0:00: We are taught to believe that first you lose the weight, then you hit goal weight, and then somehow maintenance just magically happens.

0:09: Like you arrive, the angels sing, the clouds part, and suddenly you know exactly how to live at maintenance forever.

0:17: But that’s not how it works.

0:21: Long term weight maintenance begins long before you ever reach goal weight.

0:26: Because there’s a very big difference between losing weight and building a life where you can actually live at your ideal weight with peace, confidence, and consistency.

0:36: One is about getting the weight off, the other is about becoming someone who can truly stay there.

0:43: So today, I want to walk you through what really has to begin before you reach goal weight, if you want long term permanent weight mastery.

0:53: So come on in.

1:02: Did you know that our struggle with weight doesn’t start with the food on your plate or get fixed in the gym?

1:08: 80% of our weight struggle is mental.

1:13: That’s right.

1:14: The key to unlocking long-term weight release and management begins in your mind.

1:19: Hi there, I’m Rita Black.

1:21: I’m a clinical hypnotherapist, weight loss expert, bestselling author, and the creator of the shift weight mastery process.

1:29: 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.

1:42: And after two decades of failed diets and fad weight loss programs, I lost 40 pounds with the help of hypnosis.

1:49: Not only did I release all that weight, I have kept it off for 25 years.

1:55: Enter the Thin Thinking podcast where you too will learn how to remove the mental roadblocks that keep you struggling.

2:03: 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.

2:16: Sound good?

2:18: Let’s get started.

2:19: Hello, hello, hello, hello.

2:21: Come on in and get cozy.

2:24: if you are listening to this episode when it drops, it’s April 1st, so happy April Fool’s Day.

2:33: I’m hoping not to get pranked.

2:35: My husband is a bit of a prankster and I am a bit gullible, so we’ll see.

2:40: I hope you don’t get pranked either, or if you do, I hope it’s lots of fun.

2:46: And, you know, I’ve been thinking a lot about maintenance.

2:49: A lot of my members are in maintenance and they have been maintaining for a while, and it’s such an interesting journey in and of itself.

2:57: But here is a big prank that I really think the weight loss industry and culture at large.

3:05: pulls on us.

3:06: We are taught to think that first you lose the weight and then you hit your goal weight, and then somehow maintenance will just take care of itself.

3:16: Like one day you arrive at your goal weight, the angels sing, the cloud parts, the unicorn pulls up and you get on and head off into that magical sunset of maintenance, and unfortunately, Or fortunately, that is not how it works and that’s what I kind of want to talk about today.

3:34: Long-term weight maintenance doesn’t start the day you reach your goal weight and honestly, it doesn’t even start when you are releasing weight.

3:42: It starts before you begin and it starts with a decision.

3:47: It starts with a choice about who you are going to become on this journey.

3:52: Because there is a huge difference between losing weight and creating long-term weight mastery.

4:00: A lot of people begin a weight journey focused on just getting the weight off and believe me, I understand that.

4:06: When you’re uncomfortable and frustrated and discouraged and just wanting relief, of course your mind goes to how do I get this weight off as fast as possible.

4:18: But long term success asks a different question.

4:23: It asks, who do I need to become to not only release this weight, but to live at that weight with peace and confidence, self-belief and consistency.

4:35: And that choice, that deeper decision is where true long term success begins.

4:42: It begins when you stop looking outside yourself for the next fix, the next plan, the next magical answer, and start understanding that this journey is really about learning how to lead yourself, how to rewire your mind, how to build skills, how to create a relationship with yourself that can carry you not just down the scale, but all the way to lasting maintenance.

5:05: And one of the reasons I feel so passionate about this, not just because I’ve maintained my own weight release for 30 years, it’s also because I’ve had the incredible privilege of being surrounded by so many amazing weight maintainers in the shift community over the years.

5:22: I’ve watched people not only release weight, but really learn how to live at their ideal weight, and I mean live, I mean really live like live their best life.

5:34: I, one of the people in our community, Darlene, who she achieved her ideal weight somewhere in November and this is now April 1st.

5:47: she just went to Argentina on a hiking trip with her partner, and they spent 7 days just out hiking this trail called the W, and you’re going to hear about it in a future podcast.

6:00: She’s going to tell us about, well, she’s we recorded it before she went out, but this is like a hard trek, and Darlene is in her 60s and in her mid-60s, and so is her partner.

6:15: And she was relaying to us that there were younger people on the hike, like saying, wow, you know, you guys are amazing and you know, because the younger people were exhausted from doing this hike and Darlene says it would never have been possible for her to hike and perform at, you know, with that rigor.

6:41: had she not released the weight.

6:43: And so, I just see how releasing the weight again isn’t just about the weight, but it’s about taking on like that next level of who you are becoming.

6:56: So, that’s what I mean by really living there.

6:59: I’ve seen firsthand that maintenance is its own journey as well, its own chapter and its own growth process.

7:06: And what I have seen again and again is this, if you do not begin from the very start with the intention of long-term weight mastery, it is so much harder to reach your goal weight and truly maintain it because all of the mind work, all of the rewiring, all of the self-trust, all of the skill building that creates long-term success.

7:26: Begins from day one.

7:28: So today, I want to walk you through why long term weight maintenance starts before you ever reach goal weight and what you really need to be building from the very beginning if you want to keep the weight off in a sane, steady and powerful way.

7:44: But before we begin today’s episode, I do want to let you know that right now we are enrolling for the live spring 2026 spring shift weight mastery process with early bird pricing and bonuses just for the next couple of days though, so you got to hop on it.

8:03: the shift weight mastery process, if you don’t know, is a 30 day.

8:08: Hypnosis-based weight mastery process that includes daily hypnosis, meditation, and coaching in an online portal along with live workshops, weekly Zoom coaching meetings with me and our live Facebook community where I am in there every day supporting you along with, I think we have over 50 coaches in there this time.

8:29: It’s It’s going to be a party, folks.

8:32: it is an amazing process and so many of our long-term weight maintainers began right there in the shift weight mastery process.

8:39: The process begins on April 15th, but right now, like I said, early bird pricing is only through April 3rd, and when you enroll before April 3rd midnight, you receive not only discounted pricing, but also a very special bonus package.

8:57: I created called Slim Without Resistance, because here’s something I have seen over and over again.

9:06: So many people have subconscious resistance, not only just to starting a weight journey, but also to the changes that begin to happen as they release weight.

9:16: Sometimes fear comes up, vulnerability.

9:19: They can begin to sabotage our progress.

9:22: So, I created a special coaching and hypnosis session called Permission to Be Slim, to help begin healing that resistant part of the mind and support you in stepping into change with more safety, ease, and willingness.

9:39: And also included in that bonus package is a wonderful pre-recorded 3 hour cooking class with Coach Michelle, our nutritional manager.

9:47: She’s amazing.

9:49: It is part nutrition, part healthy light meal cooking class, and it’s especially wonderful if you’ve ever felt intimidated by cooking for yourself or wondered How to make this way of eating more doable and simple and actually enjoyable.

10:05: So, if you want to learn more or enroll and receive early bird pricing and bonuses, head on over to www.shiftweightmastery.com/spring.

10:18: And there are just a few days left, so get in there and I would love to see you this spring, and that is no April Fools.

10:26: So, let’s dive in.

10:28: So, you know, You know how I love the dieting industry.

10:35: It has really sold us all a bill of goods, especially those of you who grew up in the 70s alongside me.

10:44: It has taught us to believe that in order to be successful with weight, we have to go on something.

10:50: We have to find the plan, follow the regimen, be good, obey the rules, and then if we do, if we are a really good girl, you know, for long enough or a good boy long enough, we get rewarded with weight loss.

11:04: That is the deal.

11:05: And because so many of us have lived inside that mindset for years and decades even, let’s face it, our minds get deeply imprinted with this idea that success comes from giving our power away to the diet or to the thing outside of us.

11:20: Success comes from compliance, success comes from being good on somebody else’s plan, or, you know, just doing the thing in the right order, in the right way.

11:32: So we go on the diet, we follow the rules, we eat the special food, we lose the weight, and then we think, OK, great, I’m here.

11:38: Now what?

11:40: But internally.

11:42: Nothing much has changed.

11:44: We haven’t developed the way we communicate with ourselves.

11:47: We haven’t changed the way we see ourselves.

11:49: We still see ourselves as somebody who struggles with their weight.

11:53: We have not built the skills to manage our weight at our goal weight in the real world and we have not learned how to lead ourselves, and we have simply learned to be good on a plan.

12:07: And that is why so many people can lose weight but cannot maintain it long term because weight loss and long-term weight loss are not the same thing.

12:18: Weight loss, the way most people approach it is often reactive.

12:23: It is, I’ve got to get this weight off.

12:26: It’s a response to the discomfort, frustration, fear, panic, shame, urgency, all of that stuff, that horrible stuff.

12:36: And it’s often the old habit loop kicking in, the, in, you know, our central nervous system getting triggered and I got to get on a plan, I got to clamp down, I got to get serious, I got to be good, I got to push through.

12:50: But long term weight mastery is different.

12:53: Long term weight mastery is intentional.

12:56: It’s not about getting the weight off ASAP.

12:58: It’s about changing your relationship with yourself.

13:02: It’s about developing yourself.

13:04: It’s about learning how to think, respond, and live in a way that can support your weight, not just for a month or two, but for a long term.

13:14: And that’s a very different place to begin from.

13:19: So, if you want long term weight maintenance, there has to come a moment where you reject the old concept of going on a plan or leaning in on something outside of you.

13:31: You have to stop stepping back into that same reactive path, that same familiar habit loop of, OK, here I go again, I’m going to be good now, or I’m going to rely on something outside of me.

13:44: And instead, you choose a different path.

13:47: You choose the path of a powerful journey with yourself.

13:51: A journey where, yes, you are releasing weight, but more importantly, you are learning how to become the person who can live at that weight.

14:00: You’re not just trying to get thinner, you are learning how to think differently, how to support yourself differently, to manage your mind, how to build the skills that real life requires, because life is still going to be life.

14:16: You know, I always have this joke like every single month of the year there is a holiday and there’s always birthdays and there’s always trips and there’s always things that are going to happen.

14:28: Life never lines up for you to be good on a diet or a plan.

14:32: There’s always going to be stress, holidays, travel, emotions.

14:35: There will be a beautiful, dramatic, complicated human brain.

14:40: And if the only thing you know how to do is to be good on a diet, then maintenance is going to feel terrifying because once the plan is gone, once the novelty is gone, once the finish line is high, that dopamine rush is gone, there is just you.

14:58: And if you have not built you, if you have not cultivated your mindset, your self-trust, your inner leadership, and your skills, then of course maintenance is going to feel shaky.

15:11: I was just talking about the 1994 earthquake to somebody yesterday and that’s kind of how it would feel.

15:17: It was like shake, shake, shake, and that’s why maintenance begins before goal weight.

15:23: It begins the moment you stop asking, what do I need to go on to lose the weight, and begin asking, who do I need to become to live life at my goal weight with peace, consistency, and confidence.

15:37: And that is a completely different journey.

15:40: And that is exactly where we start in the shift weight mastery process.

15:43: We don’t start from panic or reaction or from punishment.

15:48: We don’t start from, how fast can I get this weight off.

15:51: We start from the powerful decision.

15:53: To begin a very different journey, one of building yourself into somebody who can not only release the weight, but truly live there, and I know this so deeply because my own turning point happened before I ever began my final weight release journey.

16:10: And by that point, you know, I had been struggling up and down the scale for over 20 years and I was 40 pounds up and down, up and down, up and down, and I was just broken.

16:22: I could not keep doing it the old way anymore.

16:25: And what I began to understand was this was not about weight.

16:30: are just about weighed.

16:32: It was the aha.

16:33: That was the aha.

16:34: This is, this was about personal empowerment.

16:38: This was about mental freedom and this was about whether or not I was going to keep handing my power over to that damn something outside of me.

16:48: So I made a decision.

16:50: And it was a decision because I couldn’t, I just couldn’t go on anymore.

16:56: I decided it wasn’t like I was a heroic decision, but I was just like, We are done now with diets.

17:04: I did not yet know exactly how I was going to release the weight.

17:09: I did not have all the answers, but I knew deep down that the answer was not out there somewhere.

17:16: I knew I had to begin slowly, imperfectly to believe in myself and to trust myself and to understand that I had everything within me to figure it out, and so do you.

17:30: And I see so many smart, capable people lose faith in themselves in this one area of their life.

17:37: People who have raised children, built businesses, managed crises, shown extraordinary resilience, strength, and intelligence, and yet around weight they feel powerless.

17:50: I think about my own mother who was a nutritionist and who knew everything about food and even weight loss.

17:57: But she was so wounded in her own relationship with her food and weight and she struggled, you know, 80 pounds overweight.

18:10: She struggled deeply and that was hard as a child to watch and it helped me understand that this journey isn’t about information or knowing all the answers, it really is about learning to believe in yourself.

18:25: And it’s about healing that deep self-distrust so many of us carry.

18:32: And that is why in the shift weight mastery process, we talk about loving yourself down the scale.

18:39: And what that means is a radical shift away from the old idea that you’re going to finally love yourself once you lose the weight.

18:46: No, no, no, no, no, you begin loving yourself now.

18:51: You begin by respecting yourself now.

18:55: You begin by choosing yourself now.

18:58: You may not have proof yet, you may not have all the puzzle pieces put together yet, but you have you.

19:05: You have your amazing mind.

19:07: You have your capacity to grow, and from that courageous place, you begin to take your baby steps forward because loving yourself is not going to come from a number on the scale.

19:20: If you start from distrust and shame, you can get to goal weight and still feel like an impostor there.

19:28: You can still feel like it is not enough, and you can still believe you need to lose more weight because you still don’t love yourself.

19:38: real peace.

19:40: Does not come from the number.

19:41: It comes from the decision to love and develop yourself all along the way.

19:47: And I can tell you, looking back, that decision changed everything for me.

19:51: It was probably the biggest decision I made, not just in releasing 40 pounds, but in keeping my weight off for 30 years.

19:58: The weight release mattered, of course, but the freedom and peace of mind I built on that journey were just as important, maybe even more important, and that’s why I often say this journey may begin as a weight release journey.

20:13: But if you stay with it, it becomes something so much greater.

20:18: It becomes a powerful, life-changing relationship with yourself, and that is why in the shift weight mastery process, we begin with the idea of loving yourself down the scale.

20:28: So now let’s talk about why people often regain weight.

20:33: Once they get to their goal weight or you know, they lose 1020 pounds.

20:40: There is a well-worn road to 10 to 20 pounds for most of us who struggle with weight.

20:48: so we, we regain weight for many reasons, and it’s usually not because we’re lazy or broken or don’t know enough.

20:55: It’s because we focus on getting to goal without focusing on becoming the person who can stay there, focused on the number, the diet, the rules, the being good, the getting through, the, you know, white knuckling it.

21:11: but not focusing on identity and in communication and skill building and getting back on track and living in the real world.

21:20: So, when we reach goal weight or get close, still carrying that struggle identity, still don’t trust ourselves, still do not know how to guide ourselves through life without outer rules, and that is where maintenance feels shaky and eventually What happens, we regain and unfortunately reinforcing the sense of failure and shame around weight and the belief that we are incapable of success ever, ever, ever.

21:52: So, I want to walk you through 5 things that I think really I invite you to put in place before you begin your journey or if you’re already on your journey just to make sure that they are in place.

22:05: So, point number 1, make sure you’re stepping into that powerful new identity.

22:13: So, when we look at why people regain weight, it really starts to make sense.

22:18: They’ve focused on the outside in approach.

22:20: They focused on what to eat, what not to eat, how to be good, how to get through, how to force themselves forward, but they have not changed at the core.

22:28: They have not changed the way they see themselves, the way they communicate with themselves, or the way they use their mind in the process of change.

22:36: So, even when the body changes, the deep wiring often does not, and that is why so many people can get to goal weight and still feel like they can’t own that, still feel like an impostor there and still feel like they’re the struggler and just wearing a smaller pair of jeans.

22:57: So, let’s talk about the 5 main things that you need before you ever hit your goal weight, if you want long term weight release and long-term maintenance.

23:06: And the first one is not a trick, not a food plan, and not more willpower.

23:10: It is the starting point.

23:12: It is what we call the turning point.

23:15: And it is the beginning of a new identity, really beginning from a new brain.

23:22: Because the weight struggler brain is heavily wired around old identity beliefs, old forms of intercommunication.

23:29: I always fail, I can’t trust myself, I never follow through, I always gain it back.

23:36: And then when people try to change, they’re often trying to fight against those old wires head on.

23:43: They’re trying to override them with force, but that usually just creates more inner conflict.

23:49: Instead, what we do in shift is begin a cognitive reframe.

23:55: We start creating new wires.

23:57: We begin stepping into a new identity that we can reinforce over time, while those old struggler wires, they begin to weaken and fade, and that is part of what hypnosis and meditation are designed to help and support, not just changing a surface habit, but helping you work from the deeper core where real change begins.

24:20: And this is something I think a lot of people don’t realize.

24:24: They may have tried hypnosis before or downloaded an app or worked on habits and beliefs and wondered why nothing really changed, but unless you get to the root, identity, the change will not hold because identity creates the world you live in internally and when you create a new world of weight mastery, you create a new role for yourself inside that world.

24:48: And that role is not a perfectionist, that role is not a struggler, that role is learner, apprentice, somebody who’s learning to master their mind, their choices, and their relationship with themselves.

25:01: And that is powerful because learning engages a completely different way of being.

25:07: Now you are not good or bad.

25:10: Now you are not passing or failing.

25:13: Now you are learning and anything anybody has ever mastered in life, they learned by doing it imperfectly, by making mistakes and by adjusting and by growing.

25:23: I don’t know anyone who has been great on a diet for 30 years.

25:29: But I do know many people who have learned how to master themselves over time, and that is how I moved forward.

25:36: That is how our long-term weight maintainers move forward.

25:39: Mistakes do not define you as a failure.

25:42: They give you information.

25:44: They give you a chance to learn and get better.

25:47: And that’s why this new identity is the foundation of everything.

25:51: In the shift weight mastery process, we even have you sign a contract to leave that old struggler mentality behind.

25:57: And step into this new world.

26:00: A world where you begin using your brain more impactfully, where you begin creating new wires, and where you begin as an apprentice of weight mastery.

26:09: And that identity shift is not just the foundation of long-term weight release, it is the foundation of long-term maintenance as well.

26:19: Now, the second thing that has to begin before you ever reach goal weight is building a relationship with your inner coach.

26:28: And I do not just mean some nice voice in your head cheering you on.

26:32: I mean a real living relationship with the part of you that can guide you, strategize with you, protect you, and help you stay with yourself through the entire journey.

26:46: Because here’s what happens for so many people.

26:49: They start a diet or a weight release plan, and at first there’s the honeymoon period.

26:55: They feel excited.

26:57: They feel in control.

26:58: They see the scale going down.

26:59: They feel motivated, but when the subconscious barriers begin to show up, the old roadblocks come up, the same times, the same places, the same foods, the same emotional triggers, and that is often where people get knocked off track.

27:16: Not because they don’t want it badly enough, but because they do not yet have a relationship with the part of themselves that knows how to respond when things get hard.

27:26: So the inner critic jumps in and starts beating them up, and the inner rebel says, forget it, let’s go back to what we know.

27:34: But your inner coach is different.

27:37: Your inner coach is the part of you that can sit down and have an adult conversation with you.

27:43: It is rational, nurturing, curious, and committed, and it’s the part of you that can say, OK, what’s really going on here?

27:51: What do we need?

27:53: What’s the lesson?

27:55: What is the next best step?

27:57: And every single thing you have ever mastered in your life, just let me make this point, you mastered because some part of you stayed present long enough to learn, even when you felt insecure, even when you wanted to quit, even when you did not know exactly what to do next.

28:18: And that is definitely with me with technology.

28:22: But that part is the inner coach, and it is the part of you that helps you stay in the process and keep moving forward.

28:31: I often call this learning to live in the gray area this because most people struggling with weight only know two places, good or bad, on or off, winning or failing.

28:45: But the inner coach helps you live in the powerful and messy space in between.

28:52: The gray area is where real mastery happens.

28:56: It is where you learn from mistakes instead of making them mean you’re broken.

29:00: It is where you stay with yourself when things feel boring and slow and messy and plateaued or uncertain, and this is where you learn how to hear what is really underneath, like, I am bored or this is too hard or this isn’t working fast enough, and that ability to stay and listen and learn and respond and lead yourself forward instead of giving up.

29:27: That is what builds resilience for both weight release and maintenance.

29:33: And that is why in the shift weight mastery process, the inner coach relationship is not just a nice extra, it is a pillar of the whole journey.

29:43: It is the cornerstone of not only releasing weight, but maintaining it permanently.

29:48: Your inner coach is what bridges the gap between wanting to release weight.

29:53: And achieving your own goal weight and learning how to live there.

29:56: And as people move into maintenance, that relationship, it doesn’t get shallower, it gets way deeper.

30:03: In fact, many people discover that building this relationship with themselves changes far more than their weight.

30:09: It makes them more resilient in every area of their life.

30:13: They take bigger risks, they trust themselves more, they speak up more, and they go after things they would have never gone after before, because when you know you have that compassionate, rational, strategic part of you to lean on.

30:30: You stop living under the rule of that punitive inner critic, and you begin to live a much bigger life.

30:39: OK.

30:40: And now the 3rd thing that has to begin before you ever reach goal weight is practicing the 9 skills of weight mastery.

30:49: Now, not someday or not later, not once you finally get your act together, but from the beginning, because here’s the truth.

31:00: Maintenance is not something completely different, you know, it’s not in a different universe from weight release.

31:07: It’s not like you release the weight one way and then somehow magically you learn how to maintain it later.

31:12: No.

31:13: The same deeper skills that carry you down the scale are the same skills that help you live there once you arrive, and that was one of the biggest things that I discovered on my own journey.

31:24: You know, I started with a commitment to myself.

31:26: I started with the decision to believe in myself and trust that the answers were inside of me.

31:31: And as I began changing my eating and building better habits, the weight started to come off, but there was still a big hole in my ability to keep going.

31:43: And when I stepped back and I looked at it more rationally, I realized what was missing.

31:49: I had been trained.

31:51: Forever to go on and off diets to be good and bad, but I had never actually developed real skills for weight management, and that is such an important distinction because a lot of the things that we do when we’re trying to manage our weight actually are skills, but we do not relate to them in that way at all.

32:11: We relate to them through the narrow framework of dieting.

32:15: So if we’re doing them, we’re thinking I’m being good.

32:18: Or and if we stop doing them, we think, I’m being bad.

32:22: And because we only see them through that lens, we never fully develop them.

32:27: We never strengthen them.

32:28: We never own them as something that we are learning for life.

32:33: We just pick them up when we’re trying to lose weight and throw them away the minute we get off track.

32:39: So, I began studying long-term weight management success and what I found was that people who succeed long-term engage in very specific repeatable behaviors, habits, and ways of thinking, and I call those skills, and over time, I organized them into what I now call the nine skills of weight mastery.

33:00: And 3 of those are mindset skills, building a relationship with your inner coach, managing that inner critic, and the rebel.

33:08: 3 are weight management skills, learning how to live within your body’s energy needs for weight release.

33:16: A strategic and consistent relationship with exercise, and building a masterful, powerful relationship with food, where you can live in the real world, where you are in charge, where you create a way of eating that you love, that allows you to live at your ideal weight.

33:33: And then 3 are environmental skills, self-monitoring, stimulus control, and building support.

33:40: And what is so powerful is that these are not just things you do when you’re on a weight release journey.

33:46: These are the foundational capacities you build, so that you can live at your ideal weight.

33:51: You are creating a way of eating that works for you, a way of moving your body that works for you, a way of thinking and responding and setting up your world that works for you, that is completely different.

34:02: Than following a diet.

34:05: And the environment skills are especially important because people do not even realize how much their environment is pulling on them.

34:13: Their home is booby trapped, their office is booby trapped, their routines are booby trapped.

34:19: Sometimes even the people around them are unintentionally pulling them back into old patterns.

34:25: So in the ship weight mastery process, we do not say, OK, be strong.

34:33: Pull it together.

34:35: We teach you how to shape your environment, so your environment starts supporting your success instead of sabotaging it.

34:42: That’s a skill.

34:43: Everything in this process is about skill building, not proving that you can be good on a diet.

34:49: And that is why this matters so much for maintenance.

34:52: The same skills required for long term weight release are the same skills required for long-term weight maintenance.

35:00: That is one of the biggest differences between a diet and real weight mastery.

35:05: In a diet, you are borrowing a structure temporarily.

35:09: In weight mastery, you are building an inner and outer skill set that becomes part of who you are.

35:16: So by the time many people in the shift community reach their goal weight, they already have these skills in place.

35:24: They have confidence in place.

35:26: They know how to respond to life now.

35:30: Is there a re-jigging as they head into maintenance?

35:33: Absolutely.

35:34: The first few months can feel a little shaky because they’re learning how to use the same skills in a slightly different way.

35:40: But the good news is they are not starting from zero, they are starting from strength and skills, and that is exactly why so many people in our community are able to maintain their ideal weight long term.

35:55: Now The 4th thing that has to begin before you ever reach goal weight is building your getting back on track muscle.

36:05: Woo!

36:06: This is big, and honestly, this may be one of the most important muscles to flex of all, because I think so many people imagine maintenance as this magical place where you finally arrive, hop on a unicorn, and float off, yada yada yada, but that is not how maintenance works.

36:23: That is not how long-term weight mastery works.

36:25: In my own journey and over 30 years of maintenance, I’ve gotten off track hundreds of times, hundreds.

36:32: But what has changed over the years is not that I ever get off track.

36:38: What has changed is that I get back on track more quickly, calmly, and consciously with far less drama, and that is true of the people in our shift community who maintain their ideal weight as well.

36:53: In our maintenance meetings, we talk all the time about getting off track and getting back on track, because by the time you reach your goal weight, the idea is not that you’ve been perfect the whole way through.

37:04: In fact, if somebody has never gotten off track, I worry more about them than To somebody who has gotten off track a number of times and learned how to get back on track while they were releasing weight, because one person who has been perfect often has not yet built the muscle of resilience.

37:23: They have not yet learned what to do when real life happens.

37:28: But the person who has drifted and returned and drifted and returned and drifted and returned, that person is building the exact muscle that creates long-term maintenance.

37:40: And that is why in the shift, we actually celebrate it.

37:43: We say, Yay, you got off track.

37:47: Now you get to get back on track.

37:50: And I know that sounds a little wild in the diet world.

37:54: But it is because getting back on track is not failure.

37:57: It is skill building.

37:58: It is neural pathway building.

38:01: It is one of the most powerful skills of weight mastery.

38:05: The first time somebody gets off track, it can feel incredibly disorienting because all of that old diet wiring gets retriggered.

38:13: The central nervous system sounds, the alarm, the sirens start blaring, the inner.

38:18: It jumps in, the old thought is, oh no, here we go again.

38:22: I’ve blown it.

38:24: I knew I couldn’t trust myself.

38:26: But that is exactly why we encourage people not to fear getting off track.

38:30: We want you to get off track so you can learn in real time, how to get back on track.

38:36: That’s a huge subconscious neural pathway that needs to be built and then strengthened over time.

38:43: Because long-term maintenance is not built by people who never wobble.

38:47: It is built by people who know how to return, who know that when life gets messy, they have a way back.

38:56: People who know that overeating once or having a weird week or drifting emotionally does not mean they have failed.

39:02: It means they’re human.

39:04: And that they can use their skills and their inner coach and they can calm that nervous system, they can interrupt the old shame loop, they can guide themselves back, not perfectly, not dramatically, and not with punishment, but quickly and lovingly.

39:21: I just went hiking with one of my maintainers yesterday.

39:25: She was visiting Los Angeles and we went on a hike.

39:28: It was a beautiful day and we marched up the mountain and she was just telling me about, you know, she has been maintaining her weight for 2 years and And she was, we were joking about how many times she’s gotten off track and how every time it just makes her more confident, it makes her stronger, and I know that just sounds so wild out there to people who are so used to getting off track, meaning, means, you know, I blew it and I’ve got to go back to the beginning.

40:01: That muscle has to be built before goal weight, because that is the very muscle that will keep you there.

40:06: Long-term weight mastery is not about perfection.

40:08: It is about self-management, it is about learning that every time you get off track, you have another opportunity to deepen that trust with yourself, and that is a skill that will serve you for the rest of your life.

40:23: All right.

40:25: So, now, this is really the reframe I want to leave with you.

40:31: Maintenance is not the end of the journey.

40:34: It is the continuation of the journey.

40:37: Yes, it’s a different phase, yes, there is a different feel to it, but it is not the place where you are done.

40:43: It is the place where you keep living what you have been learning.

40:47: And I think that that is important because a lot of people think of maintenance as some short term phase like, OK, now I’m just going to hold on to this for a little while, but true maintenance is for the rest of your life.

41:01: It is not a quick stop after weight release.

41:04: It is an ongoing journey, living at your ideal weight through all the different seasons and phases of your life, and that means you are still an apprentice of weight mastery.

41:15: I am still an apprentice of weight mastery.

41:18: You are still building skills.

41:19: You are still deepening your relationship with your inner coach.

41:22: You are still learning and growing.

41:25: The difference is that now you are living those skills in real life in all of its many colors.

41:32: And that is what I’ve seen in my own life.

41:34: I achieved my ideal weight and then life kept happening.

41:38: I went through pregnancies, I went through very stressful periods in my life.

41:44: I went through a difficult time in my marriage.

41:46: I lost both my parents.

41:49: I went through menopause.

41:51: I had teenagers.

41:55: I had times when I had to change the way I was eating and times when I could not exercise the way I wanted to and times I had to regroup and come back to myself, but because I had these skills in place and because I had that relationship with my inner coach, I did not let go of myself.

42:13: I did not lose faith.

42:15: I kept adjusting, learning, and moving forward.

42:19: And that is what weight mastery really gives you.

42:22: It is not just a way to release weight, it becomes a way to navigate your life.

42:28: It becomes the lens through which you care for yourself, respond to challenges, and keep showing up for yourself no matter what is happening.

42:37: When these skills are embedded, when this mindset is embedded.

42:41: You are able to meet life as it changes, and life will change.

42:46: That is one thing we all know for sure.

42:48: But instead of every life change knocking you completely off course, you know how to come back to yourself and reassess and make changes and keep going.

42:58: So, no, maintenance isn’t riding off on the unicorn into the sunset.

43:03: It’s not the end of the story.

43:04: It is the place where the story becomes more real, more lived, and more embodied.

43:10: You settle into yourself, you build trust, you keep practicing, you keep evolving, and that is why this chapter begins before goal weight, because what you are really building is not just a body at a certain number, but a way of being with yourself that you can carry through a lifetime.

43:31: And honestly, this is exactly why I created the shift weight mastery process, because I did not want to create another way for people to lose weight and then panic later.

43:41: I wanted to create a process that helps you build the real foundation.

43:47: For permanent weight release and long-term weight mastery, identity, your inner coach, deeper subconscious alignment, real skills, self-trust, the ability to get back on track, and a powerful vision for where you are going, because that is what makes permanent weight release possible.

44:06: So if you’re listening right now and realizing, oh, I’ve been trying to get to goal weight without becoming someone who can actually live there, first of all, you’re not alone.

44:16: So many people have been taught to focus only on the number and not on who they are becoming along the way.

44:23: That is fixable, that is learnable, and that is exactly what we work on in shift.

44:30: And the last thing I want to leave you with this, no matter where you are starting from today, whether you are already in maintenance, whether you’re in the middle of a weight release journey, or whether or not you have even begun, one of the most important things that you can do is create a powerful vision of where you’re going and who you’re becoming.

44:50: And I do not mean a little diet vision like, oh, I’m going to be thin on the beach this summer.

44:56: I mean a real vision, a bold vision, a vision of you living your life, managing yourself, showing up for yourself.

45:03: Because that vision matters, it calls you forward, and as you move through your weight mastery journey, that vision is going to change and evolve.

45:11: It should.

45:12: There are many, many times in my own journey where I reached a goal, and then I needed to stretch again, and I needed to challenge myself again, and I needed the vision to be bigger.

45:22: And a lot of that is where my mission lives now, in helping more people, serving our members more deeply, innovating, creating new ways to support people on this powerful journey.

45:33: So, if you’re bored right now, or if you notice that once you hit a certain point, your passion drops off, it may not be that there’s something wrong with you.

45:42: It may be that your vision is no longer big enough to engage you.

45:47: It may need to get bolder, sexier, more alive.

45:51: It may be needing to get more connected to who you truly want to become.

45:55: And how you truly want to live and serve, because that is part of being human.

46:01: We want to grow, we are meant to develop, we are meant to challenge ourselves and And what gets in the way is usually not our potential.

46:09: It’s that critical voice that tells us to stay small, not take the risk and not believe in ourselves.

46:16: Sometimes it is even the world around us trying to keep us in the same old shape.

46:20: But if you keep showing up for yourself, if you begin believing in yourself and you take this journey one step at a time, the you you are becoming will continue to grow, evolve, and continue to surprise you.

46:32: So let me leave you with this.

46:33: Long-term weight maintenance does not begin when you hit goal weight.

46:38: It begins the moment you start thinking differently, guiding yourself differently, and building skills and seeing yourself differently.

46:45: And every time you listen to your inner coach, Or every time you get back on track, you keep building that skill, you choose self-respect over self-attack, you are building maintenance.

46:59: You’re already becoming the person who can live there and that, my friend, is the journey.

47:05: And if you are ready to begin that journey with support, I would love to invite you to join me for the live online spring 2026 shift weight mastery process.

47:16: It is a powerful, exciting, transformational 30 day journey where we work deeply with hypnosis, meditation, coaching, and community support to help you begin rewiring your mind and building the foundation for permanent weight mastery.

47:31: And one of the most beautiful parts of the process is that you’re not alone doing it.

47:35: You’re in the company of other people just like you who are ready for more, more freedom, more confidence, more life, people who are ready to stop struggling and start building something lasting.

47:48: So please come join us.

47:49: I would be thrilled to have you and I will see you on the road to long-term permanent weight mastery and maintenance.

47:57: And have a great week and remember that the key and probably the only key to unlocking the door of the weight struggle is inside you, so keep listening and find it and I will be here with you again next week.

48:12: If you want to dive deeper into the mindset of long term weight release, head on over to www.shiftweightmastery.com.

48:22: That’s wwwshiftweightmastery.com, where you’ll find Numerous tools and resources to help you unlock your mind for permanent weight release, tips, strategies, and more.

48:36: 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.