6 Must Dos for New Years Weight Loss Success

1. First and foremost: for heavens sake, SLEEP!!
Get a bedtime, a wake time and stick to it. Like every new routine, it's going to be hard at first but this is your foundation. If you are staying up until 1am playing the candy crush saga, you are going to be tired the next day and your will power to stay on plan will suffer. You won't likely want to get out of bed early to exercise and after work you'll be more prone to skip the gym because your body needs the rest.

2. Failing to plan, is planning to fail.
Guess what? In the morning you are going to need to eat breakfast, and then around the middle of the day you'll be hungry for lunch, and then later in the day you'll be scrounging your fridge for dinner. These events should not come as a surprise! Plan your meals each day. Be intentional about every single piece of food you plan to stick in your mouth. My suggestion would be to look at your schedule on the weekend for the week ahead. Shop for the food, prepare the food and place the food in the fridge for convenience throughout the week.

3. Eat what you like!
It's great if you like to eat raw kale. I don't. I tried. It's just not for me. I can, however, trick myself into eating it (because I can't taste it) when I layer a single slice on an egg sandwich with cheese and Boston lettuce in between some Ezekiel bread.  But I repeat, don't eat foods you don't like. Maybe you can get creative like I did with the egg sandwich but don't bend over backwards about it. Just let it go and eat what you do like.

4. The Mind is a Beautiful Thing.
I feel as though this might be the most important item in attaining a goal. Stop with the thinking that other women can do it, that it's easy for them but it's just too hard for you.  Stop thinking that your genetics are holding you back, or it's your thyroid. Granted, those two things can come into play but they aren't going to hold you back. YOU are going to hold you back with that type of thinking. Stop blaming your kids, your husband, your job, or your mother-in-law. Those things are not holding you back, they are obstacles that you have to work around but with strategic planning, anything is possible. Weight loss is hard and it's hard for a reason. Your body wasn't designed to lean down to the next Victoria's Secret model frame. It's just not natural. Your body is designed to move, work and be productive but most important of all, survive! So you will be hungry at times. You will want to eat a cupcake. You will want to have some pizza. You will want to eat off plan on a Wednesday afternoon. Knowing ahead of time that this will be hard, that you will be hungry and that you will want to veer is empowering for when the time comes to make the hard choice to stay on plan or not to stay on plan.  The truth is that it's just hard and you will have to choose to do something that doesn't "feel" comfortable in the short term to get the long term results you are after. Know this, cry about it a little in your mind and then move on. Make the small, hard choices that count.

5. Deprivation.
Just don't do it. I mentioned above pizza, cupcakes and veering off the plan. What if those things were part of your plan? What if you ate on plan all week and Friday night you had pizza. Then Saturday you got back on plan but had a cupcake that afternoon? Then maybe Sunday you went to brunch after church. I'm talking about 3 meals out of a possible 21-35 (depending on how many meals you eat per day). Don't deprive yourself. Plan foods that you love in your weekly plan. Plan to eat those things. You have to because I don't care who you are, eventually the food wins. Going too long without those foods will lead to a binge. Deprivation that leads to binging is so 1990, we are about balanced eating here in 2015.

6. Do what you do best and hire the rest.
I love this quote but I have to be honest, it took me too long to grasp this concept because....well,  I am cheap. I wanted to save my dollars and do it myself. Little did I know, paying for what I don't do best was the best money ever spent! Hire a trainer, a coach, a mentor (but make sure you do your homework-there's tons of these people out there and the good ones are worth every penny and then some). I'm a firm believer of everyone who wants more than they currently have need someone like this in their life. If you want to evolve  there's got to be someone in place to challenge, motivate (when you feel like giving up), to have accountability to and to pour into you things that you couldn't pour into yourself. I personally have had a trainer for over 3 years. I have mentors and I have a life coach. These people have given me invaluable gifts that I'll keep with me forever. Whatever you invest your time and resources into, that is what you will get back. If you aren't sure about what you should be eating, how much you should be exercising or how to reach that 2015 goal you set for yourself, look to an expert. One interesting fact I found after hiring these people to help me is they all have the same group of people pouring into them. My trainer has a trainer, my coaches have coaches and my mentors have mentors. We all need it!

The Simple Not-So-Secret

This isn't a secret at all. It's in fact what we have to do more often than not if we want to travel places we haven't yet arrived. But then there's the discussion of if we ever really do really "arrive." And when we arrive then what do we do? You see I think the biggest misconception is the lie we all believe. The lie that if we can just hit the goal that we've set on a pedestal for ourselves, then and only then, will we be happy/complete/whole/successful. This is the lie that most of us believe and so we live mediocre lives because we feel that what we have at the current moment isn't good enough. That life will be so much better if we can just lose "x" amount of pounds or attain some certain level of achievement. It's a lie that holds us hostage from joy. Instead of relishing in what we have, we focus on all the things we don't have and all the areas in our life that we've fallen short.

So my challenge is that from this insight you will look at where you want to go. Because there's absolutely nothing wrong with knowing where you want to go. Just understand this concept so much that it travels from your brain to your heart and you 150% grasp this nugget of truth: The path to get there is a NEVER ENDING PATH. There's no stopping point until we stop sucking air.

So if you meditate on this concept over the next few weeks realize that your life needs to have just enough discipline in it that you can practice it over and over again. If the discipline is so vigorous that it cannot be maintained long term then you are not grasping this concept. Let me illustrate. Say you want to lose 20 pounds. Instead of dieting away and seeing incredible progress in a short amount of time (everything that the latest magazine/facebook diet page/book/TV show tells you that needs to happen in order to be successful) but isn't sustainable for a long period of time do something else. Because strict dieting isn't the answer. All that happens with strict dieting is losing a bunch of weight and not really tapping into the true source. The root cause of the problem is not the 20 pounds you have to lose. If you talk to anyone who has lost weight and kept it off they will tell you it wasn't the weight that was the problem. It was the  person they looked in the mirror every morning when brushing their teeth. See, we all have different desires, genetics, and food and exercise preferences. It's not longer about finding the latest fad diet but it's about figuring out what you want to work towards and what you're willing to do on a weekly basis to get there over a long period of time.  Instead of wishing you could lose the weight start wishing that you'd fall in love with exercise and fall in love with the process of eating nutritious foods. That your desire to eat foods that have no nutritional value would diminish. This is a goal that takes years of work but once you've tapped into this you will never go back. There's no regaining the weight with this method.

I'm into something called best practices. It's where you find someone who is living the way you desire to live. It's someone that has perfected one of your weaknesses. I've been doing this in my life over the past few years and have found it to be the easiest way to get answers and change my patterns. There's a trick though! You have to be able to let go of the false beliefs you used to have and really dive into something different with a ton of faith that it will work. If you don't believe it will work, IT WILL NOT WORK.

So you see, it's not about the actions it's about the thoughts we have towards the actions. The thoughts have got to be healthy balanced thoughts so our actions, journey and results can be as well!!!

Living without Regret

Do the words on this picture resonate? Ever feel like a hamster on a wheel? After all, the American game does look something like this:

1. Buy nice things to feel good and/or impress others so that they feel good about us.
2. Work like a dog in order to pay for the things that we "need" in order to impress/fit in with the rest of society.
3. Work hard and make a decent income (heck, people making $30,000/year are in the top 1% of the world in earnings) but all our earnings seem to evaporate by the end of each month. There's nothing left to invest in ourselves whether it be monetary retirement or physical retirement. Right now many of the folks that are at the retirement stage of life have no money (they spent it all throughout the their life and didn't save for the future). They are in pretty bad physical shape because they worked so hard (mostly at a sedentary job) and didn't spend portions of time taking care of their body via exercise or eating healthy.

The number one reason a person gives as to why they can't hire a trainer is finances.  Trust me, I am a HUGE believer in proper money management so I can relate to this but here's what I've also realized through some observation.  We can't afford upping our exercise/health budget but daily trips to Starbucks, eating out a handful of meals per week at restaurants, smart phones, new cars, new clothes, vacations and/or manicures/pedicures can get squeezed into the budget.  What do all of those things listed have in common? They are all instant gratification types of things.  They make us happy now. There is no delay in pleasure.

What I would urge you to do if you feel as though I might have been describing parts of your life is learn how to get OUT of the hamster wheel.  Start being weird! Start saying no, set boundaries, shoot for a goal and stay focused. Also realize we are the most marketed to population in the history of the world.  All day long we are marketed to in some way or another (I am kind of doing it right now:)

Two things that can help you get there. The first is taking control of your finances and the best person I know to do that is Mr. Ramsey. You can start by reading his book.

Secondly, we can start making exercise and healthy eating a part of your life FOR GOOD! Maybe that means this year you spend a little more on yourself because if you're reading this right now and realize that what you've done in the past hasn't worked it's time to change things up.  Maybe it means spending a little more and investing in a trainer, small group training program, a class, or a gym membership (that you are committed to using).  No matter how you look at it, we live in a time where the reality is a rat race. It takes a persistent effort to continually fight against the norm.

Want to know a little secret I use in figuring out how to spend my money and time? I thinking about what I would have wished I would have done when I'm 80 years old looking back on my life. I can guarantee when I'm 80 I will have wished I exercised regularly, ate healthy foods, and invested money for retirement.  Although I've got to be honest and finish the rest of this: I will also want to look back on a happy healthy life of serving others, letting loose every once in awhile, loving those around me with my whole heart and taking it all in...never taking anything for granted, being grateful and living with purpose and integrity.  This is what I call living without regret!

The Secret! How To Succeed with Weight Loss in the New Year

Well....hello there!!! Yes, it's been awhile since I've blogged last.  Oh how I've missed you blog!!!

Now let's dig into the nitty gritty! The picture to the left might seem like a weird picture to post with this entry.  However, when looking for an image for this post it seemed most fitting.  I'll explain in a minute.

The secret to losing weight, living healthy and being fit boils down to.....drum-roll please.....little successes along the way!! Motivation is key but motivation can quickly leave. The trick is to stay motivated and how we stay motivated is by seeing progress.  The progress can come in many forms:


1) Feeling Better Overall!
2) More Energy
3) Better Sleep Quality
4) Looser Clothes
5) More Confidence
6) Improved Mood
7) Better Self Talk
8) Lower Number on the Scale
9) Better Food Choices
10) Others Noticing a Difference in Us
11) Feeling Stronger
12) Getting More Flexible
13) Our Body Moving Better
14) Increased Stamina
15) Being Able to Do Something that used to be Impossible

Did you notice something with this list?  There are FIFTEEN items listed and only ONE deals with the scale.  There are so many ways we can have success.  Granted, the one we put most stock into deals with the scale.  I hope after reading this post your eyes will be opened to all the other ways you can have success with exercise and eating in the new year. Focus on those successes and notice ALL the changes. Use that as fuel all year long!

Back to the picture.  I personally love this picture and it motivates me.  In it I see expression, flexibility and quite a bit of what I'd like to refer to as "spunky health".  To start this process of motivation find a picture that moves you.  One that you can look at and be inspired all year. This is my picture.  When I look at it I'm inspired to be a healthier version of me!! My challenge to you is to do the same!!

Conclusions about Food Today

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately and this it what I've come up with: I believe that in order to maintain a healthy weight and/or obtain weight loss it's all about keeping the HUNGER* at bay.  Think about it, if we can keep ourselves satisfied throughout the day by eating every couple of hours and keeping our body fueled then we can keep ourselves in check by not going crazy nuts because we're so ravenously hungry. I know for myself personally I will make good food choices if I'm not starving.  So the idea is to never let yourself get to the point of hunger*. If that happens we've lost control.  Maintain control. If every night you lose control because you are so hungry since you haven't eaten enough throughout the day, stop the crazy cycle and eat and drink more (water) throughout the day. Chances are you are starving yourself and possibly even dehydrating yourself to the point of crashing at night.  So all the deprivation and do-good that you thought you did during the day is undone by the night eating.


*Means that we allow ourselves to get past the point of hungry to starvation.  We will do anything for food and once the food is in our presence it is devoured.  Typically this said food is of high carb and sugar levels.

Wonder Wednesday: Ups and Downs

The first few days of 2012 haven't quite panned out how I'd like.  Yesterday I found myself in the ER with a severe allergic reaction (we think) to who knows what.  I was pumped five different drugs in order to get it under control.  Not a fun way to begin the year.  Since one of the drugs was a steriod I had a raging hunger when I got home.  So now I find myself 5 pounds heavier and a bit swollen and achey.  I'm feeling much better but it make me realize one thing: in order to keep living  healthy; I have to expect that their will be days like yesterday.  The yesterday's will happen it's just a matter of not letting them get to me or even surprise me because it's inevitable that they will happen.  So I pick myself back up and keep truckin' along.....which is what I'd ask of everyone who reads this.  Come back to it if you have to remember that no one has it 100% easy all the time.  We're all in this together, we just have to continue to encourage one another.

2012 Tracking

Had to share these target $1 finds. First up is this food tracker.

Food journaling is one of the best ways to keep yourself accountable to what you put in your body. Find one just like this at target in the $1 area. Also $1 is the pocket calendar.  I use this to track my exercise and good eating for the day.  All you have to do is set an intention and follow through. This helps me keep going. I can see what I've done at the end of the month and it feels good. Honestly sometimes I workout just so I can write it down. Hey, whatever works!