And some people wake up in the morning, they put their tennis shoes on and they go out and give themselves a 10 minute walk. Some people sit down and they have their prayer time in the morning and they write their food plan and then they go for a walk. Whatever your daily routine is that starts your day saying, this is how I’m going to show up for me today and you’re doing it in a real concrete way. So there’s three keys that we do in our community. Three daily habits that you have a commitment to that keep you showing up for you. Keep you recommitting to you, and those three things are we connect with the Lord in the morning and plan our easy to stick to meal plans and so by saying, hey Lord, I can’t do this alone, I need your help with this.  On my own, I’m going to fall, so please help me.  

We also asked the holy spirit to help us plan our day, plan our food. It is a concrete way, a measurable way of saying, yeah, I committed to myself. Part of that is what it’s going to be, the second thing but part of that is doing a mind dump and really getting clear on any mind chatter that you might be having or any negative thoughts that are going through your brain. I’ll get more into that in the second thing that is essential, but that is part of the daily habit that we have in our community. The other daily habit is that evening check-in. Where did I show up well for myself? How can I show up better for myself tomorrow? And then I just review my food, what did I learn? And what did I notice by the way that I ate today?  

It’s really simple, but creating some daily habits, and I think a book ending your day with those. Habits are really important. So what is your daily habit? How do you show up for yourself and commit to yourself in the morning? How do you review your day? Recommit to yourself at night and then wash, rinse, repeat. And do it the next day. How long do you have to do this daily habit? The truth is, this as long as you want to be at your healthy weight. And you’ll find that as you do these daily habits, they become less and less about your weight. And more and more about just taking care of you and showing up for you. And not giving up on you and being the woman that you want to be, that, you know, the Lord created you to be. I had a client this week, who was saying to me, you know Denise, things are going really well for me now, but I’m afraid  when I’m on my own, I’m going to give up.  . 

It just made me realize how stinking important it is for us to continue to show up for ourselves.  And at least acknowledge our existence as human beings who need some tending and caring to.  And I want all of you, if you learned nothing else from this podcast, to not break up for you to continue to show up for you. To develop that skill and gain trust with yourself so you can show yourself, hey, I’m not going to give up on you. I know this is important to you. Each day I’m going to be there for you. I’m not going to pretend that this is important to you. And I think that’s what it comes down to is just being women who know how to take care of ourselves. And trust me if you’re thinking Denise, I have no idea what you mean by that. Don’t worry about it because no one is teaching us how to do this. I think over and over that’s what I’m recognizing is that no one teaches us how to do that. And so I hope by continuing to listen to this podcast you will learn bits and pieces of how to take care of yourself. Of how to acknowledge you to feel seen and heard and known. 

You can do all of that for yourself, because that’s exactly what the Lord wants to do for you. That is what he needs you to do for you, you are his hands and feet on this earth to you. Okay, so I got a little bit off of the daily habit but the essence is, you just look in the mirror and you say, Hey, Denise, I see you, I’m with you girl. We got this day, I’m going to take care of you. That doesn’t mean the day’s easy but it means I’m not leaving you. It means I’m not going to give up on you. It means that when you’re sad, I’m going to put my arm around you.  Which takes me to the second thing that I think is so important for us to not gain our weight back and that is becoming an observer of our thoughts of recognizing when we’re stressed, when we’re having strong emotions, when we’re sad, when we’re lonely, when we’re hurt, when were offended, when we’re feeling overwhelmed. And learning how to tend to those emotions in a way that tends to those emotions, not pushes them down. Not push them under the rug, not pretend that they don’t exist, and that just puts on a smiley face, I just eat, let’s just scroll on her phone. But where we can realize, oh, I’m having a strong emotion. 

That is a skill, a hundred percent, but I really believe it is one of the biggest skills that you need to learn to keep your way off. And because what I really find is that at the end of the day, a lot of us are unwilling to sit with our feelings. Our feelings are uncomfortable. And so we’d rather eat. And so if we can learn to sit with the discomfort of our feelings, which will literally probably go away in like two to three minutes if we don’t keep spinning out on them. And we just breathe through and keep ourselves safe and breathe and breathe. It is probably max five minutes of discomfort. One more thing about noticing and being an observer of our thoughts is because we will have to deal with disappointment a lot. We will have to deal with despair a lot and being willing to be women who are committed to their goals, even when they’re disappointed. Who are committed to themselves, even when they’re in despair or disappointed or feeling stuck. It will just prevent you from giving up on you.  

And the third thing is to have some ongoing support, whether it’s a friend, or our Weight Loss with The Holy Spirit Community of other women who are trying their best, who are trying to get through the ups and downs of life by taking care of themselves. And not stress eating and turning to the Lord. You want to have other women? You want to have other women that you can turn to when you were stumbling. Other women that you can check in with regularly to refresh you and I think that’s one of the most amazing parts of having a coach or having a friend that you check in with every week is that you get remotivated. I was working with a client the other day, and I said, how are you feeling right now at the end of our session? And she said, rejuvenated, and that’s just what happens when we have these connections with the women in our community or friends who are on this same path as us, as we feel rejuvenated, we feel restored. We feel refreshed, we feel really motivated and then we go through the week on our own with the Lord. We might find that that rejuvenation wanes a little bit and so just having a touch point, somebody that you can come back to several times a week. At least once a week where you can talk about your successes. It’s so fun to have  somebody that you can celebrate with, or you’re going out to you that you can say, this is what I’m going to order tonight and then when you get back and say, yeah, that’s what I ordered. 

It was great, I took half of it home. I didn’t over eat, I ate slowly. It’s just so wonderful to have somebody in your back pocket and they don’t have to be your best friend and I think it’s one of the most beneficial parts of Weight Loss with the Holy Spirit Community is that you are not alone. Every woman that comes into our community says to me, I thought it was the only one. No, you are not the only one, but making sure that you do have someone or someone’s in your back pocket that you can celebrate with that you can connect with weekly is so important for you to have lasting results. So the three things are creating a daily habit that is simple. That keeps you showing up for you, keeps you committed to you and keeps you recommitted to you every single day. And it could just be one thing where you say every morning, I’m gonna wake up and I’m going to put my shoes on and go for a walk for 10 minutes just for something concrete.  

Although I really am very partial to starting your day with the Lord and creating an easy to stick to meal plan in the morning and in the evening, checking in with him. And the second thing is learning how to observe your thoughts and see when you’re having strong emotions or negative emotions, or being able to see those situations that are leading you to stress eat and learning how to change your thoughts on that. And I did a podcast on how to be your own Catholic weight loss coach that will teach you how to do that. And the third thing is to have other friends in a community of women who are doing this work with you, that can support you and encourage you and rejuvenate you and remotivate you. And here’s the coolest thing is you’re doing that for them too. And when you help another person, you’re actually strengthening your commitment to yourself.  

And in our community, we continue to point you back to what the holy spirit wants for you. Find friends who will do that for you as well. And again, your question is, how long do I have to do this? Well, my friends, as long as you want to be at your healthy weight, as long as you want to have those results, that’s how long you show up for yourself every single day. And I know we’re coming up on summer, which makes it really hard to do. But I have something very special for you. I’m doing a special workshop on how to lose weight this summer eating the treats that you want, having fun and not caving under social pressure, which pretty much means not breaking up with yourself when you encounter social pressure. Which is actually very normal so there’s nothing wrong with you feeling social pressure. I just want to teach you how to not break up with you when you encounter it in the summer. And so this free workshop is called Summer Slim Down. It’s May 3rd, 11:00 AM Central, 12 Eastern, and 9 Pacific it is free. It will give you a survival guide of how to get through this summer eating the foods you love.  Having a lot of fun and not caving under social pressure. Wouldn’t you love to know how to get through the summer with those three things? And end the summer lighter than when you started. In fact, it’s a simple system that you could lose 10 pounds in eight weeks. It’s amazing! It’s amazing. 

I hope that you will gift yourself with signing up for this workshop at weightlosswiththeholyspirit.com. Where you can learn how to show up for yourself every single day, this summer in a way that is really simple and fun. All right everybody, I hope to see you at the workshop. 

Have a blessed day.