It’s not really a question of “if” you have weight loss mindset blocks (you do), it’s more about figuring out exactly which ones you have, so you can solve for them and get to your goal weight. So today, I’m diving into the top five weight loss mindset blocks to show you exactly how they’re stopping you and what you can do about it.
Hello, hello my ambitious, overthinking GOALfriend, and welcome to the podcast. I’m so excited to bring you this topic today because I think it’s really going to help clarify for you exactly what’s stopping you from losing all the weight you want.
When you have blind spots (aka, mindset blocks), you are constantly slowing yourself down. But knowledge is power, my friend, and self knowledge – self awareness – is the greatest power of all. When you intentionally see yourself clearly, honestly, and without judgment, you are unstoppable.
So, let’s find those mindset blocks and bust through them.
The Top 5 that I’ve gathered for you here today aren’t necessarily the five biggest mindset blocks, but they are the number one most prevalent blocks I hear from women for each of the five daily tasks in The 5-0 Method.
Super quickly, in case you haven’t downloaded The 5-0 Method yet – it’s free and there’s a link for you somewhere near where you’re listening to this podcast – here are the five things you do each day to lose weight for the last time: number one is to manage your mindset with five minutes of journaling, number two is to eat the right number of calories which is your starting weight in pounds multiplied by ten, number three is to drink the right number of ounces of water which is your weight in pounds divided by two, number four is to get adequate sleep by setting a bedtime and a waking time and not worrying about how much in between was actual sleep, and number five is to exercise moderately which is, generally speaking, about 20-25 minutes each day.
Inside the Get Your GOAL membership curriculum, one of the first things you’ll learn is how to identify your specific mindset blocks around each of these tasks. They’re different for everybody, so you might resonate with all five of the ones I’m talking about today, or you might not identify with any of them.
More importantly than the mindset block itself, what I’m excited to show you today is how to identify that your thought is blocking you, and what to do about it. So let’s dig in! Here are the top five weight loss mindset blocks you’re likely facing and how to bust them.
Top Five Weight Loss Mindset Blocks Number One: I don’t know what to journal about.
I totally get how real this one sounds, especially if you’re relatively new to journaling. When I first started working on my mindset, I would sit down with a blank page and suddenly my mind would just feel empty! We have 60,000 thoughts a day, but when I would get out my journal, I couldn’t hear a single one.
This is literally the reason I created my prescriptive, detailed, step-by-step journaling process. I knew journaling would get me where I wanted to go, but only if I could get started with it.
But here’s the thing to notice about this mindset block: it’s not true, even though it sounds like it is.
You have a multitude of resources, including the free journaling prompt included in The 5-0 Method, numerous episodes of this podcast, plus my Amazon-best selling book “Mind Over Menopause,” and – if you’re a member of my Get Your GOAL membership – an entire hour-long Masterclass and Workshop where you’ll create weeks worth of journaling prompts for yourself.
You actually know exactly what to journal about, but your brain is telling you otherwise. This is just a mindset block.
And here’s how to bust it: recognize the FEELING that this thought creates for you and notice whether it feels good or bad, comfortable or uncomfortable.
Here’s the most basic truth about all human beings – we are always seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. Or to put it another way, seeking comfort and avoiding discomfort. We always want to feel good and not bad. No matter which words you use, it’s the Pleasure Principle, and it’s always at work inside your brain. So if you have a thought about journaling that feels painful, uncomfortable or bad in any way, you will subconsciously avoid journaling.
This is the very definition of a mindset block – it’s a THOUGHT you’re having that’s creating an uncomfortable FEELING, which subconsciously blocks you from getting what you want because of the Pleasure Principle.
So, recognizing that you’re thinking a thought that’s creating an uncomfortable, or painful, or bad feeling is all it takes to bust through a mindset block.
Seriously, that’s it! You observe yourself.
It’s been proven again and again that observing a thing changes a thing. You literally change your mindset simply by observing it.
Top Five Weight Loss Mindset Blocks Number Two: I can’t eat that many calories.
Whoo doggies, if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard this mindset block. Hands down, the most surprising aspect of The 5-0 Method is the number of calories your menopausal body actually needs to lose weight. You’ve been inundated since birth with restrictive diet culture messages about how if you want to lose weight, you must be eating too much. Well, we busted that myth on last week’s episode of the podcast, so now let’s bust this mindset block by observing it.
“I can’t eat that many calories” is a thought, and this thought probably creates a feeling of frustration for you.
And I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this about frustration before, but it does NOT feel comfortable in your body!
It’s very tight and a little bit hot, and it makes your face scrunch up.
That’s how you know this is a mindset block. “I can’t eat that many calories” is a thought that creates an uncomfortable feeling, so it’s subconsciously blocking you from eating the right number of calories to lose weight.
Ahhh, but now you’ve heard it. So you can observe it and change your mindset.
Top Five Weight Loss Mindset Blocks Number Three: If I drink that much water, I’ll be awake all night long.
Omg, I feel you on a deep soul level for this one, GOALfriend. These days, my bladder is approximately the size of a walnut and don’t even get me started on what happens when I sneeze or laugh really hard, okay?
However. No matter how true this sentence sounds to you, it’s still a mindset block.
And just really quickly and pedantically, I’m going to point out that this sentence is actually neither true nor false, because it’s a prediction of the future. Yes, it might come true. But it also might not. And you literally cannot know for sure, because it’s the future.
So, this is a guess, not a fact. And furthermore, it’s a guess – a thought – that creates the particularly unpleasant feeling of powerlessness, as though you’re at the mercy of the water and the sleepless night.
But you’re not. You, my super smart friend, are the observer of your thoughts.
“If I drink that much water, I’ll be awake all night long” is a thought that creates a feeling of powerlessness, which subconsciously blocks you from drinking the right amount of water to lose weight.
And now you’re busting through this block and changing your mindset by observing it.
Top Five Weight Loss Mindset Blocks Number Four: I have a lot of trouble sleeping through the night.
Yep, yep, yep. This mindset block sounds totally true, too, doesn’t it? And if you ask pretty much any other menopausal woman except me, you’ll get so much corroboration that it’s really hard to sleep after menopause because of the night sweats and the insomnia.
But here’s why you won’t get that validation from me: I’ve already worked through this mindset block. And I won’t sugarcoat it for you, it wasn’t easy, because this particular thought created a feeling of self pity for me.
And even though self pity is a very uncomfortable feeling, with droopy shoulders and a heavy heart and a tight, frowny face… oooh, it’s very familiar to me. Which made it really hard to recognize and observe.
I was like that fish, swimming around, and when somebody asks, “Hey, how’s the water?” they respond, “What’s water?”
Self pity was a constant, daily feeling for me. Right up until I had a coach point it out to me.
Y’all. This is the value of having a coach and doing the work that we do inside the Get Your GOAL membership. It’s not that busting through your mindset blocks is hard or complicated or that you can’t do it on your own. You totally can. I’ve literally told you exactly how right here in this podcast: observe that you’re having a thought that’s creating an uncomfortable feeling. The end.
But sometimes… you don’t even know that you’re swimming in water and you need somebody on shore to say so.
Your hard-to-recognize uncomfortable feeling might not be self-pity, by the way. Maybe you walk around with low-grade frustration so often that you don’t even notice it, or just a little bit of defensiveness or overwhelm or indecision. No matter what it is, even if it’s not obvious to you, it will be to a coach.
Your thought, “I have a lot of trouble sleeping through the night” is creating an unpleasant feeling of self pity that’s subconsciously blocking you from getting to bed on time every night in a way that will help you lose weight.
Top Five Weight Loss Mindset Blocks Number Five: This isn’t enough exercise.
I’ve said it a million times before, and I’m willing to say it another million: you can lose weight without exercising AT ALL. And even though I would love to belabor this point and regale you with the science to prove that statement, let’s stick to the point of the podcast – this sentence is a mindset block.
And it’s a tricky one. Come with me, and I’ll show you what I mean.
When you finish up a nice, moderate workout and your brain offers you the sentence “This isn’t enough exercise,” the feeling that thought creates – not good enough – is SO uncomfortable, so unpleasant, so bad that you probably don’t even get the chance to notice it.
Your brain goes directly, instantly into avoidance of that feeling of “not good enough.” Blech. You can kind of feel it right now, can’t you? And you sort of want to turn off this podcast because of it!
I know. Stay with me. This is where I do my best work as your coach – holding your virtual hand while we explore something that feels too painful to approach. I promise, it’s not too much, and here’s how we’ll get to the heart of this mindset block.
Rather than trying to notice and observe the deeply uncomfortable feeling, what you’ll be far more likely to notice is how you’re arguing with yourself.
You’ll finish up the workout and hear the thought, “That wasn’t enough,” followed by, “Well, maybe I’ll just go for a walk or do some yoga, that won’t be so bad, but it’ll be better than this.” Followed by, “But Pahla says this is enough.” With a retort of, “But it’s not!”
Back and forth and back and forth your brain will go like it’s playing ping pong.
THIS is what you can observe. The arguing, the uncertainty, the guilty feeling. It’s all uncomfortable, and it’s all blocking you.
“This isn’t enough exercise” is a thought that creates the oh-so-painful feeling of not enoughness, which blocks you from exercising appropriately for your weight loss goal.
My friend, no matter which weight loss mindset blocks you personally have – if it’s one of these five or all of them or something else entirely – now you have the most essential and effective strategy to get unblocked. Observation.
And if you want help observing your blocks and noticing those uncomfortable feelings, come and join us in the Get Your GOAL monthly membership, where you’ll have access to the coaching, community, and classes you need to lose all the weight you want and keep it off forever.
Thanks for listening, I’ll talk to you again soon!
