Episode 18: The "Diet Prison" Effect: Why Controlling Your Food Is Keeping You Stuck

What if your struggle with food has nothing to do with willpower — and everything to do with identity, self-worth, and a prison you built yourself?
In this episode, I sit down with Regina Oswald — ICF certified coach, fashion designer, philanthropist, and author of Liberation from the Diet Prison — who spent 30 years doing everything "right" according to diet culture… and still felt trapped.
We go deep on the psychology behind why diets fail, what emotional eating is really telling you, and how the "Diet Prison" effect keeps you stuck in a cycle that drains your energy, your joy, and your ability to actually live.
This one hit close to home for me — and I think it will for you too.

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📖 Liberation from the Diet Prison — Available on Amazon
📸 Instagram: @reginaoswald_wellbeing
💻 Website: https://www.reginaoswald.com/
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📲 Follow us @thelifevisionlab

00:00 Welcome to LifeVision Lab
00:57 Last Episode Feedback
01:23 Meet Regina Oswald
02:39 Roots of Dieting
05:08 Life in Diet Prison
08:35 Pandemic Trigger Point
11:12 Turning Point and Method
13:02 Beyond Eat Less Move More
18:02 Iceberg and Stress Biology
22:30 Why Nine Weeks
24:08 Autopilot Habits Analogy
25:28 Breaking Emotional Eating
26:50 Analyze Plan Reward
32:08 Daily Joy Practice
33:38 Style As Self Care
36:30 Body Mind Harmony Formula
37:43 Future Self Motivation
40:42 Worthiness And Self Sabotage
42:13 Where To Find The Book
44:45 Rapid Fire Round
47:43 Final Reflections And Next Steps

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Life Vision Lab Podcast, everyone. A space designed for people who look like they have it all together on the outside, but the inside are craving clarity, alignment, and a deeper connection to themselves. At Life Vision Lab, we don't just talk about growth, we actually build the tools, the practices, and the environments that help you live it. So whether you're here listening, part of our Shift Lab community, or exploring some of our digital tools and programs, you're in the right place. And if you're someone who's been feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or just slightly disconnected from your own life, I have created a space called the Shift Lab, where we go deeper into these conversations with structured tools, guided sessions, and a community that actually is doing the work. And you can explore that along with some of our digital parody tools through the links in the show notes below. I know last episode really resonated the episode with Andre Pality. A lot of you reached out to me and said he has called out some amazing things about relationship, the masculine and the feminine energy. So if you want him back on the episode at Life Vision Lab or if you'd like to have a Q ⁇ A session with him, I'm more than happy to arrange that. So please drop in the comments below. Now today's conversation is one that I think is gonna land very, very deep. Because we're talking about something that looks like it's just about food, but it's actually about control, identity, self-worth, and your relationship with yourself. Our guest today spent over 30 years doing everything right, according to Diet Culture. And still, it didn't work. Regina Oswald is a certified ICF coach, founder of the Body Mind Harmony Program, fashion designer, philanthropist, and now author of Liberation from the Diet Prison. I love that title. And this conversation goes far beyond wait. I need this conversation just like many of you here. So, Regina, welcome. I'm really looking forward to this.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Thank you so much, Bada, for such a warm welcome. And I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be part of this beautiful space that you created where you talk about important things. And today we're gonna talk about relationships with ourselves through the diet mentality.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

I love that. Before we get into everything, Regina, I want to go back. You started dieting at, I think you mentioned to me 12 or 13. What did that experience feel like for you? So I grew up in a family.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

It's a great question, thank you, because everything has roots. So the roots of my um journey started for my family. I was surrounded by a lot of overweight, I would say obese people. And of course, they had problems with their health related to their obesity. And I was growing up seeing that, and from an early age, I learned that we are predisposed. And my mother, who was on diets her whole life, going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. So I have to be on a strict control, but I have to find control it. My mother did. And 30 years I've been controlling my body. I have to admit that nobody saw me overweight, but nobody saw a struggle that was going on inside of me. I was in my own prison, in my own cell. I was the warden, I was the prisoner, and I was the one who punished. So, and that was all in my head, that was all inside of me. And yes, we build this facade, we build this persona that everything looks great from the outside, but from inside, I was so tired of carrying that burden. I realized that our soul perceives control of our body as a burden, and that's why we feel so drained and tired and frustrated to carry it. So that's how it started. And it took me 30 years to realize that I've been fighting with my own biology, and God did not create me to do that.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Wow, there's so many things to unpack here, Regina, especially when you said you uh were the prisoner, the warden, and the one handing out punishments. I think a lot of us can relate to it just with the way you articulated it, because we are so in our head thinking this is the limited way we can be. But when you said that statement, what did that actually look like for you in your day-to-day life?

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Basically, everything I eat, there is a calorie calculator in my head. If I'm home, there is a scale on my countertop that I, well, first of all, my day started with weighing myself. And by the way, I did not weigh myself for about two years. And today, preparing for podcasts, I put on suit that I think last time I wore a year ago, and it's perfectly fit on me. So that's all I need to know. It's more important how I feel in my body. So when I was in diet prison, my morning started with weighing myself and depends on what the scale shows. And by the way, scale does not show your muscle composition, scale does not show what time of the month you are, scale does not show if you ate something salty the night before. Scale does not show if you did not sleep well and you might be having some water retention. Scale does not show it. Scale just gives a verdict. Here it is, right? And that's how my day started. So it's basically the set the mood for the day. If I was down, I was happy. If I was up, I was miserable. So if I was down, then it's immediately the plan of action, what restriction we have to put upon me today. So that affected my breakfast. So, how many calories should I have? What shall I eliminate from the food? No candy, no this, no nothing, no joy. So that's basically, and then you go to the restaurant and you just allow yourself to go out of that prison cell, right? Immediately the warden shows up and kind of like, okay, what did you do? Then you punish yourself, you go to the gym, you run the next day. That's never stopping battle. And our vital energy, not physical energy and physical energy too, but our vital energy is not limitless. And if we spend it on the war, if I spend so much energy on controlling myself, fighting with myself, punishing myself, that there is no energy to actually leave. So it's not about failing diets, and of course, body resists, soul resists, it's not about failing diets, it's about failing to leave.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

That's right. And I think so many of us live in that prison. So thank you, Regina. I think it's a very important conversation for us to have because just like you said in so many words, if we're so focused on being the prisoner, the warden, and the punisher, when do we have the time and the energy to shine our light? Because we're being so hard on ourselves.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

To be a good mother, to be a good partner, to be a good friend to yourself, first of all. To to to do something great in with your life. You're controlling your you're controlling your weight, basically.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yeah. I think it's a good segue into the next conversation I want to have with you. You lost the weight, but your body, you said push back at some point.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

So what happened is six years ago, I launched my clothing brand, Regina Oswald Collection. That was my childhood dream, and everything was ready. The models, the runway, the guests were invited. We had about 150 guests, and it was a beautiful venue. Pretty much everything was ready. March 31st was the launch date. It's on my birthday. March 16, we got order to shelter in place, so we had to cancel everything.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Indeed, 20 March was literally when because of the pandemic, we were going into lockdown.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

It's 2020. And I was so frustrated what to do. We we did a virtually, we made a movie and we did we did a virtual launch. Everybody received that virtual launch, but then I could not hire models because we had to shelter in place. So my son and my husband became my photographers, and I became a model. So I looked at the pictures and I was not happy. I did not look like model, at least I I thought how I was supposed to look, and I did not look that way. So I decided to starve myself to 1,000 calories a day. And yes, I lost about 20 pounds very fast, but I also started losing here. My hormones started fluctuating. That brought me later on to early menopause. I got iron deficiency anemia, and I got compulsive overeating. So every time I was in front of the food, my body basically made me, my mind, my body made me eat everything that I saw because did not know when the next time I will starve it. And that was so it's not about to lose weight, it's about will you be able to live this the rest of your life? Will you be able to sustain it the rest of your life? Right? So I did not think about that because all I thought about how to lose weight. And then the next fight came how to sustain it, because I could not leave 1,000 calories a day. And then I realized that I'm doing something completely wrong. I'm fighting with my own biology. That's like, and and I had this heartfelt conversation with God, and I wrote about it in my book that I was walking my morning walk, and I was just asking God for the way, asking God for like to help me to find the way. And on the side of the road, I saw the note like a drawing, piece of drawing that said, I love you. That was a sign that God's love was always there for me. I can lean on that and I can find the way. And then I took course in wellness and nutrition within uh Harvard Medical School. I uh started working with nutritionists, psychologists, coaches, and then I became an ICF certified coach. And that was my journey, pretty much. That's how Body Mind Harmony Method was uh was born. Uh, that's how I liberated myself from a diet prison. So I worked on my mind, I worked on my body, and I was changing narratives.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

And I love that because you took something negative in your life and you changed it into something positive and not just positive, but now influencing hundreds of people around you, maybe even thousands. And I love that. And so now we're talking about your book, and Regina, thank you for raising it because there's this really good line that you were trying to solve weight issues without the mindset work. It's like looking for your keys and where the light is. So let's talk a little bit about that. And when did that realization click for you? Was it on that walk where you looked up and said, God, what do I do now?

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Yeah, it's it actually came when I started working with psychologists, but that's what the universe kind of lined me up with as my request was. Um, but I always give this beautiful example of so in my childhood, my grandma was a simstress, and I learned how to hold a needle and uh thread uh a very, very early age, but I did not know how to make patterns. So I was basically doing like 2D clothes, so it was just like cutting the pants that look like pens, right? So and then I put them together with a thread, and then I tried to pull it on my dolls, and it did not fit, and it was very frustrated because it looks like pens, but it does not did not fit on my dolls, and I just later I realized because my dolls were 3D, and I tried to put 2D clothes on 3D dolls, the same thing here. If we try to resolve something in 2D, kind of like okay, eat less, move more, it doesn't work, it doesn't, because it's just not only that a lot of people use food not to satisfy physical hunger, a lot of people use food for something else rather than just physical need. People are not gaining weight if they eat unprocessed food to satisfy their physical hunger. It's like the car. The car needs to be filled with gas. We cannot drive the car without gas. It's at some point it will stop. Our body needs nourishment, and it's a beautiful thing, and then we have hunger. Hunger is a signal of our body that we need to give our body nourishment. We have to respect those are the gifts. Those this is a default settings that come to us, right? Now, what do we do? We try to use food for all other for boredom, for stress, for anxiety, for mood, for pleasure, for anything, right? And the body is like, I don't need that food right now. I did not ask you for food. That was emotional void. That was you needed something else, but you put a food. So what can I do? And the body does what it's supposed to do, it put it in the fat, right? So that's kind of like we I we go in depth in my book. We identifying what's a hunger, what's appetite, like you know, and how to deal with those both. Because if we give body nourishment, it will not accumulate it, it will not hold it. Then the next thing is about hunger. Somehow, people who are in the diet mentality, people who are trying to lose weight, they perceive hunger as something bad that has to be suppressed. Hunger, it's a signal that our body needs nourishment. That's it. Yeah, so when we change this narrative and we should not be afraid of hunger. So next time someone feels hunger, just stop and ask yourself, okay, when the last time I ate, okay, for example, my morning, I ate around 6 a.m. and I did not have appetite to have like a full breakfast, so I just had something little. I started feeling hungry. Then I asked myself, Regina, okay, you ate three hours ago, but you had very, very tiny piece of waffle, protein waffle, that was not enough. This is your physical hunger. Go and satisfy it. Your body is asking for nourishment, okay. Then this is this is how uh we are with consciousness and kindness we treat our body. If that moment was kind of like, okay, uh, I ate very good breakfast, but now I'm hungry. Maybe it's because I'm nervous because my podcast is in one hour. Well, maybe I just need to make myself tea, sit down, and calm myself. That's it. So both of them are calling for food, but then when you like, you know, don't try to suppress it, try to communicate with it because it gives you signal of the need. What type of the need? Is it physical or is it emotional?

SPEAKER_00 18:02

I love that because that then opens up to my next question. In your book, when I read it, Regina, you talk about the iceberg concept, right? Yes. So because I think this is where everything shifts for us, for me, that's where everything shifted. Most people focus on food, workout, like you said, right? Calorie counting, I need to hit the gym today. Did I get enough steps in? Which are all absolutely required, but you're saying that that's just the surface and there's something more underneath.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Yes. Okay, and now we go into more physiology, and this is essential to understand. So we have different parts of the brain, and they're responsible for different functions in our body. We're, I'm telling you, the more I learn physiology of our body, the more I appreciate, and that confirms that we are wonderfully made. We just have to take care of that wonderfully made. Learn to listen to it. Body. Yes, learn to listen to it. And the hunger, by the way, is something that that's a conversation between body and us. We have amygdala. Amygdala is our ancient brain, it's right here in the back of our it threats, it it it basically um sense the threats even before they actually appear. That's kind of like you know, that's very protective. It's like, you know, so I'll give you an example. Sometimes you talk to someone, and all of a sudden you feel like you want to withdraw from this person, you want to distance yourself from person. Amygdala is sensing that this person is judging you. This person is like, you know, and even before your cortex, that's like, you know, our rational, our CEO or very smart and educated brain, our amygdala gives the signal to the body to distant. So, what happens when we just focus on the food, on the movement, and most importantly, controlling the food and the movement. Our amygdala sends it as a threat. We're kind of like, you know, like we're in that controlling where we're we are like, you know, we are in the uh in the tense uh condition because we're controlling, like I have to, I have to, I have to, I have to. Not I need, not I want, I have to. So our amygdala through hypothalamus sends signal to our body, and cortisol starts coming out, and this is our stress hormone. When cortisol is in our body, it basically our body is in a survival mode. When the body is in a survival mode, it does not prioritize healing, restoring, losing weight, balancing anything. Okay, it holds everything, it prioritizes survival. I give this example. Imagine a person who tries to fight with you, right? And you try to take cloth from that person very hard, right? Now imagine the person who is kind of soft and trust you, and kind of like you know, you can easily undress, like you know, we all have children, right? We had to yes, okay, that's the same thing. So when the body softens, when the body comes down, when the body is in this is a sense that okay, you're not restricting my food, you're giving me nourishment, you're not punishing me with physical exercise, you're moving me because it's essential for me. You're doing it because you care for me. The body starts cooperating. That's why that psychology, that our emotional, our mental health is a huge part of the iceberg. If we ignore it, then we still that on that top, we're still in the prison.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

So if you had to explain iceberg in one simple way, what would you say?

SPEAKER_02 22:21

I would say that it has to be a complex approach. So it has to be like, you know, we have to see the whole picture.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

And and your book follows a nine-week journey. Why did you say nine? Why not three? Why not four? Why not six? Why is it nine weeks?

SPEAKER_02 22:42

So it explains actually in the book why it's nine weeks, because it's uh we by the week nine, we come to the competent, uh sorry, conscious competency. So there are stages people think that it takes 21 days to learn new habit. Let me tell you, if for 21 days I will remind myself to drink a glass of water, but then after 21 days, something happens and I will not do it for a couple of days, I will forget it. So to get to their stages to get to the conscious competency where you kind of like you know what to do, and you still have to remind yourself what to do, but you already know you're already competent, right? So that takes nine weeks, and then up to two years unconscious um competency, where basically it just becomes like nature. You get to your car, like right now, that's that's how my life is. I don't even think about it, like you know, like I sense it, I understand. My my my uh my mind tells me, okay, Regina, you had enough food, or that's not enough food for you. You need to eat because you you need like you'll get hungry in one hour or something. So, but I do it like almost like an autopilot. Just remember when we learn how to drive a car, right? First, we kind of like you know, like when we were kids, we didn't even know that we did not know how to drive a car.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

Then the time came and we're like, okay, we want to drive a car, we do not know how to drive a car. Then we start driving the car, we control everything. We're just sitting like this. The whole, but you know the rules because without rules, nobody would let you get to the car, get into the car, right? So you know the rules, but still it's kind of like you're controlling everything, you're controlling the light, the the the next car to you, like you know, the turn signal, the like you know, like you even turn turn off the radio so it doesn't distract you, right? And then, like you know, time passes by and you kind of like you're driving, you're like, you know, like you're listening to the news. Because you have 10 things on your mind, but you're still driving. Yeah, and then your husband, let's say, calls you and then uh asks you something or like to want to share with you something, you continue driving, autopilot, everything happening. You stop at the stop sign, you stop at the interact intersection light, like you know, everything works on order, but yes, you're still in control, but you're just observing, you're conscious, you're observing, you're present.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

And this is the second time I am hearing this too, Regina. Um, the first time I heard it was in the 5 a.m. club book that Robin Sharma talks about how we need to commit to a 66-day cycle, which is pretty much nine weeks, um, as you mentioned, to ever get a habit to stick, right? And then you keep working at it. And like you said, two years then becomes just part of your subconscious programming, then. And so what keeps people committed long enough? And I ask this because I struggle with it, Regina. I really struggle with the food I eat. I clearly know I emotionally eat, and I'm sure a lot of the listeners who are tuning in also understand that it's sort of become the norm. We're like so stressed, and so we're like, oh, we emotionally eat, so I'm gonna eat a big meal today, and then you starve yourself the next day because I had a big meal, so today I'm not gonna eat anything, and that in turn has an impact on your mood and just how you get so critical about yourselves in your head. So, what keeps people committed long enough to actually change? And I am now looking to you as what I look to the universe to say, give me a way, right? Like, how do we commit to it?

SPEAKER_02 26:50

First of all, like you know, every time we fail, we need to learn something from it. And that's in my book. It's a called dated cold cycle. Like every time something happens, like let's say you set your mind that you will not be eating driven by emotions, right? But then something happens, and that happens. You analyze it, you strategize, and next time it and next time and make plan, what will I do next time to prevent that? How can I do it differently? Maybe I will go straight to the shower, maybe I will go, and I think I wrote about it in my book. What was happening with me? I I listen, I was also a stress eater, and I'm introvert, but every time we came from the events, and I was so because like big events, galas, like you know, like, and you know, I'm in the gown and everything, and there was plenty of food, so I was not hungry, but I came home and I was so overwhelmed with all this communication and talk and the noise and the people, lights, music that I went to my pantry and I started eating. Then I started eating the chocolate candies, and then you know, it was too sweet, then I needed something salty, then I needed something sweet, so I ended up with eating so much more that like you know, that I would ever eat even for my meal calorie-wise, right? And it still did not fill the void for that getting you know, getting your uh getting into your shell, getting into your like that's what I needed.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

I am and leave you with your energy because you were out there with amongst a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

So basically, I try to feel the lack of my mental energy with physical. So that's kind of like you know, and and then I started thinking how can I I use that David Cole method. Okay, I come home, I put my clutch, and then I go straight. I'm still in the gun. I go straight to my pantry. No, I will not do that. Instead, I'll go upstairs and I'll undress, I'll put my comfortable robe, and then I'll put my mask and I'll just lie down in the darkness on my bat in my bath. And I said, okay, let me try it next time. And if I succeed in it, I'll put$20 aside. So to make story short, I I I gathered$300, okay, and it stick with me. Now, when I come home, I go straight upstairs to my bedroom in my closet, I undress, put my robe, and that's it.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

And I don't eat anymore, like to uh to uh calm myself because you found a way to do it away from the pantry, so there was a python interrupt that you kept practicing, and over time now it's become so natural for you.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

Yes, so but then those twenty dollars was a reward, yes. So our brain reminds remembers good feeling, and when we do something and we succeed, uh reward yourself, craze yourself, say Shredder, you're doing so great, you're doing so great. You planned something and you did it, and it went great, you did so great. So, brain remembers why sometimes, like you know, psychologist coaches recommend that, like, you know, let's say you you already spent half of your day and you kind of like feel drained, feel a little bit lost. So every time, and that's why my book not only is it divided into nine weeks, but it's also kind of subcategories, then it's a very, very small steps. And even if you add one glass of water a day, praise yourself.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

Praise yourself for every little step, and so that's such a good, I guess, insight and way of looking at it, Regina. Thank you. And I'm definitely gonna try that. I know personally when I do a brain dump in the morning and I have my actionable items, I have thoughts that I can keep it aside. I actually have set aside worry times. So I've practice now that when I want to start worrying about something, I push it away and say, 4 p.m. is my worry time. I'm not gonna think about it. So I set aside time and actually, when I get to the 4 p.m., then I'm like, no, I'm not so worried about it anymore. Let's move on, right? And so I think some of these practices, just being intentional every day, I think will get us to that point. And I love that. But so are you saying then the week that you call the La Dolte Vita in your book is different from what you're sharing? What role does pleasure play in healing? Or is it the same?

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Uh okay, so joy is uh is essential for our body to soften. Joy is is not we I say that you have to choose at least one joy a day, and it does not have to be something expensive or extravagant, you know. Maybe you like iced coffee, that first sip of iced coffee, like you know, fresh bruised iced coffee. That's your joy, just kind of like you know, just savor it and just like you know, like so or just spend time like you know, reading something, like find time reading something for people who love reading, like you know, right? So something joyful for you. Go buy yourself new lipstick, okay? And kind of like you know, like and enjoy it, do something, do something different, take some different route, do something that brings you joy. Maybe your cups are already so old and they don't kind of like you know, gives you much pleasure to drink from them. So buy yourself a new mug, you'll right. So those are joy isn't when the body kind of enjoys not a reward after we are fixed.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

And how does something like creating beauty in your environment, even what you wear at home, impact your relationship with yourself? Because I know this, Regina, when I don't dress well and I have a lazy morning, I don't take a shower, I don't have my hair done, my day is so shitty, I just don't enjoy that day. So there is a lot of wisdom in that. But talk to me about your process and how you realized it.

SPEAKER_02 34:05

So for me, even when I created my collection, my collection was the first kind of 22 pieces, was a staple items that helped, you know, how like you stand in front of the uh in front of the closet was a lot of uh a lot of pieces, but very hard to connect. So my first collection was those pieces that would help to connect everything. It's just a staple pieces, but very uh beautifully crafted. So I always said those five minutes that you spend with yourself looking in the mirror and enjoying the reflection, that's energy you carry into the world. That's how you carry yourself, that's how your shoulders will like you know spread. That's how your your back will be like, you know, like your shoulders open up, your head will be like, you know, your walk, your like, you know, like those five minutes.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

If you come and look in the mirror again, like or I want to go to bed, I just don't want to go through the day, right? And then you're just gonna carry that energy through the day.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

And there are some days when, like, you know, the the day, like you know, we discussed a little bit. My lunch was on 70. And the next day, I spent the whole day literally in my sweat suit because it's comfortable. I needed to like recharge, I needed to like you know, process everything that happened. That was a beautiful day, so many flowers, so many, you know, so much mirroring from the people. And I I was very, very excited, but I needed to like you know, and it's okay once in a while to spend the day in your sweatsuit, but make an effort, yeah, make yourself pretty, not for the world, for you, and then the energy that you feel yourself by looking in the mirror that you will bring into the world, and that's what it's almost like energy is a currency, right? So the vibration that you are in, you are attracting the similar vibration, right? Beautiful, that's and that's very important.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

And I think I had obviously the luck and the privilege of getting to read your book, Regina. So, and I enjoyed it. I still open it and I still make sure that I refer to some of the things you share, but you have a specific formula for body-mind harmony. Can you share it?

SPEAKER_02 36:40

Yes, let's be um it's basically your physical energy, your mental energy, and motivation. So this is the it's in the end, that's like you know, that that formula, and that formula is from uh my uh psychologist, Valerie Romatsky. That's uh his formula that helped me, and that's why I put it in my book. And that's basically what we discussed. We need physical energy as our our movement, our the way how we move in you know in our life, right? So we're not we're not sitting on the couch all day, so we move, we explore this world, we do things, we dance, maybe. I started dancing like a few months ago, he'll dance, and I enjoy it tremendously. So, our emotional energy, it's what we discussed, and then motivation. So, let's talk a little bit about motivation. So, a lot of people go from what they see in the mirror and kind of like, oh my god, I hate the way how I look, I need to do something with it. If you keep in your head that picture of that woman who might be out of shape, who might look tired, who might look that she kind of a little bit lost herself, okay. That's what you're kind of like, you know, that's what you are manifesting. Let's create motivation that can excite you. Create an image of the woman, and I talk a lot about that in the book. Create an image of the woman that you want, not the net, not the star, uh, not the movie star, not the like, you know, maybe you can get like like um uh inspired, but create what you want with your life. Yes, imagine yourself, okay. I want to look this way, and then I want to okay, and then then start almost like making this picture real, like dress yourself. How you dress there, okay. And ask yourself, okay, this woman, that woman in the future, okay, how does she take care of herself when she wakes up? What does she do? Does she does she scroll reels or does something positive for herself for her mind? Right? What type of breakfast she has? Think about that woman, and almost like a Christmas tree, start decorating this new life. Yes. Make this motivation so you get so excited that you start taking steps.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

So now, Regina, we have so many AI tools where you can actually, and this is something that I did, so I'm gonna share it with everyone. When I started reading Regina's book, I was like, okay, who is that future me? How do I want to look like? And for me, it was so easy to create that image through AI and just stick it onto my mirror. So now every morning I wake up, there's not a single day. I think you and I met Regina two, three weeks ago, I want to say, and you shared your book, and I started reading. Since then, I haven't missed a day of workout, I haven't missed my steps, I'm eating good food, I'm conscious, I'm conscious of what I'm eating. And you kind of like you have to allow yourself.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

Yes, yes. And we talk about this also through pages of my book, how we self-sabotage ourselves. Yes, because we feel that we're not worthy, yes, and you see, I started talking about it, and I started feeling like you know, like on my shoulders, like so. This is a very, very deep topic because a lot of people cannot imagine that version of themselves. Like I put picture for me. That was a woman somewhere in Paris, okay. Like, you know, like and she has a beautiful body, and she's like, you know, she's not hiding her legs, and then she's drinking coffee, and she's in the present and she's enjoying herself, yes. So, but some people do not feel or some women do not feel that they're worthy. That's when we self-sabotage ourselves, we start doing something, we see results, but then kind of like, no, that's not that's not I'm that's not me. So that's another thing, that's another layer that we have to start working and changing the narratives that the way how we talk to ourselves, the way, and we don't have to do anything to become worthy, we have to remember that we are worthy just because we exist, it's our birthright.

SPEAKER_00 42:11

I love it, and for those who want to buy a book, Regina, where can they find it? Can you share it with everyone here?

SPEAKER_02 42:19

Well, now it's available on Amazon and for Kindle readers. Uh, I'm a Kindle reader. For Kindle readers, they can buy Kindle version and it's available immediately for the paperback version. They can buy it and it will be delivered to them. I think it's even available in Europe. So you let me know if it's available in Canada. I'm pretty sure if it's in the course, uh I could be reached through my Facebook, through my Instagram, through my website. So um I'll be happy if uh your listeners have any questions or something that they want to ask me, I would be happy to.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

I love that. And you'll heard me in the beginning of the episode where I shared if you'll want QA with Andre, please drop in comments. It's the same thing with Regina as well. I'm sure Regina would be gladly happy to join us for any QA sessions that we can organize. I love that. And I love that that is when the real wisdom can be shared as well with one-on-one questions, real time, real results, real transformation. So I do appreciate your generosity, Regina. Thank you. And I'll drop all the links in the show notes below to show you how to connect with Regina and how to buy her book. I've loved her book. I'm still enjoying it. I keep referring back to certain pages because it's kind of become like my Bible to understand my body and to eat healthy and how I can feel best. I'm not going to say how I can lose. Weight because I am happy the way I am, and that's what I'm practicing. And just saying that in the last two weeks, I have I can see that I've started shedding some inches off my waist, which is wild. Just the thought alone can really change things in our body.

SPEAKER_02 44:19

And it's so interesting because I never positioned my method as the weight loss problem. Exactly. But people do lose weight because they calm down, they soften the body softens, the body kind of like you know, and they start taking care of their bodies instead of controlling it.

SPEAKER_00 44:43

Yes, I love that. We're gonna get into a quick rapid fire round, Regina, just to get to know you a little bit more. What's a once forbidden food?

SPEAKER_02 44:53

I don't eat dairy because I don't like how I feel after dairy. So it's not really forbidden, but I don't eat dairy. It it just makes me feel so bloated. So the messaging is listen to your body on how it feels each time you eat. Absolutely. And you know, the interesting thing also, I am not lactose intolerant. It's just the way how my body tells me that it's not what it needs. Amazing. Your morning ritual. Um, my morning ritual at 5 30 a.m. I get up, I uh have my morning routine, and then I have a beautiful full breakfast, and then seven o'clock I leave for my workout. So that's my morning routine. Amazing. Advice to your younger self love yourself, move yourself, sorry. Support yourself support yourself and uh um don't doubt yourself. Amazing movement you love. I love weightlifting, I love uh running, but not not long distance, just kind of like a short kind of uh periods of cardio. Uh and then I started heel dancing. I love it. I love that, and harmony begins where harmony uh begins when we start listening to ourselves. The simplest yes, the simplest exercise is you put your hand on your heart and just listen, and just listen for 15 or 30 seconds or whatever time you have, and that's how you start listening to yourself. Because in order to listen to your heart, you have to quiet all the outside noise.

SPEAKER_00 46:39

Yes, beautifully put. Thank you. If someone is listening and they feel stuck, what's their first small step? You said listen to your body. Could you give us one more?

SPEAKER_02 46:52

Also, uh, tell yourself uh every time you feel stuck, you feel uh that you're harsh, there is a harsh voice in in you. Tell yourself, I am allowed to move at my own pace. That's such a and then yes, and maybe put your heart, put put your hand on your heart, tell yourself that, then get up, get a glass of water, and start praising yourself. You just you just did something really, really good for your whole body.

SPEAKER_00 47:22

And it feels so silly in the beginning, but I completely trust you on this, Regina. Once you start doing it, you're in so much awe of yourself, right? And there's a point you reach, and then you're so driven and motivated to do so many things. So I love that. That's how like small, small, small steps. Yeah, I love that, Regina. This was such a beautiful and honest conversation. And if you're listening and something in this episode resonated, don't just take it in and move on. Take a moment, reflect, and ask yourself, where am I still trying to control instead of understand? Very different approaches to getting over your own self. And if you want to go deeper into this kind of work, you can join us inside the Shift Lab community. You want to have a QA session with Regina. As you've heard, she is more than happy to come on again. So please don't be shy. Put your questions in the comments. We're gonna be tracking it and we will organize a call just so all of you can join and have real conversations. And if you're looking for more structured support, you can also explore a lot of the products, our digital products online, as well as Regina's contacts that I'm gonna put in the show notes below. All of that is linked, and so you're just one step away from taking care of yourself. And I'd love to hear from you. Until next time, stay aligned, stay intentional, and keep building a life that actually feels like yours. Thank you.