Getting sick can really mess with your weight mastery, ah choo! And I don’t mean just missing a workout or two. Suddenly the skill does weird things and your appetite is off and your routines disappear. And all those sick foods start looking a little too comforting. So today I am gonna walk you through how to stay in your identity as a weight master even when you’re sick, how to keep continuity with food movement, and yes, even if that means just wiggling your toes, that counts as exercise, and how to soothe yourself without food running the show. So grab some tea, get comfy, and let’s talk thin thinking when you’re on the mend.

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 hour weight struggle is mental. That’s right. The key to unlocking [00:01:00] long-term weight release and management begins in your mind. Hi there, I’m Rita Black. I’m a clinical hypnotherapist, weight loss expert, bestselling author, and the creator of the Shift Weight Mastery Process. And not only have I helped thousands of people over the past 20 years achieve long-term weight mastery.

I am also a former weight struggler, carb addict and binge eater. And after two decades of failed diets and fad weight loss programs, I lost 40 pounds with the help of hypnosis. Not only did I release all that weight, I have kept it off for 25 years. Enter the Thin Thinking Podcast, where you too will learn how to remove the mental roadblocks that keep you struggling.

I’ll give you the thin thinking tools, skills, and insights to help you develop the mindset you need, not only to achieve your ideal weight. But to stay there long term and live your best life. Hello. Come [00:02:00] on in and shut that door behind you. You don’t wanna get that winter air in here, do you?

You’ll catch your death of cold. That is such a weird phrase, isn’t it? Catch your death of cold. Catch your death of cold. I looked it up and it came from the 18 hundreds when they believed you could catch a fatal. Illness from getting wet or cold. It may not do that, but it can kill your weight mastery if you let it.

So today’s episode is here to be of help. But before we dive in, make sure to hit subscribe and follow so you’ll never miss a precious episode. And I have had, by the way, numerous requests from many of you. So how do I stay well? How do I stay consistent with my weight? When I’m sick. So I’m ringing this episode to you today with love.

Should you come down with something, another [00:03:00] term, come down with something. So many weird terms around being sick. When I lived in England, you never said sick, right? British people use the word ill, not sick or unwell. Unwell. Are you unwell? Are you. Ill, they never said they laughed at me when I said sick.

They would also say, hospital you go to hospital, you don’t go to the hospital. Oh, he’s in hospital. They would say, I never quite understood why they were removed the, but whatever. It sounds good. The British are very precise. He’s in hospital. Who needs that extra word? And they would also say Medicine. Medicine. Not medicine, but medicine. Oh, that’s the medicine you would have. Oh, give him some medicine. Give her some medicine. I just thought I would throw that in there just in case you are ever in England. And feeling unwell. [00:04:00] Don’t say you’re sick. They’ll laugh at you and you’ll never hear the end of it.

Oh, and getting better is on the mend. You’re on the mend. Not getting better. Oh, you are on the mend. Are you delightful? Okay. So it may seem like getting sick is great for our weight, right? We often lose our appetite and we also lose weight up front because we get dehydrated and we get on the scale.

And the scale oftentimes is down and yippee, but often. That weight comes right back and even more because here are some of the challenges that getting sick or being unwell poses to our weight release. One, it interrupts the flow of the structure that we had created, our healthy lifestyle structure.

It takes us out of our exercise routine and it can be hard to get back in. It gives us the false illusion. We are releasing weight and then when we gain some back, we gi [00:05:00] give up, we get upset. Oh my gosh, I’ve gained the weight back. And we give up, we undereat while we’re sick, and then begin eating more carby and refined food on an empty stomach, which spikes our blood sugar, can make us feel hungrier.

And then we start e thinking about those. Carbs again, and it becomes harder and harder to go back to our healthy eating habits because let’s face it, when you’re sick, a salad just doesn’t feel like fun. We also start comfort eating our stress and feeling sorry for ourselves. And lastly, we find it hard to get back into the healthy habits that were there before as we’re, once we’re we find it hard to get.

Back into that structure that we had before. Okay. So then thinking around being sick, here are the mind tools. When you become unwell or sick, you wanna start with identity. [00:06:00] Remember, all behavioral change really starts with identity. And often, when we’re in weight release mode, we’ll just be like I’m losing weight.

And then we’ll get sick and we’re like I’m sick, so I’m gonna stop trying to release weight and just be sick. Which is all fine and good, but what that does is it puts you back in just to business as usual mode. And so whatever your brain is used to doing when you were sick in the past, it’s just going to wanna do that again.

Especially since you’re sick and your brain doesn’t wanna work that hard. So your subconscious mind is just gonna kick into. Business as usual gear. And so if it’s, loading up on a bunch of saltines and you, drinking lots of sugary seven up or something, that’s probably going to be what you’re gonna be drawn to.

So right now, even before you’re unwell or sick, and hope, God forbid, I hope you stay well, for the next a hundred years. But if you are unwell I [00:07:00] want you to know now that you are a weight master being unwell rather than somebody who is an, Sue, who is. An Apprentice of Weight Mastery or a an A weight master on your mastery journey of weight release.

And you even when you’re ill, okay? The diet isn’t over and and you can pick up when you’re better. You’re always a weight master. What this does is it opens up your mind to see you differently and to problem solve rather than to devolve into victimhood. I am sick, and, just falling back into our old patterns.

So let’s just tackle each of those. Challenges that I brought up one by one, shall we? So the first challenge I said is it interrupts the flow of the structure that we had created, that healthy eating and exercise structure. Okay, so let’s tackle each of the challenges that I brought up. Shall we, one by one.

I’ll just go through them. [00:08:00] So the first challenge is being unwell interrupts the flow of the structure we had created. Building upon what I just said about us being a weight master, that we aren’t, it isn’t business as usual, but we’re now seeing ourselves from a different perspective. We’re now coming.

At this internally, we’re taking a hundred percent responsibility for ourselves, which then removes that victim mindset, right? That we’re a hundred percent responsible. You’re internally driven to the extent that, being sick is now plan B, meaning that yes, you aren’t gonna be probably eating the same that you were when you were well, but that you’re gonna be mindful about it.

You’re gonna make still healthy choices for your. Being sick. And what that does is it still, it continues the structure, right? We want to keep a continuum of how we see ourselves so that there isn’t a disconnect. Does this make sense? I hope it does. So we wanna [00:09:00] continue the continuum of being healthy, seeing ourselves in that more powerful 100% responsible place.

You’re gonna now learn, you’re gonna be a weight learner and learn how to be unwell. As a healthy person and this actually eating healthfully helps you mend a bit faster because a lot of those foods that we eat when we’re sick creates inflammation in our body, which slows down the healing process, especially the carby sugary foods.

So the second interrupter is it takes us out of our exercise routine and it can be hard to get back on. So the mind is a weird thing as we are establishing, I’ve been establishing for the last couple of years, since the beginning of this been thinking podcast. I can’t exercise because I’m sick.

That may or may not be true. But here is my thin thinking advice. If you have a mild cold, you can probably [00:10:00] continue to do some sort of workout. Yes. If you have a fever, yes. If you are really, put into bed and meant to rest, you cannot do your normal exercise routine. Of course. But you can tell your brain that you are on your sickness exercise routine, and still move your body every day.

This may be as minimal as wiggling your toes for five minutes or moving your fingers. But we’re gonna call that physical activity because again, it allows your brain to have continuity, and as you are on the mend. Then you can slowly build up to what you did before. Because often what happens is we just stop everything and then we try to get back and there’s usually some sort of resistance to that.

But if we are keeping ourselves in exercise mode. And what I would, depending on how sick you are, of course, [00:11:00] but if you’re in a coma, obviously this doesn’t apply. But, even I’ve had clients in COVID and I say, just wiggle your toes in bed, if you are bedridden. And, they continued their exercise routine and then as they got better, they walked around the block once called that exercise.

As they got better, they, would just get on the treadmill for five minutes a day. But what that did was continue that continuity of I exercise every day, or I exercise con consistently in their mind. So if you’re somebody who works out five days a week or walks four days a week, you still work out on those days.

Quote unquote, even though it might just be wiggling your toes in bed. I hope that makes sense too, as well. But it just keeps your brain in the world that you know, in the mindset that you are still exercising and then you don’t have to do all that heavy lifting of getting back into exercise, which [00:12:00] frankly, for a lot of people, it’s a deal breaker.

Give up and then often after they’re ill they’ll have a really hard time getting back into the swing of things. So the next one, the next interrupter is it gives us the false illusion. We’re releasing weight and then we gain some back and we get upset and we give up. So when we become sick again, we get dehydrated.

We are. A large percentage of our body, 60, 70%, 75% of our body is water, right? So when we’re ill, our body is using water. We’re sweating out water. We’re, if you have a fever, we’re often sweating. And we’re not drinking enough fluids often, and even if we are, maybe we’re not retaining them. So you’re gonna see a major fluctuation in water weight.

And also the fact that you may not be eating, maybe you’re throwing up or maybe you are just too sick to, if you don’t feel like eating food and you don’t eat for a few [00:13:00] days, and the scale may go down significantly, five, 10 pounds sometimes. And we get on the scale. And of course, as somebody. Who is a scale watcher, we’re like, yippee.

That’s amazing. I’ve lost all this weight even though you know we’re sick. So there’s that part of our mind that wants to believe that. And yet. The reality of it is once you are well, that weight will come back. Because it’s water weight, it’s really not fat loss for the most part. There’s 3,500 calories in a pound of fat and so in order for you to release that pound, so maybe you have released a pound or two pounds over the course of being.

Ill that could be true, but the, you wanna really think of it from that perspective so that you can calm yourself down on the scale. One, to set realistic expectations, because what happens is. You gain the weight back then you feel bad about yourself and there is nothing for you to feel bad about.

You have [00:14:00] been unwell and poor thing and you’re depleted and your mind’s not in the right place. And then you see that scale go up. And it makes you feel even worse about yourself. But if you can look at the scale or just not, don’t get on the scale when you’re sick or get on the scale.

Just get the number and go, okay, that number is not real. Whatever I weighed before, I’ll probably go back to, you need to, again, long-term permanent weight mastery is all about how you communicate with yourself in a realistic. Fashion. And so really being clear with yourself about, you, you might be aware that, oh, I probably have under eaten and I have released maybe one or two actual physical pounds, but the rest of that is water.

You can then when it. The weight comes back, the water weight comes back. You’re not so disappointed. You are clear. Being able to have that conversation with yourself on the scale is very [00:15:00] empowering because it, it stops making you a victim of ha, haphazard get on the scale. It’s down, it’s up, and we don’t know why.

Having a rational conversation with yourself on the scale. If you are weighing yourself, while you’re ill, maybe just take a break from the scale because whatever those numbers are. Are not gonna be wholly accurate or weigh yourself once or twice a week rather than every day with that expectation that most of that weight probably will come back.

And that’s okay. You can continue your weight release, but it’s water weight. It’s just water weight. Anyway, so I hope that makes sense as well. So another challenge is we undereat and then begin eating more carby and refined foods, which then spikes our blood sugar, makes us feel hungrier, and then we start thinking about those carby foods again.

It becomes harder to go back to our healthy habits when we’re feeling better. If you’re [00:16:00] eating the chicken and broccoli. And you know when you’re well and then you become unwell, you become sick and you start eating the crackers and the toast. It’s going to start to tickle what I like to call your carb zombie.

The carb zombie is the pleasure center in your brain that gets. Triggered from an overabundance of carbs. And what happens when that happens when your carb zombie gets woken up is if you’ve been eating healthy and you might not be thinking too much about food, and you’ve stabilized your hunger and your blood sugar, and then all of a sudden you’re eating more carby food, that part of the brain gets engaged and you start thinking about food more.

You start feeling hungrier. Now, this isn’t your. Fault. But when you’re overeating carbs, this is what happens. So the problem is though, that when we think about then eating the chicken and the broccoli, when we’re well again. Our brain doesn’t wanna do it because once the carb zombie is awake, it doesn’t want to eat chicken [00:17:00] and broccoli.

It wants to continue to eating toast and crackers. So in order to avoid this here are some things that you want to do. You want to not reach for really refined foods when you are ill I know you want to eat maybe something a little more comforting, which is fine, but bear this in mind. First of all, drink water and stay hydrated because that could also mess with your hunger levels.

Stay away from the super refined white carbs, right? The white flour, so the saltine crackers, the white toast, the white. Rice, the white things that may stimulate you, especially naked carbs, meaning eating them on an empty stomach without any protein. Opt for proteins, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates.

If you need something comforting, make yourself a smoothie or some vegetable chicken soup or vegetable tofu soup cooked [00:18:00] vegetables. Cooked fruit. Slice up an apple and put it in the microwave for two minutes. It makes a lovely, put a little cinnamon on it. It makes it a lovely, comforting dish. You could add it on some, a little bit of oatmeal, wholesome oatmeal, not the really refined oatmeal that comes in the envelopes that has sugar in it.

But the apple sweetens, the oatmeal brown rice eggs, yogurt, these are all stabilizing foods that can help you be soothing, but also not stimulate your carb zombie. Eating smaller portions more often probably is gonna be more helpful than eating big meals because your body. Probably isn’t going to be able to digest as well since you are sick.

So bearing these in mind I think can help you a lot, not get off track. So another challenge is we start comfort, eating our stress and feeling sorry for ourselves. [00:19:00] So instead of feeling sorry for yourself I am sick and I need to eat to feel better think of yourself as a powerful nurturing healer.

And start giving yourself some healing love. Ways other than food, you can give yourself love and nurturing, even if no one else is there. You can say to yourself, I’m sorry you’re sick. Be your own loving, nurturing mama. Oh, I’m so sorry. You’re sick, baby. I feel bad. That’s, it’s too bad that we’re. Not well, right?

Give yourself a little lovings, but you don’t wanna be the victim and you don’t wanna have to feel like you have to feel the, feel that victimhood with food, oh, you’re not well, I’m gonna take care of you. Give yourself hot baths, or you can do this really great meditation where you just envision your white blood cells multiplying and eating up all the bad [00:20:00] disease cells.

You can give yourself a mantra. I am on the path of healing. My body is a healing miracle. Say it again. I am on the path of healing. My body is a healing miracle. Or you can come up with your own give yourself massages with lotion or have a loved one, give you a nice massage with lotion. Make yourself a cup of hot tea.

Get a hot pad out and. Sit on it or put it where it hurts. Read a great book or trashy magazines. I love, US Magazine, people magazine. When I’m sick, I can just sit there and consume a whole bunch of them or listen to an audible while you’re laying in bed, or go sit in the sun and listen to a book.

Or go just sit in the sun. The sun is so healing. Or watch or listen to a comedy show. [00:21:00] And then the last one, you can create a gratitude list. That might be a little hard if you’re sick, but you can at least create a gratitude list in your mind when you start to feel better. Think of slowly coming back.

It’s not all or nothing, if you’ve stayed away from the refined carbs, you should find it easy to get. Back into the healthier choices, and if you’ve moved your body, you can ease back into exercise. Seeing your sickness not as separate from your weight journey, but a part of your weight journey gives you the power back.

So I hope this helps. And I hope you stay well and don’t need to use any of this advice ever. So stay well, stay happy. May the best health be with you. May the force be with you and hit that subscribe button. And remember that the key, and probably the only key to unlocking the door of the weight struggle is inside you so keep listen ing and find it, [00:22:00] and I will be with you here. Happy, healthy, and well next week. Thanks for listening to The Thin Thinking Podcast. Did that episode go by way too fast for you? If so, and do you wanna dive deeper into the mindset of long-term weight release? Head on over to www. shiftweightmastery.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 and to learn how to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode.