That is step one that we teach inside the Health Mindset Coaching Certification as well. Step one, to actually changing the behavior. It’s something I say all the time is like you can’t change what you don’t know needs changing. So you might think like, I wanna change this thing, I wanna do more, I wanna do this, I wanna do this other thing.

But the reality is, if you wanna change those things and start doing other things, you need to really have a good handle on what you’re currently doing. And most people don’t. Most people don’t. Hello my friends, and welcome back to Not Another Mindset show. I’m your host, Dr. Kasey Jo. My goal with this podcast is to take the science of mindset and behavior change and distill it down into actionable takeaways for you.

Together we’re gonna unpack research around motivations, self-sabotage, willpower, and so much more, and we’re going to take all of that and translate it into strategies you can immediately apply to your health, fitness, relationships, business, marketing clients, all of the things. But just to be clear, it’s not all serious and sciencey around here.

We’re gonna have a ton of fun too, and I’m so excited to share all of this with you. All right, let’s go ahead and get into the episode. Hello my friends and welcome back to Not Another Mindset show. Your newest and most favorite co-host is back again. We have Miss Sarah Tierney with us again today, and I hope you’re not sick of her because she’s gonna keep coming back and we actually just spent a handful of minutes going through like, oh, we could do this episode and we could do this episode. And let me tell you the ideas we have are our topics you’re gonna wanna listen to. Um, specifically some that are maybe even a little bit like controversial, which, you know, those are, those are the most fun topics for sure.

Momentary Restriction

So today we are getting really tangible. And we’re gonna talk about a very specific tool. This is something that I actually include as one of the five free lessons in the opportunity that you get to join the wait list for the Health Mindset Coaching certification, you immediately get five free lessons.

So when you sign up for that, one of those lessons is about momentary restriction. The link to get those five free lessons and join the wait list is in the show notes of every single episode, including this one. So if you wanna dive into this further, you get sort of like a little cheat sheet PDF thing to go along with the momentary restriction lesson and every other lesson that you get.

In those five free lessons. So definitely check that out below. And yeah, we’re gonna, we’re gonna talk about this one specific tool. And it’s funny because since Sarah knows where I’m going, just as I’m starting to laugh, because I call this tool momentary restriction, this coaching strategy, and it’s been part of those five free lessons for the wait list since 2020.

And I thought that I made this up all by myself, that I created this strategy, that no one’s ever done this before. Like, wow, how great is this? It’s so helpful, but still based on research. But I kind of crafted this strategy around it and titled it Momentary Restriction. And since then, this is like within the last like six months to a year or so, Sarah’s like, no, there’s actually a word for that. This is, there’s actually a thing that already exists and I’m like, what Here? I thought I created something new and special, but alas, here we are. So with that said, Sarah, what are the other terms for this strategy? So the main one that we have, some of our HMCC students know this one too, is called abstinence sampling.

And it was born more so in the alcohol research area with helping people reduce or eliminate their alcohol intake. And then you’ll also find sober sampling as well, uh, because some people may struggle with the idea or concept of going full sober. Um, some people need it. Alcohol, I will just say, is very tricky compared to food.

So little nuance there. But yeah, you can find abstinence sampling or sober sampling is where it comes from. Yeah, and that’s, it’s interesting, right, because then the way that I, the way that I positioned it as momentary restrictions, so for a short period of time, you’re removing something from your life.

It’s like a restrictive thing. I almost like. Like sober sampling or abstinence sampling better. It’s like for a period of time, I’m just gonna like be without this versus like, for a period of time I’m going to restrict myself from this. Like I actually, now that I’m thinking about it, don’t really love my, my own terminology, but.

The way that I have it positioned. And again, if you want the PDF resource that goes with this strategy, definitely jump on the wait list and grab that so you can have kind of like this in written format could be a little bit easier for you. The idea behind it is that for a short period of time, you are removing something from your life that you’re having a hard time being cons, like not necessarily consistent with, but moderating, I suppose you’re having difficulty.

In moderation with whatever this thing is. And a lot of times we are talking about food here. We’re health and fitness coaches. That’s most of the people that we’re speaking to. That’s most of you who are listening to this podcast. So for instance, I think this is, um, an example that I might even use in that email.

Kasey’s Habitual Chocolate Case Study

I’ve definitely used it before that, I’m a dark chocolate girly and I love to have dark chocolate at all times in my freezer, and there came a point in my life, this was years ago at this point, where I was getting to the point where I was having like half a chocolate bar a day and like obviously that adds up and do I really need half a bar a day to satisfy me?

Like probably not. It’s just I kept getting into that habit of just. Anytime I was in the kitchen, I’d open up the freezer drawer and grab another piece. And then before I know, I’m like, wow, okay. Yeah. We should not be going through a full bar of chocolate every two days, sometimes one a day. So with that said, I played around with this with myself and said, this is not a situation where I just have to remove this entirely from my life in order to eat less of it.

But next time I go to the grocery store, I’m not gonna buy any. Just for one week, I’m gonna see and pay attention to my habits, my behaviors, my feelings, my cravings, all of that surrounding not having the chocolate in the freezer. So that is kind of, to give you guys an example, what we’re talking about with this idea of momentary restriction or abstinence sampling, if we wanna use that terminology.

And for me, I found like I learned a lot of stuff. I learned that. It is so habitual to me that anytime I walked in the kitchen, any, if I was near the fridge grabbing something else, I was opening up the drawer of the freezer after every single meal. If I was kind of sitting there brainstorming an Instagram post or something like, you know what?

I’m a piece of chocolate would make this better. You know, there’s just so many moments in my life where I was doing that and I was not aware of it until I used a strategy like this. So building awareness around the habits and behaviors that you have. Really, really, really is step one. In fact, that is step one that we teach inside the health mindset coaching certification as well.

Step one, to actually changing the behavior. It’s something I say all the time is like, you can’t change what you don’t know needs changing. So you might think like, I wanna change this thing, I wanna do more, I wanna do this, I wanna do this other thing. But the reality is, if you wanna change those things and start doing other things, you need to really have a good handle on what you’re currently doing.

And most people don’t. Most people don’t. So. On that note, Sarah, any any thoughts on momentary restriction, abstinence stamp sampling, what you’ve used with your clients used with yourself? Any additional thoughts? I think we’ll get there eventually, but one thing, we’ll, we’ll definitely cover this is there’s some people who make great candidates for this and there are some people who don’t make great candidates for this.

And it was, I was just having this conversation with a client the other day and we can, we’re gonna give you some like bullet points, so to speak, on how to distinguish which client could be the strategy could be useful for. But what I will say is sometimes it just takes practice. Like working with clients and getting real feedback.

Like we could give you, this is actually a theme, Casey, in a lot of our conversations we’ve been having with coaches lately, is we can give you the step by step on like how to use this with clients, but also some of this is gonna come from your own learning, your own, applying inside your coaching work, inside your client work.

So just, we can’t skip that part. So I just wanted to get that out of the way. Yeah. It’s the whole kind of knowledge and knowing are different. Mm-hmm. And as much as we want to just. Have the knowledge actually doing the thing is how you get to that knowing and practicing it. I mean, yeah, this is, this is a very, very common theme with our students in HMCC because, and I think, you know, partially our fault, Sarah, because we talked so much about evidence-based practices and doing things based in science and all of this, and making that more the right way to do it.

And so then people run into this thing of like, okay, well. How do I make this exactly right? How do I do this exactly correctly? And then we’re over here like, what do you mean? There’s so many different ways you can do this. So I can see where that can get confusing and really, really just like wanting to do it like by the book.

But the reality is so much of this looks differently, like Sarah and I say this all the time, that we answer questions differently even though both answers are correct answers, right? So how you go about it. Yes. Still evidence-based. Yes. Still based on like our experiences and everything that we know about behavior change and mindset and psychology, but it can still look differently.

And anyway, just maybe small growth mindset, encouragement for all of you out there that, whether it’s this tool, momentary restriction or something else that you’re trying with your clients to help them better stick to the plan and better support them, get better results, et cetera, is sometimes you just gotta try it and get in there and like that’s how you actually learn the best.

Why Momentary Restriction Works Best in Short-Term Situations

So. I was super tight side tangent, but sorry. Yeah, definitely. Um, okay. I think the other thing I did wanna say too, about this idea of like momentary restriction is what also can make it very helpful is that it is momentary, it is short term, it is not a. For if we are talking about drinking alcohol consumption, that if you’re someone who, like, I would really like to reduce my alcohol consumption, but I don’t think I wanna be sober, or, you know, we, we hear this term now, it’s sober curious.

Like people are like, Hmm. Kind of wonder what, what that world would be like. Um, what would it be like if I didn’t have to have a drink every time I went to dinner or something like that. So it’s nice because, and it works because you can. Get your mind in this position of, okay, I only have to do this for the next week, or I only have to do this for the next 24 hours.

I only have to do this for Monday through Friday. Like something like that where it’s a short. Timeframe so then it doesn’t feel like, oh my God, how am I gonna keep this up forever? I mean, you can use it the other way too, like not necessarily restricting or abstaining, but adding something in too. The same thing goes where, yeah, it might be, Hmm, I don’t really know if I’m going to love mourning work workouts.

It’s really gonna fit my schedule better and it makes more sense because of the kids and the dog and all the stuff. So for the next week, I’m gonna do all of my workouts in the morning before all of that stuff happens. Pay attention to how it makes me feel. How, not just how tired am I when the alarm goes off, but how am I actually feeling during the workout throughout the day?

Does that actually make my, the rest of my day better? Even if the first 10 minutes suck, um, really pay attention to that, but I’m only gonna do it for a week. And then after that I can make a determination if I want to keep doing it, not do it at all, maybe just do it sometimes. So yeah, that’s like really the goal is that.

It doesn’t feel like a, oh my God, this is like a permanent change I have to make. And that feels daunting. And then people don’t ever do it. Instead, you’re just sampling. You’re just trying it for a short period of time to see how it goes. Um, but yeah, I wanted to make sure I added that in. Mm-hmm. Oh, that’s, did, did you know that’s part of my own, like what got me back into health and fitness?

Sarah’s 100 Day Reset Example

Did I? No. Yeah, not. Self-regulate, I guess, for lack of a better word to exercise because as soon as I would hit my rest day, then it’s like didn’t exercise for two more weeks. So I committed to like a hundred straight days of exercising. Huh? For little bite-size. Like sometimes it was as, other times it was 15 minutes and it worked.

Because now it’s not like if I’m going to do it, it’s how mm-hmm. Am I gonna make it happen? So I was, yeah, that was successful. It worked. Oh, can I ask you a question about that? You can like, not to put you further on the spot with your, your past habits and behaviors and how you got into all of this. Um, but do you remember, and you probably do, and you’ve probably reflected, given that you’ve gotten so much into behavior change and mindset and all of this stuff, do you remember like what actually.

Got you to say, you know what? Screw it. I’m gonna do a hundred days and I’m gonna stick to it. And then we’ll see what happens after that. Like what actually got you to like, because to me even a hundred days is still a lot, you know, it’s, it’s one thing to say this week gonna do it, it’s another thing to say for the next, yeah.

Over three months I’m gonna do it. Mm-hmm. So, yeah. Do you remember what, what Sarah was thinking at that point and what like actually got her to like make the leap. Yeah. And it’s not copyable because I went through a breakup. Ah, see I went through a breakup. It was very sad. I wa I was very sad and I have an emotional eating history too, so I, I was like, I need something to put my time and intention and effort in.

And it felt like, so it makes sense that it was a hundred days versus seven days. ’cause I needed healing time and yeah, that’s actually what I, and I. Talked about it on social media and that’s what I started growing Instagram at that time too. Ah, okay. So it became a side hobby. And now here we are. Now, here we are.

And now it’s not a, if it’s a when and how I’m gonna make it happen. Yeah. Do you feel like after a hundred days that that was, you were pretty much like set to go, like that’s what it took? Or did you still have times where like, oops, I didn’t work out for the last month, but I’m gonna get back on it type of thing.

That year. No, it actually was great. It, it built the momentum. Now what’s interesting though is that has more shown up in my life in the past two years, but my life is very different than it was. This was 2018. So I’m a business owner now. I have a team. I do HMCC work. I have a dog now. Um, life is so different, so I actually used it again last year.

I don’t dunno if I told you that either I did it. No. What the heck? You’re holding out on me. We don’t, we don’t talk about my training. We should probably, yeah, we don’t, we don’t actually, we don’t talk about your training either. Maybe we should training, chat. Um, yeah, no kidding. No, but I have a, I had a Peloton and so I, I’m like, I need to, I, I need to move every day and I needed to show myself that I could prioritize me, given that I pour so much in my business and my work.

So I don’t know if you’ve. Ever felt that way? Maybe like when you moved to Austin or mm-hmm. Like, I don’t know. Tell me about you. Yeah. Oh, I’m trying to think. Um, it’s hard because I, I kind of, in such the nerdiest fashion, I fell in love first with like information around nutrition and exercise and fitness.

Also a quality about myself that has been here forever and is helps and hurts all the time is just not wanting to make mistakes. So like getting ahead of making mistakes and getting ahead of wasting time. So I was like deep in the trenches of understanding like what’s gonna be. The best and make the most of my time when I’m working out to get the body composition that I was looking for.

Like that’s really where it came from. And very quickly learned that running all of the time. Tons and tons of cardio, not the things. So then I had to learn more about strength train training and get into that space and yeah, I don’t, yeah, mine started with knowledge and then. I think for me, I had the motivation to actually do it because like I put the pieces together and now I wanted to see if it actually was gonna work.

Like literally been a researcher since I was born, basically. But yeah, this was, um, like late high school going into college. So like 2011, 2012 era. Um, which is insane ’cause that means that I’ve been consistently strength training for. Over 10 years, 12 years. That’s, that’s crazy. Um, I will say one thing about that too without getting too far off topic, that it reminds me from that time I was working out in an LA Fitness because I also stopped going to the school gym because it was very old.

Didn’t have a lot of great stuff. And I was like, I wanna go to one of these cool gyms that I keep seeing in all these YouTube videos. Um, LA Fitness, not that cool, but better than the gym that I had at the time. And I remember just. Instinctively like taking a gym selfie in the mirror, in the locker room and thinking to myself, wow, I wonder what I’m gonna look like and how strong, how strong I’m going to be if I keep doing what I’m doing right now for the next year.

So I was like, without knowing anything about mindset yet that was not, it was not on social media. It was not something that I had become aware of as a science yet. And I look back on that memory and I’m like, okay, that was. That was why I kept going is ’cause I had a growth mindset that I truly believed that I was going to look different, feel different, have like a feel just different about myself in general in a year’s time.

And that felt very doable to me. And. I will tell you, I probably made, as anybody does the majority of my progress within the first like three to five years. And since then, like I’m not sure I look all that different to be honest. But, but I think having that belief that like, wow, what’s gonna happen if I just keep up with this a year from today?

What am I gonna look like? Like that was so exciting to me. And. Yeah, there’s a lot of, a lot of intrinsic motivation wrapped up in that identified and, uh, um, motivation integrated for sure. So just all of like the best types of motivation I had. And so it’s like so clear to me now, like, why was I able to stick with that?

And so many people struggle with it. Like, okay, well. Very glaring, obvious reasons from a psychological perspective. But, uh, anyway, tangent. No, that’s really helpful. I think, um, we can pull from those like little cheat codes that you shared into what could make momentary restriction. Um, it like, even to pull back to my own story, what I wanted to get out of it was.

Imagine if, if I could put myself in a bunch of different contexts, which is the point of momentary restriction, is you now, if you’re gonna either start doing something or restrict something or sample something. You get to trust out and try that behavior in a variety of different contexts. And it’s not, um, it’s not a matter of can you do it, but you’re going to figure out how.

Mm. And so we can borrow from even just your story into my story. It’s like, how can I figure out how training fits in my life as a business owner and mom? And that was a code I needed to ReRack, so to speak. Um. So anyway, we’ll get into the, we’ll get into the bullet points here soon. ’cause there’s a lot of overlap.

Yeah, yeah. I think we, I think we should, you know, it’s making me recognize too, how, how helpful this tool could be for so many things. Whether it is like trying to start a behavior, trying to stop a behavior, or just generally gain more information about what this behavior would look like in your life. So to maybe even.

Try this with your clients where they’re saying they wanna start doing something or stop doing something or whatever, um, or add something into their life that it could be an option to say, Hey, why don’t you just go and try to do that until our next check-in and take notes, report back. Let me know what you’re feeling.

Maybe shoot me a message every time something’s coming up for you so we can have like a running list of what’s going on. And then, and then we’ll kind of pick it apart together. I think that that could be a really, really cool exercise because you’re not even, you’re not going to your clients and say, this is how you should do it.

This is how you should get those workouts in in the morning, and like, let’s make sure you have a really solid game plan. So you hit all of them this week. It’s literally just no, just go try to do it. Let me know how hard it is, how easy it is, how it makes you feel. But then they will come back with this.

Coaching With Real World Data

Yeah, it looks like a reports, all this data on their experience that you can now use to determine, okay, if this is something they still wanna do, we now know where it’s most difficult, what the barriers are, how it makes them feel, things they have to keep in mind. And so you guys are working together now that they’ve collected the data on their own lives.

To create a plan that actually works for them. So yeah, I kind of like that. It’s almost like, um, you have like a blink. Slate and your client just goes out and tries to do the things, and if they come back and they’re like, I got one morning workout in, the rest of them were either afternoons or didn’t happen.

Then it’s like, okay, well that’s, that’s really good information to have that we clearly need to have more things in place. Talk about this more, fer this out. Tell me about that one morning workout compared to the other ones. Or you have someone who comes back and says. That was so easy. Like, I can’t believe I was spending so much time in my head that I didn’t wanna do it, but it was awesome and it gave me so much time in my day.

Um, so you, but you just, you don’t know until you try. So, yeah. You know what it reminded me of are those, uh, 30 day, like create one reel a day for 30 days, or one TikTok day for 30. Social media marketing. Yeah, it’s kind of the same idea. Just go stick to it. And then I think where you could take it one step further from a behavior change perspective with those like 30 day post on Instagram type of things.

Um. Is to then pay attention to the days that you didn’t and not get upset about that. But just see that there’s information as to why you didn’t and is it okay that you didn’t, are you fine with that or did you want to make sure you were doing more? And if so, then what needs to change for next time? So, yeah, just so much of this is.

At the foundation, how can you help your clients and yourself just become more of a researcher and see things objectively and collect information to make better informed decisions and actually create a plan that actually works and helps from the, for the long term.

Okay. Should we, should we get into some bullet points, some additional thoughts on momentary restriction and who it’s for, who it’s not for? Let’s do it. What do you got, Sarah? Head off on the, our little list here. Yeah, so we’re, I think we’re gonna spend, we’re gonna talk about food, we’re gonna think about a scenario in which a client is maybe struggling.

Actually, we’re coming up on the holidays when we’re recording this, and so we may find that we have clients who are eating a lot of different types of foods and they’re typically used to, and it changes their palate, and it happens too, too. All of us if we, you know, indulge. So you may have a client who is a great candidate for this, who wants to go back to the way that they were eating and, but are having a hard time having some cravings that they are just annoyed that they have to.

Uh, do like emotional, or I’m sorry, craving management around. It’s not fun. And so they just want to, like what Kaseysaid in her story earlier, change, take out the chocolate bar from the house. It’s not that chocolate is bad or that she doesn’t want it or that she’s feeling bad about herself or having it, it’s just, I would like to reduce some of these cravings or what have you.

So some of the bullet points we have here on. How the benefits of doing some type of, uh, abstinence sampling, some momentary restriction is one, it can shine a light on someone’s relationship with food and or eating trigger. So in Casey’s scenario, she has a pretty positive relationship with food, but she noticed that there was some triggers for the habit, and we know that’s actually one of the first steps of.

How to Spot Triggers and Cues

Habit ha, like executing on habits is we need to trigger or a cue, whether that is, uh, the environment of it being there or, you know, just the habit of walking through the kitchen or, um, the habit of feelings. Um, anticipation, apprehension with work, wanting to lead to some eating. And so some momentary restriction, abstinence sampling can highlight some of those triggers.

And then the next we have, let’s see how you think and feel about the food without those usual patterns. So when chocolate’s not there in the house, how do you handle those feelings that come up or the, I guess, actual biological cravings? Um, how uncomfortable are you feeling? Are they big, are they small?

How do you feel? Uh, do you notice, look yourself, looking for other ways to kind of soothe that craving, so to speak. That’s all really useful information. Uh, it also reveals another bullet point is reveals if you, how to what extent you use food to cope, whether it’s with stress or emotions. Um, just trying to fill empty space.

That’s really useful information. Uh, basically a lot of this list is, it’s about gathering a lot of information and it’s also challenging you to practice alternatives. So Casey, do you remember what you ended up doing as alternatives? Like when the chocolate was gone, did you find you were. I don’t know.

Fuzzy drink, fizzy drinks. Yeah, that’s honestly, that’s kind of always been my go-to, so I’m assuming that’s what it is. In any time where I find myself sitting in front of the fridge like, should I snack on something? It’s like, no, just have a diet, Dr. Pepper, or, I’ve really liked those bloom drinks recently.

They’re kind of like prebiotic, I think. I’m not sure if they’re like correct strains or they’re actually good for your gut, but they taste phenomenal. That’s all I care about, and I think they’re like. They’re lower calorie, like 20, like four grams of carbs or something. But there’s a strawberries and cream one that I’ve really loved recently, so, yeah.

Um, anyway, not sponsored at all, but that is, yeah. I think to your point, Sarah, what we know from. Science when it comes to habit formation and habit breaking is that you’re better off replacing it with something else versus just trying to get rid of it altogether. So I’m glad that you brought that up.

Okay. Not to like, go on a side tangent though. We do find that people who do abstinence or sober sampling replace it with food. And so that’s another, that’s actually a, a highlight though of what are they trying to cope with, like why? Are they using either, like think of just like your stereotypical trying to unwind with a glass of wine after work and now it’s Oreo cookies or cream.

And that, of course, you can have those things, but if you’re finding it every day and it’s displacing other opportunities to get nutritious food in your diet, you’re, you’re gonna probably start feeling different in a way that you don’t love. Mm-hmm. So we have to watch out for that is what is, what is that replacement.

But none of that’s bad though. I don’t like to rob clients of, if they do start to find other unhelpful substitutes, that’s still good for us to know. ’cause it means that mm-hmm. The problem, so to speak, hasn’t necessarily been solved or you’ve found creative ways to get that problem solved, I guess. Yeah.

Oh, that’s a, that’s a really good thing to think about. Hmm. Yeah. And I don’t wanna say just because your clients are replacing it with something else means that they’re like, okay. As an example, someone who is an emotional eater when they’re upset or stressed, that they tend to go, go-to food to snack and try to fill that, make themselves feel better by eating.

And then. They’re, I’m kind of going the opposite direction with this. Yeah. Instead of doing that, then they are, they’re trying to like reduce the number of. Snacks that they’re having, calories that they’re consuming, and they don’t realize that things like wine have just as many, if not more calories.

They’re not aware of this. So it becomes, okay, when I’m stressed, I’m just gonna have like a really small glass of wine and sip on it and do that instead. Instead of blowing through a bag of like Cheetos. In that case, maybe the calories are a little bit lower, right? But we’re really. Still replacing it because of the stressors and feeling upset and wanting to, whether it’s distract or dissociate or numb or whatever, fill that void with something else.

So while yes, replacing one thing with something else can be a good way to get away from that one thing. To be cautious to as to why, and really ask more questions around why it’s even happening in the first place. Uh, that’s interesting. It’s like what, as if it’s tied to, um, like stress eating, any form of emotional eating, or anytime you’re feeling bad about yourself or when you are like overly restricted and you’re really hungry or whatever, whatever.

If there is an underlying reason why it’s happening, which. Really oftentimes there are when we’re talking about this stuff. Otherwise, you probably wouldn’t want to be changing that thing in the first place. Then it’s important to look at the foundation and what’s going on beneath the surface rather than just like replacing it.

Replacing Habits Intentionally

With another behavior. Right. Is that, is that kind of like what you were getting at ultimately? Yeah, and I think that’s the whole point too, is even if there is a unhelpful replacement, that’s the whole point of momentary restriction or abstinence mm-hmm. Is it makes it easier to spot what the underlying core driver is for that type of habit.

So yeah, very. Has, it has a lot of data, so much data to play with. Mm-hmm. Um, and it is our job as coaches to help provide a safe space to compassionately reflect on that data with clients. ’cause I’m sure there’s probably many of them who are gonna struggle. They’re gonna be like, see, I can’t do it. I go to something else.

And first of all, that’s a normal, we’re human. We don’t like feeling ineffective. We don’t like getting it quote unquote wrong. So that’s, but that’s what we’re there for, is to help guide them through. Those scenarios, those feelings. Yeah. Yeah. Again, just kind of coming back to what information can we learn from this?

What is actually going on beneath the surface? And there is no wrong way to do this. It’s not, you’re not a failure. If you went to. Momentarily restrict yourself from something and you only did it one out of the seven days that you were trying to do it. That’s not, that is not the point is not to like win this exercise.

It’s to really learn. Because to me, I’m like, okay, you only were able to do that one day outta seven like. There’s some stuff going on here that’s like really making this hard for you. We gotta tackle those things. And what are those things? What were those barriers? And now you can really get into it versus just being like, gosh, this is so hard for me.

Even though I wanna do it, I can’t do it, and I don’t know why. Like, don’t get out of that stuff. Mm-hmm. And use a strategy like this to actually get some real information that you can work with and take control back. Feel more empowered, you know. Yep. So to wrap that, the whole part of why it could be helpful to do is at the end of the day, the point is to uncover the drivers, the core motivations.

What are you left with when you are abstaining from those things, and it allows you to rely on then your problem solving skills, which can, and with the guidance of a coach like you, that can help increase confidence, self-efficacy, um, skill building, all very, very important. And. Guiding them through. When it does come to the end of momentary restriction, whether it’s like, say it’s for 30 days, for example, dry January comes to mind, right?

Mm. You have, um, people who want to sample sobriety for January. Uh, if they’re, if you are working with them, you can guide them out of that. You can start reflecting with clients of what do they. Now that you have some three or four weeks of experience under your belt, what’s changed? Like what’s your relationship to this?

Like what are your thoughts? Have your core values shifted? And then we can start using that kind of information to decide where do we go from here? So it could be a very great tool in many scenarios. However, there’s also some people that we don’t wanna rely on this method. And Casey, I said this to you on the HMCC call, which is.

This is not my go-to. This is not my number one. It’s not even my number five strategy that I use. It’s in the back pocket for very specific clients. Do you have an idea off the top of your head on who you would probably not use this with? Hmm. I think the very first one that comes to mind is a client to, has.

Not really practice any form of self-awareness stuff at all, so that they would go into this and not really know how to pay attention to what they’re feeling and what they’re doing and make sense of it, and are more likely to maybe just get frustrated, like, just like not supposed to do this for a week.

Like I don’t understand, like what’s the point? Like it’s either like, I should just like do it. All the time or just not, never do it again. Like all or nothing kind of thinkers. So that’s what comes up with me First, I think you would wanna like suss out a little bit if your clients would be willing to do this and want to do this and are interested in doing it.

And you could describe to them the value and the utility behind it. Because the more we do that, the more likely they’re actually to stick to it and want to do in the first place. Um, and. Ask a little bit, maybe some more questions around, would you be willing to like pull up an Apple note in your phone or take some notes on a, on a journal or whatever works best for you to really take stock of what’s going on?

Or does that seem like it’s gonna be a little bit too much for you? Um, yeah, and just kind of figure out where they’re at before you would use it. That’s, that’s the first thing that comes to mind is just general. Like, do they actually have the. Skill set and ability to make the most of that time. Yep.

Who Momentary Restriction Isn’t Fit For

Nailed it. That’s such a great one. Some other bullet points that I have on this is if you have a client who is already prone to thinking about foods in terms of this is good or bad food, this isn’t problem food. Maybe they are someone who identifies as a clean eater, which we know that type of language is problematic.

We’ll have people who think in terms of, you know, cheat mails. Those are signs that there is. Some most likely disordered relationship with eating kind of happening. So if you have someone who is prone to like, restriction is actually their coping mechanism. So we were just talking about stress eating, being a coping mechanism, but what if restriction and holding back and taking away the permission is, uh, their go-to their mo?

This probably will not be a good idea, most likely. Mm-hmm. What else? Uh, good, bad foods already prone to restriction. Probably has very low tolerance for self-compassion. This, ah, this book is very, it’s. And it’s not to say they need to be great at it, but at the very least show signs of potential that they don’t do.

We have this term called disqualify the positive, which is you don’t like minimize even the small wins. It’s very important that a client have some reasonable potential to be able to spot when. They have a small win. ’cause that’s gonna be really, really necessary. That’s whole, the whole point of learning and adapting.

So that’s what comes to mind. I feel like I’m missing another one. But Does anything for you after that list? Honestly, I don’t, I don’t think so. And here’s the thing too, guys, if you do use this tool and you have a client who is in the same chocolate situation that I was in, you’re like, oh, I could go use that with them and present it to them.

Get their, get their buy-in, they’re ready to try it, and then they get really frustrated with it. They don’t really understand why they’re doing it. They’re coming back to you like seemingly annoyed. Like you’re gonna learn very fast if it’s not really helping them. Right? So I don’t think, I don’t think.

And Sarah, you can, you can totally like push back on this. I don’t think having someone maybe abstain from something for a, I’m talking really short period of time, like three to seven days is ever going to be like, you’re not gonna go out there and like harm your clients for life by saying, Hey, let’s remove alcohol for the next five days and see how that goes.

And I, I wouldn’t. I need to be very clear. I would not just go tell them to do that. This needs to be a conversation that you’re having with them and they are deciding with you that this is a good idea, which is also kind of like a fail safe, I guess. Like versus just like, go do this. I’m telling you to.

If you’re struggling with drinking, like, let’s just take one week of drinking off and see how it goes for you. Like, that is not how you should be delivering this tool in the first place. But anyway, long story short, I, I think you’ll, you’ll learn very quickly that, oh. I see why this doesn’t work for everybody.

’cause I’m now noticing why in my clients. But again, that’s just more information for you. If there’s the reason, the reason that they are struggling with doing something like this, using a strategy like this is something you should be supporting them with in your coaching. So just again, more learning, more always.

You brought up something that is really important, which is we need to be explaining the utility. Behind something like this. Mm-hmm. It’s not, Hey, there’s a strategy here. We could try it. Okay, let’s do no chocolate seven days this week. You have to explain why this may work, who it’s worked for in the past, who maybe it’s not a good.

Who’s not a good candidate for it? Because the thing we need to keep in mind is when clients are learning strategies from us, they need that information because they will eventually be done coaching with you. And so how do they apply this in their own life long after coaching is done? And that being able to determine for themselves when this could be a good strategy versus not is very important.

So all that to say, to summarize, you have to be able to. Share the utility behind a strategy like this. What do we expect to get out of it? We’re doing it for data. We’re doing it to see what’s kind of the core drivers of this behavior and to build some confidence and self-efficacy and problem solving skills and awareness and self-compassion and all of that good things and see what they say, and they’ll be more likely to be interested in trying it if they understand what they’re gonna get out of it.

Mm-hmm. More likely to do it in the first place and stick with it. And that goes for everything, whether it’s momentary restriction tool that we’re talking about here or any part of your coaching. So, I mean, I think that’s like, it’s such a, maybe we need to do a podcast episode and like the things that so many coaches are still doing that are hurting them and they don’t even realize they’re, it’s hurting them and their clients.

And this is, this is definitely one of them where. Assuming that if I just go and tell them to do this and not necessarily give a reason and a why, or a because we’re, we’re doing this because they’re just gonna listen to me because I’m their coach and I am the expert. And like, yeah, they do see you that way.

But if you want someone to actually stick to things for the long term and, and actually help them. Then taking that extra step to explain, here’s why it’s actually helpful for you. It’s not you have to start tracking macros. It’s, I like macro tracking for my clients because it allows for flexibility. It teaches them more about portion sizes.

It’s something that you’ll carry with you forever, even if you’re no longer actually tracking the numbers themselves, and it’s relatively simple. So that’s what I like about it and why I think it’ll help you. But ultimately it’s your decision whether or not this is a strategy that you wanna use. See how much better that is than like, okay, so we’re gonna track macros and I’ll teach you how to do it.

It’s gonna be super easy. You’re gonna, you’re gonna love it. It’s not gonna be, it’s not gonna be a problem. Like, no, like that’s like, especially if that person has any, which you don’t know, they may have some preconceived notions that, oh my God, I have to weigh out my broccoli and I have to do all of this stuff.

Or I had a friend who was tracking macros and it made her like have super disordered eating type of thoughts. So it’s gotta be really bad for you, like you don’t know where they’re coming from. So opening up the conversation and sharing more about. The like behind the scenes as to why you wanna try things, just gets them on board, helps them feel more like they’re the decision maker, that they’re actually part of this coaching relationship.

It’s not just you doling out solutions and strategies and ideas and yeah, again, we’re likely to actually do it and stick to it. I added that to our list while you were talking. Fabulous. Fabulous. I think that could be great. It could be like, yeah, five things, three things that coaches are still doing, even though we’ve been shouting it from the rooftops for years to not do it.

Um, okay. Any, any final momentary restriction, abstinence and bullying thoughts, Sarah? No, I think we’ve covered it. I’m really pleased with our list. And that’s it. I think that’s a wrap. Yeah. Beautiful. Okay. Thank you all so much for tuning in. If you wouldn’t mind. If you love us even just a little bit, it’d be awesome if you left a review, especially with these episodes that I’m having, Sarah join me.

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