Mindfulness and Learning to Sit with our Feelings (is hard!)

A big thank you to everyone who nominated and voted for Hate to Weight in the Discover Pods awards. We didn’t win, but we are thrilled to have been nominated!

John has been learning to sit with his feelings, at the urging of his therapist who he has been seeing to get ready for bariatric surgery. And we’re finding out that sitting with our feelings and trying not to go into the fight-or-flight response is much harder than just trying to fight them. But it’s necessary for true weight-loss and to keep from sabotaging ourselves.

Emily is dealing with Shark Week (what we call the week of her period) on top of weeks of sickness in the house and her weight-loss has been temporarily put on hold. But we have faith that we can make it through and we know it won’t always be like this, even though when we’re in the throes of it all, it can seem overwhelming and never-ending.

But luckily, we have some amazing #WinningWednesday posts this week!

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Don’t forget, you can interact with us while we record by going to the Hate to Weight Discussion Group on Facebook and we record every Thursday at 11 a.m.!

Call in your WINS anytime! 760-WINNING -— 760-946-6464

Meet Your Hosts:

• John Bukenas is a podcast editor from New Jersey. He started the podcast doing keto and intermittent fasting, but is now gearing up for bariatric surgery (probably) later this summer.
• Emily Prokop is a podcast editor and consultant from Connecticut. She has been doing Intermittent Fasting since April 2018 and has lost about 70 pounds. She started with 16:8 and is now doing 18:6.

In This Episode:

• Thank you to everyone who nominated and voted for Hate to Weight in the Discover Pods awards! And congratulations to Sex with Emily who won in the Health & Fitness category!
• Do you love or hate “The Office”? John hates it!
• John’s learning to sit with his feelings, and this is an important step in our weight-loss journey.
• Mindfulness sounds “easy,” but when it comes to validating your own feelings and realizing the stories we tell ourselves, it’s incredibly difficult to learn.
• Both John and Emily have ADHD and there is a side of ADHD that comes with anxiety and possibly spiraling.
• We are both without our usual vices, so we have to find a whole new way to cope with our feelings. It’s still new to us and we’re still getting used to it.
• Emily is so sick of the generation wars. Stop it!
• Sorry we didn’t quite stay on the topic of weight-loss this week.
• We know how to diet — but we are learning to deal with the emotions and that’s the hard part.
• Did you know John’s stage name? John Jamingo!
• How we’re getting out our thoughts: Emily keeps morning pages and has a release jars for scraps of paper of her worries, and John has started recording his thoughts into the microphone.
• Oh, and it’s Shark Week for Emily and she is in hibernation mode, plus being sick and tired of being sick and tired.
• In case you need to hear this: You won’t always feel like this. This is only temporary. This is not the rest of your life. Also, no one has it all figured out.
• Did you know that checking something off your to-do list releases dopamine? How “Emily” is that?
• Emily gives some of her tips for productivity and chasing that dopamine.
• Comparison is the thief of joy!
• We love memes in the Facebook group! Feel free to share ALL your victories over there!
• Emily’s Weekly Weigh-In summed up: I’m not even sorry!
• John helps us come back during our Weigh-In!
• Later, Weighters!

From the graphic John talks about for Signs You Need a Break:

• Losing interest in things you’re usually passionate about and bring you joy.
• Short temper and east to provoke.
• Taking everything personally.
• Constantly overthinking.
• Emotionally Overwhelmed.
• Always Exhausted/Tired

We’d love to hear your scale and non-scale victories! Come celebrate your wins over in the Hate to Weight Discussion Group on Facebook! 

Links Mentioned:

• Discover Pods Awards
• Office Ladies podcast
• NaPodPoMo
• Brené Brown: The Call to Courage — Watch on Netflix
• Dave Jackson from School of Podcasting, Building a Better Dave, and the Logical Weight Loss podcast.
• Gary Gulman On How The States Got Their Abbreviations - CONAN on TBS
• Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
• Show Your Work! By Austin Kleon
• Want more resources? Check out our resources page!

Join Us On Our Journey:

• Join our Facebook group: HatetoWeight.com/Facebook
• Follow Emily and John on Instagram
• Join us on Twitter: twitter.com/HateToWeight
• Visit our Website: HatetoWeight.com
• Email us: [email protected]
• Check out John on Brilliant Observations and She Podcasts
• Check out Emily’s other podcast: The Story Behind
• Like the show? Check out T-shirts inspired by Hate to Weight by Mark Des Cotes from The Resourceful Designer and Podcast Branding 
• Edited by John Bukenas of Audio Editing Solutions