Welcome back to another episode of Weight Loss for Busy Physicians! This week, I'll focus on the importance of maintaining a healthy mindset. Choosing thoughts that served me was a crucial factor in achieving my weight loss goals.
Are you choosing to be overweight? If you aren’t taking action, then you are in the space of wanting something vs committing to the desired outcome. Be honest with yourself and decide whether you’re ready to commit.
In this episode, I'll help you apply a thought model that can be used to achieve permanent weight loss and maintenance. Your journey to weight loss may require several strategy shifts and that's okay. As long as you are mentally ready to commit, you can persevere through the discomfort and setbacks to accomplish your weight loss goals.
Listen To The Episode Here:
In Today's Episode, You'll Learn:
- How to recognize the difference between merely wanting something and being committed
- Why admitting that you aren’t ready to lose weight is better than a lukewarm commitment
- The five component thought-model that allows us to deal with problems in our lives
- Why working the thought-model backward can be an effective weight loss technique
- Why selecting healthy motivating factors will provide the best long-term results on your weight loss journey
Featured In This Episode:
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I must say that I giggled when you mentioned that your son didn’t notice your weight loss. My boys (I am certain) will never notice such a thing either, especially since they see me every day and admittedly that makes it much more difficult to notice. When you mentioned this though, I thought about the last time I lost a bunch of weight (about 45# on Jenny Craig) and my patients would often notice and tell me how good I look. I couldn’t help but wonder if that was a good thing. “Those will be the people who definitely notice if (who am I kidding *when*) I gain it back. I’d rather be around people who don’t notice so that when the weight creeps back on, they won’t judge me.” Ugh! How’s that for a self fulfilling prophecy?? I’ve only finished up to this episode – will listen more tomorrow – but you spoke about confidence in this one. How do I deal with my “confidence” being in my ability not just to lose but then to regain the extra weight? Confidence (not courage) because I have actually fought this battle triumphantly, only to squander it over the period of the next five years or so.
I love your podcasts! You’ve definitely given me a ton to think about, and I’m looking forward to your next episodes!! Thanks so much!!
Great question Kristy!
It sounds like you have confidence in your ability to lose weight, but not in your ability to keep it off. For so many of us (me included!), we’ve never been successful at keeping the weight off. So when we look to our past to determine our future, we’re not confident that we can keep it off because we never have before! But when we look to our past to determine what is possible in our future, we don’t leave any room for accomplishing something new or different. We make sure we get the same results we’ve always gotten.
So if we want different results, we have to change our thoughts about weight maintenance. Is it possible that you could lose weight and keep it off permanently? The way you develop the confidence in keeping weight off permanently is by losing weight and then doing what it takes to maintain. Only at that point are you able to be confident — because you’ve done it!
So a big error so many of us make is to wait to feel confident before attempting something new. That’s putting the cart before the horse. But believing in a possibility can allow your brain to stop looking at all the reasons why you haven’t been able to in the past and start directing energy toward determining how you can succeed in the future.
I hope this helps! And thanks so much for listening! 🙂
Great show. I’m a psychologist and this was the best breakdown I’ve heard of this kind of model. Keep up the great work. I’m “binge-listening.” 🙂
Thanks for the feedback, Mary! Glad you’re enjoying it.
I’m a psychologist too and shared this with several of my friends who work with clients in therapy with weight loss. Great approach and examples!
Fantastic! Thanks Valerie!
I actually don’t have my clients start a new workout plan at first. Most have such negative thoughts and feelings about exercise and research shows that even though exercise is great for lots of reasons, losing weight is not one of them. So if they walk, or do yoga, or pilates, or something like that and love it and do it for other reasons besides weight loss, I’m ok with that. Otherwise, I want them to focus on following their eating protocol, learning to manage their mind, and getting enough sleep. Once they get to maintenance, we reintroduce exercise.
Thanks for sharing the podcast with your friends! 🙂
Can you give some ideas about workout plans?
See my response above!
I’ve just begun binge-listening to your podcast, and have found so many valuable lessons. This one breaking down the thought model was worth transcribing to my iphone notes. As you said it can be applied to any challenge in life: parenting, communication with your partner, leadership challenges, wellness, etc, etc! I actually don’t have weight to lose but am using the your podcast and attempting to break down of inefficient behaviors (indecision, confusion, clutter –it’s as if you’re staring into my soul!). I have wondered at a few points if you could become my therapist 😉 . Looking forward to the rest of the series!
That’s awesome Kate!! I’m so glad it’s helping!
Loved this episode! I listened while catching up on EMR notes, so you were reading my mind. Great, useful ideas and loved the wrong date analogy.
Thanks for your message Mikki! I’m so glad this episode was helpful! 😀
Hi Katrina, I’ve found you through Brooke Castillo’s podcast. You’re doing a great job, I like your podcasts very much 🙂 I was wondering about “the model” and making plans for weight loss. What if the goals we list in our plan (e.g. you said “choose the eating plan”) are not the right ones and even if we stick to all the do goals, we are not closer to achieving our main goal? How do we know that what we plan will serve the purpose? Is there any time limit after which we stop and evaluate the model once again?
Hi! Excellent question. There are so many different ways to eat and some people feel better on one plan than another. That’s what so brilliant about this work – it can accommodate just about any eating plan. My suggestion is to pick a plan based on whether it will work for your life and your taste buds. Then follow it 100% for 2-3 weeks. If no weight loss, then it’s time for a tweak. If you’re losing however, continue to follow the plan until you each your goal or a plateau, then go ahead and tweak. There are many tools available to break through plateaus. But you’re right – you won’t know ahead of time what will work. That doesn’t mean you should stay in indecision and confusion. Pick something and do it, full force. You can always change and adjust as needed in the future. Best of luck!
Thank you 🙂
These podcasts are great! I’m glad I finally made time to start listening to them. I’m excited to work on observing my thoughts, being kinder in my self talk, and start changing the ways I think about my circumstances! You do a great job explaining things, and your voice is great for podcasting!
Thanks Kristal!! <3
Hi there,
Started listening to your podcast yesterday and I find it incredibly interesting. Found myself saying “oh I do that!” when talking about thoughts vs circumstance (seeing a number on the scale and thinking “I’m fat”). I was wondering if you can talk about weight loss while trying to get pregnant and being pregnant. Ive always heard no! but I cant imagine that it would be a bad thing to lose weight while being pregnant.
I’m not sure if anyone else has found this to be confusing.
Thanks!
Long time blog reader but first time listening to your podcast! I’d like to binge listen but I feel like I need to fully digest each episode and practice before moving onto the next! So much good information is contained in this! Looks like I’m starting this year late but late is better than never! Thank you.
Just started your podcast, first want to say thanks
I find it to be very helpful and informative. Thanks for doing this. I’m literary 2 podcasts I’m but was wondering if you’ve covered topic of ADHD and procrastination. I’m struggling with both and find that it definitely has impacted my weight loss goals and personal improvement
Thanks