Ep #151: Weight Loss Success Story: Shannon Weinstein, DO

Katrina Ubell:      You are listening to the Weight Loss for Busy Physicians podcast with Katrina Ubell, MD, episode number 151.

Welcome to Weight Loss for Busy Physicians, the podcast where busy doctors like you get the practical solutions and support you need to permanently lose the weight, so you can feel better and have the life you want. If you're looking to overcome your stress eating and exhaustion, and move into freedom around food, you're in the right place.

Well, hey there my friend. How's it going? Welcome back to the podcast, so glad to have you here. If you are new here, then welcome. I'm so glad that you've come to join us. This is a great first, second, third podcast to listen to, or if you've been with me for a long time, you're not going to want to miss this one either. I cannot wait to introduce you to my guest on today's podcast, but before I dive into that, I want to just let you know that you are able to have somebody else who might be interested in sending you a gift or giving you a gift for the upcoming holidays. You can allow them to sign you up for my upcoming Weight Loss for Doctors Only program that starts in January. It's a group coaching program for women physicians, MD or DO, in clinical practice only. Now if you are from another country and you're not called MD or DO, but you are a woman physician, you are also welcome as well, If you're in patient care and doing clinical practice.

And so the purpose of this is, the program might not be something that you would typically feel comfortable splurging on for yourself, but instead it might be something that you would feel comfortable asking for as a gift. And so I think that it's really a nice opportunity to be able to kind of direct someone toward like, “You know what I actually want for the holidays this year? I actually want to be in this coaching program. I want to solve my weight problem for good. I want to sort myself out and actually start loving my life again.” And that's the best investment anyone could make in you, of course.

So the way to do that is to direct the person, that you want to sign up for you, to katrinaubellmd.com/gift. G-I-F-T. And they're going to be able to sign up there and complete their payment. And then there's even going to be something that they can print off and put in an envelope. And either mail to you to give to you or just put it, wrap it up, put a bow on it, something like that, and have that be a little gift certificate for you to let you know.

Now, I do also want to let you know that there is literally nothing wrong with you just deciding that this is going to be your gift, and you just sign yourself up, and then you give the gift certificate to the giver and tell them, “This is what you're giving me. Thanks.” I totally have done that. So many times where I just tell my husband, “Oh, I've got my gift covered, no problem. I'll just let you know when it gets here.” or something like that. So no shame in doing that at all. Or if you just want to gift yourself this because you know that you deserve it. You know that the one thing you've really been neglecting in your life is yourself and you want to just make sure that this happens for you. Then I strongly encourage you to sign up now because the group is closing, meaning it's filling up, and it's going to fill up well before the program actually starts in January.

So I want to encourage you to just not dilly dally and instead go ahead and sign up. So you can do that by going to katrinaubellmd.com/gift. Now if you're kind of like, “Yeah, but I don't really know enough about the program to make this decision.” Then you can find all the information about the program at katrinaubellmd.com/info. I-N-F-O. So if you need information, go to info. If you are ready to sign up for the gift, then just go to gift.

And with that, I want to let you know about today's weight loss success story. I have Shannon Weinstein on the podcast today. She's an emergency room physician. She's going to tell you all about herself. She is really, really an amazing human being as all of you are. But she is just someone who first of all, was kind enough to come on and do the podcast with me for a second time. Because the first time we did it, my audio was all messed up and it just was not good. You would not have wanted to listen to it, so we had to do it again. But this time was actually even better because we got to cover a lot of topics that I honestly forgot to ask her about.

She's someone who had really, really, really despised her practice, her work as an emergency room physician, and was really looking for an escape strategy, was using food to feel better, was just overall really struggling. And all of this work has really made her fall in love with medicine again, and she's lost over 70 pounds. And just her whole life is different and she's so grateful for all of it. She's done so, so, so well. Can't wait for you to hear all about how she really worked on problem solving for herself, rather than just waiting for the answer and the solution to just fall into her lap.

It's really, really inspiring and I can't wait for you to listen, so please enjoy my interview with Shannon Weinstein.

Hey Shannon, welcome to the podcast.

Shannon Weinstein:     Hi. Thank you for having me.

Katrina Ubell:      I'm so excited to have you. I just feel like we should just tell everybody what we're doing here, which is that this is the second time that we're doing this.

Shannon Weinstein:     Yeah.

Katrina Ubell:      We had an amazing conversation, recorded the whole thing, and then my audio was messed up. It was totally a tech issue on my side, my fault. And you were so kind to come on again and do it again, but as we were just saying, we don't really remember what we talked about and I did recognize that there were a bunch of things that I forgot to ask you about, so it's going to be perfect. Right?

Shannon Weinstein:     Exactly. That is my mindset.

Katrina Ubell:      We're so excited about it. Okay. So let's just start off with you telling us a little bit about yourself, a little background about you.

Shannon Weinstein:     Okay. I am an emergency room physician in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I am 36 years old. I have a daughter who is four, and a husband, and a little dog. And I am now 71 pounds down in my journey. It's been incredible.

Katrina Ubell:      So fun. I cannot wait to dig in. Okay, so let's have you start where we have everybody start. Start from the beginning. When did you first start struggling with your weight?

Shannon Weinstein:     As far back as I can remember, I was a kid, basically an overweight kid, overweight teenager, and so on and so forth. I think I started becoming conscious about it when I was a teenager, but I look back in pictures and see that I was definitely an overweight kid. And then that's when the dieting began. When I was a teenager all throughout college, lose, gain, lose, gain, lose, gain.

I lost a big chunk and kept it off for the end of college at the beginning of med school. And then, really mainly by working out a ton, like kind of diet mentality. I can eat what I want, but let me just work out 7 million thousand hours. So toward the end of med school and the beginning of residency, I started gaining again. And then I gained it a lot in residency. Took some off to get pregnant and have my child, and did really well during the pregnancy. Didn't gain a whole lot at all. And then after I had my kid, a bunch more went on and that's when I found you. That was like few years, I think my daughter was, just turned three.

Katrina Ubell:      Okay. So early on, was your family… Just your eating habits weren't good or was it you learned to emotionally eat early on or how did that-

Shannon Weinstein:     My whole family is overweight, so nobody knew anything about healthy eating in my family. We're big a Italian family. It's pasta and bread, and spaghetti, and everything all the time, for special occasions, for routine night meals. So slowly actually over my journey, we've all been learning about nutrition and healthy eating and everything like that. But yeah, I mean, but we're a middle-class family. We knew nothing except what was recommended was the food pyramid. And at the bottom of that was carbs, carbs, and more carbs.

Katrina Ubell:      Yes.

Shannon Weinstein:     So, we didn't really know. So we didn't know how to do better. And that's what I followed basically.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah. Yeah. So would you say that the emotional eating kind of started when you're in high school or more?

Shannon Weinstein:     I think probably in high school. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the pressures of high school and wanting to do well, and that's when you start like cramming, or that's when I started cramming for stuff. Staying up all night, needing that, those hits of energy, food, coffee, you know, whatever. And that's how I thought I was doing well. I was doing myself a favor. If I could stay up all night and get a great grade, I can move on to a great college and so on and so forth. You know, moving up, up, up, putting more pressure on myself and not realizing that it was my bad eating habits that were contributing to my weight gain.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah. Do you know what I was just thinking of? This is so funny. This is probably totally dates me, but I bet somebody listening is going to. You're going to remember these. I remember being a kid and watching commercials for Snickers, the candy bar. And it was a commercial where there was a girl who was away at college and so she was talking about how she was going to be studying. And they kind of showed her in the dorms, in the library, and in classes, and stuff. And then she talked about when she really needs to buckle down and study, Snickers is what gets her through. And it's just so funny to my, whatever, eight or 10 year old brain, or however old I was, just going like, “Oh, that's what you do in college.” Like you eat candy to be able to study.

Shannon Weinstein:     Right. Right.

Katrina Ubell:      It's like marketing. I'm telling you that stuff works. It's so easy.

Shannon Weinstein:     Oh, oh yeah.

Katrina Ubell:      So then in residency you said you added a whole lot more on. So what was unique about residency?

Shannon Weinstein:     I think at that time I didn't have time to work it off anymore. And then, I'm getting older as well, so working out, working it off doesn't work as well anymore either. So I don't have time to work out and then it's not working as well as it used to. And even more time I'm awake trying to stay up overnights, and more eating, and it's socially acceptable. Everybody's like, “Oh we all need to keep up our spirits.” Let's have some pizza at 2:00 AM or this chocolate cake or whatever it was.

Katrina Ubell:      Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Shannon Weinstein:     Yeah. So it's just like very socially acceptable. It's just a thing you did. And then of course, I didn't have time to work out and not that that would have helped anyway. Because even when I did work out it was either as punishments to myself, like, “Oh my gosh, I stayed up all night and ate all the things. Let me work out.” Or even when it was a stress relief, when I wasn't trying to consciously think I should lose weight from it. Like secretly I did. I just wanted to be able to work out, work out off the weight.

Katrina Ubell:      Yes. Like to get it all off. Yeah, exactly. So then so you were, you kind of were able to lose some, then you had the baby, and then you gained even more after that. Which is like not the way we want it to go. We're like, “It's supposed to go the other direction.”

Shannon Weinstein:     Exactly, exactly. Everybody I knew it was like, “Oh I lost so much weight breastfeeding.” I was like, “Yeah. So I'm going to breastfeed. It's going to be amazing. I'm going to lose all my weight.” No.

Katrina Ubell:      Exactly. It did not happen.

Shannon Weinstein:     No. Late nights pumping and breastfeeding. Little snacking here, little big snacks. Not just little snacks. Like tired and woe is me, I have to get up and breastfeed the baby. I have to be awake to pump. The baby's waking up at all hours of the night. I deserve a snack or I need something to keep my energy up. You know that whole situation. And then, even during the day, I think maybe just being a new mom. I was maybe throwing a little postpartum depression, I'm not really sure, but possibly back then. I just used eating to cope. I thought I was doing myself a favor?

Katrina Ubell:      Well, and we learned that in our training too. Like when you're so tired, you get some food, and it gives you something to do, it kind of wakes you up. It gives you that little dopamine hit. So like why wouldn't you do that when you're tired from having a newborn as well?

Shannon Weinstein:     Right. Right. Exactly.

Katrina Ubell:      Like you're like, “Hey, I know how to handle this.”

Shannon Weinstein:     Yup. Food is the answer.

Katrina Ubell:      Right. Exactly. So then I, if I remember correctly, you found the podcast.

Shannon Weinstein:     Yes.

Katrina Ubell:      And then things started to change.

Shannon Weinstein:     So yeah, I lost about 15 pounds by myself for like a couple of months doing the podcasts. And then you had the webinar, after a few months, and I immediately signed up. And that's when my life changed. Before you-

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah, so tell us more about that.

Shannon Weinstein:     I watched that sugar film that you have us watch before the actual date starts, and list audio books, The Obesity Code. And really that's when things started to click for me. I kind of went down a rabbit hole internet searching about Jason Fung and The Obesity Code and the film and all the other stuff associated with it. It was just like clicking in my brain, that the way I've been doing things these past 20 something years that's been totally against what my body wants me to do.

Katrina Ubell:      Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Shannon Weinstein:     It was first really uncomfortable. I beat myself up about it. I was kind of depressed, kind of didn't want to start. I was like, “Well, if I had known these things, I wouldn't needed to join Katrina.” I wouldn't, I wouldn't need whatever. I should, I should have known this. But really the program is much more about that. It's not even about what you eat. It's-

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah.

Shannon Weinstein:     It's all the mi-

Katrina Ubell:      Like a little bit, it's a little bit about that.

Shannon Weinstein:     It's a little bit about that. But like-

Katrina Ubell:      It's about that because it's-

Shannon Weinstein:     The only thing it was about, and I was like mad that I just spent the money to learn that I just needed to stop snacking and eat less refined foods basically.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah.

Shannon Weinstein:     Or eat… Yeah. So yeah, it was, it was a little bit of a challenge when I first started. I was like, I can't believe I'm going to spend six months and this amount of money to just do what I just learned to do in those couple of days. I was like, “I could have done that on my own.” But-

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah.

Shannon Weinstein:     … really, no.

Katrina Ubell:      That's just the start. What that does is it prepares you to be in a place to be able to actually tackle everything else. Because when you're still eating all the flour and sugar, and using that to neutralize all your emotions. You're like, “I have a great life. I have nothing to complain about. I don't know why I struggle with it.” You have to strip that all away to even be in a position to be able to.

Shannon Weinstein:     Yes.

Katrina Ubell:      Identify what it is, even know what the actual problem is. I think so often we're like, “I just don't know what it is.” Right. I can help you figure that out.

Shannon Weinstein:     Right. Right.

Katrina Ubell:      That's the point.

Shannon Weinstein:     You don't know what the problem is because you're buffering it away or I was buffering it away.

Katrina Ubell:      Yes. Exactly. Yes. So good. So, okay, so then you started digging in though, and things started really changing for you. Right?

Shannon Weinstein:     Oh yeah. My, everything. I felt so overwhelmed because everything was changing all at once. I was applying all these tools and at first, you usually recommend apply the tools to one area your life and other areas of life will start changing. And I kind of just wanted to start with everything, everywhere in my life, which was super overwhelming. And I actually started doing that and things started changing. And then I was like, “Whoa, this is too much change.” And kind of had a freak out. Settled down again, and really dug in some more, and did start just focusing on one area of my life. And you were right, just focusing on that one area opens up the different areas of your life.

So my relationship with my friends and family has changed. I had a difficult relationship with my brother a lot of my life, and it's been amazing now. He struggles with his own issues and I'm just able to approach him from compassion and respect. And when I have interactions with him, I don't feel like going to the fridge afterward or opening up a wine bottle. My husband's and I relationship is stronger than it's ever been. We had a great relationship to begin with. So, I was like, “Ah, there's nothing there.” And then just this opened up next level stuff, just amazing stuff with us.

And then the most major thing is at work. I was at the brink of major burnout basically, when I found the program. Did not like what I was doing, did not want to be there, and was considering a career change, was considering just defaulting on my loans, and going to work at a Target. Really extreme stuff.

Katrina Ubell:      It was that bad, huh?

Shannon Weinstein:     It was really bad. It was really bad. And I am at a place right now where I love what I do now. I am honored to go be at work, and work amongst the people I work with, and take care of the people I take care of. And it's like, it's not magic. I put a lot of work in that.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah. Because I was going to say, right, you didn't switch jobs.

Shannon Weinstein:     No. I'm at the same job-

Katrina Ubell:      It's the same job, same people.

Shannon Weinstein:     … same hours. Nothing has changed. I work nights, weekends, holidays. Nothing has changed. Just my work that I've done in my mind. It's not to say you don't have good days and bad days. I absolutely do.

Katrina Ubell:      Sure.

Shannon Weinstein:     I have days where I think, sometimes a patient frustrates me, a nurse frustrates me, the whole system frustrates me, but I realized now I'm choosing to think thoughts that leave me feel frustrated. And if I want I can change those. Or if I really do feel like I'm frustrated and something needs to change, I can have thoughts that help me approach it from a standpoint that allows me to take better action than just pouting and eating and buffering and whining and whatever else. I can actually effect change.

Katrina Ubell:      Which is what most people do.

Shannon Weinstein:     Right.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah, exactly. And then you can actually change the system. That's what we think. We're like, well, if I'm okay with it, then how are we ever going to change this broken system? Well, the way you change the broken system is not by complaining and eating food.

Shannon Weinstein:     Is from inside out. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Katrina Ubell:      Turns out.

Shannon Weinstein:     You can feel some emotions that allow you to do positive things, to make the positive changes, not, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Katrina Ubell:      Yes. So great. So one thing that I think is amazing, the work that you did, is you really had to figure out, as so many people who work shift work do, how you're going to eat based on what kind of a day it is.

Shannon Weinstein:     Yes. Yes.

Katrina Ubell:      Like there's this shift kind of a day and another shift kind of a day, and this kind of day and that kind of day. And there's no way that I could possibly know what you should do-

Shannon Weinstein:     No.

Katrina Ubell:      … what's going to work for you. I can give you suggestions. I can offer you support and help and ideas, but ultimately you have to figure that out. So can you take us through the process of figuring that out for yourself?

Shannon Weinstein:     Yes. At first I wanted you to figure it out for me. And I think I asked you a few times in coaching, can you just give me some recipes, and some situations, and some possibilities that will work with my life. And you repeatedly told me that I, lovingly, that I need to figure it out. And then it clicked for me. As I slowly started figuring some things out, I was like, “Oh, I can figure out all of this.” So I at first figured out that I could fast overnight. And that was a game changer for me because that's unheard of. Nobody does an overnight shift in the emergency room and doesn't eat. Even still to this day, most of the nurses and techs know I don't eat overnight, but they'll catch themselves. They're like, “Oh, we're ordering, do you want to order? And Oh nevermind, Dr. Weinstein doesn't eat at night.”

Katrina Ubell:      Right. Which is so interesting because like when you are sleeping all night you're fasting all night.

Shannon Weinstein:     Right.

Katrina Ubell:      Right. So this is like some like crazy thing we're proposing.

Shannon Weinstein:     Right. Right. Right.

Katrina Ubell:      Typically your body doesn't get food all night long.

Shannon Weinstein:     Right.

Katrina Ubell:      And even when you're awake you're just doing the same thing.

Shannon Weinstein:     Right, exactly. So on those days where I work nights, I will get my food in during the daytime, and then I'll sleep before my shift. And then I'll fast all night like I would have been sleeping. On days where I have a very early shift, like 7:00 AM morning shift, what I do is I will skip breakfast. And I'll just eat lunch and dinner because that just is easier with getting up that early. When I have to get up that early I don't feel like making breakfast. I'm not really even really hungry at that time, so I skip breakfast. And then the later shifts, I will usually do a breakfast and a dinner, and skip lunch. Because going into the afternoon shifts, you're jumping right in and you're working. There's already a bunch of people that are waiting to be seen.

There's going to be no time to be like, “Oh, I just got here. I'm going to stop for lunch break.” That's not going to happen. So really learning, learning that and applying it to my life is so empowering. Because it's not like you telling me, “All right, you have to stick to this thing.” This is this I made for myself, I made for my life, and it's not something I have to do. It's something that I choose to do and that I want to do. This is working for my life.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah.

Shannon Weinstein:     And I love that it's working for my life, but the way I do something is not going to be the way somebody else does something and works for their life.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah.

Shannon Weinstein:     And I truly get that now, but I was really resistant to it in the beginning.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what's so great is that you're just an example of someone who actually did that part of it. I can only do so much of it for you before you have to show up for yourself, and really just experiment, and be willing for it to not work. And for you not eating all night is great. Right? For someone else, they might find that something else works differently or when you're able to sleep is different than someone else. So let's actually touch on that briefly because there's the whole staying up all night but then, but now I'm kind of wired and tired, but I'm more wired than tired. So how about the sun's up. How about I just try to get the laundry done and run errands and stuff instead of sleeping.

Shannon Weinstein:     Yeah. That was me all over.

Katrina Ubell:      It's what your body really needs.

Shannon Weinstein:     Right. Right. Yeah. I would try to come home and like you don't really think you're tired, but like you actually are physically tired, but your brain from the shift is still like mentally going. And I would just try to fit in way too many things, to the point of exhaustion and falling asleep in the living room floor, not having showered, not having taken off my makeup, not having taken off all my jewelry. Literally would just pass out on the living room floor because I would just push myself the brink of exhaustion. And then I sleep on the living room floor for like a few hours, wake up with like a numb arm because I fall asleep in a weird way.

Katrina Ubell:      Right.

Shannon Weinstein:     Like just horrible, horrible sleep. How am I getting good sleep on the living room floor?

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah.

Shannon Weinstein:     So I've had to make a protocol for myself. You usually get home between seven and eight, and you're allowed an hour to do whatever you need to do. So if you think you need to make an email, make a phone call, do an email, throw a load of laundry in, whatever you need to do you need to prioritize because you only have that hour. And then you go into wind down mode. No more screens, no more phones, no more emails, no more phone calls, nothing.

The kids are already at school. And I shower. I do my meditation. And I make the room dark, and sometimes I listen to some music before I go to sleep. And that's it. And I have to be really strict myself and I usually want to say by like eight o'clock. Eight or nine o'clock, depending on when I get home, it really depends on, sometimes I don't get out of my shift on time. So wherever I'm at, it's an hour from when I step through the door. I'm going to want to do other things and I have to say no to myself. Like I say no to my four year old, well, she's almost four. I say no to my four year old. I have to say no to myself. Like I have to treat myself like my four year old. Like no, I know you think you want that. I can't let you have that.

I've heard you say it so many times. And when I, that's, at that point when I started talking to myself like I was four years old, with compassion, but stern, that's when things started happening. There was no back and forth in my brain. Like yes and no, yes or no-

Katrina Ubell:      It's not a negotiation.

Shannon Weinstein:     Not a negotiation. I'm the adult right now, this is what we're doing.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah.

Shannon Weinstein:     And it's so silly to let the world hear that, that I talked to myself like I'm a four year old. Well-

Katrina Ubell:      But sometimes we need that, right?

Shannon Weinstein:     Yeah.

Katrina Ubell:      Because living on every whim, what we feel like doing in the moment.

Shannon Weinstein:     Yes.

Katrina Ubell:      Like I'm not going to be able to sleep right now like this.

Shannon Weinstein:     Yeah.

Katrina Ubell:      Well, but you haven't even tried.

Shannon Weinstein:     You haven't even tried. Yes. Yeah.

Katrina Ubell:      So yeah, exactly. And some people struggle with the sleep. I know you were saying that you have kind of, like you meditate, you do things, and if even if you're just laying there resting, it's still better than running around trying to get things done. Yeah.

Shannon Weinstein:     Yeah. Usually if I go through my whole routine, I don't have any trouble. It's when I try to fit a few things in at the last minute, and then don't have time for my routine, and try to jump in bed, and like, “I'll make up it.” While I'll just going right to sleep. No, because I wasn't relaxing and getting my body ready for sleep. I was trying to fit those few things in and my brain is still wired from trying to fit this few things in.

Katrina Ubell:      Exactly. Exactly. And just thinking about how you'd pass out on the living room floor. I'm like, it's one thing when you're a resident that would happen, it's another when you are an attendant. No excuses anymore.

Shannon Weinstein:     And my husband and I would fight about it because I would wake up and be miserable. My arm would be numb. My neck would be-

Katrina Ubell:      I can't even imagine. Yes.

Shannon Weinstein:     … stiff neck. He would try to move me to the room and I would fight with him. Like, “Ah. Leave me alone.”

Katrina Ubell:      Awaken the sleeping bear.

Shannon Weinstein:     Right, right. Exactly. Exactly.

Katrina Ubell:      Oh my gosh. I'll just take it, I mean ultimately what it is is just taking responsibility for yourself as an adult.

Shannon Weinstein:     Yes. Yes.

Katrina Ubell:      Which means recognizing that there is that part of you that's like the four year old. That's like “But I want to do this now.” “That's sweet. That would be fun. At another time or day.”

Shannon Weinstein:     Right.

Katrina Ubell:      Not right now. Because this is the time that we need to do that. Yeah.

Shannon Weinstein:     Yeah. Absolutely.

Katrina Ubell:      So another thing that has been a result of you going through this, besides changing your whole experience of your work. Because you're 36, hopefully you have lots more years of taking care of people. I'd be, “I'm so glad. I love you.”

You told me, you're like, I was just looking at every get rich quick scheme.

Shannon Weinstein:     Every get rich quick scheme. Sign me up.

Katrina Ubell:      Sign me up. I got to get out of here and change. It's so awesome. But a lot has changed with your family and their health and their weight too. So I wanted to have you talk a little bit more about that.

Shannon Weinstein:     So my mother, I asked her if I could announce this on air, she's lost 55 pounds. And probably has upper 30 ish to go. And she's so proud of that. And we've been basically just doing the work together. Whatever I learn here, I just tell her, “Hey, try this.” She, the spot downloads and we discuss things. I tell her what the topic of the month is. Time scarcity. We talk about time scarcity. And she's like, “This has really shown up in my life this way and that way.” So she's just, it's been incredible the amount of work that she's done, the results that she's gotten.

And then my husband's lost weight. I think he's lost like 20 pounds. Doing the same thing. He'll hear Katrina on in the background and we'll talk about things. What would Katrina do or what would Katrina say about this. When you're in the middle of a fight, those are your thoughts.

And then my daughter just, oh, it makes me tear up sometimes thinking about it, just, she was, she's like in the 90th percentile for height and weight. So she's not like, it's not mismatch. She's just a tall girl so she's a little bit higher weight. But in the beginning, I was modeling stuff like, “Oh mommy's stressed, I'm going to eat.” “Oh we eat all the things. We gorge on all the things during happy times.” And then we like really restrict leader and really the diet mentality, which I didn't even really realize I was doing in the beginning until this work. And it just makes me so happy that like never again, at least for me, is she going to be modeled that mentality. Sure, maybe out in the world. But for me and our house, her mother and father will not be demonstrating that to her. And hopefully we'll instill the confidence in her to eat how is healthy for her.

And I know she's on her own journey and she's going to do what she wants to do. But at least it feels good for me to know that I am at least providing her with an example, my husband and I have, of what is-

Katrina Ubell:      Rational and normal. Right?

Shannon Weinstein:     Yeah.

Katrina Ubell:      And I think that's all we have control over is how we show up for them. And how they take it, interpret it, of course is up to them. But like you said, you can cross that thing to feel guilty about off your list. Right?

Shannon Weinstein:     Yeah.

Katrina Ubell:      You're like, “I did my own thing for myself and the best I could do was to create this environment for her. And it's up to her.”

Shannon Weinstein:     Yeah.

Katrina Ubell:      And you had mentioned too that you really didn't know how to cook before and so-

Shannon Weinstein:     No.

Katrina Ubell:      … you're learning how to cook, and your husband too.

Shannon Weinstein:     Yes. Yeah. And again, like I wanted the recipes. What are your recipes? Because you're going to know what's going to make me get healthy real quick. And we've been learning what we do and don't like, how we like things cooked. And so now we have our basic meals that we make. And the thing is, is that our lifestyle, it's just not conducive for me cooking every single meal everyday for us for the rest of our lives. It's just, I'm on a lot of nights out of the week at work or wherever. My husbands is too. He has his own firm, and he networks and stuff. So we learn how to order healthy as well. Order in and make that it work for our lifestyle.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah.

Shannon Weinstein:     And a combination of that and us learning how to cook quick, easy meals that aren't involved. A few simple ingredients. How we like things cooked. It's a joyful meal. It's yummy, it's healthy, and you know it's not hard.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah. And it just really opening yourself up to that. Right? It's possible that there could be some ways that we could feed ourselves that taste-

Shannon Weinstein:     Yes. Those little, right.

Katrina Ubell:      … and taste good. Right. And are easy and quick.

Shannon Weinstein:     A 30 thing recipe for an hour—I don't have time for that. I don't even want to do that. More power to the cooks out there. I love them. I appreciate them, but that I don't want to do.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah. It's not your thing.

Shannon Weinstein:     I don't want to cook for hours and hours and hours.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah.

Shannon Weinstein:     It's just been, yeah, truly amazing. I was able to pick up the skill that I did not identify with before. And like you said, opening up my mind, I could learn how to cook someday. That's healthy for me and it works with my lifestyle. Now it's, that was a monkey bar thought and now it's, “I am. I cook. I'm a cook. I cook for my lifestyle.”

Katrina Ubell:      Just got to learn.

Shannon Weinstein:     It works for us. Yeah.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah. Yeah. And if you really think about it, right? Like it wasn't modeled to you growing up. So it's not, you're like, “Yeah, what do you eat?” Well pasta and all those things.

Shannon Weinstein:     Right. Right.

Katrina Ubell:      And like, “Wait, but if I can't make that. Then what do I make?”

Shannon Weinstein:     Right. Exactly.

Katrina Ubell:      Exactly. That's so great. So now in masters, so you're still, you're at this, you're still losing some more weight. You're just telling me how you've broken through a plateau, finally. And dropping some more weight, which is awesome. What else are you working on in terms of yourself personally?

Shannon Weinstein:     Right now I'm really working with the idea of like being present in my life and especially with my daughter. And time, never having enough time for her, never having enough time for our life, and really not wanting to think that way. I want to be present with her. And when we do have time, I want to think to myself that it's quality time and that I love spending the time we do have with her. And so yeah, I've been just working on being more present in all relationships and areas of my life. Just being present.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah. I mean, which is, that's so important because that's those experiences that create your life. And they create that story of what kind of mother are you and that kind of thing. Right.

Shannon Weinstein:     Yeah.

Katrina Ubell:      It's so interesting that it's the people who have tons of time, but they're completely mentally checked out. Right?

Shannon Weinstein:     Yes. Yeah.

Katrina Ubell:      Physically there but not mentally there. And the people who are, it's the opposite. Right? They maybe don't have the time, but when they're there, they're like 100% there. And I think-

Shannon Weinstein:     It's quality. Yeah.

Katrina Ubell:      Kind of goal. Right? That's what we're striving for is like when I'm here, I am all in, 100% connected.

Shannon Weinstein:     All in. The good, the bad, the ugly, the tears, the tantrums, the snuggles. It's all good. All of it's good and all of it, I want all of it.

Katrina Ubell:      Yes, exactly. Rather than like, “Why is she acting this way? There's 10 minutes that I have with her.”

Shannon Weinstein:     Right.

Katrina Ubell:      It's just so easy to be like, “Great. I get the worst hours of the day.” Right?

Shannon Weinstein:     Exactly. Exactly. You hit the nail on the head there. Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Katrina Ubell:      Yes. That is so great. Good. Okay. If there's somebody out there, I'm sure there's somebody out there who's listening who's like, “This sounds so much like me. I don't really know if I could really do this stuff. It seems kind of like a leap of faith. I don't really know.” What would you tell them?

Shannon Weinstein:     I would tell them that you can do it. And that you could do it on your own or you could do it with the help of a group. Doing it on your own you have to be really, what's the word? Dedicated. Organized. You're going to have to do the work. You're going to have to take time every single day, and set aside time, and do the work. And it may take you a lot longer. And if you're okay with that, then more power to you.

But the beauty of a group setting is that you can learn from others while you're working on yourself. There's so many things that people have been coached on I'm listening to, that I didn't even realize applied me and applied to my life. Or the way people think about things like, “Oh, I need a monkey bar thought. I don't really, nothing really is coming up.” Like, “Oh, listening to this person that totally works for me.” Or “No, not really, that that one doesn't really work for me, but, oh, maybe I can combine something that somebody said with was something else somebody said and make it work for me.” And that's the beauty of doing this in a group with other people is one, you're with people who know your struggles and kind of have the same hectic lifestyle that we do as physicians, women physicians. And two, you're just learning so much from each other. Just absorbing it all. Whereas on your own, it could take you a really long time to get to the same result of the mind management and you then ultimately the weight loss.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah. Yeah. I think that it's interesting to think about it. I've been doing this a number of years, but even my coach, Brooke Castillo, so many of you know she's been a coach now 14, 15 years. And she still has to have somebody else point out to her where there's flaws in her thinking. You can only get so far on your own before.

Shannon Weinstein:     Yes.

Katrina Ubell:      It's like really hard sometimes to see certain things in your life. It's just, you just cannot extract yourself from your own life to be able to see it. But I agree you can make a lot of progress on your own, requires that dedication. And when you have that communal support, you have other people doing it, it gives you energy, it keeps you connected, it gives you something to continue to look forward to.

Shannon Weinstein:     Accountable. Yes.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah. It keeps you accountable. Exactly. Cause you know there's people doing it. You want to be a part of that. And then as you went on with masters. Right? Then we have the live events. We were just together recently and those are just so fun.

So great. So great. So, yeah, thank you. I think that will be helpful definitely, for some people who are listening out there. Shannon, thank you so much for sharing your whole story. It's so great.

Shannon Weinstein:     I'm so happy to have shared everything. Definitely a leap of faith, but I'm so happy to put it out there.

Katrina Ubell:      Yeah, totally. Totally. Best decision. All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate you.

Shannon Weinstein:     Thank you. I appreciate you.

Katrina Ubell:      Did you know that you can find a lot more help from me on my website? Go to katrinaubellmd.com and click on free resources.