#87: Weight Loss and the Compound Effect

87. Weight Loss and the Compound Effect

Do you feel like no matter what you do with weight loss, you’re always gonna put the weight back on and you feel so frustrated, you’re giving up? Well, don’t worry, I’ve got you. I’m Dara Tomasson and this is Love Yourself Thin, episode 87, Weight Loss and The Compound Effect.

How are you today? I am so happy to be coming to you. Now I have to admit something. I made this podcast about a month and a half ago because I really like to be prepared and ahead of the game. I woke up this morning on a Friday and my podcast editor said, Hey, could you get that podcast to me? And I said, what do you mean? I filmed this like in February? She said, well, it wasn’t turned on, it didn’t work. So I am so grateful for the tools that I have because even though I had other things planned on my schedule, I am so excited to make this podcast again for you. And I just know it’s gonna be better because I’ve had so much more time to think about it. And it’s been something that I’ve been, this tool I’ve been helping my clients with over the last month and a half as I had prepared this and really explored the concept of it.

So I’m just gonna go right in and share this with you. And before I do, I do always love to share success stories of the members in Love Yourself Thin, because it’s really inspiring to me when I think about these women that really struggled with their weight, really struggled with what’s going on. And then once they start learning tools, they feel so much more empowered and they feel like they can actually do something and they can make such a change. So happy that I can help you. All right, so this client of mine, it’s actually a very sad story, but I’m so happy for her. She started working with me at the beginning of January and she has now lost almost, I think she’s at 42 pounds, but it’s not just the physical weight, her sister just passed away and this client really struggles with secret eating candy in particular, and she has not done any of that because she’s able to feel her feelings and she knows that by eating the junk food, it’s just going to delay the inevitable. And so she’s not putting all that extra weight on her body because she doesn’t need to. She just needs to feel the feeling and let the feeling be there, and then she’ll be okay. So at night before I go to bed, I’m just so grateful that she had the courage to show up and to learn these tools and to put this work into play because this is such a devastating experience in her life. But it’s not going to derail her. And in fact, it’s going to empower her to keep changing and, and leave a, a really strong legacy for herself in honor of her sister. So I love that.

All right, so let’s get into the podcast. Now, remember, we have worksheets here, and the worksheets, this is a two pager and I have some quotes on the one page and then some questions. And I, I’m gonna read you a story. So some of you who maybe have dabbled into investing, you may have heard this story, or maybe you’re a math teacher and you really like the story because the math is just, it’s so fun, it’s so surprising. So I loved reading stories to my students as a teacher, and I love reading with my children. So let me read this story to you. And if you’ve heard it before, that’s fine, you’ll enjoy it. And if you haven’t heard it, it’s gonna be really interesting to tell me what you think about it. So I’m gonna read this story to you. A long time ago in India, there lived a king who believed he was wise and fair as a king should be. The people in his province were rice farmers, the king decreed that everyone must give nearly all of their rice to him. I will store the rice safely, the king promised the people so that in time of famine, everyone will have rice to eat and no one will go hungry. Each year the king’s rice collectors gathered nearly all of the people’s rice and carried it away to the royal storehouses.

Now as I’m reading the story, I want you to think about the power of compound effect, how little choices, little things can add up to big things. So for many years the rice grew well, the people gave nearly all of their rice to the king, and the store houses were always full, but the people were left with only enough rice to get by. Then one year the rice grew badly and there was a famine and hunger. The people had no rice to give to the king, and they had no rice to eat. The king’s ministers implored him, your highness let us open the royal storehouses and give the rice to the people as you promised. No cried the king. How do I know how long the famine will last? I must have the rice for myself, promise or no promise, a king must not go hungry. Time went on and the people grew more and more hungry, but the king would not give out the rice. A servant led on elephant from a royal storehouse to the palace carrying two full baskets of rice. The little girl named Rani saw that a trickle of rice was falling from one of the baskets, quickly she jumped up and walked alongside the elephant, catching the falling rice in her skirt. She was clever, and she began to make a plan.

At the palace, a guard cried, halt, thief. Where are you going with that rice? I am not a thief. Rani replied, this rice fell from one of the baskets. I am returning it now to the king. When the king heard about Rani’s good deed, he asked his ministers to bring her before him. I wish to reward you for returning what belongs to me. The king said to Rani ask me anything and you shall have it. Your Highness said, Rani I do not deserve any reward at all. But if you wish, you may give me one grain of rice. Only one grain of rice, exclaimed their king. Surely you will allow me to reward you more plentifully as a king should. Very well said, Rani. If you are pleased your highness, you may reward me in this way. Today you will give me a single grain of rice. And then each day for the next 30 days, you will give me double the rice you gave me the day before. Thus tomorrow, you will give me two grains of rice. And the next day, four grains of rice, and so on

for 30 days. This seems to be a modest reward, said the king, but you shall have it. And Rani was presented with the single grain of rice. The next day, Rani was presented with two grains of rice, and the following day, Rani was presented with four grains of rice. On the ninth day Rani was presented with 256 grains of rice. She had received in all 507 grains of rice. Oh, 511 grains of rice. Enough for only a small handful. This girl is honest, but not very clever thought the king, she would have gained more rice by keeping what fell into her skirt. On the 12th day, Ranny received 2048 grains of rice, about four handfuls. On the 13th day, she received 4,096 grains of rice. Enough to fill a bowl. On the 16th day, Ronnie was presented with a bag containing 32,768 grains of rice. Altogether, she had enough for two bags. This doubling up adds up to the more rice than I expected thought the king, but surely her reward won’t amount too much more so on the 21st day she received 1,048,576 greens of rice enough to fill a basket. On day 24, she was presented with enough to fill eight baskets, which were carried by eight royal deer. 27th day, 32 Brahma bulls were needed to deliver 64 baskets of rice.

The king was deeply troubled. One grain of rice has grown very great indeed, he thought, but I shall fulfill the reward to the end as a king should. On the 29th day, Rani was presented with the contents of two royal storehouses. On the 30th and final day, 256 elephants crossed the province carrying the contents of the last four Royal storehouses 536,870,912 grains of rice. Altogether, Rani had received more than 1 billion grains of rice. The king had no more rice to give. And what will you do with all this? Ask the king with a sigh. Now that I have none, I shall give it to all the hungry people. Said Rani, and I shall leave a basket of rice for you too, if you promise from now on to take only as much rice as you need. I promise said the king and for the rest of his days, the king was truly wise and fair as a king should be.

So the reason I’m telling this story, and the reason why it’s so powerful in the promise that I have as a weight loss coach is that when you understand the five pillars to Love Yourself Thin. So the first pillar is weight loss. Science is simple. So that that really is just taking in the science. You can’t fight with how our bodies are built. You can’t fight with how that works. And then you take the second pillar, which is you create your own eating plan and you troubleshoot it. So you’re looking at the scale, you’re looking at what’s going on, you’re, actively engaged in doing this, you’re thinking about what’s happening. And then the third step is learning how to feel your feelings and allowing those feelings inside of you. And like I shared with my client, whose sister passed away, she understands that just feeling the feeling and allowing it and not avoiding, resisting or rejecting it will allow you never to go to the chocolate anymore. Never to go to the chips, never to go to the lineup at Dairy Queen and get a blizzard. You don’t, you don’t need to do those things anymore in a way to try to buffer the way you’re feeling. The fourth one is to take responsibility for yourself. When you truly allow yourself to take responsibility for your feelings and what’s going on, you avoid the whole shame, blame cycle. And then the fifth step is self-confidence. And so I’m gonna share some personal examples in my own personal journey with weight loss.

So in losing this weight, So it’s been a four plus year journey. And overall I started out at about 205, 202 pounds, something like that. I was really not stepping on the scale very often, trust me. And I got down to 1 76 or something, and I was thrilled because when I was married I weighed 164. So that was always, you know when you have that one magic number, when you think, okay, if I can get to that one number, then everything will be amazing. So I got to 1 74, I think, like in that number range, mid seventies. I just couldn’t believe it. I was so thrilled. I had a photo shoot, I just was feeling on top of the world about myself. And then it turns out that at some points I go down to about 1 47. But in that range, there are times, like even two weeks ago, I was up to almost 160, so I will go to 160 and I will go down to like 1 47 in a matter of two weeks.

And this is the part of the compound effect. That is the reason why my clients and the reason why I can promise you that you will have permanent weight loss. It’s because I know that when I get up higher than I’m feeling more comfortable with, I don’t give up on myself. Just like with Rani, understanding the power of a compound effect, your efforts are rewarded. They’re doubled, they’re tripled. They keep helping you. So when I’m on the scale and I’m looking at it saying, what’s going on, Dara? What’s happening? And we remember, there’s only two reasons why we’re overweight; over hunger and over desire. So if we are being honest with ourselves, which is that’s what I’m, I’m there to, to do, then we are able to look at what’s going on? Am I eating more than my body needs? and more frequently than my body needs? That’s what over hunger is. And then over desire is, am I turning to the sugar and flour and I’m trying to get rid of my emotions through that, trying to buffer, trying to loosen up on that.

And then the more that you do that, the more that you can look at the number on the scale you can ask yourself through those two lenses of, is this over hunger or over desire? Then you get yourself power. Then you are no longer afraid, and I see way too many women being afraid of the scale, being stressed out about the scale. In fact, we had a really powerful coaching call this past week, it was one of my clients she’s been in my program and I was her one-on-one coach. I started working together back in October of 2020 and she still, at 60 years old, struggles with the scale, even though she’s lost over 30 pounds and she’s done amazing things. She’s done incredible things in this time we’ve worked together. There’s still a hold on the scale.

But I want you to take courage when you think about this little story, about this powerful little girl who was able to show the king the power of this compound effect, I want you to use that same principle for yourself. So when you know that you can step on the scale and you can look at what’s going on from an objective, from a place of love, then you get power. You aren’t afraid. So I want to encourage you all as you’re listening to this podcast, to think about how this would apply to yourself.

Now I have some fun quotes and of course these pretty interesting the Albert Einstein, he once referred to the compounding effect as the eighth wonder of the world. This is true whether it’s in your work, relationships or your own personal growth. And Jeff Bezos once said, if you think long-term we can accomplish things that we couldn’t otherwise accomplish. A long-term mindset helps you build the resilience to tackle short-term setbacks. It provides perspective, allows you to see what matters in the long run and improves your decision making process, or framework.

So I have some questions for you in the worksheet while you are thinking about playing the long game. And that’s, I’m all about the long game. That is one of the reasons my program is a lifetime membership. You get the workbook, you get the modules for a lifetime, and the coaching and all of that is, it’s all included. So are you working with the right people? Do you have clarity on your key goals? Are you getting opportunities to learn and grow? I’m been messaging a lot lately with women on Instagram and, and really building that community over there, and it’s really interesting to hear them sharing the, the struggles they’re having. And so I ask them these questions, what tools are you using to help yourself right now? What support do you have to help you to no longer feel so bad about yourself and your body. And it’s interesting because a lot of women have a hard time reaching out for help because they have so much shame about their body and about their decisions they’ve made. But the problem that I want to ask all of you is when you buy a car, because how many of, a lot of people say I should have figured this out by now. It’s my body. I should know what to do. But when you buy a car, you don’t expect yourself to know how to fix a car.

So we all have brains, but do we know how to use them to the best ability? And if we don’t, why not learn how to use them better? So longevity and perseverance rewards in the long run. Always make thoughtful decisions that align with the path of your long-term objectives. So if your objective is to have a healthy, strong body where you can run with your grandkids and have lots of energy and finish all those whips that you have at your UFOs and you want to go hiking and enjoy nature and enjoy your stage of life wherever you are. If you’re not having those experiences and you’re not allowing yourself to, to truly enjoy your life. I wanna ask you the question, even if you knew it was going to take you three years to lose all the weight that you want to lose but you knew for sure that you would lose that weight, would you be all in?

And that is such a powerful question I ask myself every day. Because when the scale goes up and I think, oh, what is wrong with me? What’s happening? How can I let this happen to myself? I just bring myself to the tools. I just ground myself in those five pillars. Weight loss science is simple, I can make my own eating plan and and troubleshoot it, emotions are the key to the universe, I can just feel all the feelings. I don’t have to avoid, resist, or react to them. I can take responsibility for myself. I no longer am shaming myself. I’m no longer blaming others, and I can build self-confidence. And those five pillars just to help support me.

And I do wanna offer to you that we are gonna be starting the 90 day workbook on April 10th. And just like this compound effect story about little tiny actions doubled and doubled and doubled and tripled and quadrupled and all of that, I have created this incredible book. It’s called The 90 Day Workbook to Success, something along that line. I basically just call it the 90 day workbook, but what I’ve done is I’ve taken those five pillars that I shared, and I have broken them down into very small little pieces. So every day you get just a little grain, just a little bit of information. Then the next day you get a little bit more, and then the next day you get a little bit more. And in fact, how I structured it is I have created the process in 30 days. I’ve broken down those five steps and little tiny steps, and then we repeat it three times.

So day one is the same as day 31, same as day 61. But day 31, you get a little bit more information than day one. And then day 61 you get a little bit more than that one. So you’re building and building and building. It is so amazing to watch the members of Love Yourself Thin, those who are embracing it and they’re all in on it. They’re showing up for themselves. They’re having incredible results. And that’s what I want for you all. And so if that is something you want to join us for we are gonna be starting April 10th with the 90 Day Workbook.

Another thing that’s really helpful with that is I have little three to five minute videos every single day in the Facebook group for the videos. So even if you worry about, I’m not very good at paper and pencil, and you’re worried, it’s like overwhelming and it’s gonna be too much, you can watch a three to five minute video and I can promise you that even watching that three to five minute video, because it’s now in your brain, you are changed. You’re different. And you are starting to wire your brain in a new way. So when you look at food, when you look at snacking or whatever, whatever that is, you are going to be a different person. When you look at those things. Isn’t that so fun? So that is an option for you. And remember, my program I have a 90 day money back guarantee. It’s a risk free program. It’s $2,000. And I have a special bonus if you sign up in March. I will send you an intake form, you fill that out and then we will meet and discuss particulars for you in how you can, I can see your downfalls, your pitfalls, the, the places where you struggle, and I can highlight those for you and then we can make a plan moving forward with the Love Yourself Thin process. It’s such a fun and incredible bonus.

I am really enjoying these intake meetings with these women, it’s just been very, very powerful. So if that’s something you wanna take advantage of, please, please reach out to me and again, we can meet one-on-one and have that conversation about joining the program or working with me one-on-one.

All right. It’s been so fun to rerecord this for you, and so glad I have the tools. So when things like this happen, when you have your schedule full of things and then you have a last minute change of plans, I can just, I can just roll with it. It’s so fun. All right, you have an amazing day. Take care. Bye bye.