Food planning is the workhorse habit of sustainable weight loss and maintenance. Making a daily food plan is a tool to help you become an adept self-manager who is keenly aware of her true tastes and preferences for food. Food planning helps you design the food lifestyle that is right for YOU. It's also a way to practice keeping promises. 

You also need to be willing to get planning wrong many times in order to learn your true tastes and preferences around food because you are learning how to plan for what and how much is right for you without thinking there are good food or bad food choices.

We also plan because we want you to be able to practice telling yourself no successfully. When we say, 'No, we can have that tomorrow; we didn't plan for it,' we practice the skill of delayed gratification and learn how to stay focused on the benefit of the long-term goal of weight loss rather than always following your in-the-moment urges around food. 

Food planning is not a way to parcel out food to yourself, unlike the restrictive dieting food plans you've followed before.  It's a way to make decisions ahead of time about 'what' to eat while leaving the questions of 'when' and 'how much' to your body. This is a process of converging your managerial brain together with the wisdom of your body to create lasting and sustainable change. 

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Get two free gifts, subscriber-only tips, and an exclusive VIP discount on my digital Follow-Through Planner.

🛠️ This planner is the perfect tool to help you reach your weight goals & build the habits —and your future self—will thank you for.
Check it out here: HBeardsley.com/planner

📲 Connect with me on Instagram @ThriveInMidlife and join the conversation under this Episode's reel.

Audio engineering by Young Cub Audio.

Today I'm sharing with you how I coach on maintenance. This can be helpful for those in or approaching maintenance (within 10 pounds or so). Learning about the unique challenges and skills of maintenance is also a great way to give you some insights about what comes after active weight loss mode even if you're not there just yet. 

Maintenance is always a range of weight rather than an exact number (usually 1-3+ pounds) due to natural fluctuations in water weight, inflammation, your menstrual cycle, if you are sick, having traveled or flown in an airplane, and what kinds of food you eat. I recommend using at least a five-pound range for you to consider yourself to be 'at goal weight.' I call this your green zone. 

Then you can add a yellow zone where you specifically design exactly what weight above the green zone; you will enact a protocol where you have a plan for exactly what you will do to revert back to weight loss mode. Your weight loss journey should have given you insight as to the habits and strategies that result in weight loss for you. you want to put those into a protocol for yourself now and then use it as a living strategy that gets continually tested and adjusted as needed. 

If you are still in weight loss mode, this is the perfect opportunity for you to develop your yellow zone protocol. For example, I know I tend to lose weight if I can keep my overeats to two or less. What is your magic number? What about sleep, stress, and water? What kinds of foods help you feel satisfied and lose weight? Write them all down in a weight loss/yellow zone protocol. 

Maintenance is all about getting confident about how to stay in your green zone through all of the different exceptional times, like holidays, vacations, and stressful times that can pop up. 

Also important is developing a practice of trusting and relying on yourself about your commitment as to what you will and won't do to stay in maintenance. If you miss brushing your teeth for a day or so, you don't question whether you are an adequate teeth brusher, so don't fall into the trap of doubting your skills the first tie you pop up into your yellow zone. Instead, use the yellow zone as an opportunity to trust yourself to take action even if you don't feel like it. 

In maintenance, you will need to trust your body's hunger cues to tell you how much to eat instead of relying on your assumptions about how much you 'should' eat that worked when you were actively losing weight. 

You'll also want to be open to allowing your relationship to certain foods to change and evolve over time. By the time my clients get to maintenance there can be an over-attachment to eating 'certain foods' that allowed you to lose - which can drive you to think you need to keep eating that way in maintenance. But you can maintain eating any foods, and you just want to stay open to that experience and experiment with it! 

The last thing you'll want to watch out for in maintenance is unintentionally recreating the dopamine hit of weight loss by gaining over the weekend and then taking the gain back off dur

Support the show

🎁 Become a VIP Subscriber at HBeardsley.com/subscribe
Get two free gifts, subscriber-only tips, and an exclusive VIP discount on my digital Follow-Through Planner.

🛠️ This planner is the perfect tool to help you reach your weight goals & build the habits —and your future self—will thank you for.
Check it out here: HBeardsley.com/planner

📲 Connect with me on Instagram @ThriveInMidlife and join the conversation under this Episode's reel.

Audio engineering by Young Cub Audio.

Creative Visualization is a tool for mental rehearsal. It involves creatively exploring mentally what it would be be like to engage with being in a potential situation. It’s a way to mentally get practice in without actually needing to practice. The interesting thing is that the brain doesn’t exactly know the difference between creative visualizing something and actually doing something! 

 You can use creative visualization to help you get in visual practice doing something or NOT doing something that you are working on as part of your weight loss goal. You can visualize what it would be like to eat when you are physically hungry, or not eat if you are not physically hungry. You can mentally relate to all of the nuances of those situations; how it would feel, what you might think, and how you would engage even if it feels hard in the moment step by step. 

You can also creatively visualize what its like to be wiling to stop eating when you’ve had enough. You can visualize how you want to handle the situations when things don’t go as planned and how you want to handle those instances too.   You can think about how you want each part of your day to go from the moment you wake up until you go to bed. You can visualize how you want to eat on your vacation or any other ususual type of day. You can even imagine what it would be like living at your goal weight and all of the enticing aspects that go along with that as a way to connect you to your compelling reasons why you want to get there and what that means about who you have become in your relationship with food. 

I encourage you to creatively imagine as another tool in your weight loss tool belt. If you know what to do, but you don’t know why you can’t do those things often enough; creatively imagining desired actions can be a great way to focus and get more practice in. 

You coach assignment this week is to schedule 5 minutes 2-3 times this week to experiment with this powerful tool! See if it makes a difference for you to creatively visualize one aspect you want to get better at with your weight loss this week. 

Support the show

🎁 Become a VIP Subscriber at HBeardsley.com/subscribe
Get two free gifts, subscriber-only tips, and an exclusive VIP discount on my digital Follow-Through Planner.

🛠️ This planner is the perfect tool to help you reach your weight goals & build the habits —and your future self—will thank you for.
Check it out here: HBeardsley.com/planner

📲 Connect with me on Instagram @ThriveInMidlife and join the conversation under this Episode's reel.

Audio engineering by Young Cub Audio.

Here are all of the details about the Love Life and Lose Weight book! The official title is Love life And Lose Weight: Eat What You Love, Trust Your Body, and Lose Weight Without Restriction. It will be available on Kindle format on August 15th, 2023, on Amazon. The paperback format will follow a few weeks later. 

Mark your calendar for August 15th to purchase the book on that date. My goal is to sell as many copies as possible on that day in order to become a Kindle bestseller in my book’s category.  To entice you to purchase on that day,  I’m offering some sweet bonuses!

Get The Workbook: The Love Life and Lose Weight Digital Workbook contains chapter summaries and all your homework in one convenient place. Here’s how to get your copy: 

1. Purchase the book on launch day, August 15, 2023, and screenshot or take a photo of your order number. 
2. Visit hbeardsley.com/book and submit that order number and your email. 
3. I will email you your digital workbook. You can download and/or print it to work through as you read the book. 

Get The 30-Day Quick Start Webinar: Watch this prerecorded webinar to help you apply the book's concepts consistently in your first 30 days to get momentum with your weight goal. Here's how to get access: 

1. Purchase the book on Amazon and read it! 
2. Submit a reader review on Amazon and take a photo or screenshot of your review. 
3. Visit hbeardsley.com/book and submit that review screenshot/photo and your email. 
4. I’ll send you the link to watch the Love Life and Lose Weight 30-day Quick Start Webinar. 

Thank you for supporting the launch of this book in any way you are able to and for your continued listenership. 

Support the show

🎁 Become a VIP Subscriber at HBeardsley.com/subscribe
Get two free gifts, subscriber-only tips, and an exclusive VIP discount on my digital Follow-Through Planner.

🛠️ This planner is the perfect tool to help you reach your weight goals & build the habits —and your future self—will thank you for.
Check it out here: HBeardsley.com/planner

📲 Connect with me on Instagram @ThriveInMidlife and join the conversation under this Episode's reel.

Audio engineering by Young Cub Audio.

Validation is a practice of being aware of and deciding how to think and feel about something in your life. Validation is your sense of focus and awareness about where you ARE in relation to where you WANT to be with your life. 

Calorie counting, counting points, macros, or other people’s opinions are all external sources of weight and food lifestyle validation.  You might be drawn to counting  programs that tell you clearly how you are ‘doing’ when you measure yourself against their standards to know how to feel about how you are doing or feel good about your compliance, but it can never compare with developing your own process of self-validation with your weight and your chosen lifestyle with how you eat. Here are some good questions to practice self validation: 

1. What emotion am I feeling? 
2. In what parts of my body do I feel it?
3. What was I thinking that created this feeling? 
4. Is the thought absolutely true/honest or is there another side of the story that I am not considering? 
5. Is what I’m feeling uncomfortable, neutral, or positive? 
6. Is thinking, feeling, and acting this way part of who I want to be? Why or why not? 
7. What is this feeling trying to tell me?

Visit me @thriveinmidlife on Instagram on the episode 41 post and comment with your ah-ha's, takeaways, homework, and/or questions from this episode, and let’s keep the conversation going. Join the VIP subscriber list to be the first to learn about my upcoming book release this summer. 

Support the show

🎁 Become a VIP Subscriber at HBeardsley.com/subscribe
Get two free gifts, subscriber-only tips, and an exclusive VIP discount on my digital Follow-Through Planner.

🛠️ This planner is the perfect tool to help you reach your weight goals & build the habits —and your future self—will thank you for.
Check it out here: HBeardsley.com/planner

📲 Connect with me on Instagram @ThriveInMidlife and join the conversation under this Episode's reel.

Audio engineering by Young Cub Audio.

In this episode, I discuss two kinds of energy. One is feeling energetic the other is a physiological capacity of energy (gas in the tank). These are two aspects you want to work together to drive a state of increased overall energy.⁠
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I include six ways to build up your emotional and mental reserves and some do’s and don’ts for increasing and/or conserving your physical energy.⁠
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Your coach's homework this week is to do an energy study of your week to understand better what is depleting and increasing your energy balance so you can identify energy leaks and start experimenting with optimizing your energy levels. ⁠

Visit me @thriveinmidlife on Instagram on the episode 40 post and comment with your ah-ha's, takeaways, homework, and/or questions from this episode, and let’s keep the conversation going.

Join the VIP subscriber list to be the first to learn about my upcoming book release this summer.

Support the show

🎁 Become a VIP Subscriber at HBeardsley.com/subscribe
Get two free gifts, subscriber-only tips, and an exclusive VIP discount on my digital Follow-Through Planner.

🛠️ This planner is the perfect tool to help you reach your weight goals & build the habits —and your future self—will thank you for.
Check it out here: HBeardsley.com/planner

📲 Connect with me on Instagram @ThriveInMidlife and join the conversation under this Episode's reel.

Audio engineering by Young Cub Audio.

Now that you've been using the daily planner for at least one full weigh-in week (as explained in episode #38), it's time to learn how to use the Weekly Planning & Assessment Worksheet to optimize &/or troubleshoot your weekly results when you weigh in. 

You can use any weekly planner that works for you or the one I created and demonstrate with in this episode. To get your copy, you'll need to join the email list by visiting HBeardsley.com/subscribe.

Next, review this podcast in your podcast listening app and REPLY to my welcome email telling me your name associated with your review.  You'll get an email reply from me your Weekly Planner and Assessment Worksheet.

In that email is the link to watch the companion video that shows the weekly planner I describe in this podcast so you can see each section as I go through it.

If you are already an email subscriber, search for the email that went out on June 26th with the following subject line 'video: how to use the WEEKLY planner and assessment to lose this week'.

This week your Coach Homework is to apply the concepts I talk about and use in the weekly planner for your next weigh-in week. 

Visit me @thriveinmidlife on Instagram on the episode 39 post and comment with your ah-ha's, takeaways, homework, and/or questions from this episode, and let’s keep the conversation going.

Join the VIP subscriber list to be the first to learn about my upcoming book release this summer.

Support the show

🎁 Become a VIP Subscriber at HBeardsley.com/subscribe
Get two free gifts, subscriber-only tips, and an exclusive VIP discount on my digital Follow-Through Planner.

🛠️ This planner is the perfect tool to help you reach your weight goals & build the habits —and your future self—will thank you for.
Check it out here: HBeardsley.com/planner

📲 Connect with me on Instagram @ThriveInMidlife and join the conversation under this Episode's reel.

Audio engineering by Young Cub Audio.

In this episode, I explain how to use a daily food plan to lose weight each week.

You can use any daily planner that works for you or the one I created and demonstrate with in this episode. To get your copy, visit HBeardsley.com/subscribe, and you'll get an email immediately with instructions on downloading your copy.

In that email is the link to watch the companion video that shows the planner I describe in this podcast so you can see each section as I go through it. 

If you are already an email subscriber, search for the email that went out on June 11th with the following subject line 'video: how to use the daily planner to lose this week'.

All the details for how to lose weight by planning are in the episode and/or video.

This week your Coach Homework is to apply the concepts I talk about and use the planner each day this week. 

Visit me @thriveinmidlife on Instagram on the episode 38 post and comment with your ah-ha's, takeaways, homework, and/or questions from this episode, and let’s keep the conversation going.

Join the VIP subscriber list to be the first to learn about my upcoming book release this summer.

Support the show

🎁 Become a VIP Subscriber at HBeardsley.com/subscribe
Get two free gifts, subscriber-only tips, and an exclusive VIP discount on my digital Follow-Through Planner.

🛠️ This planner is the perfect tool to help you reach your weight goals & build the habits —and your future self—will thank you for.
Check it out here: HBeardsley.com/planner

📲 Connect with me on Instagram @ThriveInMidlife and join the conversation under this Episode's reel.

Audio engineering by Young Cub Audio.

‌In this episode, I share with you how to create BOOM Goals! As a No BS Team member, we do these as part of our self-development work. A BOOM goal stands for = Blowing Our Own Minds.

To start, journal on this question:

What are the things in my life I would LOVE to accomplish, and if I did, I would blow my mind and my current idea of what’s possible for me?

These BIG dreams should feel improbable but not IMPOSSIBLE.

List them in order of importance. Then decide how you can, over the next year, make PROGRESS toward them.  How will you take the first steps toward making it happen?

As a team, we list our BOOM goals so everyone can see them. This is important! Goals can’t grow under the cover of darkness and seclusion. As a team, we update and check in with our BOOM goals progress every 4-6 months or so for accountability. It’s SO interesting to see what lights up my team members, and it also allows me to cheer them on quietly from the sidelines.

For BOOM goals, the only criteria is that it’s something BIG. It can be ridiculous, and you likely won’t get there, but you’ll get farther along in life than you would setting a smaller goal, OR it can be HARD but possible.

There’s no right or wrong on this. You can have as many BOOM goals as you want. Some people do one; some do many. Depends on how much you enjoy setting goals and how you best work. It’s more about figuring out what is calling you forward to create something that feels exciting, good, and a little scary.

We all learn a LOT about what is needed in the process. MANY times it’s not so much about IF it can be achieved. It’s learning how slowly figure out the path to make it doable (sound familiar?) and adjusting the process to get there and the time needed. Sometimes the BEST thing that can happen is that you realize you don’t really want the thing you always THOUGHT you wanted, which is awesome because now you make space for something NEW. So it's 100% ok to change and update your BOOM goals as YOU update and change.

This week, Your Coach Homework is to dream BIG and create your BOOM Goals list. Let your imagination run wild and feel how good it feels to name the thing you’ve always wanted. Then watch your brain get to work figuring out how to make it happen over the course of the year.

Do this with your accountability group or partners. Create a BOOM Goals mastermind where you all get together every 4-6 months to check in with your goals progress and mastermind on those results and support each other.

Have fun with this!

Visit me @‌thriveinmidlife on Instagram on the episode 33 post and comment with your ah-ha's, takeaways, homework, and/or questions from this episode, and let’s keep the conversation going.

Join the VIP subscriber list to be the first to learn about my upcoming book release this summer.

Support the show

🎁 Become a VIP Subscriber at HBeardsley.com/subscribe
Get two free gifts, subscriber-only tips, and an exclusive VIP discount on my digital Follow-Through Planner.

🛠️ This planner is the perfect tool to help you reach your weight goals & build the habits —and your future self—will thank you for.
Check it out here: HBeardsley.com/planner

📲 Connect with me on Instagram @ThriveInMidlife and join the conversation under this Episode's reel.

Audio engineering by Young Cub Audio.

 In this episode, I talk about Semaglutide (often referred to by the brand name Wegovy), the new class of weight loss prescription drugs used to treat obesity by medical doctors.

My role with my clients on any topic, including any prescription medication prescribed under professional medical advice, is to support them in their health goals by figuring out actions and thinking that help make reaching those goals easier.

This includes how they think about what it means to be on the medication and helping them do troubleshooting and thought work around side effects, weight changes, changes in appetite cues, and changes in habits around food.

I discuss the nuances around helpful ways to think about the side effects and titration dosing to find their optimal dose and know what that is with the help of their doctor.

Comment with your ah-ha's, takeaways, homework, and/or questions from this episode, and let’s keep the conversation going. 

Visit me @thriveinmidlife on Instagram on the episode 36 post and comment with your ah-ha's, takeaways, homework, and/or questions from this episode, and let’s keep the conversation going.

Join the VIP subscriber list to be the first to learn about my upcoming book release this summer.

Support the show

🎁 Become a VIP Subscriber at HBeardsley.com/subscribe
Get two free gifts, subscriber-only tips, and an exclusive VIP discount on my digital Follow-Through Planner.

🛠️ This planner is the perfect tool to help you reach your weight goals & build the habits —and your future self—will thank you for.
Check it out here: HBeardsley.com/planner

📲 Connect with me on Instagram @ThriveInMidlife and join the conversation under this Episode's reel.

Audio engineering by Young Cub Audio.