The Detox No One Talks About (But Everyone Needs)

James Hill:
Welcome to Weight Loss And, where we delve into the world of weight loss. I'm Jim Hill.

Holly Wyatt:
And I'm Holly Wyatt. We're both dedicated to helping you lose weight, keep it off, and live your best life while you're doing it.

James Hill:
Indeed, we now realize successful weight loss combines the science and art of medicine, knowing what to do and why you will do it.

Holly Wyatt:
Yes, the “And” allows us to talk about all the other stuff that makes your journey so much bigger, better, and exciting.

James Hill:
Ready for the “And” factor?

Holly Wyatt:
Let's dive in.

James Hill:
Here we go.

Holly Wyatt:
Jim, it's a new year.

James Hill:
Yeah.

Holly Wyatt:
A lot of people are out there thinking about a new you. New goals, new habits, maybe even a full reset. Some people kick that off with a body detox or some people call it a cleanse. And while we don't really buy into the science behind that…

James Hill:
We do think there's a different kind of detox that actually works.

Holly Wyatt:
Exactly. Today we're talking about an environmental detox. No green juice, no misery, no running to the bathroom. This is about looking honestly at the world around you and asking, is my environment quietly helping me or quietly making everything harder?

James Hill:
Yeah, right. Because most behavior change doesn't fail from lack of motivation. It fails because the environment keeps pulling you back into your old behavior patterns.

Holly Wyatt:
Yes. And if you're trying to change your body, your habits, or even how you feel in your life this year, this might be one of the smartest places to start. Not by pushing harder, but by designing your life a little more on purpose.

James Hill:
So Holly, today we're going to talk about several things. What is an environmental detox? What does that really mean? Why your physical and your social environments matter more than you think. And then we're going to cover how to detox your physical environment in ways that are practical.

James Hill:
And how to detox your social network without blowing up relationships. We don't want to do that. And how to do this even if you don't live in a naturally supportive place.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah.

James Hill:
So Holly, let's start with what is an environmental detox?

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, you know, we talk about the environment all the time, but I like this topic because it fits with what people are wanting to do this year. And I think this could be cool. I think of an environmental detox where you go into your physical environment, which is everything that's around you. We'll talk about our social environment too, but I start with my physical environment. Everything that I come in contact with, and I think about what is helping me make the decisions and the behaviors, the healthy things that I want to I want to do in 2026. What's helping me do that? And what things might be making it harder? And I also ask myself what things have kind of crept back in. This is why I like to do it at the beginning of 2026 is, Jim, I don't know if you know it, but sometimes people sneak into my apartment at night and like put things in my cupboard.

James Hill:
And it's not broccoli and carrots that they put in.

Holly Wyatt:
No, and they end up there. So this is a time, a detox time, when I kind of try to look around and say, “Okay, what's happened to my environment?”

James Hill:
I mean, if you think about it, Holly, the food that you have in your refrigerator and your cupboard, that's the most likely you're going to eat. And so it's worth spending some time thinking about what's there.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. And I think people do think about the food and they think about, “Okay, I got to clean out my cupboard. I got to detox my my refrigerator.” And that's good. I want to encourage them, though, to think broader, to think about your favorite physical activity.

James Hill:
Absolutely. The environment you live in can really make a big difference on stimulating you to be physically active or the opposite, stimulating you to be sedentary.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. And also, people don't think about this, but how is your environment impacting your mind, your mind state? Is it helping you get your mind right, be a voyager, or is it situated in such a way that it tends to make you think more like a victim or make you feel like you're struggling.

James Hill:
Yeah, and you know, all those are related. Your nutrition environment, your physical activity environment, and your mind environment, they're not all independent. They really affect each other, don't you think?

Holly Wyatt:
I totally think. And so I encourage people when they do this detox to think broadly. Think about what they're wanting to achieve this year and be a little bit of a detective, and think really, okay, how are things set up to make it easy? And how are things set up to, I have to push against it. I have to use willpower. It takes a lot of energy. We say, let's make the healthy thing, the default, not the hard thing to do.

James Hill:
I hear that all the time, are there actually ways to do that?

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, and I think we're going to talk about a framework. We have a framework in the book how to do that. Before we get into the step-by-step process that we can give people, I want to talk a little bit about why the physical environment matters so much. We've heard so much about biology lately with the GLP-1s, and we know that biology is impacting weight. We know that changing biology can change your weight. Is environment important or now that we have the GLP-1s, is it not important anymore?

James Hill:
Yeah, I think it's still important because the environment you live in plays a big role in shaping your behaviors. You know, lots of examples that people always use is you want to get out and walk in your neighborhood, but you don't have sidewalks. It's not safe. There are cars. So that's an example of where your physical environment very much affects your behavior. So we know biology is important, but it doesn't mean that environment doesn't make a difference also.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. So the other thing is we've been talking about the physical environment. But before we get into how you can detox your environment, maybe we should talk a little bit about the social environment, too.

James Hill:
That's one people don't think about oftentimes. At some level, Holly, it's kind of simple. You tend to engage in behaviors that are very similar to the people you spend time with. If you're spending time with people that they're always exercising, they're out. When we lived in Colorado, people were out hiking and climbing and all the time.

James Hill:
In Alabama, not so much. People are doing some other things. But you end up engaging in behaviors that are similar to the group that you spend time with.

Holly Wyatt:
[7:05] Right. So I think of this detox as both. I go in, I look at my physical environment, I kind of clean house, so to speak, really set it up for what I'm wanting to create in 2026. And then I do the same thing with the people I rub elbows with, the people I'm hanging out with. So it's kind of a cleaning or detox for both types of environment.

James Hill:
That doesn't mean that you have to throw people out necessarily, right?

Holly Wyatt:
It doesn't. We're going to help you with that. I think we have a step-by-step that we can not throw everybody out, especially the people that you want to stay connected with. But before we get to the process, Jim, I do want to spend a little bit of time on when is it time? When is a good time to do this?

James Hill:
Okay. When is a good time to do this, Holly?

Holly Wyatt:
Well, it's good when you're about to embark on new behaviors and be really strategic about it.

James Hill:
New Year's, New Year's resolution, time to think differently about the next year where you're motivated to say, you know, I need to do something different. That's really a good time to think about detoxing.

Holly Wyatt:
It is. But the reason I wanted to bring it up is because that's the time people don't think about it. And here's why, Jim. It's because they have a lot of willpower. And a lot of times they say, I don't need to change my environment. I'm so motivated. I'm so fired up. This is the year I'm going to do it. And it doesn't matter whether people are bringing cookies or cakes.

Holly Wyatt:
It doesn't matter if my environment is set up because I'm really strong and I can do it. Another perfect example is I'm seeing a lot of people who are starting the GLP-1s not changing their environment.

James Hill:
They don't need to. If they just want to lose weight, the GLP-1s will do it, right?

Holly Wyatt:
Well, that's the problem. They're saying for the first time in their life, and I get it, they're like, it doesn't matter. I can start making, I know people who start making bread and bread's been their big problem for many, many years. And they're like, now I can bake bread for people and have it there and it doesn't cause a problem. Or I can bring cookies into the office or have this in my house and it just doesn't matter. And for the first time, they're like, this is great. But Jim.

James Hill:
You're talking, Holly, short-term versus long-term, right?

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah.

James Hill:
I mean, willpower, man, that works great for what? Four to six weeks. And then boom, you run out of willpower.

Holly Wyatt:
And maybe as long as you're on the GLP-1s, for those who are on the GLP-1s, it'll be okay. But if you do want to stop the meds and then you've created this environment that's not supportive, I would say while I'm on the GLP-1s, I would be using that as the perfect time to create an environment to support myself instead of allowing the environment to actually go the opposite direction. So that's definitely not seeing people work on their environment if they're on the GLP-1s because they don't need to, but I think that's very short-sighted and it's actually a perfect time to do that, because it's easier to re-engineer the environment at that point.

James Hill:
Yeah, I think we were hoping that people using the GLP-1 meds now would say, “Oh, I'm getting the weight loss. Now I'm going to change other aspects of my life that maximize my health. I'm going to start exercising. I'm going to look at the quality of my diet. I'm going to work on my mind state.” But that doesn't always happen.

Holly Wyatt:
No. And I can understand why, you know, for the first time in their life, they're like, I can keep all this stuff. It's not hard. But I think using it as a time when you can really set yourself up for the healthy environment is worth it.

James Hill:
And it's worth it for the long term. And it's worth it, Holly, whether or not you decide to stay on the GLP-1 meds. If you decide to stay on them, it's going to make a further improvement in your health and hopefully your happiness. If you decide to discontinue them, boy, do you really need to make sure your environment is supportive.

Holly Wyatt:
Right. All right. Hopefully we've convinced some people to think about detoxing their environment. Let's talk about the process. How do you really do that?

James Hill:
Well, I think we've got a three-step process. Holly, what do you think?

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, so let's do the physical environment first. And we have a three-step process.

James Hill:
Okay.

Holly Wyatt:
And it's in the book, Losing the Weight Loss Meds. So we're using the process that we have out there. And whether you're on the GLP-1 meds or not, this process works for detoxing the environment.

James Hill:
So the first step, and you always say that, is being a detective. What is it that makes it harder? Where are the barriers to achieving the behaviors you want? People talk about mindless eating. I ate all this, I wasn't really hungry, but I just, mindless eating. What triggers that? What triggers eating late at night? A lot of people take a lot of calories late at night. Or what triggered “Boy, I meant to go to the gym today, but I just, I didn't feel like it, and time…” so think about where the barriers to those behaviors you want to achieve are.

Holly Wyatt:
Right, where the friction is. So when you come home, you may be being successful. You may not be doing mindless eating or you may not be skipping a workout. But if it's hard, if you think about it, or even if you've thought about it in the past, you know your tendencies. This tends to be a problem for me. Then really looking at that environment, be starting to think about what's making it the unhealthy option the easiest option, and then we'll be starting to think about how we can change that. But first you've gotta look at your own environment. Everybody always wants me to give them a list of environmental changes. That's not the way to go. You don't want to just go in and make a whole list of environmental changes. You really want to be strategic and say, this is what I need. This is where I'm struggling, and here's the environment that's not helping me in that situation. So step one, notice what makes it harder.

James Hill:
And that's true both for your diet and your physical activity, right? Both are important, and you want to look for those frictions for both of those behaviors.

Holly Wyatt:
And there's one more.

James Hill:
Mind.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah.

James Hill:
We don't want to skip that one because lots of people go right to the diet and exercise, but they forget about the power of the mind. And the mind can be powerful in helping you achieve your behaviors or being a barrier in achieving your behaviors.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. If your space is cluttered, for some people, having a very cluttered space may get them in a mind state of not being able to be empowered. It may affect how they're able to see situations and problem solve. So there's definitely things you can, how you can set up your environment that impacts your mind.

James Hill:
Okay. So we talked about be a detective, figure out what makes it harder. Where's the friction? What's step two, Holly?

Holly Wyatt:
It's then re-engineer the space. So you've identified where the problems are. Now you've even got to be a little bit more of a detective and you've got to say, okay, what can I remove and get rid of and kind of detox? This is where the detox is happening. What can I get rid of that's not helping or making it harder? And this kind of moves right into step three. Step two and step three kind of go together is then you can say once you detox, once you take out some of the things that are making it harder, what can you put in? Choose what's going to help you so it's really about removing and then if you can add something in that space, add something that's going to make it easier then that's even better than taking away what's making it harder.

James Hill:
So what are some add-on examples, Holly, that people might relate to?

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, so I think usually when I go through it, I remove first…

James Hill:
Okay. So what do you remove?

Holly Wyatt:
So things that I've done this year, and I'm doing them very specific to where I struggle, and that's an important part. So removing from these may not be a good idea for you. So this is just an example but for me I definitely go in and clean out my cupboards because like I said I looked in there and I'm like I don't know who bought all this junk food but somehow another it ended up there so it's about taking out the food that is not what I want to eat this year. Here's a new one I did this year. One thing that I caught myself doing and it was impacting my sleep, it was impacting my mind state is, I started scrolling by my bedside before I went to bed, scrolling in social media, looking at my emails, doing that. So I took my phone charging station and took it out of the bedroom.

James Hill:
Okay.

Holly Wyatt:
So I'm no longer putting my phone by the bed.

James Hill:
I think a lot of people do that, Holly, with take their phones to bed and spend a lot of time in bed just scrolling with their phone.

Holly Wyatt:
Right. I had my charging station there where I would put everything charging right by my bed. And while that was efficient and helpful, it was an environmental, you know, something in my environment that then made that phone right by my bed if I needed to check something or I couldn't sleep or it just was too easy to grab. So I moved it.

James Hill:
So if that's not your problem, this doesn't relate to you, but if that's your problem, something as simple as taking your charger station out of your bedroom and putting your phone in your charger station before you go to bed could make a big difference.

Absolutely. And like you just said, if that's not your problem, then you don't need to change that. That's where you've got to identify your friction point. That's where you've got to be aware.

James Hill:
Yeah, we're all about that. I mean, if you've listened to us over and over, it's not one size fits all. Advice, tips we give aren't relevant to people, but we want to give you enough so that you can figure out which ones can apply to you. Same thing with detox. Maybe your cupboards are all healthy foods right now. You don't have to do that one. So figure out which ones apply to you.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. The other thing I did is I went through my closet and I took out all the clothes that were too big or too small. Both because I really want my goals for 2026 are to live in my body now. It's not about waiting for me to get it to be a certain size and it's not about having the clothes to if i gain a few pounds right so just said these are the clothes that fit me right now. And I got rid of everything else and created some space in my closet. And now these are the clothes that fit me right now. And if I lose some weight, I will add a few things and that's fine. But it really made sense for me to remove the clothes that I couldn't wear.

James Hill:
Holly, we hear a lot of people that talk about after they've lost weight, they still keep their large clothes in case they gain it back. That's not a very good mind state to have, is it?

Holly Wyatt:
Well, yeah, you're kind of not believing that you're going to succeed. So I would suggest not doing that. But, you know, you got to make your own choices once again, feeling how that is affecting you. Do you want to hear some of the things I added?

James Hill:
Yeah, I want to hear about the adds.

Holly Wyatt:
So I think I told you this. You know, Bodie is my pug, my dog, my baby. And he insisted this year that I get a Peloton treadmill.

James Hill:
Good for Bodie.

Holly Wyatt:
I know. So I have a Peloton treadmill and I've put it in my bedroom, which may or may not be a good thing, but I'm going to try it out. So when I do watch TV, I'm going to be on the Peloton.

James Hill:
I love it.

Holly Wyatt:
That's one of my things. I created a 5 a.m. kind of morning ritual space that's ready to go set up because you know how I love that. And here's a big one I got. So I wanted to get more into kind of gardening and herbs. I'm not sure I'm going to cook, Jim, but I'm going to grow herbs.

James Hill:
I wouldn't expect miracles, Holly.

Holly Wyatt:
]Yeah, so I bought a garden and it's this hydroponic little garden for apartments, that I'm gonna be growing some herbs. So those are some of the things that I've added.

James Hill:
So that one hits both the nutrition and the mind. We know that herbs can really, really help a lot of ways and direct effects on health and making food taste better. So you hit two of them with that. And then, you know, as long as you're on that treadmill when you're watching TV, you're going to be good.

Holly Wyatt:
We'll have to see how it goes. And that's the other thing. So I've come in, I've identified friction points, I've made changes, I took some things out, I've added some things. But it's not like one and done. It's, this is what I think is going to work. It's a hypothesis. But I'm going to have to evaluate and fine tune it. And it may be that I want to make some changes as I go. So it's not like you do this once and then you never look at it again.

James Hill:
Right, right. All right. Well, that's some real practical tips. So some things to remove and some things to add.

James Hill:
And think about choosing ones that are relevant for you.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. All right, Jim, do you want to do how to detox your social environment? I think we have a four-step process there.

James Hill:
We added a step on this one. Again, just like the first step in your physical environment is understanding what it is, what we say is the first step is map your social circle. And one of the exercises that we like to have people do, I think it's useful, is to think about the people you interact with, your friends and your family, people you see, your co-workers, people you see on a consistent basis, and have two columns. And in column A, put those people who support your goals or who you think would support your goals if you ask them to. And in column B, put those. Names of those people that tend to pull you back into your old undesirable habits. And it's just a way of recognizing what your social circle looks like. See how many people you have in column A? See how many people you have in column B? So the first step is simply to map your social circle.

Holly Wyatt:
And I think when you say map, it's not just say, will they support my goal? Do they just talk like they support my goal. It's what behaviors are they doing? If I'm trying to eat a certain way, how do they eat? If they eat opposite, if I'm trying not to go out to happy hours, do they go out to happy hour every two or three days? They're not going to be in that supportive column, even if they say they would support your goal. So you really have to look at the behaviors. Who's doing behaviors in general that are the behaviors I want to do in 2026? And then which people are not doing those behaviors. They go and call them B.

James Hill:
Yeah, and Holly, that can change. You may think someone's supportive of your goals and find out they're not or vice versa. It's okay to reevaluate.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, and I think the key is though, people need to look at what do they do because it's the behaviors that are contagious.

James Hill:
It's not just saying, Holly, I support you. It's actually behaving in a way to do that. So you say, gosh, I'm going to start going for a walk at lunch, at work. And they say, well, you know what? I'll go with you.

Holly Wyatt:
Well, that's what you hope will happen. But for right now, when you're doing this, it's simply do they get walks in? Do they go for walks? Do they get their physical activity? And the key with this, people kind of struggle with this, especially putting maybe someone that they love or that's a good friend or a family member in column B. No one has to see this, Jim. And it's not about if they're a good or bad person. Some people don't need to do the behaviors you're doing.

James Hill:
Right.

Holly Wyatt:
Not everybody needs to do what you're wanting to do in 2026. So this is not saying here's the good list and the bad list. This is simply saying, here are the people that are doing the behaviors I am going to try to do in 2026. And here are the people that aren't doing those behaviors. No judgment. No one has to know. You're simply using what we know about the social environment to help you to be able to be long term at doing these behaviors. But no one needs to know what you're doing.

James Hill:
Yeah. So just like we did with the physical environment, we can talk about some ads and some removes.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah.

James Hill:
So step two would be think about your ads. How can you strengthen new connections that are supportive? Are there new groups you can join? Are there classes you can take? Can you get walking buddies? Can you look at communities that exist that you could join. I mean, the beauty of the internet is you can go out in your local community and find lots of groups and classes and so forth. Maybe you want to join like a cycling group or spin classes or something like that. So think about things that you can add. So that would be step two.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah so look at that column a of and if you don't have very many people in column a and I’ll be honest sometimes I'm like oh there's not very many people in my column a. That's when you want to say okay let me go out and try to find some people to put in column a and looking for groups you know people that healthy cooking groups and people maybe they're doing yoga, meditation groups, whatever you're trying to do, put more people in that column. If you already have a lot of people in that column, you can still add some, or you can spend more time with the people that are in column A. So if you don't have very many, add some. And if you have a lot, okay, here's where I want to concentrate my time.

James Hill:
So you want to have a lot of people in column A and you want to spend a lot of time with them. That's the short answer here.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. And then step three is when you go to column B.

James Hill:
Yeah. And so think about how you're going to deal with people who aren't supportive of your goals. They could be either just non-supportive or actually sometimes we find people that try to sabotage goals. So think about and, you know, we're not saying get those people out of your life, but we're saying think about how you spend time with them. And this is particularly important in family members. You can't sort of or you don't want to sort of remove people in your family. But if there are people that are holding you back and not helping your goals, maybe you want to think about how you spend time with them, maybe spending less time with the people that aren't helping your goals.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, so step three is looking at that column B, and once again, these just may be people that it's not that they're not supporting you, it's that their behavior is not what you're trying to do. They can go out to happy hour and it's not a problem. You're trying not to go out to happy hour. And in this column, spend less time with them.

Holly Wyatt:
Or if there's some that you can cut ties with, cut ties with them. You get to choose. You, once again, don't have to tell them. But if there's certain individuals that just aren't fitting with you, you can spend a lot less time with them.

James Hill:
And as you get more people in column A that you want to spend time with, you might find it's easier to give up the time you spend with people that aren't supportive.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. So you're looking at column B and here's where step four comes in. Here's the extra step.

James Hill:
Yeah, Holly, talk about that one because you are really, really big on helping people model the behavior they want to see.

Holly Wyatt:
So if there'll be people in that column B that you want to spend time with, that aren't doing the behaviors and you know that it's going to make it more difficult. For instance, they're going out to happy hour. They're not, you know, they don't exercise. Maybe they have a negative mindset, but they're your family member, your best friend, your sibling, whatever. And so you're like, well, I'm not going to, I want to spend time with that person. And so the key here is not to tell them they need to change their behaviors. That never works.

James Hill:
Never works.

Holly Wyatt:
Never works. I, yeah, just don't do that. But instead, for those people, be kind of clever and decide you're going to be the change. You're not going to tell them to do the behavior you wish they were doing, that you would like them to be doing to support you in this new year for you. You're going to do that behavior and see if you can influence them. Because just like they influence you, their behaviors impact your behaviors, your behaviors impact their behaviors. It's a two-way street. So who can win is kind of the thing. Is their behaviors gonna impact you or can you do some behaviors that would impact them?

James Hill:
Right, right.

Holly Wyatt:
I have seen this. It doesn't work immediately, but I have seen this work time and time again.

James Hill:
Yeah. And you would be surprised. I mean, people would say, oh, so-and-so will never, they'll never want to do what I want to do. And sometimes you might be surprised.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. You know, I've had spouses say, my spouse will not eat healthy. My spouse will not exercise. My spouse has a negative mind state. And I'm like okay be the change do the behavior you wish they would do and just do it and let's see over time what might happen how the the contagious part would go toward them and I've had them come back and after you know what happened right away but after several months like you're not going to believe what happened I'm like what came home I go out I walk every day after I eat dinner by myself and my spouse the other day, my partner said, “I think I'll just head out on. Are you walking tonight? I might just go with you.”

James Hill:
Sometimes it takes a while, but I think you might be surprised that the power you have to influence those around you, just like you're influenced by them. They're influenced by you.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. So that's that four step process for helping with that social environment. Detoxing might be getting rid of some people, may then add some people and then be the change really comes in there at the end.

James Hill:
In our profession, everybody recognizes that over the past three or four decades, we've created an environment that's not supportive of a healthy weight. It's an environment that tends to promote overeating, sedentary behavior, poor mind state. And maybe you can't tackle that, but you can almost tackle your micro environment, right?

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. So people will say, you know, well, I live here or my neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks. There's certain things we can't change or it would take a long time. You can change them over time, Jim. But, you know, not in January of 2026. But you do live in what I call that micro environment. You do have some control over a lot of the things that are very close to you in that environment.

James Hill:
Yeah, that's right. We saw that when we moved from Colorado to Alabama, right? In Colorado, the environment, particularly with physical activity, so supportive of physical activity, the weather's good, the terrain is good, people tend to be out and about and hiking and so forth. It's a little bit different in Alabama, but it doesn't mean that if you live in Alabama, you can't create a micro environment for yourself where it's helping you maintain the behaviors you want to maintain.

Holly Wyatt:
Right. So the perfect example of that is I'm putting the Peloton treadmill in my bedroom.

James Hill:
Right. That's right.

Holly Wyatt:
You know, it isn't always as easy to run out in, you know, the summers, especially in Alabama. So I have to create a little bit of a different environment for where I live, but I still can do things that can make it easier.

James Hill:
Yeah, and people talk about food deserts. There are places where there aren't grocery stores and so forth. But, you know, in this day and age, Holly, it's getting easier to have food delivered, to look at taking time to go to places that have maybe fresher fruits and vegetables and better food. So you may not change the big social environment, but you can certainly change your environment.

Holly Wyatt:
Absolutely. All right, Jim, I think we have a few listener questions.

James Hill:
\Let's do it.

Holly Wyatt:
All right. Well, this one just goes with what we were just saying. And so let's go ahead and do it. What if I live in a place that doesn't have a helpful environment? I can't change it. Or what if my environment even feels toxic? Like my office, I have this office that is toxic. What should I do?

James Hill:
I would start by saying, what can you control versus what you can't control? You can't control the weather in Alabama. It's hot in the summer. But what you can do is to say, okay, if the weather's hot outside, what can I do inside that would allow me to be physically active? You know, we have a lot of people that say, Jim, when the weather's hot, I can go to a mall where it's air conditioned and I can walk and so forth. So look at what you can control versus what you can't. Lack of sidewalks. You're in a neighborhood that doesn't have sidewalks, unsafe walking. Think about, are there places nearby you can go? Are there parks? Are there rec centers, et cetera? So be a little bit of a detective there, creating your own micro environment.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. That's where you can be clever, you know, and really think about, like you said, what do I control? Don't focus all your energy. And the tendency is to say, well, look, I can't do anything about this but what do you control? And be clever. And sometimes even a very small environmental change, if it's clever, can have a huge impact.

James Hill:
Okay.

Holly Wyatt:
All right, Jim, here's another listener question. Would it be better to just strengthen my willpower and leave the environment alone?

James Hill:
Yeah. And the problem is that willpower is limited. Willpower is like a muscle. It's strong at first, but you use it. It gets tired. It's unreliable when you get tired and you're under stress. In the morning, you get up, you say, I'm going to eat healthy today. I'm going to have a healthy breakfast. You go through your day. Your boss yells at you. Work doesn't get done. You come home. You're exhausted. And you say, well, I meant to cook a healthy meal, but I'm just going to go through the drive-thru. So willpower is wonderful, but it's a short-term strategy. It's limited and it's unreliable under stress, fatigue, and emotion. The difference is the environment will be there and support you day in and day out. If you get the right kind of environment, you're going to get constant support from that environment. Willpower is still important. You need willpower, but you can't rely on willpower over the long term.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, I would rather strengthen my environment, make my environment help me, and then I make sure I have plenty of willpower instead of saying, well, can I increase my willpower? I guess you can do both. But I think that the environment is going to over the long term going to be more powerful than trying to increase your willpower.

James Hill:
All right, Holly, one last one. I changed my environment last year. Do I really need to do this again?

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, I love this question. I get this all the time. I already made my environment. I did that last year. This is something that evolves. You need to do this over and over again. It's a perfect time. I do it at the beginning of the year, but I do it throughout the year. And I especially do it when I am trying to do new behaviors or I'm struggling with certain behaviors. It's one of the things I do. I'm struggling with this. Let me go back and look and see what's happened to my environment or look at making some changes to my environment very specifically. So yesterday's solutions don't always serve what's going on today in your life. And just like your environment changes over time, you need to go in there and detox it. Look at it, change it over time, several times, not just one and done.

James Hill:
Okay. You want to do a couple of vulnerability questions?

Holly Wyatt:
Sure.

James Hill:
Okay, Holly, what's one part of your environment that still works against you, even though you know better?

Holly Wyatt:
So this is one I've been struggling with for years. And I've done a lot with it. And it's the TV. I used to not even have a TV in my house. That's how extreme I went on this environment. And then during COVID, I felt like I really needed a TV. So I brought the TV back. But that's still something that I'm struggling with. Do I put one in my bedroom? Where do I have it? Do I put it on a timer? How do I really, because I can waste a lot of time looking at TV. If I watch TV at night, it can put me in a really bad mind state. And so the TV still quietly works against me, probably in multiple ways. And I know better, but I still sometimes sit there and watch TV.

James Hill:
Hmm. Okay.

Holly Wyatt:
All right, Jim, let's ask one for you. What's one environmental pattern you've struggled to change in your own life, even with all the science you know?

James Hill:
Yeah, Holly, I do pretty good on the diet and the physical activity, I struggle with the mind state. And I think I know that I need to spend more time like you do your morning ritual and take time for that. And you and I both work in a very, very stressful environment. And that environment is maybe not conducive to an optimum mind state. And so that's one I struggle with. And I'm going to have to figure out how to, you know, take some mind minutes for myself.

Holly Wyatt:
I love it. Mind minutes. And so what it is, is setting up your environment to make doing those mind minutes easier, Jim.

James Hill:
Okay, Holly, I'm going to give it a shot. All right. So the takeaways here, your environment's important and it's either helping you or it may be making things harder, but there are things you can do about it.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah, and environmental detox isn't about being perfect, but it is figuring out what in your environment is aligning with the behaviors you want to do in this new year.

James Hill:
Yeah, you don't need a new personality or more discipline. You may just need a smarter environment, and hopefully we've given you some tips today that you can do some things you can add and things you can remove to create a smarter environment.

Holly Wyatt:
Yeah. So if you're stepping into a new year, a new season, this might be the most powerful reset you can do. Not a body detox, an environmental detox.

James Hill:
So be curious about what's shaping your choices. Make one intentional change this week. Start slow, one change, and we'll see you next time on Weight Loss And.

Holly Wyatt:
Bye everybody.

James Hill:
And that's a wrap for today's episode of Weight Loss And. We hope you enjoy diving into the world of weight loss with us.

Holly Wyatt:
If you want to stay connected and continue exploring the “Ands” of weight loss, be sure to follow our podcast on your favorite platform.

James Hill:
We'd also love to hear from you. Share your thoughts, questions, or topic suggestions by reaching out at weightlossand.com. Your feedback helps us tailor future episodes to your needs.

Holly Wyatt:
And remember, the journey doesn't end here. Keep applying the knowledge and strategies you've learned and embrace the power of the “And” in your own weight loss journey.