Episode 52: AMA | Elite Meal Prep, Success Stories and Plateaus

Dr. Simonds and Michelle Kennedy NPC were joined by special guest Eric Jones, owner of Elite Meal Prep, for the End of Summer Weight Loss Luau!

Before getting to the questions and the success stories and stuff, we want to talk about Elite Meal Prep and Eric Jones has to offer.

Elite Meals is a fully customizable meal prep service. Their website allows you to select from different proteins, carbohydrates, and healthy vegetables. Discounts are offered based on quantity. Every five meals, you’re going to save

Many of you may be on a lower carb intake. So, there are carb-free options like cauliflower rice. There are also options for vegetarians, pretty much anyone can find something delicious.

The best part is, you can choose to pick up your meals at Dr. Simonds Raleigh or Durham office for your convenience. Save yourself the drive and pick up while you are at an appointment!

How Elite Prep Meals works

Place your orders every. Get those orders in by Friday at 7pmn. Meals are prepped every Monday morning so that your meals are at your desired office pickup between 11 and 12 PM, depending on the location.

You can also pick up a grab-and-go meal right here at Dr. Simonds offices.  This is a no-brainer. It’s high-quality food, made in a local restaurant that you can customize. And the options are getting better and better. Don’t want to do any cooking? Don’t want to do any shopping? This is your answer!

Mobility Course

We don’t just teach people to eat right. We always say, there’s behavioral modification and physical activity along with the medication that we give you. And to help you on your way, Eric is giving away a a free thirty-day mobility course.

It’s obviously important pairing your nutrition and overall weight loss plan with the right amount of daily activity to just increase the amount we move our bodies. Our bodies were designed to do incredible things. And sometimes due to our lifestyles in today’s world, we slow down a little bit. We sit down a lot. We’re at desks, we get postural deviations. We develop some imbalances that might make some muscles really sore.

Eric is a big advocate of “if you don’t use it, you lose it.” This 30-day mobility program starts with a quick movement and postural assessment to understand where you’re starting point is. Then, for the next 30 days, you will have a workout that helps you address different areas of the body.

The goal is to really address the foundational movement patterns that our bodies were designed to do and get you working in a full range of motion.

A lot of people just want to jump right into a new exercise routine whereas this starts a little slower, easing you into the water a bit. It starts with just getting back to basic fundamental movements, reducing muscle soreness and removing tension.

Interested in learning more? Fill out this form and get this 30-day mobility course from Eric!

Q: Tell us about your biggest weight loss success stories.

A: We have a lot of them. There are several couples in Raleigh who have done an amazing job losing weight. There are couples who have lost over 100 pounds. They feed off of each other and help motivate each other. When people come together, it helps increase accountability. If you really want to find the best success and you can have someone do it with you, it’s much easier. Why do it alone when you don’t have to?

It’s about being supported and lifted up and helped through this whole thing. And that’s part of why we have so many success stories. People trust us to help them. This is a medical problem. You don’t go to your medical doctor and say, “I feel ashamed to be here because I have a medical problem.”

We’re here to help. We’re going to build you up, not tear you down.

One of our more prolific patients is Charlie. He’s a fantastic example of a success story. He buckled down and changed his diet. He became physically active and took some medication to lose weight. He’s keeping it off. He changed his life. He’s committed to it. People like Charlie motivate others to want to change.

Q: Has anyone lost more than 20 pounds in a month?

A: Yes. It happens all the time. It doesn’t mean you’re a failure if you don’t.

Typically, the first month, you’re really overweight. So it’s easier to drop the weight. Eventually, your body catches on. It’s designed to protect you from starvation, not obesity.

Twenty pounds is not unusual. At the same time, you are not a failure if you don’t 20 pounds a month. If you lose 10 pounds, that’s great. If you lose five pounds, that’s great. Five poundsis 60 pounds a year!

Q: Does any of your team members struggle with weight? Is it hard for them to manage their weight or easier because they work with you?

A: The Dr. Simonds staff is not any different than the American population. You’re going to find some thinner folks on my staff and some heavier folks on my staff, including Dr. Simonds.

Everyone has to work at it to some degree. Being in this environment makes it somewhat easier.

And that’s what makes this office so great. The office goes through all the same stuff you do. No one is perfect or anything. Our staff goes to the same places, goes on vacation, enjoys the holidays. The staff has to navigate those same things.

Q: I’ve heard you talk about reversing diabetes. Can you share some examples and how long it took?

A: We have a patient named Wally. He’s been a patient for at least five years. We were able to reverse his type II diabetes, and hypertension and get him off his lipid drugs within 8 months of doing a strict ketogenic diet. He lost about 150 pounds. Wally has regained some of that weight, but we’re tweaking his physical activity, his medication, his nutrition, and he’s losing the weight

This is very typical. There’s weight loss and then sometimes a little bit of gain. That’s when you just gotta get the help to reel it in. Don’t be afraid face the folks and say “hey, I’m struggling. I need some more help.

We have many people who got off of insulin and got off of oral hypoglycemics. All within the
first few days that they started a low-carbohydrate diet.

The thing is you got to be committed. You have to understand the concepts. And we’re here to help with that.

Q: How do you get off a plateau?

A: Change something. Neuromuscular adaptation happens and it will get you in a place where you can’t move. You’ve got to change up your act. Your body can figure out what you’re doing. It can figure out what you’re eating, so you just have to change something.

There’s not an exact recipe of how to do it, but doing the same thing is not going to get you a different result. Change changes the name of the game

Q: Does it make you sad or mad when you have a patient succeed and then fall back? How do you personally stay motivated to help them?

A: No, we never get sad or mad at all. Because we go through the same things, we can empathize with your journey. We know this is extraordinarily hard. We stumble. It’s when and what we do about it.

Because of this, we are a judgment-free zone. We never get upset with patients because it’s almost a matter of just when and when. How soon can we learn from it and move on from it.

Falling back is not a character flaw There are reasons why people slip up. So being mad
about that, and blaming them like doesn’t do anything to help. That’s not the paradigm we want to ever project here.

Think of this as a blood pressure problem. If you went to the doctor and they gave you some medicine and some lifestyle tips to try to get that blood pressure down and it didn’t come down , you wouldn’t be scared to go back. The doctor is going to try to help you. That’s the way we view weight loss.