SPEAKER_01 0:04

The most important thing that the most important point that I want to make around this is if it's really really really hard for you and you feel like you're struggling, something is wrong.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

That is a snippet of what we're going to be discussing today. Hey there, Maureen Cherna here, founder of the MindSight Academy, neuro coach to executives, leaders, entrepreneurs, and a neuroleadership trainer using insights from neuroscience to help you deliver results by learning to work smarter, be in control of your brain, manage yours and others' emotions, change behaviors, flourish, and exceed expectations. Welcome back to another episode of Lead to Excel Podcast. I am so thrilled to be with you today. Because I'm so excited to be joined by Jill Cruz again as we continue in our part two our discussion on achieving weight loss by working with your nature. But before we get into that, remember to subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to it. Because it will help other people find it and give them the opportunity to understand how they can rewire their own brain to enable them to achieve their goals. So without wasting any more time, grab your cup of coffee or your drink or whatever that might be. Put your feet up and listen in. I'm so excited to be back with part two with Jill Cruz. Last week we talked a lot about weight loss. You know what you need to do, how to pay attention to your body. This week we're actually going a bit deeper now and bringing it actually going full circle. So without wasting any more time, Jill, it's so great to have you back. After the part one, I did say to myself, no, we've we've got to do a part two and actually do it immediately so that I don't want to do it later so that people can really flow with the message because you've got such an important message to give people. You know, we all need it. I need it so much. I've learned so much just from what we talked about the last time, really being able to pay attention to myself and my body. So I'm just going to get you to introduce yourself again. But if you're listening to this podcast and you've not listened to part one, go back and listen to part one before coming into part two. But just for the sake of those that are just coming straight in here, Jill, please introduce yourself to our listeners. Okay, thank you, Maureen.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

I'm very happy to be here a second time. I so enjoyed the conversation we had last time. So my name is Jill Cruz, and I am a board certified nutrition specialist. I have a Master of Science in Nutrition. And my business is called Work with Your Nature Weight Loss. And really, what we do is we work with women, typically women, who are looking to lose weight and they've been struggling with yo-yo dieting for a period of time and they're tired of the fad diets and all of that. And so we actually, the reason that my business is called work with your nature is that I believe that a lot of uh weight loss strategies out there are doing the exact opposite. So my endeavor is not only to understand the physiology, biochemistry, biology of our bodies, but also our behavioral, uh, the behavioral science, neuroscience aspect of it and what makes it easier for us to do this process, not harder. Because most of the diets out there actually make it more challenging.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Yeah, and and Gila, I think this is why I got really excited when I got to understand what you do. Um, because you're right, a lot of times people just focus, I call it focusing on the symptoms, focusing on the dieting, but you go to a place that really touches my heart, the behavior, it's what's going on inside our brain. And that's really what drives us, and that's really what would make it sustainable. So let's get into it. When we spoke the last time, we like I said, we talked a lot about doing. Now, what about those that have tried every diet, which is tried all the yo-yo diets going up and down? And I'm one of them. I've tried different things that haven't worked, the drastic ones, the oh gosh, you know. What happens when people have tried so many or so many diets, and each time they're back at square one? In fact, most times worse, they actually put on more weight or feel more unhealthy or don't don't even exercise at all. Why does that happen and what can they do?

SPEAKER_01 4:57

So when I talk to a potential client, or if I'm at a party and someone asks me this question, I I it's uh part of the conversation is distinguishing between a metabolic issue that's really making the weight loss very difficult, and a series of so-called failures, what you're describing, right? Dieting and then and then gaining the weight back. Is that more due to behavioral type of stuff? Is it less about your uh the body's inability to let go of fat and more about maybe you just chose the wrong approach? Maybe you didn't stick with it long enough, maybe it was just too extreme and you couldn't stick with it long enough. So there are really two possibilities, and and my job when I speak with people is to distinguish between those two things because there's a big difference, and it's not always clear to me or to the person which one is going on. But the most important thing that uh the most important point that I want to make around this is if it's really, really, really hard for you and you feel like you're struggling, something is wrong. Something needs to be changed. You you it's not a matter of, oh, you just need to be a stronger person. I I don't believe in that. I believe that you know, either metabolically there's an issue, and we can talk about that, or maybe you need more support, or maybe you just need to slow down and and not think about losing weight for a while and heal your relationship with food. It should not be that hard. Nobody should be eating 800 or 700 calories a day, working out an hour a day, suffering and being miserable. Nobody should be doing that. There's just no place for it, in my opinion. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Thank you. That means a lot to me personally, because yeah, it means a lot to me because that's what we do. That's I've done that so many times. And it's a case of okay, let me just do it and get rid of the weight, and it all goes, but you it's it's not sustainable. And you said something that is really important, it shouldn't be that difficult. And if it is difficult, it's finding the reason why it's difficult, and that that just that's the foundation of it. Because if you don't find out why it's difficult, you just keep trying every diet going or repeating them. And I'm a member of a group. This is um a dieting group, and it's so interesting. Someone someone introduced me to it, and I got into it, and I started seeing people that had done it three years ago and have put on more weight and are back to start all over again, and then people that did it a year ago and you know, and are putting the weight back and are coming back, people, and I'm going, no, come on here. If people are are going, are doing this, have done it before coming back, then it doesn't work. So why are we doing the same, why are we doing the same thing all over again? And you know, that is when I kind of realize that actually it's nothing to do with diet, it's me. I have to make sure that I work on my brain first. And I think one of the things I ask myself is why do I want to lose weight? And I think it comes back to that. So, how do you help people in terms of actually answering that why or bringing them to the place where they ask themselves that question? Because you did say that it shouldn't be that difficult. If it is, you know, it could be one of two things. Let's deal with the one thing that it's not a health issue. We'll come to the health issue later. It's not necessarily a health issue, it's just someone that is trying it and um keeps going back to it. How do you help them come to a place where it now becomes something they want to do as opposed to something they have to do?

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Yeah, and that's an important distinction right there. I think that's that's a part of the conversation, is because the truth is there are people out there who need to lose weight for health reasons or they want to lose weight, or maybe they have type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease or whatever, and they know they they they they know it's important for them to do it, but they're just not committed, they're just not ready. So the commitment, commitment is a very, very powerful thing if you really use it as a tool. And also the recommitment, because all of them all off, even I fall off, I'm a nutritionist. I have my days where I don't eat perfectly, or I actually every there, I never eat perfectly, but you know, I have my standards, and so I just recommit, and that takes the pressure off. I think there's so much around this, there's so much, but starting with a commitment is really important, and also starting with, as you said, the why. Why do I want this? And we can think about long-term goals and uh things that we want to accomplish in our lives, the way that we want to live our lives, less pain, more physical, being able to be more physically active, all of that stuff. A lot of that is sort of in the future, a year from now, five years from now, ten years from now. I don't want to age like my mother did. The problem with that, and I'm sure you know this, Maureen, you know, as our brains are not really designed to favor the five, 10 years from now. We favor the present. And so we also have to find day-to-day motivations, things that we can commit to, things that we can get excited about. So, for example, my my biggest example is nighttime eating. And one of the things that I realized was that if I ate late at night, I had it took me longer to fall asleep and my sleep wasn't as good. That's an immediate feedback loop, right? A negative feedback loop. So I actually set as a goal, I don't want to eat late at night. My motivation is I want to fall asleep faster and I want to sleep better. Like that was really important to me. For some people, it's the you know, their their belly gets bloated, or if they eat sugar, they get night sweats or hot flashes. So finding those, and and if you don't have that sort of negative consequence, find a positive consequence that's very soon within the next couple of hours, the next morning, something that's going to drive you. Another thing that I have is uh especially Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I do strength training. And I know that if I eat a lot or if I drink alcohol the night before, my workout, I'm tired. And I don't want that. So it motivates me. So we have it's great to have long-term goals, but we also need to find those really up-close, immediate, almost immediate goals. And you can also give yourself a reward. So one of the things that I do, I don't like getting on the elliptical, but I know I need to do that for my cardiovascular health. So what I do is I get on the elliptical and then and then I reward myself right after that with a dance class, which is fun, it's pure fun. That motivates me. So I think those short-term things are really important, but you gotta be committed. If you're not committed, you're not, you it's it's not gonna happen. And that's fine. Sometimes we are not ready, and that's okay too.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Wow, Jill, because what you're saying here, what I'm hearing is is so powerful because a lot of times we separate our health or weight, our weight loss and all that, we separate it out into a different category of its own. Yeah. You know, so we kind of live our lives, you know, we do our goal setting, we plan for our business, we plan for our lives, we plan for our careers, we plan all that. But when it comes to our health, we don't. Because what you're just what you've just described is exactly what I teach in terms of goal setting with the brain in mind for leaders and business owners, you know, set your goals, have the long-term goal, but break them down into small goals. And it's those small goals that will keep the motivation. Because each time you succeed in a small goal, you're releasing the dopamine, that reward, you're giving your brain a reward to say, yes, I've done this, which is what you've just described. You, you know, once you achieve one, you you you're re you've got a reward for it, and then it helps you to it keeps you motivated to move on to the next stage, which is so important. So, oh gosh, it's it's really interesting because, and and I think for everyone listening, it's a case of really looking at our apps, and it comes back to self-care, taking care of ourselves, putting ourselves first and foremost, and not don't put every other thing, you know, we do our business and all that, and that matters to us. We set those goals, we are committed to them, but not to our own bodies, which is really interesting. And you talked about recommitment. I like that because that gives us permission to know that you know what, we might get it wrong, we might fail, we might, we might fall off the word God, but it's okay to find your, you know, to pick yourself back up and continue. It doesn't mean that when you start something, you won't you won't you won't fall off or you won't get distracted. No, but the important thing is it's because we are we're aware that we could fall off, when we do, we recognize that we've fallen off quickly and then get back on. But it's it's the lack of awareness that leads people to fall off and not realize it till it's too late. So just knowing that there is, you know, we've got permission to recommit, I think is so, so powerful. So thank you so much for sharing that. You know, as I was listening to you, I was just nodding so much. Yeah, go on.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Well, I think you know, part of the problem, especially for people who've struggled and failed before, is that we first of all, you know, if you go into Instagram, you see these perfect, all they're showing is perfect part of life. They're human, we're all human, nobody's perfect. And actually, I take it a step further and I say, expect and even and even um welcome those failures because in that failure is is a lesson. And it's and and that learning process, like think about a baby learning to walk. Yeah, they fall down, and that's that's part of the process. It's literally part of the process. Without it, if you think you're not gonna do that, you know, I don't think anybody, I don't think that exists. Exactly. But the important thing is to still love yourself and still say, okay, what can I learn from that? And if you have done 20 different diets over the past 20 years and you feel like you've failed, that's actually part you that was your journey, you know. I mean, it's not fun, it's hard, but what can you learn about yourself and about your body from that experience? So yeah, the recommit is very important. And I think just the the forgiveness, the self-compassion. Like, what would you do if you're if that happened to your friend? Oh, you know, it's it's okay, you can do like we talk to our friends and even strangers much more kindly than we talk to ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

So it's it's a really there's a lot of trauma. There's actual trauma that's um occurred with many, many, especially women. And we're just we're expected to just brush it off and and take on the latest, you know, popular pill or diet or whatever. And it's it's that's not the work. That's not where the work needs to be done. As you said, the work is here.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Yeah, it's it's it's really the it's really it's really up in the brain. And you see, it's true, a lot of women have gone through a lot of trauma, but worse is that we actually inflict a lot of trauma on ourselves by what we think about ourselves, by what we tell ourselves. We are inflicting more trauma on ourselves, which is so sad. And I like what you said in you know, if I how you started this whole conversation on the behavior, because everything we're talking about now comes from what's going on in our brain, the thoughts we're having, the way we see things, that communication we are having in ourselves, because that is what leads to the behavior pattern that we then exhibit. That that is what then leads to us, you know, trying things out and then it not working, but really not learning from it. So I just love the fact that you said that every single failure or of any form of diet or anything we do, there's a let there's a lesson to be learned. And it's using that lesson to help us to then get better. And I think just telling ourselves that alone is fantastic, it's so liberating because then we're not going into it with so much baggage and pressure, but knowing that you know what I need this, this is why I need to do it, and I'm human. I can't be nobody, like you said, is 100% all the time. You know, there are times we you know, and that's the way to learn. If we don't make mistakes, if we don't fail, then we're really cruising, you know, we're not really growing. So yeah, yeah, yeah. No, thanks for that. So this what we're really talking about here is personal growth in terms of you know how we how we view dieting, how we view the whole process of weight loss. What can you really say? How do you help people um really you know build their personal growth through when they come to see you? How does that play out? How does it work?

SPEAKER_01 19:51

It becomes part of the process. One of our in my business, I I work with two other nutritionists. It's it the the priority is for us to, for us as practitioners to provide a, for lack of a better way of putting it, a safe space and really be there for our clients and just listen and accept and really provide that love that um that's unconditional. Because I think that's where it's a big part of the work that we all need to do, right? Is to love ourselves unconditionally, no matter what. And that is always a journey. I'm on that journey. I have to remind myself every day. Uh, and I think that's a big source of personal growth. Um, the forgiveness, the self-compassion, though those are the real meaty, juicy areas that are that are just a life work. A life work, but um, you know, it doesn't just happen. Self-love, self-care does not just happen. We have to work at it. And I think you can look as you're growing and you're doing more self-care and being more gentle with yourself, gentle and loving, meaning forgiving yourself and also putting taking the time to exercise or eat well, right? Both of those are expressions of self-love. Doing both of those, um, and then a year from now, two years from now, five years from now, you can look back and say, wow, I've come really, really far. And I used to struggle with getting up and walking in the morning, and now I walk for an hour every day. Wow. That is that's not just a physical accomplishment, that's an emotional accomplishment. I I that's the way I see it. And there's a lot about this um personal growth. And and and it's it's also individual for some people, you know, it's just about forgiving. I I have a Thinking of a client right now who, you know, if she can just not eat cake, she's she feels like she's making a progress. So everybody's in a different place. Maybe for someone else, they want to run, they want to do a triathlon. So I think the important thing is that you're moving in the positive direction. And at the same time, you're allowing yourself to be human and forgiving yourself and not taking on too much. So that now it's it's impossible, and you start failing and feeling like you're not going anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Yeah, no, I think you touched on a really important point. And there's a saying that goes, it's repetition that rewires the brain. So it's by repeating it over and over that it becomes a new behavior pattern and becomes a new habit. So that, you know, a year later, you look, like you said, you look back and you go, wow, see how far I've come. It's so easy for me. And you know, a typical example is when you start riding a bike or driving a car. You've got to think of everything you're doing. You've so in this case, it might mean that you've got to really think about what you're eating, when you're eating it, how you're eating it. You know, it's learning that, and that's a process. And like driving a car, it takes time. You know, sometimes you might go for your test first time and not even pass, but you keep going till you're there. And it's the same thing with dieting, it's just keep going. Fall, get back up and keep going. And it's that till it becomes a habit. It's it becomes that behavior pattern that is so embedded into us, that is so wired in our brain. But it's so important to remember that it does take time, it's the repetition that enables the wiring to occur, and that is what will help the old wiring of the which is the bad habits that we've picked up over time, to then either go into archive or just this degenerate and disappear. So that that is just, I think, a fantastic point. That is so good. So I know um Jill, okay, before I go on to this, actually, there's the other aspect of people who've done, you know, try diets and can't lose, you know, even as much as they want to. And we know that in some cases it could be a health issue. And I think it's just worth mentioning here that it's so important to be able to identify, you know, which it is and seek the appropriate help. Um, can you just touch on that briefly, please?

SPEAKER_01 25:17

So it may be a little bit challenging to for an for an individual on their own to assess which one it is.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Even even when I'm on calls with people, I sometimes it takes me a good 30 minutes to really kind of uh figure it out. And then even sometimes it's okay, let's try, let's try and see what happens. Um so the the most of the weight loss blockers, let's say metabolic actual physical challenges that people have are related to hormones. Most of them. Sometimes, if someone has a lot of inflammation in the body, it will the body kind of wants to hold on to the fat tissue and keep the blood sugar elevated. Uh, the the immune cells that are promoting the inflammation, they use glucose as fuel. So they like it when the blood sugar is elevated and that will block weight loss. Sometimes it's GI issues, gastrointestinal issues, uh, usually relating to inflammation as well. But for the most part, it's usually uh hormonal. So it could be too much insulin, which creates insulin resistance. It could be stress. Stress is huge, a huge, huge potential blocking factor for weight loss. It's it's very it's it's completely ignored in your typical commercial, you know, um media type outlook on weight loss. It's it's it's ignored completely, but it's I've seen it in action. I've seen it in action many times. I've seen insulin resistance in action. I'm I'm eating, you know, the person's eating 800, 1,000 calories a day, and they're exercising and they're just simply very, you know, they maybe lose a little bit of weight. It's a real struggle. So when that happens, uh, you know, obviously you you need to work with a healthcare professional. Uh one thing is a lot of times doctors aren't willing to explore this, which is a challenge, yeah, which is a shame, but it's true. It's a change, it's it really is it's a shame. Also, thyroid can do that if your thyroid is underactive. It can um because it's very um thyroid is very important for your metabolism. Metabolism. Uh so there's you know, there's a lot, but there are people who food is not always enough. I've I've worked with people who were eating well. Like if I was eating what they were eating, I'd be losing weight, and they're still struggling. So, you know, there are some people who just need to work harder, unfortunately. I'm I'm I'm sorry to say that. I wish I could be easy, I could wave a magic wand. But if you're really working on the diet, but you're not exercising, you're not physically active, you're not sleeping well at night, or you have a lot of stress, those areas could be explored and worked on first before you run to the doctor and start asking for all the labs. I know it's I know it's not fun. And and then again, thinking about time, right? So if it took, you know, if you're someone who, when you were 20, everything was working fine, and then you slowly started working harder, being more stressed, not sleeping as well, not eating as well, and then 30 years later, now you want to lose weight, that's 30 years of uh abuse. I don't know if abuse is the right word, but just not taking care. That's not you're not gonna online that in a three-month um crash diet. It's a it's a more of a time commitment, and that's why at that point what I say to people is I I'm I I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but and I don't think this is bad news, but you may see it this way. But right now, your focus needs to be on your health, not on the scale. Let's shift away from the scale, let's let's not even look at the scale. So maybe. What can you do to nourish and and care for your body? Maybe you need to get more sleep and just focus on that for the next six months. Because it's again, it's these habits, they take time. Exercise, stress management, and sleep are very, very important, and they tend to be a little bit more challenging sometimes than the diet, because they do it does, you know, if you're going to bed at 1 a.m., it could take you six months to get to the point where you're going to bed earlier and waking up later, you know, whatever it is that you need. So it's not fun to hear, but in a way, it's live, as you said, liberating. Because now, you know what? It's not your fault. It's not your fault. Exactly. It's just a matter of redirecting your attention to something else and being patient and being again like forgiving yourself for whatever you've done to get to where you are.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Oh gosh, no, thank you. Exercise, stress management, and sleep. And I like that because that really brings us almost to the end. Just remembering that it's not just about dieting. It's not just about, it's not just, I'm fine. I don't even like using the word diet, it's not just about what we are eating or losing weight, it's it's a whole package of things. Hormones are a big, big part, like you said, a big, big, you know, have a massive effect or impact on how we feel as well. So it's really, you know, if you can work with someone, it's the probably a best way to start because a lot of times we are so wired in in a particular way that we just need other people to help us, hold us accountable, support us to get to the place where we want to be. And focusing on health, I think is the best message for everyone, every single person. Focus on health and not on the scale. And that is a good way to really bring this to an end. I know, Jill, you're running um a group cleanse. For those that want to attend, or you know, can you tell us more about it and how they can enroll and register to attend this?

SPEAKER_01 32:06

Sure. So it's a 10-day cleanse. I have a page you can go to to sign up for it. After that whole conversation, we're talking about a cleanse. So feel like I should address that for a moment. Yeah. This cleanse is for people who are feel like they want to get a little bit of a kickstart. It's it's it's a finite period of time where you're you do kind of focus on the diet being pretty clean and all of that. We use a a kit. So there's a uh like a shape smoothies that you do every day, and you kind of clean out the sugar and the alcohol and the the some for some people dairy and that sort of thing. So it's it's a it's a little bit of a cleaning up, but it's not a long-term solution. It's just okay, let me let me give my body a boost of energy. Usually when people do this, they feel great at home. At the end, they start to feel a little bit lighter. Um, everything works a little bit better, even you know, your metabolism, that sort of thing. So it's a it's a fun thing to do, uh, but it's really just a short, short uh kind of kick start.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

Let me just jump in here before you you go on. It's it I think the the cleansing is so good and so important because you know, based on everything we've been talking about, doing the cleanse kind of gives you that start in a way to say, okay, let me just get rid of all this. And in the process, I'm why am I doing it? I'm doing it because I want to be healthy, I'm doing it because I want to get rid of toxins, I'm doing it because I just want to feel great about myself. And once you start with that mindset, really focusing more, not so much that, okay, I'm this is a short thing, I've got to do it, because it's it's just the beginning, focusing on that and reminding yourself that I'm doing this for my health, and this is a start of me looking after my health. I think that is a great way to go into cleansing because, and then you once you do it, it's then carrying on the process, focusing on health and not, you know, so because I know we we've been talking a lot about not doing anything, you know, short and drastic, and it's the end. This is really great as a start, and then helping you in the process to start the process of rewiring your brain to enable you create the behavior patterns that you want to achieve at the end. So, yeah. Yes, yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

It's not a crash diet, it's the purpose of it is not, it has nothing to do with weight loss, it's just to really exactly you know clean clean out the cells a little bit and it's not that long. Uh and it and it kind of builds up in the middle too, and we're doing it as a group. So it's it's a fun experience, and uh it does take some effort and and a you know, uh restricting yourself a little bit, but it's I I don't think there's a problem doing that for short periods of time. I think it's great. Yeah, and and and for the specific purpose, like you said, of health, not yes, well, I need to lose 20 pounds exactly. That's a different mindset.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

Yeah. So I'm gonna put the link in the description for anyone that really wants to find out more about this group, Glens. But also, I'm gonna put Jill's details in the description as well. So if you really want to talk to her to find out how do I start, what do I do, just link up with Jill. She is amazing at what she does. And I'm sure you all can just see and hear the passion that she has for really helping people. And um, that was really what attracted me to Jill because I was in the same group with Jill in um Elevate and just hearing her talk about what she does, it really, you know, it really encouraged me. So thank you so much, Jill, for these two episodes you've done with us, for taking time out to come in and giving us so much information. And I really wish you so much um excellence in what you're doing because you do so much and you know so much. And I love the way you connect it to our whole being, which is just fantastic. So thank you. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

Thank you, Maureen. That's very sweet. I appreciate your kind words. And I and I and I really, really enjoy talking to you about all this stuff. This has been so much fun.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Thank you. Okay, three things before we finish today. Have you subscribed to this podcast? If you haven't, make sure you click that subscribe button wherever you listen to this podcast. Because once you subscribe, you will not miss an episode. And as usual, if you have a topic you would love me to speak about or bring a guest on, do let me know by leaving a review. Finally, do have a fantastic week and remember that you are limitless. So I look forward to seeing you in our next episode. Bye for now.