April 30, 2025 • 34 mins
At 61 years old and 140 pounds lighter than I was two years ago, I've discovered something profound about weight loss that most "experts" won't tell you: it's not about dramatic overhauls or punishing yourself thin. After failing at over 100 different diets throughout my life, I finally found success through making small, smart choices consistently.
When I stopped chasing the quick fix and focused on one better decision at a time, everything changed. I didn't cut out foods I loved, count every calorie, or spend a single second at the gym during that first year of transformation. Instead, I changed my relationship with failure. One "bad" meal no longer derailed my entire week. I learned to treat each choice as its own event rather than spiraling into a cycle of guilt and shame.
The real game-changers weren't sexy or revolutionary—they were practical shifts in how I approached everyday decisions. I stopped using hunger as a badge of honor and learned that proper nourishment actually reduced cravings. My self-talk became supportive rather than punitive. The scale lost its power to dictate my worth. And perhaps most importantly, I stopped waiting for motivation and built consistent habits that worked even on my worst days.
Sustainable weight loss isn't about flipping a switch—it's about rewiring your approach to food, movement, and self-respect. It's showing up imperfectly but consistently, taking full ownership without excuses or blame. If you're tired of starting over every Monday, if you're exhausted by the all-or-nothing approach, this episode offers a more compassionate and effective path forward. Because weight loss doesn't have to be miserable to be successful—and you don't have to hate yourself thin to transform your life.
Lose Weight Without Starving or Obsessing! Learn the simple, no-BS system that helped me lose 140 pounds naturally—no extreme diets, no endless gym hours, just real, sustainable fat loss for real people.
Join the Effortless Weight Loss Academy HERE
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Send me questions or comments to Jonathan.Ressler@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
If you're a whiny snowflake that can't handle the
truth, is offended by the wordfuck and about 37 uses of it in
different forms gets ass hurt.
When you hear someone speak theabsolute, real and raw truth,
you should leave Like right now.
This is Shut Up and Choose, thepodcast where we cut through
(00:25):
the shit and get real aboutweight loss, life and everything
in between.
We get into the nitty gritty ofmaking small, smart choices
that add up to big results.
From what's on your plate tohow you approach life's
challenges.
We'll explore how the simpleact of choosing differently can
transform your health, yourmindset and your entire freaking
(00:48):
life.
So if you're ready to cutthrough the bullshit and start
making some real changes, thenbuckle up and shut up, because
we're about to choose our way toa healthier, happier life.
This is Shut Up and Choose.
Let's do this Now.
Your host, jonathan Ressler.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Hey, welcome back to Shut Up and Choose, the podcast
that cuts through the noise andthe nonsense and all that
garbage and the diet industryand internet gurus and Instagram
jerk-offs are throwing your way, telling you just do this and
you'll lose weight, just do thatand you'll shed the pounds like
magic.
And the truth is they're allfull of shit.
They're all trying to sell yousomething and it's a bunch of
(01:34):
garbage.
I lost over 140 pounds makingsmall smart choices, and I
thought today I would shareexactly what that means.
Making small smart choices,because I get emails and
questions all the time Like whatdo you mean by small smart
choices?
To me it seemed obvious, butmaybe to you it's not.
And I thought this was anappropriate time to do it
because last week, april 24th,was my 61st birthday and wow,
(01:59):
that sounds old.
I don't know when the hell thathappened.
I still think I'm 30 in my head, but I guess I'm 61.
And the reason that's important, the reason why I'm doing this
today, is because I started, asyou know, or for those of you
who are new here I started myweight loss journey on my 59th
(02:19):
birthday, on April 24th 2023, Iguess it is and now I'm over 140
pounds down, feeling the bestthat I've felt in God I don't
know.
20, 30 years, living my bestlife, doing all the things that
I wanted to do, and I reallyhave all that because of making
these small, smart choices.
So, like the big changes thatdidn't happen when I changed
(02:41):
everything, which was like goingon all the old diets, they
happened when I didn't.
And the truth is we all cravethat dramatic transformation,
the instant fix, the overnightsuccess story, the viral before
and after pictures to makeeveryone on Facebook and
Instagram grasp and go oh my God, what's your secret?
But here's like, the real truth, the unfiltered truth.
(03:02):
No one really wants to hearthat big results come from small
, smart, consistent choices.
Not massive overhauls, notextreme restriction, not trendy
diets with crazy names, thelatest fad that came out.
It comes from making small,smart choices.
And when I started my weightloss journey, I wasn't looking
(03:22):
for a quick fix because I wasexhausted by it.
I'd done keto, intermittentfasting, clean eating.
I did points, I did Nutrisystemyou name it I did it.
I've been on over 100 diets andevery time I went on a diet I'd
lose a fair amount of weightdifferent amounts on different
diets, but the truth was,eventually I failed and I gained
(03:44):
it all back and felt like afailure again.
So when I finally stoppedchasing the shortcuts and
focused on one better choice,one small smart choice at a time
, things began to really shift,and I mean really shift.
In just one year, I lost over125 pounds.
My first year, that was no.
(04:04):
I didn't do any fad diet.
I didn't take any expensiveshots you know what we're
talking about.
There's so many of them.
There are no magic pills andnot a single second spent in the
gym.
I've changed that now, not thatI go to the gym, but I do
exercise.
But in that first year when Ilost all that weight, I didn't
go to the gym for one second and, most importantly, I didn't
(04:25):
starve myself and I didn't cutout the foods that I loved and I
didn't spend hours mealprepping or counting every
calorie like some kind of mathmajor.
Get some fancy app and count mycalories.
No, I didn't do any of that.
I just committed to making small, smart choices and I did it
consistently.
And was it sexy doing that?
(04:45):
No, it definitely was not sexy.
Was it hard sometimes?
Sure, I always say weight lossis easy, but there were days
when it was hard.
There were days that I mademistakes.
And was it sustainable?
Hell, yes, it was sustainable.
Here I am two years later and Idon't even know what to say.
I don't feel like I'm ever on adiet.
Two years later and I don'teven know what to say.
I don't feel like I'm ever on adiet.
I'm just doing what I do.
(05:05):
I'm just making small smartchoices, and I believe that's
why it worked.
So here's what happened becausepeople always ask me tell me
more about small smart choices.
Here's what happened when Istopped trying to be perfect and
started showing up with small,consistent, smart choices, day
after day, even when no one waswatching, and that's where this
(05:27):
transformation really happened,and, honestly, it can happen for
you too.
It's not hard.
Like I said, there'll be somehard moments, but it's not hard
overall.
And these are a couple of thingsthat I guess the small smart
choices that I made andhopefully you can make, and the
first one is probably the mostimportant.
(05:47):
The first thing is I stoppedquitting.
Every time I messed up, I gavemyself a little grace, I allowed
myself to make mistakes.
So if I ate something off plan,like, let's say, pizza on a
Friday night, normally it wasgame over.
One crazy meal would spiralinto a full-blown weekend binge,
or even longer.
I'd tell myself, ah, fuck it, Ialready messed up, so I'll
(06:09):
start fresh on Monday.
And the truth is, monday neverreally fixed anything.
I wasn't starting over.
I was restarting the same cycleof guilt and restriction,
self-sabotage.
But after I started making thesesmall smart choices, I learned
to treat each choice like itsown individual event.
One slice of pizza or you know,everybody knows I love to eat
(06:30):
donuts.
One donut didn't cancel out myprogress.
It didn't mean I had to eatlike a raccoon in a dumpster
either for the rest of the day.
I just stopped turning a singlefuck up into a full-on freefall
.
I gave myself the grace to moveon immediately.
And not next week, not tomorrow, just the next meal.
(06:52):
And guess what?
That shift alone really changedeverything.
I guess it was the death of theall or nothing mindset, the
mindset that keeps most peoplestuck forever.
Bottom line I'm not a robot,you're not a robot, we're
fucking human beings.
There's going to be off days,there's going to be times that
you skip meal or eat too much.
Or, yeah, maybe eat a cookie ora donut that doesn't make you
(07:15):
feel weak or shouldn't make youfeel weak.
It makes you real.
That's what real human beingsdo.
Sometimes we indulge.
So by refusing to throw in thetowel every time I fucked up, I
built resilience, I stayedconsistent, and I learned that
consistency isn't about beingperfect.
It's about coming back over andover, no matter how many times
(07:37):
you slip up.
And that's the difference, thereal difference, between people
who get results and people whokeep starting over.
You don't need a perfect day.
You just need a better next one, a better next choice.
Another thing that happened forme was my self-talk became
supportive, not punitive, notbeating myself up.
(08:01):
My inner voice before I did allthis was a full-time bully.
Every time I fucked up, thethought of not going to the gym,
even though everyone told me togo to the gym, they gave me
that great advice eat less andmove more.
And every food choice thatwasn't clean or whatever it
triggered like a mentalbreakdown why can't you stick to
anything?
You'll never lose this weight.
(08:22):
And I was there where I wasjust I'm never going to lose
this weight and this is just whoyou are.
Get used to it and accept it.
And that voice didn't help meget better.
It helped me quit right Everytime I talked shit about myself
to myself my inner monologue.
It helped me quit again andagain and again.
I told you I've been on over ahundred diets and I quit every
(08:43):
single one of them.
I thought that being hard onmyself would keep me accountable
, like if I hated myself enoughI would finally change.
But the reality is it doesn'twork like that.
What I learned was I made aconscious decision to stop being
an asshole to myself.
Instead of what the fuck iswrong with you, I started asking
(09:04):
what triggered that choice andwhat can I do differently next
time.
I accepted the choices that Imade.
Some accountability there.
So instead of shaming myself, Igave myself credit for trying.
I shift from perfection toprogress and from punishment and
from punishment to problemsolving.
I started talking to myself theway I talked to a friend who
(09:25):
was going through the same thing, with honesty, but also with
some compassion.
And I believe how you talk toyourself is how you treat
yourself.
If your inner dialogue is astream of guilt, shame,
disappointment, guess what, yourbehaviors are going to match
that energy.
But if you speak with ownership, like hey, this is my journey,
(09:45):
with some clarity, yes, evenkindness, you're more likely to
make better choices and, moreimportantly, you're more likely
to keep making them over andover again.
I learned you can't hateyourself into a healthier
version of you, and, trust me, Itried that.
The real change started when Istopped tearing myself down and
started coaching myself on whatI wanted to do and how I wanted
(10:08):
to do it, and continue to makethese small, smart choices.
Another thing that I realizedand this is probably going to be
a big one for people is hungerisn't a prerequisite for weight
loss.
For years, I believe thatfeeling hungry meant that I was
doing it right.
If I wasn't walking around thegrowling something, I must be
(10:29):
doing something wrong.
So I skipped meals, I chuggedwater to curb my hunger and
convince myself that sufferingwas the price of progress and in
the long run, looking back onon it all, all that did was
backfire.
Every time I starved myselfthrough the day, I'd end up
binging at night like some kindof rabid animal, and the hunger
(10:51):
it always won.
And when it did, I didn't eat,I overate and then pile the
gills on top of that viciouscycle.
Oh my God, I can't believe youcan't stick to anything.
But after, when I started thisthing, I gave myself permission
to eat and I mean to really eatand that's when things shifted.
I started focusing onnourishment over punishment.
(11:11):
Real meals with real proteinand fiber and healthy fats and
stuff that actually satisfied meand kept me full.
Those overnight oats everymorning, I have to tell you they
were a game changer.
They kept me full and I feltgreat.
And guess what happened when Istarted doing that?
When I started eating the rightfoods, I stopped obsessing over
(11:33):
food.
My cravings dropped and Iwasn't constantly skating the
fridge or fantasizing about mynext cheat or next thing I was
going to binge on like, oh, getsome donuts.
My brain was finally calmbecause my body wasn't starving.
So if you're hungry all thetime, your body isn't working
with you, it's fighting you.
And when you're in a constantstate of deprivation, that thing
(11:55):
that we all like to talk aboutwillpower doesn't stand a
fucking chance.
You end up going 90 miles anhour through the day and doing
everything right and thencrashing at night.
And when I started eating theright things and really fueling
my body the right way, I gainedcontrol of my eating habits, not
by restriction, but by support.
(12:16):
So it turns out, shockingly,that eating is not the enemy,
undereating is the enemy.
And once I learned that theresults actually stuck here I am
a little bit over two yearssince my start date and I'm down
over 140 pounds I also learnedthat my cravings really
(12:38):
diminished, naturally.
So before I started this thing,before I started making all
these small smart choices, mycravings ran the fucking show.
Whether it was sweet, salty,crunchy, you name it, I wanted
it all the time I could be fullfrom lunch and still find myself
standing in front of an icecream store or a donut shop and
(13:03):
convincing myself that you knowwhat I deserve?
This treat, that urgent snack,wasn't about hunger.
It was emotional, habitual,honestly and constant, because I
was always trying to eat less,skip meals or cut carbs.
My body was basically screamingfor anything remotely
satisfying, so I'd crave and I'dcave over and over then feel
(13:26):
like I had no discipline at all.
So once I started making thesesmall smart choices, I found the
plot twist that no diet planever told me.
When I started eating realbalanced meals consistently, my
cravings started to fade.
No magic, no willpower seminars, just meals with actual protein
(13:46):
, fiber, healthy fats and enoughcalories to support a
functioning human body, and Ihad a big body.
I also started drinking a lotmore water because, yeah,
sometimes thirst really doesmask itself as hunger, and I
stopped waiting until I washangry to eat.
Everybody knows hangry sohungry that you're angry.
(14:06):
That alone cut my.
I need something that urges inhalf the biggest kicker.
I didn't cut out any of thefoods I used to crave, I just
didn't need them all the timeanymore.
Most people treat cravings likea discipline issue.
Just say no, right, no, that'sbullshit.
Cravings are often your body'sresponse to being underfed,
(14:29):
overstressed or actually both.
When you give it what itactually needs all that noise,
all that bullshit, all thosecravings they die down.
So you don't have to whiteknuckle your way through
cravings forever.
You just have to stop settingyour body up to scream at you.
Once I did that, the cravingsbecame background noise, not the
(14:50):
boss.
The next thing was this conceptof starting over became obsolete
.
If you've ever been on a dietand gone off it and gone back on
it, you're constantly startingover.
Anytime I went off track,whether it was an unplanned
slice of cake or skipping aworkout or eating fast food I
(15:11):
tell myself I blew it.
The only logical next step inmy old mindset was to throw in
the towel, eat whatever I wantfor the rest of the day, and
usually the next day or a fewdays after, and vow to start
over after the weekend.
If that sounds familiar to you,it's the classic diet reset
trap and it kept me stuck forGod I don't know 40, 50 years.
(15:32):
I wasn't actually makingprogress.
I was just perfect for a fewdays and then wrecked it and
then hit reset again and againand again.
And after I started making thesesmall smart choices, what
changed?
I stopped treating the journeylike a video game that resets
every time I make a mistake.
I started to view my choices aspart of a long-term commitment,
(15:52):
not a short-term contest.
So one bad choice wasn't theend of anything, it was just a
single choice.
You hear me say that all thetime you ate a donut big fucking
deal.
You went off your diet.
Big fucking deal.
It's a speed bump and there'sno need to go off the rails and
there's no need to start fresh.
Just pick back up where you areand keep going.
(16:15):
There was no big dramaticcomeback, just consistency.
And that start over mentalitykeeps people trapped in guilt
and shame and delay.
It makes you think yourprogress only counts if it's
perfect, and that is completeand utter bullshit.
What worked for me was stayingin motion, not punishing myself,
(16:37):
not throwing in the towel foran entire day because of one bad
decision.
When I dropped the idea ofstarting over and replaced it
with keep going, I finallystarted seeing the kind of
progress that sticks, becauseconsistency isn't about a clean
slate, it's about not stopping.
The next thing that I learned bymaking small, smart choices is
(16:59):
the scale lost its power.
Now, I freely admit I weighedmyself a bunch of times, but I
knew that if I ate more or if Iweighed myself later in the day,
I was going to weigh a littlemore.
I used to weigh myself like itwas a fucking job.
Right In the morning, if I wentto the bathroom after meals,
before bed, you name it, Istepped on the scale.
Every decimal point eithervalidated me or ruined my entire
(17:24):
day.
Up half a pound.
Clearly it was a failure.
Down one temporary victory, cuethe obsession to do even more.
It didn't matter how I felt orhow I was showing up.
If that number didn't move fastenough, I convinced myself that
nothing was working.
And if it went up, totalfucking spiral.
So after I started making thesmall, smart choices, I started
(17:45):
asking myself why am I givingthis stupid, fucking inanimate
object complete control over howI feel about myself?
So I stopped chasing that dailyvalidation and started focusing
on the non-scale victories.
Again, I weighed myself a lot,but I didn't tie what my success
looked like to the scale.
I was looking at non-scalevictories, things like waking up
(18:08):
with more energy, not needing anap in the middle of the day,
feeling confident enough to weara t-shirt without sucking in my
stomach although my stomach wasso big, sucking in it really
didn't do anything, but Ithought it did.
A big victory for me was justsaying no to food.
I really didn't want to eatwithout feeling deprived.
I said I'm not going to eatthat for now.
(18:28):
I know I can eat it later, Ican eat it tomorrow, but for
right now I'm not going to eatthat.
Huge, huge victory for me.
And most times in fact I wouldsay almost every single time I
said that.
Every time I said, yeah, I'mnot going to eat that right now,
maybe I'll eat it tomorrow.
I didn't want to eat it lateror the next day.
I just kept telling myself that, and another non-scale victory
(18:54):
for me was just being proud ofhow I bounced back if I did make
a bad choice.
Those were the real wins andthey told me way more than a
number on the scale ever could.
So look, the bottom line is yourweight's going to fluctuate.
My weight fluctuates.
There's your hormones, yoursleep, hydration, stress.
If you have a really salty meal, even gravity probably affects
you on certain days.
If your self-worth is attachedto just your weight, you're
(19:18):
handing your confidence over tosomething that isn't even stable
.
It's craziness.
It's the non-scale victoriesthat actually matter.
I always say you pick a numberout of your ass and you say
that's the number I don't get to.
How about, like your pants feelbetter, or you have more energy
.
When I started measuringprogress and strength and
mindset energy and creatinghabits, repeatable habits,
(19:40):
everything changed.
The scale became just a tool,not the judge, jury and
executioner of my success.
And that freedom.
That's really what helped me tokeep going all the time.
The next thing is again.
My motivation was replaced bydesire.
I used to believe that the keyto success was motivation.
(20:02):
I'd watch these hype videos,I'd scroll past Transformation
Tuesday posts and wait for themagic wave of inspiration to
smack me in the face and makeeverything easier.
And sometimes, yeah, it wouldcome and I'd have a good day
where I ate clean or went for awalk.
Well, I didn't really walk,that's not true, but where I
walked, maybe a little bit more,I felt like I was really back
(20:23):
on track.
But the next day I'd be tired,annoyed, stressed out, whatever,
and go right back to eatinglike a fucking animal.
And why?
Because motivation is garbagefuel.
It burns fast and it disappearseven faster.
When I started making small,smart choices and I stopped
waiting to feel ready and juststarted showing up, everything
(20:45):
shifted.
I built habits that didn't relyon my mood.
I made rules for myself thatwere enough for debate, things
like drink water before coffee,eat a real lunch, not a handful
of bites while standing, take aa walk after dinner.
I did that a little bit furtherin, but no negotiations.
Was I motivated every day?
Hell, no, but I was consistent.
(21:05):
That's what matters.
I treated my health likebrushing my teeth not exciting,
but non-negotiable.
The bottom line here ismotivation is unreliable.
It shows, shows up late, itleaves early, it disappears when
life gets messy.
But your desire, your reason.
Your knowing your real reasonfor why you want to lose weight.
(21:26):
That sticks around forever.
Desire doesn't care if you'retoo tired or in a bad mood.
It's the quiet commitment thatbuilds results.
Long after that motivationalbullshit has died, you don't
need to feel inspired.
You just need to show up, evenwhen it's boring and even when
it's hard.
That's where the real progresslies, not in hype.
(21:47):
It's in habits.
It's making small, smartchoices that lead to sustainable
weight loss and create goodhabits.
I also embrace something that Icall the good enough approach.
For the 59 years before Istarted, I was a perfectionist,
pretending that I had discipline.
My meal plan had to be flawless, every meal prepped, every
(22:11):
snack timed, every macro countedand if I missed a step, fucking
game over.
One misstep and the whole daywas ruined, which meant I'd
throw it all away and start tospiral again.
It wasn't just all or nothingthinking.
It was an all out bingethinking.
If I couldn't do it 100% right,I'd do it 100% wrong, because
in my head, good enough wasn'tactually good enough.
(22:34):
It was a failure.
But once I started clinging tothese small smart choices and
really concentrating on makingthem, I realized that trying to
be perfect was the exact thingthat was keeping me stuck.
The people who succeed.
They're not perfect, they'rejust relentlessly consistent
with being pretty damn good.
Most of the time, I always tellyou make 80 small%, small,
(22:57):
smart choices, and the other 20%of the time you're not going to
make such great choices.
80-20 works.
So I lowered the bar, not on mygoals, but on the pressure I put
on myself to be flawless.
I started asking myself whatdoes a better choice look like
right now?
And I wasn't looking for theperfect choice, just a better
one.
If I didn't have theingredients for a perfect lunch,
(23:18):
I made a decent sandwichinstead of hitting a drive-thru.
If I was craving somethingsweet, like a donut, I had it,
sometimes without turning itinto an all-day binge fest.
Or I told myself, hey, you knowwhat, I'm not going to have it
right now.
But I allowed myself to be lessthan perfect, because perfection
(23:39):
is a trap.
It sets you up to fail and itmakes you feel like a fuck up
when life doesn't go accordingto your little color-coded plans
.
But good enough, that buildsconsistency, and consistency.
That's what creates results.
Every time, that mindset tookthe pressure off and made the
(24:00):
process sustainable, and it alsomade it enjoyable.
I wasn't chasing perfect, I wasfinally choosing progress, and
it worked.
Another thing that I learned Ididn't realize it until, I guess
I was a little bit into thisjourney is I began respecting my
body through the process.
(24:20):
I abused my body For most of mylife.
I treated self-respect like aprize I earned once I got my
shit together, once I lost theweight.
I believed that I didn'tdeserve to feel good about
myself or even take care ofmyself.
Until I looked different, untilthe number on the scale dropped
, until I fit into the clothesthat I used to wear, until I
earned the right to feel proud.
So what did I do in themeantime?
(24:41):
I treated my body like shit.
I skipped meals, then I binged.
I talked to myself like anidiot in the mirror.
I wore clothes that hid me.
I punished my body with thesame shame instead of taking
care of it with good intentions.
So here's a truth bomb thatchanged everything.
You don't get the body you wantby hating the body you have.
(25:07):
Once I stopped waiting for afinish line to treat myself with
respect, things began to shift.
I started eating in a way thatmade me feel good, not just look
better.
I started moving my body, andagain that was a little further
into it.
But I started moving my bodybecause it felt strong and
capable, not as a punishment foreating.
I also started to dress better.
I got a bunch of new clothesthat fit me better, I stood up
straighter and I spoke kinderwords to myself, even when I
(25:30):
knew I still had a long way togo, and I still have a long way
to go.
But that matters, because whenyou respect your body, you're
way more likely to take care ofit, not from guilt or
desperation, but a place ofactual self-worth and that
energy.
That's the kind of energy thatsustains real change.
You don't have to wait untilthe end of your journey to act
(25:53):
like someone who deserves better.
You just have to choose itSmall smart choices.
You just have to choose itSmall, smart choices.
You just have to choose it,starting right now.
And then the last thing, whichI never thought I could do, is I
actually found joy in thejourney Before I started making
small smart choices.
When I first started trying tolose weight, which was who knows
(26:16):
how many years ago, it alwaysfelt like a punishment, like I
was being sentenced to a joylesslife of grilled chicken or
steamed broccoli and had asocial isolation until I hit my
weight goal.
Every healthy choice that I hadto make again going back from
when I was a little kid, it feltlike a sacrifice.
Everybody else was eating allthis great stuff, but I would be
(26:38):
on a diet when I was youngerand everybody would be enjoying
this.
But I would be on a diet when Iwas younger and everybody would
be enjoying this and I'd haveto eat some bland shit.
Every skipped treat felt like aloss to me.
Every day of discipline feltlike a fucking grind that I had
to suffer through to finally behappy.
I thought that once I got theresults then I could enjoy my
life again.
(26:58):
But once I started making thesmall smart choices, somewhere
along the way, something clicked.
I didn't need to hate theprocess to love the results.
I started finding those smallmoments of satisfaction in the
doing, not just the outcome,like the confidence I felt after
making a solid food choice whenI normally would have eaten
like shit, or the clarity I gotfrom going out for a 10-minute
(27:20):
walk when, again the first year,I did nothing.
But now, when I go out for a10-minute walk instead of
scrolling my phone or the weirdgrown-up joy of drinking water
first thing in the morning andrealizing I didn't need to feel
like shit by the afternoon.
It stopped being aboutsuffering and it started to
become a journey of empowerment.
And I guess that really matters, because if the process feels
(27:46):
miserable every step of the way,you won't stick with it, period
.
That's why so many people quit.
It's not that they're weak,it's that they're doing it in a
way that fucking sucks.
When you enjoy the journey, evenjust a little, you stop
white-knuckling your way throughchange.
You start building a lifestylethat you want to keep living,
(28:07):
and that's what makes it stick.
So I didn't just lose 140 ormore pounds, I gained ownership
in my life, and that was thebest part of this journey is
taking ownership of my life back.
So, looking back, there was nosingle turning point once I
started, no, like huge momentwhere I felt that everything
(28:29):
changed.
You know there was no perfectmeal plan and definitely no
miracle workouts for me.
That just wasn't in what I wasdoing.
There was no moment that Icould look at wasn't in what I
was doing.
There was no moment that Icould look at.
What actually changed my lifewere a series of small, smart,
unsexy choices, madeconsistently, even when it
wasn't convenient and even whenit wasn't exciting and even when
(28:50):
no one was watching.
I didn't lose over 140 poundsby starving myself, by going to
the gym or cutting outeverything I love.
I lost it because I stoppedchasing extreme fixes and
started choosing better, onesmall, smart choice at a time.
I stopped quitting every time Islipped up.
I started talking to myselflike someone worth rooting for.
(29:13):
I learned that being fullwasn't failure and being hungry
wasn't a badge of honor.
I stopped letting the scale runmy emotions.
I stopped waiting formotivation and built routines
and habits that worked evenwithout it.
I definitely traded perfectionfor progress.
I respected my body as it was.
(29:35):
I didn't love it, but Irespected it as it was, not just
when I thought it would finallybe good enough.
And, maybe most importantly, Ifound peace and power in the
actual process.
That's what this journey isreally about not grinding your
way to some short-term goal soyou can go back to normal,
because if your normal is whatmade you miserable, why are you
(29:57):
fighting to return to it?
It just doesn't make any sense.
The game changer is realizingthat this, the small smart
choices, the daily choices, themindset shifts, the messy
real-life moments.
That's the journey, and whenyou stop trying to rush through
it and instead you startlearning to enjoy it, that's
when the real results show up.
(30:17):
Sustainable weight loss is notabout flipping a switch.
It's about changing the wiring.
It's about showing upimperfectly but consistently,
and it's all about taking fullownership of your outcomes.
No more blaming, no moreexcuses, no more starting over,
no more bullshit.
Look, I'm living proof that youdon't need to be perfect, you
(30:40):
don't need to be miserable andyou surely don't need to be
punished to transform your life.
And the truth is, if I did it,so can you.
This is not rocket science.
This is something that you wereborn with.
It's pre-wired in all of us.
We all know what to do.
It's whether or not you'rewilling to make those small
(31:01):
smart choices and stayconsistent and build those
sustainable and healthy habits.
So that's my thought on whatsmall smart choices mean.
I didn't give you specificsmall smart choices, because
everybody's different.
You know where you're fuckingup.
You know where you're makingmistakes.
You know when you're binging.
You know all that.
(31:21):
It's just finally takingaccountability and taking action
that really creates the resultsthat you're looking for.
If you want to learn more abouthow I did it, I have a book
called Shut Up and Choose, whichyou probably know.
You definitely know if youlisten to this podcast more than
once.
It's available on Amazon.
It's an Amazon bestseller.
(31:43):
People send me notes all thetime letting me know that it
changed their life just bychanging their thinking.
This is a mental game period,people.
It is mental, it's not physical.
Everybody's physical isdifferent.
You could be an exercise nutand lose weight, but if you
don't change your mindset abouteating, you will never get to
(32:04):
the goal, to the place.
You'll never get to your why ifyou don't fix your mindset.
If you're more of a visualperson, I have a video course
called the Effortless WeightLoss Academy.
It's 23 videos.
You can watch them in a couplehours max, but they'll really
help you get your head in theright place.
You can get that atlearnshutupandchoosecom.
(32:27):
That's learnshutupandchoosecom.
I promise you, watching thosevideos, investing two hours into
your life, will change yourlife completely.
Well, I guess that's everythingfor today.
I'm going to make a small smartchoice right now and go outside
and do a little bit of walkingand start to enjoy my 61st year
(32:51):
like I've never enjoyed any yearbefore, and hopefully you'll
make the right small, smartchoices to start your journey,
or continue on your journey, ortell somebody else to listen to
this podcast so they can getstarted on their journey,
because it's not hard, people,it really is not hard.
It's just about making small,smart choices.
(33:15):
So, with that being said, I'mgoing to go outside, get some
air, walk a little bit, and theonly advice left that I have for
you is to shut up and chooseyou've been listening to shut up
and choose.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
jonathan's passion is to share his journey of
shedding 130 pounds in less thana year without any of the usual
gimmicks no diets, no pills.
And we'll let you in on alittle secret no fucking gym.
And guess what?
You can do it too.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
(33:52):
We had a fucking blast.
If you did, make sure to like,rate and review.
We'll be back soon, but in themeantime, find Jonathan on
Instagram atJonathanWrestlerBocaRaton.
Until next time, shut up andchoose.
If you're a whiny snowflake that can't handle the
truth, is offended by the wordfuck and about 37 uses of it in
different forms gets ass hurt.
When you hear someone speak theabsolute, real and raw truth,
you should leave Like right now.
This is Shut Up and Choose, thepodcast where we cut through
(00:25):
the shit and get real aboutweight loss, life and everything
in between.
We get into the nitty gritty ofmaking small, smart choices
that add up to big results.
From what's on your plate tohow you approach life's
challenges.
We'll explore how the simpleact of choosing differently can
transform your health, yourmindset and your entire freaking
(00:48):
life.
So if you're ready to cutthrough the bullshit and start
making some real changes, thenbuckle up and shut up, because
we're about to choose our way toa healthier, happier life.
This is Shut Up and Choose.
Let's do this Now.
Your host, jonathan Ressler.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Hey, welcome back to Shut Up and Choose, the podcast
that cuts through the noise andthe nonsense and all that
garbage and the diet industryand internet gurus and Instagram
jerk-offs are throwing your way, telling you just do this and
you'll lose weight, just do thatand you'll shed the pounds like
magic.
And the truth is they're allfull of shit.
They're all trying to sell yousomething and it's a bunch of
(01:34):
garbage.
I lost over 140 pounds makingsmall smart choices, and I
thought today I would shareexactly what that means.
Making small smart choices,because I get emails and
questions all the time Like whatdo you mean by small smart
choices?
To me it seemed obvious, butmaybe to you it's not.
And I thought this was anappropriate time to do it
because last week, april 24th,was my 61st birthday and wow,
(01:59):
that sounds old.
I don't know when the hell thathappened.
I still think I'm 30 in my head, but I guess I'm 61.
And the reason that's important, the reason why I'm doing this
today, is because I started, asyou know, or for those of you
who are new here I started myweight loss journey on my 59th
(02:19):
birthday, on April 24th 2023, Iguess it is and now I'm over 140
pounds down, feeling the bestthat I've felt in God I don't
know.
20, 30 years, living my bestlife, doing all the things that
I wanted to do, and I reallyhave all that because of making
these small, smart choices.
So, like the big changes thatdidn't happen when I changed
(02:41):
everything, which was like goingon all the old diets, they
happened when I didn't.
And the truth is we all cravethat dramatic transformation,
the instant fix, the overnightsuccess story, the viral before
and after pictures to makeeveryone on Facebook and
Instagram grasp and go oh my God, what's your secret?
But here's like, the real truth, the unfiltered truth.
(03:02):
No one really wants to hearthat big results come from small
, smart, consistent choices.
Not massive overhauls, notextreme restriction, not trendy
diets with crazy names, thelatest fad that came out.
It comes from making small,smart choices.
And when I started my weightloss journey, I wasn't looking
(03:22):
for a quick fix because I wasexhausted by it.
I'd done keto, intermittentfasting, clean eating.
I did points, I did Nutrisystemyou name it I did it.
I've been on over 100 diets andevery time I went on a diet I'd
lose a fair amount of weightdifferent amounts on different
diets, but the truth was,eventually I failed and I gained
(03:44):
it all back and felt like afailure again.
So when I finally stoppedchasing the shortcuts and
focused on one better choice,one small smart choice at a time
, things began to really shift,and I mean really shift.
In just one year, I lost over125 pounds.
My first year, that was no.
(04:04):
I didn't do any fad diet.
I didn't take any expensiveshots you know what we're
talking about.
There's so many of them.
There are no magic pills andnot a single second spent in the
gym.
I've changed that now, not thatI go to the gym, but I do
exercise.
But in that first year when Ilost all that weight, I didn't
go to the gym for one second and, most importantly, I didn't
(04:25):
starve myself and I didn't cutout the foods that I loved and I
didn't spend hours mealprepping or counting every
calorie like some kind of mathmajor.
Get some fancy app and count mycalories.
No, I didn't do any of that.
I just committed to making small, smart choices and I did it
consistently.
And was it sexy doing that?
(04:45):
No, it definitely was not sexy.
Was it hard sometimes?
Sure, I always say weight lossis easy, but there were days
when it was hard.
There were days that I mademistakes.
And was it sustainable?
Hell, yes, it was sustainable.
Here I am two years later and Idon't even know what to say.
I don't feel like I'm ever on adiet.
Two years later and I don'teven know what to say.
I don't feel like I'm ever on adiet.
I'm just doing what I do.
(05:05):
I'm just making small smartchoices, and I believe that's
why it worked.
So here's what happened becausepeople always ask me tell me
more about small smart choices.
Here's what happened when Istopped trying to be perfect and
started showing up with small,consistent, smart choices, day
after day, even when no one waswatching, and that's where this
(05:27):
transformation really happened,and, honestly, it can happen for
you too.
It's not hard.
Like I said, there'll be somehard moments, but it's not hard
overall.
And these are a couple of thingsthat I guess the small smart
choices that I made andhopefully you can make, and the
first one is probably the mostimportant.
(05:47):
The first thing is I stoppedquitting.
Every time I messed up, I gavemyself a little grace, I allowed
myself to make mistakes.
So if I ate something off plan,like, let's say, pizza on a
Friday night, normally it wasgame over.
One crazy meal would spiralinto a full-blown weekend binge,
or even longer.
I'd tell myself, ah, fuck it, Ialready messed up, so I'll
(06:09):
start fresh on Monday.
And the truth is, monday neverreally fixed anything.
I wasn't starting over.
I was restarting the same cycleof guilt and restriction,
self-sabotage.
But after I started making thesesmall smart choices, I learned
to treat each choice like itsown individual event.
One slice of pizza or you know,everybody knows I love to eat
(06:30):
donuts.
One donut didn't cancel out myprogress.
It didn't mean I had to eatlike a raccoon in a dumpster
either for the rest of the day.
I just stopped turning a singlefuck up into a full-on freefall
.
I gave myself the grace to moveon immediately.
And not next week, not tomorrow, just the next meal.
(06:52):
And guess what?
That shift alone really changedeverything.
I guess it was the death of theall or nothing mindset, the
mindset that keeps most peoplestuck forever.
Bottom line I'm not a robot,you're not a robot, we're
fucking human beings.
There's going to be off days,there's going to be times that
you skip meal or eat too much.
Or, yeah, maybe eat a cookie ora donut that doesn't make you
(07:15):
feel weak or shouldn't make youfeel weak.
It makes you real.
That's what real human beingsdo.
Sometimes we indulge.
So by refusing to throw in thetowel every time I fucked up, I
built resilience, I stayedconsistent, and I learned that
consistency isn't about beingperfect.
It's about coming back over andover, no matter how many times
(07:37):
you slip up.
And that's the difference, thereal difference, between people
who get results and people whokeep starting over.
You don't need a perfect day.
You just need a better next one, a better next choice.
Another thing that happened forme was my self-talk became
supportive, not punitive, notbeating myself up.
(08:01):
My inner voice before I did allthis was a full-time bully.
Every time I fucked up, thethought of not going to the gym,
even though everyone told me togo to the gym, they gave me
that great advice eat less andmove more.
And every food choice thatwasn't clean or whatever it
triggered like a mentalbreakdown why can't you stick to
anything?
You'll never lose this weight.
(08:22):
And I was there where I wasjust I'm never going to lose
this weight and this is just whoyou are.
Get used to it and accept it.
And that voice didn't help meget better.
It helped me quit right Everytime I talked shit about myself
to myself my inner monologue.
It helped me quit again andagain and again.
I told you I've been on over ahundred diets and I quit every
(08:43):
single one of them.
I thought that being hard onmyself would keep me accountable
, like if I hated myself enoughI would finally change.
But the reality is it doesn'twork like that.
What I learned was I made aconscious decision to stop being
an asshole to myself.
Instead of what the fuck iswrong with you, I started asking
(09:04):
what triggered that choice andwhat can I do differently next
time.
I accepted the choices that Imade.
Some accountability there.
So instead of shaming myself, Igave myself credit for trying.
I shift from perfection toprogress and from punishment and
from punishment to problemsolving.
I started talking to myself theway I talked to a friend who
(09:25):
was going through the same thing, with honesty, but also with
some compassion.
And I believe how you talk toyourself is how you treat
yourself.
If your inner dialogue is astream of guilt, shame,
disappointment, guess what, yourbehaviors are going to match
that energy.
But if you speak with ownership, like hey, this is my journey,
(09:45):
with some clarity, yes, evenkindness, you're more likely to
make better choices and, moreimportantly, you're more likely
to keep making them over andover again.
I learned you can't hateyourself into a healthier
version of you, and, trust me, Itried that.
The real change started when Istopped tearing myself down and
started coaching myself on whatI wanted to do and how I wanted
(10:08):
to do it, and continue to makethese small, smart choices.
Another thing that I realizedand this is probably going to be
a big one for people is hungerisn't a prerequisite for weight
loss.
For years, I believe thatfeeling hungry meant that I was
doing it right.
If I wasn't walking around thegrowling something, I must be
(10:29):
doing something wrong.
So I skipped meals, I chuggedwater to curb my hunger and
convince myself that sufferingwas the price of progress and in
the long run, looking back onon it all, all that did was
backfire.
Every time I starved myselfthrough the day, I'd end up
binging at night like some kindof rabid animal, and the hunger
(10:51):
it always won.
And when it did, I didn't eat,I overate and then pile the
gills on top of that viciouscycle.
Oh my God, I can't believe youcan't stick to anything.
But after, when I started thisthing, I gave myself permission
to eat and I mean to really eatand that's when things shifted.
I started focusing onnourishment over punishment.
(11:11):
Real meals with real proteinand fiber and healthy fats and
stuff that actually satisfied meand kept me full.
Those overnight oats everymorning, I have to tell you they
were a game changer.
They kept me full and I feltgreat.
And guess what happened when Istarted doing that?
When I started eating the rightfoods, I stopped obsessing over
(11:33):
food.
My cravings dropped and Iwasn't constantly skating the
fridge or fantasizing about mynext cheat or next thing I was
going to binge on like, oh, getsome donuts.
My brain was finally calmbecause my body wasn't starving.
So if you're hungry all thetime, your body isn't working
with you, it's fighting you.
And when you're in a constantstate of deprivation, that thing
(11:55):
that we all like to talk aboutwillpower doesn't stand a
fucking chance.
You end up going 90 miles anhour through the day and doing
everything right and thencrashing at night.
And when I started eating theright things and really fueling
my body the right way, I gainedcontrol of my eating habits, not
by restriction, but by support.
(12:16):
So it turns out, shockingly,that eating is not the enemy,
undereating is the enemy.
And once I learned that theresults actually stuck here I am
a little bit over two yearssince my start date and I'm down
over 140 pounds I also learnedthat my cravings really
(12:38):
diminished, naturally.
So before I started this thing,before I started making all
these small smart choices, mycravings ran the fucking show.
Whether it was sweet, salty,crunchy, you name it, I wanted
it all the time I could be fullfrom lunch and still find myself
standing in front of an icecream store or a donut shop and
(13:03):
convincing myself that you knowwhat I deserve?
This treat, that urgent snack,wasn't about hunger.
It was emotional, habitual,honestly and constant, because I
was always trying to eat less,skip meals or cut carbs.
My body was basically screamingfor anything remotely
satisfying, so I'd crave and I'dcave over and over then feel
(13:26):
like I had no discipline at all.
So once I started making thesesmall smart choices, I found the
plot twist that no diet planever told me.
When I started eating realbalanced meals consistently, my
cravings started to fade.
No magic, no willpower seminars, just meals with actual protein
(13:46):
, fiber, healthy fats and enoughcalories to support a
functioning human body, and Ihad a big body.
I also started drinking a lotmore water because, yeah,
sometimes thirst really doesmask itself as hunger, and I
stopped waiting until I washangry to eat.
Everybody knows hangry sohungry that you're angry.
(14:06):
That alone cut my.
I need something that urges inhalf the biggest kicker.
I didn't cut out any of thefoods I used to crave, I just
didn't need them all the timeanymore.
Most people treat cravings likea discipline issue.
Just say no, right, no, that'sbullshit.
Cravings are often your body'sresponse to being underfed,
(14:29):
overstressed or actually both.
When you give it what itactually needs all that noise,
all that bullshit, all thosecravings they die down.
So you don't have to whiteknuckle your way through
cravings forever.
You just have to stop settingyour body up to scream at you.
Once I did that, the cravingsbecame background noise, not the
(14:50):
boss.
The next thing was this conceptof starting over became obsolete
.
If you've ever been on a dietand gone off it and gone back on
it, you're constantly startingover.
Anytime I went off track,whether it was an unplanned
slice of cake or skipping aworkout or eating fast food I
(15:11):
tell myself I blew it.
The only logical next step inmy old mindset was to throw in
the towel, eat whatever I wantfor the rest of the day, and
usually the next day or a fewdays after, and vow to start
over after the weekend.
If that sounds familiar to you,it's the classic diet reset
trap and it kept me stuck forGod I don't know 40, 50 years.
(15:32):
I wasn't actually makingprogress.
I was just perfect for a fewdays and then wrecked it and
then hit reset again and againand again.
And after I started making thesesmall smart choices, what
changed?
I stopped treating the journeylike a video game that resets
every time I make a mistake.
I started to view my choices aspart of a long-term commitment,
(15:52):
not a short-term contest.
So one bad choice wasn't theend of anything, it was just a
single choice.
You hear me say that all thetime you ate a donut big fucking
deal.
You went off your diet.
Big fucking deal.
It's a speed bump and there'sno need to go off the rails and
there's no need to start fresh.
Just pick back up where you areand keep going.
(16:15):
There was no big dramaticcomeback, just consistency.
And that start over mentalitykeeps people trapped in guilt
and shame and delay.
It makes you think yourprogress only counts if it's
perfect, and that is completeand utter bullshit.
What worked for me was stayingin motion, not punishing myself,
(16:37):
not throwing in the towel foran entire day because of one bad
decision.
When I dropped the idea ofstarting over and replaced it
with keep going, I finallystarted seeing the kind of
progress that sticks, becauseconsistency isn't about a clean
slate, it's about not stopping.
The next thing that I learned bymaking small, smart choices is
(16:59):
the scale lost its power.
Now, I freely admit I weighedmyself a bunch of times, but I
knew that if I ate more or if Iweighed myself later in the day,
I was going to weigh a littlemore.
I used to weigh myself like itwas a fucking job.
Right In the morning, if I wentto the bathroom after meals,
before bed, you name it, Istepped on the scale.
Every decimal point eithervalidated me or ruined my entire
(17:24):
day.
Up half a pound.
Clearly it was a failure.
Down one temporary victory, cuethe obsession to do even more.
It didn't matter how I felt orhow I was showing up.
If that number didn't move fastenough, I convinced myself that
nothing was working.
And if it went up, totalfucking spiral.
So after I started making thesmall, smart choices, I started
(17:45):
asking myself why am I givingthis stupid, fucking inanimate
object complete control over howI feel about myself?
So I stopped chasing that dailyvalidation and started focusing
on the non-scale victories.
Again, I weighed myself a lot,but I didn't tie what my success
looked like to the scale.
I was looking at non-scalevictories, things like waking up
(18:08):
with more energy, not needing anap in the middle of the day,
feeling confident enough to weara t-shirt without sucking in my
stomach although my stomach wasso big, sucking in it really
didn't do anything, but Ithought it did.
A big victory for me was justsaying no to food.
I really didn't want to eatwithout feeling deprived.
I said I'm not going to eatthat for now.
(18:28):
I know I can eat it later, Ican eat it tomorrow, but for
right now I'm not going to eatthat.
Huge, huge victory for me.
And most times in fact I wouldsay almost every single time I
said that.
Every time I said, yeah, I'mnot going to eat that right now,
maybe I'll eat it tomorrow.
I didn't want to eat it lateror the next day.
I just kept telling myself that, and another non-scale victory
(18:54):
for me was just being proud ofhow I bounced back if I did make
a bad choice.
Those were the real wins andthey told me way more than a
number on the scale ever could.
So look, the bottom line is yourweight's going to fluctuate.
My weight fluctuates.
There's your hormones, yoursleep, hydration, stress.
If you have a really salty meal, even gravity probably affects
you on certain days.
If your self-worth is attachedto just your weight, you're
(19:18):
handing your confidence over tosomething that isn't even stable
.
It's craziness.
It's the non-scale victoriesthat actually matter.
I always say you pick a numberout of your ass and you say
that's the number I don't get to.
How about, like your pants feelbetter, or you have more energy
.
When I started measuringprogress and strength and
mindset energy and creatinghabits, repeatable habits,
(19:40):
everything changed.
The scale became just a tool,not the judge, jury and
executioner of my success.
And that freedom.
That's really what helped me tokeep going all the time.
The next thing is again.
My motivation was replaced bydesire.
I used to believe that the keyto success was motivation.
(20:02):
I'd watch these hype videos,I'd scroll past Transformation
Tuesday posts and wait for themagic wave of inspiration to
smack me in the face and makeeverything easier.
And sometimes, yeah, it wouldcome and I'd have a good day
where I ate clean or went for awalk.
Well, I didn't really walk,that's not true, but where I
walked, maybe a little bit more,I felt like I was really back
(20:23):
on track.
But the next day I'd be tired,annoyed, stressed out, whatever,
and go right back to eatinglike a fucking animal.
And why?
Because motivation is garbagefuel.
It burns fast and it disappearseven faster.
When I started making small,smart choices and I stopped
waiting to feel ready and juststarted showing up, everything
(20:45):
shifted.
I built habits that didn't relyon my mood.
I made rules for myself thatwere enough for debate, things
like drink water before coffee,eat a real lunch, not a handful
of bites while standing, take aa walk after dinner.
I did that a little bit furtherin, but no negotiations.
Was I motivated every day?
Hell, no, but I was consistent.
(21:05):
That's what matters.
I treated my health likebrushing my teeth not exciting,
but non-negotiable.
The bottom line here ismotivation is unreliable.
It shows, shows up late, itleaves early, it disappears when
life gets messy.
But your desire, your reason.
Your knowing your real reasonfor why you want to lose weight.
(21:26):
That sticks around forever.
Desire doesn't care if you'retoo tired or in a bad mood.
It's the quiet commitment thatbuilds results.
Long after that motivationalbullshit has died, you don't
need to feel inspired.
You just need to show up, evenwhen it's boring and even when
it's hard.
That's where the real progresslies, not in hype.
(21:47):
It's in habits.
It's making small, smartchoices that lead to sustainable
weight loss and create goodhabits.
I also embrace something that Icall the good enough approach.
For the 59 years before Istarted, I was a perfectionist,
pretending that I had discipline.
My meal plan had to be flawless, every meal prepped, every
(22:11):
snack timed, every macro countedand if I missed a step, fucking
game over.
One misstep and the whole daywas ruined, which meant I'd
throw it all away and start tospiral again.
It wasn't just all or nothingthinking.
It was an all out bingethinking.
If I couldn't do it 100% right,I'd do it 100% wrong, because
in my head, good enough wasn'tactually good enough.
(22:34):
It was a failure.
But once I started clinging tothese small smart choices and
really concentrating on makingthem, I realized that trying to
be perfect was the exact thingthat was keeping me stuck.
The people who succeed.
They're not perfect, they'rejust relentlessly consistent
with being pretty damn good.
Most of the time, I always tellyou make 80 small%, small,
(22:57):
smart choices, and the other 20%of the time you're not going to
make such great choices.
80-20 works.
So I lowered the bar, not on mygoals, but on the pressure I put
on myself to be flawless.
I started asking myself whatdoes a better choice look like
right now?
And I wasn't looking for theperfect choice, just a better
one.
If I didn't have theingredients for a perfect lunch,
(23:18):
I made a decent sandwichinstead of hitting a drive-thru.
If I was craving somethingsweet, like a donut, I had it,
sometimes without turning itinto an all-day binge fest.
Or I told myself, hey, you knowwhat, I'm not going to have it
right now.
But I allowed myself to be lessthan perfect, because perfection
(23:39):
is a trap.
It sets you up to fail and itmakes you feel like a fuck up
when life doesn't go accordingto your little color-coded plans
.
But good enough, that buildsconsistency, and consistency.
That's what creates results.
Every time, that mindset tookthe pressure off and made the
(24:00):
process sustainable, and it alsomade it enjoyable.
I wasn't chasing perfect, I wasfinally choosing progress, and
it worked.
Another thing that I learned Ididn't realize it until, I guess
I was a little bit into thisjourney is I began respecting my
body through the process.
(24:20):
I abused my body For most of mylife.
I treated self-respect like aprize I earned once I got my
shit together, once I lost theweight.
I believed that I didn'tdeserve to feel good about
myself or even take care ofmyself.
Until I looked different, untilthe number on the scale dropped
, until I fit into the clothesthat I used to wear, until I
earned the right to feel proud.
So what did I do in themeantime?
(24:41):
I treated my body like shit.
I skipped meals, then I binged.
I talked to myself like anidiot in the mirror.
I wore clothes that hid me.
I punished my body with thesame shame instead of taking
care of it with good intentions.
So here's a truth bomb thatchanged everything.
You don't get the body you wantby hating the body you have.
(25:07):
Once I stopped waiting for afinish line to treat myself with
respect, things began to shift.
I started eating in a way thatmade me feel good, not just look
better.
I started moving my body, andagain that was a little further
into it.
But I started moving my bodybecause it felt strong and
capable, not as a punishment foreating.
I also started to dress better.
I got a bunch of new clothesthat fit me better, I stood up
straighter and I spoke kinderwords to myself, even when I
(25:30):
knew I still had a long way togo, and I still have a long way
to go.
But that matters, because whenyou respect your body, you're
way more likely to take care ofit, not from guilt or
desperation, but a place ofactual self-worth and that
energy.
That's the kind of energy thatsustains real change.
You don't have to wait untilthe end of your journey to act
(25:53):
like someone who deserves better.
You just have to choose itSmall smart choices.
You just have to choose itSmall, smart choices.
You just have to choose it,starting right now.
And then the last thing, whichI never thought I could do, is I
actually found joy in thejourney Before I started making
small smart choices.
When I first started trying tolose weight, which was who knows
(26:16):
how many years ago, it alwaysfelt like a punishment, like I
was being sentenced to a joylesslife of grilled chicken or
steamed broccoli and had asocial isolation until I hit my
weight goal.
Every healthy choice that I hadto make again going back from
when I was a little kid, it feltlike a sacrifice.
Everybody else was eating allthis great stuff, but I would be
(26:38):
on a diet when I was youngerand everybody would be enjoying
this.
But I would be on a diet when Iwas younger and everybody would
be enjoying this and I'd haveto eat some bland shit.
Every skipped treat felt like aloss to me.
Every day of discipline feltlike a fucking grind that I had
to suffer through to finally behappy.
I thought that once I got theresults then I could enjoy my
life again.
(26:58):
But once I started making thesmall smart choices, somewhere
along the way, something clicked.
I didn't need to hate theprocess to love the results.
I started finding those smallmoments of satisfaction in the
doing, not just the outcome,like the confidence I felt after
making a solid food choice whenI normally would have eaten
like shit, or the clarity I gotfrom going out for a 10-minute
(27:20):
walk when, again the first year,I did nothing.
But now, when I go out for a10-minute walk instead of
scrolling my phone or the weirdgrown-up joy of drinking water
first thing in the morning andrealizing I didn't need to feel
like shit by the afternoon.
It stopped being aboutsuffering and it started to
become a journey of empowerment.
And I guess that really matters, because if the process feels
(27:46):
miserable every step of the way,you won't stick with it, period
.
That's why so many people quit.
It's not that they're weak,it's that they're doing it in a
way that fucking sucks.
When you enjoy the journey, evenjust a little, you stop
white-knuckling your way throughchange.
You start building a lifestylethat you want to keep living,
(28:07):
and that's what makes it stick.
So I didn't just lose 140 ormore pounds, I gained ownership
in my life, and that was thebest part of this journey is
taking ownership of my life back.
So, looking back, there was nosingle turning point once I
started, no, like huge momentwhere I felt that everything
(28:29):
changed.
You know there was no perfectmeal plan and definitely no
miracle workouts for me.
That just wasn't in what I wasdoing.
There was no moment that Icould look at wasn't in what I
was doing.
There was no moment that Icould look at.
What actually changed my lifewere a series of small, smart,
unsexy choices, madeconsistently, even when it
wasn't convenient and even whenit wasn't exciting and even when
(28:50):
no one was watching.
I didn't lose over 140 poundsby starving myself, by going to
the gym or cutting outeverything I love.
I lost it because I stoppedchasing extreme fixes and
started choosing better, onesmall, smart choice at a time.
I stopped quitting every time Islipped up.
I started talking to myselflike someone worth rooting for.
(29:13):
I learned that being fullwasn't failure and being hungry
wasn't a badge of honor.
I stopped letting the scale runmy emotions.
I stopped waiting formotivation and built routines
and habits that worked evenwithout it.
I definitely traded perfectionfor progress.
I respected my body as it was.
(29:35):
I didn't love it, but Irespected it as it was, not just
when I thought it would finallybe good enough.
And, maybe most importantly, Ifound peace and power in the
actual process.
That's what this journey isreally about not grinding your
way to some short-term goal soyou can go back to normal,
because if your normal is whatmade you miserable, why are you
(29:57):
fighting to return to it?
It just doesn't make any sense.
The game changer is realizingthat this, the small smart
choices, the daily choices, themindset shifts, the messy
real-life moments.
That's the journey, and whenyou stop trying to rush through
it and instead you startlearning to enjoy it, that's
when the real results show up.
(30:17):
Sustainable weight loss is notabout flipping a switch.
It's about changing the wiring.
It's about showing upimperfectly but consistently,
and it's all about taking fullownership of your outcomes.
No more blaming, no moreexcuses, no more starting over,
no more bullshit.
Look, I'm living proof that youdon't need to be perfect, you
(30:40):
don't need to be miserable andyou surely don't need to be
punished to transform your life.
And the truth is, if I did it,so can you.
This is not rocket science.
This is something that you wereborn with.
It's pre-wired in all of us.
We all know what to do.
It's whether or not you'rewilling to make those small
(31:01):
smart choices and stayconsistent and build those
sustainable and healthy habits.
So that's my thought on whatsmall smart choices mean.
I didn't give you specificsmall smart choices, because
everybody's different.
You know where you're fuckingup.
You know where you're makingmistakes.
You know when you're binging.
You know all that.
(31:21):
It's just finally takingaccountability and taking action
that really creates the resultsthat you're looking for.
If you want to learn more abouthow I did it, I have a book
called Shut Up and Choose, whichyou probably know.
You definitely know if youlisten to this podcast more than
once.
It's available on Amazon.
It's an Amazon bestseller.
(31:43):
People send me notes all thetime letting me know that it
changed their life just bychanging their thinking.
This is a mental game period,people.
It is mental, it's not physical.
Everybody's physical isdifferent.
You could be an exercise nutand lose weight, but if you
don't change your mindset abouteating, you will never get to
(32:04):
the goal, to the place.
You'll never get to your why ifyou don't fix your mindset.
If you're more of a visualperson, I have a video course
called the Effortless WeightLoss Academy.
It's 23 videos.
You can watch them in a couplehours max, but they'll really
help you get your head in theright place.
You can get that atlearnshutupandchoosecom.
(32:27):
That's learnshutupandchoosecom.
I promise you, watching thosevideos, investing two hours into
your life, will change yourlife completely.
Well, I guess that's everythingfor today.
I'm going to make a small smartchoice right now and go outside
and do a little bit of walkingand start to enjoy my 61st year
(32:51):
like I've never enjoyed any yearbefore, and hopefully you'll
make the right small, smartchoices to start your journey,
or continue on your journey, ortell somebody else to listen to
this podcast so they can getstarted on their journey,
because it's not hard, people,it really is not hard.
It's just about making small,smart choices.
(33:15):
So, with that being said, I'mgoing to go outside, get some
air, walk a little bit, and theonly advice left that I have for
you is to shut up and chooseyou've been listening to shut up
and choose.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
jonathan's passion is to share his journey of
shedding 130 pounds in less thana year without any of the usual
gimmicks no diets, no pills.
And we'll let you in on alittle secret no fucking gym.
And guess what?
You can do it too.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
(33:52):
We had a fucking blast.
If you did, make sure to like,rate and review.
We'll be back soon, but in themeantime, find Jonathan on
Instagram atJonathanWrestlerBocaRaton.
Until next time, shut up andchoose.
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