Welcome to Day 6 of support for you in sticking to your weight-loss program, the 14-day series designed to help you get to your goal weight and stay there, even if you are over 60 years old. 

Self-compassion is an important ingredient to your success in weight-loss, healthy eating and finding joy in your life.  

I know this from my own experience and from working with hundreds of women.  When it comes down to it, I always ask the question, “Do you value yourself?”  “Do you see that your birth into this world was a miracle?”  “Do you value your life?”

I know you have heard this information before.  Perhaps it is like the Charlie Brown cartoon, where the teacher is talking and all they hear is “Wah, wah, wah, wha!”.  Just because you may have heard this before, STOP. PAY ATTENTION. 

Welcome to Day 4 Supporting you to Stick to Your Weight-Loss Plan, so you can reach your goal weight, once and for all.  We have been learning strategies and tips from life and weight coaching to support you in sticking to your plan.  If you are a yo-yo dieter, like I used to be, you have lots of experience (habits) of making little quits on yourself.  After the age of 50 you also have lots of attitude about anyone telling you what to do!  I know how that is. Many of my clients, especially strong women in their 60s, recoil at being told what to do.  My job is not to tell you what to do.  I gave that up long ago!

These 14 days I want to support your brain in becoming aware that you have many non-helpful habits and because they are repeated over and over, they keep you from succeeding in reaching your weight loss goals. This is the purpose of the FB Live 14 Day Series (5:30pm Pacific)

Welcome to Day 3 of Support for Sticking to your Weight Loss Plan. (FB LIVE 5:30pm Pacific)

If you have been a yo yo dieter over the years and don’t believe you can stick to a plan, you are in the right place.  If you are like I used to be or like many clients when they first come to me, you may have started a diet, maybe even lost 2, 3 or 30 pounds, then you just can’t stick to it, give up and gain it all back again. 

Stick around because these 14 days are going to give you life coaching strategies and weight loss tips to help you succeed in sticking to your plan.  My program is different in that I integrate the latest brain science that gives us insight into how our brains tick.  What we think is important. What we eat is important. Biological processes are predictable.  We are learning to hack our biology and psychology to achieve success.

Welcome to Day 2 of Support for Sticking to your Weight Loss Plan. If you have been a yo yo dieter over the years and don’t believe you can succeed in a weight loss program, welcome.  Go to FB LIVE for today's Video.

Creating a plan is crucial to any successful weight loss goal.  Here is a link to yesterday’s FB Live about creating a plan.  You now have a plan.  If you want more help, you can contact me and we can get on a free 30 minute call to set you up with a plan.

The upcoming triumvirate of food holidays are before us:  Halloween, US Thanksgiving and Christmas and Hanukkah.  Follow along for the next 14 days and you will be set up to reach your weight loss goals, even if everyone around you is going to town overeating!

Welcome to your 14 Day Support for Sticking to Your Weight Loss Plan.  I am your weight-loss and life coach and I will be here each day to talk about the scientifically backed behaviors you can do to change a habit and stick to your weight loss plan.  How many of you have lost weight on a restrictive diet, yo yo-ing over the years, on and on, only to find all that weight - plus more yet again. 

This is an intriguing time to be alive.  We have learned more about the thinking brain in the last 10-15 years than in all of previous human history.  Why does that matter to us? Scientists have identified the utility of the Pre-frontal Cortex (PFC). This is our own personal CEO.  It loves to plan and execute on that plan.  It runs side by side with our primitive brain who urges us to avoid all change.  The PFC is able to reason and pause to watch our own thoughts and physical reactions to situations.  This is good news when it comes to weight loss and sticking to your plan so you can reach your goal.

I offer lots of tips and strategies for how to stick to your weight loss plan during normal times; even during special events and when traveling. 

Today I want you to care about sticking to your plan in abnormal times. 

For support, I went to two of my favorite human beings, Viktor Frankl and Pema Chödrön.

 “An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.” 

 Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Women in their 50s+ who are continuously seeking the secret to weight-loss in a diet are often disappointed.  They may blame themselves for failing to understand why they can't stick to a plan, or they may blame the diet. 

I propose that successful weight loss, which includes maintaining your desired weight long after the fat comes off, requires a pinch of self-love, a bunch of lovability and a large serving of self-acceptance.

One of the most toxic thoughts I hear regularly from clients who have decided to eat healthy foods is: “I deserve a treat.” 

Women who work hard at being moms, business owners, or employees continue to believe it is a pleasurable activity to put something sweet in their mouths, even though it sets them back from achieving their long-term pleasurable goals.  Not to mention that the action of going off their chosen meal plan creates a flurry of negative thoughts and opinions about themselves. 

Women who are retired use this toxic thought because they think they have earned “treats” after living a long, and sometimes trying life.  "Isn’t it now time to kick up my heels and do what I want?"  "I have earned this!"

Unfortunately, if you are carrying an extra 50-100#s there is no kicking up your heels!

One of the top reasons people fail in their resolve to release weight, is their brain signaling fear of hunger. 

Fear of hunger is in our DNA.  Your brain is driven to replenish food when the stores are low. 

In the past, the brain/body had to accommodate periods of famine and the changes of the season that depleted food sources. Today, in the U.S. we have access to every type of food all day, all year long. 

We are not at risk for starvation.  We can actually survive (this is really pushing it)  without any food for 30-40 days.  That means we won’t starve to death unless we do not eat from 720 to 960 hours. 

Many clients express fear when they sign up for weight loss coaching.

“What if I can’t succeed?”

“I am afraid to be hungry.”

“I am afraid of deprivation.”

Fear is in our DNA. Losing weight takes change and we know that the brain likes to be efficient and it is efficient at overeating and eating our emotions!  There are many complex factors that have created a world where 70% of the American population is overweight. 

It is not your fault. 

Get off your SEAT with N.E.A.T. (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) 

Remember your grumpy uncle telling you, "When I was your age, I had to walk fifteen miles to school in the snow! Barefoot! Uphill! Both ways!"

Now you tell your kids, “When I was your age, I had to walk to the TV to change the channels! After every program!”

40 years ago, not everyone went to the gym and obesity was not the critical problem it is today.

Researchers are now expressing concern that another key factor to the development of obesity, diabetes and heart disease is a lack of N.E.A.T.  N.E.A.T stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.  It is the energy expended by just doing stuff.  We used to do more stuff.  Walk, reach, jump, clean.

I had a breakthrough today. 

Here’s what I used to visualize in my mind when I thought about changing my habit of overeating.

….I am standing before this huge mountain.  It is gigantic and I am very small.  It is impassable, covered in craggy rocks.  Climbing it would surely cause me pain.  I don’t know how to climb mountains.  It is impossible. I will just settle down on this side of the mountain forever and ever....

I could not see myself being successful in losing weight loss and more importantly, being healthy.

Elimination of Food Chatter

One of my favorite things about being in a normal weight or right-sized body and not using food to avoid my life, is the elimination of food chatter.

It is one of those simple joys.

Like, hot showers in the morning.

Or Luna, my Havanese, wildly chasing her toys through the house.

Or waking up without an alarm.

What is Food Chatter?

When every thought involves acquiring food, eating food, not eating food, choosing food, and scheduling food, eliminating food. 

Every good story has a great villain who is working to prevent the hero from reaching success.  I like to look at the obstacles to weight loss as a villain in my hero’s journey.  Hey, it’s my story and I get to make it work for me!

My husband and I have recently STARTED watching The Game of Thrones and I am freaking out watching Joffrey Baratheon’s villainous behavior.  He is dripping with immaturity and drunk from power.  He thinks only of himself and not the people of his kingdom.  He is a spoiled child from an incestuous relationship with a deep need to hurt others who stand in his way.  Such a great bad guy! 

What does that have to do with wanting to lose weight and keep it off, you might ask?

Sticking to any new behavior is like taking a machete and cutting a new path through a thick underbrush. 

The strength of your muscles and the sharpness of the machete will make a difference to your success. 

The new path we are creating is a new neural pathway in your brain to support your new healthy eating and living habits.  This new neural pathway will strengthen your habits of self-care.  Think, driving a car, brushing your teeth, walking.  Things that took great effort to learn and hardly a conscious thought to achieve today. 

The goal of your brain is to proceed effortlessly.

This is both good and bad news. 

Yeah!! I’m excited for those of you who created individualized protocols this past week during our free 30-minute mini-session.  If you haven’t created your protocol yet and want some support, click here to find a time to set one up.

After one week, you are now on your way to losing weight because you have decided to create a new lifestyle designed around creating healthy habits.

I have seen hundreds of women lose between 1-4 lbs. per week* on a measured, no flour, no sugar, no snacking protocol. 

Sticking with that protocol may be a challenge because of your many beliefs and habits, including many unconscious cues, of eating the way you have always eaten up to now.

If you want to lose weight, the first step is to make the decision to do it.

Decision made? DONE! You are here.

If you are approaching 60, and you are looking for a lifestyle shift and this is the last time you want to have to decide to lose weight, WELCOME.

If you are seeking a diet to lose weight quick, this is not the place to be. 

If you want to count calories, you won’t find help here.

Here is what I am talking about.  I broke it down into 4 buckets.

Tuesday we celebrated the Fourth of July in the U.S.  July 4th is a day to celebrate independence and freedom.  At the same time, many of us are filled with anxiety over what is happening in the world at large and in our own divided country.  What do we do with that anxiety?  Do we mesh it with our own personal anxiety regarding not being able to lose weight or being unhappy with our lives and blindly eat the unhealthy food around us?

We know eating well will feel better.  But we can't seem to use our willpower to do so.  We may feel overwhelmed by anxiety caused by a mixture of worries, so we resist feeling this anxiety and seek solace by eating.

If you experience anxiety, how do you address it?  Do you reach for something sweet or a perfect combination of salty/savory? When everyone around you is eating junk food, what do you say to yourself? How do you treat yourself?

Many moons ago, one summer I had a moment when I believed my body was perfectly acceptable, normal and maybe even beautiful.  In any case I felt as if I won the “I’m normal, young and attractive” lottery.  I want to emphasize that this was a fleeting moment.

It was August, 1976, and I was visiting an almost famous older gentleman who thought I was attractive and said so.  He thought my nose and chin were an asset and showed strength and character.  I thought he was crazy and believed I had lots of evidence that these were liabilities and showed a freakishness. 

Photo: “Hot Day,” Lothar Stelter, 1952 ©Lothar Stelter