Episode 120 - Page Lauer Says Ditch The Diet There's No One-Size-Fits-All Solution

I do really believe 100% from every part of me that everyone has the.

Capacity to be able to do the.

Things that they want and not to be held back by the mental baggage that's in our head that we want to push through.

Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. In each episode, we get down and personal with people who go after the things they want to make all their wildest dreams come true. Join us as we unveil and dissect a formula for what it takes to do the thing. Here is your host, Stacy Lauren.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. So it's interesting when you do something at a time that you really need to do it and you don't realize all of the benefits that are going to come from it down the road until you actually start to see the ripple of all the different things. And this is the case with a. A fitness camp that I went to last year, and I had got so much out of it from losing the weight that I wanted to lose, getting back into the physical health, and then also just feeling good about myself, but also in the people that I met along the way. Actually, that's one of the. I met. One of the people was a book strategist that helped me finally launch the. The book idea, which then led to the podcast. I have another friend that I met that we write on peloton together virtually. She's in Colorado, I'm in San Diego, and I also met Paige, who's my next guest, who is the resident wellness director of this fitness camp and who helps so many people on their journey for fitness and weight loss. And I'm just so excited that she agreed to come on the podcast to talk to me and then also talk to you guys about her story and then also the best ways to get into the shape and the wellness that you want to get into. So I am welcoming Paige to the show.

Hi, Paige. Hi. And thank you so much for having me. I just love that you're doing this, and it's an honor to be here.

Oh, good. I'm so. I'm so glad, and I'm just. I'm glad that this worked out where we're getting a chance to talk.

Yeah, me too.

I wanted to start off, if you could just share your story and your background for the listeners.

Yes. You know, I'll start a little with my professional background because I think it's the least interesting, and then I'll go a little bit more into my personal story, but I've been in the health and wellness industry just over 20, 21, 22 years now. And I have had such a fabulous opportunity to work with so many people with a range of health and weight and body image concerns, all the way from actual eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia, for example, and then to much more common weight loss struggles that we can see so often around us and even personally. And then I had lots of roles when I got to work with different people. I started out years and years ago as a yoga and meditation teacher and then became a therapist. And then, I don't even know if we talked about this, but I had my own wellness and weight loss center and now I'm the wellness director at Premier Fitness Camp at the Omni Resort. So it's been a long journey and I was reflecting after all these years, I still, I still love it. I, you know, it's one of those synergistic things where you end up where you're meant to be.

I love that you said that as far as you reflecting back after all these years because I think it's so easy to get caught up in the movement of things sometimes and to actually, it sounds like you really checked in with yourself to see if you're still on the right path that you are made for.

Yes. And when I, when I look back at the different roles that I had, they're all within wellness, they're all within health and fitness, they're all within treating our bodies well and eating well and feeling well. And I was. Isn't that interesting that even though, you know, we all have variations in our professional lives that I'm really gravitating toward and fulfilled by and hopefully more and more effective at what I do. So that's been a real honor.

Yeah. It's almost like you have this top level purpose and then all of these things, even though they're not all the same exact things, they've all led fed up into the purpose that you've been here for.

Exactly. Yeah, that's exactly what I would say.

I would love to hear more about how you even got into this work. Did something kind of inspire you or motivate you to kind of get involved?

Absolutely. I struggled with weight and body image and eating for majority of my teens and early twenties and back at that time I just had no idea what was really going on, no idea what was really helpful. And while I was certainly young and learning, there is so much out there in popular culture and popular media that is misleading. And I think I have probably struggled with every fad, diet and gimmick that was probably out there at the time. So that absolutely has inspired and ignited my work. But even over and above that, and I'm happy to share more about that story, even over and above that, I have been so grateful to have come across some incredible practitioners, therapists, life coaches, and I have directly learned the value of healing and moving into a life well lived. So if I can pass that on in any way to people where they are feeling healthy and whole and confident and able and going for what they're excited about, going for what matters to them, I will consider my time and my heart well spent. So those are absolutely the underpinnings of, I think, why I've stayed in this field so long. But I know for sure why I started in this field years ago.

Yeah, I love that. I wrote that down. Going for what they're excited about, I think that's such a. That's kind of the point. The whole goal of this podcast, really, in the beginning it was helping people do the thing. But then I realized as it was moving forward, I really wanted to make sure when they're doing the thing, they're doing the thing out of what's an alignment for them and not compared to anyone else.

Exactly. And for example, like, if we just think about weight or weight loss, most people are focused on weight loss or a certain size or a certain number. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Like, why do we want to lose weight? It's because we'll have lives that we're excited about. It's because we will date who we want to date or take risks we want to take or wear the clothes we want to wear or dance or exercise the way we want to exercise or travel. What you're bringing up is such a great point in terms of health and weight loss and fitness. It's. That's just one little door into all we are excited about and want to pursue. So I couldn't agree with you more.

One of the things I've been just getting a lot of feedback on from people as they're listening to the podcast is they want to do the thing regarding weight loss or getting more just feeling better in general. It's either they're either they're, they're in their second half of life when they're ready to just start making those changes, or they've given up on themselves and they're ready now to take control over what they can control. So I'd love to just hear more about what that journey could look like for somebody.

So I tend to work very practically, and I really want to ascertain where is somebody at with wherever they're getting stuck or whatever their goals are or whatever they've tried in the past. And so I definitely work very personally. But having said that, there are some general things and significant misunderstandings that I want to just put at the outset, and then after I share those, maybe you can direct me a little more specifically how I can be most helpful to your listeners. But the first thing I want to say is, as a culture, we have not really accepted that diets don't work. And I don't know if you're aware or not or if your listeners are aware that 45% of us are trying four or more diets a year. Four or more diets a year. That means that we're doing a diet every two to three months. That is incredible. And the science behind this, the. The actual outcome of these diets is that only 1% of us keeps the weight off after a year. 1%. Now, that 1% is probably some genetic anomaly for people who have no stress or have no kids or have some weird body type that is just naturally fit and muscular. But for 99% of us, we are not only gaining the weight back in a year, but often ten pounds more. So one of the first things I try to do is really ascertain where somebody is and if they are looking for the next diet. I try so heartfully to get them to ask the question, has any diet I've done ever worked in any lasting way? And how can I think about this more as a lifestyle choice that will work over time as opposed to something I can do for two to three weeks, which actually is the average length of time we stay on a diet? We stay on a diet anywhere from 14 to 21 days, and then we go right back to however we were eating before. So I think it's really important for people and for listeners to understand we can do better than diets, and diets are disserving us. So many people I work with think there's something wrong with them. It's actually, there's something wrong with the method. Nothing's wrong with them. It's dieting as a method is ineffective. And for 99% of us, it doesn't deliver on so many promises. So let me just start there and let me know where our. Where I might be able to let you know where I might be able to help.

Yeah, I like that. It's like you're almost kind of setting up the expectation and releasing any of those false beliefs that people might have. So then you're able to actually get to work with the person.

Yes, because if, if we can get to a general understanding that, okay, that hasn't worked, that hasn't worked, and that hasn't worked in terms of three or four diets. And what often goes along with that is I want to be fixed or, or what is the quote answer. And there really isn't one answer. There really isn't a magic pill, although we really want to believe that. So oftentimes, when I can get that initial understanding, it is incredible what we can get done in two or three sessions. Obviously, if people really believe in diets, which I certainly respect in terms of who they are and where they're at, then I'm probably not their person. Yeah.

And so what's your next steps? You've gotten them to identify the why, because you mentioned earlier going through why they want to lose the weight, what they're going to get out of it, what would be the benefits for their life, and then also giving them those realistic expectations with what diets have been. I've never heard that stat of 1% work, right? 1%, that's insane. And so you've gotten them there and now what, what do you do now? So just like you've opened, I'm realizing it as we're, as I'm talking, I'm like, okay, what it is, is now you've opened their mind up, right. And you're making them coachable to be able to hear the words you're saying is I think that what that does for them.

That's exactly right. And I have to say, the vast majority of people are relieved. The vast majority of people are like, yes, that's right. It hasn't worked. And they actually get a sense of hope and they're finally curious. Rather than having a sort of tunnel vision for what magic pill is out there or what the latest trend is or what their best friend is doing, they actually start to get curious of, okay, what really works, and maybe things aren't hopeless after all. So that's such an exciting and wonderful place to get to. Because people have no idea how capable they are, how strong they are. They have no idea how much capacity they have to really reach their health goals and live in bodies that they are enjoying. So once we have that initial understanding, I generally will ask questions about five particular areas. And these five areas, not coincidentally, happen to be the more ultimate causes as to why weight loss can be so tricky to lose or so tricky to keep off. Now, I'm sure you've heard, Stacy, that it's calories in, calories out. And if you want to lose weight, all you need to do is increase your output in terms of exercise or movement and decrease your calories in terms of the food you put in your body. And while that is true in a small way, in the industry, we consider that approximate cause meaning the closest or most obvious answer. But the way that I work with our campers and with clients is with ultimate cause. And when I say ultimate cause, I mean what really is fundamental, what really is determinative in terms of lasting health and weight loss. So once I have that initial understanding that we spoke about, then I move into, through a series of questions and inquiry about where are they at with ultimate causes in terms of health, fitness, or weight loss? Now, I don't tell them that. I just start asking the questions. But these five areas are, number one, stress and pressure. Stress and pressure is the number one reason that we end up overeating in terms of portion size. It's the number one reason that we eat poorly in terms of the food or the drink we choose. It's the number one reason that we have no energy to get to the gym, despite our best intentions. So I will almost always begin with what does stress look in your. What does stress look like in your life? What do commitments and obligations look like in your life? What does family life look like or work hours look like? Inevitably, people will frequently say, oh, I have so much stress, or I work 14 hours a day, or perhaps they're a mother and they're a mother or father, perhaps they're a parent, perhaps they're a parent and they are taking care of children all day long. If we have energy being expended or we are overextended in the energy that we put out, we simply won't have the energy left over to do what we need to do in terms of exercise or meal planning or saying no to perhaps an unhealthy choice. So the first thing I like to do is get inquisitive about what do stress and pressures look like? Where does your energy go? That's usually really helpful and will open up a lot of AHAs for people. And then we begin practically looking at not how do we go to no stress, but what are the 5, 10, 15% ways that we can reduce stress, that we can redelegate our stress, or ways we can bring on support so that's the first thing that I do with people.

Yeah, I like that you're taking almost the food out of like you're showing them how to live their life better. This really, this is really great because I mean most when you think of a diet or people that say like lose weight, they're not thinking in those ways, but this is actually you're changing their life, you're not just helping them lose weight.

Right. If I can get them to think about stress and their energy output differently, it can be life changing. And it doesn't have to be big and broad sweeping. It can be setting one boundary or saying no or leaving something earlier or bringing on support. You really, we really want people to start thinking about this in terms of energy. And I had the beautiful pleasure of working with an ER doctor. And this ER doctor, a beautiful individual, works 12 days straight, 12 to 15 hours a day, and suffered from, I just can't lose the weight. I must not have the willpower, you know, I must have no discipline. I, maybe I'm not, maybe I don't. What do I want to say? Maybe I just don't have what I need inside. And I really invited her to start thinking about it as energy out, energy in. And if your energy is going this way to your lifestyle, how would there be anything left over? So we got practical about what might it look like for an ER doctor to be able to weave this in. So you're absolutely right. I really do hope that the fundamentals that I'm giving people are life changers because then food and weight really do fall into place. And it isn't that they are effortless, it's just that they're so much easier. And that's actually really what we need. We need it to be easier, we need it to be not so doggone hard. And that's what most of us are up against.

When someone says that they do, when they're talking about their stress or their pressure, do you give them tips on the best ways for them to relieve it or is that something they're just coming up with on their own?

No, we work directly on how can I reduce stress in the moment, how can I reduce stress in advance? So in the moment would be slowing down and taking a breath, maybe going for a two minute walk. Sometimes when I'm under stress at work, I will go into the bathroom and I will wash my hands with hot water for 60 seconds and then I will breathe deep and do at least three stretches all combined. That takes me less than three minutes. And what that does for me is it recenters my nervous system, I'm regrounded and I've given my brain oxygen to think more clearly. And it's like pressing reset. Now that may not work for everybody, but what I do is I help people find what are your reset buttons in a given moment of stress that take three minutes or less that literally have an effect on the body. We don't just want to give someone some cool trick or tip that sounds good but has no effect on their body, on their nervous system, on their sense of okay, I got this, I can go again for another hour or two or three. So we work directly in the moment, helping them find their sweet spot in terms of stress management, stress relief or stress reduction. But then we also look at big picture. In other words, what can I do in advance? Can I plan better? Can I identify the top three to five things that are truly priorities today versus preferences? So many of us don't prioritize. We want to get everything we prefer to get done rather than looking at what really needs to get done. Another thing that we don't do is we don't, when we look at this in advance, we don't bring on too much support and or we don't delegate out and, or we don't postpone things that really don't need to occur tomorrow or this weekend. So helping people get a little bit more mindful in terms of how they plan and how things look over the long haul really can be helpful. And if any of your listeners are thinking about how might I make a change, I really do encourage them to look at this in 5 to 15% ways. So 5 to 15% ways I might plan better, for example, or 5, 10 or 15% ways that I might delegate or prioritize. So we know that optimal energy and motivation comes from 15% shifts where I'm just making a tweak out of my comfort zone, not where I say okay, tomorrow I am going to fix my stress. It's going to be a stress free day, I'm going to kill it. We know we don't work in 90 and 100% ways. We are optimally intrigued, optimally motivated when we look to improve or address something in terms of reduce by 10 to 15%.

So good. Yeah, it's just you're giving permission to go slower and in that essence it's actually going to get you to be able to do the thing correct.

Do the thing.

Well, I'd love to hear the next one because the stress one was really good.

Yeah, so the second one is imbalances. For example, we are all work or all worry and no play or no rest. Or maybe it looks like an imbalance in terms of being sedentary all day. Or maybe it's an imbalance in terms of having little meaning in our lives, in terms of relationships or a sense of purpose or belonging. So people will know if this applies to them because it almost hits them right in the stomach or right in the heart. They will know, you know what things really are out of balance. I'm all this and none of that, or this section is way too full of my life or this section is empty or non existent. So we find that when we are way out of balance, not a little out of balance, a little out of balance is just fine. Or being way out of balance, short term is also just fine. But imbalances that last months and years that go unaddressed or perhaps forgotten. This is the second reason that again is an ultimate cause, not approximate cause, an ultimate cause in terms of really lasting health, fitness or weight loss. So that's imbalances. But let me just go over the next three just since your listeners may want to know these five top reasons that is shown in the science and is certainly proven to be true in my practice over the years. The third one is eating poor quality foods, often unknowingly. So I noticed that you mentioned, wow, you kind of wait to get to the food or the calories and we're sort of looking at let's do the things that are life changing in terms of stress or pressure and imbalances. And you're exactly right. We start there. Then we get to number three, eating poor quality foods, often unknowingly. And I kid you not, Stacy, people are shocked to come into my office and find out that many of the foods that are eating lack nutrition. Lack nutrition. So they're picking something, quote, organic or they're picking something, a popular juice drink at say, whole Foods. But so often it is actually not nutrient dense and if we aren't getting the nutrients we need, we will stay hungry and we will keep eating. Additionally, in terms of eating poor quality foods, often unknowingly, people will often skip food groups altogether, thinking they're doing the right thing. So so often I will meet people that completely avoid fat as a food group or completely avoid carbs as a food group. And we really don't want to cut these things out of our daily health, of our daily energy, of our daily nutritional intake. And the reason why that is is because food is so Beautifully designed to do three things. We eat our proteins because they're the building blocks inside our bodies. We really want to eat our proteins at every meal, if we can, in order to have healthy building blocks for how our bodies function. We eat fats. Good, healthy, high quality fats like avocados, high quality cheeses, high quality oils. We eat these things because they increase satiety. So so many people will have a low fat or a fat free breakfast and they're hungry two, three or four hours later, or they're not hungry, but they start eating and then they can't stop. And that's because they actually have been undernourished. And then lastly, there's a really bad rap around eating your carbs. And you know, there was a whole movement that we should be eating carb free. But what we know is that complex carbs often have a lot of fiber and help with digestion. And complex carbs give us energy in the moment, energy in the moment to think clearly and to get up and move and to make decisions and do what we need to do. So when we miss any of those food groups, we are going to end up frequently having cravings, being low energy, managing significant hunger pangs, and often overeating in some form or over drinking later. Did that make sense?

Oh, definitely.

Yeah.

No, that was really good. And then what about the fourth one?

The fourth one is poor habits and the fifth one is getting stuck in extreme cycles. So let me talk a little bit about poor habits. People often don't know that habits are their superpower and that habits are an inherent mechanism of the brain. And things that have, quote, become bad habits, we can actually do the same mechanics and have them become good habits. So what I mean by that is, in short, is that anything that we think and do repeatedly. So any thought that we have that we follow up with behavior will become ingrained in our brain and it will become reflexive or automatic. So if I am frequently eating at night, for example, say, nighttime eating, I'm frequently having that fabulous cocktail with whatever little dessert I like in front of the tv. And I just end up, quote, doing that because it's been a long day or it's all that takes the edge off, or I deserve, you know, a nice little evening. If we are thinking that and choosing it more often than not, that will become a habit. However, this works absolutely in reverse. If we can start viewing these things not as solely a poor choice or not as I lack willpower, but how have I been thinking and what behavior have I been Repeating, in other words, how am I training myself? And this is something for those of us that would say, you know, I do have some bad habits. I have a lot of nighttime eating, or I regularly over drink, or I just eat out a lot. This is not solely willpower or lack of discipline or just what quote you end up doing in a given day. What we really want to look at is, what we really want to look at is how have I been training myself and how can I retrain myself? When people begin looking at this process as training, it gives them permission to practice. It gives them permission to find out what works. It starts making the process and success about repetition instead of perfection. And that's what we're up against. We're up against being perfect, for example, not eating at night at all. And then if I do eat at night, I've blown it. And then I eat the next 10 nights, right? So I want to invite your listeners to start thinking about what thoughts can I think and behaviors can I repeat more and more over time, More and more over time where I'm not looking at perfection, I'm looking at repetition. Why? Because we know this is how the brain works. So whatever we think and repeat, that will become a habit. And we might as well start using this science and knowledge to our advantage. And I kid you not, the people that work with me, particularly with some of the tricky things around nighttime eating or certain sweets that trigger them, or drinking, when we start making it a numbers game and a practice game and over months and years, they look back and say, wow, I overate at night one time in the last 90 days or whatever. It. They are so excited and they. And they are so free. And it's just a pleasure to help people get out of the perfection game and the diet game and get them into a repetition game and a lifestyle game.

So, yeah, I love, I love that because I think it's so easy to get into that all or nothing mentality, especially when it comes to weight loss, which isn't healthy. And then my, my whole saying, which it sounds like we're right, aligned with this. Lately I've been living this imperfect actions better than no action at all. And I love that idea of the imperfect action and then repetition, like focusing on repetition. I think that's so. It's so important.

You're exactly right. And all or nothing thinking or black or black and white thinking is one of the most common things that I see in the people I work with. There's a very extreme mindset. So when I can Help bring them into, for example, just what you said. And I love that any imperfect action is better than no action at all. And when we lean in, when we do what we can, when we show up to the conversation, that's when results occur over time. Not when I'm perfect and I'm on or I've blown it and I'm off. There's absolutely no science for any kind of lasting effectiveness with that. So I really try to help people see through these things and be smarter than these things and actually give themselves the support, the knowledge, and the time that they need. And I don't find my statistics are not what you see in common culture and the common industry where, you know, it's 15 of people that can lose weight and keep it off, maybe less. So we've got to get a more accurate narrative around this because people are hurting. People actually believe they can't do this. When. If you look at any other area of their life, if you look at how they parent, if you look at their career, if you look at the friends they are, if you look at any other church or cause or activity they belong to, their willpower is no problem. The way they show up is no problem. They can do hard things. So if I can do anything to balance the playing field and help listeners or my clients, remember, you can do hard things. You have loads of willpower, you have plenty of energy. We just got to kind of bust some myths, get smarter than a few things, and give ourselves the time that this truly takes.

What do you think? Like, do you have a. Do you have a favorite hack for adding a new habit and kind of adding that repetition into their life?

So I'm going to answer this clinically, and then I'm going to answer it personally. So clinically or scientifically, the most effective thing we have in terms of what the science has shown, and a lot of this has come out of Stanford as well as one other university that's not coming to mind is sequencing. So if anybody wants to hack for habits, it is sequencing. And what I mean by that is we take three, four, or five steps, simple steps that give our brain something to focus on and our body something to do when we identify. And I'll give you an example in a moment. But when we identify, say, three to five steps that we can think through in our brain and perform or enact with our bodies. Now we are working with. What do I want to say about that? Now we are working with what's effective. So, for example, in the morning or in the Afternoon, for example, say nighttime eating because it's just so doggone common. I would think through what are the three, five or six steps I'm going to follow tonight instead of nighttime eating? Yeah, I would think about those, I would see myself doing those and then when I get home I would perform those.

I love that.

Isn't that great?

Yeah.

And we have found that engaging the brain and the body with choosing three, four, five or six steps that really have meaning for you. So we're engaging the heart, that this is not only the hack for habits, but what it also does is it gets us out of white knuckling. White knuckling, trying not to eat or just holding on and like, okay, I'm not gonna eat, I'm not gonna eat. Or you know, this is what we go through because we're so committed and we care so much, but we know we often end up eating. So instead you would come up with something like step one, when I get home, the first thing I'm going to do is jump in a nice long hot shower or grab a refreshing, pardon me, grab a refreshing cup of tea and go sit in my garden. And I'm going to do that for at least five to 10 minutes. So you would pick something that had particular meaning or value for the individual. And then step two would be something like call someone that they really care about or take a stretch and look around, look up at the sky. And step three might be have a really well thought out meal. And step four might be read something. And step five might be do their favorite activity from wordle to a puzzle to having quality time with their partner, pet or child. So in other words, people would pick three, no more than six steps that have meaning for them, that call to them, that fulfill or nurture them. So not only are we teaching them a proactive and positive way to use their time, we're actually giving them what they really need, which is what's nurturing and positive. Not the food or the drink, that's not really what they need. We know that's a counterfeit. We know it only lasts 10, 15 or 20 minutes or as long as you're doing it. We know it doesn't really satisfy. So sequencing is one of the most science based ways we have in terms of a hack for habits. Specifically three, no more than five or six steps that engage your brain in terms of something to focus on, that engage your body in terms of something to do. And those actions really need to be meaningful for you. That's what I would suggest in Terms of what the literature and what the research shows. Yeah.

Now I'm really curious because I love that I've heard of habit stacking before, but I haven't specifically, or at least I might have heard of it. I just didn't land until you just said it with the sequencing. And I love that idea, sequencing, because I love that idea of. Of like pre planning your activities versus eating that bag of chips, basically.

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

I'm really curious what your personal thing is now.

So there are three things that I rely on that I can use in almost any situation and they're really tried and true. And actually, now that I'm saying them, I'm realizing that some of them are actually in the research and in the studies as well. But the first one is I track things with pen and paper. Whatever it is, whether it's food or finances or exercise, I track it and. Or I have an accountability partner. So so much of the time we want to change habits, but we keep it secret or we keep it somehow out of awareness. And when you write it down or when you tell someone, it makes it real. It's right there in black and white or it's right there on the tip of your tongue. And interestingly, as I'm saying this, I'm remembering that when we are trying to put positive things in place or make lifestyle changes, we are 66% more effective. When we have an accountability source, 66% that is more effective than medication, that is more effective than. I don't even know what else, because certainly there's a lot of out there that's effective. But having an accountability source where it is out loud, where it is known, where it is real, where you are seeing it, that's actually super, super helpful for me. And I prefer to write it down. But folks that aren't so type A might really just want to have some kind of accountability partner, or maybe they even do it in their spiritual time, if that's how people roll. So we need to have some way of making it real, of making it known, of saying it out loud and being able actually to work with what's really going on. Whenever I do that, whenever I track it, I don't just track it. I always ask myself, what's one thing, what's one way, what's one support I need to do this better tomorrow. And that's where that 5 to 15% comes in. Because I learned the hard way that I'm not going to be perfect. And even though I did whatever I did today, I'm not going to be under the delusion that I can never do it again or tomorrow better be perfect. That is an emotional roller coaster that nobody needs that actually decreases our confidence in ways that aren't even accurate. So to get smarter than this, one of the ways that I've used is after I've tracked, or perhaps if your listeners have told somebody whatever they've done in a given day that they're wanting to shift, then I ask myself, what's one way, one action, one thought, one support that will help me shift this tomorrow? Now, the beauty of that is every day I am building inner and outer resources that actually work rather than having to do something 100% without any coping skills or without any people on my team or without any methods that are functional. Functional. So that's the beauty of this, is that we actually give ourselves the resources that get us to the goal. Now, if anybody has read the all too famous book called Atomic Habits by James Clear, which is a wonderful read, he says that if we make 1% shifts each day, we are 37 times as effective. In other words, the compound effect, we are 37 times as effective at the end of a year. Now, I love that Even if we're 25% as effective, 25 times, rather, 25 times as effective, that's something that we want to rely on. So that's actually. Yeah, that's actually the first thing I do. And then the second thing that I do that I hope people will really consider is I give myself transitionary items. I give myself ways I can build a bridge. So for example, let's say I struggle with nighttime eating, then I would give myself a bridge or a transition that eases me out of the kitchen or eases me out of food. And this might be a lozenge or gum or a non caloric healthy beverage. In other words, I'm signaling to my body and my brain that the meal is over. Now I'm still going to have this thing in my hand or this thing on my tongue. So there's still some flavor and there's still some connection to something calorically. But many times when people will give themselves a transitionary item, then they shift focus elsewhere and the mood or the moment or the urge passes. And giving ourselves a transitionary item, something that builds a bridge while we are building those resources. I talked about both inner and outer. While we are asking ourselves each day what will help tomorrow, what thought, what action, what person, what method, what resource, now we are actually making it easier to give ourselves the time we need to build those resources that will hold us in case we don't necessarily want to be having a lozenge or a beverage or a piece of gum after every meal. So giving ourselves bridges or more graduality or even what imperfect action can I do until I get to that perfect action, which, as we know, takes time and practice.

So good. And what's the last one?

The last one is getting stuck in extreme cycles, people you probably already know. We get so stuck in certain foods are good or bad or certain diets or certain behaviors where we don't eat at all, but we have coffee all day. And what we are finding is that when we do anything in extreme, whether it's an extreme diet, an extreme exercise, an extreme challenge, we can't maintain it and it inevitably backfires. And when it comes to food and weight loss, oh, my goodness, do things get out of control because we end up eating more than we ever wanted, we end up feeling really horrible about that. And so often our energy goes down and our weight might go up. So if I could do anything to invite your listeners to move just a little bit out of some of these extreme cycles, extreme methods, extreme thoughts, like, I'm going to lose 20 pounds in 15 days and keep it off. Like, we know that's not how the body or the brain works. We know that that isn't what is effective over time. So I really try to help people through practical methods as well as what their inner dialogue or narrative is, get out of some of these extreme cycles that don't work with our brain or our bodies or our learning styles. And then we end up saying, what's wrong with me? When once again, it's the method, not the person. Yeah.

And I think you just hit it on the head with the what's wrong with me? By you kind of going through that in the beginning with explaining them how diets don't work and getting them to open their mind around that they're getting to see that it's not that they failed, it's that the system is failing them.

That's right.

Now they can change. They can change. And so that's. That's incredible. I love that. Well, what would you say would be your number one piece of advice for the listeners in regards to doing the thing?

So I have, from all my years in the work, I've created this little formula, and I do invite your listeners to consider it. So I'll see if I can be concise because I suppose the quote formula is my one answer that involves three components and the first thing is make your health, fitness or weight loss non negotiable. Make it non negotiable.

We know that when we are healthier, we have more energy, we are more confident, we make better choices, we even live longer. So we've got to start upgrading the importance of our health, the importance of what we eat, the importance of how we move. We don't want this to go by the wayside or come third or fourth or when the family is taken care of and when the workday is done. When we make it non negotiable, it upgrades its importance. It'll find its way into our calendar. We find ourselves setting limits on other things, and then we build our capacity to do that more and more over time. So first part of the formula is make your health, your fitness, weight loss, if that applies, non negotiable. Number two of my formula is work a program, not a crash diet, not some extreme hope or challenge. Work a program. In other words, 3, 4, 5 things you do each day that serve as guidelines where each day is a new day. And these are the principles, these are the actions, these are the fundamentals that you work. So we don't want to work a diet because they're extreme and ineffective, but we do want to work a program. We do want to know what we're about to, how we eat, how we move. And These are the 3, 4, 5, 6 things that we do each day. When we talk about it as working a program, suddenly it becomes doable. Suddenly it becomes a process. And not an outcome or a result or about perfection. Rather, it becomes about repetition. Working a program is actually how we get to consistency. So that is, number two, whatever program you work, pick a program, work it, tweak it, give yourself the time where it becomes second nature. And then number three in my formula, in terms of how people can really do the thing is that health, fitness and weight loss are personal. They are not one size fits all. We know what works for one doesn't work for the other. We gotta let this be personal. And what that means is we gotta build our own personal toolbox about what works for us. We got to quit buying into what we see in popular culture. That worked for Susie or Jerry. And we got to really get personal with what works for me. Does it work for me to work 16 hours a day? Maybe not. Does it work for me to be vegan? Maybe not. We really want to start looking at what works for me. And I actually, real quick, I actually do personality testing because there's a reason why some people put a home gym in and never use it because it doesn't work for them. It's not personal for them, it's not part of their personality. So number one, make health non negotiable. Number two, work a program. Number three, make it personal. Build your personal toolbox.

So good. Well, where can people find out about you? And if I'm sure that there's going to be people that want to work with you after listening to this. So how, how can they get in touch with you?

You know, that would be a gift to do that. And people are often so surprised how much they can get out of just one session. So they can email me at Paige P A G E MFT like maryfrank Tomail Paige mftmail and I also do have a fee based podcast that they might be interested in and it gives all of the science and all of the best practices, gives a load of inspiration and it even has a weekly challenge to keep them focused and on track. So that may be something that serves your listeners, particularly those that feel their fitness or health have gotten out of control. And then lastly, I also have an eight part video program called Boost and it's specifically designed for people where weight loss has been really challenging, really elusive. They've tried everything and they're ready to get a little bit beyond their knowledge of, for example, nutrition or exercise. So that would be one way to get a hold of me, Paige mftmail. And then another way people can learn information about me is@the PremierFitnessCamp.com website and I can email you those links if you want to put them in the show notes.

Absolutely. And can you share the podcast name too so they can look for that after this?

The podcast name is Real Health. R E A L Health for Health that is realistic, evidence based, advanced and lasting. It's called Real Health.

So good. Thank you so much for doing this with me, Paige. I really appreciate it.

You are so welcome and I cheer you on. What you are doing is so incredible. Thank you for the service you are providing for so many listeners. It's just a pleasure.

Thanks for listening to the do the Thing podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. But even more, we hope you'll be inspired to do the Thing. Do you have a burning question on Doing the Thing that you'd like answered? How about an inspiring do the Thing story of your own that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear all about it. Just leave us a voice message at dothething callcast or email us at. Hello. Do the thingpodcast.com.