Intermittent Fasting Journal #58 Introducing the Self Coaching Model (The Think-Feel-Act Series)

Intermittent Fasting Journal #58 Introducing the Self Coaching Model (The Think-Feel-Act Series)

by

Broadcast #58 is alive and well! And chock-full of valuable information for your weight loss journey–and for your life journey! Yep…I think it’s that impactful! In this broadcast, I introduce the first Thursday evening Model (recorded live in the FREE FB group every Thursday evenings!). The Self-Coaching Model, created by life coach Brooke Castillo, is a framework for chaning your life, understanding your thoughts and feelings, and taking the actions that you desire in your life. Tall order? Maybe….but watch and be amazed!

In this first episode of Thursday evening Models, I introduce the elements of The Model and apply them to several different circumstances to show you how The Model can be used in real life situations, thoughts, and feelings. I spend time to really give an understanding of the five elements of The Model: Circumstances, Thoughts, Feelings, Actions, and Results.
This material is life-changing, and many thanks are given to Brooke for her generosity in giving in to the world! And allowing weight loss coaches and others to share it with their readers and viewers!

As always…I have an outline below…but first…

The general model picture:

And today’s finished Model board….don’t let this picture scare you….after a couple of weeks of learning The Model, I could do it driving down the road, fixing dinner, and working out–in my head! Sooooo cool!
Love and hope, Donna P.S. I’d love to help you one-on-one with your weight loss! I have coaching slots available starting February 1st! Email me at characterinklady@gmail.com

A. Pre-Requisites

1. Believe that life is 50% good and 50% bad—or some near combination of that

a. You don’t expect everything to be perfect
b. You are willing to accept the bad in life as needed

2. Believe in the components of the model for changing your life

a. C T F A R
b. Cee Totally FAR! (mnemonic)
c. See how they interact with each other

B. Understand the C Line First

1. Circumstances

a. Things that happen or that are that everyone believes happened
b. Can be proven in a court of law
c. No describers, disclaimers, trigger words, negative words, or positive words
d. Every single person you ask believes that that is a circumstance

2. When you think a thought is a circumstance

a. It is raining outside

i. No describers
ii. No thoughts about it
iii. Can be proven
iv. NOT: The rain is keeping people from having fun today
v. The rain is keeping people from having fun today is a thought—not everyone agrees with this

b. The traffic is stopped at the corner of Jefferson and Illinois

i. Traffic apps will say this
ii. The cars are stopped
iii. No describers
iv. Can be proven
v. NOT: The traffic is so bad
vi. Traffic is bad is a thought—not everyone agrees with this

c. Joe Smith died

i. Fact
ii. Obituary proves it
iii. No describers
iv. Not: It is sad that Joe Smith died
v. It is sad that Joe Smith died is a thought—not everyone agrees with this

 

C. Understand the Thought Line Next

1. Thoughts are sentences in your mind
2. They are your judgment or analysis or beliefs about something
3. We think they are circumstances—but they are not because they are in your brain and not everyone agrees with them
4. Thoughts drive everything

a. What we think about the rain
b. What we think about the stopped cars
c. What we think about Joe Smith’s death

5. Thoughts influence our feelings—and then our actions
6. When we have a thought that isn’t helping us reach our goals (goals like a better relationship, losing weight, growing our business, loving more, etc.), we can change our thoughts and this will help us change our feelings—and then our actions will follow!

D. Understand the Feeling Line Next

1. Feelings are vibrations in the body (not sensations like cold or hunger but how we would describe grief or joy or nervousness)
2. How we feel is based on what we think

a. If we think the rain is keeping us from having fun, we will feel a different way than if we think the weather is needed for the farmers
b. If we think the traffic is keeping us from our party, we will feel different than if we think the traffic means that someone else will have to clean the kitchen
c. If we think Joe Smith’s death is sad because we loved him, we will feel different than someone who wanted him to die on death row

 

E. Understand the Action Line

1. All of our actions stem from Thoughts-Feelings
2. If we want to change our lives, we will be very purposeful to change our thoughts and feelings (the basis of self coaching)
3. We act according to Thought and Feelings

a. If we feel sad about the weather, we will complain and bring the family down. If we feel okay about the weather, we will look for other fun options.
b. If we feel anxious about the traffic, we will worry about being late for work, scramble and make phone calls, try to reschedule meetings. If we feel glad about the traffic, we will text Hubby or daughter, have them clean the kitchen and listen to our favorite music in the traffic.
c. If we feel sad about Joe Smith’s death, we will seek comfort, cry, reach out, potentially eat our feelings, etc. If we feel glad about Joe Smith’s death, we will visit the execution and write about it, telling others that justice was served.

F. Understand the Results Line

1. Our results prove our thoughts
2. There is a direct correlation from Results to Thoughts
3. This is the basis of Positive Thinking and Law of Attraction—but without realizing that our Actions come into play too!
4. How our results prove our thoughts

a. If we listen to music and enjoy the traffic, we are proving the thought that someone else is cleaning the kitchen
b. If we complain about the weather and bring everyone down, we will not make other happy plans (or will do it half heartedly)
c. If we are at Joe Smith’s execution because we want to see justice served, we will have the result of thinking that he needed to be executed.

 

G. I Can’t Wait to Teach You to Apply This

1. Has changed so many things for me

a. Expectations of my husband and kids
b. How I view urges and weight management issues
c. How much I love
d. How much I judge
e. How I respond to criticism
f. How I work

2. Some future circumstances we will plug in

a. Three in-laws call me Donna
b. I ate 6 cookies last night
c. Someone said XXX and XX about me (quoted)
d. My kids visited one time in October
e. My weight has been 165 for four months

 

H. Free Content and Paid Services

1. Free video teaching weekly at Donna’s Weight Loss Lifestyle Facebook Group
2. Free hour long fasting webinar: https://intermittentfastingwebinar.com
3. Month-long Intermittent Fasting Course: https://intermittentfastingcourse.com
4. Weight loss coaching—email characterinklady@gmail.com

How Many Special Unhealthy Food Occasions Do You REALLY Have Between Halloween and New Year’s Day? (Broadcast #57)

How Many Special Unhealthy Food Occasions Do You REALLY Have Between Halloween and New Year’s Day? (Broadcast #57)

by

The thing about me is I get a little crazy—just a little–when I learn something new or find something that works for me. (You didn’t know that already, did you? 🙂 )

And today’s Broadcast is no exception….

I have learned so much since I began weight loss coaching–and I want to shout it all from the mountaintops!

In this video (or podcast), I am sharing some of these new revelations, including:

1) How Deciding Ahead of Time is the key to weight loss and maintenance

2) Why Cheat Days cost us way more than we want to pay (and keep us from losing weight)

3) How to have a Fun Food exception episode each week to enjoy your very favorites–but not have cheat days that turn into cheat weeks!

4) How to figure up which meals or parties you will have Fun Foods (and which ones you really don’t need to)

5) How to THINK! The most important part of all!

I can’t wait for you to see the video! (Of course, I have a detailed outline for you–with all that math today, you might need it!)

Broadcast #57: How Many Special “Unhealthy” Food Occasions Do You REALLY Have Between Halloween and New Year’s Day?

 

Make a weight management resolution that you will keep (unlike 92% of people who give up by January 25th!)….

You CAN practice Intermittent Fasting for the rest of your life! Use coupon code SAVE20 to get 20% off the January course session: https://intermittentfastingcourse.com

A. Throwing Healthy Eating Out the Window From Halloween to New Year’s Day

1. Average weight gain 7-12 pounds
2. People don’t start new eating protocols or they discontinue ones they are trying to implement
3. They wait until New Year’s resolutions—even though they have a 92% failure rate by January 20th!

 

B. Why and How to Combat This

1. They think it is because there are too many special occasions to even try
2. But are there really?
3. My mantra to my kids: “Every day is special, but every day isn’t a “special day”!
4. We want our kids to adopt this—you still have to go to school; you still have practice; you still have homework; you still have bedtimes, etc., but we don’t want to adopt it ourselves when it comes to food! #adulting
5. We create special days that do not really need to be exceptions and call every day an exception
6. “Cheat days”—exception days, off days, no count days, free days—whatever you want to call them keep us from our goal weight more than any other “mistake.”
7. They take us over the amount of food (calories for most people) that they need in a given week by adding an extra 2000 to 4000 calories on that day—so we never have a net loss
8. Exceptions should be one meal or one food one day a week or less off of the protocol you have chosen for yourself in order to sustain the loss you have already or have more weight loss (“Fun Food” meal!)
9. The concept of “I’m going off tonight anyway” and the overdrawn checking account—seriously! Why didn’t I see this for so many years????

 

C. It’s Simple Math

1. Simple to figure but harder to keep
2. Look at calendar from Halloween to New Year’s Day

a. Halloween–children’s holiday; we don’t need it “off” (save 4 to 6 pieces of your favorites and plan them ahead of time)
b. Church Thanksgiving dinner—how important is this to you? Can you make protocol food and eat that and save your “meal off” for family meal? Do you need three Thanksgiving dinners? Most of us do not.
c. Extended family Thanksgiving—Okay, I’ll give you this one because you only get Aunt Mary’s pie once a year (1 Fun Food Meal—1 total so far)
d. Immediate Family Thanksgiving—I’ll even give you this one—one MEAL, not the whole day (aghhh….who wants to feel that way for 12 hours??? Not me!) (1 Fun Food Meal—2 total so far)
e. School Christmas Program—Store bought cookies are NEVER worth it
f. Cookie Exchange Night—Unless someone baked your favorite cookie ON THE WAY to the exchange, nothing is fresh out of the oven, so just skip then (If you thought it was worth it while you were baking for it, that’s another matter—you might want to add that to your total depending on how many “specials” you have that week—remember there will be a lot of other baking coming up! Do not, I repeat, do not eat treats while baking AND at the event…you’re an adult…you can have more control than that!) Let’s have cookies today—but only warm, homemade, amazing ones, okay? (1 Fun Food Meal—3 total so far!)
g. Office Christmas Party—Decisions, decisions….I actually have a “worth it” list—maybe you need one too! Every eating out or party is really worth it. I have my top 20 or so that will always be worth it if my week doesn’t already have my “Fun Food Meal” in it. If the bread is amazing, maybe. If the desserts are truly homemade and are cake with cream cheese frosting…possibly. So let’s assume this is an amazing dinner at one of your favorite non-chain restaurants! Lol (1 Fun Food Meal—4 total so far!)
h. Church Christmas Program—Okay…you know those cookie exchange people are all bringing the leftover cookies to this, right? And you know that these programs happen all the time—VBS, summer, harvest, Christmas, spring….yeah….eat your intentional food before you go and help some young mommas with their littles!!
i. Extended Family Christmas—Alright…I’ll give you Aunt Mary’s Christmas Dessert…so go enjoy! (1 Fun Food Meal—5 total so far!)
j. Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve—Seriously?
k. Christmas Eve—Alright…one more meal (1 Fun Food Meal—6 total so far!)
l. Christmas Morning—You decide….two “Free Food Meals” in one day is a lot of unhealthy food, but you know if your traditions are worth it that day or not (1 Fun Food Meal—7 total so far!)
m. Christmas Dinner—Merry Christmas—but stop around 6 or so….and call it a day. You’ve had plenty. (1 Fun Food Meal—8 total so far!)
n. Day After Christmas—Stop the madness….send all leftovers home with someone and pour dish soap over the leftover pie and pitch it. (If you think it’s safe in the freezer, freeze some goodies for something in the future….if. it’s. safe.
o. New Year’s Eve—Celebrate! (1 Fun Food Meal—9 total so far!)
p. New Year’s Day—One meal..one meal only. Not a New Year’s Day brunch and dinner later…not a “last meal” before the diet tomorrow….one. fun. Food. Meal! (1 Fun Food Meal—10 total so far!)

 

D. Advanced Math

1. 60 days between Halloween and New Year’s Day
2. Perfectly on protocol 50 of those
3. Ten “special days”—one “fun food meal” per day
4. Potentially over by 1,000 calories on each of those days
5. Balanced out by some lower days and a little exercise and some great fasts…..
6. No weight gain!

 

E. Free Content and Paid Services

1. Free video teaching weekly at Donna’s Intermittent Fasting Group
2. Free hour long fasting webinar: https://intermittentfastingwebinar.com
3. Month-long Intermittent Fasting Course: https://intermittentfastingcourse.com
4. Weight loss coaching—email characterinklady@gmail.com

Love and hope,

Donna

P.S. Make a weight management resolution that you will keep (unlike 92% of people who give up by January 25th!)….join my January course!
You CAN practice Intermittent Fasting for the rest of your life! Use coupon code SAVE20 to get 20% off the January course session: https://intermittentfastingcourse.com  

P.S.S. If you need one-on-one help, email me about my coaching services–I’m hanging out my shingle mid-January!

Halloween Candy, Dopamine Spikes, and Allowing Urges (Fast Shot)

by

How many Halloween candies do you have left? Which ones are your favorites? Have you ever thought about why those particular candies are your faves? Come to find out, our favorites are often our favorites because of the combination of ingredients that cause dopamine spikes that make us want more and more and more of that candy.

It’s not our faults!

But we can do something about it!

Yay us!

In today’s Fast Shot video, I explain why the top three Halloween candies hold those spots in our tummies!

I also explain The Hungry Brain’s “Seductive Six” or hyper-palatable combinations that lead to overeating–and give you five work-able suggestions to reduce those cravings with Halloween candy–and all holiday goodies. These five tips are ways we can “hack” our bodies and brains and thinking and habits! I love hacks!

Let me know if these tips help you–and let me know how I can help you in the future! I want us all to succeed!!

A. Favorite Halloween Candy According to Monmouth University Study

1. Reese’s Cups (36%)
2. Snickers (18%)
3. M and M (11%)

 

B. Why Those Three?

1. They have what Dr. Stephen Guyenet (The Hungry Brain) calls “Seductive Factors”
2. They are hyper-palatable
3. These are the “Seductive Six” that, when combined, cause huge dopamine spikes (combined, they all lead to a food that is “calorie dense”)

a. Fat
b. Carbohydrate
c. Protein
d. Sweet flavors
e. Salty
f. Unami (meaty, savory flavor)

4. All of the top three candies have three to five of the Seductive Six elements
5. The more calorie dense/unreal/seductive the foods are, the more dopamine we release—the motivation/habit chemical in the brain
6. This is why we don’t get “fat” from Starburst or licorice! (And they those types of candies are not in the top three Halloween candies!)

 

C. How Can We Ward Off the After-Halloween Urges

1. Believe that urges are not urgent

a. We think they are
b. We think they overtake us or creep up on us, etc.
c. We don’t think we are an active participant in them!

2. Practice fasting!

a. Your insulin will go lower during the fast, and cravings will be reduced
b. Your satiety and hunger hormones will balance more—and you will hear them better (though remember that we don’t hear them as well with processed foods)
c. Your eating window will be less—which has to help at least in part simply by time constraints

3. Create barriers

a. Get rid of leftovers
b. Don’t be afraid to throw them away
c. Tell your kids not to let you have any of their stash

4. Plan for them

a. How many are you keeping?
b. When will you eat them?
c. Don’t eat them any time other than when you have planned for them!
d. Planning ahead uses your adult brain rather than your toddler brain!

5. Space out time between treats (especially highly seductive or hyper-palatable)

a. The longer you wait between treats, the less dopamine is released
b. New neuro-pathways are created in the brain
c. Unanswered urges become fewer urges or even no urges
d. I want to teach you not to resist (or fight!) urges…I want to teach you to feel the feelings and sit with urges without giving in until you have very few urges
e. So much better to not have urges than it is to fight them over and over! (Check out Broadcast #57 and #58 for a two-part video on Willpower!)

 

D. I’d Love to Teach You More

1. Free IF Webinar: https://intermittentfastingwebinar.com 
2. Month-long Intermittent Fasting Course: https://intermittentfastingcourse.com 
3. Private weight loss coaching: email characterinklady(AT)gmail.com

Fast Shot: How My Husband and I Lost Weight During the Last Two Holiday Seasons (and Why Beginning IF Is Amazing During This Time)

by

Welcome to another Fast Shot video. This is a timely one–and one that I hope will convince you that the holiday season is the ideal time to begin Intermittent Fasting! I know..I know…most people STOP their eating protocols during the holidays, not add new ones. But IF is the PERFECT protocol to begin during the holidays as it will truly help you get a handle on those holiday goodies and heavy foods WITHOUT so much white knuckling and super human willpower! (Honest!)

So join me fasting….and join me in the course too if you want daily help for a month! I’d love to help you! intermittentfastingcourse.com

And…as always…my detailed outline! (Aren’t you so glad I’m an English teacher and curriculum author of over 100 kids’ curriculum books? lol)

A. Began IF October and December 2017

 

1. Might have heard my story—began IF to “eat whatever I wanted” during October of 2017
2. Might have heard my husband’s story—began IF so he could dance with me (sigh….all the feels!) the first week of December of 2017
3. Both of us have lost weight during the holiday season 2017 and 2018

Sign up for November course–use code SAVE20 to get $20 off! https://intermittentfastingcourse.com 

B. Five Reasons the Holiday Season Is the BEST Time to Begin Intermittent Fasting!

 

1. You can eat whatever you want—diet food or your regular food (depending on your health goals)

a. People don’t want to “start diets” because they think they can’t keep them during the “food months”—
b. But you don’t have to “stay on a diet” to practice IF (unless you want to!)

2. You don’t use up all of your willpower during the day when you practice IF

a. Four hours of temptations per day
b. 119 food thoughts per day
c. Probably more during holidays!
d. You get fat adapted after the first couple of weeks and no longer need willpower for fasting—and all of your willpower is saved up to use during your eating window!

3. You will likely lose weight during November and December if you begin IF

a. Most people go into the new year gaining weight
b. Even with eating a relatively SAD (standard American diet), you will likely lose weight if you practice IF during November and December

4. You will likely eat fewer treats and less heavy foods after several weeks of IF

a. You will probably eat way less than you usually do during November and December
b. Obviously, you have less time to eat, which can (or might not) affect your total intake
c. But the longer you fast, the higher your leptin (satiety hormone) is and/or the better you hear it

i. This leads to eating less over all
ii. It also affects the types of foods you choose
iii. AND…it even makes you want to move your body—all things we need during food-heavy months

5. You will be ahead on January first when you are usually just starting to try to “lose the holiday weight”!

a. Research shows that 55% of resolutions are health related
b. And only 8% of people keep them
c. Most fall off by January 12th
d. You can make IF a way of life—not something you fall off of or start/stop!
e. Even if you eat a SAD, your health will be positively impacted by the fast itself (brain health, immunity, disease prevention, blood sugar reduction, and more) and you will likely drop weight as well!

 

C. No Downside to Starting IF During the Holidays!

 

1. Only health benefits
2. Potential weight loss
3. More control during the holidays
4. Feeling great in two to three weeks (lose that afternoon sluggishness—oh, I LOVE this about IF!).
5. Balancing of hormones insulin, leptin, and grehlin that is usually only seen in extremely low carb keto diets (75% fat, 20 grams of carbs) or extremely low fat (20-30 grams a day!)

D. Learn How to Fast Incrementally and With Support!

 

1. Daily 20-30 minute teaching videos that you need to know for each day on Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc.
2. Private FB group and access to me to answer all of your questions as you learn
3. Amazing video teaching, outlines, and graphics to help cement all of the concepts
4. Incremental—what you need when you need it so that you are not overwhelmed
5. Help during the first two to three weeks as you balance your hormones and get over the “hangries”
6. Tools, tips, and tricks not taught in any other IF program!
7. “A month to learn it—a lifetime to live it!”
8. https://intermittentfastingcourse.com 

Finding Your Fasting Hours Sweet Spot (Fast Shot)

by

How can you find your fasting sweet spot?

That is, find the time of day and eating window time that works best for YOU!

Remember, there are four main elements that affect our weight loss, inch loss, and craving loss with Intermittent Fasting. These four components can influence your eating window.


Once you apply those, you also need to personalize it–how to see which end of your waking hours work best for you to not eat vs. when you have the most difficulty with fasting.


Here’s the short (!) Fast Shot Video and mini outline for you!

 Fast Shot: Finding Your Fasting Sweet Spot! (No Pun Intended)

A. Four Things That Affect Weight, Inch, and Craving Reductions

B. Total Fasting Hours
When would you like to be awake without food?
Sleep and fasting

C. Counting Fasting Hours vs. Eating Hours
Averaging
Adjusting

Take my FREE hour long webinar where you will get your fasting questions answered—“10 Intermittent Fasting Questions”! https://intermittentfastingworkshop.com  

Do You Like Full Meals or Nibbles?

by

I recently created a video called “My Three Favorite Things About Intermittent Fasting.” (You can watch it here!)

As I was considering what my very favorite things about IF really are, I was surprised to hear the “full meal instead of nibbles” thought over and over. I hadn’t realized how important it was for me to not have what I call “nibbles.”

My definition of “nibbles” is those little 200-400 calorie bites or drinks that a person who wants to lose weight but eats or drinks 6+ times a day has to have

In other words, if you are trying to lose weight and, theoretically, you need 1800 calories per day to get down to said goal weight (I don’t normally count calories…but bear with me…), you have to divide that 1800 calories among six eating or drinking episodes.

Those are “nibbles.”

Research shows that we WAY under-report eating times when self-reporting (another reason why I like studies done in metabolic wards not self-reported food intake ones!)…..yeah, like WAY under-estimate.

Research also shows that we consume calories 7-10 times in every twenty-four hour period of time (not Intermittent Fasters, obviously).

Research additionally shows…..I’m almost done with these…lol….and this one was hard for me to swallow….but research shows that calorie counters, trackers, lists, etc., are off by 25% either direction OFTEN. (In other words, we think we are eating a 240 calorie taco, and it is really a 305 calorie taco). Wowsie!

Anyway….back to our “nibbles”!

You drink a 300 calorie latte (is there such a thing..not sure how many calories they have!) first thing. You grab half a muffin mid morning. You know you need to eat light at lunch, so you eat a 600 calorie salad. In the afternoon, after being so good at lunch, you eat a 250 calorie candy bar to give you a sugar rush. On the way home, you eat some of your little guy’s goldfish crackers and grab the apple and granola bar in your purse for another 400 calories. Then you don’t have much left for dinner, so you eat 300 calories of cottage cheese and turkey. And suffer all evening….

AND THAT IS FOR SOMEONE WHO TRULY STAYS ON THEIR 1800 calorie weight loss plan.

Usually, because we’ve spiked our insulin all day—and never gave our body a chance to be without food or drink–we are hungry non stop, and we don’t stick with the 1800 calorie plan.

Our “nibbles” become more like mini meals in terms of caloric load, taking us up to 2500 calories or more–because let’s face it, it is hard to eat or drink 300 calories or under each of those six times. (Of course, most of us can’t lose weight on 2500 calories….)

So in considering my VERY favorite things about Intermittent Fasting (there are soooo many things I love!), I kept coming back to “not having to eat ‘nibbles.'”

Ray Baby and I have settled in to 18:6 most of the time (with a 20 or 21 hour fast thrown in here and there to offset a 16 hour one on a family day). We have settled into 2MAD (two meals a day—one smaller one and one “regular” one).

NO NIBBLES!

I don’t want a cheese stick and six Wheat Thins. I don’t want a latte. I don’t want an apple with peanut butter. I don’t want a granola bar and yogurt.

I want a real meal…..

So that is one of my favorite things about IF.

Whether we count calories, carbs, points, fat grams, macros, or nothing, we still have to create a calorie deficit to lose weight and stay at that caloric load to maintain it (though we can strength train to help us be able to eat more in the future—stay tuned!).

(We “don’t count calories or macros; we count habits and real foods”! But for example’s sake…)

So the question is, do you want to create that deficit through “nibbles” and continual hunger and lack of satisfaction?

Or do you want to create it through taming grehlin, controlling insulin, hearing leptin…..and eating REAL, more satiating foods?

 No nibbles for me….

 

Fasting for life,

Donna

 

P.S. I can teach you everything I know that has led to this empty-nesting, 56/60 year old couple becoming “The Minus 215 Pound Pair”! Join my October course!

Pin It on Pinterest