You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women Podcast with Shannan Christensen, episode number 163. 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 Christensen.

Hello love. So happy to be back with you. And today we’re going on to part two of busting all the myths, all the diet beliefs out there, and just core beliefs that maybe we learned when we were kids and they still show up today. And I’m so excited because I get to record this with Coach Jenn and she’s amazing. She is a Transform Boss Weight Loss coach, and she’s been on her own journey in many different ways and just transformed her life.

She also coaches the ladies who struggle with weight loss and all the things. And so, so excited for her to be with us today. And we’re just gonna move into the next diet belief. So Jenn, what’s the next diet belief? The next diet belief is that we believe that we have to exercise to lose our weight. Oh, this one ladies, this one, I mean, ladies, if you grew up and you saw anything like Biggest Loser, or you were inundated with the personal trainers and the gym memberships and beach body and all the exercise videos and Tony Horton. And what we did over time is tied movement of our bodies, you know, flexibility, building muscles with losing weight.

Now, I’m not gonna say that it doesn’t assist, but this is what has happened. We think if we don’t exercise, or we have these old beliefs that we need to exercise a certain amount a day and da da da da. And so then what happens is we tell ourselves that if we’re not doing it, we’re not gonna lose weight. And then that gives us an excuse to overeat. So then you’re like, Oh, well I’m not exercising or I’m not moving, or I’m not doing this, I said I was gonna do this. And then you feel frustrated and then you overeat. Or the flip side of that is you move your body, maybe you take a walk, maybe you do some flexibility and then you’re like, Ooh, I exercised today. Ooh, I’m gonna eat that cupcake.

Exercise and weight loss is so entangled, but not in a good way. See, this is what I believe. I believe our bodies were made to move. If you just watch a little kid, I was just up at the cabin with my grandchildren, and let me just tell you, they don’t sit still. They gotta be moving all the time. I mean, we were laughing about it because we were sitting at the table playing Uno, for just a second I just started looking around the table at my grandchildren. As adults, we started talking about it. And even my granddaughter, she was like waving her hands in the air. She was just sitting there, but she had to wave her hands in the air.

And so I say this because our bodies like movement. Our bodies do not like to be in the same position for very long, other than when we sleep at night. Even then ladies, you know, when you get outta bed, your body’s like, Hey, whoa, this has been a lot. You know, you feel a little creaky, especially those of us who are getting older. Because our bodies don’t like to be in the same position very long.

It’s even why in the middle of the night, you know, we don’t stay in the same position. We roll, we move to the side, we move to the other side. Our bodies like to move. This is so important. Your bodies like to move. And when you think of movement as just movement, you know, I like to get up. I like to walk around the house. I like to, you know, carry in my groceries. Your body likes to move. And this really doesn’t have anything to do with weight loss. And I mean that because if you keep correlating to weight loss and movement, you will just stay on the diet rollercoaster. You will be in this constant hamster wheel of, I need to be like Biggest Loser, I need to exercise hours a day. And then when you don’t, you think it’s not working, you get frustrated and then you overeat.

Or you exercise, you move your body a little and you’re like, Ooh, I even if you’re not physically hungry, you’re like, Oh, but I am. You tell yourself that you’re hungry and you’re not. And so movement is just what our bodies like to do, whatever that is. My body likes to move all the time. It does. It likes to move. When I go on walks, this is my tip for you ladies, I remove all time constraints and I, some days I walk for 10 minutes. Some days I walk for two hours. I don’t put any time limits, I don’t put anything, even when I’m lifting weights ladies, I don’t do reps. I just like lift the weights because I really wanna just get all that nonsense out of my head.

I stretch all the time, all the time throughout the day, because my body likes to stretch my body. I like to lift things because I like feeling strong. And as I age, we lose muscle. That’s just a thing. Doesn’t mean that you need to go out there and be a bodybuilder unless you want to, but for most of us it just means pick up some stuff. You can pick up a milk jug ladies, carry in your groceries. We make this so much bigger than what it needs to be. And whatever your mobility is right now, just do a little more. That’s it. Leave all the time stuff out. Leave all the reps out, leave all the to-dos out. Just go do things you love. Go dance. Go garden. Go do the things that like, I like to walk because I enjoy it. I love it. Oh my gosh, I love it so much. I love to hike. I love it. It feels good to me.

So Jenn, ooh, I can to hear what you think about movement. Cause you know, I know you’ve had some stuff with that. No. Yes. Yeah, when I started this work with Transform, I actually completely stopped doing my workouts because I had to, I noticed that I had to retrain my brain and my thoughts about movement because this was one of my limiting beliefs that I had to work out, and not only work out, but so many days a week for so long, or else I just wasn’t going to have progress. And so I started from scratch.

I stopped working out completely and then I slowly started adding it back in. It’s been such a game changer. I’m no longer beating myself up for when I don’t go and do a workout or don’t go and get movement in. And the thing that’s really helped me with that is using minimum baseline. So saying, All right, this week I am going to three out of seven days or four out of seven days, I’m gonna move my body in whatever way I choose for that day for 20 minutes. And then those are just minimums. If I want to do more, fantastic. Because this is the thing ladies too, is you know, when we tie exercise to losing weight, we forget about all the amazing benefits that really come from movement. I have more energy, I have a clearer mind. My patience is a lot better because I’m more grounded, right?

I’ve been able to really center myself through my movement, whatever that looks like. I just think that we really lose sight of what this movement is when we tie it to exercising. It equates for me at least putting pressure on myself, and again, making me not good enough, that I’m a failure and all of the things. Knowing that we don’t have to exercise or move our bodies every single day, meet yourself where you’re at, or maybe you’re like me and maybe you just need to erase the board and start from scratch and start retraining your brain on what you want to believe about movement.

Yeah, and I think, you know Jenn, you gotta just make it fun. Yeah, I hear ladies like, I hate exercise. Well, no wonder. Because you did it in a way that was punishing, in a way that didn’t feel good to you, and something you didn’t like to do, because someone told you you needed to do it in this way. You have to find the ways to move your body that you really enjoy, that are fun. We have ladies who Dance, we have ladies who do those little free videos online. We have ladies who do Pilates or who just do things in different ways that feel good to them. When you’re first learning this work, I always tell my new members, you know, if you’re not doing movement, if you’re not doing exercise right now, don’t start. Because there’s so many diet beliefs. We have so much stuff.

And what happens is you start trying to do movement and you’re trying to break your diet brain, and it’s just this whole nonsense. You feel overwhelmed and then you quit on yourself. Now, if you already are doing it, continue, but if you’re not and you’re just learning this work, work on the mind first. The body will come, but work on your mind first. And just don’t forget, your body likes to move. I’m like, ladies, I mean this. Like get, just get up sometimes. Like some of you ladies are at this point where like walk down your hallway a couple times, like walk around your kitchen island a couple times. You don’t need to make this complicated. And you know, turn on your favorite song and just even if you’re sitting there and just move your upper body, right? Stretch your feet out. I mean, there’s just so many ways like to just have fun with it. You know, get your grand babies or your kids and just have a dance party.

There’s just, I don’t know, there’s just so many things to do ladies, and do it in a way that’s with love. And when you do that, you’ll find the things that you do and then you want to be more consistent cuz it feels good. Ladies, none of us wanna do things that feel horrendous to where we can’t walk for three days. That doesn’t feel good. Even as I build muscle, I never do it to the point where I can’t walk for three days, where I’m just so sore. You know, even if I’m a little sore, cuz sometimes that happens, fine, but again, I don’t punish myself and then I don’t beat myself up with what I do or what I don’t do.

I think about like my grandmother who was always naturally thin and just, I mean, I don’t think diet was even a part of her vocabulary. When she said diet, she meant it in the way that it was supposed to be. Like what foods you had. You know, like not what we think of diet nowadays. My grandmother just was always moving, she was always doing something and nothing with exercise. She was just like, you know, dusting the shelves or doing the things or walking outside cuz she loved being outside. She loved gardening, right? The diet industry has just sold us a bill of goods. And then what’s happened is we’ve stopped moving our bodies in a way that we were always supposed to. We stopped doing it and we just sit and watch Netflix all night. So that’s my thoughts on movement. I just, we gotta reprogram our brains around it. If we don’t, and you don’t do things that you love. So for some of you, you love certain things you might love running, you might love bicycling, whatever it is. If you love it, go. Go do it and love it and love all of it. But if you don’t, why are you doing it? That would be the question I’d ask myself.

All right, belief busted. What’s our next one? I Love it. Our last one is last suppering. Oh yeah, last suppering. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we have this ideal that we’re gonna start tomorrow, that we’re gonna start over. So we’ve gotta like get in all the food. So last suppering is, I’m gonna start my diet on Monday, and so I’m gonna eat all the things because I’m not gonna be able to have it again. Now, I would say for most of you, most of my listeners, you have done this, probably more than once.

I think about this whenever I do like the free public challenges. I think ladies are always last suppering before, usually we start challenges on Monday. They’re just, you know, I’m gonna be good, right? Because we have this thought that we’re gonna be good, and good means restriction. And so when we think we’re gonna restrict, we go into this hoarding. I gotta eat all the things because I’m never gonna eat it again. But I just wanna reassure all of you, you will eat it again. And so when you think you won’t and you have to eat all the things and last supper, then what happens is you just eat all the things.

 Monday comes and then you know, you don’t start, or you half start and then you last supper for the next three months. I’ve last suppered for maybe a year, where I keep telling myself I’m gonna start and then I never start. I tell my ladies, my bosses, you never have to start over. Every day is just you just take the next best action. You just take the next best action. You don’t need to start over. It’s just a decision. What is the best decision for me in this moment?

You can’t go back and change anything. This is why I think abundance thinking versus restrictive thinking, this is the key. And it really does take this healing your relationship. We’re doing this series in Transform Boss right now called Healing You, and it’s about healing your relationship with food and yourself. This process that I put ladies through is all about healing, and it takes time and grace and patience, because you’re reprogramming your brain after years of traumatic diet beliefs and diet thinking.

Ladies, I know so many of you are hurting because you hate the way you look. You hate pictures of yourself. You have all these negative beliefs about yourself, and I just wanna tell you that one, you’re not alone. And two, it’s just nonsense. We have just been programmed by this, you know, cultural society around these diet beliefs. This is why I wanted to do this series with Jenn, because my loves you are beautiful, you’re gorgeous, and you do have the ability to lose weight and live in the body that you want to live in. Maybe you’re at the weight you wanna live in, and you have the ability, whatever that is, to do that. And so just allow yourself to trust the process of what you’re learning.

Even if you’re not a boss and you’re just learning through this podcast, give yourself some grace and allow yourself to be an abundant thinker, not a scarce thinker around food. Ladies, how you lose weight for the last time is you do it with abundance. You do it with this thought, I can eat anything I want. I can eat the cupcake, I can eat the pizza, I can eat whatever. I’m just gonna check in with my body and ask myself, how does it feel? Am I physically hungry? Right? All of these other basics that I, I teach, they all work together.

So again, you can start to believe something different about yourself so that you can start to meet yourself where you’re at, so that you can lose weight with abundant. Because when you go to scarcity, thinking last suppering thinking, you’re just obsessing about food. That’s all you’re thinking about. I can’t have it, so I’ve gotta, I gotta eat all the things. Last suppering, I think is one of the hardest thoughts to get over because we always think we’re behind. We always think we need to start over.

And I’m just here to tell you, you’re never behind and you never have to start over. Today, you just get to take the next best action. Jenn, what do you Think? Amazing, Shannan. Yeah, when I think about last suppering, I mean, I did this so many times before I would start my next diet, right? And usually it was over the weekend because I was gonna start on a Monday.

It was always my set day to start and I’d clean out the pantry, go spend all the money on all the food, and a lot of the times I’d end up falling off a plan. I’d end up throwing the food away because it would go bad, or I just didn’t want to eat it, and it was just so wasteful. You know, when I think about that process of telling myself, Okay, this is the one, it’s gonna work this time, I’d fantasize about losing the weight and what it was going to look like and how it was going to feel and be just so excited. And then even for the times that I did follow through, you know, many of the times it had restriction or cutting out food groups, but I wouldn’t see instant results.

And so then I would go back to restricting even more, which led to binging, and it was just the self-sabotaging cycle going round and round. It’s just so draining to even think of, like, I’m so thankful to not last supper anymore, to just know, you know, ladies, I’ve done this work now for over two years and I still have times where I overeat or overindulge, and now instead of having it where I have to start over, I just, like Shannan said, get to like reflect on why, what’s going on, what happened, and then just take that next best action.

And there’s just a peace and a freedom in that. Not having to start over and being okay with knowing this is just how it’s going to be, right? There’s gonna be times that I eat on plan that I check in, and then I’m human. There’s going to be times that I have overeats and nothing’s gone wrong. Just take that next best action. Yeah, it’s the best actually. The best action. Next best action. I love that tool. It’s one of the tools we teach in Transform Boss, because you know, I was always taught that I needed to start over. And again, this was just thoughts that I had, but I don’t even know what that means if you really think about it. I mean, we do think we clear out the pantries like Jen said, and all the things, but it’s just nonsense. It just sets us up for failure and quitting on ourselves instead of meeting ourselves right where we’re at, and then slowly up-leveling over time, right?

Slowly eating less over time. We go from eating all the things to chicken and salad. It just doesn’t work. You can’t do it. I tell you, you can do it for a bit, but then you keep telling yourself, Well, when I lose the weight, then I’ll go back to eating normal. It doesn’t work. Then you gain the weight back. Then you’re like, Oh my gosh, here I am. I can’t keep this up. But if you slowly lose weight over time by eating all the foods, not being fearful of food, you actually lose it for the last time. I tell you, my clients who are the most successful eat a variety of foods.

They never start over. They don’t last supper. Even if they have times where they overeat, just like me. They just, right. They just, you know, they just like, Okay, what’s the next best thing? Mm, it’s good. Okay, my love. So Jenn and I answered two more in this episode, but I have a couple more in my head. So I think what I’m gonna do is we’re gonna do one more because I mean, who doesn’t like to bust the myths? I love them. I mean, we have diet beliefs, we have so many, there’s probably hundreds, but I think Jenn and I are gonna do a couple more on the next one. Again, ladies, this is just starting to reprogram your brain so that you can start to think different things so you can feel a different way, so you can do something different.

And if you want to take this work deeper, then of course go to freebosscourse.com. That is my free course. Subscribe to the podcast so that every week I’m just in your library so that you can continue to listen to tools and tips and all things weight loss. All right my loves. 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.