Shift Monthly: Downton FLABBY

July 2013 Shift Monthly Shift Monthly is a monthly coaching session written by clinical hypnotherapist and cognitive weight expert Rita Black dedicated to exploring how to implement “thin thinking” in order to achieve long term permanent Weight Mastery. Each month we focus on a different theme of Weight Mastery.  www.shiftweightmastery.com   July’s Theme: Slimming into Summer

DOWNTON FLABBY (or How to Avoid Midsummer Weight Gain Blues)

Have you ever tried to lose weight living on an English country estate?  Well if you haven’t, let me tell you from personal experience, it can be quite a challenge. 

Many fans of the Masterpiece Theatre series “Downton Abbey”, based on the lives of both the aristocrats and the servants who live in an English country estate at the turn of century, watch the series and marvel at the amazing costumes and set design, or the romance and the historical storyline.  I watch the series and marvel at how those women with the 18 inch waistlines can eat 7 course meals every night and not gain weight. 

One summer, while I was living in England, over 20 years ago, I spent the summer living at a 16^th century estate and gained one pound for each century within an eight week time.  Talk about period drama!

How did I gain 16 pounds so quickly and, more importantly, how can you avoid the pitfalls of the mid-summer weight gain blues?  Read on and get some coaching on how to Shift from Fat Thinking to thin thinking this summer.

THE INVITATION

It was the summer of 1991 and my husband and I had been living in London for about 2 years.  I had been struggling with my weight while living in London and for over 10 years before that.  Struggling with weight in England is pretty much the same as in the states except you weigh in stones instead of pounds.  There are 14 pounds in a stone so the one good piece of news is that you weigh a lot less number wise on the scale!

In the Spring of ‘91 a friend of ours asked if we would like to come and take care of his dad’s estate out in the countryside east of London.  His father, who was a wealthy businessman owned a 16^th century home with 10 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms set on over 20 acres of picturesque and pastoral land, needed someone to “house sit” Hall Court (the name of the estate) while the caretakers were away. 

Our friend assured us it would be easy and that his dad only visited from London on the weekends every once in awhile so we would mostly have the vast place to ourselves to pretend we were lord and lady of the manor.  Well yes, we did have to clean up a bit and keep the grounds tidy a bit but that nothing, assured our friend.

The winter before in England had been grim.  The Gulf War had been raging, London was experiencing record cold and snow, and my husband and I were longing for a change from the dreary flat we were living in.  So we said yes!! 

I also secretly was happy because I had gained a bit of weight during the winter and needed to lose it.  What better way to lose weight than to go to the country—my thinking was it could be a kind of Fat Farm where, since I was on break from work, I could eat healthy food and exercise by running through the country fields every day.  Losing weight this summer will be a cinch I thought as we boarded the train and left London behind.  Little did I know what weight gain horrors awaited me and that those innocent beliefs were the beginning of a summer of Fat Thinking with a British accent.

THE ARRIVAL

Things started going south the minute we arrived at Hall Court.  As the caretakers showed us around the placed and filled us in on our “duties” it quickly became clear that the expectations of the chores we were supposed to do around the estate on a daily basis were a lot more than what our friend had told us to expect.  Its great living at an estate with 10 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms until someone expects you to clear them all once a week!  And as for the stately grounds—have you ever tried taking a run-of-the-mill lawnmower to them?  In addition to those tasks I was expected to cook when our friend’s father arrived on the weekends.

My husband and looked at each other and considered fleeing but we had given up our flat and had told all of our friends to come and stay over the course of the summer.  We called our friend whose father owned the place and he told us to “do our best” and not to worry, it probably seemed like a lot but he assured us it wasn’t.

THE STAY
So we decided to stay and make an adventure of it anyway.  I took up the house duties and my husband became the gardener.  Instead of my luxurious days spent running through the fields and then luxuriating in the gazebo with a good book I spent my days scrubbing toilets and endlessly dusting and polishing the endless amounts of priceless antiques.  Grrrrrrr. 

In my mind I had been working so hard and cleaning so many hours of the day that I surely should have been burning bucketfuls of calories.  But alas every day I stepped onto the scale that was in one of the 8 bathrooms and found I had not only been NOT losing but I had been gaining weight.  How could this be?  I was working my butt off.  I was taking into account that I would get so frustrated with the cleaning that I would go down to the huge kitchen and emotionally eat as a break, shoving in cookies I had found in the larder along with a new addiction I found in there—orange marmalade. 

That’s it I am going on a diet—I had to lose weight this summer, who gains weight in the summer?  Summer is supposed to be the easy time to lose weight.  What was wrong with me?  What was wrong with my body?

So I went on a diet that was very restrictive, only allowing for fruits and vegetables.  Things went well for a few days but then I got a little bored.  In my fat thinking mind I decided that orange marmalade was a fruit and started adding that into my diet regime. 

Pretty soon I had gone through all of the 10 jars of marmalade that had lined the larder.  Oh and in the evenings I decided that gin and tonics fit into the diet too.  Heck, gin is made from juniper berries right? And tonic water, that hardly counts for anything and don’t forget there is a lime wedge in a gin and tonic and that, my friend, definitely falls into the category of fruit!  My husband wasn’t so sure of my reasoning and he told me I was a jam-a-holic and that perhaps I should find a local 12-step group that specialized in spreadable fruit.  I told him he to go mow some more grass and mind his own business.

Well, do I need to even tell you that this daffy diet plan led not to more weight loss but weight GAIN.  Not only did my jam-a-holism and gin-and-tonicism lead me off my weight loss plans but so did entertaining and weekends.

Soon every week I was on a different diet and every weekend I was falling off it.  Between our friends father coming to stay and our friends coming in from London it was party central at Hall Court.  We would sit down in the large dining room reminiscent of the one in Downton Abbey and have amazing spreads of food and it became very hard to stick to my restrictive diet. 

First there was the social pressure, “Why on earth are you on a diet?  Nonsense, you Americans love to diet and you are fatter than all of us who don’t.  Just enjoy food in moderation and you will be fine.”  Then there was the feeling that I had worked so hard on cooking the food and cleaning the house that I should be rewarded for my efforts.  I would give in and eat, but unfortunately I didn’t know what “moderation’ meant, especially after starving myself all week and I would eat so much that I filled in any calorie deficit that I had created during the week.

Every Monday morning I would swear this would be the week I would start running every day and not eat anything and every Sunday night I went to bed filling so full that I was going to burst.  Thank god I didn’t have to wear a corset.

THE EXIT

By the time the eight week stay at Court had come to a close I was desperate to get back to London, back to real life, real structure and relax from my summer “holiday”.  As I got on the train and headed back to the city 16 pounds heavier than when I came I looked back and wondered what went wrong?  What could I have done differently to Shift my summer of weight gain into a summer of weight mastery?

Having now SHIFTED my thinking and released the weight and maintained it over many summers—please let me share some coaching on the Fat Thinking to avid and the Thin Thinking you can Shift in to instead.

SLIMMER SUMMER SHIFT COACHING

Fat Thinking#1: Assuming it’s going to be easy to lose weight this summer.

Many people believe that summer time is an easier time to lose weight and in a way their reasoning is correct.  During the summer there are lighter foods available, the days are longer, giving us the chance to exercise more.  BUT because summer is full of holidays and travel and kids being off from school the structure of the year gives way to a more free for all feeling.

The Fat Thinking is ASSUMING anything is going to be easy.  Weight release doesn’t just happen, there is an initial focus that is needed and a commitment to show up for yourself that is essential. If you don’t think things through and set a roadmap for success with a vision to guide you it is almost impossible to find sustained success just “winging it”.

The mind doesn’t “wing it” to lose weight.  The unconscious wants things to stay as they are so if you are struggling with weight you need to focus on Shifting out of habits.

THIN THINKING: Reverse engineer your summer and start with the end in mind.  Where do you want to be by September in your weight release and work backwards creating an overall vision and defined milestones with goals.  Don’t overwhelm yourself.  Keep it simple but the structure of your goals will keep you on track.  Use your hypnosis CDS.  It is important for the unconscious mind, that wants things to stay the same, to be exposed to consistent strategies for weight release.

Fat thinking #2: Food is a reward

Our culture immerses us pretty heavily in beliefs that do not serve our waistline.  Our minds are wired from a pretty early age to hit the snack cupboard when we are stressed or want to treat ourselves for a job well done.

The problem is over eating may “calm” us or “treat” us in the moment but in the long run over eating stresses us out and makes us feel out of control and bad about ourselves.

THIN THINKING

Begin cultivating ways of calming yourself or rewarding yourself for getting tasks done instead of reaching for food this summer.  Keep your new “self care” strategies posted in the kitchen until you have made them habits.  Make sure you plan breaks into your day to re-boot your brain and your energy levels this will keep you out of the stress zone and the kitchen.

My Favorite Rewards:

-taking a 10 minute nap

-sitting outside and just letting myself do nothing for 10 minutes but stare at the sky

-laying on the floor with my eyes closed listening to music

-reading People Magazine

Fat Thinking #3: All I have to do is find the right diet and be perfect on it.

Life is never going to line up for us to do perfectly on a diet—especially during the summer!  With holidays and travel and looser schedules and all the socializing with friends and family being on a restrictive regime is going to lead to the “on or off” dieting mentality which leads to binge eating and “starting over” on Monday.

THIN THINKING:

Stop beating yourself up and putting yourself on restrictive plans. Instead of taking away food make a commitment to creating a healthy eating plan based on your needs.  Think about flavors and light food that you really enjoy and make a point to have those around.  Focus on eating protein which helps stabilize your blood sugar and keep you out of the jam jar and helps you feel full longer.  Add in more fruits and vegetables which are around this summer—challenge yourself to eating 7 servings a day and try to find some fun recipes to create new ways of eating them.

 

You don’t have to be a victim of Downton Flabby this summer.  You can show up for yourself and create the summer of your dreams—

1)    Create a Vision and specific milestones defined by time and goals.

2)    Create a daily break plan so you have a structure and plans to reward yourself in ways other than food.

3)    Evolve a way of eating that includes lots of healthy foods but allows for fun and flavor—and definitely protein to stabilize hunger.

Have a great 4^th of July and enjoy your freedom from Fat Thinking!!!oxoxRita

SUMMER SHIFT—SHIFT FROM HOME OR YOUR VACATION
Want to keep focusing on weight release through the summer?  The Shift-in-a-Box Home Study Process is available at a discount now through July 4th—want to find out what it’s all about?
Click Here http://www.shiftweightmastery.com/shiftboxinfo.htm