What if Healthy Living were Easy. Podcast Episode 150

I'm always saying healthy living is easy. Eat more vegetables, do some exercise. It's so easy!

But making those changes can feel hard. Our brains like to make a lot of fuss and tell us it's going to be hard!

We don't like to make changes! Especially changes that feel "hard".

Today I'm talking about "what if it were easy?"

And how my clients go from "I never thought I could do it" to "oh wow! It's so easy!"

Healthy Habit Challenge

If you'd like to join the Healthy Habit Challenge, you can sign up here: https://www.drorlena.com/healthy-you-healthy-family-habit-challenge 

Transcript of “What if Healthy Living Were Easy” Podcast

Please note this transcription is auto generated. It may not be perfect!

Hello, and welcome to fit and fabulous with me, Orlena Kerek. I hope that you are feeling amazing fit and fabulous today. Okay. I have a question for you and you may have heard me ask this question one or possibly two times before, but I think it is a question that is worth asking again and again and again and again, and the question is this… “what if it were easy?”

Can You Image if Healthy Living were Easy?

What if making all of those changes were easy? Now, the reason why I think it's important to ask this question is because I talked to so many people, and one of the questions I ask them is what's stopping you from making changes. And I hear so many reasons, so many excuses. Now I know we all have lives and we all have all of these things going on, but it is so much easier to make changes when you have this idea that it's going to be easy.

Congratulations Kara Has Lost 30 Ilbs

So before we dive a little bit into this question, I want to take the time to say a big, amazing congratulations. Kara is one of the ladies in the healthy youth healthy family group program. And she has lost 30 pounds. That is amazing. I am so happy and so proud of you. Kara fabulous. 30 pounds is the equivalent of four average size newborn babies.

That is absolutely fabulous. Let me just read a few words that Kara says …actually, Kara and I met awhile back when I was doing some free sessions. I was doing something called a Dr. Orlena's office hours. And she says that at that time, she said, since we've been working together over the last few weeks…

“some of the things that I have noticed is that I no longer feel the urge to grab chocolate or another treat just because I'm feeling emotional, I'm choosing other kinds of self-care instead, and it's working.”

“And I'm also no longer overeating since we talked about overeating and. Now consistently eating smaller portions, not feeling the urge to go back for any seconds. And I'm excited to meet the version of myself with a normal, excuse me, normal BMI. Thank you so much for your support”

So that was right at the beginning of Kara’s weight loss journey.

And she went on and she lost 25 pounds before she joined the Healthy You Healthy Family group program. And since she's been a member, she has lost another five pounds, which is amazing. And she has done it in a way, which is really thinking about healthy living and what that looks like. And she says, that's my real goal.

“Keeping it off, maintaining this healthy lifestyle and levelling it up over time.”

So. So proud of you and so excited to see what life looks like for you in a year's time when healthy living is just easy and fun, and you do it without having to think about it.

More Wins from the Healthy You Healthy Family Group Program

A few other wins from the healthy you healthy family group program this week.

Lia congratulations is now feeling comfortable going out and making good choices. So just to explain what that means. When Lia joined the program, she would eat out several times a week and she realized that when she was eating out, she wasn't really making great choices, but not making those choices felt like depriving herself.

So she stopped going out so much. We've done some work she's realized how easy it can be and now she's going back feeling comfortable, going out and making good choices. So fabulous. Such a big change. And it might sound like, oh my goodness, this is just a small change. Well, on one level, it is only a small aspect of your life.

Small Healthy Habits add Up to Big Change

It's just like going out to restaurant aspect. It's not, you know, 24 hours a day, but how do we make changes? Small changes. One change here. One change there.

There's this really good analogy of the tour de France British cycling team. The British cycling team used to be absolutely hopeless and never won any prizes.

And they got a new coach. He made changes, incremental changes. So for example, he might change, I don't know the pedals, I'm making this up because I know nothing about cycling the pedals or the seat, or he might change how they sleep at nighttime.

Each little change wasn't a huge, huge thing, but it adds up. And now the British cycling team is one of the best teams thanks to those little changes. And it just goes to show the, all of the little changes add up.

Staying in the Healthy Living Journey is a Win

Now Katie celebrated turning up and it's not always something complicated. It's just saying I'm still here. I'm still on this journey.

So it's a really big thing to turn up to coaching when you're saying, yep. I want to get to the end of this journey. This is my goal. I'm not going to get to my goal if I don't turn up and make those changes. So congratulations.

Dr Orlena’s Free Healthy Habit Challenge. You’re Invited!

Now going back to those free doctors. Dr. Orlena’s office hours where I first met Kara. At the moment I'm not doing those, but what I am doing is the healthy habit challenge, which will be starting in November on November the eighth. And it is going to be amazing. So make sure you sign up for that. It's a combination of teaching, so videos that you can watch that Facebook live. So you need to join the Facebook.

I will record them for people who don't, who aren't on Facebook. But you get more, I think when you turn up life and there will also be some coaching sessions as well, so similar to Dr. Orlena’s office hours. So make sure you come and join. And there is also an upgrade, which I'm charging $97 for, which is an amazing price for what is called Dr. Orlena's inner circle. And that will be five group coaching sessions. Applying everything that we learn on that day. So absolutely amazing value and a little taste of what it's like to be in the healthy youth healthy family group program.

Find out more about the Healthy Habit Challenge

Our Brains Like to Tell Us Healthy Living is Difficult

Okay. That question, that question of what if it were easy? Let me tell you another story.

My son, who is going to be nine soon and he's very, very picky. And he's the one. If you've heard the podcast about the magic likes and dislikes and the red apples and the green apples, that's that son that I'm talking about. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then we're getting it. So I'll have to find the podcast number and you can go and listen to it.

But essentially he used to love red apples and hated green apples. No, the other way. I did this exercise on him and now he'll eat red apples too. Now he has a similar thing with oranges and clementines. He loves clementines. He will not touch oranges. Now what's the difference between oranges and clementines you might ask.

And the answer is not very much. They're both orange fruits. They both taste sort of orangy, slightly acidic, sometimes sweet. Okay. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference. So when Sunday I went to market and the lady at market, one of the stands said, Hey, do you want to buy all these? But I'm sure she said clementines.

I thought I bought clementines. The big bag of them, you can buy them all for a Euro. And I thought, oh great. I will cook them up and I will make Clementine cake. However, when I got them home and I opened one of them up, there was small, the size of clementines and I was a bit like…

Hmm, these are not clementines. These are oranges. Oh my goodness. I've bought an entire bank of oranges.

I'd also bought some other oranges, not realizing that I'd bought this giant bag of all. Anyhow, it's transpires that one of these oranges got in the bowl of clementines. So yesterday when we were sitting down to dinner, my son said, oh, can I have a clementine please?

And I said, yes, you can. He went and helped himself to a clementine sat down and started eating the clementine. And I looked at the clementine and thought, Hmm, that's sort of clementine, that's an orange, what do I do now? Do I say, oh, don't eat that. It's clearly an orange. Totally disgusting. And not at all, like clementines.

Or do I just keep quiet and watch what happens when he peeled it?

He ate it. He really enjoyed it. He said, Hmm, it's a little bit acidic until somebody pointed out that it was an orange and not a Clementine.

And he just said, no, it's not an orange. It's a clementine,

Which is a really good example of how our brain likes to change facts to fit into our way of life.

It was clearly an orange. But he did not want to accept the fact that it wasn't orange and he did get very upset and we mercilessly teased him. We tried not to mercilessly tease him, but we did call it a, what did we call it? A “Clemornage” and said, no, no, it's definitely not an orange. It's a clam orange.

What's the point of this story? The point is what is the difference between a Clementine and an orange? It is all in his brain. Does he like the orange? Well, the taste was okay. The experience of eating. It was okay. But the thought of an orange was disastrous. It was, oh my goodness. I can't possibly eat that orange, which is exactly like all those other excuses that we make to ourselves as to why we aren't going to do a certain thing.

Why we aren't going to change why we don't want to. Now on a side note with my son, I am going to try and do the likes and dislikes exercise on him. I need to choose, pick my time so that he is feeling like he wants to like oranges because when he's busy saying, I don't even want to like oranges, I cannot help him like oranges.

Healthy Living Can be Easy when You Want to Make Changes

And it's the same with other people who say, I don't even want to enjoy having a healthy life. I like whatever. Well, then I can't help you. But when you're saying, Hey, do you know what? I really do want to have a healthy life? And I think all those changes are going to be worth it. I want bucket loads of energy.

I want healthy living to be easy, then yes, I can help you. And sometimes you have to do things differently. So think about all the reasons that you aren't making changes and some of them are valid reasons you might say, for example. Well, do you know what I'm actually quite confused about what is healthy living, what isn't healthy living and where I should be focusing my energy, all those myths.

For example, a lot of people say, oh my goodness, I can't lose weight because I don't have time to exercise. Well, the good news is that you don't have to do heaps and heaps of exercise. In fact, the way you eat is more important than how much exercise you do. Now. I'm not saying you shouldn't exercise.

Exercise is one of my four pillars and exercise helps you feel amazing with bucket loads of energy, but in terms of helping you lose weight, it isn't fabulous. So there's one thing that you have learned today. If you want to lose weight, focus on healthy eating and how much. And yes, the human body can be complicated.

People often say, oh, it's my body. I've tried everything. It's not going to work. And here's what I have to say to you. The human body is mysterious, but it is not magic. What do I mean by that? There are lots of things that we don't understand about the human. Even all the amazing things we do understand about the human body.

We still don't understand everything about the human body, but what we do know is that the human body cannot make matter out of nothing. It needs to have energy put into it. So it isn't magic. It can't create substance. If it doesn't have something to create substance from and equally people say, oh no, I've tried everything.

The Human Body Is Mysterious but Not Magic

And I say, if you stopped eating for a week, which I am not recommending, but if you did, you would start to lose weight. Now, please, don't go and try that. I'm not suggesting that you need to starve yourself or deprive yourself. There are other ways of doing it much nicer and friendlier and easier ways.

But my point is the human body is a machine really. One that we don't a hundred percent understand, but as I say, it's mysterious, but not magic. So you can lose weight. There is no reason why you cannot lose weight.

Perhaps your brain is saying to you, Hey, you know what? I kind of liked the idea of it being easy, but you know what part of me just does not believe that I can get that.

Get the Support you Need to Lead a Healthy Life in Dr Orlena’s Group Program

Well, I would like to share what we were chatting about in the group program this week. And Lia was saying, do you know what? I actually can't believe how easy it is now, how my brain was trying to make it so, so complicated.

And she was explaining. Previously, she couldn't really imagine this idea of enjoying healthy eating and it being easy. The idea of being able to walk into a restaurant or somewhere where there's lots of treats and candy and just be able to go, Hey, do you know what I'm happy eating my almonds or whatever the snack is that I have bought, rather than those sugary substances, having a hold.

And this thought was echoed by the other people in the group saying, yeah, you know what it used to feel so, so difficult until I started doing it. And part of starting doing it is as you go through that journey, you understand that it is. As difficult as your brain is making it that a lot of that it's so difficult is just noise.

It's just your brain going. I don't like change. And when you walk the change and see the change, your brain goes, oh, actually it is easier than I thought. So I'm super proud of everybody in the healthy youth, healthy family group program you are doing amazingly. Congratulations. So here's that question.

What if it were easy, would you make those changes and how would that feel? Feeling absolutely amazing. Feeling like you're doing everything that you can to be healthy. And if that for you includes losing weight, then everything you can to lose weight, have bucket loads of energy and feel amazing. So, listen, that is my question for you.

If you're feeling, Hey. Yeah, I wish it was easy. How do I make it easy? Well, I tell you, number one, step, come and join the healthy you healthy habit challenge because we will be going through everything that you need to know in order to create healthy habits so that you can do it without thinking. Okay, sign up now and come and join the healthy habit challenge.

And I will see you November the eighth. Oh my goodness. That's next Monday. Amazing. Amazing, amazing. Come and join the healthy habit and healthy habit challenge and invite some friends. You know what, there are so many studies that show that if you make changes with your friends around or in a group of people who are making similar changes, you are more likely to stick to those changes.

So if you sign up for the healthy habit challenge now, and then life happens, I've done this so many times, you're really enthusiastic and excited, and then stuff happens between now and next week. And you kind of forget anything. Oh yeah. I ought to do that thing. It's not going to happen. But if you invite a friend and set a date and say, Hey, we're going to do this together.

Invite Your Friends To Dr Orlena’s Healthy Habit Challenge

Let's do Dr Orlena’s Healthy Habit Challenge. And then we'll go for a walk or do something healthy. We'll make it fun. We'll make it easy. She's going to show us what to do. It's going to be exciting. You're more likely to turn up in the same way that I am more likely to turn up, to go swimming. When I have arranged to meet my friends.

So come and invite your friends. Okay, I'm going to stop now, have a lovely day and I will see you in the habit challenge. Bye-bye .