While I’m in Charleston, South Carolina, for a retreat, I’m sharing some of my favorite blogs from the past. One of the ways I used to trip myself up was to second-guess everything I was doing. While doing one workout, I was wondering if another might be better. I’d spend a lot of mental energy debating between taking the elevator or stairs, and mentally chastise myself over what I ate. Being wishy-washy about your decisions—or downright critical—is the mental equivalent of letting the air out of your tires. It is an energetic leak that will slow the success you really want. While debating your decision when the choices are fairly similar will slow your progress, you will give yourself a flat tire in a second if you choose something you believe is actually harmful. Negative thoughts and emotion can literally impact your metabolism and other weight-related systems making it easier to gain and harder to release weight. Actually doing the action you believe to be detrimental—and the resulting guilt, shame, etc.—increases the negative effects. Remember this the next time you are having a thought such as, “That cake is so fattening. I really shouldn’t eat it,” or “I know fried chicken is bad, bad, bad.” Don’t eat it! Unless you can soften your thoughts and beliefs about it, pick something else! Every action is preceded by a thought and belief, all of which have energy. Think of each step as increasing your momentum. Aligning the energy of a thought . . . with the energy of a belief . . . AND the energy of your action in the direction of your goal is like a train gaining speed towards your destination. It has the full […]
Turn Your New Year’s Resolution to Lose Weight into Reality!
Chances are, losing weight is on your list of New Year’s Resolutions—again! One of the reasons that New Year’s resolutions are often dead by February 1 is that unknowingly, people are focused on what they don’t want. For instance, you may be focused on being too fat, or that you aren’t thin enough, fit enough, or healthy enough. And even though you set the resolution to lose weight, get fit, and healthy, the majority of your thoughts and energy are still focused on the fact that you lack what your resolution is focused on. When you think about the foundation principle that Energy Attracts Like Energy (also known at the Law of Attraction), you can begin to see that thoughts are our mental capital to invest wherever we want, with the dividends being our future life-experiences. For instance, when you invest the majority of your mental capital on the fact that you don’t have the body you want, you are actually building the account that creates more life experiences where you are unhappy with your body. If you invest that mental capital in the belief that your body is already wonderful and is getting better and better, your account includes an increase in life experiences of an ever improving body. The challenge is, it’s often difficult to recognize where you are investing your thoughts. It seems like if you are focused on how much you want to be slim you should get the body you want. No wonder it is incredibly frustrating and discouraging to think you are getting the body you want only to continue to struggle with your weight. But your life experiences—and body—are always letting you know where you are investing most […]
What’s the Best Diet?
I just did a search on Amazon.com for diet books. There were 71,652 results. What this means is there is no one “right” way for everyone on the planet to eat—or to lose weight. Think about it. A piece of fruit may be the best food choice for you, but to a diabetic, it could be harmful. Thus the ancient saying, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” To lose weight, it comes down to the simple formula of taking in fewer calories than you expend. And there are lots of ways to achieve that. I know women who are slim and healthy who eat a low carb diet, as well as some who eat a high carb diet, who are vegetarians and vegans, who eat only raw foods, or whole foods, the French way, the Mediterranean way, or the paleo way, etc., etc. So both the challenge and the opportunity is that you have to take responsibility to find the plan for healthy eating that works best for you, that you will enjoy enough to follow consistently, and that is flexible enough to allow you to not only live your life now, but to change, grow, and evolve. Because what is a healthy step for you today, may be different tomorrow. For instance, if all you eat is potato chips, a healthier step for you would be a chicken sandwich. Is a chicken sandwich the healthiest choice? No, but it is progress from where you are. And as you get used to making that better choice, it is an easier step to the next healthy level of grilled chicken over salad. One of the things that trips so many women up is that they think […]
Signs of Progress
One year ago today, I published my first blog on this site. That was me lining up my thoughts and beliefs with my actions and desires, and saying a big “Yes!” to the future I envisioned. Since then, I have not only published a wellness tip and a blog six days a week, but I have interacted with you fabulous readers, read some amazing writing on others’ blogs, been inspired and hopefully given inspiration—maybe even to you. I also successfully dealt with my own wellness challenges—including a major surgery—improved my nutrition, and have maintained my weight and fitness level. In addition, I completed my coaching certifications and my business has taken off—I’ve even hired a business coach to help me with it. I’m super excited about the changes I have coming as a result, including a new website, coaching programs, e-book, beach-side Love Your Way Slim retreat, and much, much more! More importantly, I love my life—and the people in it—more than I ever dreamed possible! My intention with this blog has been—and will remain—to inspire and provide value to you fabulous readers. Each blog is an expression of how much I appreciate your time, your energy, where you are in life and on your wellness journey, our connection, and Who you are as a person. Thank you for all the follows, likes, awards, support, and comments. They have all been felt and appreciated. And the greatest honor of all has been your letting me know when a blog has moved or inspired you. And I especially want to thank all you readers who have been with me from those early days. Knowing you were reading and cheering me on made all the difference in […]
How Much Power are You Giving to the Scale?
Does having your gas gauge in your car read “empty” ruin your whole day? Do you post about it on your blog and tell all your friends what a failure it makes you? Do you measure the air in your tires, and sit down on the curb and cry because it doesn’t show the number you wanted? When you figure out the average number of miles you drive on a gallon of gas and it hasn’t’ changed from the day or week before, do you berate yourself with what an awful person you are—and go find comfort in a donut? Then why are you doing that after you step on the bathroom scale? Most women that I work with give way too much of their personal power to the scale. In their minds, not only does it measure how well they’ve done sticking to their exercise and eating plans, but it also measures their self-worth. In truth, neither of these is the case. The scale is just a tool—and a faulty one at that—that can be used to help you release weight. Using it consistently gives you a general idea of where you are your journey. It typically does not accurately measure body fat—which is what you really want to know—and because weight is impacted by things like hormones, salt, sleep, etc., etc., it can go up and down for what feels like no reason. When it becomes the deciding factor in the quality of your day and crashes your self-esteem, it is actually doing you harm. You might as well throw it away. It is holding you back, keeping you stuck, and making the weight stick to you like glue. This is because the […]
Satisfy the Craving Without the Food
How do you think that the experience of eating a piece of cake will make you feel? Yes, I know it will feel good, but be specific. Satisfied? Content? Comforted? Connected with others who are eating it? Loved? Overeating is often an attempt to find the love you crave and fill the void your are feeling in your heart and soul with food. It is looking in the wrong place to feel satisfied, content, comforted, connected, and loved. What if you could easily get the feelings you really want from eating that piece of cake without ever having to lift a bite to your mouth? What if the feelings were more delicious than any piece of cake could possibly be? And what if those feelings inspired action that made your wellness goals faster, easier, and more fun to achieve? Would you be willing to give it a try? Would you be willing to spend just a few minutes a day to get it? Would you be willing to look for and notice the changes you are experiencing so you can keep building on your success? Would you be willing to let it be that simple? If so, keep reading! Now imagine yourself having achieved your wellness goal. How does that feel? (Remember, be specific and feel it right now!) It might be something like: “Being 10 pounds lighter makes me feel confident. It makes me feel attractive. It makes me feel strong and beautiful. It feels invigorating and it makes me want to give my workout my all. It feels satisfying to slip on my jeans and have them be comfortable, and to know that I look good. It feels like being energized and alive. […]
Are You Having the Day You Want?
My husband, David, remarked to me the other day that I seemed to be taking a long time to get out of bed in the morning. It’s because I’m refusing to put my feet on the floor until I feel wonderful! And sometimes I am reveling so much in the deliciousness of the bed and the sweetness of my dog and cats who are all snuggled in around and on top of me that I just get lost in a little bit of bliss. Far from making my morning stressed and harried, I’m finding that taking the time to set the tone for the day I want to live means I am more energetic, efficient, and I accomplish more. And it’s so much more fun along the way! I’m patient and loving with the dogs during their morning routine. I’m eager to give my workout my all. My blog just seems to write itself. The day flows with ease and grace. Believe me, it hasn’t always been this way. I used to be a firm believer that things had to be hard to be worthwhile. That achieving goals was a struggle. That getting stuff done took effort, exertion, and stress. What a revelation that it’s not true! In fact, just being relaxed and consistently moving forward means I am making more progress—and am loving the journey! If you no longer expect your wellbeing to show up only when you achieve your goal, but you allow yourself to experience the feeling of wellbeing right now—ahh! The hackneyed saying about enjoying the journey then makes sense. You are having fun with the people you are engaging with. You are focused and eager. You are enjoying more, laughing […]
Feeling Fabulous!
Yesterday was my birthday. In Friday’s blog I sketched out a plan to navigate the food and drink from the celebratory weekend so that come Monday morning, I would feel good body, mind, and spirit, and be back on the healthy track. I am happy to report that I feel fabulous! As I sit to write this blog, my workout is complete and my healthy meal plan resumed. I also had an amazing time with my folks who came to town to help celebrate, and I thoroughly enjoyed all that we ate and drank. While I definitely ate more than unusual, I did practice reasonable moderation and didn’t go crazy. I don’t feel the least bit deprived. In fact, I feel thoroughly feted. While I didn’t follow my plan exactly, I did find it extremely helpful to have thought out what I wanted to do, and to reach out to you fabulous readers for accountability. Remembering that I was going to have to report back to you was a great curb to going back for seconds on desserts, or ordering a second cocktail. But here’s the real key—I definitely had some splurges and I wasn’t perfect. It would be easy to beat myself up over those. But instead, I’m choosing to look at all the times I did push back from the table, stopped at one glass of wine, and got my planned workouts in. Building on small successes generates positive momentum that moves you towards your goal. Focusing on the negative—as I used to always do—drains your momentum and zaps your energy, which means you are more likely to go ahead and keep eating because all is lost anyway. Not only did focusing on […]
Is That What You Really Want?
What do you want more of? Time? Wellness? Fun? Are your actions moving you towards what you want, or away from it? For instance, if you want more wellness and a slimmer waistline, but you habitually snack on sweets every afternoon, your actions are moving you away from what you want. What do you want more; snacking on sweets or slimness? If your higher priority is being slim, and you believe eating sweets to be counter to that, than clearly you will have to choose a different afternoon snack. The snag that keeps people from letting go of the sweets is it feels like an “all or nothing” choice. But choosing a leaner and healthier afternoon snack doesn’t mean you will never get to eat sweets again. It just means that more often than not, you are going to align your actions with your goals. And here is the surprise. Even though you are giving up the small pleasure of enjoying a sweet every afternoon, aligning your actions with your true goals results in a surge of joy that is way more powerful than that momentary pleasure. It feels so good to be Who you want to be! Most people don’t realize the internal conflict it sets up in themselves to consistently act in a way that is incongruent with Who they say they want to be. Your inner two-year-old may throw a momentary fit at giving up the candy bar, but you are effectively shutting yourself off from your life-force when your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs are out of alignment with your goals. You know you are doing this when you feel guilt, self-criticism, discouragement. These emotions are like warning bells going off letting […]
A Change in Plans
I know you all are on the edge of your seats wondering why there was no Wellness Tip of the Weekend or blog yesterday. (Please note a hint of sarcasm.) While I know this probably didn’t make a ripple in your day, it was the first time since last September that I had not met my goal of having a wellness tip and blog posted Monday through Saturday. The great news? I didn’t freak out or even stress about it. That my fabulous friends is huge progress! In the past I would have ruminated on it all day and killed myself trying to find another way to post. I love that I was able to let it go. And I’m following up today with a short blog to let you know what happened. So I’m still meeting my 6 blogs-a-week goal. The silver linings are endless! So what happened? Not to be anticlimactic or anything, but when I woke up yesterday, our Internet service was out. It was only restored about an hour ago. This time without Internet access was truly a gift as I was able to get a lot of other things done, rest, and have some quality time with my husband. We are often so scheduled and planned in our lives that we don’t allow the Universe to lead us to the opportunities that might fulfill us at a deeper and more profound level, or truly move us forward to who we are and what we want. The Internet being out was my signal to let go of control and look for other meaningful ways to spend my time. If you’re focused on your priorities and still get interrupted or side-tracked, throw […]
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