Welcome back to the podcast. I want to talk to you about the power of abundance today. If you feel restricted on your weight loss journey, I want to show you how switching to an abundance mindset can just revolutionize your approach to health and wellness. We talked last week about scarcity and how that can show up for us, so this week I want to talk about the flip side of the coin. I want to talk about abundance and how an abundant mindset can really be a game-changer for you.
The idea of abundance, unlike scarcity (which, if you will just recap, scarcity is this idea that there's not enough to go around, that if somebody has something, that means I can't have it, if someone else loses weight, that means I can't lose weight; like there's only enough weight loss for one person), this idea that food is scarce, that limited time offerings, and Girl Scout cookies, I must have them now. The flip side of that coin to the scarcity mentality is an abundance mentality, right? It's this idea that there's enough for everybody. There's not just one pie; there's pie for everyone. There is always going to be enough food. There is always going to be enough weight loss to go around. My success in everything I do—weight loss, life, work, everything—is mine, and it's not dependent on someone else lacking or someone else not having. I get to have all of it because I can, because everybody can.
When we are in scarcity and deprivation, our brain is going to trigger this really primal response to eat and overeat because we have to get as much as we can because we're never going to get it again. Whereas if we can start switching to this abundance mindset, not only do we know that we don't need to overeat our favorite foods because we can have them all the time, but by switching to abundance in some of these other areas—money, success, family, beauty, whatever it is—we can stop a lot of comparison and this "compare and despair" that causes negative self-talk. We already know that that spiral, that leads us down, can lead to overeating. So there's a win-win here. Not only, by switching to an abundance mindset, do we start to not really care so much about what's going on with someone else because their success does not have anything to do with my success; therefore, I don't need to feel negative about myself. Therefore, I don't need to eat.
As far as food manufacturing and their preying on our scarcity, when we really examine that and can switch to abundance there, we won't be depriving ourselves of food or overeating food because we think we won't have another chance. So you can see where this can really be a game-changer because we're going to hit two separate areas here that really lead to overeating.
So I know we talked about scarcity and specific foods, the food manufacturing companies, and how they prey on this. I find that it's just easy to remind myself when I feel that anxiety when I feel that scarcity come up around a limited time, limited edition food, just reminding myself, "We're in America. We can have all the food we want anytime. We do not live in a food-scarce country. I can have any Oreo I want anytime. They're limited edition, mystical, unicorn, or whatever their flavor of the month is. I don't need to have that because I can have an Oreo anytime, and they don't taste that different. I can have king cake anytime I want it. I can have Girl Scout cookies anytime I want it. If I'm at a special dinner, date night, and I really want to try the dessert, I can come back the next day and plan for it and get it and take it home and save it. I can get it to go that day. I can wrap up that meal. I can order that meal again, whatever it is.
We do not need to feel scarce about a certain food product. So when we find ourselves feeling that, number one, it's really not the world we live in. Food is not scarce. Just understanding that food manufacturers are doing that because they want your money is helpful. But I want you, when you have this thought, 'I can't have this food, or I better get it before it's gone,' if you start to feel like deprivation, and for me, I can tell you, you know, we've talked about processing feelings before. If I start feeling deprived, like if I make a food plan that's too strict, and I start to feel deprived, I can feel that anxiety feeling. I feel it starts to happen. I get a little tight and restless, right? I start to feel that. I said to myself, 'I can have that food anytime, or I'm choosing not to have that food because I know I'm not going to feel good. Or I'm choosing food to nourish my body.' My favorite thought about some of these foods is, 'I've had enough of that to last a lifetime,' or 'I've had enough for this month. I've had enough for this year.' Putting it in a more abundant framework can really keep your brain from dipping into that freak-out and anxiety, we're not going to have enough. So I can have cake anytime I want, but the reality of it is, I've probably had enough cake for a lifetime. I definitely don't need to have it this year. I can re-examine it next year. I have that Girl Scout cookie this year if I choose to in a nice planned way. I can buy some for later if I want to. I can choose to think there's plenty, and I can have it some other time. I can choose to think I've had enough for this year. If I really, if Girl Scout season goes by and it just plagues my heart that I have not had a Samoa this year, I can buy a box next year. My body is not going to break down into convulsions because I did not have a Samoa this year. Okay, so just reminding myself abundance, I can have it next time. It's not going anywhere. Girl Scout cookies will be here every year until eternity. It's really not going anywhere. I can really have it anytime I want. I have probably already had enough. So hopefully, one of those will work. These positive, abundant affirmation gratitude, they all have proven benefits. When we are living in that space, that abundant gratitude, enough for everybody, definitely enough for me, I can always have more, the universe will start to show us if that's true. I find that when we ask our brain these subtle questions or we tell our brain we're supposed to be thinking something, it goes searching for proof. So if I tell my brain I'm deprived, 'What is me? I'm deprived.' It's going to start looking for reasons that I'm right. So it's going to start finding evidence for the things I'm thinking. When we think, 'I have this abundance. I have more than enough. I have what I need. I am enough.' All of this, our brain will start to go find evidence for that, and we can remind it with daily gratitude practice, with some positive affirmations. When we're practicing this abundance mindset in weight loss and we are eating food that we choose to think is abundant but not something we have often, I do think mindful eating has a place here too. So if we think with abundance, 'I love this Girl Scout cookie. I know I can have them anytime I want. I'm going to have one this year, or maybe this is the next year. I didn't have any last year because I had had enough, but I did kind of want to have one this year.
If I sit and really mindfully take that in and save it and enjoy it, that feels much more abundant than coming from a place of scarcity here just shoveling them in fast because you're afraid that you're not going to get enough. You're not enjoying it. You're barely tasting it, and you're probably going to feel bad about it later. So if you can save it and be mindful with it, you're likely coming from a more abundant place. There's enough. I have enough. I'm going to really enjoy it. I think it can reduce the post-eating guilt that we sometimes find we have with an off-plan eat. If we're in scarcity and we're shoveling it in because we're afraid we're not going to get enough, I find it hard to believe that you're not going to feel a little guilty about that or have some negative aspect on the scale of, 'I shouldn't have done that. I don't even feel good now. Why did I do that?' As opposed to coming from abundance where we're going to have one, savor it, take it in mindfully, much chance of having guilty feelings about eating that.
So how can we cultivate an abundant mindset? I will tell you it's easier to feel abundance around food if you start feeling abundant about the rest of the things in your life. So how can we create this abundant mindset? Practicing gratitude has been proven to help with this. So a gratitude journal, focusing on progress, almost like you would brag about your child. 'Little Sammy did this today. Stacy did this today. Stacy did this yesterday. What an amazing accomplishment.' I also think if there's something that you want and it starts to make you feel a little scarce, like an abundance sandwich. I want a sandwich. I forget what one of my mentors called it, something I'll have to try and remember, but you basically take something you want and you sandwich it in between two things you already have, right? So what's something that you already have that you really wanted, so that you can feel abundant about it, and then put something that you're working on in the middle, and then sandwich it with another abundant thought. Okay, so a non-food-related example. I really want to go to Italy. My husband and I want to go take a vacation to Italy. I don't have that yet, but I want it. I also wanted to meet and marry my husband. I also wanted to have my beautiful children. So those are two things I really wanted. I didn't always have them. I wanted them, and I have them now. So when I'm thinking about my trip to Italy, if I start to feel scarce, a little jealous, a little, 'What is me?' I can make it into a little abundant sandwich. I can say, 'I really want to be married to a wonderful person. I already have that one. I really want to go to Italy with that person, working on that one. I would love to have some kids with that person and maybe even take them to Italy. I love those kids. I would love to have two kids. I love having that.' And that just feels more abundant, talking about our wants and desires, as opposed to coming from a scarcity mentality, like, 'Everyone else gets to go to Italy. I'm going to go to Italy, but it's going to be expensive, and what am I going to do with these kids?' Real scarcity with me. 'I don't have and I want, and someone else has it, so I can't have it.' Scarcity.
I would love for someone to try an abundance journal and see how it makes them feel. So anytime you are feeling abundant, anytime you're feeling, 'This is wonderful. I look at this wonderful abundance in my life,' if you start writing those down, again, your brain's going to start looking for more. It's going to start looking for more evidence for you, and I think it's going to be really fun. So how can we focus on abundance with our weight loss? Anytime you're feeling deprived, we've got to flip it. So if you're doing your meal planning and you're thinking, 'What was me?' If you're thinking, 'I wish I could have some other food. I wish I could have more food,' let's just flip it. Okay, if we need to skip and have a different food, let's do that. First of all, we're not trying to be, I don't agree with starving. I don't like being hungry to lose weight. We don't need to do that. But maybe like, 'I'm choosing all these healthy vegetables because I know that that's really good for me,' and focusing on how that food is nourishing me, as opposed to, 'I wish I could have the pasta. I'm going to have spaghetti squash instead.' The spaghetti squash, it has so many more vitamins and minerals, it's really going to be good for me, extra fiber. How nourishing, how wonderful. Sometimes we can't control, so you want to be wary of that, and if it is something you can't control, let's just flip back to something we can control, something we can control with our decisions. Something like, 'I'm going to eat this, but I'm going to be mindful about it.' It's empowering. Abundance feels empowering, whereas scarcity feels very anxiety-driven. So if you've started to process some feelings in your body and you know the difference in these, you'll recognize it right away. Mindset, woo, I understand that. But scarcity and feeling deprived is going to lead to overeating. Feeling abundant, like we're doing something wonderful for ourselves, knowing that our success does not depend on anyone else not having success, it's just so nice, and I promise will lead to less overeating and just a better experience while you're trying to be healthy and lose weight and do something really nice for yourself.
So an abundant mindset is going to serve you in all areas, not just your weight loss, but it definitely has a compound effect. We don't have to worry about feeling deprived. We don't get suckered in by the food companies, and we can just have a really abundant mindset throughout the rest of our day, in our interactions with our family, and our interactions with our friends, and our interactions at work. It doesn't matter how successful someone else is, that is not going to take away from your success, and your success is not going to take away from anyone else's. Thank you so much for listening today. I cannot wait to talk to you next week. If you learned anything, please share it with a friend. Until then, I'll see you next week. Bye.