Ep #13 Crossing the River of Misery
Achieving new results requires we adjust our mindset and challenge fixed beliefs. Most people think a new mindset comes only after we’ve accomplished our goals. In this podcast, I challenge this notion and propose that we must first establish new thoughts before we can achieve a new outcome. For myself, I often use the analogy of a river with the old me standing on one riverbank and the better version on the other riverbank. Using this analogy, I recognize the challenges that come with navigating rough, cold and unknown waters to achieve my fullest potential.
Ep #32 Why Feeling Bad is Necessary for Success
Sometimes the process of achieving our goals doesn’t feel good. Even when we apply the thought model and recognize that tough decisions will serve our bodies, it does not feel wonderful. When sticking with your plan, you may want to feel resolved, confident or even determined, but ultimately this may not be a positive emotion. During this podcast, I discuss my experience buffering emotions and why accepting negative emotions are necessary to achieve goals.
Ep #28 Top 5 Things you Must Do for Weight Loss
When it comes to losing weight and improving health, many people invest in strategies that work initially but eventually fail. This is because often the first 20 pounds and the last 20 pounds aren’t lost using the same strategy. After evaluating my weight loss journey and my client’s experiences, I’ve compiled a list of the top 5 strategies my most successful clients have in common. Using these strategies, my clients have shed pounds permanently. During this podcast, I discuss each of these 5 strategies in depths and provide examples.
Ep #26 Practice: The Myth of the Savant
With any new skill, practice is necessary. In fact, consistent practice over a long period of time is the only way to become proficient and eventually master your new skill. As a nurse, for example, it takes countless times starting an IV before you feel confident in your proficiency. For me, this process also took a personal commitment and the realization that it wouldn’t be perfect the first, second or fiftieth try. This is the same with weigh loss. Learning to eat foods that serve our bodies is a new skill that needs to be practiced before it’s perfected. During this podcast, I discuss the process of practicing and the myth of the savant. I also use my own experience with meditation as an example of how mastering a new skill takes time.
Ep #25 Should Happens: Managing Our Thoughts
When it comes to life, we all have opinions on what should or shouldn’t happen. Poverty, disease, crime, car accidents and inconsiderate people are just a few examples of negative circumstances that impact us daily. It’s our thoughts about these situations that cause us to feel victimized or helpless. When our thoughts about a situation create feelings of helplessness or sadness, we often turn to food or other vices to buffer away negative emotions. In this podcast, I suggest our thoughts about negative circumstances are the problem and discuss how looking critically at our thoughts, challenging fixed beliefs and gaining a new perspective can help us overcome challenging situations. In addition, I discuss how the entitled thought that “bad stuff shouldn’t happen to us” is unrealistic and undermine our goals.
Ep #23 Overcoming Obstacles: Weight Loss Journey
Like a road trip, the weight loss journey may be fraught with distractions, obstacles and roadblocks. Some obstacles, such as summer barbecues and work lunches, can be anticipated and strategies developed in advance. Other obstacles may be unforeseen and more difficult to overcome. In either case, getting back on track when obstacles occur is often the difference between reaching your destination and getting stuck along the way. During this podcast, I use the road trip analogy to demonstrate how weight loss is a journey and, like a journey, you can’t let expected or unexpected obstacles prevent you from reaching your destination.
Ep #22 Live Authentically: Inspiration from the Tao Te Ching
Are you the truest, most authentic version of yourself? As a young woman, I envisioned helping people to live better, healthier lives. This altruistic ideal was the reason I entered the healthcare industry. It didn’t take long to realize the healthcare industry was more accurately a system of “disease care” not health care. Consequently, first as a nurse and then a doctor, most of my career was spent treating the symptoms of disease not inspiring patients to change for the better. My career path wasn’t in alignment with my truest, most authentic self – the person I’d always imagined. Concurrently, my own struggles with weight and threat of disease directly conflicted with my personal ideals and authentic self. Life coaching was the catalyst that helped me recognize this nagging inner voice driving me to change. While this inner work is hard, I’ve learned to live in alignment with my truest, most authentic self. In this podcast, I share inspiration from the Tao Te Ching, an ancient Chinese text discussed in the book “Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life” by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. This incredibly moving book provides inspiration to be the most authentic version of yourself. During my podcast, I share a verse that spoke to me and echoes the ideals that life coaching helped me to realize and fulfill.
Ep #21 Splurging: The Primitive Brain Unchecked
Do you sometimes want to eat unchecked? Totally without restrictions? Recently, I found myself in a situation where I had allowed my primitive brain to make my decisions. After some serious thought work, I uncovered a thought that splurging and allowing my primitive brain to run the show was “fun.” The result, however, was feeling sick and not living in integrity with my higher personal goals. Not so much fun. As I have discussed in other podcasts, the primitive brain attempts to seek pleasure, avoid discomfort and expend the least amount of energy possible. Consequently, decisions made from the primitive brain typically don’t serve our higher goals. In this podcast, I discuss my personal experience at the movies and explain how a planned splurge went wrong.
Ep #20 Getting Results: Thought Model Series (4 of 4)
In this episode, which is the last in the four-part podcast series on the thought model, I continue the discussion on intentional thoughts and how to produce deliberate results. Thoughts drive emotions, actions and inevitably your results. Evaluating thoughts critically, challenging fixed false beliefs and being intentional with new thoughts are key components of getting results, including permanent weight loss. This episode begins with an overview of the thought model and provides several examples of how to apply the thought model to various situations, including work and food choices. Finally, I examine the process of finding new, intentional thoughts with the goal of producing better results.
Ep #19 Getting Results: Thought Model Series (3 of 4)
In this episode, which is the third in the four-part podcast series on the thought model, I discuss finding intentional thoughts that produce better and deliberate results. Permanent weight loss requires understanding thoughts. Thoughts drive emotions, actions and inevitably your results. Evaluating thoughts critically, challenging fixed false beliefs and being intentional with new thoughts are key components of getting results, including permanent weight loss. I present the concept of turning the thought model backwards and starting with the desired result, then action, emotion, and finally your deliberate thought.
