Whether you’ve met your goals or you haven’t, let’s just talk to the people who have’nt, because if you’ve met your goals and you’re on track and exactly where you thought you would be at the beginning of the year, then you probably don’t need to hear this. But I’m going to talk to the people who set some goals at the beginning of the year.  And I’ve found that it’s been really hard to achieve them.  I’ve found that it’s really hard to keep them top of brain.  Your brain wants to say that you haven’t made progress and that you haven’t done anything but instead I want you to look at the truth. 

What’s really happened over the last two months you’ve actually grown in a lot of ways. So I want you to take out a piece of paper and ask yourself. How have I made progress? What is the evidence that I have made progress toward my goals since January.  What have I learned over the last eight weeks that I couldn’t have known? And the other way  than to have lived through these last eight weeks. 

Like I said, your brain wants to think that you haven’t made any progress, but that’s not even true. Have you been listening to more podcasts related to your goal? Have you made one meal plan? Have you tried a new food or tried a new recipe or even looked up a recipe? Have you written down your food for the day?  Even if you didn’t follow it, did you at least write it down? And what if you did follow it? Have you followed it for at least one day?  Did you ask for supersize one time?  Or maybe you didn’t exercise, but you’ve set your clothes out to exercise.  

There’s so many ways that you have progressed. And I want you to open up your brain and ask yourself, where am I taking steps forward? Where have I been moving the needle forward on my goals? I want to remind you that our brains have a negative bias, and they’re always looking out for danger and don’t believe that you have made as much progress as you have until you intentionally ask yourself, well, how have I made progress? Because you have made progress, the Lord does not wake you up every morning for you to stay the same. He has something for you to move forward. He’s constantly honing and refining you.

He doesn’t let you backslide unless there’s something needed for you to learn that he needed you to learn that couldn’t have happened in any other way.  So, if you do feel like you’ve taken steps backwards that may be true in one area, but your learning and knowledge has grown. You have grown in virtue. And so I challenge you. Take out that piece of paper. And ask, how have I grown in virtue?  How have I changed? How have I progressed toward my goal? In knowledge. What are you doing more consistently than you did before? You have made progress.  But you will only be able to see that progress.  When you take out a piece of paper and you calmly ask the Lord to reveal to you how he has been working on you towards the school in the last two months.  

And so today, I want to give you a three step method that I’ve actually been practicing on myself and having a lot of fun and success with that you can use to make progress in the next 30 days in your food and weight journey.  Okay. Now, listen, your brain may say to you, oh, I don’t want to start again. I’m afraid I’m going to fail. But the thing is that you aren’t starting over. We’re never starting over because we’re never starting from the same place. You were starting in this place now with experiences. And I also want to offer whatever you decide to start. You’re going to be starting on a deeper level. You’re going to be experimenting with a new method. What I reveal I know that you have never done this before. And so this is a new experiment. So to make progress in the next 30 days this episode is coming out right before March 1st, this episode is actually coming out on the day that I’m starting a 30 day challenge in the weight loss with the holy spirit community. This episode is coming out at the perfect time.  

And if you aren’t listening to it live, that’s fine. You can start a 30 day challenge at real time. You don’t have to wait for the beginning of the month. You don’t have to wait for the beginning of the week. If you want to get in on our 30 day challenge, I want you to go to weightlosswiththeholyspirit.com. Right now is the best time because we’re offering two months for the price of one. 

We’re starting our level one 30 day challenge today. Our level two 30 day challenge will start in April. So you will have finished the entire weight loss with the holy spirit program by the end of April, which is the beginning of may and you will be ready for the summer. So listen, if you don’t want to do a 30 day challenge on your own. Come and do it with us. With hundreds of Catholic women. It’s a lot of fun and right now you get that two for one special, which means you only pay for one month. Okay. But let’s say you do want to do this on your own. Here is what you can do for a four week or 30 day focus. Step one, is you’re going to talk to the Lord. You’re going to ask him what he wants for you. What he wants to reveal to you. And you’re not going to sit down and make a monthly plan. You’re not going to sit down and make rules and commitments. No. We’re asking him what he wants to tell you. And a good question that you can ask is Jesus, what do you want me to know? What do you think is holding up my weight loss?  

Just listen to what he reveals. See what he reveals to you.  Because the truth is that he sees a lot of stuff. He’ll tell you, what do you want? Now step two, is that you’re going to take what the Lord said to you. And you’re just going to kind of like, keep that in your back pocket. And you’re going to be spending the first week making notes. Making notes about what you’re going to make notes about two things. You’re going to make food notes; and what I like for women to start noticing and taking notes on is the time that they eat. What is your brain thinking? The food that you eat. And then I like to  have them ask themselves,  did I eat following these three food methods? 

And that is chewing your food 20 times. Emptying your hands between bites and then emptying your mouth before you take another bite and you don’t have to do it a hundred percent, but I always like for women to ask their brains today, do that. I have one client who notices she does that when she eats alone. But when she eats with other people, it’s more challenging, okay. And I also like for them to note their hunger and fullness level. And then at the end of the day, you’ll just ask, what did I notice? And what did I learn?  So that’s the part with the food notes. Now the second thing that you’re going to be taking notes on is just checking in with yourself three to five times a day, asking two questions. What do I feel?  And what do I need?  Each day you can ask the Lord. What do I feel and what do I need?  

We should have a five day free challenge at weightlesswiththeholyspirit.com that you can do this. What do I feel? What do I need? And then at the end of the day, ask yourself one question. What did the Lord reveal to you? About what’s holding up your weight loss.  Because we’re just trying to find out what is really holding up our weight loss is step one. You can see you’re asking the Lord, and then you’re going to be asking him throughout the very first week what’s holding you back. And that will be revealed by you taking those food notes as well as checking in with yourself.  

Now at the end of the week, and this is step three at the end of the week with the Lord, you will review your food notes. You’ll review that question that you asked yourself at the end of the day which was what’s holding up my weight loss. You’ll review that with him and ask him again. What does he want to tell you? What does he want you to know?  Now from there. And whatever he tells you, what’s holding up your weight loss. I want you to choose three experiments. What do you want to experiment going forward with for the next week? You can choose to experiment by recording your food.  

Sometimes I like to record my coffee. That seems kind of important to me sometimes.  You can record your hunger level before and after a meal, you can also experiment with asking yourself maybe a question. What’s underneath me wanting to eat more.  You may practice doing things that are pleasurable or bring you comfort that are not food related.  

You may choose to log your food in a food app. You may choose to experiment by listening to more podcasts, you may choose to experiment with a variety of things, but the Lord will say, this is something I want you to experiment with. He’s not going to give you a plan for the week. We’re not just setting down plans. This is just an experiment. And friends, that’s literally all you’re doing. So you’ll be experimenting with those three things for the week. Taking notes on those experiments for the week. I like to ask myself each day, what did I notice and what did I learn? And then at the end of the week, You’re going to ask for each experiment, what worked, what needs work?  

What worked and what needs work? And then for the following week, you get to look at those experiments. Do you want to keep them?  Do and tweak them?  Do you want to change them to a new experiment? And you just experiment with three new things, but at the end of each week, you’re going to sit with the Lord and ask what he wants you to know. You’re going to objectively review how your experiments went.  

This, my friends, is how you live intentionally. Now I suggest that you spend these 30 days with the Lord and allow him to guide you every day and in your weekly review and weekly plans I want you to start using adherence to and practice of these experiments as the affirmation that you are doing the right thing. Did you hear me? I just want you to look at your experiments. And use those as affirmation that you are doing the right thing.  Because you are all going to be attempting to step on the scale to see if you’re doing the right thing. And the truth is, is I believe that when you do a 30 day experiment like this, you weigh yourself in the beginning and you weigh yourself at the end, because I think stepping on the scale may distract you and have you second guessed the plan that the Lord has revealed to you that he wants for you to do for that week. 

So when you make plans with the Lord, you can just trust that you’re doing the right thing. And the only reason why women usually want to step on the scale is to have confirmation that you are doing the right thing. So wait, initially in the beginning. And then at the end. So, let me sum this up one more time. Your brain wants to think that you haven’t made progress since the beginning of 2024, but the truth is that you have, and when you intentionally asked the Lord to reveal all the progress that you have made. You will see it. You have to put those glasses on. 

Now, if you want to make progress in the next 30 days you can have two choices. The first one is to join us at weighlosswiththeholyspirit.com where we’re doing our 30 day challenge. We’re starting our level one challenge, which is our foundations where you learn the foundations of the program. And now is the best time to get in, because like I said, I’m giving you that two for one gift, which means you get two months in our community. Two months full access to our program and two months around the clock support with other Catholic women for the price of one. 

But if you say Denise I want to try this on my own. I want to make progress in the next 30 days on my own. Then here are the three steps that you will do. The first one is to talk to the Lord, even doing this in adoration to say, Lord, what do you want me to know? What do you think is holding up my weight loss?  Just let him reveal something to you.  And then commit to walking the first week with him taking notes about your food and checking in with yourself. And asking those important questions at the end of the day, with regard to your food, what did I notice? What did I learn?  By checking in with yourself, asking him at the end of the day, what did the Lord reveal to you about what’s holding up your weight loss? And then the third step is that at the end of that first week you will set some experiments after you review your week with the Lord and see what was revealed from that first week. 

Set three experiments the first week. At the end of the week, talk to the Lord. Ask him what he wants you to know what worked for each experiment? What needs work? And then when you plan the week, the following week, Just decide. Do I want to keep these experiments?  And tweak them a bit. Keep them just as they are. What do I want to change? You just wash, rinse, repeat. Following those three experiments I want to remind you that stepping on the scale can be a distraction for you. Because what you want to do is use the Lord as your comfort. The Lord is affirmation and your obedience to what he reveals to you. 

As confirmation that you’re doing the right thing. So I hope this has been super helpful for you. No matter when you’re listening to this, just remember you don’t have to wait until the beginning of the month to start a 30 day focus or challenge for yourself. You don’t have to wait for the beginning of the week. You can start any time. The Lord is prompting you.  And this is that three-step method. So I want to invite you if you want to spend the next 30 days. Learning the foundations of Weight Loss with The Holy Spirit program. I invite you to get in today. Now you do have a few days in which our first group coaching call is until Wednesday. So you do have a little bit of time and that two for one special does go until Wednesday. But I suggest you get in as fast as you can. 

All right, everybody, I’m so stoked and I hope that the next 30 days bring you all of the progress that you want. Okay everybody, have a blessed day.