HOW TO FLICK THE SWITCH
WHEN YOU’RE STUCK
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Episode 273:
Show Notes
Dr Mary and Dr Lucy focus on the reality that life and health changes are often imperfect. They emphasise that both perfectionism and waiting for the “right time” can prevent meaningful change. Instead, success comes from making health improvements doable, adopting flexible strategies, and practicing self-compassion.
- Perfectionism as a Barrier: Striving for perfection can lead to “all or nothing” thinking and paralysis. Both hosts recount how perfectionism has manifested in their lives and why accepting imperfection is crucial for progress.
- Personal Obstacles: The doctors share personal barriers—Dr Mary’s busy life as a solo mother, caregiver, and genetic challenges with insulin resistance and ADHD; Dr Lucy’s experience with muscular dystrophy and accessibility struggles. Both discuss how health challenges and neurodiversity impact their routines and mindset.
- Practical Strategies:
- Prioritising making health habits easy and “doable” rather than perfect.
- Using tactics like meal prepping when possible, relying on convenient food options, and finding simple ways to include movement (“movement snacks”).
- Stacking new habits onto existing routines for consistency.
- Pre-deciding and planning ahead to reduce decision fatigue.
- Mindset Shifts:
- Focusing on what is still possible (“What can I do?”) rather than what is lost.
- Recognising and managing automatic negative thoughts.
- Building “grit”—the willingness to act even when motivation is low, and practicing this skill consistently.
- Reflection and Reward: Bringing immediate benefits to the forefront (like feeling good after movement) rather than distant, abstract goals.
- Flexibility and Self-Compassion: If routines are disrupted, it’s always possible to start again without judgment.
- Letting Go of Wishing: Progress comes from working with current circumstances, not wishing things were different.
- Core Takeaway: Meaningful change is built on small, sustainable actions, self-awareness, and accepting imperfection rather than waiting for ideal conditions or flawless performance.
Episode 273:
Transcript
Mary Barson (0:04) Hello, my lovely friends. I am Dr Mary Barson.
Dr Lucy Burns (0:09) And I'm Dr Lucy Burns. We are doctors and weight management and metabolic health experts.
Both (0:16) And this is the Real Health and Weight Loss podcast!
Dr Lucy Burns (0:21) Good morning, lovely friend. Dr Lucy here with another episode of The Real Health and Weight Loss Podcast, joined by my spectacular co-host and friend and colleague, Dr Mary. Hello, Dr Mary, how are you this morning?
Mary Barson (00:34) I'm very good, lovely, lovely Dr Lucy. I have got two broken toes in our household. Oh, I fractured my third toe just stepping my foot at my son's gymnastics. It was so lame. And my poor daughter has a stress fracture from dancing all the time. So sore toes. But other than that, we're okay.
Dr Lucy Burns (00:55) Yes. Well, you know, it's interesting, isn’t it, that we can injure ourselves sometimes—too much of a good thing. We all know that exercise, movement, all of that is wonderful. But every now and then the body just goes, you know what, that's actually a bit too much.
Mary Barson (01:08) Had enough, had enough of this now.
Dr Lucy Burns (01:10) Yeah, yes, absolutely. So this week, we thought we'd talk about some barriers to change. So, you know, most of you lovely friends out there know that our thing that we do is we help women improve their metabolic health by teaching, in particular, not just what to do, but how to do it. So how to do it when you get stuck. And I think getting stuck—stuck in the mud—is probably the biggest thing that people struggle with. They're sort of waiting for the switch. I hear this a lot. I just need a switch, Lucy. Can you help me flip the switch? And look, to be honest, we actually can, because the switch is all just up in our head. It's a mind switch. But understanding sometimes our barriers in the first place can be helpful.
Mary Barson (01:56) Yes. And having multiple tools in your toolbox to get through them so that you can just keep going. Because life is so imperfect, and I'm imperfect, and you're imperfect, Dr Lucy, and we're always going to be imperfect and do things imperfectly. But we need to be able to keep going even through the inevitable imperfections of life. And I think that you and I have got reasonably well-stocked mental toolkits for doing this. So we can talk about our barriers—might be a good thing to do.
Dr Lucy Burns (02:28) Absolutely. And in fact, the first barrier that came up then was the word imperfect. When you said to me, I'm imperfect, you're imperfect, my brain goes, I'm not imperfect. How dare you say that? I'm perfect. I try to be perfect. And so it's so interesting, isn’t it, that even that word is perfect. And I remember I learned guitar when I was in grade six, and I was hopeless at it—really hopeless. But the guitar teacher used to say, practice doesn’t make perfect unless you practice perfectly. Yeah, God. So that sounded hard. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think it just highlights—I mean, I'm 57 now, I was 12 or something—so, you know, close to 50 years of stories around perfectness.
Mary Barson (03:20) Oh, yes, I have got lots of stories in my head about all the ways in which I fall short of perfect. And I still have that perfectionism in me. In some ways, it's a strength—to strive and do better, to aim high. But in many ways, it's a liability. And I think that in the realm of health, that perfectionism in particular is a liability. Just because of that feeling that we're going to throw it all in if we can't do it perfectly. But we're never going to be able to do it perfectly. And so if we can't do it perfectly, then we won’t do it at all—and that is just going to keep us so stuck to the point of paralysis.
Dr Lucy Burns (04:05) Totally, totally. And this is the thing—perfectionism sneaks in. Because in my brain, like I'm not perfect in, I'm not neat. So in my brain, perfect was sort of neat, like it was neat. And so I used to think, well, I'm not neat. Like I don't have neat handwriting. You know, at school, I was never one of those kids that could do neat drawings. You know, just color outside the lines. I couldn't do neat margins. My desk was never neat. My bedroom was never neat. My car was never neat. And so therefore, you know, I didn’t recognise that perfectionism was one of my things. But it shows up in really unusual—well, not that unusual—but it shows up in subtle ways. And I think, you know, one of the classics for me was always the idea that I needed a clear run to get started. So I had to wait until after the holiday, or wait until after my exams, or wait until after I had been to book group this week on Thursday, so I would start Friday. There was always something I was waiting for to get started.
Mary Barson (05:13) Absolutely. It’s a classic—I’ll start on Monday. I’ll start on January 1st. That's right.
Dr Lucy Burns (05:17) Yes, yeah, absolutely. So I mean, we've got, you know, sort of these general barriers. But, you know, I thought this episode, you and I might share some of our own personal barriers, and maybe they’ll help somebody out there.
Mary Barson (05:32) Yeah, I reckon that's a great thing. I'd like to start, though, by just defining, I guess, what my goals are, like what it is that I want for my health, and, you know, my life, I think. So for me, the definition of healthy is to be metabolically well, and to have good energy, to have a presence for the things that are important in my life, to be able to have the strength and energy to pursue the things that are important. And to be able to have that hope for the future. I am training for menopause. I'm not yet—have not yet hit menopause. Menopause is for life, but I have not yet gone through that transition. But when I do, I really want to be able to do it as healthily as I can. So I'm gaining muscle, and I'm keeping myself healthy. So essentially, it really is all about being healthy on the inside. That's it—healthy on the inside, so that I can live life according to my values and goals with energy and vigor. That's what I'm aiming for. So it's much less emphasis on aesthetics and weight loss that I used to have, you know, in my younger years. Absolutely.
Dr Lucy Burns (06:37) And I think the key is optimising what you've got. So some of us have been dealt a slightly shit hand. And the thing is that you can take your crap hand and just go, oh, well, I can't do this. So therefore, I'm going to do nothing. Bit of perfectionism in there. Or I can't do this, and that becomes your dominant paradigm, or that won't work for me. But when we go, well, these are the cards we're dealt. We just have to play them to the best of our ability. Then that's when things shift a bit.
Mary Barson (07:11) That's right. That's right. And I think, you know, none of us get a perfect hand. Most of us got some slightly shit hands. But some of us have definitely been dealt much shittier cards than others. But you're still in charge of your own story. Everything that goes on inside your head, you own it all. You get to assign meaning to it. And you can assign the meaning, well, it's too hard, I can't do it. Or you can assign the meaning of, let's figure out what I can do.
Dr Lucy Burns (07:35) Indeed. Indeed. And I think that is absolutely the key. Rather than focusing on what we can't, or focusing on losses, or focusing on the negatives. And again, our brain will go there. It's automatic default. We have to be aware of that. And if we constantly, or if we just develop that awareness, and then we shift it, we spend so much time shifting it. Over time, the shift becomes your default. Yeah. That's right.
Mary Barson (07:59) Yes. Yes. And the needle can start to move. I mean, should I talk about the barriers that I have?
Dr Lucy Burns (08:08) Sure.
Mary Barson (08:09) Okay. So, and I'm not suggesting that my cards are shittier than anyone else's. I'm just going to talk about me right now.
Dr Lucy Burns (08:17) Yeah, absolutely. This is not the worst card, the worst deck competition. Who's got the worst deck of cards competition?
Mary Barson (08:24) I love my full life, but emphasis on the fact that it is very full. So, I'm a solo mum to two kids aged three and 12, and they are both delightful handfuls. I live off grid in this little farmhouse where I have to sort of manage all of my own fuel management and chopping wood and managing generators. I've got two elderly parents that I help look after quite intensively. I juggle lots of roles. I'm a GP. I'm a business owner with a fabulous Dr Lucy. I do urgent care work and I look after my family. It's a high intensity work schedule. I'm financially totally responsible. I'm totally responsible for the kids. I'm mostly responsible for my parents. I'm partly responsible for this farm. I've also got a dog, and I'm vulnerable to emotional and mental fatigue from all of this. So, that's kind of my reality.
Dr Lucy Burns (09:20) And let's not forget the genetic lottery that you've been dealt.
Mary Barson (09:24) Oh, of course. Yes. So, yes, a full deck of insulin resistance genes. So, I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is admission really, but I've been struggling with my weight since I was eight years old. I've got like a lifetime of stories about weight struggles and weight loss and fat shaming. That's all in there. Both my parents have type two diabetes. I'm one of those people that gains weight extremely easily and loses it with extreme difficulty. So, with that, and also if I did not look after my metabolic health, I would be looking at diabetes, stroke, dementia, heart attacks, like all of that would be in my future without a concerted effort to preserve and look after my metabolic health.
Dr Lucy Burns (10:08) Absolutely. Absolutely. And again, it's a barrier that you and I both share to some degree, which is, you know, an ADHD diagnosis.
Mary Barson (10:17) Yes. My beautiful brain. Talk about strength and liabilities. Should spend a bit of time in my head, just hear everything that's going on. Yes. So, you talked about being neat. Whoa. I am not a neat person. I'm creative and clever and can do all kinds of cool stuff, but no, not neat. And that is definitely a struggle. I need to find ways to work with this fabulously chaotic instrument that is my brain, rather than just wishing it was different and railing against it and throwing up my hands saying it's all too hard. ADHD does make things harder. It does.
Dr Lucy Burns (10:54) It does. And for those people out there wondering, you know, well, how does it make it harder? So, people with ADHD are very good at winging it, which is why I think part of the reason why we, you know, why we're doing a podcast about three days before it's actually due to be released. So, we are good at winging it. We are good at, as you mentioned, creativity. We're good with ideas. Part of the, you know, the imperfection in some ways is whilst I had diet perfectionism and you did too, that was a story we'd been conditioned to believe, but neither of us have action perfectionism when it comes to say running our business. So, we just go, oh, we've got to do this and we'll just do it.
Mary Barson (11:38) And so, it really lends itself to that like growth mindset of just having a go and we can learn things really quickly when we find it interesting. So, we know that we can learn and so we're willing to learn. There are definite strengths, but I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to sugar coat it. There are parts of having a brain like this that are really hard. And some days my brain just feels like it's, some days it's amazing and some days it feels like it's rubbish. And there are barriers there like for being healthy, you know, for like being able to remember to do the things that are going to be useful for not getting sidetracked, you know, to be able to fit them in. Like there are definite barriers.
Dr Lucy Burns (12:12) Oh, totally. And a complete example today was that I'm texting you going, I'm in the podcast studio. Where are you? And it turned out that actually we had initially scheduled it for tomorrow.
Mary Barson (12:23) But since we're both really nimble, we're like, well, you know, it turns out I actually do have time. So, let's do it today.
Dr Lucy Burns (12:28) Yeah, absolutely. So, yes, flexibility is helpful, but the barriers I guess are planning. So, meal prepping, you know, all those people that do meal prep that they've got those lovely neat pantries with neat fridges. They do shopping lists. They plan their meals in advance. I used to think, why can't I do that? Why can't I do that? It's so, seems so obvious. And when someone tells it to you, you go, yeah, I know. Like, honestly, it's not sort of rocket science, but I just found it really hard to do.
Mary Barson (13:00) I find it hard sometimes. With me and meal prepping, there are times when I'm totally into it and I am extremely happy to plan and prep and buy. And that's great. And there are times when I'm not. But when I'm in that meal prepping mode, I really ride it and I make extra, do double batches of casseroles and stews and curries and meatballs and freeze the extras, a little sharpie, write the date on it in the freezer. Fabulous. And there are times when I just really can't be bothered. And those times I could eat my frozen food or, you know, I've just got strategies and tactics for when that's the case and just keeping it really simple. All you need is some meat and veggies. And I've got an Our Cow subscription, which is a meat subscription. So, I've always got some meat in the bottom of my fridge, little sealed-up packs, and I can just take it out, grill the steaks, fry the meats, defrost the frozen veggies, meal done. These are tactics I've developed to just make sure that food is always easy. Making health doable is the most important way that I overcome the barriers. The food is doable. It's easy. Reducing all the barriers that I can. I do the same thing with exercise. I do the same thing with stress management. I just want to make it doable.
Dr Lucy Burns (14:21) Yeah. And as we said, it certainly doesn't have to be perfect, but what happens is sometimes our brain will go, oh, it's too hard. And particularly these days, there are companies out there, you know, AKA Uber Eats, who are very happy to prey upon your vulnerability of tiredness or, you know, just task fatigue. So for me, a bit like you, I mean, look, honestly, Mingle has been the biggest saver of my life because it adds interest to food. And again, all of us, we all like food that's interesting. You know, people get bored eating the same thing every day in, day out, but you can make almost the same thing taste completely different with just different spice flavors. Totally. Yeah. So for me, that's been like, yay. And again, Mingle don't do a subscription. I think they should. I think that would be really, I know. Because otherwise I sort of wait till, you know, I'll just get them from the supermarket, particularly when they're on special I’ll stock up so that I've got, you know, everything from the Mexican to the Sri Lankan curry to the Thai green curry, whatever it is, whatever flavors float your boat. I sound like an ad.
Mary Barson (15:33) We're not getting anything else. I promise this is not sponsored content.
Dr Lucy Burns (15:36) No, we have no shares. We have no shares, but they just make life easy and you can use them in different ways. So it doesn't have to be a curry or, you know, a taco bowl. You can sprinkle it on air fried chicken cubes and whack it in a salad. Like that's my other favorite meal. Totally.
Mary Barson (15:55) Yes. It's easy. A similar strategy that's been really helpful for me is with fitness. So I used to be like back, back before kids, back before the kids, I would spend literally hours swimming. I would spend literal hours in the gym. I would, you know, really, really loved exercise and found it such a helpful way to manage my life, my health, my brain. But nowadays I just can't do that. That is not feasible. So there's a little story in my head. It was like, well, you know, I can't go to the gym for an hour. Therefore, I just won't do anything. And that's obviously going to be extremely counterproductive as gaining muscle mass and maintaining muscle mass is going to be so important for my health, for my training, for menopause, and to make sure that I stay fit and healthy for the rest of my life. So I have embraced little movement snacks, just making it easy. I've got some of those little stretchy bands here in my not particularly neat and tidy office. And I could do some single bridges. I could do ball pushups, but I'm out at the playground with the kids. I do like, you know, sort of not, not actual chin ups, but like sort of half chin ups. I will do pushups. I will just use the gym equipment to work out my muscles in a way that works pretty well. I've got a weighted vest, so I have to walk my doggy. That's just something I have to do. So I'll chuck on my weighted vest and go for a little walk, just making these little kind of movement snacks really throughout the day has been really helpful for me to improve my strength. And it's just getting better and better. It's especially important since I got an injury about two years ago now, I had a CSF leak. And as part of the management for that, I had like about almost four months on and off bed rest. And my goodness me, did I lose an enormous amount of strength in that time. And it's taken me many, many, many months to sort of get it back. And that has really brought home just the importance of that as part of my health routine.
Dr Lucy Burns (18:01) Absolutely. So this is something that I want to just have a little talk about. You mentioned that you love exercise, but I know I hate exercise. And there are lots of people whose brain goes, I hate exercise, like they hate it. So the thing is that sometimes what their brain is waiting for is for them to love it. But here's a newsflash, folks, that's never going to happen. You're never going to love it. So you just have to do it anyway. Like this is the thing. Humans are designed to move. Now, again, you know, the story in my head can be, and often is, well, you know, I've got muscular dystrophy and my movement, it is, it's less and less. And honestly, every time I hear about frailty scores and about, you know, I see Instagram or TikTok reels where, you know, if you can't get off the floor, then you're likely to die an early death. So I'm thinking, righto.
Mary Barson (18:59) That's a punch in the chest, Lucy.
Dr Lucy Burns (19:00) Yes, absolutely. Where's my symmetry plot? I'll just go and hop in there now because I sure as hell won't be able to get out of it once I'm in. But here's the thing. Again, I could go down that dim and gloom and go, well, you know, yeah, that's it. I'm done for. Might as well give up and might as well eat all the things. But what I keep trying to do is bring it back to the, well, what can I do? And what can I still do? And I can still swim. Look, it's not easy. Like it isn't easy. Everything about it is hard. The biggest barrier is accessibility in many places. You know, if I'm at home, it's fine. If I'm at most public pools, it's accessible. But if I'm at a holiday place like a resort or something, most of their pools are not accessible and I can no longer get in and out. So that's a bit annoying and somewhat can feel defeating. But at the end of the day, I just have to do what I can do. Like there's nothing, I can't magic it. I can't magic it better. I can't magic the pools. I can't magic the world. I just have to accept what I can change. Well, accept what I can't change and focus on the things that I can do. So yeah, I don't wait to love swimming. I quite, once I'm in, depending on the day, again, sometimes the pools are cold. And I'm also going to say, once I'm in, I love it, but that's rubbish as well. Half the time, once I'm in, I hate it. I can't wait to get out. But sometimes once I'm in, I go, oh, this is good. And, you know, particularly if it's a lovely day and the pool's reasonably warm and I'm looking up at the sky and I can see birds moseying by or clouds or, you know, just give me time to think. And the thing that it does do, there is never a time where I get out of whatever pool I happen to have flopped myself into and wish I didn't do it. Yes. Never. There are times where I go, oh, that was amazing. And, you know, I kind of loved it a bit more, but I never get out and go, God, I wish I'd just sat on my chair.
Mary Barson (20:56) So how do you get there then? What are some of the ways in which you cultivate that grit to overcome that? It's hard. I don't want to do it.
Dr Lucy Burns (21:05) Yeah. So I recognise that when my brain starts making up a little story of doing it later. So for me, the earlier in the day I can do it, the better. The story used to be, I'll wait until the pool warms up. I'll wait until it gets sunnier. And what was, every now and then I'm then out swimming at eight o'clock at night where the pool, you know, it's dark and it's no longer warm. So that I recognise is not a good story for me. As soon as that pops up, I think, oh, I will do everything in my power, especially if I'm on holiday and I actually have no commitments, to just go now, just do it now. So the earlier, the better is a great mantra. I think getting it out of the way, if you've got a task that you don't like, then putting it off doesn't help you one single bit.
Mary Barson (21:51) No. And grit, it's a learned skill, isn't it? I think that you can get grittier with practice, and grit is one of the single most important factors for success in whatever field. So success in achieving your health goals, success in whatever. If you can cultivate that grit, like you don't want to do it, but you do it anyway, then you're more likely to succeed. We need to make it as easy as we can. We need to make it as doable as we can. We need to make it as obvious as we can. We need to remove as many of the barriers as we can, but we're not going to ever remove all the barriers. So just being a bit gritty is required, and that gets better with practice.
Dr Lucy Burns (22:36) Oh, absolutely. When I was up at Rainbow, where we have a place up at Rainbow Beach in Queensland, and it's lovely, our place is across the road from the beach. And so there was a time when I thought, right, I'm going to go, I'm going to go and see the sunrise. But it involves a couple, I mean, it involves some steps. Obviously, I can't just magic myself to the beach. So I have to get out of bed, I have to get out of bed before the sun's up. You cannot see the sunrise once it's over. So step one, yes, get up before the sunrise. Step two, put some clothes on. And again, you know, I don't want to harp on about this, but having a disability means that getting dressed is not, it's not as easy as it used to be. There were things I took for granted all the time that I no longer do, because every single step in my life I now have to consciously think so that I don't trip over, so that I don't fall over, blah, blah, blah. Gets a bit boring. But so, all right, so you have to get dressed. And I have to get out of the house. So what I do now is I get up, I've got my scooter next to my bed. I've got the clothes that I'm going to wear over to the beach on the scooter. So I literally get up, put the clothes on, put my coat on, quickly go to the toilet and then scoot out the door. And so then I'm over there, honestly, half the time before my eyes are even. So I don't stop and have coffee first or any of that stuff. Like that's just putting it all off. And in fact, I think it's actually another great benefit because, you know, there is some research around delaying your coffee, but that's another podcast. And so, yeah, so I just made the right thing easy. Yes.
Mary Barson (24:06) And you also kind of pre-decided, which is good. So you made the decision a day before, I'm going to go get this lovely morning sunlight. It's going to be great for me, metabolic health, mindset. And you made the decision and you prepped everything. So all the visual clues were there and you just sort of did it without even having to decide again. Because decisions, decisions are exhausting. We want to just limit the amount of decisions we have to make.
Dr Lucy Burns (24:32) Oh, absolutely. And my brain, you know, every morning it would wake up and go, oh, do you really want to get up? And, you know, so it asks the question, surely you want to stay in bed. I don't know. It's like, who is this person talking to me? But the answer is, yeah, I'm getting up. So yeah, I am like, I'm just doing it. So, you know, a little knock tick in my brain.
Mary Barson (24:53) I love it. That's so good. You just do it and you've stacked it to other things as well. Like, you know, getting up and getting dressed, which is great. That's something that really helps me and my brain is if I have the shoulds floating around unattached, I should put on my weighted vest and go for a walk. I should prep that meal. I should do some meditation. Then they can just sort of float around all day and not get done until the end of the day. And then I can feel bad about that. So instead of like pinning them or stacking them to something that I already do is really helpful. So the weighted vest is stacked to walking the dog. I put that, I'm not going to not walk her. That's just something that has to happen. And I've got my little exercise bands here and I literally have to walk over them to go to get myself a cup of tea. And so I'll discuss this like a little cue to myself, pick up the exercise bands, do 12 bridges and just do them and then drink your tea, just stacking them to things. Cause I'm, I am going to drink my tea. That's definitely going to happen.
Dr Lucy Burns (25:57) Yeah, totally. Totally. And there's so many mindset little things that we can do, but yeah, I think you elicited it perfectly with the concept of you need to make a commitment. So you make a time, a plan in your head, you pre-decide. Just hoping that you'll get up to watch the sunrise, you know, it means it will never happen. Just hoping you might get a bit of strength training in means it will never happen. You have to make a conscious decision at some point that this is what you're going to do. And then the commitment to it is easier if you have really decided that you're going to do it. So there's no half-assing because the thing that happens sometimes, and this happens to all of us, is we'll have the back and forth. Surely I don't want to get out of bed. And part of the reason is that our brain, you know, it leans into pleasure and away from pain. So it's obviously way more pleasurable to be lying in bed than getting up at the crack or before the crack of dawn, putting on puffing jackets because it's cold. It's not actually warm yet. Or it's obviously more pleasurable to sit on the couch than to put on your weighted vest and take the dog out. So we have to just recognise that our brain will offer us that. But the brain is like a waiter. You don't have to take it. So you go, oh, okay. Oh, isn't that interesting? My brain's offering me the comfort solution. But we know that actually, you know, like everything, too much comfort is not that good for us and that we can do things that are a bit harder and we can use grit and we can do, you know, harder things.
Mary Barson (27:34) Yes. And when we do, we feel so good and our life is better and our health is better and we're moving the dial closer and closer towards our goals. So there's so much to celebrate and it's doable. It is.
Dr Lucy Burns (27:48) Absolutely. And I think that's exactly right. The sort of second part of the story is that we need to reflect on how we feel when we've done what our brain is telling us is the hard thing, because then we bring the reward of doing the hard thing closer. So if our mind thinks, oh, well, you know, if I go for a walk, that's going to stop me getting Alzheimer's in 50 years’ time, the brain will go, I couldn't give a shit about that. Like, honestly, who cares? I'd rather lie in bed. Whereas if we can bring it to, I'll go for a walk. And when I go for a walk, I'll feel so good. And I'll notice how, you know, the air moves in my lungs and I'll notice how my muscles feel and I'll notice the trees and I'll, you know, look at my dog wagging and I will feel happy. We bring it really close.
Mary Barson (28:30) Yes. Yes. And then that helps rewire those new neural pathways. So our brain's more likely to want to chase that reward. And then, you know, over time, and it doesn't actually take that much time, we start to wire in new habits. And that is beautiful. When things become habits, there's even less decisions that need to be made and even less decision fatigue, and things become even, even easier. Bring it back to, we still don't need to do this perfectly. So if you miss a day, you don't throw up your hands and go, oh, I have no grit and fall down. Instead, just start again.
Dr Lucy Burns (29:07) It's never too late to start again. It's never too late. I mean, you know, you can start again the next day. You can start again the next hour. You can start again the next moment. There is plenty of opportunity to start again. It's never too late.
Mary Barson (29:20) Yes. And listen to the stories in your head. Barriers are overcomable. Well, you have to work with what you've got. What you've got is what you've got. And you can work with what you've got.
Dr Lucy Burns (29:30) Absolutely. Wishing, wishing doesn't help. Wishing is useless. Let's stop wishing for something better, for something different. There is no wishing. What there is, is working with, working with what you've got, working where you're at, and you just start.
Mary Barson (29:43) Yes.
Dr Lucy Burns (29:44) Good. All right. That's it for the pep talk, my friends. I'm looking forward to hearing how you go and wondering what change you're going to make. And at the end of the day, I know Nike, a big, horrible international corporation who probably exploit people all over the place, but their motto, the just do it, honestly, never a truer word is said.
Mary Barson (30:08)Yes. Love it.
Dr Lucy Burns (30:09) Okay. Lovely friends. We will talk to you next week.
Mary Barson (30:10) Bye now.
Dr Lucy Burns (30:15) The information shared on the Real Health and Weight Loss Podcast, including show notes and links, provides general information only. It is not a substitute, nor is it intended to provide individualised medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, nor can it be construed as such. Please consult your doctor for any medical concerns.
