Clearing Up Food Confusion with Suz Carpenter

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Reading instead of Listening (Transcript) 

FYI: this text is not polished, I try to keep it as close as possible to how the guest expressed herself/himself . Also, the time stamps start when the interview start without the intro where I introduce my guest. 

Conny Graf 0:02
Welcome, Suzanne, I'm so excited to have you on the show.

Suz Carpenter 0:05
Conny. I'm so glad we finally connected and then I get to join you for this conversation. Thank you.

Conny Graf 0:11
Me too. I think we're going to have a lot of fun together. But before we begin, tell my listeners a little bit about who you are and what you do every day.

Suz Carpenter 0:23
Sure. Okay, so all my girlfriend's called me Suz. And then by trade, I'm called a certified nutritional consultant. That's just a bunch of fancy words that mean, I really understand the human body and I understand how food affects it. So my whole ethos is to clear up food confusion so that women can win at losing weight.

Because really, we have a serious problem. Women are suffering because they're frustrated and they're overwhelmed about what it takes to lose the weight. And so I developed some inexpensive online programs to help them understand what to eat, so that they get the weight off. They have weight loss without hunger, but they don't feel like they have to suffer and struggle anymore and they start enjoying their lifestyle where they look and feel their very best. Okay, so about me, I had a secret that I never planned to tell anybody, ever. And I'll tell you what that is in just a minute.

But at home, I'm a mom of four kids. I've been married 24 years. I live just north of Atlanta, Georgia. And I promise you at least once every three or four months, I turn a load of laundry pink still through all of these years. And when I was asked this really pivotal question, several years ago, 10 years ago, it changed everything for me. And the question was this. You say you would die for your kids, but would you change for them? And it was in that moment when I was asked that question that I realized that secret I've been carrying as a big burden my whole life like since I can remember being a teen There's going to be time for me to do something with the fact that I had an eating disorder. Because I couldn't handle the idea that my girls were going to be like me. I was okay with me suffering and struggling in silence all those years. But when I realized that I was likely to pass that on to them, that's when I became willing to do something about it. And that's kind of the springboard of how we got here.

Conny Graf 2:21
Yeah, so repeat that question. Because I think this is a very profound question that doesn't only rely on or relates to eating but to anything.

Suz Carpenter 2:33
...to anything! Okay. The question was, you say you would die for your kids, but would you change for them?

Conny Graf 2:41
So profound, eh, so profound

Suz Carpenter 2:42
Mm hmm. That's right. Because, you know, I think that when you have something that you're struggling with or you know, you need to improve upon within your own self. Knowing it's one thing but trusting that you have or can acquire the knowledge and information to make the change is terrifying because you haven't made the change yet. And while you see others capable of change, you don't have evidence yet of your own self that you are as well. And there's a vulnerability attached to that.

Conny Graf 3:18
Oh, yeah, I see that in my clients too around decluttering. That definitely comes up a lot like, Oh, yeah, she can do this, but I couldn't ... or all the reasons why they couldn't. And yeah, that's that's wholly true. And we already when we had our little free chat, we realized that there's a lot of commonalities between eating and clogger or dieting and clutter.

Mainly, so I explained a lot to people like what they expecting is with decluttering is to take a crash diet and keep the weight off. It's basically what they're expecting. From decluttering the clutter once and be good forever. And that is not how it works not in diet and not with the clutter. So, um, one thing that I wanted to ask you is, so clutter in my experience has a lot to do with grief and emotions. So and I'm pretty certain it's the same as eating. So there I heard about that emotional eating, especially now two are still a little bit into pandemic, just this morning the joke went around, did you gain weight you're in COVID or not. And so I wanted to ask you so what is the difference between emotional eating and emotion and normal eating or emotional hunger and physical hunger?

Suz Carpenter 4:53
Oh, that's such a good question. So I often talk in my world about how every 10 pounds that you have extra Like a layer of pain, it's almost like that extra weight is a barrier between your heart and whatever it is, it's troubling you on the outside of your body, and it's keeping you safe.

Okay, so so lately there is a correlation with COVID and emotional eating. And there is a big difference between emotional eating and physical hunger. And I'm so happy to discuss those two. And I'm riveted by our conversation, in that the similarities between a cluttered lifestyle and a lifestyle where you need to diet and lose weight, how often the clutter or the food is standing in for something, it's doing something for you. And oftentimes, we don't even know that it's doing something for us. Like that's the deal right there as you have no idea that the clutter or the food is providing some sort of safety, comfort. Just attraction, whatever, it's doing something for you. And it's identifying really, what is it doing? Or what are you wanting it to do that it's not doing.

And when we were when you're asking the question about physical hunger and emotional hunger, what I was thinking about was also, you might declutter, and then think the house is going to stay uncluttered, you might lose the weight and think the weights going to stay off forever. But yes, you have to work to keep the weight off and maintain Yes, you have to work to keep the clutter away, and to apply the new things that you learn, to have to really uncover to enjoy the journey of getting there.

Because we're always going to be working on this craft or working on this thing. You're always going it losing weight, it's not going to make you happy, nor is decluttering going to instantly make you happy, make you feel better about yourself, but whatever it was that got you to that point in the first place, is still there until we dig into it. So there's like right, some truth in that.

So physical hunger and emotional hunger. Okay, there's a really practical way we can look at it. First off, physical hunger is when you actually hear your stomach growling and you can feel like that pain in your stomach. Interesting enough. I love science like I have a superpower that once I understand science, I can explain it like so that a first grader can get it. But basically, the reason you're feeling those hunger pains hearing them is because there's nothing in there to buffer the sound but the organs churning and rubbing together.

That's why you hear those sounds. That's a side note. And I mean, there's all sorts of fancy words for biology about why that's happening. But really, all you need to know is it's empty and it's turning and you can hear it. There's nothing buffering this out. So physical hunger kind of comes on slow. It's like a ramp up to hunger, you might just start to notice you're a little more distracted, that's getting hungry, your brains getting hungry, it's starting to lose focus, you might notice that you're getting a little bit hangry a little irritable. That's hunger coming up,

Conny Graf 8:06
that's the word that came to my mind that hangry, when I get hungry [laughing]

Suz Carpenter 8:10
That's, I mean, and that one is really common for a lot more people than they realize that you might start to notice your coworker, your spouse, your child seems really irritable all of a sudden, and it's easy to think what did I do? Did I just offend them or hurt their feelings? When really it's like, no, they need some chicken. They need to eat something. So that's physical hunger comes on kind of slow.

Now, emotional hunger. Now that's a tricky one. Emotional hunger can come out of nowhere. That's how you almost always know that's what it is. You might have eaten a lunch on any other given day would have you just full and satisfied and you'd be fine. But like, all of a sudden, an hour later, half hour later even, you're thinking you really need to dig into some more food. You're probably emotionally hungry. And you could be emotionally hungry for being distracted. Like you have an email you have to write or a client you have to talk to or a difficult conversation you have, maybe you don't really want to have that uncomfortable thing. So you want the food to help you to feel more comfortable before you do it. You might be crass donating and you don't want to write the email or mow the lawn or I don't know balance a bank statement. And because you have that bigger task coming, you procrastinate by suddenly you're hungry, you're emotionally eating.

So emotional eating comes on really, really fast. It comes out of nowhere. And that's that's kind of the two biggest clues if that's what you're doing. So the important thing to do is to get really good when you're not in the middle. Emotional angry and asking yourself are what am i hungry or felt like what is the food doing for me? Am I hungry for a hug? Am I hungry to feel comfortable in my hungry to feel less stress? And my hungry to feel like I'm being productive? It's like there's usually an emotional feeling attached to why you suddenly are turning to food.

Conny Graf 10:06
Yeah, totally. I compare it with retail therapy, how they call it so lovingly know when you feel like you need to go buy something just to and and a lot of people do it very unconscious, they just buy something without even cluing off that they're buying something that they actually don't need or don't even like, but it's just to to fulfill some kind of an emotional need, which actually doesn't work, especially with retail therapy.

It usually doesn't work because you're in such a weird energy that whatever you're buying, you're actually like later most of the time don't really like that's why it ends up being cluttered. And that Yeah, and with eating too, it's just so much more awareness. So especially if you just ate half an hour half an hour ago or an hour ago, like, why, why? What is it? So I and I love how you say that. The emotional hunger comes on fast and the physical hunger comes on, sneaks up on you slower and your belly is growing.

So the minute your belly is not growing, it's probably kind of an indication that that you should check in at least whether it's not emotional hunger, maybe it's the early stages of physical hunger, but it could, might as well be emotional hunger. That's right.

Suz Carpenter 11:25
That's it, you know what you were saying there to about, you turn to retail therapy. That's another common thing that we'll do to make ourselves feel better or body. Our body is wider. We have this thing called the feelings factor. And it's wired to make us feel happy. Like that's at our core, our essence. wants us to be happy.

So let's pretend your left hand is extreme pain, like you touch a hot stove and you can't keep your hand there. And your right hand is extreme pleasure like Christmas morning, or when you have that first bite of chocolate, it doesn't last either. Well, when we're having pain, our body is wired to help us get over to the happy side. And there's a lot of things we can do that society frowns on that can make us feel good for a minute, but because society rubs its nose at us, we don't do it gambling, stealing, driving too fast. Drugs over excessive alcohol, like there's a lot of things that you could get a little endorphin rush, but because society has a frown, you may not do it with both retail therapy. And with overeating.

Those are two things that are a lot more socially acceptable. And there are ways that you can feel a little spurt of happiness or distraction from the pain to get you over to happy so in in both of our spheres of excellence or expertise to thing is temporary. So like let's say we're feeling stress in my world, the stress of a loved one just got sick or a job loss, and it is normal, but you don't want to be feeling that bad feeling. And you know, if you turn to ice cream or chips or chocolate chips or cake or cookies, that it's like it's going to put a blanket and cover up that pain and it's going to numb it out.

And that numbing feels so good that break from whatever you're struggling with feel so incredibly good. That while you're eating it and you're not feeling it and you're just in this warm serotonin bubble of food, you just want to stay there because you're getting rewarded. The problem is it doesn't last the phone the food is finite. The chip bag is going to get empty the ice cream you're going to scrape the bottom of the carton and then what happens is you're left with a stomach ache and if you have weight to lose probably shame and regret even though I tell people all foods that and then it's the blanket comes off the problem and we're left now with the problem and the feeling of regret and shame. And knowing the feeling spectrum for food in my world, I was able to identify something that I did in your world that was, again me looking for comfort.

So whenever we travel and before we got COVID locked down, we traveled a fair amount. I have just I don't like to pack tiny I don't like packing to go on a trip. I love unpacking, I love being on the trip, but the onboarding process snapped for me. But every time I'm packing, I get this overwhelming urge to go buy makeup. I don't know why I have the makeup. I have all the toiletries I need to take on whatever little jaunt away I have. But I had this need to go buy the makeup. And when I finally put that into the feeling spectrum, I realized I was wanting to buy makeup so that I would feel pretty poor worthy or more impactful wherever we went more competent, more bold, like I equated, if I went and shopped and I bought this, having these things is going to help me to be a better version of myself, which is not at all the case. I didn't need more things, but I connected it.

Conny Graf 15:07
Yeah, so interesting. So interesting what we're doing or what our brain or mind tries to convince us and if we're not careful, we right away fall for it. Yeah, and that's true. It's so what you said with that soft blanket when we're eating something that is similar if the retail therapy or you're buying something so you can focus on what you bought new. You might even get some satisfaction or some joy out of it like to use that that word joy out of it.

But yeah, it's only temporary and then it comes back and then you get like The bad effects afterwards maybe the credit card statement, and you have that charge on there and you technically couldn't afford to buy it. But you did. And now you have the added stress of having to pay for something that was a not needed and be you couldn't really afford or it takes up space in your home when you don't like it. And then you feel embarrassed or ashamed, like you said, so there's, again, there's so many similarities. It's unbelievable.

Suz Carpenter 16:13
You know, and I admittedly, I was addicted to shopping for a while as well, when I was really in the throes of my eating disorder and trying to control. I was hungry, and I was tired and I was fatigued, and I didn't feel good and I was ashamed. I had all these negative emotions in my body because of being in the middle of the eating disorder. Ironically, that's when my shopping was out, not out of control, but it was pushing up against it. I was spending too much and

What I realized was that I was using receipts, the paper receipts that I would get for buying things, almost like a bandaid to stop the aches and the wounding and the bleeding, that I felt like I was bleeding because I was suffering so much. So it's like I was using this band these receipts as patches as ways to stop the bleeding. And it wasn't until I realized that it wasn't the shirt, the sweater, the trinket or anything. It was it was I was realizing that I was trying to stop the pain. And the only way to do that was to face head on what I was struggling with. Yeah,

Conny Graf 17:21
yeah. And so now what comes to my mind is, of course, like the, the obesity problem gets worse and worse and worse in the world. And it's the same with clutter like I forgot the statistics, but we live in five times bigger houses than 50 years ago, and we own thousands and thousands of items and it's just The clutter problem is huge, just like the obesity problem, and it has become so normal.

I'm wondering whether it has not to do with. We don't learn, like we learn a lot in school, but what we don't learn is how to process emotions and our parents didn't know how to process emotions. Do you think that might be a reason? Or do you see an other reason why this is such a becomes more and more a huge problem, especially in the first world? countries where we actually are way better off and less. Like we don't have to fight for our basic needs anymore. Like other people in other countries have to.

Suz Carpenter 18:30
Right. I think that's a fascinating question like this. This gets into some really deep subject matter, but I think there's a lot at play. I think, one, we aren't thinking about our emotions because we have so much many distractions that are able to take us away from being contemplated. And I don't think there's enough of that.

I also think that there is there hasn't been a training in delayed gratification and a positive reinforcement in waiting to have something because you've earned it. We've been taught, because you want it, you should have it now. And if you don't have it now, then you're missing out, and that fear of missing out. And then the third thing I think about with your question in leading to obesity, and to, I would say decluttering and what's the big according, I would say hoarding is the equivalent to obesity.

I think the other thing is a comparison, because we have these smartphones and these devices, and we're now able to see what others are doing around the world, not just what our neighbor is doing or the people that live in our community. Now we're seeing so much bigger, what's available. That feeling of I'm missing out Or I'm not measuring up or they're doing better, they're enjoying more plays in that much more into into really hurting self esteem and hurting our emotional stability, that we've turned to food, importing or buying things as a way of comforting because it's uncomfortable to see how others are living their life. Because there's a perception that theirs is better than ours.

Conny Graf 20:18
Yeah, which all social media posts basically tell you know, that's what we're all putting out there to we're not putting out there how miserable we're doing or how, how difficult our our day is today, we're putting we all know Well, some people do that maybe too. But most of the posts, I would say 99% of the posts are all like, What a Wonderful Life we're having. Because that's what we're putting out, which is really interesting. But yeah, like Two point about that we don't learn about delayed gratification.

That's kind of why all these crash diets have such a. Like people love it, and that that's why they think they can just declutter, one sort of can get in most likely a professional organizer, decluttering news and be decluttered. And always fine. Because we're trying to not do the work. We were just trying to get what we want right away, and society tells us basically, we can get whatever we want.

So yeah, so how do we get to a point then, or what would you suggest? Or what do you suggest to your clients, when they come to you with their eating issues? And when when you notice that they're not satisfied, or emotionally in distress and psychologically in distress, and that's why they're eating, how do you get them to a point where they actually feel when they're physically hungry and not just when eating render emotionally hungry.

Suz Carpenter 21:50
It's a journey. Okay, so I talked to people about we're have to think of our bodies like ovens, not a microwave, and we are in a microwave society. That's why the fad diets are as rampant as they are. We want to lose 10 pounds in a week, and put the hard work in for a short amount of time and be done with it.

And really, that's just not reality. So when I start working with people first off, it's got to be their time, that they're ready to do the work and invest in themselves and show up for themselves that everybody's in a different stage of that at different times of their life. So when somebody comes to me, normally they're ready to invest in making a change, because what's happening right now is too painful. They're ready to move away from it.

So the first thing we have to do is get immediate success almost before we can get into the heavy emotional things. If can help somebody get a win on the scale and get that first three to four pounds off, they have better energy, they're sleeping better, they're feeling empowered, their blood sugar's even. They're noticing their clothes are starting to wiggle. They're gonna start then to get a little bit excited about the way I'm teaching them to eat because the food tastes really good. They know fad diets don't work. They know they don't ever want to go back to where they were that first day they spoke to me, they want that to be the last bad day there well, and they're willing to invest at that point, once I get them enough education, and a quick win.

And then it's like, that's when I get the permission with them to start digging a little bit deeper to start figuring out how food is standing in for them. And how food is a solution for what in their life and it's always something different for everybody. But the thing is, I have to educate on the front end, just enough where I don't blow their eyebrows off with information and they get bored and overwhelmed, but I give them just enough tools that they can get started and feel successful. Like they got a handle on this thing. So that they begin to form new habits because that's what I got to go back in and do is actually make different habits and somehow make it attractive and make it like, yes, living this lifestyle and taking care of myself is fun.

And I feel good. And I feel empowered. And I really like this. And this is so much better than feeling out of control and lethargic and eating whatever I want and waking up with a food hangover the next day. A lot of people want to stay there because that feels like that's what freedom is. Because they can eat whatever they want, whenever they want. When really that's a lie. You can't eat whatever you want whenever you want and lose weight, just like you can't buy whatever you want, whenever you want. So when I can get somebody just enough of a win because they got just enough understanding and education right away that they start to think I've really like the freedom that comes over here because I feel better. I feel more confident.

I feel like I'm more bold, I feel like I have better energy. I feel like I'm more engaging. And when that begins to be more attractive, man, that's when that door starts to open for getting really past the emotional things and going from struggling to freedom and in control.

Conny Graf 25:12
It's so awesome because it's again, so similar because with clutter too, you have to change your habits, and you have to give them a reason to be excited to change their habits. And yes, so many similarities again. So do you have three practical tips that you could share right now with my listeners, how they could make little changes or how to get quick wins?

Suz Carpenter 25:39
Yes. Okay. So you know, it's like the This is where I just almost think, please listen and really, really close because this could change your life. So everything that I'm going to say is based off of science, none of it is a fad. None of it is anything I've made up. It's just a method I pulled together to make it simple because the space of nutrition is so crowded.

It's like when we were studying for tests in high school, and you're this big exam, and you just didn't even know what to study because it was just so much of the book, and you got to the test, and you took the test, and then you're walking away into your car, you feel the information coming out of your ear, like it was just leaking out. That's what nutrition feels like to people.

So my whole everything is, can I make this clear, so you can start and I already farmed through all the knowledge and all the nutrition information just to get you those core fundamentals that are needed to start it right. So that's, that's where I'm coming from. So if you can just get in the habit of we have to create a pattern of eating that you're doing right now that you plan to do when you're 85 the word diet It actually is a bad definition. It gives a bad connotation we think deprived we think restricted, when really by Webster's dictionary diet means pattern of eating for man or mammal. So we're looking for a pattern of eating that you can do now and have weight loss.

But now that you can have weight management as well for the rest of your life, otherwise, we haven't gotten there. So the core principles are protein, fat and fiber at every meal make maintaining or losing weight, no big deal. Now fibers is zero calorie parts or carbohydrate. So what I have my clients focus on when they're working with me is actually getting higher amounts of fiber in their daily diet and lower amounts of just total carbohydrate. Because in the absence of net carbs, your body will burn fat for fuel. That's science. That's absolutely science. But how do we do that?

We up the fiber so right away. Just think protein, fat and fiber at every meal make maintaining or losing weight, no big deal. That's tip number one. So those things on your plate.....

Conny Graf 27:43
I love it, can you just give a good example for a piece of fiber?

Suz Carpenter 27:47
Yes. Okay, so fiber comes in whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables. So go down your non starchy vegetable route. cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, onions, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, garlic, I mean, just non starchy vegetables that way your carrots, all of it. Um, best sorts of fiber for fruits, berries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, boys and berries. Those are the highest in fiber.

Conny Graf 28:12
Okay, I'm sure that everybody is aware of what fiber are.

Suz Carpenter 28:15
That was a great question to quantify that. Thank you. Yes. And then your protein can come whatever protein source your listeners prescribe to and then I always say fat finds me that is not a hard one to get on your plate.

Conny Graf 28:28
I like that.

Suz Carpenter 28:31
So that's number one. Number two is we want to get three liters of water in a day and I'm going to tell you why in just a second. Okay, so three liters, get one between six and noon, another noon and three, another three and six. Why do we call To tell you to drink water, it's for these two major reasons for weight management and weight loss. One, when you are dehydrated, your body thinks it's hungry. So if you are drinking plenty of water, you may, you may just not feel as hungry all the time because you might just be thirsty. The second thing and this is a really cool thing. Water activates the fiber.

So think about when you've gone to the grocery store and you brought home a dry sponge, and you got wet stuff on the counter and you took your dry sponge and you started wiping off the counter. It didn't really soak anything up. It didn't work that well. But you take that same sponge and you wet it under your sink and it's all spongy. That thing's gonna mop up water like a boss. Same thing in your stomach. You've got this great fiber in your stomach that acts like a bloomin a sponge. It's gonna swell when you drink a bunch of water, it's going to stretch your stomach and when you stretch your stomach, all these hormones released in your body that say I'm full. I'm so full and satisfied. So if you drink water, it's going to let The fiber swell act like a spoon, a broom and a sponge. It's gonna soak up calories, fats and toxins and mushroom out of your body into the toilet bowl.

By upping your fiber to 24 grams a day. Studies show that you'll absorb about 96 calories a day, just by upping your fiber, you're going to feel full, you're going to the health benefits are amazing. So you definitely want protein, fat and fiber. You definitely want to be drinking your water.

And then the last thing is go to bed. I know I sound like such a mom. But if you don't get enough sleep, if you're if you're like a lot of us women, especially they're overachievers and want to stay up and get those last five things done and sacrifice that hour of sleep at night and you want to get up early to work out. Here's why you don't want to do that. When you don't get enough sleep. Your body gets all freaked out and it stores body fat. Because it's stressed out. I just skipped the whole bunch of fancy words to tell you when you don't sleep you store fat 

But when you sleep a lot, fat melts off your body. It's kind of like how kids sleep and they grow overnight, grown up sleep, and they shrink overnight. The other thing is if you're not getting enough sleep at night, during the day, your body is going to release these hormones that are going to make you crave sugar. Because the sugary foods or energizing foods in your body because you didn't sleep enough is looking for energy anyway it can and your body is smart.

So if you don't sleep enough, you're going to have to fight cravings harder than if you sleep. So yes, I'm like a mom but you need to get your seven or eight hours asleep specially if weight loss is something that you're feeling like it's time for you to

Conny Graf 31:28
totally and who doesn't want to sleep I mean come on. It's so nice ....

so now I quickly want you to talk a little bit about your you have some bite sized net Curses and I like I like it so much how you say bite size because one of my sayings is a few minutes a day keeps the clutter away or the chaos away so and to meet bite size sounds like okay, it's not it's not a huge thing so I can quickly do something so just quickly talk about them and where people can find you because we are now all intrigued about you being our mom telling us what to do and be bossed around 🙂

Suz Carpenter 32:21
I think about you know, you've heard all this stuff before, but sometimes, if the right person tells you the right why, suddenly you're like, Oh, that's why oh, I'll do that. Now. That makes sense. Okay, so why bite size that's called Susan your shoulder SOS. Your daily SOS Sue's on your shoulder. It's like the angel on your shoulder. It's a three to four minute tech. message that's an audio message comes right to the text to your phone. So you don't have to look for it. You don't have to work hard to get it. It's right there. You push play every day. It's a message for me. And I took a nutrition course and I broke it down into these bite sized nuggets of what you need to know, in the right order. Because I mean, you might have listened to this whole podcast, we only remember one thing, and it was the thing that tugged on your heart. We learn out of repetition. We learn out of practice, we learn out of consistency, we begin to memorize things and that's where real learning happens.

I know that I used to be a first grade teacher so I took how we learn and I applied it into these SOS daily sound bites. So this is for the person who doesn't have a lot of time or money but still wants to know how am I going to lose the weight and keep it off and get done fad dieting, how am I going to get passes, that's what SOS is for and your community can start for seven days free with SOS and just see if it's a fit for you get some of these great messages in your ears that are short and start letting them affect your life and make positive change, you can put in the coupon code as well clutter, and I'll email for different types of grocery lists. Now this is why kind of to your clutter point, we can all get a 17 page grocery list off of an Internet, and it's overwhelming. I went through and I made super simple protein, fat and fiber, ideal groceries.

So I did the thinking for you cleared away obstacles and it's um, for like your regular grocery store, then your Trader Joe's and then your online ordering and then like the Costco Sam's Club kind of thing. That way you don't waste time or money looking for new groceries to buy that can help you in this healthy lifestyle. I did the thinking for you, but I kept it simple. So SOS is definitely where I tell people to start, especially since it's a free trial for seven days. So just go to Carpenter 180 dot com. And it's Carpenter like the guy with a hammer and then one eight, zero and get seven free days.

Now, for the person who wants more accountability, more guidance, I do have small groups. And those are fantastic because we have weekly live calls where I train on something for a few minutes, and then we have discussion and then QA. Then we do like what I ate Wednesday and I review what they've eaten for the week so that I can help them with their averages help make sure that they're staying on point to get results, we focus on getting that first 10 pounds off in the small group. And then we have our weekly group coaching calls, plus the resources plus the resources plus the resources.

So it's really I put those together so that they were inexpensive, but depending on where somebody was in their journey, if they want to just really fast and they had no effort to put in that was Sue's on your shoulder the SOS if they wanted a little more focus and accountability and guidance and community. The small group is a fantastic spot for people

You can find out about both of them at Carpenter 180 dot com. And then Facebook and Instagram. I'm the same. And definitely watch me on instagram because I show off how we do the 180 eating lifestyle. And it's not chicken and broccoli, but it's delicious foods that you said, We're like, okay, I can do this. It's not complicated. It's delicious, I'm inspired, I can do this.

Conny Graf 36:08
Awesome. And I will put all the links in the show notes, of course, that people find it easily in case they don't find it by just googling it or putting it in the search bar. There. It's easy, easy, easy as the word of the day. Yeah. So any last words of wisdom?

Suz Carpenter 36:26
Well, today is a really good day to start is my last word of both. If you're feeling that tug on your heart to make a change, what ever it is, whatever this conversation brought up, there is something that works in your favor, and it's the law of consistency and it compounds so if you do 1% better today, this minute starting right now, just put the past behind you, it's done. You can't do anything about it, it's over.

But we came from this moment that you've been inspired to do something different to move forward. That 1% better today, and then 1% better tomorrow. It doesn't really feel like you're doing a lot. And that's the simplicity of this. But consistency over time compounds and a year from now, you could be in my world 50 to 100 pounds lighter. If you had tremendous weight to lose. In your world, you could be a completely decluttered home. It just takes consistent effort. And that's why starting today is the important thing, not putting off until tomorrow.

You want to get started now, and then just keep showing up to yourself because you're worth it. Whatever change you're about to make to improve yourself. It's actually going to have a butterfly effect. Improve other's lives. You're going to inspire or motivate or encourage or show up better or differently to other people around you, that are waiting for you right now to take control of this area of your life. Whatever that is. So start now just commit to yourself, show up to yourself, you are worth it start now.

Conny Graf 38:05
I love it. Same message for me. I always say decluttering is self love. So you do it for yourself. Small consistent steps a few minutes a day keeps the chaos away. And I always say to that decluttering is contagious it will have an effect on other people always does whenever you change. It has an effect on other people. So this was really fun. Thanks so much for coming on and sharing your wisdom with us.

Suz Carpenter 38:33
This was awesome. My pleasure. Thank you for having me on. I enjoyed piggybacking how similar our career paths are. We're like sisters in solving problems. Yeah.

Conny Graf 38:43
It's so amazing. Thanks so much and have a wonderful day. Bye

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