Doing Everything Right… But Still Stuck? What to Fix First So Your Body Finally Responds

Introduction and Guest Welcome 0:00

Hello, everyone. Welcome. My name is Monica Duarte. I'm the owner and founder of Step One Step Fitness. We have a special guest. Linda Wadud is a holistic coach and certified diabetes care and educating specialist with over 40 years in nursing. She helps busy women over 40 who feel stuck. Despite doing everything right, she helps them lose weight, stabilize blood sugar, and regain energy in a steady way that works in real life. Linda is known for helping women see the patterns that are keeping them stuck and guiding them to simple, clear shifts that finally allow their body to respond.

Her approach creates freedom in the body through fat loss, steady energy and balanced blood sugar. So women can experience freedom and the mind with more clarity, confidence and peace in their daily lives. Linda, welcome. I'm so excited to have you here with us. Thank you. Glad to be here to meet with you and talk as well. Yeah, thank you. I'm really excited to hear what you have to say, what your, you say really resonates with me in the way that we want to create freedom for people, right? Like I really want help people take their body back so they can do whatever they want, whenever they.

And your approach is from a different angle to basically create that same freedom. Yes, go ahead. Sorry. No, one. I mean, I made freedom of the body is everything, you know, and so that's why I resonate with you as well because the goal is to have freedom on the money and freedom and the buddy comes, but it also starts with the mind. How do we have freedom in the mind so that that body can feel good? And it all connects like a loop that goes in a circle, body, mind, back to body again. So we get a chance to dialogue and talk to folks about how come this is so important and what part that they can play and make small changes in their lives

Why Women Feel Stuck Despite Doing Everything Right 2:00

as well. Makes total sense to me. Yeah. Why do women feel like they're doing everything right but not see results? You know, one of the things, so what am I running into on a day-to-day basis, a weekly basis is that people are, my screen is like things flying up. People are eating right. focusing on their food, thinking they're doing great. And then all of once they stop and they say, you know what? I'm not losing any weight. I am putting all this effort. Why is the numbers not changing? And these are also, some women are on medications to lower, to help with the weight loss and some are not.

But I hear in the same message. How come I eating right and I still not loosing weight? and then just purely frustrated. And they're like, energy levels are down. By the evening times, they are craving more food. And it's like a vicious cycle. They're, like you know what? I don't know, what to do anymore. There's just fill of shame. they feel guilty. Their frustrated. Then some women don t even want to say anything anymore, They just close up. Just quiet. If I ask them a question, have you talked to anybody about what's happening?

They're like, well, my family don't understand. They keep telling me just to keep living my life. And I asked them, how do you feel about your life? And it's totally different. It's like well I want the way to go. I wanna feel good and have energy and I'm wanna retire. So they have all these dreams. That's oh my gosh. Let's help you to enjoy the dream that you're thinking about, that can actually live. And that's where the freedom of the body comes in. You want it to move and do things. There should be no reason why you can't do it, even as you age.

We're all getting older, all of us still working, we're getting all older. Not just today, I wanna enjoy five years, 10 years 20 years from now. with my family, my friends. And so we have a way that we can help them do that. So that's, you know, that eating right. I didn't say eat perfect, but they're eating, right? And they are not seeing no results. Literally what you see. Gosh, That's so frustrating. Yeah. What do you think is like the key thing that is really keeping them stuck? I will tell you what's keeping a person stuck is that they think it's an effort problem.

If they're thinking like, I didn't do it hard enough, or I wasn't, my timing wasn' perfect. It has nothing to do with an efforts. The problem really is a pattern problem, nobody looks at their pattern. And so a patterns is, when are they getting off track? It's not every day all day long, right? A pattern is have anyone sat down and looked at their day. I call it life is life thing. You know, it's my favorite life, his life. And you know I think about life being is like, okay, my life and your life in everyone is totally different.

The Restart Cycle and Pattern Problem 5:30

But sometimes we like to put a rubber stamp and say, okay, it's effort. You know, well, their willpower wasn't there. I hate that word, will power. Their will-power was in their head, nothing to do with will powered. It has to deal with a pattern. And so for most women I say are stuck in what's called the restart cycle. And so the restart cycle looks like this. All right, I'm gonna start. I am on track. Am gonna eat healthy. Yes, am gonna lose my weight. My blood sugar's gonna get better, my energy.

Guess what happens? Life happens. And there's like, oh, Am off track, okay. Then it's, like okay, gotta restart again. It's that off-track, on- track and that cycle keeps the body totally confused. Your body can't respond when you're on and off, on off. It's like taking a switch taking on an off on enough. You can see where you go in your body doesn't know what to do when, and then you find yourself just stuck in that loop. And we all have been there. We could have been there a little bit of the way, or we could've been here like 100. That's me all the time.

But a lot of women go through that cycle of restarting. We always call it Monday restarts, right? Restarting on Monday, and then by Thursday you're off track, then it's like, oh. Then, well, who cares by the Saturday, Sunday? I already blew it, so I'm also just what? Enjoy the weekend to the fullest, because you know what, Monday will come back again. And that's the mistake we see the most, and that the frustration we say, but all of that can be corrected, Monica. All of can change if someone stopped and worked with their pattern.

And then that it, stop and work with a pattern? So what does that look like when you stop to work your pattern Perfect. So for example, for some women, it could be Linda, I need you to help me work with my meals. I don't you know what to fix. Oh yeah, by the way, half the foods they want me to eat, I hate. So a lot of women are like, you know what? I don't want to be on a diet. You know, is this a die? That's the question I get asked the most. Is this diet? Cause you now I'll do diets. And so Monica and I'm like okay, no, let's just talk about who you are.

What will you like to see happen and change differently? You know, this is not like a restricted eating plan. This is a healthy plan, so for some women it may just be meals. Others, it could be, you know I crash energy wise between two and three o'clock in the afternoon. And let me tell you, when I crashed energy it looks like I can't focus at my job. I had a young lady who needed to do charting. She can even finish her charty. I have those who are in meetings and special projects. They can't even pull the pieces together to finish up their job.

And you know what? They're seeing it, but so is your boss, your coworkers, you're family members. So now they're embarrassed. I can focus. Energy level, they like just, feel like they are the days. Then many others, it's just evening cravings. And evening cravings and okay they did pretty good all day whoo and then by 678 o'clock there in that kitchen they don't know why they're in their kitchen

Common Struggles: Meals, Energy Crashes, and Cravings 9:20

is either sweeties or the salties and some of them Monica they like them both. Right. So they doing a combination thing and they can't even stop at a little bit. You might have your walk in the kitchen. Okay. I just want, okay, just, I'm not, no, it shouldn't have cookie. Just want to get two, two small cookies. And before, you know, the whole sleeve gone. Hmm. Do you see what I mean? And so it's the cravings. Then I leave the Kitchen. They go back to the. Kitchen and I've had other women who have out what we call, um, they say, You know what?

I am a closet eater. I'm like, okay, describe what a closet eater looks like to me. And they're like their foods are in the closet, their spouses are going to bed and they are sneaking downstairs eating secretly. They'll say, that's not how I want to live. I wanna be able to be free and comfortable about my foods. When you look at a pattern, I like the look where do we need to look it first? We're not going to fix everything at one time. We are a society that likes everything done like this. But technically, what if I told you, Monica, we need to focus on one at a time?

And believe me, if we focus in that one area first, the others start lining up. Or we may then fix one, and now we got to look at this, let's fix this And so I slow it down. And that makes it harder when everybody likes instant, right? We like that fast track. I'm here to say to you, you get further on a track that's slower than you do on something that is faster. That's why we look at your pattern. And that's, that the beauty of it all, to watch a person get on the phone. I lost weight. Oh my God.

Can't believe it. And I'm like, so how hard was that? Did you struggle? You know, you start teasing a little bit. So don't tell me you passed out because you didn't eat all day. They're like no. That's the thing. You're the Beauty about looking at patterns because they get a chance to shine the light back on themselves. Mm hmm. The other last thing I would say with patterns, for some women, they think they need to do, okay, I know I need a low carb or I only need fast or, it's like all these food ways.

How about that liquid drink they talked about on Facebook or TikTok said I needed to this. When you do the restart cycle without really understanding a structure, It's called guessing. And the reason why the pattern has never been able to be established because they're guessing all the time. You know, and can you imagine, have you ever guessed before? Okay. Hmm. So what should I work on today? You wake up, what's the work one today and oh yeah, that's right. I'm gonna do like no carbs, forget low carb.

They're like, no carb today. It's just gonna be a protein day. And you know how long that lasts, Monica. Yeah. And so that's where the patterns make a big difference to really look at their true life cycle. And every woman is totally different. I have not seen two whose life cycles are the same, I haven't. and I describe that as energy level, waking up, going to bed time, who they're interacting throughout the day. who has jobs and they have social events and churches and leading organizations. And I have some women who are home, retired now, who like social event, knitting clubs and bowling clubs, and what they call comedies.

They like to sing or they like be interacting. So each and every one of these women are different. That's why it's important to look at their pattern What do they need the most?

Why Personalized Patterns Matter 13:40

Can you imagine? That's nice. Yeah, it sounds like it's a lot of looking at yourself and making sure you're doing the right thing for you, and then not expecting yourself to be able to change 100% overnight. And that is, like you said, so contradictory to what we hear. It's like, oh, just do these 500 things and your life will be better. Well, if I could do those 500 days, I probably wouldn't be here right now if there wasn't anything to shift. Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense. I mean, if it resonates with me, that's why my business is called Step One Step, because you take the one step at a time, and you start with your step one, whatever that is.

And that why it resonated, Because that exactly it. What is that one Step? Yeah. So is the first step then looking at your patterns, or is there a different first Step. No, my first is looking their patterns. My first What are they doing over a week's period of time? What time are the getting up or go on the bed? what does it look like from the time they wake up until they go to bed and where do they feel like a shift or an uneasiness in their day? You know, is it, you know what, by the way, I can't even fix breakfast in the morning.

And I'm like, okay. Well, I get up and I'm out of the house and 15 minutes after I wake up, it's like 15 minute, whoa. Then you gotta talk about how can I give breakfast? Can I up earlier? How many of them are not sleeping at night? Because remember that what tends to happen when the body's off sync, right? It's just not one area, Monica. It not just the energy level. For some folks, they're not even sleeping a night. And so they're already sleepy and tired when they wake up and they can't even focus, let alone sit down and eat a breakfast.

And if they cant even fix a breath, then what are they doing for lunch? So that's why I do start off with what's going on with you. What does your life look like that we can just make small adjustments? What would you like to see happen different? Can you imagine me ask Monica, what would YOU like the see happened different, not me tell you what I think you should happen. You know, I know as a health professional, we're supposed to like tell people what to do. And I like coaching because I get a chance to ask you, What Would You Like to Work On?

Can you imagine for everyone it is different? So I do look at their life cycle and I look their pattern and what would they like to address and change. And then I just kind of observe how their day moves one hour into the next hour. What does it look like near lunch, after lunch dinner, towards bedtime and evening? Because when I say that everybody's life is so different, there are folks who are working 12 hour shifts. Can you imagine me telling you, a person who works a 12 hour shift, you can't eat past six o'clock?

Yes, I can. I've had that. You can have them tell you. They don't get home until eight o clock. So what's supposed to happen? What, are they supposed just get better? So that's why I started with the pattern. What time, what shift are you working? There are some who works in organizations they can't even bring, they have to have like, you know, the clear bags, everybody sees everything. Some people can bring like this with filled up with water. I mean, some places jobs can allow them to do that.

We don't know that because we only know what we see. But there are other folks that, yeah, well, I got to fill the water when I get there. It's so different, their patterns. That's why I look at their pattern first. and will identify one area to work on. That's what it looks like. Yeah, you know, I didn't even think about how really specific it gets, bringing the water bottle, bring the backpack. It really is that hard sometimes for somebody to take some generic advice and apply it.

Blood Sugar, Prevention, and Choosing the Healthy Path 18:00

They think through these other problems that they have, and that's why you need help sometimes. You can't see through the life. Well, this is the advice I got. This is a circumstance, And it's just never going to work. But it is really excellent to really have somebody listen to you and really think what the real problem is and try to give you a real solution to get to the same place. Or not maybe to same to where you want to be, right? That's what it all about. It's like being able to what we want be.

It is been a member I said, you know, if you have freedom in the body and freedom and the mind. Can you imagine you don't have all that weight on your mind, what that body feels like, just imagine a body just feels lighter. Right, your in control. improvement of their blood sugars. By the way, even I talk about blood sugar, I know everybody's not a diabetic. Not everybody has pre-diabetes. But I will say one thing, if you do not take a look at how you're doing your foods, you already lining up to have diabetes or pre diabetes.

Because by time a person is diagnosed, the changes occurred six to eight years earlier. So this is always a good time to say, hey, how can I look I'm not a diabetic, but can you look at my pattern? The answer is yes. Best time to start is now. That's the way I look. I am not one and I don't want to be. Exactly. So what do I need to do? You do the one step. What do i need do to not get there? And I didn't say panic. Sometimes we focus a lot on Like I tell folks, if I'm standing here and I am looking at this, there's two lines, two pathways.

If I look at, I don't want to be a diabetic, and all my attention is on what? Not becoming a diabetics. You don' even ever look to the one that says I will be healthy. I want you to sit back and say, no, what does it look like to look healthy? What can I do to be on this healthy trail? What steps do I need to beat? Yeah, the other trail is there, but you don't have to panic over there anymore because what you're following this pathway. And that's why I enjoy what I because I have folks just step back, take some deep breaths and let's put you in the right pathway, looking at your pattern.

That's what that about. Yeah, so when you're so scared, it's a little hard to see how you can be better, be different, and be happier. It's like you are stuck. I was just thinking about this this week, actually. You are so far in it, you cannot see your way out. All you thinking is that this is not what I want. Exactly, exactly. And you think about the mindset on that, right? Everything, I mean, think of the cloud that comes over that being stuck, to me it is like, pff, How can you think about when that cloud just carry that overcomes you?

And that's why it's good to hear different things to just let's break away this clouds. Let's look at that pattern. That's helping you to move in the direction you truly want to go in. And the other part will just dissipate.

Gentle Movement and the Seven-Day Reset Gift 21:30

Awesome. It all starts to come naturally. Yeah, it does. Well, Linda, this has been great. I'm super excited that you were able to join us today. Um, I understand you have a gift for our audience. You know, some folks want to know where do I start or how can I see myself do something differently? So what I did is I put together a simple seven day fat loss and blood sugar reset. It's a way of looking at how to eat differently, how move differently and how have the energy that you want in the body, helping the buddy to, hey, I got more of a structure idea.

I've got these steps that can work on. And I like folks to start there first because they'll be able to read it, start doing some steps and they will say, Hey, you know what, by the way, there's this one area I wanna work. And that's what we're here for. We're to reach out and say, hey, I want to do a little bit more. It could be movement. I know you, Monica, one step, right? And so I wanna tie in a bit is that movement part is so important because when you have some movement, it helps you to decrease your stress.

When you have that movement, it helps you to improve your numbers because movement is supposed to support you, not stress your body. And that's why I like what you do, which is called gentle movement. Right. You're not gonna start if you are more stressed out by the exercises that you're doing. Someday you might wanna get to this like, hey, I'm really, really doing this crazy thing. It was like oh, i'm so tired. But in the beginning, what I am seeing is like it's just adding another layer of stress and chaos and that's not what we need.

Too many women, that is just not where they are at yet. Yeah. And that's why I wanted to say that because when you have that gentle movement, it's there to support you not to stress you out. When you're not stressed out, everything else can release. You want to release the weight, you want release having stress, and you wanna feel good in the day. And so the gentle movement leads right into that's why I did that simple, you know, seven steps into fat loss, and blood sugar reset. You'll be able to take all pieces of it and say, oh, okay, now I know what I need to be doing.

And then also because a lot of women are busy, They have so much going on. They're like, I got this. You know, you know we love chaos. I've got to, this, and sometimes to recognize we've gotten used to the wobble so. And I'm here just to say, listen, ladies, You don't have to wobbling like that by yourself. Lean in and there's help there. help you to get off of that wobbling and become a little bit more stable because your body will not release anything until you become stable. And that's really what it's about.

Right. That is all it is about trying to just be better, be happier, and be healthier. Yes. Well, Linda, thank you so much for joining me. Everybody, the link to Linda's seven-day fat loss and blood sugar reset is in the email that this interview came out with. And we're really excited. Go ahead and click that link if you wanna get the free gift and you'll hear from Linda. Thank you, so, much, Lynda. Once again, my name is Monica Duarte of Step One Step Vindice. Linda do you want to say goodbye to the audience?

bye everybody thanks to you all soon, but goodbye and listen it's just a pattern, we can do it. Thank you bye. Everybody. Take care, everybody.