[00:00:00] What if one of the biggest secrets to long-term weight mastery isn’t making better decisions all day long, but making fewer decisions in the first place?

[00:00:10] Over the years, I realized that so much of what keeps me healthy and maintaining my weight isn’t willpower, it’s sequencing.

[00:00:19] One thing cues the next, the next thing cues the next, and eventually those healthy patterns become so familiar that I barely have to even think about them.

[00:00:29] In this episode, I’m taking you inside my morning routine and showing you why setting up these kinds of patterns can become such a powerful pillar in your day

[00:00:47] Did you know that our struggle with weight doesn’t start with the food on your plate or get fixed in the gym?

[00:00:54] 80% of our weight struggle is mental.

[00:00:58] That’s right, the key to unlocking long-term weight release and management begins in your mind.

[00:01:05] Hi there, I’m Rita Black.

[00:01:07] I’m a clinical hypnotherapist, weight loss expert, best-selling author, and the creator of the Shift Weight Mastery process.

[00:01:15] 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.

[00:01:27] And after two decades of failed diets and fad weight loss programs, I lost 40 pounds with the help of hypnosis.

[00:01:34] Not only did I release all that weight, I have kept it off for 25 years.

[00:01:40] Enter the Thin Thinking podcast where you too will learn how to remove the mental roadblocks that keep you struggling.

[00:01:48] 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.

[00:02:01] Sound good? Let’s get started.

[00:02:04] Hello, hello, hello everyone.

[00:02:06] Come on in, have a seat, and get cozy.

[00:02:10] And that, my friends, is a sequence. Every week, I say hello, I invite you in, you settle in, and your brain knows what comes next.

[00:02:20] And if you’re absolutely new to the podcast, well, that’s what happens, okay?

[00:02:26] So come on in, have a seat, and get cozy.

[00:02:29] And that’s exactly what we’re talking about today, the power of sequencing.

[00:02:33] And I get asked all the time, “Rita, what is your morning routine?” and, “What do you eat?” and, “Do you weigh yourself?” and, “When do you exercise?” and, “What do you actually do to maintain your weight after all these years?”

[00:02:45] And what I’ve realized is that the power really isn’t in any one thing I do, the power is in the sequence.

[00:02:54] One thing cues the next thing, which cues the next thing.

[00:02:57] And because I’ve repeated many of these patterns thousands of times, I’m not waking up every morning negotiating with myself about whether I feel like doing them.

[00:03:07] They’ve simply become a part of what I do.

[00:03:10] And today, I’m gonna just take you through my morning wake-up routine, which is one of my big pillars in my own weight mastery day.

[00:03:20] And not because you need to copy my morning routine and suddenly live happily ever after.

[00:03:26] No, I want you just to see how sequencing works, notice the sequences that are running maybe in your own life, and begin creating a few that support your health and your weight mastery journey.

[00:03:38] Because whether we realize it or not, we all have sequences, and some work for us and some definitely do not.

[00:03:47] So today, we’re gonna look at how to make those patterns more conscious, more supportive, and eventually so familiar that they become much easier to follow.

[00:03:58] So here’s one thing that’s breaking the sequence, is I’m gonna ask you to leave a review if you are on a podcast platform and have the ability to do so.

[00:04:09] Please, this is how people find us.

[00:04:11] It’s a big part of the, you know, world of finding people on podcasts, and we love, love our thin thinking community, and we are all about helping it grow.

[00:04:23] So if you leave a review, we would so appreciate it.

[00:04:27] So thank you so much.

[00:04:30] Now, get cozy.

[00:04:31] And you already know, if you’ve been around, what comes next.

[00:04:35] Let’s dive in.

[00:04:39] All right.

[00:04:40] So sequencing isn’t just something I made up because I like a good routine.

[00:04:45] There’s actually a lot of science behind why this works.

[00:04:51] Habit researcher Wendy Wood and her colleagues found that about 43% of the behaviors people reported doing each day were things they repeated in the same circumstances while their minds were actually focused on something else.

[00:05:07] 43%.

[00:05:08] Apparently, while we think we’re running the show, nearly half the cast already knows their lines, right?

[00:05:15] So think about how this shows up with weight.

[00:05:19] Have you ever said, “I don’t even know why I eat when I get home,” or, “I just find myself standing in the pantry,” or, “I always want something sweet after dinner”?

[00:05:30] Or maybe you just sit down in front of the TV at night and somehow a snack just appears in your hand.

[00:05:37] I certainly know that feeling.

[00:05:41] You may not consciously be deciding each one of those steps.

[00:05:44] There may already be a sequence running.

[00:05:48] You walk through the door, you walk into the kitchen, you open the cupboard, you grab something to eat.

[00:05:53] Or maybe you finish dinner, and you sit down on the sofa.

[00:05:57] The television goes on, and suddenly your brain says, “Okay, where’s something sweet or something salty?”

[00:06:03] That’s a sequence.

[00:06:05] And research on habits show us that familiar situations, environments, and even the action that came just before can become cues that automatically trigger the next behavior, which is really important to understand because so much of the weight struggle can feel like, “Why am I doing this again?”

[00:06:25] But your brain may simply be following a well-practiced path.

[00:06:31] And here’s the big aha.

[00:06:33] The weight struggle already has sequences.

[00:06:37] We are not inventing sequencing.

[00:06:39] What we’re learning to do is sequence in our favor, leverage the power on our weight mastery side of the street, to take that same incredible ability of the brain to learn a pattern and start deliberately creating patterns that support our health, weight, and everything else.

[00:06:58] So okay, let me bring you into my actual morning routine or morning sequence.

[00:07:05] And I want to say right up front, this did not hatch overnight.

[00:07:10] This has evolved over many, many, many years of trying things, keeping what worked, dropping what didn’t, adding things, and changing things as my life changed, and it will certainly change again.

[00:07:24] But right now, this particular sequence supports me mentally, physically, spiritually, all of it.

[00:07:30] And because I’ve done it over and over again, I don’t have to put a tremendous amount of thought into it anymore.

[00:07:37] It just flows.

[00:07:39] So here we go.

[00:07:40] Now, I usually wake up around 4:30 in the morning, and before I even get out of bed, I take about 10 slow, deep breaths and just let myself wake up.

[00:07:52] And hopefully I slept well.

[00:07:54] I’m not always the world’s greatest sleeper, so some mornings are definitely more glamorous than others.

[00:08:02] But those first breaths are my first cue.

[00:08:05] “Okay, Rita, we are beginning the day.”

[00:08:09] And then I immediately put on my earbuds, and I listen to a little recording I make for myself every month or every two months.

[00:08:17] It depends on what time of the year it is.

[00:08:19] But it’s usually only about five minutes long, and you could call it a meditation or a self-hypnosis session.

[00:08:26] And my students know that… Well, my students and members in my community, we give you morning meditations as well just to listen to just because we are in a very relaxed mind state.

[00:08:43] Obviously, it’s a trance state when we wake up in the morning, and it’s a really great time to put a positive message into our mind versus a negative one.

[00:08:55] Because what do most of us do when we wake up?

[00:08:57] Our eyes open, and within the first 30 seconds, we’re worrying.

[00:09:01] “What do I have to do today? What went wrong yesterday? Did I send that email? What’s happening with my child, my grandchild, the world?”

[00:09:09] Well, good morning.

[00:09:11] So I deliberately give my mind something else to focus on first, and the recording is centered around gratitude and a little future pacing for the month ahead.

[00:09:22] I’ll say things like, “I’m so grateful that I made healthy choices this month. I’m so grateful that I stayed strong and healthy in my body and mind. I’m so grateful that I accomplished the things that mattered to me.”

[00:09:36] And it would get obviously way more specific than that.

[00:09:40] I’m grateful that I, for instance, got my taxes done easily and effortlessly.

[00:09:46] That’s always a crowd pleaser.

[00:09:48] Or I’m grateful that I showed my children how much I love them.

[00:09:53] It’s simple, five minutes.

[00:09:54] And by the way, you don’t need Rita’s app or a professional recording studio to do this, honestly.

[00:10:02] You can write down what you wanna feel grateful for, hit record on your phone, put some quiet music underneath if you want a YouTube meditation, something like that, and read it slowly back to yourself.

[00:10:16] You do have to get over hearing your own recorded voice, which can, for some, be mildly horrifying, mm, for about three days, and then you survive.

[00:10:25] You get… you move on.

[00:10:26] So that is the first piece of my day.

[00:10:30] And then while I’m still lying in bed, I’ll usually reach over and touch my husband, who is generally sleeping and snoring, and my dog, who is also usually sleeping and snoring.

[00:10:43] And I just let myself feel grateful that they’re there and that they’re alive and that I love them.

[00:10:50] That really grounds me.

[00:10:53] And then I move into another part of the sequence that I started years ago after reading about practices in Japan of honoring the generations who came before us, and this little practice completely changed my mornings.

[00:11:09] So I think about both of my parents who passed over 20 years ago my grandparents, my great-grandparents who I never met, but I’m just sending energy out to them and love.

[00:11:21] Generations before them I never even knew, and I thank them.

[00:11:26] And then I begin moving outward.

[00:11:28] I send love to my children and the people closest to me, and then my friends, and then my team, and then the coaches and leaders in our community, and then our larger Shift community, my students, members, and then you, my podcast listeners, and then people I just even haven’t met yet.

[00:11:51] And I finally send some love out into the world to people who may desperately need somebody somewhere to be wishing them well that morning.

[00:12:00] And it doesn’t take long.

[00:12:02] I cannot tell you how much it changes the energy with which I begin my day.

[00:12:07] And then I do one final piece before I get out of bed.

[00:12:11] I future pace the day ahead.

[00:12:14] I ask myself this one question: What would need to be true for this to be a beautiful, healthy day?

[00:12:22] What are two or three things I really want to accomplish?

[00:12:26] How do I wanna take care of myself today?

[00:12:28] What do I need to make today a healthy day?

[00:12:31] Who do I want to connect with?

[00:12:34] And this kind of a little inner coach huddle before my feet hit the floor.

[00:12:39] It’s very important for me.

[00:12:41] So there’s a lot of mind and spirit work happening before I even, you know, get out of bed, put my feet on the floor.

[00:12:48] And I know that sounds like I’ve been lying there since midnight doing all of this, but really the whole thing takes around 13 minutes because it’s a sequence.

[00:13:00] Well, maybe 15. Okay, 15.

[00:13:03] And I’m not stopping between every step to decide what happens next.

[00:13:06] It just flows, and my feet hit the floor, I go to the bathroom, I weigh myself, which i- we can talk about later, yeah, in a completely different episode.

[00:13:15] Maybe that will be interesting. But I weigh myself. I brush my teeth.

[00:13:19] I drink a lot of water to rehydrate.

[00:13:22] You know, normal human morning things.

[00:13:24] And then I go downstairs and I put the kettle on for tea, and this is where one of my favorite sequences was born.

[00:13:33] Years ago, I thought, “I’m standing here waiting for the water to boil. What could I do with this little pocket of time?”

[00:13:39] And I thought I could stretch, and that was it.

[00:13:43] Kettle goes on, Rita stretches. Very simple.

[00:13:46] Well, that little sequence has grown.

[00:13:48] Now I turn the kettle on, and while it’s doing its thing, I start my movement routine.

[00:13:54] I open the front door and I go out onto the porch.

[00:13:58] I got this from Andrew Huberman, the looking at the sun in the morning, which is supposed to be really great for your brain and I love it.

[00:14:06] I actually do.

[00:14:07] I mean, you know, you can love or hate Huberman, but I actually love this.

[00:14:11] And I am fortunate, I do live in Southern California, so I can actually put on slippers in the dead of winter, go out there with a sweater on and do this.

[00:14:21] But, while I’m standing on my front porch, I do balance exercises.

[00:14:25] I’m 62.

[00:14:26] Balance matters enormously to me because I garden and I’m constantly stepping around things and climbing over things and backing into things, and I would very much like to remain upright and not break any bones, so I work on balance.

[00:14:42] And then I do stretching, and then I have a little set of weights by the door, so I do about 10 minutes of strength work.

[00:14:49] Squats, lifting, nothing terribly elaborate, but I get the job done.

[00:14:55] My children would probably laugh at my little weights routine ’cause they go to the gym and they’re, like, lifting hundreds of pounds.

[00:15:04] Very serious. And I’m like, “Oh, great. You guys do you.”

[00:15:08] I’m… You know, I get this thing in every day, and it makes me happy.

[00:15:14] And I also do, by the way, take serious resistance training classes and obviously other exercises.

[00:15:21] But this is just something I repeat every day, and I know my muscles are getting some love, which at my age is important to me.

[00:15:30] So this is my baseline, this morning routine thing I know I’m doing, and then I get my tea, I go back into the front room, and I sit quietly and I watch the sunrise or depending on the time of year, the sun may have already risen.

[00:15:47] But this is one of my favorite parts of the whole morning.

[00:15:50] No one is up yet. I’m not at my desk. I’m not in meetings.

[00:15:53] Nobody needs anything from me. Well, they do, but I just ignore them, and I just sit.

[00:15:59] And sometimes I talk to my inner coach, sometimes I’m problem-solving, sometimes I’m thinking about something I’m creating, and sometimes I just let thoughts come to me.

[00:16:10] I call it my solution-seeking time.

[00:16:13] It’s quiet enough space that an idea has somewhere to land.

[00:16:18] And in fact, this very podcast episode came out of one of those mornings when I just was sitting there quietly thinking about how much of my life runs through sequences.

[00:16:29] And then after that, I go upstairs to my office, I sit down at my desk, I look through my day, I make my lists.

[00:16:37] I am a list person, Virgo here, and I get clear about what needs to happen.

[00:16:43] And now it’s usually around 6:30, I’m heading into my first meeting because, you know before I sit down to my first meeting, shower, put on clothes, and it’s around 6:30, and I’m heading into my first meeting because much of my team is on the East Coast or in Europe.

[00:17:00] So apparently, I am the late riser from California.

[00:17:04] And that gets me started, and that’s my getting started morning routine.

[00:17:10] Now, I haven’t really eaten anything.

[00:17:13] I’ve just had my tea.

[00:17:14] Eating happens later in the day ’cause I do other than my tea, I do fast until around 10:00.

[00:17:21] Again, that’s a whole other episode.

[00:17:24] But I just wanted you to see how this, it was a routine that evolved for me.

[00:17:30] And the important part of this is not that you need to wake up at 4:30, send love to 17 generations of relatives, balance on one leg on your porch lift weights, drink tea, and watch the sunrise.

[00:17:44] Please don’t take that from what I’m saying.

[00:17:47] The important part is one thing leads to the next.

[00:17:51] Breath cues meditation, meditation cues gratitude and connection. That cues my inner coach check-in, feet hitting the floor, going down to my basic morning care, downstairs, kettle.

[00:18:03] Kettle cues movement, that cues the tea, quiet thinking, planning.

[00:18:08] Planning transitions me into my working day, and that is sequencing.

[00:18:13] And then here’s where the science gets really interesting.

[00:18:17] In one classic habit formation study, researchers followed people who chose a simple eating, drinking, or exercise behavior and linked it to the same daily cue.

[00:18:30] Something like, “After breakfast, I will do this.”

[00:18:34] And as they repeated that behavior in the same context, it became increasingly automatic.

[00:18:41] For the people whose data fit the habit formation pattern well, the midpoint was about 66 days to get close to maximum automaticity.

[00:18:52] And that’s important.

[00:18:54] I would automaticity or, you know, automatic behavior.

[00:18:57] But what is important is that the range was huge.

[00:19:01] For some people, it happened way faster, and others, it took many months.

[00:19:06] But what I love is there is no magical 21 days and you now own a habit forever rule.

[00:19:12] The brain learns through repetition, though.

[00:19:16] You do it, and then you do it again, and then you do it again, and eventually you stop having to hold a daily internal committee meeting about whether you’re going to do it.

[00:19:25] It just becomes this is simply what comes next.

[00:19:30] And there was another part of that study that I found even more fascinating.

[00:19:34] Missing one opportunity did not materially derail the habit-building process.

[00:19:42] That’s pretty cool.

[00:19:43] I mean, apparently your brain doesn’t receive the dieting memo that says that if you miss Tuesday, you must eat everything through Sunday and then begin again on Monday, right?

[00:19:53] So it… just because you missed a day doesn’t mean you blew it.

[00:19:59] You just get back to the sequence, and that’s exactly how I approach my morning routine.

[00:20:04] Do I do every single piece every single morning? Absolutely not.

[00:20:08] In fact, this morning I had to cut out a big chunk because of my dog needing some attention and someone on my team needed my attention.

[00:20:19] So I had to cut out and cut my routine short.

[00:20:24] I may go back to it later, but just saying it doesn’t happen perfectly every day.

[00:20:29] And there are mornings that I have to leave early for a flight or I rarely oversleep, but if I do, or life happens, so I have shorter versions.

[00:20:38] And I keep the anchors, though.

[00:20:41] And when life settles down, I come back to the fuller experience because the goal isn’t to become a servant to your routine.

[00:20:50] The goal is to build supportive patterns that make it easier to be the person you wanna be.

[00:20:55] And over time, that is what this morning sequence has done for me.

[00:21:00] Before I begin my day, I’ve already connected with my mind, my body, my inner coach, the people I love, my health, my priorities, and the kind of day I wanna create, and most of it doesn’t require any willpower anymore.

[00:21:11] It’s just simply the way my morning unfolds.

[00:21:15] Now I don’t want you to think sequencing is only about having some fabulous morning routine.

[00:21:22] You can create little sequences throughout your entire day.

[00:21:24] I like to think of them as pillars.

[00:21:27] Maybe you have a morning pillar, a midday pillar, and a late afternoon or early evening pillar.

[00:21:34] And you don’t need to have every minute of your life organized. Heavens, no.

[00:21:39] You are simply looking for reliable moments in your day where one healthy behavior can naturally cue another.

[00:21:47] And there’s actually some interesting science around this.

[00:21:51] Psychologists call one version of this implementation intention, which is really just a fancy way of saying, “When I do this, then I do that or, “When this happens, I do this.”

[00:22:05] And research showing and thousands of people have found that these kinds of specific if-then plans can improve healthy eating behaviors.

[00:22:17] And I think the reason this is so useful is very simple.

[00:22:20] Your brain likes knowing what comes next.

[00:22:24] So instead of saying, “I really should walk more,” you say, “After I eat lunch, I take a 10-minute walk.”

[00:22:31] Instead of, “I need to drink more water,” it becomes, “When I make my coffee, I fill my water bottle.”

[00:22:38] Or maybe when you finish your last meeting of the day, that cues you to stand up, stretch, take a few breaths, and check in with your inner coach before moving into your evening.

[00:22:49] And that’s it.

[00:22:50] You’re creating these little healthy handoffs throughout your day, and the more often you repeat them, the less you have to remember them, motivate yourself to do them, or negotiate with yourself about them.

[00:23:03] Eventually, your brain starts to learn, “Oh, this happens, and then this is what we do next.”

[00:23:10] And that is where sequencing starts becoming incredibly powerful.

[00:23:14] Now, if we look at it, morning routines get all the Instagram glory, but if you’ve struggled with your weight for long enough, I would like to nominate about 4:00 in the afternoon for a serious Academy Award.

[00:23:28] Because for a lot of us, this is where things start getting interesting.

[00:23:33] We’re tired, we’re hungry, we’ve been making decisions all day, we’re stressed, and also this is where some of our oldest, most practiced sequences can kick in.

[00:23:44] Think about this. You had a long day, you’re tired, you walk into the kitchen, you nibble on something while you’re figuring out dinner, then you eat dinner, then you sit down on the sofa, the television goes on, something sweet sounds good, then maybe something else sounds good, and then eventually the inner critic shows up and says, “Seriously? Again?”

[00:24:02] And then comes that old familiar thought, “Well, fine. I’ll pull it together tomorrow.”

[00:24:07] And look at that.

[00:24:08] That’s an entire sequence, and none of those individual moments seem particularly dramatic, but string them all together day after day and they become a very powerful pathway, which is why you can sometimes find yourself at the end of the evening thinking, “How did I get here again?”

[00:24:27] Well, you may not have consciously chosen every step.

[00:24:30] In fact, you didn’t. Your brain simply knows the route.

[00:24:35] And this is where sequencing becomes so useful for weight mastery, because we can begin building a different route.

[00:24:42] Maybe late afternoon cues a pause, and that pause cues an inner coach check-in, and maybe you look ahead at dinner before you’re ravenously hungry.

[00:24:52] Finishing dinner cues putting the kitchen away.

[00:24:56] Turning on the television cues making tea instead of automatically looking for something to eat.

[00:25:02] I’m not saying those need to be your sequences.

[00:25:05] The point is to start noticing, what is cuing what?

[00:25:10] And there’s actually some weight management research supporting this idea.

[00:25:15] In one randomized study of more than 500 adults with obesity, researchers taught people simple weight management behaviors, specifically with the goal of turning them into habits.

[00:25:27] The people who received that habit-based approach had modest but meaningful improvements in weight compared with usual care, and later analysis suggested that increases in automaticity, behaviors becoming more automatic, and self-regulation helped explain some of that change.

[00:25:48] So that’s exciting because there’s real evidence that intentionally practicing healthy behaviors until they become more automatic can support weight management in the long run.

[00:25:58] And to me, that is really hopeful, because the patterns that have worked against you became powerful through repetition.

[00:26:06] They weren’t delivered to you on a stone tablet.

[00:26:08] They were practiced.

[00:26:09] Which means new patterns can be practiced, too, and that’s really what we’re doing here.

[00:26:14] We’re not trying to white-knuckle our way through every afternoon and evening.

[00:26:18] We’re building a new pathway, rehearsing it often enough that eventually our brain begins to say, “Oh, yeah, I know this route, too.”

[00:26:29] And now there’s a- another important thing I just wanna say about this.

[00:26:33] The routine is here to support your life.

[00:26:35] Your life is not here to serve your routine, because other things happen in life.

[00:26:40] You travel, or your environment changes.

[00:26:43] You’re in a different bed or kitchen or different food is around you, or you’re on a different schedule, and there’s no front porch or no kettle or no set of weights by the door.

[00:26:54] And research on habits tells us that this matters, because habits are very connected to context and cues.

[00:27:01] So when the environment changes, some of those automatic behaviors can get disrupted simply because the cues that normally set them in motion aren’t there, and I think this explains something so many people experience.

[00:27:16] They’ll say, “I’m doing so well when I’m at home, but then I go on vacation, and everything falls apart.”

[00:27:24] Tail in a hand basket.

[00:27:26] What happened to me? Well, nothing happened to you, but your cues disappeared, and that doesn’t mean you suddenly lost discipline or forgot how to take care of yourself.

[00:27:35] It means you are in a different environment.

[00:27:37] So when I travel, I don’t drag my entire Los Angeles morning routine into a hotel room in Florida or New York or wherever I happen to be.

[00:27:48] I create a travel version. I wake up and I breathe.

[00:27:51] I still listen to my meditation. I connect with my inner coach.

[00:27:55] I can move my body, and I can think through my day ahead.

[00:27:59] But it may happen in a completely different order. It may be much shorter.

[00:28:03] It may look like nothing like my morning at home, but I bring some of the anchors with me, and I think that’s the key.

[00:28:12] You don’t have to pack your entire routine into your suitcase, but pack the anchors.

[00:28:17] Let the sequence bend with your life because this isn’t about being rigid.

[00:28:21] It’s about having supportive patterns that you know you can return to at home, on vacation, during holidays, whenever life decides to rearrange the furniture.

[00:28:34] So now let’s make this really doable, practical.

[00:28:38] I do not want you leaving this podcast thinking you have to go home and create a 17-step morning routine and completely reorganize your life.

[00:28:48] No. I want you to look at three places in your day where simple sequences could support you.

[00:28:55] And here I have every belief that you probably have very powerful sequences already in place.

[00:29:01] But just for the heck of it, think about three little pillars that you could create in your day, maybe in your morning.

[00:29:09] What already happens every morning without fail?

[00:29:11] Maybe you make coffee, you brush your teeth, you feed the dog, you come downstairs. That’s an anchor.

[00:29:17] So now ask yourself, “What is one supportive behavior I could put right after that?” Maybe after you make coffee, you fill your water bottle.

[00:29:27] Maybe after you brush your teeth, you take three deep breaths and check in with your inner coach.

[00:29:32] I have a client, a student, Karen, long member of our community, she brushes her teeth and does pliés.

[00:29:40] You know, that’s super cool. She figured that out.

[00:29:42] She added that in. She sequenced that.

[00:29:45] The important thing is keep it simple.

[00:29:48] Then look at the middle of your day. What happens pretty predictably? Lunch?

[00:29:52] Uh, finishing your morning work? Maybe you pick up the grandkids.

[00:29:56] And then just ask again, “What could I attach to that?”

[00:29:59] Maybe after lunch I walk for 10 minutes.

[00:30:02] Maybe when I finish my morning work block, I stand up, stretch, and drink some water and think ahead to the rest of the day.

[00:30:10] And then finally, look at your late afternoon or evening.

[00:30:14] And this one can be especially powerful if evenings are a struggle point for you.

[00:30:19] And I don’t want you asking, “Where do I blow it?”

[00:30:22] That’s the inner critic talking.

[00:30:23] But put on your inner scientist hat and ask, “Where does the sequence begin?

[00:30:30] Is it 5:00, when I’m walking into the kitchen, turning on the television, pouring that first glass of wine?

[00:30:37] Is it simply feeling tired?”

[00:30:40] Just find that first cue, and then ask, “What sequence would serve me better from there?”

[00:30:47] Not perfectly or forever, just better.

[00:30:50] And that is how you begin. One anchor, one supportive action. Repeat it.

[00:30:56] Then when that starts to feel natural, you can add the next thing.

[00:30:59] You’re not trying to engineer your entire life.

[00:31:01] You’re just creating a few places in your day where your brain can begin to learn.

[00:31:06] When this happens, this is what we do next.

[00:31:09] And over time, those little pillars can become the structure that supports a much healthier day.

[00:31:15] So now let’s bring this all the way home.

[00:31:19] Long-term weight mastery is not about making brilliant, healthy decisions from morning until night.

[00:31:28] No. No, no, no, no, no.

[00:31:31] It’s about creating supportive sequences that you can create often enough that eventually they begin to carry you.

[00:31:40] Because your old patterns didn’t become powerful because you consciously chose them every single time. They became powerful because you repeated them, and that means something very hopeful.

[00:31:50] You can repeat something new, and you can fade those old patterns.

[00:31:56] Now, you don’t need to overhaul your whole life this week.

[00:31:58] I hope you’ve gotten that. Just pick one.

[00:32:01] One anchor, one supportive action, and repeat it. Let it become familiar.

[00:32:05] Let your brain begin to learn, “Oh, this is what we do next.”

[00:32:08] And then that feels natural, and then add another piece.

[00:32:12] And remember, you are an apprentice.

[00:32:14] You are learning. You are practicing. You are not trying to build the perfect day.

[00:32:19] You’re building a day that supports you, and over time, that is what weight mastery can begin to look like.

[00:32:25] Not white-knuckling, not constant decision-making, not waking up every morning and hoping you’ll have willpower, but a life with enough healthy sequences built into it that little by little, your healthy day begins to happen almost by itself, and that is the power of sequencing.

[00:32:44] And if you wanna add one more healthy action, go, go into your podcast, your podcast platform and leave a review for the Thin Thinking podcast.

[00:32:57] All right, my friends? So have a great week, and remember that the key and probably the only key to unlocking the door of the weight struggle is inside you.

[00:33:06] So keep listening and find it, and I will be here with you, and that’s a sequence.

[00:33:14] If you wanna dive deeper into the mindset of long-term weight release, head on over to www.shiftweightmastery.com.

[00:33:26] That’s www.shiftweightmastery.com, where you will find numerous tools and resources to help you unlock your mind for permanent weight release, tips, strategies, and more.

[00:33:39] 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.