Rita Black: Picture this: it’s early morning, the alarm blares, and you’re lying in bed contemplating whether to hit that snooze button or drag yourself to the gym. And suddenly a big red stop sign pops up in your mind, urging you to abandon all thoughts of exercise and dive right under the cozy covers. Sound familiar? Well fret not, because in today’s Thin Thinking episode, we are diving deep into the realm of mental resistance and exploring effective strategies to conquer that internal battle and establish a consistent exercise routine. We’re gonna uncover the secrets to silence that inner voice that says ugh, and replace it with a resounding let’s go. From motivational techniques to fabulous advice, I will provide you with the mental tools you need to push through those mental barriers and get moving towards your fitness goals. So whether you are a longtime exercise avoider, or just looking for that extra push to stay on track, this episode is for you. So grab those gym shoes and come on in.

Rita Black: 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, come on in and please get cozy. Let’s just take a deep breath and be present, right? Be present in the moment. How often do we do that during our day? I hope you’re doing it often, but chances are we can’t do it enough. So I wanna thank you. I wanna start off right by just just saying thank you, thank you, thank you, Thin Thinking audience. I love you. And we are so excited to announce that Thin Thinking has landed in the top two present of all podcasts globally. Isn’t that exciting? I was pretty excited to discover that. So I wanna thank our community for supporting us and sharing the word and so yay, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Rita Black: And please, please, we want a review. We would love for you to review us, review us, gets us seen, gets us heard, helps the algorithm, all that stuff. You know, you know what it’s like in this world. You gotta, you gotta stir the pot. So please just send us some love in a review and we will give you some love back in the form of a free weight loss hypnosis download. And also, you’ll be entered into a drawing for my upcoming new program or new collection, I should say, of hypnosis meditations and coachings called Shift Out of Emotional Eating. It’s all about getting out of that emotional eating zone and getting into healthy eating mindfully showing up for yourself. So I hope you’re psyched. I hope you’re excited. I am! And that’s gonna be dropping in July, but here we are at least if you’re listening to this we are now in the June of 2023, so that gives you a little time, but there is no time like the present to go.

Rita Black: What you need to do is write the review in your podcast platform, meaning whatever podcast platform you’re listening to and go ahead, write that review take a screenshot of it and send it to me, and we will send the coupon code for the free download your way and your name will be entered into our drawing. So, excitement.

Rita Black: Now this coming episode many of you have written in and said, Hey, Rita, I need some help getting motivated to exercise. Well, you asked for it and you got it. Today is all things exercise and how to use your mind to motivate you to get you moving. And for those of you who want some really, really deep dive desires to exercise, there is a link in the show notes to my exercise downloads. And it’s a three pack. It’s wake up and exercise, so it’s meditation session that will get you outta bed in the morning even if you, you know, hit the snooze that this is gonna get you motivated to wake up in the morning. There’s another one called the Desire to Exercise. So it’s just a nice hypnosis session that really drives in the deep desire to move to exercise. And then there’s what I like to call a car hypnosis session where you can actually listen to it in a car. It’s, it’s more like a cognitive coaching session. But that’s all about, so you can listen to it in the car on your way home, or you can listen to it at home. It’s not exclusively for a car. You can listen to it on the bus or the train but it’s really about coming home and exercising.

Rita Black: So it’s about like living your day, having a long day and you know, it’s so hard to come home after a long day and exercise. So this session is really designed to get you moving and doing that. So that is all available through a link. And today, and, you know if you are listening to this podcast, there is a coupon code exercise that will get you $5 off that three-pack download. Alright? And also the link to my email address if you want write a review is in the show notes. Alright, enough of me and all this chatter. Let’s get, let’s get the, our shoes on and let’s go exercise. Let me start getting ya in the mood.

Rita Black: If you haven’t exercised for a while, getting, moving again can be a challenge. So I wanna talk to you guys about that. If you are finding yourself stuck, wanting to get moving, or maybe you’re doing some exercise, but it’s not so consistent, I wanted to spend today just giving you some thin thinking tips and tricks to get yourself moving again and exercising more consistently and really communicating more powerfully with yourself in the area of exercise. Here is the thing about weight mastery and exercise with regards to research and people who have taken weight off and kept it off permanently. If you look at studies of people who have been consistently keeping their weight off long-term, in these studies, these people are exercising five to six days a week, you know, not to take the weight off, but to maintain their weight.

Rita Black: And there’s many, many reasons for this. One of them being that as you release weight obviously you become smaller. So the amount of calories that you’re burning on a daily basis decreases as you become, you know, smaller, thinner, you know, less as you weigh less. And so in order to match that, you know, as far as energy is concerned is, in order to, you know, be able to eat in a way that you like and love, you know, many people then start to leverage the power of exercise to create more energy burn on a daily basis. Also, studies are showing now and I don’t know if you read these studies like from a while ago with the biggest loser with these people who have had these really big weight releases that if you compare somebody who let’s say is 150 pounds, 5’7”, and has never had a weight struggle, compared with somebody who has, was once 200 pounds and then has lost weight and now is 150 pounds and 5’7”, chances are that person who has been on that weight loss journey, their metabolism is going to be lower than the person who never struggled with their weight at the same weight, if that makes sense to you.

Rita Black: So this is why people who have taken weight off, and a lot of that, the reason for that, I think these studies get into it’s main, it’s genetics. It’s just what the body does in compensation. And I don’t think they have all the answers for that, but they’re just seeing this more and more. And I don’t know if this is the first time you’ve listened to me, but I am somebody who tracks people’s metabolisms. If they’re a client of mine, they come in, I have a machine that, and I’ve watched metabolisms over weight loss journeys, and I’ve seen that to be true to a certain degree. So, I really think that these studies and there’s, there is a lot of evidence that these people who are keeping weight off long-term have really made it a part of their lifestyle to exercise almost every day on a daily basis.

Rita Black: Now, there’s many values other than just weight management that exercise brings, that does play into long-term permanent weight management. One, I mean, exercise absolutely regulates your hormones, helps you build neurotransmitters like serotonin, oxytocin that really help you feel good so that you’re managing stress a lot better. And a lot of us who struggle with weight are stress eaters. So obviously that’s gonna be a bonus. Exercise also helps you problem solve, and I think a lot of times we eat our problems and they have also shown that there is a hormone emitted in the state of exercise that is the best state of mind when you’re exercising to solve problems. And I absolutely know this to be true. You know? I will get on a treadmill or the the elliptical or a bike, and I will go to a spin class and I will, I will say, okay, what’s the problem I’m gonna solve during this spin class?

Rita Black: Now I can be listening to the instructor or on a bike, you know, listening to the instructor and spinning my heart out, but I, my subconscious mind can also solve problems at the same time. And I’ll get epiphanies. And maybe you’ve had this experience when you’ve gone out walking or running or even walking on the beach. You’ll, you, you, you know, the, these epiphanies come to you when you are exercising. So I think it is a really great state to problem solving. And again, I think that leads to weight maintenance and management because instead of eating your problems, you are exercising them instead. Now here’s the thing. If you’re in the beginning of a long-term permanent weight mastery journey, do you need to be exercising from the get-go? No. I think a lot of people put a lot of pressure on themselves when they start losing weight.

Rita Black: You know, when we get into that, I’m going on a diet, so that means I have to exercise a lot. Not necessarily. I think sometimes it really helps to get the food in the right place and not put a ton of pressure on yourself to really start exercising unless you know, unless you’re in the mood too. You know? A lot of my clients come to me and they’re already exercising, but it’s really about getting the food in the right place. So you know, what you start out doing is highly personal to you. And, and I’m gonna get into this, I don’t want you to feel like you have to be working out five to six days a week when you get started. I just wanted to let you know that the reason, you know, you wanna start to think about moving your body and exercising and exercise doesn’t even need to be like going to the gym and working out.

Rita Black: It could be just moving and being active and getting your body you know, moving more than sitting on the couch, which is, you know, sitting is the new smoking. So, so you wanna start to re-identify yourself as an active person, and that’s what we’re gonna get into.

Rita Black: So here are some thin thinking mindset tips that will help you start to get back on and start exercising or get back into a routine. Now, again, I’m gonna remind you that, you know, there’s, it’s not your fault that you’re necessarily struggling with exercise. I think you, it’s really important to remove any shame or negative feelings about yourself because really, honestly the way our mind is designed for weight loss and management exercise, all of that, the mind is really not set up to help us out very much.

Rita Black: In fact, it’s kind of works against us, you know, our conscious mind. We’re in, we have very good intentions. I’m gonna wake up, I’m gonna set the alarm, I’m gonna exercise tomorrow. I’m gonna wake up and I’m gonna go for a walk. I’m gonna go get on that rowing machine. I’m gonna go do something, right? And then we get that, that alarm goes off, and our reptilian subconscious mind is like, what the hell was that noise? Am shutting that thing down and going back to sleep because, you know, our mind wants things to stay just as they are. And when you’re warm and cozy in bed in the morning, that reptilian brain doesn’t wanna move and exert itself, hell no. So, and that’s a very powerful force working against you. So we really have to learn how to get our whole mind working with us in order to get moving.

Rita Black: Now another problem that is on our way is we, in our subconscious mind, we have negative identities of ourself as couch potatoes, lazy, I’m a pig. You know? We have these negative labels and self identities of ourselves as a sedentary person that really works against us. So I want you to understand that labeling yourself, oh, I can’t tell you how many people have told me that they’re a lazy pig. They’re a lazy, they’re a couch potato. They’re, you know, they, there’s a lot of and, you know, descriptions that are not very kind that people like to label themselves. Their little inner critic inside wants to let them know, yes, you are a couch potato and you will not amount to very much because you are lazy and you’re unproductive and you’re a slovenly pig, right? Very kind. Right? You know, we just love that inner critic.

Rita Black: And also we have a belief system that’s set up to look at exercise like, it’s hard. Oh, exercise exertion. I don’t like to sweat. I have back pain. I have achy joints. I don’t want people looking at me at the gym. You know, that’s, I’ve heard that year after year after year. And I understand that because I avoided the gym because I didn’t want people to see me when I was 40 pounds heavier working out. I felt very embarrassed about that. Somebody told me something once about that, that was so great, and I’m gonna share that with you now, is that, well, at least here in California, and I think that this is true of most places, that people are really into themselves at the gym, you know? They’ve got their own paranoia, they have got their own issues with themselves. And, you know, people here in California, in Los Angeles especially, let’s face it, they’re all super into themselves.

Rita Black: So they might, you know, I got over it because I was like, you know, I looked around the gym and I was like, if these people look at me, they’re probably gonna spend maybe 25 seconds thinking about me. Oh, there’s that big girl in the T-shirt, and then they’re gonna be back thinking about themselves again. Oh, don’t I look great in the mirror? You know? Like, so I really realized that people really don’t spend that much time thinking about you. I know it’s hard to take that in, you know, it’s hard like that. People pretty much kid care less about you. They’re all in their own drama and their own concerns. But it’s very freeing once you kind of get over that because it’s like, oh, they don’t care about me, so I can wear whatever I want and I can do whatever I want.

Rita Black: And I highly recommend you start to take that attitude. Like, yeah, they really don’t care about you. So what are you worried about? Even if you’re walking along the road, you know, they might think about you. Oh, there’s that lady in the pink sweatsuit. Wow, okay, great. Now I’m back to my own drama and my my own day. So, you know, you’re not that important in people’s minds except maybe your loved ones. So don’t worry about what people think of you. What they’re thinking about you is really none of your business. You are what you think about yourself is all your business, and you should start, you should be, think some better thoughts, and we’re gonna get into that. Okay, and then habit, habit, sleeping in, that’s a habit. Coming home and pouring a glass of wine and sitting on the couch, that’s a habit, you know?

Rita Black: We get into these habits that are patterns that then just get parked in our subconscious mind. Our mind thinks, this works just great for me. Don’t rock the boat, don’t get, you know, in my face here. Just leave me alone and let me just repeat this pattern over and over and over again, even if it’s causing you to gain weight and feel unhealthy and feel like a couch potato. Okay?

Rita Black: So here is, let’s start at identity, because our identity is at the root of all transformation. I know that, that a lot of people don’t think about our identity so much, but you have a lot of different identities in your mind. You know, you might be wherever you live, that’s an identity. I’m a Californian, I’m a Southern Californian, I’m a, Los Angeles. So those are all different identities. I even live in this area is kind of, I’m between Korea town and in this place called Larchmont Village in Los Angeles.

Rita Black: And so it’s an, it’s a beautiful little historic because, you know, it’s one of the older areas of Los Angeles. You know? And I bought my house the year, the earthquake and the riots, like after the LA riots and the nineties. And this areas like changed and transformed, and a lot of people come and poured a lot of love into my area. I love where I live, but, so I’m also a member of this community. So, and I’ve been here a very long time, and I’ve really given a lot to the community. So I am, you know, we live in this place called St. Andrews Square. So I am, you know, I’m a St. Andrews person. I’m a Larchmont person. I’m a Koreatown person. You know? I work in the Wilshire area. I’m a Wilshire person, so I have a lot of identities that way.

Rita Black: I’m a mom, I’m a business woman. I’m a hypnotherapist. I’m a a weight master. I’m a weight apprentice. I’m a wife. You know, I’m an advocate for girls. I am, you know the, you know, the mother of somebody going to Berkeley, like that, those are all identities. And you probably have hundreds of identities. And if you’ve struggled with exercise that’s an identity is that I don’t like exercise, or I’m a pouch potato, or I’m lazy. That when it comes to exercise, that is an identity. I am you know, I, I don’t like to sweat. You know, that becomes a bit of an identity in your mind, and I can totally relate because I used to see myself as a couch potato. So one thing that we can start to do is transform our identity.

Rita Black: And that is something that you just choose in a moment. You know,?it’s not something that you have to prove to yourself. You can transform your identity just by saying so, and, and starting to think of yourself differently. You know, like if you ever got married and you said, I do, all of a sudden you’re a spouse instead of a single person, right? And you’re not trying not to be single. You are now adapting to this new identity of being a wife or a husband, or you know, or if you were a student and then you went into your profession, now all of a sudden you are a teacher, or you’re a nurse, or you’re a lawyer, or you’re a, a manager, or you’re, you know,, you step into an identity and you begin to live into it. So this, the idea that I would have for you to start to step into is I am a, I’m moving in the direction of being an exerciser.

Rita Black: You know, like, you don’t have to say, I am an exerciser, because your mind probably won’t accept that, because your mind will say, well, that’s not true. But you can say, I’m an apprentice of exercise. I am, I’m a beginning exerciser. I’m a novice exerciser. I am a novice fitness person. I’m a new fitness advocate. You can find a title that fits for you, you know, play around. You’re smart. But what you’re doing is opening up a little door in your brain, and it’s not even a door. It’s a little space like you wanna think, think of it as your exercise room that you’re creating in your brain, and you are giving that a label, like saying, okay, I’m stepping into being an apprentice of exercise. That means like, I’m starting. I don’t have to be, you know, working out six days a week, but I’m starting to see myself and, and saying to yourself, I’m moving in the direction of this opens up your brain too, because it doesn’t freak your brain out too much. It’s like moving in the direction is like, oh, I’m open to this idea. I’m getting started. It’s not scary, like, have to do it this second, but it starts to plant a seed in your brain and it will grow. Okay?

Rita Black: Now let’s talk about this belief of exercise sucks and it’s hard and all of that stuff. When you have not been exercising or moving your body too much, the idea of moving your body probably isn’t gonna seem that pleasant. And find a lot of times with people, we frame it to ourselves so negatively that who would want to exercise, right? Like, we think of sweating, we think of like putting on the clothes. We think of waking up early and it’s cold, and putting the clothes on in the cold, or waking up and driving to the gym, or going out in the outside where it’s cold or it’s hot, or, you know, like the, what we focus on, you know, you create what you focus on.

Rita Black: So usually what I find that people focus on with exercise totally turns their brain off to the idea of exercise. So maybe you can think about like, how you have been thinking about exercise and ask yourself, is the way I’m framing it to myself inviting, or is it discouraging? There are three parts to exercise, and you know, if you wanna look at the three aspects of exercise there, there’s the time that you spend getting ready to go and exercise, meaning putting on some exercise clothes maybe, you know, getting your home gym set up, or maybe going outside or driving to a place to, like a gym or a track to work out. But I think that so that is one part is like the getting ready part. The second part is the actual exercising itself when you’re actually physically exercising.

Rita Black: And again, you know, if you think about that, you might think of overexerting yourself on a treadmill or out walking, and you might think about aches and pains and the gym. So next, after we think about the pre-exercise part, a lot of times where we will focuses on the exercise part, like the actual physical movement. Now, if we haven’t been moving for a while, we might have these negative fantasies of ourselves, like really being physically uncomfortable during an exercise class, or sweating profusely or ache, having aches and pains or being out of breath, or having our heart beating too fast, right? So we might have negative fantasies or negative hallucinations about the actual physical part of physical exertion, you know so, so that might be, or you might have a memory of, you know, walking the last time and maybe you had arthritis or something and it was really hurting you.

Rita Black: And so your mind will focus on that. Or or like I said, the beginning part of the exercise, like trying to get going. So the, the last part of the exercise scenario is usually where people aren’t going to focus, which is on how awesome you feel at the end of your exercise session, how wonderful it feels to have moved your body, to have connected your mind and body. And, and I mean, to be honest with you, once you start moving the actual moving part of exercise, once you get a positive memory of it going, that is gonna pull you into exercise because there is nothing like your brain and body working together in unison for a feeling of empowerment. And exercise is one of those things that instantly brings you confidence, confidence about yourself, confidence about your, your physicality. It’s one of the things that can quickly change how you stand and how you feel.

Rita Black: So, so really, but the, the last part of the exercise equation is really where I would have people focus on you know, when they wanna seduce themselves into the idea of exercise. When you’re laying in bed in the morning, you don’t wanna think about getting outta bed and getting into the cold clothes and getting out to exercise. What I focus on all the time that gets me is how awesome I am going to feel all day long because I moved my body in the morning, or if it’s, if it’s at night that I’m choosing to exercise, how amazing I’m gonna feel after I’ve removed all the stress from my day from a good workout session. So focusing on that end point changes, you know, we, all we have in our life is our focus. And, and if we choose to focus on negative things, it’s gonna create a negative feeling in our body.

Rita Black: It’s gonna create a negative emotion in our body. You know, our mind’s not gonna wanna do it, but if we focus on the aspects of exercise that pull us forward, how good we’re gonna feel about ourselves, how confident we’re gonna feel, and, and I’m gonna get into some ways that you can get yourself into doing this, but I just wanted you to, I just wanted you to know that maybe part of the reason that you haven’t gotten yourself going is where your focus is, is in the wrong place. You’re focusing on negative ideas and, and fantasies and hallucinations versus really focusing your brain on the powerful part of exercise and the, the feel good part of exercise. And, and I always tell people, if you can exercise for three days, if you can just do three days, even if you’re doing 10 minutes of exercise your brain will, your brain and body will start to those, those hormones that are emitted, the neurotransmitters that are engaged. You’ll start to get getting addicted to exercise. And, you know, people, a, a lot of people are you, you know, you can call ’em exercise nuts, exercise addicts but they, because they’ve gotten hooked on that feel good feeling at that feeling of especially in the middle of exercise or after exercise. But don’t focus in the wrong place, especially if you’re trying to get yourself engaged and going.

Rita Black: So now let’s talk about the habit. You know, starting a habit of exercise. One thing I have found, and again you know, I have a lot of experiences with working with people because like I said, I’ve been doing what I do and helping people with managing their weight for 20 years. That’s a lot of people, folks, and I’ve seen a lot of people in the beginning of their weight release journeys. And something that a lot of people will do is when they have not been exercising, what they will do is they will say, well, I’m gonna start exercising. And then they’ll have really huge expectations of what they need to do in order to get going. Like, so somebody might, I will, you know, be in a conversation with somebody and say, okay, you know how much are you planning to start out?

Rita Black: And, you know, like, what’s your exercise goals? Well, I thought I’d start out five days a week, you know, about an hour a day. And I’m like, okay. And have, and when was the last time that you, you know, had an exercise routine going, oh, I have not had a re exercise routine for seven years. Okay. You know, and then there, that’s my job to start to move their minds from this idea of something that they’re not gonna do. You know, the, I mean, you might get a exercise routine going that is an hour a day, five days a week, and you might succeed at that for an a week. But most people have to their brain, if they think about, if you haven’t moved for a long time, and then you think about moving an hour a day, you know, first of all, creating that time in your schedule.

Rita Black: But secondly following through on that, especially after working out for an hour, the first day, you’re gonna be sore. You’re gonna, you know, the, there’s gonna be a lot of adjustments that your body’s gonna have to make, and your brain is going to get overwhelmed, and it’s gonna shut down and say, it’s gonna say no. So I think one of the main reasons that you might not have started an exercise routine is your expectations are too big of what you need to do to get started. That I see that is a very common thing. The other thing is, if you were very fit in the past, like if you were an athlete I’ve worked with Olympic athletes who you know, were incredibly fit and had very high fitness goals and achievements, and then something happened, like they were in an accident and then they were sedentary for a while, or something happened in their lives where they got out of the routine, or, you know, they won the gold medal or whatever, and they, you know, they were a coach, but they hadn’t been really exercising themselves too much.

Rita Black: You know, they just got busy with life raising kids, doing whatever, and then, then they’re very ashamed and they’re holding themselves to the old exercise standard. And it doesn’t even have to be an Olympic athlete. I’m just talking about anybody who, you know, played football in high school or basketball, or you know, was fit in their twenties and they were jogging every day or running marathons, and then it stopped, and, and then they got out of shape that what will happen is they’ll hold themselves to that. I’ve gotta get back to that place right now. And they allow their past fitness levels to keep them from starting an exercise regime because they’re just like, it’s too big, it’s too overwhelming. Again, it’s just too much. It’s too overwhelming. They have to start where from where they are, and they have to love themselves where they are, because a lot of people, if they had an incredibly fit body at some point, and then they, they look down and they see themselves out of shape there’s a, a certain amount of resentment they hold against themselves and their body for, you know, not being perfect.

Rita Black: And I kind of have to say, you gotta kind of forgive yourself. It is what it is. You are where you are now. Love yourself where you are, and start from where you are. And the good news is, you know, you know how to exercise and you will be able to get going and you will be fit. And, you know, we go through different eras of our life. You know, I’m in my fifties and I’m, I have different expectations of my body than I did when I was in my forties and in my thirties, I had zero expectations of my body in my twenties. No, I’m kidding. But, you know, like I was, you know, struggling so much with my weight and I, I mean, I remember going to exercise classes and leaving the exercise class halfway through the class, and I was like I’m just gonna leave and I’ll, I’ll come back later and I’ll, I’ll do the full class tomorrow. I never did. I got so in the habit of leaving exercise classes early, I don’t know what was up with that.

Rita Black: But anyway, that was my struggle story. But, you know, so don’t forgive yourself for where you’re at. Love yourself for where you’re at and get going for where you’re at. Wherever you’re at is fine. And I assure you that once you start going, then you will build on that. So start with something there. There’s a power in doing what you say you’re gonna do, even if it’s a little bit, I mean, I’ve had people, I, I’ve had people so resistant to exercise. I said, all you need to do the first time is go to the gym and get on the treadmill. You don’t even need to turn it on and then leave the gym. You know, like, just get into the gym and just turn on the treadmill and that you can call exercise, or just go to the end of the block and walk back.

Rita Black: And we will call that exercise for the first week. You can do that every day for five days, you know? And I literally, I, I had this hospice nurse who had diabetes, and she really needed to lose 50 pounds, and she really needed to start exercising just to help with her blood sugar levels. And she literally was so out of shape. That was what she did. She literally walked down to the end of the block and back for maybe for the first week and a half, and then she started going around the block. But, you know, what happened was she started a habit of every night after dinner, she just would go down and go to the end of the block and come back. And she called that her exercise. And that built so that by the end of the summer, she was walking a mile.

Rita Black: And then, you know, we live in California, she was still walking outside in the wintertime. Her husband started going with her and she released 50 pounds, you know, but it started building. I have someone in our community now who just started 10 minutes a day, and then now she’s doing an hour, hour and 15 minutes five days a week, you know? But it started by saying, I’m just gonna do 10 minutes. You do 10 minutes, you start to move your body, your body starts to get used to it. You start to get the benefits of the, the feelgood hormones, and you do what you say you’re gonna do, and you build that confidence. So start little and build, rather than starting with these big, huge expectations.

Rita Black: The other thing that might be getting in your way is you’re trying for the wrong time of the day. I hear this again, again, to, oh, I’m gonna wake up at three o’clock in the morning because you wake up at five o’clock to get and fight traffic and get to work. And, you know, sometimes I’m a really big believer in the path of least resistance, right? So it would be really awesome if we could all wake up at 3:00 AM in the morning. Some people do it. I am not one of those people. But if you are all the power to you, but it could be that you’re just setting yourself up for failure because you’re setting up really unrealistic expectations of when some people oh, the opposite would be true. That the, the afternoon they get home and they’re just too tired from their day, and maybe the, the morning is gonna be better for them. So you need to find the right time.

Rita Black: You know, sometimes lunchtime works out being the best time of day but you know, you can start to be creative about your time as well. Like for some clients, I’ll recommend, Hey, why don’t you break it into three, you know, three, 10 minute sessions, three, you know, walk around the block a couple of times, or jog or, you know, do your thing in the morning for about 10 minutes 10 to 15 minutes at lunchtime, and, you know, 10 to 15 minutes when you get home just to get started and get going. And then maybe you can build from there once you get going. And many people find that this, you know, that’s over a half hour of movement and that burns calories that gets them going, gets them, you know, feeling that they, they’re moving in the right direction.

Rita Black: So start to think about the time and maybe think if you haven’t been waking up and you said you were gonna be waking up, instead of making, beating yourself up about it and saying, I’m lazy. Cuz I’m not waking up in the morning and say, well, maybe I need to find a different time. You know, I will go to the gym at 10 o’clock at night sometimes. And, and it’s because I’ve had a long day. I got home late, I ate dinner, you know, at seven, I digest and I, you know, maybe get a little work done, or I hang out with my husband and then I’m like, I’m off to the gym. And sometimes he’ll come with me. And it’s, it’s so great cuz I, it’s just a way to, you know, really work out, get the stress of the day off of me, come home, take a shower, get to bed and I sleep really well.

Rita Black: So, you know, that’s another myth. I think people are afraid to work out late at night because they’re afraid that it will impact their sleep. I, it makes me sleep like a baby. I don’t know about you, but so, you know, you really gotta find the right time for you. And the right time might not be a conventional time. So think about that and think that through. Here’s some tools to get going. Like I said, make it easy for yourself. Think it through the night before. So, you know, if you’re used to showing up to your day and your day is not an exercise day, you’re gonna wanna engage your mind first and practice it before you do it. You know, when I do these podcasts, I think it through ahead of time because, you know, just to come and sit down and start talking to you, I have to kind of, you know, I have to prepare my mind you know, before I teach a class, I have to prepare my mind, you know, athletes, before they go in the field, they have to prepare their mind.

Rita Black: If you’re gonna be doing something new, you need to think it through and, and, you know, if there’s some resistance coming up, talk yourself through it. Focus on, you know, I know it’s gonna be new. I know it might not feel, you know, the most comfortable, we’re stretching ourselves. It’s okay. You wanna have a little inner coach, talk with yourself. You know, you wanna be your own best friend about this. You don’t wanna criticize yourself, you don’t wanna rebel. You wanna say, Hey, I’m with you. And and, and we can do this and we’re gonna feel so awesome when we’re done. And I’m gonna be so proud of you when you’re done. You know, really talk yourself through it. Think it through, pep yourself up, you know, really engage. Make it easy. Think it through the night before, like I said, or think it through.

Rita Black: If you’re gonna come home and do it think it through, like on your way home. You know, get yourself prepared for it. Okay, I’m gonna go home. I’m gonna put my shoes on. It’s gonna feel so great. Have a vision of yourself fitter and more toned, exercising. Like, have a positive vision of that. You, you are becoming by becoming more physically active. That will help get the dopamine center in your brain engaged and working for you. Focus on the end, like I said, keep the end in mind. Keep that feeling of what you want in mind. And here’s something that I think is such a powerful tool, is have a comeback for your resistance, because you will have resistance, especially in the beginning. I, you know, the good thing about your inner rebel, that part of you that kind of sabotages your health, health attempts, you know, it’s, it’s clever sometimes, but it’s not that clever.

Rita Black: It doesn’t, you know, it’s smart, it’s aggressive, it’s seductive, but they come up with the same things all the time. Like my inner rebel. You know, if I work a day and I haven’t worked out in the morning and I’ve planned to come home and work out, you know, in the evening, you know, I know what my inner rebel’s gonna say, oh, you’re too tired. Oh, you’ve worked out already a few times this week. You’re good. You don’t need to do it tonight. You know,, but not that creative. So I have a comeback, you know, my, when my inner rebel says, oh, you’re so tired. And then I say, yeah, and think of how awesome am I gonna feel when I get out of that spin class and I’m completely energized and mellow from all those feel good hormones going through my brain.

Rita Black: I’m gonna feel way better than I do right now. Oh, but you exercise a lot this week. I was like, but I’m a person, you know, I have an identity. I am a person who works out five to six days a week, and that’s who I am. And, and, and I, and I love that feeling. So, you know, I have a comeback. So, you know, that part of your brain that’s like, oh, let’s just hit the snooze alarm and keep going. It’s like, no, I’m gonna feel driving in my car this morning. I’m gonna feel that energy going through my body because I worked out today, and I won’t be sleepy and groggy. I’m gonna be awake and alive. And not just in my head, I’m gonna be in my whole dang body because I went for that walk this morning. So let’s get this outta bed and let’s get going. Okay?

Rita Black: Set your environment up for success. What can I say that is at the root of all successful change, right? So get those exercise clothes out, get those shoes out. So when you wake up in the morning and you see those things, you get in ’em, or you have them ready when you get home. You know, I come home and if I’m gonna work out that night, I change outta my work clothes, right into my workout clothes. Now, I might not go and work out for two or three hours, but I got ’em on and, and I know before I take them off, I’m gonna have worked out. So you know, or if I wake up really early, like sometimes I’ll wake up at, you know, what I consider an ungodly hour to go hiking in the morning you know, before work. Sometimes, you know, I I have everything laid out, so it’s just super easy.

Rita Black: I can get dressed super quick and get out of the house so I can get as much sleep as I can before I wake my dog up and co my dog’s. Like, are you crazy? But you know, now he’s like, okay, yep, we’re going. So you know, get, make it easy for yourself. Get your clothes already and, and get yourself some fun clothes and exercise gadgets. There’s nothing as sad as having like saddled exercise clothes. I mean, you know, you’re worth it. And, and exercise clothes are not that expensive. I think having a new pair of exercise sweats or a new exercise bra, you know, they’re really cool. And getting a gadget that I think that will be really helpful for you to feel like you’re really committing to something. I invested in some new hiking shoes this year and, you know, I I, I’m not a person that likes to spend a lot of money on myself, but I’m telling you, investing in those things make my life better because I’m, I’m feeling good.

Rita Black: My feet are feeling good. So get some good shoes, get some, get, get some good shoes so that you’re not hurting yourself. You wanna really make sure that you’re setting up yourself for success. Stretch. There’s some great YouTube stretch. You know, if you just put in stretching for lower back, stretching for your legs you know, take care of your body too. I know now that I’m in my fifties, I’m really working not just on fitness levels, but mobility and balance and all of those things that start to get going. When when you get to my age, I mean, not that 50 is, I mean, 50 is the new thirties, okay? But you know, I hear all of you 50 gals and guys, you know, yeah, 50 is the new thirties, but you, you know, when you’re healthy, when you’re fit, when you’re feeling good, you can feel awesome in your fifties, in your sixties, in your seventies, in your eighties.

Rita Black: I mean, like I’m telling you, my mother-in-law, she plays tennis every day and she’s 86 years old. I’m like, look at her and I’m like, I wanna be you when I grow up. It’s, you know, she, but she’s, you know, taking care of herself and she’s you know, you gotta stretch. You got to, you know, focus on your wellbeing. Okay?

Rita Black: Now, what else do I have for you here? What else do I have for you here? Oh, have a mantra that have, have a mantra of you know, like, I am enjoying moving my body. I am enjoying being in my body walking before breakfast. I love to walk before breakfast. You know, something that you can just repeat to yourself over and over again that he starts to get into your mind. You know, moving is grooving. I don’t know. I’m, I’m not coming up with very good ones, I have to admit right now. But I, you know, I just have, I love hiking. I love biking. I, you know, I love exercise, so I, you know, and that’s something I would’ve never ever said to myself in a million years, you know, 30 years ago. But being in my body and being able to move, and I mean, I’m very, very grateful for that. In this last year during Covid, I broke my shoulder. I was out jogging one morning because our gyms were closed. And I, I was like, I gotta move somehow. And I, I bit the dust and I, I, I slipped on a, the wet pavement. I was, I was trying to move outta the way for this older woman who was on the sidewalk.

Rita Black: So I was going into the street, I went on a driveway, and I literally, my feet slipped out from under me. I, I literally, it was like a slow motion movie. I saw the pavement coming. I was like, oh, holy crap, this is gonna be bad. And sure enough, I, you know, fell flat on my face and my shoulder was broken. And it took three months of physical therapy to get it back. I mean, and it’s mobile now. I mean, I worked very, very hard to get mobility back really quickly. I was able to continue to hike. So I was grateful to be able to continue to move. But you know, you don’t, when when you have, when you have your body and you have it working for you, it’s such a blessing. You don’t even, you know, you take it, we take our bodies for granted.

Rita Black: So give your body love, move it stretch it so that you have that mobility so that it’s serving you throughout your life. And, you know, being, you are being best friends with your body. And so, I, you know, I’m so grateful for my body and all. It’s, I, I was in a, this was the year of accidents. I was also in a biking accident this year. And again, you’re like, Rita, well, why would I wanna exercise? It sounds like you, but no, it was a, it was a silly accident. It shouldn’t have happened, but, you know, I was fine. It worked out. But protect yourself. You know, where I, like, if you’re going to go out biking, wear a helmet, you know, I’m, I’m very careful with those things. So I, I, even though I fell and I broke my shoulder, that was not good.

Rita Black: But when I, my fell, when I, I was protected, so it wasn’t that bad. I just, you know, had some bruising and stuff like that. So, but take care of your body, and your body is your best friend. Get a buddy support you know, walk. I just interviewed somebody Mickey Marino, and she was, she started this walking and talking where she didn’t want, she wasn’t near her friends, like she was, no, she wasn’t close to her friends during Covid. But they would go out and separately walk and they would have a a, you know, she had like a, oh my gosh, she had her phone and they would just be on the phone with her headset and they would be talking while they were walking as if they were walking together, which I thought was such a great idea.

Rita Black: So don’t say, well, I don’t have anybody who will walk with me. Maybe you just have somebody who will talk with you while you walk or will walk and talk with you. Or get an exercise buddy. I know I’ve had such great exercise partners and, you know, it really builds our relationship to meet every week. And we, and you know, you kind of get into this deep state when you’re walking with somebody or hiking with somebody where you talk about everything under the sun. It’s such a great thing. It’s kind of like therapy. So get an exercise, buddy. It’s, it really, it, it changes your life. You know, you can check out Facebook groups for people in, you know, groups in your area. Be safe with that. But I, I know that there are areas here in California where there are walking groups and hiking groups and, and stuff like that.

Rita Black: Not so much during Covid, but now that we’re coming out of Covid, I think we’ll see a lot more of that again too. Break it up, like I said, 10 minutes, 10 minutes, 10 minutes. If you wanna do stuff, like put your weights by your tea kettle, that’s what I do. I, I lift weights while I’m waiting for my water to boil, you know, just to get it in, in little bits. It doesn’t have to be these big, huge workouts. So also you can do some exercise while you watch TV at night. You can do your stretching at that time. That’s what I do. You can, you can lift weights thin or I, I like to do my standing up exercises and, and my like sit ups and stuff like that while I’m watching tv, because I mean, I’m not eating .

Rita Black: I thought you’re, you’re not eating when you’re exercise. Well, nah, it’s not true. Some people can do both, but you know what I’m saying? And I’m being funny. So our dance, you know, turn on music and just dance around your kitchen. I’ve done that many times too. You know, I’ll get up in the middle of a work day and, you know, yell out a Bruce Springsteen song or a classic rock song and dance around. And for five to 10 minutes get my heart rate up, and then I’ll get back to work. And even just doing enough of those a day, that’s, that’s a workout. So you can start just moving your body. All right?

Rita Black: That’s it. And for those of you who do want that deep dive desire to exercise, check out the link in the show notes to my exercise. Download three pack. Enter in that coupon code in the shift store called Exercise, and it will take $5 off and get moving. Have an amazing week, and remember that the key and probably the only key to unlocking the door of the weight struggle is inside you. So keep listening and find it. I’ll see you next week.

Rita Black: Do you wanna dive deeper into the mindset of long-term weight release? Head on over to www.shiftweightmastery.com. That’s www.shiftweightmastery.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.