Rita Black: Ever think you were too old to lose weight that you had failed too many times, or that weight release is impossible after menopause or after the social security checks kick in? So many people do. And it creates a subconscious limiting belief for many that may actually be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Well, today’s Thin Thinking episode is not only about dispelling those myths, but inspiring those of you who have given up to start showing up for yourself instead. You have every chance of catching the late bloomers weight release syndrome. So toss that rocking chair to the side and come on in.

New Speaker: Did you know that our struggle with weight doesn’t start with the food on your plate or get fixed in the gym? 80% of our weight struggle is mental. That’s right. The key to unlocking long-term weight release and management begins in your mind. Hi there, I’m Rita Black. I’m a clinical hypnotherapist weight loss expert, bestselling author, and the creator of the Shift Weight Mastery Process. And not only have I helped thousands of people over the past 20 years achieve long-term weight mastery, I am also a former weight struggler, carb addict and binge eater. And after two decades of failed diets and fad weight loss programs, I lost 40 pounds with the help of hypnosis. Not only did I release all that weight, I have kept it off for 25 years. Enter the Thin Thinking Podcast where you too will learn how to remove the mental roadblocks that keep you struggling. I’ll give you the thin thinking tools, skills and insights to help you develop the mindset you need, not only to achieve your ideal weight, but to stay there long term and live your best life.

Rita Black: Hello, friend. Come on in. Come on in. I have such an exciting episode today. So come on in. Make yourself at home, get cozy. Ah, I hope you are feeling fantastic today. Today’s episode is dropping right on my husband’s birthday. It was my daughter’s birthday a few weeks ago. April is a busy, busy month here at the Black household. So my husband is turning 62 and which again, I know my daughter was turning 21 while my husband’s turning 62. And these are really big milestone birthdays this year. My son is turning 18 in June. Oh my goodness. So I have known my husband, which is shocking, but since he was 26 years old. So that is just what, where did that time fly?

Rita Black: My husband, however, has this mental trick now. If you asked him how old he was, he would not tell you 62. He just pretends he’s my age, 58. And he isn’t confronted by that age 58 as much as he is by the age 62. And I told him, I don’t know that many people in their fifties that can collect Social Security. Anyhow, in honor of the aging process today, I wanted to explore some big limiting beliefs I see among clients and students as they are starting their Shift Weight Mastery Process with me. Beliefs like it’s too late for me. I don’t even wanna try, or my metabolism is shot, I can’t lose weight or I have failed too many times. Or I’m too much of a food addict and I always will be, or my knees are screwed up. I can’t exercise and I don’t think weight release is possible.

Rita Black: So I would just like to take a moment to dispel these beliefs with a few little mind reframes and some stories of inspiration that will motivate you to think beyond the old boxed in thoughts of I can’t into thinking yourself into being in a new reality of the late bloomers success syndrome. Isn’t that great? The late bloomers success syndrome, cause there’s many, many people who are successful.

Rita Black: So speaking of motivation, before we get started, if you are ready to get aligned with yourself and head into the spring and really kickstart your weight release journey or kickstart a journey you’re already on, I am super excited about my upcoming free masterclass that you can attend on Wednesday, the 26th of April, 2023. It’s called How to Break Through the Weight Struggle Cycle so That You Can Release Weight Consistently and Permanently. You know how to lose weight, right? It’s not about that. We get into the subconscious and how to make some deep mind shifts because let’s face it, we all know what to eat, we know how to exercise, we’ve been told how to do that our entire lives, but it’s really about getting out of our own way and about aligning ourselves with ourselves.

Rita Black: So we’re gonna work on that, break through the major roadblocks that get in our way, mental roadblocks that is and we’re gonna do some weight release hypnosis. So please join me. It’s free. It’s absolutely free. Go to the link in the show notes and sign up people. Love, love, love this masterclass. It’s very enlightening. Now, if you’re hearing this past the date, please check the show notes anyway, as I always have some little fun free thing in there. Surprise for you, a little, little love.

Rita Black: Okay, so let’s talk about the late bloomers success syndrome. First of all as a culture, we are starting to throw away that idea of too old and out the door with the reclining lazyboy, right? So look at Madonna and the Rolling Stones and the Eagles. I mean, it’s easy to look to the music industry to see how people are touring well past the age of retirement. And my goodness, charging a lot of money too. So it’s not like you become out to pasture anymore after a certain age. Look at the actresses in their primes. Helen Meen, Angela Bassett, who’s in her sixties, and I cannot even believe that that woman is gorgeous. Rita Moreno is in her nineties. What? And Jane Fonda, again, you know, these women are just stunning and so smart and magnetic. They’re stepping into demanding roles and they are not shrinking from the limelight. They’re demanding that we pay attention to them. And yet when it comes to weight, I hear so often too many people, women especially, I am too old, it’s too late. I should just give up and I am here to say with a lot of love, oh no, you don’t. Oh no you don’t. No, no, no. You are not allowed to say that.

Rita Black: So first of all, let me tell you why so many of the success stories of Weight Mastery I see are late bloomer successes. Well, first of all, why? Well, health and vibrancy as we age becomes more important to us. It’s not just about being skinny but it’s about longevity, improving what is working and saving what has begun to go, because let’s face it, and believe me, and I’m really up against this right now with my own health and my own longevity, I wanna hold on to what seems to be wanting to go. And I am also trying to develop more balance, more strength. So it isn’t just about looking good, but it is about feeling good and holding onto that feeling good longer. Or if you have gotten achy or in pain and starting to creak a little, I’m getting out of that and getting back into feeling fit, feeling confident, right?

Rita Black: Because believe me, I have seen people turn things around from aging literally looking like they’re walking old and hunched over to aligned with amazing posture, feeling great. It is possible to turn everything around, but you’ve gotta show up for yourself and start to take some action. When people really start showing up for their body, this lifelong companion that we have, instead of their vanity and ego, the game changes. Really think about our amazing body who has now been with us. I mean, I think of all I’ve put my body through with all the weight loss and the bulimia and the children and then, you know, just physical fitness and all of these things. I just think my body, wow, you are amazing. So it’s a deep love story and I see many people turn things around when they see it from this perspective.

Rita Black: Alright, so another thing, after the age of 55, you are entering into the age of self mastery. You know? This diet cycle and feeling down about it, you know, being on a diet, being off a diet, good, bad, all or enough thing, it’s demoralizing. And I don’t think just giving up on yourself allows that to go away. We continue to feel crappy about ourselves when we keep focusing and unfocusing and feeling stuck in the same place again and again. Those bad feelings don’t go away just because we’ve given up on bigger goals. In fact, when we stop having goals, we start sinking deeper in and deeper into self-loathing. And it is not pretty. You are entering into the age of self mastery. And yes, true, what isn’t mastered gets in your face, and that can be a little painful, but pain is a great motivator.

Rita Black: So just because certain things in your life haven’t been mastered yet, that doesn’t mean you’re bad and wrong. It means there’s a great opportunity to put one foot in front of the other, to open a door and start moving forward. I had a woman recently who was 89, who signed up for my self-study Shift Weight Mastery Process. And she said, I really just want to be free and to prove to myself I can do it, that I can be free. And she wasn’t just talking about weight, she was talking about her relationship with herself. I mean, we really crave to have a powerful and connected relationship with ourself, honestly, above and beyond the weight. So don’t you deserve to have that?

Rita Black: Now, another reason, if you’re thinking about post-work, life, travel, doing something you’ve never done before, maybe something you’ve always wanted to do, maybe just running around with grandkids, being healthier and being more confident is gonna make a big difference. It’s harder to travel when you’re not taking care of yourself, and we, when you’re not feeling confident in your own skin. We were talking about this in my membership the other night. We were talking about, a member was talking about how she released a significant amount of weight and how it was just so much easier to get into plane seats. Not to have that extender seatbelt, just the way her bum felt in the seat. All of that, just traveling and going through aisles and airports and just feeling more physically fit. It just makes such a big difference. Running after your grandkids, being able to catch your breath, not being able to get down on the ground with them because your knees aren’t achy because of inflammation, because you’ve been eating healthfully and the inflammation goes away, or you’ve been doing some exercises that really allow your body to move better.

Rita Black: And then just thinking about the relationship that you have with yourself, the fact that that nasty voice in your head still has power and that rebel in the mind still is thinking about food. You know? At a certain point, don’t you just get tired of them running you versus you being the one in control with a loving and self-compassionate voice. Having this loving, self-compassionate voice, what I like to call our inner coach or inner nurturer, allows you to take the risks that I’ve seen people take and people just come to life, not because they’ve released weight, well, yes they have, but because this new more powerful inner communication they have with themselves allows them to be fearless and fully expressed. How cool is that? Are you still doubting me?

Rita Black: Okay, well, the National Weight Registry study of people who have taken weight off and kept it off has shown that older adults are just as capable of releasing weight and keeping it off as younger adults. The key factors associated with successful weight release maintenance, so long-term maintenance, are consistent behaviors such as physical activity, healthy eating habits, self-monitoring and social support. All of these things we have talked about. So you can become a late bloomer weight release success story and you can be a member in that membership.

Rita Black: So let’s just reframe some of these old beliefs right here and now. So let’s start with the first one. One of the biggest ones, it’s too late for me, I don’t even wanna try. So there is a woman, her name is Takashima Mika. And at the age of 64, she was sedentary. She was sitting in her couch, in fact watching tv, and she had gained weight and her husband told her she was getting fat. Don’t you love it when husbands do that? And she didn’t like that. She got a little off. And so she went to the gym and she started working out and she started eating a healthy diet and she released weight. She released 25 pounds, 30 pounds, and at the age of 79, she was still healthy. In fact, she got herself a fitness coach at the age of 79. And at the age of 87, she became a fitness coach herself and is now at 91 teaching fitness classes. Can you believe this? Maybe you’ve seen her story. You can check her out on YouTube. That’s Takashima Mika. Oh my gosh, it is amazing to watch that video. She is. So this woman has, is lifting weights, you know, not just little teeny tiny weights. She’s lifting some serious weight above her head. And then she does these pushups where she pushes the weights out and in front of her, she rolls the, I don’t even know what you call that long bar with the bigger weights on the edge of it.

Rita Black: She’s rolling it back and forth. You can just see her muscles. And she is 91 years old. She looks fit and happy. And funny enough, in this video, I don’t see her husband anywhere. So maybe she got rid of him, or maybe he died before she did. I don’t know. But she got mad and she got active and she just started by walking, then she started going to the gym and you know, so what can you do today? Well, you don’t have to go and start lifting big weights, but maybe you can just start by walking. Maybe you can start by just walking a little bit if you can’t move quite yet, you know? I had a client, her name was Michelle. I worked with her a number of years ago. She was a diabetic. And what I loved about her story was she was a she was actually a nurse and she helped other people, you know, all day long.

Rita Black: She worked at a hospital and she got home and she was exhausted and her husband made them a big dinner and they would sit and eat this big dinner and then they would watch TV after dinner. So I said, well, when do you have time to exercise? She says, I don’t have time to exercise. I ache too much. It’s impossible for me. So what happened was, I suggested she just start going down to the end of the block and back and call that exercise cause you have to make it really doable to yourself. And I said, maybe what can happen is you can eat a lighter dinner, do your exercise, and then if you need more food later, you can have it. But why don’t you just start by maybe having a little lighter dinner so you can feel like you can get up, go for a walk after dinner.

Rita Black: So she started to do that. She started to just, she literally went down to the end of the block, came back and called that exercise, and then a few weeks later, she was able to go around the block. And then a few weeks later, she was able to go around two blocks. And this just went on in time. Before you knew it, she was walking two miles, she was walking three miles, she had released 50 pounds. Her husband was walking with her. He had released 30 pounds, they were eating more healthfully. And their life had changed just from starting, just from giving herself permission to call, exercise, walking to the end of the block and back.

Rita Black: It’s hard to get started sometimes when you think of the big huge picture of where you wanna go, rather than just taking the littlest baby steps. I’ve had clients go in and just literally stand on the treadmill at the gym, get off and leave, but they called that going to the gym just to get started, just to open up that door in the subconscious mind. So let’s just take that old, it’s too late for me and reframe it. So I’m gonna just give you a little phrase or a little suggestion and just repeat it back with me a couple of times.

Rita Black: It’s never too late to move towards health and fitness one day at a time. Let’s say that again, it’s never too late to move towards health and fitness one day at a time. Excellent. Okay, now one step forward towards your late weight release bloomer success. It’s kind of a mouthful. Okay? So how many people believe that because they’re of a certain age, they literally have no metabolism. Like, not even a heartbeat, but, they literally have zero metabolism and that just isn’t true per se. Now I have the luxury of having a metabolism machine in my office. And so I measure a lot of metabolisms of people of all ages. And I can assure you that the metabolism of older women really is more consistent with their weight than it is their age. Now, it is true that your metabolism does go down somewhat as you age, and it varies with different people, but it doesn’t tank. I know people talk about hormones and yes, there’s hormonal fluctuations, but I am talking about, I have done control studies of people on a yearly basis.

Rita Black: I’ve done control studies of people who have, you know, when they started their weight release journey at 250 pounds and then they’re measured their metabolism again, 175, and then again 140. And our metabolism is pretty aligned with our weight for the most part. Now I have had a machine in my office and, you know, I’ve upgraded the machines. And so over the years now, I started measuring my own metabolism when I was, how old was I? I think I was, before I was 40 and I’m now 58. So I have measured my metabolism over the years, and it has gone down, but it has gone down a total of 250 calories over that span of time. Now, that is a significant amount of metabolism to go down for sure, but it isn’t, I think a lot of people think that they literally tank down a thousand calories or something like that, which simply isn’t true.

Rita Black: So even if you are over 60 what you can do is to, in order to get a gauge on what your metabolism or how many calories you burn, or how much energy you expend over the course of the day, so there’s a range. This is just a simple way to know what you’re burning, and this is often what many the calculators in apps use. They’ll take for men, it’s, you’ll take your weight and multiply by 12. For women who are under the age of 45 you would take your weight and measure it, multiply it by 11. And for women over the age of 45, I would multiply that by 10. Or if you felt like you had a lower metabolism, I would say I would multiply my weight by 10. And that gives you a pretty good idea of your overall caloric burn.

Rita Black: Not just your resting metabolism, but also your sedentary calories added in there. But that doesn’t include exercise. So that just gives you kind of a, an idea of what you’re burning. And, you know, I, I think the thing is, is that when we release weight, when we’re older, they, I have seen this, and again, I, the good news is that I have been in the trenches with people releasing their weight for over 20 years. And I’ve worked with thousands and thousands of people. So I’ve seen so many weight release journeys. And one of the things I know and patterns I’ve seen is that women release weight differently above a certain age. And this is what I think frustrates the situation because what will happen for most women above a certain age is we’re going to, what’s gonna happen is you’re going to plateau, plateau, plateau, and then see a drop, and then you’ll plateau again, and then you’ll see a drop.

Rita Black: So it requires more patience the older we are. It’s not because your body isn’t working, but it’s because your body releases weight differently. And so you might think, oh, nothing’s happening when you’re just about to experience a drop. I had a client who was a therapist, and thank god she was a therapist because she had a lot of patience and good inner speak, and she literally was at a plateau for two months. And, you know, she was tracking her energy, so she knew I’m burning X amount. So she knew that she was, the scale owed her, basically. She, she was, you know, it was frustrating of course for her. But after those two months, she released weight, predictably, meaning as much as she had burned, she had released as much as, you know, as what the scale owed her. She basically dropped that in a very short period of time, maybe three weeks. She released like eight pounds.

Rita Black: So I’ve seen some fantastical things on the scale over the years, but I can assure you that your age doesn’t mean that you have a flat line metabolism, but you may have to approach weight release just a little differently. Now, here’s something that I want you to make sure of though, and, which is that as you release weight when you’re older, you really wanna make sure that you’re also working out, you’re doing some sort of strength training to keep your muscle tone. Because releasing weight at an older age, you are more apt to burn lean protein, you know, to, so if you aren’t mindfully doing some sort of doing some sort of strength training or using like yoga or something, using your muscles, using your body weight then we’re going to maybe lose the lean tissue, which then is going to make your metabolism burn out a lower rate.

Rita Black: Because as you burn that lean tissue, that lean tissue is what really gives you a good metabolism. But you know, like I said, it, your metabolism doesn’t tank. But those are things that you can be mindful of. Also, eating protein helps preserve the lean tissue. And if you’re a vegetarian, it doesn’t need to be meat protein, but you just wanna make sure you’re getting adequate amounts of protein over, you know, it depends on your height and your I’m sorry, not your height, but your weight. But for a small woman frame, you know, a small frame, I would definitely say, you know, I always say to clients, try to get 40 to 50 grams of protein, if not more per day in order to preserve muscle lean tissue. But I would also consult your trainer. I, or you can go online.

Rita Black: I think there’s charts, but, and there’s many different varying opinions about this. So it’s not like one, there’s one answer for this, but I have found that at least for preserving lean tissue, definitely hit 50 grams or more of protein per day. And I’m not saying become obsessed with macronutrients. I don’t know that you have to be, but definitely being aware is helpful. Also, here’s another thing is, we eat way more than we assume that we’re eating. Often when we struggle with our weight, research has shown that if we think we’re eating a thousand calories, we’ve eaten 2000 calories. People who struggle with their weight underestimate the amount they eat by almost 50%. And you know, I had a woman, her name was Allison and she was around 60 and she came in and she says, look, I don’t know, but I hardly eat anything.

Rita Black: And she, it was kind of funny because she was very active and we measured her metabolism and she said, your machine is wrong. And because she was burning maybe about 2000 calories a day and she said, no, there is no way I am eating, that is wrong. There is not any chance in hell that, I mean, she got very adamant about it. And I said, okay, well cool. And I wasn’t sure, you know, I’m the first to say, Hey, I think my machine’s right, but let’s just get clear. Go and track what you’re eating for a weekend. Let’s just see what happens. And sure enough, two days later she rang my office and she said, oh my God, I am, I was shocked to see how those calories added up and she measured her food as well. She was just, cause she never did that stuff.

Rita Black: She was just like, holy crap. She was laughing so hard. She’s like, no wonder and your machine is right. And then she got it all figured out for herself and she started releasing weight very steadily. And for the, you know, first time in a long time, it all made sense to her. But she was so clear she was not, I have no metabolism and I don’t eat anything. But when she really tuned in, she was eating a lot more than she thought. You know.

Rita Black: I have this little test, I probably have mentioned it here, or not test, but a little fun thing I do. When I was doing my life shifts, I would take three apples because we, you know, we think, oh, an apple, it’s 60 calories or 70 calories, but if you put an apple on a scale, those teeny tiny, like small apples are about 60 calories.

Rita Black: And then those medium sized apples, which are kind of the ones we usually eat, the ones, the main ones in the store, those are over a hundred calories. Those are about 110 calories. And then those mondo apples, but in are, are about 250 calories. It’s just kind of crazy, but it’s true. But you know, usually if you think, oh, it’s an apple and we’re assuming, you know, it’s 60 calories, when maybe it’s 240 calories, you can see how quickly things can add up even healthy things and we can get on the scale and be shocked that nothing’s happened when we thought we were being so good if we aren’t getting clear. You know what I mean?

Rita Black: So so the fact that these mythologies take our power away from us and keep us in the dark, we wanna start to shift that around. So here is our suggestion or my suggestion. Now let’s repeat after me. My body is an amazing machine. It burns energy and it keeps me thriving no matter what my age, that was a little long. I’m gonna do it again. My body is an amazing machine. It burns energy and it keeps me thriving no matter what my age.

Rita Black: Alright, okay, so now we are one step closer to that late weight release bloomer success. So here’s another one. I have failed too many times. Too many times have I failed, so it’s impossible for me now. Alright, so when we struggle with our weight, we have talked about this before, you and I, we look to the past to collect the evidence of our future failure. And I will say that again, we look to our past to collect evidence for our future failure. So we have this huge file folder, like a lawyer full of evidence that we are not going to be successful because we are such a failure. But I wanna remind you that studies have shown that most people who are successful in the long term who you know, finally, finally, finally release the weight and take it off permanently had gained and released 250 pounds before they went on that final successful weight release journey.

Rita Black: Okay? So that’s a lot of, probably if they look to their past a lot of failure, but they were finally successful. So most of these people didn’t change. They, what they changed was from the outside to the inside. Instead of relying on diets and exercise, they started to really take responsibility for their weight release journey. So to, I wanted to tell you this story as a quick, little story, but my husband, I think you guys are getting to know him. He’s a character. He loves to collect stuff. I think I’ve mentioned that he’s a bit of a hoarder. And one time he brought me, he was like, honey, I brought you all these diet books. I bought ’em at a garage sale. I was like, I don’t need diet books. He’s like, oh, but look at them, they’re so fun. And he puts down this book of diet, this box of diet books.

Rita Black: And it was interesting because it was clearly, it was an estate sale. So these diet books all belong to one woman. And I opened them up, I started just opening them up and looking up the flap and they were literally, each one was dedicated to this woman. I believe her name was Mary you know, to Mary from Fred. You know. Maybe this one will work for you, right? And I just thought, how sad, you know, here’s this woman’s life of diet books and you know, husband who obviously wanted to help her out, you know, and, and I think about my own, I have up in our attic somewhere in the far back reaches of our attic, I have this box full of journals of me struggling with my weight and it’s just journals full of the same thing. I’m gonna do good, I’m going to pull it together.

Rita Black: And then the next day it’s like, oh God, I overate last night. I’m a fat pig. I can’t stand myself. When am I gonna ever get out of this struggle? Literally. And I told my daughter about, I said, if, you know, if I somehow die before I can burn all those books, cause I’m way too busy to go up and look for that box, but. I’m too busy trying to make a difference to care about my past, but I know they exist. I know I’m really glad I’m not in that place anymore. And I’m, and I’m glad that attic, you know, it’s up in the attic and I don’t have to look at them, but I said to my daughter, you know, if, if I die and you’re looking at just burn them, just don’t even look at them. She’s like, I’m, no mom, I’m gonna read every single. And I was like, no, please don’t.

Rita Black: Anyway. So it’s really about your looking from your, so if we look at our past, we can see all the failure. But what if that last time you were successful, now all of those, what you saw as failures, were now stepping stones to your success because every single thing you’ve done in your life equals, it leads to wherever you are. I think about all, I mean, I didn’t date a ton of guys, but I dated a number of guys before I met my husband. And those guys, really, even though there were some epic failure dates and epic failure boyfriends, I, they all helped me find my husband and know when I met my husband that he was my soulmate. So all those diets that I went on ultimately were stepping stones in my success story.

Rita Black: I remember their, my two lovely shifters who came to one of my very first shifts, Evelyn and Janet, who have now both kept their ideal weight for 15 years, almost 15 years, both of them, Evelyn’s kept off over 60 pounds and Janet’s kept off of like 35 to 40 pounds. And they came in together and they were, or Evelyn actually started working with me first. And they were both school teachers and they both you know, had a lot of struggles in their life. But now if they looked back at all those struggles, you know, they’ve been successful in the long term. And so nice to see them successful together as friends supporting each other. And now they have other friends who have also shifted and released weight. But you know, our past doesn’t predict our future failure.

Rita Black: It actually, when we really look at who we are becoming and we’re create, we’re taking a stand for, for who we are then the past then can support that commitment rather than undoing it if we choose. So choose to commit to your future you and move towards that and allow your past to inform your commitment on what to do and what not to do. Obviously, our failures have taught us certain things if we allow ourselves to learn lessons from them rather than to make them mean that we are failures. I’ve learned a lot from looking back at what didn’t work at my life in my life when I looked back at it with compassion and love and curiosity rather than criticism and shame. So here’s our our what, what are we calling this? Our suggestion, our little our little reframe here. My weight past creates the steps to my weight success future. Gonna say it again. My weight past creates the steps to my weight success future.

Rita Black: Okay, now one step more forward towards your late weight release bloomer success. I’m too much of a food addict and I always will be. I’m too much of a food addict and I always will be. So when we have been a victim of food, we feel like it owns us. No matter what your age, you can take back your power from food. We think it’s our fault. And that word addiction is a really strong word, and we take it personally. Most strugglers, I have to say, myself included, have a genetic propensity. Our brain gets wired and then drives our eating. So we have a genetic propensity for sugar and carbs. Now, I’m not demonizing sugar and carbs, I’m just saying that when we struggle with our weight, our propensity just like addictions to other things like nicotine, alcohol, hard drugs there tends to be a familial propensity.

Rita Black: And they have seen that certain people are way more wired. Their mouths, their taste buds, their brain, their reward center reacts way more strongly to carbohydrates and sugars than other people. So we, all of us are probably somewhere on that spectrum. And it is our job as somebody who’s going to master our weight to start to really learn what our ceiling is with those more refined foods. I call it our carb ceiling. So that and what foods take our power away from us, meaning there are trigger foods that and my trigger food isn’t your trigger food isn’t aren’t my next door neighbor’s trigger food that we all get. We have certain foods that if we eat one, we’re going to eat them all everything in the bag or everything in the carton or everything in the ice cream carton. So it is our job to start to really respect our trigger foods, understand what they are, and understand that we are probably never going to have a relationship with them that is gonna be a positive one, but that there’s thousands of other foods that we can have a powerful relationship with.

Rita Black: And we can learn to start to cultivate a way of eating that works for us that isn’t deprivational, that isn’t restrictive, but that honors our body and our propensity so that we know, and we, and when you really tune in and are mindful and eating food and enjoying food, you really start to be able to tune in and go, oh yeah, I’ve had too much, you know, I had too many carbs yesterday. Let me pull it back today. And again, not from demonizing carbs, but understanding that once that brain is sort of triggered what I like to call the carb zombie, it will set us off overeating. And that part of the brain doesn’t care about you, doesn’t care about your weight, doesn’t care about your health, doesn’t care about you at all. And that’s when we get into those eating binges, those that kind of eating where we feel like we’re just robotically eating, overeating, mindlessly eating not even like enjoying the food that we’re eating.

Rita Black: It’s not really your fault per se, but that part of the brain has gotten really engaged. And we need to learn how to keep that part of the brain in what I like to call hibernation. So that is something you can learn that is something about not being good, not being bad, but really about tuning in and learning about your body and how your body works with certain foods and starting to really create what I like to call a way of eating that you love that allows you to live at your ideal weight. And that’s trial and error. So that also requires self-compassion rather than criticism because you know, on my journey of weight mastery, I ate, I overate a lot of food. I made a lot, if you would wanted to look at at it, a lot of bad mistakes of eating.

Rita Black: But I allowed myself to learn from them, to tune into my body and go, oh, right, that food really doesn’t work for me. Or wow, that really is a trigger food. And how many times did I have to eat that trigger food to really get like, oh yeah, there is really no joy in eating that even though maybe the first bite is joyful, the rest is never happy, never good. Let’s put a magical boundary around that particular food and find some other food that you enjoy. So it really is about having a respectful relationship with yourself, but also with food and your body and how those all interact together. So it’s not that you are an out of control addict, but you are learning to work with your body, you and your brain yourself. In all, in blissful harmony.

Rita Black: Every bite I take moves me closer to freedom and health. That’s our suggestion. Now repeat with me. Every bite I take moves me closer to freedom and health. Okay, one step forward towards your late weight release bloomer syndrome. I’m gonna get that right. All right, one last, one last, limiting belief. My knees are screwed up. So Maureen was walking with a cane when she came to see me for her first session, and her knees were screwed up. She had made the decision, she didn’t want it to get worse. Now she was in her fifties and she was walking with a cane, and she slowly started eating.

Rita Black: She slowly started eating right, walking, and it, the inflammation in her knees went away and she started getting stronger and got more adventurous and began hiking slowly but surely. And now, many years later, because she released 40 pounds nine years ago, many years later, she’s going on amazing hiking adventures. She’s retired and she is feeling the best she has ever felt. So even though a body part may be hurting, and I don’t know, I’m not saying that just Maureen was somebody, and I’ve seen a lot of people when they start eating, making healthier food choices, the inflammation can go away. The aches and pains start to dissipate. They start exercising, taking care of themselves, showing up for themselves and their body. Those pains that maybe were at one point debilitating start to become less and maybe even go away. And your limiting belief about your ability to be somebody who moves can transform.

Rita Black: Now I’m, there are, I’m sure people who have chronic conditions that that might not be true for, but what if it you, there was a chance for you to improve and to feel more vibrant, to feel more mobile, to feel more balanced, to feel more strong. But it just takes one, putting that one foot in front of the other and really looking at this not just from weight release, but from feeling good, focusing your brain, on something like feeling good in your body. That can be very inspiring for your brain. So let’s do our last suggestion or our last repetition.

Rita Black: I am moving in the direction of moving. I am moving in the direction of moving. The more I move, the more I desire to move. Okay, one more step forward towards your late weight release bloomer. Okay? I hope you are now a believer that health and weight mastery are not just for the young, but within reach for you no matter what age you are. Look, at the end of the day, our body and our mind, our experience of our life, that’s how we experience our life, right through our body and through our mind. They’re important at any age. And so to be free, to be confident, to be present in living your life to your fullest is your right. So don’t let a bunch of useless worn out phrases take your power away. You didn’t make them up. Let’s hold on to some new powerful phrases.

Rita Black: So I’m gonna go through all of our phrases one last time, just repeat them once after me. It’s never too late to move towards health and fitness one day at a time. My body is an amazing machine. It burns energy and it keeps me thriving. No matter what my age, my weight past creates the steps to my weight, success future. Every bite I take moves me closer to freedom and health. I am moving in the direction of moving. And the more I move, the more I desire to move and one move forward towards our late weight release bloomer syndrome identity.

Rita Black: All right everybody, I hope you’re feeling jazzed about moving forward. And please sign up for my free masterclass on Wednesday the 26th of April. And it’s called How to Break through the Weight Struggle Cycle So that You Can Release Weight Consistently and Permanently. You know how to release the weight, but it’s about getting underneath those mental subconscious roadblocks that get in our way. Let’s blast them away and move forward towards success. And we’re gonna do a little hypnosis in that session there. So please come and join us. And if you’re hearing this past the date of the actual masterclass, please check the show notes anyway. There’s always something really of value there for you. So have an amazing week and remember that the key and probably the only key to unlocking the door, the weight struggle is inside you. So keep listening and find it.

Rita Black: You wanna dive deeper into the mindset of long-term weight release, head on over to www.shiftweightmastery.com. That’s www shift weight mastery.com, where you’ll find numerous tools and resources to help you unlock your mind for permanent weight release tips, strategies, and more. And be sure to check the show notes to learn more about my book From Fat to Thin Thinking. Unlock Your Mind for Permanent Weight Loss.