The 3 Keys to Mapping Out a Clear Plan for Better Health

Ever wish someone would just hand you a plan for whatever it is you want to accomplish so that you know exactly what steps to take, and in what order?

No matter what you want to accomplish in life, there are so many times where it’s really, really good to have a plan.  Because otherwise we just look at this big goal, this big thing we want to accomplish that looks so far away, and we get overwhelmed and frustrated before we even begin

And when it comes to getting healthy, I know how vitally important this is, because for so long in my own journey to lose weight, I just didn’t have that.

But at some point, a few years ago, I finally had an epiphany–a moment where I knew I needed to do something dramatically different than anything I had ever tried before.

The only question was WHAT?

So for the first time ever, instead of just diving into yet another diet plan, I decided to step back and do some research.  To actually figure out what works and what doesn’t.  To learn about the science of weight loss, and why we gain weight in the first place.

And then I created a plan.  A whole new framework, if you will.

And you know what else?  It worked.

I lost 40 pounds in 6 months.  Without drugs, without dieting, and without making myself miserable. And not only that, I’ve kept that weight off for several years now.

Because for me there is NO going back.  This is the solution I wish I would have had years ago.

And honestly that’s why I’m here. Why I started Thinlicious, why I take the time to record my podcast and write a blog post every week, even when I’m totally scrambling to get it done.

I can’t not share it, because it has changed my life in every way imaginable.  I have more energy.  I’m happier & have more fun. My joints don’t hurt and I don’t collapse in bed at the end of the day.  I dare to wear clothes I would have never worn before.  Sex is better. I look YEARS younger. There isn’t a part of my life that hasn’t been transformed, and it’s too good not to share it.  Because the solution is SO simple

And it starts with these three keys to mapping out your health plan.

Key #1: Don’t Try to Do Everything All At Once

The first key is to take it slowly and not try to do everything all at once. Trust me, I understand the urge to just jump in and change everything immediately, but that’s actually just a recipe for burnout and failure.

And I was the exact same way.  Diet after diet after diet.  And not only that, every time I decided to diet, it was the exact same story.  Cut my calories.  Exercise like crazy.  DO all the things.  Because that’s what we do, right?

We eat less and exercise more, because that’s what all the experts tell us to do.

And it wasn’t until I took a step back to look at the bigger picture that I finally realized the problem wasn’t just with my diet, it was a whole lot deeper than that.  Yes, food is obviously one important piece, but I had other problems too, that I had never considered before.  I was expecting everything to happen way too fast.  I also didn’t understand HOW certain foods were affecting my hormones.  And wasn’t focused on my mindset.  I just wanted instant gratification. 

But now, through my own journey and also after working with thousands of women in our program these past couple of years, I’ve actually realized what the framework success looks like and why it works.

I call this framework the Thin Adapted System.  And that’s the framework that our TAS program is based on.

And the reason it’s so powerful is that it accounts for the fact that true, sustainable weight loss doesn’t happen all at once, and only for one reason. 

Instead, it happens in phases, and in order to be effective, each of those phases have to have a clear objective with clear milestones, and they’ve got to address both the physical and emotional aspects of weight loss, while also being based on proven metabolic science that actually works.  If you take away any one of those pieces, it won’t work.

So in Phase 0, you’re not even really changing anything quite yet. And a lot of people skip this phase, but it’s probably the most important. Because the objective of this phase is to both mentally and physically prepare yourself for transformation.  And that’s a big deal, because it is what will set you up for long term success.

Next, there’s Phase 1—what we call the Acclimate Phase.  And the objective of this phase is to actually “flip the switch” on your metabolism and get your body to become what we call “Thin Adapted”, which is kinda like if your body was a car running on low-grade fuel, and all the sudden you switch it to high octane and it starts running way better. It’s awesome.  So that’s the goal.

From there, you move into Phase 2—the Ignite Phase. And how long you stay in THIS phase will really depend on how much weight you want or need to lose.  Typically most people in this phase of our program will lose 1-2 pounds a week, so it could be anywhere from 3-12 months or more.

Honestly, I think where so many of us go wrong is that we think weight loss is supposed to happen much faster than it actually does. Because any time you’re trying to lose weight, the first 10 pounds or so that you lose are usually water weight, and that water weight comes off fast. But FAT comes off a whole lot slower. So your weight loss slows down and then you get frustrated because you feel like it’s not working. So you’ve got to make sure that you’ve adjusted your expectations and that your mindset is in the right place so that you don’t start self-sabotaging.

And then finally, there’s Phase 3—the Maintain Phase.  Because, believe it or not, your health journey DOESN’T END just because you’ve reached your goal.  And the Maintain Phase is where you get to stay for the rest of your life, because the main objective of this phase is to establish healthy habits that you can easily maintain, while you continually challenge yourself to level up.

A lot of times we don’t think about this either–what it means to establish new healthy habits for life. We just go back to our old ways. But it’s important to be intentional here, because the longer you’ve had to establish BAD habits, the longer it is going to take to permanently replace those with new, better habits.

So that’s the first key…Not trying to change everything all at once.

But there’s another piece that’s really important, and that’s making sure that the physical changes you DO make are actually based on what WORKS–not just following the same old bad advice.

Key #2: Stop Relying on Willpower

And that’s why Key #2 then, is to stop relying on willpower to lose weight and get healthy! Because often what we think is the problem is that we just don’t have enough WILLPOWER to be successful, and that’s why all these diets we all keep trying don’t work.  Right? 

Because as women, we’re really good at internalizing all that blame.  It can’t be the SYSTEM that’s flawed….it must be US.  And I know, because I was the exact same way.

For so many years, I tried diet after diet, all handing out the exact same advice in a slightly different way:  just eat fewer calories.

But they always failed. I could never stick with them long enough to see any real results.  And then I’d get so hungry that the minute I fell off the wagon, I’d eat everything in sight and gain all the weight back….usually and then some. 

But when I started diving into the actual research, I discovered something that literally changed everything.

Weight loss is about how the foods you eat impact your hormones. 

It has nothing to do with calories.

And that means the only real way to lose weight in a sustainable way is to focus on eating the right things that will impact your hormones in the right way.  And yet, that’s not what anyone tells us to do, isn’t it?

And the reality is that there’s actually a much better solution. It’s a framework I call the NO WILLPOWER SOLUTION.  And it’s very simple.  It looks like this:

So that’s the second big key to mapping out your health plan–stop relying on willpower.

Key #3: Focus on Healing Your Body, Not Shedding Pounds

But the third key takes this concept one step deeper–it’s to focus on healing your body instead of just shedding pounds.

Because we tend to believe that the reason we don’t feel good or we’re struggling with a variety of health issues–whether it’s type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure or inflammation or heartburn–is because we’re overweight. And that’s often what our doctor tells us too.

And for so long, I thought my excess weight was the problem too.  I thought the reason I was so exhausted all the time, and that I was puffy and inflamed, and that my joints hurt and that I’d have headaches all the time was because I was overweight and out of shape.  And so I kept trying to FIX the problem by dieting—by treating the excess WEIGHT as the problem.

What I didn’t realize is that the weight wasn’t actually the problem—it was just a SYMPTOM of a much bigger problem.  Not only that, all the other health issues I was struggling with were symptoms of the SAME underlying problem.  Not realizing that this was really just like putting a bandaid on a shotgun wound….a totally superficial solution to a problem that was actually SO much bigger than I realized. 

And that means that the real key to permanent health and weight loss success is to fix the root causes at the sources.  You’ve got to actually heal your body from the inside out.  You’ve got to address the insulin resistance and the hormonal imbalance and the leaky gut that have created ALL of your other health issues, including your weight gain. 

And when you actually fix the root cause of your problems, the weight just comes off. Your body rebalances itself. It’s easy.

So focus on healing your body, not shedding pounds–that’s the third key.

A Few Final Thoughts

There’s SO much more I could say, but this blog post is already pretty long so I’m going to try to wrap things up.

But I want to leave you with this….

• What would happen if you stopped trying to change everything all at once and instead slowed down and made sure you were not just focusing on food, but on your heart and your head as well?
• What would happen if you stopped relying on WILLPOWER and started getting your hormones to work FOR you instead of against you?
• What would happen if you started healing your body from the inside out, instead of focused on just trying to shed a few pounds?

12 months from now, your life could look completely different. You could finally be FREE.

And that’s what I want so much for you. Truly. I want it for everyone. Because now I’ve experienced it, and I know how life-changing it is.

So if you want to dig deeper with me, and actually SEE the frameworks that I just described to you in action, be sure to catch the encore presentation of our Healthy Happy and Free workshop.  It’s a game changer.