“It takes 30 days to create a new habit.”
Or so we’ve been told…
But in the area of weight loss mastery there are hundreds of habits to master – most of which are never discussed.
This work of sustained + empowered weight mastery has been central to my work for over a decade. I know the imprisoned experience of struggling with weight – starting the day feeling defeated when getting dressed. Walking through your day experiencing shame and barriers to connecting wholeheartedly with others, without access to weight loss mastery born of self-love and empowerment.
In fact, I understand it so well that I drew a line in the sand in 2004 and vowed to master sustained + empowered weight loss. I promised the Universe that if it would show me the way, I would use my learnings to guide others to the confidence, freedom and wholehearted connection I knew triumphing in this area would make available.
I knew in my soul mastering sustained + empowered weight loss would free me up to connect fully with others, contribute fully to the world and inspire others to do the same. I knew this would empower me to live a life much larger than a narrow-minded focus on my body, food and the scale would allow.
And so, after six years of graduate school studying data-driven natural medicine and the science of weight loss and a daily lived inquiry of “how can I guide you to triumph?”, here I am, sharing The 5 Essential Shifts of Weight Loss Mastery.
“This is where your line in the sand starts.”
These 5 Essential Shifts are the focus of my course, Weight Loss 101: An Introduction to Sustained + Empowered Weight Mastery. delivered last in April. If you hear something for yourself in this blog, I invite you to schedule a complimentary consultation to explore working together – one-on-one or within a course. I promise your participation in this Well Empowered work will provide you access to weight loss mastery and the confidence, freed up headspace and wholehearted living that accompanies it.
If weight has been a struggle for you for years or decades, this is the information you’ve never encountered. This is where your line in the sand starts.
The 5 Essential Shifts of Weight Loss Mastery
➡ Be kind AND honest
➡ Choose your “no’s”
➡ Use your magic wand: Create your Vision of Vitality
➡ Automate for excellence
➡ Invest in expert coaching
Let’s dive into each of these a little further, shall we?
Be kind AND honest
I started working with Sarah in the fall. She was done with fragile self-control and living without the sustained weight outcomes that matter deeply to her. She had developed a habit of just “not looking” until recently. Not looking at the scale. Not looking at what she ate and drank and how these choices made her feel. When she stepped on the scale a week before our first appointment, she burst into tears at the number she saw, one she’d never seen before and never wanted to see again.
But Sarah was ready for a new approach. After a decade of berating herself for her food choices and her body, she resolved to be kind to herself. In fact, her commitment to self-kindness was what led her to turn a blind eye to the scale and the choices she was making for the last year. Her intentions were very good, but her outcomes weren’t working for her.
When we met, she didn’t have access to being kind to herself AND honest. Over the course of our work together, she has mastered being kind AND honest. The side-effect? Significant, sustained weight loss and an elevated ability to be present with and connected to those she loves most. She glows when we zoom and has embraced her own beautiful journey.
Choose your “no’s”
Peter came to me diabetic and on cholesterol medication. He’d struggled with a sugar addiction for decades. His medicine cabinet was growing and so too was his waistline. And he just couldn’t seem to muster up enough willpower to give up his treasured trio of pasta, ice cream and fine wine.
Peter was acutely aware that, left unchanged, this sugar addiction would cost him his life. He didn’t know how to prevail, but he was resolute in his commitment to triumph. He was no longer willing to live life owned by these foods and beverages.
One of the most powerful things Peter has gotten out of our work together is the wisdom in choosing your no’s. That is, you’re always saying “no” to something. You are either saying “no” to the pasta, the ice cream and the wine or you are saying “no” to your longevity. You are saying “no” to your freedom. You are saying “no” to living the life of your dreams.
He completed labs recently and we celebrated together on a zoom call when we saw the numbers. In one year, his hemoglobin A1c went down from 11.7 to 6.5. He sent me side-by-side photos of himself last year and this year with the subject “WOW!!”
Peter intentionally chooses his “no’s” every day. His most profound outcome? He is at choice in what he eats now rather than feeling the victim of his cravings.
Use your magic wand: Create your Vision of Vitality
Patricia scheduled her virtual complimentary 30-minute consultation for Monday, January 18th. She’d spent the end of 2020 with a YOLO approach to food and drink. As she put it, “My hand was in the cookie jar for the entire month of December.” She felt the need to do something drastic when the clock struck midnight on January 1. As she brushed her teeth in those first hours of the new year, Patricia placed a large order from ProLon, a company known for the “fasting mimicking diet”.
Her box of food and bars arrived from ProLon, and Patricia was “all in”…for five days. And at the end of that five days, she lost her cookies. Or rather, she ate her cookies! Every last one in the house (12 to be exact).
The old Patricia would have awakened the next day feeling defeated and ashamed, but she was committed to triumphing in the area of sustained + empowered weight loss mastery. And at last the lightbulb went on:
She got that she was not a failure. The widespread “all or nothing” weight loss programs were the failure. She had an “aha” moment and saw, once and for all: elimination and deprivation do not work.
With her new realization and her commitment to prevail, Patricia and I got to work. We worked together to tool her up with her secret weapon: her Vision of Vitality.
Patricia experienced first hand the power of creating her Vision of Vitality. She began aligning her life with her Vision. I guided her in effective actions to master sustained weight loss, and with very little effort Patricia made changes that had previously seemed impossible. She has lost more than 10lbs, but last week she claimed her biggest victory.
“My sister made my favorite cookies for my son’s family birthday party. It was easy for me to have a bite of one cookie and only one bite. Last year, I would have eaten four at the party and saved more for later!”
Why is creating your Vision of Vitality such magical a thing? We can look to lottery winners to better understand. Most are bankrupt within a few years because their vision for their life doesn’t align with the facts. They either need to change their vision or change the facts, and unfortunately, over 70% choose the latter.
I propose instead of resigning yourself to more years or decades of weight gain or failed weight loss, you embrace the opportunity to powerfully create your Vision of Vitality – to move forward with your secret weapon.
Automate for Excellence
Jenny was an expert at juggling the demands of her career, her family and her community. But one thing Jenny forgot to mix into her juggling routine was her health. Her diagnosis with high cholesterol was a wake up call. While she’d gained weight over the years, exercise had been a regular part of her life. She had always thought of herself as healthy and – between her weight gain and high cholesterol – was surprised when her primary care doctor informed her she had a high risk of heart disease.
With her doctor’s blessings, Jenny came to me to reduce her risk of heart disease naturally. She wanted to lower her cholesterol without medication. She was also committed to reducing her BMI from 31 (clinically obese) to under 30.
There were many things Jenny did to produce these outcomes, but for her, automating her environment and the architecture of her life were big points of leverage. We worked together to identify and refine opportunities to automate that allowed her to benefit from “spiral-up synergy” – where strategic, effective action produces weight loss outcomes above and beyond what was historically possible.
Jenny triumphed in lowering her cholesterol naturally and mastering sustained + empowered weight loss. She reviews her annual labs with a sense of pride and experiences vitality and confidence.
Invest in Expert Coaching
When I was in third grade, Mary Lou Retton was my hero. She’d just won the gold in the 1984 Olympics, the first American woman to receive a perfect 10. I was inspired to the max and dreamed of being on the Olympic podium dangling a gold medal one day! So what did I do? I begged my parents to enroll me in gymnastics, and they did. I read Mary Lou Retton’s autobiography. I learned that her coach, Bela Karolyi, had also been the coach of fellow gold medalist gymnast, Nadia Comaneci. And I promptly wrote Bela begging him to take me on as one of his students.
Now there were a few problems with my plan, the biggest one being that no way, no how were my parents willing to consider sending their eight year old girl to Texas to live and train with a stranger. But the point is, even at eight years old, I knew when you are committed to excelling, you get expert coaching.
Mastery in any area of life requires expert coaching – someone who can provide you with the technical guidance you need, the mindset guidance you need and the strategic guidance you need. Someone whose voice you will internalize, who is outcome-oriented in their approach and who is wholeheartedly invested in your success.
You can count on me to guide you to triumph. Are you ready?
Schedule your complimentary consultation today to explore what it would look like to be guided to triumph sustained + empowered weight mastery.