And it doesn’t include dieting. Okay, so it all comes down to what we’ve been taught. We’ve been taught this approach to weight loss that essentially is you look at whatever you think is holding you back from losing weight, whether it’s sleep, exercise, your diet, your hormones, stress, that you look at that variable

And you make a plan. Now, that would be fine if it were true that by making a plan, it would then lead you to the actions to following the plan. But sometimes it doesn’t. And let’s say you do follow the plan. You’re going to find that because you made a plan that doesn’t address the real problem, and I’m going to teach you how to find the real problem, you’re just addressing a variable that you think might be the problem.

Let me say that again. You’re addressing a variable that you think might be the problem. You’re not sure exactly if it’s the problem, and it might be a problem just because that’s what you have been taught. Okay, so this sounds a little confusing, but it will all make sense in the end. My point is that you are making a plan based on a variable, let’s just say food for example, and you assume that by making this plan, you’re going to follow through with it.

Let’s say you do follow through with it, but if the plan is not really addressing the problem, whatever the real problem is, we’ll continue. And we’ll come back. And so whatever plan you have created will be very short lived. You’ll only be able to follow the plan three days, three weeks, three months.

Even three years would be fine. But this is why you’re regaining your weight even after five years. Or ten years. Because you never addressed the real problem. And the problems will always come back louder, typically. The first thing is you want to find out what the real problem is because nobody likes wasting time and energy on a plan that sometimes really isn’t all that enjoyable if they’re not going to get the lasting results.

The second thing is, is that when we don’t follow the plan, number one, we’re not getting the results we want, but number two, our problems magnify. And what do I mean by that? We make not following the plan mean something. We make it mean something about our identity. About our self image.

See, I’m so weak. I don’t have willpower. I had one client tell me I’m just not able to stick to anything consistently long term. So we had an opportunity to look at that. Is that true? Or have we just not addressed the real problem of why you’re not able to stick to something long term?

If making a plan led to following the plan Long term and got you long term results, we wouldn’t be talking about this, but we are talking about it because so many women have been misled and taught a way to approach weight loss that’s not only ineffective, but also is causing extreme emotional negativity.

And lots of mind drama. So I want to teach you a different way, a lot more simple way. It’s a lot more gentle. In fact, it is so darn simple that your brain is going to think, I’m not even going to waste my time on that, but I want to tell you,

there’s a missing piece that is the step before making your plan. The step before even implementing the plan. The step before even knowing what to research, my friends. It’s identifying the real problem. Find the problem so that you know where to start. And I always say, if weight loss has felt hard for you, it’s not that you’re doing it wrong, it’s just you haven’t known where to start.

You’re starting in the wrong place. So I’m going to teach you where to start, because once you find out the problem, you can address it. And the super exciting part is I have a little gift for you. To be able to find your, the real problem and where to start, I’ve created a free 5 day challenge. that will walk you through the exact process that I’m going to be describing to you right now.

So you can either listen to the rest of this podcast, which is totally great, or you can just go to weightlosswithaholyspirit. com and get signed up for that challenge right now. And this time next week, you will have exactly pinpointed what the problem is and where to put your time and effort so that you have lasting weight loss.

So you can decide, or you can do both. Keep listening, and then sign up for the challenge. I want to remind you that your brain will think this is way too easy, and it might not even be worth your time. That’s what your brain’s going to think. But trust me, the women that I work with tell me over and over and over, I didn’t think this would matter, and Holy cow, so much has been revealed.

Now I know where to put my time and effort. So trust me. I’m going to show you how to find out where the problem is so that you can start problem solving for that and create real solutions. The way that we do this is to find out Where you are right now, and what I mean by that is the season that you’re currently living in right now this moment you’ve never lived in before and You’ll never live in again.

You’re living in a moment in a body with the taste buds that you have with the schedule that you have That you don’t even know about You’ve never been here before And so what I’d like for you to do is to start to get to know you now with your life now. And this sounds way complicated, and your brain’s going to want to complicate it, but it’s not.

There’s only two steps to this process. The first thing is that you’re going to start checking in with yourself. You’re going to check in with the woman who’s living as you now, the woman that you are right now. You’re going to just check in with her. You’re going to check in with her brain and you do that by asking two questions.

It’s very simple. You’re going to ask yourself a couple times a day, What do I feel and what do I need?

But I want you to just know that the goal is to pause life and check in with the woman that you’re looking at in the mirror. What do I need and what do I feel? What do I feel and what do I need? Just know that in the beginning you’re going to have a lot of question marks. It’s totally fine to put a question mark because you won’t even know what you feel.

And I also want to give you permission to answer the question, what do I need to be something like totally extravagant and not even realistic. You might say, I need a year long vacation. I need to be on a deserted island by myself. Just give yourself permission to make it not even realistic, because what you’re trying to do is to just find out from your brain, hey, what do you even think you need?

If you’re like me and you’re an emotional eater and food was the solution for so many things, I was happy, I would eat, I was sad, I would eat, I wanted to celebrate, I would eat, I was procrastinating, I would eat, food was my solution for every feeling. And so what I want you to do is just pause and give your brain an opportunity to consider that perhaps food isn’t the answer.

Now the other thing is that you believe that you’re not losing weight because of some variable. So whatever that variable is, whether it’s food, exercise, sleep. Hormonal issues, stress, whatever it is, I want you to take out a piece of paper and put that at the top of the paper.

Then, I want you to just write out a few characteristics about that variable. And, we’re going to use food as an example. Because you’re just going to start taking notes. These are food notes. You’re going to start noticing, so that you can bring awareness the actual details of that variable. Let’s just talk about food.

So instead of making a food plan or a diet for yourself, let’s even find out what’s going on right now. What is happening? And so the variables I ask women to start looking at for their food, now this isn’t a food log, friends. The food and what you’re actually putting in your mouth is the least important part of this.

We’re just starting to notice what’s Patterns. Is there anything that you didn’t know? Now again, your brain’s gonna be like, oh I know everything. Okay, but I want to challenge you to actually put it on paper. Remember friends, that the work that we do at Weight Loss with the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with diets, willpower, deprivation, but it has everything to do with being willing to pick up a pen And connect to the Holy Spirit.

So if you are willing to pick up a pen and connect to the Holy Spirit, you can have lasting weight loss. And what I’m asking you to do right now will get you there. And so let’s start to take food notes. I like to call it noticing my food. And the variables, or the characteristics of the food that you will start to notice.

The time of day, hunger level, which I’ll get back to in just a second. The food that they’re eating. But even more important than the food you’re eating is where are you? What position are you in? Are you at your desk? Are you in your kitchen? Are you standing? Are you sitting? Are you laying on the couch?

Where are you? Just start to notice some patterns. I like to ask myself, what is my brain thinking? This isn’t enough food. Oh, this is too much. Hate this food. I love this food. Maybe you’re not even thinking about food. Maybe you’re sitting down for a meal and thinking, Oh my gosh, we’re late. Maybe you’re thinking, Oh, he’s such a jerk.

Maybe you’re thinking, Oh, it’s so great to have my family around. Maybe you’re thinking, Oh, finally quiet. Just give your brain an opportunity to tell you what it’s thinking. And then I like to have women know how they are eating. And a very simple way that you can do this is we just look at three different

habits and three methods of eating that are so helpful to slowing you down so that you enjoy your food. But it also improves your digestion They are to chew your food at least 20 times They are to empty your hands between your bites and they’re to empty your mouth before you take the next bite

Then note hunger after eating. Okay, so speaking of hunger, But I love to ask women to define their own hunger scale. when do you want to start eating? When do you want to stop eating? Of course we have a hunger scale we use in the Weight Loss with the Holy Spirit program Or you can download one, just Google it. It’s not essential, but it’s so fun. I have this one client who’s like, I am going to start eating when I’m on a negative six and I’m going to stop eating when I’m a positive two and you know, of course that’s assuming zero is not full or not hungry.

Again, there’s a million different hunger scales. You can define your own right now. You can put one to 10 on a piece of paper and just you write out your own hunger scale. You might not even want to notice your hunger. Totally fine too. The whole Weight Loss of the Holy Spirit program has nothing to do with following rules.

It has everything to do with doing what works for you. Some people like to eat by the clock. Totally fine. Some people like to eat by hunger. Totally fine. It doesn’t matter. It’s just deciding what works for you. And so if you take five days to two weeks to do the two things that I just recommended, you’re going to know what the real problem is.

You’re going to know what to address. I had this one couple, they were adorable, who didn’t change anything about their diet, except they noticed that they were eating so fast. They started to implement those three things that I recommended, and within nine weeks they lost ten pounds. Isn’t that crazy?

Because they just started to identify what the real problem is. What was keeping them stuck? It was the speed with which they were eating. Of course that might get you to a place where then you don’t have additional weight loss, but then again, then we address what the real problem is. What’s the next level?

What’s the next thing? Do you see how we just continue to look at, what is the problem that we need to address? And we can problem solve from that.

There’s no rules. It’s just what works for you now. Not what worked for you 10 years ago. Not what worked for you before your first child. Or after your second, not what worked for you last year or works for your sister in law or your mom or the Instagram people, but what works for you now in this season of your life.

And when you give yourself permission to learn about the woman who’s listening to this right now, to tune into you and your taste buds and your schedule and what works for you now. My friend, this is how you have lasting weight loss for the rest of your life. And that’s what the Weight Loss of the Holy Spirit program does, is it teaches you how to tune in to you at every single season of your life.

This process works for every Catholic woman. And I know that’s you because you’re listening right now. So if you want to jumpstart your weight loss and learn how to identify the real problem, I invite you to join our 5 day challenge at weightlosswithaholyspirit. com. I hope this has given you so much peace and realized that there’s nothing wrong with you.