Stacey Lauren talks about regaining weight after losing 70 pounds and the mental trap of imagining worst-case futures, which she calls "future tripping." She describes food FOMO and failed gym restarts, then shares how accountability coaches and community challenges finally got her moving.
Questions this video answers
70 pounds
15 pounds
"future tripping"
"fomoff" (Fear of Missing out on Food)
Do the Thing
Chapters
The nice thing about getting remotivated is I have a podcast called do the Thing. So whenever I get unmotivated, all I have to do is interview someone who is motivated, and I can take their motivation.
Hi.
I don't know about any of you, but I need to do the thing. I can do this, I can do that, but I can't do the thing. Do you know what the thing is? No. Okay. It's the thing that's in the back of your mind that you know you want to do sometimes. It's the thing that you just can't even get started. For me right now, my thing is losing this extra weight that I gained. I lost 70 pounds four years ago, and I just recently gained 15 pounds back. So in my head, it's like, I've already gained all of the weight back again. I like to call this future tripping. Future tripping is when you're tripping about something that happened in the future that hasn't happened yet. Like, I'm on a first date and I'm imagining my wedding already and how I'm going to walk down the aisle.
So for me, future tripping is that in my head, I've already gained the weight, so I'm not exercising. I'm not eating healthy, because why do that? I've already gained the weight again, but I'm trying. I'm really trying. I say self. Self. I can do this. Until.
I see the Cocoa Puffs.
Cocoa Puffs are like my gateway drug to a Quarter pounder and a gallon of ice cream. Because once you do one thing unhealthy, you might as well just throw it out of the wind. You've already failed. Why do we do that? Why do we eat all the food that we think we can never have again? The day before we go on a diet, we gain 20 pounds before we even start. It's like, oh, my gosh, I'm never going to have this food again. And then I see the Cocoa Puffs and I'm like, ah.
I'm never going to eat you again.
I was going somewhere with that.
The problem is I have such serious fomo. My FOMO is so bad that I'm calling it fomoff. Fear of Missing out on Food. I even joined a food support group where I meet with people once a week and we talk about our feelings and our emotions and how we're doing with food. So now I not only have my excuses, I have their excuses, too. They keep talking about how we're supposed to be logging our food into my Fitness pal. But are we really pals? And that thing is so complicated to use. Well, technically, I've never even logged in.
So I rejoined my gym, thinking that would be the thing that would re motivate me. And I had an amazing workout. I felt so great. After the workout, my trainer sits me down and he's like, okay, this is how you log your food. Proteins and fats and carbs and percentages. And I got really excited. I'm like, oh, my gosh, I can do this. I'm gonna log my food. I'm gonna go grocery store shopping for healthy food. And I get in the car 10 minutes later, unlogging 20 chicken nuggets at McDonald's, I figured out what happened. I somehow turned into Baby from Dirty Dancing. And I was like, nobody's gonna put Stacy in a corner. You can't tell me what to eat. I'm gonna eat what I want. You can't control me. So I don't know why my inner Stacy can't protest and make me run five miles. Why can't you do that? The good news is, since I figured out what happened, I finally stopped making excuses. I hired an accountability coach, and I started celebrating the things that I was doing. And I looked back and realized that I haven't failed because I'm not giving up. I have succeeded, and I'm succeeding, just slower. I am doing the thing, but the first thing I had to do.
Dump out all the Cocoa Puffs. The nice thing about getting remotivated is I have a podcast called do the Thing. So whenever I get unmotivated, all I have to do is interview someone who is motivated, and I can take their motivation. Do the Thing helps you recognize the things you want, need, and have to change in your life. We give you a formula to do it on your own, or you can get connected to one of our challenges or where we give you the community, the connectedness, and the accountability you need to do the things that you want. Okay, I'm going to ask you guys a question. What's something you want to do? Shout it out. Sing travel. Sing Travel. Great. Get together after the show and call me and come on my podcast.
Okay, I'm going to leave you guys with one really important thing. Are you ready? Hide the Cocoa Puffs.
