whether you are new to keto, thinking of starting keto, or you've been doing keto for a little while, there are stages and phases where we will experience discomfort. It shows up in a multitude of ways, but the overarching umbrellas. We truly experience in terms of discomfort during a weight loss journey really fall under two categories. We have the discomfort of change and the discomfort of staying the same. So I've just looked up quickly the definition of discomfort, just so we all are totally clear. What I mean by that, and according to the Webster's Dictionary, the definition of discomfort is mental or physical uneasiness. That's not to say it's too hard or unbearable, but it is uncomfortable and uneasy within our bodies and our minds. I'm going to be speaking into the two different types of discomfort that we experience on a keto weight loss journey, and the first one really is this discomfort around change. It's scary. It's scary to change the way we've been eating our whole lives. You know, it's uncomfortable. To be around friends and family who don't get it. We feel like we have to justify ourselves. We feel like everyone's judging us for this, and it's strange to go against what society as a whole deems as normal, and this creates a lot. Uncomfortable feelings and emotions within our body and within our minds feeling like we have to defend ourselves There's discomfort around the idea of what if I fail? If you haven't started your keto journey yet, this might be where you're at, where it feels like, I don't wanna feel the pain of starting another diet and failing at it. And this can prevent us from even taking that first step in the, in the first. Especially if we've failed all the diets. There's discomfort around changing our identity. If we identify as the bigger girl of our friend group or the party girl that goes out and just drinks whatever and eats whatever, it can be really uncomfortable and scary to try to even imagine. Who am I going to be as this new person? Who will I be when I've lost the. Then there's the whole level of discomfort around the fact. It's hard and it's frustrating and it's difficult when you're doing everything right on your keto journey, but it feels like the results aren't showing that's super uncomfortable. We fear this unknown because. We don't have the evidence to back anything up yet. We don't know if it's gonna work. Even if it does work. Can we maintain it? Can I actually be keto forever? Do I have to be? There is so much uncertainty around change and our brains hate that. Our brains do not thrive on change, and it will purposely, intentionally make us feel this level of discomfort so that we stay the same. There's discomfort and discipline having to repeat the same patterns and the same behaviors to form new habits and thoughts. Exercising self-control and fighting off temptations to go back to your old ways can be so draining and it's uncomfortable. Our brain wants to keep us the same, so we're now fighting and feeling that uneasiness in our mind because we know deep down we want to change. But will we be brave enough and have enough courage to move through this discomfort to go after what we truly want? But the irony of that is if we stay the same, we're still experiencing discomfort, we're still uncomfortable. It's just a different flavor of discomfort. The discomfort of staying the same, sounds like feeling physically uncomfortable in our. Dealing with inflammation, aches and pains, chronic illness, mental fog, low energy, Those are all uncomfortable. We are unhappy in our bodies and with ourselves, but we will continue to self-sabotage because that keeps us. It's almost like our mind and body fear, the discomfort of change so much that we will work against ourselves to feel the discomfort of staying the same. It's actually easier for us to self-sabotage because that allows us to predict the future and gives us a false sense of control because we know how that plays. Even though it goes against what we want for ourselves, we would rather know what it looks like because we've been there and done that before than to risk the discomfort of change. We get impatient. We get impatient that the results aren't coming fast enough, but we failed to see that a true lifestyle change is achieve. When we move through our discomfort to give it enough time to take root, we get to keep our identity that we've grown to know. We would rather feel the discomfort of staying the same, of staying who we've always been, because we know what that's like. Even if we're. But in staying in this level of discomfort, in staying the same, we'll never experience beyond our current circumstances. We will fight for our excuses and we'll get to keep them, even though deep down we know we're capable of more our brains. Are hardwired to keep us safe, to stay with what's predictable, to stay in the known versus venture into the unknown. But at the same time, we are uncomfortable. We're unhappy with where we are. We're unhappy with who we are. We're unhappy in our own. But here we are fighting to stay the same. We all know that change is hard. It's gonna be challenging, it's gonna be difficult sometimes, but when it comes to this level of discomfort that we experience in the face of change, we think that we want to be free. We desire everything that this weight loss is going to afford us on the other side, but in the moment. When it comes time to take that action, our body and mind just wanna keep us safe. They are going to make us feel so uncomfortable because the thing that we want, actually, more than that freedom on the other side, is our safety. We wanna know how we're gonna feel, who we're gonna be, what are what it's gonna look like. We want those answers. The easiest way for us to achieve that is by staying the same. The reality is the only way we can move forward is when the fear of staying the same outweighs the fear of change. That is when we change, when we're finally sick. Enough of our own bullshit. Our broken promises to ourselves, the stories we spend in our mind, the self deprecating thoughts that just won't let up when we've hit some sort of a rock bottom. And we are so afraid to stay exactly where we are in a body that we are so unhappy with in all of our aches and all of our pains. And when we are finally done with that, that is. We are ready for change. That is when we can embrace change and the discomfort that comes along with it because we are so sick of where we're at that all we can do is move forward. So what do we do? How do we move from the discomfort around staying the same to embracing change, even though that will also bring discomfort. So here's what I invite you to do. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. as we've just explored, there's going to be a certain level of discomfort either way. But if you know full stop going into your keto journey or along the way that you are going to experience this discomfort around, We can bring a level of awareness to it. We can hold space for it. We can allow it to be there without having to self-sabotage or wish it away because it's gonna be there. It's allowed to be there. It's allowed to feel uneasy in your body and your mind. So how can we bring more ease into our body and mind? When we're faced with discomfort, we create space around it. We allow it to be there. We can journal on what is showing up, what's coming up for us right now. And with that, you allow yourself an opportunity to become more compassionate with. When you get curious around what this discomfort is telling you, how is this discomfort serving you? Then you can approach it in a completely different way where it's not about trying to keep you safe, it's about exploring what it is you're trying to do for yourself and who it is you're trying to become. Because on this other side of the discomfort around. Is everything you want for yourself, and it just takes us crossing that bridge of discomfort to get there. But if we run up against the discomfort and we decide to stop at the edge of the bridge and we're not gonna go across, then we know exactly what we're getting. We get the discomfort around staying the same in our bodies, in our skin, in our mind. You get to decide which flavor of discomfort you want to experience, and something I would love to invite you to do is get extremely clear on what your deeper desire is, and use that as a lighthouse, as a guiding light when these moments of discomfort pop. What it is that you really want to accomplish, and why is that meaningful for you? Once we've attached a deeper meaning of what it is we're even trying to do, aside from weight loss, it will make those moments of discomfort when we're changing, feel a little bit easier or feel a little bit clearer, and when we can approach. In those moments where we want to just retract and we just wanna go back to our old ways, I invite you to get really curious and compassionate with yourself and really create some space around this discomfort and know that it's okay. It's gonna be there, but you still get to choose. The discomfort of change because that is exactly how you're going to get to where you truly wanna go.