Rita Black: Alice has released 80 pounds and has been maintaining her weight for almost a year, but her story is so much more than numbers on a scale. Alice’s journey began in a childhood marked by trauma and food deprivation. A time when nourishment, both physical and emotional, was scarce, and when she reached adulthood, suddenly surrounded by a world of food.

Her relationship with eating became complex and challenging. But what makes Alice’s transformation so inspiring is not just the weight she released, it’s the profound inner healing she has experienced along the way. Through her journey, she discovered a powerful inner coach, a voice of love, compassion, strength that helped her connect to her body in a way she never had before. For the first time in her life, Alice truly learned to love herself as she was now with a strong, loving relationship with herself and her life, she’s giving herself permission to thrive. To be the best version of herself. Her story offers deep hope for anyone who has experienced the trauma of food insecurity or struggled to trust their body and their worth. So settle in because you’re about to meet someone who will uplift and inspire you. Here is my conversation, so come on in.

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’s 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.

Hello. Hello. Come in. Welcome, friends from all over. I have a really great interview today with a very cool person and it’s gonna leave you feeling inspired. Before we do, I’ve been super busy getting ready for my upcoming live masterclass that I wanna make sure you get a seat in.

Starting on April 24th, 2025. And I have to say the full date because many people listen to these podcasts much later and they’re like. I thought it was April, but it’s like 2026 or 2027. I love the idea of our conversations living on past today and into the future. So I just love that somebody out there in the future can listen in on our conversation that we’re having here today.

It’s such an interesting world we live in and crazy. But interesting. I know AI is super big now, and I must admit, I do love my chat. GPT. I use it for a lot of things recipes, gardening advice, medical advice. Somebody who is a AI expert said you have to treat AI like a, like a teenager who thinks they know it all because you do have to check your sources Sometimes my chat, GPT will say something and I’m like, are you sure?

And I think of that teenager. But it’s interesting speaking of teenagers, that all the younger kids the younger generation, it makes me sound so old, but my daughter was saying that the younger generation is really developing, like there are women out there, she’s, or friends of hers or acquaintances that are developing really deep relationships with ai.

That some young women and maybe older women too, or older men I don’t know, but I just know what my daughter tells me. They name their chat GPT and attach a hunky picture to it and treat it like their boyfriend. Oh, it’s maybe couldn’t be the worst boyfriend in the world but. It’s so interesting.

I have enough men in my life, my husband, my son, and my dog. That’s enough. I think I will keep chat GPT as my gender neutral information gatherer. So whether chat GPT signs you up or you sign yourself up, there are still spaces available, but they’re going super fast because we’re almost there, you guys.

So it’s almost just a few days away. And we are almost full in some of the classes. I am doing eight classes live to a day. It’s like a little marathon. I’m running from April 24th through April 27th, and I am, I’m really excited. We are gonna be exploring breaking through subconscious barriers that are keeping you in the weight struggle.

If you are in the weight struggle we are looking at how we see ourselves and, you’re gonna hear a lot of really interesting things from Alice that we get into at the way we see ourselves actually holds our. Us in a prison that keeps us from breaking free and moving forward to success.

Come to the masterclass. We’re gonna do some hypnosis. We always have a fun time. I am feeling better, my voice is getting better. I’ve got a lot of energy. And just come and join me at shiftweightmastery.com/live. Or you can check out the show notes. The link is there as well. It’s absolutely free. shiftweightmastery.com/live. to register.

Okay, so now on to my interview with Amazing Alice, whose story of releasing and maintaining 80 pounds off. I know you’re gonna love. Welcome everybody to the Thin Thinking Podcast. I have the beautiful Alice Alexander here today in front of me, and I know you can’t see her, but behind her is this amazing artwork as well.

And I am going to be hearing Alice’s story as you do alice has been how long have you been in our shift community now? Like I When did you start shifting Alice?

Alice: 2023 is when I shifting.

Rita Black: Okay. So it’s been a little while. Welcome. Tell us a little bit about you, like where you’re from and I know you’re in California, correct?

Alice: Yes, I’m in California. I live in the Yosemite area and lucky. Yes, I love it. I love nature. I love the outdoors. And I’ve always wanted to be an artist and there were a lot of things I wanted for myself that I couldn’t quite see before I shifted. And I’d like to say I’m an evolved person and we can start.

Rita Black: You seem like an evolved person. I wanna ask you to tell us, I usually, when I interview people, we start with the beginning, like where, tell us a little bit about you growing up and when did you first. Think that you had a stru, when did you first think you had a problem with weight and when do you think your weight struggle actually began.

Alice: My foundations are very dysfunctional and very dysfunctional family, very dysfunctional beginnings. I was a homeless child and I took care of myself, put myself through school. Put myself through college. There were challenges with that, and so I grew up thinking that we were so poor, we couldn’t afford food.

What the reality was is my mother was a food hoarder that she kept in her closet, and I was about nine years old when I discovered we weren’t poor. I was just hungry. And it was maybe a few years after that I would become homeless, but I didn’t grasp onto food or that I could have it until I was into my twenties and started college.

Now, I didn’t have a weight issue because I always deprived myself of the food I never had as a child. So when I got to college, I realized. The grocery store has everything. So I would buy what I wanted to eat and I would eat, and the weight gain was so slow that I didn’t notice. It was a pound a month every month for five years. And by the time that graduation came, I had to graduate in shorts because there was nothing else that fit. That wasn’t the end of my gain. That just took me to the 200 pound mark.

Rita Black: Can i ask you a question, Alice, about this whole period of time in college and when you were grad when you were gradually gaining weight, were you troubled at all by this or at this point, were you just involved with college eating what you wanted?

It was this new world, so gaining weight wasn’t like you. You didn’t have any self shame or anything, you were just like, okay, it is what it is. Or did you start to have that internal conversation with yourself? I should try to stop, I should try to control this. I’m just curious.

Alice: So as I’m gaining the weight the first year, oh, that was nothing to pants fit tighter. And they’re tighter. I was struggling with raising kids and surviving and paying college bills and trying to get everything done, managing my whole life. And so we have one year, 12 pounds the next year, 24, it’s oh, I just get a size bigger.

And then by the time I was headed towards graduation in that last year, I was always humiliated. I was watching girls walk around campus eating carrots and celery, and I thought, oh, that’s the way to go. And I would do that for a day or two, and then I would binge.

And so I couldn’t find where I was going wrong because the freedom of food had been opened up to me. The ability to go to Trader Joe’s and buy all those sweet decadent treats and just try all these different things was more encompassing and involving than realizing what was going on. Showing on the outside. And all the stress, and then transitioning from homelessness to college and raising kids also took a lot of my mental awareness and strength and focus.

So that food was a comfort and I didn’t realize that the fool rebel. The rebel was fully engaged and just eating, and eating and nurturing and getting comfort too through food. So it wasn’t until graduation when I realized that nothing. I couldn’t graduate into anything cute.

I couldn’t, I had to go to the supersize shop because, I cursed the guy that invented the stretchy pants, you pants, stretchy pants into a couple sizes up.

Rita Black: Yeah. I think a lot of us can, can shake our fists at the designer who came up with elastic and and spandex and all of those stretchy things.

And then after college you said the weight gain continued?

Alice: Yes. And then I went on to developing a career and trying to create a life for myself and my children. Then I could afford foods and then I found the big girl shop. I could find suits to wear to work at the big girl shop, and by that time I was in a size 24 but I came to work very nails done, hair done my extra large business suits and said I was fine. Along the way, I started saying, this doesn’t feel good. And I wanted to wear the cute clothes that everybody else was wearing, not just the big shop girl clothes. I realized I was paying three times the price, and I tried. I tried vegan and vegetarian was horrible because I gave myself the license for cheese. It just didn’t work out. I ended up gaining weight with a vegetarian diet. Keep up with because I couldn’t find enough foods that I liked and I tried every diet under the sun, including fasting for days and intervention, fasting and all type, any type the Atkins and the this diet and that diet.

Anything that came across and there were many, and then there was the eighties and the let’s get physical. Yeah. It killed me. It killed me. Those little outfits killed me. I just couldn’t, no matter how much I exercised, I wasn’t losing weight. Yeah. Because I didn’t grapple on food yet, and my relationship with it.

Rita Black: So what got, what interested you in the shift process? Was it the hypnosis element or how did you find it? Tell us a little bit about that transition.

Alice: Now we drive myself almost all the way up to 60 years in carrying 240 pounds. And I still hiked, I still bite. I didn’t limit myself physically.

Big girl doing a lot of stuff. When I came up on the shift process, I was actually bedridden. What happened? You were actually what? I missed that word. I’m sorry. I was bedridden. Oh my goodness. I had an injury and I had, I was on my second scheduled surgery for this injury, and I was already one month bedridden and I’m laying there in bed and I am drinking like 18 beers in a day.

I’m sending my husband to Starbucks for Danish. I am just laid out, pouring junk into my mouth and I feel miserable. Miserable. So one late night in December, I’m scrolling along and I see you come up on Instagram and you’re talking about this is not a diet, it’s a relationship with food. And I was so fed up of dieting, so fed up of dieting.

You said something different and I said, sign up for my masterclass. I was like, oh, everybody wants you to sign up for a masterclass and you would’ve failed. And, but something you said intrigued me and so I signed up and I listened to every word you said and it was like hearing truth after truth.

And I wasn’t looking for the hearts. I was like, where do I sign up for this? How do I learn more about this? And that’s how I became in contact and engaged with you. But I did it in secret. Real secret in the dark with my husband laying next to me, signing up, telling nobody, oh my gosh, what I’m gonna do, and let me sign up and set up the payment arrangements.

And I did it. And I didn’t say anything to anyone. But after about a week of doing this, my husband starts raising with what’s going on with you? What’s different? And that’s when I started to share I signed up for this thing. And that’s how you and I met on a cold December night, sitting in bed drinking a million beers.

Rita Black: I feel honored that I was I feel honored that you found me after beer number, whatever. Yeah. And there in the dark. I know. It’s interesting how we find the next step forward in life, isn’t it?

Alice: If I might say, at that time, you were my next dirty diet secret. They had no clue. This was your attempts. Who knows how many, and so I didn’t wanna tell anybody because I didn’t wanna, you know

Rita Black: what’s interesting about that? Can I, because I get You don’t wanna tell anybody. And I wanna say this because I just had this little epiphany about this and people, because, I have so many students and so many people tell me, I’ve spent thousands and thousands of dollars on diets, right? And there’s always that fear. Oh my gosh, there’s a lot of shame about enrolling in the next diet program, right? There’s so much shame around that, and I totally get it. ’cause I literally went on every single diet you, I, and I remember going into, backward when there were actual bookstores, going into the bookstore literally with crumbs of like cinnamon rolls or pizza grease on my chin.

And finding, going into the diet section, which I knew so well, I knew them all. I knew all the books in the section. Finding the next okay, what’s gonna save me this week? But, and then, but having clients who, I had this woman once who it was so hilarious, said. I left my wallet because she came to see me at my office in LA and she said, I left my wallet down in the car ’cause I don’t wanna enroll in this thing.

And I was like, I totally get it. She said, my husband would kill me. I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on programs. And I was like, yes, but here’s the thing. And this was the epiphany, is that it, because I totally know that is that shame myself. Is that the shift process is not a diet program.

It is a, it’s a freedom program. It’s a mental freedom program, and it’s a, and it’s a, create yourself. And your journey forward program. It is not the diet program. May I interject? What? Yeah. No, I’m done. I’m done talking. I’m done talking. I’m now the glory is yours.

Alice: No Worries. No worries.

I have to interject this. It is a journey of self. Love. Yes. It is not a diet. My doctor said, are you doing a one Cs? You’re my doctor. No, And he asked me, I said, I’m learning to love myself and make decisions based on self love, and those decisions are leading to weight loss. Tremendous. When I go back to look at the inner critic, the inner Rebel, and the inner coach, and I would love to share that with you. Yes. Things that I’d said now

Rita Black: Yes. Alice. Alice had written in the shift. There was like a journal that you can keep, you can download it and print out and you went to town on this, it sounds yes. And I love that ’cause people are like, oh, it’s so much that I was like, you’re gonna look back at this and be so glad you did this.

Alice: Go ahead. And I looked at it as an opportunity because in that journal’s not just what I’m eating, the calories, how do I feel? How did I wake up? What’s going on in my mind? How did I go to bed? And I could look back now and I relate the foods I ate the day before. To the emotions that are going on the next day, and there’s correlation there.

But that inner critic, I wanna read it to you, she’s short with dark black, curly hair. Her belly hangs in front of her. She’s older than me, but 20 years, you can see an aura of hatred. It surrounds her, it moves with her. She considers her ability to tear into people’s soul an art worthy of practice. Wow.

She can never say anything positive or kind. It’s not in her soul. That was my inner critic. Wow. And so that’s, it’s very articulate. That is on point because the more you took me to view that, the more attributes I assigned until she person ified her self. And then I realized who had been criticizing me like that.

And then we move into this forgiveness program. That’s another step. When I met the inner rebel, it took a long time to realize that was the most wounded part of me. That rebel took over to heal with food. And was gonna fight that like a valiant night. Was not gonna give up the food or the habits in protection of everything.

The rebel took over. The critic made me small, so the rebel rose up to fight. And as I started to define that rebel closer and more attributes, the hair, the personality, the kind of clothes, the way they moved, it was my mother and my father. Oh, interesting. And I realized I internalized. All of the negativity.

And so when it came to building the coach, this was the most fabulous part of the lesson, the most fabulous part of the lesson. At first, it was what I gotta see myself different. All I could see was this big 240 round pound woman, happy, trying to smile, trying to be positive, but round pounded woman. So I externalized it.

I saw an outfit on Amazon on a beautiful woman, and I said, like that, I wanna have that hair. I wanna have that outfit. I wanna be like her. And then I started giving her attributes, just like we did with the critic in the Rebel. She’s kind, she’s loving. She can only speak positive because she comes from a source of love.

She can only speak kind words to me because she loves me. There’s no malice. I assigned that to her. You have no malice against me. You have no jealous for me, no envy, no bad feeling, only love. So in that guise, you can only speak love to me. So as you took me through these meditations there, she would be out in the garden because we want her to be who we want to be.

She’s in the garden. She’s wearing this really crazy floppy hat and this cutest little outfit. But every time I walked in that meditation, she looked up at me and smiled so big and came running toward me to hug me. And she would look me in the eyes and she was this external character and I would hold hands with her and walk down those paths you would take us on.

With her by my side, knowing if I felt small or little or the child in me wounded, she would hold my head and walk in that path. She was outside of me. You are protecting me. And I could turn to her that shift. Breath. Boy, I call her up so quick. Here we come. Coach. I need you for everything, not just food, stress, anger, not getting along with my husband.

Oh man, the bill guy’s driving me crazy. Whatever it was that shift breath. Even this morning, nice shift, breath, relax, speak from the heart, find center value.

Rita Black: Wow, that’s so cool. Alice I want to pause here and reiterate what you just said. For our listeners who haven’t gone through the shift process or maybe who have, but to layer on the, what you just laid out very eloquently.

Which is internal systems, which is the internal systems of Relate all. We have all these different parts to us and bringing the parts together and being able to. When we, when it’s all unconscious, it just feels like bad feelings coming up or that we’re not worthy or we’re uncontrollable. But when we start to define these parts and communicate with them then the parts start to calm down.

We start to be able to manage them rather than us running us. And then when you created the center coach, now my guess is. You have, you’re a highly functioning person, obviously, before you began the shift process. And there were areas of your life where you coached yourself and took care of yourself. And obviously you were a mother and you nurtured.

So you have a very big aspect of this coach within you. But I wanna point out to our listeners that most of us, as highly functioning as we are, this one area of our life. That alludes us in being successful is because we don’t coach ourselves in this area of our life. And so to be able to pull upon that and to create this new relationship because really the world of dieting doesn’t develop us in that way.

So crazy that people. Give up on themselves in this area of their life where they would never give up on themselves. Like you said, you’re a successful career person, a successful mother you have a, you’re in a relationship you have a husband you don’t give up and walk out the door.

When you have a fight with your husband, you stick with it. You make up, and you feel bad. You stick with those feelings and you, but you work it out. And we never learned to do that in the area of weight management. So being able, so you really laid that out very beautifully. Thank you. And so we do a lot of internal work to start to bring those parts together because it isn’t just about the food, it’s really about being able to feel your feelings, being able to have this entity within you that allows you to heal all those parts of yourself so that you can move forward.

So thank you for sharing that so wonderfully. I think you did a great job. So yes I think that’s why.

Alice: A lot of us can’t lose weight. It doesn’t matter. All of our other successes, that negative message we always send to ourself. I’m a failure. I’m ashamed. I was ashamed every time I walked out.

I realized after reading my notes every time I walked out the door and I would put on the square boxy shirt too. Quote unquote, hide my figure, right? I walked into shame all the time and I was always reiterating those failure messages. It was those meditations and the hypnosis that made me realize you are not that.

Stop talking to yourself like that. You’re not that. And the most glorious meditation that just turn the light switch on is during one of those meditations you bring my inner coach. She walks up to me and when she gives me that hug, our souls merge and she is me and I realize I’m you. All that good stuff.

I’m you. I can have beautiful hair. I can wear beautiful outfits. I can travel. I can be an artist, I can be positive, I can be kind in everything I say. And you know what I did with that? I went right back to our shift community and started uplifting others. I will say nothing but positive to my team members because I am you and you are me, and we’re positive.

Rita Black: Alice is an amazing contributing member in our shift community. We have very generous people in there, but she’s always in there uplifting people. And you I, you, I know listeners that you cannot see Alice, but she is beautiful. She has amazing hair. She’s wearing a beautiful outfit. She, is and behind her is this amazing artwork.

So did the artwork evolve? I’m assuming you were an artist before you did the shift, but that you, he had mentioned that this brought out your best self.

Alice: Here’s the thing. I wouldn’t call myself an artist. I wouldn’t put myself out there like that. I wouldn’t, I didn’t have the confidence to really just say, I’m an artist.

Yes, ma’am, I am. And to say the other things that I’m loving. I’m kind, I’m generous. I love myself. Oh, what I love myself. I remember the first day I learned that from you, what I actually said out loud. I love myself. And in 60 years I have not said that and felt it. That’s so cool. And I realized that this is not a diet.

This is retraining your relationship with food. I’ve now come to the point that the scientist gets to have fun the whole way picking what you like, because when you said not a diet, oh, that means three cookies and milk, of course it. Vegetables all day and I learned to balance and now I know food has value.

I’d rather have high value food that are nutrient dense to, to nurture my body. I feel better, and I know that by journaling because when I journal and I look at the next day, I’ve eaten well, I feel well. This is not a diet, it’s the first words out of my mouth to everyone. It’s a journey of self love and enjoy that journey.

And there are times I hear members say, oh, I don’t wanna journal, or I don’t wanna do this. And all I can say is, commit yourself to the process. You committed yourself to every other diet process under the sun. Commit to yourself to the sub process and trust, and that’s all you have to do.

The hypnosis, the lessons, the meditations will all guide you to self love. And when you love yourself, you don’t talk bad to yourself and you don’t treat yourself badly.

Rita Black: Amazing. Alice, I, so I wanna ask you, you’ve been on a journey, you’ve released 80 pounds and you’ve been maintaining for a while.

And I know some of our members who have been releasing weight, but maybe haven’t gotten to maintenance yet. What was that journey like from from releasing into deciding to maintain like the like kind of tt take us through that internal, because people are always intrigued by that.

Alice: A rollercoaster ride is the first statement to make.

Now I mentioned before that I was drinking a lot of beers and my body did not hunt a how to process that water in and out, and I start the journey and it’s going, oh hey, there’s a pound and I’m going down and I’m releasing, and woo-hoo, another pound. And then I do the meditation on day one about me.

I have to back up a step about the drinking, and I thought, you know what? I don’t want a beer. And for something, it turned a key on me. And I put the beer down.

But on day, whatever this was, all of a sudden I get on the scale and there’s 15 pounds gone. I’m like, Woohoo. I ran out of there. I didn’t wanna get on the scale again.

I ran around the house. I was just as happy as can be. Now I knew that wasn’t real. That couldn’t be real. Nobody can physically do that. As I’ve come down the road, years later, I realized my body was releasing water and holding water and just doing all kinds of craziness. It didn’t know how to handle the change in the beginning.

So not only did the 15 pounds come back, it brought two more. Oh, wow. Yep. It happens. I was new in the process. I believe this was within the first week or so. I was new in the process and my body’s just what’s going on here? There, where’s the sugar? Where’s the alcohol? Where’s weight?

You’re drinking water. You’re drinking no water, just all over the board. And weight loss is not linear. It’s not linear. It will go up and down and up and down. But along day five, I realized I don’t have a goal weight. And I don’t need one.

Because I am learning a lifestyle of change.

I am learning how to eat, how to relate to myself, how to eat food, how to, and when I developed my inner coach image, I didn’t even know how much she weighed. She just looked great. And so I just stayed on the program and journal. It’s the most important thing. I journaled and the way would come and go and come and go, but it was steadily down, never linear.

I bought when I got. Around 50 pounds. I had read my journal and the Kelly had just become a data number for me. At that point, it was just like, okay, is this up or down on the graph and just up or down on the graph. And I stood there and I stared for a minute. I was like, wait a minute. You just lost 50 pounds.

Yeah. And I celebrated and I realized, Ooh, that’s great. So I went out and. Now remember I was a size 24. I went out and got a size large and a size medium pair of jeans. I ordered them both. Okay? You get ’em home and you’re squeezing them home. That’s not gonna fit. And oh, the size, large, almost gonna fit.

And so put ’em back in the closet and continued my journey. Didn’t think twice about it. My clothes were getting looser, that’s for sure. So as I’m continuing the journey. I try on these genes and when I try on the largest, I am surprised on how good I feel and how great I feel. This is it. Excuse me, this is where you wanna be.

This is your goal weight, what weight are you? And that’s when I realized I was 80 pounds down. It’s I love this. I love this feeling and so I went into what I called my maintenance mode at the calorie seat, and this is why I didn’t have to make special adjustments to my diet because as I hit that place where I was comfortable and happy, I was eating what I had normally eat in a regular day.

And that’s when the scientist came out and me, she said, oh, we got room to play now. And so I started experimenting with recipes and really focusing on nutrients and all kinds of different things, keeping the same calorie budget as I was in. Now, some recipes were fab. Fabulous. And some were just.

But this is what maintenance is about, yeah. Can I now go and have, because I think the first thing that a lot of quote unquote dieters do is you get to your goal weight and you say, oh, great. Let’s bring out the pizza and the dough. Yeah. And you know it’s time to have cookies. You could had ’em all the way along the line, yeah. And if you integrate it into your lifestyle, you already know it. Maintenance, how much of that you can have or not. Yeah. And so I wanna experiment more. I want to be in this place. I’ve been in this place for quite a while. I’m loving the land of maintenance. It’s so fun because I really can have some cookies and milk, but I’m not gonna buy store-bought, processed, over processed cookies.

I make a healthy version made with proteins and low sugars at home. That’s good for me, a high value food. And and even that. It’s old behavior. You know what I mean? That’s a treat that okay, maybe if it’s your birthday or, but my thinking around food has changed. And now I look at sugars and sweetings and I don’t have the same feeling for it.

It used to be that rebel was so healed. But here’s the thing about this whole process. I love you learn forgiveness too. Yeah. On that day of forgiveness, I forgave the rebel. I forgave the critic. And I forgave myself and I forgave myself, humiliating and shaming myself. And you know what happened?

Even better, pains from 40 years ago started coming up and I forgave those two and I Wow. Healing as a person. Beautiful. Thank you.

Rita Black: Wow. Thank you, Alice. It well, that’s true. I think you again, eloquently illustrated for us, one, the journey, differentiating the journey of self-realization and transformation with food, with exercise, with yourself.

Versus dieting. So what Alice was saying was she created a way of living that she loved that then ultimately allowed her to live at her ideal weight and maintain her ideal weight because she wasn’t depriving herself down the scale. She was loving herself down the scale. And it sounds and I think a lot of people come into their own light.

And I don’t mean that in a woo way. I just mean that we’ve become so much more powerful because we have that mental freedom and we have that the parts of us align, right? Yeah. Like our critic and our rebel are there and they aren’t, even though they are a very wounded Right. And they evolved out of pain and they each had a purpose to try to protect us.

’cause our subconscious mind. Its primary goal is to protect us, but it can come up with some very warped ways to do or ways that don’t really work for us ultimately. So to be able to forgive the critic and the rebel and to say, oh, I see, I get it. You didn’t really mean the worst for me. You and you can.

That thing gives you so much more power and to be able to I’ve had, members. Do incredible things in their life. Once they shifted not because they were thinner, but because they. Were willing to risk because they knew they weren’t gonna beat themselves up if it, they failed. There’s a lot of power in loving yourself, not just from loving yourself, but when you know you’re not gonna beat yourself up for trying something new or stepping out and being bolder and bigger doors open.

And so I, and I love how you have stepped into the community and become a leader in the community and bring your light and sunshine and your. Great advice to everybody, so thank you so much, Alice. That’s very kind. If somebody was out there struggling today and in the same place that you were a couple of years ago and you had to say to them what would be, the one first step that you would have them take to, I always ask guests this is my like, guest question.

What would be that first step that you would have them take? To move forward on towards the light, to, towards a, a better life for them. Okay,

Alice: so if you’re talking about those that don’t know, you find, hey, yes,

Rita Black: I’m not looking for a plug for the shift program

Alice: My strongest advice is to truly let yourself go to the process. We always say to ourselves. I would do anything if I could just lose three pounds. But we have to really mean that. And so just be free and release yourself to the process. Don’t judge it. Don’t say, oh, that’s what the old diet used to do.

Don’t judge it. Just release yourself to the process. Open your heart and it’s as natural as breathing. You’ll learn self love.

Rita Black: Yeah. I like that idea of what you’re saying. So I’m gonna, I’m going to take it because I think what you’re saying here is a couple of things. I, you’re talking about the process, but I think you’re really talking too about this idea when we’re in a place of pain, when we’re dieting or when we’re overweight, we’re in pain and we just wanna get out of the pain.

So we become very vulnerable and willing to do the crazy diet, the medication, what, whatever. It’s just give me whatever, because. I will not love myself until I am thinner. Like that’s usually how we feel. It’s let me get 20 pounds off and then I’ll accept myself. Let me get, and then I’ll feel better, and then it will, everything is gonna be okay.

And so we’re willing to go on these crazy diets that do not serve us, that work against us. And we go on them and we don’t believe in ourselves. We don’t really believe that this is gonna be successful, but it’s just like the quick fix. Let me get outta the pain now and I’ll pay the price later.

And I think what you are saying, which is very wise, is commit now to being your best self and start that journey and really commit no kidding, just show up for yourself every step along the way. And that the process becomes a really fulfilling process. Every step along the way.

Alice: And here’s about showing up for yourself that I love. Showing up for yourself does not mean perfect.

Rita Black: Yes, exactly.

Alice: Doesnt mean perfection. I had some days in there where the calories went over by 1200 yesterday. Really, Alice,

Rita Black: I could do better than that.

Alice: And and you look at that and you go forward and it’s not perfection, it’s just allowing yourself.

To accept you as you are and go forward and it’s a beautiful process.

Rita Black: Thank you so much for coming on the show today. You have been absolutely inspirational. And and I, can I talk about one last thing? Course, please. Body image? Let’s talk. Body image. Oh. Oh. Please Alice, let’s talk. I think a lot of our listeners would appreciate this.

Alice: When I was young, I had the measurements. 36, 23, 39. Whoa. Cute little girl, right? And when I got to 60, I was just round just. Call it a barrel and measure it round, whatever, what, whatever that was. I’ve been big for 40 years, and now when I take pictures of myself, I’m still asking myself, is that you?

I see myself in the picture. That’s you. And so this is one of the reasons why I’m staying in maintenance, because I want the acceptance. Myself, like I had in the beginning of the process, I accepted I was a big woman. That’s part of the process, accepting where you are. And so now I need my mind to accept where I am.

It takes so long. So I took a picture the other day in a body suit and critic showed up. No sleeves. I always wear sleeves. Oh my goodness. The arms. And which I will be posting group pretty soon. Oh. The arms, the legs, people come up to me even after losing the 80 pounds. Oh, your legs are kind around.

You should try doing leg lifts. You know what? And I look at you and see you. Not my inner critic. No way. And but I will, after losing all that weight, the first thing the critic showed up and said, look at your arms. Look at your arms. They’re not done. And I said, you know what? I’m gonna post this to show the critic that you can look good and accept yourself as who you are.

Yes. And we have to internalize that. And accepting what we are. Accepting the loss, accepting the new changes. Yeah. And I just keep asking and maintenance until my mind has really absorbed this. And then if I feel I want, I don’t know, five pounds more, 10 pounds more, we’ll see where that goes. But right now I want to have that full acceptance that I was taught to have at the beginning.

And yeah we have this thing of body image that we put in ourselves that we only go of. My arms are always fat. My legs are always fat. My, we have these body images, but you know what? You’ve gotta accept yourself and love yourself. When I first started losing this weight, my legs started sagging really badly and I was like, oh, this is horrible.

But as time went on, the muscles start to tighten. The skin comes back. Time. Time, yeah. I had to accept myself on that saggy leg skin day, just like I’m accepting myself now. Yeah. And so I’m in that acceptance and I’m learning about accepting my new body image, and so we have to stay positive with ourselves.

If you’ve lost that. Release that pound or two, you’ll be proud of that. Don’t turn around and say, oh, but my chin looks like a gagger. Or, the thing we can come up with because that discounts accept your body. My body infant now and I think women understand this and I hope it’s not too controversial to say I never had gap in my life.

My body looks differently than when I was young. Yeah. It took on a different shape. My legs look different. My waist is not a tiny little hourglass anymore, but I have a nice curve. Things have changed. I have a different body and I wanna accept this body and love it as it is. And so I would say that to you is accept yourself.

You’re beautiful.

Rita Black: Yeah. Amen. Amen. I love that. I’ve maintained my ideal weight for a long time, but even though I have, my weight has repositioned itself as I’ve aged, and it just is a part of life, and you do have to, there’s a lot of acceptance and there is a lot of acceptance in this journey.

There’s letting go of things. There’s mourning. What wasn’t and what can be you, do you know what I mean? It’s, yes. It’s not it’s a courageous journey to embark upon with in a lot of milestones along the way. So I love how you walked us through that, those milestones of accepting your body and really even coming to terms with your body before you began the process of this is the body I am now.

It’s done a lot of amazing things, and, it keeps me alive and I’m gonna continue to show. And I think that acceptance allows you to love yourself and start to nourish yourself to start moving your body because you’re at one with it, rather than working against it and hating it. So and

Alice: and so for most of this journey, I have been like I said, I was bedridden for about three months in, in the beginning of this journey. And I’ve had a lot of medical care, but my life has changed. I’m no longer able to walk like I used to. There’s no hikes, there’s no bikes, there’s no journeys and I had to accept this.

But being part of this process, I am more willing to accept change. Okay, so this is a new avenue of life opening up. I won’t be hiking the Sierras, what will I be doing? And your heart is more open to loving yourself. Acceptance and creating new avenues. It’s not like before, if this happened to me pre-shift, I would’ve went out and bought a cake and a donut.

And what I used to do is hide it under my arm and eat it like nobody could see me.

Rita Black: At eating. I’ve had pockets full of food and pockets full of candy, definitely in my life. Yes. So that’s a new one though. Hiding there. That’s good. I’m glad I’m not gonna go use that, but that’s certainly an interesting tactic.

Alice: Yeah. But once you learn, see on this journey, you learn a new lifestyle. So it isn’t like you can ever go back. There’s no going back. You Yeah. Living a new life. And so those old temptations aren’t there because. I’m living a new life, and this is why I see the problem with the A one Cs is that you don’t learn your relationship with food and you don’t learn how to eat properly for yourself.

And doing that there’s no going back. I don’t need a diet pill. I don’t cra the old foods. I don’t treat myself in young way. I’m a new person and everyone who completes this process walks away a new person. Yeah.

Rita Black: Oh Alice, this has been a joy. Thank you so much for your time and your wisdom, and I look forward to continuing to shift with you and congratulations on your beautiful artwork too.

Alice: Thank you.

Rita Black: That is fantastic. Look forward to having you back on the show sometime. Good. I hope so. Thank you so much for your time. Wow. Wow. Wasn’t she amazing? I just have to thank all of my my wonderful podcast guests who have come on for this series. Maintaining mastery are mastering maintenance.

Sorry, I inverted it there. I started it last year as a. I was going to just interview a few people about maintenance and the series has really taken off. And I have to say my conversations with these people have just been so moving and I am always just so entertained and learn new things from my students.

I just love it. So please come. Come to the live masterclasses. You won’t regret it. I promise you. I give 110% at these things and we have a good time. You’re gonna learn a lot. Everybody was like, oh my gosh, I learned so much. I feel so ready and prepared for success. That hypnosis is great. So why the heck not?

It’s free, it’s online, and, you know it’s gonna be a good time, so check it out. There’s probably a time you can come www shift weight mastery.com/live to register or find the link in the show notes. 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 will be with you here, of course. Next week have a wonderful one.

Did you know that our struggle with weight doesn’t start with the food on your plate or get fixed in the gym, or 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, I. 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.