Is to help you in the confusion and restriction and all that diet mentality so that you can start to treat yourself the way that the Lord wants you to treat yourself. I can get to a healthy weight. And that includes any foods that you love. I know, no one’s ever told you that before.  But I want you to check us out. Go to weight-loss with the holy spirit.com and get your trial for a buck. $1. You can download the workbook. You’ll have it for the rest of your life.  Pause this podcast and go get signed up. It’s your last chance today. We ended today. On January 8th.   

And today I want to talk to you about the seven survival skills that are necessary for lasting weight loss that I’ve seen in the women that I work with. And I say survival skills because the definition of survival skills. Is  the abilities that are necessary to endure and navigate challenging situations. And let’s just put in one huge bucket. The ability to navigate. Challenging situations. Let’s just call it living. On this earth and your current season of life, you know, that’s pretty much all the challenging situations in one bucket. So I’m going to go through these and you might pick up one. That sounds fun. You’d like to start practicing. Or maybe a few, so let’s dive in. So the number one thing that I see that women need.  I’m going to give it to you right now.  It’s just permission. Permission to discover what works for you in this season of your life.  So often you come to a weight loss journey with all the sheds and the shouldn’t and other peoples. Food rules for you.  Or you’re remembering all the things that used to work for you in your past. Or you’re using food rules that work for your mom, your sister-in-law, your best friend.  

And I’m just going to give you permission to discover what works for you.  In this season of your life.  Not last year. Now five years ago.  Now when you graduated high school.  What works for you in this season of your life? And I love the word discover because it implies, there will be a journey. It implies that when you wake up in the morning, you’re not going to know what it is. You’re going to  experiment, try some new things. So number one, I’m giving you permission. I’m giving you permission that if something’s feeling hard, it’s probably just not the best fit for you now. Maybe it worked five years ago and it’s just not working anymore.  

Number two. Start quieting. That means girl, that’s inside your head. No, I want to tell you that the way that the brain works is the brain is always looking out for danger. And if we look out for danger, we can survive. And. Often that mean girl in our head is just saying, Hey, that could be dangerous if you’re not this way or that way. There’s a whole set of rules that she thinks you need to follow to be safe. To be accepted. To be okay but the thing is that the main girl doesn’t talk to you the way the Lord would.  And that means, girl, does it make you feel good about yourself? And if you want lasting weight loss, we’re going to have to do this the way the Lord wants it done. And we’re going to have to start talking to ourselves the way that he wouldn’t use those words. So that means girl, voice in your head. One way to start. Quieting her. It’s just starting to see all the amazing things that you’re doing and they might not even be amazing. Maybe they’re just okay. 

Let’s start to see all of that. Start to see where you are winning. Let’s start to see where you did things that were hard and you didn’t feel like doing them, but you still did them. One of the winds that come from our community. As women will say, I noticed when I was grabbing food and I was emotionally eating. Yes. We’re not living on autopilot anymore. That’s a win. That’s going to lead you to a healthy weight. Does that mean a girl’s voice in your head? Shh, quiet her down. Let’s start to see. All of the positive things that are happening. No P three. Start tuning into you. What, what does that even mean?  One of the things I have the women in our community do. Is to pause.  Several times a day, at least three. Maybe five.  I’d say, what do I feel?  And what do I need? And in the beginning, they don’t even know. What do I feel and what do I need? What do I feel and what do I need? And what this does, is it just. It gives you a little attention. And helps you pause. It helps your brain realize that you are a human being, that  you do deserve attention.  

And so many women aren’t even able to tend to their needs because they don’t know what they need. And that sounds like a big question. And I just want to give you permission to not know the answers to this, but the. The miracle is just in the pause.  One of the women that came into our community. She said, Denise, this is so hard to do. Because I’m just working. And I just keep saying, I don’t know what I feel. She goes, I feel like I’m working. I’m just working. I mean, she was at work and I just needed to keep working.  Three weeks later, would you believe it? She paused and noticed that she felt hurt by being left out. Somebody was handing out gifts at the office. And she could just detect the hub, having a wave of feeling hurt and feeling left out.  

You guys, a woman who feels left out and can say that.  And then say, what do I need? I need to be included. I’d like to be included. I want to feel remembered. That woman Isn’t it headlong and Oreos. So start tuning into yourself. This is simple. Seriously. It’s that simple. Number four, we have two food rules in the weightless with the holy spirit community. And this is kind of part of discovering what works for you. Because our two food rules are you eat the food that you love and that you feel good about.  So, if you feel good about eating three Oreos, You’re gonna need three Oreos. If you don’t feel good about eight Oreos, then you’re not going to put eight Oreos on your plan.  

Okay. The point is that you need to eat the food that you love and that you feel good about.  And then you might say Denise, the food that I love, I don’t really feel good about when I eat it. Well, we’ll talk about that. That’s something totally different. There could be a couple things. Like I worked with this one woman. Who said, I want to have Cheez-Its as my morning snack with my kids, because it’s so easy, but I don’t feel good about it when I eat it. And I said, well, why do you not feel good about what came out? She said she didn’t feel good about eating the Jesus when she walked around with the box. I said, okay. She said, but she would feel good about it if she put them in a bowl. Okay. So sometimes we just have to do a little problem solving to find a way that you can feel good about eating the food that you actually want to eat. 

Number five. Oh my gosh! So know that you guys always have a choice. We like to stay in my house. Everything is a choice. And if you think you don’t have a choice, Well, then that’s your choice. And we sent that the other day and my son goes, well, yeah, mom, but there are some good choices and bad choices. And I was like, yes, you are correct. But the point is for you, my friend. You always have a choice. And what I mean by that is  you always have a choice to eat something or not eat something.  Which sounds ridiculous. That sounds like, oh my gosh, Denise, I already know that, but I’m going to tell you, there’s usually two types of food that will lead you to feeling regret. And that is food that you eat impulsively. Or food that you eat, feeling pressure.  And so, although in the weight loss with the holy spirit program, I encourage women. Well, I don’t encourage, I do say.  Let’s plan our food.  And we plan food, eating the foods that we love, that we feel good about, and we just make it an easy to stick to plan. 

There’s nothing diet about it. Nobody plans should foods. If you plan a food that you think you should eat or that you think will lead to weight loss, you’re doing it wrong. We don’t plan food that way.  But I do encourage them to plan because it prevents that impulsiveness.  And we also plan for the woman who will be eating the food. So you have to plan food that you actually want to eat.  At that specific time of day. And you guys know how that goes. You know that in the evening you’d prefer to eat different food.  But my point is that you always have toys. And so when you feel that you want to eat impulsively,  It’s just very important to take that pause or just know, Hey, this is impulsive. I’ll probably regret it. Okay. I just want you to know you have a choice. The other one is when we feel pressure and we usually feel pressure because it’s like a social pressure we want to fit in, or somebody made something for us. And I’m not saying you shouldn’t eat that food normally saying you shouldn’t eat the food that feels impulsive. 

I’m just saying. To pause, regroup and recognize it’s your choice. Calm yourself down. And just no. If someone offers you food that you didn’t anticipate being offered to you. Don’t eat it because you feel pressure.  Calm yourself down and decide if you actually want to eat it. Is this a food I do want to eat? And maybe it is. And then that’s your reason for eating it. So it doesn’t really matter what food you’re eating. I just want you to love your reasons for eating it.  All right. Number six.  Number six is kind of two parts. If you can start to increase your window of being uncomfortable. You will be able to go very far. And what do I mean by uncomfortable? And this kind of goes. To the impulsive, eating impulsive food or pressure food.  And so I want you to recognize that emotional eaters are eating because they feel an uncomfortable feeling.  And it’s just a feeling. So, if you start tuning into yourself, you’ll start to notice your feelings.  That doesn’t mean we like the way they feel.  Maybe super uncomfortable.  But if we can increase our window of tolerance,  To enduring being uncomfortable.

We will then have the opportunity to calm ourselves down and make the food choices that we want for ourselves. The other part of this is the whole concept of delayed gratification. So, this is how delayed gratification relates to increasing your window of tolerance. So I’m feeling uncomfortable. I feel left out at the office. Everyone’s handing out gifts. I don’t feel like I’m included. I’m feeling my feelings. It feels really uncomfortable. I could eat some snacks at my desk, but I’m not going to. I’m just going to feel this feeling because it’s not going to make the feeling go away.  And then I’ll just regret that. And then I feel really good. So delaying the gratification. And the gratification is, oh, well look what I got through. Look how strong I am. And so what’s so cool about that. Is that you feel uncomfortable for? Let’s say a whole five minutes.  But then you live with the gratification. Of not eating over that for hours or days. Okay. Now the other scenario is. I feel hurt. I want it to make this feeling go away. And so I eat. I get the gratification of not feeling the feeling. Right. So that comes first. I’m not delaying it. I’m getting it right away. And then that lasts for like five minutes. But then my regret and that sinking feeling, it comes in. And that will last hours or days. So whatever you choose to do first, whether it’s to endure the feeling. Increasing your window of tolerance. Or eating we’ll be short-lived. It won’t last forever. If you can increase your window of tolerance. To sit with the uncomfortable feeling.  

Then you have the gratification of living hours or days. With knowing how strong you are. You’re showing your brain, we’ve practiced this. And we just keep getting more and more strength in these situations. That’s why this is a survival skill. The flip side is eating short term. Pleasure gratification. And then we just live with the hours or days of feeling regret. The seventh survival skill that you need for lasting weight loss is to learn how to get through the ups and downs of life without stress eating. And then in my previous episode I showed you one of the ways that you can be your own Catholic health and weight loss coach. And that will help you get through the ups and downs of life without stress eating. But that is really what the entire weight loss with the holy spirit program is. It teaches you how to get through the ups and downs of life without eating.  For me, it doesn’t matter what food goes in your mouth. I just want you to love your reasons. I don’t want you to feel controlled by the food. I don’t want you to feel like you don’t have a choice.  

So my job is not to make you dependent on me. It’s always to give you everything that you need to get to and maintain a healthy weight for the rest of your life. You guys, to be able to get through the ups and downs of life without food. So let me review the seven survival skills that you need for lasting weight loss as number one, the permission to discover what works for you in this season of your life. How it worked five years ago. Number two. I don’t have to quiet that mean, girl, start to see all the positive things that you’re doing. Be your own cheerleader. Number three, you start tuning into you. You need some attention, you have your own feelings. You have your own needs. Just ask yourself, what do I feel? What do I need?  Even doing that twice a day. I am telling you the Lord will reveal a lot to you. Number four. Create food rules that work for you. So eat the food you love and feel good about it. Number five, recognize that all things in your life are choices.  

See that that’s where your power is avoided. Those foods that lead to regret, which are impulsive foods or pressure foods. Number six. Increase your window of tolerance of being uncomfortable so that you can enjoy the delayed gratification. Feeling great about your choices.  And increasing your strength. And number seven, learn to get through the ups and downs of life. But that stress eating. And the Weight Loss with the Holy Spirit program teaches you all of these skills, not all at once.  But in a step-by-step way. I tell you what’s to focused on. And then I tell you a little bit more about what to focus on. My goal is to never waste your time or your energy.  So if you’d like to try this program out for one week and join our community for a buck, go to weightlosswiththeholyspirit.com. And get started today. It’s the perfect time. All right everybody, have a blessed day and I hope to see you there.