Hey everybody. In today’s podcast, I wanna talk to you about the three essential skills necessary to lose weight during the winter. And often we believe that shorter days and colder weather, less movement and craving that comfort food, make it nearly impossible to lose weight in the winter.

And today I’m gonna show you how that’s not only not true, that weight loss is possible, but how to work with your own biology so that you can lose weight this winter. So let’s look at what’s happening biologically first to a woman’s body in the winter, and I want you to just sit back and really take in that this is the beauty that the Lord created for you. And how your body is naturally designed to work.

So believe it or not, in the winter, our appetite naturally lowers and one of the reasons that we think that we’re hungrier isn’t biologically, winter actually will reduce our appetite in many women. Mostly because of a couple hormones, and one is because there’s more darkness. We have more melatonin and melatonin lowers our hunger hormones.

Melatonin is our darkness hormone, so it rises when it’s dark and, in winter we get more melatonin for more hours. And a cool effect of melatonin is that it lowers ghrelin. And ghrelin is the hormone that makes you feel hungry. And melatonin also improves your sensitivity to leptin. And leptin is the hormone that makes you feel full.

So melatonin acts like your body’s natural appetite dimmer switch, and we biologically then wouldn’t feel as snacky, especially at night. But I know a lot of women do say that they’re hungrier in the winter, and this is what’s so important for you to see is that you’re eating more in the winter, not because of your biology, but because of your emotions.

Because you’re wanting to feel comfort. You’re feeling cold and bored or stressed, or just traditional family things that you do. Maybe movie night. You’re feeling tired, maybe overstimulated, and you’re just not taking care of your needs. That’s why you feel hungrier in the winter, not because of biology.

You see your brain is seeking comfort, but your body really isn’t asking for more food, and that’s why a lot of women say that they crave comfort food in the winter. It’s the comfort they want, not the calories.

Another reason weight loss is easier in the winter is because your melatonin again increases, which means you’re getting better sleep and when you get better sleep. You have an easier time losing fat, more darkness means more melatonin. More melatonin means deeper sleep, and deeper sleep improves so many things.

It improves your metabolic function. It improves your hunger hormone regulation so that you don’t feel overly hungry. It improves your insulin sensitivity. It improves emotional regulation. We know that we are all a lot calmer when. We’ve gotten a good night’s sleep, and sleep is one of the strongest, most important things you can do to leverage your weight loss and to support weight loss, especially the winter, which it’s just naturally happening.

And the third benefit of winter that’s helping you with your weight loss is that you’re actually burning more calories and fat. You see, the cold weather creates a need to burn more calories, and that can come from even stored fat just to maintain your normal body heat, it’s called thermogenesis, where our bodies are just trying to maintain homeostasis, to maintain that balance. 

So you’re actually burning more calories in your everyday life. And the more that you’re in cold, the more you’ll have that effect. So if you naturally allow your body to do that, you will lose weight. 

So a lot of women feel like they’re gaining weight in the winter because they’re just not working with their biology. They have been stuck in some patterns of emotional eating or staying indoors or using food when they are sad or lonely or bored, or never even known that this was a biological thing to start leveraging it.

But those are the three reasons that weight loss is actually more possible. In the winter you’re getting better sleep, your appetite is lower biologically, and you’re burning more calories and fat, but that might not be the experience that you’re having. 

So let’s talk about the three skills that you need to start practicing so that you can work with your biology this winter. To stop seeing winter as an obstacle and start seeing it more as a playful invitation to try new things. 

You know, winter can potentially not be a barrier to your weight loss. Like what if you believe that? I’m gonna show you how that is absolutely true. You see, winter is the Lord’s design to slow down to try new things in a new season. And I want you to start shifting out of that old concrete thinking that this is the way it has to be. 

And just start thinking of possibilities that things can be different, because I know without a doubt that the Lord wants you to be healthy. I know the Lord wants you to be healed. And so let’s not use nature and the season we’re in as an obstacle. Instead, let’s start thinking, how can I make this work for me? 

So let’s dive into the three skills that you’ll need to start practicing. The first one is to start opening your eyes on you, your life, your needs. How can we truly care and support for you? During the winter time, how can we give you comfort in a way that isn’t necessarily sabotaging your health?

How can we start caring for your desire for creativity, for recreation, so that you aren’t bored and bored eating? So number one, we’re going to start tuning into your needs and start practicing new ways to take care of those needs.

The second thing is that we are not going to resist the food that you’re craving. We are going to start giving you unconditional permission to eat any food that you love, and I’m gonna show you how to do it in a way that will not sabotage your weight loss. 

And the third  is that we have to start looking at the obstacles that are getting in the way and solving for them. the obstacles of using food for comfort. The obstacles of excessive busyness that’s overextending you, so you fall into your bed at night with total exhaustion. The obstacles of not asking for help, the obstacles of the fears of slowing down. 

The obstacles of resisting even being still and quiet without getting bored. Winter is a time to start practicing these new things, but it’s hard to practice things on your own. It’s hard to stay consistent on your own, and that’s why I’ve developed 63 Surrendered. 63 surrendered will give you a place. To practice these skills. 

So you already understand what winter is doing biologically in your body, but let’s start working with it. Winter weight loss, just like weight loss in general, is not about more willpower. It’s about skills. It’s about surrendering skills that align your body with your biology, with the season. skills that align your life and your soul with the Lord.

And skills that allow you to enjoy all the food that you love with peace, without guilt, without fear in a way that also leads you towards greater health. And what I find when people try to do this on their own is that the skills just don’t stick. You’re not consistent or you’re so hard on yourself and you have that perfectionist mentality that you’ll do it for two weeks and then if you don’t do it for a day, you say, oh, forget it. I’m horrible at it.

And you never actually get an opportunity to retrain your brain, to retrain your body, to even give yourself a chance to make weight loss possible. And that’s not because it’s a failure. It’s just that’s the way the human brain works. The human brain always default. To what it knows best. 

And unless you are surrounded by a group or you’ve gotten a coach or you are part of something that continually reminds you, remember we’re doing this thing. Hey, remember we’re doing this thing. Remember we’re gonna fall. Sometimes we’re not gonna do this thing, but that doesn’t mean we’re doing it wrong. We are going to have setbacks, but we don’t actually have a lack of progress. Setbacks are just an opportunity to learn more. 

See, that’s the stuff you in a group. That’s the stuff that 63 surrendered will do for you. 63 surrendered is a 63 day journey that’s going to lead you to weight loss this winter. 63 days, giving the Lord the first 63 days of your year so that you can retrain your brain to learn those three skills so that you can spend the rest of the year as a different woman.

We’re not dieting. We are just learning new skills that allow weight loss to happen. Doesn’t that feel so much better? And by the way, those skills make everything in your life better. So let’s talk about the skills. The first one is being able to identify your own needs. Hey, we’re gonna notice that we’re bored.

We’re going to start allowing ourselves to enjoy fun things. We’re going to notice, oh my gosh. You know what? Every day that I come home from work, I just eat an entire dinner while I’m making dinner. Hey, let’s solve for that. How can we meet that need? How can we make sure that you’re not walking in the door starving?

How can we plan ahead to have maybe a Crock pot meal ready for you on the nights that you’re exceptionally busy? We just start opening our eyes and stop living on autopilot so that your true needs are met.

The second thing we do in 63 surrendered is we give you unconditional permission to eat any foods. We make what’s called an easy to stick to meal plan. It’s a meal plan that’s, well, it’s easy to stick to. I have three food rules. The three food rules is that you have to eat the food that you love. You have to eat it in a way that feels peaceful. You have to eat it in a way that works for your day. 

So for example, if you’re driving all afternoon, we’re gonna plan a snack that works for you. Driving. We’re not gonna plan a five course meal if we know that you’re out of the door super early in the morning. We’re just gonna make sure that you have a breakfast plan for you that you can take with you. 

Okay? I have those food rules again. So that you know louder for the people in the back are that you eat the food that you love in a way that feels peaceful and that works for you in that day and that day. For you, the woman that you’re living as today, it’s really important that you start to learn how to anticipate your needs. 

Yes, see, diets don’t do that, but doesn’t that sound like how the Lord would take care of you if you were on this earth? He’d have your food planned for you in a way that feels peaceful. So much so that every time you picked up that plan, you’d be like, oh my gosh, I’m so glad I planned this for myself today. 

You have unconditional permission in this program to eat any food that you love, and by the way, it will lead to weight loss. You’ll see how that happens. And then the third thing is that we just kind of look at all the obstacles that pop up.

And so what will happen during the day is that you’ll be planning your food and then something will happen and you’ll change your food. And that’s not a problem. We just have a little method that we surrender that, but at the end of the day, we can say, how can we plan better tomorrow? What do we learn today that we can plan better for tomorrow?

And common things that come up are people find themselves overeating at night. Great. I’m so glad that you noticed that. Alright, so what’s happening there? Are we bored? Are we so exhausted? Are we not planning an evening snack for ourselves? That would be crazy to not plan an evening snack if you know you want it.

Are we living in diet rules? Are we believing things like I’m not supposed to eat after seven o’clock? Yeah, but if you’re not supposed to eat after seven o’clock and that’s leading you to eat half a gallon of ice cream, what if we planned half a gallon of ice cream? And you ate half a gallon, you’re gonna feel way better because you planned it.

And I promise you, you’re not gonna only eat half a gallon of ice cream for the rest of your life. But if we start planning and we open our eyes and we start living with more intention and honesty and truth about the way you really live your own patterns, own rhythms, your own taste, like tuning into the woman you’re living as, that’s how weight loss in the winter is possible.

We say, what do you need? What is your life like? And that’s how we make weight loss in the winter possible so the first part of this was all about your biology. Yeah. And your biology is important, but what’s more important is you, what’s more important is your soul.

What’s more important is having someone yourself see, you hear, you know you love you, care for you. And that’s what this program does, is it starts aligning the way that you care for you with the way the Lord is asking you to care for you. 

And if this feels way different than everything you’re seeing in secular dieting, it’s because it is. He’s inviting you. To take his hand this winter, this new year, and see what he can do. When we start living aligned with him, we start reordering. 

We start letting him reorder our relationship with food. We start letting him take our food struggles, our weight struggles, and we let him lead us. Because I promise he’s gonna let you eat your favorite foods in a way that feels peaceful. He gave you the taste buds you have, you know, he knows your favorite tastes.

So I hope you join us, 63 days, 63 surrendered. Just go to weightlosswiththeholyspirit.com and get your spot today. Have a blessed day.