Ep 19: How to get in the Zone for Effortless Weight Loss (The secret mental strategy that makes healthy eating automatic)

July 20, 2025

How to Get In The Zone for Effortless Weight Loss

(The Secret Mental Strategy That Makes Healthy Eating Automatic)

Have you ever experienced those magical days when eating healthy feels completely effortless? When you actually crave that salad over pizza, and exercise energizes rather than exhausts you? That's what I call being "in the zone" – and it's the secret to sustainable weight loss that most people never discover.

In this episode, I'm sharing my proven 'future you' strategy that helps you identify exactly who you are now versus who you need to become to achieve your weight loss goals. This isn't just another mindset trick – it's a practical framework that creates lasting behavior change by helping you step into the identity of your future self, one decision at a time.

I'll walk you through the exact process I use with my coaching clients to help them get into the zone and stay there, even when life gets busy. You'll learn why momentum is so crucial for weight loss success, and how to create a positive feedback loop that makes healthy choices feel automatic.

Whether you're just starting your weight loss journey or you've been in the zone before and want to get back there, this episode gives you the roadmap to transform your relationship with food and finally achieve the lasting results you've been searching for.

What You'll Learn

The psychology behind why some days feel effortless while others feel like a constant struggle with food choices
How to identify the two versions of yourself and use this awareness to create lasting change
The momentum principle: why taking action leads to results, which leads to more action in a positive cycle
My step-by-step "Future You" visualization exercise that successful weight loss clients use daily
Specific strategies for analyzing your current habits across food, mindset, and lifestyle factors
How to develop the identity of someone who naturally makes healthy choices without willpower
Practical daily mantras and check-in questions that keep you aligned with your weight loss goals
The reset technique for getting back on track immediately after setbacks (without waiting for Monday)
Why perfectionism sabotages weight loss and how consistency trumps perfection every time

Key Moments

The Magic of Momentum: I explain how taking good action leads to seeing results, which builds momentum and makes future actions easier – creating a positive feedback loop that accelerates weight loss progress
"Future You' Strategy Introduction: The core framework that helps you clearly identify where you are now versus where you want to be, which becomes your roadmap for daily decision-making
Current You Deep Dive: A detailed breakdown of how to honestly assess your current habits across food choices, eating patterns, mindset, water intake, sleep, exercise, and lifestyle factors
Future You Vision Creation: How to vividly imagine and document the version of yourself who has already achieved your goals – what she eats, how she thinks, how she moves through her day
Step Into Her Shoes Strategy: The daily practice of asking "Is this the action of current me or future me?" before every decision to align your choices with your goals
The Confidence Cascade: How making better choices increases confidence, which leads to noticing small wins, building trust in yourself, and creating unstoppable momentum
Daily Implementation Tools: Practical mantras like "Today I step into the strongest version of me" and the pre-meal check-in question "Who am I feeding?"
Reset and Recovery: How to quickly bounce back when you fall out of the zone without waiting for tomorrow or Monday to start again

Action Step so you can START NOW
The specific exercise to brainstorm your ideal future self across all areas of life and begin stepping into her shoes one decision at a time

Episode Transcript

Get In The Zone: The Secret to Effortless Weight Loss
Have you ever had one of those days where eating the right foods that are on your plan and taking all of those actions just felt effortless? Where you actually wanted that salad over that piece of pizza that you were offered? And exercise just felt energizing instead of exhausting?
Now, if you've been tuning in recently, you'll know that I've talked about two big pieces of the weight loss puzzle: your mindset in the morning and how you start the day with your nutrition. But today we're going to expand on that and talk about how you carry on the momentum right through your day. And it's all about getting into what I call "the zone" - that amazing place where everything just clicks, making the right choice feels easy, you've got heaps of energy, and you're just feeling fantastic.
So how do we get into this zone? And more importantly, how do we stay there? That's what's coming up for you today on the Why Weight Start Now podcast.

Welcome
Welcome to the Why Weight podcast. I'm your host, Sheryl Takayama - qualified nutritionist, emotional eater, and weight loss coach who walks the talk. I've maintained my 30-kilo weight loss for the past 23 years following a low-carb plan, and now I coach other women online so they can do the same. It's my mission to help women get off this crazy diet wagon and find a way of eating and a way of thinking that works, so you too can lose your weight for life. Join me each week for lots of practical advice, tips, and motivation so you can start now.

The Magic of Momentum
I'm really inspired to talk about this today, because one of the things that clients say when they come to me - especially if they've been on a weight loss journey for a while and maybe they're going through a more challenging time - they will talk to me and say, "Gosh, when I first started and I was following the plan and I was doing all the things, it felt so easy. This wasn't hard at all. Making the right decision was just what I did." And of course they were getting a great result.
These two things are so finely tuned and they really interact with each other. We start taking good action, then we start seeing results, so our momentum builds and it becomes easier to start taking action. Then we see better results and our momentum keeps building. It's like you're on one of those little mouse wheels and all of a sudden it's going in the right direction. It's getting faster and faster.
This is the point where all of a sudden these new actions have just become habits. It's just what we do now. It's not hard. We're still seeing results, so the progress just keeps building. This is what I call getting into the zone. It's that state where your actions and goals - everything feels aligned. You're making progress, you're not second-guessing yourself, you're not having these slip-ups and then telling yourself, "Oh, I've just got to start again." You're just feeling focused and you feel really, really good.

Finding Your Zone
If this is not something you've ever experienced in your weight loss or your health journey, what about some other area of your life where you just felt on fire? Whether it was at work, with a hobby, something you're doing where everything just feels so aligned that it doesn't feel like work, that time just passes. This is what it's like when you're in the zone. It's a place where momentum just makes everything easier.
In weight loss, what you'll find is the cravings have gone away. It's easy to make the right decision. Your meal planning - you've got the right options there. And because you're taking such good action and you're seeing great results, that momentum just keeps building.
So when I have clients who have been in the zone and then for whatever reason, when life got too busy, they fell out of the zone, it can be really confronting and all they want to do is get back there again. So what I'm going to talk you through now is exactly how I work with clients, so we can really identify these two areas: us being in that zone and us being outside of the zone, which is a process that you can then use to get in the zone and stay there.

The Two-Version Exercise
To get into the zone, you need to know yourself at these two different levels. First, we look at the version of you that is exactly where you are now: your current weight, your current actions, everything you're doing - not just with food, but also with sleep, with your lifestyle, with water, with everything.
Then comes the exciting part. We look at you as the person who has already achieved your goal. Who is sitting there at the end of the journey? She's at the ideal weight. She's exactly where you want to be. And we start really getting to know that version of you.
So that's just a very quick overview. Now I'm going to go through this process in a bit more depth to really help you get clear on these two versions of you, and how you're going to use this to get into the zone each and every day.

Step 1: Current You Deep Dive
The easiest way to start is by taking out a nice clean piece of paper. It's always so much easier to go through this process when you are writing things down, because it's certainly too much to just do in your head where there's always so much else going on. So get a piece of paper, and we want to do a deep dive into looking at exactly where you are right now, in all of the key areas that matter the most in your health, your food, your mindset, your lifestyle choices, exercise - the whole shebang.
Food Analysis
Start with food. What are you eating and when are you eating it? Are you following the food that's on your food plan? Or the food that you've decided in the morning that you want to eat? Or are you maybe being a little bit messy around the edges? Are you having three meals a day? Are you having three meals a day and snacks? Are you eating between meals when you're actually not hungry?
The more detail that you can go into really looking at all of your current habits and actions, the more guidance you'll have when we're looking at, "Well, what's the next step?" Because ultimately what we're trying to do here is say, "Well, if where I am isn't working, I need to have a really clear look at that so I can see the best path forward so that I can see the result that I want."
Because of course, everything is so important in this area - especially mindset. But at the end of the day, when your goal is weight loss, we need to really look at the food. The food is a massive part of our health and of course why our weight is going in the direction that it is going. So look at what you're eating, when you're eating, why you're eating, and get really clear on the things that you are doing that are stopping you from making progress.
Mindset Check
Then I want you to look at your mindset. What are the thoughts you're having around food, around your body, around your weight? Are you starting the day with some positive affirmations connecting to your goal, or are you just waking up, heading into the day and finding that there's negative talk that's going on that ends up influencing your actions?
And the classic one is the old "stuff it" moment where something doesn't quite go according to plan, and we go to that point of saying "stuff it" in our head. "I'll start again tomorrow. I'll start again on Monday." And of course, that thought just then leads to you taking action which is going to take you a lot further away from where you want to be.
So how are your current thoughts and how are they impacting your action? And on your piece of paper, just write down anything that jumps out at you that you know is stopping your mindset from being exactly where it needs to be to get you into the best state possible.
Lifestyle Factors
Look at your water. Are you waking up, drinking water and making sure you're really well hydrated throughout the day? Or is this just another habit that is slipping?
Sleep? Are you going to bed on time, or are you staying up to watch Netflix or do other things that you somehow think are just more important because it's "your time" of the day than actually doing what's going to give you the best result possible, which is going to bed earlier?
Look at other areas of your lifestyle that are currently impacting your progress. Are you moving regularly, getting exercise, or is it something that's going to the back burner? Are you drinking alcohol on the weekends which is causing you to gain weight back? All of these things. So just write them all down on paper. All of these habits, all of these actions that really sum up exactly where you are right now.

Step 2: Future You Vision
Then comes the exciting part. Once we've looked at where we're at, on another piece of paper, I want you to really connect to the ideal version of you - the person who is showing up in the way that you would love to be showing up, maybe in a way that you've done in the past that you would like to reconnect with, because you know that she is the version of you that is getting the result and feeling amazing.
Then, in all of the areas that you've looked at where you are currently at - the food, the thoughts, the exercise, the lifestyle - think about where she is and how she is different to where you are right now.
Future You's Food Habits
Is she just waking up and just randomly throwing together a meal, or has she done some meal planning? Are the options sitting there in the fridge ready to go? Because this is just what she does. Is she somebody who eats between meals, or does she just stick with her meals that are on her plan? Is she eating after dinner? Or does she stop when dinner is done? Really get to know exactly how she is eating. It's so important because like I said earlier, food is such a key part of this journey.
Future You's Mindset
Then of course, we need to look at what she's thinking. Is she waking up feeling regretful, full of shame or remorse because things just aren't going according to plan? Or is she waking up and just connecting to the goal? Thinking about how great the day is going to be because the plan is already in place.
Future You's Lifestyle
What about exercise? Does she just go for her walk? Or is she saying, "Oh nah, I'm too tired. I'll do it again another day." Every single area that you've looked at, of where you're at right now, I want you to then look at the version of your future self - that person that you want to become - and look at how she will be doing things differently.
How do you think she's going to react when she's at a party or at a social situation? Is she going to be standing at the buffet table having extra bites, eating as much food as possible? Or is she just going to be grabbing a small plate and then going off and talking to people?
The more that you can really explore this, the better it's going to be because once you have your two lists, the key is then to say, "Okay, well, if this is the version of me that I want to become, the version of me that really is in the zone, I now know exactly what she looks like, what she eats, how she's acting, how she thinks, how she moves through her day."

Step 3: Step Into Her Shoes
And then you only have one job, which is to step into her shoes. So as you are moving through your day, right from the moment you wake up, every time you are making a decision, whether it comes to your food, your workout, your water, you're going to be asking yourself: "Is this the action of current me? Or is this the action of future me?"
This is such a powerful thing because of course we are making multiple decisions every day - hundreds of decisions - and every single decision is actually aligning you with one of the versions of you. You're either taking the actions of your current self, or you're choosing to step into the actions of that future you, the one who's already at her goal, the one who's in the zone.
You see, being in the zone is simply about really recognizing that person you want to become in such an intimate way in every area, and then just stepping into that action. And the wonderful thing is that you do not have to be perfect. You just need to be consistent because this is not something that happens overnight.
But if you start waking up and then repeating this process of asking yourself, "Whose shoes am I stepping into with this meal that I'm about to eat? Who am I feeding?" When you start asking yourself this throughout the day, and then you start consistently taking action towards that vision that you want to be, this is when the magic happens.
Because you'll start to notice that pretty soon - maybe even after a couple of days - those actions are becoming just a bit more automatic. It's not something that you're having to really think about. You're just starting to take the better action. And once you start taking the better action, you're going to start to see the better result. And that momentum is going to start building.
This is how you're getting into the zone. You are acting your way there every single day with every single action you are taking - from your morning routine, right through to your breakfast, through to your workout, how you respond when you get to work. All of those actions, when you are doing them consistently, you are getting into the zone. And it feels so good.

The Confidence Cascade
Your confidence is going to start increasing because you're just making those better choices. Then you're going to start to notice all those small wins, right? Your pants getting a little bit looser. You might be sleeping better. And if you see the scales go down, well, that's just the biggest bonus of all. You're going to start to trust yourself again that you can make the right decision.
Change and creating new habits is not always easy. So here are a couple of things that you can do in order to really cement this habit and get into the zone as fast as possible each day.
Daily Mantras
One idea is just to have a simple mantra that you might say to yourself each morning, something like, "Today I step into the strongest version of me." And as you keep repeating that to yourself, it's just going to be a great little reminder of all the actions you are doing.
The Pre-Meal Check-In
Another thing that I encourage clients to do is just to develop a habit of before they're eating, just quickly ask themselves, "Who am I feeding?" It's just that quick moment to reflect before you're making decisions. And the more often you do that, of course, the more often you're going to choose the right action and get that momentum going in the right direction.

When You Fall Out of the Zone
But of course, we are all human and nothing is ever simple, and we're certainly not perfect. And there are going to be times where we drop out of the zone and take actions that we wish we hadn't, and that is all very normal, and it's just part of this process.
So when it happens, you don't have to sit and wallow and ruin all of the progress that you've made. Just take a quick breath and reset. Reset. Reconnect with your ideal self and say, "What would she do right now? How would she react in this situation?" Think that through. And then just get back on track as fast as you can.
You don't have to wait till tomorrow. You don't have to wait till Monday. Just reset and start again. Step into those shoes and just go again.

Summary
So in summary, if you want to really nail your result and create lasting change where you don't just lose weight, but you're able to keep it off, an amazing way to be able to do that is to get yourself into this zone. And we do that by really knowing the two versions of ourselves: where we are right now and where we want to be in the future. And the more that we can get to know our future self, and the more often that we step into her shoes, we are going to get into that zone and become unstoppable.

Your Action Step
I always like to share an action that you can do right now to get started, and today's action is to just get out that piece of paper and make your list. What does that ideal version of you eat? How does she think? What does she wear? How does she act at parties? Just make a quick brainstorm of all the ways that that future version of you is going to be, and then start stepping into her shoes one day at a time, one meal at a time. The more often you start connecting to her, the sooner you are going to become her.
And if this episode has resonated with you, please share it with someone who you know might be ready to get into the zone. And if you'd like some support or any help in your journey, please just reach out to me because I would love to help you get there. Thanks so much for listening.

Connect with Sheryl
If you want support on your weight loss journey, I would love to help. You'll see the links in the show notes for my socials, as well as my fab freebie: a five-day low-carb meal plan and five delicious dinner recipes. You'll also see the link for my four-week Foundations of Fat Loss program. This is the program I've designed specifically for the fat-burning needs of women over 35.
Remember, the only thing that's going to stop you from reaching your goal is if you quit. Never, ever give up.