Let me set the scene for you…

It’s 11PM on a Monday night.
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I’m standing in front of the freezer in my kitchen, pulling out a half-gallon of [ice cream flavor].
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I’m telling myself, “You’ll just have a little.”
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(If you’re not laughing at me already, you should be. We all know where this is going.)
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Fast-forward half an hour later — the empty ice cream tub is sitting on the floor by the couch, so completely empty that you’d think my dog came through and licked it clean. Except I don’t have a dog.
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I’m sitting on (OK, more like in) the couch. And what am I doing?
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Punishing myself.
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Sitting there thinking that there’s something deeply wrong with me as a person because once again, I’ve gone on a binge. And now I’m full — actually, way past full — but still feeling empty.
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But you know what?

Being overweight isn’t a moral failing.

I’ll say it louder for the voices in the back of your head:
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Being overweight isn’t a moral failing.
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It doesn’t mean that you’re lazy, stupid, or secretly just a bad person.
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Believe me: I told myself these hurtful stories too. I could share a lot more memories. But instead, I want to tell you about what changed.

My lightbulb moment

OK, so it wasn’t a lightbulb. It was a mirror.
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I was standing in front of it, looking at my body.
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I was 26, and running a multimillion-dollar company with more than 100 employees.
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And I weighed 330 pounds.
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You’ve probably heard of “eating your feelings” or “eating your emotions”. It’s when you use food to self-soothe because you don’t have the mental tools to face your problems.
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What you probably haven’t heard is that sometimes, GOOD things can cause emotional eating, too.
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I was eating uncontrollably because, honestly, I was more successful than I’d ever been in my life — and I was terrified.
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That day in front of the mirror, staring at myself and feeling deeply unhappy… something shifted.
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I realized that I had figured out how to succeed in business (or, honestly, was in the process of figuring it out every day).
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I could figure out how to succeed in losing weight, too.
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At that point, I’d lost 100 lbs multiple times. And gained it all back every time.

That day, I realized two important things:
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1) I was only ever going to be successful in transforming my body if I did it for myself, not for other people.

2) It was going to be a long, slow, steady process.

I started to examine my life

After a while, I recognized that there were six core principles intimately related to how I was eating, moving, and even thinking. These became the 6 Pillars of Feeling Full.

Beliefs

and the stories we tell ourselves

Beliefs are the very first, most important pillar. Why? Because if you don’t face your most harmful core beliefs, they will always limit you.
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Core beliefs sound like: “I’m lazy,” “I don’t deserve to feel good,” “I can’t do hard things”.
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If your internal monologue is critical and cruel, then you won’t be able to depend on the one person who can make real change in your life: you.

Integrity

and the 2 voices in your head

Integrity means keeping the promises you make to yourself, because you’re worth it.
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Connecting with integrity starts with examining the real why behind your weight loss goals. WHY do you want to lose weight? Is it to look better in a swimsuit? Not really (though that’s always nice).
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Let go of external pressure and motivation and ask yourself what’s truly driving you.

Habits

and creating new defaults

There are SO many books and resources out there on habit creation. They all boil down to one thing: consistency.
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If you do something every day for a long time, eventually, it becomes routine. You don’t have to think about it. That’s what a habit is.
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And how do you achieve consistency? Set yourself small, doable goals. It’s much easier to create a 10-minute-walk habit than a 30-minute run habit.

Preparation

and setting yourself up to win

Preparation is what you do to increase your chances of developing consistent habits. These can be small, simple things.
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For me, preparation means putting my sneakers in plain view next to my bed — so that in the morning, I can wake up, get dressed, put them on, and go for a walk.
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For other people, preparation might mean laying out their workout clothes, or committing to a weekly walk with a friend. How can you set yourself up to win even in moments of weakness?

Emotion

and eating your feelings instead of, well, feeling them

Obviously, there’s a lot involved in learning to feel, understand, and process emotions in a healthy way.
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Sometimes we don’t even realize we’re eating our feelings until the bag of candy is empty, or the pot of mac and cheese is gone.
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In those moments, what’s most important is replacing shame with gentle curiosity. Why did we do this? How do we feel? What might we like to do instead in the future?

Food

and discovering what you actually like

No, I’m not going to tell you to spend 4 hours every Sunday dicing vegetables, pre-cooking steak, and Tetris-ing Tupperwares into your fridge.
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What I WILL tell you is that there are a lot of delicious, simple, whole foods out there.

And many of them can check all the same satisfaction boxes as a processed-food binge — especially once you’ve reoriented your taste buds.

Take a moment to zoom out

What are your goals in two years? How about five years?
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No matter what you do, you’ll be two or five years older (and I don’t have to tell you that’s the best-case scenario).
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Would you rather be older and healthier… or older and still cycling in and out of dysfunctional dieting?
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We’re so used to whipping out our phones and getting whatever we want in a snap — but unless you get a Lap Band or lipo, weight loss just doesn’t work that way.
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Long-term, sustainable weight loss takes patience and positivity. Not punishment.
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Another way to think about it:
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If you quit your job to start a business, you wouldn’t expect to replace 100% of your income right away. You’d start small, celebrate each win, and grow into where you wanted to be.
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Why not take the same approach with your weight?

A few words About Me

Let me set the scene for you…

Being overweight isn’t a moral failing.

My lightbulb moment

I started to examine my life

Take a moment to zoom out

Weekly Advice & Inspiration

Mordi

Manifesto