In this episode of "Weight Loss Made Simple," dive into the transformative journey of breaking free from thought loops. Discover actionable strategies to liberate your mind from the cycle of worry and self-doubt, paving the way for enhanced mental clarity and sustainable weight loss. Join Dr. Stacy Heimburger as she delves into the psychology behind thought loops and empowers listeners to reclaim control over their thoughts and behaviors. If you're ready to overcome mental barriers and cultivate a mindful approach to weight loss, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in now to unlock the key to lasting change and holistic well-being.
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This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher.
Hey everybody welcome back to the podcast. I’m so glad that you’re here with me today. I wanted to talk about another thought error so last week we talked about arrival mentality so if you didn’t hear last week I’ll catch you up. Thought errors are the thoughts that we have that we’ve thought so many times we just think they’re true and we don’t really recognize that they’re completely in accurate so arrival mentality is the idea that when I reach There wherever there is things will be better so when I reach my goal weight, there will be sunshine daisies balloons in the world will all be perfect. I will no longer have sadness. Everything will be great, right not true so with arrival mentality we need to start looking at what feelings we think we have there when we get there wherever there is when we arrive and we need to start generating those feelings now, which will actually make getting there More inevitable so today I want to talk about a different type of thought error and this is called a thought loop OK and so this is probably something that you have and something you’ve experienced. It’s basically when the brain gets caught in an error and it’s totally irrational and our primitive brain is like figure this out or someone’s gonna die and I’m gonna give you some examples to make this make sense a little bit more but these thought errors basically create these minor obsessive loops and that’s why we call them thought loops right it’s just like the spinning circle, so you might recognize this if you’ve ever been anywhere if you’ve ever been to a party or you’ve ever done something that you kind of regret and then you come home from that situation and your brain just keeps replaying it over and over and over again why did I do that? Why didn’t I do this right so I know in medicine I get this a lot if anything ever goes wrong with a patient or if a patient dies I will obsessively get caught in these loops. Just trying to it. Was there something I messes or something I could’ve done why did I do that? Why did I not do this just looking for a problem OK looking for a different solution usually these things come out of worry so we’re worried we did something wrong. We’re worried about how people will think of us were worried we should’ve done it better or people pleasing now they’re not gonna like me because I did because I said the wrong name I called someone by the wrong name and now they’re not gonna like me why did I do that? Why I couldn’t I remember or maybe even a little FOMO a little fear of missing out OK why didn’t I say yes to do that why didn’t I go do that fun thing All of these things can create thought loops. You’ll know it’s a loop because it literally feels like your brain is just spinning in a circle you’re creating this energy but the energy is not causing momentum so we’re not moving forward we’re just spinning in this, what if what if what if why did I did that I did it right Sometimes we can these little obsessions can cause a little bit of momentum. Maybe it’s a little Facebook stocking or Instagram stocking did they say something? Did they unfriend me? What what’s going on we might even recognize that it’s not logical to obsess about these things, we might recognize this isn’t who I wanna be I don’t wanna sit here in the loop, sometimes anxiety or just fear can do this. I know I’m an explain the concept of a worry free diet during this episode but before I went on a free diet, I had very bad anxiety about my children’s safety when they were little and I would get in these loops and then I have to check the Daycare cameras and make sure they were OK. I was like always worried something was gonna happen to them and it caused me to be a little obsessive right if I couldn’t watch the cameras, I might call my mom be like hey grandma watch the cameras for me make sure everything is fine with the kids And I learned this concept of not worrying so worry that’s usually what spurs my thoughts is worry there’s a little people pleasing like why did I do that and I’ll talk about why that’s useless as well but worry worries always about something we cannot control and it’s always about something without an answer I am kind of a worst case scenario person. If I have a legitimate worry, I kind of like to play out was the worst thing that can happen come up with a solution realize the world is not gonna implode and then move forward, but when I would worry about something awful happening to the children, that was nothing in my control, there was never gonna be a solution. There was never gonna be an answer so there was no way for my brain to resolve it, so it would just spin this loop in the loop in the loop, I knew it wasn’t logical to worry about these very random things that will likely never happened to the children but I couldn’t stop it then I was trying to coach school Brooke Castillo run coach school and she talked about this concept of a free diet and I really took it to HEART because worry is a useless emotion because there is no answer because it’s always things out of our control. We can just choose not to worry now when I first heard this, I would like cheese crazy I need to worry it’s obviously doing some good or I wouldn’t keep doing it but she was right and so when I started practicing doing it anytime, I would start to worry about these things and I would catch myself in the loop. I would tell myself we don’t worry anymore. It was a simple as that now. Did it work the first time no not really did I have to tell myself multiple multiple multiple times yes do weird flashes of violence against my children. Still pop into my head when I’m trying to go to sleep sometimes, but I can immediately tell myself that’s not something that’s gonna have an answer that is unlikely to happen and we don’t worry anymore, and it actually does stop my brain from this loop OK so the worry loop is when we can just absolutely interrupt and tell ourselves no like scolding a dog but a little on the nose. Nope not allowed to worry we don’t worry anymore. We’re on a free diet that took a little bit of time, but will work I promise you, the people pleasing I’ve done something wrong. Why did I do that? I should’ve done something different that loop is also useless but for a different reason whatever happened is already happened we 100% cannot change the past if it happened it happened for a reason we might not always understand the reason, but it doesn’t matter the reason because it’s done we can’t undo it so we need to stop getting in a loop about what if I had done it different it doesn’t matter because we didn’t do it different Right we can’t argue with the past whatever happened happened now if we act a donkey and we’re embarrassed about our behavior, we can go back and apologize for that and from emotional maturity make amends but we’re never gonna be able to undo whatever we did OK so if we lost our shit and started screaming and now we’re embarrassed about that we can’t undo the fact that we lost it and started screaming it happened so we don’t need to argue with it and getting this loop in our head. what if I done something different or I am so bad for doing that it’s done we just have to move on. We can apologize and make amends that’s what’s needed. Let’s talk about food. Urges and food obsession and loops. OK I think this scenario is more of your sitting at a table someone’s brought out some desserts. A drug rep brought in some donuts to the office and they’re calling you from across the room. That’s what it feels like there’s this urge they’re drawing you and the thought loop goes something like this that taste good you should get some. Is everyone else getting some maybe I need some but they’re gonna be any left. If I decide I want some later I know I better get some. I want some food. I’m gonna need to eat a lot I get one for later. I should have one now and one later right and we’re just in this crazy loop about our food, it feels like our brain has taken over and is just like on repeat of crazy it’s like when you accidentally lean something on your computer and you’re hitting a key and it’s just going nuts that’s what the loops feel like to me. We need to understand that most of these loops are our desire to control the uncontrollable or to argue with reality. Reality the situation as we don’t need the donut right it doesn’t matter who eats the donuts and it doesn’t matter if there’s no donuts when I go back like I don’t need the donut I didn’t plan for donut. I’m gonna eat the donut, but we get this loop so what do we do give you some strategies of how to sort of shut down the loop when you hear it when you feel it I always feel it really feels like a little whirlwind inside my head or inside my body I guess we can recognize it and just try and shut it down. I don’t worry anymore right for our thought loop for our why did I do that doesn’t matter why I did it’s done right for these food ones we can just Realize we don’t need food right now unless we’re really hungry and then if we’re hungry we eat we we want or we can realize that this is generating a little bit of energy OK and so the energy is amp up the urge for food OK cause we might start having some food urges in our other two pot loops as well so when we have this energy we can choose to give that energy a different outlet. OK this is where maybe I’ll get up and go for a walk maybe I will call somebody and talk to them instead we can give the energy and outlet that is not eating, we have to gently separate from the loops whenever possible, because they’re just not moving us in any type of direction that is useful or productive the energy we are creating is not productive unless it’s causing us to eat. That’s the only thing it’s trying to produce and we don’t want that so we just have to gently separate so we noticed it and then we can ask ourselves a couple of questions. What’s gone wrong here? What am I trying to control, usually it’s something we can’t control so as soon as we recognize it is not something we can control. We tell ourselves to stop worrying about it if we recognize it’s something we really want like I really want that person like me and so I’m obsessing about our conversation because I want to have made a positive first impression and that and I don’t know if I did and I’m sort of obsessing about the conversation so what I really want was to have some acknowledgment or appreciation that I’m a good person if that’s what we want can we give ourselves that instead so can I do some meditation do some affirmations can I make a list give my brain some evidence that I am loved and appreciated and a good person if we’re still buzzing, we just need to get up and release the energy that nervousness and anxiety that spinning energy of trying to control, the uncontrollable is going to find its way out someway I’m trying to give you a why it’s happening and a way to get rid of that energy that doesn’t involve over eating. These thought errors are not so hard to deal with. Honestly I think 99% of the battle is just recognizing them for what they are when we recognize arrival mentality, we can shut that down. When we recognize these thought loops these thought errors we can shut them down to, we cannot control the uncontrollable so we do not need to waste another second worrying about it. We do not need to obsess over the past past conversations but past actions because they’re done it’s happened we need to move on if we still feel it happening we haven’t been able to talk ourselves down. We need to get that energy and outlet. Let it out somewhere productive on purpose so that it’s not an energy outlet straight to the pantry, OK guys I hope this was helpful. Just a quickie today. I cannot wait to talk to you next week and have a wonderful wonderful week and shut those thought loops down as soon as you get as soon as you recognize them just throw them out all right bye.