Rita Black: Have you totally been crushing your weight release efforts during the week, but then undoing all the progress you made on the weekend? Do you feel like a hamster stuck in an endless cycle of being good during the week and then bad on the weekend? Then, this week's podcast is something you must listen to. I'll share with you my three mind hacks to avoid overeating on the weekends. Better yet, you'll also learn how to have a great time on the weekends while releasing weight or maintaining your weight.

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. Sound good? Let's get started.

Rita Black: Hello. Hello. Hello. Happy, happy autumn. Well, if you are listening to this in the autumn, that's when I'm recording it. And, as speaking of the weekend, the weekend is coming up and then this upcoming weekend is my winter garden time to really start planning it. So, I'm really excited. I had my first winter garden last year. And for those of you who don't know what a winter garden is, in California, we, you know, plant certain things during the summer, but then we plant things in the winter because the climate is so mild here. We can grow. So, we have an extended growing season. Don't hate me. I know. It's really awesome, but you know, those of you who live in the colder climates have an amazing summer, and it's so hot here, we're very limited in what we can grow. So, maybe we can grow tomatoes and some squash, but all those things like broccoli and cauliflower and cabbage really do better in the winter. So, last winter I discovered, you know, I got really excited and, you know, planted some stuff, but, you know, I had some epic fails. And so I'm really looking forward to learning more about how to master the winter garden. And as you guys know, if you've been listening to me, I'm all about mastery and weight mastery, and now gardening mastery. And, you know, I've killed a lot of plants on my way to learning, to be a better gardener. And, you know, that's the same thing with our weekends, right?

Rita Black: You know, I think what happens is we get into stuck into these, this mindset of, you know, being good during the week. And then we typically, and, you know, I see it again and again, in my clients and members of my community, you know, we can fall apart on the weekends. You know, people are like, if I could only be awesome on my weight management during the weekend, then you know, I wouldn't struggle so much. I would get that consistency I really want to get. But we get stuck in this mindset. We get stuck in a habit of saying, screw it. And I'll start again on Monday. But then the problem is we kind of lose our weekends. We overeat, we feel bad, we have negative self-talk and it all becomes a hot mess.

Rita Black: So I'm mastering my garden. I'm getting a little coaching from somebody this weekend. Who's going to come in and look at the dirt, seriously, looking deep into the dirt and looking at all the different levels and balances of, of the dirt for those of you garden, you know what I'm talking about, nitrogen balance and you know, all the other balances. And then I also, they're going to give me some coaching on sunlight and shade and all of that stuff. And really, I'm going to give you some coaching on the weekends, some awesome coaching. I have a coaching session we're going to dive into and really we're going to start at really three mind hacks that I think are really going to help you break through and start to create some consistency on the weekends. So, I hope this serves you, so let's get going.

Rita Black: So, that's why we want to start to leverage our brain more effectively to get the weekends in the right place so that you can just stay consistent with your weight release, because you already know how to lose weight. You just need to learn now, then break those habits and patterns that get you out of that consistency. So, number one, before we even get into number one, know that you can do that. You know, like that you have that ability and you are not a weight struggle, or you're a powerful person who is now on your journey of weight mastery.

Rita Black: So number one is, okay, this is how we start to use our mind more effectively. You want to create a weekend vision meditation. This doesn't have to be complicated. You don't have to go to school to learn how to have weekend meditation. It's really quite simple, but you must be consistent with it, especially in the beginning as you're breaking these patterns. So, what the weekend meditation would look like is you on Friday morning, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning having the same vision. And the vision is you Sunday night, feeling light, lean, and that you completely took care of yourself that entire weekend. You exercise. You ate healthfully. Even if you went out and saw friends and were social, you ate and enjoyed yourself, but you didn't go over your, what your goals were for that particular event. And we'll get into that in a second.

Rita Black: So, you want to have a vision of the end of the weekend in mind. You want to start with the end in mind. You don't want to go into the weekend hoping it's going to be good. Hoping, hope is not a method as my health teacher in high school, Mr. Spacey would tell us he was like with birth control. He was like, hope is not a method children. So it's the same with weight management. Hope is not a method for weight management. You guys, you don't want to hope that you're going to be good this weekend. You want to create this weekend, right? And you start it in your mind. And you started with a meditation of a vision of ending your weekend fabulously and not just a vision, but a feeling of what that would feel like going to bed Sunday night, light, lean, feeling good in your body. Because what that does is it excites your higher level reward center. Your dopamine brain will go, Ooh, that sounds good. That feels good. How do we create that? How do we get, how do we get Rita to that feeling? Let's let's think that through. And let's figure that out. Your brain is amazing and we'll figure it out for you, but you gotta tell it where you want to go or else it will go, oh yeah, we want to go the same place. We always go every weekend more of the same place, right? So we want to say no, no, no, no brain. We don't want to do that because that leads to pain. We want to go there because that leads to pleasure. Feeling good and light on Sunday night. Okay. That's one vision meditation. So you want to keep it Friday, Saturday. You want to have, okay. Yes. Even Sunday morning. You want to go, okay, I'm going in there and just really get in the habit of doing that every weekend. It will change your life. I swear.

Rita Black: Oh, here it goes. We're going to happen. Okay. Good. Create your healthy weekend. What do I mean by that? So your weekend is a creation. It isn't just, it happens. You can either, you know, like the world has a plan for you. Let me tell you. And it is not a slimming one, right? Your life has a plan for you. You know, if you just went and lived your weekend, it is not a slimming one. It's one that's going to set you up for more of the same. So, when I say create your weekend, I mean, you really want to think your weekend through where are you going to exercise? How are you going to feed yourself effectively through your weekend? You know, you might need to go out shopping on Friday to make sure you have the healthy stuff ready for you, but it starts in your mind, like, what am I going to do to create this healthy weekend? It ain't going to just happen. You got to create it first. Anything you've really gotten in your life, you've created in your mind first. You want to create your healthy weekend.

Rita Black: Now, this is, the distinction is you're creating your healthy weekend. You're not depriving yourself. You know? Cause I think a lot of times with weight loss, we think like, oh, well I can't eat my, I can't eat that stuff at that restaurant. I like, because I'm trying to lose weight. Right. Or I can't have fun at that party because I can't eat that stuff that I love to eat. Or I can't like my Sunday morning because I can't have my cinnamon rolls to the right. So what you're looking at when you're saying I can't have, and I shouldn't have, and I gotta be good is deprivation. And deprivation brain is a sad brain. Right? And it's like, and that it, that trip wires, what I call your inner rebel and your inner rebel is a very, very good, oh, your inner rebel is so good, as smooth talking to you and to doing what it wants you to do, which is more of the same. Oh, come on. You only live once. Oh, this party. They're not, you, you've not been a party. Like you go, oh, look, all your friends are doing it. They're fine. You'll start again on Monday. You'll be fine. You're going to be perfect on Monday. Right? You know that voice. So get that voice out of your head and, and get your inner coach's voice in your head. I love our inner coach. Our inner coach is so powerful and our inner coach is a creator. And when we think creatively, you can have an amazing weekend where you let down your hair, you have a fabulous time and you still stay within your weight loss goals. You have every ability to do that. You know, like I've been managing my weight for 25 years. I had a really good time. You know, like I eat what I like to eat. Like I enjoy, I, I eat, you know, like I enjoy and I figured it out. You figure it out by being creative, not by being, deleting. You want to think of it as like evolving something powerful for yourself. There's many ways to do that, but you start by creating it and having that attitude, the rest will follow, but you got to start with that. You're not deprived. You're not a victim of anything. You are a powerful creator. All right.

Rita Black: Now the next thing is to mentally practice your challenges. And this is very, very important. And what do I mean by this? I mean that there are times in your weekend when you're fine, you know, and you're, they'll, you know, you got it down. But there are times when you are vulnerable. Most of us who struggle with weight are only struggling with our weight, a very small amount of the time, you know, that 80%, 20% rule, it kind of applies to weight management. We, that the 20% behaviors and beliefs are what are kind of keeping us stuck, you know, it with our frustrating weight struggle cycle. So, what you want to do by mentally practicing your challenges is to become aware of like, well, I actually have these vulnerable points that most of the time when I go through, like, I go to a dinner party or go out to eat, or it's Sunday morning and it's bagel time or whatever that you become more vulnerable to overeating. And you want to understand that you want to go, okay, I get that. That's a problem time for me. I'm not the problem, but that's a pattern that doesn't work for me that now I want to solve. So you want to start to think those times through, and, but you want what you want to do. And this is the distinction is to give yourself an alternative route because all your brain right knows right now is the pattern that you're giving it. The, which is, you know, what, whatever that is, you know, go to the restaurant, order the thing that you didn't really mean to, but you did because it sounded good. Go to the party, have three extra drinks. And you know, then binge eat you know, when you get home, you know, like whatever your patterns are then you want to start to create an alternative pattern that is going to help you, you know, make that change because your brain won't just, if it doesn't have an alternative route, it's just not going to, it's going to go well, but this is what I know.

Rita Black: So, you want to say, well, no, but this is what we're going to do. Now, I'm going to go to the party and I'm not going to start by having an alcoholic beverage. I'm going to start by having water and then maybe I'll have an alcoholic beverage, but I'll sip on it slowly. And I'm only going to have one, but I'm going to really enjoy it. And then I'm going to, you know, make sure that when I come home, I have something relaxing and lovely to do, like take a hot bath so that I have that all thought through. And this is my alternative route brain let's do that because that's going to feel a lot better. That's going to get me to Sunday night. Do you see how the distinction of like trying not to drink at the party versus like, Ooh, I've got this lovely night planned out for myself. And this sounds a lot better than over drinking, over eating, coming home, feeling sick and losing feeling in hating ourselves the next morning. This is so self-caring. It sounds like fun. I can still go out and have a drink and let my hair down and connect with people and really enjoy myself talking. I can come home and have a wonderful bath and really let my hair down. Then you're giving your brain alternative routes.

Rita Black: So that's what the mental practice does, is it's kind of like what you're doing in your brain is you're watching a movie, you know, your mind can't separate fantasy from reality. So you want to play that movie through a couple of times of what you're going to do. You can first start with what you usually do, which is, you know, maybe if you do go to the party and you overdrink it, and then you overeat when you get home and then you go to bed and you feel full and you wake up the next morning, you want to play that movie through to the very end and go see this sprout, doesn't end up in a happy place, you know? And you want to really feel the feelings of going through that route. Your brain will usually only look at oh, drinks. That sounds fun. You know, it doesn't think the whole thing through it will just go, oh yeah, there's peanut this sounds great. You know, it's not thinking, oh, three peanut later. And then, you know, a bunch of pizza and whatever was in the refrigerator that, you know, I didn't even taste, but I ate, the next morning. It doesn't think that far. So we want to force our brain to think that far ahead. So it's like, oh yeah, that's not so good. What could we do? Oh, here we go. We're going to the party. And we're having classical water for refreshing, having that drink that unwinds us just enough to connect with our friends. And we're sitting there and we're eating something healthy and making those great choices, maybe having a few bites, but not a full dessert. Like, you know, like thinking it through for yourself, exactly what you want to create coming home, taking that bath, waking up Sunday morning and feeling fantastic.

Rita Black: So then the brain's like, Ooh, that sounds good. Okay. Let's try that. Now. It might take you following that film through a few times because you've been using the play that you've been playing that other film for a long time. It's been on syndication in your mind. So you want to bring your mind through this new television series. Hey, this is the series. This is the new series with that, that ends up with the happy ending. And it's all good. And this is your new starring role in your new television series of long-term permanent weight management.

Rita Black: Okay. So have your vision meditation, do it every day, create your healthy weekend, think it through and really plan. You know, like this is a present you're giving yourself not something that you're depriving yourself with and, and, you know, mentally practice those challenges. That's when you know, athletes get better by, by going over the things that don't work, musicians, you know. It's hard to look at what doesn't work. It's hard for our egos to look at like this doesn't work for me, but you know, when you offer them an alternative route, then the mind does follow through.

Rita Black: I hope you have found this really helpful. Go ahead and subscribe to my channel because I have a lot of helpful hints, especially about using your mind more effectively to really change the patterns that are, you know, hurting your long-term permanent weight mastery, also shifting beliefs, and, and the way you, you even see yourself that is, you know, really ultimately long term. Your being successful is not about being good. It is not about being perfect. It's about changing your inner communication system, how you communicate with yourself and how you use your mind more effectively. You have a very powerful mind that can really help you achieve long-term permanent weight mastery. You just need some tools to get your mind working in that right way. There's nothing wrong with you. You have every ability to be healthy, to be happy to, to communicate with yourself, powerfully, be confident, healthy, slim, and powerful, but get started and it start by believing in yourself. You can do this.

Rita Black: All right. Well, I am off to think and dream about my winter garden. I hope those tools are going to serve you this coming weekend and in all the weekends to come. Don't give up on yourself. You guys, this is really these tools are there for you. And even if you try them on and they don't work the first time, keep at it. This is really a journey of tenacity and believing in yourself and stepping outside of that old box that we keep ourselves in. And, I really hope that the weekends upcoming in this autumn, or if you're listening to this in the spring, or whenever you're listening to this, start to turn around for you and you find that consistency and, really find the deep joy in showing up for yourself every single day of the week. All right. So have an amazing week and remember, and weekend. 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: Thanks for listening to the thin thinking podcast. Did that episode go by way too fast for you? If so, and 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 and to learn how to subscribe to the podcast so that you will never miss an episode.