Keep The Weight Off

For more details on this podcast visit:

https://www.journeybeyondweightloss.com/blog/81

Episode 81: How I Lost 175# & Kept It Off, With Cassie Becker, Part 3

This week is Part 3 of my very special interview with Cassie Becker, who has lost 175# and kept it off. If you haven't heard the previous 2 parts of the interview, go back and listen to Parts 1 and 2 first, and be sure to watch these interviews on the Dr. Angela Zechmann channel on YouTube, because it's a video interview and I do show pictures of her along her journey!

Cassie started her journey with me at age 32 in December of 2008, when she weighed 340#. Cassie lost the first 100# with my help, and the other 75# came off later. In part 3 of our interview we talk about addiction, about her mantras for staying motivated, about what happens to the loose skin, and a lot more!

Episode Highlights:

(20:22) Persistence, Determination, and courage. That's been one of my mantras the entire time. Persistence is just showing up every day and doing what you need to do. Determination is no if, and, or but. There is a way to conquer this and the excuses are always going to be there, but your determination is bigger than that if you allow it to be. And courage because it is hard and it takes a lot of courage to show up every day and to put yourself in that place of vulnerability.

(21:25) Progress, not perfection. Moment by moment. Don't let one moment ruin your entire day, and figure out how to love yourself enough to do what it takes.

(25:56) Here in the United States and everywhere where the American food industry has infiltrated the culture, it is almost impossible to not have the disease of obesity without being very deliberate and diligent about your food. You have to be almost obsessed about your food in order to protect yourself from all the crap that's in it.

For more details on this podcast visit:

https://www.journeybeyondweightloss.com/blog/80

Episode 80: How I Lost 175# & Kept It Off, With Cassie Becker, Part 2

This week is Part 2 of my very special interview with Cassie Becker, who has lost 175# and kept it off. If you didn't hear (or watch) last week's podcast, go back and listen to that one first, and be sure to watch it on the Dr. Angela Zechmann channel on YouTube, because it's a video interview and I do show pictures of her along her journey.

Cassie started her journey with me at age 32 in December of 2008, when she weighed 340#. In part 2 of our interview we talk about the psychological healing that was necessary. She also talks about an interesting phase when she actually got too thin, and how she discovered what her "perfect weight range" is.

Enjoy Part 2 of the interview!

Episode Highlights:

(12:35) You have to figure out… where is your happy [weight] place, based on what it takes to live there. Because what it took to live at 150# for me was two and a half - three hours in the gym every day.

(18:29) It's important to understand that long-term weight loss is going to have some ups and downs. And that's pretty normal.

(23:42) I will every day of my life, wake up and make a decision that I'm either going to be victim to it [Obesity] or I'm going to conquer it.

(25:41) If you wake up in the morning and you make a choice that's not the best choice … that doesn't mean your day is wrecked. That means you have another opportunity in your next meal to make a better choice. I like to deal in moments and that's something that I learned about addiction, you want to take it moment by moment, not day by day.

For more details on this podcast visit:

https://www.journeybeyondweightloss.com/blog/79

Episode 79: How I Lost 175# & Kept It Off, With Cassie Becker, Part 1

This week and the next 2 weeks I have a very special guest - Her name is Cassie and we sat down recently to talk about her weight loss journey. When she started her journey with me it was December of 2008, she was 32 years old and she weighed 340#. Her highest weight was 350# and perhaps more. She lost the first 100# with my help, and the other 75# came off later. It was a dramatic transformation that occurred over the course of many years and Cassie learned a lot about herself along the way!

I'm so thrilled that she said yes when I asked her to share her journey with all of you! The interview was an hour and a half long, so I've broken it up into 3 parts, which I'll be releasing over the next 3 weeks. We did a video interview, so I want to recommend that you go over to the Dr Angela Zechmann channel on YouTube to watch this interview, because I do show photos of her along her journey and pictures are worth a thousand words!

Episode Highlights:

(10:00) I was going to prove to everyone that it didn't matter how big I was, that I was capable and strong, independent, and I could do whatever I wanted to do, regardless of what people saw. And I was very successful at that.

(17:50) My kids were tiny. They were four years old and seven years old, and they were kind of like, why can't you have chips with us or popcorn with us or cookies with us? The best explanation is, mommy's allergic to sugar right now.

(21:33) Even if you were able to eat perfectly, the lack of sleep and the stress hormones cause your liver to create blood sugar. It's a process called gluconeogenesis. And so your liver is going to make sugar even if your nutrition is perfectly sound.

(23:35) So many people think that "As long as I'm working out, I can just eat whatever I want" and that doesn't work. So dialing in that nutrition is the key. If you've got an hour, and your choice is to go to the gym and spend that hour on the treadmill, or to spend an hour going grocery shopping and prepping food, and it's one or the other, you need to do the food.

For more details on this podcast visit:

https://www.journeybeyondweightloss.com/blog/78

Episode 78: Your Primitive Brain

Have you ever felt like you had 2 different parts of you that were fighting each other? For example, one part of you wants pizza and wine and chocolate while the other part of you wants to get your weight under control so you can feel better? It's the proverbial angel on one shoulder whispering one ear while on the other shoulder is the devil tempting you with immediate pleasure, right?

What's going on here? Is there anything we can do to stop the war going on in our heads? Tune in to today's podcast to find out!

Episode Highlights:

(4:41) The primary motivations of the primitive brain are: 1) Seek anything that brings pleasure 2) Avoid anything that brings pain 3) Conserve energy at all costs. 4)Stick with people who are safe, fear those you don't know 5) Avoid being seen. Now, this is our primitive brain…. But our brains did evolve beyond this, right? So we have a human brain that has evolved past our primitive brain. This is called our "prefrontal cortex"

(10:35) In order to lose weight and keep it off, what we need to do is to put the prefrontal cortex - the human brain - in charge of the primitive brain. We do this by planning ahead EVERYTHING we will eat, 24 hours in advance. This way we are not giving our primitive brain any chance of making a food decision.

(13:14) This is why I always say the weight loss journey done well is a journey of powerful personal evolution. When you can take control over your primitive brain with food, you can do it with spending, you can do it with drinking, you can do it with exercise, you can do it with relationships, you can do it with time management, you can just watch yourself coming more and more into alignment with your goals and dreams, evolving yourself, getting better all the time.

For more details on this podcast visit:

https://www.journeybeyondweightloss.com/blog/77

Episode 77: Managing Your Thoughts.

Imagine being able to understand your own brain better. It sounds like an elusive goal, but it's not as tough or impossible as you might think! The first step in this journey starts with understanding how the mind works and then making rational decisions about what thoughts are helpful and what thoughts hinder us in our weight loss efforts. Today Marchelle and I compare cleaning up our thoughts with cleaning out our closets, and we give you some tips for what to keep and what to let go of!

Episode Highlights:

(4:43) Writing your thoughts down is like taking all the clothes out of your closet and putting them in a pile on the floor. You write your thoughts down so that you can take an objective look at them. If you just keep letting them spin around in your head, they just keep spinning and you keep identifying with them. But if you write these thoughts down, you can be more objective about them. You can see that there's a difference between you and your thoughts.

(14:40) If you have a thought that weight loss is hard, then it's going to be hard, and you're going to make it hard because you're going to find all the ways that it's hard. You're not going to see all the ways that it can be easy. We make our thoughts true.

(15:10) Anytime you're feeling a negative emotion and you want to go for the chips or the candy or the ice cream or whatever it is, instead of doing that, just go sit down and write down what you're thinking. Write down what you're feeling, and then you can start doing your own thought excavations. Because I guarantee you that the reason that you want to go for the chips or whatever, is because there's some sort of thought that's creating a negative emotion for you. If you can learn to excavate what the thought is, you're going to have much more success on your weight loss journey.

For more details on this podcast visit:

https://www.journeybeyondweightloss.com/blog/76

Episode 76: How The Hell Did This Happen?

This week Marchelle and I wanted to talk about something that happens ALL THE TIME in a weight loss journey. And that is the dreaded weight regain.

Our patients will come into us feeling so ashamed, and they're asking themselves How in the Hell Did This Happen? I thought I had it under control. I was doing so well! But now I've gained a bunch back and it feels SO HARD to get back on track again.

A lot of times this happens after a vacation, or after the holidays, or after something happens in life, like stress at work, going through a separation or divorce, or the illness of someone you care about. And then, of course, Covid did a number on ALL OF US.

Believe us, we get it! Tune in to today's podcast so you can stop beating yourself up, and get yourself back on track quickly!

Highlights:

(4:12) Obesity is a disease. It's not a disease like pneumonia, where you get a diagnosis, take some antibiotics, and then it's cured. It's actually not curable like pneumonia. So you can't diet it away.

(16:28) Our social norms are against us keeping this disease under control. Unlike many other cultures where it's easier, in our society it takes a lot of work to eat wholesome nourishing food. It takes planning, grocery shopping, and a willingness to chop vegetables and prepare protein. Most of us still do not understand at all what it means to cook and prepare real food.

(20:37) Most people slip up and gain all their weight back because they don't understand all of the obstacles that are in their way. They don't understand that they have a disease, a disease that is chronic and progressive and relapsing and it takes vigilance to keep under control.

Have you ever felt like you were addicted to the scale? Have you ever judged your progress based on that number? Well, most people have no idea that changes in weight do not usually reflect changes in body fat, and there's a lot more to the story!

Tune in to today's episode to discover how it is that you can be doing amazing work, and the scale might not budge at all... and why it's so very important to get body composition testing done for an accurate assessment of your progress!

Episode Highlights:

7:49 Weighing yourself is one of the most misleading ways to tell if you're losing fat or not... most of the time, it's totally inaccurate!

10:29 If you lose one and a half pounds of muscle with every 4 pounds of fat, by the time you've lost 20 pounds of fat, you've lost 6 pounds of muscle. Think about that ... Do you want to lose 6 pounds of muscle mass just to lose 20 pounds of fat? Muscle burns calories for you even while you're sleeping!

20:17 I never recommend setting weight loss goals. You don't want weight loss. Really, you don't. You want fat loss. You want lots of lean muscle mass that will burn calories for you while you sleep. And in order to do this, you have to be, very, very careful with your nutrition.

For more details on this podcast visit: https://www.journeybeyondweightloss.com/blog/74

Episode 74: Dealing with family when focusing on your health.

Episode Description: In today's episode of the Podcast, Marchelle asks Dr. Angela an important question, which we hear often: "How do I stay focused on my health and eating properly when my family brings home pizza and wings?"

Sometimes it feels as if our family not only doesn't support us, but actively sabotages us. Tune in as Dr. Angela coaches Marchelle through this all-too-common scenario!

Episode Highlights: 8:19 My advice would is always this; who's most important to you? You. It's you. So always, you are the number one person in your life. You've got to take care of yourself. So if you are thinking about changing your lifestyle so that you are going to be a healthier person again, this is for you. This isn't for anybody else. This is purely for you.

16:36 Like, and so what we need is a support for people who are struggling with sugar and flour. And frankly, you know, there are, I think there are a lot more people that struggle with sugar and flour than there are people that struggle with alcohol. So and so we kind of need to band together and help each other out

13:07 And here's the other piece of it; not being worried about what they might think if I choose to eat normal, healthy food. Like, it's nobody else's business what goes in your mouth. And frankly, it's not your business what goes in their mouth, either. Your business is to right take care of yourself and to make sure that what goes in your mouth, anytime you bend your elbow to feed yourself, is this going to be something nourishing for me, or is this going to be something that is going to feed my addiction brain.

Full transcription of this podcast: https://www.journeybeyondweightloss.com/blog/74

This episode was produced and marketed by the Get Known Podcast Service: www.getknownstrategy.com/podcast-service

For more details on this podcast visit: https://www.journeybeyondweightloss.com/blog/73

Episode 73: Understanding the 5 Stages of Change.

Episode Description: In today's episode of the podcast, Marchelle and I talk about the 5 Stages of Change that were elucidated by a research team named Prochaska and DiClemente.

Understanding these stages is important, not just for you, but for other people in your life.... how often have you told a family member or a friend about your weight loss journey and they just shrugged and said "Whatever...."? After listening to this podcast, you'll understand why!!

We also talk about the very important 6th Stage of Change that Prochaska and DiClemente added years later, and what that means for you in your weight loss journey!

Episode Highlights: 05:09 When you get into Empowered Weight Loss and you learn the skills that it takes to not just lose the weight, but really keep it off, you are a participant in your life again. And that's good, not just for you but that's good for everybody who loves you too.

20:33 What I want everyone listening to know is that this is completely normal when your brain is under stress. Any new behavior will fall by the wayside while your brain attends to making sure that you survive because when stressful things happen, as far as your brain is concerned it's that fight, flight response. And it's basically, it's a normal survival instinct.

22:40 So everyone listening to this podcast, ask yourself, where are you in this process? What stage are you at? I think we can pretty much assume that you're not in the pre-contemplation stage, or you would not be interested in listening to this at all.

Full transcription of this podcast: https://www.journeybeyondweightloss.com/blog/73

This episode was produced and marketed by the Get Known Podcast Service: www.getknownstrategy.com/podcast-service

For more details on this podcast visit: https://www.journeybeyondweightloss.com/blog/72

Episode 72: Understanding the difference between circumstances and thoughts.

Episode Description: In this episode of the Keep the Weight Off Podcast, we talk about the difference between circumstances and thoughts. Understanding this difference will bring much more clarity to your life and can help you to STOP the knee-jerk runs for comfort foods, especially when those thoughts revolve around your weight!

Episode Highlights: 4:20 One of the things that we do constantly in Empowered Weight Loss is to help people figure out what's a thought and what's a circumstance. And it's really, really important to know the difference.

14:05 So circumstances are always neutral, but our brain is going to make some thoughts negative. And so the next question is, why does our brain do this? Well, like I've talked about in the past, it's a survival mechanism. We survived because our brain protected us by labeling certain things as positive or safe or okay, and then certain other things as unsafe or dangerous or negative.

18:22 So here's what's interesting, and actually really freeing. If you understand that everything that happens in the world is neutral and that your interpretation is what defines your experience, you will start to know is that you are much more powerful than you ever could have imagined. And this is where it really starts to get fun because you begin to feel less victimized.

Full transcription of this podcast: https://www.journeybeyondweightloss.com/blog/72

This episode was produced and marketed by the Get Known Podcast Service: www.getknownstrategy.com/podcast-service