Rita Black: Ginny Kent has a story to tell. After she had released 40 pounds and reached her ideal weight, she discovered that she had breast cancer. Join me in my conversation with shift member, Ginny Kent, who will tell us her weight release story, but also talk about how she used a blood glucose monitor to help her get clear on what foods worked and didn't work for her as well as how she was able to manage her weight through a breast cancer diagnosis treatment and beyond. Come on in and hear Ginny's story of curiosity and grit.

Ginny Kent: 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, bestselling 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: Hello, their friends. Come on in. I told you that I was a little overwhelmed by September because I'd had so much going on, but it has been such an amazing month. And I wanna thank you all for the warm birthday wishes and your responses to some of our podcasts this month. Thank you. I have my free masterclass coming up this Wednesday, the 28th, September 2022 and it's called How To Break Through the Weight Struggle Cycle So You Can Lose Weight Consistently and Permanently. The link is in the show notes, so sign up now! It's your last chance to get in. And now here's what we're talking about. You all know how to lose weight. It's not about that, but it's about shifting your subconscious mind. And there are three major shifts I wanna share with you that when you make them, it will change your weight release destiny.

Rita Black: Plus, we are gonna do some hypnosis. So those of you who have never tried it, or love it, please come and join us. It's free. And the link is in the show notes. Now, if you're coming in after the date, check out the show notes anyway. I always leave you some love there, some sort of free offer. So go get that.

New Speaker: And now, I am excited to introduce you to Ginny Kent, who has been in the shift community for a couple of years now. She is a really amazing woman, as you will see for. She walks us through this really amazing story of weight release blood glucose monitoring. That's a handful or mouthful managing her weight through breast cancer. And she's got such an amazing and curious outlook on life. I know that you are just gonna love my conversation with her. So please welcome Ginny Kent. Well, welcome Ginny to the Thin Thinking Podcast. Thank you so much for being here today.

Ginny Kent: Sure. I'm glad to be here. Thanks for asking.

Rita Black: Well, I am - I'm so amazed and proud and well, you have quite a shift journey and we're gonna start diving into that, but I just wanna start by saying how amazed I am by you as a human being and everything that you've been through since I've known you. You're generous person, but you're also gritty and tenacious, I will have to say, and now I'm kind of, now everybody's like, well, how is she gritty? How is she tenacious?

Ginny Kent: Superwoman! No.

Rita Black: But maybe just start by telling our audience a little bit about you and how, where you were before the shift process. Maybe start by just telling us a little bit about how you struggled with weight initially.

Ginny Kent: Sure. Well, first of all, I started the shift process about two years ago. So I'm really, haven't been doing that all this long, but it's - a lot has happened in those two years, I will say. I had zero problems with my weight, honestly, and probably until I was almost 40 years old because I was, you know, I grew up in the fifties and sixties in the Midwest. We ate good wholesome, whole food, no snacks, dessert only on Sunday, played outside, you know, all day long. And then as a teenager, I was a very serious ballerina and I had no trouble maintaining my weight and that pretty well carried over into, you know, early and middle adulthood. I didn't start having any problems. Now, in retrospect, thinking about it till I started teaching my daughter how to bake. And that was when I was about 40 and we.

Rita Black: Oh, interesting.

Ginny Kent: Yep. And we started making all of these delicious homemade goodies. I would make some of that when I was growing up, but not to the extent that that I did. And I started overeating carbs in a big way and being less active with my busy, busy children. And that's when I started gaining weight a great amount, five, ten pounds, and then I could take it off. Well, it wasn't until I became menopausal around 50 that I really started having trouble getting it off, but I could still, you know, cut way back on carbs, cut back on calories, increase my steps, and, and I could, could take it off to the extent that I wanted to. Never being as thin as I was when I was a very skinny ballerina, but, you know, just, you know, in the 120's, and I'm 5'6, so just, you know, fine.

Ginny Kent: And then I went through a period as a new empty nester. I had my children late, and so we're talking, getting - in my mid to late fifties of being an empty nester. And that's when I started emotional eating. So to speak, feeling pretty stressed out is if I didn't have anything, you know, that was really meaningful to do anymore. Except I continued to eat a lot of carbs and I gained a fair amount of weight. And I found myself at age 60 being about 40 pounds overweight. Well, I couldn't stand that and didn't let that stand for more than a couple of weeks and started doing fitbit and counting calories and logging all my food and doing everything which I've been doing now for about almost 10 years.

Rita Black: Right.

Ginny Kent: Even before I started the shift process and got most of it off, but I'd still, you know, anytime I would go on vacation and eat carbs to a big extent, I could easily put the weight back on. Well then, COVID pandemic habit. And just like, you know, so many people, I gained about 15 pounds. I was so stressed. My husband's a practicing physician. I'm retired physician, but he's still practicing. My daughter's a practicing physician, so is her husband. They were being exposed and I was terrified of what was gonna happen. And I was just eating nonstop and gained about 15 pounds. And then, I got this email about the shift inviting me to do it. I had looked at the book, hadn't really looked at or done the program at all previously, but here I was stuck at home during COVID and it was a perfect time to do it. So in October, two years ago, started the shift, started getting the daily emails and doing the daily hypnosis and really continuing kind of what I'd been doing as far as counting calories and logging my food, but, you know, up the exercise some, and, but mostly I was doing that daily hypnosis and really committing to doing it.

Ginny Kent: And it almost seemed like magic that - very easy to stick with the program by watching the, or by listening to the meditation that folks me in the morning and the hypnosis at night. It was just, it was so relaxing, ended up being one of my favorite parts of the day. And you know, didn't get put to participating in Facebook and all of that, but I looked at everything. But I just, I really, really reson - so many things resonated with me. So many things that people would say on Facebook or things that you or someone else would say in a group. And it all of a sudden, I realized that actually I had been doing a lot of emotional eating in response to two basic situations. And one was these overwhelming to-do lists that I would have and these unrealistic expectations. And Rita talked about you know, having unrealistic expectations when she would come home from a vacation. And it was like, yeah, I do that all the time. So I worked on that. That's really one of my non-scale victories, is that I learned how to make realistic, but challenging to-do lists that I actually can actually accomplish.

Rita Black: I know. I'm just gonna stop you for a second there, just to say, I know you say it's non-scale, but it has so much to do with long-term permanent weight management.

Ginny Kent: Yep.

Rita Black: With managing your expectations. And I think something that you are, you had probably going in even before the shift, but I'm curious about - go ahead and finish your other thing, but I wanna ask you about your inner coach. So go, go ahead. But, but, but go ahead.

Ginny Kent: And then, and then the other thing was, I knew I was eating in response to being afraid. I mean, like yeah. The situation, for instance, fear of, you know, fear of COVID, fear of the unknown and, you know, those, that was, that was a big one for a lot of people during the pandemic. I mean, nobody knew what was going on and, you know, it was, I mean, fear of getting a fatal illness, you know, it was just, it was overwhelming to me and it was overwhelming about my family. And so when I realized that and could go, hmm, what's going on here? You know. Take a deep breath, which Rita calls a shift breath, but also just saying, Hmm, what's going on? I could stop and prevent myself from grabbing something to eat, because I wasn't hungry. And so, you know, over, over the course of the next six months was varying manipulations of, of my macros and what have you at different times, I lost basically a pound a week. I didn't lose it like steadily every single week. I'm the queen of plateaus. I'll go like I'll lose like four pounds and then I'll plateau for like four weeks and then I'll lose another four pounds. And, but if you look at the Fitbit average, it looks like I'm losing exactly a pound a week for six months.

Rita Black: Right.

Ginny Kent: And it was, it was the most weight I'd lost since I'd been pregnant the last time.

Rita Black: Wow. Yeah.

Ginny Kent: So it, it was, it was, it was amazing.

Rita Black: Well, I think you brought up a couple of things that was, that's interesting to me. One, I wanna point out to our listeners who, who might be like Ginny, struggling with plateaus, I find that over 45, most women release weight that way, you know. You lose it in chunks, right? You'll, you'll plateau, plateau, plateau, drop, plateau, plateau, plateau, drop. As before 45, you know, we're more used to it being easier and it kind of just, you know, coming off more steadily it, I don't know. I don't have the exact explanation why, but I've just seen that as a general trend. But something that you were also saying was that in that moment you took that shift breath, you kind of did something else, which was you reasoned with yourself and you had a moment, you slowed down the moment, and you had a conversation with yourself.

Rita Black: And in that conversation, the more mature Ginny spoke to the scared Ginny and said, it's, you know, it's, we can be okay here. And that's what I would call your inner coach. You know? And, and that is something that we really focus on a lot in the shift, because most of what the challenge is when we struggle with our weight is an inner communication challenge. Not as much, you know, we, I know Ginny, it sounds like she knows, she knew how to lose weight, like she knew how to eat less, exercise more. She, she had the basics down, but that, what changed for you was the way that you were communicating with yourself throughout and, you know, making different tweaks, but I I'll let you speak to that, but that was the thing that I wanted to highlight.

Ginny Kent: Absolutely. You know, I don't, I really don't think that I realized the extent to which those were issues for me, And I don't think I spoke to myself at all, except to just be in a tizzy and, and never really trying to you know, talk myself down out of some of these feelings or try to find out what was underneath these feelings that, that you know, may or may not have been causing me to eat, but because that wasn't a problem until you know, much later in life. The other thing is, is that when, when later in life I started turning to carbohydrates, that kind of has a life of its own as well. And, and some, some of it doesn't really seem to be emotional eating as much as it is just almost like a sugar addiction that you just can't control. And you call that the carb zombie, which I think is a, a lovely way to, you know, think about that. Cause it it's like something takes over. That's a zombie.

Rita Black: Yeah. Well, I, I think that we've talked about this too, which is as we get older and go through menopause, I see most women become a lot more sugar sensitive.

Ginny Kent: Absolutely.

Rita Black: Like we become more insulin resistant and just naturally. And then, so you are baking with your daughter might be, maybe started a little trend of we'll eat the sugar then we'll feel hungrier then we'll want more food. And then, and then it starts its own life of its own. And then the dopamine center in the brain gets used to it and then it wants it. And that's what I call the carb zombie. It's this more, it's almost like we are putting food in our mouth and saying, why am I doing this? I'm not even hungry. I'm not even experiencing the food, but I seem to just get caught up in this you know, craziness, which -

Ginny Kent: Well, that, that, and, and so about halfway through my shift, so starting in October, it started in October and then I believe it was in January, Rita, you had a program that was called carb rehab. I -

Rita Black: Yes. Yes.

Ginny Kent: And, and it was, it was a deeper dive into that, that issue and, and you know what, what carbohydrates were doing well, I had been, you know, I, I love self help books about every topic. You know, I, you know, disclosure, I'm a retired psychiatrist and all this stuff is just kind of fun for me to read. And so I, I, you know, but I also like to just read about health and I read a book right at the time we were doing carb rehab and talking about carbs. That's called Why We Get Sick. It's by a PhD metabolic scientist by the name of Dr. Ben. Bickman one of the really, really good book and it, you know, about, and he's a, he's an insulin specialist, a metabolic disease specialist, a fat cell biologist. And he wrote a book for the general public to try to understand metabolic disease and about the contribution of insulin resistance to a gazillion of our chronic diseases.

Ginny Kent: It's the fertile ground for a lot of illnesses. It isn't the sole cause, but cancer, dementia, diabetes, you know, all, you know, hypertension, all sorts of, of illnesses can, you know, be contributed to by insulin resistance.

Rita Black: Right.

Ginny Kent: And so I got, I got interested in trying to, well, first of all, assuming that I was insulin resistant because latest information is in the United States, about 93% of people are not metabolically healthy.

Rita Black: Wow.

Ginny Kent: That it's gone up since the pandemic. And it, it, you know, you don't have a full-blown metabolic syndrome, but you'll have some indication like early hypertension or lipid problems or whatever of metabolic disease.

Rita Black: Interesting. I didn't know the number was that high. That's astonishing.

Ginny Kent: And so, so I assumed that I was insulin resistant and, and you can't, there is no such thing as a continuous insulin monitor, but there is such a thing as a continuous glucose monitor, the diabetics have been using for a number of years. And now there are some young start-up companies that are trying to help you get healthy. And they prescribe these continuous insulin monitor or, or glucose monitors to help you manage your blood sugar and your blood sugar spikes, to keep your blood sugar down, which means that you're keeping your insulin down.

Rita Black: Right.

Ginny Kent: Well so I started at the same time as carb rehab doing this continuous glucose monitor. And I found out all sorts of really cool things. First of all, that I wasn't a diabetic, which I didn't think I was, but that my, my blood sugar would spike way more than I thought it should to all sorts of, of foods that I already knew, I would get super hungry afterwards, a lot sooner than I shot thought. Like a banana or like a big apple or like oatmeal, or even a piece of bread or crackers, or what have you.

Ginny Kent: And so I learned this and I also, I, I then realized, I used to think I got hypoglycemic. I wasn't getting hypoglycemic. It was just that my blood sugar was coming down. Cause the insulin was there putting it down. And it was the feeling associated with my blood sugar coming down after a spike that would cause me to have another snack spike one again, you know? And so I'd get on this roller coaster all day long, where I would be, even when I was shifting, eating small meals to try to keep in my calorie count, but feeling hungry a lot of the time. And so that helped me realize that I needed to decrease my carbs and certain carbs and make some other adjustments in the way I ate them in order to limit those spikes. And then I wouldn't be so hungry.

Rita Black: Could I, and I wanna mention something here because I've listened to some podcasts about continuous glucose monitors, because I do find that the, what we did, that process car rehab and even in the shift process, because we have a workshop called carb savvy, we get into tuning into our bodies, which we rarely do. But if we start to look at, oh, when I eat this food, how do I feel after it's not just about the food itself. I think we get into, and I think something you mentioned Ginny was that some of these foods that you were eating weren't unhealthy foods, they were what you would deem a healthy whole food like oatmeal or a banana and something that one of these podcasts said that was interesting to me. And then I went on to learn more is that every body is different. So Ginny could spike with a banana. Somebody else might not. But, and Ginny could eat ice cream and it wouldn't spike, but that other person might spike with, with a ice cream.

Ginny Kent: Right. It's your genes, your genes, it's your gut microbiome metabolizing things differently. It's all, there are all sorts of variables.

Rita Black: Yeah.

Ginny Kent: Which I don't -

Rita Black: So it's not a - there's not across the board like don't eat this, do eat that. And that's why it's so important to for you, for us as people who are, are really tuning into our weight and having a more powerful relationship with food to really start to look at it, not from good or bad, but what does this food give me. And, and so you got a clearer insight into that, but if you don't - can't afford to do a blood glucose monitor because I think they're a little pricey. I don't know what they cost, but they're -

Ginny Kent: Pretty pricey.

Rita Black: Yeah. But what you -

Ginny Kent: We're talking like 250 a month.

Rita Black: Okay. Yeah. So, so if that's beyond your reach, one thing I would say maybe Ginny, you have other advice because you, you, you know, have been tuned into this, is really pay attention, especially when you eat what I would call a naked carb without a protein or vegetable, like something that is a carb that you are eating on its own on an empty stomach, but really start to notice how you feel an hour afterwards, three hours afterwards. This was something we did in carb rehab, was we just tuned into how we felt the next morning, because once you start to get a clearer picture, then like what Ginny is saying, you have a lot more control over your appetite and that carb zombie, like we talk about, hibernating the carb zombie by not just necessarily cutting carbs and taking your carbs low, but, but really creating a way of eating that allows you to not trigger that carbs zombie that allows you to feel fed and nourished and not too hungry all the time. Which I think when we're overeating or spiking our blood sugar, we feel hungry constantly, but we could be way overeating calories that way more than we need.

Ginny Kent: Right. And, and I, I think that you can do this without a blood glucose monitor by particularly paying attention to avoiding, as Dr. Bickman said, avoiding bags and boxes with barcodes of snack and foods. The ultra - and the ultra process of carbs, cause that's what's probably gonna be the thing that's gonna spike your blood sugar. The other thing for me is that it's pretty much the trigger foods. The things that I can't say no to, to more than one. I mean, it's like if I don't have those triggers around then and I, I moderate the portions of like an apple or like a banana or whatever. Then I'm okay. And oh, the other thing you can do is take a walk after eating. Your muscles take up glucose without meeting insulin, and then you won't have as big of a spike. There's other little things. There's some, there's a woman called the glucose goddess.

Rita Black: Yeah. And she's got a lot of -

Ginny Kent: She's got a book. She's got a book Glucose Revolution, and she's got a lot of hacks. And so none of it requires a continuous glucose monitor, but it was just fun for somebody who's kind of a science, sciencey nerd and, and stuff.

Rita Black: Absolutely. And I think that, you know, with the shift as well, we are very, we focus on data because data helps our brain calm down. We, we are emotionally run, you know? So, and so having this extra piece of data, even though this might not be something everybody goes and does for you was helpful just to kind of get things in perspective for yourself.

Ginny Kent: So that helped me. And I just, you know, I just chugged along and, you know, over six months, just pretty, you know, with, you know, within the realm of plateaus, steadily lost that weight that I wanted to lose. And I, I found myself at the end of April 21 at my, what I considered my goal weight, ideal weight, whatever you wanna call it. And it just happened to coincide with my 40th anniversary. And it was like, I was absolutely on top of the world. I wanted to be in photographs for the first time in a long time.

Rita Black: Wow.

Ginny Kent: I couldn't get enough photographs of myself. It's like, oh my God, is that me? I, you know, I had bounced in my step. I, you know, my family was wonderful. My husband was wonderful. Everything's wonderful. I I'm you know, going on a, on a romantic vacation to the Caribbean, I'm in a hotel room and I'm standing in front of the hotel mirror getting dressed after a shower and my heart sank. Next shoe to drop.

Rita Black: Oh my God.

Ginny Kent: Well. So I don't normally get dressed in front of a mirror because I just don't, that's not the way my bathroom is set up. And so I was at this hotel and raised my arm to put my arm in a sleeve and just happened to see a little depression in the underside of my breast. And I'm a physician, I wasn't, you know, like looking at this rose colored glass, it was like, oh crap, are you kidding me? I mean, you know, I have, you know, really other than having been mildly overweight at times in my adult life, but not dramatically, no risk factors for breast cancer. And I was absolutely shocked. Well, within days I was back home getting a breast biopsy and, and of course had early stage estrogen, positive breast cancer. Thank God it was early stage. I do believe that I was looking at my breast and could see it more easily because of the fact that I had lost some weight.

Ginny Kent: And, and was kinda admiring myself like, oh, I look pretty good. You know, and, and you know, it, it just, it, it, it was what it was, it was, it was for a period of several weeks, pretty terrifying. Because you don't know what the pathology's gonna show. You don't know until you've had, you know, the, the partial mastectomy, what you're gonna look like afterwards, or if it's going to have spread to the lymph nodes, whether you're gonna need chemo, what, you know, what, what you're gonna need. It was about, about six weeks of a lot of uncertainty. And I really, truly, you know, I did not, I did not completely freak out because I honestly had really started to be able to talk to myself and kind of you know, not catastrophize, I think because of some of the techniques that I had learned in talking to myself about my weight and in the shift, I really do believe that.

Ginny Kent: And, and my family was fantastic. My, my children came from out of town at, at different times and were always available to talk to me on the phone when I needed, you know, talking down, but I can assure you in the past, I would've eaten myself into oblivion. And I had no, that, that wasn't anything I wanted to do. I was absolutely determined that this was not gonna mess up this wonderful bounce I had in my step about what I felt like in life right now. So I got through the surgery. It wasn't fun. I, you know, got through radiation, which was a body slam that I wasn't expecting. You don't have any energy for a while and it's, it's not fun. But your immune system's kicking in and that's why you feel like that. And then started a medication that I'll be on for years and years, an estrogen blocker called an aromatase inhibitor.

Ginny Kent: And it should, you know, in all likelihood, give me a normal lifespan. There's no reason to think it won't. And so now, I don't go every day and thinking about my breast cancer, I just don't. I, I, you know, I'm just living life and, and dealing with some side effects from this medication. But trying to, to navigate you know, life on this medication. It causes you to have a little mental fogginess. It causes some metabolic changes. I mean, you're, you're basically doing away with estrogens made in your fat cells too. And other, you know, this prevents androgens from being turned into estrogens. And so you have zero estrogen and, and so it, you know, there are estrogen receptors and I'm sure that that has something to do with the metabolic changes. I don't, you know, I have tried to read about everything I could find about it and yeah, there's weight gain associated with this medication. You know, and, and -

Rita Black: You went through a journey with that too, I know. But through, through the, through the initial cancer phase, you, you were maintaining your weight.

Ginny Kent: I was, and I, you know, I, I gained a couple pounds because my children were bringing me cookies and things and you know, and nobody wants to see somebody with cancer lose weight.

Rita Black: Yeah.

Ginny Kent: And so, you know, and it was like, okay, I'll eat some cookies. And so, but I got that right back off. It was just when I started on this medication to block estrogen you know, after the radiation was done that I started to put on a little weight, not a lot but enough that it bothered me, you know, eight pounds maybe. And, and so it was like, I'm gonna get this off. So I've been trying all sorts of things again. The inner scientist in me has been trying to find ways, you know, cutting carbs, cutting more calories, doing more exercise, doing everything I could think of. Well, I was not having any luck getting the scale to move down. And my breast surgeon said, you know, I have a bunch of patients in the same position. And the only thing I've seen is for them to have a six to eight hour eating window. So intermittent fasting. So about a month ago, I started doing that and I've had excellent success. Time will tell if that will last, but I've lost most of that weight now that I put on. So I'm pretty, pretty pleased with that.

Rita Black: Right. I, yeah, we were talking about before we turned on the recording, if that has, because intermittent fasting allows you to regulate your hormones to a certain degree.

Ginny Kent: Right.

Rita Black: And your, and your blood sugar, if having done that allowed that, that one, just that extra weight that you had probably released maybe to even drop off. I mean, it's hard to tell, but it's -

Ginny Kent: Right.

Rita Black: Yeah. But it's fascinating. And it's, and it's what I hear from your story. And this is why I, I pre. I pre-coded our conversation with the fact, like, listen to the amount of grit and tenacity you had with your commitment to not just your weight release, but to your health and to your wellbeing. And I think Ginny is she, you know, she is a doctor. She is somebody who reads things. But I do encourage everybody to read about, I get curious about other aspects of your health other than just your weight, because I do think it does help you on your weight journey to be armed with additional information about blood sugar, about all the different factors of I mean, and, and I think the, the, what was the I'll, I'll put a link to that other book in the show notes. What was the name of the

Ginny Kent: Oh, Ben Beckman's book? Yeah. Why We Get Sick.

Rita Black: Yeah. Ben Beckman. Yeah, because I think -

Ginny Kent: And then I think, I thinK the glucose goddess book is Glucose Revolution.

Rita Black: Glucose Revolution. Okay.

Ginny Kent: And I, and I, I don't agree with everything that she says as far as the science behind it -

Rita Black: No -

Ginny Kent: But there's still a lot of, a lot of hints, hacks, so to speak. Yeah.

Rita Black: She's a fascinating person. She's a layman, she's not a doctor and she's, she never struggled with her weight. She's French. She, but she just got, she had her own illness and she realized that she got a glucose monitor and it helped her, I'm not maybe, you know what her illness was, but it helped her with her digestion and it helped her kind of correct whatever the illness was. And that's why she got so into it because she was, and then, so she shows the different and she does have some worthy hacks to look at as far as managing your appetite. And -

Ginny Kent: There are a lot of more mainstream people that are recommending the same hacks. So but you know, again, all these things can be done without a continuous glucose monitor. And, you know, again, you know, I think when I first started the shift, it was all about the number on the scale still, you know, the old diet mentality. And I think then in my evolution, through my, my cancer diagnosis and everything, first of all, I realized before, even that, that it was never about a number on the scales, about how I felt about myself and I was feeling so darn good, and I still do feel good about myself. And then it also evolved into, well, I need to be doing certain things because of my health. I had never considered myself to have a major health problem. Well, obviously I did. So you know, so now it's, it's about how I feel about myself, how I talk to myself and, and about health and longevity. And it's not at all about the number on the scale hasn't been for a while.

Rita Black: Yeah. Well, I think as you evolve on your journey, your, what I would call your weight mastery journey, once you take that weight off, it has to, the journey has to deepen, you know, or else you'll gain weight back. And, and that's what I'm saying is that I think a lot of people expect, well, I'm gonna lose the weight and then just live happily ever after, but it's a continuing relationship with yourself, your health. And that's why, what you've done, which is like, gotten curious about other things, gotten, it kind of keeps the game, keeps you in the game in a different way. And I do believe for, especially us women over 50, 55, longevity really does start to get a little more interesting and, and getting curious about that. And I certainly know for me -

Ginny Kent: And I, and I think many of us have the role in our family of, of making sure that the rest of our family are healthy. And are concern are concerned about their longevity. And so the more you know about it for yourself, the more, you know, you, I mean, not to disparage men, but you know, I think -

Rita Black: They don't do anything

Ginny Kent: A lot of women are in the health aspects. And, and so, you know, it, it, it, it's helpful to be armed with some knowledge you know, that they might be interested in to get them healthy as well.

Rita Black: Did your husband get healthier as you went on your journey?

Ginny Kent: My husband has been disgustingly healthy forever.

Rita Black: Oh, okay.

Ginny Kent: You know, he's one of those thin, thin guys, rides of Peloton, does the tonal weight lifting does, you know, works, you know, full time in a busy practice and will never retire and has more energy than anybody you can think of.

Rita Black: So he's a super disciplined.

Ginny Kent: So now, yeah, he's always been in intermittent fasting. He's never eaten breakfast, so, you know,

Rita Black: Interesting. Interesting. But you have your whole family now monitoring their glucose and -

Ginny Kent: Right.

Rita Black: And, and that's a fun game you all play together now which I think is not -

Ginny Kent: Yes. Yes. And they're amazing how much mom knows about all this .

Rita Black: Well, you are, you are an expert. You, you are, you should be the -

Ginny Kent: I'm no expert. Oh my God. But if you wanna listen to some interesting you know, thing, podcasts, they're out there, like, you know, Dr. Bickman has very, you know, understandable, accessible to the public you know, takes on all of this stuff and you don't have to, you know, do intermittent fasting, but you better consider your carbohydrates and

Rita Black: Yeah.

Ginny Kent: And you know, consider the issue of insulin resistance, because almost all of us are.

Rita Black: Wow. Well, I'm gonna definitely put his book and the glucose goddess, the Glucose Revolution links in the show notes. Is there anything for, if somebody was considering, you know, taking their first step on their weight mastery journey, any advice that you would give them Ginny about taking those first steps?

Ginny Kent: No. I think that that if one is doing, you know, the shift process that one can take, one is designing one's own process, I think that's what you have to realize. And you can, you can listen to it all and take it in and decide what you are and aren't gonna do as time goes on, you probably end up doing it all, but it'll make, it'll make more sense as time goes on. But if you were starting out doing the shift, which I highly recommend, it's never failing to do the meditations or hypnosis daily because that's what got me engaged. And in the, in the process, I'm absolutely convinced to begin with it. You know? I mean, I mean there's parasympathetic and all this stuff going on, you know, the, and yeah, you're focusing on it and you're accessing the subconscious, but you're just, it's also like super relaxation.

Ginny Kent: And I really truly believe that's what got me hooked on doing it and then making all these other changes and then taking it at your own pace and doing what you, you know, intuitively what everybody, this listing, this has been a dieter and they know what's healthy and what's not healthy quote unquote, you know, is just do what you intuitively think is right. It's your own pace and, and, and design your own program with, but keeping in mind the, the recommendations that the shift has because I've ended up doing it all and it's been incredibly helpful.

Rita Black: Well, thank you so much, Ginny. It's been so wonderful to have you in the community too. You've been such a champion for other people and Ginny will be a coach of the upcoming in the fall. Thank you for your time today. Really great. I really love talking to you. You're so curious about so many things. I it's, it's

Ginny Kent: I'm a little longwinded. I apologize.

Rita Black: No, you're not longwinded. You, I, you, you kept it fascinating. I'm telling you, it's it is, you know, and I really admire the way you went through your cancer diagnosis and all that whole process with such grace. And I'm sure you are very proud of that journey as well. You know, it's so scary to get something like that and to get to the other side. And I wanna thank you for being an inspiration for other people who may have just gone a diagnosis or, you know, are afraid of something like that.

Ginny Kent: Absolutely. But who amongst us is not going to have to deal with some major life issue. That's stressful and you know, again, you know, learning how to listen to yourself and, and, and, and, and talk yourself down out of some situations. That are some of the things you practice while you're doing the shift technique is helpful in so, so many life situations, illness or otherwise.

Rita Black: Yeah. Yeah. I think having that inner coach and that ability to problem solve and know that there is a solution for pretty much everything. And that was something that you brought up earlier, those two main things about the emotional eating and the other lists that you made. I think a lot of people have main issues that never get resolved because they're just focused on the food only, and, and, you know, on a diet or off a diet. But once you sort of start to get under the lid of some of the behaviors that we have and start to solve those problems, like, I didn't tell Ginny what to do. Ginny figured those out for herself. You get so much confidence from that because you finally cure, it's not like you cure yourself, but you finally figure out those problems and create your own solutions and move through that.

Rita Black: And that's really what the key to long term permanent weight management is. It's not being perfect on a diet. It's figuring out the problems that have always taken you back to the food, the self sabotage and once you clear the way and then have the tools to continue to clear the way that is, what the key to long term permanent weight management is. So, so thank you for spelling it out so beautifully. And and, and also adding on those, you know so many interesting resources as well. I think, think we'll all probably be curious about a lot of these things. So thank you so much, Ginny. I hope you have absolutely a wonderful - is your anniversary coming up now or do you have another anniversary?

Ginny Kent: No, but my, my husband has a big birthday and we are going on a, an extended European vacation in a couple weeks, so -

Ginny Kent: Oh, amazing.

Ginny Kent: Yeah. And you know, I think my intermittent fast will work perfectly. I won't eat breakfast and then I'll eat a great lunch and dinner and I won't have to deprive myself of anything. And I'll do lots of walking and I will bet anything I'll come back weighing the same.

Rita Black: I bet you will too. And I love your confidence. All right, Ginny. Thank you so much. It was so fantastic to have you on today.

Ginny Kent: Absolutely.

Rita Black: Oh, thank you so much for sharing your story with us, Ginny. I so appreciate you and all you have been through. Just a reminder now, we have that masterclass coming up this Wednesday, the 28th of September 2022. It's free. The link is in the show notes. It's called How to Break Through the Weight Struggle Cycle So That You Can Lose Weight Consistently and Permanently. Go sign up. I will look forward to seeing you there. If you can't make the times, just know I will also send out a replay. So just make sure you sign up if you can't make it. So have an amazing week.

Rita Black: 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. You wanna dive deeper into the mindset of long term weight release, head on over to www shift weight mastery.com that's www shift weight mastery.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 L oss.