Rita Black: So often, especially as women, we put everybody else’s needs ahead of our own until one day we hit a crossroads. That’s exactly what happened to my guest today, Penny Duke. She reached a powerful moment of truth of fork in the road where she decided it was time to finally put herself first. And that one decision sparked an unstoppable chain reaction of transformation. In 2024, Penny released nearly 40 pounds, but even more importantly, she rewrote her entire relationship with her habits and her mindset. And now in 2025, she’s not only just maintaining her weight, she’s thriving. Join me for this incredible conversation as Penny takes us through her hero’s journey of weight mastery, the struggles, the breakthroughs, and the powerful lessons she’s learned along the way. And if you’ve ever felt stuck putting yourself last, this episode is the motivation you need. Let’s dive 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. Sound good? Let’s get started.

Rita Black: Welcome, and come on in. Hello, hello. Hello. Newcomers and friends of old. It’s great to have you all here, here in the beginning of March. I am so excited to be here on you. We just finished up the Spring Masterclass promo last week, but I wanted to let you know, because a lot of people were asking, that there are still classes running if you wanna get in. So I’ve put the link in the show notes or you can go to www,shiftweightmastery,com/free to get in and get yourself in a class. The masterclass is great. We do hypnosis. We get into, you know, breaking through those really subconscious weight barriers that are probably keeping you struggling at this point. If you are struggling. Hopefully you aren’t. Hopefully you are on your road to success, but if so, please come and join me. I, it’s, I love teaching this. It’s a great topic and a great way to get energized, motivated, and moving forward. Now, I can’t wait to introduce Penny, who was a coach at our last shift Weight Mastery process Pennywise and Pound foolish, while our Penny wisely released 40 pounds. And there is nothing foolish about that, and I cannot wait for you to hear about her journey to be inspired and maybe gain some insights along the way. So let’s dive right in.

Rita Black: Well, I’m sitting here talking with Ms. Penny Duke, and and I said, Penny, I better turn on record ’cause we already started talking too much.

Penny Duke: Too much to talk about.

Rita Black: We do. We always have a lot to talk about. So, Penny how, how long have I known you? I don’t even know. My mind is is such a sve these days. I’ve, I’ve known you well over a year.

Penny Duke: Yes. And I, yeah, I did the shift a year ago last October of 23.

Rita Black: Okay. Beautiful. Okay. Okay. And Penny has been now maintaining her ideal weight for a few months since July. And we are in the you know, the November the, and, and I don’t know when we’re gonna be playing this, you know, just saying this out to you, the public our thin thinking community. But, so that’s been a number of months. So we were gonna talk, I wanted to talk to Penny a little bit about her journey of releasing 35 to 40 pounds, and then also dive into maintenance with Penny, because Penny has, everybody has their own way. They maintain in their own take on it, just depending on where they’re coming from. So, I, I think Penny before we turned on record, we were talking about making yourself a priority. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna come back to that. But Penny, just tell us a little bit about you, where you live, you know, what you’re up to in life. Give us a little about Penny.

Penny Duke: Sure. I live in Minnesota. I work in a school and I’ve been doing that for a number of years. My kids are growing and out of the house, so this is really my time for me. As I mentioned before, I have well, I was, I was born at almost nine pounds. I came out large and always stayed large, always overweight. When I was 16, I went on my first diet. I’d been through a lot of programs way too numerous to even count up. But last fall when school started, again, I just, I was just tired of how I was and, and I wanted to make a change. I was ready for a change. I had done Weight Watchers a couple of times. I had success with it, but always gained the weight back. I had heard about your program and thought hypnosis, huh? Well, I’ve never tried that. I will tell you right now, I don’t feel like I have ever been hypnotized, but apparently something has worked because the 40 pounds have been released an hour not coming back. So it it, it was a process, but it, it has been a, a very good process for me. And the fact that I actually weigh less than what my driver’s license says, that is a huge mark of success for me.

Rita Black: I love that. I’d love you to talk about like, never feeling hypnotized and what you thought hypnosis would be and what your experience of it is. ’cause You know, I know, I know a lot of people think that, they’re like, well, I don’t, I don’t feel like I’m hypnotized.

Penny Duke: I think I had said in one of our meetings when I was helping with the coaching that I always thought if you got hypnotized, you walked around like a zombie and you cooked like a chicken. And I wasn’t doing either one of those things. So I, I have been very consistent with the meditations and the hypnosis and the coaching when I was involved in the 30 day shift. And I have continued to do the meditations and the hypnosis. And it’s just a part of my day. And I know as I got to the end of my 30 day shift, before I heard of the Monthly Mastery Group, I was concerned like, dear God, I I can’t not listen to Rita first thing in the morning and last thing at night. What am I gonna do? Oh, okay. Well, monthly Mastery Group now that took care of that. So, but no, I, I don’t, I don’t feel like you have taken over my body or anything. It’s, it’s just, it’s just all very calm and normal. And I’m just Penny, like, I’ve always been Penny. I just, I’m just not toting around the extra 40 pounds.

Rita Black: Well, I think a lot of why that is is due to the fact, and, and yes, hypnosis meditation certainly helps, but that you made a decision to you know, like you were saying, make yourself a priority in your life. Can you talk to us about that? And then, and then I would like to ask you more about your experience of the program and maintenance, but that was something that when you said that, it really struck a chord with me. ’cause I hear it so often, so many people fear putting themselves as a priority. And I think, and correct me if I’m wrong, Penny, did you have to go through something in order to do that mean, like, giving up this idea that you were like somehow sloughing off? Because as women, we are so trained to be vigilant about others and everything outside of us needs to be perfect first before we even think of tuning into our care and our own needs.

Penny Duke: True, true. And I, I took my mom job very, very seriously. And have, have a wonderful relationship with my kids. And they had always been a priority. They have been out of the house for 10 plus years. I guess I was just a slow learner moving on with my life. But as I said last fall, I, I did not want to come to my end days and still be carrying around this 40 pound bag of salt pellets. I just, I just had enough and I was, I was frustrated enough with it and I thought, you know, really Penny, it’s time that you do something for you and give it your best shot before it’s too late. So that’s, that’s what I decided to do when I heard about you last fall.

Rita Black: That is very cool.

Penny Duke: And it’s worked out very well for me.

Rita Black: Did you have to struggle though with, I mean, I know you didn’t have your children, so you didn’t have them to worry about or tend to, but did you have to struggle with any idea putting yourself first once you made that decision? Or once you made that decision, it was pretty easy.

Penny Duke: Well, you know, everybody only has 24 hours in a day, and you just have to decide what your priority is gonna be. And I had decided when I signed up for the shift, okay, whatever Rita has laid out for me, however this is supposed to go, the amount of time that I need to dedicate to the program is what I’m going to do. And with my job being part-time, that wasn’t an issue. So the rest of the day, basically, you know, rather than checking Facebook, hanging on the computer, watching tv, oh, here’s a novel idea. Let’s go work on the coaching for the day, or let’s get out and get a good walk-in or do a fitness class. And so I I, I kinda tackled it all at once. I have access to some good fitness classes on Zoom, and I’m like, we’re not just gonna go at this 10%, we’re gonna give it everything I have. So for me, that worked. I had the time to dedicate to it. And I’m very proud of the results and the success that I’ve had with it. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s been life changing.

Rita Black: Yeah. I, I can tell. And I think that’s so cool that you kind of traded in TV and Facebook for fitness classes online. That is so cool. I think a lot of people don’t realize, I mean, I know a lot of people are very tuned into fitness online, but I’ve started doing a weightlifting course online, and it just is so helpful just to be able to turn something on in your own home when you don’t have time to go to the gym, or even if the weather’s bad and you can’t get out and, ’cause I know you’re in Minnesota, so I know that every day isn’t gonna be conducive to getting out there.

Penny Duke: Very, very true. Very true. And it, it’s just the time you save, you don’t have to go drive to the gym and then park and then get in there and then get ready for the class. You know, I just turn the computer on five minutes before the class starts and boom, here I am and let’s go.

Rita Black: Do you do live classes or do you do classes that are prerecorded?

Penny Duke: Both. I, I do have access to some live classes, which is, is really fun. Yeah.

Rita Black: Do you find yourself signing or being more consistent with those because, you know, they happen at a certain place in time rather than being, well, I’ll just put this off later. Does it help?

Penny Duke: I, I will tell you that my weeks, I have my planner and my good classes, the ones I really, really enjoy, those are all written down and they’re already at the beginning of the week on Sunday. So I, I know what’s up for the week and I, I just made that a priority.

Rita Black: That’s very cool. Did your, like your weight release journey you know, I get that you made yourself a priority and you, and you, and that’s great that you were able to dedicate your time and focus to this. Did you hit any plateaus or any, have any challenges along the way? Because I think sometimes people think, oh, well, Penny, it was just a straight line down the scale for her and it was so easy. I wish. But everybody has their challenges. Like, what were some of your challenges?

Penny Duke: You know, it, it, it went along really smoothly until I got to February and then it was like, Hmm, what is wrong with this picture? Because I had been consistently dropping that pound a week that I was trying to, and then it was just like, it stopped. I gained a little bit, just a couple of pounds, but then I had to get out the lab coat and the safety glasses and really look at the scientist and say, Hmm, why is that happening? Okay. So I was getting a little lax on the measuring. And it’s like, Hmm. And I wasn’t working as hard with the exercise part of it. Hmm. So we just had to have a little come to Jesus meeting and say, okay, now let’s go here because we wanna get this, get to that driver’s license.

Rita Black: You know, I love that because so many people those of you who are listening to Penny probably who have not done the shift, we really get into being the inner scientist and looking at things from a rational scientific perspective. And I find that mo a lot of plateaus you know, really give you that opportunity to tune in and to say, you know, ’cause sometimes in a weight release journey you have to tread water for a little bit ’cause you’re so focused. Right. And then we tread water, but the danger is then we’ll hit a plateau and then we’ll start getting into that head space. Like, this isn’t working. I blew, blew it somehow. I, you know, and then we overeat and then, and then we go up a few pounds and then we start panicking. And then we started getting back in that weight struggle cycle and what you did it, you know, and then gain the weight back rather than what you did was, oh, okay, this isn’t happening. There’s probably a really good reason for that. Let me tune in. And then you made those adjustments because usually, like, where you were about five months in and, and that’s about the time your body is probably, you know, taking a little break, needing to regroup. And also probably around the time you had released enough weight that you probably needed to kind of sharpen the tools a little bit in order to release the rest. That’s my thought. I don’t know, is that true?

Penny Duke: I, I would say that’s a hundred percent what it was. Yeah. You know, it, it had, it had been going along so smoothly that I thought, wow, this is, this is really easy. And then when that happened, I thought, no, this is good. Because then after a few weeks I was back on track again. And then as it got to to summer, the last couple pounds were, were really hard to get off. But I, I had plateaued for like four weeks and I thought, oh man, maybe my body doesn’t wanna release anymore. But it did. And then it even went more than that.

Rita Black: Our body just gets into these little points and it needs to kind of readjust. And I do believe those last few pounds do require a little extra oomph to get there. But you did it. Yeah. Well, now how has it been? So, you know, because I, this is a maintenance focus. Tell us about that journey into maintenance. Like, as you approached your ideal weight what were you thinking? Were you afraid? Were you excited? What was going on inside your mind?

Penny Duke: Well, I was very happy to have gotten to that point, but honestly, I was scared because I know from my past efforts with other programs, when I hit the goal weight, then within a couple of weeks everything started to go backwards and I did not want to do that again. So with the encouragement of everything that your program offers, I just felt, Nope, Penny, you’re just gonna keep doing what you’ve been doing. Listen to that meditation in the morning, the hypnosis at night, you track you plan. And the record keeping made me accountable. And I had to laugh last night when I finished with, I use the Lose It app to track all my food intake and stuff. I had 52 perfect weeks of tracking and I thought

Rita Black: Oh my goodness.

Penny Duke: Well, this is really awesome. Now we can’t break that streak. But you know, I, I just, I just think that consistency with continuing to be vigilant and do everything is what has made the maintenance just keep going along. And it’s not that I don’t ever eat junk, read a good Lord, I, I am not a good vegetable and salad eater all the time. But I have, I have the treats, but I budget for it. Yeah. And I, I really appreciate your three bite rule. And I’m here to tell you from somebody who could consume a large hot fudge sundae now three bites of it. I taste it, I enjoy it. I savor the taste. And after that I usually toss it out. ’cause I don’t need any more than that. To be completely stuffed and feeling sick from it.

Rita Black: Yeah. Well, I think also as you tune into your body and learn how to really nourish yourself and stabilize yourself Yeah. You, you feel that unevenness from overeating those kinds of things much, much more quickly. But I, that, that is very cool. I mean, one thing I wanna point out, I wanna point out a couple of things that you said just for our listeners, is I think what Penny’s talking about is the, you know, like, it’s not that the program is magical, but what happens is we really focus on skill building so that when you get to your ideal weight, it’s not about continuing to be good, like we’re on a diet, but you have skills in place. You obviously have skills of environmental skills. We have environmental skills, which are skills that allow us to interact with our environment powerfully. And some of those are some of the things Penny mentioned, like tracking and just staying clear with reality.

Rita Black: But you have also these internal skills, which is you obviously have become a very powerful problem solver. And, you know we use that idea of your inner coach and keeping that inner critic and rubble at bay. So for you you know, you mentioned you sit down and plan on Sunday. Is that something, you know now that you’re in maintenance, is that easier for you? About the same? Like, are you, is your inner coach sitting down with you? And since you aren’t, the goal isn’t to release weight, but it’s to maintain, how has that changed that whole, like, like planning ahead and thinking about it?

Penny Duke: It, it gets a lot easier the the more that you do it. And yes, now that I’m not in the law or weight release phase, but just maintaining, I just continue to do the same thing. I plan out my, my exercise for the week and kind of lightly do the menu and the grocery list to go along with that. And it, it just, it keeps me focused enough that I can keep calm about it. I, I used to be very food focused. There could be any scrap of any kind of food sitting on the counter. And all I could do is think about what it was. I didn’t realize I had a problem until my son was home once a year or so ago, and I just, he’s naturally thin. And I said, so you see that bagel over there on the counter? And he’s like, yeah. I go, does that bother you? He goes, no, why would I even think about it? And I went, I think I have a problem here, if I’m thinking about that all the time. And he’s not. So just, you know, and now that stuff sits on the counter, it doesn’t bother me at all.

Rita Black: Very cool. I love that. What, what else about maintenance? Did, did it take you a little while? ’cause A lot of our other maintainers, it takes a little while to kind of figure out the thermodynamics of maintenance, meaning, you know, how much exercise you’re doing. You had to kind of elevate the amount you were eating to, you know, obviously not continue to release. How did that go for you and and did you learn anything in that process?

Penny Duke: Yeah, I, I thought that part of it was gonna be a struggle and it surprised me after a couple of weeks. I just kind of slid right into it. I am not as accurate as what I had been with my measurements, but icontinue to track stuff two days ago I had a rough day and I was 507 78 calories over for my daily total. And I was like, whoa. But you know, some, some days are just rough days and, and that’s okay. I just got up the next morning, had a big glass of water and a very protein intense breakfast and everything calmed down and I was, felt like I was okay. I’m okay again now.

Rita Black: Back on track. Yeah

Penny Duke: Right, right.

Rita Black: So yeah. Have you exercised that back on track muscle a lot? Like getting back on track?

Penny Duke: Sometimes that’s, that’s what you have to do, but great. Grateful that that is there.

Rita Black: Yeah. I mean, I think that’s something else too for our listeners is that I think they listen to people who have released weight like you Penny and maintain and think, oh, well they’ve got it all figured out rather than, you know, you self rough days like you just said, you, you, there are days that you go over and it’s really being able to stay in that gray area that we call it not black and white, good or bad, but just like, wow, that day was a day, wasn’t it? And you know, what do I do? What are the steps so that I can immediately pull myself back into my mode rather than it them becoming an issue. Penny, I wonder, you know, you work at a school and you’re around probably lots of food, I would imagine with all the, what, what are the grades that you, of the school that you work at?

Penny Duke: Right. So kindergarten through sixth grade.

Rita Black: Oh my goodness, the worst as far as like-

Penny Duke: Birthday treats every other day. Yeah. A teacher’s lounge full of, let’s see, who can outdo each other with what we’re gonna bake and bring in to share.

Rita Black: Oh wow. And so how’s, how have you managed that? ’cause I imagine there are other people who work in offices or fellow teachers, educators who are, you know around the same sort of stuff. How, what, what, how did you make up your mind around what you’re gonna bring into your body and what you’re gonna leave behind?

Penny Duke: Well, the first thing I decided was when the children come around with birthday treats, I wish ’em happy birthday and always say, no thank you. Because it’s not really anything I would wanna put in my body. Now there are a couple of the teachers who are excellent bakers and I will take certain things that they make because I know they’re really good. But I exercise the three bite rule with os I just cut myself a really small piece of it and I enjoy it. And yep. It still tastes as good as it always has, but I just limit myself to it because, you know, I, I have all these clothes now that are three sizes smaller than what they were a year ago, and I like ’em and I just want to continue to be able to wear ’em.

Rita Black: Yeah. And and like you said, you know, you’ve eaten them before, you know what Yep. Still tastes like that. Yep. Still awesome. And yeah, you know, three bites is really the amount that we need before we kind of started become desensitized to the taste anyway.

Penny Duke: And, and, you know, I, I have no shame if somebody makes something new and I try a bite if it’s not good, sorry, I just get a napkin and spit it out and throw it away. It’s not worth just eating something that I don’t really, really like.

Rita Black: Yeah. Yeah. A plus foods, right? You got it. Only a plus Foods. Is there, this has been really, really helpful. Is there anything else or any, Penny, what would you say, like first steps that you would advise someone to take? Like if they’re struggling right now listening to you and maybe not making themselves a priority, like what would be the step number one that you would have them take?

Penny Duke: If, if you are not going to do it now, when are you going to do it? Because we all matter and are important. And like I said, it took me a while to get to this point, but I am so thrilled with how it has gone. My only regret is that I didn’t do this 10 years ago. And, you know, one of a favorite meditation of yours continued to repeat thin, healthy, competent, and masterful. And for somebody like me in their sixties, the confidence that I have now to know that I have taken on this weight thing and I have beaten it, I, I feel so good about myself that I know I can continue to do this for the rest of my days. And the masterful part of it, you know, a lot of people as they get into their sixties and seventies, they start to slow down. People think you’re not as capable as what you’ve used to be. And I’ve accomplished something that I never, ever thought was going to happen. And now I’m ready to go forth and, and not rest on my laurels and let me see what’s out there. What else can I take on and, and do and accomplish. And I just feel really fired up and, and ready to go.

Rita Black: I love that Penny. I wanna, I wanna end on that note because I, I a hundred percent agree with you. I feel like the sixties, seventies are, if when you’re healthy and, and you feel confident and connected to yourself, they’re the best time because you’re wise. You, you aren’t worried about what other people think about you. It’s such a great time to make a difference in the world. So I’m so glad that you’ve, you’ve brought so much to being a coach and being the, the shift program too. You’ve given back so much. So I really am grateful for you and thank you for coming on today and smoothing out that idea of maintenance. For some people who might not have thought, you know, they could do it, I think you made it really seem that they can.

Penny Duke: Yes, yes, they can. One, one funny little thing to end on. When I had my physical this summer, the, the doctor was just amazed at all my numbers and how things were, and she said, what, what made you do all this? I said, well, I have a goal. I said, I wanna be 95 and walking the streets of Vegas with my son and enjoying our time out there. And she was like, okay. So, you know, you just, you need a goal and go after it.

Rita Black: I love it. I love it. ’cause Penny, before we turned on record, Penny was saying she’s meeting her son out in Vegas soon and going to go do the thing she loves. So I love that you’re going to do it and you’re gonna keep doing it for a long, long time. Well, Penny, it has been a joy. Oh, go ahead.

Penny Duke: Oh, no, I was just gonna say keep shifting and anything’s possible.

Rita Black: Oh, you’re amazing. Thank you so much, Penny.

Penny Duke: Thank you, Rita. I enjoyed being with you today.

Rita Black: Oh, Penny. Isn’t she amazing? Thank you Penny. And thank you all for being here today and supporting the Thin Thinking podcast. I just love our community. And if you haven’t joined me for that free masterclass, do www.shiftweightmastery.com/free. The links are in the show notes. And go and 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. We will be 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.shiftweight 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 and to learn how to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode.