Category Archives: Blog

Happy New Year! I love the newness and promise of a new year. It may be an arbitrary date on the calendar, but I love the notion that we get a chance to start over, to create something new, the hope of the good things that are coming!

How did you finish the year with your weight? Are you where you wanted to be? The beauty of the New Year is that we get to start fresh and create what we want. So no matter how the last year ended, we can begin. This month we’re going to be creating that fresh start, intentionally setting up to make this the year that the weight problem is solved for good! But first…

We have to take out the trash.

You know how when you want to sit down to journal or make a vision board (or do anything creative), you have to clear a space to work? This is the same thing, but it’s clearing out junk in your mind. You can’t sit in your chair if there’s a pile of laundry on top! You also can’t move forward if your mind is full of junky thinking.

So what is mind trash? It’s thoughts that get you nowhere except tired and defeated. When I asked you how the last year went for your weight goal, you may have thought, “I still haven’t lost my weight. It’s just impossible. I don’t know why I can’t do this. I’m so overwhelmed and busy. Maybe weight loss just isn’t possible for me.”

These thoughts are the trash.

When you have these kinds of thoughts cluttering up your mind, you don’t create anything. These thoughts produce fatigue, sluggishness, lack of motivation, defeat and overwhelm. None of these emotions allow you to move forward and create what you want. They just clutter your mind and slow you down!

So how do we take out the trash?

First, you slow down enough to listen to your mind. What are the thoughts humming in the background? It’s useful to sit quietly and listen to your brain after you ask yourself what you think about your weight. Then write it all down – this is how you capture the thoughts. Then recognize that they’re there, and show them the door. They aren’t helping you move forward – they’re just getting in your way!

The thoughts may keep coming back. But you get to choose if you will listen to them. Instead, you can decide that it is possible for you to lose weight. You can decide that you are capable of figuring this out. You can decide what you need to solve your weight problem and get going to make it happen!

You choose your thoughts. You can listen to the ones running in the background and feel unmotivated and tired, or you can get aware of them and instead choose thoughts that keep your weight loss moving! Your brain is not the boss – you are!

You can do this! Take out the mind trash and get ready – we’re building on the clear space you’re creating. See you next week when we start intentionally creating what you need to successfully lose the weight!

Now, I have exciting news – my digital weight loss course is complete! I will be launching it soon, so watch out for it! Once I launch the course, I will have a class of people working together to lose weight with my support. It’s going to be amazing! But when I have my class started, I will have limited capacity to take one-on-one coaching clients, so if that’s something you’ve been thinking about but just haven’t emailed me to get started, don’t wait – I’d hate for you to miss your chance to work with me individually if that’s what you want! Email me at drandreachristianparks@gmail.com at let’s get your consultation in before the course launches. See you soon!

Here’s your video help for the week!

Hello and welcome back! I’m so glad you’re here. We are fast approaching Christmas and all the party foods and sugary treats are everywhere. We want to lose weight for the holidays but how is it even possible with all the foods that are so hard to resist showing up all over the place?

It’s ok – I got you!

Let’s figure out the problem first. We walk into the breakroom at work and there’s a plate of homemade assorted cookies on the table, still warm and ready to eat. Or your office sends out candied nuts as a gift to your house. Girl, the treats just walked right in your door! Then you walk through the store to grab a few essentials and the pretty Christmasy candy arrangements are so cute – your buy some as gifts and maybe keep just one for yourself. What about those decorated sugar cookies at the grocery store? Let’s just pick a box up for the kids – they can have some Christmas sugar even if you can’t, right? Except you find yourself eating some once they’re in bed!

What is this bizarre power that foods have over us? We’ve all said things like “Girl, I’m the cookie monster. I just can’t say no to a good cookie!” Or “Cupcakes are my kryptonite.”.  Even better, “Those wings were calling my name!”

Except they weren’t.

I’ll tell you how I know for sure that the food has no power. First and foremost, food doesn’t care about you at all. It was prepared by someone and it just sits there. It’s not tempting you or calling your name. Food is an inanimate object that has no feelings or motivations in any way.

Your thoughts are what gives the food the power.

If you put a cupcake in front of a person with a true gluten allergy, they wouldn’t agonize over how delicious the moist delicious cake might be. They’d say no thank you and keep it moving. If you have IBS, there are certain food that you would avoid like the plague because they’ll set you off. You don’t want that smoke! No temptation there. Let me give you a personal example. I have a life-threatening allergy to brazil nuts. Fortunately, they don’t show up too often, but if you offer me one I have no problem declining. Doesn’t matter how delicious you say they are, doesn’t matter that they are an excellent source of selenium – I don’t want one. I like to live!

When we have a food that we consider a “trigger” food, it’s because we’ve gotten very good at thinking thoughts about that food that encourage our desire for the food. We think “Oh, that’s going to be delicious”, or “I have to have some of that!” These simple thoughts are so well practiced that we immediately respond to the desire they generate by taking the food. It happens so fast that we think the food has some magical attractive properties. But it doesn’t.

So what do we do? The first thing you usually do is try to resist. Resistance is exhausting and requires tons of energy. Eventually, it wears out. Then you’re tired from resisting AND you ate the cookie! Your goal is to try to slow things down so you can think. Before you take the cookie, wait. Breathe. Remind yourself what you really want for yourself more than the cookie. Then you can direct your brain once you’re back in charge. You can remind it that it can want the cookie, but you’re not going to respond to the urge to eat it. Those thoughts don’t run you – you run this!

The more you can allow the urge to be there but not respond by doing what it says, the faster your brain will stop yelling at you to eat out of control. Your brain is very good at thinking thoughts about the “trigger” food. You get to watch your brain spin out over the food and then settle down when you stay in charge. When you are the boss of your brain, it can offer you suggestions, but you decide what you’ll do. That’s the end of “trigger” foods!

You CAN do this! Losing weight for the holidays isn’t a cute tagline – it is possible! When you manage your mind, your goal happens. This work is what I do with my clients and every one of them is losing weight after years of struggle. I had one client tell me that she was surprised by how much easier coaching was than any diets she had tried before!

If you’re ready to invest in your weight loss goal, if you are ready for focus and accountability unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before, email me at drandreachristianparks@gmail.com, and let’s set up your one-hour free consultation. I’m taking clients for 2022, but the spaces are going fast! If you want to know that you have your plan in place as you begin the year, don’t miss your chance. Let’s get you what you really want!

Here’s your video help for the week!

Welcome back! We’re nearing the end of this series on Losing Weight For The Holidays and it might seem tempting to coast through the last week or so into New Year’s Day. Family is coming and cooking and shopping still isn’t finished and all the wrapping still is waiting for you. Oh yeah, there’s that little thing you have called a job that still needs to be done! It might just be easier to let the weight thing slide for now and pick it up again in the new year…

Don’t do it.

Put yourself forward a couple of weeks and check-in with yourself there. Would you look back at the extra cookies and overfull plates and lack of intention with peace or regret? That’s right – it’ll be regret. But you won’t regret holding a little space for yourself in all the busyness of the season. Everything won’t fall apart if you take care of yourself too!

So let’s get to it! This week I want to talk about “good” and “bad” foods. We all categorize food this way, even if we don’t say it consciously. We talk about certain desserts as “sinful” and “junk” food and other foods that are “good for you. There are two major problems with looking at food this way.

First, what is “good” food? Do we even really know? We think we do. For example, of course, fruit and veggies are good, right? But don’t eat bananas – they’re too high on the glycemic index. And tomatoes are an excellent source of lycopene, so they’re good. But they’re nightshade vegetables, which aren’t good for you, right? It gets confusing really fast!

The problem is two-fold. One, the diet industry has become a machine, churning out diet after diet that promises to be the magic that will cause your weight to fall off if you can just find the right one for you. So you search around like a lock looking for a key, frustrated when you can’t seem to find the one key that will unlock your weight loss.

Second, creating good and bad foods is a setup for our immature brain. It’s not your fault – we all have a part of our brain that acts like a teenager, immediately drawn to the forbidden and ready to break any rule you set. So when you set strict rules around food and make some completely forbidden, your brain rebels and wants them even more! When you’re on a diet and you “can’t” have cake or doughnuts or candy, that’s all your brain wants!

So what do we do?

First, eat food. If you’re doing what I teach and eating only when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re politely full, as long as you eat food you will lose weight. Make it easy – have some green beans and sweet potato, some sliced tomato, and a piece of chicken, and call it good.

Second, no forbidden foods. I know, some of you are screaming at me, “What about sugar and flour?! You said these can slow my weight loss – aren’t they evil?”

I did say that, and no, they aren’t evil.

People have been living off of bread for ages, so I don’t think flour is inherently evil. Also, we as people have over-refined real food to make highly processed flour and sugars. These act in our bodies in ways that create results we don’t want. Flour and sugar cause your hunger to increase, promote inflammation and make it harder to lose weight.

Harder, but not impossible.

You can eat bread and cake if you want. But, those foods eaten regularly might not produce the kind of weight loss you want. I recommend thinking of food in two categories: those that serve your goal and those that do not. You can have the ones that don’t serve your goal, but you might not choose them in order to get what you really want. When you think about food this way, you get to keep your power instead of giving it to the food. The food isn’t in control, you are!

So have a slice of pizza if you want. You probably won’t design your eating plan to be based around pizza, but you can choose to add it as a meal on occasion. Is one slice of pizza going to derail your plan? Nope. But snacking on cookies and having an extra drink every night and grabbing a doughnut from the breakroom regularly will. So decide on the food you will eat as a normal practice, and add in the exception food when YOU choose, not when it appears in front of you at work or in the store. You will create the key to the permanent weight loss you’re looking for!

You can lose weight! If you’re loving these concepts but feel like you need help getting them in place in your busy life, I’m here to help. Email me at drandreachristianparks@gmail.com and let’s set up your one-hour free consultation. I’ll help you clarify your vision and get you going toward your permanent weight loss goal!

Here’s your video help for the week!

Hey, friend – welcome back! We’ve gotten through two of the food holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving and I want to check in with you: How’s it going so far? Are you on your plan, navigating all the pitfalls of holiday treats in the breakroom and Halloween candy lying around and weathering the stress of gifting and wrapping and shipping? Are you sailing right through, watching the scale go down as you still enjoy your holiday season? If so, then get it girl! Keep going!

But maybe your plan hasn’t quite worked out as you wanted so far. The scale has been a little erratic and while you might have had some wins, you’ve had a few setbacks as well. Maybe you gave in to the temptation to eat more than you planned at Thanksgiving and then allowed yourself to eat whatever the rest of the weekend. Or maybe you’ve been feeling pressed about the projected holiday shipping delays and have been stress eating while you online shop.

It’s ok.

Wherever you are, it’s not over! We have another four weeks to get to our goal of losing weight for the holidays. If you’ve lost weight, wonderful – keep going! If you’ve maintained and are disappointed because you haven’t lost any weight, reflect back to the last few years. Did you gain in the past? If you did, celebrate the improvement you’re making already and recommit to your goal. If you’ve gained weight, take a careful look and see if you would have gained more if you hadn’t been making any effort. Maybe you gained more in past holiday seasons. Either way, you can decide right now to double down and move on. If you don’t try, you certainly will fail. So don’t fail in advance – recommit and keep going forward – you can do this!

This week I want to help you plan your approach for the rest of the season. I know, any time I even mention making a plan tons of objections come up. It’ll take too much time, I like to be spontaneous, I’m too busy to plan, planning is no fun. You can add yours – I’ll wait…

But what if I told you that your plan is exactly what ensures your success? Would you be willing to plan if you knew that your plan makes the difference between losing weight consistently or not?

Your plan is the key to your success.

There are two main ways you get to plan. First, you get to plan for an event – a family dinner, party, office gathering, coffee date. The more you can anticipate what it will be like when you get there, the more you can decide in advance what you’ll eat and drink. Even if you don;t know what’s going to be served, you can make your best guess and figure out what you’d like to have. Feel like wings and stuffed mushrooms? Cool – plan to have the amount you think will fill you up to comfortably full and plan to ignore the rest of the buffet. What kind of coffee drink will work on your plan? Great – order that beverage and ignore the pretty pictures of the new frappe of the season. The more you can decide in advance what you’ll do, the less likely you’ll get derailed in the moment when you’re faced with all the choices. Your brain will make the best decision if you make it before you have lots of tempting options. Trust me – it’s how your brain works and there’s nothing wrong with you. So leverage your brain and make a plan before you head out!

The second plan you need is to work your day so you are hungry when you get to the meetup. If you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you know that I teach that the only signal you want to respond to with food is hunger. You’re not hungry, you don’t eat. So even if you have a plan for what you’ll eat when you get there, you won’t eat it if you’re not hungry. Then you’re standing around arguing with yourself about wanting to eat and how good the food looks and how it’s not fair that everyone else is eating and then you give in and eat anyway because of all the brain chatter about the food.

So, plan your day to be hungry when you get there. Want to have your main meal at the party? Have your morning coffee and eat a light lunch. What if you get really hungry a couple of hours before the party? Plan to have a piece of fruit so it’ll be gone and you’ll get hungry again when the dinner is served. You get the point – plan for what you want so you can stick to your plan. Then you enjoy your day, enjoy some food at the event, and love the results on the scale the next day!

You CAN do this! It’s simple but not easy. But you can do hard things – you do them all the time! But if you’re ready to invest in yourself at a higher level, if you’re looking for more accountability than you’ve been able to offer yourself, if you’re looking to take care of yourself like you take care of everyone else, I’m here. Email me at drandreachristianparks@gmail.com and let’s set up your one-hour free consultation so you can get the help you need!

Here’s your video help for the week!

Welcome back! We’re officially now in the full swing of the holiday season and you know what that means?

Parties!

This is the time of the year when Christmas and holiday parties abound and this year, there are three whole weekends before Christmas, which means more dates for parties. Depending on where you are and the current climate of the pandemic, you might not have as many parties as usual. Still, some companies are having a holiday soiree and you might have friends who have house parties. How do we attend and enjoy these events and not wreck our plan of losing weight for the holidays?

Now, I find that people fall into two groups when it comes to parties; the extroverts and the introverts.  Depending on which camp you’re part of, the pitfalls can be a little different. So let’s talk about this based on where you are…

First, to my extroverted friends: You love all the parties! You love getting all dressed up and finding a host gift, you look forward to going out and seeing all the people, you thrive in the party atmosphere. The music and people and activity give you life! You’re not worn out by all the festivities – you’re energized! Shoot – you’re probably the host of the party!

Your pitfall in the party atmosphere is a lack of focus. You’ll get excited about seeing people and having conversations and you’ll miss that you’re eating the snacks and treats without paying attention. Lack of attention also comes if you’re drinking at the party – alcohol will make sure you’re not worried about how much you eat! Before you know it, you’ve eaten more than you planned, you’re not sure what you ate, and now you don’t want to go near that scale!

What do you do? More than anything, you need a plan. Whether you know exactly what will be served or not, you can prepare so your brain is ready to do what you know is good for your plan before you get there. In your preparation for the event, make a plan for your eating. Will you have a glass of wine? What hors d’oeuvres are your favorite and how many will you have? Do you plan to have a pie of cake or pie? How will you eat during the day before the party so you can be sure you’re hungry when you get to the food table? If you don’t have a plan, you’ll be tempted to eat everything you see. If you drink too much, you won’t care if you do until tomorrow. So make your plan so you don’t have a food hangover the next day and you can stay on track!

Now to my introverts: you are my people! Your pitfalls can be different because even if you like your friends and music and celebration, you lose energy from all the festivities. All the people and preparation and busyness are draining for you. You might not want to go to the party at all! When you do go, you might not feel comfortable and you might be tempted to eat and snack and drink to give yourself something to do. You’ll eat to take away the humming of anxiety about being out and about when you’d rather be snuggled up in your pjs on the couch with one friend instead of a roomful of people.

All good – you can do this! If you’re going to the party, you also need a plan. You’ll need to decide upfront about whether you’re going to drink because you might have a glass of wine just to have something in your hand, or to take the edge off of your nerves. You’ll fall into mindless eating to keep busy and dull the anxiety about who to talk to next or to ward off your boredom with small talk. Decide in advance what you want to eat and be sure you’re hungry when you do. But you’ll need to include preparation for the people to your plans. Who might be there that you want to talk to? What questions might you ask them to start the conversation? You’ll be tempted to think you’re the only one who feels uncomfortable in the party setting, but you’re not. Look around: The folks sitting down looking intensely at their phones also likely feel like you. They probably don’t have an urgent email or text they need to check right that minute!

You can get through the holiday parties AND lose weight! Anticipate your pitfalls and make plans to help yourself go into the party with your ultimate success in mind. You’ll come out having enjoyed the party without the food hangover and will keep moving toward your goal. That feels better than any food tastes!

I’m open for consultations again! If you want to lock down your space for coaching starting in the New Year, NOW is the time to act. Wouldn’t it be great to know that you have a coach in your corner to help you reach your weight loss goal? I’m here to help you get there! Email me at drandreachristianparks@gmail.com and let’s make sure you have what you need to make your success inevitable!

Here’s your video help for the week!

Welcome to this new week of Losing Weight For The Holidays! We’ve been focused on our goal of doing this holiday season differently so the weight gain hangover from eating our way through the holiday isn’t what we dread going into the New Year. We’ve talked about using food for fuel and honoring our signals for hunger and fullness, and we’ve worked through why holiday food tricks us into overeating.

This week I want to equip you for the actual holiday meal. Thanksgiving is a few days away!

Let’s remember together how the holiday meals went in years gone by. In the past, you’d eat through the day, sampling the pigs-in-a-blanket and crunching on veggie sticks from the veggie tray (it’s ok, because it’s veggies, right?), and tasting all the foods before they were served. By the time the full meal was ready, you weren’t hungry, but you’d pile your plate with everything so you could try it all. You’d have a mini mountain in front of you and even though you were full before the plate was half empty, you’d plow ahead and finish it. Because you can’t waste this special food, right? You’d end up stuffed like a turkey, exhausted and needing a nap, but dragging yourself through the cleanup because every pot and pan in the house was out and needed to be cleaned.

Sounds like fun, right?

This year can be different! You don’t have to experience the holiday meal the same way this year. But in order to make sure you do this a new way, you have to get prepared.

First, it’s not as if you planned to stuff yourself – it’s just what you did. Ever notice that when you get to a special meal like Thanksgiving that despite all your best plans, the plan falls apart in the face of the table of food? You’ve been doing great on your plan and then all of a sudden the holiday meal sets you back two weeks because you ate everything on that table?

The most important thing to know is that there’s nothing wrong with you. The number one reason why holidays trip you up is that they only happen once a year. You get to practice your everyday life every day – but you only experience the holiday once a year, so you’re falling back into old patterns of how you did it in the past. You brain loves efficiency, so you go on autopilot.

Your first tactic to battle the autopilot is to make a plan.

You might be hosting and know all the foods that are being served. Or, you might be going to someone’s house and have a fair idea of what’s being served. Your job is to consider what you know and make a plan for what you’re going to eat when the day comes. Want to be hungry for the big meal? Plan the hours before the meal so you’re hungry. Do you love the cornbread dressing and gravy but couldn’t care less about the turkey? Plan room on your plate for the dressing and leave out the turkey. Have to have the sweet potato pie? Plan to have it first or leave room in your stomach to finish off the meal with the pie without the pain and fatigue from an overfull belly.

Your second trap comes in the form of people. You love your family, but there may be some dynamics you need to navigate when you gather together. The mess in the kitchen, the old arguments, the noise, and the chaos might be challenging. Your autopilot is going to kick in and suggest that you eat to soothe the stress. You’re going to think that the food is the answer to calming your nerves, and this thought is hardly conscious.

Don’t do it!

Food doesn’t solve stress – it’s only food. Food is a distraction and in the moment stops you from feeling the stress, but once it’s gone, the stress comes back AND you’ve overeaten. Food is only fuel, so it only is needed when you’re actually hungry. Cravings, stress, frustration, soothing – eating to solve any of these is what will cause the scale to go up.

What if instead of eating to handle the family dynamics, you decided that this is a once-a-year event where you’re creating new memories? What if you plan to enjoy seeing your cousin and reminisce over the sleeping bag sleepovers you used to have when you were kids? What if you decide to look at your drunk auntie with compassion instead of aggravation? Whatever the situation might bring, you get to decide that you can experience it without needing food to help you through it. You can enjoy your holiday AND enjoy the food AND lose weight!

You can do this! If you know you’re ready to lose the weight for good, but you really want support and accountability, I’m here to help. It’s time to turn this weight problem around! If you’re ready to invest in yourself and get yourself an early Christmas gift, email me at drandreachristianparks@gmail.com and we will set up your one-hour free consultation. Being overweight and living on the diet roller coaster doesn’t have to be your life anymore!

Here’s your video help for the week!

Welcome back! It’s the week before Thanksgiving and I want you to get all the tools you need to keep on your goal of losing weight for the holidays. It is possible!

This week I want to show you how your brain makes the holiday foods irresistible so that you can break the hold they have on you. Now, I’m not saying you can’t have them! But there are specific thoughts you’re thinking that are creating a level of desire for the foods that keep you from being able to decide on purpose what you want to eat and what you can leave behind or save for later.

You know how you used to get your plate for Thanksgiving and pile it so high that it looked like a small mountain? Then you’d eat it all and be so full you’d feel sick and hate life for a few hours until your stomach digested some of it? No more. Not only is that an awful feeling, but it ruins your plan of losing weight the way you want to. That’s your first reminder: Eat when you’re physically hungry and stop when you’re politely full (go back to the intro to this series if you need a refresher!). That means you need to triage – you have to choose which of the foods in front of you that you want to eat instead of piling all of it on your plate. Does the turkey look dry? Skip it. Are the brussels looking amazing? Have those. Macaroni and cheese your favorite? Get some. Feeling kinda meh about the glazed carrots? Leave them.

But what if you want it all? Let’s talk about the main reason why that is and how you can get around your brain’s programming. Let’s start with an example that has nothing to do with holiday food.

Girl Scouts cookies.

Now, there’s no doubt that this company has great marketing and the cookies are fun and nostalgic, but when you really get down to it, they’re just boxed cookies. Seriously, they’re ok, but they’re still just cookies from a box. The main reason why you feel compelled to buy all your favorite and stock up is that they’re offered once a year. The marketing campaign is designed to create a sense of scarcity. So you’re watching the sign-up sheets circle around the office, trying to calculate how many boxes you need to last you – what? Six months? Who knows? Until you feel like you’ve had enough, which as long as you feel the scarcity is NEVER.

The same thing happens during the holidays. You think that you can’t have these foods any time of year so you have to eat them all right now. That’s how you end up stuffed like the turkey, hating how you feel and dreading what the scale is going to tell you. But you can have those foods at other times if you want!

Honeybaked ham is a good example. You wait all year to have a ham with the sugar crust, so you have to have your share and then some, right? But isn’t there a Honeybaked store within driving distance? Surprise – they’re open year-round and you can have ham anytime you want!

How about the special pie Aunt Sally brings to dinner, then one she only makes once a year? You’ve got options. One, ask Aunt Sally for the recipe. She might be thrilled to pass on her legacy and then you can make it any time you want! Or, ask her to bring you a pie to freeze for later. You might just put your slice aside so you can enjoy it when you get hungry again instead of piling it on top of the meal when you’re already full.

Here’s a secret: The best bite of your meal is the first one. When you’re actually physically hungry, your taste buds are turned up to flavor. As you eat, the “volume” gets turned down. So the first few bites are the best. Even if you keep eating (seconds, anyone?), it won’t taste as good as it did at first. The body is trying to turn off the flow of food, so it just won’t work. So slow down and enjoy those first few bites! You could even have dessert first if that’s your favorite (if you can get away with it). You could save the dessert and have it the next time you get hungry – it’ll taste better!

You can enjoy the holiday meals and NOT eat so being stuffed! You get to decide what’s most important and eat what you like. If you really want to lose weight, you can decide to eat differently on your holiday occasions this year. Enjoy the friends and family, enjoy the food, choose to eat when you’re physically hungry, and don’t let your brain hijack your plans!

You can lose weight for the holidays! If you know you want more personalized support and accountability, email me at drandreachristianparks@gmail.com. Let’s set up your one-hour free private coaching session and get you started toward your goal!

Here’s your video help for the week!

Welcome to week one of Losing Weight For The Holidays! I’m so excited to be on this journey with you – it’s going to be fun!

Last week we started building a vision for how we could be different through this holiday season to create weight loss instead of what feels like the inevitable weight gain into the New Year. Not this time! We get to create a completely different experience of this time of year. And you’re ready for it! This week I want to help you use your brain to your advantage when you’re faced with all the holiday treats that appear around you through the end of the year. Let’s go!

Have you ever had the experience of walking into the break room at work around the holidays, only to encounter a big tray of Christmas cookies? You know – the ones cut into shapes like snowmen and Christmas trees with colorful icing and crunchy sugar decorations from the supermarket? The next thing you know, you’ve got a cookie in your mouth and another in your hand, loaded and ready to be eaten. Then you think, “I don’t even like this kind of cookies – why am I eating these?”

It’s because you listened to your brain.

Here’s what happened. You saw the cookies, your brain said “Cookies – yummy!”, and you agreed with your brain. Now here’s the key – you don’t have to agree with every thought your brain offers you. You think that your brain is in charge, but it’s not: You are. Your brain is just offering you suggestions. You can choose to agree or disagree. In this cookie situation, when your brain said, “Cookies – yummy!”, you could have questioned it. “Will they really be yummy?”

Now, you might think that store-bought Christmas cookies are delicious. But I’m betting that if you really think about it, you know they’re marginal at best. They’re crumbly and kinda dry, and the icing is too sweet and they don’t taste like much other than sugar. So why are you eating them? If what you really want is to lose weight, then why are you bothering with cookies that aren’t even that good?

You have to question your mind.

Your brain is simple. It is on autopilot most of the time. So if you see the cookies, your brain remembers the sugar and suggests that you eat more. You can challenge that suggestion! You don’t have to accept every thought your mind offers up. If you question the suggestion that you eat cookies when you hadn’t planned on it, your brain will pause to think up reasons. That’s when you have a moment to get off of autopilot and think. If what you really want is to watch the scale go down, are the cookies going to be worth giving up what you really want? Will they taste as good as feeling more room in your jeans? Will they taste as good as starting the New Year weighing less than you do now?

Nope. No cookie tastes that good.

‘Tis the season of giving! You’re shopping for gifts for friends and family and while you’re scrolling or walking the aisles, you pick up a little something for you too. I know I do! You’re trying hard to get your special people the gift that they’ll be really happy with, right? Wouldn’t it be the best gift to give yourself what you really want? You can give yourself the gift of losing weight over this season and starting the New Year already on your way toward your weight loss goal.

You can do it! But if you want to work toward your goal with accountability and help, I’m here. Email me at drandreachristianparks@gmail.com and let’s set up your one-hour free consultation. Let me help you get started!

Here’s your video help for the week!

Ready for a new series? Welcome back – I’m glad you’re here! As we enter the holiday season, as you gather and serve and maybe cook and prepare gifts, I thought it would be wonderful if you were able to give yourself the gift of successful weight loss. So through the holiday parties and comfort food and treats, I’m here to help you focus on getting the gift you really want – watching that scale go down!

I know, your brain is like, “Wait, what? Lose weight for the holidays? It’s usually the opposite!” I know! But just because in the past you’ve eaten all the desserts and holiday cookies and stuffed yourself at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners doesn’t mean that it has to be that way this year. And just because in the past you’ve started the New Year with an overeating hangover, regret, and promises to do better doesn’t mean that this time you can’t do this differently. Let me help you imagine…

What if it were possible that you could be around the Halloween candy, all the hors d’oeuvre, and all the family desserts and NOT gain weight? Imagine going into the company Christmas party in your LBD feeling less like a stuffed sausage and more like a rock star because your dress is a little looser than it was before. While you’re there, you enjoy socializing with a few people and the food and drinks aren’t as important as they were in the past. As a matter of fact, you realize that these catered foods aren’t really that great anyway, so they’re easy to skip.

What if you were able to look in the faces of your family this year around the holiday table and feel gratitude to be together again instead of diving into your normally overstuffed plate? What if you didn’t feel compelled to eat all the holiday foods right now? And what if because you were able to do all this, you went into the New Year at a lower number on the scale than you have today?

Sounds a little farfetched? Nope, it’s absolutely in reach for you! And for the next two months, I’m going to be with you as we focus on losing weight for the holidays. We are going to take care of ourselves through this season in a way that leaves no regret, only healthy pride, and confidence. You can be part of all the dinners, parties, and celebrations and not gain the seemingly inevitable holiday weight. And, you can enjoy all of it without overindulging in food. Yes, you can!

Let’s start now! We just came off the seasonal challenge – Halloween! Did you buy bags of candy to give to the trick-or-treaters and now have bowls of leftovers sitting around? What about your kid’s bags of candy? How about your coworkers who are bringing their candy to the office to tempt you to eat it between meetings? What do we do?

First, you don’t have to eat that candy. You can have that candy in cute little minis or snack-sized portions any time of year. Even if it’s not packaged in the same cute Halloween wrappers, it’s the same m&ms, snickers, reese’s, and sweet tarts. You can have it anytime, so you don’t have to have it all now! When there’s no urgency, it’s easier to leave it. 

Second, you don’t have to eat it at all. You can be the one donating the candy to your office. You could (gasp!) throw it away. You don’t have to be the garbage can – better to put it in the can than on your belly, right?

Last, remember what you really want. If you think about it, will any of that candy taste as good as seeing the scale drop and feeling better in your body? I can tell you for certain that nothing tastes as good. When that Halloween candy jumps out begging you to eat it, you can remind yourself what will make you feel better for longer than a piece of candy and leave it in the wrapper.

You can do this! You can focus and finish this year in a way you will be proud of. And if you want help, I have one more spot for private coaching. Once that’s gone, I’m starting a waiting list until some of my current clients graduate out. If you’ve been thinking that having a coach is what you need to get where you want to go, don’t wait! Email me at drandreachristianparks@gmail.com and let’s set up your free consultation – I’m here to help. You can start the New Year differently than you have before. It’s in your reach!

Here’s your video help for the week!