[00:00:00] Rita Black: We’ve all heard the phrase French women don’t get fat. But what happens when a French woman does struggle with weight and with never having learned to truly care for herself? In today’s episode, you’ll meet Muriel, a courageous woman who not only shattered that myth, but released over a hundred pounds in the process.

[00:00:22] Rita Black: Her journey is about so much more than the number on the scale. It’s a story of deep self-realization, healing, fractured relationships, reconnecting with her body, and discovering the power to change from the inside out. Muriel’s transformation began the moment she made a decision not just to lose weight, but to rewrite the story she had been telling herself her entire life.

[00:00:48] Rita Black: If you’ve ever felt disconnected from your body, stuck in patterns you didn’t know how to break or unsure whether it’s really possible to change, Muriel’s story will move you, inspire you, and remind you the most powerful transformation begins the moment we choose to believe we’re worthy of it.

[00:01:16] Rita Black: Did you know that our struggle with weight doesn’t start with the food on your plate or get fixed in the gym? 80% of our weight struggle is mental. That’s right. The key to unlocking long-term weight release and management begins in your mind. Hi there, I’m Rita Black. I’m a clinical hypnotherapist, weight loss expert, bestselling [00:01:40] author, and the creator of the Shift Weight Mastery Process.

[00:01:44] Rita Black: And not only have I helped thousands of people over the past 20 years achieve long-term weight mastery. I am also a former weight struggler, carb addict and binge eater. And after two decades of failed diets and fad weight loss programs, I lost 40 pounds with the help of hypnosis. Not only did I release all that weight, I have kept it off for 25 years.

[00:02:09] Rita Black: Enter the Thin Thinking Podcast where you too will learn how to remove the mental roadblocks that keep you struggling. I’ll give you the thin thinking tools, skills, and insights to help you develop the mindset you need, not only to achieve your ideal weight, but to stay there long term and live your best life.

[00:02:30] Rita Black: Sound good? Let’s get started. Bon. I hope you are.

[00:02:42] Rita Black: Oh my goodness. I am so sorry. I just had to do that. So come on in. Come on in. Revu entre new.

[00:02:54] Rita Black: Re Moza Meza me, right? Oh my gosh. All of my bad years of bad French lessons in high school. Just you would never even know. Okay, so I have an amazing, and Muriel, I’m so sorry you had to listen to that. I had a very moving. Interview with Muriel, who is from France and is now maintaining her ideal weight after having [00:03:20] released over a hundred pounds.

[00:03:21] Rita Black: And her story is so vulnerable and inspiring and I know you are gonna find it motivating for your own journey. She, Muriel, will also be a coach at the upcoming fall 2025 shift that is coming up just around the corner. And the prep is actually starting September 17th and day one of the 30 day process is starting September 26th.

[00:03:50] Rita Black: So I can’t wait, but coming up even sooner is a free masterclass that I’m hosting one on August 13th, one on August 15th and one on August 16th. And I’m inviting you to come and join me. It’s gonna be a lot of fun. We are gonna dive in. To weight management from a subconscious standpoint. We’re gonna do some weight loss hypnosis, but we’re also gonna dive into the subconscious barriers that keep us struggling with weight and how to use your mind effectively to blast through them so that you can finally get consistency, because let’s face it, you know how to lose weight, but the challenge is always taking it off, keeping it off, and long-term permanent.

[00:04:37] Rita Black: Weight management. So we’re gonna look at that a lot more deeply. It’s called Mastering Your Mindset for Permanent Weight Release. The link is in the show notes, but also if you hop on over to www.shiftweightmastery.com/live, you can Al also sign [00:05:00] up www.shiftweightmastery.com/live, and you can watch it from your phone, your desktop.

[00:05:08] Rita Black: Or your tablet please come. I would love for you to be there. Okay. Let’s now start how do you say start in French? Oh my gosh. Anyway, let’s begin. Please meet me, Muriel. Welcome, Muriel, to the Thin Thinking Podcast, or, and I wanted to say Bon Rita,

[00:05:31] Muriel: thank you for having me. Thank you.

[00:05:32] Muriel: I’m so happy to be speaking with you.

[00:05:36] Rita Black: How do you say welcome in French? I feel so undereducated. I, I know the movie Cabaret and they say Vil Goldman, and that’s German. That’s German. But how do you say it? We say. We Oh, of course. Okay. To the podcast.

[00:06:02] Muriel: Thank you

[00:06:02] Rita Black: so much. I think you have, you are a first, you are the first a French woman that I’ve interviewed for the Thin Thinking Podcast. So you are opening the Doors to Europe for the Thin Thinking Podcast. We have a lot of European listeners, but I don’t know that I’ve interviewed that many European people, so I’m very excited to talk with you about your amazing journey but also about the difference because you and I were chatting about this before we turned on record about the difference, this mythology of the French or and European.[00:06:40]

[00:06:41] Rita Black: And unfortunately yes, but but yeah, so I usually like to just start our interview since we’re talking about your weight release journey, just to give us a brief idea of your journey with weight before, you came to the shift, but yeah, just, your weight struggle, I guess is what I say.

[00:07:03] Muriel: Yes. Just to set the background I’m just going to say that I had a very chaotic childhood with dysfunctional family around emotions. We did not talk about emotions was not very supportive. It was okay. It was chaotic, let’s say. Yeah. And it built my personality with enormous lack of structure.

[00:07:25] Muriel: I was raised by the wolves, and so I have a complete lack of structure and and antenna for people who would want to take control of me, right? And so I’m like a a free republic and I need my freedom. And so I think that’s important to know. ’cause it could have impact my my ability to turn to hypnosis.

[00:07:51] Muriel: To solve my weight problems. See when I was a kid, I was not fat. When I look at pictures objectively, I was not fat. I was a little bit chubby. I was a little chubby. I was not skinny, but I was not fat. But my. Parents, my mother had weight issues ’cause she came from a family of, with heavy obesity.

[00:08:11] Muriel: And and so she was always very mindful of her weight. And so she went in crazy diets like Scarsdale or [00:08:20] pineapple, popcorn or whatever of grape whatever. And she would take me with her. And so I was convinced from a young age that I had weight issues and so I would, I dive into crazy diets.

[00:08:36] Muriel: Okay. When, when I was in high school, for instance I was very self-conscious. I was convinced I was overweight. And objectively I was five two at that time. I’m 5, 5 1 now. I lost one, one inch. So I am in the one a five foot one club. I’m, I know there’s many of us in this club here.

[00:08:57] Muriel: And I was five foot two and I was weighing like, I don’t know, 130 pounds. So I was, my BMI was around 24, 25. I was not overweight. And, but I was very self-conscious and I was convinced I was overweight. And so I was uncomfortable in my body already at that time. And then when I was in a senior in high school, I was 16, I had skipped different classes and I was ready to graduate and I heard about the Rotary Exchange student program with the United States and I said, I have to go to the United, that’s for me.

[00:09:40] Muriel: So I decided I would do it. And I, so I went to the jury and and I got in ’cause my English was already pretty good and ’cause I had spent many hours with the Beatles. And so I love that my English came from there. And so I got in, I was really lucky. I was just [00:10:00] overjoyed with that.

[00:10:00] Muriel: It was in 82, I was 16 and I just took a plane and arrived in near Ithaca. Oh, upstate New York. Upstate New York on Kea Lake. And there was on a dairy farm with those wonderful people Catholic farmers and teachers in Cornell. They were teaching at Cornell University and they were just like wonderful people.

[00:10:26] Muriel: And I, so I had a great year, was I was struggling ’cause American, the American way to communicate is kind different from our way to communicate. ’cause we very how would I put that?

[00:10:39] Rita Black: I can’t find the words. Like Americans are more effusive, outgoing, emotionally sharing more, would you say, or no more explicit.

[00:10:49] Muriel: Okay. We come from a very implicit culture and American culture appeared to me very more more explicit. And so my jokes were just not really understood. But it was very a different way of communicating. But it was very interesting to observe and and people were much.

[00:11:12] Muriel: Kinder, much nicer. ’cause in France we’re always complaining and cynical and I didn’t find that where I was. It was strange, but I got used to it. And it was strange when I get back, got back to France ’cause and that was pretty nice. But and even though I managed to stay away from milk and peanut butter and Coke, I gained 25 pounds in the United States because, the [00:11:40] way of eating was so different from what I was used to.

[00:11:44] Muriel: Can I ask

[00:11:45] Rita Black: cereal? What, how is it different? Was it portion sizes? Was it the content of the food being more refined? Yeah,

[00:11:53] Muriel: that, that’s mainly it. Much more carb, more, grazing and like snacking extra

[00:12:01] Rita Black: between meals. Yeah.

[00:12:01] Muriel: Snacking right. And the extra ice cream at night and, all those calories just added up.

[00:12:08] Muriel: And especially the snack at night. I’m not somebody who used to snack at night. I’m, I’ve never been that kind of person. I, and I still I’m not, but at that time, we would have that extra dessert at night and I think that did, it

[00:12:25] Rita Black: was like I think that was something I noticed when I went to live in England was that there snacking culture was not as prevalent.

[00:12:32] Rita Black: Or if you were, it was a very mindful snack. It wasn’t like grazing on things at all. It was like, I’m going to have tea and I’m gonna have a cookie with my tea, but I’m not gonna sit in front of the television and eat a bunch of things. Yeah.

[00:12:49] Muriel: That would depend, I think, on the people. I think people can of course, potatoes and eat chips too.

[00:12:57] Rita Black: There was like less

[00:12:59] Muriel: Yeah. It’s not the initial culture. And and so I think that the late snack really did it uhhuh.

[00:13:06] Rita Black: So you got in the habit of that when you were there.

[00:13:09] Muriel: Yeah. And and so I came back home and my parents were or were horrified and I dropped some of it, but not all of it.

[00:13:17] Muriel: And I went to a university [00:13:20] and I was into sports and I I had, a room I was renting a room downtown and I was on a very tight budget, so I was eating crap. So I was not too good. I was eating a lot of carbs and those dry noodles you put like boiling Yeah. Ramen. Yeah, ramen.

[00:13:38] Muriel: I would like, and we have that in France. We used to have, I don’t know if we still have it ’cause I’m I’m not interested in it anymore, but we used to have that sort of bread cake called maron, which would translate into beggar that’s made out of all the leftovers of pastries and bread.

[00:13:58] Muriel: Oh, wow. And this, they would sell that in bakeries for like nothing. And I would like live on that. So it was like my diet was really poor and very cal calorie. So I. I am, I kept struggling with my weight. I was like conscious that I was not very satisfied with my weight. But then I went to engineering school and I was really into sports.

[00:14:27] Muriel: I was still carrying my body scale with me. And I remember I was weighing the exact same weight I’m weighing today ’cause that’s a big win for me today. And but at that time I was really like not satisfied with my weight. And I always, I was always conscious about that. And then I started to, I, I started to work.

[00:14:49] Muriel: I, I built my own company, was a business intelligence company. I was 25. I got married, got two kids, and I just overworked. I [00:15:00] was just working like 70 or 80 hours a week, like seven days a week. And I was just. Completely stressed. Completely stressed out and exhausted and all the time. And my, I was eating at restaurants every day and I just the weight started to creep up and I was not exercising much at that time.

[00:15:26] Muriel: And then I really started to gain weight the second time with my pregnancies. Because with each pregnancy I gained just about 50 pounds. And I released some of it, but not all of it. And I was really from my childhood I was like lacking structure as I said, but I was also very disconnected from my body and my emotions.

[00:15:51] Muriel: And so I just I was that’s a problem I should solve, but I want to ignore it. I was like, trying to ignore my body. And at the same time, ju, my inner critic was all over the place, I would say today with the shift. And so that was, I was very uncomfortable, but I was trying to ignore my body most of the time.

[00:16:13] Muriel: And so the weight just started to creep up and up.

[00:16:16] Rita Black: Can I ask you, Muriel, at this time, were you, so you were disconnected from your body and were you then not trying to lose weight? You were focused on your business, you were focused on raising your children. You were, it sounds like you were just like caught up in everything, so there was no I should do something about this.

[00:16:38] Rita Black: It was just this is [00:16:40] going on.

[00:16:41] Muriel: I tried several times, but I was, IWI, I didn’t trust myself at all. Okay. So I don’t have, I didn’t have a history of showing up for myself, so I did not trust myself at all. So I would like. Be very tentative, but I try to I enrolled in Weight Watchers and I released 20 pounds and I almost by hair reached my goal.

[00:17:05] Muriel: They gave me the pin. And I never reached my goal and I just took the weight back up and more, the weight just came back up and more. And so I was really disappointed. And then I tried like several things. I tried with a doctor. I tried a hyper protein diet and I released weight. Because it was like mono diet and with powders and things. I just started to have kidney issues and I got stuck. And so the doctor just accused me of not putting in enough effort and I just went, wow, that’s crazy. I’m going to ruin my health with that. So I stopped that and just regained the weight and more.

[00:17:50] Muriel: And I was getting really desperate. ’cause the weight really started to creep up like really high. And I was in a pretty bad divorce that lasted like years. And then and so that was pretty hard emotionally. And the weight went up again. ’cause food was my comfort place, it was my refugee.

[00:18:16] Muriel: And and then, it just kept going up. [00:18:20] I, I. There was no particular event. It just kept going up. And it was like, it was, I was in despair. I was really desperate about that, but I was not ready to do anything. ’cause I knew that if I tried something, I was afraid to jinx it. I knew that if I tried something it would maybe work a little bit, but then I would gain the same weight and more.

[00:18:45] Muriel: So I just said stop with the diet. Just forget about it. And just, that’s my fate and, okay, so just stop it. So I just decided to, to stop trying to release weight. ’cause I knew I was going to gain more, so I was like trying to maintain whatever number I was climbing at, yeah. So that was terrifying. And I was. At the point where I could barely walk. ’cause I was we can give numbers. We, I count in kilos, but I can translate two pounds. I was up to 245 pounds for one for five feet, one inch. So that’s just a lot, let’s say. Just a lot.

[00:19:32] Muriel: And so my knees were, I couldn’t bare me and I couldn’t hardly walk and I could hardly walk. And so I could, I would not exercise at all. And I was just like a big, I became a couch potato and I was just like trying to ignore my body. I was dreaming of being a pure brain and just dismiss my body.

[00:19:53] Muriel: And well, of course that would not have happened.

[00:19:58] Rita Black: And it’s important [00:20:00] to mention because I think a lot of people feel that like incredibly disconnected from their bodies and that they are ahead just like existing. And I remember feeling so disconnected that I would only look at my, from the chin up.

[00:20:16] Rita Black: I couldn’t even look at the rest of myself. Do you know what I mean? So true.

[00:20:19] Muriel: Yeah. And in, in my bathroom I had, I have mirrors and I, today I can’t believe I used to treat myself how I used to speak to myself in front of the mirrors. I was, that’s awful. I’m, I apologized to myself today ’cause that was just awful. I would like insult myself in front of the mirror all the time. No. And I had those huge mirrors in the bathroom. Why did I build that? And so I would see myself every day and just insult myself every day. Just, okay. So I guess people can relate to that. And but that’s not me today.

[00:21:00] Muriel: That’s not me. There’s a life after that thanks to the shift.

[00:21:04] Rita Black: At what point did you so you were not walking, not able to move very well, and you were in a lot of, self-abuse, of pain what changed that made you think maybe there is something I can do that there is hope, like where did that fork in the road happen for you?

[00:21:25] Rita Black: And what happened around that? What was the defining, yeah.

[00:21:31] Muriel: My children are grownups now, and with my daughter who’s 30 now, she’s gonna turn 30 next year. Sorry. We’ve [00:21:40] had that period where she wanted space, and I was feeling so bad about that. I was going, I was feeling ashamed and guilty and was thinking what can I do?

[00:21:54] Muriel: What can I do? I know I was not the best mother. I was not always there. I was, I. Today. If I had to redo it, I would do it completely differently. But that’s who I was at that time. And I did the best I could with what I, with who I was. But nevertheless she she suffered quite a bit with the lack of my presence.

[00:22:16] Muriel: ’cause I was working all the time. And so this built kind of a complicated relationship. And at one point she asked for space and at first I did not get it. So I was trying to push the thing and trying to see what I could do to reconnect. And the more I was trying, the more she was like disappearing.

[00:22:39] Muriel: She was living in Spain at that time. And she still is. And it was, it was so painful. I was like crying every night. Crying what can I do? What can I do? What can I do? And one night I was dreaming in English and I, and words came to me. It was adult estranged, no est strange adult child.

[00:23:02] Muriel: We don’t have equivalent in French. It doesn’t translate to French. And I woke up, I went on the internet and I I went on, I had my phone by my bed and I met that [00:23:20] amazing therapist. I don’t know if I can give her name ’cause she’s just a unique person. She’s Tina Gilbertson Gilbertsons if you want to look her up.

[00:23:31] Muriel: And she’s just an incredible person. And, she has those podcasts. Her thing is to reconnect families and in the same spirit as you are. Like nonjudgmental, very I mean her mantra is at the end of each post podcast is remember that you’re loving, lovable, and still growing human being, so please take good care of yourself.

[00:23:56] Muriel: And it’s that mindset. And it was the first time that, it was like a grace came down on me. It was just soothing. It just it was insta healing. And I’m talking about that ’cause you happen next and, but that happened first and that started the thing, process. It opened the door.

[00:24:20] Muriel: It opened the door. And so I started to listen to her podcasts and I understood so many thing and it gave me so much clarity about what was going on inside me and how I had to take care of myself first. It was just, I kept listening to the podcast like night after night and I wrote this note to my daughter and I said, you need space.

[00:24:44] Muriel: I get it. I give you space and I love you. Reconnect whenever you’re ready. And I’m there. And I never wrote again. And it took a year and a half. And one day I got a [00:25:00] letter in the mailbox and she wrote to me and then it took me a two months to, to answer. ’cause it was tough and I just. Apologized, like from the bottom of my heart for everything everything she told me.

[00:25:18] Muriel: And I just validated everything and just asked for forgiveness for, asked for forgiveness. Just apologized. ’cause she was free to do whatever she wanted and ask for nothing and just mailed the letter. And then six or seven or eight months later, she called me and she said, I’m going to mess.

[00:25:39] Muriel: And we can meet.

[00:25:41] Rita Black: That’s where you just So for our listeners that I’m coming

[00:25:45] Muriel: Yeah. I’m to, that’s my hometown in the east of France, north northeast of France. And and we reconnected step by step and softly and kindly. And so I started to believe. In the, in my capacity to heal. And to work on myself.

[00:26:04] Muriel: Yeah. And I started to believe that I was not that awful person. I believed I was, but I was a loving, lovable, growing human being. And I really started to believing in it. And that was a huge step and really huge. And then two years later, it was my son. Who he had the, a baby with his girlfriend. He was, he’s in the ops, it’s six hours away from here. And they [00:26:40] have that like hyper controlling. Parenting right thing, and we can’t approach the ga the baby. And that was also, I don’t want to dig too deep in that, into that, but it was also something really tough for me.

[00:26:55] Muriel: ’cause I had those dreams of being a grandmother, like when you’ve been an awful parent, you say, okay, I’m gonna be the best grandmother.

[00:27:06] Muriel: And and I just, it was nothing the stars for me. So I just, I’ve seen my grandson who’s gonna turn two years old, and I’ve seen him like three times. And so once again I was crying and crying and I was going, wow, why me? Why me? And and then I just decided that I was going to do the same thing as for my daughter.

[00:27:33] Muriel: I was going to take care of myself. I can’t change what’s going on their side, I can change my side. Yeah. So I dec one night, ’cause everything happens at night for me. One night I decided I would start taking care of myself and that’s when I was on Instagram that night. And you add just came up.

[00:28:00] Muriel: So I’m, I was, okay. So I never click on ads on Instagram, but I don’t know why something in your face, in your voice just made me click and I enrolled in your free masterclass. It was very long. It was like three hours and at the same time I [00:28:20] was like trying to find the catch and so I went on the internet and trying to find information about you and I.

[00:28:28] Muriel: What I saw was pretty good. And I found your book, which I read, I bought and read and and it just made sense. It just, I was I was okay with hypnosis ’cause I had already done that. You done hypnosis before? Yeah, I had done hypnosis. And I can’t do ness with anyone. With everybody ’cause I need really to trust the person.

[00:28:50] Muriel: But you sounded like trustworthy. So I went, okay, why not? And I just jumped right in and never looked back. So I. I enrolled and answered like the questionnaire and had that great coach like Michelle who answered me. That was so nice. And we settled. We settled. ’cause at that time you could only pay month by month, but with like the euros and the taxes and everything was not comfortable for me.

[00:29:22] Muriel: So I wrote to you and you answered me and said, oh, she answers me. That’s nice. And so I, I could get a, an annual payment and I just jumped right in.

[00:29:35] Rita Black: That’s so great. I I wanna ask you, when you made that decision to start taking care of yourself, and I know you had ’cause we were talking about you had a big journey in front of you as far as like a hundred pounds to release.

[00:29:48] Rita Black: I don’t know if you were thinking of that at the time. Were you just no, I just needed to take care of myself. It wasn’t, ’cause I remember our exchanges in the beginning too, and I know for [00:30:00] you I mean it’s my impression, and I could be wrong, was that one of the things you really wanted was to move, to be mobile, to be able to hike and be and feel

[00:30:12] Muriel: free in my body.

[00:30:14] Muriel: And yeah. I wanted to be able to move again. And I said right from the start, I remember on Facebook I wrote that I had over a hundred pounds to release, which was true. So I wrote it, but I did not fix my mind on that ’cause it was just too much. I believe in epiphanies.

[00:30:34] Muriel: And and. A good thing for me is that I had one, one right away. ’cause I started to track and write the calories down. And I realized I realized how much calorie, how many calories I was taking in just by eating nuts all day long. Oh. Because I was eating nuts. I was eating healthy.

[00:30:55] Muriel: I eat organic. I, but I used to eat healthy the way I thought I was supposed to eat. I would eat a lot of grain. I would eat a lot of nuts and I would like graze nuts. Okay. All day long. Just about. And I love chocolate, so I would eat chocolate too, but I could eat a hundred grams of chocolate in one sitting.

[00:31:20] Muriel: I just could eat huge amounts of of food. And when I started to count the calories. I was like, between two and 3000 calories per day. And so it, it was just, it just blew my mind. It was Insta epiphany. And so I just stopped [00:31:40] grazing nuts. I started to I stopped eating pasta and rice and all those refined carbs.

[00:31:52] Muriel: And it was Insta and I just stopped that and I started to really weigh and track everything I was eating. At first it was messy ’cause I couldn’t use the apps. I was not comfortable with the Lose It and Minute Diary or whatever it’s called. I was not comfortable with those apps.

[00:32:11] Muriel: ’cause I, it’s it’s more it. I adapted to the United States, I think. And less to our food. And the food I buy.

[00:32:22] Rita Black: I remember you saying that it was yeah. Not,

[00:32:25] Muriel: yeah, because I cook from scratch most of my things, and I cut down on bread. ’cause us French people, when bread is sacred I could eat I don’t know like 150 grams of bread per day.

[00:32:40] Muriel: I would go to the bakery. The bakery is just like a hundred yards from my house and I would come back home with half the bread. It’s just how bread is just like precious. But I really cut down on bread and I don’t he eat that much bread now. It came progressively. But what really helped me is that just by cutting the carbs.

[00:33:07] Muriel: And cutting the nuts. I started to release weight really fast. I released two pounds a week, like easily during the first month. So it [00:33:20] went pretty fast and that really encouraged me.

[00:33:23] Rita Black: Were you feeling too, because you had done that better in your body, like the, like inflammation and things like that around your joints and yeah, it

[00:33:34] Muriel: happened pretty fast.

[00:33:35] Muriel: I also if we can speak about the nine skills, I really started to build my support team pretty early, like my husband who’s like wonderful and very supportive. And my PT. Very important. And my my my doctor was also very supportive. At first she was okay.

[00:33:56] Muriel: And then she was very interested. And I mean my PT was really helpful. And after it took me about three months before I could start to exercise, and I started to exercise with my pt ’cause they have those like Pilatus classes. Yeah. Three or four times a week. And I just enrolled it in all of them.

[00:34:18] Muriel: So I just enrolled in all the classes and I have those written down on my on my calendar. And I would not miss any of those classes. That’s, and I think it helped me tremendously. ’cause it remodeled my body and I could see the progresses. Yeah. And they could see it.

[00:34:38] Rita Black: And also just Pilates is so great for your core and I would imagine that it just made it easier for them you to move and use your body to hide Yes.

[00:34:50] Rita Black: And do the things that you started to do.

[00:34:53] Muriel: Yeah. I stayed, I started walking like every day. I started walking and I restarted [00:35:00] hiking and I had that dream, if you remember, I had that dream to be able to to do this the running the Alps. Like the 27 kilometers run in, in the Alps, but I discovered in December that I have arteries in my, in both my knees.

[00:35:18] Muriel: So a stage four, like I had, I don’t have any any, soft tissues less left there. If I want to keep walking until I am 90 years old, I have to stop Dreaming of running is not for me anymore. So whatever, it doesn’t matter. I am, starting to take bi biking lessons starting next week.

[00:35:43] Muriel: I just bought the helmet. It came through the mail today, so that’s exciting. I rebounded exciting. Yeah, because you love

[00:35:51] Rita Black: biking. I was biking this morning. I went with my friend every week we go and it’s our religion in on Sunday. We wake up and go biking in a beautiful Griffith Park. So you, I really hope it’s very a great way to connect with yourself and your body because it’s a little different than hiking.

[00:36:09] Rita Black: We were talking about that this morning. It’s a different experience, but it’s, and it is sustainable because you don’t use your, you don’t count needs on your joints. It’s not something that you can really do that’s cardiovascular. That’s, that uses your lungs and all of your muscles, but you can keep doing it ’cause it’s not tough on your.

[00:36:30] Rita Black: Joint.

[00:36:31] Muriel: Yeah. I hope I click with biking. ’cause I used to bike when I was a kid, but I was into an accident and I, oh gosh, I lost my [00:36:40] balance. And I just, I don’t have any I don’t have balance on the bike anymore, so I’m taking lessons and I hope it, it will work. I hope it will work, so that’s good.

[00:36:52] Muriel: And talking about reconnecting with myself, working with my PT was key. ’cause it really, like s classes really reconnected with me, with my body. We have the shift breath and all the breath exercises and meditation and hypnosis and everything. But physical exercise really reconnects us with our body.

[00:37:15] Muriel: Yeah. And that’s what I really found out with PALS classes.

[00:37:20] Rita Black: I think what you’re talking about, just to reflect back what you’re saying for somebody out there who maybe has a significant amount of weight to release is that you started slow. You didn’t even start truly exercising until three months in.

[00:37:37] Rita Black: ’cause I think a lot of people think, oh, I’ve gotta start right away the exercise. And I could not. Yeah. And that you grad, what you did was, you started with yourself, you started connecting with yourself, and you started to care. About yourself, and you started to advocate for yourself, and then you moved out from there, you got the team.

[00:38:00] Rita Black: For people who don’t know the shift and don’t know a lot of what we, and when Muriel’s saying the nine skills, it’s just the nine skills are based on research of people who have taken weight off and kept it off. And one of the skills is having a support team and not, and they don’t always come easy.

[00:38:18] Rita Black: Not everybody [00:38:20] has a husband who’s willing to help out or, a pt but just even starting with yourself, like that’s the number one person you want on your support team. Because often when we’re dieting, we aren’t even supporting ourselves. We’re against ourselves, but we’re just, hoping to lose weight.

[00:38:36] Rita Black: So you really connected with your body, which is I think, key. At what point again, a hundred pound release is. It’s an inner journey and an it’s an external journey. For those listening who have a journey like that, and a significant journey, what you had support team, you started connecting with your body and that seemed very self reinforcing, right?

[00:39:08] Rita Black: You could see the results. You could feel the results. You were in France. So how did you manage like the food? I think that’s one of the things that I did wanna talk to you about and I don’t wanna interrupt your journey, but at, how did you change feeding yourself other than like portion control, which it sounds like you, you didn’t stop eating nuts, but you controlled the amounts and such like.

[00:39:34] Rita Black: Did you feel like you were ever at a point where you were giving things up? Or were you just getting more creative with how you were feeding yourself? Or, from somebody, like releasing a hundred pounds? How did you change, I got that you got rid of a lot of carbohydrates. Did you start eating more fruits and vegetables?

[00:39:55] Muriel: What I can say about car carbs is that, it’s not [00:40:00] like I forced myself to stop carbs. It’s more like I realized that I did not need them. ’cause I was in a belief that I needed to have like pasta or rice or grain or whatever. And it was, it had to be part of the diet.

[00:40:20] Muriel: And it is something that, that is taught in France. I think it must have been the same thing in the ne United States, but in France, you have that ideal plate and carbs is a big part of it. And I mean it’s just a myth. We don’t need those carbs. We don’t need those carbs.

[00:40:40] Muriel: And what I understood is that protein is key. Is that really protein is key. And especially at our age. ’cause I’m going to turn 16 in October and if you want to keep your muscles, you need to nourish them. I mean to you need to feed them proteins. And so when I understood that, I mean I started to build my my plate around, around protein.

[00:41:06] Muriel: ’cause it made really made sense. And, so that’s something that was important for me. And it didn’t, I didn’t feel like I was depriving myself of any of anything ’cause it just made sense. When I was a adding everything up, I was like listening to everything, all the material you give us, which is just amazing.

[00:41:27] Muriel: And I was like, confronting this to like scientific reviews and everything, and it just clicked in. It was just coherent, and Right. So I finally understood [00:41:40] that and it’s just I don’t need carbs. I haven’t had I can have pasta if I go to a restaurant or whatever.

[00:41:46] Muriel: I’m not against pasta or even potatoes, whatever. But I don’t need them. And so it’s just, I just wrote them out. It’s just okay, so that’s not. Necessary. And I have other things that I enjoy more than that. Yeah. So I keep my calories for other things. See, and I’ve always I’ve always cooked, but I was lazy.

[00:42:10] Muriel: I was lazy. I was not planning my meals. And so I, when I was hungry, I was, I need to feed myself right away so it was not time to cook like vegetables or whatever. And so that’s also something I understood. I build a, I built a system and I built routines. For instance, for me, starting the day is really key.

[00:42:34] Muriel: So I always start the day listening to your meditations. Because when you start the day like scrolling through the news or it’s it’s so awful that you just ruin your day. So I just start the day with your meditation and then I have my breakfast ready because breakfast is very important for me ’cause I don’t want to be hungry during the day.

[00:42:59] Muriel: So my breakfast is like 450 calories. And it’s very important for me. So I prepare, I have those little jars, like 21 little jars that every three weeks I prepare. And so I have the dry part of my breakfast ready. And so it’s just like mechanical. I just, [00:43:20] my breakfast is something really easy to like, to prepare.

[00:43:25] Muriel: So I Sounds like you built

[00:43:26] Rita Black: a ritual around it.

[00:43:27] Muriel: And that’s very important for me because routine simplified my life. Structure. Structure is very important for me. But I’m not hyper structured, so I won’t like regularly, I know I should do, it should, but I don’t I don’t sit with my inner coach like on a regular basis.

[00:43:49] Muriel: I know you do it. I know it. It’s okay. You don’t, it doesn’t, I’m not there yet. I’m not there yet. Okay.

[00:43:55] Rita Black: I think that you have again, you have created systems, we don’t have to call it structure, but systems that work for you.

[00:44:04] Muriel: Yeah. And so for me, like stimulus control is very important.

[00:44:10] Muriel: Because I really, it’s easier to resist food in a grocery store for 10 minutes than for a week in your house. Yes. So I really try not to have those food into my house, those foods. And I track everything. Every food I intake is written down with no judgment. It’s just, I have tracked everything.

[00:44:35] Muriel: I go to the, to this grocery store. I’m used to go. I’m used to. And I’m, I eat in a pretty simple way. I buy fruit, vegetables like chicken breast. And I like to have ham with me ’cause those thin slices. ‘Cause it’s like fast protein for snacks. And [00:45:00] I love skier. Greek yogurt that’s pretty high in protein.

[00:45:06] Muriel: I I eat whey in the morning, isolate whey, which is 95, 90 4% protein and collagen. And my skin is just wonderful ’cause collagen generally does the job. And I eat pretty simply. Like down to earth food and I don’t know. I don’t know, like it’s memorable plum season again, so I’m trying to fit in my mirror balls ’cause I just love them, but they’re very caloric so I, I weigh them very carefully and it’s that time of year again.

[00:45:46] Muriel: And I have, I know some people plan ahead and just stick to the calorie budget. I’m not that kind of person. I kind of plan, I have a general structure, but then I compensate ’cause I exercise a lot every day. So my calorie intake is pretty high. I’m between like 1600 and 1700 calories per day.

[00:46:09] Muriel: But I burn like between 400 and 800 calories every day. And if what I track my food at, by the end of the day, if I notice that I went a little bit overboard or whatever, I have a bike at home, I can bike. I know that I can watch an episode of whatever and just burn like 400 calories in a breath.

[00:46:34] Muriel: I have this balance. Day-to-day balance and I have an eye on my week. ’cause I track [00:46:40] everything. And weekly. And weekly. And so that works for me. So I’m not planning everything ahead. So you weren’t

[00:46:49] Rita Black: super, you weren’t regimented like that and, but you have figured out your energy balance for weight release and maintenance and you are now in maintenance and you’re figuring that out because it’s every time, it’s like we talk about in the shift, your inner scientist kind of figures out what works for you.

[00:47:10] Rita Black: Because,

[00:47:10] Muriel: but I go grocery shopping like on a regular basis, so I always have the right food in the house. That’s very, so I’m, I feel secure thanks to that. And as for the a hundred pounds, I did not have I mean I had this far goal of releasing a hundred pound and more, but I went 10 pounds per 10 pounds, yeah.

[00:47:34] Muriel: The next five and just step by step. ’cause otherwise it, it was just too much. You, I really started to enjoy the journey too. I was thinking that because when I used to hike before I, I was in so much pain that I would just have this. Horrific in a dialogue while I was walking.

[00:48:00] Muriel: And today it has completely disappeared. I really enjoy walking. I enjoyed the process, I enjoyed the exercise. Before I would, if I would exercise, it would be just to have exercise, and today I’m just so grateful. This morning I [00:48:20] was gardening. I spent three hours, like weeding, pulling roots in the garden.

[00:48:26] Muriel: And I was thinking of you and I was thinking that, you can do a fast weeding, scrape the surface and just pull out the herbs and whatever, and the weeds and whatever. But that’s not the way I do it. I like to have those two, three. Foot roots, pulled out and I then I really feel like I’ve done something.

[00:48:50] Muriel: It’s the same thing with the shift. We really like pulling roots, like deep roots. And I was thinking of that this morning when I was like pulling my weeds and I was going, that’s the same thing. I’m shifting in my garden.

[00:49:07] Rita Black: I love that. I know I do think of that too about how pulling things out by the root, you gotta get to foundational places for Yeah.

[00:49:19] Rita Black: Change. And same with your garden, right? If you want to change your garden, if you don’t want the weeds to come back next year, you gotta put that time in and get, get in there, get in the dirt and pull ’em out.

[00:49:34] Muriel: Yeah. Especially if you don’t want chemicals, like you don’t want medication.

[00:49:38] Muriel: Yes. See. So yeah, you need to pull the roots out and that’s what we do with the shift. Yeah. There’s so much more than just weight. The weight is just like a byproduct of all the inner work of the Yes. Exactly. All the inner work.

[00:49:55] Rita Black: How I did wanna ask you, because thank you so much.

[00:49:58] Rita Black: You’ve really [00:50:00] explored this so helpfully for everybody. I bet people are like, we were talking about the mythology of Americans. I told Muriel did not know. And I think our listeners, if you’re in the United States, you remember that book. French Women Don’t Get Fat And that’s so untrue.

[00:50:22] Rita Black: And it tell us a little bit about, ’cause you, have you seen progressive weight gain? Since more American foods have been introduced in the French market, in the European marketplace.

[00:50:35] Muriel: Yes. No doubt about that. When people eat the way you eat, we gain weight. The way you gain weight, right? There’s no, there’s no miracle.

[00:50:44] Muriel: It’s all a myth. And those skinny Parisians, the Parisians Yes. The skinny cartoons about the Parisians. Those women have weight issues like we do, and they keep watching their food. And they don’t, they’re in a dialogue is not healthier than ours. There’s no miracle in there.

[00:51:05] Rita Black: No. Oh no, I

[00:51:06] Muriel: think

[00:51:07] Rita Black: it’s

[00:51:07] Muriel: really a

[00:51:07] Rita Black: myth. No, either. Yes. I think it’s a myth. I think there was at some point this idea. I know you just were in Canada and you noticed a lot of differences and one thing I’ve talked about is like portion sizes are definitely different, right? Like you said, when you come here, portions are bigger.

[00:51:27] Rita Black: What the content of what we’re eating is different

[00:51:30] Muriel: culture. Yeah. What shocked me is that there was sugar, there’s sugar in everything. In smoked salmon, there’s sugar in cottage cheese, there’s [00:51:40] sugar. And that’s just something, I don’t see in my grocery store, maybe there’s, other way elsewhere, but not in my grocery store ’cause it’s organic and very simple.

[00:51:52] Muriel: And I kept reading the labels just to make sure I would not intake too much sugar ’cause and so I just, great thing it was the season of berries, it was berry seasons and in Canada they have those great. Cam Camrys cameras, I don’t know how you say it in English. Camrys in in French.

[00:52:12] Muriel: That I

[00:52:13] Rita Black: wonder what that is. I wonder.

[00:52:14] Muriel: It looks like blueberries, but it’s a little bit longer. And the shape is like softer and it’s, but it looks like blueberries. Okay. And and they had those amazing blueberries and raspberries and strawberries. And you can binge on that. Yeah. Before you get a pound.

[00:52:32] Muriel: Yeah. It’s, it won’t happen. Blew you off. You can binge on that. And so that was pretty safe. But I, yes, I was surprised by the amount of sugar I would find in everything. And I was surprised too by in France and in Europe, the nutrition facts. All relate to 100 grams. You have all the facts for 100 grams or 100 milliliters.

[00:52:58] Muriel: Okay. And in Canada, I, maybe it’s the same thing in the United States. The reference is always different. You can’t compare foods ’cause there’s one portion size, it could be like 56 grams or one ounce, or one pin or one whatever. Yeah, I think that’s, can compare anything.

[00:53:18] Rita Black: I think people have that [00:53:20] same challenge.

[00:53:20] Rita Black: ’cause in, in the calorie apps, if they’re using them, they’re all different, different portion sizes too. So it, yeah. So it’s hard to compare. Yeah. Yeah. It is true. But I. If you, so it’s exciting. You’re turning 60. Believe me, the sixties are great Muriel, and you have nothing. Okay. I’m good with that.

[00:53:44] Rita Black: No, 60 is awesome. I, there’s something that happens, especially to a woman when she turns 60. I think that is a very positive thing. But it’s a you enter into a whole new world of wisdom and ownership of yourself if you’re in a good place, when you’re in a good place health wise and as you are.

[00:54:03] Muriel: Yeah. And I was so happy to be able to be a coach for the two last shift seasons like fall and spring. That was amazing. I hope I could help people, but it’s amazing to be a coach ’cause you get really to, to dive deeper into what what you’ve learned. So far. It’s. It’s a really new level.

[00:54:26] Muriel: ’cause when you need to transmit things to people, it’s just very different. Yeah. So

[00:54:33] Rita Black: it, it changed. That’s why I think it is, it’s such a powerful part of the process really

[00:54:39] Muriel: is. Yeah. And you can measure the, all the journey you’ve been through. And that’s really great.

[00:54:47] Muriel: It’s a great step forward. So I’m looking forward to next season. I’m looking forward to having you. So one last question, Muriel. If you were, thinking [00:55:00] about that person out there who might have been where you were in the January of 2020, when did 4 24?

[00:55:11] Muriel: Yep.

[00:55:11] Rita Black: Where? What would be your advice, like the first step forward?

[00:55:18] Rita Black: If they were just, and I’m not talking about joining the shift, I’m just talking about like in an what is that first step that you would have them take?

[00:55:29] Muriel: I think the first thing, and it was the, an important thing for me too, is that believe in the fact that calories in calories out really works. It does work. You can build your trust on that. Because there’s nothing magical. There’s no magical pill. There’s no I don’t know, magic powder or whatever.

[00:55:54] Muriel: It’s just calories in calories are then that really works. That changed my life. ’cause I, up to then, I always thought it was, there was something I could not understand. I could not grab my, I thought my metabolism was, destroyed and I was I had like magical ideas about my weight and I was just like, suspicions.

[00:56:17] Muriel: No, I think a lot of people have that, I think a lot. Yeah. People are very flummoxed about weight and there’s so much mythology out there. And I think

[00:56:30] Muriel: I went through menopause and I went through many things and calories in, calories out. It really does work. And we can [00:56:40] really rely on that.

[00:56:41] Muriel: So that’s something we can build

[00:56:43] Rita Black: on. And I think when you’re saying that too, Muriel, I’m, and I don’t mean to put words in your mouth, I’ll just translate through the worlds of shift, because it’s not a diet mindset. It’s more of, we’re using it as a scientific way to have a conversation with yourself that’s based in rational thinking rather than emotional thinking, which is often where we live when we are struggling with our weight.

[00:57:10] Rita Black: It’s a lot easier to give up on ourselves when, and say it’s not working, whatever, rather than going, let me get curious what didn’t work here, or how did I go over or what, or when you get on the scale and it’s up a really understanding that. It’s not necessarily up because you overate, but it could be water retention, it could be many things.

[00:57:33] Rita Black: And that changes Yes, of course. The ability to be consistent and just to, yeah.

[00:57:38] Muriel: But on the long term, in the long term,

[00:57:40] Rita Black: uhhuh,

[00:57:41] Muriel: it, it does work. And mean water weight is also a fact. Yes. So there are there are facts there that we can really build on and trust and so that’s something. Yeah. And and then I wanted to say something.

[00:57:58] Muriel: I can’t remember. I just skipped, I just so calories in, calories out, so that’s a fact. I don’t remember. I want to say something, but I can’t remember.

[00:58:08] Rita Black: I’m sorry if I distracted your No, it’s

[00:58:10] Muriel: okay. It’s okay. It’ll come back maybe. And then go ahead. Yeah. And oh yeah. What I wanted to say is [00:58:20] have a growing mindset. A growth mindset. That means being curious and keep learning. That’s what we call the apprentice. And okay, I did something, it didn’t work. Okay. So that’s something I learned and I keep moving on and keep moving on.

[00:58:37] Muriel: Just keep moving on. Don’t beat yourself up. Just keep moving on. And we have time we’re in and for the long haul and we have time to, to release the weight and it’s, there’s so much more to the shift than just releasing weight. So there’s so much more happening and but we can really trust the math.

[00:59:00] Muriel: Yeah, it does work. It does work. And and there’s always explanation and we have resources. We have all your deep knowledge and others like Michelle who savvy Nutrition and and so many people are like willing to help. And so we have the resources to solve just about any problem in the community.

[00:59:23] Muriel: So

[00:59:24] Rita Black: I, I love that you just said keep going because I think especially on a journey of a hundred pounds or more too, it’s like there are so many lessons. It’s there are a number of people who have released a hundred pounds in our community, and I think. One thing that everybody says is that it’s when you put that growth mindset on, which is what you were talking about, and we have that at the inner coach, and it’s not, instead of looking at it as oh my gosh, I’ve got a hundred pounds to, it’s just oh, I have a lot of lessons to learn along the way.

[00:59:59] Rita Black: [01:00:00] There’s that’s right. So many lessons to learn and that’s just the difference. And I had a client, I was talking to her and she had this, I shared this in one of our other communities in the membership. And I was saying that she had an acronym. She said OFG, it’s an OFG moment.

[01:00:17] Rita Black: And I was like, OFG. And she’s opportunity for growth.

[01:00:20] Muriel: Opportunity for growth. That’s exactly it. And yeah, I was going with Carol Dweck yes, I like growth mindset, but same thing. Same thing. And so keeping, being curious and. And the shift happens in on so many different levels that, it’s just amazing when you look back and see the journey.

[01:00:42] Muriel: You’ve, everything you’ve traveled, everything we’ve been through. It’s just it’s just wonderful to be able to to build all that. And what I really love is that it’s made through freedom. So the what I mean is you don’t, gurus, you don’t tell us what to do.

[01:01:02] Muriel: You don’t judge us. You don’t, you don’t. You don’t, gurus No. You just, guide us so kindly and we feel so free. I, we feel so free to be ourselves to, to build our own system. Yes. And I think that’s really precious. ’cause it’s gonna be for the rest of our lives. I’m conscious today that the way I eat today, the way I exercise today, I’m going to do it for the rest of my life.

[01:01:30] Muriel: So it has to be sustainable. It has to be, on spot for me. And the way I do it is the way nobody else does it. It’s just me. You have ownership. [01:01:40] Yeah. Ownership. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And I think that’s really important. And that makes all the difference. That makes all the difference.

[01:01:49] Muriel: I agree a

[01:01:50] Rita Black: hundred percent that is what our. Objective is that you are creating a way of eating that you love that works for your life,

[01:01:59] Muriel: right?

[01:02:00] Rita Black: So that you own that and you can keep it. Exactly. Yeah.

[01:02:03] Muriel: And as I told you before I’m pretty social and I have like many events and I just it just works.

[01:02:11] Muriel: I just build my system around everything. I plan my events I do plan them. So I know I have those like color codes on my calendar and I know whether difficulties are ahead are, and so I just like work things around that. And, but I am, I have so much trust in the fact that I can always get back on track.

[01:02:35] Muriel: It’s not even getting back on track because I’m not, I’m never far from the track, but. I have so much trust, so much trust in the system that I mean I can enjoy a restaurant, whatever. I just know that I know how to get back.

[01:02:50] Rita Black: Yeah. Yeah,

[01:02:52] Muriel: that’s really comfortable. That’s wonderful.

[01:02:54] Rita Black: I wanna thank you so much for coming on.

[01:02:56] Rita Black: I think you really took us on a journey with, from the inside out and it was wonderful to hear your journey, Muriel. So thank you. Thank

[01:03:09] Muriel: you so much Rita, for asking me. Thank you so much for having me. Yes. And good luck for ev to everyone and happy journey to everyone ’cause it’s just we are lucky to be [01:03:20] here.

[01:03:21] Rita Black: Thank you. I’m lucky to have you. Wow. Thank you Muriel, so much for sharing your story with us. Isn’t she amazing and I am sure many of you can wrap your minds around how. Much self-respect and love is required in a long-term permanent weight mastery journey. So please come and join me for my free masterclass.

[01:03:46] Rita Black: It’s coming up soon. In fact it’s starting officially. Tomorrow, I believe is the 13th. And I would love for you to join me there www.shiftweightmastery.com/live. We’re gonna be do some weight loss hypnosis. We’re gonna look into why you know everything about losing weight, but you are still struggling.

[01:04:13] Rita Black: Come blow past those subconscious points that are resistant to change and shift them so that they can be aligned with the rest of you so you can find success. So come and join us. The link is in the show notes, www.shiftweightmastery.com/live. And I will look forward to seeing you there. And remember that the key and probably the only key to unlocking the door, the weight struggle is inside you.

[01:04:42] Rita Black: So keep listening and find it, and I will be with you here next week. See you then. Thanks for listening to the Thin Thinking Podcast. Did that episode go by way too fast for you? If so, and you [01:05:00] wanna dive deeper into the mindset of long-term weight release, head on over to www shift weight mastery.com.

[01:05:10] Rita Black: That’s www shift weight mastery.com, where you’ll find numerous tools and resources to help you unlock your mind for permanent weight release tips, strategies, and more. And be sure to check the show notes.