How are those New Year’s Resolutions to lose weight coming? Are you still plugging away? Can you feel them starting to waiver? Or have they been put aside to show up on next year’s list? One of the things that can cause people to pass on meeting their wellness goals is the overwhelming feeling that can come from trying to go from holiday-treat-eating coach-potato to food-measuring athlete all at once. There really is no rule that says you have to change all of your behaviors at once to succeed. I didn’t. Four years ago, for various reasons I went from a runner to a walker to not doing any exercise at all. During that period of inactivity, I didn’t curb my eating and pretty quickly reached my heaviest weight ever. I found myself starting over with exercise and losing weight—again. And it did NOT feel good. While I hated where I was, I just couldn’t seem to find the energy to get out of bed and move. So what changed? How did I get going? I first started mentally preparing. These mental preparations did include mentally visualizing me moving my body, but most importantly, they were a conscious effort to change my thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. You see, I was spending a whole lot of my mental energy feeling like a failure. Here I was in this place of starting over—again! I knew how to diet and exercise, yet, I had failed. Surly this meant I was a weak person, or a slacker, or was somehow inherently flawed. Those beliefs were not getting me anywhere. In fact, they were keeping me stuck in the spiral of shame and self-loathing that I thought losing weight would […]
Feel Skinny in 2013
I have a friend who jokes that when she catches sight of her rear-end in the bathroom mirror that she reminds herself that she has great hair. While this got a laugh during a group lunch, she’s actually onto something. When you consider the foundation principle that “Energy Attracts Like Energy,” also known as the Law of Attraction, it becomes clear that focusing on the problem just creates more of the problem. A subtle mental shift towards something you appreciate is a powerful way to shift the negative catabolic energy generated by looking in the mirror and feeling miserable about what you see. You will know that you’ve successfully made the shift to a more positive anabolic place when you experience a feeling of genuine appreciation for another part of your body. A woman I worked with used this technique during her journey to lose 40 pounds. Whenever she caught sight of her stomach, which she judged fat and unattractive, she would quickly shift her focus to appreciating her lean and muscular legs. I used a similar technique on my own weight-loss journey. Whenever I was conscious of my body, I would turn the song “I Feel Pretty” from the Broadway play, West Side Story, into “I Feel Skinny,” and would play it loudly in my head, letting myself truly feel it. When you look in the mirror, do you love or hate what you see? What can you do to focus more on what you appreciate? Imagine the impact that positive anabolic energy is having on your body and overall wellness. Together we can do it! I’m offering a FREE tele-class to help you revolutionize your weight-loss resolution (so it finally works)! Transform Your […]
3 Easy Tips to Create a Slimmer You in 2013
Over this holiday week, you may have found yourself eating, and eating, and eating! And you may be beating yourself up about it. But telling yourself how horrible you are truly is NOT helpful—and it could very well end up making you feel so bad about yourself that you unknowingly sabotage your future efforts to lose weight. It will probably go something like this: You feel fat. You may even feel desperate to lose weight. Every time you feel how tight your clothes are, all you can think about is how much you hate your body. You know you need to diet and exercise so that you can drop some weight, but it’s the end of the year, right? Why start now? You make a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight. You decide that on January 2nd you are going to start dieting and exercising. Between now and then you keep eating, and eating, and eating. You are trying to cram in every food you love to prepare for months of hunger and deprivation. You feel bloated, headachy, and slightly sick. And you hate yourself even more. You feel ashamed that you’ve let your weight get out of hand—again. On January 2, you force yourself to work out and you start a diet that drastically cuts the amount of food you’ve been eating. Each day gets harder and harder. Maybe your diet lasts for a day or two, or for a week or two, or maybe you are even successful at meeting your goal. And then you feel your control slip. You just can’t maintain the rigid diet and exercise “rules” you’ve set in place. You’re tired of being hungry. Your tired of feeling […]
Feel Holiday Abundance to Get the Body You Want
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. And a significant bonus from feeling abundant is it’s good for your body! Feeling abundant creates positive anabolic energy that releases endorphins, […]
Give Yourself Spiritual Liposuction!
Can you look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I love you” and really mean it? If you are like most women, this feels like a big fat lie. I know. It wasn’t too many years ago that I literally could not look myself in the eye and say anything positive. All I could see were my flaws. When I tried saying positive affirmations about myself or my body they would literally stick in my throat because they were such lies. Wow I’ve come a long way. Today I love my body—and myself!—and I love my life more than I thought possible. Now I know that to truly open up my heart to others, I had to learn to love myself first. Far from being the selfish act I thought it was, self-love gives you the energy and empowerment to be more self-less. And it is the key for getting the body that you want. Changing your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs is like spiritual liposuction. As the Law of Attraction says, “As within, so without.” This is particularly true with your body. It was only when I did the inner work of changing my thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about myself, what I was capable of, and what I deserved, that I found the solutions for me to not only lose the weight, but to easily keep it off now for several years. While a powerful exercise is to look in the mirror and tell yourself, “I love you,” many women can’t do it long enough to see significant changes because it feels like such a fib. So start small. Stand in front of the mirror for 3 minutes and focus on at least […]
The Wait is Over to Get the Body You Want!
I was standing on the red rocks in Sedona, Arizona, last week feeling fully engaged in my life. There was no more “waiting” to turn my dreams into a reality. I was taking bold, concrete steps to serve the women whose pain I understand—and have personally overcome. If you are like many of the women I work with, there’s some part of your life that you are putting off “until you lose weight.” Maybe it’s taking that trip to the beach, or really going after a promotion, or even taking a dance class. Chances are, there is something that you would do “if only” you were thinner. The reality is that waiting to fully live your life is actually one of the things keeping you stuck in the rebound cycle of regaining the same 30 pounds over and over again. It’s time to let go of the wait, so you can let go of the weight. I know it’s scary. There’s a part of you that believes you can’t do it, that people will laugh, that you are less than you really are. It’s not true. And it’s time to fully live your life to get the body you want. Here are some tips to get started: Think about all the reasons Why you want to do that thing you have been putting off. That can range from it just being fun, to helping you meet people and establish relationships, to helping you fulfill your life’s purpose. Think about how doing that thing will make you feel. Will it feel exhilarating? Exciting? Satisfying? Make a list and practice feeling that way right now. Think about one small thing that you could do today or this […]
Does This Blog Make Me Look Thin?
David and I are headed out this morning to go zip-lining, so I’m sharing one of my favorite past blogs. Have you ever lost weight, but after you met your goal you still felt fat? How quickly did you gain back the weight? Feeling slim is critical to being slim long-term. Your thoughts and feelings are much more powerful than most people understand. When you take into account the Foundation Principle that “Energy Attracts Like Energy,” also known as the Law of Attraction, you begin to understand that how you see yourself and where you put your focus can make a difference in how well you maintain your weight loss. To truly be a fit, strong, and slim person, it’s important to see yourself as a fit, strong, and slim person. One of the reasons is that when you feel slim you begin to take on the behavioral characteristics of someone who is slim. For instance, how much easier is it to resist those chocolate chip cookies if you are feeling confident and excited about being fit, strong, and slim versus seeing yourself as fat with no hope of ever having a beautiful body? Most people see themselves through filters of self-criticism, limiting beliefs, assumptions about past experiences repeating themselves, and self-created interpretations about their lives. Diet and exercise alone doesn’t alter those self-perceptions. Those changes have to come from the inside out. Removing those negative, catabolic filters and shifting your self-perception so you can truly see yourself living the life you want takes time, energy, and practice, just as creating a healthy lifestyle takes time, energy, and practice. When you practice both the internal and external changes you begin consciously creating the body–and […]
How to See Yourself as Sexworthy
A woman I work with was going to have her kids out of the house for the weekend and was planning to surprise romance her husband. But while she was getting dressed, she began criticizing her body. She imagined her husband being as disgusted by her body as she was, and she felt unsexworthy. The negative self-judgment was so painful that she wound up spending the evening crying alone in her bedroom. I know that she is not the only one. Many women who struggle with their weight avoid or turn down sex with their partners, or hide their bodies in the dark and under the covers. They suffer from body shame. Often, what is happening is you are so afraid of being judged and criticized by others that you heap on the self-abuse to the point that you shut down and shut off everything but the pain. From this place of fear and despair it’s impossible to believe that anyone would find you attractive—or that you are worthy of another’s appreciation and love. But the painful truth is that no one else was in that room with my client. No one else was heaping on criticism or telling her she was unattractive. She was doing it to herself. She never even gave her husband the chance to see her, comfort her, reassure her, and demonstrate to her how sexy he thinks she is and how much he loves her. She took that opportunity away from him. And the negative thoughts she attributed to him—without his input or knowledge—are now a belief about him that she is carrying around that will impact their relationship in subtle ways. You have to feel lovable to be fully […]
Be Happy First
This may tick you off. You have to feel happy first. That’s right, to achieve your weight loss goals—you have to feel happy first. And while this is the premise behind the Law of Attraction, this isn’t just some woo woo notion. Science backs this up. Shawn Achor, a Harvard psychology researcher and author of The Happiness Advantage, says that pinning our happiness on achieving a goal actually hinders our progress. Instead, it’s being happy that help us achieve our goals. “Wait a minute,” you might say. “Isn’t happiness what you feel because something good happened? Isn’t “being happy” outside my control?” Every feeling is related to your underlying thoughts. And thoughts are made of energy, not marble. You have the power to change them. This means that how you feel is ultimately within your control. And you can choose to be happy—or not. Regardless of what is happening around you. One of the most amazing examples of this is Viktor Frankl who chronicled his experience in a concentration camp in the book, Man’s Search for Meaning. Even in the most dire circumstances, Frankl choose to look for meaning, and yes, even joy. If Frankl can do it while imprisoned and facing death, you can do it in the midst of your life. So why would you want to choose to be happy first, before you achieve your weight-loss goals? Primarily because you would feel happy right now. And isn’t that what you are truly seeking anyway? Imagine having the body of your dreams. How would having that body make you feel? “Oh,” you might say, “it would feel good. It would feel like accomplishment. It would feel like wellness and well-being. It would feel like […]
How to Be Fit, Strong, and Slim
“You must become a Vibrational Match to the qualities you seek, because what comes to you always matches you.” -Abraham-Hicks Stop trying and Be. This is the message I have been receiving. Stop trying to be fit, strong, and slim, and Be fit, strong, and slim. Stop trying in all areas of my life, and Be who I want to be. What does this look like? To Be fit, strong, and slim then you must consistently make the decisions that someone who is fit, strong, and slim would make. You must think like a slim person, react like a slim person, embody a slim person. How do you do this when you have never been fit, strong, and slim, or didn’t pay attention when you were? You have to tap into the power of your imagination. Imagine. . . Being at your optimal weight Appreciating, and feeling comfortable and confident in your body Waking up every morning energized and eager to start your day Thriving—body, mind, and spirit Maximizing your self-care so that you have the energy and time to care for others Feeling attractive Having fun in the process of achieving your goals Having control over hunger, cravings, and emotions Enjoying sharing your love physically with your partner Creating a body—and life—that you love Imagine how that would feel, and feel that way right now. You have just harnessed the vibrational energy of your thoughts and emotions, which will make taking action that much easier. Practice these thoughts and feelings daily and you’ll pave the way for easier and more effective action. Ah, the ever-important action. Yes, the action of making healthy decisions is important, but the reason so many diet and exercise programs […]
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