Kelly LeVeque on Breaking the Starvation-Binge Cycle + Finding Body Love

by Robyn Conley Downs on Jan 3, 2018 (last updated Oct 31, 2021) 2 comments »

Kelly LeVeque on Breaking the Starvation-Binge Cycle + Finding Body Love

Nutritionist to the stars, Kelly LeVeque, is back on the podcast following her extremely popular first episode in 2017.

Kelly is sharing the behind-the-scenes of her book tour, tips on eating well while traveling (finding Fab-Four meals anywhere), finding a diet that works for you, avoiding the starvation-binge cycle, her take on today’s most popular diets (Whole30, macro counting, ketogenics, vegan and/or plant based), and in-depth recommendations on protein powders.

Listen to learn about making choices that love your body.

Kelly LeVeque is nutritionist to the stars known for her fab four way of eating (fiber, fat, protein, + greens).

She was on the show for the Feel Good Effect’s third episode that took the world by storm.

This episode covers the behind the scenes of her book tour, tips for eating healthy on travel days, finding a diet that works for you, avoiding the starvation-binge cycle, and protein powders.

Kelly also gives her take on today’s most popular diets, including: Whole30, Macro Counting, Ketogenic, and Vegan or Plant-based.

This episode is brought to you by Thrive Market (visit here to get 25% off your first purchase, free shipping, and a free 30-day trial).

On what Kelly’s been busy with:

She went on a book tour for her book on body love.

The process included local and national events to promote her book, Body Love: Live in Balance, Weight What You Want, and Free Yourself From Food Drama Forever.

She was on Good Morning America, which was actually the biggest book sale day of her life– TV sells books!

Kelly learned that this is a process and has to give it a little time before a profit rolls in, but that wasn’t the point of writing her book or going on tour.

The point was to share the scientific information so that people better understood their biology, so they don’t have to lean on diets.

“A book is a way to build an audience. A book is a way to share knowledge”.

However, traveling so much was hard and exhausting.

The first night’s sleep away tends to be poor, which is supported by research.

“You physically don’t make up and cannot make up for a bad night’s sleep. You need to be consistent”.

On eating on travel days:

She did a lot of her eating at Whole Foods when stocking up on ingredients for demoing during interviews.

Her go-to travel snacks:

Bulletproof bars: made from cashews + collagen, has more protein and fat than carbs.
Primal Kitchen nut bars
2 hard boiled eggs or nuts
Water-rich veggies chopped up
Protein packs: protein + coffee

She orders a la carte when it comes to hotel service or restaurants that don’t have smoothies.

She asks for scrambled eggs, avocado, and a side salad.

You’re not always going to see the breakfast you want on the menu; don’t be afraid to ask!

Own your own health + eat boring at restaurants (most of the time).

On how to be present and make your routine happen on the road:

It’s about mindset.

You might catch yourself thinking in terms of the future, like “I can’t wait to be back home” or “I have to go do this thing”.

Pull back and thinking about changing the filter.

That “have to” and “can’t wait for” mindset is about not wanting to be here; gratitude can fix that.

“Your attitude is the difference between an adventure and an ordeal”

Gratitude is the key, here.

Being present in your choices and experiencing gratitude in your everyday can influence how you’re choosing to eat.

It’s not all or nothing, either!

Presence, meditation, breath-work, being grateful, and stepping back and watching life can help not overreact.

If you catch yourself indulging, rather than autocorrecting by starving the next day, find another way to enrich and nourish your life.

Don’t think about your life as a wagon: that if you fall off, you’re off.

It’s really not such a drastic fall.

Rather, consider how you can nourish your body next.

On different ways of eating (that are popular right now):

Kelly on the Whole30:

It’s a good elimination diet, in that it refocuses you to not shop the inner aisles of groceries, supports making homemade meals, and challenges you to do new things like meal prep or look up new recipes.

It’s hard at first, but there’s a sense of accomplishment that you do it.

Drawbacks: it does have an eat this and don’t eat that list, and it can break confidence if you fail, after which it says you have to start over.

Kelly values small steps and respects individual differences that the Whole30 might not work for.

Kelly on Macro Counting:

You see this at the gym a lot.

Counting in general (calorie or macro) can be a good way to start understanding what you’re eating.

It’s good to do for a month or so to understand and be confident in your choices.

Drawbacks: not many people track their off-days; it doesn’t serve you in your aren’t tracking every single day.

If you don’t hit your numbers, it can also create binge-behaviors.

Kelly on the Ketogenic diet:

In the medical community, especially for various chronic disorders, it does a good job of getting your body to be fat adaptive.

Instead of fueling off of glucose or carbohydrates in your mitochondria, you start to break down fat.

Drawbacks: It’s really strict- super low carbs and high fat, it can take a few days to get into a state of ketosis that you need to test via blood, and weighing and measuring your food might make you afraid of carbs.

Kelly suggest using ketogenic as a reset, but not for long term.

Also, notes that upping the fat can help fight off carb and sugar cravings.

Kelly on a plant-based or vegan diet:

For these, Kelly actually suggests leaning towards keto.

She doesn’t like it when plant-based or vegan diets leave you hungry all the time, or when vegetarians are eating pizza every day.

Kelly’s tips:

1 | Focus on the veggies and use fat as a way to feel satisfied.

2 | Supplement diets with b vitamins

3 | Get blood tests to check iron levels

For a vegan client, she would suggest: a Fab Four smoothie, vegetable-based plate for lunch with extra fats (pesto, avocado, olive oil, or nuts), a bridge snack like another smoothie, and then something like a quinoa bowl for dinner.

On protein powder:

You have whey protein powder which is from the milk of cows, collagen protein powder which can be from cows or fish, or grass-fed powdered beef protein.

Whey allergies are common, so Kelly tends to not use this.

Beef protein (Kelly’s go-to brand is PaleoPro) is 100% grass-fed beef from Sweden that has been dehydrated and powdered through a clean process.

Collagen protein is cooked down and dehydrated, also through a clean process.

Her go-to brands and flavors for collagen proteins are Vital Proteins, or Primal Kitchen (Vanilla-coconut or Chocolate-coconut), both of which have minimal ingredients.

Animal proteins are lower in heavy metals and the processing is pretty clean.

When looking for vegetarian-based proteins, know that there are different sources of vitamins and think about what’s going into it.

Considering the number of additives, if you end up having an issue with something in it you won’t know what it is.

Kelly’s go-to vegetarian proteins are Tone It Up Nutrition, which is made from monk fruit + pea protein with minimal ingredients, or Now Foods, which has pharmaceutical-grade quality control that test for heavy metals and bacteria issues.

Whatever is in the soil is in the plant that is in your protein.

Now Foods provides the optimal testing Kelly wants.

On what’s next:

It’s time for life transitions!

Kelly’s first priority is to have children.

Her second is finishing her second book.

And her third is finding a new, more child-friendly place to live than L.A.

She also wants to spend more time helping people, through videos or a possible podcast, with how to make health happen.

She wants to pull back on writing for others and focus more on writing for herself.

On what it means to be healthy:

“Body love.
To love your body.
To make choices that love your body instead of looking in the mirror and picking apart yourself”.

Guest Information

Website: Be Well By Kelly

Instagram: @bewellbykelly

Kelly LeVeque is a Certified Celebrity Health Coach and Holistic Nutritionist based in Los Angeles, California.

Guided by a practical and always optimistic approach, Kelly helps clients improve their health, achieve their goals and develop sustainable habits to live a healthy and balanced life.

Working with well-known names such as Jessica Alba, Evan Peters, and Eve Hewson, Kelly is extremely passionate about the science of human nutrition and the desire to help clients achieve their personal health goals.

Kelly LeVeque has parlayed her passion for health, wellness and the science of nutrition into her first book, Body Love.

Body Love will help you feel empowered, not overwhelmed by food and nutrition, live in balance, weigh what you want and free yourself from food drama forever.