[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back to Not Another Mindset Show. I want to start this episode off with a little bit of a story. And I think this story helps to bridge the gap. Not that there’s really a gap, but just bridge the last episode. Where I spoke about the consequences of certain messages when it comes to how changeable weight is.

And with these sort of, like, diets don’t work type of messages. How that can actually impact things like body image, eating disorder, risk, and amongst other negative things, right? And the story that I have to tell you is one about my dad. And it’s actually funny because I saw him this last weekend, and we talked about this, and it’s the first time I’ve actually spoken to him [00:01:00] about the situation that he was in and how mindset plays a role in all of that.

Like, I put this together a long time ago, but it was really fun to actually have this conversation with him. So my dad, when I was five, six? I was young, but not young enough that I don’t remember any of this. It’s actually extremely vivid memories that I have of this incident. My dad had a tumor in his spinal cord, and it sounds just as bad as it was.

Obviously, your spinal cord is, uh, quite necessary for most functions in your body, and you’d think damaging that could, could cause severe impairments, and that’s absolutely true. So, when I was about five or six, yeah, I’m not sure the exact age, um, we were [00:02:00] at a friend’s house, family friend’s house, they had a pool.

I was in the pool, hanging out with my brother, and my dad jumped off the diving board onto, like, a pool floatie. And when he jumped off and he landed, and And he started saying, I can’t feel my legs. And people were like, what do you mean you can’t feel your legs? Like obviously, um, people had been drinking, things like that.

So it was, they thought he was joking at first and he goes, no guys, like I’m, I’m serious. I can’t feel my legs. And they were like, um, can you, can you get to the side of the pool, whatever. So got him out of the pool. He literally, people were testing him, whatever, he could not feel his legs. Obviously, call 911, get in the ambulance, go to the hospital.

Nice side note, helpful side note, is that I grew up in Rochester, Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic is. Some of you may have no idea what that is. A lot of you probably do know. Uh, one of the best [00:03:00] hospitals that exists on the planet. So, um, we went there and they found a tumor in his spinal cord. At first, they were concerned that it was cancerous.

It was not. Um, but that’s a whole nother side story of what the doctors had said to my mom that were, that was not actually the case at first. But, um, so they found the tumor and obviously this tumor needs to be removed. They did. The surgery was successful. They were able to remove the tumor in full, but again, not without physical impairments to.

How his body functions. So, the doctors essentially told him that he would never walk again. Remember him not feeling his legs, that being related to where the tumor was in his spinal cord. And I, from a mindset perspective, cannot believe that [00:04:00] a doctor would say that to a patient. And that’s not because, um, that I don’t want doctors to lie.

Or not be truthful about what the future may hold for their patients. But if there is any tiny, little, minute speck of a chance that that person who just suffered this severe spinal cord injury could Walk again. You need to say that. You need to say that there’s a chance that they could walk again with the right effort, the proper strategies, correct PT, time, patience.

Help this client have a growth mindset about their ability to walk again. Do not encourage a fixed mindset that it’s not possible. There’s anything I’m more upset about in my life. I don’t know. It’s this. But here’s the thing. My [00:05:00] dad is the best example of a growth mindset and I Granted, I’m biased because he’s my dad, but he is such a hard worker, and he is so much a, if I put my mind to something, like, watch out, I’m going to make it happen type of character.

That’s just the guy that he is in general with all things. I mean, we’re talking, this guy got a PhD at age, like, 50? 55? Went back to school. Um, anyway, um, this is not just all, supposed to be all about my dad, but. He basically, for lack of a better phrase, said, fuck you to the doctors and said, like, don’t tell me I’m never gonna walk again.

Like, I’m gonna do everything in my power and I will be walking out of here. And that’s, I, I got all [00:06:00] of this, all these details. I wasn’t in the room when all of this happened, but like I said, I was just with my dad last week and we were talking about it and that’s basically what he said. Um, you think that I’m not going to walk again?

Like, watch out. And I think. For some people, you know, like my dad, it may be, I guess, in some cases motivating to say you’re not capable of doing this and they say, watch me, for most people, my dad is not most people, most people would be approached by one of the best people Neurologists in the world wearing their white coat, which, by the way, there is a thing called a white coat phenomenon that people who are wearing white lab coats are automatically perceived as more trustworthy and you can trust what they’re saying.

Anything they say is more convincing. Anything you say, put a white coat on, you’re immediately more, um, convincing and have the ability to Essentially, like, tell people what you [00:07:00] want to tell them and they’ll believe you, but anyway. So, most people would have white coat, very amazing surgeon standing in front of them saying, You likely will never ever walk again.

And that becomes a fixed mindset. That becomes, okay, well if that’s the case, if those are the cards that I’m dealt, Then, what is the point of trying really hard in physical therapy? Why would I try to spend so much time and effort to walk again if this guy is telling me that it’s not going to happen, right?

And that is, my friends, what happens when we tell people that diets don’t work. Why would I try to put a Obviously, obviously, big caveat, there’s so much more benefit to exercising and eating well and taking care of your body than just weight [00:08:00] loss, just body composition changes, right? But the truth of the matter is that a lot of people on this earth Do need to lose weight from a health perspective and want to lose weight, right?

So when we tell someone that diets don’t work and a big part of their reason behind wanting to exercise and eat healthy is so that they can lose weight. Now suddenly we have a whole bunch of people who think that any sort of dieting efforts are futile, that there’s no point in them consistently exercising, exercising and eating well, if the diet’s not going to work anyway.

So that is what we run into in the issue of these fixed mindset, fixed mindset belief type messages. So in the past episode, I talked a lot more about. the growth mindset double edged sword effect and [00:09:00] certain messages that we want to use if we’re helping cultivate a growth mindset. But in that episode, we’re talking a lot about beliefs and messages around weight.

And weight loss maintenance, but not necessarily about, like, physiology and what your body is, like, physically capable of doing. So, as a health and fitness coach, who at this point in time I’ve been in the health and fitness coaching space for almost a decade, which is crazy pants. And I’ve personally worked with hundreds of people, and at this point, owning a health and fitness coaching company, we have helped over a thousand people.

I know, anecdotally, that body composition changes are possible, diets do work, and you can keep the weight off that you’ve lost. We have clients who have graduated from working with us who come back years [00:10:00] later and show us that they are still maintaining their body weight. still able to keep up with their health and fitness behaviors.

Some of them have even gone on to continue to improve their body composition and their lives have greatly improved in a lot of different ways because of the work that we’ve done with them. So while there is legitimate research that shows us diets don’t work, quote unquote, we also see a lot of instances where they do.

So cool. What the heck is going on here, guys? What’s going on? So obviously my argument, my very biased argument, but one that I have lots of evidence to support is that mindset and behavior change make the difference. And diets don’t work when we are talking about short term fad diets, lose weight for a short period of time and then go back to what you were doing before.

Horse! Of course those die ins aren’t going to work. You didn’t learn anything. [00:11:00] You haven’t changed anything about your, your beliefs or your environment or your actual habits and behaviors. You just made a short term change to all of those things. So you should expect short term results. I talked a lot more about this in a previous episode.

I believe it was, uh, number two, um, episode number two, where we talked about re offending and how to set up dieting efforts for long term success and maintaining weight loss. So if you want to get into that with me there, we can. We’re not going to do a lot of that here, although it’s very hard for me not to continue to go down that path.

Um, so definitely want to listen to that to get my perspective on it and why, um, most diets don’t work, but why that is and how to how to essentially follow a diet that does. So with that said, there’s sort of this like nature versus nurture conversation [00:12:00] in a way that nature is being like your, your genetic predisposition for let’s say obesity or exercise capacity.

There is obviously like genetic components to this stuff and what your body is like actually physically capable of. But then the nurture conversation. I’m using, like, quotes here for those of you who are not watching this, um, on YouTube, the video version. The Nurture Conversation is more about How, what your beliefs really look like surrounding weight loss and your capability to do that.

And so now if we’re talking like, how do, how do these things work together? What is the nature versus nurture, the, the genetic versus the, the belief system? How do those things play together when we’re talking about weight loss and maintaining weight loss, maintaining healthy behaviors for the longterm?

In most research surrounding this stuff, you’re going to see separate discussions between [00:13:00] Someone’s belief about their ability to change, and then the actual changeability potential, we’ll say. And we know that there’s tons of studies that show that your beliefs can lead to real outcomes. associated with those beliefs.

So we’re talking things even like the placebo effect, my friends. Someone believes they took a pill that makes them do a certain thing, even if they took a sugar pill, they still do that certain thing. So clearly we know that what you think, your beliefs, your mindset, matters. And can have downstream effects for your actual behaviors and what actually happens to you.

So I want to share a study that relates to all of this, and I have some notes on it. This is not a study that I contributed to, um, but is a very, very interesting [00:14:00] one nonetheless. And with this, researchers wanted to test how much belief about genetic risk, so your belief about your, your genetic risk for obesity impacts things like hunger, satiety, so how full you feel after eating, and also your capacity for exercise compared to actual genetic risk.

So again, we’re talking belief about your genetic risk versus what your DNA actually says. So researchers, here’s what they did. They took DNA samples from study participants to test for genes related to the capacity for exercise and genes related to the capacity for fullness after a meal. And then they had those participants go and eat a meal and run on the treadmill.

They did like a treadmill test type of thing. And then researchers noted the differences in satisfaction after eating [00:15:00] and their exercise capacity based on the gene that these people carried. And there was a difference. So they were like, okay, this is what the genes show, but let’s actually do a test.

Let’s have them eat a meal. Let’s have them run on the treadmill. and see if these genes that they have actually make a difference in how full they feel and their, their capacity for exercise. And they did notice a true difference based on the, these people’s DNA. I will note, it was not a massive difference, but there was a difference based on their DNA.

Okay. So a week later they had these people come back and this time those people were assigned to receive a high risk genetic test result, so high risk for obesity, or a protective test result, meaning that their, their genetic predisposition is essentially protective against obesity. This was randomly assigned to them.

It had nothing to do with their actual genetic predispositions. So the test that they did [00:16:00] before on what their DNA actually showed, these results that were handed to them had nothing to do with that. They could have been the same results, but they were randomly assigned. Okay, so it may or may not have been true compared to their actual genetics.

Then those people read materials explaining how those genes impacted them, such as like producing less of that fullness hormone or being unable to perform as well during anxiety based on that genetic fictitious genetic result that they were given. So participants then completed the same test as they did the first time.

So eating the meal or doing the treadmill task. And here are the results. Those who were told that they had a version of the gene that made them less prone to obesity, right? So these are the people that were given this, this genetic result. It could or could not actually be their actual results, saying that they are less prone to be obese.

They felt more [00:17:00] full, and this wasn’t just a feeling thing, guys, okay? Not just a feeling thing. They did feel more full, but they also produced two and a half times more of the fullness hormone that was studied compared to the first time they ate the meal. So, the first time they ate the meal, that was prior to learning about these fictitious genetic results, right?

And then the people who were told that they were genetically prone to obesity, they saw little to no change in how full they felt or their hormone levels. Wild, right? So, on the exercise side of things, the people who were told that they had the gene that made them respond poorly to exercise, They went on to do much more poorly on the second time they were on the treadmill, the second time they did the treadmill test.

Their lung capacity was reduced. They were less efficient at removing carbon dioxide, [00:18:00] and they quit the treadmill test sooner. So these were all indications that the people were in worse shape than they were before learning about their fictitious genetic risk. And then those that were told that they had the protective gene variant actually just performed about the same.

So What was consistent in both of these studies, so the first time with the actual DNA and then the second time with the fictitious result being given to these people, was those that were informed that they had a high risk gene for obesity always had a worse outcome than those informed that they had the protective gene, even though the information about risk was assigned at random and not necessarily true.

And what’s really, really crazy here I know some of this is already crazy that we can tell someone that they have a genetic [00:19:00] predisposition for obesity, they’re more likely to be obese, and then tell them like this is what it means for your your hunger hormones that you’re not going to feel as full, and then they won’t.

Or when we tell people you have this genetic predisposition to have Lower capacity for exercise that they actually have reduced long capacity that they they quit the exercise task sooner after they learn about these things again. This is all just their belief, right? It’s not actually their genetics.

But what’s even crazier, guys, what’s even crazier is that the difference between groups were often stronger than the real differences based on their DNA test results, meaning that simply receiving genetic test results And your mindset associated with that test result can have as much impact as the genes themselves.

And again, guys, we’re not just talking about like, Oh, I feel fuller. Oh, I’m quitting the [00:20:00] treadmill task. Like we’re talking about actual changes in, in hormone levels. We’re talking about actual changes in lung capacity. And this is often more powerful, these beliefs, more powerful than actual. genetic predisposition, like what your actual DNA is saying.

Your beliefs can be more powerful than your genes. Your mindset about genetic risk can alter how you feel, what you do. And how your body physiologically responds. Whew! I just, I read stuff like that still, and even though I, like I said, I, I, am I still a mindset researcher if I’m not actively doing mindset research?

I believe in this stuff a lot, obviously, and I’ve part, not participated, I’ve, I have participated in some research, but I’ve contributed to the research, I’ve been in this space for a really long time, and I’m really biased, and I know that, but I read stuff like this, and I’m still like, [00:21:00] This is fucking insane, and so cool, so cool, because, listen, you can’t change your genes.

You were, you were given your genetic predisposition for what you were given, those, the cards that you were dealt at birth. But if we can change our beliefs, which that is something you can change, that’s something we can help people change, that that can make a difference. sometimes even more of an impact than those fixed genetic predispositions that you have.

It means that we have so much more power to change things in our lives. And we, as, as coaches, as educators, have so much power to help people recognize that they have the ability to change. And that is so cool to me. So cool and like all of this to say like mindset matters a lot, right? I hope that’s at least what you’re gathering from this and with this information in mind.

It’s really less About nature and like the genetics that you were born with and more about [00:22:00] nurture the the beliefs that you develop over time So if you’re on your own health and fitness journey, and I will wrap this entire conversation up here I really suggest that you Assess your beliefs around what you feel like you’re capable of doing because ultimately that’s what’s going to matter the most and if you’re a coach, please, please listen when I say this, do everything that you can do to help your clients promote a growth mindset.

About the changeable nature of their body weight, of their health behaviors, about who they are as a person, and just in general their belief around their ability to change. This is what we teach inside the Health Mindset Coaching Certification, and it is so, so important that as health and fitness professionals, You have the skills, you have the knowledge, you have the ability to guide your clients to more of a growth mindset.

Because ultimately that’s what’s going to [00:23:00] make a difference in their ability to adhere to the plan, to actually stick with it long term. It’s going to increase your ability to hold on to that client for more than just the minimum commitment. We’re talking like increased retention rates, which we see all of the time from coaches that have graduated from HMCC.

And ultimately, your clients are going to be more successful, which is going to make you more successful, and bring in more clients, and it’s just this beautiful snowball effect and like win win situation for everybody. So if you do want to get started, absolutely for free, before you enroll in the Health Mindset Coaching Certification, if you join the waitlist for HMCC, I’m going to send you five free lessons.

right off the bat. So you can start implementing some of this stuff that we’re talking about with your clients right away. Start to help them with their mindset right away before you even enroll in the certification. So I’m going to leave the link in the show notes so you can check that out. Um, if you’re watching the video, we’ll probably figure out a way to throw the link on the video somewhere here.

And you can sign up [00:24:00] for the waitlist and get those five free lessons delivered to your inbox. But that is all I have for you today, my friends. I hope you enjoyed it and I’ll see you next time.