Client Interview: How Christiane Lost 18 Pounds Without Dieting...And That's Not Even The Best Part

Join us in the Aligned Life Membership; we are focusing on Becoming Her for the month of August.  Click HERE to learn more and enroll.  Doors close 8 pm PST on August 5th.

What if the greatest transformation wasn't the number on the scale?

In this conversation, I sit down with my client Christiane to talk about what really changed during her weight loss journey. Yes... she lost 18 pounds without dieting. But the biggest transformation was learning to trust herself around food. 

We talk about emotional eating, food noise, learning the difference between physical hunger and mental hunger, why food used to be "the main event," and how changing her relationship with herself changed everything else. 

If you've ever felt like food takes up too much space in your mind... if you've ever wondered whether it's possible to enjoy pizza, vacations, and celebrations without feeling out of control... this conversation will give you hope.

Because lasting weight loss isn't about becoming more disciplined.

It's about becoming a different woman. 

Learn more about Christian's Business: https://www.greenwealthlegacy.com/

Listen to Christian's wonderful podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/93-the-5-skills-that-change-me-before-i-change-my/id1788712768?i=1000777839054

Grab a free copy of my Playbook "Take Control of Your Evening Eating" here: https://mailchi.mp/43700070f134/playbook

Currently, I work with women privately and in my monthly membership.  Click HERE to head to my website to learn more.

Transcript

Unknown: 0:01

Welcome to Modern Body, Modern Life, the podcast for women who want to feel powerful, healthy, strong, and confident inside and out at every age. On this podcast, we talk about becoming a woman who is fully in control of her eating and movement, so weight loss, strength, and energy become permanent. We also talk about something bigger: becoming the woman who takes her deepest desires seriously and goes after more in every area of her life. I'm body and life coach Courtney Gray, and I believe you can get in the best shape of your life at any age. And when you do, it becomes a catalyst for

everything else: 0:39

your relationships, your confidence, your joy, because when you feel like you and your body, all of life gets better. Let's get started. Welcome to the podcast. I am really excited for today's podcast because I have one of my current clients here to talk about her experience changing herself-not just losing weight, not just eating differently, and not just moving her body because she's already been quite an athlete, quite a person who work takes her workout seriously, but really changing herself in order to change the way she eats, thinks, and processes emotion, and therefore really lives her life. So, but before I introduce you to Christiane, doors are closing for the Aligned Life membership tomorrow, august 5 at 8p.m Pacific time. So we have our first live call tomorrow, where we kick off with the new focus. Every month we have a different focus, and the focus for August is becoming her. And that's why I'm so excited for this podcast because I think that one of the most beautiful things you're going to hear with Christiane's story is really, she was already an amazing human being, but really has changed a bit of herself in this process. So I'm excited for you to to hear our powerful conversation. And so, in order for you to join us in the Aligned Life membership, there is a link in the show notes, of course, but you can also head to Modern Body Modern Life forward slash membership to enroll and join us. So, Christiane, let's get started. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I mean, I know guests say that all the time, but I really mean that. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. Well, so let's just start by you telling everyone a little bit about yourself. And you're a coach. You can tell everyone about that in your business, in your life, and just kind of let us get to know you. Yeah, sure. Okay, so I'm a life and money coach, and I run my company Green Wolf Legacy with my sisters. So there's four coaches, and which is so fun. It's truly fun. I mean, entrepreneurship with my sisters is a dream come true. It's paradise, so it's really fun. We work with successful, ambitious women to help them build financial confidence, so they can master their finances. We want women to feel empowered around money, and we do that using life coaching tools because turns out money is not just numbers or it's not math. So we really needed to learn to be with ourselves, be leading ourselves. So we have like kind of like a framework we we use, but it really emphasizes awareness and emotional maturity and self leadership. Yeah, and as for me, I am as we mentioned in the introduction. I was I'm very athletic, love fitness, and I've enjoyed being physically active for a very long time. So I was very excited to be able to finally realize, oh, I can actually be the weight that I want to be, that I've always wanted to be. So I was very excited to start working with you. Yeah, to have the both. Well, first of all, like going back to you know your company with your sisters, it's so interesting because if we think about you know wasn't it? You probably know the date, maybe not. I don't know. It's in the like I want to say the late 1970s that women even could get a credit card by themselves without their husband or their dad. Am I right? Isn't that the right time? Late 70s. Yes, you're completely right. Yeah. So it makes sense that women need a little bit of help. I mean, everyone needs a little bit of help around their finances. Do you help just women or everyone? We, you know, we market to women, but we work a lot with families with couples. Okay. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Which is super fun because when a couple agrees that they need that help, it changes everything. And I respect a man who owns that. Like that's really important. Oh, this is you're doing such good work. Okay, well, tell us a little bit about your journey with like how it was for you before we started working together, what was your relationship with your food and your body and and all of that? So, for the longest time, I wanted I've wanted to be a certain weight. I don't know where it came from. The number I just knew I could be less than what I was, and then before. During the pandemic, I let go and I gained like almost 40 pounds, and then I pounced, and then I lost that kind of accidentally because I was in a foreign country. And long story short, I lost 40 pounds, which was amazing. But then when I came back to the states, I kind of gained an extra 10 pounds, and I just felt like because when I came back from the states and realized how much weight I had lost, I was I started having this running thought that food is poison in America. That might not be just a thought. I know. So, but it was not a thought that was serving me because then I started having this love-hate relationship with food, where I love food from my background, for my from my history with food, but also I hate it because every time I eat, I gain weight. Okay, and it was such a toxic relationship, so I would enjoy fasting just for the sake of not having to worry about food, and also it was really good for my mindset. Like I love challenging myself for the so the fasting served those two purposes, like intermittent fasting. Yes, but I would go crazy. One time I did it for four days. Yeah, yeah, which people do. But yeah, that right, and it's fun. Like I said. I'm not even giving it a bad rep. Like I love, I loved every moment of it. It was an incredible experience, but I knew that wasn't the life I wanted to live forever. Yeah, that was the point. I was like, I don't think I want to do this forever, and I don't want to think about fasting from a standpoint of weight loss. Yeah. So that was something too, and then also the food noise was crazy, and there was no connection between me and my body. I didn't really pay attention to what I wanted, which is interesting because fasting should have created that, but fasting was more so about self discipline for me and kind of just challenging myself, but I didn't. I wasn't connected to my body with the food relationship mixing there. I was connected to myself in different ways, like with fitness. When I work out, it's for me. I don't do it because I have to. So it was a really interesting area where I could listen to myself in a lot of areas of my life, but when it came to food, I did not have a relationship with my body. Yeah, well, and it sounds like you are very a very determined person, so you can get yourself to work out and push yourself in that way. And so it sounds like with intermittent fasting, you could do that as well. Like you could be like, I'm just gonna cut it all out, and that that can be easier sometimes, right? I'm just going to cut it all out. Even going on a diet, I'm going to cut out all the alcohol. I'm going to cut out all of the all of the flour and sugar. That in some ways can be easier because then you're not having to make decisions three times a day. So, what was the like the biggest struggle? Do you think you faced with food? The biggest struggle was to stop eating. Okay, so I was eating the right foods for a bee because over the years I've constantly been testing, noticing what worked, what didn't work, and so I cut out a lot of things that wasn't working for me. And I love good, healthy food, so I was eating a lot of good healthy foods, but I was eating too much of it. Yeah, and I didn't have self control around food. I just ate and ate and ate, and I justified it by telling myself I'm very physically active, so I needed all of the food. Yeah, and probably that this is healthy. A lot of people they overeat on healthy foods, and then they're very frustrated. I get a lot of people that will, you know, come and talk with me and say, "I'm very healthy, and I'm like, "I believe you, but at some point, you're you're eating more than your body needs. Absolutely, that was definitely it. Because I remember eating a salad one time in front of my friends, and they were like,"Girl, that was a a gallon of a salad, and I'm like, yeah, you're right. It took me like 25 minutes to eat this. Yeah. No, wait. So 25 minutes, actually, 45 minutes. Oh my gosh. So do you feel like you were emotion? Like you got into a pattern? Because what I hear is you probably got into a pattern of emotional eating, and then that became a habit. So even when you weren't upset or stressed or and any emotions. It's just kind of was your habit. Absolutely, for sure. I would. I was on an emotional pattern with my food. I remember because you know, as a coach, I am very in touch with my emotions. Yeah, and I remember tracking them and noticing that when I would feel bored, frustrated, or annoyed, or sleepy. I remember listening to your podcast one time, and you were talking about when you're driving and you justify eating because you're falling asleep. Yeah, those were the the moments I would eat just to distract myself or to fend off the frustration. I absolutely wasn't. Yeah, well, and I love hearing you give those emotions as examples because a lot of times I think when people think about emotional eating, they think they automatically think of like grief or like anxiety or overwhelm. Those are like the top three that people feel like, but really boredom. You and I both like that's a trigger for both of us, and any kind of fatigue, whether it's sleepiness or like physical sleepiness or mental sleepiness, like I coach a lot of doctors, and sometimes they're physically sleepy. Sometimes they're also just like by the end of the day, they've been doing so much and using their brain so much that it can be that can be the emotion. So you're not even you're not even unhappy. You're not even frustrated. You're almost just kind of like, and that will help you turn. That will, you know, be the thing that makes you turn to food. And so, so you since you you knew a lot of the coaching tools that I teach, you have a same certification that I do from the same coach, you know, coaching certification program. So this is why this is so cool having you on the podcast because you, even though you had the tools, a lot of the same tools, you still decided to invest in coaching. So I would love to know why. That is such a great question because it was the decision to invest was a no-brainer for me, absolutely, because I realized. So this year I have a few goals that I was working on, right? And I realized, do I want to spend the remainder of my life being on a diet? And if you know me, I despise the word diet or the expression being on a diet. So, because I'm a free bird, I am a free spirit. I don't want someone telling me what to do, what to eat, when even yourself, even myself, right? Exactly. And so, the idea of being on a diet has always been very upsetting to me. Yeah, and that's the reason why, for years and years, I never tried to lose weight on purpose because I thought it was the only way until I discovered it wasn't. But then, even as I looked at the program that we took the same certification, I also realized, yeah, I I have the tools, but I'm in it. My mind needs support. Yes, and I could try to to go at it by myself, and it would probably take me I don't know 345, years. But do I want to take that long? No, sounds exhausting. Yeah, yeah. It's why most business coaches have coaches. It's it's it's why most CEOs have coaches. It's why most professional athletes have coaches, right? Yeah, exactly. Like even when you think about you know money, a lot of people eventually figure it out. But like, how much money do you lose along the way, and how much stress and anxiety do you cause yourself? I don't think we need to do that. I honestly didn't want to, and I also knew I needed to become someone different to achieve these results, and I just needed support. Like that was the number one thing I remember thinking. This is it's worth it. It's worth it to me. Yeah. Oh, I love it. I love that you said I needed to become someone different. And so early on, you said, and this was I wrote this down in our notes from I think it was our first or second session, as you said. I'm on a mission to become a different person, and I know that you meant that in this area because in many areas you're a rock star, you know already. But like, what did you mean by that exactly? Yeah, I remember thinking about wanting to achieve my goal weight, and I realized it wasn't just about the weight, right? Because I know how transformation is. You can't just have something with the same mindset that you have today. There has to be a transformation. There has to be some change, some work to be done. Yeah, and that is the hardest things to achieve in life, honestly, like changing the way you think to achieve your goals is one of the hardest things. And I realized I can only imagine what it would be like because I remember one of the problems that I had was going on a cruise. I remember previously before meeting with you, I had gone on a cruise and I went food crazy, but also I didn't so much. But I remember thinking I did not have a lot of boundaries, and I didn't. Thank goodness I didn't gain weight on the cruise, but I remember feeling really unhappy with myself of how much I let myself go. And so one of the things I really wanted is like I have to be a different person if I'm gonna go on a cruise again. Like I want to be able to go on a cruise and have the most fun and food not be being taking over in my life because before we started working together, food was my source of joy. 70. Of the time, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You even said, even on a recent coaching call, you even made a comment something about how much you. What did you say you love? Like you, it wasn't just I love food. What was it? Well, it was saying because growing up, we used to say that like we love food, and my family and I, and Isaac, most people find a lot of joy around food. Yeah. Um. So I've really enjoyed eating good food. So yes, I I had that belief for a very long time. I love food. Yeah. Except whenever I would say that, it was more like I'm really enslaved to food. Yeah. It wasn't like I love food like it's really delicious and also I can eat and then and then pause. It was more like I can I eat and I don't stop. As a matter of fact, here's another thing we used to say between me and my sisters. We would say, "I am on a seafood diet. Like when you see it, you eat it. You see it, you eat it. Oh my god! Oh my god! Talk about when you say something, the results that's going to create in your life. Yes, exactly. So, like, we'll be sitting at a table, and there's like a pizza on the table, and we're done eating. And I have, I have to have someone put it away because if it's still on the table, I'm gonna eat it. Yeah. So that's a self trust thing. So you really are telling me you really did not trust yourself around food. 100% Yeah. I remember even thinking, I don't know, I don't know why we have to eat to be alive. Because I just wished, I I wasn't in this black and white mentality. Like when I started eating, I wouldn't stop, and so the best way to deal with food was just to avoid it altogether. And then I had to remember that I was human, and I need food for fuel to be alive. Yeah, it was just really tug of war with me, and I just did not enjoy my life. Did you think when when you were in going through that, when you were in that cycle, did you feel like this is a problem? Like what is going on with me? Absolutely, it was it was a problem for me because I I food was on my mind most of the day. Me too, me too, and I hate I I hate. hate thinking. Now I'm not. I'm so far removed from that. But I remember just being like thinking about it. Starting right after breakfast, I would start thinking, "What can I have for dessert if I eat perfectly all day? What can I have for dessert? And then, oh my god, so stressful. Absolutely. Oh my god, it was hard. Yeah. What do you feel like you have learned, and what has changed for you? And then we'll kind of talk about how you've changed your identity. Oh, what have I learned? How much time do you have? Would you say how much time? How much time do you have? Oh my goodness! I have learned so much, Courtney. So much more than what I thought I was, and this is exactly why I'm so grateful I did this. I invested because even with the tools that I had, the things that I learned about myself, I would never have learned them hadn't I worked with support, getting support, and working with you more specifically. I want to say, granted, I have not worked with a weight loss coach before, but working with you was amazing because you really gave me space to use my own creativity. Yeah, there's no conversations about oh, you here's what you should eat, here's when you should eat, here's how much you should eat. None, we never had that conversation. So I learned how to trust myself. I learned how to make decisions for myself, and to trust it. And I remember in the beginning when we were tracking, oh no, we were doing the food journal, the protocol. Yes, there's a slight little part of me that wanted to rebel, but also I know that trust in the process is the answer. Yeah, and so I did the food journal every single day for like three months, and what did that teach you? Yes, so that's where my self trust self trust around food started building. Yeah, because I would write it down, and again, because I didn't want to follow the diet mentality. Yeah, I really wanted to lose the weight from desire, not from force. I didn't want to tell myself, "Here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna willpower your way through it. I do not. I do not like willpower at all. It's not a good source of fuel. So I would, and I love the questions in the book. I would write what I was gonna eat, and then I would answer those questions, and it would help me be prepared for what would come throughout the day. So when my mind would offer me suggestions on what else to eat besides what I planned, I was like, "Oh yeah, of course you would do that. I know exactly what's going on here. I'm not surprised, right? And then another thing that I wanted to say about this is the difference between mental hunger and physical hunger. So good. Tell me about that because that's something I don't know that I've actually talked about that in those words. So tell me what you mean by that. And when I say mental hunger, I mean this is why my brain is telling me we're hungry when I check with my stomach, and I'm not actually physically hungry. And that was really powerful because in the and that's why also built. Trust is the idea that I could listen to myself, to my stomach, to my body, yes, and hear what it wanted different than what my brain said we wanted. To be able to separate the two was so empowering. Did you really feel like you started understanding the like your primitive brain, like oh, this is me, and that's my primitive brain, 100% Because I was already used to my brain offering me different ideas around different things in my life that I was working on. Right, so I was familiar with the voice, but I had, you know, food is one of those things that's the hardest thing to to separate. But doing this work, I got to be really present because I didn't want to do it by force, so I couldn't turn on autopilot. I had to be on all day paying attention. Are you hungry? Do you want to eat? How much do you want to eat? And even what do you want to eat? Because some things I had to let go because I realized, oh, I don't actually want to eat this because it doesn't sit well with me. Yeah, I learned so much about myself, and that's what started the connection with my body that I didn't understand was non-existent. I had been disconnected for so long; I had no idea. Why do you think you were disconnected? Was it? Is this just something you just never learned? I think that we're bombarded by what we should be doing and how we should be doing, and we just listen. That noise is so loud, and from childhood we we're taught these habits with food, right? We're taught that food is the most important thing. I mean, think about it. All of the celebrations and the fun times in our lives, food is the number one event. Yes, and so you grow up just believing that food is the most thing. It's the most important thing. It's the main event. It's the you know. If there's no food, there's no fun. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the voice that I had in my brain. I didn't really. I've never been taught. Oh, listen, eat according to your to your body. Like I want to just use this example. The other day, I saw my niece, which I'm so grateful for. I think just her watching us is very different for her. Her experience of growing up is different. She ate something, and you know, I come from the generation you you empty your plate. But of course, we don't follow those rules, and that's not how we raise our children. But she ate something, and there was literally one bite left. And I looked at her, and I and she was walking away from it. I said, "You're not going to finish it. She just she didn't even realize she did this. She touched her stomach, and she just said, "No, I can't finish it. And she walked away. And I asked her later. I said, "Did you realize what you did? She's like, "No. I'm like you touch your stomach. You were asking yourself if you wanted it, if you could have it, and she didn't eat it. So it's so easy for her to naturally say, "Two bites, I'm done. Yeah, and that's what I learned. You can stop eating mid sandwich. It's okay. I know. Oh my gosh, it's so true. So was that? Has that gotten easier for you, though? You talked a moment ago about how before it was like you had to be really aware all day. Do you feel like you're settling in where you don't really have to be so aware? Yes, absolutely. I have trained myself so well now that I, I had it's you know it's like in the beginning it's a little hard because you have to be aware, you have to be pregnant so that you don't slip up, and then eventually the awareness becomes natural, and so that's where we are now. Like I definitely, the voice of my my body is strong and very loud. I hear her very clearly. I have no doubt the difference between what I my body wants versus what my brain says I should want, and it's actually kind of ironic, so I'm always laughing. Yeah, so good. Well, and so the beautiful thing about this is, is that you did this without dieting. You still had you love pizza. You still had some cocktails every once in a while. So tell us about about that and about your experience with that. And you also had failures. There were also times where you're like you showed up to recall, and you'd be like, "Girl. So tell us about that, and in a good way, right? Because you you know you haven't told us how much you've lost yet. You can tell us that whenever you're ready. But it's exciting to lose weight, knowing that you did it without being on a diet. It's very exciting. Is the most exciting part because I have to tell you, like I said earlier, I do not like the word diet at all. Like if someone said to me,"Are you on a diet? I would actually feel offended, like really offended. That's how much I don't like it. I was actually thinking about an analogy about what diet culture has done for us, and it's you decide if you want to post use this, but I honestly feel like this is what diet culture has done to us. I think about a child being kidnapped and then being brainwashed that his parents never cared for him so much that his kidnapper becomes his everything. I think. That's what diet culture has done for us, because it has completely disconnected us from our body so much that we think the problem is food in our body. When you think that those are the problems, you're not going to listen to your. You're not even going to know there's a connection. You're not going to try to find a deeper understanding. No, you're just going to want to willpower yourself through not eating this, not eating that, and then it's just and the more you force yourself to follow some type of diet, the more you damage your relationship with yourself. Yeah, and so losing weight without dieting was like the ultimate for me, which is another reason why I was like, I need support because I can muscle through a three month diet and lose weight, but how can I keep it? How can I live that way? What do you have at the end of it? Yeah, right. So it was really amazing. So you know, I had some a lot of setbacks, but it was incredible to learn how to eat, how much to eat, and then to realize I didn't have to remove anything, I had popcorn. I had pizza. One week I even had pizza every day. Yeah, it was just really amazing. And I'm telling you, the first two weeks I was like,"Is this for real? Is this really happening? Am I eating everything? I mean, I would like plan the food and eat all the things. I never said I'm not. You know, the only thing I didn't eat was fried food, deep fried food. Yeah, because I real I realize I don't actually want that. It's not actually good for my health. It doesn't feel good. Yeah, right. But that's it. I there's nothing I couldn't have that I. It's just the most amazing thing. So at first, were you thinking like I don't know that this is gonna work? Because that's what a lot of my clients they'll they'll hire me and they they kind of hire me with a I all right let's try let's let's see. I had more faith in my business goals than in this weight loss go. Oh, interesting! I have way more faith because I was like, and I love how you told me you don't have to believe. I was like, oh, thank you. Okay, we can do this. If I don't have to believe, then let's do it. And I so I just did it. I just follow the process. Yeah, I'm a big believer in process, and I just follow the process. And so when I started noticing the difference, and you know, it wasn't even losing weight initially. I don't think I lost weight for the first three weeks. It was more about that connection with myself and listening to myself and trusting myself. And then I struggled a lot around the weekends, so we talked about it. And my brain wanted to be confused a little bit at first. Yeah, and then we realized the confusion wasn't necessary, so that was really confusion. Is a way our primitive brain keeps us stuck. Yes, so that was really good. So once I I cleared that up, weekends became easy, and also I realized it's okay. I can not eat. I used to fast, so I'm I'm good with not eating. Yeah, because so I have to believe if you went from really eating a lot, like big portions, when you started eating less, I have to believe that you had to embrace a little bit of hunger. Your body, because I really think that our body gets used to the amount, even the amount, the quality, and the quantity that we are giving it. And then when we decide to go into a calorie deficit or something like that, like or change up what we're eating. Our body is like whoa, whoa, whoa! This this is different, right? Any any change is posing a threat, and so our body sometimes you have to actually allow a little bit of hunger because you're changing things up. Was that? But that wasn't hard for you, probably because you're an intermittent faster sometimes. Yeah, it wasn't super hard, but also it was because I wasn't eating as much food. Yeah, and so that and that's another thing I realized that I was eating too much food before. Yeah, and so when I realized I was like, oh, so I do need to eat less. So let me check in with my body. So I think I experienced more mental hunger than actual body hunger, like physical hunger. And how do you know? Like some people might be listening and like say, "Well, what is what does that even mean? What do you think the difference is? Well, and that's why the first three weeks helped me appreciate too, because I was kind of like, I'm not sure, but you really gotta tap in in in your body. You really do. You want to know, okay, what does that feel like? Especially in the morning, that's gonna be really useful for you to identify because most people are hungry in the morning. When you're hungry, physically hunger, you feel it in your stomach, right? You're like you have this pang of distress in there. Sometimes it feels a little tight, or like someone is like gnawing at you, like hello, feed me, you know. And and then the longer you go, you can sense the intensity of that growing. And sometimes if you go long enough, where you're so. Hungry, you feel kind of weak physically. For me, I get really clumsy all of a sudden. I have no energy to hold even a leaf, right? And and so then you know that's physical hunger. Yeah. But mental hunger was more like it's even in my brain telling me I'm hungry. It's time. Yeah, yeah. And I would have to be like, "Is it really time? And then I would have to tap in my body and be like, "Are you actually hungry? Yeah, and this was always for me. Even sometimes, still at night, this it's during the day. This was never tricky for me, but at night, even sometimes still, I'll be like, "Oh, am I hungry? Or like, because I'll feel a little hunger pain, right? There's nothing, not a hunger. I say hunger pain. It's not painful. I feel a little wave of hunger, but you're like, well, I because I try not to eat like about an at least an hour before bedtime, but all of a sudden I'll feel this little like pang, not pain, but pang, p a n g. I guess is that even a thing? I don't know. Yes, it is. Okay, of hunger, and sometimes I'll be like, "Oh, I better, I better eat. I think maybe I didn't eat enough for dinner, but afterwards, I always like from curiosity ask myself,"Okay, Courtney, was that like real hunger, or was that just my primitive brain telling me? And that's how you can get really good at identifying it in the moment. Is if you get curious and ask yourself after. Yes, and that's another thing you learn, right? Like you can actually ask yourself questions, and you will have answers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At one point during our coaching, you said that food used to be the main event. Now I'm the main event. I was like, Mike, drop. Tell me what that means to you. Can you explain? Yeah, and that's part of the evolution that I experienced working with you, not giving me rules and you know directions, anything like that. We just really talked, and I got to use my own brain to see what I wanted to do with my life. So I did a lot of self reflection, and I think that's the reason why I learned so much about myself, and I got so deeply connected with my body. I spent a lot of time examining what is it about food that made me realize I needed help. Right, like what was it about it? Yeah, and more reflection, and it came to the fore that yeah, my whole life, food is a big deal. It's a big deal. Everything we do is about food. It's more about food than anything else. Like we don't even remember anything else about the event. We talk about the food, and that's when I realized, oh, so food is the main event. That's the reason why I feel enslaved to it. Yeah, it drives me, which is why when I think about cruising, I'm not thinking about the pool. I'm not thinking about docking at an island, having fun. I'm thinking food, food, food. When I hear cruise, I see food. It was the main event. Yeah, I'm so glad you said that because I know there's many people listening that are like,"Oh, I see that too. When they think of certain holidays, they think of the food, and of course, when we think of like, you know, when we I think of Christmas, I think of my mom's cheese ball, and that that's beautiful. Those are beautiful memories. But to think of like, oh, a cruise, I'm gonna think of the food, or to think of like Fourth of July, and to think of like hot dogs and all that, and we can really decide that it's more than just that. Yes, and that's when I arrive to wait. Why do I eat? I don't live to eat. I eat to live, right? So, I'm the most important part of this equation. Yeah, because I'm the one that goes and create my life, and food is just a moment in my day. Why does it have so much power over me? Yeah, yeah. And that's when I realized, no, no, no, we need to flip this picture. I'm the main event. The food is here for me, and if it is, then I eat it for and it fuels me for what I needed to fuel me, and then I move on to the the things that I actually want to do. I don't want to eat 24/7 Yeah, you don't want your whole life to be about food, and so this is like this is like self concept. This is why the focus for next month is like becoming her, right? It's like so. Tell me how, in your own words, like how you feel like your self concept has changed. I am very powerful around food now. I feel no weakness to it. I sense my old ways sometimes come like flaring up a little bit, but I eat them right. I notice them, but I don't. There's no trembling in my heart. Like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna. Do I need to like hold myself together not to eat it? I definitely see food all of the time, and I don't eat it, and I don't need to eat it. I don't have to eat it. I can eat half of a burger and put it down and walk away. I can have a bite left on my plate and realize I'm actually really full and wrap it up and put in the fridge. Yeah, I feel very empowered. My self concept is I am the main event, so the food serves me. So if I. If I overserve myself, and here's another thing I love, I'm like, I serve myself sometimes when I'm not tracking. Which with you, I I ended up tracking twice. But usually, if I serve myself and I wonder, oh, is this too much? I'm like, it's no big deal. If it's too much, when we start eating, we'll know, and we'll stop eating. And I'm so trusting that I will follow through, and I do. It's the most amazing thing. Are you comfortable sharing how much you've lost so far, and then how much more you want to lose? I've lost 18 pounds. So good, and I have eight more to go. Eight more because I want to now. Yeah. Yes. So you've lost 18 pounds without dieting, which is absolutely amazing. And you and I-you did most of that work in our private coaching together, one-on-one. But you decided to join the Aligned Life membership, and so do like how are you feeling? I would love to hear. I'm sure everyone else would love to hear like how are you feeling about one-on-one coaching, and now you're part of like a group with a whole bunch of other women. Oh my goodness, Courtney! I mean, are you serious? I'm so excited that you opened this membership up because I remember thinking, the truth is, I feel really empowered around food, but I love the conversations we have in the membership. I mean, they're life giving for me. I love hearing the other women and how what they're going through, and it's not a space of feeling sorry for ourselves or fighting the food or arguing with you know it's a space of like women wanting to just live their most authentic life yeah, and then you're coaching them so not. I. I don't even think naturally is the word. I think that your coaching with them is so appropriate, so personalized, even with a group. And honestly, it's really great because I remember thinking that I had a choice. I could. I'm. I'm pretty much done. But no, these are conversation women we should be having, because yes, I I lost a weight. That's great, and I trust that I can follow through. I can I can maintain it. I really do. Yeah. But also, it's been a while. It's been my whole life that I had that relationship with food. Yeah. So I do want to maintain a great relationship with food for the remainder of my life. Right. Yeah. So being in a space where we're having these kind of conversations-that's exactly what I would need my brain to be listening to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was interesting. I don't know that you were on the call yesterday. I can't remember not. But anyways, it was interesting because we had one of the women at the end was like, "I'm so sorry. This was we didn't. My coaching wasn't really about food. And I said, "No, this is the brilliance of this group, is because the reason we're eating a lot of times has nothing to do with food, right? The reason we're turning to food has nothing to do with food, so we're solving all of our life's problems, so we don't have to necessarily turn to food. Yes, we talk about food. Sometimes it is about the food. Sometimes it is frustrating. You feel like you're doing all the things, and we need to get in there and really figure out what's going on, but it's a group of women who want to talk about how they're overwhelmed and they feel like they they can't make even time for this. And so, how to do that and other type of things? Yeah, 100% And so, yes, I love being in there. I love the support. I love the conversations, and I love seeing women wanting more for themselves and being present is really encouraging, really uplifting. It's I always come away from the coaching calls feeling like, oh, that was such a beautiful way to use my hour. Like it was so worth it. Well, so you have changed your self concept for sure. The way you look at food, the way you look at yourself, and what is available to you, all those things. So I'm sure everyone would love to know. Like you've already lost 18 pounds, which is amazing. You look amazing. When you're thinking about losing eight more pounds, do you feel like you kind of just need to continue what you're doing and being continue showing up with the new skills you've learned, or do you feel like there's a next level for you? And that's the part, right? That I felt like I was again confused for a little bit there, yeah. Because for whatever reason, my brain tried to convince me that what worked before isn't going to work again. But the truth is, it really is the same concept. Yeah. Because if I if you think about it. When I first started, I had a real realization. Oh, I'm eating too much food. It's not that I'm eating the bad food. I'm eating bad food. I don't like to call food bad, but like bad for me, right? Sure. Yeah. So I learned to eat less, not from a diet mentality, but like what my body actually needed. So really, it wasn't about eating less, it was about eating enough for me. Sure, my body needs a little bit less. Yeah, exactly. So then, when I lost 18 pound, my brain wanted to be confused. Like, oh, this is not going to work. We're not. We spend three weeks. We're the same weight. And then I had another realization. Like, hold on, I have been for the last three months. Or maybe two and a half that I lost it. I have been eating less food, so if I'm at this weight, eating this amount of food, if I want to get to the next level, I can just again pay attention to what that level requires. Yes, and it makes so much sense. I'm like, why are you trying to be confused? You're pretending. Well, now again, that's our primitive brain saying, you know what? This isn't safe. This is new. This isn't safe. And now you're trying to have us go even more outside of our comfort zone. That, and that's why our brain, like confusion, is one. If there's any confusion, I even do this with myself in my business. If there's confusion, it's like, oh, this is just it's like an upper limit thing, 100% So that's why and that's why I feel grateful for the membership because I'm still in the process of doing that, and I trust that I will. And again, another thing that I realized too is like there's no rush. Yeah, this is my lifestyle, so I'm here to stay. I'm here to go. I'm not. I mean, I'm not going anywhere. So for as long as it takes, I'm here for it. But I know what to do, and I'm in the right space to be supported for that. So it feels really great. What was probably the hardest part of this this journey that we've taken together? With the food being the biggest area of my life that I had no control over, it was like automatic for me to resist the thoughts my brain was offering me about food, and every time I resisted them, they just came on stronger. So, and I didn't like that. I didn't want to be fighting with myself. I I totally believe in like self compassion and being best friend with myself, so every time I notice my brain wanting to eat a cookie, have the cupcake, and I'm instead of just noticing,"Oh, you're here, I would be like, "Oh, I can't believe I'm thinking that, and it would just be so automatic. Yeah, create this this pressure cooker, and that was the hardest thing to let go of, like really just calming down, listening, and slowing down. It took me a while to really like. I think even now the resistance is still there, but it's less. It's so much less amplified. Like I sense it as if it's like someone in a different room speaking to me. Yes, that's good. Yeah. So it's been really amazing to see that diminish over time. Yeah. Where and because the voice is kind of muffled, I hear I I have more time to realize. Oh no, I don't have to argue with this. I expected it. Yes, and that's so powerful because for many many people that just have it. It doesn't matter. You deserve it. We're starting Monday. All that it's torturous for people, and the reason it's torturous is they feel like are completely a victim to it. But when you realize like two things, first of all, it never fully goes away. It can definitely get more muffled. I love your analogy of it being like in the next room. It definitely can be more muffled, but it never fully goes away, especially when things change. Right? Like you might say, "Oh my gosh, it it really has gotten muffled. But all of a sudden, some challenge comes into your life, or a sickness, or this or that, and then all of a sudden, it's right there again. Just like that podcast you had told me you loved that I did a few weeks ago, where I really described my mom went into the hospital, and I I said all the ways my primitive brain tried to get me to eat, right? It was like full force. It went crazy on me. But you can really get to a point where you're like, oh yeah, there it is again. Oh yeah, it's telling me at 830 at night to go buy a pint of ice cream. Like this is absurd, right? So I love that you now feel like that's a little bit more comfortable for that voice to be there, but it's it's not as as potent, I guess, or as loud. Yeah, and I want to add one more thing about that: is the more I resisted it, yeah, the more I ate against my will. So when you say resist it, tell us what that means, because some people might be like, "What does she mean? So like it comes on saying,"Hey, you can have the cupcake, right? And I remember, I remember I told you about one week that I was away, and that was the challenge, being gone away from my routine, and I had a whole plan, but I forgot to plan about what I was going to do for dessert, and my brain would jump on that opportunity, like, "Oh, we don't have a plan. We could do whatever. So, like, have a cupcake, have another one, have a third one. When it tells me that instead of me saying, "Oh, of course you would think we can just do whatever, I would say, "Oh, why is this happening? I can't believe this is happening. That's resistance. Every time I would argue with that desire, I would end up eating the third cupcake. It's almost like you're pissed off that the suggestion is even there, and that's why it's so good to start realizing. Oh, that's my primitive brain. Then you're not like surprised. You're not like horrified. Like we're gonna go to we're gonna go to a graduation party tonight. There's gonna be tons of delicious food there. There's gonna be tons of drinking there. I'm not gonna be like, oh my god. I'm not gonna be mad at my brain for saying you deserve a cocktail and you deserve a brownie bite from Costco. I'm not gonna be. Mad at, of course, it's going to happen. I'm not going to resist it, so that's beautiful. And every time I was resistant, I ate the thing I didn't want to eat. Yes. So, what are you most excited about as you continue on, really continuing to like your next becoming her like version of yourself? I am honestly excited to put on clothes. It's so fun to not have to think about oh which outfit is gonna work for today because I'm a little extra bloated, right? Yeah, that's really fun. You can wear all the things. In fact, I have to buy new clothes because I have the real problem. I have changed size, so that's that's a good problem to have. Yeah, but truly, I really believe that I can go on a cruise now, and to me, that's huge, and feel in control even around the buffet. 100% I believe that. As a matter of fact, I tested it. I go to my sister's all the time. They have gatherings all the time, and they have food all the time, and the things that I used to like, and I look at it, and I can just say, "Okay, I'm good. Yeah, I'll just have a my portion and be satisfied and walk away. And my grocery list has gone down. Shopping is not in existence, and it's just amazing, honestly. And every day, I'm like, "Is this for real? Is this for real? So, have you found that it has affected your business? Because I know your business is like you and I are very similar. Where our businesses are like our babies, and we know you and I both know that like every like the way we eat, the way we feel in our bodies, the way we look and like see ourselves in the mirror, the way we think about what we're capable of-all of that affects every area of our life. So, has this actually had a positive impact on your business? 100% Oh my goodness! So, first of all, the food noise took up too much mental space, so that's gone. It's a little bit there, but again, I'm not resisting it, so it's not coming back with force. Yeah, and so I have a lot more creativity. I'm literally an idea factory, so that's really I really am. I have a lot of space left now, right? And I am truly enjoying my business. And also, the food noise is gone, the energy is back, and I can devote my emotions to my business instead of to the food. Yeah. So you feel like there's more headspace to that you have. Yeah. I remember Brooke Castillo saying that years and years and years ago, and I really didn't understand it until it happened to me. But there is like more space in my head to think about other things because I used to think about food all fucking day, all the time. And another thing too that she would say is finding pleasure in other areas than food. And I was like, what does that even mean? What does that even? Yeah, yeah. Food is my life, right? Until it isn't, and now I'm like, oh, I can have fun while I'm eating my lunch. Sure, yeah. And then I'm done, and I'm gonna have another way, another dopamine hit from writing an email or coaching a client. Or I mean, there's so much value in other areas of my life that I wasn't taking advantage of because food, food, food all day on my brain. Another thing about the business that this has helped me is this connection to myself. I'm very self focused in the sense that I believe a person, a human, we have a gift to be our first number one best friend, and then if you are really best friend to yourself, then you can be really good friend to everyone else in your life. I love that. So the connection with yourself is the most important connection you want to establish. And when I realized that the real problem, yeah, the food was a big deal, but the real problem was the disconnection that I have with my body. Yeah, it has helped me so much that in my program, like what the way I coach my clients, it's so much deeper and better because I am really focused on them connecting to themselves. Because I believe that a woman does what she does because of how she feels, right? Yeah, yeah. And if you don't know how you're feeling because you're disconnected, then you're just acting on autopilot and also like against your will. Yes, gosh, you talk about it so elegantly, and but that's because I spend so much time realizing my own self. Like, oh my gosh, I was doing all these things and I didn't want to. Yeah, so I was really a victim to myself. Yeah, and then when you create that connection back, you start to realize I don't want to do these things because here are my values, and it just-it's so amazing to go to sleep and feel connected and yeah, trusting yourself, listening to yourself. That's the best relationship to improve. Oh, it-I totally agree. Oh my gosh! So if people. Are listening and they're like this girl sounds fabulous, which I know that that's what they're going to be thinking. How can they like learn more about your business? And you have a great podcast as well. I've listened to it. Tell them where they can find you. I'm going to link all of this in the show notes, but like just tell them where they can find you and tell us about your podcast. Okay, so my podcast is Guilt Free Spending Podcast. Love it, and you can find it on all the platforms, and you can find me either on LinkedIn or Instagram, Christiane David. It's Instagram is Christian M David. It's so funny because I even on LinkedIn sometimes it's hard to find me. So make sure you find Christian David, and it's a life and money coach. And we'll link your website too, so they can go to the website and then go to Instagram as well. And I would love for you to just end with if there's a woman listening who's like, you know, I think that that maybe she's been thinking for a while about really like I'm loving the podcast and I really would like to get this done. Right? What would you What would you want her to know about this work that we've done together, and we're still doing together. Yes, this is so fascinating because I was reflecting on this today about the fact that I invested in weight loss coaching, weight loss coaching, and as you said before, I'm a very determined person, very driven person, very independent. Most of the skills that I have, I've self acquired them. So I always like I have this strong belief. There's nothing I can do if I want. If I there's something I want to do, I just know I can do it. Yeah. Except when it came to weight loss, I was like, "It's true, I could do it, but do I want to take the time it would take me to do it? Because I want to live my life now. And I think one of the things we may get confused about is that we could try to do it on our own. It's the most expensive way to think, to be honest. Yeah, it really is. It costs way more than we think, and and your your life is now right. Like if you're alive, you want to live. So I would say it is one of the best investment that you can make on yourself because there's so much. There's something about your brain relaxing when you feel supported, and if you're trying to do it by yourself, because you have to support yourself along the way. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, it is a lot to ask, and I love that you took it back to an investment. There's a lot of people that feel like, oh, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna put in a new kitchen, we're gonna go to here, we're gonna go to there, we're gonna give money to our kids, all that. And but then when it comes to them and their own, you know, learning how to live better, they're like, "Oh, I don't have the money for that, and it's always a little bit, you know, I always feel bad because I think, "Oh, I don't know that they really understand. If you're actually just talking about like an investment, it actually is it is worth to invest to fix this problem now, just in terms of even if we just look at healthcare costs for like for the rest of our lives, yes, and I have to tell you, Courtney, I'm a genuinely happy happy person most of the time, 95% of the time, but I mean now I'm 95% of the time because of the work that I did with you. Oh, I'm serious. So before this, I'm a generally optimistic, positive person. I mean, it's not like I'm dancing all day long, but I do enjoy living. But this relationship I had with food, honestly, it took a lot from me. It really did. It was taking up all of my mental space. I was thinking about food all the time. I felt like a victim, even though I was powerful in so many other places. Yeah, yeah, and beautiful too. So it's not like that, you know. It's not, yeah, that wasn't a problem either. So I had a I had an incredible life before, but this this connection has created a level of intimacy with myself that has taken me to the next level. I actually created a social media post where I said, you know, I am a genuinely happy, really happy person. I enjoy my life, my life. I really do, and I think I want to own that because I think on social media is a lot of highlight reels, and then also we talk about vulnerability, being authentic. So you authentic. So you see a lot of people showing up and saying, you know, I had a hard day today, and and it's like I get that, but honestly, genuinely, I have amazing days. Out of 360-five about 360-two are pretty amazing. I'm not. I'm not good numbers. I'm not lying, right? Good numbers. But before I started working with you, was about 280 until I realized, wait, there's more in the tank, and now I'm about 362. So it's pretty amazing. That's that's so sweet. That's so sweet of you to say. Well, thank you. Yeah, yeah. When you feel like yourself, and when you feel like you can trust yourself, and. And you're living the life you want to live. It certainly does make everything better, right? Even life's challenges. And another thing I just realized too is like, even if you don't think you could see how possible that is, because I remember going through it in the beginning, realizing how much I was changing my belief system around food, and the belief system that I would adopt, I never saw it coming because it was a lot of self-reflection, and I was doing. It's like I was playing with thoughts. I was like, "Wait, let me think this way. Oh, let me let me play around with this one. Let me try this on for a week and see what happens. And then I would start to believe things that if you had told me I would believe it two months ago, I would be like,"No way, that's not possible. So even if you don't think you see the possibility, just know so many women have done it. It's it's available, and listen. On the other side, it's 360-two days of happiness. I love that so much. Oh my gosh! Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I had so much fun. I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to share with your audience about this. I mean, I shouted you out on social media, like I lost 18 pounds. It was the most. This is one of the most alive experience. Oh, and the fun about it, right? Even when I failed and stuff, it's the most alive experience that I've ever had to be losing weight without dieting and really enjoying the entire process. It's wild. You're yeah. I love it. Well, thank you. What a huge what a huge compliment to me in my program. So I'm so grateful to you. And so I will let you go. But before first first, I'm going to say to everyone. So join us. I mean, I think that that was a wonderful, like a wonderful podcast and a wonderful speaking testimonial to this work and to the program, so I'm so grateful to have you. If you are interested in joining us in the Align Life membership, head to modernbodymodernlife.com. Doors are going to close. I think I'm going to close them 8 p.m. Pacific time on August 5th, so we can lock in and do this work together of becoming her. So, Christiane, I can't wait to see your next level of becoming. It's going to be so fun. Me too. I'm very excited. Have a great Tuesday. For information on how we can work together, head to modernbodymodernlife.com to schedule a consultation with me. I'm currently coaching women privately, and I offer group coaching programs.