Month: September 2020

You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women podcast with Shannan Christiansen, episode number 53.

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 excited to be back with you today. I’m excited about today’s show. We are going to talk about overwhelm. It is the trickiest emotion and I’m going to tell you all about it, and we’re just going to dive into it because overwhelm stalls your weight loss more than you know.

But first, I want to give a listener shout-out, and this is of course where I read a review of the podcast every week. This week’s listener shout-out is to Deb Lowe. She wrote, “Amazing podcast. I have listened to this now multiple times and it inspires me every time. I listen to different pieces when I’m struggling during the day for a little inspirational boost.”

Thank you so much, Deb. I love these reviews. And as you know, if you’ve listened to the podcast before, we wanted to celebrate our 50th episode and so I’m currently doing a drawing. And so when you leave a written review on iTunes, you will be entered into a drawing. I’m going to give away two $150 gift cards to Amazon.

And now, there’s a couple things you have to do. To be entered in, you must leave a written review on iTunes, also known as Apple Podcasts. And then you must email me at shannan@bflycoaching.com with the title of your review. It has to be on an Apple, so if you have an iOS device so an iPhone or a Mac, super simple.

If you don’t, you still can download the iTunes app on your Windows computer and leave a review. So, so exciting. I cannot want to see all the reviews. I have loved all of the reviews that I’ve seen so far. I read each and every one of them. And who knows, maybe one day I’ll read your review on the show. So exciting.

So loves, oh my goodness, if you could see me right now, I am so over the moon about our Transform live virtual event. We have been working on it so much to make sure it is just the best event for our ladies. My whole team has been focused on how can we make this event the most life-changing and luxurious event for our ladies.

I just love my Transform ladies so much and I just get to be a part of their transformations. And so I just always want to overdeliver for them. We’ve even decided to send out their workbooks, and so they’re getting a free workbook so that they have everything they need for this event.

And I am going to teach my tail off. We are going to talk about self-sabotage and holidays. They are two big triggers, right? Ladies, this is why so many of us gain weight. We self-sabotage, and the holidays, oh my goodness. I remember when I carried my weight, the holidays, I just ate from the second week in October all the way through the end of the year.

But my ladies, they are going to learn how to actually lose weight during the holidays, so they are even closer to their goal by the start of 2021. They don’t have to start over anymore. I heard this amazing quote that I just loved and one of my ladies had posted it in one of the mini tribes in Transform.

And it says, “If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up.” Ladies, if you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up. And this is just honestly one of the big focuses of my virtual event. I want to show the ladies how to make it through the holidays so they don’t give up. There’s no starting over at the beginning of the year.

Oh my loves, I’m so excited I can’t deal with it. I can. Plus, we’re going to just have super fun. We’re going to have so much fun during this event. So it’s not too late, ladies. If you’re not in Transform, I want to invite you to join Transform. You can go to bflycoaching.com/join. And you can learn all about it. So good, my love.

So today, let’s dive into an emotion that really derails the ladies. We all say this, and we say this so much, and it’s super tricky. And the emotion is overwhelm. Think about how often you have felt this way in just the last week. Overwhelm is a feeling and it’s caused by a thought.

So we have a thought like I just have so much weight to lose, or why can’t I eat whatever I want? And then we have this feeling of overwhelm. And then for most of us, when we’re feeling overwhelmed, this is what we do. Nothing. We take no action. We don’t even begin. We don’t even start. Or we quit.

It makes me think of when I first found my teacher. I enrolled in her six-week weight course at the time. This was many, many years ago. Maybe eight or nine. I don’t know. It was a long time ago. It was a six-week course with very detailed plans of what to do. There was a workbook and all.

It was so different than the typical eat this and not that, go on some restrictive diet. It was not a diet. I started in the workbook and listening to the videos, and I started to feel overwhelmed. And then love, slowly, I stopped going to the weekly calls, and then I quit.

This is what overwhelm does. We feel it, we take no action, and then we quit. We do this so often that we don’t even recognize it any longer. And love, I had just quit on myself yet again. Luckily, I knew that I needed something different.

So I ended up going back to my teacher and really doing the work. I see this with some of my new ladies in Transform. They start to get overwhelmed, then they start not showing up. Luckily, inside of my membership, we have tons of support and help, so you know, we pull them back in.

But it’s so easy to go down that rabbit hole. So easy to tell yourself that it’s too hard, too much, I’m too busy. This was such an a-ha for me, and I know for some of my Transform ladies. Overwhelm is just the prelude to us quitting. Ladies, I’m going to say it again so if I’ve lost you, come back. Overwhelm is just the prelude to us quitting.

It’s a really tricky emotion because we tell ourselves that it’s too much, we’re too busy, life is just too much right now. But really, we are saying no to something. And most of the time, it is us. We are not showing up for ourselves, we are telling ourselves a tricky story, so we can let ourselves off the hook.

We get a temporary relief from quitting. I know love, a temporary relief from quitting. It actually feels good for a moment. We made a decision, we quit. But then love, later, we just go into the beatdown of ourselves. We go back to why can’t I lose this weight, why is it so hard? I’m so broken. I just can’t lose the weight.

Losing weight is actually easy. Us getting honest with ourselves and showing up, well love, that is where the hard work comes in. So I want to give you a couple of recommendations. Number one, notice when you’re feeling overwhelmed. Notice the thoughts. Number two, get honest with yourself about overwhelm and that you’re just giving yourself an excuse to quit. And number three, show up.

It is the only guideline I have for my Transform ladies. I even have it on the inside of a wristband they get when they’re in Transform. It says you got this, just show up. So good, my love. So today’s transformational questions are, number one, where is overwhelm showing up for you? How has overwhelm kept you from losing weight? And finally, what does showing up look like for you? So good, my loves. Next week, I am going to dive into why we don’t lose weight. I can’t wait. Bye for now, love.

If you loved listening to this podcast, I would love to have you come check out Transform weight loss program. It is my monthly coaching program where we take this work to a whole new level and ladies learn how to lose weight for good in a way that they can always do. Join me over at bflycoaching.com/join. I’d love to have you join me in Transform weight loss program.

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 over to bflycoaching.com. That’s B – F – L – Y coaching dot com. See you next week!

You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women podcast with Shannan Christiansen, episode number 52.

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. I am just so happy to be back with you. I’m excited about today’s show. I have ladies who come into Transform because they’ve hit a plateau and they’re starting to sabotage their weight loss success. So in today’s show, we are going to talk all things plateau.

But first, as always, I want to give a listener shout-out. This is where I read a review of the podcast every week. This week’s listener shout-out is to Joanne Edwards. She wrote, “Good morning. Just finished listening to your podcast. What you say makes a lot of sense and true, evidently hit on several issues I have. This is not just a weight loss program but a self-journey.”

Thank you so much Joanne. I love it. I believe in the journey too. I talk to my Transform ladies about this all the time. We’re just on this journey so I love that word. I love the reviews and honestly ladies, I read every single one of them. And I love that you ladies are listening.

So to celebrate our 50th episode, I had announced that I am doing a drawing. When you leave a written review on iTunes, you will be entered into a drawing. And I’m going to give away two $150 gift cards to Amazon. I mean, we all love Amazon, right? I do.

And so to be entered, you must leave a written review on iTunes, also known as Apple Podcasts. And then email me at shannan@bflycoaching.com and that’s shannan@bflycoaching.com with the title of your review.

And it has to be on Apple, so if you have an iOS device, easy. If you don’t, you still can download iTunes on a Windows computer and leave a review. So exciting. I can’t wait to see all the reviews. I loved seeing the reviews that you ladies have already done. I love it.

So it’s a little strange here in Arizona, being still in somewhat of a quarantine. I find that I don’t leave the house much. I go for my daily walks and that is it mostly. I get my nails done once a month, but other than a few doctor’s appointments over the last couple months, I really have not left the house.

I have never been home so much in my life. But mostly, I’ve enjoyed it. I love my house, and of course, I love who I share it with. I love it when my g-babies come over and life has slowed down a bit for me. I keep seeing all over the place about how ladies are wishing away 2020. It is not lost on me how much pain, struggle, and uncertainty have happened in 2020.

But I want to offer you that you can finish the year by making progress on your goals, losing weight, having fun, finding yourself. And love, loving the rest of the year. I know this because we control nothing. I know, I wish we could control the things in the world and other people, but we can’t.

We cannot control anything outside of us. We only control what we think about and how we show up. Love, today is the best day and it’s the best day because it’s the day we have right now. And I just want to offer you to not wish away the rest of the year. Find the joy, the love, and the beauty of it.

On October 17th, I am doing the Transform Boss virtual event. I know I’ve talked about it on the podcast before. I am going to help my Transform ladies finish out the year like a boss. I am going to teach them how to stop sabotaging and how to get through the holidays and actually lose weight. If you want to be a part of this life-changing event, there is still time. I invite you to join Transform. You can learn more at bflycoaching.com/join.

So on to today’s show. Plateaus. I was thinking back to when I lost weight and I remember when I hit many plateaus, but I was thinking about this one where I was stuck. The scale was not moving. I started to feel frustrated and then I noticed all the old thoughts.

They just came flooding back in like, “You’re never going to lose weight, Shannan, you’re not going to hit your goal weight, you are meant to be heavy, this is always going to be your struggle.” It was like all the work I had done in a couple week plateau; all the thoughts came rushing back in.

Plateaus happen for many reasons. So I want to go into those today and then I’m going to leave you with a few tips to help you get through them. But first, I want to define what a plateau is because I know loves, we think, especially if we’re following our plan and we’re doing all the right things, we think if we don’t lose weight for two or three days, we’re on a plateau.

That is not a plateau. A plateau really, in my definition and how I view it, is when you’re doing all the things, you’re following your plan, and you’ve not lost weight for two or three weeks. So I just want to make sure we’re all clear on what an actual plateau is.

So one of the reasons we hit plateaus is because at different times of the month, one of the reasons, we have hormonal changes. This makes our weight increase or stay the same. I weigh myself every day and I know I can fluctuate, anywhere from really three, five pounds, even seven pounds sometimes, depending on the time of the month.

Why this is important is because you think what you’re doing is wrong when you start to see the scale move or stay the same. And so if you start to believe that you’re doing something wrong, you’ll slowly start overeating. You’ll slowly start eating off plan.

This is self-sabotage at its best. Then you will for sure hit a plateau. I don’t let myself go down the rabbit hole of self-sabotage or that I’m suddenly doing something wrong. I recommend all my ladies to weigh every day, at the minimum, every week.

And I know ladies, you’re like, but I hate the scale, Shannan. The scale is just data, my love. It just shows you the data of what you’re doing. The scale has nothing to do with you. The scale has nothing to do with who you are as this beautiful human.

Check out episode number 35 to see how to stop fearing the scale. You can go to bflycoaching.com/35. Another reason is we’re eating more than what our body requires for fuel. There are days when you are super active, and you need more food as fuel. And some days, your body requires less.

As you lose weight, you will continually have to check in with your hunger because as you lose weight, you’ll need less food for fuel. Now, this isn’t a punishment. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to feel deprived. Once you start to check in with your body and you start to feel hunger, then you really start to understand what your body needs for fuel.

And it doesn’t feel like it’s being deprived. This is something I really go in deep in Transform with my ladies because we’ve been on the diet roller coaster for so long, we have disconnected from our bodies. Learning to feel the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger, it is really one of the keys to losing weight and getting off the diet roller coaster for good.

I’ve also seen where we just kind of start picking. We start eating a little more, eating off plan a little more, not making our plan. So I really want you to take a good look, if you’re on a plateau right now, look at your last week and just be curious about what you’ve been doing. Don’t beat yourself up. Just take an objective look.

Remember love, it’s just data. And I want to give you three things I recommend when you have a plateau. Number one, it’s all about your mindset. If you keep telling yourself that you can’t lose weight, that it’s so hard, you will feel frustrated or disappointed. And when you feel that, you will have an urge to eat off plan or overeat.

So my love, watch your thoughts. Write them down. And then practice another thought like, I can lose weight, weight loss is easy, or I have lost weight. Something that can help you feel a different way.

Number two, sometimes you need to change up what you’re eating. Shake it up a bit, love. Sometimes you have to add in extra food. You might also want to try eating at different times of the day or different intervals. This all comes back to you becoming the scientist of your own body. I love being the scientist of my body. I love figuring out how it works and shaking it up. It’s so fun, my love.

And number three, look at the data without judgment or a beatdown. Really get honest about what is happening and then you can make adjustments based on data. Not on shame or telling yourself that you’re not good enough. You just look at the data and then you can just make an adjustment. You can try something a little different, or sometimes you just have to stay the course. Keep doing what you’re doing and then your body will release the weight.

Love, plateaus are just a way that our bodies are actually maintaining weight. This does not mean anything has gone wrong or that you can’t lose weight. Love, you got this. It is so possible for you.

So today’s transformational questions are, number one, what’s the data? The true data. And number two, what are your thoughts about hitting a plateau and what do you want to think on purpose? So good, my love. Next week, I’m going to talk about one emotion that really derails our weight loss. Talk to you soon, my love. Bye for now.

If you loved listening to this podcast, I would love to have you come check out Transform weight loss program. It is my monthly coaching program where we take this work to a whole new level and ladies learn how to lose weight for good in a way that they can always do. Join me over at bflycoaching.com/join. I’d love to have you join me in Transform weight loss program.

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 over to bflycoaching.com. That’s B – F – L – Y coaching dot com. See you next week!

You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women podcast with Shannan Christiansen, episode number 51.

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, loves. So happy to be back with you. I love today’s show. Today, I want to share just a little insider peek to my routine and share how I implement my four fundamentals.

But as always, I first want to give a listener shoutout. This is where I read a review of the podcast every week. I read every single review of the show. So, this week’s listener shoutout is to Barbera.

She wrote, “Missed the live podcast, but thankful for the opportunity to listen today. Looking forward to the live session on the 28^th. Ready to roll.” Thank you so much, Barbera. I love these reviews. And, of course, I just love you ladies and I love that you listen.

If you love the show, please rate and review the show. I would so appreciate it. And we have, to celebrate our 50^th episode, I am going to do a drawing. And so, when you leave a written review on iTunes, you will be entered into a drawing.

I’m going to give away two $150 gift cards to Amazon. Now, to be entered, you must leave a written review on iTunes, AKA Apple Podcasts, and then you have to email me at shannan@bflycoaching.com with the title of your review.

It just has to be on Apple. So, if you have an IOS device, easy. If you do not, you can still download iTunes on a Windows computer and leave a review. So excited. I just cannot wait to see all the reviews.

So, my loves, I just got off a four-day weekend. It was so great. Loves, I really rested. And I had a lot of fun. I tried to put the phone away and just take some days to disconnect. And it was lovely. My g-babies came over and we had a great day. We hung out, we went to the pool.

I love watching those little babies and seeing them have so much fun. They are full of energy. And I was watching them, thinking about how they just love to be present. They’re not worried about anything in the future. They’re just having fun in the moment.

And when I was spending time with them, I was just thinking about what a gift they are to me. And I just love them so much. So, on Sunday, Paul and I, we just hung out. It was so great to spend time with my love. And we just binge-watched some Netflix and we had a really great time doing nothing.

Again, it was just a weekend of disconnection. And what I mean by that is disconnection from the outer world. And I really spent great time with my family and with my husband, and with myself. I read. I listened to podcasts. I did my reflection work. It was just the best.

So, in today’s show, I want to share my routine. As I was losing weight, I had to start creating new habits. I wanted to step into the identity of a woman who took care of herself, who cared about how she fueled her body, who managed her mind and moved her body.

I wanted to become my future self; one who lived at her goal weight, her natural weight. So, I just rolled out the Boss Commitments to all of my Transform ladies. And the Boss Commitment is just some statements of who they are becoming, who they are stepping into. And I actually want to share it with all of you.

And so, I wrote this and I hope that it inspires you. It for sure inspires me. So, this is the Transform Boss Commitment. A Transform Boss is a lady who has decided that she is worth it. She has decided to show up for herself and she is in control of her thoughts and future self. She does not make excuses or tell herself stories anymore. She is not a victim of her circumstances. She does hard things.

A Transform Boss takes action even when things get tough. She does not beat herself up. She learns from her challenges and failures. It is when she digs deeper, when she fights harder. A Transform Boss spreads love. She does not judge or think others should be different. She has the capacity to give and receive love abundantly. She knows her worth and that she is 100% lovable.

A Transform Boss is building the life of her dreams and she is doing it in a body that she loves, that feels like freedom because she is free. She is brave She is fierce. And she is unstoppable.

A Transform Boss is who you are becoming. This means feeling all your feelings of overwhelm, doubt, and fear, and taking the next best action. This means you will never quit, give up on yourself, or put yourself last again. You’ve got this, love. You are a Transform Boss now.

My loves, I love it so much. This is who my transform ladies are stepping into. And I’m having this printed for all of my Transform ladies. So, if you’re listening and you’re a Transform lady, this is going to be in your welcome package.

So, when you want to lose weight for good, you have to start practicing who you want to be. This is what I did as I was losing weight. And I still do this today.

So, part of my routine every night is I fill up my water bottle and I place it on my nightstand or bathroom counter. I do this so I have this when I wake up. I wake up each day between, I don’t know, 4am to 6am. It varies depending on the day.

So, as I’m getting ready, I drink my first 24 ounces of water before I even have my coffee. I then go, after I’ve gotten ready and drank my first bottle of water, and I make my coffee. And I move into my office or my patio, depending on the weather. You know, sometimes it’s hot in Arizona, so usually during the summer, I do my work in my office.

So, then I pick up my transform planner and I do my reflection work. I make my realistic plan for the day and I plan using my prefrontal cortex. I think about what do I want to feel in the day? What do I want to think? And what do I want to fuel my body with?

I then do what I like to call a brain dump. This is where I take all the thoughts and I just get them out on paper. And I take one to two of the thoughts and I work through what those thoughts are creating in my life. I also write down what I want to practice thinking. Yes, every day, I am practicing thinking.

This is how I’m becoming my future self. I think thoughts that my future self would think. This 10 to 15 minutes is so precious to me. This is where I set my intentions for the day. Then I go for my walk.  Walk most every day. The time varies sometimes. But I love my walks.

I do not walk to lose or maintain my weight, I do it because I love the outdoors. I love the sun on my skin and I also am very creative during that time. This is for me. This is time where I get great ideas, where I think about how blessed I am.

I also take time to look at nature. I see the trees, the butterflies, and the birds. And my walks, they’re the most precious time.

And I don’t really eat breakfast. And if I do, it usually actually does not feel good in my body. So, I usually eat between 11am to 12pm, sometimes even 1pm. And then I eat again between 6pm and 8pm depending on my schedule. And I’ll have a snack in between too.

I drink about 100 ounces of water a day because it feels good in my body. Sometimes less and sometimes more. I really am connected with my body. And so, when I talk about becoming the scientist of your body, this is part of the fundamentals. This is part of how I have lost weight and maintained weight.

I have these routines in place that have really helped me become my future self. And checking in with my body and understanding how much water it needs, the food that feels good in my body. And this is too where I learned when to eat. If I eat breakfast, it really takes my energy. It zaps it. And I don’t feel that good.

Now, I have lots of my Transform ladies who eat breakfast and it feels great and it powers them. All of our bodies are different, my love. and becoming the scientist of yours, it’s the most empowering thing you can do for yourself. And we’ll put in the show notes the episode on becoming the scientist of your own body.

So, I go to bed each night between I’d say 8pm to 10pm. And I make sure that I disconnect from my phone about an hour before I go to sleep. I love my bed. I have really set up my sleep environment to feel good. Because sleep is not easy for me.

And I used to – when I was younger, I could sleep and just fall asleep and stay asleep all night. But as I get older, it gets a little tougher. And so, I’ve really had to ensure that my environment where I sleep really feels good. I love my bed. It’s luxurious. My sheets feel good. My comforter, it feels so good. My pillow is perfect for me.

We keep the temperature cool so I don’t have hot flashes at night. I’m not going to lie, sometimes, it happens. And so, really setting up your environment for sleep is so important. And I also wear a sleep mask to make sure that it’s really dark.

So, every day, I incorporate my four fundamentals; the realistic plan, sleep and water, food that fuels me, and reflection work. These are habits for me now.

I do not have to think much about them. They just are there. I just do them. I have stepped into the identity of a woman who takes care of herself. I don’t buy the excuses that my brain feeds me, that I don’t have the time or that it will take too long.

Instead, I just do it. I keep commitments to myself. I see this with my Transform ladies. They are stepping into the identity of a Transform Boss. It is absolutely one of my favorite things to watch.

So, today’s transformational questions are, what one thing can you add to your daily routine? How will this help you step into the identity of a woman who takes care of herself? And number three, why are you worth it? So good, my love.

Don’t forget to leave a written review on iTunes so you can be entered into the contest. And I’m looking forward to next week, where I’m going to talk all about plateaus and what to do about them. Alright, my love. Bye for now.

If you loved listening to this podcast, I would love to have you come check out Transform weight loss program. It is my monthly coaching program where we take this work to a whole new level and ladies learn how to lose weight for good in a way that they can always do. Join me over at bflycoaching.com/join. I’d love to have you join me in Transform weight loss program.

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 over to bflycoaching.com. That’s B – F – L – Y coaching dot com. See you next week!

You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women podcast with Shannan Christiansen, episode number 50.

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 loves. So happy and excited to be back with you. I am excited about today’s show. 50 episodes. I just can’t believe it. I want to cue the confetti. So I have a very special bonus at the end of today’s episode, so you for sure want to listen until the end.

Every 25 episodes, I like to talk about something that is a bonus to weight loss. In episode number 25 of the show, I talked about having better relationships, and today, I am going to share all my secrets, I mean some of them, on time leadership.

But as always, I want to give a listener shout-out. This is where I read a review of the podcast every week and this week’s listener shout-out is to Guadalupe. She wrote, “I’m Lupe from Denver, Colorado. Thanks for the podcast. It only gives me hope and excitement for a great start tomorrow.”

Thank you so much, Lupe. I love these reviews. I love that you ladies are listening. If you are loving the show, please rate and review it. I would so appreciate it. Also, subscribe to the show so every Wednesday and Friday, the show is just waiting for you wherever you listen to podcasts.

Ladies often ask me how I do it. Shannan, they say, how do you do everything that you do? How are you a busy executive, run your own company, support all your ladies, have a family, and still find time to take care of yourself? Well my loves, I learned many years ago how to lead my time instead of it dragging me around the block.

So let’s step back just a moment. In my early 20s, ladies, I was a mess. I did not like to plan. I always showed up late, I was disorganized from my work to my car, I mean, I just was very disorganized. And I thought that planning was handcuffs. I thought that by not planning, I was free.

But I was a new leader at the time. I had people who reported to me, who needed me. I remember falling short, forgetting things, not following up on things that my people needed, waiting until the very last minute to get administrative work done, and it left me feeling tired, overwhelmed, and for sure, not free.

What I learned was by being disorganized, I was actually less free. I had more negative emotion. So fast forward and I have been teaching time leadership in my day job for about 12, maybe 15 years. Somewhere in that range. I started to study it, research it. I started to look for all of the best ways to manage my time and energy.

We have this belief that if we plan, that it will take too much time. And we feel so busy already that we feel like we just don’t have the time to plan. But I’m going to challenge that. I believe – and I’m going to say a double negative, so I know it’s not proper English, but I’m going to do it.

I believe we do not not have the time to plan. That if we do not plan, what ends up happening is that we actually start to do things that are not important. And we start to feel a lot of negative emotion like overwhelmed, busy, almost the feeling and I know loves, you’ve felt this before, the feeling like you’re drowning.

We all get 168 hours in a week. And you know, busy is just a lie that we tell ourselves. Every one of you and me, we get to decide what we are going to do with our 168 hours. I know we tell ourselves that other people own our time or I have to do this or I have to do that, but I am just here to tell you love, that it’s always your decision. It always has been, and it always will be.

So I’m going to share three tips with you that really helped me and that I still use to this day. If you’re in Transform, if you’re one of my Transform bosses, go to the bonus area of the membership site. The full course on time leadership and the workbook are in there, so you can take the full course with the workbook, so you can become a boss of your own time.

So the first tip that I want to share with you ladies is how to stop procrastinating. And I want to ask you first, I want you to really think about this. Do you procrastinate? Do you find that you have something on your “to-do list” and you keep pushing it to the next day, the next week?

I find that procrastination comes when we have something to do and it feels too big. It feels overwhelming. A trick is to break down all of the tasks in that big to-do into one-step action steps. So a really silly example. Let’s say you were going to cook a meal. And let’s just say you were going to make lasagna.

And you wrote down make lasagna on your to-do list. But there are a few action steps. You have to make sure you have the ingredients, you have to shop, you have to cook the meat, you have to boil the noodles, you have to put it together. Some of you ladies will make your own sauce. And then you have to bake it.

You could probably even add a few extra steps in there. So when you look at your to-do list and it says make lasagna, your brain knows that there are like, five to eight steps. So it immediately starts to feel overwhelmed. When you write it down in steps, then you can do them when you have time, or you can group small action, one step action items together.

Example, you might brown up the meat but also add extra meat so you can add it to another meal like vegetable soup, vegetable beef soup. I like to add it to a salad. So when you break it down to the different steps, you then – it can save you time in other things that you have to do.

And also, when you write things down in simple one-action steps, you’re more likely to do it. Let’s say you have an extra five minutes; you can mark something down off of your action list. But if it’s a big project, you will just keep putting it off.

The second tip is getting everything out of your head. We rely way too much on our short-term memory and it is exhausted. It cannot hold one more thing in there. When you write it down, you get it out of your head. Your brain is not looping. Don’t forget, Shannan, don’t forget, Shannan.

I mean, you’ve been to Target, right? Where you are walking down the aisles and everything in your cart is everything but what you came to Target for and you can’t remember the one thing that you came to Target for? I know loves, I have been there so many times. But now I write everything down.

I try not to keep anything in my head. If I’m feeling super exhausted, it is usually a trigger that I have too much in my head and I need to brain dump it out on paper.

So the third tip is once you have everything out on paper, a few times a week, take all of your action steps and then put them on your calendar. Schedule them. Schedule when you’re actually going to do them. And then love, when the time comes up, just do it.

Now, your brain, Lizzy, will tell you that you don’t want to do it. And I just challenge you to do it anyway. I schedule my fun, I schedule rest. Don’t forget that too. When you start to schedule everything and you start to plan, you will start to see and feel this freedom.

And I tell you, the feeling is so good. Instead of trying to keep everything in your brain, instead of pushing things off because you’re procrastinating, you’re actually getting things done and you’re starting to feel better.

I am very committed. If I am going to do something, I do it. I do not put it off. It is a rarity that I don’t do something that is on my calendar. This is honestly how I get everything done. And it allows me to prioritize what is important.

These three tips are life savers to me. They help me make sure that I’m not letting people down, especially myself. So just to recap, number one, take your projects, your multi-action steps, your to-dos, and put them in singular action steps.

Number two, get everything out of your head. Write it all down on paper or I know some of you love to put it in your phone, like in notes. And number three, calendar all your action steps, and then when it is time, get it done.

And I have one bonus tip that is for sure a life saver. If it takes less than three minutes to get it done, just do it. Don’t waste brain energy deciding when or if you should do it. Just do it. I tell you; it saves so much time. There’s no decision, there’s no putting it off. Three minutes or less, I just get it done.

So to celebrate our 50th episode, I’m going to do a drawing. When you leave a written review on iTunes, you will be entered into a drawing. I’m going to give away two $150 gift cards to Amazon. Now to be entered, you must leave a written review on iTunes, also known as Apple Podcasts. And then you must email me at shannan@bflycoaching.com with the title of your review.

And I know ladies, but it has to be on Apple. So if you have an iOS device, super easy like a Mac or an iPhone. Now, if you don’t, you still can download the iTunes app on a Windows computer and leave a review. So my loves, so exciting. I cannot wait to see all of the reviews.

I want to take a moment. This is our 50th episode and just thank all of you who continue to listen to the show every week. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it and I want to give a special shout-out to Digital Freedom Productions, to Pavel and Angela and team. Thank you so much for all that you do for this show.

So my loves, see you next week. I am going to share my routine and some simple ways I set myself up for success. Alright, bye my loves.

If you loved listening to this podcast, I would love to have you come check out Transform weight loss program. It is my monthly coaching program where we take this work to a whole new level and ladies learn how to lose weight for good in a way that they can always do. Join me over at bflycoaching.com/join. I’d love to have you join me in Transform weight loss program.

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 over to bflycoaching.com. That’s B – F – L – Y coaching dot com. See you next week!

You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women podcast with Shannan Christiansen, episode number 49.

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 loves. I am so happy to be back with you. I am just excited about today’s show. Can you believe that we are almost at episode number 50? One more week, love. I have something so special for you next week so make sure you’re listening.

In today’s show, we are going to talk about how to get started. So many ladies email me, message me, and just ask me like, where do I even begin? So we’re going to get into that today.

But as always, first, I want to give a listener shout-out. This is where I read a review of the podcast every week. This week’s listener shout-out is to Robin. She wrote, “These tips and lessons have been so helpful. I’m dedicating myself to this journey with these tools you have supplied for me. Thanks.”

Thank you so much Robin. I love these reviews. I love that you ladies are listening. And if you’re loving the show, please rate and review the show on iTunes. I would so appreciate it. Also, subscribe to the show so every Wednesday and Friday the show is just waiting for you wherever you listen to podcasts.

Ladies, it has been so much fun lately. We have been welcoming all the ladies into The Transform weight loss program, and it just fills me up with so much excitement and love. I love watching them when they first come in. I can tell they’re a little scared, feeling overwhelmed, but really excited too.

And then I watch as about a month in, I can already see progress. One of my ladies who has been in Transform for about a month was just telling me how she’s already seeing her mindset change and she’s already using the brain hacks that I teach.

I just – I love it so much. My team and I have been working, ladies, long days. We have been learning a lot. We have been doing a lot of virtual events and a lot of research and just learning a ton. And now we’re taking all of those learnings and we’re in the implementation phase.

I wake up thinking about all the fun stuff and amazing results my ladies are going to get. It has been hard to take breaks because I’m just so excited about what we are creating. And love, have I told you about my team? I just have to give them a shout-out. They are so amazing. They work hard, they’re so talented, and they just keep asking how can we get our ladies more results easier and in a way that they can always do?

So I just want to give a big shout-out to Paul, Taylor, Teelan, and Jen. They have been working so hard and I just love all of them so much. So let’s get into this show. When ladies first start, it can be overwhelming. They most likely have failed at many diets and still have what I like to call diet brain.

Diet brain is where we think we must restrict all the food and then do all the things, like 52 things. One of my ladies started with me and she was making her realistic plan, coming to the coaching calls, and showing up. She then messaged me, “Shannan, I keep eating off plan. I feel like I want to quit. I cannot seem to do this right.”

I told her to show me her realistic plan, and as suspected, it was a diet plan. She could not go from eating all the things to eating diet food. I told her, make your plan more realistic. Not idealistic. Even put extra stuff on at first.

Love, it is not about the food. It’s about learning to keep commitments and eating on plan. It’s about learning to change your mindset so that you can start to believe different things, so that all of those years of diet beliefs and thoughts, you now get to decide to change the ones that you want to.

Okay, so back to my lady. So when I told her to make it more idealistic, she decided she was going to. I mean, she didn’t really want to because she didn’t really believe me, but she did. And she started to make her plan more realistic.

And then love, you know what happened? She lost some weight. She started seeing some success. She started feeling better. She started thinking, well, I don’t really want to quit. She started to believe that she could lose weight and still eat things she liked.

It’s counterintuitive when you’ve been dieting for so long to start making a plan with food you like, with a mix of fuel and non-fuel food. I see this so much with my new ladies. It takes about a month for them to settle into this is different. It takes some time for them to be patient with themselves, to have some grace for themselves, and to trust me.

At first, I mostly just tell them do what I say. I promise, it’ll all turn out great. So for all of you ladies who are just getting started, including all my new Transform bosses, I have three tips for you.

Number one, make your realistic plan. If you’re new to me and you don’t know what I’m talking about, go to bflycoaching.com/6. It’s episode six of this podcast. This one thing can help you lose weight. It’s the beginning, it’s one of my basics, it’s foundational to what I teach, so start with your realistic plan.

Number two, ladies, I need you to hear me on this because your brain is going to fight me on this. I know love. Only do one to two things at a time. Don’t try to do everything, change everything, don’t go from eating all the things to chicken and salad. Don’t go from never moving your body to trying to run a mile.

Start slow and steady. You know that old saying, slow and steady wins the race, it actually makes me think of baseball. If a team just hits base hits, they most likely will win the game. But if they keep trying to hit home runs, they most likely will lose. Just let that one sink in for a minute.

Number three, this is really important, love. Have some grace and kindness for yourself. Just some good old-fashioned love for yourself. Love yourself madly. It is the best.

So today’s transformation questions are number one, what one thing are you going to start with? And number two, what is holding you back from making your realistic plan? So good, my loves. See you next week where I’m going to share all my secrets about one topic, and it is going to be so good. Seriously, all my secrets.

And I’m going to give a big bonus, so tune in to episode number 50. I know, next week loves. I cannot wait. Alright, bye for now love.

If you loved listening to this podcast, I would love to have you come check out Transform weight loss program. It is my monthly coaching program where we take this work to a whole new level and ladies learn how to lose weight for good in a way that they can always do. Join me over at bflycoaching.com/join. I’d love to have you join me in Transform weight loss program.

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 over to bflycoaching.com. That’s B – F – L – Y coaching dot com. See you next week!