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How to make a lifestyle change in 2026 · SAY GRACE | Weight Loss + Health for Overwhelmed Women- Stress, Busy, Consistency, Realistic, Motivation, Starting Over, No Restrictions

• 0:40
  All right, y'all, there is something so powerful about 2026 and just overall
• 0:47
  weight loss and health knowledge. Like I can feel it.
• 0:52
  I can just, I feel like people are waking up, right?
• 0:57
  People are finally looking at the ingredients in their food,
• 1:01
  not just from a weight loss standpoint, but from a health standpoint,
• 1:04
  like what are we putting in our bodies, right?
• 1:07
  People are finally realizing that like getting skinny isn't the ultimate goal.
• 1:14
  Like health is the ultimate goal. And how do we get there?
• 1:17
  Okay. How, what, what needs to be done to get there personally?
• 1:21
  Because, you know, we have got, we have got some of the biggest medical revolutions
• 1:26
  with, you know, all the weight loss medication on the market.
• 1:30
  I mean, there is just so much available to us in regards to health and weight
• 1:35
  loss and still people are not able to keep the weight off or they're not able
• 1:41
  to see the health results that they desire.
• 1:44
  And so it's like people are just finally awake to, okay, maybe all this quick
• 1:52
  fix, get rich, whatever type stuff is just not it.
• 1:58
  Like maybe I really need to get
• 2:00
  on an individualized level and really understand myself and what I need.
• 2:04
  And so I think this is, first of all, so exciting, so freaking exciting,
• 2:10
  right, for me, because I feel like, oh my gosh.
• 2:12
  I've been talking about this same stuff since I was in my 20s,
• 2:15
  and here I am knocking on 40's door in a few years, you know what I mean?
• 2:19
  And so it's very exciting to finally see people realizing like,
• 2:23
  okay, maybe I need to take a stance on what's best for me.
• 2:27
  And for my family, maybe I need to get educated. Maybe I need to understand,
• 2:31
  you know, the things I'm putting in my body or understand what may be going on inside my body.
• 2:38
  And so I think it's just going to be such a great year for us in regards to
• 2:44
  that, because there is no more room for cookie cutter anything, right?
• 2:50
  And so I'm here for it because I know and I believe with all my heart that when we.
• 2:57
  Individualize and we actually play a part in our own plan, whether that be hormone
• 3:04
  balance or gut health or weight loss, when we play a part, when we show up for it,
• 3:11
  that is how the lifestyle change is made.
• 3:14
  That is how it becomes a lasting effort, right?
• 3:18
  And so today I want to talk about just like my top four.
• 3:22
  You know, if I just, I literally just kind of rattled these off as I came up
• 3:25
  with them, like my top four ways that I would recommend you,
• 3:31
  or my top four areas, I guess that I would recommend you focus to make sure
• 3:36
  that you were setting out to make a lifestyle change in 2026,
• 3:39
  to make sure that at the end of the year, you don't look up and you're like,
• 3:42
  oh my gosh, how much money did I waste again this year?
• 3:45
  You know, oh my gosh, I'm even more confused now than I was when I started.
• 3:48
  Like we don't want any of that mess. Okay.
• 3:51
  And so my first area that I think you should really focus is making peace with food, okay?
• 4:01
  We can no longer follow rules from someone else, okay? Because let me tell you why.
• 4:08
  Because everyone got their own rules, y'all, and their own rules differ from
• 4:13
  the next, quote, experts rules, right?
• 4:18
  Like back in the day, most of us experts out there on the field,
• 4:22
  we're all kind of saying the same thing.
• 4:25
  But now the market is so saturated and it
• 4:28
  is so confusing but you know you
• 4:31
  cannot you cannot just you
• 4:34
  know take a list from somebody and
• 4:37
  expect it to be what works for you
• 4:40
  right and so in that in the same flip of that coin right making peace with food
• 4:46
  by understanding how you feel about foods standing up for your choices for what
• 4:57
  you're going to eat, right?
• 4:59
  And so by doing that, right, like I just talked about on this intro,
• 5:02
  like by doing that, you are educating yourself.
• 5:04
  You are, you know, creating an individualized plan for yourself,
• 5:10
  which may include cookies, right?
• 5:11
  But it could include a few more fruits and vegetables too, right?
• 5:14
  Like these are the things you're doing for your individual self.
• 5:18
  But in that, But you've also got to commit to laying down the shame around the
• 5:26
  labels that have been put on said foods in the past, right?
• 5:31
  And that is where it's at, y'all. That is the hardest part, but that's where
• 5:36
  it's at, right? Because people...
• 5:38
  We are so confused with all the food information out there.
• 5:43
  And so it's one thing to kind of say, you know what? I am. I'm going to educate
• 5:48
  myself this year. I'm going to do my own thing.
• 5:49
  I'm going to figure it out for myself. And I applaud that so much.
• 5:52
  But it's a total other thing to say.
• 5:54
  And I'm also not going to beat myself up when I get by myself about having these foods.
• 6:01
  Right? I'm also really going to release the hold that a slice of cake has on me because my,
• 6:10
  grandmother used to shame me when I was nine years old because I wanted to go
• 6:15
  back for a second piece and I knew I was overweight.
• 6:19
  These kind of things are the hard work, right?
• 6:23
  And I see it so often. People are so loud and proud in public.
• 6:27
  Like, I'm going to eat the cake and I'm going to eat the this and body positivity.
• 6:31
  And nobody can tell me, whatever, but then they're still struggling internally, right?
• 6:39
  And like that is where the disconnect is. That is where we'll never see the result we want.
• 6:46
  We'll never feel that peace that we're really desiring to feel,
• 6:50
  which is knowing, right?
• 6:53
  Which foods are best for us, right?
• 6:56
  Which foods make us feel physically best?
• 6:59
  Which foods keep us full longer? all those things, but also accepting that it's
• 7:05
  not the end of the world and you're not the biggest failure ever if you do have that cake.
• 7:11
  You know, it's about learning how to let go of your grandmother's voice that
• 7:16
  makes you feel such a level of shame, you know, when you do go back for that piece of cake.
• 7:22
  And so that would be my number one thing. Like we have so, again,
• 7:26
  and y'all, it's like, again, it's not like this,
• 7:29
  not something to be shameful about. It's not something to assume that is like only a you problem.
• 7:36
  Because especially as a woman, the culture around food has always been opinionated
• 7:42
  and that's not going anywhere.
• 7:44
  Like it's not. And so we can't help but be, but, but, you know,
• 7:49
  have adopted an impression or adopted other people's, you know,
• 7:56
  judgments on food or on food in our bodies even when we were probably too young
• 8:01
  to even understand what was happening to us, right?
• 8:05
  Because it's been everywhere forever and always.
• 8:08
  And so it's not something to feel shameful about the fact that you have it,
• 8:12
  but it is going to eat you alive if you don't learn how to release it and just
• 8:18
  kind of be like, you know what?
• 8:20
  I love you, mamaw. And you know, I'm not talking to my mamaw,
• 8:24
  but I, you know, my mamaw was always shoving food down my throat,
• 8:26
  but like, I love you, mamaw, but I'm going to eat this cake.
• 8:30
  You know what I mean? And I don't care what you have to say.
• 8:32
  And it's harder than it sounds.
• 8:36
  You know, and from somebody who has had to do that in several areas of my life,
• 8:39
  it's a lot harder than it sounds.
• 8:40
  But I encourage you to get started there because it brings a freedom that then
• 8:46
  allows you to just be more comfortable around food always.
• 8:50
  Okay. And then, of course, that makes reaching your goals easier.
• 8:53
  If you're comfortable, right, you're reaching your goals easier. Duh. Okay.
• 8:57
  My second area would be to just to piggyback off of this, right?
• 9:01
  Which is to make peace with your body and your mind. And this is different.
• 9:05
  This is different than making peace with food, okay?
• 9:08
  Because we can be actively thinking we have a great relationship with food,
• 9:13
  but be so stuck in negative thinking patterns, in negative spirals,
• 9:19
  in a dysregulated nervous system and not even know it, right?
• 9:23
  We get so comfortable with the buzz.
• 9:28
  We're in a hurry. We're in a hurry. We got a meal prep. We got to do this.
• 9:31
  We got to do that. We got goals to meet. And like.
• 9:34
  You don't realize that some of that could be fueled from the feeling of lack.
• 9:40
  Like I'm not good enough as I am.
• 9:43
  So I have to perform at work. I have to perform at home.
• 9:47
  I have to lose weight. I have to have someone tell me how great I look.
• 9:51
  I have to have, you know, XYZ that is external.
• 9:56
  And we are so caught up in it, y'all. So many of us are and we don't even realize it.
• 10:00
  And even like, even material things, right? Like so many of us are buying things
• 10:04
  we don't really need just to have a label on our chest that we can't really afford.
• 10:09
  And, you know, it's really just to feel like, oh, you know, we're welcome. We belong.
• 10:16
  We whatever. And so that's an overcompensation, right? That's an overcompensation
• 10:20
  for how we really feel inside.
• 10:23
  And so that's why one of our biggest, you know, focuses in the program.
• 10:28
  And again, I think I've talked about this in my stories a bit,
• 10:31
  but like, and it will continue to be is like getting out of that negative thinking pattern.
• 10:36
  Because if you can try to do that, then you can come at life in general,
• 10:43
  but especially weight loss from a perspective that is neutral.
• 10:49
  It isn't so hurried up or else, you know, I'm going to feel not enough, right?
• 10:55
  Like we're not doing the action to prevent feeling like we're not enough.
• 11:00
  We're doing the action because we truly want to better ourselves.
• 11:05
  And those are two very different things.
• 11:07
  If you feel like you are constantly running or constantly doing things so that you can stay caught up.
• 11:15
  That is so different than feeling like you are still being productive and still
• 11:19
  doing maybe those exact same things, right?
• 11:22
  Meal prepping, performing at work, doing all the things I just mentioned,
• 11:24
  but you're doing it from a place of this makes me feel good and I feel accomplished
• 11:29
  and I don't have to prove to anybody how amazing I am, but I do feel like I'm doing amazing, right?
• 11:35
  And so that comes with getting rid of those negative thinking patterns,
• 11:38
  number one, and letting your body know that it's okay, that it's safe.
• 11:45
  Right? Getting comfortable with not being in motion 24-7, right?
• 11:50
  If like your body needs to learn that if it's not in motion right now,
• 11:55
  it doesn't mean that you're failing, that it's okay to sit.
• 11:58
  It's okay to rest. And sitting does not mean scrolling your phone.
• 12:02
  Resting does not mean distracting yourself, right? It means truly just being okay with just being.
• 12:09
  And your body, you have, we have to teach our bodies that y'all,
• 12:11
  if we're dysregulated, which most of us are, I mean, especially us mamas out
• 12:15
  here who go on 100 miles an hour, right? We are dysregulated.
• 12:18
  And so it's a training session for you to undo that.
• 12:24
  And I just, I can't explain. It's so hard to explain it.
• 12:29
  But like you don't, you don't realize how much this, the negative thinking and
• 12:35
  the dysregulation affect your weight loss until you do, right?
• 12:41
  Until you get that exhale that's like, oh my gosh, and this doesn't feel like torture.
• 12:47
  You know, like, oh my gosh, I feel so much more calm. I'm not talking to myself
• 12:52
  like a piece of crap anymore.
• 12:54
  And my weight loss efforts don't feel like torture every single day.
• 12:58
  Like, what is happening?
• 12:59
  This is voodoo. You know what I mean? It is amazing. I have a client,
• 13:02
  I have a PFM Plus client who.
• 13:04
  About, not this time last year, it was probably a few months in.
• 13:07
  So probably around the spring of last year, she came to me and she's like,
• 13:11
  I have 10 more pounds to lose.
• 13:12
  I'm really, I just really want to get it off. You know, I am,
• 13:15
  you know, desperate kind of thing.
• 13:17
  And I'm like, okay, let's go for PFN+. She had been with us for a little while.
• 13:22
  And so she gets in with PFN plus.
• 13:24
  I very quickly realized she had a dysregulated nervous system.
• 13:28
  She was trying to multitask her entire day around all the things, right?
• 13:34
  Like managing her kids' schedule, helping out her husband, getting her weight
• 13:38
  loss in, like walking, trying to burn calories.
• 13:40
  Like she was walking around the kitchen nonstop while trying to cook to try
• 13:44
  to get her steps in, like, which again can serve you well, especially if you
• 13:48
  haven't been mobile much all day.
• 13:51
  But it was from a place of urgency. It was from a place of stress,
• 13:54
  from a place of, if I don't do this, I'm gonna fail, You know versus this feels
• 14:00
  good to my body because i've been sitting in a chair all day that kind of thing Right,
• 14:04
  and so we immediately shifted gears and I was like you're not going to like
• 14:08
  this But like I think your body is in a total frenzy,
• 14:12
  I think it is holding on to weight Because of how stressed out it is And so
• 14:18
  I want our focus to be rest.
• 14:20
  And slowly over the months she has just laid things down and obviously it's
• 14:24
  not perfect It's not perfect for any of us, right?
• 14:27
  Because like her demands, nothing went away. Like she didn't quit her job.
• 14:31
  She didn't get rid of her husband or kids. You know, she still has the same responsibilities.
• 14:35
  But slowly she laid things down and slowly she learned to exhale.
• 14:40
  And y'all, she is. So here we are.
• 14:42
  This is what that was from the spring to now.
• 14:45
  And she is so very close to that 10 pound weight loss goal. She can taste it.
• 14:50
  Okay, but the coolest part, and I mean, yeah, that stinks because like 10 pounds
• 14:54
  between the spring and January, you're like, Constance, that's not what I signed up for.
• 14:58
  Right. But she's changed her whole life in the process.
• 15:01
  So I know when she meets that goal weight, she'll never regain it.
• 15:05
  And she's got a better quality of life and a much more enjoyable lifestyle.
• 15:09
  But the coolest thing about it is, is a couple of weeks ago we were talking
• 15:13
  and she was like, I mean, I'm close to my goal weight and I'm really excited about that.
• 15:18
  Like, you know, it's going to be a great thing. But honestly,
• 15:21
  I don't even care about it anymore.
• 15:23
  I am so content. I am so happy. I feel so much better that the number on the
• 15:29
  scale doesn't even matter that much to me anymore.
• 15:31
  And I'm just like, that is what
• 15:33
  it's about. She feels comfortable in her skin, inside her skin, right?
• 15:39
  Not just physically outside how her skin looks in the mirror,
• 15:42
  right? And that's the game changer.
• 15:44
  And so then, you know, it makes any goal that she has for the future that much
• 15:50
  easier because she's not doing it from a state of fight or flight or a state
• 15:54
  of overwhelm or stress or a state of I must perform or else,
• 15:57
  you know, no one's going to love me.
• 15:59
  I'm going to be such a failure, whatever. It's just a state of,
• 16:02
  hey, I want to do this for myself, you know, and it feels good.
• 16:07
  So my next area I want to talk about, about, you know, making a lifestyle change
• 16:11
  for good in 2026 is to create habits that you can stick to.
• 16:17
  Okay, it does not matter how great it sounds or how organized you are at the
• 16:21
  beginning of January. So many of us start so gung-ho, right?
• 16:25
  And we think like, if I could just hustle, if I could just do this.
• 16:28
  And two, we have statistics that tell us like, oh, if you do it, what is it?
• 16:31
  21 days in a row, it becomes a habit. And so we're like, okay,
• 16:34
  if I can just suffer through 21 days of this, then it's going to be a habit.
• 16:39
  And then I'm gonna be skinny forever, right? Like that's what we tell ourselves.
• 16:43
  But those of y'all who have done the water challenge before, right?
• 16:47
  If you're choking water down, literally gagging on water, and even if you do
• 16:52
  it for two months, you can find yourself like getting out of that habit.
• 16:56
  And that goes to show that.
• 16:59
  The actual action of the habit was suffering, right? It wasn't enjoyable.
• 17:05
  You were killing yourself to try to get those ounces in.
• 17:08
  And so it doesn't stick. It doesn't stick that way when your brain is constantly
• 17:13
  being like, okay, I'm drinking my ounces, but this is miserable.
• 17:17
  You know, I heard on a Mel Robbins podcast the other day that there was a lady
• 17:22
  on there talking about a lot of brain science and just like how habits stick
• 17:26
  and what barriers can get in the way of that. It was a really great podcast.
• 17:33
  But she said, we are never going to stick to something that's painful,
• 17:38
  right? And so think about it.
• 17:40
  Sure, drinking water may not be physically painful, but if mentally you're like,
• 17:45
  this sucks every day that you're drinking your water, You're not going to stick to that, right?
• 17:50
  And so what matters the most is if you're, whatever the habit you choose is
• 17:55
  if you're still going to be able to keep them up by the end of,
• 17:59
  let's say, like July, right?
• 18:01
  Are you still going to be able to stick to those by the end of July?
• 18:04
  Now, that may mean it doesn't sound as grandiose, right?
• 18:09
  You don't have a list a mile long of habits you want to adopt for 2026 or goals
• 18:14
  you want to achieve, right?
• 18:16
  Because do half of them maybe possibly involve it feeling painful every day
• 18:22
  hypothetically or actually you know what I mean and so yeah it's more of like
• 18:27
  baby steps but I personally believe and I hope you do too that,
• 18:34
  But fulfilling one goal,
• 18:37
  creating one awesome health habit and sticking to it by the end of July is better
• 18:46
  than setting out in January to do 10 of them and giving up on them all because
• 18:52
  they sucked and you were overwhelmed.
• 18:54
  Right. And also your brain was probably about to explode with all the to do's you put in there.
• 18:58
  Right and so really thinking about what you
• 19:02
  can actually stick to that that
• 19:05
  doesn't suck you know let's start with those
• 19:08
  now I mean obviously some habits are harder to
• 19:10
  adopt than others but like especially if you are
• 19:13
  one that feels like you can never stick to anything like let's not start with
• 19:17
  running a mile a day as your as your goal when you hadn't ran in years you know
• 19:22
  what I mean let's dial it back a little bit okay and then my last one is to
• 19:27
  focus on who you want to become and not the weight you want to lose. Okay.
• 19:33
  It's very telling. And Stacey, my dietitian would tell you the same thing.
• 19:36
  It's very telling when our ladies come into our program and they fill out our
• 19:39
  assessments. We have an assessment at the front.
• 19:42
  We ask you to do it. It's like the first thing you do after you sign up with us.
• 19:45
  And, you know, we ask for their height, their weight, their age,
• 19:48
  all that kind of stuff. But then it's like, what's your why?
• 19:51
  You know, like what, what tell us a little bit about like why
• 19:54
  you're here and so the people
• 19:58
  that say to us I just need
• 20:01
  to lose weight I want to I want to weigh you know
• 20:04
  150 or I want to be skinnier I want to
• 20:07
  you know buy smaller pants or whatever like and that's that's about it it is
• 20:14
  a lot less likely that those people will be sticking to their habits and reaching
• 20:21
  their goals several months from the time they sign up, okay?
• 20:26
  And it's because the desire for that outcome is,
• 20:31
  fizzles. We get distracted, right?
• 20:35
  When we say, I want to lose 20 pounds by the end of March, it is automatically harder.
• 20:42
  Like internally, it feels harder to do versus if we were to say.
• 20:50
  I want to make sure I eat three servings of vegetables every day between now
• 20:56
  and the end of March, or I want to make sure I move my body every day between
• 21:01
  now and the end of March or whatever it may be, right?
• 21:04
  Like, because the goal with the weight loss being like the highlight,
• 21:12
  it can start to feel really overwhelming and it can start to feel like a magnifying
• 21:17
  glass. Like, oh my God, I'm trying to lose 20 pounds by the end of March.
• 21:19
  I need to be doing this. I need to be doing that. I need to be doing that.
• 21:21
  And so you're so focused on that outcome that you can get overstimulated and
• 21:27
  really overwhelmed and want to quit, right?
• 21:30
  But if the goal is something that you can work at every day,
• 21:35
  you know, you can say, okay, I said I wanted to be somebody who moved my body every single day.
• 21:41
  So today's the day I woke up and the day ended in Y, right?
• 21:46
  And so that means I got to move my body today.
• 21:50
  It makes and that and that's it like right we're not saying i'm gonna do 50 other things it's like,
• 21:55
  it makes it much more doable when
• 21:59
  the rest of life comes along and the rest of life starts to you know try to
• 22:04
  pull you in different directions and everything you don't forget that you want
• 22:08
  to move your body every day whereas i want to lose 20 pounds by the end of march
• 22:12
  you're kind of like it can easily be like you know uh uh uh you know i'll start
• 22:16
  tomorrow it was a really busy day or I didn't want to miss mixing with my family.
• 22:19
  I'll start next week. Or, you know, we do that.
• 22:22
  And it's subconsciously sometimes.
• 22:24
  And, you know, we hate that about ourselves. But, like, we all do that. And so...
• 22:29
  Saying like, I want to be a person who eats healthy and exercises daily.
• 22:34
  Like I want to be that type of person.
• 22:36
  I want to be that type of person who can go into the restaurant and order a
• 22:40
  salad and be okay with that versus, you know,
• 22:43
  having to order the chicken Alfredo or whatever it is, is just so much more
• 22:49
  impactful and something that will stick a lot longer than like, I want to be skinnier,
• 22:53
  you know, because the gold is in the actual day-to-day doing of the actions
• 22:59
  that get you to your goal, right?
• 23:01
  Anybody that's done my program and been successful, like when we do the action steps, right?
• 23:07
  It's the, okay, I'm setting out. I'm setting out. I'm going to track my food today.
• 23:12
  I'm going to move my body today. I'm going to drink my water today.
• 23:17
  Right? And then day after day of accomplishing those things is what gets us
• 23:24
  to the 10 pounds down, then the 20 pounds down, then the 30 pounds down.
• 23:28
  But then what has happened over time is, okay, you've lost all the weight you want to lose.
• 23:35
  You know, you're 40 pounds down and you're in maintenance, but now you have
• 23:39
  these healthy habits, right?
• 23:41
  You have learned how to choose healthy foods in your normal day-to-day,
• 23:46
  you have learned that you actually love to move your body because you created a habit out of it.
• 23:51
  You have learned that you crave that water now, right?
• 23:54
  And so then you are, not only have you lost the weight, but you are a person
• 23:58
  who eats healthy and exercises daily. And that is how you stay that way.
• 24:04
  That is how you keep the weight off, right? Which is why, again,
• 24:08
  I said at the beginning, we've got so many weight loss interventions on the market, right?
• 24:15
  The pill, and I'm not just talking about GLP-1. I'm talking about like these
• 24:18
  pills I'm seeing all over my timeline and just like all this random,
• 24:23
  really sketch stuff that I'm seeing people sell.
• 24:27
  And it's like, cool, y'all are about to go spend so much money you may not even
• 24:31
  have on something that yes, will give you the weight loss that you desire in
• 24:36
  this moment right now, but you are not adopting any habit to go along with it.
• 24:41
  So I hope you got lots of extra dollars that you can use on this stuff for the rest of your life.
• 24:47
  You know what I mean? If you don't attach those habits to it,
• 24:51
  which is what we're built on around here, creating the habits that go along with the goal, right?
• 24:57
  So anyway, I hope this was valuable to you guys today. I think it's obviously
• 25:03
  something I'm so passionate about, but I really do feel like we all need to
• 25:07
  hear it. We can't hear it enough, right, about the reminders about.
• 25:12
  Lifestyle change and why it's important and how to get there.
• 25:15
  Because yeah, we still are looking at our feeds. We still are seeing our friends
• 25:19
  drop 20 pounds in a month.
• 25:21
  Like we still are feeling influenced in that way to want to make the impulse
• 25:27
  decisions to get those quick results.
• 25:29
  And so anyway, as always, I want to remind you guys, especially as we continue
• 25:34
  to work our goals in this year, to say grace.