Mindful Ways to Weight Loss
Join me today as I discuss some ideas around mindful ways towards weight loss. This is not any bit of diet mentality, but instead a way to think differently about how you eat, the stories you tell around weight loss, and how what you eat has nothing to do with your morality in life.
It’s an interesting topic that goes against what we normally have been socialized to believe.
In This Episode:
- The importance of not tying your morality to what you put in your mouth
- Socialized ways we have been taught to diet
- Why diets are a bit of BS
- How to start changing the way you speak to yourself around weight
- Importance of planning in stressful times
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Episode Transcript: Edited by OtterAI with minimal edits:
Michelle Bourque 0:00 You are listening to the it’s your time podcast and I’m your host certified life coach Michelle Arnold Berg, and today’s episode I’m discussing mindful ways to weight loss. Welcome to the richer time Podcast, the podcast. We’re busy professionals like you get the practical solutions and support you need to gain control of your schedule. So you can strive to be the best in your career, but without the stress and overwhelm. If you’re looking to increase your energy and decrease your stress, you are in the right place.
Michelle Bourque 0:35 Hello, hello. Hello. Welcome back to the podcast friends. How are you doing today? We just closed our quarter last week. And you know, of course, it’s the most important quarter in company history until Monday, right this past Monday. Do you ever feel like you’re just sometimes living Groundhog’s Day? It’s all good. And as Marco he says a win cures everything. And as I say hitting plan or over plan makes this job even way more fun. And before we get into today’s topic, talking about mindful ways to weight loss, it does kind of combine ending the quarter and what we’re talking about. And I just wanted to share one tip, because most of what I’m talking about today is around mindset. But I do think that this is a good tip to share with you because I love prepping my food, especially on those weeks where it might be a little bit more hectic, or there might be some more pressure involved. And I just like to be able to focus my brain on what needs to get done and not have to be thinking about what do I feel like eating or going back and forth with Mark every night? What do you want for dinner? I don’t know, what do you want? I don’t know, why did you just ask me the same question? I don’t know, why do I always have to be the one to think about it. Can you relate? So on Saturdays, we will typically just look ahead at the week, look at when I have dinner meetings. And on those nights, it’s called fend for Marc. And for the rest of the dinners, we figure out what we’re going to have. And then I do as much prep as possible on Sundays, or honestly, fairly simple and often repeat a couple of different dinner possibilities each week. And I for sure need to have at least one Mexican night every single week. And before you say that you don’t have time to do that. I took two hours on Sunday, I got myself a glass of wine, I put on the 90s music which Mark can’t stand. And I know I’m aging myself Well, to be honest, sometimes I might even go crazy and put on the 80s hair bands. And then for two hours, I was able to just get the lunches ready, get the dinners prepped and actually make the dinner for Sunday night. So it’s not that it takes a long time. You might however, choose to have different priorities on your weekends. And so what I say is just own that there is no upside and telling yourself that you don’t have time you do. You’re just choosing to use it differently, which is totally fine. I used to do that as well. But now I choose to do this. And it’s important to tell yourself the truth. Saying that you don’t have time is like the victim mentality. And saying that you’re choosing not to is owning your power. It’s the meta skill that you want to develop for all areas of your life. Owning the agency that you have in your life is way more empowering. And I just find that so much better for my brain. And I love the idea of planning what to eat. Because listen, if I’m getting stressed if the POS aren’t coming in that I thought would or if a bulk deal doesn’t seem to be happening. And I want you to think about what stress looks like for you and your world. Then, when it’s already planned. I’m not. Or at least I’m way less likely to stress eat. I know what I plan, I already have a little cooler, and it is so helpful. Which brings us to the meat of this episode. And I will tell you what made me think about doing this topic. Not only that we’re coming to the end of the quarter. I was recently listening to a couple of women discuss weight loss this week. One was on a podcast with two celebrities kind of discussing him. And one was in a weight loss coaching program that I’m part of. And I thought this is what should be questioned, because one of the conversations in the podcast was the two women talking about how hard it is to be good on vacation. And the second conversation was suggesting that we don’t need to tie our morality to food. And I think it’s important to start questioning some of the program beliefs that we have around food and whether it makes us good or bad starting to look at how we might believe that our morality has been intertwined with what we stick in our mouth, it’s so good to start looking at this, questioning it, and realizing that, hey, it does not have to be that way. And I know I’ve done this myself and I still catch myself on some days, thinking about some of the things that we say, I’m trying to be good. I need to get back on track, or I fell off the wagon. I was so bad last night, or I’m going to have a cheat day. Listen, I weigh myself every day. And recently, when I came home from vacation, I caught those crazy voices in my head saying, Okay, let’s see what the damage is. Now, you know, if somehow you find that these thoughts are useful, and you feel good, I always say keep doing you. But if not, let’s get curious. What if food is really just food, you decide what you want to eat, based on what you think, will make you feel best, not what makes you better or worse than the next person. And guess what, what makes you feel best likely today is probably different from what a lot of other folks thinks makes them feel good today. And it might even be different for you based on different seasons that you’re going through in your life. And this is one of the reasons why I just don’t believe in some of the diet industry shenanigans. I mean, think about the commercials that are out there. And they tell you that you need to specifically do XYZ buy their product in order to accomplish your goals. And then you will have like, been enlightened and made it. If it was that simple. We would all buy the same product, and it would be a success for all of us. If it was that simple. There would be no arguments over macros is the way intermittent fasting is the way counting calories is that way, taking that one’s daily pill is the way eating only meat is the way vegan is the way you’re picking up what I’m putting down here, right? There are lots of ways you get to choose what works for you. And when you can start eating when you’re hungry, not sad, not mad, not glad, not stressed. And stop eating when you’ve had enough, not stuffed, not bloated, and not feeling gross, then you will see the scale move. When you can pay attention to how each food makes you feel from a live your life on purpose intention, you will see the benefits. There may be days when you intentionally want to eat the cake. And for me, it’s a nacho house, and you do so on purpose and you enjoy none of the extra BS that you’re telling yourself about how bad you were right? And there might be days when you want to intentionally eat the salad because you know, you actually do feel better when you get some veggies in that body. And an interesting point to make. Sometimes we tell ourselves the cake makes us feel better. But be careful on that slippery slope. Are you eating it as an way to resist feeling some sort of emotion? Does it truly make you feel better? And the moment it might write because you get that dopamine hit? But how do you feel and talk to yourself after eating the cake with intention to celebrate and enjoy is not the same as eating the cake to escape feelings, and feeling feelings that you want to avoid. I want to encourage you to simply be purposeful in your choices. Neither option makes you quote unquote good or quote unquote bad. And I think there is so much wasted energy from women around this topic, brain energy that can be spent on doing some many other amazing things. And it can be a struggle at times. Society has some pretty high expectations for women. Sidenote, did you see the monologue all over the socials recently from that movie, Barbie? I didn’t see the movie. But you can google search the monologue and I just want to share the start of it because it does tie to this and it’s important to just go and check it out. Because I think it is like on point. So it starts with it is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so smart. And it kills me that you don’t think you are good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary. But somehow we’re always doing it wrong. You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say that you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin. I mean, she’s not wrong, right? That part of the monologue is pretty spot on and as you keep going, you can probably relate because a lot of us can relate. You should for sure. Go check it out. Okay, so what I’m suggesting in this episode, at least, start taking the layers of shame and judgment around what you eat away. Stop thinking that your morality is somehow tied to what you’re putting in your mouth. It makes me think of shame. You know, shame is not I did something wrong, it is I am wrong. And so we need to change that narrative. And Step one is to stop judging yourself. Stop thinking that you’re good one day, and you’re bad another. And you know, some of the best ways that you can actually drop is the weight of caring what the hell everyone else thinks. I’ve talked to a number of women. And again, I’ve done this myself, who think, oh, I need to eat that because I don’t want them to think and sort whatever your story is, or, oh, I need to eat that because they took the time to make it or to buy it or whatever. Think of the stories that you tell around your eating, and what other people are thinking about it. Once you start picking that apart, you can find some really interesting information. And then you get to decide, is it more important to care what they think or what you think. And again, own that telling yourself that you have no control is another lie. You 100% control what you put in your mouth. And if you can stop thinking that the others opinions are more important. Well, that is some of the best weight loss ever, the emotional weight of caring what others think about what you are doing to your body. It’s so fascinating. Once we start saying it out loud, and really looking at what it is we’re thinking. Remember, you always have the agency to live your life on purpose and with purpose. And as always, feel free to connect.
Oh, Michelle Bourque 11:34 I added some of the first breathwork modules to the confidence program. I am so excited, you should totally check it out. It is a great deal, which gives you a mix of both mindset and breathwork in order to feel more confident, which is exactly what you need when you want to stop caring about all of these other people’s opinions, right and breathwork can totally help calm your nervous system. Go to MichelleBourquecoaching.com/confidence to learn more. Okay, that’s what I have for you today. Let’s meet back here next week but for now, make it a great day. Take care Michelle Bourque 12:14 Did you know you can take this work to a deeper level with me one on one, go to Michelle Bourque coaching.com and click on get started to begin