along those lines. During the day though it was sort of a free for all. I feel like even though we had healthy dinners, we had a lot of unhealthy stuff in the house. Like we had all kinds of junk food. And I was never like I was never restricted like my mom never was like you can't have this kind of food or anything like that. Like I remember going to friends houses growing up and there was like no good food, didn't have good snacks and I was like so grateful that my mom got me all the good stuff at the store. But when I was in third grade or so I got tested and was diagnosed with ADHD which I'm sure you all know what it is but Attention Deficit Hyperactive disorder. And the doctor put me on Ritalin first, followed by Adderall and middle school followed by Wellbutrin which didn't work and then followed by Concerta which I was on all throughout high school, college and even the first fruit few years after college, you may or may not know this, but most ADHD medications suppress your appetite. So even though I was a very lanky and active child, when I started taking those meds, I got much skinnier. And I also think the medicine sort of stunted my growth a bit. Once I got off Adderall at the end of eighth grade, not only did I gain a ton of weight, but I grew several more inches in a very short amount of time. So obviously, the part of that that became frustrating to me was the weight gain as I headed into high school as I never had that issue until this point. Like I said, I could eat whatever I wanted before then, but once I got to high school, that was no longer the case. And I'm not sure if it was due to just the medicine or my metabolism or hormones or what but it was a different experience for me. And because I've never eaten healthy or had to try it took me a really long time to figure out moderation and, you know, balance. I just was used to eating whatever I wanted. And I honestly still struggle with that today, and I'll talk more about that later. But I definitely wasn't a healthy eater in high school, aside from like the dinners at home, and I hadn't yet started enjoying salads or other nutrient heavy foods like we have all learned about as we've gotten older and have have discovered as you know, the health and fitness industries have boomed in the United States. Obviously, workout classes and salad bars like salata and sweet green, those places did not exist when I was in high school. So the health and wellness industry has come a very long way since the 90s and early 2000s. I can tell you that I was pretty overweight, my freshman and sophomore year of high school and then switched things into high gear junior year so the only way I could really figure out how to lose weight was to rely on my ADHD meds at the time which was Concerta to suppress my appetite and restrict my eating. So I used to take the meds first thing in the morning on an empty stomach eat no breakfast. And then at lunch, I would eat two small things of white rice like those little red and white crosshatch. Do you know what I'm talking about? They're those little paper, little buckets of boats, whatever, I would get two little things of white rice and poor soy sauce. And that would be my lunch, obviously not the picture of health. And then I would eat whatever my mom had made my mom and dad had made for dinner that night. I should also note that I was sort of hanging out at the wrong time and was smoking cigarettes pretty regularly, which I'm sure you've also heard is an appetite suppressant and something people do or have done in the past to get or stay skinny. At the time I probably weighed 117 pounds, which at five nine is definitely underweight especially according to BMI standards. It didn't last long though. I got back to about 130 My senior year I'd stopped smoking and was like eating a little healthier and trying to be better than I was the year before. I guess I should note I didn't play any sports in high school. I was not at all an athlete. I was in choir. So I definitely didn't work out there was very little physical activity going on in my high school career. And I didn't really discover exercise until I got to college. So when everyone was getting the freshman 15 things to ending their high school sporting and athletic careers. I was just getting into exercise for the first time and actually managed to avoid the freshman 15. The first thing I did was actually start running outside there was a soccer field and track right next to my dorm room. So I went to SMU and lived in Bose Hall my freshman year and I would just walk over to that track, put a playlist on my iPod. Yes, my iPad was locked and run. And I do kind of a mix of long runs and also shorter sprinting drills. And I had no idea what I was doing or what I don't know what prompted me to start doing this, but I actually loved it and just kind of made it up as I went along. And I did that for months. I don't I don't think I continued running my entire college career. But I definitely found running my freshman year and that was my first kind of entrance into working out. My sophomore year SMU opened up a really nice gym. So I started going to the gym there and I didn't know shit about shit in terms of how the machines worked. But I tried them anyway, particularly the ones that focused on like my hips and butt. And I also use the treadmills and ellipticals, and they did have some classes, but I don't think I took a lot of them. But I do remember taking my very first spin class at the SMU gym and had to leave the class to go vomit. My body was not ready for that. And it was years before I took another spin class. I also definitely could have been hungover that day but that's neither here nor there. Well, I wouldn't say I was a particularly healthy eater in college either I was exposed to more foods in Dallas than I was in Austin. I feel like there was more variety or like for example, there probably was a sushi restaurant in Austin when I was in high school but my parents did not eat sushi. So I was I had never tried sushi before and honestly it took me a while to like it. I don't think I tried any of the raw stuff when I was in college, but I was exposed to more foods in college than I was maybe in Austin, I was still on my concert medication throughout college. So I definitely still relied on that with the appetite suppressant in mind to keep me skinny. I kind of did the same thing I did in high school, I wouldn't eat breakfast, I'd either skip lunch or eat a very light lunch and then eat an enormous amount of food for dinner. And I continued on this way after college to until I made the move back to Dallas from Houston in 2012. Oddly enough, during that moved back to Dallas, I lost my ADD meds somewhere in the move, I never found them again, I don't know what happened to somebody who didn't steal. And just I decided to give it life a try without the medicine. At the time, I was moving back to Dallas to start a new job at rewardstyle, which was something I would have was really enjoying I'd already kind of started part time working remotely while I was in Houston and loved it so far. So I figured this would be a great time to test out not using the medicine to see if I really needed it still. And while I was and still can be very add, I do think I've grown out of it in some ways, and at least figured out how to manage it in certain situations like only taking phone calls in a quiet room where I won't get distracted by other people talking. The only downside to me stopping the medication was my appetite. I had not at all prepared for such a swift change. But the second I got off the meds I was hungry all the damn time I gained somewhere between 20 to 30 pounds in a matter of months. It was so bad. And I know that's not I'm not saying like gaining weight is bad. But it was just like I felt so out of control. Like I could not stop eating. There was a problem. It's like I was making up for all that last time when I was restricting my eating on the medicine. My body was like, here you go, your appetites back 24 hours a day. And it took me a while to figure out that I couldn't just eat whatever I wanted at all hours of the day. And unfortunately for me, as I was going through these changes, reward style, of course, it's a very young environment. They had a snack room with all of these amazing snacks and food and they would cater delicious meals off into the office. We had happy hours and big dinners and that kind of thing. And I would just eat and eat and eat and our portion control has never been my strong suit. To this day. Still one of my biggest problems. None of my clothes that I wore in Houston fit me anymore. I didn't know how to dress for my body. And instead of highlighting my assets like using a belt to accentuate my waist, like I went now I just covered everything up. I wore unfitted dresses that fit me like tense, I generally just struggled with how to style my body at the time, because I'd never been that heavy and just didn't like how anything looked on me. It just it wasn't great. And as you can imagine being a fashion blogger that wasn't great, I gained a bunch of weight clothes weren't fitting me. And the clothes that I did buy weren't flattering on me because I just didn't know how to dress my new body. And I had just gone through a big breakup. So that wasn't a great time for me in general. So the weight gain wasn't great. The Breakup wasn't great, the new job was great. But other than that, I was like, pretty depressed. And I kind of went on like that for a couple of years. But after a couple of years of feeling blocked and overweight and unhappy, and like denying that this was a problem, I finally started to make some changes. And I should note I had been working out this whole time but because my eating was so outrageous and all over the place. The exercise I was doing wasn't making a dent in how I looked. I didn't see any progress. It felt like such a silly attempt because you know, my eating was doing it all for me. I finally realized it was more about what I put in my body versus how many calories I burned. So in 2014, I started eating a lot more vegetables and I cut back on the foods that I loved so much and ate so often. So pasta, pizza sandwiches, just lots more vegetables lost lots less starchy carbs. Before I continue, I do want to make a quick note and recognize that I realize how anti body positive some of this commentary is. But to be perfectly honest, I wasn't raised in a very body plus environment, not any knock on my family, or you know, the people I was raised around and all that but I would say that being fat was a negative thing in my world growing up. And certainly when I first started my fashion blog and all of that we have come a long way over the last decade but at the time, I was in a very different place. And I wouldn't even say I'm that body positive or body neutral now but I do as I've gotten older recognize that we're all different and different for a reason. And I'm never going to be model skinny and that's okay, I look the way I look and we all have days where we feel better about ourselves than other days and that's okay too. I'm a creature of habit. So once I find things I like I'll eat them again and again and this goes for both healthy and unhealthy foods. So when I got on the health train, I made a few rounds recipes over and over again, as someone who loves Italian food, one of my favorite discoveries at that time that I still continue to do today is substituting pasta for veggies and just you know, using pasta sauce with those. So at the time, the one thing that I made over and over and over again, I would roast cauliflower and then put it in a bowl with Maren Aaron's and Parmesan. And it was so good. And it was so easy. Like I was working so much at the time, I was working for rewardstyle. And then any free time I had I put into the blog, so I really wasn't doing anything else but work. And so I needed things that were easy, easy to cook or quick. And that was one of the easiest yummiest things I could find the recipe for that is on the blog, but it is exactly how it sounds you roast cauliflower florets, and then you dunk it in there.
But it's so good. And now I do all kinds of versions of that. So like I do zucchini noodles with vodka sauce and spicy Italian sausage, I'll do steamed broccoli with marinara. I'll do butternut squash noodles with goat cheese and stage, I still get the Italian flavors, but without you know the heavy gluten carb written things. Anyway, my healthy eating journey started back then in 2014. And I'm still working on it today. I make a lot of healthy food when I'm cooking for myself. But no joke. I also have frozen cookie dough in my freezer to eat whenever I want. And I also generally eat whatever I want when I'm traveling and out to dinner with friends. So I mean, moral of the story life is all about balance. I'm still not great at the portion control thing, but it's something I'm constantly working on. And my general goal with food these days is to eat healthy most of the time. So lots of vegetables, fruit, protein, and not so heavy on the gluten, starchy carbs, etc. When I'm home. I'm also trying to be better about not eating a ton of desserts. I think that's helped me a lot so hard for me though, y'all I have such a strong suit. But I let myself loose I can do whatever I want when I'm out with my friends and on a trip. It's kind of that's sort of how I balance things. So just to give you an idea what I eat in a normal week. So for breakfast, I'll have coffee and either fruit or a packet of oatmeal. And lately I've been loving the Quaker Oats flavor packets, specifically the strawberries and cream and peaches and cream, obviously not the healthiest option, but it's a small portion. So I'm not like so full, which I never want to be because I always work out in the morning, but I need something. And so it's a small portion of that and I love the flavors. And I also think it helps to eat more than just fruit before some of these workouts that I'm doing because they're very hard. I need more energy. So since I work from home, I can make pretty much anything I want for lunch, but it's usually some kind of salad or a veggie bowl or like roasted vegetables or some kind of veggie saute like zoodles or whatever. And then at dinner I'll do something like the butternut squash noodles with spicy Italian sausage, goat cheese and sage or I'll make something I can eat over several days that we don't have to cook something new every night. I specifically love the whole 30 Beef enchilada skillet in the Mexican cabbage soup by the Define dish and I'm just so you know this Friday on the blog, I'm going to be sharing a bunch of other things that I eat pretty regularly or go to recipes when I want to eat hearty stuff that's also healthy. So check out the style scribd.com This Friday if you're looking for more inspiration for like weeknight food, either way, I try to do veggies and a protein with nearly every meal. Sometimes it is just vegetables. But oftentimes the recipes that I make, like the ones I just mentioned, have beef or something in them so I'm still getting lots of protein. Now to fitness. My workouts have varied a lot since college. I've done just about all there is to do I've done bar I did pure bar for several years. At one point I loved core fusion. I've done literally every treadmill class actually not all of them. Like I haven't tried tread bar and I've heard that's great. But I I did tread fitness. I did orange theory. I've done Barry's boot camp, there was even a class in Dallas. By lander Peerman she can remember what was called when it was here in Dallas. But in Austin, it was called Crush fitness. She moved to Austin at some point and change the name of it and opened it again. But it was similar to an orange theory or Barry's Bootcamp where it's like half on the tread half at the time the one in Dallas it was more bar moves. I really loved that combo. And then I've done a spin at Berlingo and flywheel never been a SoulCycle gal. And I've tried Pilates and yoga as well. The thing that has made the biggest difference for me though, we're actually the at home workouts on the sweat app. I started doing BBG which is now called high intensity in 2016 and did it consistently for three entire years chiming in from the beyond to say it may have been four because I actually stopped doing it in 2020. And it was by far the most challenging and effective workout I've ever done which is sort of shocking when you consider that it's very little equipment. It's all a lot of it is bodyweight and you know you're doing it by yourself at home. You're not you don't have a trainer. You don't have somebody screaming at you to do it. And it was seriously the most challenging and effective workout ever. I truly think the best shape I've ever been in in my life was when I was doing BBG and orange theory slash running at the same time. So I would do BBG which was three times a week and then on the other days, I would either go to orange theory, or I would run which Orangetheory has running in it, so just running I guess. But anyway, I took a break from both of those things at the beginning of the pandemic to try peloton because everyone had been raving about it. And I've only been doing peloton workouts for about a year and a half, but then decided I wanted to start back up on the sweat app. And I kind of talked about this in Monday's blog posts. So you can check that out if you want to on the style scribd.com But I missed the structure of the sweat programs. I just couldn't get the peloton workouts stacked the right way to make it more challenging each week, you sort of are picking the workouts yourself and a lot of the moves are really repetitive. And so like if you pick one workout one day, the next day's workout may be so much easier than the one you did the day before. And you're just like kind of going backwards. If that makes any sense. Maybe one day they'll change that up. But for now, there's just really no way to like make it a really solid long term program like they've created the sweat app. I'm still doing the peloton for cardio workouts I love the peloton tread I do runs walking runs hikes power walks, I also have the bike but I just don't use that as much anymore. I just don't I don't enjoy cycling as much as I do running, I guess. And I also feel like I'm able to work harder as a runner than I am as a cycler because I don't have a lot of muscle in my legs and there's something about spin that I have a harder time with. It's harder for me to push myself I'm just not as motivated to do it as I am to run. I don't know how to explain it. But like I said, it's still doing peloton for my cardio workouts that I'm doing the fierce at Home program and the sweat app now for strengthen hit circuits. So like I said I did BBG before did that for three years sort of got burned down not burnt out on it and I wanted to try something new. So I'm trying to figure out a home program and I actually did a review on the program on the blog yesterday. So head to the style scribd.com to read my review. So far I am on week nine as of today and I am loving it. It's just as challenging as BBG was, but it's a little more manageable, manageable for me in terms of the format. I'm not going to Orangetheory anymore since I have a peloton treadmill now, so I'm doing a combo of fears at home and peloton walk and run classes. And that's pretty much my workout routine. So I do five days a week of fierce at home. And the classes are like between 20 and 35 minutes, which I feel like I'm getting a great workout. But I also feel like I could use a little more cardio. So I tack on a 20 or 30 minute class after each beer sit home workout and I'm really enjoying it I'm seeing a ton of progress. And like I said, if you want a really in depth comprehensive review of the fearsome home program in this wet app, check out Monday's blog post on the style scribd.com. After feeling like I was in a major rut these past two years because of the pandemic and changing my workout routine. And I've also just been like eating terribly. The last couple years, I'm finally feeling more and more like myself, thanks to this new workout program. And I'm trying to make more of a commitment to have a more balanced diet and not yo yo between being restrictive and eating too healthy to just letting myself go and eating whatever I want. I'm starting to see real progress and it feels really good. So when you see progress, and that's that's maybe one of the reasons why I love the sweat app so much is because you really do see visual progress, my clothes feel better, I can tell my body is tightening up. And there are very few workouts where I feel like I've seen very noticeable changes. And this is one of them that actually does that. And I highly recommend if you're going to do one of the sweat app programs take pictures, it really helps to see those progress photos as you continue on. It's so motivating, but making making progress seeing the progress and feeling the progress. It makes me feel so great. I feel like I'm heading in the right direction again and really bursting out of my rut. I'm currently working out five to six days a week and I'm generally eating pretty healthy aside from the drinking I do socially and a few meals out each week. I didn't give myself any strict goals or resolutions for 2022. But just to get back to where I was before the pandemic started two years ago. I didn't mention this early on but I've never been a fan of FAD dieting the only one I've ever tried and I don't even know if you'd call this a fad diet. I feel like people claim it's a lifestyle but whole 30 and I have done the occasional juice cleanse but that's not necessarily for losing weight. It's more for like a detox and kind of a reboot. I've never done Perlon I've never done like a Keto or Atkins diet. I've never done Weight Watchers, the South Beach Diet, Faster Way to fat loss or anything else like that. And while I don't know enough to say whether those are good or bad programs, I just know I'm not going to stick with something super restrictive or something that's going to require a bunch of work on my part. So like counting calories, counting macros, do not ask me to keep a food diary points, those kinds of things, I just, I'm not going to do it, I just know myself, I'm not going to do it. And anything that's going to limit me on what I can and can't eat on certain days, or just generally, I'm not gonna be good at that either. Because I do like to eat out. And I like to have flexibility. And while I'm excellent at sticking with a workout routine, I know I'm not going to be good at sticking with an actual diet, like the ones I mentioned, just now I like a little more freedom in my diet to pick and choose what I want. And I also think the idea of counting anything sounds terrible. So first of all, I fucking hate math. And second of all, who has time for that, I just want something easy. I need something that's going to be easy for me to do for a long time, not something that I could be super restrictive about in the short term. And then just like I said, let myself go because it's not sustainable. I know everybody's does this about their own diet, but I'm looking for a lifestyle. I'm not looking for a diet a short term kind of option. So long story short, I feel like I've been talking forever. I'm 34 years old, and I'm still figuring out my health and fitness journey. I've discovered it's a lifelong project. And it's not easy for anyone. And I'm not sure if me sharing my story will be helpful for any of you. But hopefully you got something out of it. I'm obviously not an expert. I don't really have any good advice for anyone. But that's just sort of my journey and kind of where I am now. And hopefully, I will continue on a positive trajectory with my health and fitness journey. I'm feeling healthy, I'm making progress. I'm noticing some changes I feel good. And so all of those things are good things heading into the new year.
Alright guys, we've made it to the beck and call segment. For those of you who are new here I do a segment at the end of every episode where I answer a couple of listener questions. You can submit a question by calling to 146200473 It's anonymous as long as you obviously don't say your name, so ask me anything there. You can also submit a question via email to info at beck and call podcast.com Let's jump into the first voicemail Hi Merritt. My name is Angie and I am taking a birthday trip to Carmel and Monterey. Big Sur and then halfmoon Bay at the end of February. And given your time spent in Carmel I'd love if you could share some packing tips or just outfit advice as how to dress for that area at that time. Again sometime into February, early March. Thanks so much. So fun. I love Carmel and I'm happy to share some tips. So first thing you should know is Carmel is so cool. It's normally between like 40 and 60 degrees. So definitely layer pack lots of layers and I would highly recommend some kind of jacket that is water resistant because there's a marine layer that rolls in in the morning that can drizzle mist that kind of thing. You'll want something that's a little more waterproof, something that my mom has in her closet there she has a couple of these but there's quilted Burberry jackets that are sort of water waterproof or water resistant and they're just like quilted and warm. It's not super thick like she can wear them over sweaters at night if it's colder but they're somewhat lightweight and still water resistant. So definitely pack something like that for especially more casual days or nights when it might be Misty, you might just want to have that on hand. Usually, uh we're pretty casual there. We'll do you know jeans and sweaters during the day. I think when I was there in the summer I wore a leather jacket almost every day so just a reminder again it is very chilly. You'll want to have layers for every activity outside and a lot of the places are still dining outside so keep that in mind. You'll want to have some kind of jacket for literally every outfit but my mom wears a lot of blouses and pants. She loves wearing like chic suits at dinner she does wear heels at dinner but I'd choose something like a platform or something easy to walk in because the roads are uneven and there are hills and that kind of thing. So I wouldn't go totally crazy with heels but like she loves her YSL platforms those are easier for her to walk in a little more stable but definitely just I mean you can kind of wear whatever you want but I think the layering thing is key and you'll want comfortable shoes to walk around in during the day I usually am wearing golden goose sneakers because you know that's comfortable. It's definitely you know dressy enough Carmel is very casual. So You really don't need to bring a lot of flashy items. But I'd say when I go there, I'm mostly in jeans, a topper sweater, some sort of jacket and either my golden goose sneakers or my Chanel flats, and that's for dinner too. Occasionally we'll dress up but not many places require that at all. So I hope that's helpful. I don't think you need to stress too much about it, but layering is key. This next question comes from email. So it reads Hi, Merritt. I love your podcast. It's so balanced. I love hearing your tips, experiences, travels, etc. I'm curious what you think about Lavie style house caftans. They're obviously not cheap, but they seem like a good investment for when you need to be more dressed up. But don't feel like wearing something form fitting. Do you think their circumstance or that the trend will go away? I'm curious what your opinion is. Thank you, Catherine. Thanks so much, Catherine. I appreciate you writing in. So I love lovey style house kaftans in theory I have gone in we have a store here in Dallas in the Highland Park village. And I've gone in and tried them on a couple of times. And I've said this before, but 10 dresses generally just don't look good on me. So I personally haven't bought one yet. But I do think they're so cute on other people. Another issue I did have with them when I was trying them on is the fabrics. I don't find the fabrics. They used to be that comfortable or soft. Some of them are too thin. Some of the ones that are like broidery on gray are like too rough feeling. I don't know it just I haven't loved them enough to buy one for myself. That's not to say that they're not wonderful on other people. Like I said, I think they can be so cute for a beach vacation or a fun dinner out. I do think it's a very specific look. I wouldn't necessarily necessarily say it's trendy but it's definitely like a recognizable look, I guess you could say but I mean, I wouldn't I wouldn't argue for or against them for anybody else. But for me, I just I didn't like them enough to spend that much on something like that. Like for that price. It's either got to be flattering or it's got to be comfortable. There's just no negotiating with that. But I've seen people wear them as cover ups. I've seen them wear them dressed up to dinner. I mean, they're definitely versatile. I think they definitely have a spring summer look definitely feels a resort II so if you have something coming up or that would be perfect, great. I just don't think it's something that I would wear that often myself. Alright guys, that's it for this week's episode of beck and call. As always, I'd love for you guys to rate review and subscribe if you get a chance and definitely be sure to follow along on Instagram at beck and call podcast. I hope to chat with you guys there and I will catch you guys next week. Bye
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