Katrina Ubell:      You are listening to The Weight Loss For Busy Physicians Podcast with Katrina Ubell M.D. Episode number 85.

Welcome to Weight Loss For Busy Physicians. The podcast where busy doctors like you get the practical solutions and support you need to permanently lose the weight. So you can feel better and have the life you want. If you're looking to overcome your stress eating and exhaustion and move into freedom around food, you're in the right place.

Katrina Ubell:      Hey there. What's up my friend? How are you? Welcome back to the podcast. So excited to have you here today. This episode is gonna be airing right at the end of summer. I can't believe it. I'm recording this about a month before.

All three of my kids are at summer camp this week. One is spending the night and the other two are day campers, but they get to take the bus there and back, because it's a good 22-25 minute drive away. So that is amazing. Love that. They're all having so much fun. And then my middle guy whose seven, has the opportunity to spend the night there tonight, kind of to trial it for doing overnight camp next year. And he was all about it. He was like, “I'm totally in. I'm totally doing it.” So very excited for him to be gone and doing that.

And then before that, I don't know if I told you guys, but my oldest guy, my 12 year old, he flew out to Seattle by himself and did a ten day outward bound camp on a lake on the border of Washington state and Canada. And we literally did not hear one word from him. They were like, “If you don't hear anything, no news is good news.” So we didn't hear anything, so that was good news. He loved it. It was hard, they worked hard, but they're were a lot of really great parts, too, and I think he really enjoyed it. So kids are having a great summer, it's been beautiful weather.

This is why we live in Wisconsin for this time of year. It's so nice. We just love it. So, got a few more trips coming up to top off the summer. I'm actually taking my kids for a week to Switzerland. I have a friend who lives there, in Geneva and she kept saying, “You need to come. You need to come. You need to come.” And I was like, “You know what? Maybe I'm gonna just do it. I think I'm just gonna fly with my kids by myself. My husband's not going.” So I will report back what that was like, but I think it's gonna be fun. I think it's gonna be a really amazing experience.

So anyway, that's been my summer and as you're hearing this, my kids will already have been back in school for over a week. They're starting pretty early, and I actually don't mind that, because I always say that, “Back to school time is a mother's New Year's.” Right? It just feels like, “Okay. Starting the year fresh, we've got good intentions, and we're gonna have good habits and … right?” You just resolve. Like, “I will do this. It's gonna be such a great year.” So I'm sure that's the state I'm in as you're listening to this.

So speaking of the school year starting and resolving to do better, I wanted to let you know that I will have two webinars coming up next week. So September 6th, which is a Thursday and September 8th, which is actually a Saturday. I'm going to be hosting a webinar called ‘How To Lose The Summer Weight and Charge Through The Holidays.'

So if you are finding at the end of the summer, you actually didn't eat as healthy as you expected you would and you just kind of enjoyed all the celebrations and had all the fun Fair food. In Milwaukee here, we have all these fests, starts with Summer Fest, which is around July 4th, which is actually, I think, the largest Music Festival in the whole country. It's huge. So fun. And then every weekend, we have another fest on those grounds, and they're all cultural ones. So Festa Italiana was last weekend. This weekend coming up is German Fest. I'm mean there's just like, you name it there's a fest. So your version of that. Have you been enjoying too much of that?

Too much of the sitting outside with a glass or two or three of wine every night, enjoying yourself? I'm gonna teach you how to get that off and then you know, we start school, we get back into September and it's right into holiday time. Right? I mean pretty much the minute September hits, everybody wants sweaters and pumpkin food and drinks. Right? So it's just before we know it we're right at Halloween and then it's the push all the way through the holidays. So there's nothing more fun than going through the holidays having an amazing time and not only not gaining weight, but losing weight. And this seriously can be done, and I'm gonna teach you how.

So do not miss this webinar. The time, I'm gonna tell you all the time zone times, because some of us are kind of challenged in this area. And so both days it will be at 5:30 Pacific, 6:30 Mountain time, 7:30 Central, or 8:30 Eastern. So again, 5:30 Pacific, 6:30 Mountain, 7:30 Central, 8:30 Eastern. And I'm experimenting this time with the Saturday night webinar, just to see what you guys think. I know a lot of you guys would rather do it on a weekday, but then I know a lot of you guys are really busy. And it's super hard, on a weeknight to be able to commit getting onto anything. So I thought Let's try a Saturday night one. Why not? It'll be fun.

So be sure to join me on Saturday night, if your Thursday nights are just a little too hectic to be able to get on. So to sign up for this webinar, go to katrinaubellmd.com/loseweight. So, L-O-S-E W-E-I-G-H-T. So again, katrinaubellmd.com/loseweight.

So I heard this quote recently by a man named Earl Shoaff, and this is the quote. “Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job.” What do you think about that? Isn't that interesting? “Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job.” I find this to be a very impactful statement, and it really got me thinking about what you're becoming? Right?

If you're working harder on yourself than you are in your job. We worry so much about what we're becoming in our jobs. Like, Am I getting the promotion? Are people respecting me? Do I have this leadership position? Whatever it may be. Am I helping my patients? But are we really working harder on ourselves than we are on our jobs? I think a lot of us are not.

So when you think about what are you becoming? You know, we're always becoming something. We are becoming more or becoming less, or we're becoming the same. We're becoming more competent, or we're becoming less competent, or our competence is staying the same. We're becoming more committed to ourselves or less committed to ourselves, or our commitment is staying the same. We're becoming a person who is naturally thin and manages her mind on a regular basis. Or we're becoming someone who is overweight and may be increasing overweight and is also increasingly relying on over eating and/or over drinking and/or just not being very nice to the people we really care about, in order to neutralize our negative emotions.

We're becoming more courageous or confident or engaged or love or we're becoming less courage, confident, engaged or loving. So all of your decisions today determine who you are becoming. So it's happening whether you're deliberate about it or not. That's what's so interesting. Right? You're becoming someone. It's just a question of, is that person who you'd choose? Is that what you're wanting out of your life or not?

So unless you change what you are and who you are and how you show up, you'll always have what you've currently got. Let me repeat that. Unless you change what you are, you'll always have what you've currently got. So you can have more of what you've got, because you can become more than you currently are. Let me repeat that. You can have more of what you've got, because you can become more than you currently are. Now what's so funny about this is, or you can become, you can have less of what you've got if it means less body fat. Right? We don't want more of the body fat we've already got if we're overweight. Right? But you can become more than you currently are in order to create more of the body that you know is right for you, that is healthy for you.

So what does it mean to become more than who you are? It means being more open, being more committed, more aware, more willing to feel any emotion, especially the uncomfortable ones. Anybody else wish the easy button worked? The easy button is over eating, and it only leads to that overweight body. It means becoming more determined to solve your problems and not just complain about them or wallow in them or think that they're not solvable.

It means being more willing to take responsibility for your entire experience of your life, because you already are doing that. You already are creating your entire experience of your life. So you can take responsibility for that and then recognize that you and only you are the one who has the ability to change the experiences that you're not satisfied with, or you can just keep thinking that everyone else has to change.

You can be more willing to learn to love yourself and not like in a weird whoo-whoo way, but in a way where you are your biggest fan and supporter. This is such a foreign concept to so many of us, but it's not even like learning to love yourself, it's being willing to learn to love yourself. It's so interesting, the resistance so many of us have to even go to the place where we want to learn to love ourselves. It's like we don't feel like we deserve it or it seems weird and whoo-whoo or it seems unnecessary or superficial or something ridiculous.

But I promise you, it is some of the best work you can ever do in your life, because it helps you to create every single thing you want. It also means being willing to be vulnerable with the people you love. Being more vulnerable. So ask yourself right now, what are you currently becoming? And what does that look like? Right? You're becoming somebody and what does her life look like in the future? Is that the future that you want? If you do nothing different then what you're doing now, are you happy with that picture? Is that something that's good for you?

So all of us physicians were above average in school. I think it's safe to say that none of us were average students or below average. And we still consider ourselves to be above average in a lot of ways. I certainly do. I think you do too. We might think we have above average intelligence, above average focus, above average problem solving skills, above average procedural skills, above average interpersonal skills.

Maybe even some of us think we are above average as a parent, as a spouse, as a daughter, as a friend or in some other area of your life. And we really like being above average right? We wanna be above average people, all around. It makes us feel good, but interestingly, a good goal is to be above average as far as weight is concerned. And so remember that 70%, seven zero percent of Americans are either overweight or obese. So if you are in that other 30%, that puts you well above average. So that is a good goal right? Are you above average as far as your weight is concerned?

So if we wanna be above average in our weight, then we have to become an above average person when it comes to taking care of ourselves and being committed to the process of weight loss. So we need above average level of commitment to losing weight. We need an above average level of willingness to be uncomfortable now, in exchange for comfort later. You may remember, I'm not gonna put the, you know, explicit language mark on this episode, but if you remember, much earlier I talked about the, you know, which flavor of you know what sandwich would you like? Right? Do you want uncomfortable now for comfort later or do you want comfort now for extended discomfort later?

Do you want an above average focus on learning to manage your thinking and your emotions? Because, that's what it's gonna require. The average person's level of focus on learning to manage their thinking, and their emotions is extremely little. They're just going about their day letting life happen to them, and they're not causing their life, they're not creating their life, they are at the effect of their life. Life is happening to them.

So if you want above average weight, you need above average focus on the mental mind work, managing those thoughts and emotions that you have. Thinking that you'll get to it soon or after the kids are back in school or this next New Year's or whatever, constantly putting it off, only puts off you becoming the person required to achieve your goal.

So I was thinking about a sailboat because you know, it's summer, and we have a lot of lakes in Wisconsin. So pretend you're in a sailboat right now. So what determines where you end up on the lake? Right? You're in the sailboat, you bring up the anchor, then what happens? What determines where you end up on the lake?

Most people will say that it's the wind that the determines the direction of the wind, is what determines the destination for you. But if you've ever been sailing, you know that it's not the wind at all that determines your destination. What determines your destination is how you set your sails. Right? Your destination, where you end up, is determined by how you set your sails on your sailboat. So everyone in a sailboat is experiencing the same wind, but how you set your sails will determine whether you reach where you want to go or not. So how you set your sails determines what you are becoming.

Are you becoming somebody who gets to the place they wanna go or are you the person who's just letting the wind blow? So ask yourself how intentional you are in how your sails are set. Are you just letting them flap where the wind takes them or are you focusing on how best to set the sails in the current wind conditions you have? Or are you just sitting around waiting for the winds to change and not taking any action?

The other way of saying this is are you focusing on how best to live your life and lose weight, within the current circumstances you have? Or are you waiting for your circumstances to change so that you can then can started living a better life and focusing on losing weight? Waiting for the winds to change, or your circumstances to change, may have you waiting for a long time. A long time of putting off becoming the person that you want to be. Becoming the person that's required of you to accomplish the goals that you have for yourself.

So again, you may be very happy with who you're becoming and if so, that is fantastic. I am super glad for you. I think that's fabulous. I think of a lot of us, if we look at certain parts of our lives, we can say, “Yes. Like I'm totally dialed in, in that area. That's amazing. I totally love what I'm becoming there.” But there are definitely parts of your life where you're not happy with that. And maybe it's your relationships, maybe it's your weight, maybe it's how you take care of yourself. You know, I have a lot of clients who don't even really need to lose weight, but they are so focused on using food and/or alcohol to make their lives better, they just wanna stop all of that. It's not even about how many pounds they lose or how their clothes fit. They just wanna stop the constant obsession with food or using food as a distraction from what's really the problems in their lives.

So if your answer to my question of who you are becoming, is not an answer that's satisfactory to you then it's time to make a change. And that change may look like signing up for my Weight Loss For Doctors Only coaching group, which I'll be enrolling during those webinars. The first one is on September 6th. Or it may look like something totally different. It may not be that at all, but it really is worthwhile to spend a few minutes thinking about how your sails are currently set. And whether you are currently becoming what you want to be or not, and in all areas of your life. All the different roles you play in your life, spend a few minutes thinking about that.

This is gonna be a little bit of a shorter episode. So if I drive to work with you, you can just turn it off and don't turn on another podcast. Spend the rest of the time thinking about your answers to this. Am I becoming what I want to be or not, in all the different facets of my life?

So remember, you are the major key to your better future. Okay? All you need is you. Your commitment to finding the help you need. Your commitment to hiring a coach if that's required, if that's the next step. And not just passively consuming information, but actively applying what you're learning. Your determination is the key to become that person that you want to be. This is the best news ever, I promise you.

Okay, can't wait to see you on a webinar next week. Be sure to sign up by going to katrinaubellmd.com/loseweight. L-O-S-E W-E-I-G-H-T. Katrinaubellmd.com/loseweight

Can't wait to see you guys on there. It's gonna be amazing. I'll answer your questions that you can type in. It's gonna be awesome, and I always say I'm gonna see you but just in case you don't know, I won't actually see your face. So if you're coming on in your jammies, your glasses, your make-up all off, snuggled up in your bed or even like in the bathtub, don't drop your phone. But even if your bathtub, it's totally fine. I still envision you there, so in my mind I'm seeing you on the webinar.

All right, my friend. Have a wonderful week, and I'll see you next week.

All right. Take care. Bye, bye.

Thanks for joining me today. If you like what you heard here, be sure to hit subscribe in your podcast app so you never miss an episode. You can also get my Busy Doctors Quick Start Guide To Effective Weight Loss for free by visiting me over at katrinaubellmd.com