249. [Call 2] Letting Go of Attachment to the Scale With Zivli Member, Chris

Morgan (00:00.182)
Like every day I pretty much expect to see some kind of a change in my weight. And it has, I mean, it goes up and down like, you know, a pound, pound and a half routinely, but I keep, I'm in the same pound, pound and a half and have been for probably at least eight weeks now, without losing much weight to start with. I mean, I be dropped like three pounds and then now I'm just hovering in that same part. So I'm looking for it for.

results more so than I need to. Like I lift weights and so I know that my body composition is changing even though the scale might not reflect it. So yeah, was just caring too much about what it says. And I really, in my personal faith formula, I changed my statement about my ideal body weight to be my ideal body composition. Because I really don't care what I weigh, but yet I was acting like I did.

Hi, I'm Dr. Morgan Nolte, founder of Zivli. As a geriatric physical therapist, I saw the heartbreaking effects of insulin resistance. At Zivli, our mission is to help you prevent and reverse insulin resistance for long -term weight loss and disease prevention through a low insulin and inflammation lifestyle. Each week on this podcast, you'll learn simple, actionable tips to lose weight, keep it off and get healthy. If you're ready to create a body and life you love,

you're in the right place. Let's get started.

Hey there and welcome back to another episode of the reshape your health podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Morgan Nolte. And today we are with a RSIB member, Chris, and she has gracefully participated in some coaching and has agreed to make that make it public. So she's being very vulnerable, authentic. And she really wants to get that a sculpted physique and dial in her weight loss and her health. And she wanted one -on -one coaching. And so we thought this would be a really nice way to like,

Morgan (01:59.562)
show people, okay, what is coaching like? But then also, I hope that you see your struggles through her own. I think that's the biggest benefit of doing this in a podcast format is so that, you know, it's so hard to see our own blind spots, but sometimes it's easier to see them in other people. So, Chris, thank you for being here and for your authenticity today. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. Of course. Okay. So we were talking offline a little bit just about how the last couple of weeks have gone because it's been about two weeks.

since we talked to each other last. And the main action items were to tweak that personal faith formula and do a little bit of reflecting. And so I wanted to know like how has that reflection been going and what obstacles have come up in the last couple of weeks for you? So I have been trying to reflect on the end of the day, at the end of the day on my day and where it

matches the person that I want to become and where I'm falling short, but I feel like I have been focusing too much on where I'm falling short. And so I know like a big mindset component to Zivli is to focus on the gains, not the gaps. Is that how you guys say it? Yeah, there's a book called like The Gap and the Gains. I don't remember who wrote it. I've never read it, but I just think it's such an obvious concept that makes a lot of sense.

Yeah, so I find that I'm focusing on my gaps at the end of the day more so than my gains. And I still, you know, list what I'm thankful for and what I've done well, but I feel like the reflection in my mind was to find where I was falling short. And so I feel like I'm focusing too much on that. And then it also kind of skews my morning routine because I was doing action steps for the next day in the evening. So I'm not sure what the best way is to go up.

about that. But a big thing that I decided when I was doing my reflection was to put this, well, I would actually put the scale away. It's still in my bathroom, but I've made my weekly action item was not to weigh until I do my weekly meetings with myself. So just do it once a week because I definitely have too much attachment to the scale. Yep. Okay. That's good that you recognize that.

Morgan (04:19.574)
I want just for people that may not know what that feels like to be attached to this skill. What did that feel like for you? To be attached to put it away? I know, both. Well, like every day I pretty much expect to see some kind of a change in my weight. And it has, I mean, it goes up and down like, you know, a pound, a pound and a half routinely, but I keep, I'm in the same pound, pound and a half and have been for probably at least eight weeks now.

without losing much weight to start with. I mean, I may be dropped like three pounds and then now I'm just hovering in that same part. So I'm looking for it for results more so than I need to. Like I lift weights and so I know that my body composition is changing even though the scale might not reflect it. So yeah, was just caring too much about what it says. And I really, in my personal faith formula, I changed my...

statement about my ideal body weight to be my ideal body composition, because I really don't care what I weigh, but yet I was acting like I did. Right, right. Yeah, OK. So that was one way you were letting the external affect the internal. And that was a pattern that we kind of noticed in the last coaching call. So I'm glad that you recognize, OK, how am I letting this affect me? Is that something that I want? Is this something my future self would do? No? OK, then I'm not going to focus on weight anymore. I'm focusing on the body.

position. So kudos to you for that. I was wanting to ask you as well, you know, what did it feel like to put it away? So that's kind of what it felt like to be attached when you put it away. What did it feel like? Well, I actually didn't put it away because I figured my husband would want to weigh and he doesn't put his candy away and I have to avoid that. So I have to avoid weighing myself too. But it really hasn't been difficult to not weigh myself. Now it's only been since Saturday and today's Thursday. So hasn't been too terribly long.

But it was easier than I thought it would be, actually. Good. Good. All right, cool. I'm glad it was easier than you thought. Sometimes if you're only weighing yourself on a weekly basis, just a heads up if there's not a ton of progress. Because if you're doing it on a daily basis, you might expect to see small changes. But then if you only see a small change on the weekly basis or no change, that can be almost like all of the emotion from that week pent up in one day. Right. So just heads up on that. Yeah.

Morgan (06:42.926)
You mentioned that you were kind of focusing a little bit too much on where you were quote unquote falling short. And I think we can dig into that a little bit today. And then my goal is for you to start using a new daily meeting agenda that Beth and I just developed and we just put in our Zivli program. So where did you find yourself falling short routinely between where you're currently at and then where that future version of yourself is?

It wasn't even necessarily a horrible thing. It was me just expecting that I should have done more. Like, for example, I go to the gym five days a week, but then when I was reflecting, my reflection was, well, maybe you should have increased your weights on that exercise or should have done another set or you could have pushed yourself harder. but I was at the gym, you know, and I should have, and I did recognize that I was at the gym, but I was thinking why I should have maybe worked a little bit harder.

or I should have spent more time on the treadmill before or after, or should have finished the podcast I was listening to before I left the gym. And I was just finding little things that could have added to my day, but I was still doing pretty good in general. Same thing with my fasting. I have been fasting at least 12 hours overnight, but I haven't done the 16 hours routinely.

And mostly because I do get up and go to the gym. So I feel like I want to be nourished before I go. And then I just have it incorporated on the weekend. I don't know. just feel like I could do better. So that's, I think, a recurring thought in your mind. I could do better. I could do better. I could do better. Yeah. Do you have that kind of language in other areas of your life, or is it just with your health?

That's a good question. Yeah, other areas too, I would say. Okay. That would be my guess. And so that's kind of a tricky one, right? Because it seems like it's a growth mindset that I could do better, I could do better. And what I would encourage you to reframe that is I am doing better. And so I think when you're saying I could do it, it kind of makes your...

Morgan (08:59.98)
self -feel guilty and I think a lot of people use guilt or use personal shame. I'm not saying that you're doing this, but a of people do, to motivate their behavior. And I think, would you feel like in the past or currently you use some sort of negative self -talk to motivate yourself to do better in some way, shape, form? I'm sure I do. I mean, I don't think I beat myself up as much as some people do.

And definitely since being involved in zivli, like if my husband and I are playing a board game and he's like, that was so stupid. I'm so stupid. I'm like, stop that. Speak kindly to yourself. You know, so I'm definitely more in tune of it, aware of it for myself as well. but I also have a lot of. Pride and respect and all that for myself and for others, you know, so it's not like I'm always Debbie Downer or, you know, seeking out the number. Yeah.

Now, and I think, so let me ask you this, what is the future version of yourself who is at that ideal -winding composition, 10 out of 10 confidence in all areas of life? Is she telling herself that she could do better? She probably shouldn't, but like my first response was, well, yes, it's still me, so I'll probably still feel like there's something better than I can achieve. You know, there's probably that next step that I could strive for, because I always, there's always something I like to look forward to and plan for, you know.

be it business or travel or my body or whatever. knowing my personality, I do feel like even when I envision myself at that ideal body weight, there's probably gonna be something that I'm thinking I can tweak, which I'm sure is not healthy. Well, I don't know about that. I mean, I think that that's part of the human experience is to want more, to want better, to want new experiences. I just think we can tweak the language so that it doesn't make you feel like you're not doing enough right now. Okay. And maybe...

that could go on your growth list, I could do better. so if you have your growth, I don't have your growth list pulled up right now, but if you wanna add that to it, so that would be one of those really, really sneaky limiting thoughts, because it pulls you out of the present moment. And what I would want you to do instead, like to replace that thought with is I am doing better. I am doing my best. I am proud to be doing my best. And I'm looking forward to everything in my future.

Morgan (11:21.272)
So do you feel the difference in that, like, and how that makes you feel like I could do better versus I'm doing my best and I'm looking forward to the future, something like that? Yes, definitely feels different. Yeah, it does feel different. So I think that that was one thing. And then another thought that really came up when we were just touching base offline a little bit, when you were doing that start daily meeting agenda, when we got to the thought and obstacle section, you were like, I'm busy. And that was a recurring.

thought and obstacles. So can you walk me through the I'm busy and how that's kind of playing into your everyday life and decisions and health training? I just feel busy. I know that's redundant. Pulled in multiple directions. I have a business where people are working 24 -7, so I feel like I always have to be accessible. And part of it

I don't have to respond as quickly as I do, but I feel like people are accustomed to me being really timely in my response. So whereas I could possibly ignore a call or a text or an email for maybe even five, six hours, I respond quickly and then it sets me off task for the other thing that I'm working on. And so I know it's part -time management. And then I do,

have a lot of different projects. starting a new business. I'm preparing to sit for another board exam. I need to study for that. I'm doing networking meetings all the time. like some days I just want to be able to just sit in my office in my gym clothes and be behind my desk all day. And I do try to schedule that, but I do also consider that a day that I'm busy because there's, you know, I'm busy with something. yeah. Yeah.

How do you handle the busyness? you do any emotional eating around this busyness or? I don't think I do emotional eating around it, but sometimes I wait until I'm really hungry to eat and then probably make bad decisions or eat more than I should. Is that like you skip a meal or you put a meal off too long? What does that look like? Yeah, it's usually I put it off too long and instead of eating around noon -ish, it's, you know, 2 .30 -ish.

Morgan (13:40.68)
and so then I'm hungry and then it messes up my dinner and then if I eat dinner late then it messes up my fasting time. So yeah. So usually what happens on those... I'm sorry. I said that's good insight. Go ahead. Yeah. Usually on the days that I eat later, I end up not having a regular dinner. I might just have like a protein shake or some cottage cheese or something. So I'm still getting my protein, but it's not really satisfying.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a dose of protein, but not a great meal that you're really looking forward to that kind of nourishes the body, nourishes the soul, relaxes your mind. Okay. Right. When you said that you run a business where people are on 24 hours, you feel like you have to be on all the time. Does that include overnight? Because I thought your sleep was really good. My sleep is good and I silenced my phone at night. currently I don't have any overnight visits.

Currently, I think they're all on hold right now. So I do sleep good though I silence my phone. So when there are people work, I wake up every night anyway, like I never sleep straight through. And if I do have somebody working, I'll check my phone, see if there was something that I missed, but now I'm not even checking my phone.

Okay, good. I was gonna say, well, let's stop checking your phone because if there's nothing that you're really gonna do in the moment, then like there's no need to give your brain that stimulation, but I'm glad that you already kind of nipped that one. All right, so there's some good stuff here to dig into. We could do some...

Morgan (15:19.826)
activity management, because I like to say you can't manage your time, you have to manage your activities. Like we all have the same amount of time. It's about like what we're doing. And I think that you're already doing a good job. I think reducing the task shifting would help reduce your overall stress levels during the day. But I think it would be more beneficial for us to focus a little bit on just continued self study and self assessment because we have a couple things like waiting too long to work that may lead to overeating. I know that you're still kind of a

in that place of, do I need to track my macros again? I don't want to do that, but I have to, that a thing? And then the I'm busy, I think is a really, really important one to focus on as well. So I'm going to share my screen with you and walk you through a new daily meeting agenda. wanted to, ultimately we want to create a journal, a as if we journal where people can implement the system, like on paper on a daily basis. So.

This is the start of that. That's not going to be available for a long time because it just takes a while. So let me share my screen and we're just going to go top to bottom. And this is going to be kind of your action item for, know, until we meet again. So I'm going to send this to you and it's split into morning and evening because you're kind of saying, this is a little bit confusing. I'm used to doing my action items in the morning. Now I'm kind of doing them in the evening. What should I do in the morning? So can you see my screen? Okay.

Perfect. All right, so we have, I have it does like health action items and then life action items. And I would love your feedback on this. This is very much a work in progress still. So I want you to use it and then give me feedback on what you think should be tweaked. So the morning routine, I've kind of designated out, like read your personal faith formula, meditate or visualize, review or modify your action items that you set the night before. And then you can put in anything else on the other that you want. So.

And then your exercise plan for the day, which typically you would set the day before, but you're still reviewing it because you're setting all these action items in the evening. Your eating window. So when you plan to eat the following day, right? Like I'm going to eat from 7 a to 7 p or whatever your window is. What time you plan to go to bed and get up. And then your food plan. So are you currently doing anything like this, like the food plan? No.

Morgan (17:46.146)
There have been a couple of days where I've tried to get into Carb Manager or my Fitness Pal. I think I'm gonna go back to my Fitness Pal, because that's what I used for so long and I'm just more comfortable with it. There have been a few days that I've tried to plan in advance, but then go back to the whole, I'm resisting logging my macros. All right.

This is not a macro -spaced plan, it's just like a food journal. So you're planning what you're gonna eat, whether that's a smoothie, lunch, and I'll kinda walk you through like what I do to make it simple. Dinner, snacks, et cetera. And then in the evening, you're gonna read that personal faith formula and review the action items. I'll talk about that in a second.

And then there's some self -study questions. I put this as an action item just because I don't want people to forget about it. It's so easy, like when you're starting a new habit to forget. And then other things, so like a weekly planning meeting, which I'll talk with you after we review this and you can tell me this is good for a couple of weeks. This is all I want to focus on for a couple of weeks before I include a weekly meeting. we'll play that by ear together.

And then your life action items. So for you, most of these are probably be related to business right now. Like if you have a, important meeting or event or tasks that you really want to prioritize getting done. But I like to tell people too, it doesn't always have to be work related. And so for you, because the, I'm busy, tends to be a recurring theme in your life. I would actually encourage you to make rest.

an action item. And I am working on it too. I'm working on it too. But some way, or form, having pockets of rest built into your day, whether that's like a set aside lunchtime or, you know, again, time in the evening for that, for the daily evening routine, or like I'm going to be adding buffers between podcasts interviews. So I'm not going like back to back to back.

Morgan (19:56.278)
And those are just like little examples from my life. You can watch the news. I mean, if that doesn't like stress you out, but something to just relax you. During my breaks, I'm trying to be productive. Like I'm sure that that's shocking to you. But like today, I'm washing some laundry and I'm gonna make my bed during my work break. So it's still like a mental break for me that's being productive. So that might work for you too, but I don't know.

So when you said that you make the evening routine or it could be part of your break I do that So I have that break and then when you start talking about doing laundry and dishes and stuff like that's my break too But that doesn't really feel like a break because it's still busy stuff So I wouldn't and then it's person specific. So for me, I need the mental break I need the the focused work time break

at like for pockets of my day. Otherwise I'm just kind of fatigued by the end of the day. But like if I'm putting laundry away, it's not something that I enjoy, but it's still a mental break. Okay. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. I thought we might want to look for something we were enjoying. That's important too. But like I think for busy women like us, we kind of also just have to be like real with ourselves.

And I think for me, being productive actually like brings me joy. I know that that might sound weird to some people, but are you kind of someone? yeah, for sure. So it's not like we need to just sit down, cross our legs and go, for like 20 minutes. But some sort of break to break it up, I think is good and probably going to be beneficial for you to just bring your attention to. And then once you start to bring your attention to it, then you can intuitively say like,

should this be a productive break or should this be just a total mental rest here? Because the other day I had, I did, I like I have like this little like red light mask that I'll do on my face sometimes just for fun. And I laid on the floor for 15 minutes with my eyes closed between meetings before office hours just to kind of refresh my mind and relax. So I just kind of feel it out. But I'm trying to get a little bit more intentional too on not being so busy. So. Okay.

Morgan (22:13.23)
Any questions first off on the morning where you're essentially reviewing the plan you set the night before? No, but the only thing that stands out to me is that it doesn't have anything in there about gratitude. that's coming. Okay. Yeah, coming. And again, modify this as you want. Okay. So in the evening, this is kind of our self -study time and read your personal faith formula. I think that that's helpful to,

Place your mindset in that of the future version of yourself. We want to hold that in our minds image as often as possible. So that repetition is important. And then review your action items. Check if they were done or indicate in the actual section where they did not align. Then journal through the following questions each night. And I know that this is a lot of questions and I don't expect you to journal through these each and every night.

I think if you kind of skim them and say, which one pops out at me today or which couple pop out at me today, then I would go from there. So make it more of an intuitive process. But I did underline these two. What's one thing I'm proud of myself for today? And then what's one thing I'm grateful for today? So I think in some way down the road in this development, I'll probably delineate these questions of like, you know.

daily self -study questions or as needed, but I want people to really be focusing on those too every day. What are you grateful for? What are you proud of? That's how we kind of raise those vibrations, raise our energy. It's super helpful. I'm gonna read through these. Well, first off, before I do that, the last step is just to set tomorrow's action items on tomorrow's page. So whether that's you wanna print these off and do it like that, or if you wanna keep an online journal.

You can kind of do what I do, which is I just keep up paper journals, then I kind of just follow this outline on paper. Then I want to read these and I want you to tell me which ones really pop out to you. Like, ooh, that's a good question that I should reflect upon. Where did I get off plan today and why? What stressed me out today? Where did I react instead of respond today?

Morgan (24:34.092)
And this one's helpful for identifying underlying attachments. What external circumstances quote unquote made me go off plan today? And this question helps identify where you're still letting the external affect your internal. So just thinking through what we've talked about, sometimes you're like I'm pushing my meal back too much. And so then in my mind, I'm like maybe she's saying I had this meeting, that meeting, that meeting. That's kind of still where we're letting the external affect the internal. So what made me go off plan?

I just use that language because that's how we talk to ourselves and I kind wanted to meet our thoughts further up. Where did I negotiate with myself today? Whether or not you went off plan is helpful. So it's kind of like the temptation in the evening to like, for me, it's like have the Stevia chocolate chips. Don't have the Stevia chocolate. It's not that big of a deal, you know, in the grand scheme of emotional eating things.

It's still a negotiation that I notice that I have and sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, but I try to reflect upon why regardless. When I went off plan, how did I rationalize or justify that decision to myself? That's really good for identifying your own internal dialect and sometimes it's okay to go off plan. Like I used the example in office hours recently where yesterday morning I got up at five and I...

went down, I did my morning mindset routine in the basement, put my walking shoes on, I was just going to walk on the treadmill. And then Justin, my husband comes down and he's like, do you want to get in the hot tub? Like I do want to get in the tub. It's like 5 .30 in the morning and we had our coffee in the hot tub and just had such a lovely time together. But I justified that to myself by saying you're helping your cousin move this afternoon, you're going to get a ton of physical activity already today. You don't get to spend a lot of quality time with your husband these days.

that is more important than your walk on the treadmill. So it was a conscious decision to negotiate up with myself versus you just feel that like when you're negotiating down versus negotiating up. So getting that practice, where did I procrastinate today? What activities did I do today that wasted my time or brain power? I really like this question for me personally and for people that struggle with emotional eating.

Morgan (26:56.47)
What new food craving cues did I notice today? And I like to remind people that a cue can be a thought, an emotion, physical feeling such as hunger or for me like urgency, location. So on the couch, at the office, in the car, et cetera. An event like a birthday party, meeting, work like for you. I know you do like a lot of like work events. I don't know if there's food at those. New environment.

person, time of day, a certain food that you eat that makes you want more of that food. For me, that's like rice or peanut butter or just certain foods. Like it's very easy for me to want more and more of, obviously sugar. Drink. So alcohol for me is a big one that will stimulate me to want to eat more. And then what's one thing I can improve upon tomorrow? And what's one thing I'm proud of myself for today?

and what's one thing I'm grateful for today, and then any other questions that come up. So that's a pretty long list, but I heard a great quote, I'm sure you've heard this. The quality of the questions you ask yourself determines the quality of your life. And so I think from there, what questions are most important to you at this season of your life to ask yourself?

Well, I put number one when you were at number one and then it's like, all of these are pretty good. But, but I do think I do have a plan for the day, you know, based on the action items. so that one's always good because some things are in my control and some things are out of my control. I don't really feel stressed about my day normally. So number four was the next one. What external circumstances made me go off plan today?

Because I definitely feel like if I plan something, there was something that came up that made me go off plan, you know, so that you kind of go together. And it could be that, you know, I get a call for somebody that needs to be urgently scheduled and I spend a long time trying to schedule that visit or something. and so then I would say that made me go off plan instead of accepting responsibility to put it on hold and go and nourish my body and do those types of things. Yes.

Morgan (29:19.532)
Yeah. Cause there's usually nothing that's that urgent, but I allow things to pull me away from my focus a lot. And then I put number five, where did I negotiate with myself today? Well, that kind of goes hand in hand with that. The last one is why did I allow myself to go off plan? When I went off plan, yeah, I number six written down too. When I went off plan, how did I rationalize or justify that decision to myself? I have

been a lifelong exerciser. And I know that historically when I would like do long distance cycling or was training for a half marathon or whatever, I would feel like I could eat more and really cannot eat that much more just because you're exercising. Like you're not burning that many calories to feel like, yeah, I can have this. I used to bike about 80 to 90 miles on a Friday and then like 40 miles on a Saturday.

Yeah. And my friends and I would bike 45, 40 or 45 miles down the coast and had this nice breakfast with biscuits and gravy and bike home. And we never lost weight because we were just going down there for breakfast and having a great time. But I definitely feel like historically I rationalize and negotiate with myself that I can eat more because I exercise. And I mean, I do feel like I have that a little bit more in control, but I'm definitely more inclined to have

carbs at breakfast if I did just work out, but still, you know, like the Kodiak protein pancakes or a piece of Dave's Killer bread with my, you know, eggs and stuff like that. So it's still a fairly, it's still a healthy choice, but anyway, I rationalize a lot with exercise being part of my life. And then number nine, what new food cravings did I notice? I don't know if it's really a craving, but when you were saying the location,

I am finding myself and we may have talked about this the last podcast because my husband has a lot of different food habits than I do. Like he doesn't usually sit at the table to eat and he eats in bed and he eats everywhere. And I find myself standing up in the kitchen eating a lot, know, like just snacking on. And again, it might be healthy stuff like cottage cheese or an apple with peanut butter.

Morgan (31:43.576)
but I'm standing and I want to, like the future me does not just stand and graze. Like I sit down and enjoy a meal and act like what I consider a more civilized person. So I have noticed that lately. And again, it's mostly because I'm hungry and rushing instead of fixing a nice meal and sitting down. Those were the main ones that I wrote down when you were going through the list.

That's great. And the point of this is just to get to know ourselves better, to get to know our behavior better. So I think for you, what I would suggest is when you're making that food plan for the day, if you can put the estimated time that you're going to eat to, and that was something that I really circled when you said wait too long to eat, I said, okay, great. If she can start to do a food plan, but then also an estimated time of food plan. And why I like this,

I mean, macro tracking has its benefits. Absolutely. You can see what's in your food. You can get to know your nutrition, but I kind of feel like you do that, right? And I'm not saying like it's a never thing. I don't think you're going to have to do it forever, but if we can dial in your eating without tracking the macros that you're so resistant to, I would love to do that. So why I like this planned versus actual is it tells me information just looking at your macros doesn't.

Because I could look at your macros and they could look fine for the day. But what I don't see is what did you plan to do versus what did you actually do? And where were those gaps in your prediction skills? And then we can identify, all right, what quote unquote made you get off plan? And that's what we can then address in your lifestyle plan to help really get to the root cause of the eating or the getting off plan. Because you're definitely when you're like, I know what to do. I'm just.

I need to do it and like this, are such at this like fine tuning stage. So I think that this will be really beneficial. My next question for you, if I share the screen again, is what is a realistic goal for filling this out? So if you, if we're doing it every day, is it too much to do all of it? Do we just need to focus on?

Morgan (34:02.712)
Like for people starting out, sometimes they say first focus on the morning routine, then focus on the evening routine, then focus on this food plan from a tracking standpoint, from a self -accountability standpoint. Because I know you have your sleeping dialed in. Right now you have your exercise plan dialed in, but I know when we first started coaching again, that had slipped for a while.

So I was just kind of curious, like, what do you feel like is realistic and not overwhelming for you from a tracking perspective so that we don't bite off more than we can chew?

I mean, I feel comfortable just checking off some of the things because I do routinely, I don't know if routinely is the right word, daily, I read my personal faith formula or listen to it on the way to the gym. Exercise plan, like I feel comfortable just checking that off because it's saved in my phone. I go five days a week. I've got a split routine that I have saved in my phone. So I wouldn't need to be detailed about that.

my sleep is dialed in. My eating window is pretty dialed in. So my food plan is what I would probably want to spend the most of my time on. Okay. and the evening routine I am doing, I just needed a little bit more guidance and what to look for when we were doing that. So I think, you know, I think the food plan is really the only new commitment to my list. Yep. And remember, I think I should put this on here too.

Set tomorrow's action items and meal plan. Because it's, at least in my mind, I know it's like on this action item list on here, but in my journal, it's kind of a separate thing. I found myself forgetting, okay, I'm forgetting to do something, I'm forgetting, yeah, you need to do your meal plan for tomorrow. So I added that there to make it super obvious. So right now what we're gonna be focusing on for you is the food plan.

Morgan (36:07.118)
and the evening routine, because the evening routine is it's a habit, but we're kind of tweaking it a little bit. We're changing what you're doing during that evening routine. So how, like on a scale of one to 10, how confident do you feel like you can do this very consistently for like the next one to two weeks before we meet again? I feel 10 out of 10 confident that I could commit to it, but then I might have questions about what I need to do, but I could email you.

Yeah, I mean, I have no problem committing to doing that daily. Okay. All right, cool. So we got the daily meeting routine down. You already had the morning, we're kind of fine tuning on the evening, we're adding the daily meal plan. And the reason that I think having that evening meeting routine is important is because it gives you that accountability check. Because honestly, like,

It's so easy to forget what you eat in a day, you know? And if you wait until the morning to do that self -accountability check on your food plan, and if you wait till the morning to set your food plan for the next day, well, you're just developing a habit of procrastination. So I like to nip that in the bud. My next question for you is, how is your meal planning skills? Like, do you feel like it's a pain in the rear end? Do you feel like, because that's...

we've kind of modified the weekly meeting routine to be more of like a meal planning meeting. So I didn't know if that was something that you wanted to explore today or if you just wanted to stick to the daily one. don't understand where you said weekly meeting is part of the meal planning. Okay. So in module seven, lesson three, we go over like the weekly meeting agenda and the monthly meeting agenda. Do you remember those? Okay.

So the weekly meeting agenda was very, very similar to the start, except for you're just like setting your weekly action items. Right. Do you remember that? Yes, I have been doing weekly meetings with myself and monthly meetings. What time of day or not what time of day, but what day of the week are you doing those? Well, I was going to do it on Sundays. And then on Easter, I ended up doing it on Saturday. So I've kind of been doing it on Saturday since then. But I'm committed to doing it on the weekend. And I have not missed a weekend since I learned how to do them.

Morgan (38:24.674)
been doing them probably, I don't know, six or eight weeks since I had that lesson. at least. Yeah. I love it. Okay. So you're already established. We kind of do the same thing. I like mine on Saturdays too. So we modified it a little bit where you're going to keep doing the morning routine. You're going to keep doing the evening routine on Saturday, but then there's a little bonus meeting that I think is helpful and I'm kind of interested to get your feedback on it.

So I'll share my screen with you and we can look at that together. So this comes, again, you're gonna select file, make a copy. I recommend doing this once a week, Saturday or Sunday. That's when I asked or why I asked. And then a weekly assessment for weight, body fat, lean body mass. Some people like to track like fasting, glucose, whatever other numbers you want. You can modify that. And this again is like a separate meeting, like a Saturday afternoon, Saturday morning kind of deal.

I think it's most beneficial to do this with your husband to get on the same page about like activities that are coming up and then considering like what other food you might need to be bringing to a meeting or like for me, like kid lunches, stuff like that. And then, so step one in this weekly plan is to review your upcoming week's calendar and add priorities you don't want to miss or forget to the calendar on the next page. And these are commitments that the rest of your life will work around for the week.

Typically, these are not the ones that you have full control over when they happen. So like your networking group that's on during office hours, right? That's something that your life works around. For us, like church on Sundays, that's something that our life works around. Soccer practice, basketball camp, just different stuff, especially on my kids' calendars that I don't necessarily control when the practices are, that kind of stuff.

consider all of your priorities with your many roles. So again, like I have work commitments, I have mom commitments, I have church commitments, like date night with my husband on Saturday, not every Saturday, but this Saturday, which is fun. So if I'm highlighting those, does that make sense? I'm like, okay, we're looking ahead because we wanna consider how these activities may affect your meals. Yes, makes sense. Now I wanna be sure that's fascinating. Okay.

Morgan (40:49.272)
So again, like the example I use is Wednesdays are always busy for me with coaching calls and then Dawson has soccer. So I try to have leftovers available or at least have a gap in my afternoon after meetings before he gets home where I can cook. Or like Saturday and we're going on a date so I'm not planning a meal for Saturday night. So before we move on, are you currently doing any sort of weekly meal planning? No. Okay.

So this is a new skill, which is gonna be super interesting to see how it goes. I've had so many like false starts with this and I have a resource that will help. So the first thing that I suggest doing is planning your dinners, because these are typically the hardest. Would these be the hardest for you? Yes, because I have fatigue by dinnertime. Like I'm pretty gung -ho fixing breakfast. Lunch is usually pretty simple.

And then by dinner, it's like the kitchen might not be cleaned up because we both work out of the house. So we have breakfast, lunch and dinner at the house. It's constantly cleaning the dishes and redoing the kitchen. So by dinner time, it's just like, Yeah. Yeah. All right. So that's going to be important for you to recognize that if we can keep it simple. But honestly, for me, at least Chris, it's the decision fatigue that I have at the end of the day. Not so much like.

The physical fatigue, it's not like I hate cooking. It's just like, I don't want to decide what we're having to eat. So I have a little solution, another kind of addition to the program that we're really talking about. I like to use the recipe bank for inspiration. Do you hop on there a lot? No, not often. I did in this way, but not so much lately. It's okay. So I'm going to log into the zippily thing. I think if I'm still sharing.

let's see if I can remember this.

Morgan (42:45.708)
Otherwise, I'll have a workaround.

Morgan (42:50.516)
It is a miracle today because I remember my password. Okay. All right. So the recipe bank, I'm just going to remind you where you can find that. It's on the resources tab and you can go to a recipes web page there. And so I just kind of looked through. I'm like, okay, let's go to the main dish. What looks good? I try to do like a beef, chicken, Z food just to kind of mix it up. Is it just the two of you at home? Yes.

How many nights a week do you typically eat out? Right now, like zero to one. OK. So we'll say like one. I would think that you could get away. Do you like eating leftovers or not? No. We don't even have a microwave. Seriously? I mean, if I do have a leftover, we can reheat it in the oven. But I don't like leftovers in general. Except for like chili and lasagna are like my two leftovers that I don't mind.

You don't even have a microwave. That's so like what would you do for this? So like for lunches this week, I did a Thai peanut chicken in the crock pot and it's so good. And then I pre -portioned it out and then at lunchtime I just pop it in the microwave. I could warm it up in the oven. We just warm it up slower. Does that bother you if you're busy? No, I just have to want to eat it.

That's another problem I have because like when you talk about meal planning for the whole week, when I used to meal plan to track my macros, I would do two or three days at a time because I find if I track plan too far out, a lot of times don't want that food by the time it rolls around on my calendar. Interesting. And I don't know why. And some people do like a bi -weekly little meal planning set like meetings. So you could do like.

Saturday and Wednesday, for example. Yeah, I think that would work better for me. OK. I don't know why. Modify that. It's just, I don't know. It's OK. You could maybe work that into part of your evening routine for Wednesday. Just quick map out the meals for the rest of the week. for us, it's just more practical to do a whole week at a time, because we live 30 minutes away from grocery store. So if we can avoid going into town a lot, we like that. All right, so I'm going to pretend like the microwave

Morgan (45:12.44)
thing is not an issue. So you would kind of plan your dinners. And a lot of these, if you don't like leftovers, what are your thoughts on still making more but then putting some in the freezer for later for a different meal? Yeah, that's an option. There are some things that I wouldn't mind as a leftover. So it just depends on what it is. But yeah, I mean, I'm open to learning to like leftovers.

a little bit more for practicality reasons. Make sure there's so much in here. I know. What about breakfast and lunches? Do you mind having this, like, things for breakfast and lunch every day? I do repeat breakfast and lunch a lot. Mostly breakfast. Breakfast is usually eggs and bacon or Canadian bacon or the protein pancakes or yogurt and berries. It's pretty much my three standard breakfasts. something easy. Okay, that's what I recommend too.

Like for lunches, I said I usually either batch a meal from Monday through Friday, like that type peanut chicken, have leftovers, or use one of the five -minute meals. Do you remember where that download is? Yes. OK, perfect. So that's kind of just throwing together different things like cottage cheese, protein bar, string cheese. Plan your breakfast. I usually either fast or batch like a breakfast casserole or chia puddings.

That's just exactly what you do. Have kind of my go -tos. Yeah, I do too. I love chia pudding. I do too. My daughter and my son really like it. If I make the fruit like a pretty pattern for them, then they'll eat it. I have to go the extra, I have to make the extra effort to make it look. That's awesome. Yeah. And then kind of finalize the grocery list. Think about some other stuff that you might need. Schedule batch cook time if needed. So that's like if you're going to batch your lunches for the week.

Or if you're going to maybe do a bunch of veggie prep, sometimes I do this where I chop up a bunch of sweet potatoes and broccoli, keep it in the fridge, and then it's ready to roast for several nights of the week. So that's kind of the weekly meeting is way more focused on a weekly assessment of your numbers and then just to keep your eye on it. It's like just to develop the awareness of where you're at, not necessarily to judge things, but if we need to tweak things, we can.

Morgan (47:37.39)
Just self accountability. And then figuring out your priorities and how that will affect your meal planning. And then I like to do Sunday to Sunday because that way I have a little bit more of a comprehensive view of what's coming down the pipeline and nothing catches me off guard. But it sounds like maybe you'll do like Sunday to Wednesday and then maybe Thursday to Sunday. Yeah, probably. Okay, I like that. I like that.

The other resource that I wanted to show you that's new is if you go to the community, I just added a meal plan tab here. I think I saw you posted pretty recently in Yeah, I post when I do my weekly meetings. Yeah, that's right. But I haven't seen meal plans in there. It's brand new. That's fine. I did this in the wins for last week, and I asked new members as I do like this, is this helpful?

and I asked people on office hours and they thought it was helpful. So I'm just gonna put my weekly meal plans in here. When you're doing yours, I hope that that shortcuts the process to be like, I wonder what Morgan's eating this week. That sound good to me? And so I think that that's helpful to just see, okay, breakfast, very, very simple. Lunches, same thing every day. And then dinner, I try to mix it up again. Like I try to do some beef, some chicken, some seafood. Usually we go out to eat

one night a week. So hopefully going to that little meal plans topic makes this process a little bit easier for Yeah, that'll be very helpful. You're eating the same lunch every single day. Pretty much. Yeah. just don't mind. So I helped my cousin Nude this week, and I brought her one of my lunches. So now I'm like a lunch short for the week. So I'll have to figure something out for tomorrow. But again, it's just going to be leftovers probably, or like.

eggs or a smoothie, like one of those five minute meals that I can just whip up or chia pudding that's already made something. Yeah. that, I, you know, I, we were talking about the Nikki Scott interview and, that one just came out at the time that it's recording and she tracks her macros. She's eaten like the same thing for like two years. heard that. And I was like, my gosh, that's what it takes to have that body. Like,

Morgan (50:01.43)
Like I get that that works for her, but that simply would not work for me. Like I can do the same meal for like a long time, right? But I'm in a little variety, at least in my dinners and next to that. But I think that one of the reasons she probably does that is because it makes tracking her macros, which is what she teaches very easy. Like of course it's easy to track your macros if you're eating the same thing every day for two years. So that works for her. And she has found that system that works for her.

I know that that wouldn't work for me. I have tracked my macros so many times in my life. I think it's a super helpful tool, but it's simply not something that I want to do all the time. And I think that that's okay. doing this system of planning my meals and then assessing my plan has been really helpful for me in identifying very clearly like when am I emotionally eating? What were those cues? What foods did I eat?

preceding those cues that may have enhanced my carb cravings. And just like we were talking about, what was the pattern of my day that led to the overeating? And I think that that's even more helpful than just tracking your macros, right? Because you're actually thinking about what you're doing. So I'm really excited about this. And I really hope that you use it and that you see value in it. The other thing that I find is sometimes I have unrealistic expectations of myself.

Can you relate to that? sure. I went to a movie last weekend and I made a food plan that didn't include popcorn in the movies. I'm like, come on. And so then the day of I changed my food plan. I didn't pop my own popcorn and I put like my little nuts and stevia chocolate chips in it to make it something that I really like, you know? Plan ahead. I portion it out to like what's a reasonable portion versus like this huge thing that you get in the movies.

But that was a very, very satisfying to me, but I had to be realistic about my food cravings and locations and like, okay, how can I still enjoy this experience? But in a way that doesn't have yellow guy, whatever they put in the popcorn. My husband's so funny. He thinks sometimes I'm too intense and he actually looked at bless his heart. was like, Morgan Marcus theaters uses coconut oil, not soybean oil. that makes you feel.

Morgan (52:22.122)
I know that doesn't make me feel better, but what else is in there? that's so funny. I know. You're the sweetie. I have a question though about your meal planning. I'm just curious. Have you put that into Carb Manager to see where your macros fall? You just eat it? No. Okay. I just eat it because I track, like you, I've tracked my macros for so long. know where the carbs are. I know where the protein is.

So my personal goal is about 30 grams of net carbs per meal or less. Okay. Or my blood sugar management. And I know what that is now. I know that more than about a quarter of a cup of rice when I'm doing the rice pilaf, that's probably enough for me. Okay. So I still kind of pay attention to portions and I still definitely prioritize my protein. But I've been doing this long enough now where I can just like, no. Right.

I just know. And then the other thing that I've been trying to do is like a one plate type of roll with myself or a one bowl type of roll with myself. And I think that that helps too to like, cause when we're tracking macros, I think one of the first things that I noticed about myself was how much I ate and like, holy cow, my portions are a lot larger than I thought they were. So I do think that tracking macros has so many benefits, but like once you learn it,

This, I'm hoping, will be a good enough self -accountability system to get you there. And if it's not, then we're going to continue this, but add a layer of macros tracking, at least for short term, to see are we overeating. But, Chris, I hope we don't have to do it. I know. For your sake, we don't have to do that. It's not your fate. What questions do you have about the weekly meetings so far?

With the weekly meeting, are you scratching the whole template that we had before that was basically like an amped up daily meeting and we're just working on this? Yep. I didn't like, I didn't, the fun sheet is still in there because this is so new. It's a work in progress. want members to use it. I want to get their feedback so that we can kind of fine tune things. And then there is a new monthly meeting agenda template. Since we're on the topic, you probably won't need this for a little bit, but I'll show you kind of where you can find it.

Morgan (54:44.354)
I'll link it to you. You can use it, you cannot use it. It's up to you. But it's actually very similar to the weekly. So if we're going to the course and you scroll down to module seven, the daily one is just in the lesson one. And then the weekly and monthly is just linked here. Because they're works in progress, I didn't want to make it like an official download. So you can just click here to go to the monthly. And then that's, it's like,

very similar to the monthly assessment where we're doing that rock review. We're looking at your numbers on a monthly basis. So this monthly meeting replaces the weekly meeting for that week. Does that make sense? Perfect. So yeah, you're just doing a rock assessment and then you're creating kind of that weekly meal plan. similar. I'll link those up for you. Yeah, I think that that is...

Good from like a what we covered today standpoint, just to kind of summarize the action items. It's using that new daily and weekly meeting agenda template. We'll see each other again, I'm hoping before a month. So maybe we can review that review your rocks, maybe the next one. And then really dialing in that evening routine. Right. We're gonna bi weekly. So mean, like twice a week or every other week. I feel like I think I'll do it every

I'll do it twice a week to answer your question. Twice a week meal plan. We're looking at your predicted versus actual behavior to figure out what's kind of causing you to go off plan. And then we've included just some more like in -depth self study questions because we talked about this last week, but you're such a great studier. I want you to start studying yourself a little bit more. you are like, I...

you mentioned offline, you're like, I was reading through some of the stuff I journaled through and I'm like, was that me? Like, do you have an example of what that was? I was kind of curious. Let's see.

Morgan (56:44.454)
where that was from our last... I gotta change my glasses.

Morgan (56:57.262)
well, like, where am I rationalizing or negotiating with myself when it comes to living out my standards? I wrote not a hundred percent of the time getting up when I intended since I'm not scheduled early for the day, but I've been getting up early. So like, I don't even remember when I wasn't getting up early, you know, like I wake up before my alarm. set my alarm.

for 6 .30 and I'm usually up by like 6 .20, 6 .22. I just wake up and I check my phone and it's time to get up. So I get up before the alarm, but I don't know. mean, like, I don't remember that even being a problem. feel like I've been doing it longer than the two weeks ago that we talked about this exercise. So I may have higher carbs. We talked about that today.

Morgan (57:49.784)
I don't know. can't find any good examples right now. That's OK. It'll just be interesting to see how this continues. So if you wanted to keep a log, keep journaling. And then before we meet again, I'll have you send me a week's worth of nutrition assessment. So the plan versus the actual. You can do this on paper and take pictures. if you wanted to like, we have that shared Google folder. You could do it in there. Totally whatever's easiest for you, whatever you're going to.

be doing. And then I'll look at that and we can kind of talk about that together on the discrepancies between your intentions and your actions. So that's a good place. And then I just wanted to review our meeting notes too to be sure I didn't miss anything for today.

I don't think so. That'd be great. Okay. Awesome. The only comment that I want to make and that we can hopefully address this in the future is I still feel like I'm doing well because I know you're going to be checking in on me and I want to ultimately have that self accountability. yeah. okay. With that, I think

That reminded me to remind you to maybe consider adding something to your personal faith formula. Is self -accountability already on there? Yes. So I thought so. The other thing is it seemed like busyness, distractedness, task shifting was kind of heavy on your mind today. And I don't know if you want to just add something in there and like, I stay focused on my tasks or I stay, I...

Like I reduced task shifting or I stay focused on my tasks or something like that. Because I don't know that something like that was in there. No, the main focus on time management was that I don't schedule things before 10 AM because I'm committed to going to the gym and starting with a good breakfast and doing my zivli start stuff. And then after that, it's like everything goes wild.

Morgan (01:00:01.228)
So yeah, I need to do something about staying focused on my task. mean, like for this podcast, I put my stuff on Do Not Disturb. And if somebody's contacted me, it's not a big deal. I know they can wait. And when I go into meetings, I know they can wait. But if I'm at my desk, I leave it open. And I probably should just commit to taking chunks of the day where I am in Do Not Disturb mode so I can focus on stuff. Like I guard my energy and attention from distractions. I like that.

like that too. And then the other thing is that proactive team communication. Like if you set that expectation, I think that's all people need. If you haven't already done that, just be like, hey, I am planning on having undistracted work time between this time and this time. And so if you're reaching out to me during that time, please expect a response at this time from me. Have you done that kind of communication with your team yet? I have communicated just loosely when I am

have a lot of appointments coming up or something like that, that, and I'll get back to them or I'm going to be in meetings. But I do think it's reasonable. Like there's not a lot of people clocking in and out during the middle of the day where there would be somebody trying to notify me that they're running late or somebody's not answering the door or whatever. The thing is that I might need to respond more immediately to. So I certainly think that I can pick a time of day to tell them that I won't be responding during that time.

And I don't know why I didn't think about that. It's like one of those things that's like so obvious, but when somebody else says it's just like, could have done that a long time ago. Yeah. And it's like, I like that you're thinking about when are they less likely to need me? And then that can be kind of my phobias for like time. The other thing is this is so random, but do you guys have a team communication system like Slack? I don't like Slack. I use that with my VA's, I find it hard to keep up with the streams. But we, on the,

On the app that we use for scheduling and clocking in and out, there is a communication board on there. Good. That's helped me personally, because I was communicating with one person on Marco Polo and another person on text and another person on WhatsApp and another person on email. And consolidating all that communication to one platform really helped reduce that task shifting for me. I probably need to be.

Morgan (01:02:22.954)
using that more to let them know when I'm not available for certain chunks of time if it's outside of our newly designated time. So yes, thank you. That's a great suggestion. Yeah, just another little random one from one business owner to the other. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Well, we'll schedule another meeting. The last reminder is just when you're doing the plan in actual, put the times in there too, because that's not on that template, but that is something that I want you to customize for your own time. Okay, great. Thank you.

Okay. Thanks Chris. Yeah. I'll send a scheduling link and we'll book up another call. the next few weeks, two to two to Sounds good. Thank you, Morgan. I appreciate it. Yep. Have a good day. Thanks for listening to the reshape your health podcast today to learn more about Zivli our online course and coaching program to reverse insulin resistance for long -term weight loss and disease prevention. Check out our website at www .zivli .com.

That's z -i -v -l -i dot com. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please leave a rating and review on your listening platform and share it with a friend. I'll talk with you at the same time, same place next week. Bye for now.