The Joy of Losing Weight

Everyone, welcome to today's program, Yourself Thin podcast. Today we're talking about the joy of losing weight. Yes, the joy. And I think a lot of people forget this when they think about losing weight because they're so fixated on the misery of what they need to do to lose weight that they forget about just how incredible and how much joy they are bringing into their life by taking control of their weight. And once you start to focus on that, it changes the whole experience up from one of complete and total misery to one of joy right from the beginning. And once you approach it that way, as you can imagine, that's going to improve your chances of success tremendously. Right. So I want to talk about how to go deeper into the joy, though, right? Because you're not going to be able to tap into the maximum amount of joy or even think of it as joy if you don't start thinking about this process in a more holistic way. Okay. So typically when people approach their weight loss or diet, they're really just fixated and focused on the scale, right? They're just obsessed with the scale and the number on it. And so the entire process becomes very stressful, um, very anxiety-induced, and everything in terms of what they feel is dictated by that scale and what it says. And I think this tunnel vision that dieters get on the number on the scale is one of the main reasons why they can't keep themselves going, because that number on the scale typically is not enough motivation or joy in your life. I know that may sound strange to you 'cause you're so obsessed with a number, but think about this. If that number going down alone filled you with enough joy that you would continue with it, then you wouldn't have an issue with your weight. The problem is that that number on the scale is not enough to overcome all the stress and the challenge and the difficulty and the boredom and the— and, and how hard it is to stick to your plan. Okay, so what I want to talk about when it comes to joy is really looking at this process in two new ways. And number one is the results you're getting, so that you expand beyond just the scale. And I think this is so important and such an important secret to remember because there are so many other benefits you're getting out of weight loss beyond just what that scale is saying and/or how you look. I know that's exciting. I know that's fun. I know that's what you've been trained your entire life to focus on when you want to lose weight is what's the scale saying? How am I looking different? What are people saying to me? But by focusing on that, you're missing the greatest source of joy that exists during this whole process. And what that source of joy is, is how you feel throughout the process, because you could eat well today, you can make good food choices today. But if all you care about is that scale, that means you have to wait a couple of days to a couple of weeks for your good decisions today to show up on the scale. And so what happens is all we're doing is focus on the scale and we're missing all the pleasure and joy we get today from our good choices. Because when you have a good day where you're making healthy, positive food choices, how does it affect you mentally? How you're thinking in your head? How does it affect you emotionally? What you feel throughout the day? And how does it affect you physically beyond just the weight? Energetically, comfort-wise, you know, just, just how you feel in your body. And so when you start to zoom into today, the benefits you get today from making good food choices, it really taps you into a lot more joy because there's so much joy around making good food choices for yourself. And I want you to pay attention to this and you can experiment with it. Make some good choices just at breakfast time. You don't even have to do a whole day. Make a good choice for breakfast. Eat something really healthy and nourishing., that you feel good about yourself eating. And after you finish eating it, notice how you're talking to yourself. What's your internal dialogue? What are you saying to yourself when you eat something healthy? Usually it's very positive. You say, oh, nice job. Yeah. All right. Good job. You did it. Okay. So you're saying nice things to yourself immediately. The emotions. How do you feel after you've eaten something healthy? When you've done the right thing, how do you feel? Do you feel proud, successful, motivated, happy? Usually. And then physically, how do you feel? Do you feel lighter? Do you feel energized? Do you feel comfortable? Do you feel more mobile? Usually. So all this joy is right there waiting to be tapped into right after every time you make a good food choice. But dieters ignore that because they're so fixated on the scale that they don't even see all that joy all around them every time they make a good food choice. Now, by the way, when you start to look at your food choices this way, not only do you feel more joy, but simultaneously you feel the pain of the negative consequences you get that are the flip side of what we just talked about when you make unhealthy choices. And that process alone starts to program your mind and body to to make healthier choices because you start to really see and feel what's truly at stake beyond just what the scale says. Okay. So that's the first way to tap into more joy is to stop zooming in and only focusing on the scale. Zoom out and see all the other things that you get a benefit from when you do that. Now, the other side to tapping into more joy from losing weight right from the beginning is to cut the shit with these intense extreme diets. If your diet requires you to feel miserable, then obviously you're not going to feel any joy during the weight loss process. And if your plan makes you feel miserable, I'm going to tell you something else. You're never going to stick with it. So what is the point? What is the point of doing some extreme plan that you get amazing results with for a little while? Unless you've got a photo shoot coming up or a wedding or some special event. But if your goal is to live at your goal weight, if you would like to actually maintain your success, maintain your new weight, then doing things that make you feel miserable are never going to work for you long term. So my other suggestion to you to tap into the joy of losing weight is to not jump into a miserable plan 100 miles an hour on day one. And instead start to approach it slower. Bite off a little bit at a time in a comfortable way so you don't have to change all of your eating all at once. Maybe you start working on your breakfast. Maybe you start working on your late night snacking. You start fixing and improving that, but you start approaching your weight and what you're going to do to change it in a more comfortable way. And this alone allows you to go back to step number one, 'Cause when you're not stressed out, when you're not miserable, it's a lot easier to recognize the joy you feel from making your good choices. And that's how these two work together, is that we don't wanna stress ourselves out to lose weight. It's not a good path, it's not a long-term path, and obviously it extinguishes the joy. So if you wanna feel more joy with losing weight, and there is tons of joy to be experienced and tapped into, then start paying attention to all the other benefits you get outside of just the scale and what you look like, all the other benefits you get out of making good, healthy choices, and follow a plan that feels relatively comfortable for you. And once you start doing those, you're going to realize, yes, it's true that losing weight is one of the most enjoyable things you can ever do in your life. And if you want to go deeper into this way of thinking so that you can follow this path, click the link in my bio or go to programyourselfthen.com. Go get the free hypnosis session that I made for you. It will help you walk this path in an easier way. And if you have any questions, feel free to ask them. Open that door. I'm noticing— oh yes, that looks better, right? I got my camera set up here. And anyways, Snowing out here. Snowing out. Goddamn freezing. What's up, Jody? Jody loves the new picture. All right, yeah, I put that up. I got rid of the other things. You couldn't even see them anyways. And now we got two pictures, so I like it better too. And, uh, yeah, I don't even know where that is. I always think it's Greece. I always imagine it's Greece. And, uh, I love that picture. Someday I'm gonna sit on that porch and, uh, drink some wine, uh, overlooking that view. That, that's the goal. So yes, I hope you're all having a great day, and, uh, if you have any weight loss questions, feel free to ask them. Again, Instagram, I do not know what's going on. Our Instagram is just not working. Tried everything I know now. Well, not everything, there's always something else. I will try it later. So I apologize for my Instagram people. I've gotten some people say, what happened? What happened? I don't know. I don't know what happened. All of a sudden just stopped, stopped sending over there. Um, Let's see here. I did see a question come through, uh, and he says, I just started yesterday calorie deficit, but I still need to eat healthier. Yeah, um, calorie deficit, you know, I talk about this all the time. I don't like that phrasing. I, I think no one wants to live in a deficit that I know of, right? It just implies— what is the technical— I love definitions of things. Let's see. Calorie— oops, no, that's not what I wanted. Deficit. Definition of deficit: the amount by which something, especially a sum of money, is too small. It's good enough. I was expecting something a little better. Let me— I want to— I got a different definition in my mind. Let's see. Oh, there we go. Yeah, deficiency. Yeah, deficit is short A lack. I— because you're putting a lot of work now. We don't talk about being to, um, we want to set ourselves up right from the beginning, focus long-term results. Is this— now I see the video. Oh, some days I hate technology. So I don't know, over in Facebook land, do I look— I'm all glitchy, right? I don't know why it's doing that. I do know why it's doing that. I fixed this before and I'm blanking on why that's happening now. It's the camera. I can't remember what made it do that. Well, whatever. At least over on TikTok land it's all working there. So anyways, anyways, okay, back to, back to deficit. Yeah, nitpicky thing, but I think it's important. And I think again, when it comes to weight loss, you have to just assume at this point you've been conditioned by the diet industry, and the diet industry has conditioned you to think about weight loss in a very short-term time frame and also to think of it as a temporary thing. I'm going to create a calorie deficit until I get to my goal weight. Well, then what are you going to do? You know, so again, I like to frame things set up for the long-term success. And again, calorie deficit— very few people want to live their lives in a deficit. So that's why I like to change that and say I want to reduce my average calorie consumption. But great job. Great job. And yeah, eating healthier should always be a part of that process. Whether you're looking to create a calorie deficit or reduce your average calorie consumption. Regardless, eating healthier is always going to help you do that more effectively because the healthier you eat, the more you nourish your body, the more fiber you're typically eating, and the better you're setting yourself up to make food choices that will support you. So great job, great job taking action. I know a lot of people started yesterday because it's the first Monday of the month, you know, all this stuff, spring's coming, all the rest of it. So I I think it's good to kind of catch those waves, you know, when there's kind of like this cultural momentum, seasonal momentum. There's all sorts of momentum in life, you know, and I think you should hook yourself to as many of them as you can whenever you can, you know. So great job taking action, and good luck with your calorie reduction. What's up, Karen? How's it going? What's up, Jane? Jane says, I was proud of myself yesterday because although I went out and had nachos and 2 glasses of wine, I walked right past the ice cream store and thought that I did not want to feel bad after. Great job. Oh, look at that. Now I don't think I'm glitchy, so I'm glad I didn't touch anything. I would have given myself permanent glitches. I just let it go and it fixed itself. I think it looks fixed to me. Yeah, I love when that happens. Not too often. That's why I keep hoping it happens with the Instagram thing. I don't know, it just stopped working one day. I don't know, I have to reach out to— is there any worse to reach out to tech support? I feel like I hate reaching out to tech support because You never know. It's funny to me, I always think of this because it's like you reach out to tech support. Well, I'll tell you what stops me from reaching out to tech support. As I say, I might not hear from for a day or two, so I don't do it. But if you don't reach out, a day or two is going to pass either way and you still won't have an answer. So great job, Jane. And that's the point, you know. I'm really— again, the big thing there is that you were focusing on the, um, The, the big thing, Jane, that I'm really happy to hear is that you were thinking about the consequence phase, you know, and that's so much, so much of the work we do in Program Yourself Thin is reshifting our focus from the anticipation and consumption of food to the consequence of food. And I know some people say, oh, consequence, I want to enjoy it. You can still enjoy your food. It's just seeing things more accurately, you know. It's funny because food is really one of the only areas of life where you've been conditioned not to think about the consequence. You know, I could bring you to the mall and say, go on a shopping spree, go buy everything you want. I'm not paying for it, but you go, go buy everything you want. Because I'm not gonna do that. I don't want the bills, and I got— my money's gonna be gone, all the rest of it. So if it comes to like, I say, oh, why don't you just go on a shopping spree? You're gonna say, no, I don't want to do that because I'm gonna get the bills and there's gonna be a financial hit right after it. So in your mind, the way you think about going on a shopping spree, your brain instantly goes to the consequence. And not the consequence of having all the stuff you want or the experience of buying it all right to the bill or the financial hit. But when it comes to food, all you think about is the looking forward to it and the eating of it, and then your brain just shuts off. You may think, oh, if I eat this, I might gain weight somewhere in the future, but you have no real awareness or focus on the time period from 6 seconds after the last bite to, I would say, 24 hours. That's the gold, folks. I'm letting you know that when you start training your mind to focus on the 6 seconds after the last bite and the following 24 hours, it's mind-blowing because, well, let's just say Jane ate all the ice cream last night instead of walking by it. Well, the second she finishes that ice cream, once the excitement and the consumption phase is over, Now the consequence phase starts, and you all experience this, but most of you just ignore it. Okay, but the consequence phase starts by what you start saying to yourself. So if you want to lose weight and you go and eat a bunch of ice cream, what do you typically say to yourself afterwards? Not a lot of positive stuff, right? And so you start saying negative things to yourself. What do those negative things make you feel? What do you usually feel? How do you feel? And I don't just mean physically, I mean, what emotions do you feel 6 seconds after you finish the ice cream or whatever the challenging food may be? And you just— despair, guilt, shame, frustration, anger, desperation, sadness, whatever. They're right there. And then there's the physical effects, which you're— don't even worry about those because you're you're unaware of them. You built up a tolerance. But if you really start to develop sensitivity to the physical effects, you're going to notice that you're uncomfortable, you're full, you're kind of feeling lethargic, you're tired, uncomfortable. But that's the truth, folks. Every time you make unhealthy food choices when you want to lose weight, those are the consequences you're going to experience. But you've been conditioned your whole life to just literally ignore them. Make them go away, which isn't hard. Your brain is constantly deleting, distorting, and generalizing, so it's no problem for your brain to just completely delete a whole phase of reality from your awareness. So great job, Jane, proud of you. And that's what you want to build on, because the more you develop that awareness, the more you naturally start to make better food choices. And I'm really also glad, Jane, another thing I want to point out is that I'm really happy to hear you starting to be able to think in the gray area. Right. So, um, instead of just being a black or white thinker, like you were either perfect, didn't have any wine, no nachos, no ice cream, I was perfect. Or, you know, like, uh, you know, I ate everything inside, ate the ice cream, ate the nachos, ate everything. You know, you were in the gray area. Wasn't perfect, wasn't awful, right in the middle. Great. That's where most of us live most of our lives. So you really want to get comfortable being in that gray area, being able to appreciate the things you did well. And being able to accept and acknowledge the things that you're, you, you're okay with, but you want to do better with. And so that, Jane, that mindset sets you up to really thrive with the redo rehearsal technique as well. So great job, Jane. Anita says, your free hypnosis session was on point and worked for me for the last 3 days on my way to practice new habits. Thank you. Nice job, Anita. I appreciate that. I'm gonna take a screenshot of that because I don't think people realize how good that session is. The session Anita is referring to— let me put this in. If you're in Facebook land, I'll just put this link in here for you. Get that on my— there we go. So you can go click that link and get it if you want. If you're on TikTok, you click my picture up on the top left, you'll be brought to my bio. There's a link there, click that, go get the free hypnosis session I made for you. It's called The New Thin Me. It's a kickstart session. It's designed to help you, uh, clarify your goal weight and connect to it so that you feel motivated and pulled towards it. It's a different form of motivation you probably experienced in a while in terms of your weight. So go check that out. And Anita follows it up and says, your clients must be highly educated or simply deep thinkers because the concepts are not simple, although on the surface they appear to be. Uh, yeah, agreed, Anita. I agree 1,000% with that. Uh, Program Yourself Thin is absolutely not for everyone. It really is for a specific type of person. I don't want to say it's for smart people. I consider myself relatively smart, but I consider myself much more an overthinker. So I think that absolutely the people in the program are almost always overthinkers. And, you know, even the people that listen to this podcast, I feel like if you're even listening to this, you're probably an overthinker. And that's what this program is made for, um, because you're always up in your head. And what a lot of overthinkers think is that the overthinking is the problem, but in reality, the overthinking is a solution. The problem is that you've never learned how to think properly, but the overthinking is a real gift. Uh, because if you're an overthinker, in my mind, it's kind of like you've got this, uh, this supercomputer, this sports car, but you've just never learned how to drive it. You know, so you get this really powerful thing that you don't know how to operate, and then it can be used for good or bad, right? You get that super fast sports, powerful sports car. If you don't know how to drive it, you're driving into a pole fast. So again, just because we have power doesn't mean we're going to succeed. We have to learn how to use it as well. And that in a nutshell is what I believe Program Yourself Then is. And, you know, I, I regularly educate people about the program before they could even get it. Because I don't want, you know, it's not for everyone. If you just want a quick fix or something like that, this ain't the program for you. But if you want to dedicate yourself to truly mastering your weight and being able to run your mind, then it is the program for you, you know. But again, the people getting this program are overthinkers, overachievers, perfectionists, you know, that's who they are. They, they, people listen to podcasts all day, read a lot, have tried a different, you know, million different diets. It's got a lot of activity going on up here. So yes, agreed, Anita. I think that's, that's a very astute observation. Demi says, for some reason, as soon as I go to my boyfriend's house, I fall off and start eating heaps. He also is a chef and cooks yummy dinners every night that I can't count the calories of and always overdo it. Um, yeah, I mean, you know, if there's nothing else I can give you all, folks, it's that the way we operate and behave is not really intuitive. And I think this is the source of a lot of frustration for a lot of dieters, because I think a lot of dieters— and of course, you've been trained to think this way, but you've been trained to think that you just need the plan, right? Give me the strategy, tell me what to do, and I will do it, Jim, is the dieter refrain. And that couldn't be further from the truth. I could give you a custom-made, perfect plan for you. I mean, geez, we've got nutritionists and dietitians. You could go hire one and have them create a custom-made food plan for you, and it is not going to help you lose weight any more than anything else. And I think it's important to recognize that. And the reason why is because at the end of the day, you all don't know how to run your mind, most likely. And it's only because you've never learned how to run your mind. And one of the main things you need to understand, and if you're ever going to be able to run your mind, is that you have two minds. You have a conscious mind and a subconscious mind. The conscious part of your mind is the logical, rational part of your brain that you're trying to change through. Right? Because you're trying to learn new information. Um, your conscious mind is the logical, rational part of your brain that knows what you should do, knows why you should do it, and tries to get you to do it. That's where your willpower is. Your subconscious part of your mind, which is the majority of your mind, is the part of your mind that runs on autopilot. It runs all your habitual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. And the big thing to understand is that that part of your brain is not logical like your conscious mind. So you could read or listen to a podcast about why, you know, white flour is bad for you. That's it. I'm not going to eat more white flour. Yeah. Consciously, you know that and think that, but subconsciously that makes no difference at all because subconsciously you really work through association. You're very Pavlovian. Think of it that way. And so on a conscious level, you say, oh yeah, white flour is bad for me. But on a subconscious level, you say white flour is delicious. White flower make me feel better. So your subconscious mind just thinks very kind of simply, just links things together that may or may not have anything to do with each other. Again, it's like Pavlov's dogs. That ringing of a bell has nothing to do with food or salivation naturally, but because they're linked together, it creates the same effect. And so that's how our subconscious mind thinks, and this is why we do a lot of things that we can't explain. So when, you know, Demi tells me that, you know, for some reason As soon as I go to my boyfriend's house, I fall off and start eating heaps. I understand that completely because most of what's driving our behavior is subconscious environmental cues. If you look at your own behavior, folks, you're going to notice that it runs in patterns, that you overeat specifically in certain situations most of the time. And what you overeat happens— it's unique to the different patterns. So for example, you're probably not like picking out an ice cream in the morning at breakfast when you wake up. Right? You're not, um, you know, the things you snack on in the afternoon are different than the things you eat for lunch, you know, or different than the things you snack on at night, perhaps. So, um, we're constantly being influenced by environmental cues that we're unaware of. And so, you know, that's the first thing. Now, obviously you add these as chef and cooks delicious dinners that are probably high calorie, um, you know, is more of the logical reason why, but The bigger thing is that, you know, it doesn't matter. I could take— never mind your boyfriend. I could bring you to a place and serve you food that you have a struggle to overeat, or, you know, I mean, that you overeat regularly. And, um, every— if I do that 5, 6 times, by the time we go to the 7th time, you're probably going to overeat. It's become an automated behavior, you see. And so this is what so many of you need to figure out if you're ever going to have a chance of dealing with your weight. It's not a logical thing. It's not logical. You could say, okay, my boyfriend makes delicious food, so today I'm not going to eat over— yeah, good luck, because your programming, your association in that environment is to overeat. Now again, the delicious food doesn't help, that contributes as well. But the primary thing is that you now have a behavioral pattern that when you're at your boyfriend's, you overeat. And to not overeat in that environment would feel weird. Hope that makes sense to you all, because that, that's the, the keys to the kingdom I'm giving you there. To understand how your subconscious mind works, in my opinion, is the primary, uh, factor controlling your weight. That's what I believe. Um, Anita says, because the consequences of overeating take a while to physically see. Anita, you're proving my point 1,000%, because you've only been conditioned to think of consequences in terms of weight gain. What it's going to look physically, whether— because you're saying two things. Physically see. Exactly. But physically see means physically see it on the scale, physically see it in the mirror, in pictures. And that in a nutshell. Thank you for saying that, Anita, because that is why most of you struggle to make good food choices, because you define consequences as somewhere in the future when it shows up on the scale or my body. What we call— there's a psychological concept called cognitive, um, cognitive biases. Um, basically they're just kind of wiring that we've all evolved to have, and one of them is called future discounting. And so we all discount the future, right? If I say I'll give you $100 now or $200 next year at this time, most people are going to take the $100 now because I don't know where the hell I'll be next year, okay? And so when you have food, delicious food in front of you right now, and you say, oh yeah, but at some point in the future I might gain weight, your brain says, ah, well, you know what, we'll eat the delicious food now, we'll start our diet tomorrow, and then we won't have to deal with the weight gain. And so that, that's a bad way to look at it. But that's exactly why you're struggling, Anita, because your sense of consequence is some future vague potential thing versus some guaranteed thing in the hand right now. So what I'm saying is very different. Please understand this because this is a game changer. The consequence I'm talking about is the consequence that starts 6 seconds after you take the last bite. And honestly, it has a lot less to do with what you see and much more to do with what you feel. And that consequence is right there, and you've been blind to it. That's the amazing part. That's the amazing part. We can be so smart in one sense as humans and so dumb in another way. And I'm not judging anyone. I'm just as dumb. Our subconscious minds seem dumb to our conscious minds, but the consequences I'm talking about, Anita, are what do you say to yourself after you overeat? When you make an unhealthy food choice with what you choose to eat or how much you choose to eat of it, what do you say to yourself instantly? What do you feel emotionally instantly in that next 6 seconds? And then you can go into the physical feelings, but those are really less important. And what's going to— what you're going to notice, the pattern that happens, it's right there, plain as day, is that you're being mean as hell to yourself and you feel all sorts of negative emotions. Now, usually you don't even recognize those because most of the time after you overeat, you go and distract yourself with a screen or, you know, just some other behavior. But if you start paying attention to the actual consequences that follow every unhealthy choice, you're going to realize there's a lot of pain there.. And recognizing that, though, helps you make better food choices moving forward. What's up, Therese? Therese says, the other day I was able to eat half the slice of lemon pie that was brought to my house, and it wasn't— it really wasn't as good as I was thinking it would be. Therese, congratulations. I appreciate you sharing that, and great job. You know, that's what I'm talking about. When you start to realize, boy, that's a whole thing psychologically as well. I mean, I should say neuroscientifically. More specific than psychology, is that as humans, we have more wiring in our brain for the anticipation of pleasure than the experience of it. I find that to be a profound fact. And why is it? I mean, it makes sense when you look at it, right? Because again, it takes a lot more motivation to get the food than to eat the food once it's once in front of us. Okay. But this is really about the dopamine systems in your brain. And so basically dopamine is like a sales salesman. And the idea of looking forward to the food Ironically, that's why I always say the 3 phases of eating: anticipation, consumption, and consequence. I make it a specific phase. The anticipation is huge. A lot of times you're anticipating— this goes right to the heart of programming yourself thin. We're constantly programming ourselves because most of the time we live on autopilot and we're living on the autopilot of our pre-programming. So if you have, for example, a nighttime snacking habit, If you start to pay attention, what you'll notice is you're thinking about that snack throughout the day, and that's building up the anticipation for it. And again, we have more wiring in our brain for the imagination and anticipation of the food than the actual experience of it. So once you realize this, if you can start to eat more mindfully and recognize how enjoyable is this lemon pie. So if I can make it, okay, I've thought about it. Now here it is. It's right in front of me. Hold on before I eat it. Let me ground myself. Let me become present. Now let me experience this. Let me taste it. Let me eat this like a gourmet. And when you start to eat your favorite foods like a gourmet, a lot of times what you're going to notice, it's not as enjoyable as you thought, because a lot of times we don't make that distinction between anticipation and consumption. They start to blur together and we're eating the fast food, but we're not really eating what's in front of us. We're eating the commercial. We're eating the way we've been thinking about it all day. And if you can let that part go and just experience the food right now as it is, a lot of times you realize this is not as good as I thought it was. And once that happens, it is like— it's very— it's almost disorienting. Like, holy shit, this thing I've felt so controlled by, so compelled by, really isn't even that great. Now, not everything. Some things are as great as you thought they were, but you're going to find It's a minority. Most things do not live up to how good you thought they were. I— go test it out. I, I challenge you, go test that out. And once you realize that, it is, um, it's just— it's a shift. It's a shift of how you approach all this. Um, dog emoji says, for me, it's when my husband is home. He's home and I just want to eat everything. Yeah, okay, well, that's a great example. I know a lot of you women can, you know, relate to that. Uh, and You know, that's another example. Now we start to look at that and again, we first start to say, okay, environmental cues are triggering my behavior, right? So we look at this, okay, well, my husband's home, I tend to eat more. Now we can start to go deeper into that. Well, why is that? You know, well, maybe your husband's a pro chef and they make the most delicious food ever. More often than not, it's that your husband stresses you out or you feel tension when they're home. I'm just being honest. I, I have done over 6,000 private weight loss sessions. The vast majority has been women. So I know of what I talk about. So again, it could be celebrating. Your husband could be home and you go in a great mood and you want to eat everything. It really does not matter so much about the specifics. Honestly, what matters is that you start to understand what's going on under the surface. When my husband's home, when I'm home alone, I'm in control and I don't eat much. He's home. All of a sudden I want to eat everything. But once you recognize that connection, I think That's the beginning of being able to understand at a deeper level. And when you can understand these things at a deeper level, I think your ability to change them goes way up. But that's a great awareness and realization to have. Dog emoji. But we all have them. We all have good and bad. We're— listen, folks, we're all multiple personality, which— let me put it a different way. We're always in trances. And sometimes we're in a healthy eating trance, and sometimes we're in an unhealthy eating trance.. And if you start to look at your behaviors through that lens, you're going to start to notice that you're in completely different moods. You're like a completely different person throughout the day, throughout the week, in different situations. And once you realize that, I think it changes the whole game because dieters tend to— dieters talk about themselves as if they're the same person all the time. So, you know, In the morning, you think you're the same person in the morning as you are, uh, at 3 in the afternoon and at 9 at night. Well, I got news for you. No, you're not. You're 3 different people. Well, more specifically, you're 3 different versions of yourself. And thinking you're the same version of yourself, I think, is part of the thing that sets you up for failure. I mean, shit, when you start the morning, every day you start with the highest level of willpower and typically the lowest level of hunger. So right off the bat, and usually the most energy. And so as the day goes on, especially if you're dieting, you're not eating, that starts to shift. You know, it's now you get to the afternoon and now you're hungrier and you got way less willpower than you started the day with. Well, that, that makes you a different version of yourself. And I think it's important to recognize that because once you realize that, now you can start to bring a more holistic, comprehensive solution to the problem. Because as dieters, you all have one tool in your tool belt— willpower. You know, that's why in Program Yourself Thin, we break it down into a more comprehensive approach, which includes the goal weight pyramid we follow in the program, mindset, lifestyle, and eating. And of course, we break those things down as well. But it's not enough to just willpower yourself with your weight. It just doesn't work. Your brain's not built for you to micromanage every food decision you make. That's why you resist it so much. That's why it's so difficult to keep it up because you're not built that way. So it'd be like if you said, I'm going to walk on my hands. Well, you can do it. You can learn how to do it, but it's always going to be a struggle. You're not built that way. You've evolved over millions of years to walk on your legs. So if you go and start trying to walk on your arms, yeah, maybe you'll be able to do it for a little bit. But you ain't gonna be able to keep it up. It's— you're not built that way. Well, your brain is not built to micromanage every food you eat. Your, your brain is built to eat on autopilot, and that's always going to be the way it is. There's no way around that. So knowing that, dieting is always going to be a struggle eventually. Um, Lois says your hypnosis sessions are the best thing I've ever done for myself. Well, thank you for sharing that, Lois. Uh, and I would agree that, that for a lot of people, you know, listen folks, I'm one of the highest paid hypnotists on the planet, so I, I know I'm here every day. So what, this guy just babbling on, on TikTok, what's he know? Well, I, I do know a little bit, you know. I'm here, I do this every day because this for me is a mission. Uh, managing weight is a mission for me. You know what I want to do though? I think I can just turn this camera down. I feel like I'm like, I feel like a little kid. Oh, that's better. There's like this much space. Am I— I'm streaming this to another thing and there's like this much space above my head. I feel like a, like a little kid sitting on a little chair. A little bit more. All right, maybe that worked. Maybe it keeps going back. Uh, anyway, so, uh, yeah, hypnosis is amazing. And again, folks, if you've never experienced hypnosis, I give you a free session so you can experience it from someone who knows what they're doing with it. Um, and all you have to do, you click the, the picture of me up in the top left if you're on TikTok. And if you're over on Facebook or YouTube, you can click that link I put in the comments and, um, go get that free hypnosis session. It's called The New Thin Me. Um, you should check it out because hypnosis is a very legitimate, powerful way to influence yourself. I don't think it's enough, by the way. I just want to make that point too. I don't think hypnosis is enough to change your weight forever, but I think it's an extremely powerful supplement to support you in doing it. And, uh, that's why I give you the free session so you can experience it. Um, Anita says, agree, but therefore there are two consequences after poor reading, right after and future. Yeah, Anita, that's how I would think about it. Absolutely. I think that's a perfect way to think about it. Now technically they're the same week, but I think making that distinction is valuable because in your brain there literally are two. Um, I use the example a lot with my clients, right, just to drive this point home. That imagine Anita, right? Because Anita started this by saying, as we're talking about the consequences of the food you eat, right? And he says, but the consequences of overeating take a while to physically see, which was my point, that you've all been conditioned to think about the consequences of overeating as a visual thing that you're either going to see on the scale or see in a mirror or in a picture. The consequences I'm talking about are the immediate consequences that you feel inside your body, and there are the emotions. Okay, so the example I like to use is imagine if every time you made a poor food choice, every time you got the junk food or the fast food or whatever, I popped out of nowhere. As soon as you were finished, I popped out of nowhere and I whack your thumb with a hammer and then disappear. Every time. Every time you make a poor food choice, I pop out of nowhere, whack your thumb with a hammer, I'm gone. How many times would it take before you thought about getting that food and you said, uh, nah, my thumb, right? How many times would it take? It would take a couple, right? Because we gotta say, oh, ow, shit, shit, shit. And you go do it again. That's not gonna happen again, right? Ah, shit. But very quickly you'd start to link the two together, right? You said, oh, that choice, thumb getting hit, I don't want that. No thank you. And you would make that choice happily if that was the reality, right? If the reality was that you start to say, goddamn, every time I eat the wrong thing, I get my thumb whacked. I don't want it. I don't want it. That's what you'd say. But in your mind, you don't do that because again, you have been conditioned by the diet industry to only think about the consequences of visual concept that somewhere in the near future or far future may happen, may not happen. The consequence I'm talking about is the one that is absolutely going to happen, happens Every single time it's happened, every time in your life, and will continue to happen every single time in your life. When you want to lose weight and you make the wrong choice, you feel bad. It's not me saying it, making you feel bad. If you take a second, sit with yourself for just 3 seconds, you're going to realize, I'm really upset with myself. You're saying mean shit to yourself and you're feeling lots of negative, unresourceful emotions. Every single time you make the wrong choice. Wrong choice is relative, so I'm not saying you can never eat cake or ice cream or oil or the rest of it. I'm not saying that. I'm saying in the context of when you want to lose weight and, you know, eating the ice cream at night is preventing you from doing that and it's making you feel like shit and you're almost type 2 diabetic and you feel like crap, what I'm saying is that every time you actually eat that ice cream, you can't stop yourself. The second you finish that ice cream, you go into a pit of despair. You don't realize it because you distract yourself, but if you pay attention to it, it is the emotional equivalent of getting whacked with your hammer on your thumb. And once you start paying attention to it, you will start to avoid those foods just as if I was hitting your thumb with a hammer. Yeah, Marianne says, I'm having a hard time getting the free session. Any tips? Um, you can write to support@programyourselfthin.com and we'll get you all straightened straightened out. Um, just explain what's going on there in terms of where the issue's coming up, and we'll straighten that right out for you though. So again, support, S-U-P-P-O-R-T, at programyourselfthin.com, all one word, no spaces, and we'll get you set up, Marianne. Um, Jane says anticipation definitely is the strongest feeling, but the actual eating of the bad food often, although not as good as anticipated, still hooks us because of the additives such as excess salt, sugar, so we keep eating it. Yeah, absolutely, Jane. No doubt about it. They're both very powerful, but it is— I think it's shocking for most people to realize the anticipation is the actual more powerful part of it. It really is, because without it, that gets it. That's fascinating psychology, in my opinion, because the anticipation, expectation really is the part that drives the process forward. And I know a lot of you don't believe that because you live in a nonstop anticipated triggered world. Um, every ad you see, uh, every, you know, I don't know what the word would be, sign or logo you drive past on the way home, every package you see when you walk in the store, those are all subconscious cues and triggers to get you to anticipate and expect those foods. So it's hard to, it's hard to really understand just how powerful the anticipation expectation phase is. Because it's like hard to see it. But it, um, yeah, they both play powerful roles though. I absolutely, Jane, that the, the substances in the food, not even just the additives, but, but again, just the sugars, um, the, the flour, the, the quick hits of glucose, the flavor hits, the mouthfeel. I mean, again, they've got this down to a science, a literal science of addiction. Um, but yeah, all of these things contribute to getting you hooked, literally hooked, you know, on these foods. You know, uh, what's up, Vicki? He says you're great on YouTube as well. All right, thank you. Well, I'm glad you're over there, Vicki, because I know you usually watch on Instagram. I don't know what's going on there. I, I just like— it literally just stopped working one day. I guess I'll just have to create a support ticket and go down that path, which I hate doing. I don't know why. I'm just impatient, you know, impatience of it. Anita says hypnosis with your pyramid will achieve success. Yeah, I would agree. So I think— but it's not just that. I will say in Program Yourself Thin, really is a 3-part system, right? So I break it down into the first thing is you need to know what to do. And that's what this is, right? So this is the goal weight blueprint, right? In the program, 144 pages. Again, this program is not for everyone. I'm not trying to say it is. This is for the ones of you that, you know who you are, the ones you see, 144-page blueprint. You're like, oh, I got to have that. That ain't all of you. That's not everyone. I just want you to know. So if you're like, ah, I got to get that. Yeah, well, we're weird, but you know what I mean? So, so this breaks down the blueprint, right? So we go through the mindset, lifestyle, and eating, um, and you customize it to yourself. So this becomes your customized roadmap. This is what knowing what to do. Okay. Specifically for you. Um, but knowing what to do is not enough. You need to know how to get yourself to do it. And that's the program yourself then technique.. You use the program yourself in technique to program your mind. It's a 60-second mental rehearsal technique we use at night to program your subconscious mind to do the things in the Goal Weight Blueprint. Okay, so that's the second piece. And then the hypnosis system is the third piece. And this is the number one hypnosis program on the planet for weight loss. There's nothing even close to this, right? So I'm going to tell you why. And if you know anything about hypnosis weight loss programs, you're going to know um, that they are all the same in the sense that any— Marissa Peer, um, you know, uh, Paul McKenna— you're gonna go get their program and you're gonna get a few hypnosis sessions, and the idea is you're gonna listen to those sessions and it's gonna change you and change you forever. That is bullshit. It is not gonna change you. It may at best change you for a little while. Um, it's not— it's not enough. Anyways, so program yourself. Then, um, we have the Goal Weight Hypnosis System. It's an 8-week system. So the way it's laid out is unique. No one does this. It's nonexistent in the world except for Program Yourself Thin. And so what happens is every morning you get a 5-minute hypnosis session sent to you, okay? And it's built around a weight loss mantra. So you start your day relaxed, calm, with all this good stuff going in your mind. Then you just go about your day. At night, you listen to a 10-minute session, and that has a core weight loss mantra in it. And so every morning you get a new session. Every night you're listening to the weekly session because that one is meant to be repeated. But what happens is you're bookending your day and you're getting better at relaxing, calming down, becoming more sensitive and aware of what's going on inside of you— thoughts, feelings, and, you know, impulses. And you're getting all this positive messaging put into your mind, you know. So those three things together, though, really become a very powerful system. And that's what it is. Um, that's right, Sherry. Sherry says that hammer is so effective, I need to keep thinking of that. Yeah, the hammer is very effective because again, it's a physio— physiological representation of the pain you feel emotionally when you make poor food choices when you want to lose weight, you know. Um, Jane says, I'll often notice the anticipation because I eat out with friends a lot and look forward to it socially and what I will order. Yeah, exactly, Jane. That's why we program ourselves. Everyone does that. We're constantly programming ourselves, folks. I, okay, so today's what, Tuesday? If I said, oh, we just have to work on the honor code here, but if I said, I'll give you $1,000 if you tell me what you're going to eat tomorrow, I bet you have a pretty good idea what you're going to eat tomorrow and how much of it, good and bad. If you're really honest, we know this was for me. I remember that. I remember this. It was more than 30 years. I remember I realized this. I've been studying hypnosis and NLP like crazy. And I remember sitting there at night, um, about to fall asleep. And I realized in my head, I was planning out what I was going to eat the next day. And I was like, oh my God, I always do this. Yeah, we all do that. We all pre-program ourselves. That's how our brain works. We pre-program what we're going to do. Now the pre-programming runs on autopilot because we basically do what we did, right? So let's say tomorrow. Is my Wednesday schedule, right? And Wednesday, Wednesday, maybe like all the other days or whatever, but Wednesday is usually unique and I'm going to eat certain ways on Wednesday. Not all the time. It's not 100%, you see what I mean? But, but it's general patterns. And so on a typical Wednesday, I bet you have a good idea what you're going to eat for breakfast, if you're going to snack in between then and lunch, what you're going to eat for lunch, what you're going to snack on in the afternoon, what you're going to eat for dinner, what you need afterwards. If you're really honest with yourself now, I know you got a lot invested in being, you know, oh, I don't know, I'm going to eat great tomorrow. Yeah, I know you think think that and say that, but deep down, do you really? Don't you know what you're going to do tomorrow? Honestly, don't you typically? Let me put it a different way. Have you ever gone through the day and all of a sudden you're eating, you're like, holy shit, what am I— I've never eaten this before? No, you already know what you're going to eat because most of your behavior runs on autopilot because you pre-programmed it in. So yes, Jane. That's a great thing to realize and notice, because once you realize that, it makes the— it makes the redo rehearsal technique, which is the program yourself then technique I was talking about— once you realize that, Jane, it makes the redo rehearsal technique even more important for you. So that's a great realization, uh, to have. Good job, Jane. Jane, you're doing it. I'm proud of you. I can hear— I can hear the changes happening just for your comments, um, on these lives. So nice job. Um, uh, Cash Fed says, okay, but I can't just eat plants when my job is very active. What do I do then? Um, I don't know. That's funny to me because I don't— did I say just eat plants? I don't know. But so I, I don't, I don't know. Like, I, I am a pescatarian. Um, I don't just eat plants, do I? I eat a little bit of, you know, fish here and there. But, but you could just eat plants anyways, by the way. Um, there's marathoners that just are vegans. So that's a limiting belief. You can be very active and just eat plants. A, but you don't have to, right? I work with lots of people that eat meat, so I am not here to tell you what to eat. Let me, let me get that straight. That might sound strange for someone who helps people manage their weight, but I have found that it's much more effective to figure out what works best for you than it does to tell you what to eat. Without any respect for your preferences. So, you know, for me, I love eating mostly plants all day long and I have plenty of energy. That being said, you may not feel that way, and that's great. You figure out what works for you, you know. But again, that is a limiting belief. A, no doubt about it. But it may not be your preference. You may not want to just live on plants. Great. You don't have to. Okay. I think the more plants you eat, the better you're going to feel, the more energy you're going to actually have to be more active. Is what I believe. But if you don't believe that, that's fine. Um, eat the way that you want to eat. Uh, again, please understand the difference between— to me, you know, they always say this with, with like exercising, they say, oh, the best workout is the one you'll do, right? But I don't know, like it's the same thing with a diet. So to me it's like, oh, is there some epitome of like the healthiest diet in the world? I, I almost don't even believe that anymore because I'm so locked in that if you I could tell you, okay, this is the healthiest thing in the world. I don't even believe that anyways. I think everyone's just so different that the ideal thing is different for people. I truly believe that in my heart. But even if there was an ideal of the healthiest thing in the world, I think you still have to take yourself into account. If that healthiest thing is something you hate doing, then it's not the healthiest thing because you're not going to do it. So it's a lot of words to respond to that, but that's what I think. Yeah, CashFed says I have no idea what I'm going to eat tomorrow. That is absolutely not true. No idea what I'm going to eat tomorrow is not true. Now, you may say I'm not sure which of my options I'm going to choose. Now, that's accurate. Yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna eat McDonald's. I don't know if I'm gonna eat Burger King. I don't know if I'm gonna go to Wendy's. I don't know which one I'm gonna eat. You can't tell me I know which one I'm gonna eat. I don't know. But you have a pretty good idea. If I said write down 5 things, you're probably gonna, you know, what you're probably going to eat tomorrow. Because what— because, because let's just take that to its logical conclusion. I have no idea what I'm going to eat tomorrow. Then that means that today you— what, you had— what did you eat? You know what I mean? Like you say something you've never eaten before. How often do people eat something they've never eaten before? You eat the same things over and over in patterns. Now again, you may not know specifically what you're going to eat, but your options are pretty well, pretty well structured. Tell me that's not true. Y2K says, how do we stop ourselves from overeating delicious food if we are continually exposed to them? Yeah, yeah, that's a challenge for sure. Um, you know, but again, I think in that situation— and we all have challenges and, uh, strengths, you know what I mean? Like, all of us. You know, personally, we have challenges and strengths that are unique to us. And situationally, we have challenging situations and ones that support us. So it is challenging. Yeah. When you're around delicious foods, that's a unique challenge that you got to deal with. But again, I think it takes a multifaceted approach to dealing with it. And again, I will go and reference the old goal weight pyramid here to address it a little bit. But first off, I'm going to address the mindset, lifestyle, and eating pieces of it. I'm not just going to say I'm not going to eat tomorrow. That's a willpower-based approach that dieting would say. So let's start with lifestyle. Okay. So lifestyle-wise, if I was surrounded and I have been, by the way, I worked in restaurants for years managing my weight. So I know what it's like to be around delicious food that you can order for free and eat it and still be in control of my weight. So I've been there. So I'm not just talking out of my ass here. I'm in a much easier position now. I work from home and I control my environment much more. But I did this stuff in environments that were challenging as well. And so I think the first thing always is mindset, right? So again, when you're in— so mindset here, it really is 6 categories, but I'll just touch on motivation, for example. And if I say to Y2K, you know, if I said this week, if you don't eat any of that delicious food at work or that you're surrounded by, if you don't eat any of it, I'll give you $1 million. Would you struggle to eat it or would you have an easy time? I'm not eating that. No way. I got $1 million on the line. Right. So that's the first thing I like to remind people of, that when you're properly motivated, you have abilities that are far greater than you probably imagine. Okay. And so while I'm not going to give you $1 million, you can get yourself just as motivated when you do it properly. So that's just one aspect of mindset that I would start to use to get in there. Lifestyle. I would make sure that I'm well hydrated. I would make sure that I'm as rested as I can be. I would work on relaxing and centering myself more so I was able to connect to my goals and my motivations more easily. In that scenario, I would use that too. Then eating-wise, I would make sure when I was in that situation that I went in nourished. I'm nourishing myself so that I'm able to think more clearly. I would have foods with me that I could rely on, and I would do all of those things plus more. And I would program myself to eat the way that I wanted to in that exact scenario. CashFed says we never have a set schedule. Yeah, that, that's a challenge. I mean, having like a schedule that's all over the place is one of the bigger challenges. Um, traveling is— that's a reason why too. I think people that travel a lot, people that have like, you know, schedules that are all over the place, those are definitely big challenges. I, I would agree with that, you know, but there are solutions to them too. Um, yeah, Ocean says we eat way too much food in the US. Yes, absolutely. Um, yeah, it's all white flour and sugar. True, true, it's true. And processed and chemicals and all the rest of it. Yeah, I mean, America, you know, like, there's a lot of money made off of people overeating, you know. I, I think it's one of the biggest drivers of the economy is, um, people overeating. I'm a big believer in that, so I couldn't agree more with that. Um, Jane says, it's funny, but I feel like you are just talking to me. That feels awesome and very personal. I imagine everyone else on here feels like this too. Yeah, well, Jane, that's why I love— one of my greatest things that I love to do, I've kind of pulled back a little bit from coaching. And what I love, I love doing this podcast every day. And one of my favorite reasons to do it is that I'm able to literally talk with my clients. You know, people get the program and I always give them a little extra attention because it's my way of basically coaching you, you know. And so I always said, but I will coach people. I'm on here every day, Monday through Friday at noon Eastern, to help literally anyone, um, with their weight and their food choices and all the rest of it. Um, but certainly if you get the program, I go a little bit deeper because, hey, you can go deeper. I can guide you in the program. But there's also Tuesday calls too, which we got coming up, where we do a live Q&A with just people in the program. But I'm glad you feel that way, Jane. That makes me happy. And, um, yeah, I'm glad. Yep, Lois agrees. Good, good. That's, that's the point. It makes me feel happy. Um, Therese says, I know I'm going to have an apple, probably some eggs, meat, and vegetables. Yeah, there you go, Therese, right? We all, at the end of the day, I mean, again, if you don't believe this, give this some thought and reflect on this tonight, but I think all of us have a pretty good idea of what we're going to eat tomorrow, okay? Obviously there's outlier days that all of a sudden the whole day blows up and it goes left and all the rest of it. Obviously those days happen. I'm talking about a typical, a typical Wednesday. Right. I bet most of you have a pretty good idea how you're going to eat tomorrow if the day goes as you expect it. And you know what you're going to eat, you know how much of it you're going to eat, you know where you're going to eat it, you know when you're going to eat it. You have a pretty good idea. Even CashVet, who says that they have a crazy schedule, I get that. But most likely it's a schedule that's crazy, like week to week. I'm betting tomorrow you have a good idea when you're going in. You may not, right? There's people that are on call and live on-call lives, and that's a challenge. That's a That, like I said, that is one of the bigger challenges. So, so I do respect that. Um, but even if it is, sometimes that becomes an excuse in a sense, right? So I said, well, my God, I never know what I'm gonna do, so I can't plan my food. Well, of course you can, right? Because even if you get called in, you can have, you know, you can have one plan in your mind for if you have the day off. You can have another plan in your mind if you get called in at 6 o'clock, you know. Again, it's harder. I don't, don't doubt that., but you can still deal with it. You can still succeed with it. Might take a little bit longer, maybe a little bit of a harder path to walk, but you can still thrive and succeed with it. All right, uh, all right everyone, I'm gonna get out of here. Again, thanks so much. Really great questions. I really appreciated it today. I, I was extra good questions and comments, um, and I appreciate them. If you're not in my world, make sure you click the link in my bio or go to programyourselfthin.com. Uh, go get the free hypnosis session, uh, that I made for you. It's completely free. And on top of that, I got a bunch of other free stuff I give you, uh, to help you Manage Your Weight. So go check that out. If you like this, I'm here every Monday through Fridays around noon Eastern. Um, and if you can't make the live, it's also a podcast. You know, any podcast platform, search Program Yourself, then it's right there. Uh, go check it out. And here's a book, my book, The Tao of Living at Your Goal Weight, available now over at Amazon. You can get the Kindle version for $2.99, the physical book's only $9.99. I'd get that. Feels kind of nice. It's— I say that every day, and I really— every day I feel like I love this book. This book feels unique, um, than the average book. I read a lot of books. I don't— just feels different. Is it because it's just mine? I don't know. But anyways, this book's great. 40 chapters, each one's about a page or two. Um, 40 hypnotic stories to help you master your weight. Um, and they're not just random stories. You don't need to know this, but it actually in a sneaky way takes you through the entire program yourself and system from start to finish. Um, so again, this is a book that really changes you as you read it. That's the goal. And, uh, I know last time I checked we had 82 5-star— no, scratch that, 81 5-star reviews, one 1-star review from someone who was really irritated that it was poems and stories, and they said it's not even a book. But it is a book, and it's a book designed to be poems. They're not poems, but they are stories, hypnotic stories. It's designed to change your mind and make you a thin, healthy person as you read it. Some people said this is the best weight loss book they've ever read in their lives. So who might argue with them? So, all right, everyone, have a super duper day and we will talk soon. Bye, everyone.