Lose Weight Faster: The Neuroscience of Turning Goals Into Results

In this episode, I'm breaking down why your pretty vision board might actually be keeping you stuck in a never-ending weight loss and binge eating cycle *and* what to do instead. I'm sharing the power of an Action Board, how it rewires your brain for success (hello, Reticular Activating System!), and sharing the same step-by-step tips I used to create a plan that finally bridges the gap between dreaming and doing. If you want to lose weight, stop emotional eating, and end 2025 feeling proud AF of yourself, this episode is your roadmap!

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Transcript

What is up, you gorgeous, fabulous creatures? Welcome to a brand new week of the Losing It podcast. You're here with Kylie Pax, your fabulous Australian emotional eating coach. And if you are joining us here today for the very first time, welcome on in, honey.

I am opening my arms and giving you the biggest, squishiest hug because I am so excited for every new listener that comes and joins our community. We are changing the lives of women around the globe. We will not have any more of this bullshit emotional eating, this binge eating, this suffering with our weight, too afraid to get on the scale.

If any of that sounds like you, you have landed in the right place. Honey, today we are talking about your vision board and how it's basically keeping your ass fat. So here's something that I've been examining over the last few hours today.

It's basically that, you know, this pops up, especially at the end of the year or the beginning of a brand new year. Everybody's in their vision board mode. We're all hopping on Pinterest, making our vision boards.

It's fantastic. But honey, what nobody is explaining to you is a vision board is basically a piece of garbage unless you have action steps behind it. So we're going to get brutally honest today because we have hit the middle of the year.

(1:08 - 2:04)

And I'm going to ask you, let's just be very honest. How is your glossy vision board working out for you? How's that going? Is everything manifesting come true? You ticking off goals left and right? Or are you still waiting to wake up in your dream body and wish that you were living your dream life? Do you think that's going to happen just because you glued some pictures on a board back in January? No, honey, that is not how it rolls out. So today we're ripping off that pretty pink Band-Aid and I'm going to show you why your vision board might be the exact reason that you are still stuck in old binge eating cycles and struggling with that and more importantly, I'll be showing you how to flip that script with something that I call an action board.

So let's look at some of the hard truths with vision boards because I love me a good vision board, honey. I am not slamming vision boards. I'm not poo-pooing all over vision boards.

I love them. I think they're fantastic. I'm a very artistic and visually impressed person.

(2:04 - 4:32)

I think they're fun. I think they're really pretty. And you know, they're usually full of abs and fancy vacations.

It's great. But they're basically a Pinterest board with no plan. So you can stare at those fabulous images all year long, but without the how, they're just going to stay that, pictures.

They're not going to be anything more than that. So this is what you really need to know. You can pin all your skinny info pics or inspo.

It's inspo, right? We're pinning the inspiration pics and you can pin them all day long. But if you don't have a daily system to stop the late night snacking, then nothing is going to change. So this is why your vision boards currently are feeling fun in the moment, but ultimately leaving you disappointed because you're going to look back in December this year, okay, where it's only six months away, you're going to see nothing's changed.

And then you think to yourself, what's wrong with me? Why can't I get the things and everybody else is manifesting their things? Why can't I get it? Babe, it is not you. It's because you never had any actions tied to your intentions. Please write it down, tattoo it on your forehead.

You need actions tied to your intentions. So this is where the action board is going to become your new BFF. Because if you think about it, start looking at this as like the glow up of your vision board.

What I'm going to tell you to do next is about combining the dreams that you have and the things that you want, but with an actionable to-do list. It literally is going to be building the bridge between your current habits and your future self. I talk about all the time horizon thinking.

I really often refer to horizon thinking, which is where when we fall into our diet funk and we think, I can't do this anymore. I'm just going to eat tonight. I'm just going to binge tonight.

And tomorrow I'll start again. What horizon thinking is, it's where you fall into the trap of thinking that tomorrow a better version of you is going to show up. She's just over there on the horizon.

I can see her. I can feel her presence. She's going to show up tomorrow, Monday morning.

She's going to be amazing. She's going to be motivated and inspired and ready and willing to do all the things that I don't want to do now. Well, honey, that version of you is never going to show up.

(4:32 - 7:55)

She's basically your vision board version of you. So today I'm going to help you build the bridge between where you are now, the binging, the feeling down, depressed, anxiety, where you currently are. It's not a bad place.

It's just where you are. And we're going to build the bridge between that place, that spot and the vision board version of you. So let's talk a little bit about the success that I've had with this, because I know you're all thinking, oh, what are you just going to give me another 10 step list? No, no, no, no.

I have. So if you've got my free eating codes, you know that you can just grab them over at KyliePax.com forward slash free course. Just hit the link in the show notes.

I lay out my five eating codes, which is my five eating codes, which is how I initially lost 20 kilos. So you know, the first one is to only eat if you're hungry. Like don't eat.

I'm so excited to share this with you today. Don't eat if you're not hungry. The second one is to make your plan every day and then follow your plan and not your mood.

The third one, which is really the weight loss code is to stop eating at 80% full. The fourth one is that your feelings don't get to vote. That's where we deal with the emotional eating at nighttime, especially.

And then the fifth eating code, which ties beautifully into what we're talking about today is act like the person you want to become. And this is why action boards are so much more powerful than any vision board you can ever, ever create. It's because action boards are going to keep you grounded, which is great because we want reality.

We want a dose of reality. We want our inspiration and our motivation up there on the board. It's great, but we also need to be grounded in where we currently are because we need a kicking off point.

They break your goals down into clear and doable steps. So what this action board does is it actually trains your brain's RAS. You hear me talk about this all the time.

In a lot of previous episodes, I referred to your RAS, which is your reticular activating system. It basically is like a beautiful glittery hairnet. And it sits at the base, at the back of your brain, at the base of your like sort of the brain and the spinal cord.

It sits way back there. And it is like the bodyguard or the bouncer for your brain. And it decides what information comes in.

It doesn't let in any bullshit things like a fly buzzing around two meters away or a bird chirping over in the distance or a dog barking or your children squabbling way down the end of the house. Very often it will block that out. Have you ever had that before? Somebody comes in and they're like, can you stop your children screaming? And you're like, oh my God, I just, I didn't even hear it.

Your RAS blocked it out because it wasn't super important at that time. But if one of your children fell off a cupboard and you heard a big thud and somebody crying, instantly your reticular activating system lets that in because it's suddenly become urgent and important. So what I have done with an action board is I have taken the desires that I have, I've taken my current situation.

So currently, you know, I'm in the process of losing another 10 kilos. So I am eight kilos down and I'm ready to lose like the next few now. It does take me a little longer because I'm 50 plus years old, 53.

I'm 53 years old. I'm in, I'm in metabolism. I'm in menopause.

I have hypothyroidism. So yes, my metabolism is extremely challenged, but it's still doable. I make sure if you're not following me over on Insta, you need to follow me over there because I share my entire plan over there as well.

(7:55 - 8:07)

My, what I eat on the daily, the recipes, the steps that I take, my routines, it's all over there on Insta. So you need to grab that. I'm over at Kylie, I'm at Kylie underscore packs.

(8:07 - 8:18)

So you'll find me there, but all that data is there. And all that information is there. And I have used my action board over the last few months to help me shed these eight kilos.

(8:19 - 11:22)

So what I did is I stayed grounded in where I currently was. I created a vision of where I wanted to go, and then I broke it down into clear doable steps so that I could start to act like the person I wanted to become by building new neural pathways. How do you do that? By taking repeatable, simple daily steps that are actionable and repeatable very simply at any time, any place, and anywhere.

It doesn't, your situation doesn't need to be perfect because I know what you're all thinking. I can't start this now, Kylie. It's a very busy time in my life.

I can't start it now, Kylie. I've got a sick child or sick parent. I can't do this, Kylie.

I am very busy at work. No, no. Your problem is that you keep sitting around waiting for the quote unquote perfect time.

And that's why you're still dealing with fat on your body that you do not want there. You're feeling overweight and frumpy and gross. But once you build this action board, it is all going to change because the best part about it is you get to track your progress and then feel really good about things as you physically see the changes starting to come.

It's no longer a fantasy land or a Disney movie with you staring at somebody else's six-pack abs. You are starting to develop your own. So this is how we're going to do it.

The first step to you creating your action board and finally losing weight and then stop binging all at the same time is you need to reflect on where you currently are. So you can use something like what I call, which is, I don't, there are things you can use, just Google Wheel of Life. That's a really common one.

I just have, I don't even have a name for what I call, but I just have five life areas that I use. It's more simple than the Wheel of Life. I just have five life areas and I analyze them.

It's physical, financial, spiritual, emotional, and relational. And you just put a number from one to 10. How do you rate each one of those areas at the moment? I'm not talking about how you want them to be and don't bullshit yourself and pretend something's great if it's not.

And likewise, don't pretend something's worse than it is either. You take your five life areas. So let's start with physical.

So like I said, physical, financial, spiritual, emotional, and relational. Let's start with physical. Are you happy with your physical situation in life? Are you feeling good? Are you feeling healthy? Are you feeling energetic and vibrant? You can't wait to get up and start your day.

Or are you feeling fat, frumpy, and ugly? What would you rate it on a scale of one to 10? Maybe you would rate it a three. Maybe you'd rate it a negative three. Okay.

That's okay. You might rate it a 10, but whatever it is, that will tell you whether you need to be taking action in that area or not, and how much action you need to be taking. So rate things like your physical health, your financial health, your emotional, spiritual, and relational health.

Rate them from one to 10. That's the first step. The second thing you need to do is around each one of those areas, you're going to start setting some intentions, not just goals.

I no longer set goals. Goals are bullshit. Goals are just like we're talking about here with your vision board.

Goals are really just that. They're just wishes without action behind them, action steps behind them. They're just wishes.

(11:23 - 11:56)

But intentions are something that you need to take action on. So ask yourself, how do you want to feel in that area of physical? Like we just talked about, how do you want to be feeling? If you're feeling fat and frumpy now, and really ugly and gross, how do you want to feel? And you might say, Kylie, I just want to feel happy. Honestly, people used to ask me years ago when I was really, really struggling with depression, anxiety, like, what do you want? What would make it better? Do you need more? Nobody was offering me money, but do you need more money? Do you want this? What would be better? I'd be like, honestly, I just want to be happy.

(11:57 - 16:47)

So what would help lead you in that direction? How do you want to feel? Is it happiness, light, strong, brave, confident, just thinner or comfortable in your clothes, in control around food? Decide on your intentions. The third step then is you're going to pick one to three key areas because focus beats overwhelm time and time again. I don't want you thinking that you need to do 85 steps a day.

It's never going to happen. And you'll feel discouraged, and then you'll just stop and blow the whole thing with a binge. Just pick one to three maximum key areas.

And you're going to start taking action in those directions by getting really specific about the action steps that you want to take. So it might be stop binging at night. And that's going to become, okay, well, in order to stop binging at night, I'm going to need to eat a really balanced dinner with more protein than I normally would.

And I have to have maybe my herbal sleepy teas ready for 8pm. And then I have to have my ass in bed by 10pm. Whatever it is, but get specific with the action steps that you want to take.

Because the next one after that, step number five is you got to make it visual. And this is the fun part. So go jump on Pinterest.

Or if you're old school like me, I'm literally going to be doing this now. I was telling one of my step sons the other day, I had the most beautiful journal with blank pages. And I am going to do an old school style vision journal.

And I'm going to be cutting out pictures, buying magazines, printing things off of Pinterest and printing them off at Officeworks and sticking them in and making it beautiful with whatever feathers and little things that you find around anything that inspires you, but find things that match your actual steps that you need to take. So it might be the tea mug or being in a cozy bed or having your sneakers by the door, whatever. All those things, they're pretty generic, but they are generic because they work.

They work. Everybody says them because they work. And then the sixth thing that you're going to do is you're going to write your action steps on the board.

You're going to write them on the board. Canva is the perfect place to be doing something like this. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm going to do one in Canva as well.

You need to do it and then put it on your phone so you can see it every day because then that's the last step. Step number seven, you got to review that shit daily. Five minutes, five seconds if that's all you've got.

Five seconds in the morning and five seconds at night. It needs to be the first thing that seeps into your little brain cells, first thing in the morning, and it needs to be most essentially the last thing you see visually and the last thing you are thinking about at night so that we can rewire those neurotransmitters in your brain. You got to visualize yourself.

You have to bear with me today. I am not editing this. You got to visualize yourself doing the actions.

Don't just visualize the end result. Visualize that result. Yes, of course, but also visualize yourself.

See yourself doing the actions that are going to get you there. Babe, vision boards are cute and they're great and I'm all about them. But if you want to be half your size by Christmas or finally just drop that final 10 kilos and stop binging and just feel freaking amazing in your skin, it's going to come down to these daily actions and an action board is the thing that can make it happen.

It's going to prompt you to actually do the things. So I'm going to really encourage you now that we've hit the halfway mark of this year to just scrap any fluff that was floating around since January to now, any excuses, any thoughts of I'll deal with it later. There's no more later.

We've hit the halfway line. It's time for you to build that plan and get things moving so that by the time the close of the year comes around, you are already halfway to your hot body and the mindset that is rock solid and is going to keep it there. So if this is hitting home for you, then go ahead, screenshot the episode, share it on your IG stories.

Remember to tag me at Kylie underscore PAX over on Insta so that we can celebrate your action plan together. I am so freaking excited. And if you want me to create a whole podcast on like how I set up my personal action board, then just DM me action over on Insta and I will make it happen.

Honey, I'm sending you so much love as always. If you found this episode helpful, useful, or even mildly entertaining, please go ahead and drop a comment or share and leave a review. I'm sending you tremendous amounts of love and I cannot wait to see you again next week.

Until then gorgeous ones, bye for now. Thank you so much for tuning in. Remember to shimmy your butt over to KyliePax.com and join me inside of the bombshell blueprint so you can stop emotional eating and start losing your way now.

You'll also find helpful notes and resources inside my past podcast that will help you lose your weight without losing your sanity. I will see you next week.