You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women podcast with Shannan Christiansen episode number 151. 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. Boy, it has been a time. We went to Delaware and then we rode the train up and we went to New York City. And I have to say, you know, we have not been to New York City since before the pandemic, and we had a blast. It was so fun. We rode the train up from Delaware and we saw Hamilton and we had amazing food as always in NYC. And we just had a really nice time. But we did not have any travel problems. I, you know, I was a little worried about the flights, so we didn’t, it was just great. So it was such a good time. It was. I really relaxed. It’s been a while, and I have to tell you my loves, it was really a good time.

So I am excited about today’s episode because it was a request. Actually one of my ladies made the request and it’s all about this thought that we have that we need to start over. It can come up in many different ways. So it can sound like I need to start over, I’m behind, I need to catch up. I’ll start over on Monday. It will be a better time, you know, in a couple of weeks. It’s just these simple thoughts. They come in, they kind of breeze in. But what happens is, when you think you have to start over, you start to feel overwhelmed. And I just want to get to the punchline. My love, you are exactly where you’re supposed to be.

These sentences, these words that you’re thinking, that you’re not doing enough, that you need to do more, that if you did more life would be better, it’s just like this secret kind of perfectionism/beat down showing up. See, when you start to think you need to do more or start over. Maybe you had a bad weekend. Maybe you overate. Maybe you ate more than what you wanted. I just want to offer you that there really is no “starting over.” I know. Just really think about it. What does it really mean? Starting over. You’re never really starting over. You’re just taking the next best action or you’re making the next decision. That’s what you’re doing.

We tell ourselves that we put so much pressure that we have to be perfect. We have to do all the things. We’re behind. You know, this thought I’m so far behind, it’s such a limiting belief. Because when you think you’re behind, then you feel frustrated. You feel disappointed. You feel overwhelmed. And then you actually don’t do anything. You don’t take any action.

You just sit in this kind of worry puddle. And I just want to offer you that there is a different way. When you think I need to start over, it starts feeling dramatic. It starts feeling hard. When you think, oh, I’ve got to do all of this again. I’ve, you know, I’ve gained some weight back, whatever it is. And I just want to offer you a different thought. The thought is I am exactly where I am supposed to be. When you think that thought, relief, right, maybe even some hope or some excitement. And when you’re feeling excited, when you’re feeling hopeful, then there’s a better opportunity for you to make the next best decision for yourself.

Making the next best decision and taking action from that place, from that thought, it makes it feel easy, hopeful, light. Instead of the thought, I need to start over, I’m not doing enough, right. That’s so heavy. It feels so dramatic. See, weight loss, living your best life, it’s just thousands of tiny decisions. It’s not one or two or even 10 big sweeping ones. We have new bosses right now in Transform Boss Weight Loss, and I have them start slowly, set minimum baselines.

So we always start our new bosses out in a 21-day challenge. Now, when you hear 21-day challenge, as a new boss, you might be like, oh no, but as always, I teach minimum baselines. I tell them that I only want them to do maybe two, three or four days of the seven, not seven out of seven. I am teaching them how to retrain their brains, that they don’t need to do all the things. They don’t need to go to extremes. This really starts the healing process. When you know that you don’t have to be perfect, when you don’t have to do all the things, when you don’t have to start over, that you’re going to take doable and simple steps to change habits over time. Love, it is not sexy or some quick fix, but it’s how you lose weight for the long term. It’s how you get off the diet roller coaster.

Here are the three steps to never having to start over again. One, notice, become aware when you’re telling yourself I’m going to start over on Monday or I’m going to be good tomorrow. My love, you are good right now. Food does not make you good or bad. That’s just a thought, and you get to decide what you want to believe. Number two, then ask yourself, what is the next best thing? The next best decision that I could do for myself. One step, one small baby step forward, one action. Then make the decision and take the action. And then number three, repeat. Repeat over and over and over again.

See, in this beautiful life, we are just imperfect humans. We make decisions one after another. Some of them are for us and some of them just prolong our journey. But when you can become aware of the sentences in your brain, when you’re telling yourself that you have to start over, you now have the tool to challenge that. You just become aware. You ask yourself, what’s the next best thing I can do for myself? You make the decision and you take the action. You never have to start over my love. Ever, ever, ever, or start on Monday. You just take the next best action for yourself. The process I use to lose weight was, is boring. It’s just one small decision and action to the next. I never start over or have to catch up. I am exactly where I’m supposed to be. And so are you.

If you want to take this work deeper then take my free course. I teach three of my basics to start your journey to losing weight for the very last time. Go to freebosscourse.com. And right now, if you’re listening to this in August of 2022, we are doing a special, 150 episodes giveaway. And so you can rate and review the podcast on iTunes or go to bflycoaching.com/podcast. You can review the podcast in the comments on the blog, then email support@bflycoaching.com. Just tell us where you left the review and where you rated the podcast, and then you will be entered into our drawing. And my love, Ooh, I’m going to give away something spectacular. You do not want to miss it. So very simple. We’ll put the directions in the show notes so you know exactly what to do.

Bye for now. 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.