Rita Black: Did you ever think you were overweight growing up? Like you were fat and all your friends were thin? And then you look back at old pictures and think, wow, I really wasn’t fat at all. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that.

Rita Black: This happened to many of us who are children of the skinny mini 70’s where stick thin was the look. And if you didn’t fit in, you were fat. Today, Michele Acerra is our guest. She grew up in the 60’s and the 70’s and was exposed to a lot of limiting beliefs like a lot of us. And a lot of us went on diets before we were even teenagers and began a life of going from one diet to the next. Michele shares her weight story with us today and how she turned all the pain and failure over the past into success by shifting her mind. She has released 35 pounds in the last few months, but a ton of limiting beliefs and self-criticism. So come on in and join us and hear Michele ‘s inspiring story on the Thin Thinking Podcast.

Rita Black: Did you know that our struggle with weight doesn’t start with the food on your plate or get fixed in the gym? 80% of our weight struggle is mental. That’s right. The key to unlocking long-term weight release and management begins in your mind. Hi there, I’m Rita Black. I’m a clinical hypnotherapist weight loss expert, best-selling author, and the creator of the Shift Weight Mastery Process. And not only have I helped thousands of people over the past 20 years achieved 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.

Rita Black: Hey there, come on in. I have a question for you. How many times have you joined Weight Watchers? I’m just laughing. Nothing against Weight Watchers, but growing up, Weight Watchers was just like the go-to right when you had gotten out of control. Going back to Weight Watchers, I remember the little white folder. Remember if those of you who went back in the early days of Weight Watchers or well, in the 70’s and 80’s and there was this little white foldable folder before they went digital and everyday, every time a week, you would go in and you would get weight in and they would put your weight on the card. I went to Weight Watchers twice in high school, once when I was 15 and once when I was 17. And I remember this really clearly because it’s cold in Seattle, especially in the winter.

Rita Black: It’s not as cold as some places, but it’s pretty darn cold. And I would get weighed in every week on a Thursday and I was weighing in in the evening. And so I starved myself all day long. And I remember wearing really light summer pants, and a light t-shirt and hardly anything else to go get weighed in, even in the dead of winter. And of course, in order to sustain myself through starving myself in order to weigh less on the scale, I would eat a couple of Snicker bars cause they didn’t weigh that much. Now there’s so many diets to go on and off, and that’s why it’s even more important for you to come to my free upcoming free masterclass that I want you to attend. Wednesday the 26th of April, 2023, I am hosting this masterclass called How to Break Through the Weight Struggle Cycle So That You Can Release Weight Consistently and Permanently.

Rita Black: We all know how to lose weight. We’ve been Weight Watchers. It’s not about that though. You know how to lose weight. We know how, what to eat, how to exercise, but really what’s driving our habits and our beliefs is in our mind. And we need to learn to work with our mind effectively. And in this masterclass, I am gonna show you some really powerful shifts that you can make immediately to start getting some traction moving forward and getting consistency so you can feel empowered and break through that old struggle cycle and feel successful. Now, if you’re hearing this past the date of April 26th, 2023, fear or not, there is always something in the show notes there for you, some sort of free, wonderful offer that you can take advantage of. So whether it’s before April 26th or after, please go to the show notes and please sign up. I look forward to seeing you in the masterclass.

Rita Black: And now I’d like to introduce you to Michele , who is currently in my membership. She’s a graduate of the Fall 2022 Shift and she has released 35 pounds so far, but so much more than that, I think you’re gonna find her story very is inspiring. So let’s get started. Hello Michele and welcome to the Thin Thinking Podcast. We are so happy you are here today.

Michele Acerra: Happy to be here, Rita.

Rita Black: Thank you. I’m a little out of breath. Michele and I were laughing because we were both, she has to, she closed her door too because of her granddaughter and I had my dog, and we were like, okay, we need to get rid of all distracting factors before we start this interview. So, Michele ‘s here to discuss her journey, her weight release journey. It’s been an inspiring journey to watch and have you beyond cause you’ve gone through so many amazing mental shifts, Michele . But before we dive into that part of the journey, I would love for you just to share with us, you know, some of your earlier life and how you struggled because you started struggling pretty early on, right?

Michele Acerra: Oh, yes. I’ve been overweight all my life since a child. I can never remember not being overweight or thinking about my weight. Even at the times when I was somewhat thinner, I was worrying about gaining weight back or thinking I was heavier than I was. I look at pictures of myself sometimes when I was 16 or 17 and I thought I was so fat and I was, you know, a little on the chunky side, but I wasn’t severely overweight at that point. You know? Even when I was seven or eight years old, I can remember being in school and every year the nurse would weigh and measure all the children and then they would call down to the office everyone who was outside of the accepted weight range, I guess. And, you know, back then, it was in the 60’s, there weren’t as many overweight children then that I can remember in a class of 40.

Michele Acerra: Maybe there were five or six of us. And of course when we all got up at the same time and left, everyone knew why. And, you know, some kids would be snickering, not all, but some, and then we’d get a lecture from the nurse about how, you know, we should exercise more, don’t eat ice cream everyday. And I, and I can remember thinking, I don’t need ice cream everyday. Why does she think that? And being handed a sheet for a diet that, you know, an eight or nine year old wouldn’t even know where to begin. You know?

Rita Black: Did they ever talk to your parents about that? Like, did they ever –

Michele Acerra: No.

Rita Black: But they were just sort of like shaming you and saying, you know, you’re not, you need to behave and here’s a diet.

Michele Acerra: No, I never told my parents about it. I felt ashamed of being overweight even at the age of eight or nine or 10, knowing that I was overweight. And I didn’t really know what to do about it at that age. I mean, I was, as an activist, any other child, I rode my bike, I’d play games. But I do remember we drank a lot of soda back then. We drank soda, like it was water, it was always soda in the house. And of course, Italian food, you know, pasta. But by the time I got to high school, seventh, eighth grade, then I wanted to go on a diet. And I think I was in the seventh grade or eighth grade when I joined Weight Watchers for the first time. And the summer before high school, I lost probably 25 or 30 pounds with a friend.

Michele Acerra: We both went to Weight Watchers and, you know, high school. I did manage to keep my weight in a more reasonable range, like say 150 pounds to 160 pounds where I was wearing a size 14, let’s say. And I didn’t eat a lot. I remember eating very little to stay that weight. I remember thinking I ate a lot less than everyone else, people that were thinner than me. I had friends that were walking around with a donut in their hand in school. And I would be a fool to put a donut in my mouth, especially in front of someone else. But that was high school. And then, you know I met a guy when I was in high school who I actually married. We met when we were a junior and a senior in high school. We’re still married. We’re gonna be married 47 years this year.

Rita Black: Oh, congratulations.

Michele Acerra: Thank you. We went to the senior –

Rita Black: I didn’t know you met your husband in high school. That’s so sweet.

Michele Acerra: I did. I met my husband in high school and I wanted to get married, so I didn’t go right to college. I went to a college level secretarial course, got a job at the United Nations. That was my first job. And I remember tasting a lot of different foods there, croissants when no one else was eating croissants. We had croissants in the cafeteria. Scottish shortbread cause they had a whole, you know, and I put some weight on eating all that stuff that I had never tasted before. And then the wedding was coming around when I was 21. And then I had to go on a diet again. So I joined Weight Watchers and, you know, there were many Weight Watchers, the experiences in between there, that seemed to be my diet of choice, Weight Watchers. And I’m not knocking Weight Watchers. It does work. It’s it’s rooted in science. You know? They might say you’re not counting calories, but they’re counting them for you so..

Rita Black: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s gotten a little wacky. I mean like, I don’t know. We don’t need to talk about Weight Watchers or their brand or anything like that, but it’s, I think it’s a lot different than it was back in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, the way they approached their approach. Yeah. But, so you went back to Weight Watchers and did you release some weight for your wedding?

Michele Acerra: I did lose weight for the wedding, yes. I joined I believe in January. I got married in August. I lost about 30 pounds, I think to get into that wedding dress, you know, and went to Hawaii for a week and I gained eight pounds in Hawaii in a week. I know you say it’s not possible that I actually gained eight pounds of fat and I know that. Like I said, it’s been a lifelong struggle. And then the pregnancy come along and you gain weight with the pregnancies. And over the years I developed a very, you know, a very big weight problem. I had two sets of twins, as, you know, put on weight with those and each pregnancy put on a few more pounds. And then after the pregnancy I would lose some of it and go back and forth. And with five children and ultimately a full-time job once when they all went to school, weight control was sort of on the back burner.

Rita Black: Yeah. And it is for a lot of moms. The, I, it just, the demands of raising a family. We are so programmed to put our needs at the bottom of everybody else’s as a mom. And I couldn’t even imagine having five children, let alone two sets of twins. One set of girls and one set of boys. Correct? Yeah. And all of varying ages. Right? They were very spaced apart. I don’t know how you did it, Michele. I’m in awe.

Rita Black: So but so then over that time when you, you know, as you struggled, were you, it sounds like you kind of checked out, you weren’t trying to release weight at that point, then you got to a point where you decided, okay, right, I’ve gotta kind of take care of things. And were you kind of going from diet to diet to diet? Or were you just trying to lose the weight yourself? Like how did it continue on?

Michele Acerra: Weight Watcher was the most prevalent one for me. But I can remember doing Atkins back in the days when Atkins was really extreme, when, you know, you ate bacon and eggs and butter and heavy cream in your coffee, steak. Oh, what a horrible diet that one.

Rita Black: Yeah. I know. I think I ask like, what are the silliest diets you’ve been on? And you mentioned that that was like one of yours.

Michele Acerra: That was the only one that I think was very inadvisable. It’s the only way I could put it. I remember I felt awful on that diet.

Rita Black: Yeah, yeah.

Michele Acerra: But I’ve tried other ones. You know, they’re all variations on a theme. Don’t eat this, you can’t eat that. But Atkins to me was the most extreme.

Rita Black: Right. Well, how do you feel like, you know, given the fact that you have spent a good part of your life, man, you know, trying to manage your weight, where do you think the diet industry has it wrong? Like where do you feel like, you know, how does dieting impact your relationship with yourself? You know what I mean? Like, I think –

Michele Acerra: You’re almost doomed to fail. Everyone can lose weight. Everyone can’t get down as far as they wanna get down to. And then you’re made to fail if you don’t, you know, if you, if you can’t get down to a predetermined weight and you feel like you failed, if you can’t keep the weight off, you feel like you’ve failed. And it is very difficult to keep weight off. It’s in a lot of ways it, it’s more challenging than losing the weight. You know, you have to live differently for the rest of your life. You can’t go back to the, the way you were before. Cause the weight’s just waiting to come back on. It’s never really –

Rita Black: Yeah, I know. Well, I mean, and we are, I know you are still on your weight release journey down the scale, but I’d like to think that the work that you’re doing now is gonna lay the foundation for an easier maintenance. I, but I agree with, I do think so, but I agree with you that I think where we’re led astray with just the dieting culture. I don’t need to blame the industry, but we, I think we think we’re fed this fairytale idea that we’ll lose the weight. It comes off and then, you know, we can go back to eating the way we were or that we’re magically cured. Whereas weight management is a lifelong relationship with yourself in a different way. You know, where you’re advocating for yourself more, taking better care of yourself. And you’re also, you are also managing something.

Rita Black: And I think something you mentioned, cause we talk about skinny people and skinny people envy. But you know, I have said this to many people that we, I think we think too that the other person, we make the skinny other person into this, you know, person who’s lucky cause they don’t have to manage their weight. But many, many people who are average weight or even thin are focusing on their weight in some way. I think it’s an illusion that you know, that, oh, I have to go on a diet, I have to lose weight. These other people are lucky. And I think that does us wrong because then it makes us feel even more like the outsider, even more like we’re, there’s something lacking in us rather than the fact, the sheer fact that even beyond the diet industry, the food industry which is out of control is, you know we live in a world full of food, full of food choices and a lot of those choices do our health harm, but they also addict our brains to the food.

Rita Black: And even then, people, even if their metabolisms are blessed, they feel addicted to food because they’re continuing to eat. Anyway, I could go on for it, but that’s, that’s not what this, this is about you. But I did want, because I know for you, it’s been painful and it’s, and you have felt like an outsider and you have felt like, you know, it’s, there’s something wrong. And I definitely felt that way on my own painful struggles. So now let me ask you, how did you find out about the shift, the Shift Weight Mastery Process?

Michele Acerra: On Facebook. A friend of mine posted a link and she didn’t send it to me in particular. She just posted it in general about you know, the free webinar that you do as an introductory, it’s about a two hour thing. And it looked interesting. And as I told you, I didn’t even tell her I was going to join because if I went in and I didn’t like it, I would’ve just, you know, gracefully backed out and not had to not tell her about it. So I did check it out and I, as I said, she’s someone who’s opinion I really valued. So I went through the free webinar and I, it sounded, it really sounded intriguing.

Rita Black: Had you ever done hypnosis before? Like had you ever been exposed to –

Michele Acerra: No, I never did hypnosis.

Rita Black: And what, what did you think about hypnosis? Like what, was that kind of a weird idea to you?

Michele Acerra: When I first heard that there was hypnosis involved, I had this, you know, magical thinking going on that yeah, okay, the hypnosis is gonna to trick my body into losing weight.

Rita Black: Right.

Michele Acerra: I don’t have to do anything except follow the hypnotic singles, whatever they are. Of course that’s not what it was, but it does help you focus, you know, it sort of makes you pay attention to yourself more. You know? You have to give into it to start off with, you know, you have to sort of surrender a little bit in the beginning, but then what it does, it makes you more in control of yourself.

Rita Black: Right. More engaged.

Michele Acerra: You’re much more laser focused on what’s going on and how you’re influencing your environment and what you do.

Rita Black: Yeah.

Michele Acerra: That’s what I find anyway.

Rita Black: Yeah. I agree with you. I feel like it gives you sort of an edge and also an awareness and a mindfulness and it allows you to connect more deeply with yourself and your true goals and right desires. Were you worried about the safety of hypnosis at all or were you not? That wasn’t a big –

Michele Acerra: No, I wasn’t.

Rita Black: Okay. Well, so during the 30-day process, how and well over the 30 days, and you know, getting going on a weight, so the difference between like a diet and a weight mastery journey, like what was that like in that first 30 days for you?

Michele Acerra: It was, it was intensive. I felt like I was doing something with it almost every day. Involved in something. There’s so much material, you know, both online Facebook and your involvement is really integral to me. I mean, I was surprised how much personal involvement you had in the whole process. Pleasantly surprised.

Rita Black: Aw.

Michele Acerra: I tried to take advantage of all the materials every day, you know, the daily emails, the meditations, the hypnosis. It’s almost as though the eating was, was almost secondary. The eating obviously, had to eat within a certain amount of calories per day. And you know, in the beginning when I heard calories I was like, oh no, not calories.

Rita Black: Yeah. I don’t know why I remember your, well, a lot of people are resistant to the idea of tuning into your energy intake in and out, that when we kind of really look at it from a cognitive perspective. I don’t know. That was, I mean, I think you found it more empowering than disempowering ultimately.

Michele Acerra: Yeah, it’s very helpful. You know what I found it the most helpful on days when I decided like on Christmas day, I’m going to eat more on Christmas day. Well, 2000 calories is what I have to eat if I wanna maintain my weight. I ate 2000 calories every day for seven days. Theoretically I should be the same weight at the end of the seven days. Now I’m not gonna do that for seven days, but I’m gonna do it today. And it takes away the the guilt. It takes away the feeling that you did something wrong. You made a conscious decision that I’m not going to lose weight today, but I’m gonna be losing weight overall.

Rita Black: Well, I think it puts you in the driver’s seat of your weight release. Right. So you get to make the choices of how much, how quickly you wanna release, you know, because ultimately, again, I think I go back to that idea of dieting where it’s like, okay, I’ve gotta lose two pounds a week or a pound a week and if I don’t eat in this specific way, that won’t happen. So our brain is then forced into this good or bad, on or off. Like, oh, I was good today, I was bad today. Rather than I’m choosing to release a pound this week. I’m choosing to release two pounds this week. I can make that happen. I am in the driver’s seat. I know what to do. I can, because I think we forget that this is a long-term journey and there are gonna be weeks where you go traveling, right.

Rita Black: You travel and you, you don’t necessarily wanna release weight. You wanna, but you also wanna know how much you can eat and not gain weight. And I think we take away that power when we just are like, well, I just wanna, you know, like, I don’t wanna think about that. I don’t wanna have to worry about that. So, but I do think it also, it’s kind of like a budget. You get used to it. You get used to what you need and what you don’t need, and it helps you be aware. So I think, I think that’s great that you had that transition because I do think it makes you more of an inner scientist. It’s it, when we put it in the perspective of being a scientist rather than a diet or people get it a lot more quickly. So how is it being an apprentice of weight mastery rather than struggling? I mean, how has it helped you overcome obstacles, having that apprentice mindset?

Michele Acerra: Well, you know, I never, I didn’t consider myself an apprentice at losing weight. I thought I was an old hand at losing weight. You know, I knew every, I could have told you the calories of everything without looking it up, but I wasn’t any success at it or any lasting success anyway. It’s more being an apprentice of learning to think critically about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it and how you can change your behaviors. I know that sounds very new age but it’s, it’s really –

Rita Black: No, it doesn’t, it sounds very levelheaded.

Michele Acerra: Right. Yesterday was my, as I told you, my daughter’s birthday and, you know, we brought a birthday cake and in the restaurant they cut up the birthday cake and they put this piece of birthday cake in front of me. That was enough. You know, it was way too big. And I was able to just cut it in half, eat it, and then sit there and say, yeah, I had enough birthday cake that wasn’t, it was delicious. I had enough and I just pushed the rest away. I wouldn’t have done that before. I would’ve decided, okay, today I’m gonna have a piece of birthday cake. And no matter how big it was when they put it in front of me, I would’ve eaten the whole thing. So that was, that was a major thing for me.

Rita Black: I’m very proud of you.

Michele Acerra: Well, thank you.

Rita Black: That is great. Where have you been surprised in your ability to be consistent? Where, you know, in the past you felt like you were on something off, you know, Weight Watchers, like –

Michele Acerra: Definitely, definitely the exercise. I’m actually shocked that I don’t think I’ve missed a day of exercise except for the week when I had COVID back in December. I have exercised every single day since then. It’s become second nature, I’m retired now, so I do have more time. I don’t have to worry about getting to work in the morning. So if I get up at, even if I get up at eight o’clock, like a little bit late, I just get on my exercise bike and I’m, you know, reading the newspaper or watching you know, the news or listening to one of your podcasts and just peddling away. Then the hour goes by, do an hour every morning. And I think it’s been extremely helpful.

Rita Black: That’s amazing. Yeah. I think it is. It’s something, it just is, again, I think so much of dieting is, we’re focused on exercise and food, like it’s outside of us. And when you are really in control of your journey, it becomes something who you are, oh, I’m somebody who gets up and exercises for an hour in the morning.

Michele Acerra: Absolutely. Absolutely. I don’t even think about it. Even on days when I think I’m not going to wanna exercise, I exercise. It’s just what I do when I get up in the morning.

Rita Black: That’s so cool. Here’s a question I have for you because I know you have a family, a big family. Five kids. I’m like still in awe, but, and you’ve been married for 47 years. Congratulations. That’s almost 47 years. That’s huge. But so yeah, you have people around you, you have grandchildren, you have a lot of people. How did you get them to support you and, and how has that been like? I’m curious because a lot of people struggle with support.

Michele Acerra: I’ve had no problem with people supporting me. You know, I’m the cook in the house for one thing. Nobody pushes food on me. Never has really really the one who, who, you know, brought in the sweets and baked the breads and the cookies and all that. I never had issue with people supporting me. I picked the restaurants, as I told you, if we’re going out, I look at the menu and I say, okay, this is it. They sort of count on me to pick the restaurants. They always did.

Rita Black: You know, we have a couple who lives on our block. My husband is like the mayor of our neighborhood. He, you know, walks her dog every day and he’s like, he talks to everybody and there’s this couple and they’re happily married. And he’s like, what’s the secret to your happy marriage? And a man says, well, she gets to make all the decisions, but I have just a couple of rules. Let the wife make all the decisions. That’s, that’s a, that’s a good one. So, but so your husband and your children and your grandchildren, you know, when you started embarking upon this journey, were they supportive? Were they, you know, are they, have they become your cheerleaders? Are they, or they’re just like, yeah, whatever. I think

Michele Acerra: They’re all telling me how good I look, how I, you know, I’ve lost 34 pounds since October, so everyone is impressed. I mean, I’m impressed with myself.

Rita Black: Have you gotten a lot of people saying, wow, you look great, to you, other than your family too?

Michele Acerra: A lot of people. We went to my sister-in-law’s house last month, and his aunt was there and she said, wow, what have you done? You look wonderful.

Rita Black: Wow. So, and how, and you like that you, you don’t mind when people pay attention to you. Okay, good for you. That’s awesome. Sometimes people struggle with that, but I’m glad you don’t. And if I wish you could see Michele , she’s so beautiful. She’s wearing this beautiful red shirt. She looks just so great. So now how confident do you feel about keeping on going, keeping on this journey?

Michele Acerra: I feel more confident than I’ve ever felt before. Where I want it to end, I can’t say yet, as I told you, I think when I get there, I’ll know. I wanna get to a weight where I feel comfortable and where I can comfortably maintain it. That’s, you know, maybe it’s another 35 pounds, maybe it’s another 45 pounds, we shall say.

Rita Black: That’s smart.

Michele Acerra: I think I can keep it up. I’m very encouraged by the fact that I was able to enjoy things that I like to enjoy and continue on the journey without really feeling like it was a setback in any way. Like I said, Thanksgiving day, Christmas day, New Year’s Day, my children’s birthday yesterday, I enjoyed them all those occasions while I’m still, you know, dropping weight and it doesn’t have to be, you know, oh, I can never eat this or I could never eat that. Maybe you can never read it all on the same day. But if you, if you do want to enjoy something, it can be done. As long as you work your plan.

Rita Black: I love that. I think that’s so true. And oh, not all, I loved how you said that, how you can have it and you can make it happen for yourself, but maybe not all in the way it used to happen. but it, but, but the way it used to happen ended up usually making us feel sick or out of balance or what have you, that’s what I’ve learned is that when you can have that half of a piece of birthday cake or you can have that you know, bowl of chips and just eat it and enjoy it and be very mindful of it, you get so much more out of it than you do rushing through it, feeling guilty, feeling bad, or feeling totally disconnected from it. So I know you’ve really taken on to cooking and being creative with you know, the way you’ve eaten. And I think that’s really helpful as well. You know, you’ve kind of invested in being, you know, finding weight. And you found ways to —

Michele Acerra: It’s challenging, you know, to try to cook things that you enjoy and that everyone else is going to enjoy because I’m not cooking five different meals for everyone. I, whatever I cook is what everyone eats and no one’s complained yet.

Rita Black: You’ve also just, you know, challenged yourself to, like you said, make something that was maybe an unhealthy addition to a healthier version of it. And that’s, you’ve done a great job doing that. And I think it’s important for people to know that’s possible. I think a lot of people do think like they have to eat their diet food and then the rest of the family can eat whatever they want rather than thinking of it holistically. Like –

Michele Acerra: It’s not sustainable to do that.

Rita Black: It’s not.

Michele Acerra: It’s just not sustainable.

Rita Black: And even if people in our families don’t struggle with weight, they can all benefit from eating more healthfully. I mean that’s, that’s the truth because, you know, they might not be struggling today. There’s such a thing and it’s getting very huge as thin people being over fat on the inside. Like, so they might not weigh it, but their fat ratio. So even though they might not be overtly overweight their health is in jeopardy due to, you know, an unhealthy diet. And not, and lack of exercise. So you are probably an amazing role model for your grandchildren, for your daughters, for your sons, you know, for all of your children.

Rita Black: So one last question, Michele, you’ve been so generous with all of your information. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to take their first steps forward as far as like just taking, you know, taking back their health and, you know, going on their own Weight Master Journey.

Michele Acerra: Well take it one step at a time. Be mindful, enlist your family and your friends to be your allies. You know, nothing is absolute, you, so many times you think, I could never have a piece of cake until I lose 45 pounds. Well, yes you can. Don’t give the food so much power. You’re the one with the power.

Rita Black: I love that. What great advice. Well, Michele , thank you so much for being on the Thin Thinking Podcast. It’s been such a joy, and, such a joy to have you in our community.

Michele Acerra: Thank you. I’m enjoying it a lot. I really am enjoying it.

Rita Black: Well, thank you for being here. Thank you, Michele , so much for taking the time to share your inspiring story with us. And just a reminder, it’s coming up. This date is coming up. So get in the Wednesday, April 26th, 2023 masterclass. It’s free. It’s called How to Break Through the Weight Struggle Cycle So That You Can Release Weight Consistently and Permanently. I look forward to this class. We’re gonna do one at 9:00 AM Pacific time and 5:00 PM Pacific Time. So hopefully we’re getting all of you in the UK and Australia covered as well. And it’s absolutely free. The link is in the show notes. Come join us. It’s going to be an amazing masterclass. And speaking of amazing, have a wonderful week and remember that the key and probably the only key to unlocking the door of the wait struggle is inside you. So keep listening and find it.

Rita Black: You wanna dive deeper into the mindset of long-term weight release, head on over to www.shiftweight mastery.com. That’s www.shiftweightmastery.com, where you’ll find numerous tools and resources to help you unlock your mind for permanent weight release tips, strategies, and more. And be sure to check the show notes to learn more about my book From Fat to Thin Thinking. Unlock Your Mind for Permanent Weight Loss.