Michelle Rupp: JJ Mayo joins us now. Hi JJ.
JJ Mayo, PhD: What’s going on, Michelle? Excited to be here to talk about health again, I’m ready.
MR: We are, and I’m really excited about this topic. We are talking about weight loss. But how not to be negative and how negativity maybe can impact our weight loss. So, let’s maybe first start with maybe an obvious question, which would be our head and our headspace. How much does that influence? When we decided to go down the weight loss journey,
JM: It definitely has a big influence. You know, when I talk about negative mindset, it’s it’s what I call a form of self sabotage and a lot of people don’t even realize that they’re doing it, that they’re sabotaging their weight loss success, but just the way they think, and you know, when I teach this in my classes, I basically teach the eating the activity and the mindset it’s that important and this is one of the biggest things that trips people up is the way they think about their weight loss and what’s possible for them. So, here’s what we know we know that how you think affects your behaviors and then your behaviors are going to lead to those outcomes, whether you get those outcomes or not. And so how do you think it’s so important and changing your health, whether people like it or not is an inside job, it starts within and it starts in your head and what you think and you need to start thinking differently, like, for instance, I got an email from somebody the other day and they they’re in there, they’re in a weight loss class with me and they said, oh, I’ve only lost £6 we’ve only been doing the class for five weeks. And so, for me, I’m like, that’s amazing, you should be proud of yourself, but she only said I only lost. So even those little things that are subtle and hidden really trip us up. And so, we really need to do is we really do start thinking differently about what’s possible because how you see your health, I think I’ve said this before, how you see your health and your weight loss really determines what’s going to be possible for you.
MR: So, what are some little mental hacks that we can work on in kind of flipping that script in our head?
JM: Yeah, so we really need to get rid of all that negative, we call it, I said negative mindset, we said mindset, but it’s that negative self talk that we have, and like I said, a lot of times, we don’t even know we’re doing it and it’s time to end the stories that are in our head about things like, like you said, the guys that only lost 6 pounds there were somebody other people will say, I can’t, you know, I can’t do it, I’ve never been successful or that weight loss is hard because and they fill in the blank and those stories that we haven’t started our head, which actually come from past experiences, those stories and beliefs keep us stuck, They keep us from making progress, and so they keep us, and one of the reasons people do this, and they don’t do it intentionally is, but when they say, you know, it’s hard and I can’t do it, it’s keeping us safe, it’s keeping us in our comfort zone. And so, what you’ve really got to do is you got to be open to the possibilities and change the way you think, instead of saying, I can’t, it’s like, I can’t I can’t do this, and what will I do to be successful? And when you do that, that’s when you start making the changes, and specifically the first step would be to acknowledge and write down and pay attention to what you say to yourself throughout the day, that would be the first step to jumping in and making this happen.
MR: So really, it’s a step of courage or bravery, as we are headed down this journey.
JM: Yep, no doubt about it, and here’s the thing, don’t let your future, or sorry, don’t let your past, because that’s what people do, they say, I can’t do this, I haven’t been successful in the past, and so I can’t do it in the future and they’re predicting the past, uh they’re predicting the future based on their past experiences and you just got to let that stuff go. You’ve got to kind of be the scientist if you will and say, you know what, I haven’t been successful but all the, all the behaviors, all the things I’ve done to get me to this point, there are lessons that I’ve learned and so now what I want to do is I want to take the right steps and so that’s what I tell my group is like you either get the results you’re looking for or the lessons that you need and it’s about learning those lessons and being the scientists in that you do certain activities and then you get an output like so you, you start eating a certain way and you monitor your weight and if it comes off great, keep doing it. If not then hey, that’s alright, let’s try something different because there’s a lot of tools, Yeah, there’s a lot of tools in the tool bag.
MR: It’s not a one size fits all program what works for me, probably not going to work for you and vice versa.
JM: Yeah, that’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. But starting with the belief and changing those beliefs and really what it’s about is changing your identity of how you see yourself and start, you know putting together, you know, you could, you could first step is to figure out, okay, what am I really saying to myself and then we’ve got to flip that script and write down maybe some positive mantra is that we can post on our bathroom mirrors and our car, inside our car or whatever it is to say, I can’t do this, I am worth it. And that that, you know, I don’t have to be perfect, you know, I am going to stumble, but I’m going to get right back on track. And let’s touch real quick about the importance of having good positive support, because that can also influence and reinforce as you are shifting from a negative mindset to a positive mindset as you’re working to lose weight.
JM: Yes, support is crucial with your coworkers, with your spouses and friends and family, you know, having people there to support you that are positive and that aren’t always beating you up, because I see this a lot when I have couples in my classes, you know, the woman is trying to lose weight, but the guy still doesn’t care, and he’s trying to he will he will sabotage, you know, the woman, so you have to really surround yourself with people that are positive and if they’re not positive, then you’ve got to figure out a way to work around that and block them out in a way and don’t let them discourage you from your journey, because it is your journey.
MR: Indeed it is. JJ, is there anything else here in our final 20 seconds?
JM: I don’t know, I just, I just want to encourage people to know that they can be successful and knowing that it’s not going to be a perfect journey because a lot of times we talk about weight loss most of the time we think, oh, it’s supposed to be this like this perfect linear downward. It doesn’t work like that, right? Life gets in the way you lose some, you gain, maybe you gain a little back, you lose some, but as long as you’re making progress towards your goal, I think that’s what matters. Don’t give up. And that’s the only thing too, is about, you know, people tend to think that they say I’ve been a failure. The only way I see you can be a failure is if you give up and, and that’s not really an option for most of us. So, don’t give up.
MR: Don’t give up. Alright, JJ, thank you for joining us today. And thank you so much for joining us. We’ll see you back here next week for more AFMC TV.
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