Carole Freeman:

Well, Marianne, let’s start out, have you introduce yourself. Who are you? Who are you in this world?

Marianne Harlow:

Well, I’m Marianne Harlow. I live in Spokane, Washington. And I am a retired 62 year old that is enjoying playing in retirement. Was in the travel business for most of my career. So it’s in my blood, but now I’m traveling more on the ground with a little travel trailer and going out and just seeing the countryside.

Carole Freeman:

Wonderful. Excellent. So let’s talk about your keto journey. How did you first hear about it? Before you ever met me, what happened for you? Maybe even go back even further before keto. Like your weight journey. How about that?

Marianne Harlow:

Well, my weight journey probably began with my mom. She always fought with her weight and so I watched that my entire life. And so I joined the yoyo uppy-downy plan. Tried hospital sponsor program. Jenny Craig. You know, soup to nuts, if it was out there, I eventually tried it. And eventually ended up in a worse spot than where I started. Pretty typical story. And then the fall of 2018 I’d gone to Hawaii with a friend and after a helicopter tour they took a picture of us. And when I saw the picture I about died. It was like, oh my God, when did that happen? How did that happen?

Marianne Harlow:

And when I got home I was chatting with a girlfriend who had been trying keto. And so she loaned me a book and I read it. And it’s like, well this sounds pretty reasonable. And foods that I like and something that I could live with without feeling deprived. So I tried it and did okay. But then I got on the internet and was reading about all different ketos and there’s so much misinformation or cross information. It’s like, what in the heck are you supposed to believe? And so I started searching out keto help more locally and that’s when I ran across you and your program and said, let’s just dive in. So that was the first part of January of 2019.

Carole Freeman:

All right. What was it that made you decide to get help rather than just trying to figure it out all on your own?

Marianne Harlow:

Well, all my life I’ve been trying to figure it out on my own and hadn’t been very successful. And I think deep inside me, I knew it was more of a head game for me, that I needed to figure out why this is a recurring thing. I’ve been pretty successful in my life, but I couldn’t get a handle on this weight issue.

Carole Freeman:

Now a lot of people I work with are in the same boat. They’ve been really successful and then they beat themselves up about, why can’t I figure this part out? What kind of insights do you have now about how much of that was your fault versus just the wrong approach or the wrong support?

Marianne Harlow:

Well, I think a little bit of everything. I grew up in a household where it was you had to clean your plate regardless if you were hungry or not. So a long time ago I had lost the ability to recognize if I was really hungry or if I was really full, or if it was I was bored. What the heck, it was, I think rarely that I was eating because my body actually needed fuel.

Carole Freeman:

So you got all the wires crossed, you couldn’t trust your own appetite or hunger and you’d learned to ignore that which most people-

Marianne Harlow:

Exactly.

Carole Freeman:

I mean, that’s what I see with most every other diet plan out there is that they’re still trying to teach you, you need all these external things to tell you what to do and what to eat and when to eat to how much to eat.

Marianne Harlow:

Exactly. Or like the Jenny Craig thing, eating prepackage food you didn’t have to worry about the quantities or anything. But it didn’t teach me anything. I didn’t know myself any better to do better on my own.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. Because you’re either then you’re learning to eat prepackaged food, or what?

Marianne Harlow:

Yeah.

Carole Freeman:

There’s no other option with that program. Yeah.

Marianne Harlow:

And it also, you were deprived because it was… I mean, the quantities were little, but it also wasn’t very interesting. Just wasn’t satisfying physically or mentally.

Carole Freeman:

So you feel like now you’re getting better in touch with knowing when you’re actually hungry, when you’re full, when you need more food?

Marianne Harlow:

Yeah, absolutely. It’s sometimes the old habits creep in and you look at the clock and it’s six o’clock. Wait a minute. Am I hungry? No, I’m not hungry. Huh, that’s cool. Okay. Moving on. Instead of just doing it by rote of the learned patterns over our lifetime.

Carole Freeman:

That’s so great. And you probably heard me like a broken record say how much I’m really passionate about helping my clients really learn to trust their body again. So getting back to a state that you can actually trust your body, your appetite, your hunger, your thirst.

Marianne Harlow:

Yeah. I went through your emotional eating program. I don’t remember the exact title. But that was extraordinarily helpful to me, is it gave me the tools to figure out what my reality was. Where before you play games with yourself or whatever you’re doing, but that really made you dig deep and say, okay, why am I really doing this and how is it serving me? And how can I change it and pay attention to what my body really needs food-wise? Versus, it’s not a sport, you don’t just do it for enjoyment. So it’s really changed my attitude too from living to eat, to now, I eat to live. It’s, if there’s nothing around, say even in the afternoon if I’m hungry or something. Yesterday I had a meeting and I wasn’t hungry before the meeting and it’s like, oh, I’ll just worry about it when I get back. And when I got home I still wasn’t hungry. It’s like, well, probably weren’t that hungry reality anyway. It’s like, have a glass of salt water and call it good.

Carole Freeman:

You probably had a little flash, a twinge in your brain that was like, well, if you don’t eat now, you’re not going to get to eat in the meeting and you might get hungry. Which is something I really identify with before, but that was just an old pattern that you’ve learned enough, your brain has learned enough that it’s going to be okay. I’m not going to get hungry in the middle of the meeting, and if I do, I’m not going to crash and burn.

Marianne Harlow:

Well and being keto adapted, you travel around with fuel with you all the time. So if you miss a meal it just means your body’s going to go, oh, well let’s just take a little from here and a little from there. Which works out great for everybody.

Carole Freeman:

That’s wonderful. So let’s talk about, so you’ve done a couple of my programs. What’s been your overall success? Where did you start and what are all the things that you noticed? Because you worked with me for a couple of months and then a few months after that, and then I didn’t hear anything from you for maybe six or eight months or so. And then you came back having a grand transformation. So let’s do it in phases. So in the first few months, what did you notice, changes and improvements then?

Marianne Harlow:

Well, one of the things I really liked about the program is you provided sample menus, but more importantly it was how to construct your own. Because I’m kind of a weird picky eater, and so it’s like, I don’t care for avocados. So you gave me the formula to say, okay there’s avocado on this but I don’t have to eat that. I can eat this instead and they work out about similar with the fat and protein and carbs and such. So that was very helpful in giving me the tools to adapt it to my own personal likes.

Marianne Harlow:

When I came back from Hawaii, I’m guessing at my weight because it was too frightening to stand on the scale. And so I’m guessing it’s probably 60 to 65 pounds I’m down from when I started. And having the coaching support and the calls. The coaching calls I found really inspiring because other people would have questions that either I’d thought about and forgotten, or that I hadn’t really thought about but was able to apply to my own world and my own eating patterns, or whatever. So those calls were really important. And then the emotional eating course just really got to the root. So the first one set me up to start taking my weight off and the inches off. And then the second one was like, okay, how and why? And how can you approach this to make it a lifelong thing?

Marianne Harlow:

This isn’t a diet, it’s not a temporary thing. It’s a change of the way I live. And I periodically go fall off the cliff, but I haven’t found it terribly difficult to get back on track. I think because of the tools, especially from the emotional eating program. But just knowing the basics of, okay, need to get back on track. Just reel it back in. I know what to eliminate, where the carb creep comes from. And I just need to get back to weighing and measuring and paying attention. And so it’s been a pretty… Well, I was going to say a straight line journey, but there’s bumps along the road. But it’s still sustainable in the longterm, I think.

Carole Freeman:

That’s what I want to ask next then, is that if you can imagine in the past any other diet plan that you’d followed. First of all, have you ever been a year out of following any diet plan?

Marianne Harlow:

Oh yeah.

Carole Freeman:

Okay. And then how did you feel a year after you started? Did you feel like, wow, this is really easy and sustainable I can do this forever? Or were you feeling, ugh?

Marianne Harlow:

Rarely that it was sustainable. Probably the one that came closest was Atkins, which isn’t terribly different than keto. But I think I succumb to the carb pushers in my world. And I think I have better tools now to deal with those people that think, you can’t eat like that. It’s like, well, first of all, it’s none of your business how I eat. And second of all, you can have all my share of that. I don’t need it. It makes me feel bad. I don’t like the feeling after I’ve eaten stuff that is pretty much out of my world now. The sugar and the grains and that type of thing. So I think I have just a better set of tools now to go forward with than I did before.

Carole Freeman:

So it sounds like you’ve figured out the formula for your success then is really, so keto, low carb-ish eating, right? Is compared to what you’ve done before, feels like the most sustainable way of eating. And then the emotional leading tools that I taught you through that program. As well as, at least initially, the coaching support that you got answered a lot of questions for you. So it sounds like usually there’s a three legged stool that helps people support their success, it sounds like you really got that figured out.

Marianne Harlow:

Absolutely. And I think it’s also, if I start to slip a little bit, I have the tools to get back on track and I know exactly what I need to do. And it’s not difficult to use those tools. It’s, I just go put my scale back in the middle of my stove where it reminds me every time I eat, let’s weigh this, let’s measure it, let’s keep track of it. And I don’t think in the past a year out my cupboards are still really clean of carby stuff. Probably the one carby thing in my cupboards would be canned chopped tomatoes [inaudible 00:16:25] periodically I make chili or something like that, but it becomes a small part instead of the focus of whatever I’m eating. But the ladies I camp with loved it when I did this because I cleaned my cupboards and I took them on camping trips and said, okay, the store’s open. Come get it.

Carole Freeman:

Oh, that’s funny. All right. So besides the weight loss, what else have you noticed that’s changed in your life?

Marianne Harlow:

Well being 62 and 60 some pounds heavier, everything was achy. It was an effort. It was a pain. You know, putting your socks on was a pain to get past your belly. Last fall I went on a big RV trip and we probably averaged hiking, I don’t know, five, six miles a day. And it was all above five and 6,000 feet in elevation. And it wasn’t until I got home that I really thought about that and thought, holy smokes, if I had been lugging 60 extra pounds I would never have done a quarter of that. So it certainly makes life a lot more fun.

Marianne Harlow:

My dog loves it because we go for walks way more often than we used to. It’s just like a lot easier dealing with aches and pains, or lack thereof. And also I used to have, I remember this, I used to have acid reflux. I don’t know, three or four times a week or more and it was awful. It would wake me up in the night and stuff. And I can’t remember the last time I had acid reflex, and it probably had to do with one of those days that I went a little sideways. And it’s like, oh, that crap just doesn’t agree with me. Which is also a good reminder to not eat that kind of stuff. But it’s amazing how I don’t have the acid reflux at all anymore.

Carole Freeman:

Yes, it’s very, very common that acid reflux, despite what the doctors say about, well you should have less spicy food and put your head to your bed up and you should do all these other things and take acid blockers. And it’s like, oh, actually if you just reduce the carbs, it all goes away.

Marianne Harlow:

Yeah. Or this is weird too. I always had a stomach that gurgled and made noise and stuff, and that doesn’t happen any longer either.

Carole Freeman:

Wonderful. So less aches and pains,, you’re feeling lifestyle freedom, being able to be free to be active as you like and explore and hike. And no more acid reflex and anything. I imagine, well, it sounds like more energy too, based on what you’re saying about your being able to walk your dog all the time.

Marianne Harlow:

Yeah. And it’s been fun to closet shop. Yesterday I had a meeting, and being retired I rarely get dressed up. And so I was like, okay, there must be something in the back of the closet here. It’s like, oh, I forgot all about this suit. We’ll just put that on. It’s like, ooh, looking good.

Carole Freeman:

Nice, nice. Anything else that you noticed the has dramatically improved in your life for the last year?

Marianne Harlow:

Well, it’s interesting, because I have friends from various parts of my life that have contacted me. Well, I sent you the pictures of the before and then a couple that were almost exactly a year apart. And I accidentally posted that on my Facebook page. I was trying to do a collage. And I had, I think, four different people from different parts of my life contact me privately. It’s like, oh my God, what have you done? So it’s like, well hey, it’s pretty simple, straightforward, way to go.

Carole Freeman:

Nice. So that usually happens, people notice a big difference and they’re like, what’s your secret? Tell me.

Marianne Harlow:

Yeah. It’s kind of fun. Especially after being pretty disgusted with the state that you’ve allowed yourself to get in to actually feel like you look like you’d like to instead of trying to hide it under big baggy clothes and all that stuff.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. I had a similar experience where I saw a photo of myself with family and it was like, oh that’s not me. I don’t feel like that. Because it’s such a gradual increase of the weight you don’t see the change in the mirror on yourself every day. And then when the photo is really the wake up call, where you [crosstalk 00:22:01] that realization. But even then, it’s hard to accept.

Marianne Harlow:

Yes. I would see my mom in the mirror often. It’s like, wait, no, I’m not ready for that.

Carole Freeman:

Oh wow.

Marianne Harlow:

But it’s also weird stuff like when I buy dog food and I’m hauling a 20 pound bag of dog food, it’s like, okay, so this is just from the store to the car and you were hauling three times that much every single day just to walk from the front door to the mailbox. Holy smokes, no wonder you feel so much better.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. Oh my gosh. The dog food one always gets me too because years ago out of high school I worked in grocery stores, and for whatever reason that always sticks in my head is like a really heavy thing. Because we had the 20 and 40 pound bags of dog food in the front of the grocery store. And to pick one of those up was always like, that’s a lot of weight. So that’s funny because in my mind I always think about that too, is like, oh three of those? Could you imagine strapping, duct taping three of those on your body and then walking around all day long?

Marianne Harlow:

Exactly. Lumpy and bumpy and-

Carole Freeman:

The same thing.

Marianne Harlow:

Holy smokes.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. Oh wow. So here’s something I’ve never asked you. Have you ever thought about the difference in food savings? Like how much you were spending a year ago on food versus now?

Marianne Harlow:

I thought about it a bit, but not a whole lot. I’ve always said I can cut out a lot of other things besides food, so I’ve always bought relatively good quality food. But I probably waste a lot less than I used to. Hang out around the outside edge of the grocery store. People go, you go to Costco and you’re a single person, that’s crazy. But Costco has the best steaks and all that kind of thing, or the big blocks of cheese. And I bought myself a vacuum sealer and so I come home from Costco and I get my scale out and I just cut it into portions and vacuum seal it. And then I just write the weight on the outside of the bag. And when it’s all portioned it comes out of the freezer, it thaws really fast so it’s all ready to go. Which also helps making stupid decisions of, you know, in my past it was like, oh I don’t know what to eat. And so I’d run to the Wendy’s down the road. And salads were not what I was buying.

Carole Freeman:

Okay, so you’ve come back to help support everyone else on keto with me now. So you are now one of our peer support coaches and training to be a keto lifestyle coach. So inspiring others. You are amazing at all kinds of little tips and tricks. So you just threw one out, which has me thinking of this with the vacuum sealer. This is one I haven’t heard you say before. So I love that. That’s so great. Just buying in bulk, which saves money, and then just taking a little bit of time to portion stuff out into individual sizes. The vacuum sealer, I don’t have one of those, but now all of a sudden I want one, because it ends up saving you so much. But [crosstalk 00:00:25:43]-

Marianne Harlow:

You can get them not very expensive on Amazon. I think I only paid 25, $30 for mine. If I was to do it again, I’d maybe upgrade a little bit just because I think they probably function better. But the inexpensive ones work just fine. They seal it up. And the other thing I’ve discovered is that is really great when it’s time to go camping. I literally just open my freezer, because I usually just barbecue when I’m camping. And I have everything all portioned out. So it’s like I’m gone five days, I just pick out five meals. I have canned tuna, canned chicken, that kind of stuff that just stays in the camper. So I can be camping in a moment’s notice.

Carole Freeman:

Oh my gosh, we need to do a separate episode on keto camping tips.

Marianne Harlow:

Oh, that’d be fun.

Carole Freeman:

Let’s book that. Yeah. All right, you know what would be super fun, Marianne, is if I drove out and we did it right with your camp trailer.

Marianne Harlow:

Well that could happen.

Carole Freeman:

And then we should just go camping too.

Marianne Harlow:

Yeah, maybe have campus stuff already planned, I’ll send you my schedule see if any of them come in. I have a spare bed, you can just move on in.

Carole Freeman:

Oh my gosh. Oh that would be great. Oh my gosh. Okay, so we’re going to do a sole separate keto camping tips tricks episode. That’s going to be so great. I can already envision. I want to go to Utah, actually. But anyways.

Marianne Harlow:

That was last fall.

Carole Freeman:

I know I missed that. What other tips do you have? I mean, and again, you’re so great. Like every coaching call you’re on you’ve got another tip you pull out. And I’m like, that’s so great. Let’s just do your top five keto food tips for success. Like making it fast and easy and simple. I mean, yeah, go ahead with other ones.

Marianne Harlow:

Got me on the spot now.

Carole Freeman:

I know. Just top of the mind. They don’t have to be your best, they could just be whatever pops in your head.

Marianne Harlow:

Well portioning things out is… Because then you make one mess. Well, like I have favorite recipes that are really easy, but they still take time and mess. So I’ll take chicken breasts and pound them so they’re relatively flat, but more importantly they’re even so they cook evenly and you don’t dry them out. But I’ll cook them all and then throw them in the freezer, throw them in the refrigerator. So it’s fast and easy to grab and go. On one of the calls I was on recently you were talking about a beef jerky that you really enjoyed when you were in Hawaii. So I got online and I found some sugar-free beef jerky, and it came in a larger container. And I just had little snack Ziploc bags, so I stood there on my scale and I just weighed out one ounce portions in the zip bags.

Marianne Harlow:

And so when I want something or I’m craving something salty, or whatever, I can just grab one of those and go. Or if I’m driving somewhere and I think, if I get hungry along the way, rather than taking nuts which is something that I’m not very trustworthy with. The beef jerky is very satisfying. The protein fills me up and gets me where I’m going and something that’s easily eaten on the road. So I like things like that. Costco has the little packs of salami and provolone. And that was on my big camping trip where we were in the car a lot, that was often lunch as we’re driving down the road. And my dog loves those too. Let’s see, other tips.

Carole Freeman:

Portioning out food. I’m putting vacuum sealer on there, I love that one.

Carole Freeman:

It sounds like too, stocking your fridge and pantry with quick and easy foods is another one. So you mentioned the canned tuna, the canned chicken. And then just the fact that you’ve got these portioned out foods already in your freezer. Those are all things that just make it quick and easy to [crosstalk 00:30:46]-

Marianne Harlow:

Yeah. And I think that’s part of eating to live instead of living to eat. Because it’s all tasty, but I’m not revolving around food all day long. I think that’s been really helpful. It’s like, you get in, prepare it and get out.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah, yeah. Keep it simple, quick and simple.

Marianne Harlow:

Yeah. So this comes and goes, but sometimes I have pint canning jars that I got the plastic lids versus regular canning lids. And when I buy greens or salads or whatever, lettuce, I’ll chop it up and then I’ll just put it in the jars, and they seem to stay fresher. Where being single sometimes stuff like that will spoil before I get it all eaten.

Carole Freeman:

Well tell me more about [inaudible 00:32:03]. So you’re talking about the canning jars?

Marianne Harlow:

Yeah, just the little pint canning jars.

Carole Freeman:

And then what you mean by a plastic lid? What’s that?

Marianne Harlow:

Well, you can get them on Amazon. I’m an Amazon queen.

Carole Freeman:

Okay, okay.

Marianne Harlow:

They’re just screw top lids that fit on pint. You can buy pint ones or ones for quart jars. But pint size for me is a serving. You could put a cup of lettuce in there, a couple cherry tomatoes and onions or cucumbers or whatever. So if I’m doing cucumbers or anything that has a watery base, I put that in the bottom of the jar. And then the onions and then the lettuce is on the top. So when you have everything in, you have about a cup of lettuce, maybe a little bit more. And then all you have to do is put your dressing in and shake it up and you’re ready to go. Or pour it into a bowl, throw some protein on top of it and you’re ready to go. And you’re not standing in your kitchen chopping lettuce up.

Carole Freeman:

Okay, so there was a big trend for a while with the salad in the jar or meal in a jar thing. So it sounds like you’re doing something like that. And doing that with veggies. So you’re prepping those, but putting them in a jar is really good versus, and I’ve taught classes on this so I know exactly what you’re doing now. So if you put the things that are really watery in the bottom and because the jars are vertical they help separate the water from the lettuce that’s going to wilt really quickly if it’s sitting in water. And so-

Marianne Harlow:

Yeah, wilt or turn brown or whatever.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. Usually we make salad in a big bowl, everything’s touching everything else. But if you put it in the jar, you can put cucumbers or tomatoes or other watery things in the bottom. And then things that have a little more hardy in the middle. Like actually whole cherry tomatoes could go there. And then when you put the lettuce on the top of it, it’s not touching the water and it will stay fresher for a week or more that way. [crosstalk 00:34:14]-

Marianne Harlow:

But I think-

Carole Freeman:

Oh go ahead.

Marianne Harlow:

I think, actually too, just being in a jar you have less air involved, which keeps it from turning brown. And I started it just because I’m inherently lazy. Chopping up all that stuff every single day, I got bored with it. So it’s like if I chop it up all at once. If I’m really paying attention, I’ll top up the lettuce and toss it in just a little bit of lemon juice and then that really helps it stay. It’ll stay in the fridge for like a week and a half.

Carole Freeman:

Nice. Well, and the other trick you can put your dressing on the bottom if it’s in something else that’s, for example, you could put the dressing in the bottom with the chicken or something like that. As long as it’s not touching the lettuce you can actually make the whole thing of pre ready salad and then just shake it up, like you said, right before you’re going to eat it too. But you could also just keep the salad dressing totally separate and put it on later. Very cool.

Carole Freeman:

Another one I didn’t even know you got out of your sleeve, but that’s great. I used to teach classes on how to make those, and I totally forgot about that, but that’s great. Excellent. All right, Marianne’s top five tips for making keto easy, and quick and easy. I love it. All right, we got five.

Marianne Harlow:

Oh yay.

Carole Freeman:

I wrote them down. Yeah. Pre portioning your food. Using the vacuum sealer. Stock your fridge or pantry with quick and easy keto foods. Keeping it quick and simple in meal prep. And yeah, each meal. And then five was doing the little veggie salads in a jar. I know you’ve got tons more, but we’ll stick with that for now. All right.

Marianne Harlow:

I’m going to have to think about it. Write things down as I do them.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. Excellent. Well, oh my gosh. So much value. You have shared so much and so inspiring. Your transformation is very inspiring to others and you’re so full of information and tips. And it sounds like you’re finally feel like your whole life is a reflection of who you really are. And, well just living life to the fullest.

Marianne Harlow:

Well, I’m excited to do the peer coaching that in my professional world I did a lot of coaching. And so it’s fun to find a new outlet that I really believe in and help other people. I get excited about that.

Carole Freeman:

Oh, that’s excellent. So happy to have you. You’re such an awesome addition to our team and provide so much value to everything you touch. So I’m really honored to have you with us.

Marianne Harlow:

Thanks. I am enjoying being back in the fold.

Carole Freeman:

Yay. So anything else that you were hoping I would ask about or anything else that you want to share before we wrap this up?

Marianne Harlow:

Not that I can think of.

Carole Freeman:

All right.

Marianne Harlow:

Oh, one little thing I thought about this morning is my dog really likes keto too, because I’m kind of a sloppy cook. So when things fall on the floor, they’re always good things that she likes. Well, with the exception of the lettuce.

Carole Freeman:

Oh, well yeah. Yeah. Our pets can do a world of good health too by cutting out the carbs. Most prepared dog and cat food, unfortunately, is just filled with cheap carbohydrates. And just as us, they don’t do as well with that. And they do better with just real foods.

Marianne Harlow:

Yeah.

Carole Freeman:

Yeah. Well, Marianne, congratulations on all your success and getting your three legs of your success stool figured out. And I’m so glad that you reached back out to me and we get to hang out some more.

Marianne Harlow:

I’m glad too. So it’s a fun adventure and I appreciate all of the support and ideas and ways to get my brain to cooperate with going forward in a healthy direction.

Carole Freeman:

Excellent. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to share with everyone. And thank you for being here. If you’ve all enjoyed this interview, give us a thumbs up. If you want to hear more of this, hit the bell, that’s what’s going to get you notifications for upcoming episodes. And thanks for watching everyone. We’ll see you next time.