Program Yourself Thin Live 5-26-26

Hey everyone, welcome to today's Program Yourself Thin podcast. Today we're talking about the little things that make you thin. Now I want to start by focusing on the word little things, little things, because usually when people think about weight loss, they think about the big things. And maybe counterintuitively, I guess this is the wrong approach. By focusing only on the big things, you really set yourself up for failure because if you only think about the big things you can do to lose weight, you're really talking about things like drastically cutting your calories, dramatically changing your exercise routine, or adding exercise to your life, doing these big, giant— dramatically cutting out whole macronutrient categories. So when we think big, it seems appealing because you think that's going to be the fastest results. But the flip side of that is that the bigger the thing is that you're looking to do to lose weight, Um, the harder it's going to be to keep it up. And so if you look at your life, the things that you've accomplished, you've done it by doing small things. And we could start with reading and writing. You didn't start writing by writing paragraphs. You started by writing letters, right? And you got good at writing the letters, then you wrote the words, then you wrote the sentences, then you wrote the paragraphs, then you wrote the page. But we started with little things. And the reason little things are so important is because they're sustainable. We can do them consistently because the main factor in your weight success is time and not how quickly you can lose weight in the smallest amount of time. But you need to flip that and you need to look at what can I do for the longest amount of time? If you build around what you can do for the longest amount of time, you set a solid foundation for yourself to build on. And ultimately in life, the best things that you're able to do and have learned are things that have taken a while, right? Think about any personal, uh, hobbies or activities or sports or kind of skills that you've developed in life. Maybe you play an instrument, maybe you do an art, maybe you play a sport, and you have gotten better and better and better and better the longer that you've done it. And length of time almost always exceeds the importance of how big the thing you're doing in the moment is. That matters too. Don't get me wrong. Okay. That has its place, but ultimately it's the time piece, the time piece that's going to have the biggest impact ultimately on your weight. And so we want to build around little things because they set us up to be able to do it long-term. So when we talk about the little things that make you thin. What we're talking about are little things like drinking more water, getting better sleep and more of it, um, relaxing more, grounding yourself, calming down, meditating and quieting your mind, uh, moving more, just feeling more active and connected to your body, uh, nourishing your body, eating a little more fruit, a little more whole food, a little more vegetable, a little bit more stuff that really nourishes us. Um, expressing a little more gratitude, you know, for the things that we have and appreciating what we have. So when you start taking these things on one by one, it may say, well, how's that going to help me lose weight? But put all together over time, you transform yourself into a different version of yourself. So instead of thinking it could be the same you, but just change how you behave and be thin, start thinking about how can I become a person who's able to live at their goal weight comfortably? How can I make that happen? And your brain, when you start asking that question, is always going to come back to the same answer that I need to weave it into my life. I need to make being thin and healthy part of my lifestyle, part of who I am. And all of those things really, ironically, are the small, consistent things you do day after day, because it's the consistency of what you do that really starts to impact your mindset and probably even your cellular structure, you know, even to that level. So it's important to start to build around small things that you can keep up because psychologically, all of a sudden you start to feel like, I could do this, I could keep this up. That belief is tremendously important for you at this point, because after a lifetime of dieting and trying to take giant whacks at getting the weight off of you and being unable to stick to it, even when you've been successful, right? Again, 80, um, 85 to 95% of dieters that lose weight put the weight back on. Right. So again, when we do big things in short periods of time, they tend not to last. When we do small things over long periods of time, they tend to stick much more effectively. So the small things that make you thin is really almost more of a mindset, um, to look at the little things that are going on in your life that could improve, that would have a direct or indirect impact on your weight, on your eating. On your metabolism, on your moods, right? And you put all these things together and this is what's truly controlling your weight much more than you trying to drastically cut calories or drastically reduce a macronutrient. So give this some thought and start focusing on the smaller things you can do to get the results you want. And you may find that you no longer dread weight loss or are terrified to think about it. And instead you might find yourself focusing on it and finding ways to change your behaviors that are comfortable and most importantly sustainable so that you can get the results you want and maintain them. And if you want to go deeper into this way of approaching it, click the link in my bio or go to programyourselfthin.com and go get the free hypnosis session that I made for you. Uh, you can get that. It is free and I give you a bunch of other free stuff as well with that. Again, just click the link in my bio or go to programyourselfthin.com. Uh, if you are over in Facebook or YouTube, I just put it in the chat window. If you are on TikTok, you can just click my little picture up on the top left and go get that. Takes like 2 seconds. But yeah, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them. Oh, I got a community now. Looks like TikTok's got some new stuff. I haven't even heard about that. But yeah, I hope you all have had a nice weekend. Here we are. It is, um, I don't know how it is for you, it's kind of a tough week. It just feels so weird. Some Tuesdays popping in are easier than others, and I would say this one— I was just talking about this with someone— I think it's probably got to do with the fact where I was, um, Memorial Day was rainy, rainy, rainy, and so it didn't even feel like Memorial Day at all. Cancel the cookout, all the rest of it. So just felt like a day that kind of disappeared. A nice day, relaxing day, but, um, just kind of disappeared and all of a sudden it's Tuesday, I'm back at work. But I hope you all had a nice weekend, um, got some rest, got some relaxation, and, uh, are able to kick off the summer. It's beautiful out now, but boy, yeah, it was kind of a rainy weekend, which, uh, is all right too. Um, Zainab, Zainab, Zainab says solid advice, thanks. For someone who's been fat their whole life, how could they believe being thin Yeah, that's a great question. And I get this a lot. And I would say, yeah, if you've been overweight your whole life, it's an extra hard challenge for you. And I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I think if you've been, you know, if you have been thin and healthy for a period of time and then put the weight on, that's definitely an advantage because you can reference that time in your life, how you were behaving, thinking, operating. You believe it's possible because you've done it, you know. And so if you've always been overweight your whole life, it's an extra challenge. But I think it just reinforces even more importantly, I'm gonna show you what I think when you're in, in that situation, you need to have a more robust, comprehensive approach to changing your weight because if you've been overweight your whole life, it's not just enough to be given a, a meal plan to follow or a diet philosophy to follow and think you're gonna do it. Um, in Program Yourself Thin, we follow the goal weight pyramid. Okay. And so I think this is a much more comprehensive, holistic approach to managing your weight. I don't know why this won't— there we go, uh, focus. But, but so we talk about mindset, right? And one of the aspects of mindset, and we put it second— motivation's most important thing, we start with that— but then next thing in line is self-image. And I think, Zainab, that question you're asking is directly applicable to that, that if you in your whole life have identified as an overweight person, you may not like it, but you have to admit that you're, you're comfortable being overweight in the world, right? So you have created a belief system that I don't like being overweight, but at least I know how to kind of operate in the world. I know I can survive in it. And changing your identity and your personality is a big deal. And I think most diets just never talk about this, but I think a huge part of not just losing weight, but living at it is changing the way you think about yourself and the self-image. Really, Maxwell Maltz kind of popularized that back in the '50s. He was a plastic surgeon, and he would work with people that had different physical deformities, especially facial deformities. And he would notice that some of them kind of changed their personality to reflect the new appearance, and some of them wouldn't. You know, some of them almost still acted as if they still had the, um, whatever had originally been there. And that kind of led him to this sense of What the self-image is, this internal sense of who we are that's really almost independent of what's on the outside. So again, this is really important because I can't tell you the number of people I've worked with who have lost weight. And I've said, well, why'd you put the weight back on? And a lot of times when we kind of get to the core of it, they'll say something like, I didn't feel like myself. So feeling like yourself is very, very important. And so to just try and lose weight and still think yourself an overweight person Creates a lot of subconscious kind of, you know, friction, you know, should we say. So part of the process is changing how you think about yourself, developing in your mind who is Zainab, who is healthy, who eats moderately, who's in control, who's grounded, who's calm, who's slimmer, who can move more comfortably, who wears smaller clothes. Who is this version of Zainab? You know what I mean? Like, like we got to spend some time really thinking about it. Because right now it doesn't exist, right? That idea of like, who am I as a thin, healthy person doesn't exist in your mind. You think all the time of not being overweight, but that's different than really imagining yourself as being the thin, healthy, happy person you want to be. So you almost have to create it, you know, and that's a part of the process. So that's the mindset piece. But then strategically, the other side of it is stop dieting. Dieting is not going to work for you ever. I'm going to assume you have tried and it hasn't worked, and it's probably not going to work because it's too big. So instead of making this a process, especially if you've been overweight your whole life, I suggest this to all of you: stop trying to jump into a diet where you lose the weight and become a thin person, and instead start walking the path of becoming a thin, healthy person. And it's very much like learning a language to some degree. It's a process. And what happens is instead of trying to drastically change your diet, start to shift up the way that you're living. And so again, we go back to the, the Goldwaite pyramid, um, especially lifestyle. Come on, focus up. So start drinking more water, start getting better quality sleep, uh, start, you know, practicing relaxation, start moving more, um, start doing small things that are sustainable sustainable. Because what I bet you've done, Zainab, in your weight loss career is you try to do drastic things to change your weight and you haven't been able to stick to it. And then you go back to how you always are. But if you make small changes that are sustainable, like, I'm going to drink a bottle of water every day, I'm going to get, you know, 7 to 8 hours of sleep Monday through Friday, I'm gonna, you know, go for a short walk around the block, uh, in the mornings. Right? When you pick something small like that, what happens is you start doing it consistently. So it's not this all or nothing diet thing. It becomes something that starts to weave itself into your life. And all of a sudden it starts to change the way you think about yourself and it changes what you believe is possible. Because what you've tried up until now, I bet, to manage your weight is to do drastic changes that change everything. And it feels very white-knuckly, right? Like you, you're holding on for dear life as long as you can, but you always end up having to let go. But what happens if you build around small little changes? I'll have an apple every Monday through Friday for the— in the afternoon. When you start doing little things like that, that helps you change your belief system that I can do this. Okay. Because again, most of you have never done this because what you're trying to do is something huge and you don't believe you can do it. And you don't believe even if you can do it, you don't believe you'll be able to keep it up. So I think you need to have a more holistic kind of approach to this. Than just the diets give you, especially if you've been overweight your whole life. But yeah, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask them. Yeah, Zayden says that makes sense. Thanks very much. Hey, you're welcome, you're welcome. Yeah, a lot of it— I say this all the time— I mean, one of the big psychological problems with dieting is it's all about what you don't want, right? Think about that. It's right in the name: weight loss. You're overweight and you want it gone. You You overeat, you want to stop. Weight loss in the diet sense is always about what you're going to stop doing. I'm going to stop overeating. I'm going to stop eating carbs. I'm going to stop eating sugar. I'm going to stop being overweight. I'm going to stop, um, being an extra large. It's all about what you don't want and very little about what you do want. And believe this, because I've gone through this for— I've done this professionally for over 20 years. And, um, you know, people can talk for hours about what they don't want. And then I ask them what they actually— what do you want? And most people struggle with that. And I work with very smart, intelligent people, but most people struggle with what do you want, you know? I just want to lose the weight. I just want to lose the weight. I just want to lose the weight. Okay, but we gotta have more than that. There needs to be more than just that. And most people have trouble articulating that. Uh, what's up, Marta? Marta says it's never about food. We so much identified with our faulty created persona that embraces whatever ideas about ourselves we believe we are. That goes with being obese. Yeah, Marta, I agreed, agreed. Um, a huge part of dealing with your weight is dealing with your mindset, you know, the beliefs you all have, on the beliefs I have. That's work I do constantly. I'm constantly using the Program Yourself Then approach to recognize limiting beliefs and improve them, fix them, resolve them. And so, you know, I can't imagine anyone's weight loss path that isn't going to include uh, you know, some work on their limiting beliefs and ideas that they hold of themselves, you know. Um, especially if you've been overweight, you've, you've accumulated a lot of limiting beliefs, and, um, they've got to be challenged, and most of them are going to have to be changed. What's up, Anita? This is— thanks for the reminder that small things make a change in how we think about ourselves. Yeah, you're welcome. It's the small things that make the biggest difference. I know it's like a cliché, but it's just so true. I mean, like, in a very practical, functional way, uh, if you focus on small things, it's the secret to change. That's my biggest message to you, the most positive message I could give you that I think is the truest from my 20 years of doing this professionally, is that it's the small changes that make the difference. It's, it's not the giant swings that, that the diet teaches you. It's, it's taking the small things consistently, and it's a much more enjoyable, sustainable, comfortable path. You know, I'm, I'm obsessed with it. I'm obsessed with it more and more and more as I get older, and it serves me. It's never not served me to focus on the little things. It's just, it's so much more effective. Now, I know most people, they struggle because they don't have patience, but, you know, You can work on patience too, just so you know. You can develop patience. Um, Heather says, I went from 240 to 175 and I've kept it off following your videos. Heather, nice job! Congrats! Holy shit, great job! Proud of you. That's a wonderful, wonderful accomplishment. Yeah, so keep it up. All right, so now, now the goal is like— and again, it never stops, folks. I don't know, some people freak out about this because it's not like a diet, but it's all about in Program Yourself, then we're always optimizing. That's the phase we get to ultimately. Um, first we kind of gain the eating-wise, we gain awareness of what we're doing and how to fix it. We start structuring what we're doing so we reduce cognitive load and can rely on our subconscious mind to kind of carry out our habits. And then we optimize forever. So here I am, 30 years into doing this program for myself, and I'm constantly optimizing, constantly tweaking, constantly upgrading things. So that's where you're at, Heather. So don't think of this as like, well, now I'm done or whatever like that. Now it becomes, how can I live— if 175 is your final goal, if that's where you want to be, the question becomes, how can I live at 175 in the easiest, most comfortable, enjoyable way possible? You know? And so you recognize what parts of what you're doing to get to 175 are good and sustainable and fill you with joy, and which ones are stressful and difficult and you're kind of struggling with. And look at the ones you're struggling with and start asking the question, how can I improve this piece? How can I make this better? How can I make this easier? How can I make it more enjoyable? But great job, Heather. Keep it up. Nice job. I always like to see your success. Okay, so Heather follows it up by saying, I recently gained 20 pounds, but I had some health issues. So great job. I'm glad that you associated the weight gain with what triggered it. Okay. And what caused it. Again, a lot of times when people lose the weight, we're always going to put some weight on folks because we're live, living human beings. And so you can get to your goal weight, but I can guarantee you that from your goal weight into the future, there's going to be ups and downs with your weight. That's not the end of the world. We're human beings that are living a human life, and there's times when we're eating more, times we're eating less to some degree. So we're looking to normalize the average, but there's always going to be outlier situations. And so if you have some health issues, I'm glad that you associate the weight gain with the health issues, and hopefully the health issues are kind of fading a bit and you can kind of get yourself back into your pre-health issue routine. But remember that, and that's a key thing I will suggest, that when the weight comes on— it always comes on at some point, at least a little bit— we want to relax, ground ourselves, calm down, and ask ourselves, you know, how was I able to do what I was doing before, right? So again, you've had some health issues, your behavior's changed a little bit, the weight's gone up a little. Relax, ground yourself, and ask, how can I get myself back onto my routine I was doing before so I get the results I was getting before? But great job. Yeah, it says, I enjoy your videos, they really bring me peace. That makes me happy, that's why I make them. I really like that. It's the peace and the feeling joy in my body that I just take away from your videos. Well, thank you, Heather. Yeah, I really, really appreciate that. That's the goal, you know, because again, you The peacefulness and the calm really, to me, is really your superpower. I think calm is really the most underutilized superpower that humans have. And, um, it's challenging to change your behavior when you're stressed out. So I think it's really important that part of your weight loss strategy be about creating a deeper sense of calm, a deeper sense of peace in yourself. So you can feel more grounded. Because once you have that, it's just so much easier to make the right choices. And I think Heather's a great example of that. So thank you for sharing that and keep up watching the videos, right? Stay in that state. Um, Carol says, right on, plus a small change isn't so daunting. Yeah, absolutely. That's, that's such another huge part of the whole thing is that small changes don't activate our amygdala, right? That's a real thing. Diets are activating your amygdala. Your diets freak you out, folks. That's why you avoid them. You live in this constant reality where you're freaked out about the diets, and then sometimes you finally get so upset that you finally do it, but you're freaked out the whole time. Dieting is a very stressful, tense, anxiety-induced way to manage your weight. And I would suggest that it's a lot easier to make small changes that are relatively comfortable, um, consistently, and to stack those on top of each other to achieve the results you want. No, what's up, Amy? Amy says, thank you for all your ideas and ways to reprogram my thinking. I'm down 5 pounds and I'm thinking 5 a month is so reasonable. Yeah, wonderful, Amy. 5 is a wonderful number to aim at. And, and honestly, I think 5 is right in the— right kind of in the middle of the sweet spot, um, maybe a hair towards even the high end. That's what I think. And now it always depends, you know, weight loss is a relative thing depending on how— what your weight is, starting weight is, or Okay. But, um, 5 pounds a month for kind of the average person, I think is a wonderful goal. Um, it's a little over a pound a week. I think that's a nice place to aim and to remember this as well, that, that, you know, over a month that you lose 5 pounds, a lot of times the weight doesn't come off just a pound at a time, like this consistent straight line down. Um, it's a jiggity-jaggity, you know, so 2 weeks you might not lose any weight. One week you might gain a pound. Next week you might lose 5 pounds. Right, that's a little bit of an outlier, but, um, you know, you might lose a pound, stay the same for a week, lose a pound, you know, and then lose 3 pounds. So again, weight loss is, is very inconsistent, unpredictable in the short term. Um, but great job, Amy, and I think that's a wonderful goal to have. Um, yeah, and keep thinking about how to reprogram your thinking. You're right on the right money because again, it's a process that you can just stick with forever. You just keep getting better and better and better and better. That programming your mind to get the results you want. And so again, I, I find it amazing the things I'm still discovering and tweaking and improving. And it's convinced me that until my last breath on earth, which I hope is 100 years from now, I will still be constantly optimizing and growing and evolving and, and fixing things. Um, there's been no shortage of it in 30 years. It's never slowed down. I'm constantly finding new things every direction I look to make better. And, uh, that's the suggestion— suggested path I would, uh, advise you all to take. It feels a lot better. Uh, Marta says, this is such mental, mental work for me more than anything. Oh yeah, Marta, it's mental work for everyone. I don't care what any of you say. Um, ultimately, you know, yeah, losing weight, if you want to do it the traditional diet Biggest Loser way, well, it's going to feel like a lot of physical work, but Keeping the weight off, which is what I'm focused on, living at your goal weight, there's no way around that. It's a lot of mental work because your mindset controls everything, folks. So again, the idea that mindset has been so deleted from weight loss in this culture is really a bad sign, you know, because everything you do is dependent on your mindset. All your thoughts, all your behaviors, a lot of your feelings. Um, they all flow from your mindset. So it is tough work, but Marta, it's also work that feels tougher now because you're kind of new to it relatively, you know. And, you know, 6 months is still new. You have to think of program yourself then. I always say, like, like, to be honest, I'm gonna be honest with you all, I'm not just gonna bullshit you, but really this is a lifelong thing. It's like learning a language or something, you know. So how much can you learn a language or learn an instrument in 6 months, a year? Well, it's no different here. Being a thin, healthy, happy person is something you just— you get better and better and better at it. But you really need to have a time frame of like going to college, of multiple years. It's gonna take multiple years to get close to the goal you actually have, because the goal you all are carrying around is not 6 months away. Your goal is not just to be lighter. I know you think it is, but it's not, because as soon as you lose the weight, you're going to want to keep it off, right? And, um, weight loss takes a lot of mindset work to begin with, but you can overcome it with willpower. Most people have that ability to kind of do that, but no one has the ability to keep it off with just willpower. Think about that. Again, it's estimated 85 to 95% of dieters get to their goal, they put the weight back on. So I think that that's a good statistic that shows you that getting it off is a lot easier than keeping it off. And Keeping it off is not going to happen if you don't change your mindset. That's what I believe. So yes, it is, it is hard work. Yeah, breaking old habits and beliefs. Marta says, yeah, I'm constantly working on my old habits and beliefs and I've been doing it for 30 years, but it gets addicting. It's fun because when you actually recognize your bad habits and you reckon you are actually, actually able to change them, it's, uh, it's Crazy how much impact that makes. Again, it's not the big giant things you do in life to make the difference. It's the small consistent things you do. It's not the thing you do dramatically for 5 days. It's the thing you do consistently for a year, 5 years, 10 years. That's what's making the biggest difference. And that's a real blessing. I know it's discouraging on one hand because it's going to take you longer than you want it to, but it's inspiring on the other hand because it it sets you up for long-term success if you take the, the kind of slower, smaller pieced path to your goal. Yeah. What's up, Roberta? Roberta says, greetings, my admiration, respect to you from Peterborough. I appreciate your helpful advice. Thank you. You're welcome. Well, I see a Canadian flag, but I know of Peterborough, New Hampshire. I used to live right near there, used to love it. But now I see Canada, so I'm imagining it's Peterborough Something Canada, which I haven't heard of, but you're welcome, you're welcome. Yes, thanks for listening, thanks for watching. Um, yeah, this is a mission for me. You know, I'm here every Monday through Friday, uh, usually around noon Eastern, and I'm here to help you all with your weight. And I think one of the main ways to do that is to just give you a different perspective on how to manage your weight. And that is part of why I get on here every day, is just to give you an alternative to dieting. Certainly an alternative to, you know, the GLPs, and certainly an alternative to the surgeries, um, because I think there's a better way, uh, to manage your weight, and I'm sharing it with you, you know. Uh, yeah. Oh, Ontario. All right. Yeah, Peterborough, Ontario. I'll have to go visit. I haven't been to a ton— I haven't been Ontario in a long time. Probably, what, oh my God, 20 years ago? Oh my God, how old am I? It was, it was 20 years ago. That was such a fun trip too. Yeah, I'm gonna have to head up there maybe next year though. I'm going to Montreal. I'm gonna go to Montreal I think next month. So Montreal this year, but maybe next year I'll go to Toronto. It's a far drive, but so what? Who cares? That's beautiful. I love Canada. Love Canada. I cannot wait to go to Montreal, I will tell you that. But the problem Montreal is they speak French up there, and if I don't think that— I don't blame America, I don't blame Canada right now. Canadians, if you're not loving Americans right now, I get it, I get it. But in Montreal, they don't love it if you don't speak English, if you don't speak French. I've noticed that some people— but Toronto, everyone's speaking English. So yeah, gotta head back over there. That's what I know about Ontario. Toronto. So anyways, all right, I gotta get out of here. I got a busy day. I'm gonna pop off. So it's kind of a pop-on, pop-off sort of live, and that's okay too. And it's getting hotter in here. I didn't put my air conditioner on yet, and I'm gonna— I know not to keep talking when I'm getting hot. So again, if you're not— if you're not in my world, make sure you click the link in my bio or go to programyourselfthing.com, go get the free hypnosis session I give you. Um, I give you a bunch of free stuff. That's just one piece of it. Again, PYT Daily is free now, and that's something you'll get once you get in there. But it's really, really valuable. It's going to help you. Okay. Other thing is, this is— I'm here every Monday through Friday around noon Eastern. This is also a podcast. So if you can't make the live, you like listening to it, you can search any podcast platform for Program Yourself Then. It'll pop up. You can listen anytime you want. And this book's available. This is my book, The Tao of Living at Your Goal Weight. I am currently recording the audio version of it, and it reminded me how good this book is. So yes, we got a bunch of reviews on Amazon. Uh, people love this book, uh, one of the best books on weight, uh, that you probably ever will read. So go check this out, it's, uh, very inexpensive over on Amazon. And, um, yes, the audio version is, is, uh, on the way, probably, probably a week or two, but we will get that. So there we go. All right, skip that. All right, everyone have a super duper day and we'll talk soon. Bye!