Rita Black: Achoo! Have you ever noticed how getting sick can cause challenges with our weight management? When we’re feeling under the weather, it can be so tempting to abandon our usual healthy habits. Maybe it’s the fatigue, making it harder to plan balanced meals or the cravings for comfort foods that feel soothing in the moment, but don’t align with our long-term goals. Or perhaps it’s the disruption of our routines, less movement, more rest, and the emotional strain of being unwell. In this week’s Thin Thinking episode, we dive into diagnosing the common weight management struggles that arise when illness hits. We’ll explore why our mindset shifts during these times of sickness, how our relationship with food and self-care can be impacted, and the role of emotional eating when we’re feeling vulnerable. But don’t worry, this episode isn’t just about pointing out the problems. We’re also serving up some valuable prescriptions. You’re gonna learn powerful, thin thinking tools and strategies for practicing self-care when you are sick. From the simple mindset shifts to gentle ways to stay connected with your health goals, we’ll provide practical solutions that honor both your healing process and your long-term wellness. So grab that bedside manner and come on in. Whether you’re feeling great or currently under the weather, this episode is packed with wisdom to keep you on track with your healthy journey.

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. Sound good? Let’s get started.

Rita Black: Hello! Hello. Hello. And come in on out of the cold or the hot, but just come on in. Happy February to those of you tuning in when this is dropping, it’s February and it’s cold for most of us. Some of you might be warm, those of you in Australia, to our neighbors down under or South America or in parts of Asia or Africa. Just come on in, whether it’s hot or cold.

Rita Black: I am usually super healthy and never get sick, but in November and December, I came down with the doozy of a cold. Not just once, mind you, but twice. And I think I, many of you probably know the one, I mean, because it went around everywhere, it went around the world. I have, I have members of my team in Greece, in the Philippines, in Cyprus, in on the east coast of the United States. And I’m on the West Coast. And a lot of my team members had this cold. And so I’m thinking, maybe you might know the one I’m talking about. It stuck around for two weeks. You couldn’t make it go faster. And I even lost my voice. I hope you didn’t get it, but you probably know somebody that did. The worst part was that, you know, just as I was recovering and I had a few days of wellness, I got sick again. And then there was a stomach bug that was going around too, that was like really violent stomach bug like a 24 hour one that again, many of my students some of my team caught it.

Rita Black: And it’s just been the winter of these sicknesses going around. And, you know, some of my students were, were saying, gosh, you know, how do I manage my weight when I’m not feeling so good? So I am bringing back an oldie but goodie episode. I make it about three years ago, about managing your weight while you’re sick and whether you are currently unwell or and I hope you aren’t, but if you are currently unwell or if you know, you know, it’s the winter time and you might get sick or know someone who is, who’s trying to be healthy. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But as we say in the shift, an ounce of being prepared is worth not gaining a couple of pounds, or something like that. And speaking of prevention, this episode is sponsored by my free Shift Out of Sugar Cravings Hypnosis session. The link is in the show notes, so go grab it. Get it before the Valentine’s Day sugar rush happens. It’s in the show notes, so enjoy. So let’s dive into this.

Rita Black: You know, when I lived in England, you never said sick, right? British people used the word ill not sick or unwell. Unwell. are you unwell? Are you ill? They never said, they laughed at me when I said sick. They would also say, hospital, you, you go to hospital, you don’t go to the hospital. Oh, he’s in hospital. They would say, right? I never quite understood why they removed the, but whatever. It sounds good. You know, the British are very precise. He’s in hospital, right? Who needs that extra word? They would also say medicine. Medicine, not medicine, but medicine. Oh, that’s the medicine you would have.

Rita Black: Oh, give him some medicine, give her some medicine. I just thought I would throw that in there just in case you are ever in England and feeling unwell, don’t say you’re sick. They’ll laugh at you and you’ll never hear the end of it. Oh, and getting better is on the mend. You’re on the mend, not getting better. Oh, you are on the mend. Are you delightful? Okay, so it may seem like getting sick is great for our weight, right? We often lose our appetite and we also lose weight upfront because we get dehydrated and we get on the scale. And the scale oftentimes is down and yippie. But often that weight comes right back and even more because here are some of the challenges that getting sick or being unwell poses to our weight release. One, it interrupts the flow of the structure that we had created, you know, our healthy lifestyle structure.

Rita Black: It takes us out of our exercise routine, and it can be hard to get back in. It gives us the false illusion. We are releasing weight, and then when we gain some back, we give up, we get upset, oh my gosh, I’ve gained the weight back. And we give up, we undereat while we’re sick, and then begin eating more carby and refined food on an empty stomach, which spikes our blood sugar, can make us feel hungrier. And then we start thinking about those carbs again. And it becomes harder and harder to go back to our healthy eating habits. Because let’s face it, when you’re sick, a salad just doesn’t feel like fun. We also start comfort eating our stress and feeling sorry for ourselves. And lastly, we find it hard to get back into the healthy habits that were there before.

Rita Black: As we’re, you know, once we’re, well we find it hard to get back into that structure that we had before. Okay, so then thinking around being sick, here are the mind tools. When you become unwell or sick, you wanna start with identity. Remember, all behavioral change really starts with identity. And often, you know, when we’re in weight release mode, we’ll just be like, well, I’m losing weight, and then we’ll get sick. And when we’re like, well, I’m sick, so I’m gonna stop trying to release weight and just be sick, which is all fine and good, but what that does is it kind of puts you back in just into business as usual mode. And so whatever your brain is used to doing when you were sick in the past, it’s just going to wanna do that again, especially since you’re sick and your brain doesn’t wanna work that hard.

Rita Black: So your subconscious mind is just gonna kick into business as usual gear. And so if it’s, you know, loading up on a bunch of saltines and you, you know, drinking lots of sugary seven up or something, that’s probably gonna be what you’re gonna be drawn to. So right now, even before you’re unwell or sick, and hope, God forbid, I hope you stay well, you know, for the next hundred years. But if you are unwell I want you to know now that you are a weight master being unwell rather than somebody who is an, you know, who is an apprentice of weight mastery or a, a weight master on your mastery journey of weight release. And so you, even when you’re ill, okay the diet isn’t over and you know, and you can pick up when you’re better.

Rita Black: You’re always a weight master. What this does is it opens up your mind to see you differently and to problem solve rather than to devolve into victimhood, I am sick. And, you know, just falling back into our old patterns. So let’s just tackle each of those challenges that I brought up one by one, shall we? So the first challenge I said is it interrupts the flow of the structure that we had created that healthy eating and exercise structure. Okay, so let’s tackle each of the challenges that I brought up. Shall we, one by one, I’ll just go through them. So the first challenge is being unwell interrupts the flow of the structure we had created. So, building upon what I just said about us being a weight master that we aren’t, it isn’t business as usual, but we’re now seeing ourselves from a different perspective.

Rita Black: We’re now coming at this internally. We’re taking a hundred percent responsibility for ourselves, which then removes that victim mindset, right? That we’re a hundred percent responsible. You’re internally driven to the extent that, you know, being sick is now plan B. Meaning that yes, you aren’t gonna be probably eating the same that you were when you were well, but that you’re gonna be mindful about it. You’re gonna make still healthy choices for your being sick. And what that does is it still, it continues the structure, right? We want to keep a continuum of how we see ourselves so that there isn’t a disconnect. Does this make sense? I hope it does. So we wanna continue the continuum of being healthy, seeing ourselves in that more powerful 100% responsible place. You’re gonna now learn, you’re gonna be a weight learner and learn how to be unwell as a healthy person.

Rita Black: And this actually eating healthfully helps you mend a bit faster because a lot of those foods that we eat when we’re sick creates inflammation in our body, which slows down the healing process, especially the carby sugary foods. So the second interrupter is it takes us out of our exercise routine, and it can be hard to get back on. So the mind is a weird thing. As we are establishing, I’ve been establishing for the last couple of years since the beginning of this thin thinking podcast. You know, I can’t exercise because I’m sick. That may or may not be true, but here is my thin thinking advice. Like, if you have a mild cold, you can probably continue to do some sort of workout. Yes, if you have a fever, yes, if you are really, you know, put into bed and meant to rest, you cannot do your normal exercise routine, of course, but you can tell your brain that you are on your sickness exercise routine, and still move your body every day.

Rita Black: This may be as minimal as wiggling your toes for five minutes or moving your fingers. But we’re gonna call that physical activity because again, it allows your brain to have continuity. And as you are on the mend, then you can slowly build up to what you did before. Because often what happens is we just stop everything and then we try to get back, and there’s usually some sort of resistance to that. But if, if we are keeping ourselves in exercise mode, you know, and what I would, depending on how sick you are, of course, but if you’re in a coma, obviously this doesn’t apply. But, you know, even I’ve had clients in Covid and I say, just wiggle your toes in bed, you know, if you are bedridden. And, you know, they continued their exercise routine, and then as they got better, they walked around the block once called that exercise as they got better, they would you know, just get on the treadmill for five minutes a day.

Rita Black: But what that did was continue that continuity of I exercise every day, or I exercise consistently in their mind. So if you’re somebody who works out five days a week or walks four days a week, you still work out on those days, quote unquote, even though it might just be wiggling your toes in bed. I hope that makes sense too, as well. But it just keeps your brain in the world that, you know, in the mindset that you are still exercising. And then you don’t have to do all that heavy lifting of getting back into exercise, which frankly, for a lot of people, it’s kind of a deal breaker. They just give up. And then often after they’re ill, they’ll, they’ll have a really hard time getting back into the swing of things. So the next one, the next interrupter is it gives us the false illusion.

Rita Black: We’re releasing weight, and then we gain some back and we get, get upset, and we give up. So when we become sick again, we get dehydrated. You know, we are a large percentage of our body, 60, 70%, 75% of our body is water, right? So when we’re ill, our body is using water. We’re, we’re sweating out water. We’re, if you have a fever, we’re often sweating. We’re not drinking enough fluids often, and even if we are, maybe we’re not retaining them. So you’re gonna see a major fluctuation in water weight. And also the fact that you may not be eating, maybe you’re throwing up or maybe you are just too sick to, if you don’t feel like eating food and you don’t eat for a few days, and the scale may go down significantly, five, 10 pounds sometimes. And we get on the scale, and of course, as somebody who is a scale watcher, we’re like, yippee, that’s amazing.

Rita Black: I’ve lost all this weight even though, you know, we’re sick. So there’s that part of our mind that wants to believe that. And yet the reality of it is once you are well, that, that weight will come back because it’s water weight. It’s really not fat loss for the most part. There’s 3,500 calories in a pound of fat and, you know, so in order for you to release that pound, so maybe you have released a pound or two pounds over the course of being ill that could be true, but the, you wanna kind of really think of it from that perspective. It so that you can calm yourself down on the scale. One, to set realistic expectations. Because what happens is you gain the weight back then you feel bad about yourself, and there is nothing for you to feel bad about. You have been unwell, and you know, poor thing and, and you’re depleted and your mind’s not in the right place.

Rita Black: And then you see that scale go up and it makes you feel even worse about yourself. But if you can look at the scale or just not, you know, don’t get on the scale when you’re sick or get on the scale, just get the number and go, okay, that, that number is not real. I, whatever I weighed before, I’ll probably go back to you need to, you know, again, long-term permanent weight mastery is all about how you communicate with yourself in a realistic fashion. And so really being clear with yourself about, you know, you, you might be aware that, oh, well, I probably have under eaten and I have released maybe one or two actual physical pounds, but the rest of that is water. You can then when it, the weight comes back, the water weight comes back, you’re not so disappointed. You are clear.

Rita Black: Being able to have that conversation with yourself on the scale is very empowering because it, it stops making you a victim of, you know, haphazard get on the scale. It’s down, it’s up, and we don’t know why. So having a rational conversation with yourself on the scale, if you are weighing yourself, you know, while you’re ill, maybe just take a break from the scale because whatever those numbers are are not gonna be wholly accurate or weigh yourself once or twice a week rather than every day with that expectation that most of that weight probably will come back. And that’s okay. You can continue your weight release, but you know, it’s water weight. It’s just water weight. Anyway, so I hope that makes sense as well. So another challenge is we undereat and then begin eating more carby and refined foods, which then spikes our blood sugar, makes us feel hungrier, and then we start thinking about those carby foods again, it becomes harder to go back to our healthy habits when we’re feeling better.

Rita Black: You know, if you’re eating the chicken and broccoli and you know when you’re well, and then you become unwell, you become sick and you start eating the crackers and the toast it’s going to start to tickle what I like to call your carb zombie. The carb zombie is the pleasure center in your brain that gets triggered from an overabundance of carbs. And what happens when that happens when your carb zombie gets woken up is like, if you’ve been eating healthy and you might not be thinking too much about food, and you’ve stabilized your hunger and your blood sugar, and then all of a sudden you’re eating more carby food, that part of the brain gets engaged and you start thinking about food more, you start feeling hungrier. Now, this isn’t your fault, but when you’re overeating carbs, this is what happens, right?

Rita Black: So the problem is though, that when we think about then eating the chicken and the broccoli when we’re, well, again, our brain doesn’t wanna do it because once the carb zombie is awake, it doesn’t want to eat chicken and broccoli. It wants to continue to eating toast and crackers. So in order to avoid this here are some things that you want to do. You want to not reach for really refined foods when you are ill. Like, I know you want to eat maybe something a little more comforting, which is fine, but bear this in mind. First of all, drink water and stay hydrated because that could also mess with your hunger levels. Stay away from the super refined white carbs, right? The, the white flour, so the saltine crackers, the white toast, the white rice, the white things that may stimulate you, especially naked carbs, meaning eating them on an empty stomach without any protein.

Rita Black: Opt for proteins, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates. If you need something comforting, make yourself a smoothie or some vegetable chicken soup or vegetable tofu soup cooked vegetables, cooked fruit. Slice up an apple and put it in the microwave for two minutes. It makes a lovely, put a little cinnamon on it. It makes it a lovely comforting dish. You could add it on some, a little bit of oatmeal, wholesome oatmeal, not the really refined oatmeal that comes in the envelopes that has sugar in it, but the apple sweetens, the oatmeal brown rice eggs, yogurt. These are all stabilizing foods that can help you be soothing, but also not stimulate your carb zombie. Eating smaller portions more often probably is gonna be more helpful than eating big meals, because your body probably isn’t going to be able to digest as well since you are sick.

Rita Black: So bearing these in mind, I think can help you a lot, not get off track. So another challenge is we start comfort eating our stress and feeling sorry for ourselves. So instead of feeling sorry for yourself I am sick and I need to eat to feel better think of yourself as a powerful nurturing healer and start giving yourself some healing love ways other than food you can give yourself love and nurturing, even if no one else is there. You can say to yourself, I’m sorry you’re sick. Be your own loving, nurturing mama, right? Oh, I’m so sorry. You’re sick, baby. I feel bad. That’s, it’s too bad that we’re not. Well, like, give yourself a little lovens, but you don’t wanna be the victim and you don’t wanna have to feel like you have to feel the feel that victimhood with food.

Rita Black: You know, oh, you’re not well, I’m gonna take care of you. Give yourself hot baths. Or you can do this really great meditation where you just envision your white blood cells multiplying and eating up all the bad disease cells. You can give yourself a mantra, I am on the path of healing. My body is a healing miracle. Say it again. I am on the path of healing. My body is a healing miracle. Or you can come up with your own. Give yourself massages with lotion or have a loved one give you a nice massage with lotion. Make yourself a cup of hot tea. Get a hot pad out and sit on it or put it where it hurts. Read a great book or trashy magazines. I love, you know, US Magazine, people magazine. When I’m sick, I can just sit there and consume a whole bunch of them, or listen to an audible while you’re laying in bed, or go sit in the sun and listen to a book or go, just sit in the sun.

Rita Black: The sun is so healing. Or watch or listen to a comedy show. And then the last one, you can create a gratitude list that might be a little hard if you’re sick, but you can at least create a gratitude list in your mind when you start to feel better. Think of slowly coming back. It’s not all or nothing. You know, if you’ve stayed away from the refined carbs, you should find it easy to get back into the healthier choices. And if you’ve moved your body, you can ease back into exercise. Seeing your sickness not as separate from your weight journey, but a part of your weight journey gives you the power back.

Rita Black: Well, I hope this advice served you and I hope you actually never need to use it, but it’s always good to be prepared and stay well my friend. And if you haven’t signed up for my free shift outta Sugar Craving hypnosis session, what are you waiting for? It’s free. Just go to the show notes. Click on to your podcast platform, scroll down. You’ll see the link there, Valentine’s Day coming up. So be prepared. The link is in the show notes, or you can also find it on my website, www.shiftweightmastery.com. Well have a great week, will you? 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 here next week.

Rita Black: Thanks for listening to The Thin Thinking Podcast. Did that episode go by way too fast for you? If so, and 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, and to learn how to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode.