You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women Podcast with Shannan Christiansen, episode number 183. 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. I have to tell you ladies about riding a bike. So I have a little hip problem, I mean, kind of a hip problem. I won’t go into all of that. I know, I have a little hip problem, it’s all gonna be fine. But walking on it has been, you know, my doctor recommends biking or swimming. So I was like, you know what, I’m gonna go and buy a bike. Long story short, I won’t go through all of the things, I have a little fear of a bike. Couple reasons. I got hurt on a bike when I was young, and then I also saw someone when I was in my twenties, just their face get mangled from being on a bike.

So I’ve had a little nervous about riding a bike and all of that, but I bought the bike and I go out on my first ride. I’m so excited. I’m not even kidding ladies, cuz there was a lot of things right? Like a lot of drama leading up to me and this bike. But I get the bike, I put my little bike helmet on, I’m like okay, I am gonna do it. I’m gonna go for the bike ride. I go for the bike ride and I’m like, this is fun. I’m liking it. You know, like, this is so good. Ladies, Oh my gosh, I’m far from home and I get a flat tire. And of course I was not prepared. I mean I have not had a bike since a long time ago. And so I thought, well I could call my dad, he has a truck, he could come pick me up, or I could just walk the darn bike home. So that is what I did. I walked the bike home, which was a little against, you know, the whole reason why I had the bike was so I get off my hip.

Then I took it into a bike shop, got totally bike shamed. The guy was like, I cannot even look at that bike. I cannot even change the bike tire. I’m not even kidding ladies. And I have to tell you ladies, you know we talk a lot about the diet rollercoaster here and all the trauma from it. And I did, walking into the bike shop, I felt that like, you know that anxiety when you ever, if you’ve ever like walked into a gym, you’re just like, oh my gosh, I don’t belong here, I’m gonna be shamed. That’s kind of how I felt in the bike shop. And it happened. The guy was just like, oh my gosh, I’m not even kidding. And he is like, go get your bike. So I like had to take it out and it’s, you know, a 70 pound bike. It’s pretty heavy actually. So I get it out of the car, I take it in there, basically he cannot help me.

And then luckily I found this really amazing bike shop, Archers on Country Club. If you’re in Mesa, I’m gonna give you a shout out because you’re amazing. I know, I’m not paid for it. I’m just saying like they were so nice and great and they actually fixed my bike tire. Then I went biking again, went biking a couple more times and then got another flat tire. I’m not even kidding ladies. Luckily it was in my garage. And then Paul, he had offered actually the first time to take it, but I was like, no, no, no, I need to do this myself. But the second time I was like, Archers is great. So he took it and got it fixed. And now I’m really aware of some bike maintenance and I’m like, you gotta pump up your tires. I know I don’t remember this from my youth, but maybe the tires have changed. I’m not sure.

So why I bring this experience to you ladies is because in any journey you’re gonna have challenges. In any journey, you’re gonna have times where you could just quit. Where you can just stop. Where you can just say, this is too hard. I’m not meant to do this. Ladi, dot.dot. And I just wanna say, when you overcome it, when you just learn, right? Especially like I’m newbie, even though I rode bikes as kids, I’m back into the newbie bike person because one, I’m in my fifties, and two, I’m just learning again how to like pump up my tires, you know how to take care of it. All of the things. So I’m learning, you know, I’m learning kind of how to get my confidence back on the bike, right?

This is how any journey is. You just don’t quit. I could have quit so many times and been like, this is not for me. I’m gonna do something different, and not in a good way do something different. I’m going to give up something that I think I’m really gonna enjoy. And the funny part is, I just rode this past weekend over to my son and daughter-in-law’s house from my house. I had wanted to do it and I was a little nervous cuz it’s a good way, I don’t know how many miles it is to be honest, but it’s a good way. Even my son’s like, mom, I’m pretty darn impressed by you.

But I did it. I rode all the way there. And then it’s funny because you know, my little grandbabies were helping me pump the tires cuz now I’m super like making sure my tires are pumped. I even got a little thing so I could carry a pump with me. I know ladies, this is what you do, you learn and you just, you know, get better at it. And so my son said, Hey mom, this is a long ways do you, I could just throw it in the back of the minivan and take you home. And you know, I had the thought of like, oh that would be so easy. But then I said, no, I’ll ride back. And I rode back and I actually did it in a faster time.

And so again ladies, this is it. I mean really it takes me right into today’s episode, which is all about living in your success and overcoming your challenges and failures because you’re going to have them. And our brains are wired to tell you, you can’t do it. It’s too hard. You’re going to fail. Oh my goodness. I mean, that’s just how your brain is. It’s, you know, we make it mean that something’s gone wrong. But these scripts are just playing in the back of our brain. And when we’re just like, oh, that’s what I was gonna think. Okay, got it, got it. Right.

This journey of losing weight for the last time. This journey of changing the way you think, changing the way that you believe, this journey of learning how to find your hunger and you know, know when you’ve had enough, right? When you’re starting to become satiated, this is a process. And you’re going to have times where you’re gonna wanna quit. And you’re gonna have times where you have these challenges that you are going to overcome.  

And how you start to overcome them, and how you don’t quit on yourself is you start to find your successes and you look at what you’re doing right. And this has to be very intentional. Remember, our brains are wired to look for danger, to look for challenges, failures. You have all the evidence of why this is gonna be hard, why you can’t do, you have all that evidence. Now you’re creating new evidence, you are now looking to find your successes.

So when I think about all the times that I just stayed in the puddle of my challenges or what I wasn’t doing right, and it’s so interesting because my brain has really evolved to where I look more for my successes. Not that I for sure had thoughts even in that bike example of like, maybe this isn’t meant to be right? Like maybe God’s trying to tell me like, Shannan, this isn’t what you should be doing, right? I had some of those thoughts and then I just had to like take some breaths and go with like, this is gonna be really fun. And I love to be outside ladies. I just do, I, I know this about myself.  Being outside, having the wind hit my face. I mean, oh my gosh, it’s the best for me.

And so watch some of the language around, I should do this right? When you start should-ing, S H O U L D yourself, we start thinking like we’re not doing enough. And then we’re not, again, focused on our successes, we’re focused on our challenges or our failures. You know, I wanna say this cuz I tell you, I thought this for so long. We think our past is evidence of our future. I just want you, I wanna bring you back if I’ve lost you. We think our past is our evidence of our future. But our past is the bridge to our future. Our past is our bridge to our future.

Our past is what makes us who we are. It’s how we’ve learned, it’s how we’ve evolved, it’s how we’ve grown. I think about, you know, my 22-year-old self, my 32-year-old self, my 42-year-old self. And then I think of who I am today. I’ve evolved in so many ways. I have had a million different experiences and feelings and trials and amazing things. All the things that make me who I am today. And so understanding that our past is not evidence of our future, this is important because you can have a thought like, well, I failed at weight loss, I can’t do it. I’ve tried the thought cycle or I’ve tried checking in with my hunger, and I’ve failed a few times and I don’t know if I can do this.

That isn’t evidence. That’s just, you tried it. Okay, great. Now what’s your next best action? What’s the next thing that you want to do? The past is just what we learned, right? I think about, you know, even in the bike whole situation, when I was in that bike shop and I was being bike shamed, really because, you know, he was being kind of elitist about what type of bike I had and thought I should have you know, spend $3,000 on a bike. I was, didn’t even know if I’d like to ride a bike again. I wasn’t gonna spend $3,000 on a bike. But even though in that moment what I learned, and my success in that moment was I felt some shame.

I had that very uncomfortable moment. And then I just looked at him and I just thought, oh, he’s just a human too with a 50 50 life. And I walked out and I didn’t give up. I found another bike shop that was amazing with great people who helped me and I didn’t give up. What I learned was that I don’t give up. I keep looking for a different solution. I keep trying. I love this saying by Marie Forleo, Everything is Figureoutable. And this helps me to find the successes that I’m having. The success was I didn’t give up. Success was I went and found another bike shop and got my bike fixed up and rode my bike. And I really love it ladies. I really do. I wasn’t sure if I was going to, but I really do.

So my take, look and find your successes. Start small. Every day, just try to find one thing that you’re doing right. Your brain is going to tell you all the things that you should be doing, but just find one thing that you’ve been doing right. Find one thing that you feel really good about that you think is success. You know, we love to label, well it’s small or it’s insignificant. There is no such thing. That’s just something we’ve labeled it. If you’re doing something and it’s serving you, that is a success. So find one per day.

And I want you to write it down. I know, there is something magical about writing that helps actually create new pathways in your brain. So you want to write it. So success is the magic. Number one, one time per day, I want you to write a success that you’ve had had. And if you wanna take that even further, ready? Look in the mirror. I know you’re like, Shannan, you had me at the writing. Now you want me to look in the mirror? I do. I want you to look in the mirror and tell yourself this success. And then two, I want you to smile and feel really proud. And three, just repeat and just keep building on successes. When you’re focused on what you’re doing right, when you’re focused on your successes, they just keep building. You will have more success. You will think differently. You know, you’ll see other successes where they don’t see them even more than you do today.

So one, one time per day, write down your success. And then, I know, look in the mirror and then you know, repeat it. Smile. Number two, feel proud. Allow yourself to feel what pride and proud feels in your body. And then number three, repeat. Just keep doing that every day. And when I say every day ladies, I always mean, I don’t know, four to five times a week. Do that. Repeat and just continue to build on your success.

Now ladies, we’re open right now, we’re closing this Friday. So if you’re listening to this when this podcast launches, we’re gonna close on Friday, March 31st. We’re not gonna open again Transform Boss Weight Loss until at least the summer. So you, you know, if you wanna take this work deeper, you wanna get into all the fun that we’re having, you for sure wanna come and join us. This is where we go deeper on this work. You know, we have a course, community, and also coaching. Coaching is the foundation of Transform Boss Weight Loss. You can learn more about it at jointransformboss.com.

And next week I’m going to show you how I go through what I like to call my review process and how it helped me lose weight. It actually helps me in so many areas of my life. But next week I’m gonna show you how it can help you in your weight loss. I know, so good. All right ladies, jointransformboss.com and find your success. You got this my love. Bye for now. Thank you for listening to this episode of Weight Loss for Successful Women. If you love what you heard today and wanna learn more, come on over to bflycoaching.com. That’s B F L Y coaching.com. See you next week.