Episode 30 - Bringing Pleasure Back to Your Plateau

Transcript

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Renée Stephens: Welcome. To Inside Out Weight Loss. I'm your host Renée Stephens and together we're accessing the control panel of your mind, body system. Bringing ease and joy to your weight loss journey. And fullness to the rest of your life.

Today on the show a guided journey to spread the love in your body and bringing the pleasure to your plateau.

But what our bodies do, without us even being aware of it, is that they filter out, they expel the things that are not healthy for us. Our immune systems are properly functioning immune systems keep us healthy without us even knowing it. Because so often we think, we slip back into that notion of “Oh my Goodness, well it's hard work.” It sneaks up on us when we're not looking, when we're not noticing. We think, “Oh, it's hard work to be natural slender. Oh my goodness I don't know if I'll ever make it.” when the reality is that being naturally slender simply means maximizing your pleasure.

Think about how you would feel if you made a different choice, a choice that just matched where you are. Now that doesn't mean you're gonna have tofu and carrots for the rest of your life. No, it doesn't. What it means is that you are going to match your intake with where you body is and what your body needs in that particular moment to be in an optimal state.

Let's go ahead and set our intention for today's episode. Drop inside and become present with you. With your physical body. How does it feel physically right now. In your body. How does it feel emotionally in you body right now. What's going on? What brings itself to you attention?

Remember, it's your body that makes you possible. Your body makes everything in your life possible. We are embodied spirits for a reason. This body thing is an inescapable aspect of being human. It is essential to our humanness so it stands to reason that we must embrace it. We must work through it and with it to be the highest expression of ourselves.

Did you know that without a body you wouldn't be able to feel emotions? The physiological processes that correspond with emotional experiences occur in the body, not the mind. If you've ever been deprived of the use of a limb or a sense, you'll remember the appreciation that you suddenly had for the use of that body part. Have you ever been on crutches or in bed for some period of time unable to take care of yourself or do the things that you usually take for granted? Then you'll know what I'm talking about.

So let's take a moment here and now to feel a deep appreciation for our bodies. A deep gratitude and love for our bodies. For our lungs that allow us to breathe. For our eyes that allow us to see. For our ears that allow us to hear. If indeed we do have eyes and ears that work. Take a moment to appreciate them. They're gifts. To our digestive tracts that do all the work relentlessly of processing all the substances that we put through our mouths. Breaking down those substances. Extracting the nutrients. Storing any excess resources there. Finding a way to store the excess energy in the form of fat. Eliminating what is no longer needed in our bodies. We do this all the time. To the passive immune function that is always happening. You know, we are subjected to bacteria and to virus' all the time, everywhere, every day. But what our bodies do, without us even being aware of it, is that they filter out, they expel the things that are not healthy for us. Our immune systems are properly functioning immune systems keep us healthy without us even knowing it.

They are working away, fending off illness and healing minor injuries from our bodies. Filtering out our pollutants in the air. Did you know that an allergy is actually a mistake of the immune system? Most of the time our bodies work perfectly and our immune systems function in a passive way. An allergy, on the other hand, is when something is actually an inert substance or a substance that is perhaps not inert but can be passively removed from our systems, through the normal processes of expelation and perspiration that our bodies do so naturally. When one of those substances is mistakenly thought of as invasive. As causing an urgent situation. And so the body reacts urgently as though there is some emergency going on and it expels as quickly as it can. Through sneezing and sniffling and red puffy eyes watering. That sort of thing.

So most of the time with most of the substances in our lives our immune systems work beautifully and we passively eliminate any toxins or substances we don't want in our bodies. That's the way our bodies work. So let's take a moment to appreciate that. Let's take a moment here and now to take a deep gratitude for our bodies.

I want you to think of a body part. A body part of your own that is. That you like or at the very least that you don't dislike. It could be you earlobes. It could be you feet. You eyes, your eyebrows, your cheekbones. Any part of you that you like the most about you. Maybe you have an awesome foot structure. Who knows? There's something about you body that you like the best. Or don't like dislike the most. So take a moment and go into that feeling. That feeling of liking. Of accepting. Of appreciating that particular part of your body. Notice it. Notice the aspects of it that you especially enjoy and appreciate. Allow that feeling of appreciation. Of liking that part of you body. To grow bigger. Allow it to grow brighter. Allow it to become closer, stronger and even more positive. And as you do this notice how that positive feeling naturally begins to overflow and spread from where ever it is in your body it spreads out to the next adjacent body part. It spreads down you body, up you body, through and throughout your body. Notice it.

And let that good feeling spread and bathe and soak you body in light. Especially those parts that have been the darkest. Feel that light, that warm light, of appreciation spreading throughout you body and brightening, warming, opening the parts that have been the darkest. And as you feel this light within and throughout you, go ahead and set your intent for this episode. And this day. Or even this week in your life. What would you like to manifest? What would you like to experience? Are you self-correcting you energy today? Is this a day of coming back into balance? Is it a day of moving back into that hooked up, positive, inspired place. Where your energy flows naturally.

Is your intent today to gain something important for your next incremental step forward? Or is your intent to let today be a break-through day? Let the answer that's right for you come to you now. My intent is to help you achieve your intent, easily, magically. I am on a mission to end the weight struggle and replace it with peace, freedom, fun, joy, fulfillment, spirit. What would you like to replace it with? I'd love to know. Post your comment, your answer, on the blog at www.personallifemedia.com/renee and tell me and the other blog readers what you would like to replace you struggle with. And while you're at it go ahead and open up energetically. Send you support to all the other inside out weight loss listeners across space and time. We have listeners all over the globe. Ireland, Germany, Australia – all over. I got an e-mail from someone in Korea the other day. And I want to give a special welcome to those Inside Out Weight Loss listeners in countries other than the United States. We're so glad that you're here here.

Before we move on, let's go ahead and take a break now to support our sponsors. This is Renee Stephens and you're listening to Inside Out Weight Loss on Personal Life Media.

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Renee Stephens : We're back now. Before the break we were talking about really appreciating our bodies. Taking the time to let that really wonderful feeling spread throughout our bodies and appreciate all of the things our bodies do for us without us even thinking about it. And I wanted to mention in this week's episode a finer point about the anywhere, anytime uber resource that we discussed last episode. It's the wonderful you. The you who has already resolved the problem that you might be experiencing at any given moment. That resource is available to you anytime and anywhere. Do you remember the listener who turned overstuffed into overjoyed on her four mile walk by imagining her wonderful self? She connected back into the person that she was when she started running after she had her first baby.

Now it's important if you at some point in your past were in a good place and you think that you want to go back there, to remember that actually you don't. Let me explain. You may have had a great time at some point in your past when you were really on track and everything was clicking and you felt great. And there certainly are many great aspects of that experience that you'll want to build into the person that you are now becoming. And at the same time, what you don't want is to go back into the past and become exactly that former you. Because that former you had something unstable about her or him that lead her to where you are now. Does that make sense? The you from the past had many great aspects but there was something, there was something unstable, that lead that you exactly to where you are right now. So when you think about the future you, you want that future you to have all the best aspects of the former you and yet be even better.

This new you, this future you, is wiser. This future you is even more stable in her natural slender habits. She or he is not perfect and has a great sense of humor – we love sense of humor! If you saw my April 1st you'll understand more of what I'm talking about. Go to the blog and check it out. So this future you has a sense of humor, this future you has all of those wonderful aspects from the past an in addition is even better. Wiser, more stable, even better.

Because she has the advantage of experience. The advantage of knowing more about what does and doesn't work than you former self did. So when you're using this wonderful resource of the wonderful you, be sure to build in wisdom, experience and stability. A resilience, an ability to self-correct even more quickly and even more easily than ever before. For example, this new you, this future you, has all of the resources and transformations that are a result of having listened to this show.

Okay. On the last few episodes we've been discussing the gift of the plateau. Of maintaining a weight that's lower than it was. This week I want to talk to you about another reason a plateau can be a very important period for you. Remember these ways to look at plateaus? They're reminders to look at the present. Plateaus are practice for having a stable weight. They're a reminder to focus on behaving in a naturally slender way for the sake of it. Because it creates more good feelings more of the times. It's your body getting ready to drop more weight.

Let's talk for a moment about this notion of being naturally slender, behaving in a naturally slender way for the sake of it in the present moment. Because so often we think, we slip back into that notion of “Oh my Goodness, well it's hard work.” It sneaks up on us when we're not looking, when we're not noticing. We think, “Oh, it's hard work to be natural slender. Oh my goodness I don't know if I'll ever make it.” when the reality is that being naturally slender simply means maximizing your pleasure over time.

So being naturally slender means feeling good, more. This is not deprivation. What this is, is pleasure maximization. Every time I take a new client through the naturally slender eating strategy I so enjoy their experience of noticing that making healthy choices actually will improve their enjoyment over time. That they will get more pleasure, longer, by doing so. And that doesn't mean that they never make a choice to have a bit of chocolate or some kind of sweet or something they consider indulgent. They may very well do that but it's going to be a conscious choice, a choice that they decide makes sense for that moment. For the every day choices. If you think, “Oh, well goodness. Whenever I go to this particular restaurant, I go to the Italian, I get the Alfredo Bacon Super Duper Over the Top 2000 Calorie Artery Clogging Bonanza!” No judgment implied here, by the way, about that dish. But, you think “OK well every time I go to this restaurant this is what I always eat.” Do you have something like that? A “whenever I go there I always get the – this” and it's something that when you leave, now think about it, how do you feel when you leave the restaurant after eating the this? You might not have noticed much in the past. You might have blocked out of your mind the way that you feel when you leave having eating the Mega Bonanza Over the Top Meal that might have been you habit of eating in the past.

But think about it now. Take a moment. How does it feel in your body? Because remember your body is dealing with this food for a long time. And in fact if it's more food than you need to meet you current caloric expenditures, it's gonna be with you a long time. It could be stored on your body for a year. Think about that. Think about how you might have last year's Alfredo Sauce on your thighs. What kind of notion is that? Not very pleasant, huh? Well your body's dealing with it. That body that's doing all that great stuff for you. Think about how you would feel if you made a different choice, a choice that just matched where you are. Now that doesn't mean you're gonna have tofu and carrots for the rest of your life. No, it doesn't. What it means is that you are going to match your intake with where you body is and what your body needs in that particular moment to be in an optimal state.

So sometimes you'll be really hungry. You will have done perhaps a big work out or you won't have eaten for awhile or some thing's up and you're just really hungry. And so something a little more heavier, a little bit more substantial will be just right. Other times you won't be very hungry at all. A client of mine asked me the other day, “What do I do if I go to a restaurant and I'm not hungry?” I said “Well, that's up to you. Do you like going to restaurants when you're not hungry?” and she said “No” and I said “Well what could you do before?” and she said “Oh, well I guess I could make sure I went to the restaurant hungry so I really enjoyed the meal.” I think that's a great idea. That's certainly what I do. If I'm going to a restaurant that I think is a gonna be really nice and has great food I'll make sure that I'm hungry when I get there. Because I want to really enjoy the food. I most enjoy eating when I am hungry so I cultivate hunger because I'm cultivating enjoyment. Does that make sense? I cultivate hunger so that I cultivate enjoyment.

So this is being naturally slender for it's own sake and when your weight is stable, when you have the gift of a plateau, it can be a reminder to really notice how the food that you're eating and the exercise that you're doing makes you feel over time. Not in the 30 nano seconds you have the food in your mouth but the hours, the day, the month, the year that that food is affecting you. That that choice is affecting you. Are you matching you bodies needs? Are you allowing your body to clear out the clutter of stored energy, of stored fat by the choices that you're making.

So plateaus are a beautiful reminder to enjoy the present. They are a beautiful reminder to eat in a naturally slender way or the sake of it, to maximize your pleasure, your enjoyment over time right now. So next time you think about a plateau or you hit a plateau, think of it not as a plateau but rather as your weight stabilizing. You can think to yourself, you can say to yourself and you friends, “Well my weight is stabilizing at a lower level right now and getting ready to go to the next level.”

On the next episode I want to talk to you about some of the other shifts that occur as you are changing shape and size. As you're releasing the excess weight on your body I want to talk to you about some of the other types of shifts that need to happen while you're changing shape and size. These are the shifts that sometimes don't have the opportunity to occur if you lose weight too quickly and that's one of the reasons people regain weight quickly when it's lost quickly. I've heard many stories who have had Bariatric Surgery and after 2, 3, 4 years they find their weight starts going up again. In fact my health plan which is Kaiser talks about Bariatric Surgery being a two year solution, that you can count on it working for about two years. And I thought, “Oh my goodness! That's a lot to do for a two year solution!” And certainly it works for some people much longer than that and it really is the answer for those people. And yet it is so important to make these other kinds of adjustments that we'll be talking about on the next show, adjustments like who you'll be that you're naturally slender. Who you'll be that you are the weight that you have so long wanted to be and how you'll relate to others.

These are the types of changes that making a slower and steadier release of weight really a very positive thing because they allow the rest of it, they allow our psyche, our spirit, our emotional life, our identities to catch up with who we are, or who we're becoming.

We'll discuss this and more on the next episode on Inside Out Weight Loss. That brings us to the end of our show today. Thank you for being present.

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For other shows on the Personal Life Media Network please visit our website at personlifemedia.com. There's loads of intriguing content to feed your mind body and spirit. This is your host Renee Stephens and I'm on a mission to eradicate the weight struggle from the planet, replacing it with light, love, fun and fulfillment. Join me as we evolve the world by evolving ourselves. Take great care.