Amy Ledin raises an intriguing question at the heart of today's discussion: 'What new habits are now a part of your daily life that weren't here before?' 

In this thought-provoking episode, Amy discusses the journey of evolving one's identity to foster a healthier, more fulfilling life. She shares insights into the psychological shifts necessary for adopting new habits and the importance of belief in oneself. Through engaging narratives and evidence-based strategies, she provides listeners with the tools to shift their identity in alignment with their health and personal goals.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand the link between identity belief and behavior alignment.
• How to achieve internal harmony through aligned beliefs and actions.
• How environmental influences and social circles can impact your identity shift.

“The more that you're really clear on this is, this is who I want to be, this is the identity I'm chasing, that becomes easier. Now, people are motivated to seek confirmation and validation of their self-concept. So, if an individual holds a belief about a particular aspect of their identity, they may actively speak that out.”  - Amy Ledin

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Resources: 

• Build Your Health Character with me
• 5 for 50 Challenge
• How to Build Your First Fat-Loss Diet
• Amy’s Follow-Through Challenge
• 5 Common Mistakes Women Over 40 Make That Lead to Belly Fat
• Meals over Macros & Structured Flexibility

Transcript:

Amy Ledin

0:00

There's also like, the self-fulfilling prophecy. It's believing in a particular aspect of that identity, you perceive yourself in a certain way, and eventually, you come into it. This is why I do believe in playing the role, hence, building the health character. At first, you're not going to be there, of course, you're not going to be there. But you want to already be clear on the things that need to happen to be there and start playing aspects of that.

Amy Ledin

0:28

What are you doing to create your dream life or your best self? Why do we see some thrive through challenges while others struggle? Welcome to F* It!, a podcast where I talk about the main Fs in my life that have helped me in creating my best self: faith, family, forgiveness, food, fitness, and formula. Hi, my name is Amy Ledin and most would say that I've had my fair share of struggles. Whether it was placing my baby for adoption at 18, facing my marriage-ending affair, or battling stage four cancer for almost seven years, it's safe to say that I've been through a lot. Join me as I take you through my story, my journeys, and share with you the tactical strategies every single week that will help you thrive and overcome anything you face. That's right, I'm going to show you how to create a future self that you'll be proud of. So buckle up, get ready for the ride as I take you through my story and bring other guests on that have helped me along the way. 

Amy Ledin

1:20

Okay, if your old life looks similar to your new life, you're most likely just playing a role. And in fact, you've really just not changed your identity, you're just good at playing that part. Can you hear me out because today we're going to talk all about shifting your identity and what that really looks like. But the reason this came up and why I've been sharing this a lot on my Instagram stories is that research has shown once a person believes in a particular aspect of their identity, they're more likely to act in alignment with that belief. It's like the person that quit smoking and just starts to say, I'm not a smoker and then these are the behaviors of a nonsmoker, right? I don't take as many breaks anymore, or whatever it may be. This could also be someone going from being unhealthy to I'm healthy and what do those behaviors look like? And the more that you are able to believe in these particular aspects of your identity, you're just more likely to pull yourself towards that alignment and then it just makes those habits a lot easier to follow. You know, I'd shared on my Instagram stories, when we got up here to Canada, it was a real big change not just in my routine but in the weather and just getting into the habit of my first thing in the morning, getting a walk in instead, walk started to be kind of just whenever and then before you know what I was breaking my streak. And so I needed to get back to the core identity of I am someone that walks every day. Period. Right? I mean, I get it, things happen, life happens. But I wanted to my core for that to be similar to brushing my teeth in that it would just feel weird. It's just part of my identity of doing these things every day. And so it just got me thinking about when it comes to you becoming this new person, you should see, it's not going to be maybe necessarily overnight, but if I was to compare my life to five, seven years ago, it is completely different. I'm talking completely, like, I have changed my routines, like I've just my whole life has changed. And you know, that is always going to be evident in those things.

Amy Ledin

3:25

And this all came up because Erik had a returning client that's been with Lean Bodies Consulting over the years a couple of times, so not new to losing weight. And back, this person now is down like 30, or 40 pounds has probably about double that to go. So let's say like 70 to 80 pounds, but about halfway there. And this client's like, you know what? I got it from here. I'm good. You know what? I'm losing and so thanks for everything and I'll see you later. And you know, Erik and I have discussed this, this is very common with people in that they are seeing that measurable thing of the losing the weight is like their problem is solved, right? And so Erik replied, I'm sure it really surprised this person because Erik said, but you don't have it from here. Sure, you know how to lose weight. You've done this before. And back two years ago, you lost 40 pounds, but we're still back here, you've not changed who you are, what new habits are now a part of your daily life that weren't here before. And if you can't list off a ton of them, well, then you know what, you're just playing a role, you really haven't shifted that identity. Right?

Amy Ledin

4:28

So this, you know, comes up quite often and so I wanted to kind of go through some of these things just to maybe, hey, maybe they'll help you I know they've helped me. You know, for me, it used to be the test of how do I behave on vacations? And don't get me wrong, I know that when we're on vacation, at least when it comes to like my fitness and my eating, it is going to be a little bit different. But is it going to be a free-for-all where I don't even walk and I don't even go to the gym and I'm just eating my face off? No. Now, was I like that maybe 10 years ago? Yes. And that tells me that I haven't shifted my identity of becoming this person. And the reason why you want to do this is it becomes easier to live here. When we are always fighting it, we're fighting the alignment, we're gonna have that inner bitch really talking to us a lot, because we're just not showing up to the potential of where we need to be, right? And so, testing your weekends, testing vacations, testing these one-off days to just really see how you behave.

Amy Ledin

5:25

Now, I wanted to dive in deeper to why is it that we are more likely to act in alignment? Why does it make it easier? Well, there's a lot of areas, some key factors that come into play when we are working on that self-identity and one of them is consistency and cognitive dissonance. This is where humans have the natural inclination towards cognitive consistency. Hey, when our beliefs, our attitudes, and our behaviors are aligned we do experience this sense of internal harmony. This is really what we're chasing. We are chasing just feeling good. We may think that we're chasing, losing the weight or making all the money, but what we're really chasing is all the behaviors and processes that it takes to get there. It is the daily walks, it is the meal prepping, it is learning to say no to certain spending binge because you're trying to save. It's all of those things, whatever that goal is and then like, being aligned, we really were craving that internal harmony, right? Now, when we don't have cognitive, on the other hand, with cognitive dissonance, that discomfort arising from conflicting beliefs and actions, it doesn