Minimizing the Damage During the Holidays

It. Whoa. Everyone, welcome to today's program Yourself thin podcast. Today we're talking about minimizing, minimizing the damage during the holidays. The holidays are here and, you know, they're in full swing, I would say, right? I mean, geez, Christmas is next week. So the idea of how to manage the holidays is something we've kind of been talking about in different ways. But today I want to talk about very specifically with kind of a philosophy. And before we get into that philosophy, I want to reference that this philosophy exists within an all or something framework. Okay? Most dieters are all or nothing, right? You're either doing everything perfect or you're not doing anything at all. In program yourself, then we really strive to be all or something. We're either doing everything perfectly or we're still doing something, right? We. We never want to go to that nothing mode. All right? So when we talk about the something mode, that is where today's topic fits in. Minimizing the damage during the holidays is a something strategy. So right off the bat, we're kind of setting our expectations for the holidays. We're not expecting that we're going to be perfect during the holidays because we know the holidays are right. And so for the average person, right, everyone's different, but for the average person, you're probably going to be, you know, around different types of foods and treats and cookies and baked goods and stuff. There might be more holiday parties, might be more food, it might be more stress. All these different things go on. So the idea that we're going to be perfect with our weight loss plan during the holidays in our world seems a little silly, okay? And so we acknowledge that. We accept that, we understand it. That's one of the most important things I think you can get in your head is that you can deal with your weight but not be perfect with it, right? And so that's where minimizing the damage comes into, is that we start by setting an expectation that, okay, you know, this is probably a time I'm gonna need a little bit more. And we're starting with that, too. Now, most dieters can't even do that because, again, they're in an all or nothing mode. And they're so terrified that if I don't stick to my plan or I don't. If I even give myself this much space, I'm gonna blow up and eat everything, you know, and so a lot of that experience of, you know, having one cookie and then eating all the cookies, a lot of that stems from this all or nothing Mindset. All right? So again, the minimizing the damage really begins conceptually as a mindset piece that we're going to recognize that in life, there are going to be times when it's going to be more challenging to eat the way that we want to. Okay? We acknowledge that. We accept it. We understand that's just reality. Then we move into the minimizing the damage mode. Okay? And so this is one where, again, we say, I'm not gonna be perfect, but I don't want to feel like either. I don't want to go crazy with things, right? And that's really the big part here. And I think this is so important because this whole approach of minimizing the damage, I don't wanna. Again, I want to eat some cookies. I don't want to eat all the cookies. You know, it's that kind of mindset, and that's what minimizing the damage is all about. So by going into the holidays with this mindset, we've already turned the pressure down a bit, right? We're not expecting we're going to be perfect. And dieters do this to themselves all the time. Where most dieters are going into the holidays, and they said, I'm just. I don't care if it's the holidays. I'm just going to eat perfect all the way through. And maybe they will, but it's a very intense, stressful experience most of the time. Or you have dieters that are saying, oh, my God, screw the holidays. I'm. I'm checking out. I'll be back on the game in January 1st. Right? Neither one of those, in my opinion, are very good. So again, what we're talking about here is recognizing, okay, it's the holidays. I'm going to eat a little extra. I'm gonna put a couple pounds on. Not a big deal. I want to enjoy myself, but I don't want to go crazy with stuff. So I'm gonna practice this kind of moderate Middle east space, right? So that's the beginning. That's the conceptual start to it. That's the specific kind of mindset piece of, okay, let me enjoy myself, but let me live in this moderated space. Okay? Now that's kind of the mindset piece. Now program yourself then. So much of what we do is there's mindset and strategy. We just talked about the mindset, now let's talk about the strategy. So how do you strategize? How do you actually minimize the damage? And I think that the way you do that is that you get specific. So I would not want to just wake up one day and be like, oh, I'm just gonna minimize the damage and eat moderately. Like, I would never do that. It's not specific enough. It's too big and vague. It's not going to make any difference, any change. So what I'm looking to do is to get specific, and I'm going to say, okay, over a typical holiday, where's kind of the biggest things that I get caught up in, right? So I know for me, it's cookies. That's one of them. Wine cookies are two big ones. This year, it's bread I got to keep an eye on. Okay? But wine and cookies are definitely two of the bigger ones. And so I'm not just saying I'm going to minimize the damage. I am saying that. But then I'm saying, okay, specifically, what are some of the things I got to look out for? Right? And so for me, I got to look out for the wine, I got to look out for the cookies. There's other things, but those are two of the big ones. And so I spend extra time focusing on those, and. And I kind of dive into them to come up with better strategies. So for wine, for example, typically I drink wine on the weekends. I don't really drink wine during the week. During the holidays, sometimes I'll let myself drink a little bit more wine during the week. Okay? But I don't want it to be seven days a week either. Okay? So I. In my mind, I'm saying, okay, if I want to drink wine during the week, there's got to be at least two days where I'm not drinking it. And so I know for me, those are probably Monday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Wednesday be the easiest days for me not to drink any wine. Okay? And so if I do drink wine those days, you know, I know I have the strategy of saying, I want at least two days. I don't. And then I'm paying attention to what the situations are that kind of nudge me to drink wine or help me not drink wine, okay? So again, the specifics for. For me and wine are really not that important. But what I'm trying to say is that whatever your biggest challenges are during the holidays, recognize that there's a couple of them. It's not all the food, it's not everything. That's, you know, that all or nothing thing really applies to so much. But for dieters, a lot of the times, they'll say things in very vague terms. They'll say things like, okay, I'M going to minimize the damage. Well, if that's all you say, you're not going to minimize because you're not ready for it, you're not prepared. And so I can't say I'm going to. I'm going to not. I'm going to eat the food moderately. It's too vague. We need to get specific. Right. And so that's why I say if I go into wine and I'm not going to share every strategy I got, but I've got a lot of subtle layered strategies for wine. I get kind of my initial plan for how I want to approach it. I got backup plans in case I got caught up and, you know, start drinking more wine. I have, I have layered strategies because I've gone in depth with it, I have experience with it, I've reflected on it, I've optimized. I keep moving forward with it. This year I'll come up with more strategy so it becomes easier next year. All right, now the cookies. The cookies, one of the big ones I did this year. I started making cookies too early last year, right. Like the beginning of December, I was making cookies and I kind of fell right into it. So this year, part of my cookie strategy is I'm waiting to make cookies. I'm not gonna make cookies till this weekend, okay? So right off the bat, I've cut about two weeks out. Great strategy. Okay. And then I've got other layered strategies under that, like how many I eat at a time, when I eat them, you know, where I put them, how many I make all this stuff. And so I've got a lot of detailed layered strategies for how I'm going to deal with cookies, how I'm going to deal with wine. And this year, I'm creating the strategies of how to deal with bread. This been about a month now that I started making sourdough bread. So that's a brand new challenge in my life here, you know, for me to manage my weight. And this will be the first holiday season with the bread, okay? So I'm working on that this year. But again, I say this to you so that you can approach your holidays and stop, stop the all or nothing shit. Okay? And you don't have to be perfect to still be in the game. Because again, when I put it this way, it's going to be so obvious. But it's like if you, if you think, okay, here comes December, oh, God, I came and deal with that. Too stressful. Just meet me in January 1st. Right? Well, now all of a sudden, you're going through December and you feel off track. You're not really doing anything in your mind. You've kind of checked out. I. You're probably going to eat a lot more, right? But even beyond what you eat, you just feel off track. You just feel like, oh, I'm kind of. I'm. I'm taking this month off. That mindset is so damaging. Okay. But beyond that, then you miss out on all the potential benefits of what you're going to learn and obviously the way you're going to eat. So if you look at December and you have one December where a person completely is just like, I don't want to think about my weight. I'm just going to enjoy myself. And then January 1st, I'll come back versus someone who's eating more than they normally do, puts a couple pounds on, but was paying attention the whole time. They still held onto their water habit. They, you know, still ate their fruit in the morning. They still, you know, knew the cookies were a problem and kind of, you know, dialed them down 20, 30% than what they did last year. And they stayed in the game the entire month of December. So now when January comes back, yeah, they got to catch up a little bit because they kind of let things go a little bit. But what position are they in compared to the person who hasn't thought about it or done anything in a month? And now January 1st is magical day where all a sudden I get back and I do everything perfect. Which person do you think is better set up? Well, I hope it's obvious. Okay. And this starts to compound on itself because the more that you are in the game, even when you're not doing great, that's usually the times when you really improve the most, ironically, you know, and. And the holidays are just a real great time to practice this. So again, I encourage you to look at your holidays and walk that strange, strange road of being in the game with your weight and your health, but also being able to understand that this isn't the time when you're going to eat the cleanest, most likely. Right. And start to live in that gray space. Because once you get comfortable there, it is absolutely transformative when it comes to your weight. And for most dieters, they've never, ever, ever experienced this. So again, this would be one of the greatest gifts you could give yourself this holiday season, is to walk this middle ground, this gray space where you're still doing some healthy things, but you're also not as healthy. You know, you're not being perfect either. That's the sweet spot. And I promise you, if you do this, when you get to January 1st and you recommit and get refocused, you'll be in a much stronger space to do it. All right? And if you want some help with this, click the link in my bio and click the picture of me if you're on TikTok, and it'll bring you right to my bio. And there's a link there where you can get a free hypnosis session if you're on Facebook, YouTube or Instagram. I don't know if this shows up in Instagram. I'll put the link in there if you want to get it. But I would say to you that speaking of kind of middle grounds and, you know, minimizing the damage, listening to this hypnosis session throughout the holidays would be very, very powerful for you because the more calm and peaceful you're feeling, the better choices you tend to make. So go check that out. But if you have any questions, feel free to ask them. I am here to answer your questions as best I can and help you. Alma says thank you very much. I think thin nice job. Alma Hannekin says how to control your mindset to stay disciplined. I mean, you're not really controlling your mindset. That's not how I think about it anyways. It's not so much about controlling your mindset as it is about developing a mindset. You know what I mean? Like, if you're going to learn how to speak Spanish, let's say, right, you wouldn't say, I'm going to control my mindset and I'm going to, you know, give myself a Spanish mindset, you know what I mean? Like, it's not that you're developing it. You're learning how to speak Spanish. You're learning, you're cultivating, you're generating a new mindset. And I think that that is a more accurate way to describe it. And so how do you create a disciplined mindset? Let's say, once again, I think of everything kind of a mindset and strategy. So if you want to be more disciplined, right, so you want to stay disciplined. You want to be disciplined. I'm really going to look at both. I'm going to look at mindset side of it. I'm going to look at the strategy side of it because they both work together and you can really go a far away towards being. You can do this with anything. But. But being disciplined, if we break it into mindset and strategy, I think you're gonna Have a much better time, you know, figuring that out. So mindset wise, first of all, is discipline. So mindset wise, if I wanted to be more disciplined, mindset wise, I would say, okay, why do I want to be more disciplined? Right? What do I want to be disciplined about? No one wants to be disciplined. Do you know what I mean? So discipline in of itself is not inspiring or exciting or motivating. So I'm not just gonna say, okay, let's be more disciplined. Come on, be more disciplined. That feels like shit. I want to say I want to be more disciplined so that I can weigh what I want to weigh. And I want to weigh what I want to weigh because I want to be the best version of me possible. I feel better, I feel lighter, I feel happier, I feel more confident, I feel more successful, I have more energy, I sleep better, I like how I look. You know, everything gets better when I'm eating better, living healthier, my weight starts to go to where I really feel my best. And so that's the life I want to live. That's the person I want to be. And I believe I need to have more discipline with what I'm doing in order to achieve that. Do you see what I just did there? I didn't stay focused on discipline. I stayed focused on what the discipline was going to give me. That's way more motivating than focusing on the discipline, right? So that's the mindset piece is I really. I kind of flip discipline into what it's going to give me. So it's not so much. So I redefine it, first of all. So it's not so much about me being disciplined. It's about me getting the results I want. And I'm going to be disciplined in order to get those results. I really want those results. Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense. And then strategy wise, that's the other piece of it. Because one of the biggest reasons people struggle with discipline is because your strategy is so ridiculously overwhelming. If you are a dieter, your strategy out the box is extremely overwhelming and very, very difficult to stick with. So the easiest thing you can do, and this is going to sound strange, the easiest thing you can do to be more disciplined is to make your process or strategy easier. Now, most people go into dieting 100%, right? One day they start on a Monday and they're 100% perfect, and they expect to be 100 perfect until they reach their goal weight. And so, again, that is a very intense thing to try and do. And it's one way to do it, but another way to do it is to kind of calm down. You don't have to change everything all at once. You don't have to overwhelm yourself. So strategically, you could do more comfortable, easier things and then that. You're never going to believe it. But comfortable, easier things are easier to stay disciplined and consistent with than really difficult, hard things. So again, it's always a combination of mindset and strategy. I can. Excuse me. Like, right on the edge of a cold, too. Right on the edge. What's up, Wendy? Wendy says I've had to learn about my relationship with food, and that is how I live each day now. Yeah, that's great, Wendy. That. Same with me. Same with me. I was literally just got off a call talking about this. That so much of program yourself then is really understanding the relationship you have with food. And guess what, folks, Your relationship with food is just like your relationship that you have with people in your life. Meaning that it's up and down the relationships you have in your life. Is it always great? Is it always terrible? No, it's. It's a combination. And so the same thing's going to happen with your food. You have good days, bad days. It's just. That's what's going to happen forever. I can't stress this enough. That again, because dieting, dieting puts this idea in your mind that you're going to get to your goal weight, and then that's that. And it's just, it's. It. It completely like, it misrepresents it because getting to your goal weight, it's not like it's not really a destination, you know, I mean, like in one hand, yeah, okay, your weight gets to a certain point. But if we stop looking at the weight for a second, you. You change your behavior long enough to get to your goal weight. And I'm always looking at behavior. So, okay, getting to your goal weight is a moment in time. Okay, fine, it's a destination, but your behavior is a journey. It's forever. So, yeah, like, one measurement is okay, my weight went to here, but the other side, okay, so what are you going to do today? What are you going to do tomorrow? What are you going to do next year, next month? What are you going to do? That's what I'm curious about. You know, and once you start looking at that way, what you're going to find is you're eating goes ups and downs. I've been doing this for 30 years. I've maintained a 30 a 50 pound, over 50 pound weight loss. And I have ups and downs with the food. You know, the good days, bad days, days when I'm upset or I'm really hungry or I'm kind of sick or there's really good food around or whatever. And I overeat. Okay. You know, I take a step back, what went on there, what happened, you know, I come back to it, you know, but, but again, a lot of people do not look at it that way. But I, I think if you, if you really deep dive into the relationship you have with food, I don't know, I find it infinitely fascinating, but it's complex and dieting tries to make it seem simple. It's not. Your, your relationship with food is just like the other relationships in your life. They're complex. The deepest relationships you have in your life, the closest relationships you have in your life are the most complex ones. And food is one of the deepest relationships you have. So there's a lot of complexity there, which is to say that, that it does, it does take a while to master your eating and your mindset and your body and your health and your weight. There is no shortcut. Literally, there's no shortcut. And the GLP1s aren't a shortcut. So it does take a little bit of time. But boy, I have to say, very worthwhile. No. What's up, Jody? I saw that, Jody. That's okay. Yeah, that is weird. That went to spam. I don't, I have no idea why that would have happened all of a sudden, but. Technology is weird, I'll tell you that. But for those of you in the program yourself, then program that have been in it for a while, right? And so if you've been in it and you went through the eight weeks, please know that I sent it out last night and I saw a bunch of people signed up for it. But if you wanted to restart those daily emails, you know that send you the session in the morning, you can restart those. And I just added a whole nighttime series. I really suggest you get it. If you don't like it, I can, you can write to me, I can take you out of it. But I think it's really good now we're bookending your days not only with these sessions, but now I just think getting these emails is just going to reinforce what we're doing even more. So if you didn't set email, I sent it out last night around 7 o' clock or 5 o' clock or something. But go, go check that out. And if you're interested in getting those sessions sent to you, go do that. And that's really cool too, because now I'm, I'm actually going to set up a page where when every time you want to restart yourself, you just go there, click it and it'll automatically do it. So I would suggest you do that and start reading the emails. I think the emails are really good and I think it's just another. Clicked it up another level. I think it's just going to make everything even more better. That's what I'm hoping. Always pushing the program forward. You know what's up, Shell? Shell says I'm now not on a diet. I'm choosing more food with fiber, nutrition. That's a totally different mindset for me. Thanks. You're welcome, Michelle. That's a great strategy. I like that. Yeah. The quicker you all quit your diet, the faster you all stop dieting forever, the better. I will tell you that dieting is a, it's a, it's a nowhere plan. It just, it never ends because it's not the diets that are the main problem. The main problem is the diet mindset that the diets give you. You know, if we put it that way. So not being on a diet, you kind of start your process, your journey. Right. Let's put it this way. Right. To me, I look at it this way, that your weight loss journey, if you start on a diet, you're kind of walking on quicksand. If you start your weight loss journey without dieting, you start on solid ground. That's how I feel. Because diets never last. That's the core problem with them. And they don't, they don't not last because you have no willpower. They don't last because they're not built to last. They're not sustainable strategies. So when the diet doesn't work, please stop blaming yourself and start blaming the diet. Diets have an estimated failure rate of 95%. Ultimately, when something fails 95% of the time, well, how are you going to take the blame for that, you know, but most dieters do. So I would suggest that the quicker you give up dieting, the better for you. So good job, Shell. And yeah, adding up onto the, the fiber, I think is a smart move. Alpha says someone is selling weight loss coffee with no caffeine. Should I buy it? Asking your opinion. If you like the flavor of coffee and you don't want caffeine, then maybe you should buy it. If you want to lose weight, that's not going to help. You lose weight. I can say that very confidently because there's never been anything that helps people lose weight. Not long term. Right. Maybe GLP ones. You know, maybe, maybe those are the, maybe those are the miracle. I got my questions about them, but whatever. But I certainly promise you there's no weight loss coffee. There's no weight loss coffee. So again, if you like coffee with no caffeine in it and you want to buy it for the flavor, then great. If you're looking to lose weight, that'll just be a waste of your money. So that's my thoughts on that. What's up, Tabby Cat? Tabby Cass has been a total game change in mindset in my journey down £61 since 11 3. 11 25. No meds. Congrats, Tabby. Holy crap. £61 in nine months. Six months, seven months. No. Nine months. Yeah, I can do math. Congrats. Congrats, Tabby Cat. No meds. No meds. You don't need meds, folks. You can lose weight without meds. I know. Like the, the pharmaceutical industry would make you think that was impossible to lose weight. The medical establishment will make you believe it's impossible to lose weight without medicine or surgery. And that's why I'm just gonna say it. David Kessler. I love, I love this guy on one hand, and this book. I could, I didn't even finish it. Diets, drugs, and dopamine. I didn't even finish. How about that? And I respect him. I think he's super smart. I love the end of overeating. And I, I, I just didn't like this book. It was a good book, too, with information. But one thing I, I absolutely cannot take at this point is the science. And I love science. Let me just make this clear. I love science. I love medicine. I, I like traditional science and medicine. Okay. However, one huge blind spot, in my opinion is when it comes to weight. And then I'm a little bit more, I don't know. And so I think right now I'm not going to let this guy convince me that the only way to lose weight is GLP1s. And it's subtle, so maybe I'm reading into stuff too much, but I get this. That's the message that's constantly being pumped down your throat now from the GLP1 providers is that it's impossible to lose weight unless you take this medicine. And that's not true. That is a not true statement. And I think GLP1s, you know, we'll see what happens. Long Term, anyways, but great job, tabby cat. Proud of you. And he says, totally agree. I will never. I will never be on a diet again. I've lost eight and a half stone in two years not on any diet. Great job, Wendy. Right. And so now you don't have to worry about falling off a diet, you know, that's why I say never start another diet again. The best decision you'll ever make in your life. The diets ain't working anyways, folks. You're not missing out on anything. The diets don't work. Oh, no. I lost 50 pounds of doing Atkins 25 years ago. Okay, what happened? Are you 25 pounds light still? No. Get tired of not being able to go to the bathroom. I get tired of feeling like my breath was so bad I couldn't keep it up. Okay, well, that's not real weight loss then. You understand? Real weight loss is something you keep up long term, you know? So good job, Wendy. You're on a diet, so you don't have to worry about that. He says, love listening to you. Makes total sense. Good. Yeah. Nice job. Alpha says, are you a fan of intermittent fasting to lose weight? I mean, I like intermittent fasting. I use intermittent fasting. I call it nighttime fasting. So I don't have all the diet stigma around it. So I like taking a break from eating for a period of time. I think it's one of the greatest gifts you can give your body. Okay. So I love that side of it. I despise the intermittent, intermittent fasting diet. Right. So what's the difference? Well, well, when I started intermittent fasting, it was over 30 years ago and there was no intermittent fasting. So that word didn't exist. That concept didn't exist. But what I realized, I said, huh? I kind of eat right up until bedtime. So I think I'm going to make a little bit of a bigger window there. So I'm going to stop eating an hour before bedtime. Two hours, three hours. Right. And I made that window bigger. Next thing you know, I'm stopping eating around 6, 7 o' clock at night. I ate the next day around 7, 8 o'. Clock. So I got a 12, 13 hour window when I'm not eating and I feel amazing and it was great and I worked up to it and it was just because I felt good and it was working and it fit my strategy and schedules and I was sleeping better and everything was great. It was relaxing, it was calm, it was cool. I did a little bit at a time. So I felt comfortable. Cool. Okay, now let's compare that to the intermittent fasting diet. Okay? So now a person's going to start that on Monday. And now all of a sudden they're going to go from not eating average of 9, 10 hours at night a day. That's when they're sleeping, by the way. Um, so now they're gonna all of a sudden not eat for 16 hours a day, and they're gonna do it all starting on Monday. And so instantly they're gonna jump into not eating for 16 hours. And you real ambitious people are not gonna eat for 20 hours or 22 hours. Okay, so again, diet mindset. What makes all diets the same as the mindset I'm gonna jump in on Monday, 100% perfect. And that is the thing that sinks all diets, okay? So I'm not talking about the concept of taking a break from eating for a while. I think that's great. What I'm talking about is the firm, rigid plan that has to be there for you to give Dr. Fung his money. Because if he just says, I'll just take a break from eating, he can't collect money. So we have to make it about. No, no. 16 hours is scientifically the. The 14 to 16 hours is the scientific. Where you burn the most fat possible. It's all. And what happens is most intermittent fasting, people that try and do it like a dieter, they jump into it and they're stressing out. They're especially the last two, three hours of the fast. So they get to. Let's just say you're going, you know, till noon. And so from 9 to 12, all you're thinking about is food. You're starving, you're hungry, you're irritable, you're frustrated, and all of a sudden the eating window opens up. And now you start overeating. And so, you know, and then it doesn't work. And then you feel like, oh, I failed at this too. What's wrong with me? I'm never going to win. I'm a loser, I'm terrible, blah, blah, blah. And so that I don't like very much. And I feel like most people, intermittent fasting doesn't really work great for them long term. Now, again, I'm not. Listen, if you're losing a bunch of weight in intermittent fasting, I don't want to hear about it, okay? Because I'm not. Listen, I'll never disagree that pretty much any diet, if you do it, you're going to lose some weight. So I'M not arguing that point. Please understand. What I'm saying is that most of these diets, once the weight loss stops, you get to your goal weight, you ain't going to want to continue it because you don't like living that way. And I have met. Now listen, I understand that my reality, I meet people that inter fasting and work for. So I have a kind of a bias view. I get that. But what I see a lot of times is people intermittent fasting is almost like binge eating training, you know, because again, they get themselves so hungry, so fixated on food, and then they open the window of eating and now they overeat for the eight hours, you know, and it's just again, it's not this, the tactic of taking a break. It's the mindset behind it that I, I don't like at all. And I think most people approach intermittent fasting because they want to lose weight quickly. And so that's why they pick it. And it's too extreme for them. They jump straight into not eating for 16 hours. You know how disruptive that is? You know, disruptive it is to completely change your eating patterns in one day. Like, and I know you don't, and I don't blame you for this because I just had this conversation too. Most people just really have no clue how their brain works. You know, it's not your fault. Why would you if this isn't what you do? You know what I mean? I've spent 30 years studying this stuff. So it's like. But if you don't understand how your mind works, eating, your biology has evolved to primarily focus on food more than almost than virtually anything else, More than shell. Well, I mean, we want you get to shelter, right? That food's even more important than shelter. Food's more important than sex. Food's more important than. Well, it is survival, right? So it's right there with the survival instincts. So so much of our neural wiring, our senses, our biology is focused on food. And what's happening is most of your food decisions are happening on autopilot. It's estimated we make over 200 food decisions a day. And so a dieter is what, going to start on a Monday and just change all of that and take control of it. I always say this to put dieting in the context that I think of it in any diet is hard because what you're doing is you're completely taking something that's automatic and automated. And now you're going to consciously micromanage it and to really drive Home. The point of what I'm talking about, it would be like if you woke up tomorrow and said, you know what? I'm going to use my phone with my other hand, I'm going to brush my teeth with my other hand. I'm going to use my computer mouse with my other hand. Now could you do it? Yes. Would it take a lot of focus and effort and concentration to do it? Yes. Are you going to quit it soon and go back to your regular hand? Yes. And that is a huge reason why diets show up the way they do. That's why you do them for a little while and go back to what you always do. Because you run. You're a subconscious creature who runs on autopilot, folks. You're not consciously going through your day making well, well informed, logical, rational decisions all day long. That's not how humans work. You're running on autopilot. And not only you're running on autopilot, but you live in a culture, we all live in this culture where we're being conditioned, hypnotized, persuaded, influenced to think about over overeating and think about eating and consuming high calorie foods all day long. So to me, I think the starting point of really having any chance at all of being able to truly live at your goal weight, you, you've got to understand how your mind works and it doesn't work the way you think. You're not a logical, rational person. Does anyone want to argue this? Do you really want to argue with me that you're a logical, rational person and you just always make logical, rational choices? Is that what we're going to argue? You know what I mean? Like, people walk around thinking like they're Dr. Spock, who's just like the pure logical person. You ain't. You're an emotional person. And this gets to the core of why you struggle with your weight. Because you know what? You shouldn't, shouldn't eat. It's not a knowledge problem. It's that you can't get yourself to eat that way when the time comes. And that's because you have no idea how to run your mind. No idea. And this is the core problem for you dieters is you're never learning how to run your mind. You're just learning more. Every diet is someone telling you what to do, what to eat, and then you try and force yourself to do it. Never do you learn how to manage your thinking, how to manage your feelings, how to manage your behavior in a real way. And if you don't Know how to manage your behavior in a real long term way. How are you gonna live at your goal weight? Exactly. Because I know in your mind you're saying, well, I'm just gonna do it. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna wake up one magical Monday and I'm just gonna do everything perfect. And I'm just gonna do everything perfect forever. Jim, not right now. It's the holidays. So I'm gonna wait till January 1st, I'm gonna wake up January 1st, I'm just gonna start doing everything perfect. What the. You 50 years old? No. No, you're not. How many times, how many January 1st have you gone through what happens every January 1st? Let's take the good ones. You start off okay, Intermittent fasting tomorrow. Okay, let's do it for four days and then the weekend. Oh, here comes the weekend. Oh my God, am I really not gonna eat till 12 o' clock on Saturday? Oh my God, am I really gonna stop eating it at seven o' clock on, on Friday night, huh? Here comes Saturday. Holy. I worked hard all week. I'm ready to kill someone. Oh, but now I can't eat after 8 o' clock Saturday night. Oh my God. The best time of my week where I get to sit down and have a snack and watch my show. I'm gonna give up so I can lose some weight. Maybe that ain't even gonna work because my body's broken. I can't lose weight no matter what I do anyways. Anyone ever thought that? Well, God damn it, what do they say? I mean, they say that the as the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over, expecting a different result. And by that definition, I, I regularly say dieters are the most insane people on the planet. I mean, it's not your fault. You've just been, you've fallen into this trap. We all have. We've all been fallen into the diet trap. Dieting is a psychological operation. We've all been part of our entire lives. Dieting as we know it has existed for about 70 years and they filled our heads with rocks because it doesn't work, folks. Dieting doesn't work. And the reason dieting is still around even as a concept is because there's a thing called dieter dementia. Well, that's what I call it. It seems like dieters are real susceptible to it where they've had the last 20. January 1 came and went and they didn't stick that. Not your fault. Not. That doesn't mean you're a weak willed person by the way, either no, it doesn't, because you don't know anyone who stuck to a diet for 10 years. You don't even know a person. Probably that's how much it doesn't work. Dieting does not work. What's up, Sherry? Sherry loves this. Sher, this always makes me feel better. I hope it makes you feel. I mean, Sher's in the program. So again, I mean, he's in a different spot. But if you're hearing this, please understand I'm on your side, folks, I love the dieter, hate the diet. Please understand I'm on your side. I'm here every day for free because I'm so on your side. This is a mission for me to help as many people live at their goal weight as possible. But in order for you to have any chance of getting there, you've got to realize that what you've been doing your whole life to lose weight is completely fucking wrong. It's completely wrong. The diet industry is a branch of the food processing industry. Would you listen to the food processing industry? How to eat less of their products in their in life. Do you understand that Weight Watchers was owned by Heinz? Jenny Craig was owned by Nestle Atkins Food Products, owned by the same company owns onions, pretzels and Cinnabon Slim Fast. Only the same company owns Ben and Jerry's ice cream. These companies do not want you to eat less of their foods. They do not want you to live as a thin, healthy, happy person. They want to take your money when you want to lose weight and then fill your head with rocks. So you go back to eating the same way you always do, and it's working pretty well, I'd say. Pretty well, I'd say. So the first step of having any chance at all of living at your goal weight, of getting to your goal weight first, but certainly of living there for the rest of your life, is that you've got to change the way you're thinking about weight loss. You've been hypnotized by the diet industry. I was hypnotized by the diet industry. We've all been hypnotized by the diet industry to think about weight loss as dieters. And part of that problem is that thinking like a dieter means that you're focused on losing weight. And as soon as you focus on losing weight, you think of it as a temporary thing. I'm going to do this until I lose the weight. And as soon as you think of it as a temporary thing, you say, well, fuck it. If I. If I'm just doing this temporarily, let's do the most extreme thing to get it over with as quick as possible. And that's the mindset you're living within. And in that mindset, it. It is virtually impossible to win. Virtually. So the first thing you got to do is shift your goal. Your goal is not to lose weight. Your goal is to live at your goal weight. Please don't think those are the same thing, because they're two totally different things. Right? Getting to your goal weight is just the first step of the process. You're. You don't just want to lose weight, folks. If you just wanted to lose weight, you'd still be thrilled that you lost the 30, 40, 50 pounds 20 years ago, but you're not. You're pissed off that you put that weight back on. So losing the weight's not enough. What you're really after is living at that goal weight. And guess what? You never in your life. I know this for a fact. I'm gonna say this to you. I don't even know you. I'm gonna say this to everyone, and I know it's true. In your entire life. And I know if you're listening to me, I know you're an overthinker. I know that you're somewhat of a perfectionist. I know that you're probably an action taker. So you probably have read lots of books, tried lots of diets, listen to lots of podcasts. And in all that time, have you ever even one time, had the opportunity to learn how to think like a thin, healthy person? Which is to say, if you ever had the opportunity to learn how to shift your mindset so that you can weigh what you want.