Lacy Ngo, MS, RD
Lacy Ngo is a nationally known registered dietitian and author. She has a bachelor’s of science and a master’s of science in human nutrition. Lacy has been featured on Eat This, Not That!, Byrdie, The Healthy, Fitbit.com, Parade, CN2 news, Fox 24 News Charleston, and many more. Lacy is the author of several books and course including Fix It with Food, The Jesus Diet, and 18 Weeks to a Healthier, Happier More Purposeful Life.
Why I Write a Faith-Based Nutrition Blog
I love to talk, and I love to write. And since I am always so blown away when I see God in action, AAAND since God is in everything we do, I felt I couldn’t write without God coming up in conversation. So you will read about God and nutrition and fitness throughout my posts.
The Focus is on God; Mindfulness; and Easy, Healthy, Healing Meals and Snacks
Many of my posts focus on Mindfulness. Mindfulness has helped me physically and spiritually live a healthier life. One mindfulness technique I use is journaling. Because I journal, I am able to go back and remember many of those “goosebump God Moments” in my life. I include those stories on Mindfulness in Faith and Food as well.
I also have a love and passion for making healthy meals in the easiest way possible. I share my strategies in my books, 18 Weeks to a Healthier Happier, More Purposeful Life, The Nourishing Meal Builder Series, and my cookbook, Big Mindful Meals.
Thanks to the strategies in my book, my life and health have transformed:
- I have more daily free time,
- The whole family is eating healthier
- I have less daily stress
- I lost 50 pounds (although weight is no longer the focus)!
- My acne went away
- My seasonal allergies and mucus drainage stopped coming in the fall and spring
- My son’s anxiety and behavior improved
- My mood improved
- Our family has more energy
Motivated by my son’s illnesses and my own symptoms, I wanted to share these wonderfully easy and convenient ways of cooking with others. This is the reason why I wrote 18 Weeks to a Healthier, Happier, More Purposeful Life, The Nourishing Meal Builder series, and Big Mindful Meals.
So Who Will Benefit from Mindfulness in Faith and Food?
So whether you are looking for a little inspiring faith stories; searching for ways to incorporate evidence-based nutritious meals into your life; or are ready to start living a more faith-based mindful life, you have come to the right place.
A Little About Me
My Professional Background
I am a registered dietitian with a masters in nutrition. My interest in nutrition started in middle school. I was an overweight teen and was often picked on for being overweight. One particular day a boy called me a “Two Ton Whale.” After being picked on enough, I finally had the motivation I needed to lose weight.
After losing the weight, I became interested in nutrition (and weight obsessed) so I decided to major in Food Science and Human Nutrition in college. I received my Bachelors of Science in Food Science and Human Nutrition from Clemson University and did the required internship and received my masters in Human Nutrition from Winthrop University. During my internship, I worked in a large hospital, at the health department, and for a school district. Over the years, I have tried to help others through private nutrition counseling and group classes, and I have been a dialysis dietitian and a nutrition instructor at Winthrop University. I was also a nutrition columnist for our local city paper, and I have also taught aerobics as a certified instructor for years.
I am currently the owner of Mindfulness in Faith and Food, LLC. Several branches fall under the Mindfulness in Faith and Food, LLC umbrella. One is Mindful Vending, which is one of the few dietitian owned and operated vending company in the nation! I am also the author of two books, Mindfulness in Faith and Freezer Meals and The Nourishing Meal Builder. You can also find evidence-based nutrition articles, recipes, convenient healthy snack lists, and faith-based mindfulness techniques on our blog.
My Personal Struggle with Weight:
After losing the weight in middle school, I managed to stay at a healthy weight all through high school, college, and after college… then I got married.
When I got married, my weight began to sneak up on me. I gained 12 pounds on my honeymoon! As a newlywed I wanted to showoff my cooking skills and cooked feasts for my husband. Although, I used lighter ingredients, the portion sizes tended to be bigger than necessary. My husband was in the Navy so we moved frequently. We were always packing and unpacking. I never could get into a routine. Everything was packed away so we ate out often. He would go out to sea often (a week here, four days there). Every time he would leave we would want to have a goodbye feast and every time he came back, we would have a celebration meal.
As a dietitian, I had lots of head knowledge:
-I knew how to lose weight
-I knew weight shouldn’t hold as much importance.
-I knew weight was only one risk factor of medical conditions.
And yet I still focused on weight, and did not focus on health in my own life. The problem with this scenario is that if weight loss is your only motivation, after a while you will lose the willpower required to keep depriving yourself for the sake of the scale.
How I Lost Weight
Knowing how to lose weight, I did my own self-assessment and developed a weight loss plan.
You can do your own free diet self-assessment here.
I Became My Own Client:
In other words, I was my own client. Turns out, there were solutions to every one of the barriers I encountered. For example, to combat portion sizes, I measure my food or pre-cooked and pre-portion food on Sundays. I had pre-portioned foods ready for those busy grab-and-go days. To come up with a solution, I went straight to my textbooks, the research, and educational background. I lost 40 pounds in 7 months…
Next Comes the Baby Weight
Then I gained weight again from having a baby.
If I had not STILL been weight obsessed, I would have told myself that weight fluctuates based on different things happening in your life, you know like having a baby! Our lives change and our weight will naturally change some throughout the years. So with weight loss the goal, I re-evaluated my diet plan, made several changes to the plan, and lost the baby weight very quickly.
Mindfulness was Key
Finally, I had my second child, and again I wanted to lose weight, but I was tired of the whole weight obsessing, willpower game. Although I had been incorporating mindful eating all along, this time I almost exclusively focused on mindful eating and not weight loss. Ironically, this was the easiest Weight Loss ever! But mindfulness changed my life in so many more impactful ways. You can read more about my Mindful Eating Weight Loss here.
As a dietitian who has struggled, I understand that mindful eating is life changing. You can read about the Mindful Eating Techniques that I use here.
Then something happened…
My son got sick, and my mood deteriorated. I also continued to struggle with severe mucus drainage and allergy symptoms I had had all my life.
FINALLY, I started realizing in my heart what I knew in my head. Health is not all about weight.
Along with mindfulness, I wanted to focus on eating foods that nourished and healed, regardless of my weight. I started to see food as a beautiful gift from God that can heal and nourish.
I wanted and craved these amazing foods in my daily life. The problem was that even though I loved to cook I struggled to get food on the table during the newborn stage and through the “kid’s activities” stage.
We were so busy and often grabbing fast food and processed foods on a weekly basis. Motivated by my son’s illnesses and my own symptoms, I knew I needed to figure something out.
Organizing the Research
I am an organizer, so the first step I took was organizing the research on foods and how they nourished our bodies. I began collecting the research and making a list of foods that improved mood; and a list of foods that supported the immune system; then a list of foods that significantly reduced the risk of cancer and reduced the risk of Alzheimer’s; I made a list of foods that, based on research, helped with seasonal allergies, acne, chronic disease, and improved brain function, focus, attention, alertness, and memory. I included a list of foods that helped with anxiety, joint pain, and autoimmune diseases. This organizer’s heart was having a blast collecting all this research in one place.
While I continued to organize, I decided to make a month of healthy freezer meals. This was just what my family needed to get these healthier delicious foods on the table. Our life became so much less stressful in the process.
You can make your one month of healthy freezer meals with the ebook, Mindfulness in Faith and Freezer Meals.
With the research collected, I was ready to develop an easy strategy that my busy families could use to implement this research-based nutrition into their daily lives. This strategy can now be found in The Nourishing Meal Builder.
And let me tell you, the changes were astounding!!!
-I have more daily free time,
-Our grocery bill has significantly reduced
-The whole family is eating healthier
-I have less daily stress
-My family has lost weight (although weight is no longer the focus)!
-My acne went away
-My seasonal allergies and mucus drainage stopped coming in the fall and spring
-My son’s anxiety and behavior improved
-My mood improved.
-Our family has more energy
I now use a combination of freezer meals and the strategies found in The Nourishing Meal Builder to make our meals.
Final Thoughts on Weight
So is it okay to want to lose weight?
I don’t want you to feel like you are somehow wrong for feeling like you want to lose weight.
There are reasons you may want to lose weight:
– Maybe you want to lose weight to see if your joint pain will improve (there are foods for that, and they are listed in my books!);
-Or maybe you want to lose weight to significantly reduce the risk of developing chronic disease (yup, there are foods for that as well and yep, you can find them in my books).
-Or maybe you just want more energy to play and embrace life (Find these foods in our books too!)
Btw, foods that aid in weight loss are also listed in our books as well!
I want to hear from you. What are the causes or reasons for your weight struggles? What solutions to your weight loss barriers have worked for you?
Thanks for visiting!
Lacy Ngo, MS, RD
MINDFULRD
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