Stephanie Fein MD [00:00:00]:
Hello. Fabulous doctor Stephanie Fein here with weight loss for fertility. And it is so exciting because Halloween's just around the corner. I love holiday time, and I particularly love it in terms of weight loss. I just think it's the most exciting time. But I'm gonna go into that. You may think I'm a little nutty, but I promise you I'm gonna try to convince you of this. So the thing about Halloween, besides all the fun things and memories of childhood, is that it is the beginning of holiday season.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:00:38]:
And for weight loss, I think of it as the Bermuda triangle. You know, there's the three, there's Halloween, Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, actually. So Christmas and New Year's are one corner, Thanksgiving is another, and Halloween is the third. That's the triangle. And so we're just at the beginning of it. And it is the perfect time right now, this week. It's the perfect time to check in with ourselves about this end of year, about the next ten weeks, as we go from Halloween slide right into New Year's. Okay, so how are you thinking of Halloween and the holiday season? I invite you to stay connected, connected with yourself, not giving up.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:01:29]:
So if you're interested in losing weight, which I'm assuming you are, either that you have lost weight, you're interested in losing weight, something around that, I want you to stay connected to that and not take this as an opportunity to give up. In fact, I want you to double down. Now, when I say double down, where does your brain go? Does it go to that default, harsh place? Like doubling down sounds sort of mean and harsh and restrictive, does it go to restrictive diet place? Because that is not what we do around here. So when I say double down, I'm referring to the stuff that we do here, which is doubling down on kindness, doubling down on conscious decisions, doubling down on hunger scale. We do not go into harsh restriction because it does not work and it feels terrible. And those go together, right. The reason it doesn't work is because it feels terrible. Because when we are in restriction, tightness, guilt, it does not last.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:02:41]:
It's not anything that lasts. And when we want to lose weight and keep it off, we need to do things that last. And when we think of diet, we think of harsh things, things that we don't want to do. That can't be how we do it. So when the holidays come, of course we're going to do the things we love to do. We're going to partake, we're going to enjoy, and when we do it in the way that we do it around here, you continue to lose weight, you feel connected and fantastic. You love the end of the year and you're still losing weight. How does that sound? That's what we do here.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:03:19]:
Okay? So stick around, and this is the beginning of it. So I'm so thrilled to set the scene, to set it up, and I'm hoping that you're interested in doing that too. So the holidays right now is the perfect time to practice the skills of that we learn around here, that we use around here. And I'm going to tell you what those are. The hunger scale. Hunger scale is such a valuable tool for so many reasons. And at least half of the episodes in this podcast, and now there are over 100, are about that. So tune into any one of them.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:03:58]:
But what we do is we eat when we're just hungry at negative two, and we stop when we're satisfied, not full. We're going to continue to do that. It is such a perfect tool because in that we get to eat anything, we decide to eat anything as long as we eat it when we're hungry. We stop when we're satisfied, not full. You can put anything in there and you can enjoy it. And then the beauty. Of course, there's again, so many wonderful things about the hunger scale. But you feel well afterwards.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:04:28]:
You're nothing, bloated and uncomfortable and can't go for a walk or go look at lights, or go trick or treating or go to a party. You can do anything you want because physically you're feeling well. Because we eat until we're satisfied, not full. It's just a good thing. So perfect time to practice hunger scale. The second thing we're going to practice in the holiday season is becoming aware of our thoughts. So important that is what helps us understand our patterns. Look at where we might be emotionally eating.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:05:03]:
Remember, emotional eating doesn't have to be like terrible sadness. It certainly can. Also, we celebrate with food. That's an emotion, but also things like boredom or anxiety or discomfort with social situations. All that is emotional eating. If we're eating to deal with those emotions and the hunger scale, remember, the hunger scale sets us up to become aware of those thoughts. Because with the hunger scale, we're checking in. And as we're checking in, we're getting used to that idea of sort of scanning ourselves.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:05:36]:
And that's how we can determine our emotions. We're checking in with ourselves. We're noticing what sensations are going on in our body. Emotions are sensations in our body. We can start to identify them okay, so that's two skills we're practicing really a lot during the holiday season. The hunger scale and becoming aware of our thoughts, checking in to see what's going on inside. And the third one, that is a foundation of how we lose weight around here. And something that can be practiced, especially during the holiday time, is planning and decision making.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:06:10]:
Planning and decision making. So helpful. We can plan the next couple of months, generally looking into it, deciding, seeing what's happening. We can plan each week as we do when we plan our food weeks. And each day when we decide what we're gonna have and when. Of course, it's when we're hungry and stopping when we're satisfied. But generally beyond that. And in episode 50, I go into the nitty gritty of planning your next three months, like, realistically, with love and hope and confidence and determination, fun and nostalgia, with our goals intact.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:06:46]:
So give that one a listen. It's a great reminder, and it's an excellent exercise to go through. I highly recommend it. Taking out your calendar, all that stuff. It's really, really helpful. So go take a listen after this. But for now, we want to practice enjoying all that the holiday brings and also achieving our goal. So remember, that's what we're up to here.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:07:11]:
We're checking in with the fact that it's the holidays. We're keeping in mind that we have a goal. We are embodying the idea that we can keep our goal and enjoy the holidays. Not that, oh, we can't do it. We have to wait till January 1 because there's just too much going on. Nope. We are into permanent weight loss around here. And so that means navigating the whole year, every year, over and over and over.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:07:38]:
So we have to make it enjoyable. We have to make it so that we're happy with how we're eating and being and feeling over the holidays. So it's completely possible. And as I said, my favorite time. Because we have so many opportunities to practice the skills, and we have so many opportunities to be kind with ourselves. If it happens that we set a goal, decide to do something, and we don't do it, that is not a problem at all. What we do with that is we treat ourselves kindly and we learn from it. That's it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:08:22]:
That's it. What did I not anticipate? What was harder than I thought it would be? What happened here? Did I get too hungry? What can I do next time? That's what we do. And so it's a beautiful time to practice all this. And what we're doing is making decisions to eat our favorites and feel really good about it. So not guiltily eat our favorites, not feel shame or deny that we want good fun things or any of that. We are actively enjoying it. We're putting it in the plan that we're making for ourselves and we're moving on. So the next important thing that I want to talk about besides that this is a fantastic time to practice our skills and to look ahead at the holiday season in general and stick to our goals of weight loss if that's what we're doing.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:09:23]:
An important thing to keep in mind here is that we can have anything we want any time of the year. Okay? So there's no need to try to get in every last fun size snicker bar right now. And that can be, that's part of it. That's part of this like diet mentality, right? Is that like all or nothing? Like we shovel it all in now or we can never have it? That's not how we do it. So you can absolutely work in your fave regularly, right? Not only at Halloween, although if you want to only have it during Halloween, amazing. But what we don't want is binging huge amounts because you're thinking I can never have this again or I can't have this any other time of the year. That is not true. Just blankly not true.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:10:17]:
You can buy fun size stuff anytime. You can cut up a big size one if you want. If Snickers is your favorite thing, I want you to figure out a way to have it regularly if that's what you want. So that idea of better get it in now we're releasing that we set ourselves up to fail with the idea that we can't have something or that this is the only time of year I'm going to allow myself to have it. This is diet mentality. On off all nothing. And it totally sets us up not only to fail but to feel guilt and shame in the process. Yuck.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:10:57]:
No, thank you. We do not do it that way. There is no guilt and shame over things that we decide to eat. We get to decide to eat them because we're grown ups and we enjoy them and we eat them when we do it. With the hunger scale, we are honoring ourselves and our bodies so you can enjoy it. So take sort of inventory of the things that you want and like and then make sure you figure out a way to have them so you can incorporate your favorites all the time. And in fact, if we're talking about candy because it's Halloween, so we can be talking about candy. It feels best in our body after a meal.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:11:42]:
So when we have sort of concentrated, processed sugar and we have it after a meal, like traditionally dessert, it's handled best by our body then, because it combines with the fiber and the protein that you've already had in your meal, and it releases into your bloodstream much more slowly and with not sort of high amplitude spike. So our body feels much better, much happier when we have it as like a dessert. So it's such a good thing to eat it that way. And what I always want to do with dessert is to plan for it, meaning we don't eat our dinner till positive two and then eat dessert. We eat dessert as part of getting to positive two, so that after the dessert, we're satisfied, not full, not that we're satisfied. And then dessert makes us full. We incorporate that in. That's just a reminder.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:12:37]:
And of course we can do that. We'll have a couple bites less of something to be able to have the dessert that we want. No problem. What's amazing about this is if you have a particular food at this time of year, that's a great thing, too. You don't have to have it all through the year. If there's a thing that you'd like to have at Halloween, amazing. Go for it, plan for it. Use your hunger scale and eat it so that you feel your best, as I just described, sort of, you know, after a meal works out really well.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:13:11]:
But also, you're going to show yourself it's possible to eat candy without going out of control. And you can do that both if you're just having a particular candy during Halloween, because that's just when you like it. But you can also do that by having the thing that you love the most throughout the year. Part of the way that you're showing yourself that you don't need to eat all the candy in the universe is that you are a grown up and you can have it anytime. So there's no longer a forbidden part about this. I can't. A restriction. You've released that.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:13:43]:
So you can have it whenever you want, and you can show yourself that you can have it without going, you know, eating too much and feeling sick about it. This is a really important point. Another one of those fun, wonderful things I love about losing weight at this time of year. The next piece about this is that during the holiday times, it really is a time that there are more sweet treats around. Candy is the first thing, and you may have noticed that already in, like, other markets, you know, they're just like, it's from September that they have all the candy around, but also you start to have gifts of and baking and all the rest of that stuff. And it is a time that there is just more sugar around. And so it can be more challenging that way. I like to talk about the two ways to handle that, and I'm sure I'll get more into it as the holiday season progresses, but I'll just hit on, on it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:14:44]:
Now, one of them is it's a great time to practice urge work. So urges for sugar, there's many reasons for them, and I'm not going to go into it here, but I am going to point you to two episodes, episode 52 and episode 87. Talk about the specifics of urge work, and it's how to sort of condition out of yourself urges for sugar. And the other thing that I highly recommend around now is environmental control. So things like and around Halloween, this is my favorite tip, is I do not buy Halloween candy until Halloween, like, literally October 31. Then I do not have to worry about this. I can practice urge work. I can.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:15:40]:
It is easier for me in general, but there's no reason to make it more difficult on myself. There's no reason to have to have sort of create a vulnerability, you know, like when we're more tired, it's harder to do things that we need to do that require decision making. There's no reason in my mind to have things that would make my decision making harder, that would make it more vulnerable. It's like I try to get good sleep. I try to fuel my body. This all makes it so that I have a easier day in general, that I'm pleasant to people, that life seems good for all involved. Same thing with having candy around. It just makes it a teeny bit harder, and you may not even notice it, but just every time you pass the counter and there's candy there, your brain clocks it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:16:37]:
And if you're not having it, amazing, but you're utilizing energy, and so if it's not there, you're just not utilizing the energy you absolutely can. And urge work will help you figure out how to do that. But if you don't have to do it, amazing. So I do love me a good environmental control. I only buy my candy if I'm buying candy for Halloween, on Halloween. But I want to offer this too, is that you can never get Halloween candy and enjoy Halloween trick or treaters because you can just model something different. So here's a list of other things that you can hand out besides candy stickers, glitter toys, themed pencils, erasers, bracelets, rings, glow balls, glow sticks, slime, temporary tattoos, play doh, bookmarks, bubbles. They're like the list goes on.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:17:31]:
And a lot of these things are actually less expensive even than the candy. So there's a lot of good alternatives there. If you don't want to have candy and you don't want to give it out, that's just a little tidbit. I love being reminded of this, and it's a both and it's great to work on how to have sweet treats when there's more around. And also it's really nice when it's not in your face all the time and it just makes things easier. Both. And that's my Halloween 2024 episode for you. The holiday season is here.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:18:11]:
It's time to check in and make some kind conscious decisions about how you want to be losing weight and what you want the holidays to look like. The holidays are a perfect time to practice the skills we learn around here, and that includes the hunger scale, becoming aware of our thoughts and planning and decision making. These are foundations to weight loss here and they're a perfect time to practice these. Also, it's a great reminder that you can enjoy things that you love all time, all around the whole year, not just at this time. We can lose weight and enjoy our favorite things. That is a hallmark of what we do around here. And the last is environmental control can help. The best data by Halloween candy is October 31.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:19:03]:
And then there's a whole list of non candy treats that are fun for Halloween. Trick or treaters. There you have it, my wonderful friends. Happy Halloween. Enjoy yourself. There's things that are nostalgic or if you have parties or if it's tough and you're checking out and you turn off the light, more power to you. But it's also I want you to check in about the fact that it's the beginning of holiday season. Check in, take some time, notice and prepare for the time coming.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:19:38]:
You can lose weight and you can strengthen your skills in the process. I am absolutely here to help you with that. That is my favorite thing to do. So if you're ready to lose weight, you go to stephaniefinemd.com and you click the lose weight with me button. Super simple. I'm also on Instagram and LinkedIn and I would love to connect with you and help you any way I can. I'm sending you so much love. Happy Halloween.
