Episode 8 - The Naturally Slender Eating Strategy, Part II
Now that we've set the record straight on Naturally slender eating, we will walk through the Naturally Slender Eating Strategy. Learn how to make decisions about what and how much to eat that maximize pleasure. Yes, that's right. The secret to being Naturally Slender is pleasure. Who knew? Listen to this week's episode and train your subconscious mind to become delightfully slender.
Transcript
Transcript
Renee Stephens: Welcome to Inside Out Weight Loss. I’m your host Renee Stephens, and together we’re accessing the control panel of your mind/body system, brining ease and joy to your weight loss journey and fullness to the rest of your life. If you’ve had enough of diet after diet and tried everything from fasting, detoxing and diet pills to the beach diet of the moment, you’re in the right place. On Inside Out Weight Loss you’ll learn how to think like a thin person so your diet becomes the easiest part of the process. Today on the show the second of two parts on becoming naturally slender. You’ll learn exactly how to think like a naturally slender person. This is the part of the weight loss and diet story that no one talks about and you need to know. So go ahead and set your intention for this episode. Is it to soak in the strategy like a sponge? Is it to have your diet and weight loss experience be easy and enjoyable? What a concept that is. Whatever it is, go ahead and set that intention now. My intent in this episode is to enable you to break through what’s been holding you back and move firmly into living your dream.
Renee Stephens: So what you think really does precede what you do. And if you want to change what you do you must first change how you think.
Renee Stephens: How does this food that you’ve just seen make you feel over time? This is the crux of the naturally slender eating strategy, over time.
Renee Stephens: So far on Inside Out Weight Loss we’ve learned about creating the motivation cocktail that will get you going, including defining what you’re moving away from and dreaming the dream that draws you towards it. We also talked about the power of positive intent and meta outcomes, as well as how to amp up your energy levels, even if like me you’ve had chronic fatigue syndrome. We even spent an episode going over the nuts and bolts of what foods in your diet will make your journey easy. Last episode we learned who these naturally slender folks are and what they do, and equally importantly what they don’t do. We also learned the truth about high and low metabolisms, and why some people can do extreme exercise and not lose weight. On today’s show we’re going even deeper into the mind of the naturally slender, to learn how they decide what and how much to eat. This really is the untold story, the part of the picture the researchers forget to consider, even the National Weight Control Registry. The National Weight Control Registry is a registry that draws information from people who have successfully lost weight and kept the lost for at least a year. I think it’s about 30 pounds and maintained the loss. It’s a wonderful recert project designed to determine what really does work in the long run. And yet the questions in the National Weight Control Registry are focused on what it is that these people do and barrel it all on how they think. Yet aren’t our actions preceded by thoughts? Isn’t everything that we do started by thinking a thought?
Renee Stephens: Let’s pause here for a moment and consider this idea; here you are, imagine you’re in a bakery and there in front of you is your favorite thing. And you think, “Okay, I’ll just have it just this once.” Or, “Heck, I deserve it.” Now what do you think you’re going to do if that’s your thought in the bakery looking at your favorite thing? Or the office goodies; you walk by and you think, “Oh, just a couple of M&M’s won’t hurt.” You’ve got that thought, and after you’ve thought that thought what happens with your hand? I bet very shortly it’s going to your mouth with whatever it is in it. So what you think really does precede what you do. And if you want to change what you do you must first change how you think. Of course this is the whole concept behind Inside Out Weight Loss, changing your thinking first so that you can change your behavior. We’ve got to start with the thinking, otherwise it’ll be a huge struggle. If you say to yourself, “I deserve this”, as you walk by the office goodies or consider that second or third or fifth slice of pizza, if you’re thinking, “I deserve this”, well I’ll tell you what, you do deserve good things, and you’re going to go ahead and eat it then. If your idea of something good for you that you deserve, if your idea of a treat is putting extra calories in your body and extra saturated fat and extra cholesterol and extra processed substances that your body won’t know what to do with, well then that’s what you’re going to do. So lets look at the thinking that happens first. And today we’re talking about specifically naturally slender thinking.
Renee Stephens: Hey, if you listened to last week’s episode, I’m wondering, how’d you do? Did you keep that hunger diary? Did you write it down? Did you at least check in with your body before and after eating to notice when you were hungry and when you weren’t? Did you notice that you’re eating when you’re hungry or when you’re not hungry? I’ll tell you a little secret out of the many that we share on this program, and that is that it’s very, very rare indeed for a person to be overweight because they eat when they’re hungry. I’ll say that again, people who are overweight are overweight ‘cause they eat when they’re actually hungry. They’re overweight because they eat when they’re not truly physically hungry or they past the point of being full. So if you haven’t tried out that exercise, go back to episode 7, listen to how I describe it and go ahead and start tracking your hunger, because that’s the beginning of the process.
Renee Stephens: Okay, I know what you’ve been waiting for. You are waiting for me to start walking you through this naturally slender eating strategy, and you’re in luck, ‘cause that’s what we’re about to do. Let me just say that this strategy is actually detailed in a book called Heart of the Mind, which you can find under the books Renee recommends link on the blog site where you find this podcast, www.personallifemedia.com/renee. Heart of the Mind by Connie Ray Andreas. And what she’s done is model the strategy of naturally slender people. It’s a great description. And I’ve actually met with her and had her teach me step by step this strategy. I’ve enhanced it through my work with clients over the years, and the result is the process I’m about to walk you through now. We’re going to take a short break now to support our sponsors. This is Renee Stephens, and you’re listening to Inside Out Weight Loss on Personal Life Media. When we get back we’ll be going through these steps.
Renee Stephens: Welcome back. Before the break we were talking about how these steps were discovered, and now we’ll go straight into the steps. The first one is I’d like you to imagine a hypothetical future situation when something makes you think about food. That’s right. Maybe it’s seeing food. Maybe it’s in a situation where you smell food. Perhaps you look at your watch and it’s 12 o’clock and it’s time for lunch. Any kind of situation that makes you think about food, and this can be a situation where it’s appropriate for you to eat or a situation where it’s inappropriate for you to eat. It really doesn’t matter. And as we go through this process I want you to allow the answers that come first to your mind to be the answers that you think of. So later on when I ask you to think of a food, then just allow the first thing that comes to you to be the one that you use. There’s no need to censor here or think about only raw vegetables and low calorie foods. I want you to go for it on this one. So think of a situation that makes you think about food. And I’ll use an example here just to help you out. Lets imagine that it’s 12 o’clock as I said before and that happens to be the time that you eat lunch, and so it’s time for lunch, okay? So now the next step is you think, “It’s time for lunch”, yeah, and you’re going to check in. So what I want you to do is I want you to actually put your hands on your stomach, both of your hands on your stomach. Now a lot of people are a little confused about where your stomach is. If your hands are on your belly below your belly button, you’re going to move them up. You’re going to move them up so that they are just below your ribcage, alright. So if you don’t know where your ribcage is, this is mid torso. So put your hands on your stomach, tilt your head down slightly and drop inside and notice how your stomach feels now at noon in this hypothetical situation, okay? Noon, a hypothetical situation, your hands are on your stomach, your head is tilted down slightly and the body posture is important as I walk you through these, ‘cause we’re installing this strategy directly in your subconscious mind. As I’m speaking to you now, I’m speaking both to you conscious and subconscious minds. So allow your conscious mind to be as aware and conscious as you like, while your subconscious tunes in to how you feel in your stomach. Check in. How hungry are you? Remember that hunger scale? Rate your hunger. Zero is fall on the floor famished and ten is stuffed like a turkey on Thanksgiving. So check in, how might you be on this hypothetical future day at noon.
Renee Stephens: Next step, go to thinking about what would feel good in your stomach right now. It’s noon and you’re as hungry as you are, and then think about, listen to your voice, your inner voice, it’s going to ask this question. And you know when you’re listening really closely to something? You might tilt your head slightly. You might put your hand over your ear. You take your hands away from your stomach in this step, you put your hand over your ear and you tilt your head and you listen very, very closely. And you listen to your inner voice and it says, “What would feel good in my stomach right now?” And you will see the answer in a moment. And when I say “see the answer”, you’re going to straighten out your head, you’re going to tilt it back slightly, you’re going to look above eye level and you are going to visualize something that you would consider eating at lunch time, whatever it is. There it is, you see a portion of food, the portion that you are considering eating. Maybe it’s what’s there in front of you. Maybe it’s an item from a restaurant you know. Something that you tend to fix yourself from home. Whatever it is just see it there. See that portion. Good.
Renee Stephens: Now, this is the really important piece. I want you to do a trial run before you actually eat anything. And that trial run is this: you’re going to put your hands on your stomach again, mid torso, put them on your stomach, you’re checking in, and now you’re going to imagine eating what you just saw. That’s right. You’re going to get a little bit of taste in your mouth. You’re going to feel it as it goes down into your stomach. And you’re going to imagine what it would feel like, you’re going to feel it in your stomach over time. That’s right; over time. Imagine, over an hour, two hours, three hours, I want you to feel this in your stomach for the next two, three hours, okay? What’s that like? Do you like the way it feels over time? You may like the way it feels when it lands on your mouth, in your mouth, on your taste buds. But what I’m asking is how does it feel in your body over time? ‘Cause lets face it, the amount of time that you are eating this, whatever it is, isn’t very long. I think I read something recently where it said the average American spends seven minutes eating dinner. So it’s not in your mouth for very long, but it is in your body for a long, long time. So just think about what it feels like when you go through this process imagining what it would be like, oh, for dinner for example, I want you to think about what it’ll feel like to sleep with this in your stomach, and how you’ll feel waking up in the morning having eaten this the night before, because this food will stay with you. Which reminds me of a small point that’s kind of interesting; a lot of people say, “Oh, I’m never interested in breakfast. I’m not hungry at breakfast time. I hate breakfast.” Well whenever someone says that to me I want to find out what they do for dinner. Because if they’re overeating at dinner, no wonder they’re hungry at breakfast time. They’re still full from dinner. So if you want to get yourself to eat breakfast, consider eating a lighter dinner. Okay, enough digressions. Back to the point here, and the point is how does this food that you’ve just seen make you feel over time? This is the crux of the naturally slender eating strategy, over time. Okay? Most of us have overly discounted how foods make us feel over time. So I want you to really amp that up and expand until it gets to that place where you realize that it dwarfs the immediate feeling. It’s really all about how it makes you feel over the next several hours. Does it give you energy throughout the afternoon? Do you feel light and energized and ready to go? Do you feel satisfied? Do you feel like you have the nutrients and the energy to keep you going? Check in. Find out. And when you’ve done that, ask yourself this question: do I like it? Do I like the way this makes me feel? And if the answer is “Not really”, and maybe you’re a little surprised by that because you always eat the super grande burrito at lunch time, but you realize you always have indigestion in the afternoon or want to go for a nap, then you think, “Okay, well let me consider another option.” Sometimes that other option will be to have nothing at all. What would that be like, if you ate nothing at all? Not so good perhaps. If you’re hungry, not so good. If you’re not hungry maybe nothing is right for you. Maybe you’d rather go and sit outside for a few minutes or take some deep breaths or have a cup of herbal tea or something. Who knows? Have a break. Pretend you’re a smoker and take the time anyway. That’s one of the great things about smoking I think is that people take breaks, so why not take one without the cancer stick. So, do you like it or not? If you don’t like it, if you’d like to consider another option now’s the time to do that. If you tried out the super grande burrito, now it’s time to imagine eating the salad or the soup or something else that you really like. And I want you to go through this process of trying out, trying on for size these different options on this occasion. Which one of these options makes you feel the best over time? Take your time here. Check it out. What makes you feel the best over time? And when you’ve come to a conclusion about that, “Mm, gee, the burrito didn’t work so well, the salad was a lot better, but maybe not all that dressing”. Or “Gosh, soup really sits well with me, makes me feel light and energetic in the afternoon.” Whatever it is, check it out. What is the thing that makes you feel the best over time? And when you’ve found that thing then you know that you have just chosen to maximize your pleasure over time. That’s right. What you have chosen when you choose the food that makes you feel best over time, you have made a choice to maximize your pleasure over time. You’ve chosen the most pleasure for the most time. Now does that sound like hard work? I don’t think so.
Renee Stephens: We’re talking about going straight into hedonism here. We’re talking about maximizing the good feelings. Who knew that being naturally slender involved maximizing the good feelings. This is a secret that nobody seems to know. Well I am here to tell you the good news, that you get to choose the thing that makes you feel the best. Yay! This is great. This is a revelation. Dieting isn’t about depravation. Being naturally slender is not depravation, otherwise, how would all those people around the world who are naturally slender year to year and don’t think a thing of it. How would they do it? Nobody has that will power. I’m telling you, it’s too much. So the naturally slender way, the easy way is to say, “Hey, what’s going to make me feel the best over time? That’s what I want. I want the thing that’s really going to sit just right for me.” So that’s how you do it. I want you to think about all of those situations when you think about food. And for all those situations you go through these steps. You notice how hungry you are when you think about food; if it’s the smell, if it’s the sight of food, if it’s the time on the clock, if it’s hunger, you check in, you put your hands on your stomach, you tilt your head down slightly and you check in, “Hmm, how hungry am I right now?” And then you ask yourself, “Well, what would feel good in my stomach right now.” Even if you’re not hungry you might want to give it a try, a trial run. You see something attractive or it’s that time on the clock that says it’s time to eat or you feel hungry, and you think, “Okay, let me check in.” You put your hands on your stomach, tilt your head down, check in. “How hungry am I on that scale of one to ten? Am I really hungry? Am I a zero or a one or a two? How hungry am I?” And then you think, “Okay, well what’s going to make me feel good over time?” You think, “Okay, hmm, what would I like to eat now?” And you see, you look up, you see looking up a portion of something you’re thinking about eating. This is a mental image that you’re visualizing. Once you see that, you put your hands on your stomach and you check in, you imagine eating it and feeling it in your body, in your stomach over time. That’s right. How does it feel in your stomach over an hour, two, three hours? Do you like the way that it makes you feel? Is this a good feeling? If not, imagine something else. Loop back and think, “Okay, no, double super grande burrito with extra guacamole and sour cream, not working for me. Let me try something else.” And you think about the salad, you think about the soup. You think about the sandwich, I don’t know, whatever it is. And you keep experimenting, you keep trying these new things on for size until you find something that’s just right. Or maybe you feel better waiting. Maybe it’s a situation where you think, “You know what, I’d rather be really hungry for dinner ‘cause then I’ll really enjoy it. I’d rather save my appetite up ‘cause then I’m going to really enjoy this special restaurant we’re going to or this special meal that I’m going to have.” That’s fine too, because you get to experiment in your mind with all of these foods to find out what’s going to maximize your good feelings over time. And that’s how you will be naturally slender, that’s how you are naturally slender because you see, this is something that is very intuitive to us. Believe it or not, I bet you did this way back before you were overweight, if you can remember back that far. And the other thing I wanted to mention to you, because it’s almost time, we’re almost out of time today, but I wanted to mention this one more thing: while you’re learning the naturally slender eating strategy right now, and I want you to keep on going through this process again and again, while you’re learning this strategy you’re going to make some mistakes. That’s right. You’re going to get it wrong. You’re going to screw up. How do I know this? How do I know that you will overeat again? Because even naturally slender people overeat from time to time. They do. They overeat maybe because they eat something that they haven’t eaten before, they go to a restaurant they’ve never been to, they go to someone’s home, the food is richer than they expect. And so they eat it and it’s heavier than they thought in their stomach, and ooh, they’ve overeaten. Sometimes they will overeat because they’ll make a conscious decision to. I love that book Mireille Guilano, I think, this book called French Women Don’t Get Fat, and she talks about how she will save up if she knows she’s going to a particularly fabulous meal, she’ll eat less before or after. She’s doing the naturally slender eating strategy. She’s imagining in her mind what it’ll be like and choosing what’s going to make her feel best over time. That’s a fun book if you haven’t picked it up by the way, or gotten the audio version. Okay, so you’re going to think about what’s going to make you feel best over time, and sometimes you’re going to screw up. Get used to it, it’ going to happen. And I’ll tell you what, the only way that we learn in cases like this is by doing and by screwing up. That’s how babies learn to walk, they get up and they fall on their bottoms a hundred times, a thousand times before they make, take that first step. And that’s how you are going to learn to be naturally slender. Now worries. You overeat, no worries because there’s a natural self-correcting mechanism built in to the naturally slender eating strategy. See if you can think about what that is. How is it that if you’ve overeaten at lunchtime, when you get to dinner you’re going to be self-correcting? Have you guessed it yet? It’s because the next time that you check in and put your hands on your stomach, the next time that you check in are you going to be as hungry as you would otherwise be if you hadn’t overeaten? Or are you going to feel kind of full because you ate too much at lunch? You’re going to be kind of full. And so when you think about what’s going to make you feel best overtime now it’s going to be a very different answer than it would be had you eaten differently before. And so this self-correcting is built in to this mechanism. It is built in.
Renee Stephens: That brings us to the end of our show today. Thank you for being present and learning how to think like a thin person. And remember you’ll get double or more out of what you put into this journey, but you must put in to get out. Go to the blog at personallifemedia.com/renee and post a comment. Recruit your friends and start a group. Meet weekly and hold each other accountable. Share experiences and learn together. Also you can email me at [email protected] or leave a message at 206-350-5333. I’d love to play your comment or question on the air. For other shows on the Personal Life Media network, please visit our website at www.personallifemedia.com. There’s some great shows on there like Beauty Now. This is your host Renee Stephens, and I am on a mission to eradicate the weight struggle from the planet. Join me as we evolve the world by evolving ourselves, because world peace begins with inner peace. Take good care.