[00:00:00] Rita Black: How old were you when you discovered you had a challenge with weight? I know some of you, maybe it was when you were quite young. Maybe some of you it was later in life. My guest today, Roberta Walker, for her, it was when she was pretty young, when she was around 10. And I’m always fascinated by when we discover, like how we discover that we’re overweight.

[00:00:31] So Roberta, who is a semi-retired landscape gardener and just a joy to talk to and talk gardening with began struggling with her weight at 10. After a painful childhood moment where she shifted how she saw herself and decades of dieting followed until she discovered that the real key to lasting change was within her, all along through mindset, self-trust, and powerful inner shifts.

[00:01:01] Roberta released 60 pounds, and what is really amazing is she did this during a period of time when she had knee replacement surgery, and for the first time, she has found the joy and freedom of maintaining her weight. Her story is really relatable, very inspiring. You’re gonna love Roberta and her insights and wisdom on her journey, so please come in and join the conversation.

[00:01:27] I promise you, you are gonna get a lot.

[00:01:38] 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.

[00:02:06] 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.

[00:02:32] 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.

[00:02:53] Sound good? Let’s get started.

[00:02:56] Hello and welcome, and come on in. I hope that you are well and vibrant and thriving. I can’t believe I still have this little sore throat thingy going on, but. Other than that, I’m feeling good and I am enjoying my spring. I hope you are enjoying your spring more and more, and for those of you who live down under in the Southern hemisphere, I hope you are enjoying the fall, and I have to apologize to our listeners down under because I feel like I have been alienating you.

[00:03:36] Yes, I would call the word, I don’t that’s a pretty strong word. But what I mean by that is just like I do talk about the seasons so much because I’m so into my garden and into, just the weather. How can I say? And I realized, and I had a listener mention it to me you’re talking about spring and it’s the fall here, and it doesn’t jive. And I was like, oh, you are absolutely right. And then I talked to my amazing head coach of my membership, the lovely Rocio who lives in Melbourne, Australia. And I said, Rocio, be honest with me. Like when I’m talking about the spring and it’s the fall there, ’cause we were, we had a meeting and.

[00:04:20] And she was saying it was getting a little colder. I was like, does that bug you when I talk about it being warmer? And she was like, no, it doesn’t bother me. But yeah, sometimes I feel like I can’t relate and and but what I’ll do is I’ll listen to your spring stuff. In my fall. Fall stuff I ring is okay, alright.

[00:04:40] Interesting. So I just wanted apologize and I’m gonna try to integrate more mindfulness around the seasons. For our listeners on both sides of the globe because hey, we’ve got a large listenership on the Southern hemisphere. And I just wanna say I am sorry and I hope you are enjoying an amazing, beautiful fall.

[00:05:01] One of my favorite seasons, actually spring and fall, best time of year. So hopefully you’re enjoying that. And I really am like literally after recording this, going out into my garden to plant my tomatoes and get, everything ready. I’ve been in migration with that the last couple of weeks, so I promise I will stop talking about that.

[00:05:24] But I do like to talk about gardening ’cause there’s. So many great similarities between that and weight mastery. So I hope I’m not alienating you non gardeners that way. I feel like we’re human beings. We can all relate to nature and dirt and just being grounded because so much of our, just what we talk about is about being centered and being in the moment.

[00:05:50] And I feel like nature is one of those. Best ways to do that. So speaking of gardening, I do have the lovely Roberta Walker as my interview guest today. And before I turned on record, we had a whole gardening discussion. So don’t worry, I don’t have to listen to us talking about that. But I wanted to let you know that we still have some spaces available for my upcoming series of masterclasses that are running live and the series.

[00:06:15] Is free by the way, absolutely free April 24th through April 27th, and we are doing two live master classes a day, so I hope you can find one that works for you. We will be exploring many things, but really the subconscious ways that we self-sabotage and how the brain gets wired and habituated in that, and how to break.

[00:06:39] Out of that because you can, but you have to know how. We’ll also do some hypnosis. I promise you it will be awesome. You go to shift weight mastery.com/live. That’s www shift weight mastery.com/live to register or find the link in the show notes again, if willpower worked. If willpower alone worked, you would be at your goal weight already.

[00:07:05] So it’s time to break free from the subconscious patterns that are sabotaging you, and we will show you how to do that. So www shift white mastery.com/live.

[00:07:17] And now I’d like to introduce you to the lovely Roberta. Welcome to the Thin Thinking Podcast, Roberta. It’s it’s really great to see you, you look beautiful today.

[00:07:30] And even though our listeners can’t see you. Roberta was just showing me her picture of her, which is so cool. She’s in front of a big tractor and this is pre releasing weight, releasing 60 pounds. But behind her is this huge tractor and she was telling me she’s a landscape designer or semi-retired landscape designer, but I just think that’s cool.

[00:07:55] And I’ve been asking her all these questions about gardening and. Such, but it’s, thank you for coming on and sharing your story with us. Oh, it’s an honor, honestly. So tell us a little bit about you. You live in Sacramento and you, but you were born in LA and when did you start struggling with your weight roberta?

[00:08:17] Roberta Walker: I started struggling with my weight around 10 years old. Between 10 and 11, my parents got divorced and the home life, even before that, my father was an alcoholic and everything that goes along with alcoholism and violence, that, that was just part of our household, but it was all I knew. So when the divorce happened, I, that, that whole world was rocked and my mother became a single mother way back when that wasn’t normal. And we were pretty much latchkey live latchkey kids. She was at work and I didn’t really notice that I had, I was bigger than other kids till one day I just remembered this. I was with my friends.

[00:09:00] We were little girls, 10 years old wearing our bathing suits. And one pointed and said. Your tummy is so big and I looked down and that, that was when I left childhood, where you’re only, yeah. Seeing outside and not inside to this awareness that I was different and bigger. So from 10 years old on, I was known as heavy or hefty.

[00:09:27] Excuse me. And, I’ve done I don’t even wanna name all the diets ’cause you know ’em all. I’ve been through so many over the years and spent thousands of dollars on different programs and I have to tell you now that I am five and a half months into maintenance, it’s the first time in my life I’m in maintenance or been able to maintain a weight that I’m happy with.

[00:09:51] That was my goal weight. It’s never happened before, not through all of the different diet programs. I’ve had years of going up and down of fasting of not all the diet things. Vegan, vegetarian, keto, paleo, you name it, the blood type diet. The holly what was it called? The h was it the Hollywood diet where you just eat fruit?

[00:10:13] Rita Black: Oh, yeah. Like the pineapple thing.

[00:10:15] Roberta Walker: The pineapple thing, yeah. And then the not mixing your, Oh, food. Food combining. Yeah, food combining. Food combining, like

[00:10:23] Rita Black: you wouldn’t have the starch with the meat.

[00:10:25] Roberta Walker: I had their cookbook. I had the whole, every time I invested wholeheartedly into these programs and followed them.

[00:10:33] Yeah. And even did the programs that like that just shifting, saying affirmations and there was John Gabriel and oh, I forgot the other one. She was with Oprah, but Janine Roth. Oh, yeah. Yeah. These programs that really went to the heart, but it didn’t, none of them worked. And I was the year before last heading, heading for a knee replacement, which I needed for many years from an old accident.

[00:11:03] And I knew I needed to lose weight. And here I, here, I tried almost everything. And I that the last thing I did, I spent $600 on this program and. Four pounds and pounds did nothing, was working.

[00:11:15] Rita Black: Oh, wow.

[00:11:16] Roberta Walker: And I saw your online free, what was it, masterclass?

[00:11:21] Rita Black: Yeah, it was a masterclass, like a masterclass.

[00:11:24] Roberta Walker: And I thought I’m gonna listen to this. And for the first time it, I realized that the way you spoke about it, first of all, it came from experience. You’ve been there, and have the background in, having weight and then losing the weight for 27 years. Having it off for 27 years.

[00:11:41] But the psychology, and then I’ve always thought of hypnosis and meditation is that way to circumvent the mind. ’cause so often I felt like a rat on the wheel, I’m gonna get there, I’m gonna get, this diet’s gonna work, that’s gonna work. And so so I did that and then I decided, okay, one last time.

[00:12:00] I am going to. Sign up. So I did your course and and it was remarkable. I felt the shift pretty early on and started tracking. And so I dropped 30 pounds before my knee replacement,

[00:12:17] Rita Black: which was amazing.

[00:12:18] Roberta Walker: It was really big. And then another 30 pounds after my knee replacement. And I have tracked every day, and I have to tell you, at first I thought.

[00:12:29] Oh, not this again, tracking. Watching my calories. But it came to be so many of us with excess weight or some kind of addiction, whether it be cigarettes or alcohol. We have this amazing way of going into denial. So mine was, oh, I eat organic and I’m healthy and I just, it must be my metabolism.

[00:12:51] I don’t know why I’m keeping this on, but the science that you bring forth along with everything else said, oh no, it’s not my thyroid. It’s not this, it’s ’cause I’m eating way too much and I come from a family that’s where security happened was with food. Yeah. And for whatever emotion, food was the answer.

[00:13:17] And finding out that I actually, when I started doing the hypnosis and meditation and then eating within, the realms of the weight I wanted to lose, I was not dying. I was not starving. I was not restricting because this isn’t a diet you choose, but you choose if you really. Want the weight to go, but it’s the first time I’ve never felt restricted because I have a rebel, like everybody that says, all right, I’ve done this for, I don’t know, five months, six months, and nothing’s happening.

[00:13:51] I forget it. Yeah. Why should I do this? And and then there’s just so many aspects of that, your whole program that address these parts of ourselves that you just can’t go into denial. It’s okay, here I’m, and yeah I could do this. And we are powerful in our ability to visualize and recreate through the hypnosis and the those grooves, I think you talk about the cartwheels that are carved into the mud and the sand.

[00:14:21] We can make new tracks and I have

[00:14:25] Rita Black: That’s fantastic. I think the. When you were speaking, I was what I was hearing, and I know the whole tracking thing throws people for a loop, but I think my hope is they see that they’re, like you said, the choice is yours. And it’s really to get that clarity and that ability that you’re in the driver’s seat of this.

[00:14:50] Nobody’s telling you what to do, you’re making choices, and when you really learn how to wait, release weight at a rate you decide. It’s it puts response. It also gives you ownership over something. And I think the whole diet industry takes all that ownership away. It’s like saying, you must do this and you must adhere to this and be good on this and order to, and it externalizes everything rather than, like you said, builds those internal.

[00:15:20] Grooves gives you ownership, puts you in the driver’s seat of what you’re doing so that when you do reach your goal weight you have ownership of knowing how to maintain your weight because you’ve gone through all those, you’ve gone you’ve ingrained it inside of you, right? Not externalized it outside of you.

[00:15:41] Roberta Walker: I have to say, I love tracking. I track every day. I have these little, the same journals, a whole bunch of them. And here’s the other part of tracking. So often if you, because it’s been so many years of dieting if you eat something that you think you shouldn’t have, let’s say you have chocolate or you have this or that, when you actually write down the calories that is and track it.

[00:16:05] It’s part of your life. No. You leave chocolate forever, but when you track, the guilt goes away. And guilt is a thing that generally leads to bingeing.

[00:16:14] Rita Black: Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. I know. And it, listen, when I was going through my own weight release journey and I hit a big plateau and then.

[00:16:26] It was suggested to me that I track and I was like, I don’t need to do that because I hardly, this was even on my journey. I was like, oh I eat chicken and broccoli, I do the right. And then I started tracking and I was like, oh. But on the weekends I eat way more than I do when I think, ’cause my brain would go to Monday when I was being, pulling it in.

[00:16:50] Yeah, not on the weekends when I was being fluffy. And so I, but it was such an eye-opener for me too. And it is I agree with you that I love the power it gives you because no food is off your trigger foods that’s a whole other story, but but it gives you that ability to live in the real world and not, and not feel like you’re an outsider or on a diet or anything that you can just, you gives you the chance to make the choices that you wanna make for yourself.

[00:17:20] Roberta Walker: Yeah. And then it can become a life, a real lifestyle change. They, yes. Talk about these other diets becoming a lifestyle change, but not if you’re restricting and when you track, you’re not restricting, you’re making choices so I love tracking and I stay between up or down one or two pounds, period. And that’s I’ve never gone even above that and it’s, I’m not on the scale every day. Yeah. And there are times the day before yesterday, I’m in Northern California, so wine tasting is really nice thing to do.

[00:17:54] And so I have my day and, and then that doesn’t mean I have to throw everything out. I don’t have to start over again. I, it’s what it is and, all right. Just, I don’t do that every day, but it’s so important to be able to live your life and have the things you love, but again, through the meditation and the hypnosis, and you learn what you can how much you need.

[00:18:18] Rita Black: Yeah. Exactly. We have a couple of questions for you. You mentioned having knee surgery. And that was weight release became a part of that journey, but then that journey of the knee replacement became part of your weight release. They intertwined with each other.

[00:18:34] I’m sure there’s some listeners who probably are due for knee surgery or they’ve had knee surgery. I re, my husband went through knee surgery this year. It’s a huge, a big recovery. It’s a big recovery. How did you manage that? And how, because I’m assuming, were you exercising prior to your surgery?

[00:18:55] No. I, the whole time I started the shift, and I think it was eight months prior, I was not exercising because my right knee was bone on bone and it was I had clients that have terrain and I was having a problem walking up the hills or down the hills or up the stairs. It was just so bad. I. One job, I was going up a driveway and I could hear the clicking with each step.

[00:19:18] Roberta Walker: So I did not exercise at all before my knee surgery. And then but I started the shift program and I live alone and my daughter is she’s married and lives back east. So I have friends that had also been through a knee replacement. And they said they have a big one story house. So they said.

[00:19:42] You’re gonna stay with us for a week. ’cause that’s, before their, her mother passed away that’s where she stayed. When you get out of a knee surgery, you have a walker first, right? You have to walk, as soon as possible, but you’re on a lot of meds. Prior to that, because I had been doing the shift program, I knew what I could eat.

[00:20:00] I had certain foods that I just, I stuck with. So I. I packaged everything up. I made two soups. I had my salad bags and brought it over there. However, when you get out of surgery and you’re coming down from anesthesiology, anesthesi anesthetic, it’s really hard to eat. But I, yeah, so I had that. So after a week I came home and I had.

[00:20:26] I had stocked the house and then I had to rely on DoorDash and other things, to bring me food and transitioned from a walker to a cane and doing physical therapy. You start physical therapy almost immediately afterwards. And I was just. In a place where there, it takes so much to heal from that.

[00:20:44] I, I had no idea. I had some idea, but you don’t, it’s like you don’t know what it’s gonna take when and to have a baby and until you’re actually like in labor. Okay. So it’s, yeah.

[00:20:53] Rita Black: No, I, and when my husband went through it, they, he was I don’t know if they, ill prepare you because I think if they really told you what was gonna happen, you wouldn’t do it or you would be freaked out about it.

[00:21:03] But it’s pregnancy. Same with pregnancy. Exactly. I know I think, I always joke, I said I have my sec my second child because they gave me morphine the first time. I was like, oh, I gotta try that again. But and that was the only reason, but, yeah. So you were ill prepared or not ill prepared, but you were, oh, wow.

[00:21:24] This is way more than I thought it would be.

[00:21:27] Roberta Walker: Yeah. Yeah. And the level of exercise that you can do, walking and your physical therapy is about it. And then I think after three weeks you could go in a pool, the aquatic pool and do some. Exercising there, which if you’re going through a knee replacement, in post knee replacement, that’s.

[00:21:48] The best exercise for you is in a pool. ’cause you know there’s anti-gravity there with the water. So you can, you could get your heart rate going without damaging your knee because the last thing you wanna do, you have these visits to go back to the doctor, which you probably know. And the first question they ask is, did you fall?

[00:22:07] Did you. Did you injure this? Because it’s so delicate for quite a long time. I didn’t start exercising, gosh, until several months later. And even then I could walk, but I couldn’t walk far. And you just have to push yourself. Now I go to a strength class. I’m not doing a step class because God forbid I trip and fall.

[00:22:29] I just never wanna have to go through this again. I had that injury because. Gosh, it must be 35 years ago I did karate. Can you imagine? Just below my black belt. And so I, that’s when I, wow. Wreck my knee. Any kind of sport that you’re gonna do at a high level, eventually you’ll pay for it in one way or another, even if it’s, you get older and, arthritic.

[00:22:52] Rita Black: Yeah, no, my husband was football, so for sure. But I think this is interesting and helpful for people to hear because I think a lot of people think. I can’t move. I am, I’m unable to exercise when I’m beginning this journey. Is that gonna be a hindrance? And I don’t think it needs to be.

[00:23:11] There’s many people who can release weight without that exercise piece. Yeah.

[00:23:16] Roberta Walker: I lost 30 pounds without exercising at all. Yeah. But the thing is, when you’re going from eating how you normally eat. To eating in a way where you wanna drop half a pound, one pound, two pounds a week, it’s, you’re not eating as much and your body that’s like your golden weight loss time.

[00:23:34] That’s when it’s really easy. So when you get so close to goal that you either have to step up the exercise or eat less to get more weight off, because your body’s already small.

[00:23:45] Rita Black: Yeah. That’s your, the Yeah. The thermodynamics of it is, it changes for sure. So that brings me to my next question for you, which is as you approached maintenance, ’cause you’ve been maintaining now five and a half months tell us about that inner journey.

[00:24:01] How was that like as you saw that you were getting to your ideal weight? How did you feel about that? Were you afraid? Were you excited? What were the feelings that were going through you?

[00:24:13] Roberta Walker: It’s interesting. I thought a lot about this. Pre losing weight. I always had these fantasies of how my life would be once I was slim.

[00:24:22] It’s a very different perspective when you’ve been living this new lifestyle for, it took me about a year, let’s say to lose the weight. So it wasn’t an overnight, oh, I’m slim. It’s, you’re going, you’re buying new clothes, you’re getting rid of it, and you’re going down. Going down.

[00:24:41] And then when I got to my goal or the goal weight, it was just such a comfortable eating habit that I just slid into that and my body has stayed at this weight. ’cause I toy with the idea of going, down another five or eight pounds, not ’cause my life will change or my clothes will look any different.

[00:25:00] Just because I’ve had this goal weight for so long that it’s like tattooed in my subconscious. I transition because. I had been eating the same amount of calories to get there. Now if I’m going like lose more weight, and actually I probably eat, I don’t know, maybe a hundred to 200 more calories, which is my maintenance calories, ’cause when you’re maintaining, you’re eating enough to maintain your weight, not lose your weight, but by the time you’re close to maintenance, you’re not eating the same amount of calories that you were to start with. You’ve been using the weight calculator and you’ve been having less.

[00:25:40] So it. I didn’t find it a problem. I know I’ve heard from some people that they’re really nervous. Can they maintain this? I think a lot of the fear is because it’s never worked before. But now that you’ve been on this journey, and if you continue to do use and meditations and hypnosis and listen to your weekly tune in, and you have other people that speak on Zoom knowing that you’re in a community where, we’ve all experienced these different things. You’re supported. So it wasn’t a shock going from one into maintenance. I just slid into it and I’m, and here I am. If I wanted to lose another five, eight pounds, then I’d have to cut back again, which it’s winter. I’m not willing to do, and I do right size that I feel that I can right now.

[00:26:29] Rita Black: That’s amazing and talk about that. Maybe speak to the thermodynamic change because I think you were saying you need to, did you, because it sounds like a good chunk of your weight release journey. You were not exercising one because prior to your surgery you couldn’t, and then after your surgery you couldn’t either until a year or a few months in.

[00:26:53] How has bringing exercise then helped or changed that? Are you finding that as you exercise more than you can play around with that, your calorie budget or how much you can have?

[00:27:05] Roberta Walker: I know that people do that, and I know when I used to do Weight Watchers, if you do this amount of exercise, you get this many more points.

[00:27:11] And so I just keep in my mind if, but I don’t use that. I just know that there’s sometimes where I don’t, if I have my favorite drink now is a com a little bit of kombucha. I like it for the digestion and it’s. So low calorie, the kinds that I get, whole bottle, it’s like 70.

[00:27:27] So if you have 10 or 15, sometimes I don’t bother tracking that. ’cause I know I, I don’t need to because I’ve exercised. So I do it in a more mental way. Gotcha. Yeah, and and but my exercise journey, I. I am, I’ve always been athletic, sport wise, as far as the gym, it is always been a bore and it’s been a little meat market back in the days, yeah. There’s so many things about the gym that are just repugnant to me. I was not I just didn’t get in there and exercise. I’ve been building it according to. Feeling it as well. So almost every day I do that New York Times seven minute workout at home. And then I’ve been gardening a lot.

[00:28:09] And when you garden, it’s just another way. It’s very physical. And then I do some strength classes. I try to do it twice a week, and they’re 50 minutes long. And when it gets warm, I ride my bike. So I haven’t all of a sudden become this. Jock and weight, training person. However, it is something that I feel even to, move and do the.

[00:28:33] Get the limb system going is so important. So I would but I knew that there’d come a time where I would ease into that more. And that’s where I am now. So I, exercise is a part of my life, but like you go to spin class and do all these, that’s not me. I’ll, I gotcha. I love the strength classes.

[00:28:50] I love your exercise.

[00:28:51] Rita Black: It sounds like you’ve baked just movement into your life and, I think that’s the best way. Definitely I love getting out and gardening. It is probably, and that’s an all body it exercise.

[00:29:04] Roberta Walker: Yeah. And weight lifting. If you’re lifting two cubic bags of soil and if you’re,

[00:29:09] Rita Black: oh my goodness.

[00:29:10] Roberta Walker: Plants, it’s, there’s it’s a lot of work, but it’s good work. It’s the kind of work, after a workout, you feel good, you’ve gotten through it, and it feels really good. The same when you’re moving in gardening as well. And I’ve always been a physical person, physically active, although, I played pick pickleball three or four times a week.

[00:29:28] I love it. I love to play. So if I play and I’m physical, I love it. But without playing it’s not fun. So everything has to be fun with me or rewarding in some way.

[00:29:39] Rita Black: Oh, I couldn’t agree more. Most of my, even my spin class, I have buddies that I meet, and go and do spin with. So I totally agree with you.

[00:29:50] Roberta Walker: Oh, can I say one more thing about Yeah. Maintenance and all that. The word trust has come up in such a profound way for me, because I never trusted my body, or maybe I didn’t trust my mind, I’m not sure, but mind and body were not working together. The mind always wanted to be thin, but my body wasn’t.

[00:30:10] But that other part of my mind wanted my cake and eat it too. And so the one thing that I remember just like praying for was peace around. My body and weight, and now I trust my body. I, like I see some people that will post on Facebook, oh, I had a bad weekend. I binged, and like you have told them, here’s how many calories you actually have to eat to gain a pound.

[00:30:37] You didn’t do that. Yeah. And over time. This I trust my body. Now I know that I’m not gonna blow up 10 20. I know I’ll never be overweight again. Probably you feel the same. And it takes maintenance. Everything takes maintenance. I have to vacuum that, my house takes maintenance, the gardening, everything takes maintenance.

[00:30:57] But it’s not a restrictive type of, you are not losing life with this program.

[00:31:03] Rita Black: Yeah. I think it’s. Like you said it, you found that freedom and I think the freedom, because I think maintenance is an interesting place to be mentally because I. You no longer get that payoff on the scale.

[00:31:22] You don’t get to get on. If you think of weight loss I think the brain will almost think of weight loss as a game. Like I get a point, I lose a pound, I win, lose another pound, I win. And you can’t separate that from the human being, you who is releasing weight for health and you get the feedback loop of.

[00:31:41] Eating healthy, you feel better, all those pieces. But when you get to maintenance, there’s that flat line aspect of you’re getting on and there, that element of stability is gone for some people, so I think there’s a period of time and it doesn’t sound like it happened for you as much as some people.

[00:31:59] They, and that’s where I focus them on. The mental freedom because the weight piece is so important and obviously for your health, for all those, our vanity, all of that stuff. But that mental freedom nobody can explain how fabulous that feels from like knowing that, that haunted feeling that you always had in your head, it goes away and to say to somebody, this is why you do this. This is why you show up for yourself and the way you show up for yourself. This is the why you make the healthier choice. This is why it’s not just what’s gonna show up on the scale. It’s staying free.

[00:32:46] Roberta Walker: Yeah. If you really need a gold star in maintenance, weigh yourself once a week and when the scale is the same, that’s a gold star.

[00:32:54] Yeah. And it’s never happened in your life or go shopping. I I’ve become a real advocate of old Navy because as I was going down in sizes, I could catch jeans for, on sale for seven bucks, $15. I just bought some yesterday for 22. So there’s your gold stars. Is being able to also be comfortable in a wardrobe that you know that you’ll always fit in?

[00:33:19] Yeah. Yeah, I’ve had, I gave away so many things. I’d open these and I’d say, oh my God. Because I always wanted to get back into this one. Or then you get back in and you go out ’cause you’re too small for them. And now I have the clothes that I love and I know I don’t need to, I would, I don’t need to replace ’em or get a bigger size ’cause my pants are getting too tight.

[00:33:42] How much people live through that.

[00:33:44] Rita Black: I did. Yeah, I had eight sizes in my closet at any given time I tell the story, maybe I said in the masterclass, but I. We went through the pandemic and it, I like everybody. We, I was working from home or online and I’d wear sweatpants on the bottom.

[00:34:03] And even if I saw clients on the top, I’d have my suit on the top of my sweatpants or my pajama bottoms on the bottom. And so the first formal, when the pandemic was ending, or we were coming out of, hibernation, so to speak. I went to the closet and just grabbed a pair of pants. I put ’em on and I never, and then I put them on, they fit, of course.

[00:34:25] And I was like, wait a minute. That would’ve 27 years ago, that would’ve never happened. I would’ve had to think about which size I would’ve worn, so that, just, that freedom is I think for people who are struggling and, I think you’ve said so many things of value, Roberta, about, I.

[00:34:44] Just all those the journey itself, but that connecting to yourself, what do you think has been the most powerful part of your own self journey in all of this? One of the things you said that I really picked up on was the belief in your body. But as you went on, and developed your inner coach, like what’s been the biggest.

[00:35:10] Roberta Walker: I’ll say the overview is personal transformation, but let me unpack that a little bit. So I still have times where I’ll feel, I don’t even know what I’m feeling, but I’ll desire sugar. And so the value of all of this has been that when things come up for me and I start to automatically do something.

[00:35:33] I know to stop and ask myself, what do I really need? What’s really going on? And it’s not about weight. Sometimes it’s about, wanting, a hug or, or I feel like I just did something great and I need a reward. And it’s all kinds of, so that, that personal transformation, that inner questioning that we’re now not just.

[00:35:58] Some people don’t even go there at all. And then when you become aware that there are more parts going on and there’s more reasons why we are the way we are, we begin to be able, if you want to question. So I’d say that’s been just as important as anything else because as you question, they say that, without the contrast or without things that go wrong happening, you don’t know how to go, right?

[00:36:27] So the things that bubble up that are negative, or I might feel dysfunctional. Why did I say that? Why did I do that? I have to, it’s I have to stop and that’s how I change. So there’s been an immense emotional change through all this.

[00:36:40] So the physical and the emotional, and it keeps going, never stops. So I would say that’s probably one of the greatest along with the other really important gifts that came that, that keep coming out of this program.

[00:36:53] Rita Black: That’s amazing. What is, as we wrap up, what is, if you know somebody was out there struggling, what would you say to them?

[00:37:05] If they were gonna start taking better care of themselves or just make that next first step forward, what do you think that would be?

[00:37:13] Roberta Walker: The first thing, I’m on a soapbox, but I am so against processed foods with chemicals. And not just food with chemicals, but your household items, your toothpaste.

[00:37:27] Just I, your dental floss has Teflon. You really, I would start having people question their health and what they’re putting in their body before ever recommending putting in less, so I would, I think so many people just aren’t aware we’re in this idea that, if we get sick, we’ll just take that, or we’ll take this, instead of just putting a bandaid all over instead of starting to really heal from the inside. But I have a lot of people that would ask me like, how did you do it? Did you, because so many people are doing ozempic and other things.

[00:38:03] Yeah. Completely bypass your humanity, right? Yeah. Just inject it and you feel nauseous and you don’t eat. That’s not me about life. So I tell ’em about the program and then I leave it to them. But generally when I’ll usually start with just not even wearing nylon or poly, polyester yoga pants because our skin’s absorbing it.

[00:38:25] I’ll start talking, ask, suggesting more about, a healthy lifestyle and then. I’ll never tell people that they need to lose weight or this is the way to do it. I’ve been through so many different and I know, oh God, I always hated, I had these ants, my great ants. They’re all dead now.

[00:38:44] I’m glad because I’d show up and they’d say, oh, you’ve gained weight. Oh, so

[00:38:50] Rita Black: I know the goal of people to say stuff like that I know is crazy. I.

[00:38:57] Roberta Walker: So for years I’ve worn I’m large chest to tie I or always wore tunics and then pants and as a landscape designer, I’ve met a lot of people and I had this one client and she was, I think her early nineties and I wore this one that kind of had gathers underneath the brass kind of an empire, MR State empire State Building.

[00:39:18] Anyway, it was a tunic and we were there and I was. Probably in my mid fifties. And she said, so when do you do, she thought I was pregnant.

[00:39:29] Rita Black: Oh my God.

[00:39:30] Roberta Walker: At this part, at this point, I could laugh about it. I actually told my daughter and we laughed about it. But when, so when people ask or approach, my thing is just first of all about being healthy and when you’re.

[00:39:41] Being more conscious about what you’re putting in your body. That I think that’s a beginning of a journey. Yeah. When you start thinking about yourself as someone that you wanna take care of.

[00:39:50] Rita Black: I love that. Advocating for yourself showing up for yourself. Yeah. It’s interesting. I just interviewed this guy.

[00:39:58] He’s not a doctor, but he is a practitioner and a very big on testing. For all like physical ailments and all different kinds of things, but we just had a conversation about toxicity and the top foods to start, like getting, being aware of how toxic they are, like berries and things that are not organic and I.

[00:40:19] How many toxins are in our environment. It is interesting, and that’s a whole other podcast and a whole other rabbit hole, but it is, yeah. There’s so many things. I think I told you that years ago when I lived in LA I worked at a health food grocery store called Mrs. Gooch’s.

[00:40:37] Yes.

[00:40:38] Roberta Walker: And Mrs. Gucci’s Sandy Gooch started the store because she was so ill and they, they just couldn’t find out what was wrong until they finally nailed it and it was the brominated vegetable oil in sodas.

[00:40:50] And so she started this health food market. It was just before that old funky health food stores and and later was bought by Whole Foods. So even the sodas you’re drinking and you just have to be aware of everything. Yeah.

[00:41:06] Rita Black: Yeah. I remember when I first moved to la. Mrs. Gucci was one of the first markets that we went to and we’re like, wow, we’re in la we’re in this like super healthy, and it’s not like you said, like an old funky health food store, but it was beautiful ’cause this was pre Whole Foods that really revolutionized that whole aesthetic and market and.

[00:41:28] Beautiful people market. So it was so exciting to be in Mrs. Gooch’s. So that was, that’s funny that you used to work there. Thank you Roberta. This has been really wonderful and it was wonderful to hear your story and I’m so proud of all your journey and everything you’ve done for yourself.

[00:41:46] It’s really powerful. So thank you for sharing all of that with us.

[00:41:50] Roberta Walker: Thank you. Thank you for bringing this forward, Rita. You just so much. Every time I listen to the answers that you give to people with their questions, this whole program, nothing else has ever worked for me. Your work is so important.

[00:42:02] Thank you.

[00:42:04] Rita Black: Oh my goodness . Thank you. Thank you so much, Roberta, and thank you listeners from all over the world. I don’t forget the live masterclass coming up, www. shiftweightmastery.com/ live to start your spring or fall with momentum. Have an amazing week and remember the key and probably the only key to unlocking the doors of the weight struggle is inside you.

[00:42:32] So keep listening and find it. I will be with you here next week, and hopefully my voice is gonna be better. Take care. Have a great week.