HOW DO WE CHANGE FOR GOOD?

After 40 years of gaining and losing over 700 lbs., author, coach and inspirational speaker, Michelle Petties shares her secret to losing weight and keeping it off!

_________________________________________________________________________________ Change is not completely about the external environment, or in this case, food. Change, and permanent change, is about internal perception, perspective, and conscious decisions to replace beliefs and write new stories for our minds and brains to believe. ________________________________________________________________________________ You can ask anyone. Do you have something about yourself that you would like to change? Everyone would have something to list.

First they start listing physical attributes. I would like to change my height—I would be taller, thinner. Then they go deeper and start listing behaviors. I would procrastinate less, I would exercise more.

Whether it is personal or professional, we all have something that we would like to change.

There is always something we can be better at or do differently. BUT HOW? HOW DO WE MAKE CHANGE AND MAKE IT STICK?

I was blessed with the opportunity to sit down with author, coach and inspirational speaker, Michelle Petties. She talked about how she was able to make a change and make it last!

Michelle yo-yo’d with weight her entire life until one day she changed. How did she do it? How did she loose the weight and keep it off? How did she break free from the stronghold that food had on her?

HOW DO WE CHANGE?

In Michelle’s case, it was a memory that brought about the change. In her TED Talk she summarizes a childhood story her uncle told her. He had a very strong detestation for watermelon. He carried this his entire life because he was spanked as a child by his father for stealing a watermelon from a vendor. Her uncle’s experience was so traumatic that he developed restrictive behavior around the act of choosing, preparing, and eating watermelon. He refused watermelon, he rejected watermelon, he could not bring himself to eat watermelon ever.

In 2020 Michelle recalled this story and she was “free in an instant,” she says. She realized that the power over her uncle was not the food itself, nor his father’s punishment. Her uncle was being controlled by the story, and the experience that his mind recalled and ruminated so vividly. Like any trauma, the taste, the smell, the sights, and the sounds associated with the watermelon incident were greater in his mind than his ability to overcome them and control his own behavior.

This revelation about the power of the stories that we recall and tell ourselves over and over again brought Michelle to a mind shift. She decided that the appearance, taste, smell, and pleasure related to stories and memories associated with food were no longer going to control her.

STEP 1 - SEPARATE THE BRAIN FROM THE MIND

Michelle had taken the first step of any change. She took a step back and acknowledged the truth and reality about herself and her environment. When it came to food, she became aware and admitted to herself that her brain was functioning on auto pilot. Her brain associated food with specific sights, sounds, words, and feelings, and her mind went along with those stories.

She took control of the years of programming that her brain defaulted to. She compartmentalized. She separated the feelings and emotions associated with food from the truth and facts about food.

According to world-renowned leadership coach, Dr. John C. Maxwell, we make changes in our lives for four primary reasons:

1 - If we hurt enough, we have to change.

2- If we see enough, we are inspired to change.

3 - If we receive enough, we can afford to change.

4 - If we learn enough, we want to change.

With Michelle’s new found learning and understanding of the emotion-fact separation dynamic, she then proceeded to educate herself more on facts about food.

STEP 2 - REPLACE THE OLD STORY WITH A NEW STORY

Here’s how Michelle did it. She leveraged her new learning by constantly asking herself a series of questions that only her mind could answer. Not her brain. Her mind answered with stories constructed and supported by learned facts, not emotions and feelings.

STEP 3 - MAKE THE CHANGE STICK BY CONSTANTLY FEEDING THE STORY

Because our brains are malleable, whatever stories develop from what we see, hear, or feel can change our beliefs. Our beliefs couple with our thoughts and cascade down into our feelings and emotions which then produce our behaviors. Our experiences simply support and solidify our beliefs. And then the story cycles again over and over.

Michelle was able to make her change stick by constantly going back to the initial motivators of her uncle’s story and the new stories she developed through her education about food. She reinforced new stories and cycled them through her mind over and over again. This reprogrammed her brain.

These repetitive activities work as both her “North Star and anchor,” she says. They keep her guided as she moves forward, at the same time, keeping her grounded in the constant mind-shifted state that she and her mind want. Not her brain.

She continues to contribute to her new stories with more learning and reinforces the stories by sharing and teaching others.

“Will this food provide me with what I need to be my best self?” - Michelle Petties

Change is not completely about the external environment, or in this case, food. Change, and permanent change, is about internal perception, perspective, and conscious decisions to replace beliefs and write new stories for our minds and brains to believe. Learn more about Michelle's book, workshops or coaching at MichellePetties.com