Rita Black: When you say to yourself, "I need to start exercising", does your inner mind say, "Ugh!" or hit the snooze on the alarm or worse yet present you with a big red stop sign in your mind? In this episode of the thin thinking podcast, we dive into how to push through mental resistance and begin getting going on a consistent exercise routine.

Rita Black: Did you know that our struggle with weight doesn't start with the food on your plate or get fixed in the gym? 80% of our weight struggle is mental. That's right, the key to unlocking long-term weight release and management begins in your mind. Hi there, I'm Rita Black. I'm a clinical hypnotherapist, weight loss expert, best-selling author, and the creator of the Shift Weight Mastery Process. And not only have I helped thousands of people over the past 20 years achieve long-term weight mastery, I am also a former weight struggler, carb addict, and binge eater. And after two decades of failed diets and fad weight loss programs, I lost 40 pounds with the help of hypnosis. Not only did I release all that weight, I have kept it off for 25 years. Enter the Thin Thinking Podcast where you too will learn how to remove the mental roadblocks that keep you struggling. I'll give you the thin thinking tools, skills, and insights to help you develop the mindset you need. Not only to achieve your ideal weight, but to stay there long-term and live your best life.

Rita Black: Hey everyone! How are you doing? How's the summer going? Welcome in - I am just back from home from dropping my 16 year old son off with his best friend in Colorado. They are going to do a summer camp where they will be hiking for two weeks in the Alpine wilderness. I'm kind of chewing my nails, you know, to the nub, on one hand, but yippee on the other, you know. I will tell you this, cause my son was pretty sedentary for a year, you know, so we really wanted him to do something. He really wanted to do something adventurous and outside of his comfort zone and you know, he was on his tennis team at school. So he didn't, it wasn't like he was completely without exercise, but for the most part, he spent most of the year, his idea of exercises, moving his fingers all over his devices and consoles. If you get my drift and if you have a 15-year old, 16-year old boy, you know what I mean? Or even girl. I mean, nowadays, they're all onto their devices in console. So he had to get moving and training. And that was what we've been doing these last couple of months, because it was going to be sink or swim. I mean, this is a serious hiking. He had to buy special hiking boots and break them in. This is a hardcore camp. You know, they're going to be learning how to hike. I mean, not hike, but how to be at camp by themselves, out in the wilderness. I mean, it's really quite extraordinary. But so we had to get them moving and that was a little tricky. And I think it's the same for many people. If you have an exercise for a while, getting moving again can be a challenge.

Rita Black: So I want to talk to you guys about that. If you are finding yourself stuck, wanting to get moving, or maybe you're doing some exercise, but it's not so consistent, I wanted to spend today just giving you some thin thinking tips and tricks to get yourself moving again and exercising more consistently and really communicating more powerfully with yourself in the area of exercise. Here is the thing about weight mastery and exercise with regards to research and people who have taken weight off and kept it off permanently. If you look at studies of people who have been consistently, keeping their wide weight off long-term, in these studies, these people are exercising five to six days a week, you know, to not to take the weight off, but to maintain their weight. And there's many, many reasons for this. One of them being that as you release weight, obviously you become smaller. So the amount of calories that you're burning on a daily basis decreases as you become, you know, smaller, thinner, you know, less. You weigh less.

Rita Black: And so in order to match that, you know, as far as energy is concerned, in order to be able to eat, in a way that you would like and love, you know, many people then start to leverage the power of exercise to create more energy burn on a daily basis. Also studies are showing now, and I don't know if you read these studies, like from a while ago with the biggest loser with these people who have had these really big weight releases, that if you compare somebody who let's say is 150 pounds, five foot seven, and has never had a weight struggle compared with somebody who has was once 200 pounds and then has, lost weight and now is 150 pounds and five foot seven, chances are that person who has been on that weight loss journey, their metabolism is going to be lower than the person who never struggled with their weight at the same weight, if that makes sense to you.

Rita Black: So this is why people who have taken weight off, and a lot of that, the reason for that, I think these studies get into it's main, it's genetics, it's just what the body does and compensation. And I don't think they have all the answers for that, but they're just seeing this more and more. And I really think that these studies and there's, there is a lot of evidence that these people who are keeping weight off long-term have really made it a part of their lifestyle to exercise almost everyday on a daily basis. Now there's many values other than just weight management that exercise brings that does play into long-term permanent weight management. One, I mean, exercise absolutely regulates your hormones. It helps you build neurotransmitters like serotonin, oxytocin that really help you, feel good so that you're managing stress a lot better. And a lot of us who struggle with weight are stress eaters. So obviously that's going to be a bonus.

Rita Black: Exercise also helps you problem solve. And I think a lot of times we eat our problems. They have also shown that there is a hormone admitted in the state of exercise. That is the best state of mind when you're exercising to solve problems. And I absolutely know this to be true, you know, I will get on a treadmill or the elliptical or a bike and I will go to a spin class. And, I will, I will say, okay, what's the problem I'm going to solve during the spin class? Now I can be listening to the instructor or on a bike, you know, listening to the instructor and spinning my heart out, but I, my subconscious mind can also solve problems at the same time and I'll get epiphanies and maybe you've had this experience when you've gone out walking or running, or even walking on the beach you'll, you know, these epiphanies come to you when you're exercising. So I think it is a really great state to problem solving, and again, I think that leads to weight maintenance and management, because instead of eating your problems, you are exercising them instead. Now here's the thing, if you're in the beginning of a long-term permanent weight mastery journey, do you need to be exercising from the get go? No! I think a lot of people, put a lot of pressure on themselves when they start losing weight. You know, when we get into that, "I'm going on a diet so that means I have to exercise a lot," not necessarily. I think sometimes it really helps to get the food in the right place and not put a ton of pressure on yourself to really start exercising unless you know, unless you're in the mood to, you know, a lot of my clients come to and they're already exercising, but it's really about getting the food in the right place.

Rita Black: So, you know, what you start out doing is highly personal to you, and I'm going to get into this. I don't want you to feel like you have to be working out five to six days a week when you get started. I just wanted to let you know that the reason, you know, you want to start to think about moving your body and exercising and exercise doesn't even need to be like going to the gym and working out. It could be just moving and being active and getting your body, you know, moving more than sitting on the couch, which is, you know, sitting is the new smoking. So you want to start to re-identify yourself as an active person, and that's what we're going to get into. So, here are some thin thinking mindset tips that will help you start to get back on and start exercising, or get back into a routine.

Rita Black: Now, again, I'm going to remind you that, you know, there's, it's not your fault that you're necessarily struggling with exercise. I think it's really important to remove any shame or, negative feelings about yourself, because really, honestly, the way our mind is designed for weight loss and management exercise, all of that, the mind is really not set up to help us out very much. In fact, it's kind of works against us. You know, our conscious mind wherein we have very good intentions, "I'm going to wake up," "I'm going to set the alarm," "I'm going to exercise tomorrow," "I'm going to wake up and I'm going to go for a walk," "I'm going to go, get on that rowing machine," "I'm going to go do something right." And then we get that alarm goes off and our reptilian, subconscious mind is like, "What the hell was that noise? I am shutting that thing down and go on back to sleep," because you know, our mind wants things to stay just as they are. And when you're warming cozy in bed in the morning, that reptilian brain does it want to move and exert itself. So, and that's a very powerful force working against you. So we really have to learn how to get our whole mind working with us in order to get moving.

Rita Black: Now, another problem that is on our way is we, in our subconscious mind, we have negative identities of our self as couch potatoes, lazy. I'm a pig. You know, we have these negative labels and self identities of ourselves as a sedentary person that really works against us. So I want you to understand that labeling yourself, oh, I can't tell you how many people have told me that they're a lazy pig. They're lazy. They're a couch potato there. You know, there's a lot of, you know, descriptions that are not very kind that people like to label themselves. They're a little inner critic inside wants to let them know, yes, you are a couch potato, and you will not amount to very much because you are lazy and you're unproductive. And you're a slovenly pig. Right. Very kind. Right. You know, we just love that inner critic.

Rita Black: And also we have a belief system that's set up to look at exercise like it's hard. Ugh! Exercise. Exertion. I don't like to sweat. I have back pain. I have achy joints. I don't want people looking at me at the gym. You know, that's, I've heard that year after year after year. And I understand that because I avoided the gym because I didn't want people to see me when I was 40 pounds heavier working out. I felt very embarrassed about that. Somebody told me something once about that. That was so great. And I'm going to share that with you now, is that, well, at least here in California, and I think this is true of most places that people are really into themselves at the gym. You know, they've got their own paranoia. They have got their own issues with themselves. And you know, people here in California in Los Angeles, especially let's face it, they're all super into themselves. So they might, you know, I got over it because I was like, you know, I looked around the gym and I was like, if these people look at me, they're probably going to spend maybe 25 seconds thinking about me. Oh, there's that big girl in the t-shirt. And then they're going to be back thinking about themselves again. "Oh, don't I look great in the mirror," you know, like, so I really realized that people really don't spend that much time thinking about you.

Rita Black: I know it's hard to take that in, you know, it's hard like that. People pretty much for kid care less about you, they're all in their own drama and their own concerns, but it's very freeing once you kind of get over that because it's like, "Oh, they don't care about me so I can wear whatever I want and I can do whatever I want." And I highly recommend you start to take that attitude. Like, yeah, they really don't care about you. So what are you worried about? Even if you're walking along the road, you know, they might think about you. Oh, there's that lady in the pink sweatsuit. Wow. Okay, great. Now I'm back to my own drama and my, my own day. So, you know, you're not that important in people's minds, except maybe your loved ones. So don't worry about what people think of you. What they're thinking about you is really none of your business. What you think about yourself is all your business, and you should start, you should think some better thoughts and we're going to get into that.

Rita Black: Okay. And then habit. Habits. Sleeping in - that's a habit. Coming home and pouring a glass of wine and sitting on the couch - that's a habit. You know, we get into these habits that are patterns that then just get parked in our subconscious mind. Our mind thinks this works just great for me. Don't rock the boat. Don't get in my face here. Just leave me alone and let me just repeat this pattern over and over and over again, even if it's causing you to gain weight and feel unhealthy and feel like a couch potato.

Rita Black: Okay. So here is, let's start at identity because our identity is at the root of all transformation. I know that a lot of people don't think about our identity so much, but you have a lot of different identities in your mind. You know, you might be, wherever you live, that's an identity. I'm a Californian and I'm a Southern Californian and I'm a Los Angelan. So those are all different identities. I even live in this area, it's kind of I'm between Korea town and in this place called Larchmont village in Los Angeles. And so, it's a beautiful little historic, because, you know, it's one of the older areas of Los Angeles. You know, and I bought my house the year the earthquake and the riots, like after the LA riots in the nineties. And this area is like changed and transformed. And a lot of people come in poured a lot of love into my area. I love where I live, but so I'm also a member of this community. So, and I've been here a very long time and I've really given a lot to the community. So I am, you know, I, we live in this place called St. Andrew's square. So I'm, you know, I'm a St Andrew's person. I'm a Larchmont person. I'm a Korea town person. You know, I work in the Wilshire area, I'm a Wilshire person. So I have a lot of identities that way. I'm a mom, I'm a business woman, I'm a hypnotherapist. I'm a weight master. I'm a weight apprentice. I'm a wife. You know, I'm an advocate for girls. I am, you know, the, you know, the mother of somebody going to Berkeley, like those are all identities and you probably have hundreds of identities.

Rita Black: And if you've struggled with exercise, that's an identity is that I don't like exercise, or I'm a pouch potato, or I'm lazy that when it comes to exercise - that is an identity. I am, you know, I don't like to sweat, you know, that, that becomes a bit of an identity in your mind, and I can totally relate because I used to see myself as a couch potato. So one thing that we can start to do is transform our identity. And that is something that you just choose in a moment, you know. It's not something that you have to prove to yourself. You can transform your identity just by saying so, and starting to think of yourself differently. You know, like if you ever got married and you said, I do all of a sudden, you're a spouse instead of a single person, right? And you're not trying not to be single your now adapting to this new identity of being a wife or a husband, or, you know, or if you were a student and then you went into your profession. Now, all of a sudden you are teacher, or you're a nurse, or you're a lawyer, or you're a, manager, or your, you know, you, you step into an identity and you begin to live into it.

Rita Black: So this, the idea that I would have for you to start to step into is I am a, "I'm moving in the direction of being an exerciser." You know, like you don't have to say, "I am an exerciser" because your mind probably won't accept that because your mind will say, "Well, that's not true." But you can say, "I'm an apprentice of exercise," "I'm a beginning exerciser," "I'm a novice exerciser.," "I am a novice fitness person.," "I'm a new fitness advocate." You can find a title that fits for you, you know, play around. You're smart. But what you're doing is opening up a little door in your brain, and it's not even a door, it's a little space. Like you want to think of it as your exercise room that you're creating in your brain. And you're giving that a label, like saying, okay, I'm stepping into being an apprentice of exercise. That means like I'm starting. I don't have to be, you know, working out six days a week, but I'm starting to see myself and saying to yourself, I'm moving in the direction of this opens up your brain too, because it doesn't freak your brain out too much. It's like moving into direction is like, oh, I'm open to this idea. I'm getting started. It's not scary, like have to do it this second, but it, but it starts to plant a seed in your brain and it will grow. Okay?

Rita Black: Now, now let's talk about this belief of exercise sucks and it's hard and all of that stuff. When you have not been exercising or moving your body too much, the idea of moving your body, probably isn't going to seem that pleasant. And I find a lot of times with people, we frame it to ourselves so negatively that who would want to exercise, right? Like we think of sweating. We think of like putting on the clothes. We think of waking up early and it's cold and putting the clothes on, in the cold, or waking up and driving to the gym or going out in the outside where it's cold or it's hot, or, you know, like the, what we focus on, you know, you create what you focus on. So usually, what I find that people focus on with exercise totally turns their brain off to the idea of exercise. So maybe you can think about like, how you have been thinking about exercise and ask yourself, "Is the way I'm framing it to myself inviting, or is it discouraging?"

Rita Black: There are three parts to exercise. And, you know, if you want to look at the three aspects of exercise there, there's the time that you spend getting ready to go and exercise, meaning putting on some exercise clothes, maybe, you know, getting your home gym set up, or maybe, going outside or driving to a place, to like a gym or a track to workout. So next after we think about the pre-exercise part, a lot of times where we will focus is on the exercise part, like the actual physical movement. Now, if we haven't been moving for a while, we might have these negative fantasies of ourselves, like really being physically uncomfortable during an exercise class or sweating profusely, or ache, having aches and pains, or being out of breath or having our heart beating too fast. Right. So we might have negative fantasies or negative hallucinations, about the actual physical part of physical exertion, you know? So that might be, or you might have a memory of, you know, walking the last time and maybe you had arthritis or something, and it was really hurting you. And so your mind will focus on that. Or like I said, the beginning part of the exercise, like trying to get going. So the last part of the exercise scenario is usually where people aren't going to focus, which is on how awesome you feel at the end of your exercise session, how wonderful it feels to have moved your body, to have connected your mind and body and any, I mean, to be honest with you, once you start moving the actual moving part of exercise, once you get a positive memory of it going, that is going to pull you into exercise, because there is nothing like your brain and body working together in unison, for a feeling of empowerment and, exercise is one of those things that instantly brings you confidence, confidence about yourself, confidence about your physicality. It's one of the things that can quickly change. How you stand and how you feel. So really, but the last part of the exercise equation is really where I would have people focus on, you know, when they want to seduce themselves into the idea of exercise. When you're laying in bed in the morning, you don't want to think about getting out of bed and getting into the cold clothes and out to exercise. What I focus on all the time that gets me is how awesome I am going to feel all day long because I moved my body in the morning. Or if it's, if it's at night that I'm choosing to exercise how amazing I'm going to feel after I've removed all the stress from my day from a good workout session. So focusing on that end point changes, you know, we, all we have in our life is our focus.

Rita Black: And, and if we choose to focus on negative things, it's going to create a negative feeling in our body. It's going to create a negative emotion in our body. You know, our mind not going to want to do it. But if we focus on the aspects of exercise that pull us forward, how good we're going to feel about ourselves, how confident we're going to feel. And I'm going to get into some ways that you can get yourself into doing this, but I just wanted you to, I just wanted you to know that maybe part of the reason that you haven't gotten yourself going is where your focus is, is in the wrong place. You're focusing on negative ideas and fantasies and hallucinations versus really focusing your brain on the powerful part of exercise and the feel good part of exercise. And I always tell people, if you can exercise for three days, if you can just do three days, even if you're doing 10 minutes of exercise, your brain will, your brain and body will start to those, those hormones that are admitted, that the neurotransmitters that are engaged, you'll start to get getting addicted to exercise. And, you know, people, a lot of people are, you know, you can call them exercise nuts, exercise addicts, but they, because they've gotten hooked, on that feel good, feeling that feeling of, especially, in the middle of exercise or after exercise, but don't focus in the wrong place, especially if you're trying to get yourself engaged and going.

Rita Black: Now, let's talk about the habit, you know, starting a habit of exercise. One thing I have found, and again, you know, I have a lot of experiences with working with people, because like I said, I've been doing what I do and helping people with managing their weight for 20 years. That's a lot of people folks, and I've seen a lot of people in the beginning of their weight release journeys and something that a lot of people will do is when they have not been exercising, what they will do is they will say, well, I'm going to start exercising. And then they'll have really huge expectations of what they need to do in order to get going. Like, so somebody might, I will, you know, be in a conversation with somebody who say, okay, you know, how much are you planning to start out? And, you know, like, what's your exercise goals? Well, I thought I'd start out, five days a week, minimum about an hour a day. And I'm like, okay. When was the last time that you had an exercise routine going? Oh, I have not had an exercise routine for seven years. Okay. You know, and then there, that's my job to start to move their minds from this idea of something that they're not going to do. You know, I mean, you might get an exercise routine going that is an hour, a day, five days a week, and you might succeed at that for a week, but most people have to it, their brain, if they think about, if you haven't moved for a long time and then you think about moving an hour a day, you know, first of all, creating that time in your schedule. But secondly, following through on that, especially after working out for an hour, the first day, you're going to be sore. You're going to, you know, there's going to be a lot of adjustments that your body's going to have to make and your brain is going to get overwhelmed. And it's going to shut down and say, it's going to say no. So I think one of the main reasons that you might not have started an exercise routine is your expectations are too big of what you need to do to get started. That I see that is a very common thing.

Rita Black: The other thing is if you were very fit in the past, like if you were an athlete. I've worked with Olympic athletes who you know, were incredibly fit and had very high fitness goals and achievements, and then something happened like they were in an accident and then they were sedentary for a while or something happened in their lives where they got out of the routine, or, you know, they won the gold medal or whatever. And they, you know, they were a coach, but they hadn't been really exercising themselves too much. You know, they just got busy with life, raising kids, doing whatever. And then, then they're very ashamed and they're holding themselves to the old exercise standard. And it doesn't even have to be an Olympic athlete. I'm just talking about anybody who, you know, played football in high school or basketball, or, you know, was fit in their twenties. And they were jogging every day or running marathons, and then it stopped. And, and then they got out of shape that what will happen is they'll hold themselves to that. I've got to get back to that place right now. And they allow their past fitness levels to keep them from starting an exercise regime, because they're just like, it's too big. It's too overwhelming. Again. It's just too much. It's too overwhelming. They have to start work from where they are. And they have to love themselves where they are because a lot of people, if they had an incredibly fit body at some point, and then they look down and they see themselves out of shape there's a certain amount of resentment. They hold against themselves and body for, you know, not being perfect. And I kind of have to say, you got to kind of forgive yourself. It is what it is you are where you are now, love yourself, where you are and start from where you are. And the good news is, you know, you know how to exercise and you will be able to get going and you will be fit.

Rita Black: And, you know, we go through different areas of our life, you know, I'm in my fifties and I'm, I have different expectations of my body than I did when I was in my forties. And in my thirties, I had zero expectations of my body in my twenties. No, I'm kidding. But you know, like I was, you know, struggling so much with my weight. And I mean, I remember going to exercise classes and leaving the exercise class halfway through the class. I was like, oh, I'm just going to leave. And I'll, I'll come back later and I'll do the full class tomorrow. I never did. I got so in the habit of leaving exercise classes early, I don't know what was up with that. But anyway, that was my struggle story. But, you know, so forgive yourself for where you're at, love yourself for where you're at and get going for where you're at, wherever you're at is fine. And I assure you that once you start going, then you will build on that. So start with something there. There's a power in doing what you say you're going to do, even if it's a little bit, I mean, I've had people, I've had people so resistant to exercise. I said, all you need to do the first time is go to the gym and get on the treadmill. You don't even need to turn it on and then leave the gym, you know, like, just get into the gym and just turn on the treadmill and that you can call exercise, or just go to the end of the block and walk back. And we will call that exercise for the first week. You can do that every day for five days. You know, and I literally, I had this hospice nurse who had diabetes and she really needed to lose 50 pounds. And she really needed to start exercising just to help with her blood sugar levels. And she literally was so out of shape. That was what she did. She literally walked down to the end of the block and back for maybe for the first week and a half. And then she started going around the block, but you know, what happened was she started a habit of every night after dinner. She just would go down and go to the end of the block and come back. And she called that her exercise and that built so that by the end of the summer, she was walking a mile. And then, you know, we live in California. She was still walking outside in the winter time. Her husband started going with her and she released 50 pounds, you know, but it started building. I have someone in our community now who just started 10 minutes a day. And then now she's doing an hour, hour and 15 minutes a day, five days a week, you know, but it started by saying, "I'm just going to do 10 minutes", "You do 10 minutes." You start to move your body. Your body starts to get used to it. You start to get the benefits of the feel-good hormones and you do what you say you're going to do. And you build that confidence. So start little and build rather than starting with these big, huge expectations.

Rita Black: The other thing that might be getting in your way as you're trying for, the wrong time of the day. I hear this again and again to, oh, I'm going to wake up at three o'clock in the morning because you wake up at five o'clock to get and fight traffic and get to work. And, you know, sometimes I'm a really big believer in the path of least resistance. Right? So, it would be really awesome if we could all wake up at 3:00 AM in the morning. Some people do it. I am not one of those people. But if you are all the power to you, but it could be that you're just setting yourself up for failure because you're setting up really unrealistic expectations of when, some people, the opposite would be true that the afternoon, they get home and they're just too tired from their day. And maybe that the morning is going to be better for them. So you've need to find the right time. You know, sometimes lunchtime works out being the best time of day. But you know, you can start to be creative about your time as well. Like for some clients I'll recommend, Hey, why don't you break it into three, you know, three, 10 minute sessions, three, you know, walk around the block a couple of times or jog, or, you know, do your thing in the morning for about 10 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes at lunchtime. And, you know, 10 to 15 minutes when you get home just to get started and get going, and then maybe you can build from there once you get going. And many people find that this, you know, there's over a half hour of movement and that burns calories that gets them going, gets them, you know, feeling that they they're moving in the right direction.

Rita Black: So start to think about the time and maybe think if you haven't been waking up and you said you were going to be waking up instead of making, beating yourself up about it and saying, I'm lazy because I'm not waking up in the morning, say for, maybe I need to find a different time. You know, I will go to the gym at 10 o'clock at night sometimes. And, and it's because I've had a long day. I got home late. I eat dinner, you know, at seven I digest and I, you know, maybe get a little work done or I hang out with my husband and then I'm like, I'm off to the gym and sometimes he'll come with me. And it's so great because it's just a way to, you know, really work out, get this the stress of the day off of me, come home, take a shower, get to bed. And I sleep really well. So, you know, that's another myth. I think people are afraid to work out late at night because they're afraid that it will impact their sleep. It makes me sleep like a baby. I don't know about you, but so, you know, you really gotta find the right time for you and the right time might not be a conventional time.

Rita Black: So think about that and think that through here's some tools to get going. Like I said, make it easy for yourself. Think it through the night before. So, you know, if you're used to showing up to your day and your day is not an exercise day, you're going to want to engage your mind first and practice it before you do it. I know when I do these podcasts, I think it through ahead of time, because, you know, just to come and sit down and start talking to you, I have to kind of, you know, I have to prepare my mind, you know, before I teach a class, I have to prepare my mind, you know, athletes, before they go on the field, they have to prepare their mind.

Rita Black: If you're going to be doing something new, you need to think it through. And you know, if there's some resistance coming up, talk yourself through it. Focus on, you know. I know it's going to be new. I know it might not feel, you know, the most comfortable we're stretching ourselves. It's okay. You want to have a little inner coach talk with yourself. You know, you want to be your own best friend about this. You don't want to criticize yourself. You don't want to rebel. You want to say, "Hey, I'm with you. And we can do this and we're going to feel so awesome when we're done and I'm going to be so proud of you when you're done." You know, really talk yourself through it, think it through, pep yourself up, you know, really engage. Make it easy. Think it through the night before, like I said, or think it through, if you're going to come home and do it, think it through like on your way home, you know, get yourself prepared for it. Okay. I'm going to go home. I'm going to put my shoes on. It's going to feel so great.

Rita Black: Have a vision of yourself, fitter and more toned exercising, like have a positive vision of that. You, you are becoming by becoming more physically active that will help get the dopamine center in your brain engaged and working for you.

Rita Black: Focus on the end. Like I said, keep the end in mind, keep that feeling of what you want in mind.

Rita Black: And here's something that I think is such a powerful tool is have a comeback for your resistance, because you will have resistance, especially in the beginning. I, you know, the good thing about your inner rebel, that part of you, that kind of sabotages your health attempts. You know, it's clever sometimes, but it's not that clever. It doesn't, you know, it's smart, it's aggressive, it's seductive, but, they come up with the same things all the time. Like my inner rebel, you know, if I work a day and I haven't worked out in the morning, and I've planned to come home and work out, you know, in the evening, you know, I know what my interrupt is going to say. "Oh, you're too tired. Oh, you've worked out already a few times this week. You're good. You don't need to do it tonight." You know? But not that creative. So I have a comeback, you know, I, when my inner rebel says, oh, you're so tired. And then I say, yeah, and think of how awesome I'm going to feel when I get out of that spin class. And I'm completely energized and mellow from all those feel good hormones going through my brain. I'm going to feel way better than I do right now. Would you exercise a lot this week? I was like, but I'm a person. You know, I have an identity. I am a person who works out five to six days a week and that's who I am. And I, I love that. So, you know, I have a comeback. So you know that part of your brain, that's like, "Oh, let's just hit the snooze alarm and keep going." It's like, no, I want to feel driving in my car this morning. I'm going to feel that energy going through my body because I worked out today and I won't be sleepy and groggy. I'm going to be wake and alive and not just in my head, I'm going to be in my whole dang body because I went for that walk this morning. So let's get this out of bed and let's get going. Okay.

Rita Black: Set your environment up for success. What can I say? That is at the root of all successful change. Right? So get those exercise clothes out, get those shoes out. So when you wake up in the morning and you see those things you get in 'em, or you have them ready when you get home. You know, I come home and if I'm going to work out that night, I change out of my work clothes, right into my workout clothes. Now I might not go and work out for two or three hours, but I got them on. And, and I know before I take them off, I'm going to have worked out. So, you know, or if I wake up really early, like sometimes I'll wake up at, you know, what I consider an ungodly hour to go hiking in the morning, you know, before work, sometimes, you know, I have everything laid out, so it's just super easy. I can get dressed super quick and get out of the house so I can get as much sleep as I can before I wake my dog up and my dog's like, are you crazy? But, you know, now he's like, okay. Yep, we're going. So you know, make it easy for yourself, get your clothes all ready.

Rita Black: And get yourself some fun clothes and exercise gadgets. There's nothing as sad as having like saddled exercise clothes. I mean, you know, you're worth it. And, exercise clothes are not that expensive. I think having a new, a pair of exercise sweats, or a new exercise bra, you know, they're really cool, and getting a gadget. I think that will be really helpful for you to feel like you're really committing to something.

Rita Black: Stretch. There's some great YouTube stretch, you know, if you just put in stretching for lower back stretching for your legs. You know, take care of your body too. I know now that I'm in my fifties, I'm really working not just on, fitness levels, but mobility and balance and all of those things that start to get going when, when you get to my age. I mean, not that 50 is- I mean, 50 is the new thirties. Okay? But, you know, I hear all of you, 50 gals and guys, you know, yeah. 50 is the new thirties, but you know, when you're healthy, when you're fit, when you're feeling good, you can feel awesome in your fifties and your sixties and your seventies and your eighties. I mean, like, I'm telling you my mother-in-law, she plays tennis every day and she's 86 years old. I'm like, I look at her, I'm like, "I want to be you when I grow up." It's, you know, but she's taking care of herself and she's, you know, you got to stretch, you got to, you know, focus on your wellbeing. Okay.

Rita Black: Now, what else do I have for you here? What else do I have for you here? Oh, have a mantra. Have a mantra of, you know, like, "I am enjoying moving my body," "I'm enjoying being in my body." Walking before breakfast, "I love to walk before breakfast." You know, something that you can just repeat to yourself over and over again, that starts to get into your mind, you know.

Rita Black: Get a buddy support, you know, walk. I just interviewed, somebody, Mickey Marraffino, and she was, she started this walking and talking where it, she didn't want, she wasn't near her friends. Like she wasn't close to her friends during COVID. But they would go out and separately walk and they would have a, you know, she had like a, oh my gosh, she had her phone and they would just be on the phone with her headset. And they would be talking while they were walking as if they were walking together, which I thought was such a great idea. So don't say, well, I don't have anybody who will walk with me. Maybe you just have somebody who will talk with you while you walk or we'll walk and talk with you. Or get an exercise buddy. I know I've had such great exercise partners and, you know, it really builds our relationship to meet every week. And we, and you know, you kind of get into this deep state when you're walking with somebody or hiking with somebody where you talk about everything under the sun. It's such a great thing. It's kind of like therapy. So get an exercise buddy. It's it really. It changes your life. You know, you can check out Facebook groups for people in, you know, groups in your area, be safe with that. But, I know that there are areas here in California, where there are walking groups and hiking groups and stuff like that. Not so much during COVID, but now that we're coming out of COVID, I think we'll see a lot more of that again to.

Rita Black: Break it up. Like I said, 10 minutes, 10 minutes, 10 minutes. If you want to do stuff like put your weights by your tea kettle, that's what I do. I lift weights while I'm waiting for my water to boil, you know, just to get it in, in little bits. It doesn't have to be these big, huge workouts.

Rita Black: So, also you can do some exercise while you watch TV at night, you can do your stretching at that time. That's what I do. You can, you can lift weights then, or, I like to do my standing up exercises and my, like sit ups and stuff like that while I'm watching TV, because I mean, I'm not eating. You're not eating when you exercise. Well, that's not true. Some people can do both, but, you know what I'm saying? And I'm being funny.

Rita Black: Dance! You know, turn on music and just dance around your kitchen. I've done that many times too. You know, I'll get up in the middle of a workday and, you know, yell out a Bruce Springsteen song or a classic rock song, and dance around. And for five to 10 minutes, get my heart rate up and then I'll get back to work. And even just doing enough of those a day, that's, that's a workout. So you can start just moving your body.

Rita Black: So, I hope this has been helpful to get you moving. And I hope that you enjoy moving into the rest of this week also. I just wanted to let you know that I am offering a $5 off my exercise hypnosis pack. It's in the Shifts Store and that link will be in the show notes along with the coupon code. And it's a great, people love this. It's three actual hypnosis sessions. One is called, "Get up and Exercise" or get up. It's a morning exercise session that literally is five minutes long. You listen to it and it gets you to get out of bed in the morning. So talk about motivation. The second session is the "Desire to Exercise", and this really gets you engaged in wanting to exercise. And then one is it's called "Continuing to Exercise", but really what it is is it's about coming home and exercising. It's actually a car session that you can listen to in your car as you're coming home. And it's me kind of walking you through and getting you excited about coming home to exercise. So check out the show notes if you're interested in getting some hypnosis to get going. Those are really great sessions. Otherwise have an awesome week and I hope that you enjoy getting going, or if you've been going, you continue to enjoy the summer. The summer is the best time to be out there outside and moving, having an amazing week. And remember that the key and probably the only key to unlocking the door of the weight struggle is inside you. So keep listening and find it.

Rita Black: Do you want to dive deeper into the mindset of long-term weight release? Head on over to www.shiftweightmastery.com where you'll find numerous tools and resources to help you unlock your mind for permanent weight release, tips, strategies, and more, and be sure to check the show notes to learn more about my book From Fat to Thin Thinking: Unlock Your Mind For Permanent Weight Loss.