Thriving through Menopause Podcast

47. Menopausal Weight Loss: 5 Game-Changing Tips I Used On My Journey

• Host Dr. Enaka Yembe • Season 1 • Episode 47

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I spent 14 years losing weight the hard way so you don't have to.

What if you could shed those extra pounds without ever stepping foot in a gym or adhering to a strict diet plan?

Join me, on this episode as I unravel the transformative journey I embarked upon to achieve weight loss without traditional methods. From my birth as a 10-pound baby to reaching a peak weight of 300 pounds, I've battled obesity my entire life.

Today, I stand on the other side of the battlefield, not only as a physician but as a guide for those navigating menopause and perimenopause. I'll be sharing the five key strategies that have transformed my life and the lives of countless others, centered around personal growth and self-love.

Think of personal growth as pursuing a PhD—an essential step in any lifestyle change. I emphasize the power of owning your journey through education, whether it’s via books, podcasts, or supportive communities. Moreover, self-love isn’t just ideal; it’s a necessity. Transforming negative self-talk into empowering dialogue can revolutionize your mindset, helping you reduce belly fat and achieve sustainable menopausal weight loss.

So tune in as I share practical insights and strategies, ensuring your health and wellness journey is both empowering and transformative!

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Just in case you missed it:

Join my10:21 Day Weight Loss Boot Camp, to be apart of our vibrant community and kickstart your journey!

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Speaker 1:

Hi everyone. Today I want to share with you five things that I did along my journey that helped me lose weight without having to diet or exercise. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Dr Inaka Yembe, currently practicing in Louisiana. The majority of my patients see me for weight loss, so I consider myself a weight management specialist. In fact, in the clinic we call this interventional behavioral medicine for weight loss. So again back to our topic today what are the things that helped me to lose weight without thinking about dieting and exercise? And I'm sharing my personal journey just because of where I came from and where I am right now.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Thriving Through Menopause podcast. Dr Inaka Yembe, your host, is dedicated to helping you navigate the transformative journey of menopause and perimenopause, particularly focused on achieving menopausal weight loss and reducing belly fat. As a post-menopausal physician herself who has helped thousands of women experiencing the significant life stage, she understands the unique challenges you face. Listen in as we explore a wide range of topics aimed at supporting you in your health and wellness journey. Hopefully, the practical tips and strategies offered potentially help you adopt an empowering approach towards menopausal weight loss and belly fat reduction. And now here's your host, dr Inaka Yembe.

Speaker 1:

I was that 10-pound baby. So it almost seems as if when I arrived in this world, I may have been destined to be overweight, Born at 10 pounds. Throughout my childhood life I was that obese child, grew up into an obese teenager and an obese adult After that. My highest weight was, I would say, about 300 pounds, because once I passed the 285s I stopped weighing myself. I've struggled with the weight all my life. I've done everything. I've done the cabbage soup diet, military diet, the water only diet, air diet. I've taken the pills over the counter. I've done everything Keto diet, intermittent fasting. I have done it and it's taken me a lot of time and a lot of learning for my personal journey and also going through the American Board of Obesity Medicine studies. So I have studied weight loss in and out and currently I coach patients in my practice and out of my practice. And so what are these five things? Number one I tell my patients losing weight is like going to the university, is like going to get a PhD.

Speaker 1:

The first thing that you must do is personal growth. You have to grow personally. You have to read, you have to study, you have to figure out what are the things that I must do in order to change my body, in order to get healthier. You want to read. You want to study. If you don't want to read, you can listen to podcasts. You want to own your own story, make this your own. Yes, it's okay to go out there and get a specialist, get a coach, see a physician, but all the things that they tell you will not work unless you take from that and make it your own and grow from it. You want to learn about yourself. You can join a group, which I think is so powerful. I have an online group where women and men work every day to change their bodies, to grow and to get healthier. So joining a group is a fantastic way of staying accountable, of living with like-minded people that encourage you along the way. But that personal growth that you need to work on yourself is fundamental. Growing personally is important. So that's my first step. And again, you may ask me what I need to do to grow personally. So again, if you went to the university to study for a PhD, you get the information and then you learn it. So why not read a book? Why not learn? What are all these carbohydrates, what are proteins? How do they actually work, take some time, listen to podcasts, take some time and read. Personal growth is fundamental in any lifestyle journey.

Speaker 1:

The second thing, or the second thing that you must do in order to lose weight without having to diet or exercise, is self-love. Self-love is a big one. A sense of self-love really changes your mindset. It can change the way that you feel about everything, because the first thing that happens when we're in this journey to lose weight is that we say to ourselves, we speak to ourselves, we discourage ourselves. We have so much negative talk to ourselves, and your words have power. Your words can change your beliefs. So one of the things that I encourage everyone that I coach is to get a sense of self-love.

Speaker 1:

And in practice, how do you do that? Practice positive affirmations. Speak to yourself the things that are important for you. Tell yourself that you can Tell yourself I can do difficult things, I can do the push-ups, I can eat healthy food, I can survive without a cook. Tell yourself these things. The words that you speak to yourself are so powerful that they will change your beliefs and they will even change the things that you believe about yourself if you say them consistently.

Speaker 1:

I'm not saying that it's easy. I'm just saying practice self-love. Tell yourself I love myself. I look in the mirror, listen. When you lose weight, whatever size you are, it's not going to change the way you feel. You're not going to start loving yourself because you lost the weight. You want to start practicing that right now. It's a sort of a way of earning credibility with yourself, just giving yourself those positive affirmations, and you want to practice them every single day. Now some people may tell me I don't know what to say to myself. Okay, that's good, go to YouTube. That's how I started personally. I just started listening to morning affirmations and then I started saying my own positive affirmations. Your words have power. The things that you say to yourself are the birthplace of self-worth. So it's important when you are on a healthy lifestyle change, especially if you're trying to lose weight, you want to practice self-love.

Speaker 1:

The third thing that you must do, or you can do, in order to lose weight without having to diet or exercise, is changing your expectations. For example, whenever I step on the scale, I expect to see, hopefully, a pound less. Now the things that you tell yourself before you step on that scale are so important, because sometimes we just discourage ourselves too much. So change your expectations about so many different things, about how you view yourself. You know, things like shame and guilt are such overpowering emotions that they can control you. So if you step on the scale and say it's a pound heavier, listen, that's not the end of the world. There are other things that you were victorious in you drank more water. You ate healthy. You did not have a Coke yesterday. You did not have that cookie yesterday. Listen, your body feels better. You walked 30 minutes. You have all these other things that you must take into consideration when you're on a healthy lifestyle change. So celebrate all these positive wings and try to let go of all those negative stories that we tell ourselves every day. That would help you just change your expectations and change the way that you view yourself.

Speaker 1:

Your emotions, which is the first step in my book, the Evolve Method. Your emotions are in charge of everything. How you feel about everything is the way your body will act. Listen, after all, people and I've heard this also anything that you think about will expand. If you focus on something, it just tends to get bigger and bigger and bigger. So unless we change those expectations for example, I stepped on the scale, I looked at it. That's okay. That's where I am right now. It doesn't change how I feel about myself. That's just a number on the scale. I don't want to focus on that one pound that I gained. One pound that I gained because it just sort of expands in my brain and then it just makes me feel like doing nothing else, see, because I feel like I failed, and then I don't feel like doing anything else. So change your expectations. The number five. The fifth thing that helped me just lose weight and feel better about myself is gratitude, work on gratitude, and the way you really want to put this in practice is to actually sit down and write a gratitude list every day.

Speaker 1:

When I coach people, my bootcamp I have a bootcamp online, a 21-day bootcamp. It goes every month for 21 days. So in the morning I tell people Wake up in the morning and have an hour of power. It doesn't have to be a whole hour, but you can take some time where you sit down and you reflect, you think about your goals, you can meditate, you can pray, and then you tell yourself some positive affirmations. You get yourself ready for the day in the morning. That's the hour of power. It's very, very famous. I mean there's. Several people have talked about that hour of power, but that's the only time during the whole day that you have full control over your day, that hour of power. Like I've heard my famous woman say, you get centered first thing in the morning, so again also in the evening. Come back, check with yourself. How did you do all day? Just the mental checking. You can lay in bed, take the five minutes before you fall asleep, just think about how your day went and spend time being grateful.

Speaker 1:

Being ungrateful is one of the emotions that can really hurt us or we didn't like this. I didn't appreciate that. So many negative emotions or things that we tell ourselves, so many negative emotions or things that we tell ourselves. But just being grateful is one of the ways that you can look into yourself for happiness. We don't have to go seek it from outside, but you can get it from yourself. Feel grateful for the fact that you came home alive.

Speaker 1:

Feel grateful for the fact that, okay, you walked five minutes during that lunchtime. Feel grateful for the fact that you didn't reach for the sweet tea that they had at lunch, for example. I work in the hospital and there's food everywhere, it seems. I'm grateful for the fact that I did not reach out for something sweet. I'm not saying sweet things are bad for you, I'm just checking in myself, I'm being grateful. It gives me a sense of fulfillment, it gives me a sense of happiness and all these positive things that you do and you give yourself. They just expand inside you so that your habits now change based on the things that you're thinking, and then your body tends to fall into place.

Speaker 1:

So, number one the things that helped me to lose weight without having to diet or exercise Again. Number one personal growth. That's essential. Number two practice that self-love also essential. Number three change your expectations. Number four practice that hour of power in the morning. And number five every single day, write down a gratitude list. Three things that you're grateful for. Five things Gratitude is such an important emotion. It's just so important to help us feel better and power through a healthy lifestyle journey. So I hope these tips helped you. Thank you and I wish you all the success in your health and wellness journey.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Thriving Through Menopause. We hope you found valuable insights and practical advice to support your journey. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast, share it and review. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Remember, menopause doesn't have to be a challenge. It can be an opportunity for growth, renewal and self-care. Connect with us on social media, where we share additional resources, tips and advice to help you along your path. Once again, thanks for listening in and we hope you'll join us again on the next episode of Thriving Through Menopause. Until then,