Think-Feel-Eat Episode #22: The DAILY Ahead of Time Decision That Makes All the Difference for Weight Loss

Think-Feel-Eat Episode #22: The DAILY Ahead of Time Decision That Makes All the Difference for Weight Loss

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Hi! I’m Donna Reish, IF teacher, weight loss coach, blogger, and half of “The Minus 220 Pound Pair” as my husband and I have lost over 220 pounds together (160 of that in the past couple of years through the Weight Loss Lifestyle habits and strategies I teach!).

Deciding Ahead of Time could be THE single biggest factor in weight loss. Why? Because when we decide ahead of time, we are using our pre-frontal cortex, the part of our brain that thinks logically, decides ahead of time, wants the best for us, can plan and execute, and more.

In this week’s broadcast, I describe the power of Deciding Ahead of time in general—how we have used this in parenting from toddlers to young adults with amazing results. And how we now apply it to our food and movement.

Research shows that we spend four hours a day resisting temptations and have up to 120 food-related decisions a day. We simply don’t have the willpower for that! Thus, we have a willpower gap. (See Weight Loss Lifestyle #60 and #61 for the details to willpower, how to get more, how to conserve what we have, how to utilize it to its maximum, what to do instead of willpower, and more!)

We need willpower (or something better—read on!) to overcome two big issues with weight loss and weight management—over-desire and over-hunger (which lead to over-eating in both instances).

Deciding ahead of time what we will eat each day is the answer! That is, we can use our pre-frontal cortex to decide WHEN we will eat, WHAT we will eat, and the AMOUNT we will eat—ahead of time!  (See The Perfect Storm of Weight Loss for more help in determining the best food protocol for YOU!)

Listen and learn—and apply this knowledge to your own weight loss or weight management approach. It will change your life!

Get your free journal sheet for your Decide Ahead of time daily food choices here.

Find all of my episodes, outlines, and articles for my two weekly broadcasts:

(1)  Weight Loss Lifestyle broadcast (formerly Donna’s Intermittent Fasting Broadcast) 

(2)  Think-Feel-Eat broadcast

Sign up for my free webinar: intermittentfastingwebinar.com

 

 

A. Episode 22: The One BIG Decision You Need to Make Ahead of Time

1. What foods you are going to eat 80% of the time—your go to food list

2. Food version of abstinence like AA, etc.

3. Pick a Protocol is what protocol you will eat (TFE 16, 17, and 18)

a. Helpful for narrowing down the types of foods you will eat in order to create your caloric deficit and eat the amount you need for your future sized body.

b. Quick review….get your Pick-a-Protocol packet here 

c. Review of the Helpful Foods Lists (download here!) 

d. Can use any protocol that fits The Perfect Storm of Weight Loss

i. Pillar One: Food Decided Ahead—Food Type, Food Amount, Food Time

ii. Pillar Two: Hormones and Neuro-Transmitters/Brain Chemicals (causing cravings, causing depression or motivation, etc. )

iii. Pillar Three: Thoughts and Emotions Management

B.  Willpower Review—Weight Loss Lifestyle 60 and 61

1. Willpower research

a. Found that we spend four hours per day resisting temptations

b. Other experiments (M and M’s on table vs across the room—barriers!) and how much “brain power” they had left for intense tasks

c. Brian Wansink (researcher) has shown that we make 119 food-related decisions each day

 2. We Have a Willpower Gap

a. Willpower gap means that we don’t have enough willpower left to overcome the urges that we are presented with

b. Willpower drains and depletes from all kinds of decisions and actions

3. Why we couldn’t lose weight before

a. We didn’t know that the amount, type, and intensity of WILLPOWER needed to lose weight were nearly impossible to sustain when it comes to food urges.

b. Leaves the weight of the changes on the part of the brain that is ill-equipped to make those decisions and carry the burden of saying no

 

4. It takes willpower to resist (or sit with) over hunger and over desire

a. Over hunger—hunger signals, grehlin tells us we are empty; leptin tells us we are full

b. Over desire—processed foods, frequent eating, sugar and flour concentrations, not real foods all lead to overdesire due to neuro transmitters in the brain that tell us we want more and more of those things each time we have them (dopamine and serotonin)

 

5. Ways we handle willpower ineffectively

a. Eating several small meals a day

b. White knuckling and resisting

c. Eating whatever we want but “counting” (we are eating foods that are too hard to control)

 6. Ways to refill our willpower stores

a. Sleep

b. Conection

c. Prayer

d. Meditation

e. Gratitude

f. Self care

7.  IF Helps With Willpower

8.  Automaticity Helps With Willpower

9. Reduce Six Seductive Craving Combinations helps with willpower

 C. Decisions Ahead of Time

1. Pre-frontal cortex

a. Unaffected by emotions, willpower, cravings, etc.

b. The planning part of our brain

c. The part that has our best interest in mind

d. The part that cares about our future self

2. Decisions in the moment are made with our primal brain

a. Avoid discomfort

b. Seek happiness and immediate gratification

c. Toddler brain

3. Studies showing we always PLAN to eat better ahead of time—the cake vs. fruit order

a. We always think we can do it when we are planning next week

b. Use this “decide ahead of time” strength to our benefit

4. Decide ahead of time! (Free Journal Sheet!)

a. Decide today WHEN you will eat tomorrow

b. Decide today WHAT you will eat tomorrow (watch for upcoming Protocol Planning broadcasts!)

c. Uses your pre-frontal cortex (adult brain) not toddler brain

d. Uses less willpower since it is decided when you are not in the heat of the moment

D. Work on Your Own Perfect Storm of Weight Loss!

1. Get free journal sheet to Decide Ahead of Time what you will eat each day (1-3 minute process!)

2. Follow the Perfect Storm steps! 

3. Schedule a free consult to see if one-on-one coaching is right for you!

 

 

 

 

 

Think-Feel-Eat Episode #21: One BIG Decision to Make Ahead of Time

Think-Feel-Eat Episode #21: One BIG Decision to Make Ahead of Time

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Hi! I’m Donna Reish, IF teacher, weight loss coach, blogger, and half of “The Minus 220 Pound Pair” as my husband and I have lost over 220 pounds together (160 of that in the past couple of years through the Weight Loss Lifestyle habits and strategies I teach!).

We need to make a lot of decisions in order to lose weight and maintain our loss.

(Oh, the decisions that have gone into my husband and my 220 pounds-together weight loss—and the decisions we have to continually make in order to maintain it! Seriously hard work!)

And the best decisions for weight loss are those that we make ahead of time. (You can find out why when you watch or listen to my extensive willpower episodes—WLL 60 and 61!)

But there is one BIG decision we need to make ahead of time…okay there is more than one.

First, we have to make a decision to follow a lifestyle that will lead us to our goal (such as The Perfect Storm of Weight Loss).

Then within that we will decide our Food Protocol:
1. What times we will eat
2. What food we will eat
3. What amounts we will eat

(These are the first pillar of the Perfect Storm.)

Then once we know our food protocol—the boundaries we have made for ourselves, then we are ready for this BIG one…

What foods will make up 80% of our eating.

These will be foods that are on our protocol, that help with the other aspects of the perfect storm, AND that we enjoy.

So in today’s episode, I give you a great resource for you to start creating your “this is what I eat 80% of the time” list.

And I teach you more about real foods. And dopamine spikes. And cravings. And deciding ahead of time. And staying on protocol—-all the stuff!

(For more about self-integrity and deciding ahead of time, watch/listen to Think Feel Eat 19 (Enemies of Self-Integrity) and 20 (Tools for Self-Integrity).)

Starting with this BIG decision ahead of time, having a food list of what you eat, you will have this hard decision made ahead of time 80% of the time. (The other 20% you’ll plan your Fun Foods—and those will be, well, fun!)

So download your Helpful Food Lists document here!! And make this BIG decision now—ahead of time…not in the moment!

Find all of my episodes, outlines, and articles for my two weekly broadcasts:

(1)  Weight Loss Lifestyle broadcast (formerly Donna’s Intermittent Fasting Broadcast)

(2)  Think-Feel-Eat broadcast 

Sign up for my free webinar: https://intermittentfastingwebinar.com

Click here to download the documents for this episode here!

Think Feel Eat Outline 21 One Big Food Decision You Must Make Ahead of Time

A. Pick-a-Protocol

1. Helpful for narrowing down the types of foods you will eat in order to create your caloric deficit and eat the amount you need for your future sized body.
2. Quick review….get your Pick-a-Protocol packet here
3. Can use any protocol that fits The Perfect Storm of Weight Loss

a. Pillar One: Food Decided Ahead—Food Type, Food Amount, Food Time
b. Pillar Two: Hormones and Neuro-Transmitters/Brain Chemicals (causing cravings, causing depression or motivation, etc. )
c. Pillar Three: Thoughts and Emotions Management

B. Decisions Ahead of Time

1. Pre-frontal cortex

a. Unaffected by emotions, willpower, cravings, etc.
b. The planning part of our brain
c. The part that has our best interest in mind
d. The part that cares about our future self

2. Decisions in the moment are made with our primal brain

a. Avoid discomfort
b. Seek happiness and immediate gratification
c. Toddler brain

C. One Big Food Decision You Need to Make Ahead of Time

1. Already decided your protocol (TFE 16, 17, and 18)
2. Now decide the foods you will eat (on that protocol) 80% of the time
3. A ready-made food list of foods you like that help you with your Perfect Storm of Weight Loss
4. Review of the Helpful Foods Lists (download here!)

Think-Feel-Eat Episode #14: Foundations of Your Food Protocol Part II

Think-Feel-Eat Episode #14: Foundations of Your Food Protocol Part II

by

Hi! I’m Donna Reish, IF teacher, weight loss coach, blogger, and half of “The Minus 220 Pound Pair” as my husband and I have lost over 220 pounds together (160 of that in the past couple of years through the Weight Loss Lifestyle habits and strategies I teach!). In this episode, I present the introduction to the Perfect Storm of Weight Loss.

The Perfect Storm of Weight Loss has three components. They are not steps. They are interrelated aspects. They each affect the other.

We start with Food—in this Foundations of My Food Protocol Part I—because our weight loss will be heavily influenced by FOOD—1) Time we eat food; 2) Type of food we eat; 3) Amount of food we eat.

But, again, the three aspects are related to each other—the Food we choose affects our dopamine, our cravings, our willpower, and our amounts.

The Time we choose to eat in affects our hormones, our hunger, and our satiety.

The Amounts we choose to eat will affect our ability to keep our Time in check—and which foods we choose. (My husband likes larger amounts of food, so his food choices have to be more narrow than mine!)

All interrelated. All creating the Perfect Storm of Weight Loss.

In today’s episode, I continue laying the foundation for your food protocol. YOU will choose your protocol. You decide all three aspects of your Eating Protocol (time, type, amount).
I will help you do this as we examine the three interrelated aspects of The Perfect Storm. You want your Eating Protocol (your time, types, and amounts) to get you the intake needed for your right sized body:

1. Without creating over hunger
2. Without creating over desire
3. Without increasing cortisol
4. Without decreasing serotonin/joy
5. Without eating foods you don’t like
6. Without eating over 20% Fun Foods
7. Without taxing your energy
8. Without having an empty stomach too much during eating window
9. Without increasing dopamine spikes around hyper palatable foods
10. Without disrupting sleep

Find all of my episodes, outlines, and articles for my two weekly broadcasts:

(1) Weight Loss Lifestyle broadcast (formerly Donna’s Intermittent Fasting Broadcast) and

(2) Think-Feel-Eat broadcast at donnareish.com

Sign up for my free webinar: intermittentfastingwebinar.com

Think Feel Eat Episode 14 Outline: Foundations of Your Protocol, Part II

A. Perfect Storm Review

  1. What does it take to create an eating protocol that leads to the Perfect Storm of Weight Loss? All three aspects of the triangle
    • Number one—Eating Protocol (time, types of food, amounts of food
    • Number two—Hunger, Cravings, Hormones, and Chemicals
    • Thoughts and Emotions Management

 

  1. All three aspects are interrelated; they each affect the other.

B. Goal for the Perfect Storm Eating Protocol

1. Without creating over hunger

2. Without creating over desire

3. Without increasing cortisol

4. Without decreasing serotonin/joy

5. Without eating foods you don’t like

6. Without eating over 20% Fun Foods

7. Without taxing your energy

8. Without having an empty stomach too much during eating window

9. Without increasing dopamine spikes around hyper palatable foods

10. Without disrupting sleep

 

C. What Will Get Us to Goal?

 

1. We can lose weight at first (when we have quite a bit to lose) with a smaller deficit—this is why nearly EVERYTHING works when we first start a diet.

2. There are those protocols that are less likely to get you to goal because they don’t consider dopamine spikes, stomach fullness, hunger, cravings, etc.

3. Other protocols that consider overall calories along with considering types of foods, amounts of food, times, etc., will likely get you to goal better.

D. Productivity, Weight, Life Coaching Now Open!

 1. Founding Members Half Price Special Until June 15th

2. https://donnareish.com/coachingpackages/

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