Happy 4th of July! Today in America we are celebrating Independence and Freedom. But I have a radical suggestion. Today focus on how your In-Dependence creates your freedom. Your inner-dependence creates your connection to Source, and establishes strength of thought and focus. Through In-Dependence you find: The freedom of optimal wellness. The freedom to focus on and create the life that you want. The freedom to choose your response rather than just to react. The freedom to choose the foods that you eat and in what quantity–and enjoy them or not! The freedom to move your body in ways that feel good to you The freedom that comes from claiming dominion over your body and mind. Wellness brings freedom. Being healthy helps you connect more with joy and do more of what you love. On this In-Dependence Day, choose to pursue optimal wellness and allow your life to keep getting better and better. Sending you all much love and appreciation and wishes for a Happy July 4th!
How the Abundance of the Holidays Can Help You Get the Body You Want
It’s the season of believing. And believe it or not . . . YOU are incredibly abundant. Even if you are lonely, have little or no money, are struggling with your body—you are abundant. You have an abundance of air to breathe, the abundance of love in your heart, the abundance of being alive in this moment. While money and gifts are certainly a part of abundance and should be appreciated, there is so much more of life with which to fill our trays. It’s all there waiting for us to look for and allow ourselves to see and receive. Perhaps you have an abundance of family and friends, or an abundance of time in which to reflect, or an abundance of beauty to admire. You may have an abundance of laughter and excitement, or an abundance of peace and quiet. You may have an abundance of parties and commitments, or an abundance of freedom to live and do as you wish. These are things that do not cost money and that nobody else can give you. They are there waiting for you to acknowledge—and thus receive. No matter where you are or what’s going on in your life today, look for and acknowledge your abundance. Feeling abundant is truly part of the magic of the holidays. When you feel abundant, the more abundance you are allowing into your life. It is the Law of Attraction in action. This is the foundation principle that “Energy Attracts Like Energy.” So when you acknowledge your abundance, focus on it, and feel it, the more abundance you are able to see and appreciate. The more abundant you feel. Bonus! Feeling abundant is it’s good for your body! Feeling […]
Tips to Ease Holiday Strain—On Your Waistband and Emotions!
A lot of focus is on the overeating that most American’s indulged in during the Thanksgiving Day celebration last week. Often the eating continues over the holiday weekend . . . and on through the New Year, if not continuing until Easter. But for a number of my clients, it’s their emotional wellness that is as strained after the holiday as their waistbands. Here’s the deal. Holiday weight-gain is really NOT about all the holiday treats and temptations. Oh, that plays a part, but overeating beyond Thanksgiving day is more about all the things about the holidays that can impact people’s wellness. Things like being impacted by depression, overwhelment, challenging relationships, and stress. The typical things that can throw people out of balance–and have them reaching for extra helpings of their favorite comfort food–during the holidays include: Unmet expectations—you might be trying to live up to a romanticized notion of how the holidays should be, either from your memories of when you were a kid or from how the holidays are portrayed in the movies. Or you may be trying to make everything perfect—for yourself or for others. This is something Mom’s can really struggle with because they want to make things perfect for their kids. Other people’s expectations—you can be dealing with expectations of how you should act, or your perception of other people’s expectations. You may really struggle with feeling like you’re disappointing people, or feel like they have a negative perception of you that you can use as a reason to feel bad about yourself. Dwelling on negative things—you might have previous holiday-related disappointments or difficult times that haunt you this time of year. Challenging relationships—tensions often run high during the […]
Tips for Healthy Holiday Travel
People often say that travel is one of the hardest times to maintain their health and wellness. Add in Thanksgiving or another holiday, and many people just give up altogether. They may do this because they: Think it’s too hard. Think they will feel deprived. Think that they will impose on or disappoint family if they take care of themselves or skip dishes their loved one worked hard to prepare. Think that it’s just one time a year so what’s the harm? Think that there’s just too much temptation around and they aren’t strong enough to withstand it. Etc. Do you get that these are just thoughts that you keep thinking? What if: It’s easier than you currently believe? You can eat everything you really want and still stay on track? You are actually setting a positive example for your family? Your self-confidence shoots through the roof when you follow your wellness plan? You are much stronger than you can possibly imagine? Here are some tips that will help you stay on track while traveling for the holidays—or any time of year. Prepare for a Snack Attack One of the worst things you can do is not eat all day in preparation for a big meal. You are guaranteed that you will overeat and physically pay the price later. Instead, eat small, frequent meals throughout the day to keep your energy level high and hunger at bay. To do this, you may need to plan ahead and bring some snacks from home. These could include: A baggie of various nuts and dried fruit for a quick and easy trail mix. A stash of protein bars or home-made healthy treats. If you have access to a […]
Nine Tips To Break the Holiday Stress Tradition
Many of you may be traveling over the next week or have visitors coming to you to celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving. While the focus is on the feast, it may be your emotional wellness that is more strained than your waistband. The holidays—the time that’s supposed to be so magical and wonderful—are often the hardest time of year. Part of this is because of the temptation of all the extra food around. This leads to inner conflict. You may want to celebrate with food, but then you feel guilty about it. Or maybe you’re successful at resisting all that temptation, but then feel deprived and resentful. Or you may rebel at restraining your eating and binge on everything in sight. There may also be the stress caused by your perception of family expectations that you don’t feel like you can live up to. Or worse, your own expectations that everything has to be perfect. This may mean you pack too much into your to-do list. The result is you’re challenged when your priorities aren’t shared by others, which results in family tension. Again, you might turn to food to try to comfort yourself and deal with the stressful feelings. You put your own self-care at the bottom of the list so you aren’t taking care of you. It may also mean you spend too much time on details that don’t really matter and miss out on the things that do. This could look like staying up late trying to get every dish looking perfect, but then you are so tired that you scream at your kids the next morning. What’s really more important to you? Having a perfect dish, or getting enough […]
Celebrate Your Way to Weight-Loss Success
On this day of your life, I believe God wants you to know… …that false modesty will get you nowhere — nor will genuine modesty when it is not required. Modesty is rarely required by Life, did you know that? It’s true. People are more self-deprecating than they ever need to be. God says it’s okay to celebrate yourself. Honor the self, and delight in expressing your talents and your gifts. It is through the happy sharing of your treasures that you show other people that they are treasured. Always, always remember that. -Neale Donald Walsch I heard from a fabulous woman the other day who was so proud of herself for choosing not to eat any Halloween candy. But as we were celebrating her success, every other sentence downplayed her achievement. She said things like: “I know it’s silly, but . . .” “It’s not that big a deal . . .” “Maybe I don’t have a big sweet tooth . . .” “It’s stupid to make such a big deal out of this . . .” I hear these kind of self-deprecating statements a lot. And the absolute truth is . . . they are NOT necessary—nor are they helping you get the body you want. The more clearly you can visualize and celebrate yourself at your best the more you actually show up as that person. This is true even if you did eat some candy or other Halloween treats. Another woman I was talking to allowed herself to have two, small homemade chocolate chip cookies in a day of otherwise impeccable eating. While she wasn’t beating herself up about them (Progress!), she also wasn’t celebrating: The good food she did […]
Were You a Halloween Candy Victor or Victim?
I had a plan . . . and then I didn’t follow it. Instead of buying the candy I didn’t like, I bought the miniature chocolates, justifying that I could save out the dark chocolate from the bunch. And then I proceeded to eat 4 pieces. No big deal, right? I’m not going to beat myself up over it. Yesterday is done. I’m going to focus on the choices I am making today. But this is kind of warning flare for me that I need to pay attention and be more mindful. Halloween is the traditional start of holiday bingeing. After falling into the temptation of Halloween candy, women often think, “Well, I’ve blown it. Might as well eat whatever I want and start that diet on January 1st.” Here’s the problem. After two months of eating and drinking too much of everything, women typically start the New Year feeling horrible about themselves, and with a desperate desire to be slimmer. But few of those “Go on a diet” resolutions make it past January and statistics show that those few pounds gained between October 31 and January 1 are never lost and actually accumulates over the years. Unaddressed, those pounds—and the associated negative thoughts and emotions about your body and yourself—can have a detrimental impact on your wellness and well-being. So how did you do last night? Were you the victor over the Halloween candy—or a victim? If you were the victor, woo hoo! Way to go! You are starting the holiday season on the right foot and are on track to feel and be your best on New Year’s Day. If not—and you feel guilty about it—let it go. It’s not the end of the […]
The No. 1 Thing You Can Do to Make Your Holidays Healthy and Happy
Holiday eating officially kicks off tomorrow! While you may tell yourself, “It’s just once a year,” it’s actually a full 2 months of packed schedules, the opportunity for family drama, and continual temptation. Left unchecked, the holidays can do a number on your weight and wellness. The best approach is to make your self-care a priority and plan when, where, and how much you are going to indulge so you get the most joy out of every well-earned bite. But how do you get—and keep!—yourself motivated to not only create a plan, but to follow it all the way from Halloween to New Year’s? There is 1 thing you can do that research proves will boost your success by 225 percent. If you were to do only 1 thing to reach January 1st looking and feeling your best, it would be this. The number 1 thing you can do to help meet your healthy holiday goals is . . . seek support. Study after study shows that having at least one person support you in meeting your wellness goals will dramatically increase your chances of success. Having a wellness partner or joining a support group helps: Normalize what you’re going through—You realize that everyone has cravings, gets frustrated by the numbers on the scale, and has moments of weakness. You are not a failure or a freak. Cheer you on—Noticing and celebrating every sign of progress builds momentum towards successfully meeting your goals. Having someone to share these with helps keep you motivated. Problem solve—When you are focused on the problem, it can be almost impossible to see even obvious solutions. Having someone on your side who can see the situation more objectively can help […]
Why You Should Prepare for Halloween Just as You Would For Sex
The countdown to Halloween has begun! Take a moment to check in with how you feel about that. Are you: Excited and eager to experience the magic of the holiday? Feeling entitled to eat all the candy you want this week? Dreading all the extra temptation you will be facing? Feeling guilty about all the candy you’ve already consumed? Feeling overwhelmed by everything you have to do to get ready for the day? Feeling totally ambivalent. Halloween is a non-event for you and it will be healthy eating as usual. If you are in that last category, I’d say count yourself lucky. For many women, the “It’s only 1 time a year” mentally is kicking in. Here’s the deal. That “1 time a year” actually spans 2 months! If you aren’t making conscious decisions about what you are eating and your self-care, come January 1, you will not be happy with your body. This doesn’t mean that the holidays can’t be fun and magical! For some, there is this idea that you are either indulging OR you are deprived. Believe it or not, there is middle ground! Truly, it IS possible to have fun while being moderate. All it takes is a little forethought and pre-planning. I can’t tell you how much resistance many women have to this idea. It feels too hard to plan, they say. It takes all the fun away, they say. Here’s some tough love for you. Not thinking about HOW you will approach your eating during a holiday or special event is the same as not being willing to pack a condom on a date because it will take the spontaneity away if you do have sex. Ladies, it’s time […]
3 Tips for Dealing with Halloween–and Holiday–Temptations
Note From Hanna Anticipation! We had our first frost this week, and this morning the temperatures broke the freezing mark. The fall foliage has been at its peak of gold, orange, and red. And Halloween is next week. I absolutely adore this time of year. It’s the tangible change in scenery, clothes, and even food, as well as the anticipation of the holidays to come. Not only do I love Halloween (I still thrill at playing dress up!), but my folks are coming for Thanksgiving, and I’ve even started stashing away a few presents. This time of year brings out the kid in me and I’m filled with eagerness and excitement. But this wasn’t always the case. Somewhere along the way the holidays became fraught with stress, unmet expectations, challenging family dynamics, loneliness, and bingeing that resulted in self-loathing. It would begin with overeating Halloween candy and the next thing you know I was starting the New Year with a physical and emotional hangover that might last till spring. Losing weight was a constant on my list of New Year’s resolutions. I discovered that it doesn’t have to be this way. For the past 5 years, I’ve followed some simple steps to help get through the holidays with balance and grace. And it’s not like these holiday seasons have been a piece of cake, either. They’ve included friends getting snowbound on the way to visit us, a major surgery, the launching of my new brand—all things that would have sent my weight on the skids in the past. Granted, I haven’t been perfect . . . but the good news is you don’t have to be to transform your holiday experience. Not only am I sharing some of those tips below, but I’m also introducing a […]
Stay Connected!