December 2021 - Lisa Duke Coaching

What Happens When You Get Weight Coaching

Dec 25, 2021

Understanding the Client Lifecycle

Most of my clients follow a similar path as they work with me to lose weight. Here's what to expect.

Each client is different and my coaching is custom, so I meet each client where they are, and not all of them follow this pattern. For example, Sabrena came in, lost 20 pounds in two months, and THEN freaked out. But here are the normal client lifecycle phases.

1. Let's talk about food and exercise.

This is where most clients start, because for most clients this is where they believe the problem is. And this is what diets teach us, right? The first steps are usually cleaning up the diet and starting an exercise regime.

I don't share my clients' confidence that this is the issue or these are the solutions, but I do take advantage of this initial burst of energy and enthusiasm to support them in making a few changes.

We talk about everything I've learned about the science of habit creation to help them make some changes – changes that THEY choose (because we all basically already know what we should be doing).

2. After two or three weeks, their enthusiasm for whatever they've put into place starts to wane. This is where we quit when we start on our own (hello, New Year's resolutions). But this is where I as a coach really start to swing into gear.

There's a saying in ThetaHealing – the problem is never the problem. And usually this is the phase where the truth comes out. Clients are overeating because they feel bad and they are using food as a mood altering drug. So we start talking about why they feel bad. For many clients they are mad at their husbands, their adult children, or stressed out because of their jobs. We dive into the thinking that is driving how they are feeling.

3. This phase kicks in around week 6-8. The client has dealt with some of their underlying issues, and they are feeling more in control. We've done some coaching, and identified and broken some of their patterns (seeing patterns is one of my personal superpowers that really helps clients). Now the clients have cleared the decks and are really ready to begin again in earnest. This is where the weight loss truly begins.

4. The next two months the weight comes off at about a pound a week. Of course free will is a thing and everyone is different, but clients usually lose about 8 pounds during this phase. That plus a pound or two at the beginning of the program brings their total weight loss for the 4 month initial engagement to 10 pounds, which is enough that they've usually dropped a size, and someone they know has said something to them, so they know they are getting results.

At this point we usually decide if they want to continue on their own or if we want to continue to work together, but clients can see they have made a change, and they have tools and concepts they can take with them for life.

Ready to get your own results? Email me at lisa@lisaduke.net and we'll jump on a Zoom to make sure my program is right for you.

The Motivational Triad & How It Keeps Us Overweight

Dec 18, 2021

Why it's so hard to lose weight & what to do about it.

Our primitive brain only wants three things: to avoid pain, to move toward pleasure, and to reduce effort. And it will say anything it needs to in order to get you on board with its wishes.

The motivational triad are the three missions your primitive brain has. It wants to move you toward pleasure, encouraging you to have sex and perpetuate the species, to get out of the cave and go seek food, to tell you to pull your hand back when you are too close to the fire, and to make sure you aren't wasting those hard-earned calories on unnecessary efforting.

All that is good stuff, and just what we needed to survive and thrive in cave man days.

The problem is, for most of us, survival is no longer an issue. As a society, we've pretty much resolved these issues. So to go beyond mere survival and to thrive, we have to go against the constant chatter of our caveman brains.

I have a friend who refers to her caveman/primitive brain as a nervous assistant. I think it's a great way to approach it. Because that part of your mind wants to help. It's trying to keep you safe. But it's just one input, and we can choose to deal with it exactly as we would with a nervous assistant – to thank it for its concern, and then to explain that we are doing something different, and it's all ok.

Your primitive brain is going to try to keep you to sticking to just the motivational triad, but the good news is that it can't do anything without your consent. So the more you listen to this voice and realize it is a part of you that means well but isn't on board with the plan, the more you can acknowledge it and move on.

You get to choose what you eat. And that's very good news. So let the primitive brain have it's motivational triad, and then you do what you need to do to hit your goals.

Avoid the holiday weight gain by working with a coach. Email me at lisa@lisaduke.net to learn more.

3 Keys to Weight Loss

Dec 11, 2021

Look at 3 key areas of life to lose weight.

There are three main areas I suggest clients examine and better understand to lose weight.

1. Habits.

Are you in the habit of eating every time you pass through the kitchen? Every time you are in a restaurant? Every time someone has food on their desk and you pass by? Start to pay attention to the times we are eating even though we are not hungry, and cut out some of this habit eating.

Some of my clients find breakfast is just a habit – that they aren't hungry, and that they can cut a whole meal out without even noticing.

By starting to pay attention to mindless habit eating and by asking more questions about why we are eating when not hungry, we can start to break a lot of bad habits.

2. Hormones.

The main hormone I educate my clients on is insulin.

When we have a lot of refined sugar, our blood sugar shoots up, and insulin answers the 911 call. Our body starts to move sugar out of the blood and into our muscles and liver. Then it starts to store the excess sugar as fat.

If you are constantly snacking on sugary food (or refined carbohydrates, which quickly break down into sugar), your insulin stays permanently high and you stay stuck in fat storage mode.

By eliminating sugar and refined carbohydrates (factory foods) and by eliminating snacks between meals, your body gets a chance to shift out of fat storage mode and into fat loss mode.

3. How your mind works.

This is where the coaching really comes into play. Using tools like The Model, I can help clients get a better understanding of what thoughts and feelings are driving their overeating, which is leading to being overweight.

Once we stop the mindless habit eating, take breaks between meals to allow the body to actually burn fat, and cut out emotional eating by getting to the root cause of the thoughts and feelings driving emotional eating, clients are able to lose weight without going hungry.

P.S. It's time for your to lose the weight. You absolutely can do this once you have the right support. Jump on a Zoom call with me and we'll get you started. Just find a time on my calendar.

What to Do When We Fall Off The Wagon (Actual Text)

Dec 4, 2021

Here's the actual text to the “what to do when we fall off the wagon” post. Not sure what happened with the October 1 post.

So let’s talk about what happens when we “fall off the wagon” and how to get going again.

First, I think it’s important to note that there is no wagon. This isn’t Oregon Trail, and you are not going to get left behind or die of dysentery. So no worries there.

But seriously, what do we do?

I think the most important thing to realize is that in the moment of awareness you have an opportunity to make a new choice. No one is perfect, and you don’t have to be perfect to lose weight. Just acknowledge that you ate off plan, and then forgive yourself.

Realize that you did the best you could in that moment. Your weight today is a reflection of your best attempts to deal with life up until now with the tools you had. Now, you are learning new tools if you are working with me as a client, such as The Model and allowing emotions, that will help you make different choices going forward.

We often were trained growing up that a good scolding is what you need to get back on track, but there’s actually lots of evidence that you can’t hate yourself to sustainable weight loss. So just let that go.

So my best advice for getting back on the wagon is just to take a moment, take a breath, and reset. Make your plan in writing for the next 24 hours, and make it realistic. Then recommit and move on.