100. Then & Now

In this milestone 100th episode, Stacy Heimburger reflects on her journey from struggling with weight and self-confidence to discovering the power of mindset and coaching. She emphasizes the importance of self-talk and introduces her comprehensive Food Freedom Plan, which integrates nutrition, mindset, and emotional support, particularly for women navigating hormonal changes. The episode serves as both a celebration of progress and a roadmap for future growth in health and wellness.

Here’s what you’ll hear inside today’s show:

✨ My Story Then – From people-pleasing perfectionist to exhausted mom and physician struggling with 90 extra pounds. Why diets and punishment never worked, and what finally shifted.

✨ What I’ve Learned Now – Why weight loss is not just about food. The role of self-talk, mindset, and identity shifts. How GLP-1 medications help with hunger, but why habits and thought work are still the keys to long-term success.

✨ Where We’re Going Next – The vision for the next 100 episodes and the launch of The Food Freedom Plan™ — a comprehensive approach to nutrition, mindset, GLP-1 support, emotional eating, hormones, and movement.

By the end of this episode, you’ll see that lasting weight loss isn’t about following stricter rules. It’s about building freedom — freedom from shame, from constant food noise, and from feeling “bad” at all the roles in your life.

👉 If this podcast has ever helped you, please share it with a friend or DM me and let me know what it’s meant to you. Your support means everything!

🔗 Related Resource: End Emotional Eating: The Vault  https://www.sugarfreemd.com/vault

Free 2-Pound Plan Call!
Want to jump start your weight loss? Schedule a free call where Dr. Stacy Heimburger will work with you to create a personalized plan to lose 2 pounds in one week, factoring in your unique circumstances, challenges, and aspirations. Schedule now! www.sugarfreemd.com/2pound

This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com.

Transcript

Hey everybody, can you believe it? It is episode 100. When I started this podcast, I had no idea if anyone would even tune in. I had no idea how long it was going to last. And here we are, 100 episodes later. Honestly, it took me more than a year to start the podcast after I wanted to, because I just couldn't figure out the logistics of it. And then I met a wonderful person who’s a podcast coach, and she has helped me produce this podcast for 100 episodes now. She is amazing, and without her this would not exist. Without you it would not exist.

So I just want to say thank you so much for listening — whether you're commuting, walking, folding clothes, whatever. I try and keep these episodes kind of short and sweet so that you can just take them in while you're doing something else.

Thank you. Thank you for sharing it and thank you for letting me be part of your weight loss journey.

I thought I would start this episode with just a little recap of my story, because maybe not all of you have been here since episode one — and that is perfectly fine and wonderful. I have to say, I was not always as comfortable in my body or even as comfortable with my messaging or what I wanted to do in this world. I was a people pleaser at heart. I was a perfectionist. And I was really not confident at all.

I compared a lot. I was always looking at other women, other doctors, and just always feeling like I did not measure up. I would think they were doing it better, and then I would think I was bad or wrong. Especially when my weight was its highest. I had just had my second son. He was actually a year old, so I can’t even say it was right after the baby. I gained weight after Owen was born. I was the heaviest I ever was, just feeling tired all the time.

I felt like I wasn't doing anything right. I was so disappointed in myself. Here I was, a doctor — and I did feel pretty good about that, I thought I was a pretty good doctor — but I just couldn't figure out this weight thing. It had been something I struggled with for so long. And the only time I had ever been able to lose weight in the past was super punishing. I would over-exercise and under-eat. I was neurotic about writing everything down. I would get so upset when the apps would say I should be losing weight, but I wasn’t losing weight. It was bad.

I tried every diet. You name a diet, I have tried it. I can tell you all about it — all the diet rules. I just knew I needed to figure out something different.

I was introduced to life coaching and this idea that our thoughts create our actions, and that just blew my mind entirely. It seems like a pretty simple concept, but I had never been taught that I was in control of my thoughts. I didn’t understand how definitively our thoughts create our results.

So when I had thoughts and didn’t like my results, I didn’t put those two things together. I didn’t get that connection until I was introduced to coaching. That really changed a lot for me.

Then I decided I was going to try something different. I started getting interested in anti-aging medicine. I got certified in lifestyle medicine, and I really wanted to go back to just more of a whole foods, less processed, less sugar way of living. That’s what I tried to do. I came up with a protocol and a plan using nutrition as the bricks, the base layer, and then coaching as everything else.

I went in with the thoughts of, “I’m trying something new,” with curiosity and compassion. I worked backwards knowing that would provide me with the motivation to keep going.

Here’s a little aside: if you want to feel motivated — because motivation is going to provide the actions you want — you need to figure out what thought, what sentence in your brain, can spur that feeling of motivation. I realized after a few tries that what I needed was to feel willing to keep going. I needed to feel this drive not to stop, because I knew if I just kept going, I could figure it out.

Before all this started, I was so tired I just didn’t want to figure it out anymore. So the feelings I was going for were curiosity and willingness. And you hear me say “curiosity and compassion” a lot, because those were the two feelings I needed to have the actions that caused me to lose weight.

When I was being this people-pleaser perfectionist, I was in a bad place. I didn’t want to keep going with my weight loss plan. I thought that was it. I thought I was going to be overweight, sad, and tired all the time. And the effect that had on all of my relationships was not good. As you can imagine, if I’m in this place where I’m thinking, “This is life. It’s sad and I don’t like it,” I wasn’t going to go out and have fun.

There was cognitive dissonance there. Part of my brain didn’t want to keep going, and the other part was like, “But we have to.”

When I started to figure this out, it clarified for me: how can I put that together with doctoring, with the nutrition I’d learned, and help start me on the path to creating this podcast, to creating my coaching program?

And so, 100 episodes later, here’s what I’ve learned — and I’ll tell you the new tweaks and what to look forward to coming up.

What I learned most of all is that weight loss really is not about the food. Food matters. I do think sugar matters. I think processed foods matter. But it really comes down to your self-talk and your mindset. The self-talk is what makes or breaks you. It’s your ability to manage your thoughts and to take the power back in your thought creation that can really make a huge difference.

Second, I’ve learned GLP-1 medications have changed the game for so many women. They help open up some space for these thought creations. But the truth of the matter is, those medications handle hunger. They handle some of the mind chatter, but they are not going to handle the habits. Coaching, and what you learn here from me, is the perfect companion to a GLP-1 medication.

So if you’ve been listening, you know I’m always talking about habits, about the mental switches we can make, the thought errors we have and how to redefine those. Along with a GLP-1, that’s a synergistic relationship that can really help create true food freedom.

The third thing I’ve learned is that you don’t need someone telling you you’re doing it wrong. You don’t need yourself telling you you’re doing it wrong. What you need is someone reminding you: take it one step at a time. You are capable. You are not broken. Thoughts are not always easy to change, but food freedom is possible. That’s the heart of this podcast.

When I started, I wanted to focus on mindset — with some tactical tips and tricks in there. What 100 episodes have evolved into is the framework of my program, what I will be launching. That’s the Food Freedom Plan. That’s the umbrella that ties it all together: the nutrition piece, the mindset piece, the GLP-1 support if you’re on one, emotional eating tools, hormones, and movement.

Just recently I became Menopause Society certified, so now I can help support women through those changes too. It feels like I’ve been searching for all the little pieces, and now there’s a comprehensive way to put them together into a plan that truly helps people no matter where they’re at.

The Food Freedom Plan doesn’t just focus on weight loss. It’s about your whole body, your whole health, and your whole life. It’s about being well, not just smaller.

So that’s where I see the next 100 episodes going. That’s where my business is going. That’s what my programs and launches will focus on.

We’re going to tackle nutrition, mindset, GLP-1 support, emotional eating, movement, and hormones. I’m in a much better place now to provide that full scope, especially for those of you in your 40s and beyond navigating hormonal changes that shake up even the best plan.

So the Food Freedom Plan is the umbrella, and under it, I can support you from every angle. Not just losing weight, but building health and wholeness.

I hope you’ll stay with me for the next hundred episodes. Again, I cannot thank you enough for listening. Please share this with a friend, or just send me a message and let me know you’re there and this has been helpful for you.

Here’s to the next 100 episodes. All right everybody, have a great day.