Episode #37: Cuddling Up with Powerful Thoughts

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Summary

Today’s episode is all about the movers and shakers of your results: powerful thoughts. What you are thinking is the reason behind whether you’re winning or stalling on the scale, and if you’re anything like me, you might have been cuddling up with some powerful thoughts… and not in a good way.

There are some thoughts that come up for all of us on our weight-loss journey. You’ve probably thought them millions of times, and they make us feel terrible. These thoughts bring up what I’m calling the Four D-Thoughts: doubt, defeat, disappointment, and discouragement. So, if you’re cuddling up with the four D’s and they’re keeping you stuck, this episode is for you.

Tune in this week for a short-and-sweet episode about the power of your thoughts. I’m sharing why everything we have is a result of a thought, how we reinforce our negative thoughts and end up deeply believing them, and most importantly, how to start cuddling up with some powerful thoughts that don’t feel like crap.

On Thursday, December 15^th 2022 at 12PM (EST) I’m hosting a free masterclass where I’ll be teaching you the three steps to losing weight and dropping the struggle. You’ll hear my behind-the-scenes story of how I went from being a busy OBGYN physician, tipping the scale at a little over 200 pounds, to exactly how I created my simple and sustainable process to finally reach your ideal weight. This is your last opportunity to attend The Antidote Masterclass in 2022, so don’t miss out!

Do you want to work with me? Well, you can skip all the hoopla and come and connect with me on a consult call! We’re going to talk all about you, what you’ve tried, what’s worked, what hasn’t, and why Unstoppable is different than anything you have ever done before. I only have a couple of spots open on my calendar, so is one of them yours? Book your consult call with me by clicking here. 

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

• How the thoughts you cuddle up with are creating every single result you’re living with right now.
• Why, if you’re putting food in your mouth when you aren’t hungry, it’s not just because you’re a foodie who loves food too much.
• How keeping these Four D-Thoughts isn’t serving you on your weight-loss journey.
• Why weight loss, your past attempts, and your future success are not a struggle, until you have a thought about them.
• The serious negative impact of taking action driven by cuddling up with your Four D-Thoughts.
• How to see where you’re cuddling up with these powerful Four D-Thoughts, and if you are, how to kick them out of bed.

Listen to the Full Episode:

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Full Episode Transcript:

Click here to download the full transcript

• Hey, this is Dr. Priyanka Venugopal, and you're listening to Weight Loss for Unstoppable Moms, Episode 37, Cuddling Up with Powerful Thoughts. Today's episode is all about powerful thoughts. These are the movers and shakers of your results, the reason that you're winning or stalling on the scale. And if you're anything like me, you might have been cuddling up with some powerful thoughts and not in a good way.

  Now, before we get into today's episode, I want to make sure that you know about my free masterclass that is happening this Thursday, December 15th at 12:00 PM Eastern. I'm going to be teaching you the three steps to losing weight and dropping the struggle. You're going to hear my behind the scenes story of how I went from being a busy OBGYN physician tipping the scale at a little over 200 pounds to exactly how I created my simple and sustainable process to finally reach your ideal weight.

  This is one not to miss, and it's going to be the last time that I'm hosting it this year. You can grab your spot at theunstoppablemombrain.com/antidote. A quick little snippet about this I had to share. My friend Andrea was asking me, why do you call this masterclass the Antidote Masterclass? Like, is it an antivenom or something?

  And I have to tell you the reason that I call this masterclass, the Antidote Masterclass, because an antidote is a solution. It's a solution to the struggle. So I want you to know that when you come to the Antidote Masterclass, that is exactly what you're getting the solution to your weight loss struggle.

  Okay? Let's get into today's episode. If you want to reach your ideal weight and create lightness for your body, you need to have simplicity, joy and strategic decisions infused into your life. I'm a physician turned life and weight loss coach for ambitious working moms. I've lost over 60 pounds without counting points, calories, or crazy exercise plans.

  Most importantly, I feel calm and light on the scale and in my life. There's some delicious magic when you learn this work and the skills I'm going to be teaching. Ready? Let's get to it.

  Hey friends. This is a short and sweet episode that I am bringing to you from an experience and a coaching session that I had from inside the Unstoppable Group. I was recently coaching my clients on some familiar thoughts that I think come up for all of us. These are thoughts that you have probably thought, thousands and likely millions and millions of times, and they are thoughts that make you feel like crap. These are the ones that bring up doubt, defeat, disappointment, and discouragement. And for the purposes of this episode, I'm going to call this the 4Ds. Doubt, defeat, disappointment and discouragement.

  If you're like me and you've ever found yourself stuck or stagnant on the scale towards any goal you have, I want you to know that it's likely because you're cuddling up with the 4D thoughts. Here's the thing. When you've thought something thousands and likely millions of times, what you will also then tell yourself is it's just true.

  Let me repeat that. When you've thought something millions and millions of times, as your brain likely has over the years, you will also start to believe that those thoughts are just true. So what ends up happening along the way is you start to reinforce your 4D thoughts with the zinger, it's just true. Which is the most dangerous thing you can do because you'll never, ever challenge it. I wanna talk to you about why this matters. This matters, because keeping those powerful thoughts that our crap thoughts are not serving you well. They keep you in your current status quo. And here's what I want you to know. You can absolutely keep it. Keep it, and cuddle those thoughts and also keep your status quo.

  But if you're ready for a change, then today's episode is just for you. There is always, always, always a thought or set of thoughts that has literally created every single result that you are living with right now. And this is sometimes the best and almost the hardest truth to understand. If you're stuck on the scale or weight loss has felt hard, it's because you have had a set of thoughts that you have had about weight loss, yourself, the way you eat, your past results and the scale that has made it hard and a struggle.

  Let me just repeat that. Weight loss, the food in front of you, your past attempts and future success on their own are not hard or ever a struggle. But your 4D thoughts about your weight loss experience will be the source of any hardship that you experience. So if you're experiencing the 4D's, doubt, defeat, disappointment and discouragement, it's because you're cuddling up with some flavor of this type of thought. It's so hard this time doesn't matter anyway. I failed so many times. Why bother? I haven't done it yet. I'm so behind. It didn't work last time. Ugh. The scale's up again this morning. I might not be able to. It might not work. I never get time for me.

  No one understands how hard I have to work. I'm working too hard, and this is just one more thing. I can go on and on and on and on, but I gave you this wide range of examples as different flavors of the same pile of crap, feeling thoughts, and if you find yourself feeling the 4Ds, I want you to know it's because you've been cuddling with the enemy.

  These thoughts are so powerful and not in a good way. Now you'll notice in the middle of your busy life when you're having a busy day at work or you're busy going from activity to activity, you know the ones where you have back-to-back meetings or school events and school pickups, you get so caught up in your day in the activity that it didn't even occur to you to eat food, and you do it without a problem.

  It's simply because you were so busy in the midst of your day that you weren't cuddling certain thoughts. Now, a few years ago, I used to think that these thoughts just fell out of the sky and into my brain. I didn't know that I was having these thoughts because I was so unaware of them. They were completely subconscious and totally out of my awareness.

  I thought that they just happened and I was just keeping it real and telling the truth. I just ate and I didn't have any awareness that I was eating because of a thought and feeling that I was having. Seriously, the greatest moment in my personal life, apart from my babies being put in my arms after they were born was learning for the very first time that I have thoughts that I can choose and they're driving me to do everything.

  Now if that sounds dramatic, then maybe it is, but I want to tell you it is the honest truth. Let's just play one of these thoughts out. Maybe you think I'm so behind, or it might not work. It's December and another year has passed. How do you feel when you think that way? Discouraged, defeated, disappointed, despair.

  Really Just check in with yourself. What emotion are you experiencing in your body. And when you feel defeated or discouraged, what do you do next? Really ask yourself and answer honestly. How do you show up for yourself? How do you prioritize your goals? How do you show up to the plan? How do you implement your strategy?

  How do you show up to the way you eat? And any obstacles that come your way. Now listen, I'm all too familiar with cuddling the 4D thoughts because I have, from my personal lived experience, been cuddling them for years. And here's what I want to tell you about my personal experience in how this showed up in my life. 

  When I weighed about 200 pounds, I made excuses. I took half ass action. I didn't go all in. I made surface level plans, but I didn't really believe that I would follow through on them. I had a million micro quits and screw it moments. I kept only seeing how I was failing. And I want you to all think about what the impact of that was.

  The impact of all of these actions that I took created the result of me staying behind and it not working. Let me just say that again. All of those actions that I just shared, compounded and created the result of me staying behind of not losing the weight of it not working, but those actions did not happen out of the blue.

  They were driven by my 4D thoughts because I was thinking those thoughts on repeat. And worse yet when you do this, or whenever I have done it again and again and again, we create more and more evidence to keep believing these personal cuddle thoughts. We dig ourselves deeper and deeper and deeper believing our own limiting thoughts.

  You cuddle tighter. Like, see, look, I'm really behind now. See, it's really not working. And the more evidence that you create against yourself, the harder it is to undo. This wasn't really created because weight loss is inherently hard. The scale, the food in front of you, the plan, your family, your time, your vacation, your holiday schedule doesn't ever create it not working.

  The thoughts that you are cuddling are the ones that create it not working. Literally every lived experience you have right now is a compounded result of your thoughts. Now, you may ask, but Priyanka, the number on the scale doesn't just come from my thoughts. It comes from how I eat, and my answer to that is yes and no.

  Of course, how you eat determines how you gain, maintain, or lose weight, of course. But my question to you is, what is driving you in how you eat? It is always, always a thought and a feeling. 100% of the time. Let me just say that a different way. Every single time that you put food in your mouth, a thought and feeling drove you to do it every single time.

  So when you're putting food in your mouth and your body isn't hungry, here's what I want you to know. It isn't because you're just a foodie who loves food too much. It isn't because you just want pleasure. It isn't because you just can't control yourself. No, you're literally a ninja, rockstar working mom, and those reasons are fake and superficial reasons that we've just told ourselves, and they don't address the root problem.

  The reason that you ever put food in your mouth when your body isn't hungry is because you're cuddling a 4D thought. One of those thoughts that I shared a few moments ago, and it is on repeat, like a broken record in your brain. And because you're feeling one of the 4Ds, some doubt, defeat, disappointment or discouragement, you micro quit on your dream goal.

  I really want you to imagine that you're in bed. And the lights are out. And you're super cozy and comfortable. And lying next to you is a thought like, I'm so behind, or It's not working. Or, I've tried so hard, or It's so hard, or why bother? And the more airtime you keep giving those thoughts, it's like telling the crap feeling like, Hey, let's get you the coziest pillow and the coziest blanket so you never leave this bed. And let me cuddle and hold you really tight because I believe you're real. Without really seeing clearly the impact of cuddling a 4D thought, I want you to know that you're just keeping it in bed with you longer. And what I'm here to tell you, and what this episode is all about is I want to show you how to turn the lights on.

  See the thoughts that you've been cuddling and simply, or maybe very dramatically kick that thought out of bed. You know what the crazy thing is? Even when you know that you have a thought that's creating disappointment or defeat or discouragement, it is going to feel uncomfortable doing this. Isn't that crazy?

  Seriously, you can have a thought that you know is creating a negative result in your life and you will feel uncomfortable putting it down. And here's what I want to tell you. It is simply because it is incredibly familiar. Don't let the familiarity or having this cuddle buddy that you have had forever keep you feeling the crap, feeling longer.

  Now I can hear you saying Priyanka. Okay? Literally, how do I actually do this? I can see that I'm cuddling a crap thought . I can see that I'm living with the 4D emotions and I can see that it's having a negative impact on my life. Here's my answer. Work with a coach. It's simple, and I wanna tell you why I am telling you this because when you aren't deeply aware of your own subconscious patterns and your familiar cuddle thoughts, you won't know how to turn the lights on and throw back the blankets.

  You're so much more likely to keep the status quo because your subconscious patterns feel like truth. It's really that simple. I am an advanced certified coach and I still work with coaches because I'm not always able to see my own subconscious thoughts that are driving me. The ones that I'm cuddling, and the ones that are creating my own disappointment, defeat, and despair.

  Now, it's only because it feels so true, and here's what I want you all to know. You are all smart, high-achieving women, and I want you to know that if you knew that there was a thought that was holding you back, wreaking havoc on your results, holding you back from your dream ideal weight, if you knew that there was a crap feeling, thought that you kept cuddling, I promise you that you would've handled it by now.

  My clients are ninja, bad asses, doctors, vets, lawyers, professors, team leaders. They're all smart, and their brain explodes on every coaching call because of this one concept. Yes, you can absolutely learn a self-coaching practice, but you have to get coached too by someone who can objectively see what you aren't seeing and can actually recognize your complete and full potential.

  So this is my little PSA for today. Your thoughts matter, and they are incredibly powerful. I really want you to ask yourself whether you're cuddling with powerful thoughts that are taking you to or away from your goal. And as your coach, I want you to know that I'll never, ever take or snatch a thought away from you, but I will coach you on it.

  And what I mean by that is you'll get an unfiltered objective conversation on the impact or the cost of keeping a certain thought in bed with you. And then you get to choose, keep and cuddle or learn how to move on. So I just wanna recap the steps here for you so that you can take this and implement it in your real life.

  While you discover whether coaching is something that you want to invest in. Step one, catch yourself in the act. Step two. Observe yourself feeling doubt, discouraged, disappointed, defeated. Step three, did you have a fail yesterday? Then yes, disappointment is normal and it's going to feel crappy, and you don't have to live there and cuddle it forever.

  Step four, remind yourself that there is a sentence that you have on repeat in your brain that you're trying to cuddle with, and it is simply familiar. Step five. Remind yourself that we don't do that anymore. Put the lights on and throw off the covers. And step six, tell that thought to get out of bed.

  Seriously, when you work with a coach who will challenge you on this, these steps will start to become so much simpler. And if you're a high-achieving working mom who wants to feel better, feel stronger, and lose weight at the same time you belong in the Unstoppable Group. This is my signature six month intimate group coaching experience for working moms just like you. Whether you have five pounds to lose or more than 50, our process and strategy is the same. You get personal, customized support while at the same time being in a small, intimate room where you get to learn from the lived experiences and the coaching of other brilliant women. It is seriously amazing.

  I am bringing my lived experience as a busy, working physician mom who lost the weight, living her real life while doing this practice that I talked to you about today, and I've carefully designed the experience with you in mind. If this is you and you know that you want to work with me, let's get on a call and connect.

  You can come and book your console call with me at theunstoppablemombrain.com/connect. We'll talk about you, what you have tried, and whether our working together will be the best fit for you. And listen, if Unstoppable isn't for you, find a coach that is. I really hope that you enjoy today's episode. I encourage you to find those cuddle thoughts because 2023 is ready for you and I think that you are ready for it too.

  Do you wanna work with me? You can skip all the hoopla and just come and connect with me on a consult call. I only have a couple of spots open on my calendar, so I wanna ask you, is one of them yours. You can book your console call with me at theunstoppablemombrain.com/connect. We are going to talk all about you, what you've tried, what's worked and what hasn't, and then we'll talk about how Unstoppable is different than anything that you have ever done before.

  Seriously, stop waiting on this. Your work, your kids, those vacations and holidays and general life is going to keep happening. It is time that you prioritized you now. Go right now and don't wait until tomorrow and book it. You'll be so grateful that you. And don't forget about my free masterclass happening this Thursday on December 15th at 12:00 PM Eastern.

  It's my last masterclass of the year, so you don't wanna miss it. Come live because it is so much more fun for you when we are in class together, getting coached and me literally answering every question and thought that you have. You can grab your spot at theunstoppablemombrain.com/antidote and I will see you next week.

  Bye. Thanks for listening to Weight Loss for Unstoppable Moms. It's been an honor spending this time with you and your brilliant brain. If you want more information or resources from the show, visit theunstoppablemombrain.com.