49. Weight Loss: How to Manage Your Mind for Success / Tracy Pleschourt
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If you have been trying to lose weight, but keep getting in your own way to achieve the results you want, you are not alone. Tracy Pleschourt, the Founder of Self-Made U and the Host of Secrets of the Self-Made Podcast, is here to help empower you to manage your mind and finally find success in weight loss. Today’s episode we talk about Tracy’s method for approaching wellness goals and the tools for success. We get into specific examples like: How to feel toned in your body; how to deal with fear around food attending social events; and how to use mind math to overcome obstacles. Tracey’s coaching is fabulous! I loved talking with Tracy because she really has a passion for making people feel empowered. Get ready to take responsibility for your desires and results.
Tracy is a ray of light that allows us to be exactly where we are – and move forward from there.
Episode Topics:
Tracy's story with weight loss
Look at the ROOT instead of the external circumstances
Noticing your feelings
Specific Examples: losing 10 lbs, want a toned body, & fear with food around social occasions
What it means to be self-made
How creating more self-love is the key
Katie Graham
Hey guys and welcome back to another episode of body breaking free. I am your host Katie Graham. And today we have Tracy on the podcast I am excited to share this episode with you into awesome coaching process about how we can achieve our wellness goals and what kind of skills necessary to overcome our obstacles. However first before we dive into this juicy episode, we have the link up for the email list. So if you want more freebies content, if you want updates on the podcast, this is going to be our little hub our little place where we can connect. So I have put that link in the show notes. If that sounds interesting to you. It's Katie Kay graham.com forward slash newsletter. Okay, so Tracy plush Cory, the founder of self made you and the host of secrets of the self made podcast. Just a few years ago, Tracy was a successful advertising executive. stifled by the rigorous time consuming demands of the corporate world. She traded in her 20 years of advertising to pursue her real passion, life and weight loss coaching. Tracy dedicates her work to ambitious lifelong learners, yearning for answers and seeking a better way to create the results they desire and deserve. She installs confidence and a call of action that leads to ultimate wealth and wellness. Today's episode, we talk specifically about Tracy's tools for approaching wellness goals, like weight loss, feeling more toned in your body, we even talk about dealing with those fears around food, and maybe even specifically in social gatherings. Tracy helps her clients find a better way to create the results they desire. And we talk all about that process, that mind mapping that she goes through, I'm really excited for you guys to hear that process. I just think it's such an empowering and compassionate way that we can approach our goals. I just love Tracy because she really has a passion for making people feel empowered. And then like I said, providing that roadmap map in its a very clear and simple way where we can follow it because life is messy. And especially when we're dealing with our mindset and our internal space, the thoughts, the fears, the judgment, that comparison, it can get a little overwhelming. So it's great to have Tracy, she's just a ray of light and meets you exactly where you are. And then helps you move forward from there. So I hope that you enjoy this episode, if you have comments. If something that we talked about really resonated for You, please put that comment in the rate and review. That's a great place because that bumps up the algorithm of the podcast, but then also I get to see your comments and what's working, what's not working. So yeah, definitely put that in if this is resonating with you, and enjoy the episode. Tracy, I'm just so happy to have you on today. Body breaking free podcast. Thanks for being here.
Tracy Pleschourt
Oh, my pleasure. Thank you, Katie for having me.
Katie Graham
I'm just excited to dive right into your work and what you do. And I looked over your website and your bio, and it looks like you're really on this mission just to uplift people and just kind of help them tap into their confidence more. I feel like usually when it comes to, you know, some of the topics that you work with, especially body over eating or drinking, we tend to think of like, okay, well what kind of exercises do I need to do and what kind of foods do I need to eat, but it's more often than not really more of a confidence problem, more of an internal problem. And I just saw that your work is really integrating all of those beautiful factors of connecting to that place within each of us where we can feel more confidence and we can feel more in control of maybe some of those habits or addictions that are holding us back. So let's just, yeah, just tell us maybe a start how this how you started with your work and how this all kind of became into fruition?
Tracy Pleschourt
Yeah, so, um, I founded self made you a couple of years ago, right in the at the very beginning of the pandemic. And prior to that I was coaching women primarily who wanted to start purpose driven businesses. That was definitely where my heart was at. I was I happened to be going through my own weight loss journey at the time and that was being archived it was being documented. And lo and behold, I had a whole lot of ladies coming out of the woodwork asking me for coaching around weight loss. And I have a certification in life coaching as well as weight loss, never in a million years would I have dreamt that I would become a weight loss coach, but, you know, it was definitely in the cards. And here I am today, that is kind of the I would say that's the biggest net that we cast, we get a lot of women who want to learn how to, you know, manage their thoughts and their emotions, they won't come to us saying that, but that's really what we see is the crux of the problem. They want to learn how to eat the foods that fuel them, they want to learn how to manage their insulin from a metabolic standpoint, they want to learn how to read data so that they can start making decisions from data versus the drama that has really played a big part in their life up until now. So, um, yeah, I come out of the world of advertising. And knew when I left that I really left it at kind of the, at the pinnacle of my career, and I knew that I was leaving for something bigger. And I've always loved business. I've always loved strategy. I love operations. And so I again, went into consulting other women to start businesses. And we've now kind of created this this month porosity of business called self made you that has touchpoint in all those areas, we help women and men who want to grow businesses, we help men and women who want to kind of climb that corporate ladder, we help men and women who want to overcome things like overeating, over drinking and really get on to some of the bigger goals of their life. So, but I would say we're probably best known for our self made Mind Body program that very specifically helps people learn the four basics of losing weight, balancing out their hormones, so that they can, like lose weight for the last time. There's no more of this yo yo dieting. So yeah, that's what we're known for.
Katie Graham
I always tell people that if they want to start a business, then just get ready for a rapid amount of personal growth. And because I just everything's intertwined, right. And I do believe that our bodies and how we feel in our body is such a gateway into everything else in our life. And so it makes sense that like kind of your own journey of working through that weight loss journey, and then working through your business becoming an entrepreneur. So can you tell us about your own personal story? What was that journey of like, trying to lose weight? And what were some of those personal obstacles that you faced?
Tracy Pleschourt
Yeah, I would say every dream that I had, it was kind of tapered with this thought that until I lose the weight, I actually have no business going after, you know, fill in the blank, whatever that dream was. And so I very outwardly say, I do believe that self made you is the solution for every woman who thinks weight loss is the biggest problem in her life. Because that was me, I thought that that overshadowed absolutely every dream, every goal I had. And that kind of thinking created an experience a very self defeating experience, you know, I, I literally manifested that result, that experience where I allowed the weight, and being overweight to overshadow and hold me back from everything that I really aspired to be. And I learned that through really understanding the mind and body connection, and knowing how to step into responsibility for every result that I create for myself. So, I guess, you know, from the perspective of that was me back in, you know, 2014 When I was contemplating leaving the advertising industry and doing something on my own, it wasn't super clear, and I wasn't feeling super motivated and propelled to do that, because I also thought that until I overcome this hurdle of my weight, it can't happen. And so the You know, I also had this kind of propeller factor, which happened to be my children who were just entering into high school and I was starting to, you know, see this light at the end of the tunnel, or lack thereof, you know, really starting to recognize that they're only going to be home for, you know, a handful of more years, and I had spent so many years out of the home working this nine to five career at an executive level, and I didn't, I wasn't, you know, in retrospect, I wasn't really appreciating, or seen the value of the time that I had spent with them, it just seems so small. And so I thought, you know, what, if I'm ever gonna leave, now's the time before they go off to college. And so my last day in corporate America is significantly coincided with the first day of their summer vacation before going into high school. And so I had those, you know, those last few years of high school before they left for college, that was me working from home, creating this business. But but doing it if I'm really being honest, doing it with a lot of this negative thinking that I can't possibly be successful at this until I overcome the biggest obstacle in my life, which is being overweight. And so I had no idea that I would be equipped with some really great tools to lose the weight, become fat adapted from a metabolic standpoint, really start to understand the metabolic science behind losing weight, alongside of the science behind the mind body connection, understanding your thoughts and how they create your experiences. But luckily, I was I gained both those skill sets. And I then started to apply it in my relationships with my clients and saw great results for myself, I was able to create programming around it and really kind of refined it. And so here we are, fast forward.
Two years from the point that we launched, self made you and we've had hundreds and hundreds of people go through the self made Mind Body program, and have had significant very untypical results to you know, their past experiences, because we made the mind body connection, we didn't just look at, you know, here's the checklist, here's the, here's the grocery list, here's the recipes, like it's, it's so much more than that, it's so much more than the actions, it's, we want to change behavior, but we want to get to the root cause of that behavior, which is always your thoughts and your emotions. And so we spend a good amount of time really teaching, I call it solving the mind math, you know, it's it's recognizing how your unintentional thinking is creating the result, or the experience that you're having. And when you recognize that that's such good news, because you then now have control to manipulate part of that mind math formula. If a plus b is always equaling C, you change a or b, you're gonna get a different result. Right. And so I like to put it in the simplest terms, I always tell my clients, I've got a little peanut brain. So I love framework, I love to make it easy for them. So we teach that framework and really foster a sense of control for the first time ever, and show them how you can apply that mind math to any circumstance in your entire life. So yeah, that's I lost 40 plus pounds. I stopped over I stopped over eating, I stopped over drinking, which was probably the second biggest obstacle in my life and and I created a multi six figure business in a really short amount of time. And so I tend to coach on the things that you know, I personally overcame because they are so near and dear to my heart. But really with that being said, you can apply the concepts to anything any any obstacle that you feel, you know, is standing in your way or anything that you want to create that maybe you've had thoughts around and you know, it's it's impossible.
Katie Graham
Oh, yeah, I love your story, and I can relate to it so much. And I can see why you would be so successful because I think we all can relate to that story of getting our purpose and our identity wrapped up in our wait, and I just loved her you're talking about you had created this experience for yourself and I thought about myself and And, and I could relate to just what you're talking about like this container. And it's just, it's this almost suffocating, or just this small experience that we're creating in our life. Based on, you know, what our body looks or what you know how we feel, or, you know, all of that all those kind of body issues, it's just such an easy target, because it is our physical representation out in the world. And we do want other people to like us, we want to feel lovable, we want to feel good enough. And so it's just kind of that easy target that we can look at, and really draw in all of our purpose and identity. But when we really look within, I don't think any of us really want our whole lives to be consumed by the time and energy spent focusing on our body and how much we weigh. And we want to, you know, we want to feel lifted of that suffocating container that we've created with like, perfectly, I just think you nailed it on the head, when you were talking about this was the experience I created. And when we're in that place, that kind of stuck place, we can't really see that there is a window of being able to create an experience that is so much more expansive, and abundant. And I like this amount of bliss, and opening that we can experience if we can get past some of those deep rooted fears that we're holding on to. And yeah, and I just love that word you're talking about, you're really addressing the root. And it's just, it's so true. I mean, when I, you know, I focus on my weight for so long through, you know, high school, college. And then when I was out of college, I finally was like, you know, I'm ready to lose this weight, like, I am going to do it. So I went through nutritionists, I counted the calories. You know, I went through the whole diet and exercise routine. And I realized when I lost the weight, that it wasn't about the weight, it wasn't about the 20 pounds I was holding on to. And I still had that fear and suffocation within me. So I then addressed what was really happening. So I went through that whole thing. And then I really started to understand myself more. And so I just love what you're talking about your program, you kind of tackle both things at once, and allowing your clients to achieve whatever goals they want with their body losing weight, but at the same time addressing like, what's really going on here.
Tracy Pleschourt
Yeah, yeah. So you can change the circumstance all day long, which I would say most human beings are pretty programmed to wanting to get in there and change circumstances, whether that's a number in a bank account, or that's a number on a scale, whatever it is, we go at it hard from the action standpoint, right. But yet, you just illustrated that so beautifully, that even when the number on the scale changed, you notice that you were feeling the same way. And that's because the root cause is your thinking. It's not the number on the scale. But we're so like, programmed to believe that it's all about changing the circumstances and grippy being very grippy on trying to control things that are actually outside of our control. And the good news about that is we can control our thinking we can control the way we feel. And without that level of understanding, nothing's ever going to change. So that's where we put our effort is showing you how you're unintentionally creating your own experience. So that you have a sense of responsibility, so that when you decide to be intentional, it acts the architecture actually works in your favor and you can kind of reverse architected but it always comes back to not changing the circumstance, but changing the way you're thinking about the circumstance. Two very different things. And so, in to Wednesday, or today, it was a big day of coaching my groups and we talked a lot about what's the story that you have brought along probably for, you know, many, many years of somebody something that was maybe programmed when you were very young. But what's that story that you're not even looking at that you're not even questioning? Like? I've never been good at losing weight or you know, everybody in my in My family is big, big boned. Like, that's a story that you grabbed on to you took hold, many, many years ago? And have you ever even questioned the validity of that? Have you ever even stopped long enough to notice how that story which is all being made at the level of your mind is making you feel and how you are reacting from that. So it's really, really important that I heighten the awareness around what you're unintentionally creating for yourself, not putting the emphasis on the change, it's just noticing the responsibility, the power that you actually have over what it is that you're creating, it's so critically important to any sort of sustainable
Katie Graham
change. Yeah, it's such a good point. And I love when you're talking about control. There's almost like when I was hearing you talk about it, it's like almost this one path or the other. So you can have, you can have control through your outer circumstances, right. And I think that's something that I'm always fearful of, of falling back into a pattern of control with what I'm eating, and kind of, like how much exercise I'm doing, and then I can get in this negative spiral of control that kind of becomes this obsessive thing. Yeah. And then, and then, but also, you're talking about this beautiful aspect of control where we can feel in control of our life and of our thoughts. And, and kind of what you were saying, it seems like that comes from an internal place.
Tracy Pleschourt
Mm hmm. Oh, it absolutely does, yeah. When you're giving your power to a circumstance, something that exists outside of you, you immediately lose control, you lose any sense of control that you might have had. But when you take responsibility for the way you think about a circumstance, now you feel in control, it's an internal job, so and that I could sit there and talk all darn day to my clients and explain this conceptually. But until we actually put their unique experience into that mind math formula, and they actually, you know, apply it and see it, how it all, you know, was created, if they really see it for themselves. It's difficult to learn something like I like applied learning versus just hearing words, I think it's far more effective to put their unique circumstance into the mind model and my math model and show them how they're, they are responsible for their results. And that's a great thing. You know, it was, it may have been an unintentional result. But nevertheless, they do have that responsibility. They do have that control. They just didn't know it. And it was very unintentional.
Katie Graham
Right. Right. That makes sense. I'm curious, as you're talking, how did you personally start to see your own limiting beliefs? And obviously, you created this beautiful program, and now you're helping other people, but what was kind of that first step where you were like, Okay, I need I have this story. My life is feeling, you know, kind of, like trapped or whatever that word like, something wasn't working for you. And then what? What did you like? How did you know? Like, okay, I have a limiting belief, and I need to work on the internal stuff.
Tracy Pleschourt
Yeah. Well, as an entrepreneur, the limiting beliefs are abundant. I mean, they start from, you know, the marketing standpoint of, do I have this price race, right? This is overpriced, nobody's gonna want what I have to offer. This won't work. Right? Let me all of those I mean, and that's just wearing the marketing hat, then you can put on the, you know, sales hat, and I don't know how to attract consults, and then you can put on the programming and the operations hat like they, I think, recognizing that those thoughts, those primitive brain thoughts that are meant to keep you safe, are supposed to be there. They aren't supposed to shut you down. They're gonna be there. And the difference is, how are you going to react or respond to them? So by default, we will react it from fear and that almost always shuts us down or creates a very slow progress. So I have to come to The realization through experience, again, through applied learning, I had to come to the realization that those thoughts are going to be there, if I start to have an expectation that those thoughts won't be there or shouldn't be there. I'm actually like holding myself hostage until I started expecting limiting beliefs to show up. And then again saying, Do I want to react? Or do I want to respond to them, reacting is very default, it's usually doesn't end well. Whereas responding, it requires I call it your primitive prodigy brain. So it requires your prodigy brain, your more extraordinary part of your brain to look at the data, be really factual, and make a decision from there, not your primitive brain running off of drama. So I guess the best way to answer your question is just giving myself the grace that as an entrepreneur, those limiting beliefs are always going to be there. It's just my job to decide whether I'm going to react or respond to them, but not have an expectation that they're not going to show up.
Katie Graham
Right. Right, that makes sense. And talking about that reaction response. I personally transitioned into, into a what I guess there's reaction? And then what's the other word, that response on response? Yeah. So into a more response state where I was more at peace. And I could think about my reaction was just that simplicity of awareness. And it wasn't until I started going to therapy in college that I started to understand that I am not my thoughts now. And that was a big transition for me is just awareness of what I was thinking. And then once I could separate that it was giving me a few more breaths, or even a half a second before I flip my lid and respond, responded in a reactive way. Yeah, and I just think that I bring that up, because I think just bringing in awareness, like that can be such a beautiful tool to begin your journey. If you're starting to see. Yeah, I feel stuck. I don't feel good in my body. Okay, they're telling me that Tracy and Katie are telling me that it might be an internal story or something. I think that just giving yourself that grace and compassion of, I can just be aware to start and I can just kind of see what's happening in my thought process. And what am I telling myself during the day, and create a little bit each each time you do that you create a little bit more space between the observer and the actual thought itself, and that can create a lot of freedom.
Tracy Pleschourt
Oh, amen. Yeah, I don't think I could have said that any better. Like, Eckhart Tolle always says, You are the watcher, you are not, you are not your thoughts. You are the watcher of your thoughts. And I love that. And that does, at least for me, it does give me it puts space in between the thought that I'm having and the person that I am, and I can, then yeah, just from a tactical standpoint, maybe take a couple deep breaths, you know, or asked myself a couple questions that really gives me the time to play out that mind bath formula to recognize what reacting is going to get me and what responding is going to get me and always know I have a choice. There's nothing inherently wrong with either. It's just which one is getting me closer to what I most desire. Like, that's how I like to answer that question. So yeah, I think having the awareness first and foremost is the is the very first step. And I would say to anybody who's listening who you you said, is feeling stuck, like, don't overlook the significance or the importance of the fact that you just noticed that feeling, because how much of your life have you spent just wearing that cloak, or I always call it a weighted blanket of feeling stuck and not even recognizing what it's getting, what the you know what the effects of that is. And so, the fact that you noticed gives you so much power, it is absolutely going to perpetuate that next step. So it's a huge win, and it's one that you need to really sell it Rate, I've noticed I'm feeling this way. Sounds simple, but it's not, it's a huge step in the right direction. Once you notice it, then I like to ask my clients to really start to normalize it. It's coming from your primitive brain that God gave you to keep you safe, right? We're not in a super dangerous, you know, space. And so it is very dramatic. It's working on, you know, overtime, trying to keep us safe. But to normalize it, again, it's part of being human, you have the primitive part, and you have the prefrontal cortex, right? We have to, like, be very intentional about turning on that prodigy prefrontal cortex part of our brain. Because if we don't, the primitive brain is like off to the races. And so just normalize it, that's a part of being human and neutralize it, like, how can I actually come up with a thought that's just as believable your primitive brain always wants to be right, so it's gonna fight for how true it thinks it is. Like, I'm always, you know, I've never been able to do this, I've always been bad at this, all of those very dramatic thoughts. But what else is true, that actually feels a little bit different. I'm not, I'm not suggesting the power of positive thinking and just start swapping, I'm suggesting find out, find another truth, that generates a different feeling than being stuck, that's actually going to get you moving in the right direction. So it's, it's notice, normalize, neutralized with a believable thought. And then come up with maybe a like the next best thought after that, so you're not going from, you know, I hate my body to I love my body, you're going from I hate my body to the next best thought might just be I have a body. And notice how like D charged, that is, I hate my body feels very charged, you will notice an energy running through your body. But I have a body is a much more neutral feeling. And that creates progress that gets you closer to what it is that you're looking to achieve. That releases you from being stuck right there.
Katie Graham
Tracy patches is so pure gold, I just love what you're talking about. It's this simplicity of it. But it's so powerful. It's so powerful. And I love how you were so generous in giving us permission to say it's insignificant, noticing that feeling like that is really significant. I think a lot of us feel like so alone, and and even if we're telling our partner and I'm struggling, I'm fighting, sometimes we just don't feel heard. And it's like, if you can realize the significance of noticing a feeling and then you're talking about shifting it into normalizing it and like, what are we gonna do about it? And I just, I love that whole process. So thank you for sharing and being generous with that whole concept. If you don't mind, I'd love to kind of get your thoughts I've, I've heard back from a few listeners recently, and I've heard a lot about people. They just say I want to be toned. Like I want to just feel like I can fit into any of my clothing. You know, and like we all have felt that I felt like, you know, I want to just feel comfortable in my own skin. Like I want to feel toned, you know, maybe 10 pounds less, or whatever that means. And then also this listener, I've heard back from some of those fears. And one thing I've heard is being fearful around social gatherings. So around food, particularly like a you want to stay in that control. Maybe you have this goal of wanting to be toned or wanting to lose 10 pounds. What like how would you give advice as far as like, how can that person deal with a social gathering where they're around food and they're nervous about it, and they don't want to over consume and they have this goal? What would kind of be something that you could give advice to them?
Tracy Pleschourt
Yeah. So my best piece of advice is start where you're at right now I know that our tendency is to want to jump to where it is that we want to be right we want to step into that person, but it's far more effective to see where you're at right now and ask yourself what am I feeling so they're getting ready to You'd go to an event. And I would say ask yourself, What are you feeling dropped down into your body? What's the vibration? What's the energy that's flowing through your body right now when you think about that event? Is it fear or some variation of it? And I we have like a feelings wheel that because I think it's very difficult, like our vocabulary of feelings is quite small. So I give all my clients a small feelings will like find on this wheel what it is that you're feeling because it it really makes this exercise work that much harder for you. But you're feeling what you say is fearful. Well, is it? Are you scared? Are you anxious? Are you insecure? Are you feeling weak, rejected? or threatened? See how that gets you so much? Like, more concise, more like, the more specific you can be? The harder this exercise is going to work for you. And maybe you say, okay, um, yeah, it's not, it's none of those. Okay, well, you could go out one more, like rung, maybe you're feeling helpless, overwhelmed, worried, inadequate, inferior, worthless, like, get really specific about where you're at right now. So that's my first piece of advice is, is resist the urge to jump into where I want to be, and really get clear on where you're at right now? What is it that you're feeling when you're thinking about this event? Okay, so let's just say it's inadequate. That's the, that's, you know, what you can put your finger on the pulse of, I'm feeling inadequate. Now, you ask yourself, why? Why am I feeling that way? The answer to that question is the thought that is running through your head, it's probably very subconscious. It's the narrative is just running in the background, it's probably run in the background for years upon years upon years, but here's what we're doing, we're noticing that, right. So that's going to, we're really going to be able to shine a light on it. So we can notice that when we have these events, and we have a thought, like, I have no idea of what the heck I'm gonna eat, that makes you feel inadequate. And then you're like, Okay, so when I'm feeling inadequate, what am I going to be doing, you're gonna hide, maybe you don't go, maybe you do go and you come with this huge set of rules. If I can do this, and I can't do this, you're therefore not enjoying yourself, you're probably not like associating or networking or sharing of ideas or, you know, engaging in a way that you would if you weren't feeling inadequate, right, you probably hide in in regards to what it is that you're wearing, showing off your body, like offering ideas, all of that kind of stuff. Which creates an experience for you that you probably don't like, you're it's a creating an experience of confusion of like, I don't know what the heck I'm doing. I don't know what I'm supposed to be thinking. I don't know what I'm supposed to be feeling. I don't know what I'm supposed to be eating? I don't know. Right? That's like, that becomes the experience. So starting, where you're at right now can be so incredibly powerful. You now know how your thoughts are generating the feeling that your experience that has you showing up in a way, creating your experience. So from there, we can say, okay, we're not going to change the circumstance, which is what most people want to do. We're going to change our thinking around the circumstances circumstance stays the exact same. It's this event. How do you want to feel about this event? Confident, maybe just neutral, maybe neutral is like the next best step. Okay, if that is the decision that you've made, you want to just feel neutral about it. What would you have to be thinking to generate that feeling of neutrality in your body?
I'm capable of just showing up and I'm confident I'll know what the next best step is when I get there. Look at the difference. Going into it feeling inadequate, or going into it just neutral, semi confident. Curious, I love going I love if I'm going to choose an emotion to generate on purpose. Curiosity wins all the time for me because it creates an openness, right? You're actually looking for things to be thinking about you're, you know, it's, it's not it's, it's open, it's not closed, it's not hiding. So when you're practicing that bought that, all I have to do is just show up, and I just am going to make The Next Best decision. I'm not running the race of a lifetime, all I'm doing is just making one decision at a time, the next best decision is all that's required of me. Right, that makes you feel so totally different than inadequate. And then when you think that thought, you feel this neutrality, you notice how you start to show up. And as you are showing up, you're creating evidence for yourself, our brain loves evidence is always looking backwards and looking at different things that it can point to as evidence. This is you actively creating evidence that you are responsible for creating your own experience, it's very multipurpose like this exercise, it's creating evidence at the exact same time, it's getting you closer to what it is that you want, right, she wants to lose 10 pounds, she's not going to lose 10 pounds by going to events, feeling inadequate, she's going to lose 10 pounds for forever, by showing up at events. And even starting with like these minimum baseline feelings of neutrality makes a huge difference, the compounded results are a huge, huge difference. So that's what I would say to that person is start where you're at right now for sure. Notice how you're getting the results for yourself that that you may not like that you actually do have a choice from your you don't have to be victim to a circumstance, you get to choose how you're going to think about that you get to take that responsibility. The second person that you talked about, like wanting to be tone, I would say my best piece of advice there is what does that actually mean? Again, when you're running through the mind math formula, you need to be and you're creating a result very intentionally for yourself, you got to be really specific. What does that mean? Because if you're going to reverse architect that, and you know what the result is that you want, the next obvious question is okay, so what are the actions that are going to create that result? Well, you can't answer that question if you don't have something really specific. So quantify it, put numbers behind it. Right? Measurements, whatever that looks like. And then you start plugging away, you get really exhaustive on every little tiny step. doable steps that you're going to take that's going to create that result. Now we're reverse architect managed again, we go backwards one more time. What are the feelings are what is the feeling that is going to be required for me to organically be doing those things? Once you've got that feeling reverse architected one more time, what's the thought that I would need to be thinking, believing that has me feeling that way? See how intentional that is. And we just work our way backwards from it. So there's a method to literally overcoming anything that you have found as a barrier in your life. And there is a method that happens to be the exact same method to create anything that you once thought impossible or wasn't even on your radar.
Katie Graham
Oh my gosh, it's just amazing advice. Thank you, Tracy for being so generous to share and go through that whole process. I just love how you make it simple. And yet, there's so much expansiveness in it. I can think back when I've had weight loss goals and my approach to food, whether it's social gatherings or just normal day to day activity, it was in this container of this is the right way to do it. This is the wrong way to do it. This is the I shouldn't come to this social gathering and eat any food because that's not going to get me to my weight loss goal. And you can see from that perspective, that is such a small suffocating container that I put myself in that is wrapped up in fear based stories. And then what you're talking about Tracy is like, there is so much freedom in that and I just I love like tapping into like You're like it doesn't have to be get like, I love it or like, I'm gonna feel amazing at this party, it's like really meeting yourself where you are, I'm just gonna be neutral. And I'm gonna respect myself. And I find that as you build that understanding of yourself, and really taking care of yourself, meeting yourself where you're at, more and more, you start to reach towards those higher feel good joy and love and abundance. But it starts right at ground zero. And I just love how you're giving us permission to be there. And that's where real transformation happens. Right? That's the that's the start of it. So can you tell us all about the self made program? And what like, How could if somebody is loving what you're saying? How could somebody start getting involved in that?
Tracy Pleschourt
Yeah, so we have lots of options to really start to understand how to solve your own your own mind math. And they range from completely free to our paid program. And so if you want to just follow our podcast of secrets of the selfmade, you get all sorts of examples of what people have created for themselves through solving their own mind map, that's a great option for anybody. We have the student union, which is a private Facebook group, totally free, I am in there all the time doing free coaching. We also have an app, the self made you app can be downloaded from any app store. And we give you access to your first program for free. So I like to explain, you know, the four basics again, it's just s e l f, solving the Mind Map eating foods that fuel you learning how to collect data and fasting, so that you lower your insulin. It's usually one of those four basics that people are overlooking. And so we've we have done my my sister is also on staff, and she happens to be a clinical psychologist. So we've done the psychology behind, who are you if you're missing one of those four basics. So we've got the romantic, somebody who has a really hard time breaking up with food, they romanticize food, we've got the over thinker, they're super in their thoughts about losing weight. They never really get to like how they're feeling and how that feeling is actually perpetuating what you know their behavior, we've got the snacker, we've got that person who can't imagine going multiple hours without eating or aka fasting. And then we've got the quick fixer, the person who's always out there looking for that silver bullet, and they tend to not look at data, they don't really want to dive in and get to that root cause. So you fall into one of those four categories. So we've got a free quiz on my website, self made u.com. So it's self dash made. And then it's the letter u.com, you can take that free quiz. It reveals which persona you are. And then it offers you our free five day challenge, which is a course that just shows you what it is that you need to overcome. So we convert a lot of people from that quiz, because they see themselves, they see themselves and they now know that they're not alone. And we have all sorts of great success stories, showing you how you can take responsibility and create a different result for yourself. And so that is our self made Mind and Body program. So it's a 10 week course. And we take you from learning how to become fat adapted, and what that actually means the science behind it, why you would want to become fat adapted. So we take the kind of that deeper dive into the metabolic science as well as solving the mind math, really equipping you with the skill set to solve the mind math for any obstacle you have in your life. And we just really use weight as the vehicle to teach that. And it's becomes very meaningful for people. But I would say 99.9 of our success stories, talk about what they didn't expect. And that's when they start talking about the relationships that changed in their life or their professional life. And that's where it gets so fun. I mean, it's so rewarding to change people's metabolic life, but it's even more rewarding when you start to hear about the impact it's making on you know, their loved ones that people they surround themselves by. Because that's so unexpected and but that has that compounded the exponential effects that like, light me up so That's how you can, that's how you can work with us lots and lots of options.
Katie Graham
That's awesome. I could just tell you're so passionate, and you're in that service mentality of helping people achieve the best versions of themselves and taking responsibility, and you know, getting overcome anything that they need to overcome. So thank you for showing up in the world and sharing your light and your passion. I also want to ask, before I get into my final questions, just where we can find you, and your own wellness routine, I noticed through my notes, you have self love, and here and I just, I want to know, I guess how does that self love concept kind of weave itself through your self made program?
Tracy Pleschourt
Yeah. So self love, I would say is probably the emotion that most of us really need to, to, to put more work into generating. I think that when we learn how to love ourselves, we start to we start to have more compassion and more grace. For other people. It's almost this organic effect. Because when we're criticizing, and we're constantly critiquing ourselves, we also start doing that to people outside of us as well, right. And so, if you put your emphasis your work on generating more self love, it pays dividends. Typically, you know, a lack of progress is steeped in fear, that almost always looks like a worthiness issue, you know, you've got thoughts around your worthiness, and ultimately, ultimately, you know, we're all born equally as worthy. And but yet, you know, somewhere in those early ages, we started thinking that, you know, that there were quantifiable goals that took away from our worthiness, and it started to, you know, erode the self love that we have, that we're now experiencing. So I put an emphasis on, you know, focusing on yourself so that you can have these bigger impacts and you are the root of it all you are the hub of that wheel. And it's really important to know where to start. And I would say self love is the emotion that I would highly recommend everybody start to learn how to generate.
Katie Graham
Yeah, yeah, I think unconsciously. For years and years, I avoided the concept of self love, and even through just reading, you know, mindfulness books, Eckhart Tolle, like you mentioned, and radical acceptance, radical compassion, like all of that, I noticed a thread line of really avoiding any kind of book that was like self love and, and I recently actually, about a month ago, I had talked to a friend, Jen Solomon, she's a yoga instructor, she's an Ayurveda health counselor. She's a trauma informed specialist and I had I was asking her for advice on the pain that I feel in my back I have a disc issue and I said you know, Jen, like I have been doing PT like I've been working really hard. I'm not sure like do I need to like change my diet to more i or Vedic? You know, like reduce inflammation or like should I work on more stretching like really see my soul as and she looked at me and she said, it's self love. And that kind of blew me away. But I I can see now that that's exactly what it was. As far as far as somebody missing like I still have pain but the amount of transformation I have experience from that moment on, so she told me to I have affirmations I read in the mornings myself and she said, look yourself in the mirror and read those are read affirmations of I am blank. I am special I am love I am enough. And I the first day I did it, I just felt like nauseous and acid reflux and like, like, this doesn't feel good. And the transformation I experienced over those 30 days I just was like wow, I can't believe i i There's something inside me that was avoiding that for so long. And maybe it was a fear based story that was or maybe is the ego trying to keep me in check. comfortable, but the way that I have shown up in my life now taking more responsibility for myself. And I just noticed kind of this thread line of doing things that I wouldn't have done because I know that everything inside me is love. And I can believe in it, and I can trust it. And before I didn't, you know, started looking myself in the face, I would instead have stories of I'm selfish, I'm not good enough. I'm, what were you exactly what you're talking about? I'm not worthy. And so I'm just I'm glad that you're bringing it into your program, because I know how cheesy it can sound and how people avoid it like I did for years. But it is so significant, at least in my life, at least what I have experienced. And it sounds like you've seen that through your clients, as well. Yeah,
Tracy Pleschourt
I think asking yourself the question every morning of what would it look like? Today? If I loved myself? Just a little bit more? And make yourself answer that question. There are no I don't knows, accepted? It's like, if I had to answer that question, what would that look like today? For a lot of people a good place to start is right there. It's having that conversation with yourself asking yourself questions. And, you know, creating a, an opportunity, a space to think about an answer, right? Like, so many people really avoid asking themselves high quality questions, like what would it look like if I loved myself just a little bit more? If I just moved the needle? ever so slightly? What would that look like today? I mean, you could start kind of meta, but you kind of just start with asking myself, this simple question is a source of love for myself, like noticing how I'm feeling versus running on autopilot and never feeling the feels that maybe it's putting 10 minutes into your daily planner, so that you have time to go fill up your water bottle and go to the bathroom. Like, it doesn't have to be this monumental thing. But showing yourself that compassion that love and taking care of yourself. It moves, it starts to move mountains, like the compounded effect is extraordinary. So but you won't get there if you don't ask the question if you're not willing to have that conversation with yourself. So I think that's the best place to start.
Katie Graham
Yeah, and I'm the queen of I don't know, because I say that a lot. And it is totally linked to feeling that unworthiness or those deeper emotions. And so I know exactly what you're saying when you're like, I don't know, is not an appropriate answer. Yeah, so
Tracy Pleschourt
if you find yourself having that conversation, it's like, and what if I didn't know? What if I didn't know? What would the answer be?
Katie Graham
Oh, I love that. I'm gonna use that. That's gonna help me. Awesome. Tracy. So I love to ask the guests at the end of the show. What is their own daily wellness practice? You give us a little bit more inspiration?
Tracy Pleschourt
Oh, well, it for sure it is self coaching. I mean, that's the crux of what we teach. We teach all of our students how to self coach, because as much as I would love to have every client rely on me to be their coach, I want to empower them to self coach. And it's exactly what I just demonstrated for you. It is asking yourself high quality questions, putting it through that mind math formula, really seen what it is that you're creating for yourself. So I have a workbook right here, that I, I make decisions ahead of time about what it is that I'm going to eat. And when I'm going to eat, I make a decision ahead of time about what I'm going to be doing on the hour like, because I don't want to be reactive in any part of my day, I want to be really responsive. I want to look at the data and make really high quality decisions. That's how I create what it is that I most want. So doing that practice every single morning and I always do it with a cup of coffee and I always have my heavy whipping cream in my coffee, but I plan my workout I make a decision ahead of time about what it is that I'm going to intentionally do I no longer run on autopilot and just you know wing it like spontaneity is so overrated you guys be in it intentional is where it's at. And I'm not suggesting that you have to be so rigid and robotic. But in the times where you know being intentional is going to help you Those are the times that you plan to be intentional if you if you love spontaneity, like plan for spontaneity. I mean, it sounds kind of silly. But literally, maybe Saturdays and Sundays are your days where you get to so called quote unquote winging it and be spontaneous. But if you're really trying to create something that maybe you once thought was impossible, I highly recommend being intentional about it and sitting down and carving out 30 minutes for yourself every single day to create that plan and do yourself coaching. It's like, there is nothing that's going to pay more dividends than that,
Katie Graham
huh? Yeah, I love that. And I can see how needing to go through a coaching process with you or, or somebody there to help you along that path. Because I'm sure that each kind of formula is different per person, just depending on like, you were saying, if you want that spontaneity like scheduling it in. And for me, like I have in the past lives such a, like, I struggled with anxiety, which led to depression. And when I was in that place, it was very kind of obsessive, like, very rigid my schedule. Like, there was really wasn't options, right? Like, I had to go to the gym, and I had to eat these foods and, and so I also have gone on that total opposite end of that and let go of a lot of that. And so for me, it was like almost this kind of therapy that I had to go through. But now I feel like I'm in a place where I can take responsibility for my schedule, and I can have it outlined. And I also can infuse that self love and also bring in that flexibility when I need it. But yeah, I couldn't like just like reflecting back on my own journey, I can see how having a coach with you to make the most appropriate schedule that is going to fit your needs would be the best way to go about it.
Tracy Pleschourt
Yeah. And for you, Katie, I think if you start to notice that rigidness may be something that's, you know, very grippy in your field, you're noticing thoughts around, I have to or I should have, that doesn't generate feelings that you actually want. I would start questioning whether it's a rule or a tool, like what's going to serve you better a rule right now or a tool, like rules feel very rigid. But yet you're equipped with all sorts of tools that are going to help you kind of navigate and so I like the to make the distinction and ask myself that question.
Katie Graham
Thanks. Thanks, JC, you're just like, so generous. I asked you about your wellness plan, and then you're giving me advice. I just, I love you. You're a coach through and through for sure. Yeah. So last question. Can you just tell us where we can find you? Maybe you already kind of talked about your website. So maybe just like that first, what you think would be maybe a first good step, maybe taking that quiz, like you had talked about? Yeah,
Tracy Pleschourt
definitely go to self made u.com. Take the quiz. That's probably the best way to get connected to us. That'll lead you down all sorts of other paths. And you can make that decision for yourself. But take the quiz for sure.
Katie Graham
Yeah. And I actually took the quiz last night, and it was really eye opening. Like, it was so funny that you're like, oh, that's me. Like, that's me. That's me. It's like, it's actually pretty fun to see like, you kind of like, oh, this is totally my personality. So I definitely invite the listeners to go take that. And yeah, it was just such a pleasure Tracee to have you and thank you for just sharing all of your beautiful wisdom. I just got so much out of our conversation, and I guarantee the listeners did too. So I will put all your information in the show notes, so the listeners can just click on the links and your podcasts. Definitely go. Go check that out. So thank you, Tracy for being here.
Tracy Pleschourt
Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
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