Jules:
Okay, fantastic. Okay, so welcome back to our final hour of our live event. Our kick-off event for the 2023. Can’t believe it’s 2023. So crazy. Okay, so this third hour… So just to recap, first hour, we looked at our process and habits. Second hour, we looked at thoughts and beliefs and we did some exercises around that. And coming up with your belief plan and just with all of this, just know that over the next six months, all these ideas… I’m going to be coming… We’ll come back to them in the weekly calls that’ll come up during coaching. So don’t feel like you have to know everything in habit, all straight in your head in order to move on. The only thing you need in order to move on, is just to know those three habits that we are working on. So a cutlery down habit, our daily practice habit and our weighing ourselves every day habit.
And that’s all you need to take from this. And just remember that thought of, I’m getting exactly what I need when I need it. Whatever needs to be sinking into your subconscious, is sinking in. It’s all unfolding exactly as it should be. Okay, so in this hour we’re going to be talking a bit about nutrition. We’re going to do an exercise around go-to meals. So what exactly… Some ideas to help you decide what you’re going to eat. We’re going to touch quickly on emotional eating. I wanted to just delve into that a little bit to give you a primer of what’s to come. Then we’re going to be talking about common mistakes and then we’ll do a recap of where we’ve got to and we’ll get really clear on what your next steps are. Okay? Yeah and again, just keep it interactive. Unmute yourself or just type in the chat if you’ve got questions.
So with nutrition, my approach to nutrition…. So I’ve studied nutrition at university when I was doing my food science degree. And then also when I was doing my health coaching certificate. And my approach to nutrition is kind of radical, but I got this from my health coaching, nutrition lecturer, but it’s also my… She gave me this idea and I’ve really adopted this as my philosophy on nutrition. And it can be summed up with one sentence. So how you eat and how much you eat and how you think about food, is way more important than what you eat. So how you eat and how much you eat and how you think about it, is way more important than what you’re actually eating. So I’ll paste that in the chat so you can see, because I know some people like things written down, but how you eat and how you think about it, way more important than what you eat.
Whereas most of the conversations that we have in the… They’re on the internet or around nutrition is like, it’s all about what you eat. Are you having carbs? Are you having sugar? Are you avoiding things? Are you eating grains? Are you eating fat? Are you not eating fat? And all about what you eat, and the thing is that… Yeah, that can have a small impact, but it’s like how much you eat and also the quality of your eating experience is… Getting that [inaudible 00:03:35], says Rosa. I love it. Is way more important. And so let’s do a little thought experiment now. Just think about it. Sitting down and enjoying a beautiful chocolate chip cookie with a coffee or a cup of tea. That experience versus you in the kitchen with a bag of cookies hoeing down in front of the pantry, just hoeing into all of them. One cookie, very different impact to your health and your blood sugar and your weight, compared to having a whole bag.
So this quantity piece, I think it’s fascinating that in nutrition, it’s not really talked about that much. And yeah, exactly Mandy, that there is no French paradox. The French get this quantity piece. It’s like yes, have baguettes, have croissants, have pate, have cheese with every meal. Great, but just don’t eat too much of it, seriously. So in terms of the how to eat thing, this is a really big part of being an actually healthy person. That’s why I spend so much time on it. And that’s why we are doing this habit of putting our cutlery down, is how to eat. If you are taking your time, you’re sitting down, you’re present with your food, you are way more likely to be satisfied with a reasonable amount than if you are distracted watching other stuff, standing up, and not really paying attention, grabbing quick bites here and there.
So being president… Present. Being president. No, just being present, slowing down and enjoying your meal and enjoying the experience, so much, so different. And so there’s that aspect of eating. And then the other aspect, is eating proper meals rather than grazing. And it’s eating proper meals and intentional snacks. So if you’re having a snack… When I have my afternoon snack, I still serve it out in my jar. I sit down. At the moment, it’s summer. So sitting down outside in the garden with it, with my tea, it’s amazing. Of course I do it with [inaudible 00:05:53] and whatever, but I’m not having the whole thing standing up or I’m not eating in front of my desk when I’m doing work. It’s how you eat, so important. So that’s the biggest thing I want you to work on with nutrition. It’s having proper meals and just enjoying the quality of your eating experience.
Just knowing that getting those things right, goes a long way to getting the quantity piece. And then the other part is this quantity piece of how much, and it’s really about listening to your body and letting your body guide you and letting the skill to stop when you’re satisfied. And you don’t have to be perfect at this, but every time that you listen to your body and there’s a window too, of course as well as satisfaction, but every time you don’t go into that binging, total overeating, so stuffed, I can’t move territory, that makes a significant difference. So it’s these two things. Being present, listening to your body, is everything. And then the other thing in terms of this, is the timing aspect as well. And so eating to suit your circadian rhythms. And what that means is, again, eating proper meals rather than being constantly grazing because our bodies are either… We’re in storage mode or burning mode…
Eating to your circadian rhythm. So we want to eat proper meals. You don’t want to be snacking all the time. So if you’ve got that habit of eating right up until bedtime, that’s something to think about and just look at that from a habit and what you want to do instead. So first exercise on nutrition is I want you to just think now and type in the chat, what meal and snack schedule would work for you. So are you a breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner person? Are you going to be a snack and… For me, I have lunch, a snack, and dinner. What meal schedule do you want to experiment with? And just knowing that you can try different ones and play around with it. But just type in the chat and share.
So Mary’s breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, then hot drink at 9:00 PM. I love that, Mary. Breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. Great. Yeah, this is hard for me. I’m presently a haphazard grazer. Yes. Great, Mandy. Awesome. I don’t have a clear idea of what will work for me. And you don’t have to know, Mandy, but it’s just like… And actually, if you’re going from totally grazing all the time to having meals, maybe you want to try… Just think about, maybe just observe how many times you’re currently eating and think about, okay, well what would feel good to me… Knowing that this is going to evolve, right. So you might want to just take a baby step of, maybe you just decide that… Maybe if the nighttime snacking might be a big opportunity, but just taking… And Amy’s the same. Great, perfect. This is fine. Nothing wrong that with that, but just what’s a one baby step that you can take to deciding what would be as good schedule for you and just starting there knowing that it’s going to evolve over time.
But also, I want to sell you on this idea why meals are better than snacks. And what you could do, maybe it’s the first step for those of you who are massive grazers, is just get into the habit of rather than having a snack standing up or in front of the desk, being intentional about this. Okay, I’m having some food now, I’m having a mini meal now, I’m going to serve it out. I’m going to sit down and focus on it rather than… And just build that as your habit first, rather than trying to go from eating multiple times a day to having breakfast, lunch and dinner. Maybe that would be a better way to start.
Yes, there we go. Vicky’s like, yeah… Morning. Okay. Mandy’s saying, okay, I do have two anchors, morning hot drink and my sweetheart likes to eat dinner at five, which only sometimes works for me, but I can start to build those. Yeah, exactly. So you’ve got… That’s perfect, Mandy. Yeah, and go with that. Yeah, the eating dinner at five, that’s great. Maybe making that commitment to yourself, but also maybe you want to not and you might want to have a smoothie at seven, whatever it is, and just bringing the curiosity to her. Yes. Jennifer, I’m not going to feel guilty about my before dinner snack. Brilliant. Yes. And then we want own your snacks and be intentional.
So in terms of what to eat. So that’s how that… Yeah, having snacks… There’s nothing wrong with having snacks. So you’ll hear a lot of people say, “Oh, you should wait until you’re hungry to eat.” And that just is a recipe for overeating in my experience. So one thing is it’s okay to eat when you’re not hungry because if you… Just from a managing logistics, if you are waiting until you’re hungry, but your lunch hour is at 12 and then you’re not hungry and you don’t eat, you’re not going to get to eat again until after work. That just doesn’t make sense. So it’s fine to eat when you’re not hungry. You are the expert on you. So I want you to really listen in terms of what to eat and the timing, you know what’s best for you. So I want you to trust yourself to experiment and find what’s going to work for you. So just treat it as an experiment and let your body guide you.
And how you want to do what you want to do in terms of what to eat, is just pay attention to how you feel and because if you… Like dairy, some people feel great… I love my dairy, I could eat it, I eat it multiple times a day, no problems, I feel good. But some people, you’ll know if you don’t check in with how you feel in the moment, check in with how you feel a couple of hours after you’ve eaten something, and just know that your body knows and it’s just a matter of tuning in. So that’s what to eat, is you decide for you. The only thing I will say is no bad food. There are no bad foods. So all food has some value. So whether that’s nutritional or not, but there’s so many reasons to eat that don’t involve nutrition. So if you love cookies, make sure that you’re planning cookies and you’re having cookies. If you love, I don’t know, Twinkie bars. Make sure you’re giving yourself the things that you love and planning that treat every single day.
The other thing in terms of what to eat, that I do really recommend for everyone, is to prioritize protein. And the reason for that is that protein’s really essential for satiety. So we are able to store fat, we’re able to store carbohydrate, but we can’t store protein. So if you are not getting, your body’s not getting enough protein every day, it actually stokes your hunger and it’s really difficult to feel satiated without getting the protein that your body needs. And there’s actually a theory in nutrition at the moment that’s being researched, is that our bodies are tuned to look for our protein intake and not our calorie intake. And so our bodies feel satisfied when we meet the protein intake, which is why you can eat buckets and buckets of… Tons and tons of rice. And if you’re not getting the protein, your body’s still looking for food, looking for food and you’re not feeling satisfied. And it’s because you haven’t got enough protein.
Yeah, protein supplements, if you’re mostly vegetarian, go for it, Mandy. Yeah, whatever protein works for you, it doesn’t matter. And these days there’s some really amazing protein supplements out there on the market. And also tofu, amazing, there’s so many options, but making sure you get enough of protein. And I just want you to start experimenting and try it. Have a meal where you just have rice and very little protein and then have a meal where you have a big piece of chicken and salad and just notice how you feel in the moment, how you feel a couple of hours afterwards. And the cool thing is that when you are being guided by how you feel, you are naturally going to be driven to eat more frequently the stuff that feels good to you and less frequently the stuff that doesn’t. And it just makes it really easy to do that. Yeah. Marissa said, “Can I ask a quick after dinner question?” Yeah, go for it, Marissa.
Marissa:
So last night I had a lovely abundance bowl and then I wanted a little Greek yogurt with berries. Was I hungry? No, but I wanted the… I don’t know, the acid and then I’m good for the rest of night.
Jules:
Yeah.
Marissa:
So is that okay? Even though I’m full, but I want the little bit of a different desserty…
Jules:
Yeah. And what I would do with that, Marissa, is be intentional with your snacks. I actually have that planned in. That’s like, yeah, this is going to be my after dinner, I’m going to have my yogurt and berries. So then when you’re having your meal, rather than eating until you’re full, you’re going, oh yeah, I’m going to have the berries later.
Marissa:
Okay.
Jules:
Yeah. So I have ice cream on Saturday nights and so I always leave space for the ice cream. So yeah, it’s just bringing that intentionality and that’s why we want to plan the snack in, so that you can manage your stomach space appropriately.
Marissa:
Yeah, love it.
Jules:
Yeah. Cool. Good question. Yeah, that’s it. Oh, yeah. And the other thing with nutrition, so make just sure you’re getting enough protein, is really key. Don’t worry about thinking about you should be eating, let go of all the shoulds. If you think I should be having more vegetables, then it just makes it really unfun. So go with what you want to eat, just knowing that your body wants to be healthy and it’s going to guide you to eat more broccoli if that’s what it needs. But when you take away that I should be eating broccoli and just tuning in to what feels good, you’ll find that you naturally are going to want to eat more things that make you feel good.
And the other thing in terms of what to eat, is for some of you being conscious of carbs is important and because insulin has a huge impact on our hunger and satiety hormones. And also, so for those of you that are in that menopausal, premenopausal range, one of the major reasons why people gain weight is because your insulin sensitivity changes with the hormone changes. So all the hormones are related and so just… I’m not saying that you need to be low-carb like I am or go keto, but just be mindful that if you have insulin resistance, which means that… You know that because when you put on weight, you put it around your middle, around your tummy and not rather than on your butt or your thighs.
So if you think you have insulin resistance or you are in that menopausal phase, being really conscious of just the quantity of carbs that you’re having, will make a difference as well. Okay, so that’s in terms of nutrition, that’s my nutrition spiel. So let your body guide you, get enough protein, be mindful of the carbs, but no need to go crazy and plan, give yourself permission and focus on enjoying. Caffeine and cravings… Okay. Do you want to be more specific with your question, Marissa?
Marissa:
Well, I think if I never had coffee, I would never have a sort of a… I have one cup of coffee in the morning, but then I noticed that I have more of a craving for carbs. Where when I completely drop caffeine, there’s no craving. But I love it, I love coffee.
Jules:
Right.
Marissa:
I don’t know. Just if there’s anything you know about hormones and caffeine. I’m very sensitive to it. Even one cup of coffee.
Jules:
Yeah, right. That’s fascinating. I haven’t come across that Marissa, so just… Okay, just be curious and experiment with it and say yeah. Well, if you love coffee, I keep having coffee or maybe… I drink decaf because it keeps me awake otherwise. So maybe you can get some decent decaf.
Marissa:
Yeah, I agree with that.
Jules:
Yeah. Might be worth experimenting with. Yeah.
Marissa:
Thank you.
Jules:
Okay, so an exercise now we’re going to do, is our go-to meals exercise. So what I want you to… And go-to snacks as well. And the reason for this is, that it’s actually really helpful just to have in your mind and one of the things that I am going to gravitate towards. So I’ve actually… I’ll paste the link here. Actually we might not do this live, I’ll just leave this for you to do in your own time and I’ll paste the link here. So just know that this exercise is going to be in your playbook. And I’ve also put the link, the exercises in Circle, and it’s got links to recipes and stuff. But having a list of what am I… A couple of, when I have breakfast, what do I usually have and what am I going to have usually have for breakfast. When I have my snack, what are my go-to snacks going to be?
It just makes it easy to make sure you’ve got those things in the house and it can evolve over time, but it’s a good exercise to do to simplify the what you’re going to eat piece. And same with meal planning. So if you are deciding what to have for dinner, if that’s something that you struggle with, I’ve got you covered there. I just want you to realize that you are already deciding, it may not be ahead of time, but if you want to get… Meal planning is something like a project that you’d like to take on, you totally don’t have to, but I’ve got a five-day challenge on the Simple Meal Plans website. So you’re welcome to take that in your own time, but that’s totally… You don’t have to do that to be naturally healthy. You can just decide every day or decide I make those choices on the fly. But just know that those resources and those exercises are available when you feel called to do them.
Okay, so now we’re going to talk about emotional eating and then we’ve still got mistakes to go through. So basically emotional eating is just eating to avoid feeling our emotions. So Brooke Castillo calls it buffering, which I think is a really good term because it’s rather than feeling our feelings, we eat the food to buffer and not to feel the feelings. And the thing with emotional eating, it’s not really bad, it’s only a problem if there’s a negative effect. So it’s not like we never use food to soothe ourselves or to make ourselves feel better. It’s just finding that balance where we’re not doing it too much all of the time, so that it leads us into overeating territory. And there’s a huge range. Sitting down with a cup of tea and a biscuit, if that’s relaxing for you and helps you unwind, totally, you can fit that into being a naturally healthy person and use food in that way.
But the other token of if you’re going into binge territory, obviously that’s not going to be conducive to being naturally healthy unless it’s only happening very infrequently. So we want to remember that it’s not necessarily a bad thing that we need to completely eradicate. It’s something that we want to find balance in our overall eating. And so let’s talk a little bit about negative emotion and just remember feeling our feelings, it’s not something that we are taught as kids. So of course this can be a completely new skill. And also the negative emotion, it’s a part of life and it’s actually not necessarily a bad thing because it provides contrast and it also can guide us when something’s not right. So if we are getting really angry about something like that can spur us to action, but it also shows us that there’s something that needs to be… There’s something that’s not right that needs addressing.
And all emotion can be a useful guidepost. And there’s times where we actually want to feel negative emotion. If we’re lost someone, we want to feel that sadness, we want to feel that loss, we want to feel that grief. So I just want you to just start playing around with the idea that actually feeling negative emotion is a superpower and it actually is a beautiful part of life. And the way to actually feel our feelings rather than eat our feelings, is just to practice just actually feeling our feelings. So we’re going to do a quick exercise, a primer exercise, that I call just feeling and breathing. And we are just going to do this for 30 seconds. It’s not going to be very long. And just know that in April I think, we’re going to do a whole challenge around feeling our feelings like a feelings challenge. And we’re going to really work on this skill.
So we’ve got this ahead of us, but as a quick primer, I just wanted to just show you how it can be really quick and how it can be actually really safe. So what I want you to do is just wherever at, if you want to turn your camera off because we’re going to get you to close your eyes again, but we’re going to just take 30 seconds now to feel and breathe. So just if you feel you want to close your eyes, you can close your eyes, but if you want to leave them open, that’s cool too. I’m just going to take a deep breath in and I just want you to just connect to your body. And the question is get curious and just go, what am I noticing here? How am I feeling? What am I noticing?
And so a thought probably would’ve come into your head about how you’re feeling. You can open your eyes now. And that’s it. That’s what feeling your feelings is about. See how it’s safe. So type in the chat and let me know what were you feeling, what came up for you? I was feeling excited and also I’m starting to feel a bit sad because it’s like this is almost over. Marissa said she’s feeling hopeful. Beautiful. Yeah. So we are going to do more of that. Does someone else want to share what you were feeling? Type in the chat. I want to know. Yeah, so we are going to be doing tightness and anxiety. Right. Interesting, Carrie. And we just want to… Yeah. Hey, that’s okay to feel that. And I want you to know this.
If there was negative emotion, that you felt anxious and you were safe, nothing… It was okay for you to feel that. And the more that you can experience that of feeling tightness or feeling anxious and being safe in that space, the more… Right, semester starts this week. Right. There you go. So of course you know why and just bring some self compassion. Of course I’m feeling anxiety because semester’s starting this week and that just can help it come through. So that’s negative feelings I’m feeling, emotionally eating, and the more we learn this skill of being able to feel instead of having to buffer and then the easier it gets. But just know that that’s all future learning.
And one of the things that we… Another exercise that we are going to be doing in the future, is learning how to soothe ourselves in other ways. And I call it proactive self-soothing. And this is something that you don’t have to do now, but I want you just put another mark in the back of your head of this is some future work, is actually cultivating habits where you are being proactive about soothing yourself every day. Because the thing is that feeling negative emotion… If you’re a human on planet earth, there is going to be negative emotion. And so the more you can build some habits that help soothe you and you have them at the ready, the easier it is to learn to navigate.
So again, we’ll do an exercise in the future of this, but just start noticing now as you’re going through this week, what are the things that you do during your week that do feel really good? Whether that’s sitting down with a coffee, whether that’s doing… And you might find doing your daily practice that feels good, it feels soothing to be journaling or watching a movie or maybe it’s when you’re connecting with a friend or giving someone a hug or when you’re exercising, but just start getting that mental imagery or what are the things that I’m already doing that soothe me that feel really good, knowing that will build on that in the future and be more intentional about that in the future.
Okay. Does anyone have any questions on the emotional eating piece or the self-soothing piece before we move on? We’re feeling good. We’re almost there, 20 minutes to go. Just checking in with the group. Yeah, we’re okay. Okay, we’re good. Okay. So now we’re just… Before we wrap up, we’re going to quickly go through some common mistakes and I want to just get you thinking about potential pitfalls because when we’re intentional about obstacles and things that can derail us, we are way more likely to find solutions to them, rather than if we are not expecting them to come up and that can make it harder. So being prepared. Good girl scouts and boy scouts. So common mistake is, one that I see for a lot of people, is perfectionism of having to do it right and wanting to… And also, if you have a bad day and you overeat something, therefore going into what the hell effect? I’ve already ruined the day so I might as well just eat everything in sight.
And so the antidote to perfectionism, is just to remind yourself I don’t have to do this perfectly and just know that it’s… And you don’t have to eat absolutely perfectly and nail it every single time to be an actually healthy person, in fact. And there’s times where you actually don’t want to do that and it’s like I don’t have to do this perfectly to make a difference. Another common mistake is listening to your excuses of I don’t have time, I’m too busy, I don’t have the energy, and not pulling yourself up on those excuses. And so, one of the ways to overcome the excuses, particularly the time and busyness, is our minimum requirements for our habits, where we just want to keep the habit alive. And so it’s so simple that you can still do it even when you’re busy, even when you don’t have a lot of time. So that’s why maybe for some of you just having the minimum requirement for your daily practice is, I just have to open the app, I just have to open my journal, so that you don’t give into those excuses.
Another common mistake is still thinking with a diet mentality and thinking about I know how many calories I should be having, and that sort of still mentally counting rather than radically listening to your body. And the problem with that diet brain, is our bodies, our appetite, is really variable. It depends on so many aspects. So if you are always thinking, I should have this many calories, I should be eating this, rather than truly tuning into your body, you’re actually missing out. So being attached to that diet brain, just when you notice that, just let it go and just remind yourself it’s better when I radically listen to my body and that’s going to really make a big difference, is key to that. And it’s the same antidote to eating the same amount of food every day. Our bodies are really variable and it depends. If you, and we won’t go into all the details, but just that’s a mistake that I think people… Eating the same amount of food every day and not being willing to listen to their body, is huge.
Another common mistake that can come up with this work is, see this idea, I don’t want to restrict, therefore I’m going to overeat. And so I want to just flag this because there’s a difference between just being super permissive and just eating whatever and being restrictive where you’re like, no, I can’t have no sugar, no flour, no cakes, no whatever. We don’t want to go to be either of those extremes. We want to be in this intentional space where we’re like, yeah, I’m having… Yeah, I am. I’m like, I am going to have a cookie or whatever it is. But telling yourself after you’ve had that one cookie and your brain wants more, sticking to your plan and being firm with yourself then, that’s not being restricted. That’s having boundaries and that’s being intentional. So yeah, I’ve coached a few people that get into like, oh, I don’t want to restrict, therefore I can’t put boundaries on myself and it’s not one or the other. We want to find this common ground.
Another common mistake is waiting until hungry to eat. So listening to that message that you should only be eating when you’re hungry. So Marissa’s example of after dinner, she wasn’t hungry, but she really wanted her yogurt and her berries, totally fine, because there’s more reasons to eat than just hunger. And also that when you get into that regular schedule, what you’ll find is your body does naturally get hungry at certain times. But most of the meals that I have… When I sit down to eat, I’m like, yeah, I can eat but I’m not ravenous. And that’s actually a really great place to be because then it’s easier to listen to your body. Whereas if you are… I noticed if there’s days where I’m having late… Happened to me this week. Whereas for one reason or another I had lunch a couple of hours later than I normally do. And I was ravenous and it was really hard not to inhale everything and to enjoy it because I was totally in over hunger territory.
And my Irishman has this thought that hunger is a tasty sauce. So he’s often… He won’t have… Oh, it’s too close to dinner, so I’m not going to have lunch. And then at dinnertime he’s inhaling everything because he’s so hungry. So we want to eat… Eat when you’re not hungry, it’s okay. Mandy’s saying, “That’s what I always do. I wait until I’m hungry to eat and then often total loss of what to eat and just graze and snack until I’m full.” Yeah, there we go. So it’s really going to make a difference, Mandy, having that regular schedule and actually being proactive and eating before you get to that super hungry stage.
Another common mistake is after dinner grazing, especially the after dinner grazing. So being intentional around that is really key. Another one is future tripping or catastrophizing of I have to hit this goal and just be worrying about being too far from your goals or having big goals. And we want to just… The antidote to that is just to focus on one meal at a time, one day at a time and just doing the best you can on each day. Yeah, okay. And another common mistake that comes up is letting yourself feel behind. And it’s like, I haven’t watched everything, I haven’t done all the exercises and going into that, I’m so far behind mentality. And we want to just, instead of that, is just to remind yourself the antidote to that is I’m exactly where I need to be. And just focus on our three tiny habits, knowing that you’re getting the lessons that you need in the right amount of time and that it’s going to be… Yeah, it’s all happening in the perfect amount of time.
Okay, what else did I want to share with you in common mistakes? And then the final one is just this checking out and not doing the work. So if you’ve noticed that that’s happening and you feel like you’re like… Yeah, that you’re not making progress or you’re just stopping doing anything, just notice that’s happening and just be gentle with yourself and remind yourself that you join this for a reason. There’s a reason you want to change and so there’s always times where we feel like it’s not working and that’s the time when you, just like raise your hand, reach out for coaching and let me know. And so I can gently guide you through this.
Okay, great. So how’s everyone feeling? We are through our workshop. So fun. So I’ll just do a quick recap on what we covered. So the first hour we trust our process and so we spoke about habits and our process, our three part process. So remember it’s LIT, we did our progress quiz in the first hour and then we wrote down our three tiny habits recipes for putting our cutlery down, our daily practice, and weighing ourselves every day. And we also spoke about that tiny habit of celebrating. So just remember when we remember to do our new habits, giving ourselves a little pat on the back and also straight after. As soon as we do our habits, give ourselves a little pat on the back. Particularly, if you’re weighing yourself and you’re feeling resistance to it and you’ll still do it anyway. Celebrate that, even if the number’s nowhere near where you want it to be. Celebrate. I did this, I’m still doing this.
So that was our first hour. Second hour we spoke about our thoughts, create our results. And that was, remember from that, the key takeaway away from that is just this idea of TEA. So our thoughts drive our emotions and they drive our actions. And we did that exercise on covering obstacle thoughts. And we also did that imagination, visualization exercise of what it’s going to be like to be your naturally healthy self. And we did the belief plan exercise of coming up with your beliefs that you want to think about yourself. And then in our third hour, our theme was that we focus on one meal at a time. So we spoke about nutrition and just remember from that it’s like how you eat and how much you eat is way more important than what you eat.
And then we also spoke about emotional eating in this hour and we did that exercise to feel our feelings and also spoke about this concept of proactive self-soothing. So just starting to think about, what are the things that I do in my day that are soothing, that are good for me? And then we did, finally, we spoke about those mistakes. And you can see a lot of the overcoming mistakes, it’s just changing our thoughts around them, around whatever it is. Most of the mistakes are just thought errors. So yes, that is it for our workshop. So in terms of home play, in terms of our next steps, so what we are going to do… Four things. We’re going to start our daily practice habit and I have a challenge for you. Yay. Our first challenge together as a group. So I’ll paste that in, I’ll put the link to the challenge… So the challenges will all be in the playbook, as well, that I send you. But this one we’re going to start before you get the playbook.
Oh no, actually I haven’t updated the challenge yet. We’ll do that next. So don’t look at that link yet. But yeah, so there’s a star chart that you can print so that you can track your progress on the daily practice, but it’s really just putting that recipe, that tiny habits recipe into place. So actually don’t look at that link yet. I’ll send the link with the replay and I’ll post it in the group. We want to set our first thing, is that daily practice habit, building that. We want to start weighing ourselves every day. So we’ve got our tiny recipe for that. We want to start the habit of putting our cutlery down between bites. So three habits I know might seem like a lot, but it’s like they are tiny and we’re going to be focusing on them for a while, so we’re going to start how we want to continue.
So there are our three core habits and you’ve got your recipe for those. And then the other thing, the other home play for this week and for every week moving forward, this idea of I change best when I feel good, is I want you to post one tiny win in the group this week. So as soon as you do it, if you’ve got the app on your phone for Circle and if you haven’t got the app, if you just search Circle communities, there’s an Android version and an iOS version. So you can just open the app as soon as you notice and share your celebration. So it might be, I weighed myself for the first time today, or I bought scales, or I remember to put my cutlery down at the end of the meal. Perfect. I remember to do it once. Great.
Nothing is too small to celebrate and celebrate each other. Like said, just when you go in, share your celebration, but also give some encouraging feedback to someone, put a comment on somebody else’s post just to encourage them as well. And you’re welcome to share more than one celebration of course as well. Great. Yeah. And that’s it. So home play, daily practice habit. Three habits. Daily practice, daily weighing, cutlery down, and actually… I guess that’s not a… And then the fourth one is, to post your tiny win on the group. Yes. Joan’s saying, “Jules, I hesitated to say…” Joan’s been with me since the very founding members and she said, “I hesitated to attend the intro again. I’m so glad I did. Repetition is very reinforcing. Get tiny skills every time.” Yes. Yeah, Joan. So good. There’s always more to learn with this.
Yeah. Okay. So just type in the chat and let me know how you’re feeling. Or does anyone have any questions before we wrap up or any thoughts? Anyone worried about anything? It’s totally cool if you’re worried. Oh, Kim. Yeah, it was good to see you too, Kim. Yeah. Has anyone got anything they’re worried about before we wrap up? Anyone not clear? Anything? Any questions? No, there’s no such thing as a stupid question. So if you’re feeling uncertain about anything… Yes. Mandy’s saying, “I’m excited you could attend this live. Excited to get started.” Yes. This is in your control, Mandy. Awesome. Excellent. Oh, and the other thing I needed to remind you was, so this week on the call, live call, this week the theme’s going to be maximizing pleasure of food and we’re going to be doing an exercise. So I need you to bring something to eat. So two pieces of whatever it is that you love to eat.
Okay, Samantha said, “Feeling good. Do you have our addresses for the playbook?” Oh, yes. And the other piece of home play is to, I’ve got a feedback, an intro form, Samantha, to put your address into. So I will post that in the group as well. And I’ll also, when I send the weekly email with the replay, I’ll post a link to that. So just make sure you’ve filled out the intro form because it’s got place for you to put your address and a couple of other things. So Samantha’s already done that. Yes, Mandy said, “I love that we’ve maximizing the pleasure of food.” Me too. Excellent. Okay, who haven’t I heard from? Let’s see. Someone must want to share something about how they’re feeling. Come on.
Oh, hi, Hannah. Yeah. Must be really late for you. Hannah’s in the UK, [inaudible 00:45:31] on the way. Yeah, great, Hannah. But also just know, Hannah, just at that first hour when we spoke about the habits, but you don’t need to watch everything to get started. Yes. Cool. Yes, Mary says, “I’m excited to cover all this again. It’s been life changing already.” Fantastic, Mary. So good to have you back. Yeah. Is anyone feeling like, I don’t know what I’m doing here. This is freaking me. That would be good to know. Vicky’s saying, “I’m feeling more confident. Excited to get started.” Yes. And that’s the key feeling that I want you guys to take away, is just curiosity.
Knowing that we’re on a journey together. We’ve got six months together and all you need to do for now is trust the process and just start with these tiny habits. That’s all we need to do. And if your brain’s telling you, yeah, but this doesn’t seem like enough. I’ve got a big problem here, it’s not going to change. Just know that this is how it starts. It all starts with these tiny habits. They grow and there’s a method in my madness. Yeah. Vicky’s saying, “I’m feeling more confident.” Amy’s saying, “I’m feeling hopeful, but also have some shame about not taking care of myself in the past.” Oh, I’m so lucky you that you were brave enough to share that, Amy.
And for everyone, let’s just take a little bit of time to bring some self-compassion. If that comes up, you’re feeling shame around… And actually, if that comes or shame comes up when you weigh yourself and you are feeling bad about it, the antidote to shame is just like, it’s just being able to drop into self-compassion and what that feel like, looks like, it’s when I’m being self-compassion, I put my hand on my heart and just go, of course this is hard. Of course I’m feeling shame around this, but I’ve been doing the best I can and plus, I’m not alone here. Look at all the people here with me. I’m not the only one that this is a problem for that. And just be like, when you can speak kindly to yourself, there’s no need to… Yeah, if the shame comes up, of course, that’s coming up and just let it be there and that that’s okay. And there’s a global obesity epidemic. It’s not just you. Everyone’s weight in the world has been going up and up and up. So thank you for sharing that, Amy.
Yeah, and just know that also the things that you’ve tried in the past, most of them, it hasn’t worked, not because of you, it hasn’t worked because of the psychological hunger. It hasn’t worked because of the restriction piece. There’s so many reasons why that traditional approach to just eating less and moving more, it’s not helpful advice. So it’s not your fault that it hasn’t worked and that like this, you are trying something new that does, that’s treating you as a whole person, that’s letting go of all those rules. You are in the right place. Yeah, that skill of learning to be self-compassionate, is so helpful. That’s helped me so much on my journey. And it’s helped a lot of people as well. Because when we’re able to meet ourselves where we are, when we’re able to be okay and be a friend to ourselves when we’re feeling that negative emotion, that’s a superpower as well. Yeah. Great.
Okay, well perfect timing to wrap up. So have a beautiful rest of your weekend everyone. And actually Marissa said, “Could I put a home play in Circle?” Yes. So my job now is to upload these videos and I will, every week when I put the weekly video, I post the home play with the video. So if you ever want to refer back, that’s there. And I’ll post some notes and the exercises that we did that will be there as well. So if you are watching the replay and you’re someone who… Or you just want to come back, you don’t have to watch through the whole replay. You might just like to read through the notes and that will be a refresh for you. And also if you want to revisit any of the exercises, I’ll have them in written form as well. Yeah, but we are on this journey together and I’m so honored to be your coach. So have a beautiful rest of your weekend and I will catch you guys this week. So thank you all for being online. It was really fun. Okay, bye.
