These ten days of Mindfulness Dieting comes from the first round of Thin Brain Training which was set up as a 3-month program where the women would work through learning mindfulness and applying it to their daily food plans and choices.
It is these principals and guidelines for mindfulness dieting that our Becoming Thin, Healthy and Happy program is based on.
Please listen to these before joining our program. They will give you an excellent foundation for what it is we hope to accomplish here at Thin Brain Training.
You will hear reference to filling out forms, weigh ins, 3 months of programming, etc. You do not have access to any of that. Just the audios so you can see what TBT and Carlene are all about. Please share this page with your family and friends to help spread the word that dieting doesn’t have to be so hard.
Ten Days of Mindfulness Dieting
Day 1 – Welcome
Hi everyone and welcome to Day 1 of our Mindfulness Diet free audio program previously called, Thin Brain Training 3 Month program.
This is not about fast weight loss. We are working toward a new you who can make good choices that get you to your goals and dreams. Our goal here is to get you to always make the best choice so you become that person a lot quicker than you believe you can.
You have four assignments for today and every day you are in this program.
1. Start each morning with a short meditation or prayer that focuses your mind on who you want to be. We’ll add to this as we move forward.
2. Every morning tell yourself at least 5 great things about yourself. For example. I am happy. I am smart. I am creative. I am beautiful. I am the best mom there is.
3. Force yourself to smile. At others and yourself. It’s amazing how a smile can affect everyone’s day. Not just your own.
4. Whenever you hear negative self-talk immediately over talk it with positive self-talk.
Day 2 – The Other Aspects of Me
Hi everyone, yesterday we talked about what that big goal in life is. Today, I want you to think about other aspects of your life. We are multi-faceted. Our weight, our jobs, our families are all aspects of our lives. We tend to focus more on our weight when it comes to the negatives, but still our weight is just one aspect of our lives.
We also have more than one dream. In the audio, I told you two more of mine. Each day I come to TBT to see what members are up to, I am reminded of what’s important to me and it resets my thinking when it comes to the choices I make throughout the day.
I know you may not have all your thoughts together yet, so today I want you to make a list in the detail portion of the The Me I Want To Be write up. List all the different aspects of your life.
So for me that would be.
My creative needs – I sculpt. I would love to have my own line of Norwegian Trolls. Don’t laugh.
My grandchildren – I am their part-time caregiver and their lives are very important to me.
My writing – I want the children books I’ve written to be published so my girls have copies to share with their children.
Being Vegan – This is just who I am now. I don’t fight it, regret it, or resent it. I’m happy, but it’s a part of me, an aspect of me.
RFBC – Raw Food Boot Camp is still strong and moving forward.
Thin Brain Training – This is where you and I will learn what really makes us change.
etc. There are many others.
My diet and exercise are just one aspect of my life. I do them. Like I brush my teeth, but I don’t obsess over them. I make the right choices based on what I said in today’s audio and then I am off to the other aspects of my life.
How I live and take care of my health is as important an aspect as my legacy with my granddaughters. RFBC is as important to me as my diet and exercise and as Thin Brain Training. Living vegan is important as well.
So every day, the choices I make must be geared toward the many aspects of me. And in all things me, health is a major factor. I can’t be good at anything if I’m not healthy. So my diet, not my weight, is very important. Luckily the diet I prefer manages my weight so I don’t have to worry about that aspect of my life.
Does this make sense to you?
Day 3 – Who I Wanted to Be
As we are defining who we want to be, I believe it is important to remember who we wanted to be. I realize that many dreams were put on hold as we persued families and careers, but deep down we still value those dreams.
Think back. Who did you believe you would grow up to be? Can you still feel those dreams? Do you still dream those dreams? Are there any connections left to follow through with those dreams or do you feel the cords have been permanently severed?
I knew as a young girl that helping others beat obesity would be part of my life. I would walk home from school and daydream about having a ranch or something where girls came and I would help them to not be obese. When I first went to college, I majored in nutrition. I studied nutrition journals and studies being done on food and senility. My x-husband was a scientist and his research was on famine during pregnancy and how it affected obesity levels in children (men).
All my life girls and women, strangers, would open up and tell me everything. I’m a good listener.
But I’m a leader as well. A rebel always bucking authority.
I am a risk-taker and I have the courage to fail. And I am independent to a fault.
Knowing these things about myself, allows me to be open to my own voice. Carlene doesn’t lie to me. She’s a drill sergeant you know and is always willing to kick me in the butt. But her honesty gets me moving and never allows me to play victim for very long.
None of this is new though. These traits were there when I was a child.
What about you. What traits of strength and heart have been with you all your life?
How do they play into who you want to be and the joy you will receive by living your true life.
Don’t panic. I’m not saying quit your job and buy a Volkswagon bus painted in daisies and travel the country. What I’m saying is let the real you peak out from the grown-up responsible you to help remind you of who you really are and what really matters in your life.
When our own pursuits bring us joy, then that beacon calling us towards peace and happiness becomes so much brighter and easier to follow.
Hey, don’t forget to meditate this morning, to remind yourself how great you are with daily affirmations, to counter all negativity with positivity and to smile even when you rather be a grump.
Life is about choices. Today make all your choices count.
Day 4 – Forgiveness
When I meditate on my health, I actually go through a visualization of all my organs. All those biology classes paid off. I always concentrate on my heart and liver, see clear arteries in my mind, And a cancer and disease free body. Will it save my life, who knows, but what it does do is remind me that my body is not just a thing that walks me around. It is a complex organism with many parts and it is my job to nourish and nurture them all.
Today’s audio is on the power of forgiveness. I’m mainly focusing on forgiving our bodies for not being or acting as we want, but then it’s just as important to ask our bodies to forgive us for the abuse and resentment we have offered them.
The more we release the negativity in our lives, the less burdens we carry with us each day and the easier it is for us to get over things that would normally send us on a tirade. And we all know that when we’re not happy, dieting isn’t going to happen.
We are in control of our emotions, not the other way around. The more good we bring into our lives, the more good comes back. That’s another woo hoo statement, but when you practice it, you’ll see it’s just true. My Nana always said, “what goes around comes around.” I always saw that in the light of if we do bad bad comes back at us. But now I understand her. What we put out comes back. If we put out good, well, try it and see.
Let’s talk about the power of forgiveness today and start practicing it in your daily meditation. I’m not telling you to forgive perpetrators of pain in your past, but you need to be open to forgiving yourself for allowing those perpetrators to keep you from the life you deserve. We go over this in much more detail in the actual Thin, Healthy & Happy program.
I hope you’re practicing smiling at others today.
Having people smile at us just makes the day so much more bearable even if I dare say, enjoyable.
Remember, when our mindset is in a good place, we tend to make much better choices. As dieters that means less struggle and rebellion.
Day 5 – Be Kind
Be kind, what is that? Right?
Well, when it comes to training the thin brain we have to dump the bad moods, the frustration, the anger at others. Remember that thin brain is still safe away in its little shell afraid to come out and play. So we have to coax it by lightening up.
In today’s audio, I offered examples of people and how they frustrate us. From the motor vehicles department to college admissions to the little old lady in the records department of your town.
They deal with frustrated people daily. I wouldn’t want their job for anything. They are people too, and I bet they are having a really hard day themselves. If we cut them some slack, stay positive, be friendly, we might just get further with them and even if we don’t we wouldn’t have lost our cool.
Why does that matter? When we’re mad, we’re mad at the world and that includes our thin brain. We don’t care about diets or exercise or the missing neighbor’s dog, all we care about is how rude that person was and how we are being scammed. How dare they? Don’t they know I pay their salary? It festers, it escalates, and you daydream all the nasty things you should have said to that inept customer service rep.
The next friend, family, whoever hears all about that rude person you had to deal with.
How do you make good choices in the midst of that?
I’m proposing, completely in your own self-interest, that you don’t get angry at the person on the phone or behind the counter, but that you are overly nice to them and let them understand that you understand this isn’t their fault.
Try it this week and see if things don’t improve.
And when driving and that rude person cuts you off, daydream a story about why they are in the mood they are. Obviously, they didn’t meditate in the morning. But besides that come up with outlandish ideas that make you smile. Like he’s late for work and if his boss told him once more and he’s fired. Or she spilled hot coffee all over her pants and is rushing home to change. Or as my girls and I did, it’s an emergency.
Yes, in all aspects the truth is the person is probably a jerk. But you screaming at her, cursing her, wanting to ram her bumper isn’t going to change her. It’s who she is and that’s her problem. What matters is who you are. How we respond in life affects how we respond on our healthful eating plans.
Think about some of your experiences where your anger with others has affected your health choices.
Then for the next 5 days practice being nice even if it hurts.
Day 6 – Mini Goals
After listening to the audio start setting up your mini-goals. They don’t have to be perfect. Nothing is set in stone.
So how are the choices going? Are you making better choices in just this first week of our Mindful Diet program? Have you lost any weight if you’re tracking it? Are you feeling better overall?
Day 7 – Procrastination
How are you doing getting goals set up? While we’re talking about goals, let’s talk about procrastination and how it keeps us from achieving our dreams. In the audio, I told you about my procrastination habits. What are yours?
How do you stop yourself from procrastinating?
How have you seen procrastination ruin your dreams because you didn’t get done what you wanted in the time frame?
How would you rate procrastination as a problem in your life?
Day 8 – What The True Importance of Mindful Dieting is
As you set your mini goals and work on procrastination, I want you to take a moment and look at the most important reason you’re doing Mindfulness Dieting to begin with.
Is it to be beautiful? Well, being beautiful is wonderful, feeling beautiful is even better, but no.
Is it so people will like/love us better? Well, that is always nice and when we’re overweight people do look at us differently, but no.
Is it to further our career? Well, we have seen proof that overweight oftentimes means overlooked, but no.
It is to live life more fully and healthfully. It is to ensure our ability to live life healthfully and full of vibrancy is a given rather than a hope.
In-the-moment living is fun. It’s the ideal of childhood and even young adult. But once that 30th birthday comes around and definitely by the 40th, it is time to seriously come to grips with the fact that living healthy means living better.
As an assignment, go out to the grocery store or the mall and watch people. Look at people ten to twenty years older than you. See who you want to be. Then come to terms with the way to get there.
Yes, there are many diseases and even cancers we can’t prevent, but then there are many things we can. If only we would eat cleaner and move our bodies regularly.
That alone for me is reason enough to live as I do. To say no to the foods that I do. To make myself get up and walk like I do. Maybe because older came must faster than I ever thought possible. Maybe because I worked at a nursing home when I was young and saw who I didn’t want to become. Maybe because I watched my dad suffer from diabetes, a disease that if dealt with early on is controllable.
Wherever my understanding of the importance of my own health and wellbeing came from, you, I am sure, have your own.
If we procrastinate about our health, it will catch up with us and knock us down.
So as you are setting your mini-goals, start looking forward, how will you get to be strong and healthy throughout your life. What plans need to be implemented now to ensure the best tomorrow?
Day 9 – Wrong Goals
For our final talk on mini-goals for a while, I wanted to bring up the fact that nothing we do is set in stone. Don’t become so rigid in goals that you forget about joy. Love, self-esteem and pride.
I only bring this up because I tend to get a lot of all or nothing people in my programs. We have to be able to live honestly. If something doesn’t work for us, we don’t have to see it all the way through. We can change our minds.
Don’t ever let yourself get caught up in something that isn’t going to eventually bring you joy.
So that means, you may hate that project and even the people you’re working on it with, but the end goal is going to give you the exposure you want in your job, so hate it or not, you must complete it.
That dreaded school project your kid has due, you know you’re going to be up all night finishing it. You despised doing your own as a child now you’re saddled helping your kid. Yup, hate it or not you have to do it because seeing your child through is a lifetime joy (you may not see it until he is telling his kids how you stayed up all night with him).
But what if you signed up to go to a class in glass blowing with your best friend. She is super excited, you are super scared because you hate working with fire. Do you go? Maybe if seeing her have joy brings you joy, or you have her invite someone who isn’t so afraid of fire. You make the right choice for you.
What if your goal is to make ten new art pieces for a show. That’s a lot and you aren’t sure about how they will be perceived. Your dream has always been to have a show. What do you do? Complete the goal or give up on it?
On that one, I’d say see it through. But you have to do what’s best for you. If you don’t do it, it can’t be from fear or procrastination. You would need a bigger reason to not follow through on this one.
Say you have an inkling for skiing a diamond trail, but you’re only a novice with one ski trip behind you. Do you set smaller goals to get to the big goal or do you give up on the whole goal or do you risk the diamond your second time out?
What if you’re angry at your congresswoman for not pushing your policies. You know you can do better. You decided to run against her. Then your best friend comes over and explains what it takes to run for office, how much it costs, and how your life will be put under the microscope. Are you a failure for abandoning this goal or are you just thinking it through more?
It is easy to make a choice based on what others think and expect, but those are rarely the right choice. We must learn to make choices that will help propel us toward the Me I Want to Be.
Day 10 – Perfectionism
For those who have worked with me before, you know that perfectionism or the idea of perfectionism is such a handicap when it comes to living our best lives.
Instead of being proud of giving our best, we always see ourselves falling short of where we think we should be. This isn’t just about weight and health, it’s about our jobs, our families, our relationships. Even our art.
To remain on a healthy path, we have to push the idea of perfectionism off our mantle and instead accept that it is okay to have glitches and fails. That knowledge doesn’t come from constant successes it comes from our mistakes.
This also plays true with the idea of being a purist in our ideals. We have to be able to compromise on stringent ideals that stymie our ability to live happy healthy lives. I almost killed myself a couple of times because in my stubbornness, I refused to bend. That was insane and stupid.
We can’t do that. We have to look at things and make the best decisions and choices based on best outcome, not some dogma we subscribe to or to uphold what others think of us.
I know that’s controversial, but we aren’t machines. We’re humans and we come with fallibility. It’s part of the experience.
What do you think? Do you hold yourself to such strict standards, pristine levels of perfection that it interferes with your ability to enjoy what you do?
Are you willing to give up on the lie of perfection and move forward giving your best and being good with that?
End of Audios
I hope you got valuable help from these audios. Now you know how I work and where my head is at in helping women change. Weight loss is important, I get that, but changing how we view ourselves, the pride and joy we take in the things we do, and the belief we have the right to joy and happiness can change how we diet and maintain our weight. No more struggle. No more self-sabotage. It’s all about living our best life with intention. We do that and the weight will come off if you want it to.