Happy {Half} Hour! How to create better habits for weight loss

Hello, hello, hello. Happy Friday, my lux ladies. Yes, it is 6:21 PM and I was supposed to come live at 5:00 PM Eastern time, but hey, things happen, right? I am here. So let me tell you the story. First of all, hi, I am Jennifer Dent-Brown. I am a life coach and I help women learn to stop Dieting Forever, and I come on live every Friday around 5:00 PM, happy half hour, and we talk about all things weight loss. And so today I want to have a really fun topic, but first I gotta tell you what happened. So for those of you who are already on my email list, I sent out an email yesterday with the topic, I'm going live at 5:00, happy half hour, yay, come join me, bring your questions. And, um, I also said if you join me, you will see that I'm getting my hair colored. So you'll see the brand new debut of my hair color if you join me live at 5:00 PM today, Eastern time. Well, who knew that it takes 4, 4 and a half, 5 hours to get your hair colored? I haven't had my hair colored in decades, so I forgot the processing time. And how long that could take. And also, it's a Friday in a hair salon, so at 5 o'clock I was still sitting in the salon chair getting my hair pressed out. But as you can see, I've got really beautiful caramel highlights in my hair. I'm very happy with it. Shout out to Kelly and Marissa at K. Louise Salon. I told them I was going to shout them out, so thank you, ladies. Kelly did the color Marissa is usually my natural hair stylist and it's just a lovely experience in there. So thank you, thank you, thank you very much. So here I am at 6:23 Eastern time. It's still happy hour and as my favorite wine glass says, hey, it's 5:00 PM somewhere. So cheers. I am drinking my favorite Spindrift. I need to get them to sponsor these things. Orange mango sparkling water today. If you're drinking along with me, tell me what you're drinking. Say hi. If you're watching the replay, go ahead and type replay in the comments. I know that you checked in and— oh, I'm seeing a typo in my post. I will fix that later. All right. So let's get with it. I'm also posting this on Instagram, so hey Instagram followers. All right, we're going to talk about habits today. I know, not a really fun topic, but it's such a powerful one when you really, really understand it. So just think about this, and you probably already know this and you know this in concept, but it's hard for you to maybe put it in relation to your weight loss and your weight loss journey if you're struggling with your weight. Okay? So tiny changes make a big difference. It's not rocket science, but tiny changes over time make a big difference. We all understand the power of the compound effect, and we all understand if we do— the turtle wins the race with the hare and the tortoise. We understand that. Small changes can make a huge difference, but we don't actually stick with them. And so hopefully what I am going to share with you today will give you some inspiration and some motivation to stick with some very small minor tweaks in your lifestyle that can result to very, very big changes in your weight loss. Okay, so when it comes to weight loss, most of us feel like we need to go big or go home. Right? How many times have you ran into someone who's like, oh, you know, I'm trying to lose weight. Oh, I don't eat red meat anymore. You know, we got to do something big. We got to cut out entire food groups, right? Oh, I don't eat gluten anymore. I don't eat any foods with gluten anymore, right? Or I only eat vegetables now, right? So we gotta go big or go home. For some of us, it's not even cutting out entire food groups. It's like not even cooking our own food. So I'm guilty of doing that back in the day. Yes, I was a consumer and a customer of Nutrisystem, where I had all of my meals delivered straight to my front door. I actually did Nutrisystem twice, right? Lost a little bit of weight, gained it back, then I was like, oh, I wanna do Nutrisystem again, and ordered that crappy food. And it wasn't until I realized that why am I eating meat out of a little box in a little container that does not need to be microwaved. When I realized you could buy Nutrisystem food on eBay from other people who had it stored somewhere, like, there's something a little bit wrong with that. So just think about how many— the amount of preservatives that are in those little plastic containers of food that they serve you to lose weight. Terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible. So we got to think, we think we got to like do something big when it comes to weight loss. Like Beyoncé, you know, I love Beyoncé, but when, I don't know if you all saw Homecoming, but in Homecoming she talked about she had to get down to her weight, like she had to lose this baby weight. She was over 200 pounds when she delivered the twins. And then right after that she got the okay from her doctor and she started working on her big performance at Coachella. And so she really wanted to get down back to her Beyoncé size and get back into her, build up her stamina so she could deliver a 2-hour show. And so at part of the documentary of Homecoming, she was like, sadly eating an apple, she was like, "I'm not eating bread, I'm not drinking, I'm not eating sugar, I'm not eating meat." Like, she cut everything out. So she could get down into her little Beyoncé outfits. So we always feel like we gotta do a Beyoncé, right? And go big or go home. She made the lemonade cleanse really, really popular a couple of years ago, right? Go big or go home. I'm losing weight, I gotta do something massive, right? And that is not always the best. In fact, that's never the best way to lose weight. You know why? Because it's not sustainable. It's not sustainable and you always end up gaining it back. Hey, Kimora. So I just want you to remember, smaller, tiny changes make a big difference. So the next time you're like, okay, Monday I'm getting ready to start a brand new huge diet, I'm about to cut out all these food groups, I'm not drinking, I'm not eating sugar, I'm not eating bread, I'm not eating meat, whatever you think you need to do that is so massive to help you lose the weight. Think again, and you may want to change your mindset, especially if you have done those big things before and have always ended up gaining the weight back, right? So it's time to do something different. So, oh, here's another one. I, oh, I've talked to many a woman considering weight loss surgery. That is huge. That is huge. That is a huge decision. Weight loss surgery, right? Actually having full-on, full-blown surgery under sedation, going into your stomach area and like either making it smaller, putting a sleeve on it, whatever they do now just to lose weight. I had a conversation with someone very close to me. I will not say who. She may be watching this right now. I love you. She's very strongly considering weight loss surgery and she feels like she just needs to have the weight loss surgery to give her that motivation to actually change her habits. What? That is so backwards. So backwards. You have the ability to change your own habits here, right? And then your body will follow. You don't massively, change your body and your intestines to lose weight thinking that it's going to change your mindset. I know you, if you're, if you're into the whole, if you're researching weight loss surgery, listen to me closely because I know you've done your research and I know you have read about the stories of the people who've had the weight loss surgery and then end up gaining the weight back or they're ending up, they're not able to stick to the diet, they're miserable, they're eating too much food or they start over-consuming in another area of their lives. So instead of overeating, they're now overspending, or they're over-drinking, right, with alcohol. It is not the external thing that's going to help you with your body, right? Shrinking your body is not going to change your mind. You've got to change your mind. You've got to work with someone, a coach, to be able to change your mindset so then you can do what you need to do to lose the weight. Okay, so I hope you heard that loud and clear. Cheers! Orange mango Spindrift, it's delicious. Okay, so here's some math for you, for those of you who are super logical. That is not me, but some of you are, and you need to hear logical stuff for it to click. Improving Yourself by 1%, it may not seem noticeable, but with time and consistency, you are guaranteed to improve. So I read this statistic, and I guess it's probably real. I'm not a mathematician, so I don't know, but it sounds good. If you get 1% better each day for a year, you'll end up 37 times better by the time you're done. And if you get worse one day every day for one year, you will decline. Your progress will decline to nearly zero, right? And this apparently is like a mathematical equation. It's in, uh, where's my book? James Clear wrote about— his book is called Atomic Habits, and he wrote about this example in his book. But think about it. If you get better 1% every day for a year, you'll end up 37 times better by the time you're done. 37%, 37 times better than where you are right now. Imagine what that can do for you for weight loss. Hey, Linda, cousin Linda, good to see you. Alright, so what does this look like for you when you're trying to lose weight? What does this whole little habit thing, tiny changes— you get that making big massive changes when it comes to weight loss doesn't necessarily work and it's time for you to do something different. Well, what you need to be doing different is making tiny small changes and being consistent with it, right? The tiny changes are ridiculously easy. You can totally do it. The problem comes with the consistency. So you may be good for like a week or two and then, you know, life happens, circumstances happen, and then you just kind of fall off. So this is also where a coach comes in handy to keep you accountable, to say you're going to do what you're going to do so you can help get to your goals. A coach will also help you with your mindsets, right? So what do you need to be thinking to stick with these little habits every day? Can you do it for a year? All right, so think about some of your current habits that don't particularly serve you when it comes to weight loss. I'm going to give you some of mine, like some of the ones that I had to deal with and rectify, and I'm sure you have some of your own. If you do have some of your own, go ahead and type them in. I would love to hear them. My first habit that I, I dealt with, uh, when it came to weight loss was the fact that, first of all, I love to cook. So I really, really liked to cook, cooked every day and I would always like overeat, not even overeat, over-taste my food. So yeah, you taste your food to make sure it tastes good while you are preparing it. But my food would be like so good that I would just keep tasting it and tasting it and tasting it as I was cooking it and like waiting for other things to cook. And then I probably ate like a whole, whole meal's worth just by standing over the kitchen stove tasting. Right? And then I would sit down and eat an entire meal. Right? So think about the overconsumption of calories that was happening every time I cooked, every day, multiple times a day. And I'm just like, ooh, I can't wait to sit down and eat. I'm just going to taste this food while I cook it. Right? So I'm essentially eating while I cook. So that was a really unhealthy habit that I had. So as soon as I stopped the tasting, I'm automatically decreasing the number of calories I'm consuming and weight will begin to come off. Okay, so what else? Some other ones that I thought about, or things that I've heard from my wonderful clients. So overdrinking, right? You're in the habit of coming home from work, cracking open a bottle of wine. One glass leads to two glasses, two glasses maybe leads to two and a half, three glasses. And so that becomes a habit. You do that every night to kind of unwind, or maybe you have— you spread it out, right? So you come home from work, pour yourself a glass of wine, drink it, sip it, you know, get ready for dinner, evening. And then when you sit down to eat dinner, you pour yourself another glass of wine. And so you have another glass with dinner. And so after dinner, you're relaxing on the couch, kitchen's clean, kids are good, you're pull out that bottle of wine and have another glass. Essentially 3 glasses of wine every day after work, right? That is a very easy habit to begin to do. So that is your habit. Listen in, keep listening, right? So that is overdrinking every night. Another one, this is interesting. So we never did this as kids, but I had a friend who told me that every dinner, she was from Houston, every night for dinner, they would have white bread with their meal. Like, no matter what they were eating, she— her mom always gave them all a slice of white bread to eat with their food, right? So maybe that is a habit that you grew up with, and maybe that's something you're still doing right now. It may not be Wonder Bread, but maybe it is some other type of carbohydrate that does not serve your body well. So maybe that is a habit, right? I mean, that's something you just do every day. Another one that I hear a lot from my clients is paying for that gym membership that you don't use. I've been there, done that, right? Paid Planet Fitness $10 every month and didn't go, right? So that is a habit, right? That is a habit that you— yeah, paying for something that you're not using is a habit. So you can definitely break that habit. Or here is another habit, unhealthy habit: overspending on convenience foods every day. And you may not even consider it overspending. right? You're just making your daily run to Dunkin' Donuts. My stepson likes to call it Dunkin' Diabetes, right? So that's like part of your routine on your way to work, or you go to Starbucks, or, um, you know, maybe you hit up Wawa every time you stop to get gas. You go in to get a snack or a sandwich. That is a habit, right? You don't have to go into Wawa and get a snack or a sandwich or a drink just because you're getting gas. So that is a habit. So I want you to think about these habits that are not serving you. When I say something that doesn't serve you, that means that it is keeping you overweight. It is adding to your results, right? So maybe it's your bank account is not where it needs to be. Your savings account is not where it needs to be. Maybe you're in debt and you're still spending, overspending, just by spending a little bit here, a little bit there, a little bit here, a little bit there. Right? Overconsumption. Overconsumption of food, overconsumption of spending money, of buying things. How you do one thing is how you do everything, right? So if you can figure out this whole weight loss thing, I bet you, you could figure out the money thing. And I actually have one of my clients now who is not only working on her weight loss, she's also working on paying off her debts, which is awesome, and I'm helping her with that. Alright, so think about those current habits that don't serve you and how can you— oh my goodness, it is pouring down rain. That is crazy. Like I heard— uh-oh, all of our cushions are outside. My wonderful husband already pulled it in. That's crazy because I'm looking out this one window, you guys can't see it in my office, but the sun is shining. And then all of a sudden I hear it's like pouring down rain and I look out this window and it's like dark as what? I don't know what. Crazy, crazy weather, but I'm so glad it's warmer here in Philadelphia now. Okay, cushions are good. Little bit of rain, everybody's fine, everybody's dry, it's all good. Alright, so where was I? We were talking about, oh, your bad habits. So pick one of your bad habits and think about how you can make a tiny teeny tweak to that habit every day. And I know you're automatically thinking like, oh, I just need to quit it, I just need to stop it completely. Right. I don't want you to do that. I want you to think really, really hard. How can you make a very tiny change to that habit so you're consistent with it? Right. So if you're used to drinking 3 glasses of wine at night, you're not going to come home more than likely on Monday and go cold turkey. Right. That will be very difficult for most people. And that is that whole, like, go big or go home, massive action equals success type thinking. I want you to change your thinking. If your habit is drinking 3 glasses of wine when you come home from work, how about you create the habit of drinking 1 glass of wine instead of 3, right? You're going to cut your calories automatically just by cutting out those extra 2 glasses of wine. What if you could be satisfied with just 1 glass of wine? And then what happens is you'll come home one day and be like, you know what, I don't even want the glass of wine because I'm starting to see myself lose weight. I'm starting to get a getting a little, my pants are getting a little bit looser, right? And then it is easier for you to put that other, put that wine away and not even drink wine during the week. Or what if you're paying for that gym membership, right? So that's probably pretty easy, right? To just cancel your gym membership if you're not using it. But what if you take that and say, you know what, instead of like thinking I'm going to go to the gym every week, Why don't I just go out and take a walk for 10 minutes every day? 10 minutes, and that's all you do. Commit to doing that. Maybe for you it's just like a walk around the block. Maybe it's not even a full 10 minutes. Maybe it's just, you know, for some of you who are very overweight, maybe it's to the end of the driveway and back, right? Small changes. You can get to the end of the driveway and back every day for a couple weeks. Guess what? One day you're going to be like, you know what, I think I'm going to venture to the end of the block, come back. And you do that from the house to the end of the block, from the house down the driveway to the end of the block and come back. And you do that every day for a couple of weeks, couple of months maybe. And then one day eventually you'll get around the block and then eventually you'll get around the block multiple times and before you know it, you're, a walking maniac, right? And you will automatically lose weight because remember what I told you in the beginning, if you improve by 1% every day for a year, you will end up 37 times better by the end of that year. Okay? Something to think about. So another bad habit that people have, oh, the over-tasting. Alright, so if you— so I just went cold turkey with the over-tasting. I just realized like, okay, I just got to stop eating. Hey, Adrian, I got to stop eating while I'm cooking because it's not helping me. But I did try to chew the gum, right? That always helps. But I just made the decision like, I'm just going to stop eating while I taste the food or while I cook the food. So what you could do if that is one of your problems of over-tasting while you're eating or while you're cooking is you can decide one meal a day or maybe three meals a week you're not going to do that when you cook. Make it simple, right? If you're cooking twice a day, breakfast and dinner, and you're doing that, then just decide, okay, for dinner I'm not going to do that, but for breakfast it's okay. Right? But just make that one tiny tweak. Here's another one that one of my good friends suffered with for years, and that was hitting the snooze button. So her snooze button addiction was so bad, she would literally set her alarm clock like 40 minutes ahead of time so she could literally hit the snooze button for 40 minutes before she needed to get up. That is like slow torture to me. Hitting the snooze button is never a good thing. But if that is your bad habit of hitting the snooze button— wow, it is really pouring outside— instead of hitting the snooze button 4 times, 5 times, how about you give yourself a limit and hit it once? Alright? So instead of setting your alarm clock 40 minutes ahead of time, the time that you really need to wake up, Set it 10 minutes ahead of that time and allow yourself only to hit that snooze button once and see what happens. All right. And do that continuously every day. So remember, tiny changes make a big difference. I want to hear from you guys. What are you going to change? What tiny changes are you going to implement in your life and when? When are you going to do it? Email me, Jennifer@JenniferDent.com. Send me a DM for those of you watching on Instagram. Send me a Messenger PM for those of you watching on Facebook. Lots of ways to get to me. Some of y'all have my cell phone number, text me, I don't care, but I just want you to do it. And if I can support you in any way to help you implement and execute, ask me. I am more than happy to help you execute your tiny habit and to keep you accountable for doing it. So real quick, let's recap. If you have any questions, you can go ahead and type them in now. I will answer them. I don't even remember what time I started since I'm so way off schedule. I'm on Caribbean time. Since it's not 5:00 PM, but it is 5:00 somewhere. Tiny changes make a big difference. The next time you're thinking you need to do something big and massive and like huge, to lose weight, I want you to think, shift your thinking, and say, okay, what small changes can I make that I can do consistently every day to help me lose weight, to help me get my body moving on a consistent basis, to help me stop with the overeating, the overconsumption of calories on a regular basis? And for those of you with the money problems, right, to help you stop spending spending, watching all of your money go out instead of keeping it in your bank account. In fact, I heard my mentor talk today about— she was on her podcast, was explaining how when she first started making a lot of money, it was very hard for her to be able to keep money in the bank. So she got to a point where she just was making so much money and she kind of bought everything that she, you know, really wanted. And, but there was all this money still sitting in her bank and it was just coming in and coming in and that was like very uncomfortable for her. So she had to like literally mentally make the decision and train her brain to be okay with not spending money and not giving it away. Right. So lots of times very rich people will be uncomfortable with having all that money and they will give all their money away, especially ones that aren't used to having it, right? So they come into a lot of money, they've made a lot of money, they won the lottery or whatever. So that is my happy half hour today on Friday. Again, shout out to Kelly and Marissa at Kay Louise Hair Salon for hooking me up today. And if you have any questions and you're watching the replay, go ahead and type them in on Facebook. And if you're watching on Instagram, hello, send me a DM. All right, cheers. Have a luxe weekend, ladies and gentlemen, if you're watching. And thanks for joining.