by Rita Black
Betty felt in charge of her weight release for the first time in her life. She no longer had to stick to strict diet guidelines, but she did learn to stay within the boundaries of her own Calorie Budget for Weight Release. She had a choice and flexibility in planning her meals that she had never known before. She was happy with the way she was eating, because it fit her likes and lifestyle, allowing her to be consistent and release weight.
“There has been no more hoping for the magic wand outside of me. Once I was in the driver’s seat, I could call the shots. That is very important for me. I am someone who likes to be in control, and for years this was the only part of my life that I felt that I had no control over. Now I do!” Betty T. (Released 45 pounds, maintaining at 2 years.)
Now, Apprentice, are you ready to learn to drive your own weight release?
2-Calculating Your Calorie Budget for Weight Release
Please pause and use the time to fill out the information in this section. Later you will revisit these pages and bring what you have worked out for yourself into your 30-Day Thin Thinking Practice.
I am now going to walk you through two fairly accurate ways of figuring out your Daily Body Burn and your Calorie Budget for Weight Release:
The Old-Fashioned Method of calculating your Calorie Budget for Weight Release yourself.
The Newfangled Method of having the Online Resource Center’s Weight Release Calculator determine your Calorie Budget for Weight Release.
The Old-Fashioned Method: Calculating Your Daily Body Burn
This is the pre-digital age method of figuring out your Calorie Budget for Weight Release. I still teach this method to my seminar participants because walking through each step of the Weight Release Formula helps your brain understand the mechanics of weight release. So, play along with me even if you plan to go to the website and use the Weight Release Calculator.
In order to get your Daily Body Burn, you first determine your resting metabolic rate (RMR).
Calculate Your Resting Metabolic Rate
Get out a calculator and use the following Mifflin equation, which is the most scientifically accurate way of estimating your daily resting metabolic rate:
The Mifflin equation for RMR:
For Men: (4.5 x w) + (15.88 X h) – (5 x a) + 5
For Women: (4.5 x w) + (15.88 X h) – (5 x a) – 161
w = weight in pounds
h = height in inches
a = age in years
My RMR is_______
Calculate Your Daily Body Burn Calories
Now let’s calculate your Daily Body Burn Calories, which include additional calories for a sedentary lifestyle. (Remember, those are the calories you burn by getting up and living life—driving to work, making meals, sitting at a desk, etc.)
Multiply your RMR x 1.2=Daily Body Burn Calories.
My Daily Body Burn is: _________
(Remember your Daily Body Burn Calories are your personal “fuel tank,” the amount of energy that you need per 24 hours to live.)
Calculating your Weight Release Rate Calories
Take a deep Shift Breath, and make sure you have your Inner Coach with you and your lab coats are on. This sometimes requires you wrapping your head around numbers. If you aren’t a numbers person, it may take staying open-minded—plus, that is why we have the web-based calculator to do this all for you. Getting this is a big aha moment for many people. I know it was big for me personally. So, stick with me, Apprentice. Ready?
Chart M: Weight Release Rate Calories Table
The Weight Release Rate Calories Table (Chart M) shows how many calories need to be burned on both a daily and weekly basis to create the weight release outcome that you desire. Look at how much weight you wish to release each week and then the daily amount of calories that will need to be burned to achieve that desired outcome. Fill in your equation (Reminder: the calculator will figure this out for you but I want you to understand the mechanics. Knowledge is power!)
Calculate your Daily Calorie Budget for Weight Release
Your Daily Body Burn __________
Your Daily Weight Release Rate Calories (from Chart M) (-)___________
My Daily Calorie Budget (without exercise) =__________
This will allow me to release _____lb/kg a week. (from Chart M)
The Newfangled Digital Method
This is a web-based way to determine your Daily Calorie Burn for Weight Release.
Calculate your Daily Calorie Budget for Weight Release Online
Go to the Shift Weight Release Calculator:
www.FromFatToThinThinking.com
Enter your information into the calculator, and it will give you both your Daily Body Burn and your Daily Calorie Budget for Weight Release (without exercise). Record the results below or in your journal for reference.
My Daily Body Burn =_________
My Daily Calorie Budget (without exercise) = _______
This will allow me to release _____lb/kg a week.
Do not proceed to Step 2 PLAN MY EXERCISE FOR THE WEEK. We will be using this in the next chapter.
NOTE: The numbers you got the old-fashioned way may vary a bit from the newfangled way. That is okay.
Your Rate of Weight Release
I want to take a moment and address an issue that comes up when people set their weekly weight-release goals. There is a tendency to set a rapid weight-release rate (two pounds or more a week) in order to release weight as fast as possible. For many people, especially smaller women, this creates a very small Daily Calorie Budget for Weight Release.
You may have noticed from your own calculations that it is almost impossible (unless you weigh over 300 pounds) to realistically and comfortably release more than two pounds a week. Most experts do not recommend releasing more. I do not recommend it, and most research shows it is not a good idea.
I would like to recommend that you release weight slowly, at a rate of one to two pounds a week.
WHY? Releasing more than two pounds a week creates the following issues with your body:
Toxins. Many of the environmental toxins you consume in food additives, pesticides, and water contaminants are stored in your fat. When fat is burned, it releases toxins into your bloodstream, and it takes a while for the body to rid the blood of these toxins. Slower weight release keeps you from poisoning yourself.
Hunger. When weight is released too fast, your survival mechanisms trigger hunger hormones.
Releasing Weight Quickly Sets You Up for Fat Thinking. If you are feeling fat, you likely have a big driving part of your mind screaming, “I have to lose the weight now. I don’t have time to mess around with releasing 1 pound a week!” Your need to release quickly is coming from old fat thinking that you are not okay as you are. That is not true, and this process is as much about truly loving yourself down the scale so that you can cultivate a lifestyle that honors you. It’s as important to be consistent over time as it is to release weight.
My advice would be to lower your rate of release to a place where your Daily Calorie Budget for Weight Release feels livable. Releasing weight slowly allows you to adjust your mind and body so that you will be ready for the thing that is as important as weight release, weight maintenance.
How to Shift with a Daily Low-Calorie Budget
Most weight experts say you shouldn’t go below a 1,200 calorie a day budget. If your Daily Calorie Budget for releasing a pound a week falls below 1,200 calories, consider one of these options:
You can lower your Daily/Weekly Weight Release Rate Calories. Doing so will increase your Daily Calorie Budget Calories.
You can increase your exercise. This will allow you to release weight more quickly or allow you to add to your Daily Calorie Budget. (In the next chapter, you will learn how to add exercise calories burned to your Daily Calorie Bud
get.)
Permission to Scream
Hey, Apprentice, I want you to know you have gone through a lot of information! Your head may be swimming a bit and that’s okay. I am just reminding you that change takes stretching, and we definitely stretched your mind a bit!
You have just created your Calorie Budget for Weight Release, and as powerful as that is, there is a bitter sweetness that comes with realizing there is no magic pill or detox that is going to create effortless weight release. It’s similar to when you learned that the tooth fairy wasn’t real. (You knew that, right?) The era of fairies and magical thinking with regards to weight is over for you.
It’s at this point in my live Shift Weight Mastery Process that I get everyone to stand up, stretch, and then hold hands. I give everyone permission to stomp their feet and scream “It’s not fair!” and get the feelings of injustice out of their systems. However large or small your Calorie Budget for Weight Release, as per your body’s own energy burn, at least you have a realistic awareness of what it is. So, if you like, please take a moment to stand up and scream about it. Do it and get it all out…I will wait here for you.
Okay, good, feel better? After everyone in my workshops has a good scream and stomp, we acknowledge that we are stepping into a new and powerful era in our journey. We now get to be an adult and in charge of our own weight release.
So in leaving behind those old beliefs, you, too, get the benefits of adulthood and being in control and making your own decisions. Congratulations! Now you will discover what it is like to live life within your Calorie Budget for Weight Release and Maintenance and not look at it as if you are taking away something. You won’t feel deprived, because you are getting to live life in a way you have designed, and you will THRIVE.
At this point in the process, we take a moment for everyone to jump up and down in excitement and cheer and applaud. Feel free to do the same. Again, I will wait for you…all done? Perfect.
Have faith, until you start your 30-Day Thin Thinking Practice and track your food, you may have no idea of how much nourishing and stabilizing food you can eat and still stay within your Calorie Budget for Weight Release. In addition, many people are surprised how few calories they need when they start eating healthy vegetables, protein, and fiber. (Much more about this coming up in a bit, so hold on!)
WEIGHT MASTERY SKILL 1 SUM UP: Balancing your Body’s Energy to Release Weight
Your Daily Body Burn Calories are the amount of calories, or energy, you burn each day being alive. You could call this your weight maintenance calories.
In order to release weight, you need to consume less than your Daily Body Burn Calories or burn more calories with exercise or do both.
Your Daily Calorie Budget for Weight Release is the number of calories you can consume each day and release weight at a rate you decide. This number may vary depending on how much you exercise and what your Daily/Weekly Weight Release Rate is.
Understanding the physics of how your body releases weight sets you free from the fat thinking of dieting.
APPRENTICE PAUSE: Do you see how Skill 1 engages a deeper, more powerful part of your mind for releasing weight? Instead of relying upon diets and the latest fad, you are developing an understanding of how to create weight release for yourself. You are sitting in the driver’s seat of your weight release, making change from the inside out. By the time you achieve your ideal weight, you will be in position to maintain it for good.
_________________________________________
Skill 1 is the first-floor framework for weight release. Next is Skill 2, Building a Consistent Relationship with Exercise.
* * *
3 FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS is the total energy of an isolated system that is constant; energy can be transformed from one form to another but cannot be created or destroyed.
CHAPTER 25
WEIGHT MASTERY SKILL 2
Building A Consistent Relationship With Exercise
SKILL 2: Building a Consistent Relationship with Exercise. The skill of uniting yourself with exercise to achieve your ideal weight and good health.
Fat Thinking And Exercise
Doesn’t it seem odd that we often resist something as powerful as exercise? Physical activity not only enhances well-being, it’s also the only way to increase metabolism in a safe, consistent, and significant way. You can exercise to release weight faster or to consume more calories or both. Yet, when it comes to exercising, the Inner Rebel in you wants to throw a tantrum and say, “I’m not gonna!”
During the Shift Weight Mastery Process, I ask, “What is your fat thinking around exercise?” Of all the questions participants respond to during a seminar, this one receives the most negative and emotional answers.
“I hate it!”
“I don’t have time.”
“Borrrrrrrrrinnnnnnnng!”
“I do not like to sweat.”
“It hurts to move.”
“I hate the gym!”
“I hate the people who go to the gym.”
“I hate the person who invented gyms!”
Fat thinking about exercise is simply any negative belief or habit that keeps you from consistent exercise. If you have been inconsistent with physical activity, these examples of fat thinking may be keeping you from building a consistent relationship with exercise:
You see exercise as a chore you have to do to release weight. You see exercise as punishment for struggling with your weight. You think of it as something you have to suffer through to make the scale go down.
Your exercise goals are vague and not outcome-oriented. “I am going to try to exercise this week” means absolutely nothing in your mind.
You are trying to fit exercise into your busy life. Do you suffer from a chronic case of “I couldn’t find time” or “I forgot to get to the gym?” Chances are you see exercise as low on your “to do” list and you don’t see it as a regular part of your lifestyle.
Your fat thinking about exercise gives you little, if any, chance of creating a successful relationship with exercise. Yet when you shift a bit and begin to focus on your relationship to exercise with your thin thinking mind, you will start moving!
“I hadn’t exercised in over five years. The Shift Weight Mastery Process seminar was being held at an athletic club in downtown Los Angeles. I remember that we did the section on exercise, and Rita finished with a hypnosis session just before lunch. I remember having the desire to just begin to walk around the track at that club during lunch. I walked that day and have kept on walking every day since.” Brenda B. (Released 25 pounds, maintaining more than five years and still walking!)
Thin Thinking And Exercise
Apprentice, please consider these thin thinking techniques that help shift a Weight Struggler to a Weight Master with exercise:
Use exercise with your weekly weight goals to create a specific outcome. For example, tell yourself, “I am going to exercise for 30 minutes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The added calories burned will help me achieve my release of one pound this week.” Your mind is motivated when you set a specific goal that has both a measurable outcome and a reward. Having exercise directly impact the results you see on your scale motivates you to follow through and keep working out.
Make exercise a priority in your weekly routine. The mind loves structure. If exercise is built into the daily routine of your life, working out becomes a part of who you are and not just something that you do. Seeing yourself as an exerciser literally changes your perception of yourself and boosts positive feelings about yourself.
See exercise as a reward. When you think of exercise as something you “get” to do not “have” to do, your mind becomes excited about it. You can become addicted to exercise, especially if you focus on the amazing feeling that exercise creates in you during and after your workout or fitness routin
e. Have you ever heard someone saying they regretted going for a walk or to the gym?
In this chapter, I explore some thin thinking strategies that will help you begin to wire a more powerful relationship with exercise into your Weight Mastery Home. These strategies will be helpful even if you already have a good relationship with exercise.
Setting clear weekly exercise goals
Creating your weekly exercise system
1 – SETTING CLEAR WEEKLY EXERCISE GOALS
In the last chapter, you created a Daily Calorie Budget for Weight Release without exercise based on your Weekly Weight Release Rate. Now, you and your Inner Coach are going to learn how to partner with exercise to further your weekly weight-release goals. Is that lab coat still on?
Why is setting a specific, weekly exercise goal so valuable? As you learned earlier in this book, vague goals do not create motivation or action in your mind. Notice the difference in brain engagement between:
VAGUE GOAL. “I should try to exercise this week, because it will help me release weight.”
SPECIFIC GOAL. “When I burn 1,750 calories exercising this week, I can choose to burn –half a pound more in weight or eat 250 more calories a day.”
By creating a specific outcome that your mind views as rewarding, you arouse your brain, focusing it on the actions needed to achieve your outcome. Here is how two sisters, with two totally different weight-release needs, used specific strategies to change their relationship to exercise.
Case Study: A Tale Of Two Sisters
Tara and Gina signed up together for the Shift Weight Mastery Process. As the sisters entered my office, I noticed they couldn’t be more different in appearance and personality! Tara was dark-haired, in her 50s, and was a quiet hospice nurse. Gina was gregarious and lighter than her sister in both her coloring and weight. She worked as a real estate agent in an affluent LA neighborhood.