How To Eat Cookies Like A Thin Person

Hey everyone, welcome to today's Program Yourself Thin podcast. Today we're talking about how to eat cookies like a thin person. And this is really more of a mindset discussion than a strategy one. Just a spoiler alert because it's really not about cookies specifically. It's about how do I eat the foods that I really enjoy that are high calories? Well, let's just be— call it what it is. How do I eat the foods that I get carried away with, the foods that put a lot of calories in my body like a thin person. So how can I eat these foods and live at the weight that I want to live at? And the answer to that question begins by asking the question, because most dieters will never even consider that, right? Most dieters have been conditioned and trained to think if they're going to lose weight, they need to get rid of the cookies. Cookies got to go. And again, this is part of that all-or-nothing mindset that most dieters have been conditioned to think within. And so right off the bat, just asking the question, how can I eat cookies and live at the weight that I want to live at? It opens us up to a brand new reality. And in a general sense, in Program Yourself Thin, we call this the all-or-something mentality, which is the opposite of the all-or-nothing mentality. And I think it's this mindset that's going to get you much better results because it's much more realistic and practical. So while this mindset may not get you the fastest results in terms of how much weight you can lose this week or this month, I think it's going to get you the fastest results in terms of how much weight you can lose this year and ongoing. And the reason why is that there's very few people that are going to live their lives where they never get to eat the foods they truly, really enjoy. And it all comes back to a simple concept that it's really not enough just to weigh a certain weight. We've got to increase our quality of life. And so with dieting, even though the weight will go down, for most people, they experience an overall reduction in quality of life, even though their weight goes down. This is what explains why 85% to 95% of dieters that lose the weight and get to their goal weight put the weight back on. I think the core reason is that even though the weight went down, their quality of life went down as well. And it's unacceptable to them subconsciously. So I think as much as you would love to lose weight quickly and just cut everything out in order to make that happen, if you reflect on your history, you're going to realize that you are— you have been unable to do that and most likely you'll be unable to do that in the future. So what we're looking at here is a middle ground. How can I eat cookies and weigh what I want? And you have to ask this question genuinely, because when you first ask it, you're going to realize, I don't know, I don't know. That's what's going to happen. You don't have an answer for that. But the reason you have an answer for that is because you've never asked the question. You have lived within a paradigm that says if you want to lose weight as a dieter, if you want to lose weight quickly, you got to get rid of the cookies, get rid of the ice cream, can't have those things. And this sets us up for failure because at some point we're inevitably going to eat them. And What's known, um, specific thing known to dieters is the what the hell effect. So when we go into our diet saying, okay, I can never have ice cream, I can have cookies, and then we go and eat one cookie, the dam bursts open and the what the hell effect takes over and we eat the whole bag, we eat the whole pint. All right. So what we're looking right from the beginning is this middle ground where we don't get rid of all the cookies, but we don't eat all the cookies. So we start aiming at the middle. How can I consume these cookies in a more moderate way? Because that's the answer. The answer to the question, how can I eat cookies and get to my goal weight, begins with moderation. And I can already hear you saying, well, I suck at moderation, Jim. I eat one cookie, I eat all of them. Yes, but please understand, that's because you've always operated out of the mindset of an all-or-nothing person. You've always approached your weight loss as a dieter, all or nothing. And there has been no mental space conceptually for the idea of living in the middle, of eating some cookies instead of all the cookies. That's not— almost been deleted from your awareness, deleted as an option. And I want to bring it back because what I have found is it's the most successful option long term. Test it out. And so that becomes the general answer, is that moderation is the key, not demonizing foods, but learning to gain better control over them. Now, how do you do that? I'm not going to leave you with just a mindset thing here. I'll give you some strategies. But again, most of this is going to come out of the mindset because the strategies that I have to eat moderately are mine. They work for me, my lifestyle, my genetics, who I am, my preferences. And so I can't just give you these strategies because they may or may not be a good fit for you, which is why I focus so much on the mindset piece, because if you consistently for the next month, keep asking yourself, how can I eat the food I love? Whatever it may be. For some people, it's cookies, some it's ice cream, pizza, whatever. It doesn't matter. But if you start to look at that and you say, how can I eat these foods and weigh what I want, your brain starts walking a brand new path that you've never walked before. And this I know. And when you stick with it, you start creating your own strategies. And it might be if I drink some water first and then I eat the cookies. If I nourish myself in the afternoon, then I can have some cookies in the afternoon. So if I nourish myself and keep myself, my hunger in check, if I keep my emotions in check, if my energy levels are good, if my mindset's strong, I'm able to eat cookies moderately. Now, again, you may say, well, geez, that sounds like a lot of stuff, Jim. Listen, it takes work. It takes time. I'm not going to pretend it doesn't, but it brings you to a place where you have a real solid solution under you. The ground feels firm, and that changes everything. And time passes one way or the other. But if you keep looking for the hacks and the quick fixes, what you start to notice is that you never move. And if you look at your own history, you probably are in the exact same place with your weight as you were 10 years ago, 20 years ago, which is to say that you're not really sure how to change your weight. Long term. And so time passes regardless. So what I would suggest you do, and I urge you to do, is to start to build solid ground that you can stand upon. Because as time passes and you're standing on solid ground, you start to create real, genuine strategies that you can rely on. You get better at moderating. What if you spent the last year previous working on moderation, working on moderating your favorite foods so that now you could comfortably and predictably have those foods and not get caught up in overeating them. You felt comfortable with it. You could eat some of them, enjoy it, and then go back into your plan. That's what's waiting for you at the end of this path. And I think that's a much more appealing and successful path than the hamster wheel of dieting, where you get rid of it completely for a couple of days or weeks and then go back to it completely. You've been walking that your whole life. And so this is the alternative. So I hope this is appealing to you. And if you want to go deeper into this process, Click the link in my bio. You can— if you're on TikTok and click my picture up there. If you're over in Facebook land, I will put the link in the chat window here and, uh, go get the hypnosis session. Again, it's completely free and it's a really good session, I think. I am one of the highest paid hypnotists on the planet. So again, if you've never tried hypnosis, this is a great way to test it out. And if you have tried hypnosis, it probably wasn't with me. So you get— you got nothing to lose Um, go check it out. All right. Uh, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask them again. I apologize. I missed yesterday. I'm usually here Monday through Friday, noon Eastern. Um, sometimes life intrudes. Yesterday was one of those days. I apologize for missing. And life intruded twice because I even missed my Program Yourself Thin live Q&As we do on Tuesday. There's some weird, weird technical issue. Um, we couldn't log in, couldn't stay on there. So I apologize for my, my people for that. Um, Sorry about that, but again, you know, I'm always here too. So even if you couldn't talk to me yesterday, please feel free to ask any questions you may have here. Jackie says, hi, just finished reading your book. I loved it. Loved all in capitals. Thank you so much. Screenshot that. Even though I gotta tell you, I— one of the most validating things in my life is that you all have loved this book, and that has made me so happy. And it really validates why I wanted to write this book and why it was the right thing to do. The book they're referring to is this one. Let me flip it around so you can read it. The Tao of Losing— of Living at Your Goal Weight. And so this is the book I wrote. I put it out. It's been 3 months now. Holy cow. Right. And so, yes, it's available. The way this book— it's different, though. I would say one thing that makes this book different is it's not more information about what to do. This book is 40 chapters. Each chapter is a page or two. Um, each chapter is a hypnotic story, and that's what makes it different, is that this book is designed to change you while you read it on its own. And, um, it's also written in a way that you can go back to any chapter at any moment in time, just reread it and get a little boost. That's what it's written for. So that makes me so happy, Jackie. Thanks for getting it. Thanks for reading it. And thanks for sharing your opinion on it. That makes me, makes me so happy. Um, but yeah, any questions, feel free to ask them. I am here to help you. This is a mission in life for me. So again, I show up here every day, um, to help you all out. What's up, Amanda, over on TikTok? I, I am live. Sometimes it takes me a minute to get to the questions and people think this is just a video, um, which I've— I see there was a lady and I have not seen her in a while, but she used to, um, she'd be like working out, you know, she looked in good shape and she lost a bunch of weight, but she'd always do her plan. But I realized that was all videos, it was not her live. So anyways, you know, it's, um It's, uh, this is real, this is live. So just sometimes it just takes me a couple minutes to get to the questions, but I am live and I always get the questions. You know, I ignore the dumb shit sometimes, but I don't get a lot of dumb— there's not a lot of trolls in my world here, and it's shocking to me. I always thought that I'd get way more trolls trolling away, but not so much. Um, Domi says, what to do on those days when I just can't stop eating and I can't figure out why? Nothing helps. Okay. That's a great question. A lot of people can relate to that. I already know that. Here's the secret. You ain't going to figure it out that day, right? So when you say, I can't figure out why, you have to recognize that you're trying to figure out— you're figuring it out right in that moment and it's not going to work. And to understand what I'm saying, I think it's valuable to appreciate that we're always in trances. Always. And sometimes we go into binge mode, and I think of that as a trance. And it's a specific trance and you're not thinking straight. And so in that mode, when you try and figure something out, your brain is literally operating different. Let's put it a different way. You get really upset. You get some really bad news. You're not thinking as clearly as you do when you're calm and relaxed, right? So just to put it in a different way. Now I call it trances, but you can call it what you want. The point is we're all multiple personalities. Where we're one way here and a completely different way here. And this really tortures a lot of weight, weight loss people, dieters, because, well, the classic, right? Uh, as you're about to go to bed and when you first wake up in the morning, that is it, no ice cream tonight. And then as the nighttime gets closer, you start turning into a werewolf, right? And you can feel it if you pay attention. You can feel it slowly start shifting, right? That's it, no ice cream tonight. That's it, I swear it off. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. Well, am I really not going to do it? Am I? I'm not I'm not going to have ice cream tonight. No ice cream. You know, then all of a sudden next year you eat ice cream. And so that's not an unusual thing. It's very common. But how do we explain it? And most dieters just beat themselves up and they really think about things very siloed. Okay. So the first thing I would say, I'm not sure if it's Domi or Domi, is that you're not going to figure out while you're in it, because when you're in binge mode, that's a mode where you're extremely emotional. You're extremely focused, you're, you're narrow focused. So it's very difficult to see the big picture. It's very difficult to think clearly, to understand yourself in that state. This is why in Program Yourself Thin, the program's really built around the Program Yourself Thin technique, which is a 60-second mental rehearsal technique. And it's really two things. It's the redo technique and the rehearsal technique. But what we're doing is we're looking to look at our behavior during the day from a different calm perspective. So what I would suggest you do, Domi, or Domi, is to look back at that day now. Look at the whole day. How did it start all the way past the binge? And see if you can start to understand if anything triggered you emotionally or energetically or both. And see, and or, and or how hungry you were. So I want you to notice if the day before there was over-restricting. The day before that day, was there some emotional trigger? Was there an energetic trigger of a bad night of sleep? I want you to look at it now and see if you can put the pieces together, because I've noticed that when people start to look at their binge days from a distance, it starts to seem a lot more clear what triggered that. And once you know that, it gives you some ground to build on, because right now you're describing what a lot of dieters feel. You go into that trance, you overeat everything, you don't know why. You're trying to— what's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? And then you finish eating and now you say, what the hell? And you either go into denial— I don't know what's going on, I'm never gonna do that again— or you start beating yourself up. What we want to do is stay calm, relaxed, look at it, um, very— we want to separate ourselves from the emotion of it, almost by looking at a friend. Imagine you were looking at a friend and you could see their whole day before and day What do I think triggered that? What contributed to it? And when you start doing that, it starts to put the pieces together. You start to realize the cause-effect of what's affecting your behavior. And for most dieters, they have no sense of that. And once you start to see it, that's the first step to start to have more control over it, and not in a willpower way, in an understandable way, so that you can truly, truly impact it. So I hope that helps you. See here, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask them. I see some over here. Um, oh, okay, all right. I'm gonna mess this name up, so I'm just— I'm saying a little bit— Adahobi. Adahobi. I'm not even gonna try with the second name, right? And I got a Katsoulis name, so I, I, I know what that's like to have a name that's— people struggle to say probably. But Adahobi says, biggest fan in Africa, I love your, your work. Well, thank you so much, I appreciate that. And that's cool, Africa. I don't get a lot of Africa. I get I, I get a lot of, a lot of Australia, a lot of Canada, a lot of UK, Thailand, New Zealand, um, Africa. Pretty cool. So thank you, I appreciate that. Um, Jane says, hi Jim, still struggling along. All right, Jane, come on, let's reframe that. You know that you're struggling, but the other side of struggling is I'm being persistent, you know, still here, still, still hanging on. I'm gonna do this forever, I'm gonna do it till I get to it. But, but I get it, I appreciate the resilience, Jane. Good job. What's up, Sherry? Sorry yesterday, Sherry. I know you wrote to me. You had struggles getting on that call too. Apologize for that. That service, sometimes that happens. I will let you know, you know, if you don't work with a lot of technology, I will let you know. And this was news to me. Somehow Iran in that area has a lot to do with computer servers. I don't, I don't get it. But anyway, so weird stuff's been glitching in my world and it's hard to— I would never put those two things together. So I don't know if that had to do with it, but Um, things have been a little weird technologically, so apologize for that. Um, Rhonda says, I read the book this week also. It was amazing. I'm going to read a passage each morning to rev up my mindset. Jim Iyai was incredible. Thank you, Jim. Instead of battling old habits, I'm finally all in to make new choices, changes, and replace with good habits. Then the old habit memories will fade. Rhonda, screenshot. Thank you, Rhonda. I appreciate you saying that. And again, that's what I'm talking about with this book. I, I I'm not even trying to sell this book. I'm just telling you people are loving this book and loving it exactly the way that I hoped for. So that's why I say it's so validating. Um, Program Yourself Thin System. I never make any bones about it. It's a, it's a dense system. There's a lot in there. I, I freely admit that. That's why I say it's not for everyone. It is for the overthinkers, the perfectionists, the action takers. Those are who it's made for. Um, this book though, I wrote specifically to be accessible to Anyone, anyone can just pick this up out of nowhere, read, open up, boop, like that. You know what I mean? Pick a chapter and it's like, boom, pick a chapter, any chapter, right? It's going to change you. It's meant to be that way. And as you read these chapters, it's written in such a way too that I'm not talking to your conscious mind. I'm not telling you what to do. If you think about it, your entire weight loss history has been people telling you what to do. And then it's you left to yourself to try and force yourself to do it. And that doesn't work. So we want to go deeper. And that's what this book is doing, is that it goes deeper with the stories to change the way you think about weight, about eating, about your behaviors, about your thinking, about your emotions. It literally is designed that way. And it's, you know, right off the bat, what you said. It's, it's meant to be easy and fun. And I think weight loss needs a lot more easiness and funness with it. I think we have gotten the goddamn just do it, no pain, no gain stuff for 50 years and it doesn't work. I think the answer is to actually make it a lot more easy and a lot more enjoyable. And that's what this book's all about. So thank you so much, Rhonda. And I just love what you're saying. It makes me happy that it's changing and helping you so much. So thank you. Yes, there we go, Jane. But starting to understand myself better. Yes, Jane. And as you start to understand yourself better, it's, it's pretty hard to understand yourself better, to understand your behaviors more in a more context and not improve. I will just let you know that. And please understand there's a difference between understanding yourself and just getting more, um, strategies you should do. The weight loss industry is just dumping strategy on top of you. Tactic, tactic, tactic, tactic. Don't eat this. Don't do this. Eat this. Do this. Do this. It's always telling you what to do. Understanding yourself is way more valuable. So please understand, Jane, that as you continue on this path and you keep understanding yourself, and that's the thing in the beginning of the Program Yourself Then journey, I always suggest that's the main thing you should be tracking. More than the weight. You should be recognizing all— each and every day you keep learning more and more and more about yourself, Jane. And if you measure that and value that as much as you did the weight in the scale, it's crazy where you end up. Because how can you not? If each and every day you start to understand yourself more, you understand how you think, how you feel, you know, what you think subconsciously, your programming, your behaviors, the more you start to understand that and why and how it came to be and why it fires off. How can you not improve? And you've not done that with dieting. You've not understood yourself more. You never understand yourself more. Every diet just becomes another verification or validation of you're broken. You got no willpower. You're, you're wrong. You're a bad person. So there's no understanding through diets. It's just trying to force yourself to follow more, more rules and plans. And I think Focusing on understanding yourself is really the secret to not only getting better results but making them last. I, I, so I really appreciate you saying that, Jane, and it's a, it's a path I've never seen anyone that consistently works towards understanding themselves who doesn't improve. I've never seen it. Never. So if someone thinks the opposite, they think you're wrong. Uh, what's up, Yarden? Yarden says, your hypnosis really helped me since I had relapsed with my emotional eating. Yeah, and then follows up and says, true, binging feels like a trance and I was so helpless. So happy I found your content. Well, you're welcome. Thank you for listening to it. And again, the hypnosis session they're referring to is free. So you can get it if you click my little picture on the top left here on TikTok. If you go to that link that I put in the comments, I'll put it again over on Facebook and YouTube. Um, you'll see it. It's free. You know, I give it to you so you can experience. I know most people haven't experienced hypnosis. And I know the people that have experienced hypnosis from someone who really knows what they're doing. I am one of the highest paid hypnotists on the planet. And it's— I don't think there's anyone that knows about weight mastery as much as I do on the planet. There's certainly no hypnotist that does. And so, again, I give this to you for free and I give you a train— I give you a bunch of stuff for free. I want to genuinely help you. You know, you want to get my program, cool. But I want to help you anyways. All right. So go get that hypnosis session. You folks all owe it to yourself. If you care about your weight at all, you know, to at least explore. Maybe there's a better way. You know, you got nothing to lose by testing it out. Um, so Lois— Lois says, I'm working on not having a diet mentality. I've always struggled with sweets. I feel that I really have to abstain because once I eat them, uh, then I— then an addict, I want more. It's been my pattern. I'm working on improving this. Uh, I get that, Lois, and I, I think 99% of people I ever start working with say stuff like that. And I have found the vast majority of people have a much greater ability to moderate than they believe they have. And the reason they're not good at it is because they've never really practiced moderation. I bet, Lois, if you look at your history, you've always done all or nothing. And then what you think is you practicing moderation, you saying, oh, I'll have just one. And then the one turns into 1,000. But that's, that's not practicing moderation. I just want to point that out. Now, that being said, maybe you are an addict. Maybe you are. It, it exists, but I first want you to be honest with yourself. Have you really practiced moderation or have you practiced all or nothing? And on the way back to nothing, you've said, I'll just have one, and one turned into all, cuz that's not moderation. Moderation is saying, okay, I usually eat a bag of candy. What would it feel like to eat three-quarters of the bag? Let me work on that. Once you get good at that, let me see if what I can do— if I can cut 25% more out. You all tell me if you ever tried that. I usually eat a pint of ice cream, Jim. I gotta stop eating. If I, if I eat one bite, eat all of it. Have you ever tried eating 3/4 of it just to prove to yourself that you don't have to eat all of it? You ever tried that? Have you ever tried it more than once? Because folks, we learn through mistakes. You know, if I teach you how to swing a golf club and I explain it all to you and then I say, okay, here's the golf club. You got one swing. Let's see what you did. What'd you learn? And I give you one swing. How are you going to learn? Think about that. Cause that's how you're all approaching your diet. You give yourself one swing, right? You read a book on golf, swing a golf club. You say, okay, let's see how it works. You shank it. God damn it. That didn't work. I knew it. I knew it. And then you quit. Then 6 months later, you say, you know what? I found another book on driving, swinging a golf club. Let me try that. Here we go. One swing. Oh my God, this isn't working. I'm never going to get it. This doesn't work either. Must be me. That plan didn't work. That plan didn't work. I've swung the club twice and it hasn't worked. Sound familiar? Right. So again, how do you learn how to swing the club? Well, yeah, read the book, but the real work's done with the practicing. And what is practicing? Practicing is swinging the club and shanking the ball and then saying, wait a second, what am I doing here? Let me start to understand what's going on in here. I know, I know logically I'm supposed to hold the club this way and swing through and hit it perfectly. I know that. But what's the difference between knowing that logically and being able to do it? What's the path we follow? It's called practicing. And what's really happening is your nervous system and your brain are learning from your mistakes how to correct them. And you're breaking them down. Oh, oh, my, my thumb's in the wrong spot. Oh, my shoulders are crooked. Oh, my, my legs aren't planted. You're breaking it down into microscopic like little pieces so you can fix them, and then putting that all together, that's how you hit the— that's how you swing the club right. There's no way— there's not a person on the planet who read a book or watched a video and then gave one swing and hit it right, and that was it, you know? And it sounds silly to say it in that context, but is that not what we all do with the weight loss? We go into our plan, it's okay, and the second we make a mistake, we quit. And program yourself, then the whole program is built around your mistakes, because guess what? You're gonna make lots of fucking mistakes. There's no avoiding it. There's no avoiding it. And with dieting, your whole goal is that I'm gonna miss— I'm gonna not make any mistakes. Here I go, tomorrow's Monday, fresh start, no mistakes, gonna start tomorrow, no mistakes till I get to my goal weight. And what happens the second you make a mistake? You freak out, you quit, you get discouraged, get overwhelmed. It proves you couldn't do it. But it's mostly a mindset thing. You know, if you went into your weight loss and you said, I can't wait to make a mistake so I can learn, boy, it's a whole different paradigm. And it feels a lot better because you're gonna make lots of mistakes no matter what. I don't give a shit. Fine, you cannot make mistakes for a couple days or a couple weeks. Fine, sometimes a couple months. I'll give you that. But you gotta make a mistake. You're gonna make a mistake, and it's not a problem. Calm down. Stop stressing and worrying so much that you're gonna make a mistake, and instead have a well-formed strategy for how you're going to meet the mistake and what you're going to do when you make it. That's literally what Program Yourself is built around more than anything else, is that no matter how your day goes— great, awful— you've got a strategy at the end of the day to use to meet it the exact same way. We're learning from our day equally— well, not equally, because we always learn more from our mistakes— but you're using the same process whether you had a perfect day, an absolutely awful day, We're doing the same process here to learn from our day and start tomorrow fresh. What diet have you done that feels like that? What diet have you done that doesn't feel like an endurance test, right? What's an endurance test? Endurance test— there's no end to it. There's just when you stop doing it. And tell me that's not how you in your mind think about weight loss. Tell me you don't think about like an endurance test. And that's why you can't maintain the success that you achieve, because it always feels like something you're doing temporarily, because it's not built for the long term. Dieting is not your friend. Um, Sharon says, I had access a year or so ago to the hypnosis sessions. Do I still have it? Um, Sharon, I think you're in the program. If you're in the program, you have lifetime access to everything. And so if you're having trouble getting in there or finding it um, shoot an email to support@programyourselfthen, um, or just go to the help desk. And if you're talking about the free hypnosis session, you have lifetime access to that too. And so if you can't find that, that link or whatever, uh, again, same thing, just shoot, uh, support@programyourselfthen a message and they'll get it straightened out for you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them. I'm sorry if I miss any questions over on TikTok. It is forever and always a challenging platform to find the questions on because it shows me every person who joins and leaves, it feels like, and it gets hard to find the questions. So I apologize. Um, what's up, Josh? Josh says, good afternoon, Jim. How regular is your weight fluctuations, pendulum swinging up or down, 5, 4 or 5 from your goal weight? Um, yeah, great question. And for me personally, I have a 5-pound window. So my goal weight's not a weight so much, it's a, it's a range. And so my goal weight, what most people consider like the goal weight, is my lower end of the range, and I've added 5 pounds on top of that. So if I'm in that range, uh, I'm good, I'm right where I want to be. But that accounts for my fluctuations. Now, how often does the weight swing that way? Well, honestly, I couldn't really answer that Because a lot of times, like, when I get to my goal weight and things are kind of locked in, I don't really weigh myself a lot. When my weight— like, last year I put 10 pounds on over the winter, and so I want— I went into kind of weight loss mode, and then I start weighing myself every day. Okay, so, um, once my weight kind of stabilizes, I kind of stop weighing myself so much. But that being said, um, how regular are my weight fluctuations? Regular. My weight, I've noticed, constantly fluctuates at least 2 pounds, I'd say, every day. I have no idea what it's going to be. It's almost always a 2-pound swing. Sometimes I've gotten as high— about the highest I've had, like, one day to one day is 5 pounds, but that's an outlier. But typically I would say I would expect if I stepped on the scale today, it's going to be a 2-pound range if things are relatively normal. If, if I've been, you know, overeating or things have been weird, it could go up more. But I'd say probably 2 pounds for me. And everyone's different, though. And that's another piece. You know, I say all the time, I say, folks, please, if you want to lose weight, start weighing yourself every day. And most of the time people resist it. You know, they don't want to do it. But I have the good fortune of being able to work with people and work with them, encourage them to do it. They finally do it. And the story is almost always the same once they do that, where it's very, very helpful for them because it's insightful. Because I'm going to tell you a secret, folks. You all got no idea how your weight fluctuates. If you weigh yourself once a week, you have no idea how much your weight fluctuates day to day. And it's different for each person. So if you've never weighed yourself every day, then you absolutely have no idea. Because there's no chart, there's no, um, there's no calculator that's going to give you anything accurate because every person is so unique. And every time someone starts weighing themselves every day, they always come back and say, holy shit, it's weird. I thought I put 5 pounds on, I didn't put any weight on. I thought I lost 4 pounds, it stayed the same. And what ends up happening is, without question, everyone who weighs themselves every day gets to the point that they realize what they think about their weight and what the reality is is completely different. And that is one of the most greatest gifts you can give yourself, because most of you are spending most of your time not weighing yourself. If you weigh yourself once a week, that's 6 days you have no idea what your weight's doing and you're just living in your idea of it. I call it Schrödinger's scale. If you don't know Schrödinger's cat, it's a philosophical concept that you got a cat in a box. Is it alive or dead? Well, it's both until we look in the box. And Schrödinger's scale is this idea that you're going to weigh yourself all week, but you're spending 6 days either thinking you've lost a bunch of weight or thinking you gained a bunch of weight. Both are probably wrong, but those feelings that that creates are impacting your behavior and it's impacting when you step on the scale and it fucks you either way. Let me, let me be clear, because if you're going through a week And let's just say you weigh yourself every Sunday. So Monday comes and you have a shitty day. You didn't sleep well the night before. Your boss is being a pain in the ass. You're arguing with your family and you kind of eat— your eating is not very good. Well, now all of a sudden, in your mind, you think you put 5 pounds on. You feel like you're way off track. What's the point? The rest of the week is going to suffer from that. Now, if you got on the scale on Tuesday, you'd find that you didn't put any weight on. And that would reground you, but you haven't stepped on the scale. So in your mind, you think you put a bunch of weight on. You didn't eat great on Monday. And so now that nudges you to overeat more the rest of the week. And so when you get on the scale the following Sunday, maybe you put 3 pounds on, but you thought you're going to put 5 or 6 pounds on because we always make things extra dramatic, but you put 3 pounds on. Now you feel discouraged anyways. Now let's take the opposite view. You weigh yourself every Sunday. You step on the scale Sunday. And Monday is great. You eat perfect. Tuesday, holy shit, I eat perfect. Oh my God, I can't believe this. Wednesday, guess what? Perfect. You ate perfect. Now in your head, you're like, oh my God, I bet I'm down 3, 4 pounds. I'm probably down 3, 4, 5 pounds. I bet I've been eating perfect. Get to Sunday, you're down 1 pound. Now you had a great week, you're down a pound. Over the week, I guess. But now you feel discouraged. And this is what I see from weighing yourself once a week. I find it to be so damaging. And I know people can't relate to that because they're so emotionally triggered by the scale. But you don't have to be emotionally triggered by the scale. I will say to you people that are triggered by the scale, have you ever learned how to feel more emotionally indifferent and neutral to the scale? And I know the answer is no. So just because you feel that way does not mean it's the only way you can feel either. And to feel neutral about the scale and to be able to use it as a tool is as important to your weight loss journey as the speedometer of your car is to any car journey that you go on. It's extremely valuable information to be able to reference throughout the trip. So the idea of looking at your speedometer, uh, 85% less of the time doesn't seem like a good idea. And so I don't know how you would convince me that looking at the scale 85% or less of the time is a good idea. And I know that flies in the face of a lot of diet, but again, the diet mindset's broke to shit anyways. So you're not gonna argue with me out of a diet mindset that, uh, your way's probably right. Um, Cash says, do you still eat McDonald's? No, I, I don't eat McDonald's. Um, I don't eat any fast food short of I just don't eat fast food. If you want to call D'Angelo's, once in a while eat there. Um, I can't even consider that fast food, and they're cooking it right there. You know, I get vegetables and stuff, a little too much cheese, but whatever. Um, maybe Subway really rarely, and again, I get a vegetable sandwich. So, uh, I, I got— and I'm not trying to say this to be an asshole. I, I hate people that are really healthy that are so, so out of touch. Um, so I don't want to have that energy because I used to eat tons of fast food. But I will tell you, the secret to not eating fast food is to read books like The End of Overeating, Salt, Sugar, Fat, The Dorito Effect, Ultra-Processed People. You read those books and you think differently about the food and your desire goes down. So my not eating at fast food has nothing to do with willpower at all. It has to do with, you know, cratering desire for it because I've learned what that food actually is and does to me. And so by doing that, the desires crumbled. But I haven't eaten fast food in any substantial way in 25 years. And it's all because of what I've learned about it, not because of my willpower. So, and I don't say that to be an asshole because I know, like, oh, I could never not do that. Well, I did not do it one day. It was a slow trajectory. Where it just got less and less and less. And next thing you know, I just never did it, you know. Um, Nicola says, how do I stop cravings? Um, you know, how do you stop cravings? I will let you know there's no one simple answer. I mean, it's a holistic, comprehensive approach I think that's needed. And again, in Program Yourself, then we follow the goal weight pyramid. So again, I know this freaks some people out because they just want me to drink a glass of water before you eat, you know what I mean? Like, like that may help, but, but there's no one tactic that's going to fix everything. There's no one tactic that's going to handle your cravings. Your cravings are impacted by a lot of different things, and so is your weight. And so I think it's important to recognize that we need a holistic, comprehensive approach to managing your weight. And I think you— we've all been done a disservice by the diet industry because the diet industry always gives you one thing, you know, just count your points, just restrict, just create a calorie deficit, just stop eating carbs, just don't eat for 16 hours, you know, always trying to simplify and minimize it. So I think honestly, to truly get control of your cravings, you're going to have to get your mindset, you know, right. You have to get your lifestyle dialed in, and then you have to figure out your eating in a way that truly resonates for you. And I know that's an unsatisfying answer to you because you're so used to, like me, just Oh, just, just start eating acai berries. Just start. Um, oh, oh, you know what? Actually, there's this new, uh, you know, tea they made from the mountains of the Himalayas that it wipes cravings out. You know, it's like you want to just hear that because that's what we've been conditioned to believe is going to fix it, but it's not. And I'm here to tell you that for a fact. There's no one thing that's going to fix your weight. Not intermittent fasting, not keto, not Weight Watchers, none of it. You need a comprehensive, holistic approach, in my opinion, to live at your goal weight. Now, you can lose weight on any of them, I'll give you that. But to truly live at your goal weight long term, uh, I don't see any other way than a holistic, comprehensive one. And if I did, I would tell it to you. My main goal in life is to help as many people as possible live at their goal weight. And I'm constantly challenging myself to make the, the system, the strategies easier, easier, easier, simpler, simpler, simpler. Um, but at the end of the day, we also have to acknowledge that dieting has done us wrong because dieting is not even— listen, dieting is just a branch of the food processing industry. And I mean that literally. Weight Watchers was owned by Heinz. Jenny Craig was owned by Nestlé. Atkins Food Products, owned by the same company that owns Annie Anne's Pretzels and Cinnabon. SlimFast, owned by the same company that owns Ben Jerry's Ice Cream. These companies, the last thing in the world they want is for you to not have cravings, to not want to eat their shitty foods. Right? I mean, you don't have to be a business expert to know that. And so they promote these plans that actually make you more crave their foods. And I mean this literally, literally. And so, you know, unfortunately, most people— this is literally why I'm here every day, Monday through Friday, for free. This is my mission in life. And this is one of the big ways that I just serve the world. And I don't want to sound delusional here. But honestly, I think the biggest challenge for most people is they don't realize that they're stuck in a diet mindset, and they don't realize there's a much better and effective way to deal with their weight. And that's why I'm here every day to literally help you. I, I'm here every day literally coaching you for, for usually about an hour at least every single day. And it's because for me, your weight and weight in general is a life and death issue. For me, this is so personal. My father died when he was 54 years old. I was 9 years old. So for me, weight's so much more than, you know, wearing your skinny jeans. It's literally life and death. And even more important than how long you're going to live, honestly, is the quality of life while you're here. And that's why I'm here every single day, genuinely working to help you. And Tiffany says, how can I lose 5 pounds in 1 week? Um, I would say that the best way to lose 5 pounds in 1 week is do not eat anything. Don't drink anything. Work out as much as you can. Um, maybe take laxatives too. That's probably the best way to lose 5 pounds in a week, I would say. So if that's your goal, to lose 5 pounds in a week. Now, if you want the weight to stay off, none of that shit's going to help you because after that week or that month, however long you're able to white-knuckle and stay with it, there's going to be a bounce-back effect like a pendulum. So if you have like a photo shoot happening on Saturday and you need to lose 5 pounds for that, then that's a great strategy, I guess. But if you give a shit about actually keeping the weight off, that's a terrible strategy. But there it is. Yep, my shirt says, read a book called Atomic Habits. Yeah, Atomic Habits is great. I like that book. I think The Power of Habits is better, okay, personally, but I think Atomic Habits is, is a great book. James Clear He's a talented, talented author. Uh, what's up, Lois? Lois says, I'm able to enjoy cookies or candy with mindful eating and not beating myself up. The all-or-something is so valuable. I'm only about 30% away from my goal range being 4'8". I am now able to buy girls' size 16, 18. Great job, Lois! Nice job. Lois has been working this for a while, so I'm proud of you, Lois. Um, and, and I love just even, even your mindset. I can see from your writing, um, that it's resonating. You know, because you are enjoying cookies and candy. And the beauty of that is that that's set up for longer-term success. You know, the second you completely take carbs out of the picture, for example, that you're on a, you're on a temporary plan. I mean, how long are you not going to eat any cookies or carbs or pizza or anything else? You know, I just don't, I don't know, you know. So I think short-term weight loss and long-term weight loss are two totally different things. And unfortunately most people have only been exposed to short-term weight loss thinking. Yeah, so great job, Lois. Um, the next— Lois says your program is helping because your information is intelligent, it makes sense. Well, thank you, I appreciate that, and I love hearing that. Honestly, I don't think I'm the smartest guy on the planet, um, but I do think when it comes to weight that there's a certain intelligence there because I have figured all this stuff out through direct experience from people that have successfully lost weight and kept it off. And from working with directly over 6,000— I've done over 6,000 private weight loss sessions. And so you do something long enough, you start to learn, you know, you start to pick things up. So that means a lot to me. Thank you, Lois. So Natalie— Natalie says, love all your work, walking 5 miles a day and looking at everything calmly and small changes. After 110 miles of walking, I had lost 1 inch of waist and 13 pounds. It's been amazing. I noticed the difference right away and feel like a thinner and healthier person. And my mind is my best ally. Yeah, awesome, Natalie. I appreciate you sharing that, and that's great. And 5 miles a day, wow, right? But I want to reinforce for everyone else that you don't have to walk 5 miles a day either. That's another diet trap that we hear someone who's really doing well and succeeding. For Natalie, walking 5 miles a day is the right fit at this point for her, but it may or may not be for you. And so if you want to try that, go ahead. If it works, great. If it doesn't, though, that's okay. You know, and I think that's again, the dieting has trained us that there's one solution, one size fits all. And I'm the exact opposite of that. I think the secret is to figure out what works for you. And that takes a little bit more time and effort and trial and error. We don't like that, but it leads you to a place with much more solid grounding under you. So great job, Natalie. And again, when you, when you succeed that way, in a way that resonates with you, It's— I mean, not only do you get better results, but there's a confidence there. I, I can't explain. It's like the thing with dieting, like, even when you're getting good results, if you're really honest with yourself and you pay attention, you're going to notice there's like— there's this low-key anxiety to dieters. And weirdly, I've noticed that dieters, the closer they get to their goal weight, the more anxiety they experience. Because they start thinking, how long am I able to keep this on for? How am I going to be able to keep this up? And it may show up that way, or it may show up as like, I hope I don't put the weight back on. I'm terrified I'm gonna put the weight back on. It's just another way it presents itself. But that all comes from the idea that what you're doing isn't really resonating with you. It's not meant for you. You're trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, and you're constantly experiencing that struggle. So when you, when you build around who you are and what works for you, again, not only to get better results typically, but it feels fundamentally different. And that's one of the biggest things I notice my clients share with me is that it's not just that they're getting better results, it's that it just feels more peaceful and calm, the whole process. And that leads to anticipating a future that is exciting. Because most dieters, as they get closer to their goal weight, they get more and more terrified. Because once the weight loss stops— because you get to your goal weight, now there's no more weight loss. And without the excitement of that weight loss, the reality of your lifestyle comes into play. And you say, Jesus, how am I gonna keep this? This is miserable. It was doable when I had the excitement of the weight loss to at least focus on, but once that goes, how am I going to keep this up? And that's a core problem for a lot of dieters. And they never address that. Never gets addressed. They'll talk about, um, leptin levels. They'll talk about, uh, you know, metabolic adaptation. They'll talk about The Biggest Loser studies, uh, every single reason for why people regain weight except for the core reason that the way you lost the weight in the first place was making you fucking miserable. How about we focus on that and tell me that's not true for you all? And you're never going to hear any scientists, I guess, explain that. I don't know why. But to me, that's my main focus. So what happens if you start to lose weight in a way that makes you feel better? What happens then? What happens if the way that you lose weight starts to feel better immediately? You immediately start to feel more relaxed, more calm, more energized, more emotionally balanced, happier, more clearheaded, more hopeful, more optimistic. And then you start losing weight. What happens then? Did you all ever even consider that approach? Did you ever consider that was possible? No, you did not, because you've been trained by the diet industry that you need to be miserable in order to lose weight. You need to be miserable, and the more miserable you are, the faster you're going to lose the weight. The diet industry is not your friend, folks. The diet industry is a branch of the food industry, and they have programmed you to be overweight. In some ways, I swear to you, dieting is more responsible for the obesity epidemic than the food. At the very least, it's hand in hand because the dieting has put in your head how to lose weight, which is completely wrong. I always say diets are the equivalent of a get-rich-quick scheme. There's no difference. And the big difference though is this, that when it comes to money, we all have an acknowledged sense of how most people do it. You go and get training or education, you learn how to create value in the world and you're compensated for it. That's the traditional way that people make money. But then there's the get-rich-quick scheme, which is the hacks, the, the scams, all the bullshit to shortcut the system. And in that context, we can see get-rich-quick schemes for what they are. But when it comes to weight loss in this environment we live in, we have no traditional way. There is no traditional way because we're dealing with something that's brand new in history. Never in history have we had to deal with the food environment that we find ourselves in, and the nonstop marketing that we find ourselves in. And so dieting fills up the space of this is how you lose weight. It's not. It's a get-rich-quick scheme. It's a scam. It's an illusion. And the real way you get control of your weight is not to focus on losing weight. It's to focus on living at your goal weight. How can you live at your goal weight in the easiest, most enjoyable, way possible? That's a fucking question you have never asked yourself, and you have been obsessed with weight your whole life. That's fucking shocking, and it makes me so depressed that I get on here every single day to do this, because it's not fair. I know you're a good person. I know you're a hard worker. I know you're smart. The reason you're struggling with your weight is not because you're not smart, you're not a hard worker, you don't have willpower. It's none of those things. It's that you have never learned how to think like a thin, healthy person. And you know that's true. And that is the answer. Again, the goal weight pyramid. You tell me, am I bullshitting you? I'm making this up. Am I just a huckster? Have you ever approached your weight strategically with a comprehensive system where you master your mindset, get your mindset right so you think like a thin, healthy person, get your lifestyle dialed in so you're able to easily and comfortably live like a thin, healthy person and get your eating dialed in in a way that's custom made for you so that you're able to live and eat and think like a thin, healthy person? And I know the answer is no, because I know the program doesn't exist other than program yourself. And if I'm wrong, tell me. Tell me, nah, Jim, you fucking jerk. There's this program does all that. Let me know. I have no problem being wrong in life. Zero at all. Let me know. But I know for a fact, cause I've asked this question literally hundreds of times. I've been doing this podcast, this live stream for over 3 years, every weekday. Pretty much. I ask this question all the time. I never get an answer. I'll get, I'll get Corinne Crabtree and I think she's great, but again, it might, again, I think it's great, but I think that what I'm doing is way deeper. And so I just think, and again, I'm not here to sell my program. I don't give a shit. But I just want you to— I want you to realize that you've never learned the core things you need to know in order to master your weight. You've been given tactic, tactic, tactic, tactic, tactic, tactic that you're supposed to force yourself to follow. It's a broken system and it's almost impossible to win in it. So again, I'm not just trying to placate you either. I'm trying to help you identify the truth of this. You know, I know you're so used to just beating yourself up and saying, oh, this guy is horseshit. I just need to do it. I know you're thinking that, and I'm here to tell you that's bullshit. That's part of the diet bullshit that you're trapped in. You're all trapped. If you're struggling with your weight, I can almost guarantee you're trapped in a diet mindset and you're trapped in it. It's a fucking prison. It's an invisible prison in your mind so that every time you think about weight loss, you think like a dieter. It's one of the most complete and effective psychological operations in history. Am I paranoid? Am I crazy? I don't know. But that's how I see it. I hope you see it that way. I think once you see it that way, you know, again, you have to see the bars of the jail before you can realize you've been imprisoned. And you can't escape the jail if you don't realize you're in one. Not to be dramatic and, you know, over the top here, but I genuinely think of it that way. Tiffany says, I've lost 175 pounds and I want to get to 180 before my trip. I don't know, Tiffany. I don't know that Tiffany wanted to lose 5 pounds in a week. I don't know if I believe that. I, I gotta tell you, in my experience, someone who's lost 175 pounds wouldn't ask that question. But you know what, there's a lot of people on the planet. I haven't talked to all of them, but that, that's, that just rings the fishy thing to me. But I don't know, because who gives a shit, you know what I mean? Like, 5 more pounds I guess, you know, but that's just a whole nother thing too. So maybe, maybe I have found people that have lost hundreds of pounds and still feel like failures because they haven't gotten right to their goal weight, you know. So, um, to lose 175 pounds, you want to get to 180, so you've lost 50% of your goal, you've lost 50% of your weight. That's so amazing. I, I, if you don't get the 5 pounds off, I really hope you're able to appreciate what you've succeeded, if what you're saying is true. ANS says, I tried to download the free hypnosis link on your page and it says the link doesn't exist anymore. Um, I don't know, that's, that's weird. I know it works and all, but, but shoot me a message. Maybe some weird thing happened along the way. Email services sometimes break things, whatever. But if you shoot me an email at support@programyourself, then we'll get that fixed up for you. Um, Yard says, how is it that I have the discipline to lift weights 3 to 4 times a week for years, no matter how hard it is, but when it comes to food, I have no control? Um, because they're completely different things. That's why. And I think that's— so I'm so glad you asked that question because, listen, I've done a lot of private coaching and it's cost a lot of money to work with me, okay? And it's $25 grand to work with me privately. So, so think about the person who can invest that type of money. I will let you know, they're successful financially, obviously, right? Um, and so these are people that are very, very smart, very focused, very driven, verifiable, certified right? They've got— they've made a lot of money, and it's obvious why. So they've got all this skill set over here. But just because we have a skill set over here doesn't mean we have it over here. And I think that's a big mistake dieters make, certainly my clients make, is, I don't understand, I run this part of my life thriving, this part's amazing, this part's successful, and then the weight's different. Yeah, because they're two totally different things. You know, just because you're good at basketball doesn't mean you're gonna be good at golfing. Just because you're good at, um, you know Playing the piano doesn't mean you're going to be good at sewing. You don't mean like they— I know it seems like that should be mapped over, but they really— they're not. Food's its own thing, and I'll just leave it at that. I'm Here says, what you eat today? What I eat today? Today is a clean day for me. So typically I eat the same breakfast. I usually have Ezekiel toast, peanut butter, apple and peanut butter. I'm not going to lie. I've added like a small slice of sourdough bread. Usually happens somewhere in the middle there. Uh, and that's what I've had so far. After this is over, I will have a giant salad. If you're not familiar with my salads, I made a TikTok, I pinned it to the top. You can kind of get a sense of it. A big-ass salad. I'll eat that, maybe have a banana with it, and then I'll have dinner. So, but again, what I eat really doesn't matter, but I, I share that with you because I know people are, are curious. So again, what matters is what works for you, but I get the question. Stakes, whatever, says the best thing that ever clicked for me was realizing I was better than feeling the way I did when I was overweight. Yeah, agreed, agreed. I think that's the secret, is focusing on how you feel on the inside, you know. And I know the scale moving is a source of that good feeling, but it's not the only one. And if you start focusing on how much better you feel, um, it's not just losing weight, You know, it's noticing how much better you feel when you make a good food choice. See, I think people put way too much focus on the scale going down, but if you start to put your focus also on how you feel after you make a healthier food choice, I think you'll be shocked to find that there's so much pleasure waiting for you right on the other side of making great decisions. And if you start to focus on those, it's way more powerful, 'cause the scale is off in the distance. And your brain values things that are here more than things that are over here in time. And so if you start to realize how much better you feel when you get the salad rather than the burger and fries, like right after, it's really transformative. So I agree with that, and I hear that a lot from people that successfully get their weight under. Um, Anderson says, why is it harder to lose the weight when you're getting closer to your goal weight? Um, yeah, I think that's a, that's a great question. I got a theory on this, and I think the big reason, in my opinion, I think there's a, there's a A number of reasons this can happen. One is, A, just simply the mathematics of weight loss, right? So as you start to lose weight, it takes less energy to run your body. So you have to cut calories more. I think that's just number one. But I think the biggest one psychologically is that you— most people trade the excitement of the food They trade the excitement of the food, the excitement and pleasure of the food, for the excitement and the pleasure of the scale going down. And I think as the scale gets closer to the point where it's going to stop going down, I think people subconsciously know, well, what's going to motivate me then? And I think the big illusion a lot of people under is, well, just being thin is going to motivate me. But if just being thin was going to motivate you, why did you ever put the weight on in the first place? You know, so there's a thing called hedonic adaptation, which is that we basically adapt to whatever level of pleasure normalizes. So, so to put it in context, you know, when you get a new car, at first it's a new car and you're just fired up and excited about thinking about it. But after a couple of months, it just becomes your car. Okay. Same thing happens with the weight. And so I think a lot of people, as they start getting closer to that goal weight, they subconsciously get nervous. Like, how am I going to keep this up? Because you all know how to diet and lose weight, right? You're all— if you're even good at it, right? You, you know how to diet and lose weight. You understand that phase. You've practiced it. You've done it. You believe it can happen. Um, how comfortable are you? How certain are you that you're going to be able to live at that weight? And I know the answer is not very comfortable, not very confident, because what happens is— and this is why you start to hear, oh my God, I hope I don't put the weight back on. I hope I don't put the weight back on, right? And that's what happens as you get close to your goal weight. Typically what happens to dieters is they start obsessively worrying about putting the weight back on. And I think it's a sneaky little trick to keep yourself right, right before you get to that goal weight so you don't have to deal with that. Because once you get to your goal weight, the, um, the, the excitement of it— that's a whole nother thing. It's a dopamine manipulation. If you understand dopamine, that's part of it. It's the idea that once we get there, the excitement's over as well. So there's a lot of that. And that's what I think is— I think that's the big reason. Or a big part of it. That's why in Program Yourself Thin, we always start from day one really clarifying, connecting to the weight you want to live at. So with Program Yourself Thin, the goal is not the weight loss. You know, if you think about it, folks, let's just zoom out on what your real goal is. Your real goal is not to lose weight. Please understand that. And that's the, that's the beginning to answering this question is your goal is not to lose weight. Your goal is to live at your goal weight. And if everything goes according to plan for you, The weight loss piece— I can't use my hands here because the video's flipped— but your, your goal is, if you think about the weight, in an ideal world, what you're hoping for is the weight loss phase is going to be here. But then really what you're hoping for is that the rest of your life you're just going to stay at your goal weight. But if you really reflect on it, all you ever think about is this little phase here. You never think— you don't give your maintenance— you treat as an afterthought. And program yourself, then we literally start with the maintenance. We start with maintenance because that's the fucking goal. That's why the book I wrote is called Living, Living at Your Goal Weight. Living, living at your goal weight. Living at your goal weight is a different thing than drastically changing your life for a little while so you can lose some weight temporarily. Do you see the difference psychologically between those two? They're, they're two completely different things. I hope that makes sense. So that's a great question though. Let's see here. What's up, Jane? Jane says, this morning my laptop— where'd it go? Oh shit, sorry. This morning my laptop started to smoke and then died. One more reason that has made today frustrating. It'll be difficult to avoid sugar. Okay, Jane, well, you know, again, I'm sorry about your laptop. Let me just start there. That sucks and it's annoying. Um, it'll be difficult to avoid sugar. You know, I, I find that interesting. So again, here's, here's a little bit of work on this. Okay, so right off the bat, the morning my laptop started to smoke and then died, one more reason that has made today frustrating. Okay. That's completely understandable. You're frustrated. That's an annoying day. You're frustrated. Maybe you're worried, nervous about having to buy a new computer, all the rest of it. So already, though, your brain says, I'm frustrated. I want to eat sugar. I can't eat sugar. What that means is that you're locked into a problem-oriented mindset. You're— you know the problem. The problem is my computer died. Oops. My computer died. That's a problem. I'm really frustrated. That's a problem. And usually when I'm frustrated, I go and eat a bunch of sugar. That's a problem. There's no solution anywhere in that orbit. And again, I'm not saying this is easy to do, but I'm saying it's really valuable to do because now, Jane, your whole mindset is focusing on sugar. And again, what do I tell you? The subconscious mind does not understand negatives. So I say to you, you can all think about this. Don't think about what I'm about to say. Ready? Get your willpower together. I don't want you to think about what I'm about to say. I'm gonna say a word, and I want you to not think about it. Pretty simple. Okay, don't think about a banana. Don't think about a yellow banana. Don't think about a banana. What are you thinking about? Okay, so right now what Jane's thinking is, don't eat sugar, avoid sugar. I want you to not eat sugar. Don't eat sugar. Don't eat sugar. Now she's not saying don't eat sugar. That's not how she's thinking about it either. She's specifically thinking don't eat those chocolate bars, and it's a specific chocolate bar. So, so I want to just let you all know this. You all say sugar, but you all think specific ways that the sugar is consumed. Does that make sense? So it's like you're saying, oh, I don't want to eat sugar, but you're thinking the Hershey's chocolate bar. You just see the difference? One's very imaginative. It's very specific. Sugar is vague. No one's eating— no one's got a bowl of sugar and eating sugar. Sugar is dissociated. So when we talk about sugars, oh, I want to avoid sugar. Hmm, okay, that sounds very mathematical, very cold, very— right? But the reality in your mind is, don't eat those candy bars. Don't eat those candy bars you love. Don't eat those delicious candy— my mouth's starting to salivate as I say it, because when I say— when I say chocolate bars, You're imagining a specific chocolate bar. I said Hershey bar, and you probably said either you love Hershey bars, you say, I don't like Hershey bars. But if I say chocolate bars, don't think about chocolate bars, chocolate bars, chocolate. You're thinking about your favorite chocolate bars if you like chocolate bars. If I say candy bars, you're thinking about your specific candy bar. You're not thinking about some vague-ass sense of candy bar. You're thinking about the candy bar you like, which is, is what I'm trying to say, that when you imagine things vividly in your mind, your body responds to them. So I will let you all know that the fastest way I can get you to eat candy bars, if you like them, is to keep saying candy bars because you will keep imagining a candy bar. Now, what's a candy bar mean in your mind? You have to give it context. So now I pretty much— candy bars I eat, I eat at Halloween now. So now I'm imagining the fun size, and especially this year, um, I was all in on Those are the ones I was eating a lot of this year. Well, certainly Snickers. I always eat kind of a lot of Snickers. Oh, the, the, um, the Twixes. I really got into Twixes all of a sudden. So it's like now I'm thinking about those, right? And so I'm giving it context, I'm giving it meaning. I'm remembering Halloween, I'm remembering a fun night, I'm remembering grabbing something out of the bowl. Now I'm giving context. So if Jane spends the rest of her day hoping she doesn't eat sugar What she's really doing is hoping that she doesn't go and get a bunch of chocolate bars and sit and eat them tonight. And the more she thinks about that, the more she reinforces that neural pattern, the more she literally elicits the physiological state of hunger and craving. You're, you're building up the momentum for it. So what's the alternative though? I'm not going to just send you down the problem path. We just explored the problem path and that's how most of you think. You think about the problem obsessively and you say, don't do it, don't do this problem, don't do this problem, don't do this problem. But what's going on subconsciously is you're cranking up the desire and the craving for it. So what's a solution? And I want to just preface this by saying this is the first step to a solution because you need to practice this. But let me just point out the difference and how stark in contrast it is. The solution becomes a We're going to focus on the solution. So the first step to a solution is to articulate it, even if you can't do it, even if you don't know what it is. So we start saying, Jesus, my laptop burned, this sucks. I'm really frustrated. I'm frustrated. That's the problem. Well, what's the solution? The sugar is not the solution. The sugar was the old solution. The sugar was the thing in the past that you would use to take the edge off the frustration. But what's a real solution? The real solution is not to not eat sugar and be fucking frustrated. Does that make sense? That's not a solution. The solution is not for me to sit here, I'm not eating sugar, I'm not eating sugar, I'm not eating sugar. That's not what you want, but that's what you're saying, Jane. One more reason that has made today frustrating: it'll be difficult to avoid sugar. So what Jane's saying literally is, my goal is to be frustrated without eating sugar. But that's not what your nervous system wants. Your nervous system just wants a few minutes apiece. And the only way she knows how to do that at this moment is to eat those chocolate bars. Does that make sense? You don't want to eat the chocolate bars. You want a few minutes apiece. And that's all you'll get, Jane. You'll get a few minutes apiece. You'll scarf the chocolate bar down. You'll say, that felt good for a second. Let me get one more. Oh, a second. That's what you're getting. You're getting that, that, that, that feeling. That feeling of relief. But what happens if we realize we're frustrated and we stop there? We don't talk about sugar. You only think about sugar because that's your best strategy right now to not feel frustrated. But what if— what if you had a better strategy to not feel frustrated? Well, that starts by saying, how would you like to feel instead? You feel frustrated. Fair. We acknowledge that, we become aware of it. Now we say, how do you want to feel? I don't know what your answer is, but let's just all throw it in there. I'd like to feel just relaxed. God damn it, I don't want my computer to break. I'm annoyed, I'm frustrated, but I want to be able to just absorb it and be okay. I mean, things happen in life and this isn't what I wanted, but I've had other things happen before and I've gotten through it. I'm gonna be okay. I want to feel okay. I want to feel all right with it. I'm annoyed and irritated, but I want to be like, you know, that's life and we move forward. And in 6 months when I look back on this, I'm not even going to care. I'm gonna have a new computer and I won't even remember this. That makes me feel better. I want to feel relaxed. I want to feel calm about it. That's what I'd like to feel. I'd like to feel relaxed and calm. And actually, now that I think about it, yeah, new computer. That's kind of cool. Maybe I'll get a better computer. Maybe I'd like to feel excited. Yeah, but I'm stressed about the money. Okay, that's fair. But what are we going to do? Are we going to spend the money? Are we going to get a new computer or are we going to not get one? Now we're going to get one. Okay, well, how about we enjoy the process? This is getting weird. I'd like to feel relaxed and calm, and I'd like to actually enjoy getting a new computer. I'm still annoyed. This isn't what I want. This isn't what I want. I want to have the same computer and just have a normal day. But that's not the day that visited me. So knowing everything that happened, what's the best case scenario? Oh, all right. Like, take a deep breath. I'd like to feel resilient, like I can handle stuff like this and be calm and grounded. That'd be cool. And you know what? Yeah. Get a new computer. This is going to be kind of cool, too. Let's, let's go get a new computer. Let's have fun. Let's enjoy it. You know what, it's gonna be great. Now a new computer, I have to worry about this thing, this thing. This is actually, you know what, maybe this is a blessing in disguise. You get it, Shane? Does this make any— I don't know if this helps people or not, but to me, this is why hypnosis is so important. Because at the end of the day, we're all our own best or worst hypnotist. And I just described two exact same scenarios in two completely different ways. And I hope you got to experience some of that. Again, I'm not saying this works all the time. I mean, I still get, you know, shit visits me and I get caught up and I get, you know, upset and off track. That, that's going to happen too. But in my mind, I will tell you one thing that's very clear is I'm very aware of when I'm being problem-oriented and when I'm being solution-oriented. And that has been one of the greatest gifts of this whole thing for me, because problems can visit me, I can get caught in them for a minute, and I have a much greater ability now to shift myself over to solutions. And I found that even just talking about the solutions, even just, just talking about it starts to create that reality. And you watch me do it just in real time. I didn't know what I was going to say. And I wasn't just saying this happy horseshit. Oh, you're fine. You'll be all right. You're stronger than this. I wasn't doing that shit. I met it right where it was at. This is irritating. I'm annoyed. I don't want my computer to break. I don't want to spend this money. I want to do this. I acknowledge it. But then I ask the magic question, how do I want to feel? 'Now, how do I want to behave?' 'Now, what do I want to avoid?' 'How do I want to feel?' 'I'd like to feel better.' 'I don't think I can ever— I'm so fucking mad, I'm not going to feel better.' 'Okay, I get you're not going to, but how would you like to feel?' 'I'd like to feel relaxed. I like to feel resilient.' I'd like— you know what I mean? And it becomes this kind of choose-your-own-adventure. What happens is you just keep bebopping, but all of a sudden you're in this universe of solutions, and that universe feels infinitely better than the problem-oriented one. Because again, as I go back to even that problem-oriented one, the best-case scenario is that you didn't eat sugar today and you're frustrated. I hope that that just is crystal clear to you because that's the big difference. At the end of the day, it's not about your behaviors, folks. It's about how you feel. And for most of you, and it's not your fault, we've all been conditioned to use food as our main emotional management strategy. But most of you are using food to manage your emotions. And there are much, much better ways to manage your emotions, you know. Um, Lois says, yes, it's been all or nothing. Yes, yes, yes. Um, yeah, I have to practice moderation. Yes, everyone has to practice moderation for sure. Um, Josh says, what do you do to adjust the weight upwards or downwards? Um, come on, Josh, you know the answer to that, right? We, folks, we never gain or lose weight. We eat more or eat less. All right, that's the key thing. So, um, yeah, and I think that's helpful, right? Because sometimes we get caught on the weight, we're a level removed from behavior and action. And so, um, yeah, what do I do to adjust the weight upwards or downwards? I eat more, I eat less calories. You know, I'm not being flippant, I mean, that's just literally what I do. Um, yeah, Vicki says I reduce consumption, definitely affects fluctuations. Yeah, for sure. Um, yeah, Gary says, yep, mine's 2 to 3 pounds. Yep, everyone's got different fluctuations too. And I think you all ought to know your weight fluctuations, how your body is, because then you're operating within an accurate sense of how your body works. And I think a lot of people are operating under vague ideas of what their body does that are completely inaccurate. Um, Josh says, I have found that I'm occasionally tempted to skip dessert at my goal weight because I'm not especially hungry. I just like the taste, mindless eating activity. Yeah, fair enough, Josh, I, I get that. Um, and I think that gets really interesting, you know. So again, it's not about stopping it necessarily. I would say explore it, dive into that and see what's that all about, you know. And I think that, um, I, I think that leads you to solutions and answers. Um, Gary says, I started February 15th to lose 100 pounds, 293 starting weight, now I'm 259, lost 35 34 pounds so far. Nice job, Gary, that's great. That's a lot of weight. That's a lot of weight though. So I know to lose 34 pounds in a month and a half, you're doing some extreme stuff. So again, I get it, I get it. But at some point, put a nod— and I enjoy eating healthy foods— put a nod towards things that are sustainable too. All right, just make sure. Um, Carolyn says good morning from New Zealand. All right, there we go. Will we be able to watch the replay of this? There's so much information, I'm trying to take notes but missing lots. Thank you. Um, yeah, this is, uh You can always watch the replay on YouTube. This is actually— oh, and Facebook. So where are you at? You're on Facebook? Yeah, that— it's on my, um, Facebook page. So these— I do these every day, and the replays are up on Facebook and YouTube. TikTok doesn't put them up for whatever reason. Neither does Instagram. Um, sure. He says, Jim, you're so inspiring when you talk about this. Good, good. I'm glad. That's what I'm doing it for. Um, Thanks, Joe. Joe says you're not paranoid or crazy. You're right, right, right, right. Thank you. I know that too. We're— I say that a lot. We really are in a war. And I think that's important because it puts us in a different posture. I think people approach their weight far too casually. And I know that may sound surreal to you because you're like, too casually? When I try to lose weight, it's the most important thing in the world. Yeah, I know. When you try and lose weight, I'm talking about the times you're not trying to lose weight. You don't take it seriously enough all the time. That, right? So if you're all or nothing, the times when you're nothing, which are most of the time, that's what I'm talking about. You don't take it seriously enough because you allow there to be nothing way too much. So don't take that the wrong way, but it's probably true. Um, Jane says, okay, not a blessing in disguise, but I do want to be more resilient and calmer. Well, very good though. That's fine, Jane, because, um, now you have a much better goal to aim at. And I'm— again, I'm not— here's the thing, right? Let's— so let's just take I want to— because I want to point this out, that for Jane, her computer smoked and she has to replace it, and that's frustrating. Okay, and so I might take a step too far. So maybe it's a blessing in disguise. No, it's not. But I would like to be more resilient and calmer. Okay, and so now on one side we have, I want to be more resilient and calmer about this, this frustrating thing that happened to me. On the other side we have, I'm frustrated, I just hope I don't eat sugar today. So I don't know, like, which one— which headspace do you think is going to serve you better, right? If for the rest of the day you're like, I just want to be more resilient and calmer, I wish I could be more resilient and calmer, I wish I was more resilient, how can I be more resilient, calmer? Even if you ask it that way the rest of the day, how could that not lead you to a better place than being frustrated and hoping you don't eat sugar? I, I hope that— I hope that's self-evident. Um, yeah. Oh, Sherry likes that. Yeah, it's enlightening to compare the diet industry to a get-rich-quick scheme. I love that too. And then that's a That's a Jim special. I came up with that myself. But I think it's very true, and I think it's very accurate. And when you see it that way, again, that's a mindset shift that changes the way you feel about dieting in a very deep way, you know. And that's been proven to be the most effective way to change your weight, is to change how you eat, because you change how you think. And when you shift how you think about food, it's almost guaranteed that you're going to eat differently. That's what I was talking about with the fast food. So most of you don't change how you think about fast food. You just say, okay, fast food's bad, I gotta stop eating it. But subconsciously, you, you know, you still love it. When you start learning about fast food and really reading what it actually is, not the marketing bullshit, not your experiences of eating it, but when you look at what it actually is, it has the effect that it changes the associations to from less positive to negative. And that's what changes behavior in a dramatic way. You know, Jackie likes that. Yep. Wow. That's great advice. That was great advice. I really, Jane, I really appreciate you sharing that because I hope it helped you. But I, uh, I think it's just a wonderful example of what we're talking about here. And that's why I love doing this because, um, I've got a lot of things I want to share with you. And I think that it's not enough for me just to talk about the ideas. I love getting on here and that's why I love my group coaching, um, and coaching in general, because I get to take the ideas and make them specific. You know, contextually. And so when you share that, Jane, that's a real-life thing, right? We all know what it's like to have something break and we got to replace it and we freak out. And instead of dealing with the— again, the sugar is not the problem. The sugar is a symptom of the problem that you're frustrated and you don't know how to manage it. We can all relate to that. That's very relatable that a lot of times you're eating. It's not the problem. It's the symptom. It's the presenting problem. But the deeper problem almost always a component of it is that there's some emotion there that you don't know how to manage genuinely. And so you're looking to kind of deal with the symptoms with the food. The food distracts you from it. You know, when you're eating a candy bar, you're not thinking about the computer for a few moments. And so it's a few moments of relief, but it's not fixing the core problem. And when we go to the core problem, obviously, you know, we have a much greater chance of actually resolving it, and that changes everything. Uh, what's up, Anna? Anna says, I'm learning how to eat healthy daily. I've been listening to you and it helps me a lot. Thanks. You're welcome. Yeah, and it's— and I love what you said, I'm learning. I'm learning, um, because that's what this process is. And I think most dieters don't think of their journey of losing weight and living at their goal weight as a learning process. There's not much learning in dieting, right? There's not learning. There's you being given a plan and then you following it. That's not learning. It's kind of like, like, you know, you cram for a test and you just remember the facts and then you spit them all out and then you forget everything. That's not learning. That was just memorizing for a minute, cramming. It's not different. And dieting is like that, you know. So, so yes, learning takes a little while. And if you start to approach this as learning, I think it sets you up for success because The more you learn— when you learn, you see things differently. And some of those things you learn cause you to see things differently in fundamental ways. And sometimes when you see something different, you can never unsee it. That's what I— specifically with the fast food, for me, when I really started to look at it, and I, I mean like the depth of it, the depth of the, the manipulation and the deception and I began to think of fast food companies like the cigarette companies, to give you an equivalence. How do you think about cigarette companies? Do you have to fight against cigarette cravings all day long? Is that why you're a nonsmoker? Or do you— when you think about cigarettes, you have no cravings, or you have disgust for them? Because the way you think about cigarettes, you hate those companies. You don't want to be deceived. You don't want to be manipulated. You don't want to be addicted. So notice the negative associations you have to the cigarette companies. Now notice that when you think about the fast food companies, you don't have that feeling. You've probably got a warm fuzzy feeling. But what if I told you that the cigarette companies are literally the food companies? What? Wait, that one, Jim. Think about, think about the cigarette companies. And how you think about them. And now think about how you think about the Keebler Elves. Do you have a different— did you get— do you have a different feeling in your body when you think about the cigarette companies and then you think about the Keebler Elves? I bet you do. But what if I told you they're owned by the same company? What if I told you that the Keebler Elves are the cigarette companies? What if I told you the Keebler Elves are selling cigarettes? You said, okay, Jim, that you had me up until now. Now you've gone too far. But what if I told you actually that R.J.R. Reynolds and Nabisco, the parent company of the Keebler Elves, are the same company? The same fucking company. What if I told you the parent company of General Foods and Kraft was Philip Morris? Would you believe me? Because it's true. And this one, trying to say that the cigarette companies have gone into the food industry. They saw the writing on the wall of the cigarettes, so they divested and went into the food industry. And they went in with the exact same philosophy of creating the most addictive product possible, use the most aggressive marketing possible, especially feeding it to the kids, and then sitting on the science of how bad it is. They're doing the exact same thing with the food that they did with the cigarettes. But notice how different your subconscious feelings and associations are when you think about the cigarette companies and cigarettes versus how you feel when you think about the food companies and the junk processed fast foods. That's the difference in your eating. So dieting doesn't address any of that. Dieting just says, leave the association alone. You got warm and fuzzies and all this positive shit around food. Don't worry about that. Just fight against it. Listen, the cigarettes, it's obvious, right? What changed cigarette consumption? What made it nosedive? Education. The truth. Remember those truth ads? All of a sudden you start to see the truth. You saw through the bullshit of the cigarette companies and you saw the truth of it, and that truth made the sales of cigarettes plummet in America anyways. Went up in other parts of the world because they don't have the same— that same thing going on. But they're doing the same thing as for the food. You know, and so once you start, you know, once you start believing that and seeing and thinking about it that way, what do you think is going to happen to your processed food consumption naturally without willpower, without a diet? If all of a sudden you start to feel about processed food the way you do about cigarettes, what would happen to your food consumption? No dieting, no willpower. What happens to your food consumption? How much, how much processed food do you eat once you feel about that the way you do about cigarettes? It's an interesting question because it reveals the level we're actually talking about here, and it reveals why you struggled so hard, and it reveals that the diet industry is bullshit. The diet industry is the cigarette companies, if you want to know the truth, because the diet companies are the food companies. The food companies are the cigarette companies. Would you trust the cigarette companies if they created a non-smoking program for you? No, you'd be super skeptical, wouldn't you? You wouldn't trust them. Please bring some of that to the diet industry. It's going to be very clarifying and therapeutic for you because you've been manipulated. We all have. And when we realize we've been manipulated, we have two options. We can go deeper into it because it hurts too much to realize that, or we can say, that's fucking it, I, I, I'm not living this way. I'm not going to live as a slave to these fuckers. I hope you choose that one. Dog's out there enjoying the sun. We're on the warm streak again and I'm here for it. It was warm for a week and then it was freezing again. That was tough, but now it's getting warm again for good and I can't wait. Um, all right, good, got everyone. Jackie likes that. Jackie says, wow, that's interesting. It is interesting, right? Again, I just want to point out that, that, that is what Um, that's what Program Yourself Thin is all about, is changing the way you think so that you naturally do the things that get the results you want. Now, don't— listen, we still use willpower, please understand, but we don't only use willpower. We don't over-rely on willpower. That's the secret, okay? Um, so willpower is good. Too much willpower just doesn't work, okay? Um, so yeah, so I'm gonna get out of here. If you're— none of you— if you're not in my world, please click the link in my bio. Um, I'm gonna put this link in the chat, go get this hypnosis session. It's completely free. It's called The New Thin Me, and it's a kickstart session. So it's literally designed to help you clarify and connect to your goal weight self so that you can feel the motivation and the excitement of that. And what the effect is, is you start to feel pulled towards your goal. I always think it was like you're kind of magnetizing the goal, so you feel pulled towards it instead of always kind of having to push yourself towards it with your feet dug in. You know, it's a different, different way of doing it and it's completely free. Go listen to it, see how it feels. You got nothing to lose. You know, that's why I make it free so you can test it out. And I'm here every Monday through Friday. So if you like this, I'm here every Monday through Friday, happy to answer any questions you have. I literally get on here to help you and coach you and you get on here day after day and I will literally help you and work with you. That is my— the reason I'm here. And if you can't make the lives and you like listening to it, it's also a podcast and you can go to any podcast platform. Search Program Yourself then, and it'll pop up and you can listen anytime you like. And I think at this point, I just got to think, 750 episodes we've done. So there's a lot, a lot up there as well if you like to go back and listen to them, which some people do. And then finally is the book. You know, this book is available. This is my book and is available right now at Amazon. It is The Tao of Living at Your Goal Weight, 40 chapters. Each one's a page or two. Each chapter is a hypnotic story designed to reprogram your mind just by reading it. And people are loving it. I think right now we've got 84 5-star reviews, and the one 1-star review we got is someone who said this so-called book ain't a book at all, it's just a bunch of short stories and poems. Well, that part's true, but, but it's, um, they're important stories because they're meant to literally change you while you read it. Yes, and Jackie says highly recommend getting his book. Thank you. Um, yeah, people loving it. It's so unique. A lot of people have said that it's the best book they've ever read on weight. And I can't disagree with them, honestly. I, I don't want to sound egotistical, but I really believe it is. And so, um, I mean, Jesus, it's $9.99 for the physical version, $2.99 for the Kindle. I hope you get the physical version. Um, it's just got a good energy to it, and I want you to have this in your house so you see it, you pick it up regularly. And the more you read it, the more you start to change, the more you start to notice yourself making better choices, uh, just naturally. All right, so thank you so much, everyone. I really appreciate it. Have a super day, and we'll talk soon. Bye.