You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women podcast with Shannan Christiansen episode number 103. Welcome to Weight Loss for Successful Women, a podcast for women who are ready to break the diet cycle and end their struggle with weight for good. Here’s your host fortune, 100 executive, and certified life coach, Shannan Christiansen.

Hello love. So happy to be back with you. We are continuing our 2.0 series, where I am going a little deeper on previous tools that I’ve taught. So if you’re new to me, no worries. I will always reference the previous teaching so you can go back and listen to those episodes. But before we get into the show today, I want to read a listener review, and it’s titled My Daily Inspiration by Sandy D62.

This podcast has become my daily inspiration. It has become a morning ritual for me as I’m getting ready for the day. Shannan understands the struggles that every woman has dealt with that has struggled to lose weight because she has done it. She gets to the root of the problem – our brain, and teaches amazing tools to help you learn and grow. I started listening to the podcast at the end of 2020, after putting on more weight during the pandemic and found myself learning and growing so much. By March, I was down 18 pounds and did one of Shannan’s five-day challenges, and after that decided to join her program. And I’m so glad I did. Shannan is so real. And so are the beautiful community of ladies that are there to love and support you every step of the way. I am now down 35 pounds and feeling so much better physically and mentally, it was seriously the best decision I ever made for myself. I’ve learned so much more than just how to lose weight. I’ve learned to love myself and my life again.

Oh, Sandy. Oh, I love me some Sandy. I do. I love Sandy so much and I’m so proud of her and thank you for leaving that review on iTunes. I just, you know, I’m proud of the work that my Transform bosses do. It really is this beautiful community of women learning how to lose weight in a way that is with love and support. And it is getting off the diet roller coaster for good. So good.

So I have a question for you. Are you a woman who would help another woman that you did not know, even if you never get any credit for it? If so, I have an ask to make on behalf of a woman you have never met and maybe never will. She is just like you, and maybe you’re just a little ahead of her. She is sitting there right now, feeling hopeless, hating her body, believing she is not worthy and is searching for the answer to get off the diet roller coaster.

And this podcast can help her. Every time a review is left, it helps another woman find the show. If you find this show valuable, can you go right now and leave a review wherever you’re listening. Usually it’s right in the app or the website you’re listening in. Your review will help one more woman find some hope so they can live their best life in a body they love. One more woman experience a transformation that they otherwise would never have. And one more woman believe that they are worthy. One more woman lose weight for the very last time in a way that feels like love. P.S., if you feel good about helping a woman you’ve never met you are my kind of woman. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for leaving a review. I have so much love for you.

My love, I have been feeling tired lately. I’ve had so much change in the past month. I’ve spent time reflecting, following my process, and a lot of rest, but I feel heavy. See I’m human with a human life and a human brain. I have had a lot of change, and something happened a couple of weeks ago that really shook me. A couple of weeks ago, and I’ll give you the punchline, I won’t go into the whole story, but we had someone break into our house while I was home alone.

Luckily, he heard me dial the police and he left. I am okay. Trust me, Paul has locked us up, and there are now cameras surrounding our entire house. And we’ve put in extra security measures. But my love, it really shook me. I did not feel safe in my new home. I had to allow myself to process it and feel all the feelings over and over again, allowing myself to slow down, to take more time, to miss deadlines, to rest more. This is what I’ve needed.

Years ago, I would have put on 20 pounds, kept going, and put myself on the back burner. But through this work, the power of this work, learning how to become aware of what’s going on in my mind and how it affects my body, asking questions and allowing myself the space to figure it out without the beat downs and disconnection. This work is so life-changing my love, it way goes beyond weight. And I’m so grateful for it, and all of the support of my amazing tribe.

We are gearing up for our final challenge of the year, and it is going to be EPIC. I mean on fire, so amazing. I cannot wait. I’m doing things in this final challenge that I’ve never done before. It’s going to be mind-blowing. So make sure you’re in – bflycoaching.com/me, M E. And I’m sure that you have this date marked down if you’re not in Transform, September 21st, mark it on your calendar. Be ready. That is the day that Transform opens for enrollment, our last opening of the year, and last time without the joining fee.

And to get things started for all my new Transform bosses, plus all my beautiful tribe of Transform bosses. We are planning a six-week jumpstart holiday challenge for all of our Transform bosses, starting in October. You do not want to miss it. We are going to help women achieve their goals during the holidays while still enjoying the holidays. It is going to be so good.

Okay my love, let’s get into today’s episode. So, every day we make hundreds of decisions, from getting out of bed, to brushing our teeth, to what to watch on TV. In episode 69, so bflycoaching.com/69, I teach about indecision and making decisions, and how indecision keeps us stuck. But today I want to go a little deeper on decisions. Because in every moment we get to decide. We make a decision. We decide to eat on plan or to not. We decide to make a realistic plan or not. We decide we’re going to show up for ourselves or not. We decide a million things.

When I was losing my weight, I made a thousand little decisions. These decisions added up to me losing weight for the last time. It wasn’t one big slam dunk, you know, amazing thing. It was just a bunch of little decisions that continually added up over time. We are programmed to believe in beginnings. I mean, I love a good beginning of a week, beginning of a year. You know, we are just programmed to believe that we need to start over, that we need a fresh start, a clean slate, cold turkey. I mean, the list goes on and on. But those are just thoughts, programming. See, every moment you’re given a decision and you decide in that moment – For me or not.

I teach in Transform a concept called the next best action. It really is the next best decision. Our brains love to go to the past, also known as past puddling. Our brains tell us we can’t do it. You’ve failed, so why even try? You’ve never been able to keep this weight off. Or our brain goes to the future, also known as future puddling. To have this perfect body I need to be perfect. I’ll start tomorrow. I’ll start next week. I’ll start after the holidays. I will be perfect, daydreaming of the perfect body and I’ll never eat sugar or carbs again. And I’m going to exercise every day, like hours every day. Seriously my love, Lizzy, also known as your primitive brain, this is what she does. She plays in the past and puddles around, and then she goes to the future and wants you to be perfect.

I am telling you to stay in the moment, this decision right now. The more you can stay right in the moment and ask yourself one simple question, “what is the next best decision for me right now?” the better your results will be. When you start past puddling, you worry, you go to worst case scenario. You tell yourself it’s hard, that it’s too much. You start feeling overwhelmed. You go into autopilot, and then all your old habits kick in and you end up overeating.

And then, you know what happens next? You start beating yourself up and then you go back to future puddling and the perfect fantasy, Barbie we’ll call her, telling yourself tomorrow you’ll be perfect, and you’ll lose all your weight in 28 days. And since tomorrow you’re going to be perfect and good – I’m using air quotes – today you are bad. You eat all the things, last supper, you feel bad. You beat yourself up and you do this over and over again. You go from the past – I can’t do it, I’ve never done it, to the future – perfection, I’m going to do it perfectly, I’m never eating like this again.

See my love, we do this over and over again. But if in the moment, when you have an urge, you want to overeat, you just stop, disrupt, count back from 30 – 30, 29, 28 – you breathe, you take a breath, and then you ask “what is the next best decision for me right now?” You will have more success my love.

Every moment you get to decide. There is no starting over, starting tomorrow, next week or after the holidays, because you’re deciding right now. Nothing about yesterday matters, for sure nothing in the years of the diet rollercoaster. You are breaking your diet brain, reprogramming your mindset so you can lose weight for the last time. And it starts with one question. What is the next best decision for me right now?

The transformational questions and actions are one, become aware when you’re past puddling or future puddling. Number two, if you’re having an urge to overeat, stop, disrupt, and breathe. And we’ll put the link to the episode on urges in the show notes. And number three, ask what is the next best decision for me? And number four, repeat. Repeat it as often as you need. No past or future puddling, no beat down necessary. You got this my love.

And if you want to learn more about my tools, get in our free challenge. You can go to bflycoaching.com/me to join our challenge. I cannot wait. Bye for now love.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Weight Loss for Successful Women. If you love what you heard today and want to learn more, come on over to bfly.coaching.com. See you next week.