Southwest Airlines has been blasted for actually incentivizing and celebrating, quote, body positivity by giving a complimentary row, not just seat, but a row, to those who identify as, quote, customers of size. Now, according to this new policy at the airline, customers whose bodies encroach past the armrest are entitled, and that’s the key here, they’re entitled to an extra seat at no additional cost. And if it’s determined that a second or third seat is needed, they’ll be accommodated with a complimentary row.

So this all started in October when a video went viral of self described fat solo traveler Jalen Cheney explain her delusions of asking the airline to accommodate her larger needs and inflate everyone else’s prices. Take a look. Travel might look a little different for us plus size folks, but it’s still possible the airlines should do a better job accommodating us. But until then, I’ll keep shouting my message from the rooftops.

You deserve to travel just as much as anyone else. Hi. It’s okay. I’m hoping to use your customer size policy today. Yes, I’m leaving. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much for your help. May I have a seatbelt extender, please? Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. Her video went viral, and other body positive influencers have chimed in with their own videos calling on airlines to basically follow Southwest lead and change their supposedly discriminatory policies.

And keep in mind that Southwest Airlines, in the name of body positivity and Dei and all that, they’re actually adding fuel to this fire by now, rearranging flight arrangements for those who take up more than one seat. Now, I don’t want to be mean here, obviously, I don’t want to be offensive, but I do think I speak for most of us when I say that this dei fad and woke mind virus is just reaching new levels of absurdity.

Now, I do have to say that this topic is actually near and dear to my heart because, as many of you know, I myself have lost tons of weight over the last year. 60 pounds. And I have to say, while I never actually took up multiple airline seats, I get where this girl is coming from to some extent, because many of the people advocating for these airline policies, they, like I was, they’re stuck in a mindset that they’ll never actually get in shape.

In fact, they’re being told by more and more woke mind virus folk that they are in shape even when the solution is actually right there, right in front of them. But I want to dive more into this entitlement mentality and weight challenges and mindsets and the like with the very person who’s responsible for my own weight loss and change perspective. And that’s Dr. Ashley Lucas, my friend and mentor, who’s been studying this topic for years.

She’s a strong patriot and passionate weight loss coach. Just click on the link below if you want to talk to her team yourself. The very team that helped me lose 60 pounds. They’re absolutely amazing. So, Dr. Ashley, welcome back. Great to see you, as always. Great to see you. Dr. Turley, thank you for having me on the show. Oh, of course. I was just telling you earlier, Sebastian Gork and I joke around every time we interview you.

We feel like we’re kids going in front of the college chancellor to report on how we’ve been so. And we did. I gave you a little progress report right before. I appreciate that. Just keeping you on track, holding you accountable, supporting you, it’s all positive. That’s what you guys do. That’s what makes PhD weight loss so amazing. I thought about you immediately when I saw the story. I’m just curious what your thoughts are on the mean.

Obviously, we want to be kind and encouraging and accommodating, but Southwest seems to have taken this to a whole new absurdity. I mean, what’s your take on this is southwest right here. Yeah. I have similar ideas as you do, Dr. Turley, and I think many of us patriots listening in that it’s sad because it’s enabling and it’s not encouraging us to take personal responsibility for our health. And the whole body positivity movement is a big issue because it’s enabling us to continue down a pathway that is just not healthy.

I look at our bodies like a car, and there are some specific makes of vehicles that aren’t meant to carry a specific amount of freight, right? Like they can only carry a specific amount of weight or else the axle breaks or it’s going to break down. And the human body was not meant to carry so much excess fat weight. No matter what we say, we are compassionate to people who are struggling with this weight loss.

For a lot of people, we work with is an addiction recovery process, and it is a serious and severe state. So I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have compassion. We should. I don’t think weight gain is our fault. It’s not our fault that we are struggling with this excess fat weight, and it is an addiction and it is difficult. But by saying that it’s okay to carry this significant excess weight, it’s like saying this specific make of vehicle is okay to carry tons and tons of weight and it’s just going to break it down.

So our body as a human is not meant to carry this amount of weight no matter what. Right. I think it’s just enabling really poor health and ultimately a sick and fat and unhealthy nation. A nation where we can’t fight for ourselves, where we can’t stand up for ourselves. And that’s really what it comes down to. Yeah. And I love the distinction you make. It’s excellent. It’s one of the first things I learned in your program is that our weight gain is actually not our fault, but we’re still responsible, which I really like.

It’s not your fault. Don’t beat yourself up over it. But you’re the only one who’s going to make a difference here and change it. In your experience, how has this body positivity movement impacted sort of the overall health of Americans? It’s enabled us. It’s made it okay for us to be weak and unhealthy and sick. And I think that it’s probably for a purpose, because when we are weak and unhealthy, we can’t stand up and we can’t fight back.

We can’t think for ourselves. And we’re seeing this happen in many different ways and avenues in society right now. And it’s a huge issue. One of my clients actually, on Instagram, just sent me yesterday a post of four body positive influencers who were severely obese and they were promoting body positivity. And all four of them have passed away, and they’re all under the age of 42 years old.

So again, we have compassion for these people. It is not their fault. But it’s not okay to say that carrying around this excess fat weight is a healthy thing to do. Again, the body just cannot tolerate it. We were not made to carry this much freight. Right. It’s not a matter of opinion. It’s an actual biological fact. You’ve engaged with a lot of people who may not feel that they’re entitled to an entire airline row, but perhaps feel stuck with their weight and circumstances.

I know I certainly did for years. What are some of the false beliefs, maybe just downright lies that Americans are being told about their weight? Well, they’re saying that it’s all about calories in and calories out and that if you just restrict calories, then you’re going to be able to drop the weight. And I see many, many people who tell me that they do not eat very much and they’re weighing 60, 8100 plus pounds over their ideal healthy weight.

And it is true. So the body is so much more complicated than calories in and calories out. Ozemphic is all over the place. Oprah just said that she’s using these weight loss drugs. And the thing is, with these weight loss drugs, while they can be a tool for some people who are not open to changing their lifestyle, they’re not necessary. Just over the course of PhD’s lifetime, we’ve helped over 8000 people drop significant weight.

Get rid of hunger, get rid of cravings, break the ties to the foods they say they love, that, don’t love them back, really work on the addiction recovery piece and they’ve done it in a healthy transformational way where they didn’t need medication, where we don’t know what the outcome of this medication long term is going to be, right. We don’t know what’s going to happen. And the thing is, it was interesting, I was on a webinar with a whole bunch of physicians last night and a physician came on and was educating about the great use of these drugs.

But make sure you give your patient Zofran and make sure that your patient doesn’t have thyroid cancer. And make sure that you really don’t give them too much because they will be so sick they may have to go to the hospital. I’m just thinking, oh my gosh, we really don’t need this. But I know I’m biased because I see people make these transformations every day without the need of these medications.

And then she said, obesity is a chronic progressive disease and if they go on medications for obesity, they will have to remain on it for their entire life. It’s just not the case. It is not true. There always needs to be work done. It’s a constant process. You have to always be aware of your body and what you’re putting into it. I am every day. You are too, Dr.

Turley. But that’s personal responsibility. And it’s also about learning the right way to eat. The way we’ve been told to eat is not accurate. So if you’re listening to this and you’re struggling with excess fat weight. Again, it’s not your fault. And it’s likely the old methods and all of these myths you’ve been told that aren’t working for you. Yeah. Again, that’s what got me through the whole year process.

It was not hard, but what just kept me motivated. It’s not your fault, but you are responsible. And again, so you’ve got the compassion side of it, but also the motivation element to it as well. We were talking earlier, you are a patriot. You were just at Mar a Lago as I was hanging out with. Well, you were hanging out with Dinesh D’Souza. I was hanging out with Roseanne Barr, believe it or not, the O comedian, which was really cool.

That is cool. But you obviously have a love for the community, the worldwide community, faith, family and freedom. Why do you think it’s important, particularly for patriots, to think about 2024 coming up and make 2024 the year they get into shape? Just like we’ve been talking throughout this is that if you don’t have your health, you’re not going to have the most beautiful and fulfilling life experience that you can have.

Your body is such a big part of your spiritual journey. I have many spiritual people come into the offices and they come in and they say, I just can’t reach my full potential. I can’t help others to the level that I know that I could with my body like this, with my health out of control, with me not having good energy and having to use medications because of high blood pressure, type two diabetes, high cholesterol.

And so they know that they need to get their body, their vessel, into the optimal shape that they can. It’s their God given right to have this body and to take responsibility and care of what we’ve been given. It’s a big deal. And like we’ve said, we can’t be strong. We can’t fight back. We can’t fight for our rights if we’re not feeling good and getting out there and doing what we’re meant to do on this earth.

What practical advice would you give for anyone watching this to get in shape in the coming year? Let’s see. Well, I would say, number one is to get support. 95% of diets that we do on our own fail. We regain all the weight that we’ve dropped at such high rates. I think there’s a statistic out there that shows that 95% of people who do diet gain all the weight back within three to six weeks.

So that is pretty darn wild. And we see a lot of people in the new year go and get memberships to a gym, which is fine, and think that they can do it on their own and give it the best shot. And then after about six weeks come in and be like, I just need help. There is no shame in asking for help. If you think about even a recreationally active athlete, they’re going to have a coach behind them.

Take an outside perspective. If we don’t have an outside perspective, we get a little bit too emotional and we need someone from the outside to tell us the truth that maybe we don’t want to hear, but we need to hear. So I would say get support and then just understand that motivation wanes. It’s not about motivation, it’s about discipline and commitment. So whatever you need to have around you to help you remain committed and disciplined, even when you don’t want to do it, even when it doesn’t feel good, it’s going to be much more helpful and allow you to be successful in the long term.

And that’s the ultimate goal, is to drop the weight and keep it off. Yeah, for me, that’s where PhD weight loss was just invaluable. I needed accountability. I needed a weight loss coach. I needed a nutrition coach. I know you were a dancer, you had your dancing instructors. I was a classical guitarist. I had my guitar teachers. I mean, if you’re going to learn to do something right, you need that mentorship, that almost apprenticeship like relationship and structure.

And Anna, as you know, was my coach all throughout. And she was just absolutely amazing every single week. Just having that accountability, it just keeps you honest and it gives you this objective audit every week as well. It’s invaluable. So what can people do to learn more about you and perhaps get in touch with your team? The very team that helped me lose 60 pounds. Yes. Well, the best way is to give us a call.

Our best phone number is 864644 1900 and then visit us online@myphdweightloss. com, on there you’ll see I have a podcast and a YouTube show. I interview really great people in the field of nutrition and weight loss and wellness and even finance. So anything that’s going to help to improve our overall life and lifestyle. And then I provide lots of episodes where I’m just giving tips and helpful support on the nutrition and the science, but also the mental and emotional, the habits, behaviors that are a big part of dropping weight and keeping it off.

Yeah. Again, that’s what I love. What you do. It’s a whole really media broadcasting system, which is wonderful. So people do get involved with a community and just with larger media based coaching. It’s really impressive stuff. Gang, just click on that link below. Do exactly what I did. Make 2024 the year you finally get into shape. Get in touch with Dr. Ashley and her team and see what they can do to help you, just like they helped me.

They’re amazing. They customized their program just for you and where you are. Click on that link below, you’ll not be disappointed and you won’t have to take up two or more seats either on the plane. Dr. Ashley, thank you so much for your insights and your perspective shifting wisdom. It’s always great to see you, even if it makes me a little nervous. That’s right. Thank you Dr. Turley.

God bless and Merry Christmas. Thank you. Same to. .