Program Yourself Thin Live 8-20-26

Hey everyone, welcome to today's Program Yourself Thin podcast. Today we're talking about Stop asking why you overeat. You're obsessed with this question and it's not helping you in any way. When you keep focusing on why you overeat, you focus on overeating, right? When you remember a time when you overate, when you think about how you overate last night and you obsessively think about why you did it, all of those thoughts revolve around the core idea and memory that you're overeating. So every time you wonder why you overeat or why you did it, you're replaying the overeating scenario in your mind. You're reinforcing the identity of an overeater. You are replaying that behavior in your mind, and it makes it more likely you're going to do it again. He asked, and we ask you just moderately. How can I eat in a way that I can live at my goal weight? And when you start thinking this way, it makes all the difference in the world because now when you start thinking about eating moderately, now everything is revolving around that idea, that identity, those behaviors. And even just thinking about how can I eat more moderately, even just asking the question fills your imagination up with ideas of eating moderately. And even when you start thinking, how can I eat more moderately? You may find your body starting to move towards the answer because a lot of times the answer is being more relaxed and calm. So as you start to fill your mind with ideas of eating moderately, you imagine yourself as a person who can eat moderately. You imagine yourself eating slower, perhaps being more calm, more grounded, chewing more. Being more in tune with your body, and just imagining it starts to put those ideas in your mind because you have been focusing on trying to diagnose and crack the case of why you overeat your entire life, and you have not gotten any closer to an answer. And what I'm telling you is that the answer you get is irrelevant anyways. Imagine one day you figure it out. Why do I overeat? Oh, because this happened to me when I was ten years old. Who gives a shit? You still got the problem. So even if you got to an answer, which you're never going to get to, or you'll just keep coming up with more and more and more and more reasons and ideas and answers for why you overeat. But every time you do that, you're steeping yourself in overeating psychology and mindset. And as soon as you flip the question to over how can I eat more moderately, how can I eat? The way that I want to? How can I eat so that I'm at my goal weight? All of these questions steer your mind towards a solution, and it is what we think a majority of the time. It's the mindset we steep ourselves in that really dictates our behavior moving forward and the results we're going to achieve. And so instead of trying to diagnose the problem, we make a decision to focus on the solution. And you do not really need to diagnose the problem very effectively in order to figure out a solution. By the way, don't get me wrong, sometimes having more understanding of the problem can help you find a solution. But in this case, it really doesn't matter if you never figure out why you overeat. It's not going to matter if you learn how to eat moderately. I hope that makes sense because it's a completely different mindset that you live in. And the more you live in the solution-oriented mindset where you're concentrating and focusing on how to eat the way you want to, The more you start to create the mindset and the strategies and the skills that allow you to do that. But it's a constant focus on what you want as opposed to what you don't want, because it's addictive. It's addicting to try and figure out what the problem is, but it's fruitless, and you can prove that in your own experience. And so once you flip this over into focusing on the solution and aiming your energy and your focus and all the rest of it onto what you want, That becomes the secret sauce to getting the results you want because you create a completely different mindset. All right, so if you want to go deeper into this way of thinking and be supported in this process, click the link in my bio and go get the free hypnosis session that I made for you. It is called The New Thin Me, and it is designed to help kickstart your weight loss and get you going, and it's completely free. So go check that out, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask them. I am here to help out as much as I can and give you hopefully some different perspectives on how to do it. Give me one second here though. Yeah, so I did get a question here. Wait, where was that? Someone said— Hiva says baking soda and cinnamon helps losing weight. Yes, that's the stuff I would say avoid. Baking soda and cinnamon is not going to fix your weight problem, all right? I promise you. Apple, apple cinnamon, or apple, apple vinegar is, is not— apple cider vinegar is not going to help you live at your goal weight. You know, maybe it'll help you a little bit, but it's not the cure, right? All of a sudden you start pounding uh, you know, vinegar, or you start, you know, I don't even know how you would consume baking soda and cinnamon. Um, and I don't even know if that's a joke. That's how funny this is to me. We're so— weight loss industry is so ridiculous that when someone says, is baking soda and cinnamon help me lose weight? I don't even know if that's joking or if they're serious anymore. I literally don't know, because to me that's as silly as apple cider vinegar, you know. And the idea that apple cider vinegar would fix your weight is really Never mind that. It's more about Jesus Christ, if you think you're one thing away from living at your goal weight, you know, it's just— it's so crazy. And so let me just show you this. Oops. Let me flip this. In Program Yourself Thin, we really follow the goal weight pyramid here. And what that means is it's a more comprehensive, holistic approach to managing your weight. Right. So mindset, lifestyle, and eating. And we kind of go in details with each of those. But it's not enough, in my opinion, just to change your eating. That's what dieting is. And you can do it for a little while, and then you always revert back to your norm. So until you change your mindset, I don't think you'll ever permanently change your weight. And, um, that's my, my point of view, and I'm sticking to it. But yeah, the cinnamon and soda, yeah, you know, don't waste your time unless you love cinnamon and bacon. What a gross combination. And again, I don't even know if you're joking. That's the funniest part. Literally, I literally don't know. It's getting so ridiculous. And I'll tell you what's just ridiculous is cinnamon and soda to me. Baking soda Is protein. We live in the pro protein. No, no, you say, "Oh wait, okay, Jim, okay." Was funny with cinnamon. It's baking soda. You had me. But now protein. Don't don't talk shit about protein. Don't don't you shit talk my protein. Listen, I love protein. Protein is important. Okay. I think it's way overstated. And someone really—I was doing a coffee where this was now—but I was talking to someone the other day, and I caught the implication. The implication was. Because what they do subtly is they imply that if you eat tons of protein, you're going to have muscle. No, protein doesn't just turn into muscle, you know. And, uh, so it's like, I know that's the message though. You're getting this message subtly and explicitly too, that, um, if you eat protein, you're going to lose weight, you're going to build muscle. No, you're not. If you work out and have enough protein, but you can have protein anyways. If you consume enough calories, you got enough protein. It's impossible to be protein deficient if you're consuming the right amount of calories. And I bet you're consuming the right amount of calories. So again, it's not a worry for you. But to me, that, you know, think of protein is going to help you just magically lose weight is as silly as baking soda and cinnamon, you know, or apple cider vinegar or intermittent fasting or keto. I think they're all silly. But anyways, uh, Jerry says— or Jerica. Jerica says, thank you, I'm really going to try and flip the switch. Don't think how to not overeat, but think how do I eat moderately? How do I maintain my weight? I'm 10 pounds from goal. Nice job, Jerica. And that's the shift, you know. Again, in Program Yourself Thin, that's a fundamental shift we look to achieve right away, um, and shift our focus from losing weight to living at our goal weight. And that shift does a lot of work because when you're thinking about losing weight, you're thinking about yourself primarily as the same, just way less. And I believe that for you, in order for you to live at your goal weight— now notice the languaging here. I don't want you to just lose weight. You don't just want to lose weight. No, you don't. Even though you say that as a mantra, I know if you're overweight, you say to yourself a thousand times a day, "I just want to lose the weight. I just want to lose the weight. I just want to lose the weight." You say that all the time, but it's not even what you want because what you really want is to live at your goal weight. You don't just want to lose weight so that you can put it back on, which is what you've experienced. You want to lose the weight and then maintain it long term. And so right off the bat, with Program Yourself, then we articulate things in terms of what we want specifically. In NLP, it's called a well-formed outcome. And lose— I just want to lose weight— that's not a well-formed outcome. This is part of why none of you getting the outcome you want, right? All of you have lost weight at some point, but you've struggled to keep it off. And I would suggest that a big reason for that is that you've never really studied how to live at your goal weight. You have focused on how to lose the weight, and what you have not realized probably is that's really a temporary strategy. Dieting is a temporary strategy. Shit, we're surrounded by temporary strategies of dieting, injections, and to be honest, even the surgeries for a lot of people are temporary. A lot of people don't know. What's up, Lois? How's it going? Carolyn comes. Happy Thursday. It is ridiculous. They are serious. Yes. All right. They are serious. Is that a new thing? Baking soda and cinnamon. I'm not. I'm not making fun of anyone because again, we're all susceptible to it. But it is funny, this industry is so ridiculous because people— again, it's understood, right? You just, you want the magic answer, you want the easy fix, you know, and it's just so, so appealing, you know, and so seductive. But you have to resist it because it's an illusion and it'll guide you off track, you know. That's the big problem. Um, So, Christina from Croatia, how's it going? Croatia, yeah, it's so cool. It's, it's awesome to always, um, you know, see people from all around the world here. It's so cool. Uh, what's up, Mike? Mike says, as I get closer to my goal weight, should I decrease my daily calories? Um, should I decrease my daily calories? Well, you know, let me just talk about this real quick because I think this is really a fascinating concept. Now, most people, when they think about weight loss, right, I think most of us will start at the same agreement that your weight is a reflection of your average calorie consumption. I think most people at the end of the day kind of get that, right? I kind of eat the way I eat, my weight's gonna reflect that. Okay. But here's where things change. Dieting says, okay, then let's drastically reduce the calories drastically so that you can lose weight quick. And so you drastically reduce the calories and then your weight starts coming down. And then eventually you get to your goal weight, and now the elusive magical maintenance phase that apparently no one in the world ever figures out, because it's estimated that 85 to 95% of dieters that lose weight put it back on. And I think this is why, because they drastically cut the calories down so they can lose weight fast. The weight comes down to where they want, and now what are they going to do? They're going to bring their calories up to a maintenance level. What's the maintenance level? How are you figuring that out? Very few people do. So in Program Yourself Then, we'll start with the same spot. Your average calorie consumption, you know, is your weight. But with Program Yourself Then, we're going to cut a little bit of calories comfortably, let the weight come down, cut a little more calories comfortably, let the weight come down. And you do this until you get to your goal weight. But now what you've done Is you've done it in a way where you know exactly the calories to eat to live at the weight you want to live at. None of this stuff, oh, what do I do now? Where am I decrease my calories? All the rest of it, because that is seemingly almost impossible. Argue with me. Tell me it's not. You've lost weight. Did you put it back on or did you live at your goal weight? So this idea that you're going to figure out your maintenance level, I think, is one of the biggest fairy tales ever told. 5 to 15% of dieters end up figuring out what their maintenance level is and able to stay there. That's not very good statistics. So, you know, as you get close to your goal weight, um, and then there's another kind of— I guess I could read your question a different way too, that as I get close to my goal weight, should I decrease my daily calories? Which is that you've probably already drastically cut your calories and now you want to get close to— you want to get to your goal weight faster, so you want to cut even more calories. Again, you want to make it more stressful on yourself so you can get there faster is kind of how I'm interpreting that. Um, and so I would— I, I don't have the answer for that exactly, but what I would say you reference is how do you feel about what you're doing? Does it feel relatively comfortable? Is it sustainable? Does it feel okay for you? And then kind of use that to guide you. Uh, what's up, Don? Don from Australia. Yes, a lot of Australian people in the program, and a lot of people watch the, the podcast from Australia. So how you doing? Um, I'm not sure how to say that. Teacher says, how about lose to live lighter? How about lose to live lighter? Uh, I'm not sure exactly what that's referencing, but, um, lose to live lighter, uh, yeah, as a phrase, you know, because I think if you're referring to like what I was saying with like living at your goal weight Um, wanting to live lighter, I wouldn't pick either because living lighter is a, is a never-ending process. And in some ways, I think that describes dieters because dieters very rarely have kind of a ground floor of where they want to be. Um, a lot of times dieters just get addicted to losing weight and they have a very hard time maintaining. It's not a surprise. Weight dieting is a phase. Dieting is the weight loss phase of your goal. Your goal is not to lose weight forever. Your goal is not to lose weight. Your goal technically is to live at your goal weight long term. You want to live at your goal weight for the rest of your life on your autopilot. That's your real goal. And that's the most specific goal and articulation of it that you have probably ever heard. If you've never heard me before, you have probably never as clearly articulated your goal as that in your entire life. As much as you focused on diets and weight loss and podcasts and all the rest of it, You probably have never clearly identified what your goal is, which is that it is not to lose weight. As obsessed as you are with losing weight, it's probably shocking to realize that's not even your primary goal. It's not. It's not. Because if you only care about losing weight, that's what leads you to do extreme things that you can't keep up. And that really is the psychological core of why you keep repeating the same cycle. Of losing weight, putting it back on, losing weight, putting it back on, until you get to the point where you can't even lose weight anymore because you're— you just don't believe it's gonna last or work, and what's the point? And that is where most of my clients are at before they start the program. Most of my clients are 45+, and they have done so many diets, have gained and lost so much weight, that they get to a point of apathy where they don't believe anything's gonna work, um, long-term. And so they can't even get themselves to do anything short-term either. And that's why I say, if that is you, I'm happy you found this place. And, uh, yeah, you should definitely go get the, the hypnosis session that I give you. I'll put the link. I'm gonna share this. A little distracted. I was in Facebook hell. If you have never dealt with Facebook's, uh, tech, their support, oh my goodness, the future looks bleak if, uh, Facebook is What we're talking about. There's no people there. There's no people in the future. Facebook's future, there's no, there's no humans. There is just, uh, shitty, shitty AIs. They're shitty. They're, they're, they're little jerks. Oh man, why is my picture blurry? We get a blurry picture over on Instagram, I see. Is it? I don't know, it looks blurry to me. It's annoying, but whatever. Um, How to convince yourself not to eat when you're dead hungry? Um, another, another question that has the answer embedded in it. Uh, you don't. Yeah, I don't. You don't convince yourself to not eat when you're dead hungry. When you're starving, you're not going to convince yourself. It's like, you know what, hold your breath, and then when you really start running out of oxygen, convince yourself not to breathe. Let me know how that goes. Well, you got about as much chance convincing yourself not to breathe as you do convincing yourself not to eat when you're starving. How's about that? You're never going to convince yourself not to eat when you're starving. So what's the answer? Well, the answer is that you don't get starving. In Program Yourself Thin, one of the main things we monitor eating-wise is our hunger. We manage our hunger. We become friends with it. Your hunger is not your enemy. Your hunger is your best friend to let you know what the hell is going on in your body, and you better listen to it. You better make friends with your hunger, or you're gonna have a real hard time managing your weight. So I, I would never try and convince myself not to eat when I'm hungry, just same way I wouldn't try and convince myself not to breathe when I need oxygen. Um, they're both recipes for disaster, and neither one of them are going to work. Unfortunately, that has been what you've learned and been taught through dieting. And it's one of the core reasons why it doesn't work, because most diets are gonna pit you against your hunger. They're gonna pit your willpower against your hunger, and you're gonna see how long you can overcome your hunger for. And for most of the time, you'll be able to do it a couple days, a couple weeks. Once or twice in your life, you'll be able to do it more than a couple months. And that's that. So I sit here at my goal weight and have been at my goal weight for over 30 years now, dropped over, dropped over 50 pounds and have maintained that weight for over 30 years because I'm not starving. I'm not fighting my hungry. I've learned to manage it. So I know I've got clean and pleasure days. On my clean days, I eat until— I eat 3 meals a day. So my breakfast, and I eat the same breakfast. Now again, you can have multiple breakfasts. But I know the breakfast that I eat comfortably gets me to lunch. The lunch I eat comfortably gets me to dinner. The dinner I eat comfortably gets me to the next breakfast. And so there's no fear of hunger. There's no anxiety. There's no battle against hunger. There's managing my eating so that I'm not starving. Now, I might be mildly hungry. Okay. I think being mildly hungry, honestly, for me, in my opinion, being mildly hungry is the sweet spot where I want to be. You know, it's funny because we use hunger as a positive and a negative thing. But the positive side of hunger is when you're hungry, hungry for something like, like you're activated. And so when I think of myself being mildly hungry, I feel lighter. I feel more energized. I feel more focused. I feel more ambitious, more clearheaded. So that's the sweet spot for me. I want to be nourished, but I don't mind being a little bit hungry. I think is to me, that's where I want to be. And that's where I spend a lot of my time. I mean, I could always eat, but shit, when I used to eat just morning to night, I could always eat then too. So you have to understand the difference between hunger and appetite. They're a little different, but managing your hunger genuinely, I think, is the foundational piece of eating in a way that's going to allow you to live at your goal weight. And I don't think you're ever going to beat your hunger. I don't think it's ever going to happen. Don't believe it. But, you know, if you all beat your hunger for 10 years, let me know, you know. But I just don't think anyone's going to starve themselves long term. Uh, I think you're gonna lose that fight, and most people do. What's up, Don? How's it going? Good to see you're still at it. Yes, yes, still at it. Um, I have been doing this for— for— I always say this, people don't believe it. Maybe it's a little weird, I don't know. It's— I've kind of blazed my own lane in life. I've been very fortunate to be able to do that. Um, but this is just a topic I am obsessed with, and I've been obsessed with it personally for over 30 years, professionally for over 20 years. People ask me all the time, how the hell do you talk about weight so much? I don't know. I couldn't tell you how I do it. I just do. It's just who I am. And it's one of the reasons why I'm so excited. I cannot wait. I cannot wait to reveal the new Program Yourself Thin update. Again, it won't affect current customers of it. You will continue to have the same situation, although if you finish your 8 weeks, there will be a slight change in the Circle app that will change for you. But you will again always forever have lifetime access to the program. Forever, you will have the ability to go through the program and restart as many times as you want. That remains, but the Circle app will actually change for you. But for everyone else who's not in the program, it's very, very, very big news, I think. And I'm super excited to share it, but I'm going to wait to do that. And it's actually built on my passion for talking about this stuff. So anyways, can't wait. Says, thank you. Fun listening to you. You're welcome. I'm here every day, Monday through Friday, noon Eastern. Pop in and yeah, check in again. I love Speaking with you all, I think you all deserve to have a better way to manage your weight than you currently have been given in your life, and it is a mission for me to help as many people as possible live at their goal weight. That's my mission in life, and this is part of how I accomplish that. And again, I do have some things coming that are going to help me do it even better, and I'm so excited. Biggest shift in transformation program yourself in history. I've been doing this for over 21 years. And this update is going to be the biggest change that's ever happened, and I'm so excited about it. There's a couple other things I got to kind of get in place. Everything's a little more complicated than you think it's going to be. This is no different. It could be tomorrow. If not, it'll be Monday, but I'm hoping tomorrow. I think I got everything pretty much lined up, and, uh, yeah, I should have it done this week. I forget today's Thursday. Yeah, I thought it was Friday for a second. Anyways, Don says you're amazing what you do. Thank you, Don. That means a lot to me. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, Mike says, I've lost 50+ pounds, but my belly won't get smaller. Why? Um, interesting. Yeah, Mike. Um, well, congrats, you know, nice job on the 50 pounds down. Um, I think that that's not necessarily an answer I could create or I could give you, you know. Um, but I will say that it's not uncommon. You know, sometimes our bodies are our bodies. They are what they are, you know. And I think that you can lose 50 pounds and still not love the shape of your body. Uh, I don't know. First thing I would say though is, you know, have you measured your belly? You know what I mean? Like, again, a lot of times— and I, I'm a big fan of the more measurements the better, um, and I think sometimes people just rely on weight and kind of a general sense of how they look, which isn't very accurate. Um, so that'd be my first question. Maybe you have measured it too, but that'd be my first thing is, have you actually measured, like with a tape measure, your stomach? During this 50-pound weight loss, that's my first question. And if you did, I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a reduction in your stomach. Okay, and then B, you know, this is the bigger part, and you ain't gonna like this part, but it is kind of like you have to understand in our our reality now we all share a similar reality that we have all been alive in the most mediated. Marketed, commercialized, programmed, conditioned, propagandized world in history. And part of that is that we have had a non-stop stream of perfect bodies put in front of us. This ideal, this sense of ideal perfect body put in front of us. And that perfect body really is so narrow when you look at the broad spectrum of people that exist on Earth. And this is a long-winded way to get to the point that a lot of times when you lose weight, even if you get to your goal weight, there is a very high likelihood that you're still not going to be happy with your body. And I don't say this to discourage you. I say it to prepare you so that you're not shocked or surprised from it, because this is very common. And I can tell you from my own experience that My body does not look the way I expected it to look at the weight I'm at, and I would say it's a little disappointing. I joke a lot that sometimes I thought, you know, I don't know, everyone's got their own thing, but for me, one of the images in my mind was Brad Pitt in Fight Club, right? Oh, if I get to that weight, I'll probably look like that. Nope, nope. There's a huge difference between weight loss and physique, right? And so I, I often say You know, food controls the weight, exercising controls the shape. You know, eating the weight, exercising the shape. And so a lot of times the images we've been bombarded with, a lot of times, you know, A, they're genetically a certain way, B, you know, they— well, again, in my case, a lot of times it's athletes too. And it's like, how am I just going to look at an athlete and be like, oh, if I lose some weight, I'll look like that? Now it doesn't make sense when I say it out loud, but subconsciously that's kind of what I'm— I'm like, oh yeah, if I do that, I'll look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club. Nah, you know, Brad Pitt, when he's in Fight Club, A, he's Brad Pitt, okay? B, he probably worked out like a madman for a year before the movie. C or D— he— see, he's, he's lit exactly perfect. He's probably got makeup on on top of that, you know what I mean? Like, it— so there's all these other factors that I'm not You know, accounting for. And long story short, what ends up happening is it presents itself in our lives as even when we lose weight, we still don't feel oh well there's still this I can still pinch stuff or I can still you know so we got to watch out for that because that can be a real cause of sabotaging ourselves right if we're not happy with oh what's the point well at least I used to get food and you know so you got to watch out for that because we've been This goes to the all-or-nothing thinking that I talk about a lot, because most dieters are all-or-nothing thinkers. And part of that all-or-nothing thinking is really in our minds, how we think of ourselves. And we either think we're going to be overweight or we're going to be this perfect version of ourselves. And that perfect version of ourselves is often just fantasy land. Like I said, for me, imagine like referencing having that in there is this idea of Brad Pitt in Fight Club. Again, I'm not saying it's not a worthy goal or anything, but my mind doesn't really appreciate accurately how much it would take to make that happen for me. You know, and and so I'm not going to do all that stuff. I don't want to work out a lot. I don't like it. So what I gotta do is I gotta lower my expectations. And I know people don't want to hear that because we want to live in the fantasy that we're gonna you know have the body of our our you know the ideal model or actress or actor or per sport athlete or whoever it is that we're kind of looking. Up to, and a lot of times we're not willing or able to put that work in. And I think that's fine, but we just need to recognize it intentionally because a lot of times the reference point we have for what we think we're going to look like is really inaccurate. And I think I know it sounds weird probably to say, but I think most people need to lower their expectations. I don't say it bad to put it in context. Doesn't it make sense that I would lower my expectations? No, I'm not calling Brad Pitt in Fight Club if I lose the weight. Doesn't, doesn't that make sense? Rather than dedicating my entire life to working out so I can look like Brad Pitt, like, I just don't want to, you know. I'm never gonna look like him anyways. But even physically, I just don't care enough, you know. So doesn't it make sense that if I don't really care, if I'm not really willing to put that work in, that I should say, well, okay, I'm not gonna like that, but, but I'm happy with this. This is, this is where I want to be. This is the sweet spot for me. And this is the whole conversation that goes deep in the goal weight thing. Right. Um, Joe says, what can I do to lessen loose skin? Um, I mean, loose skin is just one of those things that I think— and I've been doing this for a long time— I just think there's no clear-cut answer for that. And I mean that because I think there are just so many different types of people and there's so many factors that, that influence it. So my first thing to say is that number one, I think a lot of it's genetic is what I noticed with that. Um, some people will lose weight and have loose skin and it'll kind of remain. Some people will lose weight and the loose skin will kind of tighten. That's number one. Number 2, right, right behind that though, I think is the rate of speed with which you lose weight. And so I think if you lose weight quickly, you're gonna have loose skin. If you lose weight at a slower rate, you may not even notice the loose skin again. Now it goes back to the first thing as well. What's your genetic makeup? You know, what's your body going to handle? How's it going to handle that? You don't have control over that part. You do have control over the rate of loss. And then the next piece, I think, is having patience with it, you know, because I can almost guarantee you that this skin, if it is going to become tighter, it's going to take a lot longer than you think. And you'll never know. Excuse me, I have this freaking head cold. You'll never know if your skin would have tightened up over time or not if you quit too soon. And that's the next thing I'll tell you. Now I'm going to flip over to the acceptance side of it because most likely, I mean, shit, um, I lost a lot of weight. I lost a lot of weight when I was younger. Okay, so I had that, but I had, um, and continued to have stretch marks, you know, in different spots, um, because of that. And they're never going away, you know. Now I know that's different than loose skin, but at some point you may have— be faced with the idea of I either accept the loose skin or put the weight back on. And that is the option. And I think it's important to see them in context because, um, yeah, no one wants to have loose skin. I get it. And of course you have— you can have surgery. Obviously there's that. That I think we all know that option. I think The questions asked to me are typically more mindset-based. So there's the acceptance of it, and I think the path to accepting the loose skin—if that's your path in life, you know—if that's the body you have and all the rest of it, I think happens best when you compare the loose skin against being at your higher weight. And I think that's the path that you get to a place where you're able to accept and ultimately appreciate that you even have loose skin. Because you get a lot of other benefits from it. So you may not like the loose skin piece of it, but you know you're healthier, you're happier, you look better in your clothes, you feel better, you look better in pictures, you're happier with how you're living, you feel better about yourself. There's a lot of benefits you get too, and it's important to see all of it in context because if we just focus in on the loose skin, you'll probably always not like and feel bad about it. But if you see it in the full context, you might appreciate it as part of the bigger benefit you're getting. Out of this transformation, so I hope that makes sense. And again, my biggest suggestion is just keep going because one thing I have noticed as well is that skin is kind of a funny thing. And so it's like it could be kind of loose skin, and then as you stick with it, it can tighten up. You know, every seven years you completely regenerate all new cells, and so seven years, you know, skin can do pretty interesting things. You know, uh, what's up, Spider? Yeah, I met you, I believe, in 2020. I have— wait, what does it say? Yep, met you, I believe, in 2020, and I've never dieted again. All right, Don. Yes. Yeah, there you go, right? So, um, and that's what I'm trying to say. I've been doing this for over 20 years, so I promise you folks, it's not just me saying this stuff. Um, first of all, I learned all this stuff from people that lost weight and kept it off. And then I did it, and then I shared this with as many people as I can. And so I want you to realize that this is not— everything I'm saying is built around long-term success, which is really the holy grail of weight loss and the, you know, the unicorn that people don't think is possible absolutely is possible. You know, as soon as you get out of your diet mindset and you step into this mindset I'm talking about, dieting just seems silly. You know, it's ineffective. And it isn't effective for long-term success. What's up, Shell? Shell says, thank you, Jim. Your posts and lives and emails are brilliant. You're helping me massively. That makes me so happy. That's awesome, Shell. And again, I'm so— it makes me so— I'm so excited. I'm so excited to announce the new change in Program Yourself Then. I just want to get it all official before I do, but I'm just— I am so excited. It's really— and I will tell you this, and I'll talk more about this when I make the announcement, but, um, one thing I preach this every day, and and I will say I take the no bullshit oath. So everything I'm saying, I I believe in. I may not always be right, but I believe it when I'm saying it. And one thing I say all the time is having the patience to really walk the path because of course we all want fast results, obviously. But I'm here to tell you that the results you truly want take a long time in anything you do. Things always take longer than we think they're going to take. And I say this all the time, and it's really, I think, in every area of life, but certainly with my business. Um, I've been doing Program Yourself Then for over 20 years, and the way I look at it now is it took me 21 years of running a fundamentally— of running a program in a way that was fundamentally mismatched with who I am. And, uh, again, I've helped a lot of people and it's been very successful in a lot of ways, but it took me 21 years to get to this point where it is a fundamental shift that is going to change everything. And am I upset that it didn't have— that I didn't realize it the first couple years? Well, sure, of course I would have rather have known it back then, of course, right? But am I thankful that I know it now? Yeah, absolutely. And that's the place I live in. And honestly, that's why I love walking this path. And, and really, they're two very similar— my business and my, my weight and health and happiness. I think of them very similarly. Like, I love where I'm at— weight, health, and happiness— but I'm also super excited as I continue to walk this path. I just keep optimizing and tweaking and changing it and improving it in ways that I never would have imagined possible. And when I look at my own 30 years of that process, it's so fun because I keep improving. But the most exciting part— I think this is so important for humans— is I, as I look to the future, I keep seeing it getting better. I anticipate and expect that I'm going to keep making refinements and tweaks and changes that keep improving things. And that's very exciting. You know what I mean? And I think you need that because I think one of the big issues with, um, One of the big issues with dieting is it's all built around getting to your goal weight, but getting to your goal weight is a static goal. It's a one-time goal. You think you're going to get to your goal weight and you're going to be so amazed at being at your goal weight, you're just going to stay there forever because you're going to be— life's going to be so much better. But I got news for you, you were already at your goal weight and you put the weight on. So, so I would question that thought. And so in my opinion, just getting to your goal weight's not enough. There's a thing called hedonic adaptation. We adapt to what we know. And it becomes a new baseline. And as humans that are alive, we always want more. We're addicted to progress. We want to improve things. That's what drives us. And so when you're losing weight, it's exciting because you can't wait to get to that goal weight. But once you're there, what do you look forward to? And I think this is a core reason why most people put the weight back on. But for me and people in Program Yourself Thin, getting to our goal weight is just a milestone along the path because We take our weight loss and wrap it in personal development, and the personal development path is never-ending. So when I talk about improving and growing and evolving over the future, it's really exciting to me because I'm going to improve and evolve in ways that I can't even imagine right now. And that's so exciting for me. Now, the other thing is that we're always looking to get 1% better a day. So I'm making improvements today that are exciting and fun, and I know tomorrow I'm going to make exciting improvements And the next day I'm going to make improvements. And it's very addicting because each and every day I learn something, get better, evolve, grow. Um, it feels really good. And so I'm as fired up now about my weight, my health, my happiness as I was 30 years ago when I was actively losing weight. And that's the secret to success in a nutshell. But most dieters have no idea what the hell I'm talking about because you hate it all. And the only thing motivating you is getting the— getting to your goal weight and losing weight. You know, and that's why most people struggle once they get to their goal weight, because they don't have anything to look forward to. Yeah, it's true, it's true. Uh, what's up, Susan? Susan says, I love your approach, it's helped me so much. That makes me so happy. Thank you, thank you for sharing that. It's always so nice to hear, um, and I appreciate that. Hey, there's Connie. Connie says, that's the way I see life. Even at my age, life keeps getting better. Yes, Connie's a superstar. She's been in the program, been under goal weight for 11 years. 11 years. No GLP-1, no diet, no Weight Watchers. 11 years, right? Again, it's an inside-out process. And of course Connie would say that, that life keeps getting better because again, she's taking the weight loss wrapped in personal development. As she keeps becoming a better, happier, healthier version of herself, guess what? It's a lot easier to manage your weight. You know, that's awesome, Connie. I have so much more confidence. I'm learning so many tips and tricks to stay at my goal weight. That's awesome, Susan. Nice job. Yeah, super proud of you. Um, again, that's the secret. You know, the only thing between you right now and your goal weight is your mindset and your strategies. Now I'm kind of simplifying it, right? That's a lot. There's a lot in there, but those are the 2 big things. And most likely, if you're a dieter, you're not really focused on either of those because a diet's not a strategy. A diet is a plan. It's a tactic. And a diet is just this Here's your paper. Here's what you do. And so it's this strict, specific, rigid plan that you try and force yourself to follow. And to me, a strategy is a bigger concept than that. It's something that's specific to you, specific to your situations, and something that works for you. You have a toothbrushing strategy, and it's so good that you don't even have to think about it. You just do it. You have a driving strategy, and you just do it. You have a reading writing strategy that's so good. You can just do it without even thinking about it. That's a good strategy. And if you focus on creating strategies to live at your goal weight, you can do that as well and create the mindset. But those are things you probably never focus on as a dieter. As a dieter, you're just trying to parrot what the expert tells you to do, and that by definition is never going to be your plan. And program yourself then. The goal is to create a one-size-fits-one plan. So you get into Program Yourself, then your plan ultimately isn't going to look like mine, you see. Like, so, so Program Yourself, then we got— this is the Goal Weight Blueprint, right? So this is literally the skills and strategies, um, and mindset to live at your goal weight. But so we got mindset, lifestyle, and eating. And so if you look at structure, right, so that's part of what we focus on here is creating eating structures. But people in my program, my eating structure is different than theirs. Well, why? Because we're different people. It's crazy to think that someone's going to tell you how to eat and you're just going to eat that way forever. It's so silly. It's, it's in— I don't want to say it's inhumane, it's inhuman. Me telling you what to eat would be like me telling you what kind of music to listen to, what kind of movies to watch, what kind of clothes to wear. That's crazy. You're a human being having a human life. You need to have your own human experience. And part of that is figuring out how you can eat in the best way possible so you can be at your goal weight. But of course, you have never once thought that. You just try and follow these strict, rigid rules that have been given to you, and it never feels like yours. And this is why subconsciously you reject it, you rebel against it. You know that, that internal rebellion you feel? Well, there's a very valid reason for it. It ain't your plan. What, everyone in the world's supposed to be on keto? Be in ketosis. Everyone's supposed to do intermittent fasting. Everyone's supposed to track their points. That can't be because there's too many people. There's too many schedules. There's too many genetics. There's too many preferences. There's too many lifestyles. No way. No way. And so what happens is you follow the strict plan for a little while, then you stop it and go back to what you normally do. Then you go back to the strict plan for a little while, go back to what you do. With Program Yourself Thin, we start on day one comfortably creating a plan that is built for us. And what ends up happening when you do that is you really, you tend not to step away from it completely. So you may, you know, again, we got all or something. Sometimes we're really engaged in doing things at a really high level, and sometimes we're not, but we're always doing something. And when you build your strategies and your plans around you and your situation, your lifestyle, and your preferences, it's a lot easier to maintain. And when all of a sudden you're maintaining and doing some things all the time, let's just say a year goes by. And that year, every day you did something that was healthy and happy and got you to your goal weight. And some days you did a bunch of stuff. Holy shit. That's a completely different year than what you've been spending where, um, oh yeah, these 2 weeks I was fall— I was in ketosis and then I couldn't keep it up. And then 4 months went by and then I started Weight Watchers again. I tracked every point I had for the whole month. And then I, that kind of fell away. Then 3 months went by. Then I said, you know what, I'm gonna do intermittent fasting. And I did that for 2 weeks. And then I, I don't want to do that. But isn't that what you've been doing? Right? You do something for a little while, then you go back to normal, do something different for a little while, then go back to normal. And what you're doing is you're just reinforcing normal. And the little blips of doing something crazy don't really add up to anything. And that's the problem. You need to create some consistency. And it's funny, I'll give you a little, little hint that the big shift in Program Yourself then is really built around that. That's the epiphany I had, is that— and I say this is literally one of the main mantras of the hypnosis program— is consistency over intensity. And what I've realized is my zone of genius is consistency, personally and professionally. Um, and unfortunately, I kind of built a business— I don't say unfortunately because I'm happy for everything that's happened till now— but, um, the incongruency is that I'd build a business around intensity. So anyways, that's part of the shift that's happening. Um, but ultimately, Emily, back to your weight, what really matters is that it's all about consistency. Consistency over time. And what you've been led to believe is that it's all about intensity. How perfect can you be to lose the weight? And it's the wrong path, the wrong plan. It doesn't work. Again, again, it works for a little while, right? I'm not saying that you won't lose weight on a diet. Of course you will. What I'm saying is you won't keep the weight off long term. No, you won't. There's not a diet out there that does. There's not. Think about this, right? To put it a different way, 100 years of diets we've had, right? Just in the the marketing, you know, mediated age we live in. Out of every diet that's ever been around, there's not one single diet that rises above the rest in terms of helping you live at your goal weight. Not a single one. Not a single one. Not Weight Watchers. Certainly not Keto Atkins. Nope. Paleo? Nope. Carnivore? Huh? Nope. None of them. None of them. South Beach? Nope. SlimFast? Nope. None of them. None of them. Not a single diet rises to the top to help people live at their goal weight. That's crazy when you think about it, right? But the reason I say that to you is that I want to take the pressure off of you because you've internalized this. I know if you're here listening to me, I know you're an overthinker because I talk fast and the way I talk, whatever, whatever it is, the way— well, because I'm an overthinker. And kind of a perfectionist and kind of you know high achieving. I'm like that. So apparently the way I talk just clearly it repels the people that aren't like that, and it attracts the people that are like that. So I already know if you're listening to me that you're an overthinker and a perfectionist, and I know that you blame yourself, and you're constantly blaming yourself for why you haven't been able to lose weight. You blame yourself for not. Making the right choices. You blame yourself for not sticking to the plan. I know you do, and I know you do it well. Not I was gonna say 24 hours a day. You probably do it in your dreams too, probably. But you certainly are doing it constantly when you're awake every day. You're constantly beating yourself up and blaming yourself and being very punitive and kind of mean and snarky with yourself about your weight. But I'm here to tell you it's really genuine. I know like that's a big diet marketing thing is it's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's really not your fault in the sense that you have literally been conditioned your entire life to think about weight loss in completely the wrong way. Dieting—you've been so—all of us have, right? We every single one of us have been exposed to literally millions of diet ads in our lives. Millions, and they've conditioned us to think like dieters. And what's happened now metaphorically is it's like you have a diet prison in your mind. So when you think about weight loss, you're stuck in diet prison. You can only think about it like a dieter, and that is keeping you trapped, trapped with your weight. So the main reason you're struggling is not that you don't have the willpower, it's not that you don't have the plan, it's that you think like a dieter. And thinking like a dieter is to say that you're stuck with your weight, you're out of control with it. Do you think a dieter is being thin, healthy, and happy? Of course not, because dieters are always struggling with their weight. And I'm trying to tell you, it's not your— it's not the diet. It's not your willpower. Uh, it's not your cravings. It's not your addiction to food. It's not. Those are things. I'm not saying they don't exist, okay? Those are— those are factors, but they're not the primary factors. The primary factor you're struggling with your weight is your mindset. The way you think about weight. You think like a dieter, unfortunately, because that's what you're conditioned to think about. And everything about thinking like a dieter to lose weight sends you in the wrong direction. And that's why I'm here every day for free. This is a mission for me, and I was just mentioning that, but it's a mission for me because weight's more important than how you look. For me, this all started with my dad. He died of a heart attack at 54. I was 9 years old. His weight was a big part of that. And so for me, this is so much more important than just what you look like. It's literally how long you're going to be alive, your quality of life while you're here. So this is super important to me. That's why I'm here literally every day. I get on here live, happy to talk to you, happy to help you. I literally— I'll coach you. I'll coach you right here. You can— I'll coach you every day, literally. That's how serious I am. And again, I have something else. I give you a bunch of free stuff, and then I have a new shift in the program that's going to just make it a lot more accessible to a lot more people, and I can't wait to share that with you. Um, but again, it's— I think it makes sense, you know. You don't have to agree with me, that's fine. If I can just get you thinking a little differently, then I feel like I've done my job, because I think most people are walking around their entire lives When it comes to weight, they're just stuck in a diet trance, and they don't even have the opportunity to choose a different way. And that's why this is so important to me. Yeah, Don says, "I'd love to be ten pounds thinner, but I do not like the restrictions it requires to be there." I just think that's such an enlightened thing. I think that's so fair. You know, I think that's so fair. Yeah, I'd like to look like Brad Pitt, but I don't want to go work out in the gym all the time. I don't, I don't really like it. Maybe at some point I will. I'm starting to slowly kind of introduce the working out, and that's kind of been a fun, you know, thing as well. Um, but I'm not— it's not like, okay, and this is— I think this is an important point because, yeah, I'd like a lot of things in life, but I'm not willing to do the things to get them. I think it's very— I think a very enlightened way of being to be able to recognize, yeah, I'd like this, but I'm not really willing to do it, so I'm going to let go of that. It'll be cool maybe at some point, who knows, but I'm not going to beat myself up for not doing it. I think that's very enlightened, uh, point of view personally. What's up, Ames? How's it going? Long time no see. Ames says, I get to my goal weight, then get gain two pound two kilograms again, then down again, then two kilograms again. Um, kind of crazy face. Um, it feels like my body won't let me stay there because I don't. Ruin it by overeating. I just won't— it just won't stay. Um, boy, I couldn't disagree with your take on things any more than I do. And what do I mean by that? I think having a goal weight tied to a specific number is just the most insane thing for a human to do, and I think it is the absolute best recipe for failure and misery. Okay, so here's someone who gets to their goal weight and then gains 2 kilograms again. Who gives a shit? You know what I mean? It's like, I, I— don't get me wrong, like, you can dial it in, um, but it's like, I, I, I— everybody's different. I get it, I get it. But we're talking about 4 or 5 pounds. So for me, I don't have a goal weight. I have a goal weight range. Trying to keep your weight at the exact number is like trying to keep your gas tank at the exact— at full all the time. Do you see what I'm saying? Like, you're gonna make yourself crazy. You'd have to fill the car up every single day, right? Oh, drive to work and, oh no, it's going down. I gotta fill it up. You get obsessed with it, right? It's like, it's like trying to keep your bank account at the exact number. You're gonna go nuts, right? Your bank account, the gas tank, there's a natural flow to it. There's an ebb and flow to it. And your weight's the same way. Trying to keep— so, so in other words, what you're saying, Ames, is that I can get to my goal weight and then it fluctuates by 4 or 5 pounds. Well, that's my everyday reality. That's my goal. My goal is to be— I've got a number and then I've got a 5-pound buffer. And if I'm anywhere within that 5 pounds, I'm at my goal weight. So it's like we're living identical realities in a sense. And actually, my goal— I will say full disclosure, my goal weight has gone up right now. I'm about 5 pounds above where I want to be and where I normally am. Um, and I'm managing that, you know, some things happen. I know why, blah blah blah blah, it doesn't matter. Um, but once I get back into my, my normal 5-pound range, me and Ames are in the exact same reality. But I feel like I'm at my goal weight and I'm happy. I'm making happy faces. And Ames is over here thinking like her body, their body won't let them stay there because I don't ruin it by overeating. It just won't stay. But yeah, and again, this is just one of the reasons why I suggest people weigh themselves every day, at least while they're in the, you know, the weight loss phase, because you start to understand how your body actually works. Your body doesn't just stay at a pound. It fluctuates. And most people, again, it depends for the person, but My weight can fluctuate 2 pounds a day just for no reason. The biggest fluctuation I've had is 5 pounds. That's a real outlier. But, but 2 pounds is not unusual for me to be 2 pounds different today and tomorrow. So I don't know if that helps you reframe it at all, but— ah, there we go. Okay, Ames says makes so much sense. All right. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So I'm not failing. Yes, yes, yes, yes. You're not. Not only are you not failing, Ames, but you did it. You did it. Congratulations. Now enjoy it, which for a lot of people is the harder part. Again, I'm telling you, you know, that's why I wrote this book called The Tao of Living at Your Goal Weight. Living, living at your goal weight, not getting to your goal weight. Getting to your goal weight and living at your goal weight are two completely different things. Two completely different things. And so Ames is here at at their goal weight and doesn't even realize it. Right? You've done it. You made it. So now it's about mastering this process, what you're doing, optimizing it. Whatever you do to eat to be at this weight, optimize it. What's that mean? Doesn't mean you cut more calories, right? You're right where you want to be. Optimizing it means making the, the food you normally eat, making them more enjoyable and making them easier to make. That's it. That's how you optimize. You've cracked the code. You know exactly how to eat and live and think in order to be at your goal weight. And again, there's a range now that you're thinking in. You're there. You're there. So congrats. And I'm really glad you asked that because I, I want you to be able to internalize now the success that you've achieved. Again, another thing that a lot of dieters struggle with, it's very, very toxic if you can't internalize the success and you dieters never feel successful because I will tell you the mantra of every dieter is, I just want to lose the weight. I just want to lose the weight. I just want to lose the weight. But it's so crazy because as, as that person gets closer to their goal weight, it flips. It flips from I just want to lose the weight. I just want to lose the weight too. I just don't want to gain the weight. I don't want to gain the weight. I just hope I don't gain the weight. And never did dieters feel at peace, comfortable, successful. And Ames, you kind of proved that. I'm so happy you dig because it helps other people. And I hope for you, you get some peace and you know acknowledgement of the success you've already achieved here. You know? And Ames says, "Yeah, I'm past the weight loss phase. I'm postpartum as well and back to my pre-pregnancy weight." Yeah, thank you. You're welcome, Ames. I'm so happy for you. Um, again, congratulations, um, on getting that handled and figuring it out. And then I hope, hope you're able to really internalize the success and enjoy it. You know, you deserve it. You're right where you want to be, and that's just part of it. Again, that range is part of being successful, right? Susan says, I want to be like Connie. Yes, yes, absolutely. Connie's killing it. Connie's awesome. Um, Susan says, your way is so revolutionary. I'd never heard of this. I agree. I'm not going to sit here and bullshit it. Again, I say I take the, the no bullshit oath, and, um, sometimes that makes me less humble than I should be. But at the same time, I'm going to say I, I don't think there's anyone doing what I'm doing. I gotta say, um, even some of the people in this, this field that are, that are big, they've not done what I've done. What I've done, I've been able to do on my own, and I think that's been really valuable. Um, and again, not— I'm not— I'm always learning. There's people better than me at certain things and all the rest of it, but I've been obsessed with this for over 30 years. I've been doing this for over 20 years, and what makes me different is that I haven't just been studying weight loss. I've been in the trenches working with real people. I've done over 6,000 private weight loss sessions, and I always feel like I do the thing that no one does when it comes to weight loss—is I'm talking to people every week who are attempting to change their behaviors. And what you quickly find out when you do that is it has. A lot less to do with what the plan is, because I've worked with people with every sort of plan. I've worked with everyone: keto, Weight Watchers, fasting, intermittent fasting, HCD diet—all of it, all of it. I've worked with everyone who's done everything: surgeries, GLP-1s, all of it; thyroid issues, all of it, all of it. And I work with them intimately. We get to know you know I get to know what's going on with them. And what I find the real factor is not knowing what to do. You all know enough about what you should and shouldn't do to lose weight. I believe the real problem is you don't know how to get yourself to do it consistently, and I feel like that is the missing piece of everyone's weight loss puzzle, and no one addresses it. And I've just been so fortunate with my career to be able to spend time as a hypnotist and a coach to be able to work with people and figure out what the real challenges are. And on top of that. Before I even got into this, I did this all on myself. So I learned from people that successfully lost weight and kept it off what they did, and I modeled them psychologically. Yes, I paid attention to what they did too, but I was more interested in their mindsets. That was the thing that changed everything because I started to notice patterns, patterns among the success of what led to better results. It wasn't the plan. It was never the plan because I've seen people succeed with so many different strategies and plans. But what I start to notice is always similar certain mindset factors, and that is what I took out from all the interviews I've done with people that have successfully lost weight and kept it off, and I've codified it into a program. I used it first, then I codified it into a program, and then I've used that program with real people over 6,000 private weight loss sessions. Over 20 years. And so I've got to use all these tools with actual people in real time. And some of the tools panned out and worked for a lot of people, some didn't. And then sometimes when they don't work, I was able to figure out other things. So it's led me to a depth— very few people out there have the experience of working one-on-one, one-on-many with real people, real normal people who are struggling to change their behaviors. I don't know. Again, you see how Paul McKenna is a hypnotist. He has not worked with 6,000 people. He makes a hypnosis session, or at least he may give a talk in front of 6,000 people about weight loss and hypnosis. That's not working with 6,000. And again, it's way more than 6,000 sessions, um, ultimately. And so again, it's one of the few areas that's ever talked about with weight loss is how do I get myself to do it? And so very few people are going to be able to give you actual, real insights on how to change your thinking and ultimately your behavior. People will tell you what to do all day long. You understand? People— that's what the diet industry in a nutshell is: people telling you what to do, what to eat, how to eat, you know, when to eat, how much calories to eat. All of this stuff is what you're going to get from dieting. But you're almost never going to get, how do I get myself to do it when I don't feel like it? How do I get myself back on track when I make a mistake? Those are the answers you're never getting, and they're the most important answers that you need. That's the crazy part to me. And that's why I'm here every day, because I know you can get better results if you have a better strategy and plan to follow. Um, and you just, you haven't had one, you know? And that's why I say get on here, follow me. Absolutely get on my email list. Go click the link in my bio. Go to the link I put in the chat window. Go get the hypnosis session I give you because I give you a lot of free stuff, um, and that is just one way to kind of get this new information. All right, um, Carolyn says yes, uh, used to listening to a coach that sounds like you, passionate. Oh yes, um, oh, I am passionate. I, I gotta agree. I agree. I don't— I'm just— and I don't even know why. I, I don't— I wonder myself why, why am I so obsessed with this? I don't have a good answer. I just am, but I'm happy about it. Um, Ames says, what's your opinion on getting 10,000 steps a day? Um, I mean, my opinion on it is it's just an arbitrary number, and it really is an arbitrary number. I gotta look this up again, but the 10,000 steps is arbitrary. And if I'm not mistaken— again, it's so hard to tell fact from fiction anymore in these day and age— but, um, I read this story about how the company— there was a company called like 10,000 Steps or 10,000 or something That initially, initially kind of got that out there. But there's no magical thing about 10,000 steps. It's a cool goal, and it's fine. And it's fine when you're achieving it and you're doing it. It's destructive when you get 9,000 steps and you feel like a failure, and now you go and eat a bunch of bullshit. You know, so I think that um, I think that anytime you improve your your activity, anytime you move more, do anything more. Walk more, do more push-ups, do some jumping jacks, do some stretching, do some swimming, do some dancing, do some martial arts, do some squatting, do some bending down and getting back up. Uh, literally any of it is going to be better for you. And so the 10,000 steps a day is kind of arbitrary. Um, I think they found like 7,000 steps, there does seem to be kind of a, you know, that's kind of a line, you know, of benefit. Um, but I say that because if you want to get 10,000 steps, great. But if you're struggling to get to 10,000 steps, please don't feel like there's any magic around 10,000 steps. It's the same thing with intermittent fasting. There's no magic that happens at the 16-hour mark. There's no magical— what do you think, there's some system in your body that kicks in once you hit 16 hours and start just burning fat? Like, again, we live in this marketing age where everything's bullshit. And again, I think anything increasing your activity is beneficial usually, but there's no magical effect of 10,000 steps. And so if 10,000 steps is just amazing and great and you're able to do it and it's easy and you love it, do it. If 10,000 steps just feels really hard and difficult right now, there's nothing magical about it. You can— let me put it this way. You cannot— you can do zero steps and manage your weight. I've gone months where my— I'm averaging 2,000 steps. The winter— there's been years where it's wintertime and I'm not— I'm doing 2,000 steps a day, which is basically getting out of bed, walking to the kitchen, walking to the bathroom, walking to the sofa. Um, that's about it, and I've maintained my weight. So at the end of the day, ultimately what's controlling your weight is your food consumption. That's the number one thing by 100 miles, and everything is below that, including walking. And again, I'm— I think it's beneficial, it's great, it's got a lot of benefits to it. It's not necessary for weight loss. Um, it has other benefits that I think are valuable. Um, but I think it's not important— it's important to realize that it's helpful, it's great, it's fine. Um, but it's not necessary either, you know. So you have the freedom to do it if you want to do it and not do it if you don't want to do it, you know. Natalie says, what's behind— what is behind overweight? Oh boy. I mean, it's obviously, it's a systemic problem. So I couldn't sit here and say like, oh, this is, you know, the main thing behind weight, um, being overweight. There's a lot of factors and it's dependent on the situation. So someone who's morbidly obese has a different situation than someone who's 20 pounds overweight. Um, so what's behind those 2 things are different. Okay. Um, but for me anyways, I think the biggest thing behind being overweight is the mindset. I think ultimately, if I can change a person's mindset, I will change their weight. So, you know, if I had to, if I had to bring it down, but again, I mean, like, we'll still give you a little bit more robust explanation. In Program Yourself, then we follow the Goal Weight Pyramid: mindset, lifestyle, and eating. And so if I had to be a little more specific, I'd say it's these 3 things. Okay. You know, it's how you think, how you live, and how you eat are the main things behind your weight, whether you're at the weight you want to be at or whether you're overweight. All right, uh, what's up, Baja? Baja says, been in the PYT program for over 2 years now, have never had such peace of mind around food, um, while releasing weight. 60 pounds now. Yes, in a gentle, kind, affirming, and personalized way. Thanks, Jim. Yes, Baja. Baja is a superstar. And her story is so fun. And I just want to make clear, right, because I want you all to hear this, that it's been 2 years. The first year was almost like a recovery year, um, for her. And I'm so proud of her doing that and putting that time in. But I think of that as healing time, um, to heal from some of the previous attempts and philosophies. Um, and I'm so proud about it because it's so exciting now. Now you're in the fun part. You know what I mean? Like, now it's really the fun, enjoyable, um, exciting part. And you really have earned that and deserved it. So that's awesome. I appreciate saying that though. Um, yeah, Lisa said yes, they tell us at the 16-hour mark we burn fat. It's bullshit. Again, we're always given these really simplistic explanations for our metabolism, you know. It's like, I was tired of this conversation the other day. Someone's like, oh, I just read that, you know, I gotta, I gotta go for a walk, or I gotta eat if I'm menopausal, I gotta eat in the first 10 minutes of waking up. Bullshit. You know, all that stuff's bullshit. There's what, there's There's 7 or 8 billion people on the planet. Half of them are women. Are you telling me that whatever, the— the billion, 2 billion women that are in some form of menopause, they all have to eat exactly the same way for their metabolism? It doesn't work that way. It's just, again, it's so frustrating too because it sets all these pitfalls up for us to fall into. Yeah. I promise you folks, the intermittent fasting thing is just— and— and listen, I do a form of it that I came up with a long time before that shit, but Thank God, because mine was very organic. I began to eat— I'd stop eating earlier and earlier at night. I used to eat basically until I went to bed, and I pushed that back, and now I stop eating 6, 7 o'clock at night. Um, but I eat the next day, you know, 7, 8 o'clock. So maybe I get 12, 13, 14 hours, but I have no stress about getting to this magical 16-hour bullshit. And so I never had any of that. And so here I am, I have a way of eating that's so comfortable for me, and doing that was amazing. Just so you know, giving myself a big window of time where I'm not eating was one of the greatest things I ever did for my body. But then there's intermittent fasting, and again, they got to sell a program, so they got to make it all about this 16 hours. But the 16 hours, the idea is that you don't eat for 6— 2 more hours. There's just less time you're eating, you'll reduce more calories. But I think it has the opposite effect for most people, which is that intermittent fasting— intermittent fasting for most people, um, Really conditions them to be binge eaters because those last two three hours they're so hungry and they're just thinking about food and they're obsessing on it and then all of a sudden the gate goes open. You're like, um, I don't know. You know, you watch the dog tracks. You know what I mean? Like it's like they're ready to go and then then they open and the dogs just burst out. A lot of times they're in fasting. It's like as soon as that eating window opens, it's like ah ah ah ah ah ah. And then the worst thing about that is then you're just always hungry. That eight hour window, you're hungry the whole time. Because you just— you stoked your hunger, especially those last 3, 4 hours. So intermittent fasting, I'm not against it. I mean, if it works for your body and your schedule and you, then great. Okay. But for a lot of people, it does not, which is fine. But then the people it doesn't work for beat themselves up. I can't— I can't stick to this either. I can't do this. Please don't feel bad about it. It's a shit-ass— it's just one way. One way is not going to work for everyone ever. That's why I don't give you a plan. I give you a structure. Create a plan that's fit for you. You know, P.O.B. says, "How much lifting should I do while losing weight?" As much as you want. I don't lift a lot of weights and never have. I again, I'm not against lifting. I think has a lot of benefits. But I think in terms of weight loss, I think if you're trying to lose weight, you know most of the time. Now it depends on your situation, but most of the time you're going to be better off by focusing on your eating than you are putting all that energy into lifting weights. Lifting weights really is not— lifting weights and exercise in general is not a great strategy for losing weight. That's proven. It's ironically, it's helpful for keeping it off for certain reasons, but, but it's not really a great way to lose weight, um, in my opinion. And the studies back that up. That's not just my opinion. That's actually a study-backed, um, thing that exercising does not tend to lead to weight loss. Increased exercise What leads to weight loss without question is reducing your caloric consumption. So again, if you want to lift weights for other reasons, knock yourself out. But if it's just to lose weight, I wouldn't put that energy into weightlifting to lose weight. You'll get way more bang for your energetic buck by focusing on your your eating and dialing that in. Take a little screenshot. Uh, yeah. Hey, what's up, Karen? How's it going? What do you think about weightlifting versus cardio like Zumba? I don't really think much. I, I think it depends on what do you think, you know? That's the way more important question, you know? And again, I would suggest stop asking people that because it was some, you know, the person who sells a Zumba class is going to tell you how much greater that is for fat loss and everything. The, the, you know, the lifting coach is going to tell you how great that is for, for weight loss. So I think ultimately it just depends on which one resonates with you better, you know, which one do you like more. And it's not even just which one burns the most calories. The other question is which one fits into your lifestyle, which one fits into your schedule, which one feels better when you're doing it, which one— you know what I mean? Like, those are the more important questions because they're going to dictate how, how often you do it and how long you do it, you know. What's up, Fran? He says everything's bullshit indeed. Yes, it really is. Oh my God, the weight loss industry is the biggest bullshit industry on the planet, and that's saying something, but it really is. It's complete bullshit. The diet industry is complete and total bullshit because it doesn't work at all, you know. Again, it's a recurring business model, so they don't want to help you live at your goal weight. They want to help you lose weight so that you put it back on so they can help you lose it again. So the entire diet industry is That's what I think. Uh, he says, I believe it's one of your best live calls, Jim. Well, thank you, thank you. Uh, Carolyn, Carolyn says, recovery year, is that, is that just to get all of your learned out of your head? Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, the recovery year I was talking about, yeah, I think it wasn't just that. It wasn't, um, what I was talking about with that, that person who lost 60 pounds in 2 years. The first year was a recovery year, and yes, some of it was psychologically kind of letting go of some of the old beliefs. But the bigger part of that specific situation was recovering from the rapid weight loss they'd done on a super strict plan, and then the weight gain that they achieved when they left that plan. And they stuck with program yourself then during that phase, which I was very proud of. That's a hard thing to do. But now, you know, they're reaping the long-term rewards of what they're doing because now, for the first time ever. Um, not only has she lost 60 pounds, but she's lost it in a way that it's set up to stay off. And it's, it's fast. It's— again, I, I can't wait. Uh, I don't know, maybe— I don't know, should I? I should— I always wait till like people kind of get to their goal to talk to them and interview them, but maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I should talk to people along the way. Um, that might be valuable too. I should really do that, actually. That's something. Yeah. Um, how many sessions we need? How many seasons we need for weight loss? I'm not sure if that's what that means, but again, whether it's seasons or sessions, you never know, you know what I mean? Like, as many as it takes, you know, who knows? And so that's the right way to think about it. Don't think about how long it's going to take and then measure yourself against that. Um, just, it's going to take me as long as it takes, you know. It's a better mindset, um, with this process because it always takes longer than you think it's gonna usually. So, all right, I gotta get out of here. Um, if you're not in my world, click the link in my bio or go to programyourselfdingo.com, get the free hypnosis session I give you. I give you a bunch of other free stuff too. Um, and if you like this, I'm here every Monday through Friday at noon Eastern, uh, pop on, ask your questions, happy to talk to you. And if you can't make the live, it's also