You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women podcast with Shannan Christiansen episode number 129. 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 back with you. Ooh, today. Ooh. I love today’s topic. It’s so good. You don’t want to miss it. But first, I want to give a listener shout out to Cynthia Joncas, and she wrote on iTunes: This podcast and wonderful group of ladies has changed my life. I’ve had several life events and obstacles in my path these last couple of years, all of which I would not have come out of so strong if not for this group. Shannan’s podcast comes from the heart. She shows so much love for everyone. This podcast is definitely something you want to take out time to listen to. Oh Cynthia. Oh, I love me some Cynthia. Cynthia is one of our Bosses and she is amazing, a beautiful soul. And I just am lucky to know her, that is for sure. And I love the work that she does, and I’m just so proud of her. So much love.

And my love, if you love this show and you want to help us reach more women who need this work, then rate and review the show. You can do it anywhere you listen to this podcast.

So let’s talk about what has been going on. Oh my love. I just had a few days off and really needed it. And I tell you ladies, life can get so full and busy and all the things. And you know, I think for all of us, sometimes you just have to say, I need some me time. I need some rest. And that’s what I did. And you know, I allowed myself to rest. I had all the things that I had planned to do done, and just allowed myself to rest, to spend a couple of days having some fun and resting.

Paul and I, we went to the movies. I know it seems weird, Paul and I always used to go to the movies. He loves the movies actually. And we used to go on lots of date nights at the movies. And you know, the last couple of years with everything that’s gone down, we haven’t really been, I think one time maybe, but we went, we went to the movies. Ladies, it’s not a movie I really wanted to see, but it’s all good.

We, I don’t think he necessarily wanted to see it, I think we just really wanted to go to the movies, but we saw the new Batman movie. I don’t know. You know, it’s not really totally my thing. I almost wished we had the grandkids with us, but it was nice. It was just nice to be out and be with him. It was fun to be out and about. It felt familiar and normal, I don’t like the word normal, but it felt good. And to see other humans, it felt really good. So we went to the movies. I did a lot of resting and just allowing my brain to rest. I think that’s really important.

This is for all my ladies who live this really intense, full life with all the things. Sometimes we don’t allow our brains to just rest and not with all the expectations of all the things we need to do and all the things we need to get done. And it’s so good because I find that when I allow myself to rest, then I’m so creative and my brain is just like bing, on fire with all the things. And so I’m just going to challenge you ladies to that, and get some really good rest and have some fun.

So let’s get into today’s show. So I want to tell you a story. Way back when, I don’t even know how long ago, this was maybe 15 years ago I guess now, I don’t know, when I was thinking about going back and getting my MBA, my master’s degree, I was looking at schools. Now I had decided on this one school because I had received my undergraduate from an online school. It wasn’t a top school by any stretch of the imagination. You know, it wasn’t one that I had to apply to. It was just like, Hey, you know, and at the time I was a single mom and I just wanted to take a class. I just wanted to get in.

I had graduated high school and then got married and then started a job and had decided that I wanted to go back and, and get my education. So I found a school. It was online, which really worked well with being a single mom. And it took me eight years actually to get my undergraduate. So when I was thinking about going back for my master’s degree, I had no thought or belief that I could go to a top school. I remember at the time I walked into my then vice president’s office and was telling him like, Hey, I’m going to go back, I’m going to get my master’s degree. And here’s the school that I’m going to go to. And I’ll never forget this actually. He peered up from his glasses and he looked at me and said, why would you go there? Go to ASU. Now at the time, I think still, probably they were like in the top maybe 10, 20 of all of the MBA programs in the nation.

So, as he is peering up, looking at me saying, go to ASU, my brain flooded with, there’s no way that you can get in. You probably have to apply. You probably have to take some tests. Like there is no way that you are going to be able to get in there. Like, does he not know like you went to this online school to get your bachelor’s degree and like, no way. Right? So all these thoughts and I’m standing there. And again, I just thought, okay, no way.

And he, again, he just looked at me and he said, why not? He’s like, you’re very smart. Go to ASU. And there was no question in his mind. There was no doubt in his mind that I could get into ASU. So I don’t know. I thought, okay, well I’ll apply. And then I, of course all the thoughts, like, oh my gosh, what if I don’t get in like, oh, I feel so much shame. I’m going to disappoint him. You know, all of these things. But I, again, I decided, okay, I’m going to do it. So I applied, I did the interview process, did all the things I needed to do. And I got in, and I, you know, received my MBA from ASU.

And I want to say this loves, I was smart enough and I could figure it out. And I want to say, and I know you’re like, Shannan, how does this relate to weight loss? But, oh, I’m going to get there my love. See, I had this anchor. It’s like an anchor, a weight in my mind. I had this thought of this 22-year-old girl with no formal education who did not believe in herself. But I had grown. I had learned how to figure things out. I had learned how to get help. I had become the next version of myself.

But I was still hanging on to the 22-year-old version. I still believed that this is who I was. This is so important. When you’re losing weight for the last time, as you follow my process, as you start believing new things, you will start to become the next version of yourself. It happens over time. You don’t even realize it. Your brain wants to anchor you into the girl who struggles with her weight, who is out of control, who is just the girl with a pretty face. Your brain wants to keep you there, wants to keep you stuck, and stuck in that old version of yourself.

But I want you to challenge that. I was in our community this morning, in Transform Boss Weight Loss, and someone had posted that they had not ate on plan, but they were paying attention and they were stopping more when they realized that they were approaching full, which is amazing, right? Reconnecting to your body. It’s a lot of work my love after we’ve been disconnected for so long. But her brain was focused on she didn’t meet her expectation.

This is important. Your brain is wired to keep you alive. Never forget that. It’s always scanning for danger. It will always look for challenges, failures. It’s not wired to look at what you’re doing right. It is not wired to see your successes. It is not wired to recognize that you have become the next version of yourself. So you have to be intentional on recognizing that. This is why community is so important in weight loss. My bosses support each other every day. They cheer each other on. I cheer them on. My coaches, mentors, ambassadors. We cheer each other on. Because you don’t see your own progress. You’re still anchored in these old thoughts and beliefs of who you were.

I think about that VP, his name was Jim Phelps, he cheered me on. He saw who I was, not who I had been. I want to say that again. He saw who I was, not who I had been. He had no doubts because he saw the current version of me. But my brain, the one that wanted to protect me, saw the danger, the danger of putting myself out there, expecting more for myself. So it wanted to shut down. Your brain wants you to stay the same, that old version of yourself. So it will trick you into thinking that is who you are today.

But I want you to challenge that. Who are you really today? How do you show up today? How are you doing this work today? What is different about you today than three months ago? One year ago? Five years ago? Ten years ago? You get to decide. What is different? How do you show up differently? How do you do this work? Are you making your realistic plan? Are you doing thought work? Are you starting to believe something different about yourself? Are you starting to pay attention to your body? Are you starting to have more self-love for yourself? In weight loss this is so important, because if you keep anchoring yourself into who you were, you will not be able to hang on to who you are today. I want to say it again. If you keep anchoring yourself into who you were, you will not be able to hang on to who you are today. You’ll keep pulling yourself back into the past.

Now if you’re just starting this work and you need community, you need support, you need the tools to lose weight for the last time, then start with my free course at freebosscourse com.

Now the transformational questions to ask yourself are one, who are you today in your weight loss journey? Two, how are you different? Do you think differently, love yourself more? Maybe you don’t eat some of the things that you used to eat because they don’t feel good in your body. Have you decided that you’re not going to diet anymore? That mindset change is the way? Those are so good. And number three, what successes are you having? Remember love, you have to be intentional about looking for your success. So good my love. Next week, I’m going to go even deeper on this and talk about our love affair with food. You will not want to miss it.

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 bflycoaching.com. See you next week.