Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Fit and Fabulous with me, Dr. Orlena. I hope that you are feeling amazing today. Today, I want to talk to you about the power of your subconscious mind and how amazing and how strong your subconscious mind is. Now, like all things, this is a bit of a double edged sword because it depends what your subconscious mind believes.
If you Here's a question for you. I want you to think about where you would like to be in a year's time. So, imagine that you could wave a magic wand and it was super easy. You could be 10 pounds, 20 pounds, 50 pounds, whatever it is you want to be. Lighter, you could be stronger and fitter and have more energy.
Just create that thought in your mind. In a year's time, I am going to be, let's say, 20 pounds lighter. Now, ask yourself, how much out of ten do I believe that? Do I believe that ten out of ten? Yes, I'm jumping up and down, I'm thinking, great, I'm really going to get there. Or, do you believe it three, five, six out of ten?
If it's the latter, then you basically don't believe it. The problem with this is, it sets up so many obstacles. If you believe it is a fate that is something that's going to happen. So, for example, when I went to medical school, it kind of felt to me that being a doctor was a million miles away.
You know, I was young, I was in my early 20s, and five years at medical school felt like an entire lifetime. Oh my goodness, that was 20 years ago now. , if you had asked me what it would be like To be a doctor. Do I believe I'll be a doctor? Actually, part of me would say, no, I don't believe it at all. But, on another level, if you said, okay, in 2001, by the time you've graduated, will you be a doctor?
Do you believe that? Of course, I would have said 10. Why? Because I was in a system that was really getting me there. All I had to do was show up and pass my exams, and if I failed my exams, there was a way of doing that. Luckily, I didn't fail my exams. But I believed it 10. And that's why I went to all those lectures and did all that studying because I knew that if I did that, I would get that result.
Now, you might have asked somebody else, how much do you believe that? They would say three out of 10, which would basically mean that they wouldn't do the studying, they wouldn't show up to the lectures, they'd probably fail their exams and drop out if they don't really believe that they're going to get there.
It is the same with your health and weight loss goals. I see this time and time and time again with people. I speak to so many people. I speak to people who aren't in my program. I remember talking to somebody once who said, I really want to lose weight, but I believe that if I lose weight, I'm going to be unlovable.
That's one of the thoughts that I have secretly inside me that I don't really want to talk about. It's not something I talk about to people, but I know that deep down in my secret heart of heart. I know that I'm not going to be lovable when I lose that weight. Now, you can see that that thought is going to make it very difficult for somebody to lose weight because on one hand, yes, you want to lose weight and you want all those health benefits and that energy benefit, but everybody wants to be lovable, right?
Everybody wants to feel loved. If you feel that you are taking away your ability to be loved, you're not going to do it. , my question to you today is, really, how much do you believe out of ten that you can get there? It is looking at your subconscious brain, not your intellectual brain, because there's often a discord between your intellectual brain and your subconscious brain.
Your subconscious brain is that powerful amount of brain that we don't really acknowledge very often. There's so much of our brain that is doing stuff that we have zero control over. Like, it's amazing, it does regulating your entire body, breathing, heart rates, all this complicated stuff that, you know, even having been to medical school, I still find it a little bit, like, mind boggling that your body can do all of these things.
Your conscious brain has no control over them. You can't sit here and go, make my heart rate go up. Well, you can have some tools to help you do that if you want to, like thinking about something super scary or something that makes you angry, but you don't have the direct control over that. your subconscious brain is that brain underneath that is running all the things and it includes your habits, it includes the way that you think about things, it includes your emotions as well and a lot of this is the realm of the subconscious brain and it's super fascinating.
Super interesting, and here's an amazing quote that is from Dr. Wayne Dyer. I don't know if you know Dr. Dyer, but he basically says, or he used to, he's dead now, but he said, you know, If you believe it is true, you are going to see opportunities. If you don't believe it, you are going to see obstacles.
I think this sums it up so amazingly. If you believe that you can get to your goal, where you really want to get to, you are going to work to get there. You're going to do the things that get there. You're going to see opportunities. You're going to be like, every single time, I'm going to pick myself up.
Every time there's an obstacle, I'm going to pick myself up. Because why? I'm going to get there. So, yeah, there was this thing that happened. I don't know, I ate a bit of cake, or I didn't do my exercise. Something happened. But it's no big deal. I'm still working towards my goal. But if you don't believe it, you are going to see obstacles.
It's going to be like this. Oh my goodness. I ate a piece of cake. I went to a party. I ate too much stuff. It's not going to work. I might as well give it all up and stop now. That, my friend, is a place where I see a lot of people, and in fact, it's a lot of the work that we do in my group program is really helping you to believe that you can get there.
Now, number one, I have an amazing exercise. It takes about five minutes to do. I need to do it one on one with people. I am going to open up my calendar and I am going to invite people. If you feel that you are one of these people who really does not believe that you can get there, then I invite you to book a call.
The call will be around half an hour. I will open up my calendar and you can come and do this exercise with me. Now, the exercise only takes a few minutes, but I need to ask you other questions and things like that. The whole exercise takes around half an hour and you will walk away with an increased belief that you can lose weight and get there.
That is number one. Number two, I think a really interesting thing is to think about how did you get into this place in the first place? Why is it that your subconscious brain thinks that you can't get there? Now, the answer to this, my friends, is because you have tried so many things in the past. You have tried this diet, and that diet.
When I talk to people on the phone and I have Zoom calls with people, there is always a long, long list of things that people have tried. They may have tried intermittent fasting, or exercising, or dieting, or Weight Watchers, or you name it. And what happens is, you try it for a little bit, you get some results, normally people get results, and then life happens, and things sort of slip back to how they were before.
Then you either try that again, or you try something new again. The same thing happens, this pattern of repeating, repeating, and repeating. That accounts for a big reason why your brain thinks, well it's not going to happen. Because it's, it's seen from experience. Yeah, you know, I've done this thing, it didn't work.
I've done this thing, it didn't work. I've done, I've done this thing, it didn't work. I must be broken. Because it doesn't work for me. Yes, you're not broken. You are not broken. How can you change this? You need to retrain your brain. Number one, come and book that exercise with me. It's totally free.
It's a good excuse to chat. It's a good excuse just to get to know you a little bit better. Come and book that. After you've done that exercise, you still need to prove to yourself, you need to show your brain that, yes, you can get there. You can do these things. This is where I really work in an exercise called an I am statement.
There's lots of different ways that you can attack this problem, but number one, you need to think of yourself as somebody who prioritises your health, your wellness, looking after yourself. All of my clients have a statement which is, I am somebody who looks after my health and wellness. Now, it's different for everybody.
You have to find something that resonates with you. Quite often I check in with them and say, How much do you believe that today? Do you believe that 10 Or 3 out of 10? If it's only 3 out of 10, we need to do something about that. Because 3 out of 10 isn't somebody who prioritises their health and wellness.
Now, how do you increase your belief in that? Well sometimes, you look at things in a different way. So if you're one of my clients and you're turning up to a coaching call, I point out that, you know what, somebody who turns up to health coaching is somebody who does prioritise their health and wellness.
You are making a statement. You are doing this stuff. I think you can give yourself a few more points. Remember, that negative self talk is so strong with everybody and that's perfectly normal. It's normal to have negative self talk. We just have to train ourselves not to have negative self talk. The other thing you can do is really show yourself when you are doing something that does support your health and wellness.
Now, that might be something new. It might be that you are working on a new habit, and that's fabulous. But here's the thing. It might be something that you do all the time on habit, and our tendency is to discount those things. It doesn't count because it's a habit. I always do that, so I shouldn't get any credit for it.
Do you brush your teeth every single day? I hope so. I hope you brush your teeth twice a day, or three times a day. Is that you taking care of your health and wellness? Yes it is! You are taking care of the health of your teeth. Why? Because you don't want black and horrible teeth that are going to fall out.
You want your teeth to stay healthy. You know that brushing your teeth is the way to do that. Brushing your teeth is a really good example because when we brush our teeth there is no immediate reinforcement of that, there's no immediate feedback. Okay, we might have nice breath and slightly shinier teeth, but what happens if you stop doing it?
The answer is, well you might have a sticky mouth for a bit, it might feel a bit uncomfortable, But, immediately, nothing happens. If you stop brushing your teeth for weeks, months, years, you are going to run into problems. You know this, and you believe this. You know that if you don't brush your teeth, it's going to be a painful mouth, plus a large dental bill.
Most of us have to pay our dental bills, and we'd rather brush our teeth. We don't want all that horrible pain. But it's one of those really good examples of, I do this thing, and there's no immediate reinforcement that that's a healthy thing for us. And leading a healthy life is often a little bit like that.
Because you may do something, you may go for a walk, or go for a swim, or do some exercise, or eat something healthy, and there's no immediate reinforcement. Your brain doesn't immediately go, yep, okay, great, that's it, I've lost a pound. Because it doesn't work like that. But what you can do is train your brain and go, yes, I did that thing.
I ate something healthily. I went for a walk. I am somebody who looks after myself. I do do things that support my health and wellness and my weight loss goals. Now, if you are struggling to lose weight, it might be that you aren't doing the best things to that, to, to support your health and weight loss goals.
It might be that you aren't doing the easy things for weight loss. Or, you need to do some more things. It doesn't matter in terms of, that doesn't make you a failure. It just means you need to change things around a bit. When we cut off that emotion from, okay, I have failed, therefore I'm a failure. No, you've tried one thing, it didn't work.
You might need to try another thing. That doesn't mean you are a failure. It means what you tried wasn't the best thing. On a side note, I When I think about how do you lose weight, how do you lose weight easily, and keep it off, there are two things that are involved. Number one, finding a system that works for you, and it has to work for you.
It has to be something that is easy, that you can repeat, that you enjoy. Often people haven't found that. If you have been to, for example, Weight Watchers, and I don't mean to malign Weight Watchers. Weight Watchers works for some people, but for other people it doesn't work. Why? Because they don't like having to count their food and sort of think about their food all the time.
If you are somebody who's been to Weight Watchers and think, You know what? Actually, I don't like doing this. It's because that system doesn't work for you. Now, I have a friend who has lost weight by counting calories. It works for her. She's perfectly happy doing that. It's a system that works for her.
It's not what I teach, but if it works for her, that is fabulous. If she thinks, Okay, I can carry on doing this indefinitely, Then that is great. She probably won't have to carry on counting them indefinitely, indefinitely, because she'll just get used to, okay, this is the way I eat and I can do this.
But to begin with, for the first, perhaps, two years, she's probably going to be counting her calories. Does your system work for you? Have you found a system that actually works for you, that you think, yes, okay, I might need support in keeping this going, but it is something that I enjoy and I When I'm doing it, it feels good and I can do it.
That's number one. Number two is keeping going. Being able to keep going. Life is always life and there's always something that is going on. That is when we get derailed and we go back to our old habits. And this comes back to our subconscious mind. Habits are part of our subconscious mind.
They're part of what we do on autopilot. We're not thinking about it. That is when people Get derailed and go back to how they were doing things and that is when you start to think you're a failure. No, you're not a failure. It's just that you had some habits and you didn't rewrite those habits. You didn't get to what I call oak tree habits.
You still had acorn habits. It doesn't make you a failure, it just makes you human. It's the way the human brain works, and it's the way the human body works. That's perfectly fine, but if you want to lose weight and keep it off, you have to make different habits, and you have to stick to those different habits, and you have to keep going, and keep going, and keep going.
A big part of it is your belief in yourself. Another big part of it is having support. If you're interested in support, then seriously, reach out to me and chat. As I say, start with that free conversation because it just gives you a little bit of chance to talk to me. Then if you're interested in my program, after that we could book another call and chat about that.
there are lots and lots of ways that you can retrain your subconscious mind, and I've given you a few little pointers here, but do not underestimate the power of your subconscious mind. It is so, so strong. It is amazing. It is amazing that once you believe you can get there, You will just do it and it will be easy.
Okay, my friends, I hope that has been helpful. Exciting, exciting news. I am changing the way that I do the podcast a little bit. Up until now, I've mostly had just me talking to you, hoping to inspire you. Now I have decided to open up to guests and we're going to have more guests. We're going to have some expert guests.
Most of them are physicians and I have got a lovely lineup of guests for you. If you are an expert or you know somebody who is an expert, then please feel free to contact me and I will tell you how you can apply to visit. to be a guest. Now, the other exciting thing that I am doing is inviting people to come on and tell their story, your story of struggling with weight loss.
If you are still struggling, you are perfect for this feature. You might think, why don't we just want inspiring stories? Yes, we do want inspiring stories, but we want real stories. We want to hear What's going on for other people? I promise you, you are not alone. It's like one of those things.
They say one in three people have stress incontinence. You know, when you sneeze a little bit and a little bit of urine escapes. It's one of those really stigmatizing things that we're all scared of talking about. But in a room of 10 women, three of them have got Statistically, three of them have got stress incontinence, except nobody talks about it, so everybody just thinks that they are the only person.
That is one of the reasons why I am inviting people to come and talk about their story and what's happened for them. Plus, on top of that, if you talk about that story, you'll get some free coaching. Hopefully, the idea is that you will leave feeling clearer in what you need to do to get to where you want to get to.
So, some amazing stories lined up. I've got some already booked. Some are with my clients. You don't have to be one of my clients. You can just be anybody, whether you have So, tried a million things or no things, you are welcome to come. , I will leave a link if you want to book for that. This is open to women who are over 40 who are struggling with their weight loss.
Now, lastly, exciting news, I have a baby! Decided on my next free event, which is called how to lose weight Keep it off and lead a vibrant rest of life and this is going to be a workshop a live workshop On june the 18th. It will obviously be recorded for people who can't attend live and we are going to go through how to lead a healthy life, how to lose weight, how to keep it off, how to have a vibrant rest of life, and it will be interactive.
There'll be a little presentation, and then if you want to ask questions, you'll be able to ask questions. I invite you to sign up to that. I will leave a link in the show notes, click the link, fill your name and address in, and you will get put on the list. I will remind you every now and then, and then closer to the time, I will send you the Zoom link, or the replay, or both, I'll send you both, so that you can attend that workshop live.
It is going to be super, super fun. So my friends, remember your subconscious brain is super powerful, you're not broken, you're just human, and I look forward to talking to you next week when we are going to have our first of our amazing story features. Goodbye!
