Joey Thurman:
The Choose You Now Diet: Lose Weight for the Last Time with a Proven Plan and 75 Delicious and Nutritious Recipes. My friend, Julieanna Hever, what's up?

Julieanna Hever:
Hey J.

Joey Thurman:
How are you doing today?

Julieanna Hever:
I'm doing great, thank you. How are you doing?

Joey Thurman:
I'm good. I have your beautiful book by the way, and we eat with our eyes too, and apparently we read with our eyes because this is very well done. It's very pleasing to the eye tastefully. See what I did there? That was good [crosstalk 00:00:36].

Joey Thurman:
Let's dive right into it. Obviously you're known for plant-based dietitian. What is this, book number seven?

Julieanna Hever:
Yeah.

Joey Thurman:
Wow. Congratulations by the way. That's impressive to write seven books. I've barely written two, so you're way ahead of me. So I'm just proud to have you here and proud to call you my friend. But this is a different diet book, right? The last diet that you need. What constitutes that and why choose you now? You have this whole brand about choose you now. What is that?

Julieanna Hever:
Yes, thank you. Well, it's the book I've always wanted to write. It's my journey from age 11, when I was told by my dance teacher, I was a ballerina, in front of all the other friends in my class, "Julieanna, cut out your snacks." And it all started right then.

Julieanna Hever:
And I was like, "Wow, what does that mean? And what does diet mean? And weight loss and body image and all of that." And it was many, many years, I won't date myself on how long it's been since I was 11, decades that I started this exploration into all of these things, nutrition and diet and weight loss, and it's evolved so much in terms of what I've learned and read and then I went plant-based. And then I was a personal trainer, like some people, while I was in graduate school for nutrition. Yeah, yeah, flex, you got to flex.

Julieanna Hever:
While I was in grad school learning about nutrition, I spent seven years deep diving into the biochemistry and food science and clinical aspects and all of that. Fascinating stuff. It was the first time I loved school so much because it was so interesting and it was answering all my questions. And then after that, when I finally was able to dive into the literature again, it was like, "Oh my gosh, okay, plant-based diet's totally helpful, totally healthy." I changed my diet officially then. My health transformed. My clients' health transformed. And I haven't been able to stop talking about it ever since.

Julieanna Hever:
But since then, 17 years ago, I started having these conversations. I work with clients all around the world like this, we just deep dive into what to eat. Not only what to eat. So, I've written the other six books were what to eat and all the recipes. This is more of all the … You know when you say epigenetics and stuff surrounding it. So, the surrounding of diet and why people eat. Even if I tell you exactly what to eat and when, which I don't tell people what to do, but all that stuff is in the books. Everything happens and we are human after all. Life happens, social situations happen, and food is so deeply personal. It's our culture and our entertainment and our religion and our relationships. Everything fundamentally goes back to food.

Julieanna Hever:
And so what's evolved in these conversations over the last 17 years are really interesting things about being in the moment and these mindfulness things, and about choosing now, choosing what you eat. Doesn't matter what you ate yesterday. It doesn't matter what you're going to eat next month or next week or even tomorrow. All that matters is those decisions that you make right in this moment.

Julieanna Hever:
And I'm trying my messaging now with my clients and my audiences are to let go of any guilt or shame or regret, and to make conscious decisions about what and why and when you're eating, so that you can get the results that are serving you the things that you want, all of your goals. This all is possible.

Julieanna Hever:
Because life is really crazy and chaotic and we never know. We don't have a lot of control over most things in the world. The one thing we always have control over is what we put in our mouth. So, that's where it evolved from.

Joey Thurman:
Well, that makes a ton of sense because choosing yourself now is also choosing yourself later. Very profound statement, but you even have a quote in the book, you can teach a person to be healthy or lead them to health, but you can't make them eat well. Something along those lines. I'm sure I jacked it up. But that makes a ton of sense and you're approaching this and even your podcast, Choose You Now, it's more than about food, right? How do people find that? What is the first step about choosing yourself right now? Because it's always like, I'm going to start on Monday, I'm going to start January 1. All of these things, we look to the future instead of the right here and the right now.

Julieanna Hever:
Exactly. We spend so much time thinking about food and when we're going to eat and why we're going to eat and what we're going to eat and preparing it and all of that, and then all of the, like I said, guilt and shame and regret that a lot of people have afterwards because they're dealing with making decisions that were not on their plan. So, the key component is not just choose you now, it's also choose you now.

Julieanna Hever:
And I like to go back to that whole idea of when you're in an airplane and they tell you to put your mask on first so that you can help others around you, but it all starts with you taking care of you first. So, it's kind of this conversation about taking care of you so that you can be your best self for everything else in the world. And it doesn't matter what you're going to eat in the future because you can't decide that right now. You can only do right now and choosing what's on plan that makes your body feel good and gives you the optimal results that you're looking for.

Joey Thurman:
Okay, and as far as that's concerned, what should people do? You have a bunch of different recipes in here. Is there something like day one, start eating this? Whether it's you are vegan, plant-based or you're trying to be more plant forward? What's something that people can start right now putting in their mouth?

Julieanna Hever:
It starts with knowing why you want it. You did say it almost exactly right. I always say you can lead a human to healthy, but you can't make them eat. So, you have to want it. I've had so many situations with people that matter the most in my life, my son, my parents, people that I really care, I want them to be healthy more than anything. But no matter what I say or do it doesn't really necessarily translate to them because they have to want it.

Julieanna Hever:
And I had this experience last year where my father had a stroke, and when he finally came through in the hospital, and I said, "Dad, what's going on?"

Julieanna Hever:
And he said, "Well, I've been eating off, eating a little bit more," blah blah blah.

Julieanna Hever:
I said, "You know, Dad, I can help you with that."

Julieanna Hever:
And he looked at me right in the eyes, he goes, "Jule, you have to want it." And it was like, yes, that's exactly it. And so you have to want it.

Julieanna Hever:
So, if you want it, if those people out there listening want to make a change, they want to transform their health, because what I was taught in graduate school was not what I expected. I was taught to help mitigate increasing dosing of medications or try to decrease the progression of a chronic disease. But what I see with my clients, and I say results are typical, my clients actually get off medications, they actually reverse their chronic disease. And they lose 0.4 to 0.8 pounds of body fat every single day when they follow my plan. So, it's incredible how prescriptive and predictable this really is.

Julieanna Hever:
So, if you want it and you know you want it, and you have to want it badly enough then all of the temptations that will come your way, because we're constantly bombarded with food messaging and food that's indulgent and delicious and hyper palatable and we want it. And so you have to want to get to your goals. You can be empowered to say no those opportunities.

Julieanna Hever:
The first step is to make a plan. The first step is to know your why and then make a plan. What are you going to eat? What does it look like? And then, again, it always comes back to eating whole plant foods, eating more plants. I don't people you have to be vegan. I never would say that. It's about eating more plants and eating more of these foods that I incorporated in the most health-promoting nutritious foods that are out there, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices, and infinite tasty combinations. So, finding those recipes that you love. I want you to love your food.

Julieanna Hever:
People are like, "Oh, but I love to eat." Well, yeah, I love to eat too. My whole life was around food. So, find recipes you love and swap them in and then you build your repertoire of delicious nutritious recipes that are on plan that will help you serve your goals. And you have a whole repertoire eventually that just becomes second nature.

Joey Thurman:
I just love how you ramble off that. You got it, you hit it, you know your talking points. Your dad's right, you have to want it. You can have all of the knowledge in the world and these people that are close to you, and sometimes it's frustrating. Because you want to help them and you want to shake them, but they don't want to help themselves, it's really not going to matter. Same thing about choosing yourself, right?

Joey Thurman:
Here, this is really interesting is you put together an entire plan, and lots of diet recipe books sort of just slap some stuff together, let's put some pretty food pictures in there, whatever. But there's not really an overarching plan from the head down and the toes up. Something in here, I did the formula. What was it called? The Ham- … How do you say that?

Julieanna Hever:
Hamwi, the Hamwi Formula.

Joey Thurman:
Hamwi Formula. And we'll flash that on the screen and stuff, but I was 196 pounds based off of that, and right now I'm 212 because I've been beefing up a little bit, right? But ironically enough around 195 pounds is where I feel the best.

Julieanna Hever:
Well, wait. So, here's the kicker, and that actually makes perfect sense, because the Hamwi Formula is designed to give you an ideal body weight range. So, you hit your target. Women it's five feet, and then plus five pounds per inch above five feet, and for men it's 106, plus six pounds for every inch, plus or minus 10%. So, if it's 196 for you, it's still plus or minus 10%. You still fall in that healthy range and you're totally full of muscle. Yes, you're perfect as we know. J is perfect. We all know that.

Joey Thurman:
I am not perfect. That's just the makeup. Right there, you put it in there and there's a range, right? And that's really poignant that you point that out because people will see that and be like, "Oh my God, I'm not 196," or they do that but there's that deviation of 10% where you have that flexibility in your weight. And what about the flexibility in your book? How can people utilize that?

Julieanna Hever:
Right. I also encourage people to pick the weight that works for them. So, we use that as a guideline and then we go subjective. How do you feel in your clothing? How much muscle do you want to put on? All of that. So, I take in all those different considerations and then we talk about that in the book as well.

Julieanna Hever:
And then how do people … So, I don't like to do a meal plan. They say you either give someone a fish or teach them how to fish, and I refuse to do meal plans. So, this is not a meal plan exactly. I want to have here are some guidelines, here's what I know works, and then you mix or match it to make it work for you. Because everyone's a little bit slightly different about exactly what they love to eat and exactly what their goals are. So, it's really flex about what they want to accomplish.

Julieanna Hever:
But yeah, pick your ideal body weight and then you can lose 0.4 to 0.8, really 0.5 to 0.8, pounds a day if you eat this way of eating. So, I incorporate three things. The book is basically three things. It's a plant-based diet. It's time restricted eating because there's so much benefit. If you look at all the myriad advantages of time restricted eating in the literature, it's off the park amazingly health promoting. Not just for weight loss at all, but for health span, longevity, reducing chronic disease risk, so many wonderful benefits. So, I include those two things plus mindfulness. So, basically you look through all those different … Those are the three principles, I think, if you will that make for a comprehensive way of looking at your diet and achieving your goals.

Joey Thurman:
That's great. You got those different tenets in there, you talk about these things, and why do people not necessarily need to be looking at the scale? You could do this formula and you can have that, but you also talk about clothing and fit. Why is that important to mention in this book?

Julieanna Hever:
Oh, well I definitely want people to get on the scale every day. I'm that dietitian that's insistent upon it because it's data. But I want to separate the whole emotional component to it. When you get on the scale in the morning and it goes up or something, the scale's not looking at you and saying, "You're eating too many of those doughnuts." No, there's nothing subjective about the scale. It is a number, it is a weight and there's stuff that fluctuates, water, whatever intestinal contents are still remaining. So, that's one component. It's data.

Julieanna Hever:
And also how do you feel in your clothing? How do you feel at this weight? How do you feel performance and energy wise? So, it's incorporating all of the data, as much data points as we can, because I want my clients to get a PhD in their body during weight loss and another PhD on their body during weight maintenance, so that this is the last time that they ever have to do this diet roller coaster. I want to stop the roller coaster and make it just this is a new way of eating. And then we use these data points for information and to optimize the path for each person.

Joey Thurman:
Brilliant. I have one more question for you. How do you choose yourself now, Julieanna Hever?

Julieanna Hever:
Joey, that's so funny. I ask everyone that but no one's ever asked me that. I choose me by making these conscious choices about my food and living what I teach because I really believe in the philosophy that you teach what you want to learn. And again this has been my entire life's journey of dealing with body image and healthy eating and living in this world that's really got a lot of mixed messaging about food and body and diet and all of that. So, I listen to my principles and I make sure that I meditate and I am active every day, and I do things that I love, like cooking and being around people that I love to be around.

Joey Thurman:
That's amazing. Julieanna Hever. Everybody check out Choose You Now book, Choose You Now podcast. She's choosing herself now, and thank you so much for coming on.

Julieanna Hever:
Thank you so much, Joey.