Overcoming Roadblocks to Weight Loss

I just don't understand why this weight is so hard to get off. Sheesh, just doesn't make sense. Hi, my name is Chrystal Hurst, and if you are just finding me, I'm on YouTube and Facebook and anywhere else that you will find me with one goal, and that is to help you Live Life Well. Today I'm going to be talking about something that I've struggled with most of my life and that many of you do too. But I want to ask you first to go ahead and subscribe to my YouTube channel or like my Facebook page to make sure that when I share this video or videos like it, when I go live and all the other fun things that I do on video and all that stuff, that you can find me, that you get notified because I'd love to have you come back. And I'm going to ask you in advance to share this video, because what I'm about to talk about is a thing that not all, but many of us struggle with. And I'm almost sure that you'll know of someone who this video will be helpful for. So with that said, I want to talk about roadblocks to losing weight. So I have been friends with the same 40 pounds basically my whole adult life. I gain it, I lose it, I gain it, I lose it. It's a whole situation. If you've ever heard that scripture where it's like when one demon leaves, 7 come in. I mean, that's my whole situation. It's like I beat back one demon and then he says, look, she's not paying attention. And then the friends want to come and join them for fun. So I have a few vices. I love carbs. I love cookies.

Cookie, cookie, cookie. Me love cookie.

I love sweet tea and I love French fries, pizza. Yeah, those are a few of the things that I love to name a few, but I also love really healthy food. The challenge for me is in looking at my life and saying, What are the things that I need to think about so that I can be intentionally aware about what I'm putting in my mouth? Now, I know that many of you are going to say, yes, go to the gym. Yes, go for a walk. Sure, get on your spin bike, because I do have a spin bike. I finally was able to get a used spin bike from my gym that closed during the pandemic. And I used to teach spin, believe it or not. And so I went up there and got one of the used ones. And let me tell you, it has been mainly looking at me. Those days. Don't judge. But the deal is, I understand that moving is a— is an important part of being healthy. I understand that movement is an important part, or can be important part, of your weight loss journey. But here's what I need you to understand. Statistically, if you hunt out this information around the World Wide Web, you will find that what I'm about to tell you is true. It's 80% what you put in your mouth and 20% what you do with your feet. So while your feet will help you, really Really, if you want to live a better life physically and to have your body operating on the nutrients, on the macros, on the micros that it needs every day, you need to pay attention to what you're doing with food, eating enough of the good stuff consistently enough to make a difference in what your body is going to do with the excess weight. So am I at a lack for information? Absolutely not. Have I— do I know how to lose weight? Absolutely no problem. The issue is I constantly find myself having to be in the kitchen, kitchen, cooking for my people. My people, we homeschool. I have 3 boys that are still at home out of the 5 kids we have. And the reality is, is there's always food happening in my life and I enjoy cooking. Um, I also get tired of cooking. And when I get tired of cooking, running through Chick-fil-A, because that's God's chicken. Y'all do know that Chick-fil-A is God's chicken, right? It is. When we run through Chick-fil-A and I get— everybody has like their standing order Chick-fil-A sauce. Did I tell you that I have my own? Because you know, they're selling the Chick-fil-A sauce now, like not in the little packets, but like in a ketchup-sized bottle, that I have my Chick-fil-A sauce bottle hidden from my family. It is what it is. But when I go through Chick-fil-A, sweet tea to the max, extra large, with the fries and the Chick-fil-A sauce because, because God lives in Chick-fil-A chicken. But I have to be aware and you have to be aware of what we're doing in our lives that even causes us to drive through fast food restaurants or not to eat enough or to eat too much or to binge out on carbs or whatever it is that your thing is. And so there are roadblocks to losing weight because losing weight is more of a mental job than it is a physical job. You decide what to eat first with your mind before you ever decide what to put in your mouth. And I wanna talk about roadblocks because we all have them. We have different kinds, but we all have them. And I want you to know, first of all, that you're normal. If you struggle with your weight, a lot of us do. All right, so lemme just walk you through my life here a little bit. This is what happens when I go to the coffee shop to write. Even if I'm meeting friends, the two coffee shops that I love to go to have great food. So I put my computer on the table. You can see my great drink. It's a toasted coconut with almond milk. And then that's like a maple chicken biscuit, because of course if you need to write a book, you need a maple chicken biscuit. And then there are other things in my life that I need you to know about, like coffee when I go to the other coffee shop to write, or like waffles, because before I write, there's this other restaurant that's next to the coffee shop. But look at this, it's glorious. The whipped cream is homemade, the butter is fresh, the eggs have chives on them, and the bacon, I think they put a little bit of sugar on it. I don't know.

Nom nom nom nom nom.

Food is a whole situation, and I'm okay with acknowledging that. So coffee yet again. So let's talk about what it means to deal with, recognize your roadblocks to weight loss. The first thing is mindless eating. Okay? Mindless eating. We simply aren't paying attention to what we're putting in our mouths because we are reactively eating. Reactively eating means I'm hungry and whatever's here right now, I'm going to eat. I'm emotional, so whatever's here right now, I'm going to eat. I'm stressed, so I'm actually not going to stop and eat. I am busy, so I'm not gonna stop and eat because my brain is busier on what I have to do than what I'm paying attention to in terms of what my body needs. I'm anxious, and so I'm gonna eat too much or eat too little. Mindless eating means you're not thinking about what your body needs. And if you have ever parented a child, you know that you can parent reactively as it relates to what you're gonna feed them every day, or you can parent proactively, deciding that in advance. It is paying attention to your body, yes, but understanding that in your life, there are gonna be situations that happen, that occur, stress, anxiety, busyness, joy, sadness, that are gonna propel you in one direction or the other with your food choices or with you even remembering what the choices are that you need to make with what you put in your mouth. And so what's really important is to substitute mindless eating for mindful eating, or I should have said that the other way around. To substitute mindful eating for mindless eating. And instead of allowing your eating choices to be reactive, to say, what is really going on? What does my body need? And to be paying attention to your life enough to know when your body is taking you in a direction that your mind knows your body should not. Your mind should overrule your body. You've probably heard me say this a few times, that you should let your emotions guide you, but you shouldn't let them govern you. And emotions, any kind— stress, busyness, anxiety, sadness, joy, excitement, and fun— any of those should not drive what you put in your mouth. Otherwise, that is mindless eating. So paying attention to your emotions lets you know what's going on with you. Finding out why you're craving a certain thing, um, knowing what your tendencies are, knowing you is going to help you be mindful in your eating. Now I understand that there are so many things like exhaustion or indecision or hormones or health, um, uh, happenings that are going on in your life that will also influence what your body's going to do. But right now I want you to focus on, am I thinking about what I'm eating? Am I thinking about my portion size? Am I thinking about how sleep will affect my desire to eat? Because did you know, if you're not rested, if you're exhausted, that's going to influence because you're going to try to compensate for the energy that you don't have from not having sleep by eating foods that are going to boost your, um, your energy, but also boost your dopamine levels, boost your serotonin levels. Food is a chemical. Um, ice cream. Bad Demon has won today. It is a chemical. And when you're not mindful of that, then you will mindlessly eat. Water is also something that will affect whether or not you are able to mindfully eat, because a lot of us, y'all, are eating because we're thirsty. Did you know that? We actually are not hydrated. And so in an attempt to fix that, we're eating. And many of the things that we drink to fix our hydration— soda, sweet tea, Kool-Aid, whatever. They don't actually fix your hydration. They actually create more thirst. So you have to be mindful about your food. So let me show you a couple of things that help me to be mindful about my food. My meal plans. This is my meal plan. I use Plan to Eat. I have it on my phone. I plan it, I print it out, and I share it with the kids. Planning your meals. Here's one example of another. Here's another one. Same thing from week to week. We plan our meals so that way before the week gets going, I can know what is there for my family. And my family cannot ask me, my boys in particular, what's for dinner. When they ask me that, I say, "It's on the fridge." But if you've looked at all 3 of these, you will see that basically every week we have the same thing for breakfast. Why? Because I don't want to think. I don't want to think. I don't want to think from week to week, What's for breakfast today? And breakfast is one of those things where we only eat a handful of things anyway. So Mondays is always oatmeal. If I can do this for my family, I probably can do it for myself. What can you do in your life to automate your eating? Now you can have variety, but what can you do to automate the amount of thought, which also equals the amount of energy that you have to put into your food? Because if you don't think about it in advance, then you might not think at all, and that leads to mindless eating. I want you to understand that your emotions— the stress, the anxiety, the joy, the sadness, the excitement— those all influence. And sometimes those are accompanied by food. I mean, think about it. When you've been through the loss of a loved one, people want to feed you. They just show up at your door with all kinds of food. Or when you're struggling with the loss of a loved one, you don't eat at all. Or let's say you are going on a great trip with your family. And so in preparation for that trip, because there's so many things to do, you're running around and you're so busy and you're not eating. But then when you get on that trip, eating is a part of the fun, is it not? It is. When I'm cooking in the kitchen, my family just drives by and they just stick their finger in whatever I'm eating because this is what happens. And he's like, uh, Ah, good. Of how very precious you are. Like, I really have to think about this. If I want to live life and live life well and not leave myself open to infirmities of my physical body that are preventable, because you do realize that many of the things that we suffer from, not all, but many of the things that we suffer from are preventable. And they happen to us because we are mindlessly eating. It's an appreciation for the fact that the soul of you has to live in a physical body, and that soul of you, um, has to have a healthy house to operate in. So it's important that you are mindful of what you're eating and not just walking around mindlessly waiting for the Pop-Tarts to come out of the toaster. Elizabeth Elliott says, You can't give God your heart and then keep your body for yourself. Now, we had a whole conversation in our office about mindlessly eating and about our personal struggles. And I want to share that conversation with you because maybe in that conversation you'll hear a little bit of you. Hey, okay. On Monday though, I just need to figure out what, you know, what the, what the problem is, what the problem is. So if I'm stressed, What the problem is? That's not good English. The question is, what do you do? You said you eat when you're stressed.

Yes.

And so what do you do? You're a fries person?

Hot fries.

Hot fries.

Chips, just chips. Hot fries, ice cream, candy, particularly Take 5 and Reese's. But Reese's makes me take 5, by the way.

I do.

And I just, I leave here and I go out of my way to go get items that I know that I don't need, and then after I've eaten all that, I'm not like hungry for like real food and I don't feel like cooking because of course it hasn't given me any energy, so.

Well, I can get with you on the Reese's. You eat or you don't eat?

I don't eat when I'm stressed, but I do go to the to the grocery store. Do you buy a bunch of stuff though that I don't need and that I won't eat because I'm stressed? If I'm anxious, I eat everything.

What's the difference between anxious and being stressed?

No, it's not like— for me it's not. I, I can tell the difference. Like, when I'm anxious, I can feel my heart racing. Like, when I'm stressed, it's a a completely different feeling. Yeah, so I eat like maybe one big meal a day and then that's pretty much it. And then I forget to eat too. That's a big thing, like, oh, I didn't eat today, I probably should do that.

So that's my problem, I eat when I have time to eat, which is never. But you know, the chemicals, like there's a hit. Do you feel it? There's a hit. For real. When you eat food and you're stressed, you actually feel your body go, ah, it's my drug of choice. The first area that you want to pay attention to as it relates to how you can deal with the roadblocks for you losing weight is to know where you are mindfully or mindlessly eating. You also need to understand where you have a lack of support. And to know what are the triggers are that push you into your zone of eating too much or too little. Now I'm aware that we all have triggers. I mean, for me, it's pumpkin bread, it's the holidays, it's me wanting to enjoy time with my family and make all the best food in the world. It's also me knowing that the pumpkin bread has to sit out. Like I want to make baked goods like banana bread or pumpkin bread or zucchini bread. And I want it to be out sitting on my island so that it feels like home when my family walks in and there's always something for them to eat. Family, holidays, cooking, rolling the dough. It's, it's built into the fabric of my family. So I know one of the triggers for me is wanting to feed my family well for special events, for holidays, and even creating memories around food for my fam. It's also chocolate chip cookies. With Blue Bell because I'm from Texas and I'm a connoisseur of chocolate chip cookies. And the triggers for me are friends coming over, holidays happening, and wanting to create memories for my family. So me cooking in the kitchen is a whole thing because I want to provide, but cooking, as many of you know, is something that takes a lot of time, but you want to do it because you want to create memories. I mean, my brother came over, I made my mom's cabbage. He was so excited. He was like, this tastes just like mommy's cabbage. And that brought me joy. The people sitting around my table on a Sunday afternoon, it brings me joy. It also takes a whole bunch of days to get ready for that. And then there are the special occasions, which are wonderful, but they are also kind of sort of triggers as well, because the special occasions mean we eat. That is my husband and I on our balcony of our hotel, 20th anniversary, enjoying room service. And I sure did, I sure did order All the things. Yes, I did stop on the side of the road for ice cream because coconut ice cream on the side of the road in Maui on your way to Hana is something you need to make sure you do with your life. But these are triggers in the best way. And so knowing where you need support is helpful. So when I was with my family most recently on a vacation trip, my sister was like, come on, let's go for a walk. Because she knew, like I knew, that we had been eating like we had lost our minds. And so knowing that this is a situation, going on vacation, celebrating special events and holidays, and saying, what can we do to have support for those triggers? Sometimes support looks like going to see your counselor and talking about, oh my goodness, all the things that are weighing you down so that you're aware of what your burdens are. Sometimes having support means Creating plans in advance that I know that today I'm going to go out and I'm going to eat because it's a vacation day or it's a special event. And so this morning, because I'm mindfully eating and I want to set myself up with a supportive start to my day, I'm going to have a smoothie for breakfast. I'm going to make sure I drink a lot of water and I'm going to do these things that will provide supportive mechanisms so that I haven't not eaten all day when I go out this evening for fun. So you have to know what your triggers are. You have to know what the seasons are, the times are that will set themselves up or set you up for failure and to get ahead of those by putting supportive things in place. So number 1, you need to mindfully eat. Number 2, you need to know where your triggers are and know where you lack support and put supportive mechanisms in place so that you can be successful in an environment, y'all, 'cause we're in a stressful environment that does not lend itself to your self-success. When you drive down the freeway, There are a million things for you to eat. There's a million things for you to drive through and pick up. There's a million things that you can eat that was prepared in someone else's kitchen with not the best ingredients, but they will make you feel good because food is a chemical hit. And so in order to set yourself up for success, you need to also know where you need support. Another thing that you can do is to pay attention to your food by writing it down. Writing it down is a supportive way for you to be attentive to what you're eating. And there are apps like MyFitnessPal or You can join Weight Watchers or you can go to Camp Gladiator and move your behind, move your hiney early, early in the morning, because those are environments of support. MyFitnessPal, you can do it with friends. Weight Watchers, you do it with community. Camp Gladiator, you meet new friends as you move. My friend Michelle and I, we went walking or hiking recently and she just called me one day and said, I'm coming by to pick you up. And I said, you know what? Anytime you're going for a walk, you're going for a hike, just text me. Call me, let me know, because I might jump in the car with you and just go. Support. Mindful about what you're putting in your mouth. Knowledge about your triggers and knowing where you need support. Find a circle or a community of friends for support and also accountability. This can be your church small group. It can be your spouse. It can be coworkers. Run your own Biggest Loser competition. And it's really not, even though y'all, I mean, people say it's not about the weight. It's not about the number. I'm like, you're lying. You are lying. It is so about that number on the scale. However, it's not about the number as an end-all, but the number does give me some identification of where I am in terms of a weight that is healthy for me to maintain. But every day stressing out about that number is not the goal. The goal is for you to be attentive to feeding your body what it needs because you understand that this is the only house that you get to live in. So the first roadblock to losing weight is mindlessly eating. The second one is not having good support, a lack of support. And the third one is a lack of planning. Now I showed you earlier in this video how I use Plan to Eat to plan food for my family. But I want you to know that every day, one of the things that really works well for me, because sometimes I'm not always eating what my family is eating, is just like I would plan my day or map out my day and say, this is what I'm doing at 8 o'clock. This is what I'm doing at 10 o'clock. You can think about your food in the same way. So if you're not necessarily eating what you're fixing for your 2-year-old, or if you need to lose weight and so you need to do something that's a little different for your family, think about that ahead of time. You do need to plan and stock your refrigerator or your freezer or your pantry with the foods on hand that are going to be helpful for you. Okay. Because all the foods that you keep in your house are not helpful for you. Stack the deck in your favor, put things in your pantry, your freezer, or your refrigerator that are good for you to pull off the shelf. So some rice cakes or some applesauce or fresh fruit or salad. Chopping up your salads in advance for the week, doing meal prep, meal prep at the beginning of the week is helpful because then when you're hungry, you have something to grab. But even at the beginning of the day, think, all right, I know what my options are. I know what my 3 things are that I can eat for breakfast. I know what my 3 things are that I can eat for lunch. I don't know what the 3 things are that maybe I've pre-prepped for the week that will help me get through my week well, but what am I doing today? Thinking about it in advance so you're not waiting in the stress of the moment to hope that you remember what your plan is. So take a few minutes at the beginning of the day and just think, what am I eating today? Writing down your meal plan in advance, thinking about your breakfast, having a protein smoothie or oatmeal, lunchtime having a salad or a sandwich. Uh, maybe you're trying to minimize your carbs and so you're going to have a protein with something green. For dinner, having your protein with your green and having your carb on the side. And knowing that planning your meals is a way to think ahead and to decide in advance what your body needs. Plan your meals a week at a time, but think a day at a time. Just review your plan so that before you get caught out in the streets running an errand and thinking, okay, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I don't even know what's for lunch, you already do. Because you thought at the beginning of the day, you refreshed your mind as to your plan. Your focused living always starts with a simple decision to do one thing, one thing with what you have, and you get one body. And so choosing to do the one thing of thinking about your meals, planning your meals, and deciding in advance what to eat so that you don't have a lack of planning being a roadblock for your eating, that's important too. So don't mindlessly eat. Don't operate without support and don't move forward without planning. Let me say this a positive way, because we want to think positively about losing weight. Be mindful about your food, make sure that you have support, and also plan, plan, plan. And know that on your struggle to losing weight, you are not by yourself. There's a host of us out here, which is why there are apps and groups and all the things, but we're also trying to think about it too. So what I just want I just wanna encourage you to do is to be intentional. You get this one life to live. You've got this one body to live it in. Me too. All right, y'all. I'll see you same time next week right here. And remember, if this video has been helpful to you, then please, please share it. That's how YouTube and Facebook and your friends will know that I even talked about this. And I hope that what I've talked about today has been a blessing to you. All right, y'all. All right, um, hello, my name is Chrystal Evans Hurst. Uh, okay, do it for real this time. These are the I can cook times. Here we go, take 3, y'all. This is This is Jasmine.

Come on.

She got her hair locked up. Isn't it cute? She just got these fresh locks. You got the tiny micro ones too. You're bold and beautiful. I'm afraid that I would just change my mind and then I'd be so stressed out.