Stop Cramming For Weight Loss

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Welcome to today's program yourself Thin Podcast. Today we're talking about stop cramming for weight loss. I had a conversation with my daughter yesterday, and we were talking about studying for tests. And I'm not gonna say she was cramming, but it made me think about that, that so often when people try to lose weight, it's very much just like when someone kind of wastes the last minute for a test and then tries to cram all that knowledge or work into a tiny amount of time. I was like, wow, that's exactly what it's like. Because, you know, when dieters are going to try and lose weight, they just jump into a 100%. Like, all of a sudden, they haven't been thinking about their weight for months, and now all of a sudden, it's got to happen this week. And I get it, right? We're all impatient. We all want results immediately. But clearly, right, when you look at, in the context of cramming, anytime you crammed for a test, even if you did okay on the test, you didn't really learn the information. There's a difference between kind of faking it and truly doing it right. There's a difference between pretending you're transforming and actually transforming. And you need to understand this, because the stat I always think about is that it's estimated that 95% of dieters that lose weight put the weight back on. So I share that with you as a starting point, because the weight loss alone is not the transformation that makes sense. You have lost weight and physically at the transformation, but it is not a complete and total transformation, because, again, most people that get to their goal weight.

Put it back on.

So what we are really looking for is not just to lose weight. We are looking for this complete and total transformation of ourselves and into a thin, healthy, happy person. And I think when you start to look at it this way, you start to realize there's layers to this all. It's not enough to just restrict calories and force yourself to do something different so that you lose weight for a little while, because that just sets you up to put it back on, because nothing under the surface really changed. And so when you start to look at it this way, I think it really starts to illuminate and highlight where the real core issues are. And the real core issues with your weight are not that you don't have a good sense of, like, what foods you should and shouldn't eat, some strategies of how to manage calories. That's not really the problem. The Deeper problem is, how do you think about things, right? What's your mindset? How are you living your life? What's your ability to transform your reading and to get yourself to do what it is that you know you should do in order to lose weight, Right? And that is a process that can only be mastered through legitimate learning. Not cramming, not trying to rush it, not trying to pretend to just do the outside work and not doing inside work. And I think this is what most dieters have been conditioned and trained to do. You've been trained your whole life that this cramming for weight loss, this mad dash, this rush to lose the weight is the normal way to approach it. And when you put that same approach in the context of school and in cramming as plain as day, it's obvious as day why that method wouldn't be as effective as legitimate, good, solid study strategies.

One looks like it learned it and one actually learned it. And this is what I'm trying to say to you, because when you can start to highlight this level of the process of weight loss, I think it starts becoming a lot clearer to you why you're struggling with it. Because again, what you're doing is you just keep running through diets or plans that just tell you what to do, and you try and force yourself to do them. And never do you go any deeper into your mindset, your lifestyle, how to run your mind, you know, again, program yourself. Then we follow the goal Weight pyramid, right? Again, it's an idea. It's broken down into more components than just telling you what to eat or just telling you how to exercise. There's just more to it. And once you realize that, it starts to become obvious that you can't just pretend. You can't just study the Cliff Notes and think you've really learned it. Because real, true knowledge and real true learning, it's the subtleties. You know what I mean? It's not the obvious stuff. Well, no, you know, I should be this many calories. I should watch these. Mac. No. You know that you've been told that forever. The real secret to getting the better results is the subtle things. It's how do you wake up with some more energy, how do you feel better as you move through your day? How do you psychologically manage when you make a mistake and get yourself back on track? It's the soft skills, you know, that really define learning and transformation. And when it comes to weight loss, there's really no focus ever put on the soft skills of weight loss.

Someone says that the audio is not working. Well, hopefully it's working on my end, but let me see.

I wonder why.

Oh, it says it's an echo. Huh. Let me see here.

It's weird.

Echo cancellation. That's. Turn it off. That would probably give me more echo. Is that any better?

I don't know. Let me know if that's any better. I know on Tick Tock, it's probably fine. Anyways, there we go. That was a quick, quick end of there. I was going to wrap it up somehow, but I forget where I was. So now. Now we move it. So hopefully audio will get better. Someone's saying, yeah, Instagram's not even working.

Yep, that'll happen. So it might just be Tick tock here. And Tick tock's been super restricted lately. I don't know what they're doing, but the algorithm is kind of funny there. So there you go. Well, what do you do? Listen to Judy. Judy. Any of his videos. Oh, Jody. So it's working now? Yeah. Let me know if it's working better.

And I know you just said yes. Yes. Oh, it's good on Facebook. Okay. Very good. All right. Well, there we go. Anyways, there's my spiel. And usually I kind of wrap it up at the end and make a final point, but no, I don't remember where I was. But anyways, long story short, stop cramming for weight loss and just commit to it. If you know, to put it a slightly different way. I think people are so conditioned to look for hacks to lose weight that they never just kind of put the energy into actually learning it. And again, I bring you back to the metaphor of schooling, because in school, you're just. It's a lot clearer to you that if you try shortcutting things, you try hacking things, you try just reading the Cliff Notes. While you may be able to pass a couple tests here and there, you're not really learning it. And in the game of weight, there is no cheating. There is no cheating when it comes to weight, always. You know what I mean? The truth comes out. And if you're pretending and tricking yourself and fighting yourself, going to struggle with your weight forever, and mostly you're going to be overweight. And when you truly transform yourself from the bottom up, it's a completely different process, you know, and you really master the subtle skills to actually.

Transform your weight. So, yeah, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them. Hopefully you can all hear me now.

What's up, Genie?

What's up, Judy? All right. Judy. Judy says I'm thrilled with my first five pounds simply falling asleep with you every night. Thank you. You're welcome, Judy.

Yeah.

Yes, it was a free five pound hypnosis session. I was giving that one away. I haven't set the email out for a little bit, but again, that's just one of the little perks of being on my email list. And I got so much cool stuff coming out. I have an entire community that's going to be free. It's going to be free for you all. So again, if you're not in my world, please click the link in my bio or go to program yourself. Then I'll put it into Facebook for you all over there. If you want to get this free hypnosis session. This will bring you into my world. And.

Let me just put this in here real quick.

Boop.

There it is. All right, so, yes, the hypnosis session is called the New Thin Me. It's a kickstart session. And so that one's free. The one Judy's talking about is called the First Five Pounds. And that was a session I just gave away a couple weeks ago.

Kind of did as a bribe, I was hoping, and people did. I appreciate everyone who did that, but I did.

No audio and Insta. Yeah. Oh, well, sorry, Instagram today. We miss you. We miss Instagram, but yeah, not gonna work there.

I. Sam, what was I saying? Oh, the first £5. Yeah, that was a session I sent out a couple weeks ago and I just gave away for free. I. I give a ton of stuff away for free. But so, yes, the Circle app is absolutely going to have a free section and I got a bunch of stuff in there. It's all free, so you got to check it out. So get on my email list and maybe I'll send that first five pounds out again. But yes, that's great, Judy. That was a session I sent out.

Yeah, for free. And it's a good session. I remember making that one. I had a whole training that I wanted to. So, yeah, like I said, I give. I give more stuff away than anyone, I think. Oh, thank you, Judy. I appreciate that. Yes. And the Brick House thanks you. The Brick House, yes, that's what I did. I gave it. Gave that session away for my birthday about a month ago and was asking for donations to the Brick House. The Brick House. I'm on the board there.

And.

Yeah, so I like to do that once in a while. I kind of do it. I usually do it on my birthday, but I might do it a little Bit more. Actually, I am gonna with my book, upcoming book which is this close to being done. I know if it's saying that you don't even believe anymore on the Boy of Cried Wolf. I know that, but not really. Actually. I've only been working on this book for about six weeks and I'm. I keep saying I'm almost done. I am really almost done though. I am on like the 8th. I'm not on the 8th. I'm on like the 15th draft of it. But I'm getting there because it's got 40 chapters, but they're small. Each chapter is a page or two or three, you know, at most. And it's a, you know, six by nine book. So it's kind of poetry style almost if you had to think about the layout of it. And so it's easy, it's a quick read. It's very. It's built to be that way. It's really built. And it was inspired by the Dao de Jang. I used to read that every night when I was doing yoga and I love it. And then the concept of Daoism really was very, very impactful for me when I read it. And so anyways, one of the main things I read was the Dao de Jing. And I used to always love the way it was written. Very kind of poetically. And the book I had actually had pictures with it too. It's kind of a picture book, so I had cool kind of pictures with it. And then that, this, you know, kind of poetic wisdom coming through it. I. I loved it. So anyways, I wanted to. I was like, I had an idea one day I was like, I'm gonna do the program yourself, thin system. But I'm gonna break it down into this style and we'll call it the Dao of living at your goal weight. Right. And so that's the name of the book. And it basically in 40 chapters through real hopefully, you know, hypnotic stories and enjoyable kind of, you know, little chapters and stories and analogies and metaphors and all this stuff explains the program yourself then system, but in a very kind of hypnotic, fun, easy to understand way. And so it's so cool. I'm so excited for you all to get it. But anyways, what I was saying is that when that book is set up, I'll be selling that through Amazon. And when that's set up, there will be also be a portion of that will be donated to the Brick House too. So yes, the Brick House is awesome. And this day and age, you know, I will tell you that, you know, you, you can read about SNAP benefits.

In food assistance and how it might be stopped. And if you don't use those things, you know, you think about it however you think about it, but when you actually work with people that are relying on those and are using those, it's. It's a different experience. And so for me, you know, that's going to happen. You know, I don't know if. I don't know what they're going to do, but, but there's going to be a lot of people hurting potentially in the next month, food wise, just one way. And the Brick House, you know, we, it's a local organization and we literally opened up a food pantry because there was a strong need for it, and it only seems to be keeping it stronger. And so, you know, we're very lucky to be able to. It's a very, very. Well, we've grown quite a bit, but I mean, we're still a very small organization. But it's, it's an awesome organization and it's really grassroots. And I hope someday, you know, as we get more and more organized and more and more efficient, that I hope it becomes a model for people that want to make change in their neighborhoods because it's very grassroots. People just started over 35 years ago and it's grown into this, you know, the center where we really are helping people. And again, it's a very small community I live in, you know, and so we're able to do this. But it feels good. You know, sometimes in the world you can feel like you can't really affect much change. You kind of feel. Can feel powerless sometimes. And so, I don't know, it makes me feel happy. And obviously for any of you, you know, this kind of a message not just to donate to the Brick House if you'd like to, that's always, you know, thank you and you're welcome to. But also, you know, even getting involved in your own neighborhoods and stuff, I just find it to be. I've never volunteered well as I have. I have volunteered over the years, but it's been a long while and it really is a source that makes me feel better. So anyways. The hell am I talking about? Anyways, thank you, Judy. Judy, I really appreciate it. Yes, you have the nicest thank you note. Yes, I know. Yes, we're getting, we're getting good at following up. So thank you so much. I really do appreciate that, Judy. So anyways, but yeah, so I'm talking about weight loss. Let's Talk about weight loss. So any weight loss questions are.

Pika says. What's the Brick House? Brick House is. It's a small community resource center here in little old Turner's Falls, Massachusetts. We are a tiny village within a tiny town. And, you know, we. We do have. There's just a strong need, you know, and so it just does feel good, though, when people pull together on a local level to actually help out local people. It's just, I don't. You don't really get a lot of that in the world, you know, and so it just feels good. And we do other stuff, too. We have a teen center that we. We offer. We do family and parent services. We offer direct needs help. We do a lot of things. And we're growing, too. We're about to open. We're about to rent a place next to us with a whole nother, you know, big presentation room, which will be doing more family, parent services, workforce development trainings there. So again, just a very grassroots organization. And so you can go search Brick House, Community, Turner's Falls, and you'll find the website. And yeah, it's just. It's exciting. So, yeah, if you want to see what's happening and if you choose to donate, that's obviously, we always appreciate that. So that's the Brick House. And we've been in business for about 35 years. You want to call it that. But, yes, here we are. So we're here to talk about weight loss, though. So any. Anyone's weight. Anything you want to talk about, feel free to ask it. Anything is welcome.

Oops, there we go. But, yes, I know someone said I just rambled too much yesterday and that I should engage more with people. So that's what I'm going to do today. I can't say that they're wrong.

I do ramble too long sometimes. So, yes. So I'm going to wait. I'm going to see whatever y' all want to talk about. I'm talking about candy. And in the meantime, for all my clients.

That are in the Circle app, so if you're not in the Circle app, I'm going to send an email out today to get into the Circle app. If you're in the Circle app, what's really cool is next week, it starts on Sunday, and this post will be going out as soon as this is over is that you will be able to sign up for Jim AI messages every day. And so if you choose to, I'm going to send you the message, you're going to get it in your Circle app within the next couple hours here. If you want to get a daily message from Jim AI checking in on you every afternoon or in the early evening, if you want to get that, you can just click the link and you will start receiving those messages. Okay. So I am not going to send them automatically to you. You've got to. You've got to opt in because it is. It is a message every day. And that, you know, again, whether you want it or not, it's up to you. But if you do want it again, that post will be in there in a couple hours. You'll see it. I think it's going to have Jim AI. He's got a new avatar. I think I finally landed on one I'm kind of happy with. And I'll be dressed in a Halloween costume, so you'll know it's current. Okay. So, yeah, yeah. Judy wants the email to the app. Yeah, I'll let you know. This is. I'm not sure if you are in the program yet or not, Jody, but it is only. At this point, it's only for clients, but. But very soon, probably next week or so, there will be a free section to the Circle app. So I got a couple other things I just got to get in place, and that's kind of get out there. So that's really exciting. But for anyone who's actually a client right now, you already have access to Jim AI, but this is going to send you a reminder. And it's really cool because it's set up, you know, kind of like depending on the day, you're going to get a message, a question, something to kind of, you know, spur your thought process and to support you. And if you want to, and ideally, you will, you will use the prompt that you're sent each day to engage in a conversation with Jim AI, because Jim AI is my AI clone. So basically what I did is I took over 10 million words of mine, right? I took all of my trainings, all my podcasts. Well, actually, not all of them, because that's up to. That's a lot more than 10 million. But I looked the last couple years of all my content, and I put it up there. And so this gym AI, basically, it's as close as you're going to get to talking to me, you know, and so it's really cool. Again, this is just a free thing that comes with the program. I include this with the program, and you can work with Jim AI 247 anytime you want to. The biggest challenge to Jim AI though with the program is just remembering. So now you're going to get the aft, the early evening messages from Jim AI checking in with you, kind of spurring you along, supporting you and, you know, kind of expanding your mindset, you know, by, by asking you certain questions, having you focus on different things and. Yeah, but, but the people that use gym AI love it. It's really, it's amazing again, being able to work with me. It's funny, someone said that the other day in my coaching group. They said, well, I can't, I can't do this as well, you know, by myself as when I'm working with you. Like, yeah, no shit. And that's why they pay me the big bucks. And they pay me the big bucks. You have to understand, I'm one of the highest paid hypnotists on the planet. So I know I get on here for free every day because this is a mission for me. But, you know, don't get it twisted. I Also, it's $25,000 to work with me privately. So again, I've been doing this for over 20 years and I really know what I'm doing. So to be able, you know, the next closest thing to having a session with me is literally being able to talk to Jim AI. It's literally trained on everything I say and it's always being honed and refined. And so again, that's just part of the program. But that will be out there now and more importantly, it's going to be more engaging and I think you're all going to love that. So.

Yeah, Claudia says, hi, Jim, please reactivate the daily. Claudia, send me a message in the Circle app and I'll restart the messages in the Circle app for you. Okay. Jody says, no, you didn't ramble. We love hearing your thoughts. Thank you, Jody. I'm joking. Anyways, I know, I know most people, you know that the people that tune in regularly, that's obviously what they're, they're tuning in for. But yeah, I, I like to engage more too, but sometimes I get caught up in my thoughts as well. But yes, any questions, any weight loss questions are welcome. I live for them. I love talking to dieters as much as anything in the world. I love talking weight loss, so. I really do.

It's just my wife's like, oh, how do you do this? How do you talk about weight so much? You know.

I'm just obsessed with it, you know, I really am. And not because I'm obsessed with weight, you know, I mean, I'm not Obsessed with it. Like a personal trainer would be. You know, I'm not knocking personal trainers, but, you know, personal trainers, really, a lot of them. You know, so much of their, their motivation is looking great, you know, and, and I respect that's fine. But for me, you know, I want to look fine, too. I want to look good, whatever. But really, my motivation is that I want. Well, me personally, I want to live longer, and I want the best quality of life. But then I want you to have the same thing. I want you to be alive as long as you can be. And I want you to have the best, the best quality of life while you're here. And so for me, that's what weight loss means.

You know, and to that point, it's funny, I was reading some comments yesterday and someone was saying they, they hate the word thin, you know, and I was like, I get it. I. I went through that whole thing for a long time. I was looking for a different word than thin. I never really found one that really I felt as passionate about. But what I will say is that I define thin differently. To me, the definition of thin is not like a specific weight, not a specific BMI number. To me, the definition of thin is being at your goal weight. So, so you're thin if you're at your goal weight. Now the next question is, well, what's your goal weight? Okay, Your goal weight to me is the weight that gives you the highest quality of life. So it's not just a number on a chart that some doctor tells you. To me, it's figuring out where's the sweet spot between the weight you want to be and the life you want to live and the food you want to eat. And you find that sweet spot of where you get the highest rate of return on your. On your efforts. Okay? Because another video I just posted was, I don't want. I. I don't want to be the healthiest person I can be. And that's my starting point, you know, And I think a lot of people think they're going to be the healthiest person ever. You're never going to be the healthiest person ever, because the healthiest person ever is really going to forego almost, you know, all modern conveniences or, you know, technologies and, you know, a lot of things in the environment. Certainly they're going to forego a lot of food. You know, that's enjoyable. And so for me, I don't, you know, it's like, with alcohol, it's like, would having no alcohol be the healthiest option there's no question about that. But I enjoy drinking alcohol, so I moderate it and I find a sweet spot for me, you know, and so I think the same thing with food and with weight. So to me, thin is being at your goal. Weight being at your goal is the weight that gives you the best quality of life. And that's a number that you yourself have to figure out what it is based on your experience and what works for you. So, anyways, Content one Media says your thoughts on walking for weight loss. I love walking for weight loss. I think walking for weight loss is the number one movement exercise strategy I recommend to my clients. I think anything more intense than walking, you're gonna burn out pretty much, you know, now, again, everything's relative. Depends on where you're starting from. But so many of my clients have not worked out for a long time. And so to go into something extreme is just silly. And so I think walking is the sweet spot in terms of movement. I think it's the most natural movement activity that you can do, right? Your body's been designed to walk. I think all sorts of good things happen to you physiologically, psychologically, emotionally. Just things get a lot better. Feels good to be outside, feels good to walk. You know, it's gentle on your body relatively to other things. So I love walking. Walking for weight loss, not so much meaning the walking itself. I don't think the calories burned while you walk are really going to be the main thing that's going to help you lose weight from walking. I think it's going to contribute and help, but I think the bigger impact that walking is going to have on your weight loss, again, we got to go back to the goal weight pyramid is that I think it's going to really, truly support a healthier mindset if you start walking regularly. It's certainly going to impact your lifestyle and make you feel better and help you achieve other things in your lifestyle, make those better, too. And I think it nudges you eating wise to make healthier, better choices. So again, I think, yes, the calories that you burn from walking more.

Are helpful. I don't think that they're going to be enough, you know, unless you start walking a ridiculous amount. But if you start walking, you know, seven to 10,000 steps, it's not going to make a giant difference in your calorie shifting too much, you know. But that's why I like walking too, because to me, walking sets you up for success. It nudges your mindset over making healthier choices. And that's what's going to make you lose weight. You know, it's not the calories burned from walking as much as it is the state of mind, the more energy, the feeling better, the emotional benefits of walking regularly. To me, that is going to set you up to make better food choices, and that piece is going to be more impactful on your weight loss than the calories you burn. So. But yes, I love, I think that walking to support your weight loss is a wonderful, wonderful strategy.

CX says, is it true that ghrelin goes up and thyroid goes down when we stress about diet, which increase hunger and fat storage?

I mean, you know, I, I, I have kind of learned not to just give blanket answers to things because everybody is so different. You know that. Good lord. I don't know. Like, you know what I mean? Like, when one person stresses, you know, maybe their ghrelin goes up, another person stresses, maybe their ghrelin goes down. Ghrelin is the hunger hormone, right? So, for example, as your stomach starts to shrink, a part of being hungry is as your stomach empties and shrinks. You have stretch receptors in your stomach. And as the stomach shrinks down, your body will start to release ghrelin, which triggers you to start feeling hungry. Okay, so. And other things can do that as well, right? Stress can kind of do this as well. So, but each person's different. So, you know, there's general rules of thumb and just in general, yes, I would say that stress is going to support weight gain in most people, but everyone's different. So you have to figure out for yourself when you get stressed, you get hungrier. So I would be focusing more on that. The specifics of whether it's ghrelin or whether it's thyroid issues or leptin signaling, the specifics of it are almost less important. You know, unless you have an issue. If you have a thyroid issue or whatever, then it's more important. But for the average person, the specifics of which hormones aren't firing correctly is less important than recognizing the connection between stress and increased hunger, okay? Because we don't. Who gives a shit if it's affecting your ghrelin or thyroid or any of those things? To me, it's like when I'm feeling stressed, in my mind, that's associated with weight gain. And so if I start feeling stressed, I look at the stress and I say, I want to manage the stress. I want to feel better. I want to feel more relaxed and calm. And I go to work on that, okay? And X says, I think I stress too much when I intermittent fasting. So now even I stop it, I'm still hungry enough and what should I do? I mean intermittent fasting stresses lots of people out. I know you probably can't believe this folks.

You know, I know like, I don't know diets are stressful anyways. I mean, I think most diets are pretty stressful for people. If they weren't, you would start them a lot quicker and you'd stick with them a lot longer. You know, diets are stressful and anything that's stressful in my book is not really going to be that helpful to make you lose weight.

So user 007 says I fasted for 23 hours, continuing to tomorrow, you know. Yeah. User 007 I mean it's like I was just saying, I did a whole talk in the beginning on stop cramming for weight loss. And honestly to me, fasting and when you start getting a 24 hour, 48 hour fast, to me it's cramming for weight loss for most people. Now some people are able to take long term fasting and weave it into their normal reality. Okay, and, and if it works for you and you love it and you stick with it for a long time and you, you, if it really works for you, then great, okay, then it works for you. But I find for most people fasting is very stressful. And even when you're fasting, you know, when it's coming, approaching, you're freaking out about it. When it's happening, you're freaking out about it. And then once it's over, you're really hungry and thinking about food all the time. Now again, that may not be you, you know, but for most people I see, the fasting really is this white knuckle affair and you're doing it because you want to lose weight instantly you're cramming for weight loss and what'll happen typically is you'll lose a little bit of weight when you fast and then you'll put the weight back on. When you start eating, you'll get discouraged, then you'll start eating more. And so ultimately most people that try and do long term fasts end up gaining weight because ultimately it leads to more overeating because you know you're, you're fasting for a day, two days, three days, and then you're overeating for a week, two weeks, three weeks is usually what happens again. I'm not saying that to you. User007 but for most people that, that really go all in on the inter. On. And I'm not even saying intermittent fasting, although that, that's part of that too for most people. But certainly the long term fasting for most people is associated with a lot of stress and it's not a sustainable thing you're going to do long term because most people don't want to go 24, 48 hours without eating. For most people, it's very unpleasant and all of a sudden you're just obsessed with food for 24, 48 hours, you know, and so if that's the case, I mean, if you're stressed out and.

If you're stressed out doing what you're doing to lose weight, I, I just don't see the point of it because what, what's going to happen? You think you're just going to stay stressed forever and stick with that? You're not. At some point, like when you're stressed all the time, your mind and body are just obsessed with relieving the stress and the fastest way to relieve the stress is to eat. So I just don't, I don't get that idea. But then again, maybe you love fasting, you know, but I think you're trying to speed up your weight loss and trying to lose weight quick. That's what I think most people are fasting for, unfortunately. But yeah. So we all have to decide though, again, it does come back to the core point of whether you fast or it doesn't matter what strategy that you are going to rely on to lose weight. I think you've got to look at, I always think, like when it comes to dieting, people only look at the side of the weight loss equation and they don't look at the side of the equation, which is just as powerful, is how does it feel to do what you're doing to lose weight? No one ever looks at that. Dieters go into their diet and they say, I don't care what I have to do, I just want to lose weight. And they'll jump into some crazy plan and they'll try and be perfect with it and they will be perfect with it for a couple days or a couple weeks and then they will stop being perfect with it. They won't do any of it. And it becomes, it's this all or nothing mentality and it's just, it's disorienting, it's, it's, it's off balancing. You can't plant yourself firmly in the ground with, with that sort of craziness. You know, again, when most people, they start fasting 24, 48 hours, it's just like throwing a bomb in your life. I mean, all of a sudden it's just this big disruptive thing because like I said, there's anxiety moving towards it. Then you're doing it, you're just obsessively thinking about food. And then afterwards, typically your hunger's gone way up. Just as a point of reference, you know, like, look at the Dan Danish famine study is fascinating because, well, there was a famine and they studied the next generation of people. So they studied the generation after the people experienced the famine. And what was fascinating about it is that they had a higher obesity rate than the general populations that don't experience famine. So long story short, that when this population experienced famine, it created epigenetic changes in them. It literally changed their genes. And so they passed down, you know, obesity. What would be the word?

I don't know, but I'm blanking on the word that I'm thinking of. But, but anyways, the next generation had more obesity in it because there was this lack almost in their genetics, you know. And so again, I think that when you create this, this lack and the stress in your life.

It, I think again you lose a couple pounds while you're not eating, but then you're just setting yourself up to be even more obsessed with food. So yeah, Rose says this is my generation from Bangladesh. Yeah, I mean again that, that's a, you know, again, I work primarily with clients that haven't had a deal with any famine anywhere and thank goodness. But yeah, but anyways, I mean, if you study the Dutch famine study, it's very interesting because it's, it's. They found things out there that you wouldn't necessarily thought, you know, no, not deprivation, Karen. I mean.

I'm just blanking on the word. Like, like when they talk about genetics, a lot of times they'll talk about genetics like the genetics you're born with, it kind of loads the gun and your lifestyle pulls the trigger. You ever heard of that? So the word I'm thinking of is that, you know, if, if your parents went through a famine, there's a more, there's more of a likelihood your genetics are going to nudge you more towards obesity. You know, because you're born with these genetics that there, you're more obsessed with food, you're more worried about a lack of food. You know, listen, the reason we struggle with food is we all have the genetics of popular, of people that lived in food scarce environments. You understand, we have for millions of years we lived in a food scarce environment. So all of our biology, all of our evolution has now set us up to be obsessed with food. Which is great when you're in a food scarce environment, but now what happens is that now we're in an environment with, we're constantly surrounded by hyper addictive food, an abundance of it. And so we have this old evolutionary mindset in this new alien reality and environment. And when you put the two together, you get an obesity epidemic and you get, you get people that have a hard time controlling their eating, you know, and so in my opinion, the way to deal with it, you're not going to change the environment. So that's one solution. You can keep your current mindset and go live in the woods and you'll be fine with your weight most likely. Right. The other option is that you have to upgrade your software. You have to upgrade your software how you think about reality to coincide with this new environment you live in. Does that make sense? You know, because all, most of your, your intuitions and your thought processes and you know, a lot of the automatic behaviors in you were built for a food scarce environment. So when you wonder why you're obsessed with food or you can't stop eating or all of these things can be biologically explained and they were benefits in a food scarce environment. But they become, you know, dangerous in a food abundant environment. And so to me, the only choice you really have if you're going to master this, you've got to upgrade your software so you think differently, you know. Yeah. Novisca. Propensity of something. Yes, a propensity. And there's one other word, I'm just, there's a specific word for it and I don't know any eugeneticists out there would know it. But like, like if your parents are both six, seven, you have a. What propensity is definitely, but I think there's a specific word and I'm just blanking on it.

Yeah, Sublania. Yeah. Generational trauma. Well, yeah, sure. I mean that's just another thing. I mean, yeah, we could certainly extrapolate from the famine study and how they pat so they experienced a famine. And again epigenetics, if you don't know, there's the genetics you're born with that are kind of like hardwired. And then there's epigenetics, which are kind of like, you could think of them as like switches, genetic switches that can be flipped based on our lifestyle, our environment, our experiences and what we're doing. And so we can change Genetic factors in us in real time. I mean, some you can't. You can't change your height. Okay. So some are fixed, but some are variable based on how you eat, how you live, what you do in your life. And so if all of a sudden you experience a famine, those epigenetic shifts, because now all of a sudden you're extra focused on food and you take food even more seriously, you pass those down to the next generation. So, yes, absolutely. That's a food trauma. Right, and that's passed down. And yes, generational trauma gets passed down, too. Okay, so that's a very interesting stuff as well. So. Yes, agreed. Predisposition. Yes, yes, predisposition. Yes. Predisposed. Predisposed. And I think there isn't another word there, but yes, predisposed. You're predisposed to be heavier. You're predisposed to have more issues for weight potentially, you know. And so again, I don't mean to be talking in such slippery language, but, you know, I like to be very, very specific that, again, we're talking statistically. And so statistically, as a population that experienced famine, statistically the next generation of that population, they were statistically had a higher obesity rate. Right? Now, again, statistics don't exist for a person. Right. They exist for a population. So, you know, again, there's people that were born, the next generation that there were had fine genetics. They weren't predisposed to it, you know, but some people were. And then people that were predisposed to it, some of them became obese and some didn't. So again, it's. It's a little more complex, but, yes, that's how we're talking about it. But I think when we understand things in more granular detail, I always think that's a better thing. The more, the more detail we understand our weight. And I just see only benefits from that, you know.

But, yeah, so, yeah, any other questions, let me know, otherwise we get out of here. I do have some stuff to do. So again, for any, any clients in the Circle app, keep an eye out, because I'm going to send you a message within the next couple hours here. And you, if you want daily gym AI reminders coming to you in the early evenings, click the link in the post, click the link in the message. That's all you got to do. And then you'll start getting messages starting Sunday, and you'll get them every evening.

From that point, and you're going to love them, I think. You know, again, we're figuring it out too, by the way. I just want you to understand that, that the way this will all work is I have the messages queued up for next week and I will listen to your feedback and you'll say, hey, these are great questions. These questions suck, Jim. Great. And we will improve them. So again, the beauty of Jim AI and we're really going to start. I've been talking about this. I've had Jim AI for Jesus. It's been over a year or two. I've had Jim AI for a while. I really. No, you know what it was? It was last year because I remember I. I had my shoulder surgery last year.

I'm sitting knocked out. I'm in the chair. Like one of the first days. I remember this. Knocked out, you know what I mean? In Twilight Land with my shoulder and I was on the computer just looking around and I saw this thing and it was really rare. I've never seen anything else like it. It's called Delphi AI. And yeah, I was talking about how you can clone yourself and you can use it to coach and teach and da da, da, da. And I remember signing up to it in my, my narcaded state. That's not a word, but narcotic narcotics state. Anyways, and I remember upload. I uploaded like 10 million words to it, you know, in that chair. And anyway, so, so it started about a year, but as I've been saying, you know, again, things move as they move. But now finally I've tweaked it up, it's working really well. And so now it's going to be integrated into the program a lot more. And so the next thing coming with Jim AI is that if you, when you go through the program and you start going through the program, you're going to have Jim AI walking you through the program. So again, the program's set up to be eight weeks initially and Jim AI is going to literally walk you through that as well. So that's really cool too. And anyways, so, so. And there's even going to be Jim AI for the free section for a little while. So you get to test it out and see what it's like and help you clarify some of your bigger questions. So can't wait. Can't wait. And it just keeps improving on itself. That's what's cool about it is it just keep getting better. So again with the Gym AI and getting the messages, this is kind of the first swing at it. And I will get your all's feedback and we will improve it, you know. I know, yeah. Judges. Yeah.

Yeah.

It's only a year ago, right? Time does fly. I know that is. It is crazy. I thought I had Jim AI for years even, but. Well, that would mean time wasn't flying, but. No, it's. It's the time does fly. Time flies in a good way. I will tell you, too, any of these out there, you know, I know so often in the program here, we talk about kind of time frames, you know, and I'm always working on expanding my time frame and because, you know, last year I got my shoulder work done, and when I went into the surgery, they said, okay, it could be good or bad, meaning we could do a little bit of work and you'll recover in six weeks, or we have to do a lot of work and you'll recover in six months. And they said, you'll know the difference because when you wake up, you'll have a light.

Sling or you'll have a big, heavy sling. And, you know, and I remember falling asleep. I was like, I'm gonna fall when I wake up. And that'll be the first thing I'll fall. Remember to look. And I did. I literally. I woke up and I was like. It was. It was a small sling. I was so excited. So six weeks. Six weeks, I'll be right back to normal. No, you know, so I had the best case scenario. I recovered. Great. But even still, yeah, it was six weeks to start feeling okay. You know what I mean? It was six months to start feeling somewhat normal. And it's about a year for me to feel, like, really good again. You know, maybe it was like nine, ten months for me. But again, most things that you're going to approach, it's a bias called a planning fallacy. We tend to assume that things that we're going to do are going to take less time than they actually take. It's called the planning fallacy. And so we always do it. I did it with my shoulder. But anyways, what I like to remind myself is that even though a lot of times things take longer than we think they're going to.

Times passing anyways, you know. And so I remember a little over a year ago, I got my surgery on October 4th, and I remember September 4th because it all happened quickly. But September 4th, I went in there, my shoulder had been hurting for four or five years, and I went and I finally said, I gotta get this looked at. I don't know if you're gonna be able to help me, whatever. They took an X ray, and in two seconds they could see there was an issue in there that they could fix. And so I instantly was like, let's do it. You know, because it's like I want to start that clock. I know I'm going to be impatient, so I just want to start as fast as I can. And because I'm going to start as fast as I can, I'm impatient the whole time. But now here I am, though, a year later, I'm so glad I did it. And I think a lot that way, that I think a lot of times when I start something, I think about what's going to be like next year. When I've been doing this for a year, I think that all the time. One of the things I started this year, probably about six months ago, speaking on my shoulder, I started doing push ups every weekday. And so I've now weaved that into my life and I do them every day now and again. Sometimes my brain will say, oh, you're not as strong and you know, you don't have all the results you thought you were going to get here. But the other part of my brain says, yeah, but look, you've been doing this for six months. Who knows where you're going to be another six months from now. And I find myself getting stronger in ways and getting benefits out of it that I would have never expected. So a lot of times what we expect and what we experience, they don't quite match up. And our time frame certainly never matches up. So we have to kind of work our mindset to remind ourselves that a year from now, you're going to be so glad that you started this path.

Ah, that's awesome. Yeah. Jody says, I always listen to last year's podcast, the month of this year, and to hear you talk this all out, then I say, yes, Jim, you did that. Yeah, exactly right. So it's like, you know, and I use everything I'm talking about, you know, you know, and everything in program yourself. Then everything we use to help you lose weight is stuff we use to help you live the life you want to live and to deal with the bullshit you got to deal with in life. So, you know, everything I'm talking to you about, I absolutely directly used last year when it came to my shoulder in terms of managing my mindset, setting me up for success, managing it now again, does it mean that it was a perfect scenario? I mean, technically it kind of was. It worked really well. But my experience of it is there's ups and downs, you know, and it's in my shoulder would hurt and I'LL be frustrated. I'd be annoyed. And there was months and months of being annoyed and frustrated and impatient as well. But it was reduced, and that made it a lot better. So, anyways, yeah. That's awesome, Jody. That's so funny. I'd have to listen to some of those. Daisy Love says. Thank you. You're not only helping me with the weight loss, but my upcoming knee surgery. Words of wisdom. Well, thank you, Daisy. I appreciate that. I'll take a little screenshot. So I always like to remind ourselves that this really, again, primarily, is not about weight loss. I know that sounds weird. We always say in program yourself, then we take the weight loss and wrap it in personal development. Right? Making this about being the best version of you possible. One aspect of that is your weight. But in that conceptualization of what we're doing here, that it's really about being the best version of you and your weight's one aspect of that. We put the weight in its proper place. The weight should not be the main focus of your life. Being the best version of you should be the main focus. And maintaining the weight that lets you do that most effectively. That's the goal, you see. But in that way, it takes its proper place and we stay focused on the goal. That really what we're looking to do here is not just weigh a certain. Be a certain size. We're looking to be a certain person, a certain version of us. And the more we remind ourselves of that, I think the better, you know? So that's awesome, Daisy. Great job. Proud of you for the weight loss, and good luck with the knee surgery. Okay. I know that's. That could be a challenge. So, again, the more you can relax, the more you can calm yourself down, the faster you'll heal, recover, and get to feeling better than you have in a long time. Again, I can tell you a little bit of words of wisdom from my shoulder, which, again, I am under no delusion, folks. I know my shoulder. It's a much different situation than getting your knees done. Okay, I know that. All right. That being said, I think there are also some parallels anytime you get a surgery done. And one of the first ones is the one I just mentioned, and it's the planning fallacy, you know, and the planning fallacy is basically this cognitive bias we all have, because our brains are our main organizing principle. Our brains is to conserve energy. That's what they're. They're designed to do. And so the planning fallacy is because of this, because when we think about shoulder surgery, we just Think of the best case scenario. We're not going to anticipate and consider every possible thing that could go wrong, right? We just kind of think about like, oh, I'm going to get it, I'm going to recover, I'm going to be great, you know, and so we just skirt over all the challenges typically and potential drawbacks. And again, this is a good thing to do. I think it keeps us sane, right? But at the same time it can influence and mess up our expectations of what's going to happen. So anyways, understand that, you know, getting the knees, I don't know if you're getting one or both done, but getting the knees done is, it's a real commitment, you know, I mean, to what you're doing.

But boy, it's going to be a great decision. And I say that to you here now too, because I suffered with my shoulder for four to five years and I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel like a stupid asshole last year when I was in that doctor's office and they showed me the X ray because in my brilliance, all my brilliance of being a doctor and being an orthopedic surgeon, I had decided that my shoulder could never fix. There was just something wrong with it that was unfixable. Maybe it was a rotator cuff, maybe it was something, but they'll never be able to fix it. That's what my expert opinion said. And so I lived following my expert opinion for four to five years and lived with a really uncomfortable, painful shoulder that reduced my ability to do push ups, to play basketball, to do all sorts of stuff. So finally, really being inspired by a client of mine, I went and saw the doctor and found out in two seconds that it was, you know, a real clear issue that they could fix.

So, you know what I mean? For one month of having a diagnosed, I was, I had it fixed, I had the surgery and it was done. And then I recovered. And here I am a year later and I was just thinking, because I was playing bass with my kid a bunch this week and I was, I was laughing because last year I couldn't play because I was recovering. But you know, even before that when I couldn't, I couldn't do all these movements now my arms just whoa, all over the place. I'm shooting, you know, it's so much easy. Everything's a million times better, okay? And so I did, you know, I sacrificed too though, you know, I did sacrifice last, last winter I didn't snowboard or ski. I took the year off, because I wanted to let this heal proper, you know, so that was a sacrifice. It was hard. It was hard to let go of that. It was a harder year for me. It was a harder winter for me. I put £10 on last winter. I don't think in small part, I. I definitely think not being as active, not being on the, you know, outside, not moving and skiing and having the fun of that, I think definitely was a contributor. And so, you know, sometimes when we're going to do something to do better, and even when we're prepared, you know, we still might put some weight on, we still might make some mistakes, and I still feel depressed, all the rest of it. And that's what I say to you. You know, there's going to be ups and downs with the whole knee thing, but it's up to you, hopefully, that you can keep yourself focused on the goal, you know, and encourage and motivate that process by relaxing regularly. It's one of the best things you can do for recovery. No matter if it's your shoulder, knees, no matter what's going on in your body. It's very traumatic, you know, I mean, surgery is traumatic. I'll tell you, one of the biggest mistakes I made is I watched a shoulder surgery operation on tv. I wouldn't have done that if I go back in time because I watched him just moving this arm around. I was like, oh, shit. It gave me phantom pains in my shoulder when I watched it. So I said, don't watch the knee surgeries. You don't need to knee that in your head. My point being, though, that surgery is traumatic, okay? And so you need to give yourself the grace and the space to genuinely heal up and recover. And a big part of that is really dedicating time and honoring your relaxation and calm, intentionally relaxing your body, calming down. If you use hypnosis to imagine your knee, getting blood to it, relaxing, healing, getting better, getting stronger, it only supports the process, in my opinion. And approach your, you know, when you're doing your therapy work, don't overdo it. Do what they tell you to do. Relax, ground yourself, calm down, do it at the pace that you're able to do it comfortably, and then keep building on it. And before you know it, next year at this time, you're going to be so happy that you got it done, and you're going to be stronger and a better version of yourself than you are right now even, you know. So, anyways, hopefully that helps you out a little bit too.

Invincible Singh says festival season of Diwali is about to end in India. Consumed very much of those unhealthy stuff still. There are many boxes of sweets in the refrigerator, and I can't stop eating them. Yeah, yeah. Again, I mean, holiday eating is a real thing for a bunch of reasons, obviously. And so what you're going to do with that is up to you.

You.

Know, but again, what I would suggest is utilizing this time right now and realizing, how do you feel.

Heaven, eating so much more unhealthy stuff. Right? All those sweets, all the rest, as it's cranked up, how do you feel physically, mentally, emotionally? How's your energy? How's your moods? How's your mindset? How do you feel physically? Right. Start to pay attention to these things. Because again, when we eat a lot, a lot of people just start beating themselves up. But a much more valuable use of that time is to really take, tap into and connect with the consequences that follow our eating. And when we get off track and we start eating a lot of bullshit. I did this this winter. I was just talking about it. One of the main ways I actually put the calories on was I started making more cookies and eating more cookies, and I certainly enjoyed eating them. But what I did start to notice is that the eating, the more cookies, I started to feel heavier, I started to feel less energy. My moods were up and down a little bit more. My mindset, my clarity of thought were up and down a bit more. And so I utilize that experience of eating more and overeating and eating some of the unhealthier stuff by connecting to what the consequence was because the consequences are always the same. And so I use that opportunity to clarify and connect to it more. And that supported me in wanting to get back on track and wanting to move in the direction I wanted to go in. What's up, Joe? Trinidad and Tobago. The Caribbean. I'd like to be in the Caribbean. We are officially hitting kind of the winter's. Winter's right around the corner phase of fall. I feel like. Like the leaves are starting to fall, you know what I mean? The trees are starting to expose themselves. It's getting there. Little coldness here and there, you know what I mean? Which I'm actually looking forward to this year because I'm. I am skiing this year, so I can't wait. I cannot wait. I'm really excited about this year, especially after missing it last year. It was. It was tough. Snowboarding, skiing was a huge upgrade for my winter, you know, And I know. I don't know if Jody's still here, but I'm. I'm looking up my therapy lamp stuff right now too. And I'm looking forward to this year having a therapy lamp here during the winter as well. Again, I'm in New England, so the winter hits hard, you know, so it's important to have strategies to help deal with that. That's seasonal affect disorder things a real thing, I believe. But you can still manage it. You can still do things to help it out too. Don't just give up. So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to that. So. But yeah, being in the Caribbean doesn't sound too bad either, though.

What's up, Vicki? Vicki says, love your analogy to upgrading your mental software, Alexis. Working on that consciously. Yes, yes, absolutely, yes. Our subconscious software. So much of it is upgrading it, you know, that's really what program Yourself then is all about, is upgrading your subconscious software so that you naturally and automatically start thinking, behaving and eating in new ways that bring you to your goal weight. All right, so what's a therapy lamp? A therapy lamp, Our therapy lamp is. It's like a light. It's a light source. It's like a full spectrum light. So it's supposed to stimulate the sun because in the winter, you know, you get less sunlight. And so.

Yeah, I know some. Someone said I'll just go outside more. And I get that. But you know, to me it's like, I'm gonna test it out.

So whatever, we'll see. I'll let you know how I feel. I, you know, hey, listen, I'm a hypnotist too, so I have no problem.

I have no problem accepting this partly suggestion too. I don't know, you know, I mean, I don't give a. But I'm going to test it out and see if it works, because why not? You know, light goes down a lot in the winter. So again, do they really work? Do they not? I don't know. I can't answer that. But I'm a big believer in stuff like that. Sometimes I'll test it out. So, yes, therapy lamps just. It's like a light lamp. Yeah. So you don't probably have to worry about. Vicky, you're going to California, so you probably get a lot of light all year round. I don't even know, though. I mean, you might get less light and everything's relative too. So even if you get more light than we get here in New England, it's probably. It's less, you know, during the winter months than the summer months. And so, yeah, I'm kind of curious to see what impact that has. But hey, I'm looking for anything, you know, I mean, I'm in the game and Program yourself, then we talk about improving 1% better a day. So I'm not looking for the grand slams. I'm looking for the little things that are easy, that might give me a little boost. And so, you know, to plug a lamp in and have it aimed at meter in the day, that's pretty easy. If that improves my mental state 1% over the winter, sign me up. I'm. I'm all in, you know, because 1%, year after year, I'll take it. You know, every little percent matters. It's a game of inches, in my opinion. And I will do anything I can to help that. And so, yes, that's a hat tip to Jody. Let put me onto that. And she, she likes it, so she uses it. Trust that opinion. So I'm going to test it out myself.

I think he says getting outdoors every morning helps me regardless of the season. Yeah, of course, of course. Right. That's what me too. And I know like last year I definitely got out less. I know it for a fact. I obviously I wasn't out snowboarding and skiing, so that was a huge difference in how much I was outside. Another thing is that honestly I didn't really want to go outside a lot because I didn't feel totally. I know it sounds crazy, like I didn't feel totally confident. My shoulders. He said, well, does that matter? It's like I was a little more nervous. I wasn't as. I wasn't as graceful. I wasn't as balanced because kind of favoring. It was a little weird. My walking was thrown off a little bit. My shoulder. So anyways, I didn't even go outside as much last winter just in general either because of my shoulder. And so yeah.

Yeah. Elena says yes, here in California, it gets dark at 5pm in the winter. Okay. Yeah. So there you go. Yeah. So you get less light too. Same here. Oh, that's next weekend, right? Next weekend they turn the clock back. I hate that the fall one sucks. I try to ignore it, you know what I mean? But it's like. It's so crazy and it's so unnatural. It's such a weird thing because, you know, I mean, like, like light is such a huge impact on us that we don't, in a way we don't realize. But your body and brain are constantly tracking the light of the day. And when you all of a sudden just artificially change that by an hour in one day. It's shocking. And they've actually done research on it, specifically the fall one where we go back and lose an hour and all of a sudden it's dark now. You know what I mean? It's a hard shift an hour. And they've actually done research on it. They found there's more heart attacks, there's more visits to the er. So it does seem in a population level that it does cause stress, you know, so it is a real thing and whatever. So.

There'S that. Oh, yeah, yeah. Being. Yeah. Dark at 5pm in California and still at work. Yeah, exactly. It's the downer. It is. It just is. We don't have to. Again, we can mitigate against it, but we can also acknowledge that it's a challenge. You know, I remember that. I remember like being in school. I remember because I used to school for me, like I used to. I went to school almost like 45 minutes an hour away. It was a bus. I took a bus ride that took a while. And so what it meant is I would get up, it was dark. You know, if we be on the bus, I'd go to school, it was dark. And then when I, by the time I came home was. I was playing basketball then by the time I got home, it was dark. Yeah, it kind of messed with your head a bit, you know, so. Yeah, it's just a thing. So again, we've got to manage that, you know, we got to acknowledge it, you know? You know, and kind of move forward with how we're going to deal with it and, you know, manage that. So. All right, I'm gonna get out of here, everyone. If you're not in my world, make sure you click the link in my bio or go to program yourself then dot com, go get the free hypnosis session I give you. It's called the new Thin Me. It's Kickstart session and I give you a training as well. It comes right after that. You. You'll get access to it and it's all free. And if you like listening to this, I'm here every Monday through Friday, usually around noon Eastern, to answer your questions, talk to you about weight, help you in every way I can. And if you do like this and you like listening to it and you can't make it to the lives, you can listen to this as a podcast. It's a podcast that I put up every weekday and you can go to any podcast platform, search program yourself then and it'll pop up and you can listen to it whenever you want. All right? So, all right, everyone have a super duper day, and we'll talk soon. Bye.