In this inaugural episode of the Simple Nourished Living podcast ( hosts Martha McKinnon and Peter Morrison explore the concept of ‘inside out weight loss.’ They discuss the importance of understanding one’s inner wisdom, the significance of having a clear ‘why’ when managing weight, and the joy of finding movement that resonates personally. Through personal anecdotes and insights, they emphasize a holistic approach to living a simple more nourished life that includes nutrition, self-care, and a positive mindset.

Key Takeaways

• This podcast is focused on helping people with weight management and healthy living.
• Inside out weight management emphasizes looking within for answers rather than relying solely on external sources.
• Understanding your ‘why’ is crucial for motivation with weight struggles.
• Inner wisdom can guide you towards more sustainable and healthy choices.
• Movement should be enjoyable and not feel like a chore.
• Personal stories illustrate that weight loss can happen in unexpected ways.
• Nutrition and self-care play vital roles in overall wellness and well-being.
• Being experimental and curious can lead to discovering what works best for you.
• Focusing on the positive can enhance your journey towards a healthy more nourished life.
• Trusting yourself is key to finding your path.

Inside Out Weight Management – Podcast 001

Video Transcript

Martha McKinnon (00:00)
Hi, welcome to the Simple Nourished Living podcast. I’m Martha McKinnon, and this is my brother and partner, Peter Morrison, and we’re really excited to be with you here today, launching episode one of our podcast. So the podcast is called the Simple Nourished Living podcast, very creative. Yeah, we get extra credit. We get extra credit for being super creative.

Peter Morrison (00:14)
And what’s the podcast called? The Simple Nourished Living Podcast.

Martha McKinnon (00:25)
Hey, we’re doing it, which I’m really excited about. So today, our topic is going to be inside out weight loss. Any thoughts about inside out weight loss? Nope.

Peter Morrison (00:39)
Inside out I have no idea, but I think this is something that you might have come up with. I’ve not seen anything about.

Martha McKinnon (00:44)
Yep, it came to me this morning, but before we go there, let’s just check in with one another. What’s going really good in your world right now? What’s new and good? Anything? Anything you want to share?

Peter Morrison (00:56)
Well, we have family in town visiting, so we are spending more time with family, which is good. Getting out, playing some pickleball, doing more meals together with the family, cooking at home. So yeah, it’s all good.

Martha McKinnon (01:02)
That’s the one that’s really cool. And what I’m excited about, you know, what’s really new and exciting for us is the launching of this podcast. I’m excited because we launched the Simple Nourished Living website, you were reminding me back in January 2007. Yeah. So my gosh, it doesn’t even seem possible.

Peter Morrison (01:19)
Mm-hmm. Yes, I it was January actually the first of the year.

Martha McKinnon (01:41)
And now, you know, at your encouragement, we’ve decided to explore video and explore podcasting and I’m excited because we have been focused on trying to help people with weight loss, with weight management, healthy eating, living happier, healthier, more nourished lives for many years now on the website. And now this just gives us a whole new way of supporting folks. So, that’s what I’m really excited about. It’s new and good.

So our topic today came to me this morning. I think about my gosh, right? I think about weight loss, weight management, food, health, weight, how it all interrelates. I spend a lot of my time, you know, thinking about it, pondering it. Yeah, just well, it’s sort of part of who I am now. I think, you know, I have struggled.

Peter Morrison (02:23)
Twenty-four four hours a day. Yeah.

Martha McKinnon (02:34)
My weight loss struggles started, you know, as a preteen and I’ve tried lots of different things and I’ve done lots of different things and learned a lot of different things and here it is all these years later my gosh, I’m now you know looking to turn 62 in April and I look at things a lot differently than I did you know 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago and this whole concept of inside out weight loss just came to me this morning.

I’ve been working on meditating more for the past year or two and I start my day with meditation and it’s interesting because, I don’t know, I think a lot of good ideas come in because I think my mind gets quiet. You know how they say your best ideas sometimes come you know when you’re in the shower or brushing your teeth – it’s almost like your mind turns off and suddenly and all that crazy thinking that doesn’t really get you anywhere and suddenly these really you know good things can have an opportunity to flow in.

Peter Morrison (03:18)
In the shower.

Martha McKinnon (03:33)
And so inside out weight loss to me, just what I really am trying to say, is that after all of these years and everything I’ve learned and I’ve worked as a Weight Watchers leader, you know coach, and have taken lots of courses and read books and and what I’ve come to really appreciate is I think one of our struggles is that I think we take an outside in approach to weight loss and what I mean by that is we’re looking outside of ourselves for the answers.

We’re looking always to the experts, you know, we’re looking to our friends, family. My gosh, there’s so much information out there. You know, we want to know what do I do? How do I do it? How, how, how, how, how, I want to lose weight. How, how, how, how, when we get so hung up on how and we’re always, you know, looking outside for how and what I believe is that we have an inner wisdom. We all have an inner wisdom.

Peter Morrison (04:02)
Mm-hmm. What do I do? How do I do it? What? Yeah, yeah. Right.

Martha McKinnon (04:30)
We all have a voice deep inside of us and sometimes it’s been obscured by our minds, by society, you know we don’t really listen to it, trust it, tune into it. But if we can create a little bit of space and just you know of course we set an intention that we want to lose weight, I think the next thing that’s really powerful is to get clear about our why. There’s a lot of talk around that. So we say we want to lose weight and that’s great or we want to eat better or we set up some other goal or intention for ourselves and then, then I think it’s really important to say, why?

Why do we want that? And there’s a lot of power that can come from that. For example, for me at this stage of life, my why is very much about growing old vibrantly and gracefully and trying to really stay healthy and vibrant and mobile. It is really not about fitting into a certain pair of pants anymore. I mean, that ship sailed a long time ago.

But for some people it might be getting off their medicines. For me it’s clearly having more energy, having strength, feeling good and strong.

Peter Morrison (05:38)
Do you think you can be successful without a clear why or a well-defined why? Or do you think that’s key?

Martha McKinnon (05:48)
I think your why can really push you through. I think you can start without one, but I think having a clear why can really help you in times of struggle. Because if you just arbitrarily are saying, well, I want to lose 10 pounds, I think the motivation for when times get rough is harder to maintain.

Peter Morrison (05:54)
Okay. Okay.

Martha McKinnon (06:13)
Versus, you saying I am wanting to stay strong. I am wanting to be there for my, I’m to be able to get down and play on the ground with my grandkids. I mean, that’s a much stronger why, and will power you through something like turning down the third piece of pizza. You know, when you remember, you know, I think why you’re wanting to do what you’re wanting to do. I just think it’s much more powerful at helping you stay on track when, and cause the going will get rough. I mean, there will be struggles and challenges. all know.

Peter Morrison (06:26)
Okay, yeah, yeah. And your why will probably likely change through your life and through circumstances and whatnot. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So don’t get hung up on it.

Martha McKinnon (06:41)
For sure it will change through your life, right?

Right. So yeah.

Yeah, it’s going to change. Yeah, life, everything’s always changing and always in flux. That’s the one thing we can really count on, I think. So yeah, so it will change and maybe it changes the month after you start and that’s okay too. You get clearer about, you know, what your why is. Maybe it is like you’re just wanting to fit into a dress and that’s fine and that’s cool.

Peter Morrison (06:53)
Yeah, it’s gonna change. Right. Right.

Martha McKinnon (07:18)
But maybe, you know, maybe, you know, 30, 60, 90 days into the journey, you decide on something else and that’s cool, it can always be changing and shifting and you can relook at it. So clearly yeah, you’re wanting to accomplish something you have an intention and then really focusing on your why and then what I will say is to lighten up on yourself a little bit. The how, you know how how how am i going to do this. I mean don’t get too crazy, just sort of trust that you do have an inner wisdom and that once you sort of set I think that intention and you get clear about what you want your why, you are going to start to notice things, things will start to happen.

Peter Morrison (07:20)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (07:47)
And it will be a more gradual, subtle, easy, more enjoyable process in trying to force yourself into sort of somebody else’s plan and program. I mean, I’ve met so many people through the years, New Year’s comes and it’s like, my friend, you know, I’m going keto or I’m giving up carbs. You know, I’m never going to eat pizza again. I’m giving up sugar forever. You know, I’m going to hit the gym every day.

Peter Morrison (08:08)
Right.

Martha McKinnon (08:18)
We get over intense with what we’re trying to accomplish and we’re looking outside of ourselves for the answer. We sign up for somebody else’s program and with a very specific meal plan that maybe requires us to cook very complicated meals, everything from scratch for three meals a day and two snacks when you’re not used to being in the kitchen at all. How long is that going to last? It’s just not sustainable.

Peter Morrison (08:43)
Right, right.

Martha McKinnon (08:46)
So taking this sort of inside out approach and looking at yourself and trusting that you do have this wisdom, I think it’s just magical. And there’s a good chance, I think, by taking this approach that…

things that you’ll do and the place that you end up will be totally unexpected. Right now, we have a success story on the website that I love, where a woman got fit and healthy and lost weight by hula hooping. Right?

Peter Morrison (09:19)
Yeah, yeah, I think her name is Cori. Yeah.

Martha McKinnon (09:24)
So then she has success and that’s wonderful and great. But that doesn’t mean that hula hooping is the right solution for everybody, right? She has fun hula hooping and it was her pathway. But just trust that your pathway will present itself. And this is where your story comes in, Peter, because I think your story is really illustrative of this, exactly what I’m talking about. You want to share your story?

Peter Morrison (09:53)
Yeah, well, my story was, you know, I’ve never had a major weight problem. For me it was more like five to ten pounds that I’ve always felt, maybe ten to twenty pounds, maybe just not quite comfortable with my pants and, just the way I felt or, you know, a little pudgy belly and little self-conscious.

Martha McKinnon (10:09)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Peter Morrison (10:22)
Yeah, so, well, gosh, through the years, I’ve joined gyms, I’ve tried various diets. I’m looking around. I couldn’t even tell you all the different diets.

Martha McKinnon (10:37)
Yeah, if I had this stack of diet books, my gosh, it’d be kind of scary at this point.

Peter Morrison (10:40)
And then like you were saying earlier, just to shop for special foods, to cook special meals, there’s an excitement, I think, when you first start because you would, or I would envision like the outcome, but it seemed to never sort of last beyond a couple of weeks or maybe a couple of months.

And it just sort of, you just sort of drift back into your old way of doing things. So about a couple of years ago, my life changed slightly in that I had a little more time available between work and whatnot. I’ve always been a lifelong athlete, would say, tennis fan, basketball, but I haven’t played tennis for probably five to 10 years or so. And we moved to a new community and I was introduced to pickleball.

Martha McKinnon (11:37)
Mm-hmm. Okay, yeah.

Peter Morrison (11:53)
I didn’t really know what it was. I I knew it looked like a tennis court and it was much smaller than a tennis court. And it is a 55 plus community, so that sort of made sense, but I didn’t know, I hadn’t seen it before. And so some neighbors took us out and introduced us to the game and showed us, or explained the rules and whatnot. I just became… addicted if you will.

Martha McKinnon (12:27)
You found your joyful way to move. Yeah.

Peter Morrison (12:30)
Yeah. And it was not like getting up to go to the gym at all. When I had to go to the gym, which was always, or not always, but a lot of times it was a chore. It felt like something I had to do where this is something I want to do and look forward to doing and can’t wait to go again.

Martha McKinnon (12:45)
Mm-hmm.

Peter Morrison (13:00)
Yeah, so I played consistently, didn’t really change anything else, I still ate the same dinners, ate the same lunches. I would consider myself an intermittent faster, mainly because I’m not a big breakfast eater, my body takes a while to wake up, so I tend to have a smoothie or something really light in the morning.

Martha McKinnon (13:09)
Mm-hmm.

Peter Morrison (13:24)
So with no other changes but just playing, I mean, and I played a lot of pickleball daily, if not daily, maybe five times a week.

And you know, it’s going on now about a year and a half where I’ve lost about 30 pounds. Like I said, with no other changes and that wasn’t even my intention when I set out on this journey. All I really wanted was to just to get out of the house, get out of my chair. I’m in front of the computer, you know, way too many hours each day. And it was just, I needed an outlet, a physical outlet.

Martha McKinnon (13:44)
Right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah.

Yeah. So how cool is this for you? I mean, it really speaks to what I’m talking about, right? The fact that the how is going to show up in an unexpected way. You always knew you wanted this, you know, but it was effortless.

Peter Morrison (14:07)
It’s life-changing because…

And it was effortless. Effortless in the sense of that wasn’t my intention for starting to, I didn’t start to play pickleball because I wanted to lose 10 pounds. I started to play pickleball because I wanted to meet new people. I wanted, you know, an activity that I can easily do, cause with pickleball, I don’t know how familiar you are. I know you’ve played a few times, but if you’re traveling in your town, most towns have public courts.

Martha McKinnon (14:25)
Right.

Peter Morrison (14:45)
Tennis was always difficult because you had to find someone to play with and it was just it was just much more difficult, there was a higher barrier to entry than with pickleball. You find the public park. People just show up. You put your paddle in the rack and you know the next two players get on the court and you meet new people and just play.

Martha McKinnon (14:49)
Mm-hmm.

That’s really cool, right? Because a lot of times, for a lot of, like I said, for a lot of sports, if you were traveling a lot of time, then you wouldn’t be able to continue with your normal routine if you’re alone. But here, what I’m hearing is with pickleball, because it’s so social, that you’re able to play it pretty much anywhere you visit, you’d be visiting.

Peter Morrison (15:18)
Right, there’s always, it seems like everywhere I go, there’s people looking for people to play. So there never, never seems to be any shortage. So it’s, it’s a, it’s a, if that’s your thing, it’s, it’s an easy outlet.

Martha McKinnon (15:33)
That’s pretty neat, right?

That’s great. so I guess that you’re an illustration there of what I’m talking about. The fact that in order to get to where you want to get to, you have to trust yourself. You have to trust that it’s going to come from within and show up like in unexpected ways. And you never know like what’s going to happen first. I think of weight loss as having sort of three pillars.

Peter Morrison (16:04)
Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (16:13)
Movement of some sort. Movement you enjoy is really important and I think in science there’s a weight loss registry that they’ve been keeping for years and years about people who have lost weight and kept it off, and one of the one of the pillars is movement. You know, but I think again like you said you want it to be inspirational movement. You want to be drawn to it, you don’t want to be forcing yourself to show up to the gym. I mean in order to succeed, you’ve got to really find something you enjoy doing.

Peter Morrison (16:15)
Mm-hmm. Exactly.

Martha McKinnon (16:42)
And then of course what you eat is the other consideration and then your overall self-care, overall other aspects of wellness in terms of the quality of your relationships and your happiness and your sleep and all of those other considerations. When you consider all of those, it’s going to somehow get woven together to create a lifestyle that is sustainable for the long run.

Peter Morrison (16:48)
Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (17:09)
And it doesn’t have to necessarily be all at once either. I know some people start with the movement. They start, you know, with a 10 minute walk and suddenly after a few weeks or months of walking, they suddenly have more energy, they’re feeling better and they suddenly are changing, you know, what they’re eating. They’re ordering the salad instead of the fries and things like that. You know, some people change their eating first and they change that up and then they get to a point where they’re feeling more, excited and energetic and then they get out and find something they enjoy doing some some way to move their body.

So there’s no there’s no one recipe and that’s what I’m really trying to sort of push and hone in on here today, that you have to just give yourself the love. You have to just trust yourself that the answer is inside you and it’s going to come and don’t be surprised if it doesn’t come in a in a really surprising way.

Peter Morrison (18:07)
And maybe the freedom to try different things to see what sticks or what resonates.

Martha McKinnon (18:10)
Yeah, I think that’s right.

I think you’ve got to be experimental, be curious. Don’t expect that you know or you don’t know what you’re going to like, or what you’re not going to like or this won’t work. I think being open and curious and trusting and kind with yourself are just really important aspects of this.

So very cool. That’s wonderful. Anything else you want to share with the group about your experience?

Peter Morrison (19:00)
With pickleball?

Martha McKinnon (19:01)
Like any other surprises that came to you. I mean the fact that what one thing that I would say is that the fact that it was just really this whole I read a book recently that talked about goals of desperation versus goals of inspiration and the fact that that those which, when you’re doing something I think out of desperation like I need to get to the gym, because I need to, like it’s just never gonna work. It’s just too much, it just goes against our biology.

Peter Morrison (19:18)
Hmm. It’s leg day, it’s arm day, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Martha McKinnon (19:30)
It just goes against our biology.

Where now versus like being inspired, like, you know, you get up and get on the pickleball court because you want to, because you’re excited for it. You know, it makes me think about, my gosh, these things just pop into my head, where Wayne Dyer shared a story years and years and years ago where he had a son who just couldn’t get up in the morning. He could not get up in the morning, couldn’t get, you know, couldn’t get up, slept through the alarms to get to school.

Peter Morrison (19:41)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (19:59)
Absolutely couldn’t do it, but he loved to surf. And they went on a vacation to Hawaii and he was like, he was up every morning, with no alarm, right? Cause he was doing what he loved to do. He was just out there, you know, getting out onto the waves and, and, and getting out to surf like before, before dawn.

Peter Morrison (20:21)
Yeah, I would say maybe another unexpected benefit would be just the way the… I do prefer playing in the morning, that movement, whether it’s socializing, whether it’s moving myself.

Martha McKinnon (20:34)
Mm-hmm.

Peter Morrison (20:45)
It sets the tone for the rest of the day. There’s always difficult things every day, but somehow you, feel less or I feel less stressed. I just don’t let the little things bother me as much.

Martha McKinnon (20:48)
Interesting, yeah.

Peter Morrison (21:15)
If there’s a day I don’t play, I try to take a long walk or maybe a little jog or bike ride through the neighborhood just to sort of get some movement. But if I don’t or if I can’t play or if it’s windy or rainy, I do kind of, I wouldn’t say I go into a funk, but I tend to maybe not get, you know, I stay in my sweats a little longer than I probably should. I maybe don’t eat as well as I might on a day where I’m

Martha McKinnon (21:16)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Peter Morrison (21:45)
You know, moving and everything just feels a little bit harder on those days.

Martha McKinnon (21:51)
Well, that’s an interesting thing you talk about the eating being different. Have you noticed that with your pickleball, the fact that your eating just naturally changed for you?

Peter Morrison (22:01)
Yeah, there’s a desire. Like I said earlier, I like to play mostly in the morning or early afternoon. But it’s a flexible schedule. I sort of never know when I’m playing. So I tend to eat lighter just because I know that if I’m eating heavier foods, I’m going to feel less good out playing pickleball.

Martha McKinnon (22:28)
Mm-hmm.

Peter Morrison (22:30)
I’m not eating for pickleball. It’s hard to explain. I’m not really eating for pickleball, but I’m eating in a way that I feel like my body wants me to be eating.

Martha McKinnon (22:47)
So do you feel like pickleball and I don’t know, just has caused you to have a different, like, do you feel like you’re more tuned in with your body and your appetite and your energy and how food makes you feel?

Peter Morrison (22:55)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Absolutely. Also the same way I don’t like playing later at night, just like I didn’t like going to the gym at night, because whether it’s your energy or…

What’s the word? I guess my mind just went blank, but it’s harder to come down after physical activity for me. It takes hours to sort of relax. So I tend to eat and time that such that I do get good rest.

Martha McKinnon (23:22)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

But what I’m hearing you say is it’s not like a chore, like I have to eat this or I have to eat that. It’s just sort of how you, it’s like what you want to do versus what I have to do. Is that what I’m hearing you say?

Peter Morrison (23:52)
Yeah, and it’s sort of, guess I don’t even, it’s not really planned or intentional. It’s just, I’m gonna reach for, like if I want something sweet, I’m gonna reach for a date but I’m not gonna reach for a candy bar because it’s, so it’s hard to explain because it’s not, I’m not following this regimented diet.

You know, I’m not going to have fish and chips for lunch because that just doesn’t sit well.

Martha McKinnon (24:26)
Because of how it’s going to make you feel later. And so this has really been, I think, very, very helpful and very, very informative for folks to help understand that when you get on the right path and when you trust yourself and when you let the journey kind of unfold instead of forcing yourself into, you know, one size fits all…

Peter Morrison (24:30)
Everything alright?

Is that a UFO? Beam me up Scotty.

Martha McKinnon (24:57)
I know it’s so, well, you know, we’re doing this for the first time and we’ve set up our little studios here and I have a window in front of me that was letting in too much light and we sort of covered it up. I can share this with people, you know, I’ve kind of covered it up and it’s starting to let loose now. So I think this is a sign that we’re going to have to wrap this up before our studio falls apart.

Peter Morrison (25:13)
Yeah. Wrap it up.

Martha McKinnon (25:25)
So there you have it, our initial episode where we’ve just talked a lot about, you know, the inside out approach to weight loss and really trusting your inner guidance system and giving it more credit than it, giving it, you know, some the credit that it does deserve. If you enjoyed listening to this and watching this and have your own stories to share about how you’ve had an experience similar to this where your path to losing weight, getting healthier kind of showed up in an unexpected way.

I’d love for you to share that in the comments. Also, if you have other ideas and topics, questions for us, things that you’d like us to talk about or explore, you know, be it recipes, cooking techniques, mindset, you know, anything that you feel would be helpful for you on your journey. Just again, leave us a comment and thank you so much for tuning in.

As we part here, I just want to leave you with one final thought. I went through yoga teacher training years and years years ago and there was one mantra that our yoga teacher trainers kept really pushing on us as we became yoga teachers. They told us to always be focusing on the positive and seeing the beauty first with our students. Part of what we needed to do was help give instruction and coach around alignment and form in a yoga pose and human nature is such that we always just go to the problem.

We always just seem to go to the negative. There is a negativity bias in our biology for survival, but it can really work against us in so many aspects of our life. And so I really want to encourage everybody to take this approach to you and yourself and your journey to really focus on the positive, see the beauty first.

Think about and focus on all the things that you’re doing right every day and all the ways that you are showing up in a really positive way and give yourself some grace and let some of the negative stuff go. Just notice what happens as you try to practice that approach to your journey and to life.

Peter Morrison (27:38)
That’s a good suggestion. Thank you.

Martha McKinnon (27:39)
All right. Well, you’re welcome. So this has been fun. Thank you so much. And we look forward to seeing you again next week. Take care. Bye bye.

Peter Morrison (27:50)
Thanks, bye bye.