Feeling Into Your Future

As 2021 draws to a close, I find myself thinking about 2022… and the future I want to create. It feels even more poignant this year as I will turn 60 (!). Tune in as Marchelle and I discuss how to FEEL your way into your future self, and a shortcut I discovered that has really been serving me. I hope it will serve you too!

Episode Highlights:

4:05 When you look at the model, how you feel drives your actions and your behaviors and your actions and behaviors bring your results.

9:00 I'm going to encourage you as 2021 is winding down to begin this thought process, start thinking about the future you, that you want to create. What do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want to have

10:59 I really want to encourage people to be focused in the future and not focused on the past because, you know, especially if we've been struggling for a lot in the past, you don't want to focus on that. You want to be focused in the future. How are you going to feel then? And then find ways to feel that way now. And that's going to fuel the behaviors that are going to bring more of that into your life. It's just an awesome process.

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Dr. Angela Zechamann (00:00):

You are listening to the Keep The Weight Off podcast with Dr. Angela, episode number 45.

New Speaker (00:07):

Welcome to The Keep The Weight Off podcast, where we bust all the dieting myths and discover not just how to lose weight, but more importantly, how to keep it off. We go way beyond the food and we use science and psychology to give you strategies that work. And now your host, Dr. Angela Zechmann.

Dr. Angela Zechamann (00:27):

Hey friends, and Hey, Marcel. How are you

Marchelle (00:30):

Doing great. How are you doing?

Dr. Angela Zechamann (00:33):

Oh, I'm good. I hope everyone's doing well. You know, we are now full swing into the December holiday season and you know, I'm a little bit surprised at myself because I'm actually really starting to think about winding down 2021 mentally, and I'm preparing for an awesome 2022. So that's what I wanted to talk about today.

New Speaker (00:59):

We're going to do a whole podcast later on goal setting and new year's resolutions. But today I just want to get us all starting to think a little bit about 2022 and what we hope to accomplish. And I know I'm like, I kind of feel a little bit like I'm jumping ahead of the game, but this is where my brain is right now. So it's interesting.

Marchelle (01:22):

So where weird just feel like the last three months of this year is just flown by?

Dr. Angela Zechamann (01:29):

It really has, well, I was just thinking about this the other day. Like, what do I want my future to look like? And what do I need to do to prepare myself for this future? And I would encourage everybody to start thinking a little bit like that. What do you want your future to look like? And what do you need to do to prepare yourself for this future? Because this is where the journey can actually be really, really joyful if we stay focused on the future that we're creating.

Dr. Angela Zechamann (02:02):

So I want you to think about being in a car on a journey. So where are you focused when you're in your car? You check the rear view mirror once in a while, but you know, you're definitely not focused on where you've already been, right? You're not focused on your past, so we don't want to be focused on the past. There's no windshield in the floorboard, so you don't necessarily want to be focused on where you are right now. You want to be focused on where you're going.

Dr. Angela Zechamann (02:31):

So this is how all successful journeys play out. You're focused on where you're going, but you're kind of enjoying the fun along the way, too. Okay. So that's what I was thinking about the other day. Like, where am I going? I'm going to be 60 in 2022. Can you believe that Marchelle? 60!

Marchelle (02:53):

Very young,

Dr. Angela Zechamann (02:54):

Like what 60 going to be like, you know, I know. Wow. So I think you just turned 50, right?

Marchelle (03:01):

So did I just turned 50 this year?

Dr. Angela Zechamann (03:03):

Yeah. So, well, the fifties were awesome, but I am looking forward to the sixties too. So I envisioned myself strong and healthy and vibrant and happy with a flexible body. That's well balanced and I can run. And I envisioned lots of energy throughout the day. And I envisioned waking up refreshed and feeling light and eager for my day. I envisioned my relationships being deep and intimate and fulfilling. I envisioned fun travel opportunities. I envisioned seeing new cultures and experiencing new things. It was a really, really remarkable vision. And it made me very happy to imagine this version of me.

Marchelle (03:52):

It sounds wonderful. Doesn't it

Dr. Angela Zechamann (03:56):

Like, wow. So then the next step becomes, how do you get there? Right. So I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Are you ready?

Marchelle (04:04):

Yes.

Dr. Angela Zechamann (04:05):

You feel your way there because when you look at the model, how you feel drives your actions and your behaviors and your actions and behaviors bring your results. So I thought about this future, me and I asked myself, how does this future me feel? So as I envisioned all of that, can you guess what word I came up with? Marchelle? What do you think?

Marchelle (04:37):

I'm not sure exactly. Hmm. I'm happy,

Dr. Angela Zechamann (04:41):

Happy, joyful. It was interesting for me because the word that came to me just spontaneously was blessed,

Marchelle (04:50):

Blessed,

Dr. Angela Zechamann (04:52):

Blessed to be alive in this healthy, vibrant, flexible body, and blessed with beautiful, satisfying relationships and blessed with a career that I love and blessed with opportunities to travel and to have fun and blessed with friends and a beautiful home to entertain in. It was just blessed. That's how I felt. I am blessed

Marchelle (05:15):

The same way. I, I feel like I'm definitely blessed as well. Yeah.

Dr. Angela Zechamann (05:19):

So then I thought, well, actually I don't have to wait for the future to feel blessed. I actually already feel blessed right now. And then an incident came to mind in which I really did feel blessed. And this happened just a few weeks ago. So I told you I'm turning 60 next year. Well, one of my closest high school friends is a few months ahead of me and she turned 60 in November. And so I went to Boston to celebrate with her and some of her friends, and there were six of us. We all went out to dinner and then after dinner, we went dancing in Cambridge. We went to a club. Now Cambridge is the home of Harvard university. And at this club, the DJ's were playing music from vinyl albums. Have you ever seen that before? I never had, at least not lately. Like they had actual albums, they had two turntables and they were playing music from these vinyl albums. And so a lot of it was seventies and eighties music, right?

Marchelle (06:19):

Yes. I have seen this. And we wanted to just add that. I know which friend you're talking about. So if she's listening or I just want to tell her happy birthday.

Dr. Angela Zechamann (06:28):

Yes. So here we were six women in our late fifties and early sixties, and we were dancing well past midnight with all these young college kids

Marchelle (06:39):

And over like fun. It was a

Dr. Angela Zechamann (06:41):

Blast. And over and over again the kids would come up to us and they would tell us how awesome and inspiring we were. And they'd ask if they could dance with us. And I'm telling you, I felt vibrant and blessed. It feels so good to be alive in a vibrant body like this, as I'm entering, get this, the seventh decade of my life. You know, it's like sixties already passed. I'm entering the seventh decade now. So I actually checked my step counter when we were on our way home. So we were sitting in the car on our way home. I danced the equivalent of five miles before midnight, and then two miles after midnight,

Marchelle (07:25):

Pretty amazing.

Dr. Angela Zechamann (07:25):

We had so much fun that night. It was, it was a blast. And we just we just really, really enjoyed ourselves. And we were inspired being with those young college kids. And we were inspired that they were inspired by us too. So we just had a blast.

Marchelle (07:46):

I do know what you mean by that because like, you know, we just went to Vegas. And so, you know, in the last few years, like, you know, we've talked about, I've lost about 60 pounds and we did a lot of walking and I was thinking so much about how achy my body would have been had I not gotten that fat off my body. And because I used to, like, I used to not be able to walk that far and meet I'd wake up with sore knees and you know, and an aching back. And I was just, I felt so blessed that I could wake up every morning and I could still, you know, I to keep on going and walking and walking. And I just kept feeling so happy for my knees. Yeah. Because I used to carry so much more weight on them. And like I said, they would be inflamed and heard to after I, you know, walk maybe a quarter of a mile or something. So I do know what you mean about being in a vibrant body. Yeah,

Dr. Angela Zechamann (08:51):

Yeah, yeah. And your knees were doing a happy dance I'm sure were.

Marchelle (08:55):

So yeah, I felt so good about that. Yeah.

Dr. Angela Zechamann (08:59):

Ah, that's awesome. So for each of our podcast listeners, I'm going to encourage you as 2021 is winding down to begin this thought process, start thinking about the future you, that you want to create. What do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want to have in 2020 to try to get a good, solid vision of this future, you, and then take the next step. How does he, or she feel about life and come up with that feeling for me, it's blessed, but for you, it'll probably be something different and then ask yourself, do you have to wait to feel that way? Or is there somewhere in your life where you already feel that you can use that feeling that you already have to generate fuel for you so that you can take the action, you need to manifest your dreams. So when I'm walking around feeling blessed, I do things very, very differently than if I'm walking around feeling a lack of something. Right. So that's the difference. So see what you can do to find a way to feel that way now. And then the process just becomes much more interesting and fun and beautiful. And we're going to talk more about goal setting as we get closer to the end of the year. Okay.

Marchelle (10:28):

I am following you about, you know, about the focusing on, you know, the positive things. Because a lot of times, like if I'm having a bad day, I see the world is bad. You know, the rest, I, I guess I just project that, you know, but when, when I'm feeling myself and you know, I'm focusing on, you know, the positive things, then I just see the world as positive. So I am, I think that's just a great a great way of thinking and good thing to point out. Okay.

Dr. Angela Zechamann (10:59):

Yeah. And, and I really want to encourage people to be focused in the future and not focused on the past because, you know, especially if we've been struggling for a lot in the past, you don't want to focus on that. You want to be focused in the future. How are you going to feel then? And then find ways to feel that way now. And that's going to fuel the behaviors that are going to bring more of that into your life. It's just an awesome process.

Marchelle (11:28):

Yeah - I love It.

Dr. Angela Zechamann (11:29):

Yeah. So by the way, if you're interested in getting started on your weight loss journey, the right way, we're going to be opening up the doors to the done with dieting bootcamp in January. So this is 30 days where I take you by the hand and you watch a video every day and I'm going to help you get started in your weight loss journey. So just watch your email for a chance to sign up for that. And I look forward to seeing everybody there. It sounds like fun. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think I might have to join you in that. Yeah, it's great. So, all right, everyone. So that's all for this time. Again, focus on the future and how you want to feel, and everybody have a great weekend. We will see you next week. Take care. Bye.

Speaker 2 (12:21):

Hey, if you really want to lose weight and keep it off for good, your next step is to sign up for Dr. Angela's free weight loss course, where you're going to learn everything you need to get started on your weight loss journey, the right way. Just head over to JourneyBeyondWeightLoss.com/freecourse to sign up. Also, it would be awesome if you could take a few moments and write a review on iTunes. Thanks!

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Dr. Angela

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