You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women podcast with Shannan Christiansen episode number 133. 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. Are you bored with weight loss? Tired of doing the same old thing? Well, you want to listen to this episode for sure. But first, I want to give a listener shout out to Dana Hageman Allen. Shannan, I’m hoping that all the ladies that are following your podcast and are on the fence about joining Transform read all these great reviews and join us. I have only one regret that I didn’t find you sooner. You are the real deal. You are kind, compassionate, smart, funny, and love all the ladies. And you have helped us drop our crazy diet beliefs and start believing in ourselves, losing weight, repairing relationships, dreaming big, and it’s all because of you and what you have taught us. I’m so much happier and 35 pounds lighter. And I’m so thankful I have found you and the Transform ladies. Here’s to 2022.

Dana. I love me some Dana. She’s been on the podcast too. You should listen to her episode. She is just, she’s amazing. And I am so appreciative of the kind review. But you know ladies, and this is to all my Bosses, you ladies are changing your life. I give you some tools. I support you, biggest fan, cheerleader, but you’re doing the work. You’re showing up. I’m so, so proud of you. Dana, I love you. And so good. Now, if you love this show, please leave a rating or review. I so appreciate it. It really does help get the message out to other ladies. So leave a review and a rating wherever you listen. And then also subscribe. That way every Wednesday, I’m right in your library.

So, it is springtime around the nation. I hope wherever you’re at it is beautiful and sunny and crisp air, and you’re able to get out and enjoy some sunshine. For sure, in Arizona it is gorgeous. It really is. You know, even though I know for some of you we’ve hit the nineties a little warm, but mostly we’ve been in the seventies and eighties and it’s just been gorgeous. I’ve been doing this new thing with Paul. We have really kind of gotten into Frisbee golf. And if you don’t know what it is. It’s just like a, we have an 18 hole golf course, but it’s for Frisbee golf. So you throw Frisbees instead of golf balls.

And it’s just, you know, it’s a really great way to one, spend time with Paul, which I love, but also just to get out and enjoy the weather. And you know, I’m not that great at it. I love doing it. And I think it’s so fun. So I hope wherever you are that, you know, you’re enjoying this weather.

So let’s get into it. About a quarter of the way through my weight loss journey, I started to backslide. I started to have thoughts around like, this is what I have to do for the rest of my life? I don’t want to make a realistic plan. I don’t want to do the reflection every day the rest of my life. I had been losing weight, but as it does, it started to slow down. I wasn’t losing it as fast. And then all the old thoughts, the old habit brain started creeping in and I was playing in the puddle, a lot. See, at the beginning of my journey I was excited. I was having lots of ahas. I was learning this work about mindset change.

I was so excited. I was also getting lots of coaching. I mean, I was just feeling amazing. I was so excited that I had found this work, that I was not broken, that I could lose weight without dieting. But after about writing over a hundred realistic plans, I found that it was mundane, a little boring. I didn’t have as much excitement around it.

I relate this to new relationships. If you have a new friendship or a new partner relationship, in the beginning it’s pretty exciting, like really exciting. You’re learning about the person. I mean, if it’s a partnership, I mean, all sorts of body reactions are happening. You feel excited. You can’t wait to see them. You feel all the things.

And then over time, it’s a little less exciting. Not that it’s not there, but you know a lot about them. You start creating routines, habits with them, and you’re living in the relationship, all of the emotions, good and bad. Same thing with weight loss. It’s exciting at first. Learning, implementing new tools. But after a bit, it gets routine, a little boring.

Not that there are not exciting moments, just like in relationships, but it can seem mundane, routine, usual, and sometimes just plain old boring. When I was on the diet roller coaster, I became obsessed with the new diets, tricks, and magical solutions. I loved feeling the excitement and hope. Be very careful of this. If you have been on the diet rollercoaster for a long time, you will find your Lizzie, your lizard brain is always going to be out scanning for the new thing because your brain wants to keep you the same.

And so you kind of get this dopamine hit from these new diets, new tricks, pills, potions, all the things. And then when you find something, mindset change that really works, that is work, and it’s something that you can do long-term, the excitement isn’t there. And so what happens is you want that dopamine hit, you want that reward, that kind of excitement of finding something new, and you will find your brain will start to wander. But diets don’t work long-term. And so they always end up in frustration and hopelessness. So just watch when that happens.

It will, and just know that, okay, all right, Lizzie, this is what we’re doing. We’re going to go and, you know, think that we need to find a new plan, but we know what we’re doing. This is it. This is what we’re doing for the, you know, for the very last time. We are losing weight for the very last time.

And this is just a part of what we do now. This is important to realize in your losing weight for the last time. Boring, mundane, routine, that is amazing. That means it’s becoming a part of your habit brain. It’s like brushing your teeth. I don’t have to think about it. I just do it. It’s part of my habit brain. I don’t have a lot of puddle thoughts or drama about it. It’s not exciting. It’s just what I do, every day brush my teeth. The fundamentals of Transform Boss Weight Loss, my fundamentals, are that way for me too. They’re just part of what I do. I will do them for the rest of my life. They’re not glamorous or exciting.

They’re just habits I do because I love living in a body that feels good. I love being able to wear what I want, play with my grandkids, and feel good. Every day I brush my teeth, comb my hair, take a shower. I will do this for the rest of my life. And I never think about it or have drama about it.

That is how my fundamentals can be for you too. They just become a part of what you do. We think that the big, exciting things are what is going to get us to our goal weight, but it’s not. It’s the boring every day, mundane tasks and decisions that we do. The actions that we take, thousands of little decisions along the way.

You don’t need losing weight to be exciting, because every time you step into the next version of yourself, you will find other things in your life that will scare you and excite you, like going after your dreams, living your best life, deepening the relationship with yourself and others. Food, weight loss will become the least interesting thing in your life. Exactly how it should be.

The transformational questions and actions today are one, how is weight loss boring for you? Two, how can you make that okay and want it to be mundane and boring? And three, what habits are you creating now that will serve your future self?

And if you are not a part of Transform Boss, take my free course. Go to freebosscourse.com. This will give you an introduction and a workbook to get you started on losing weight or the very last time.

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.