Posts Tagged ‘diet’

This week I  began a series of posts to increase your weight loss motivation. Today, let’s look at the second:

Watch What you Say and Think

You’ve probably heard the saying….”what you think about expands.” Although this is true for all areas of our life, it is particularly crucial to watch what you say and think when it comes to your health and diet.

Let’s begin with something simple. Have you ever said “I am having a really bad day”?

And guess what…..your prediction comes true….your day goes from bad to worse. This isn’t a coincidence.  When we get into this frame of mind, our thoughts can easily turn small molehills into huge, insurmountable mountains.

Yes, the way we frame these thoughts and words can really make a fundamental difference in the way we live our lives. Our thoughts and what we say can affect our day to day existence.

Just today, how many negative thoughts have you had about your willpower, your body, the way your look or feel? Have you said “I’m fat”, I don’t have will power” or “I’ll never be thin”? Each time you are negative about yourself (and really pay attention to how often this happens) you are closing off your subconscious to new ideas – you are effectively telling your subconscious that this is the way things will always be. You create self-fulfilling prophesies.

It doesn’t have to be like that.

There are plenty of studies that show that if you start to frame your thoughts in a positive manner, it can have a massive effect on your desired outcome.  You can do this by visualizing yourself at the exact weight that you want to be. Focus on how your life would be different at that weight, the things you would be able to do, how you would feel. Write those things down – something like “I am 140 pounds and enjoy a wonderful vibrant life where I buy clothes off the rack and am not embarrassed to try them on. I am able to easily climb stairs and can roll around on the floor with my children. I am excited to fly on a plane and have no concern about fitting into my seat”.  Jot down anything and everything that you can think of that will support your vision. Write this vision statement on 3 x 5 cards and place them around your office, home (especially the refrigerator) and car –places where you can see them everyday.

Even if at first you find it hard to believe the statement, read it anyway. Especially, read it to yourself in the mirror. Reading it a number of times every day will ensure that your subconscious will take note and not only influence, but support, your choices to make the statement a reality.

Need more support? One of my favorite people in the world is Dr. Joe Vitale and I’ve learned so much from the work he has created. If limiting beliefs are holding you back, I highly recommend his Awakening Course. Check it out, do the work and begin to strategically plan your life without the baggage of limiting beliefs.

I’ve heard it before….”I’ll have time to sleep when I’m dead.” And while it certainly feels that sleep is an inconvenient interruption to our 24 hour lives, a full night’s sleep is not the luxury we’ve come to consider it to be. In fact, sleep is a basic necessity for healthy hormonal balance. Plus when you dip below seven hours of quality sleep a night, you are increasing your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, depression, and our immediate enemy….obesity.

Sleep researchers break sleep into five stages, of which Stage 4, or slow-wave sleep, has shown important connections to our health and weight. Stage 4 sleep occurs about an hour after we fall asleep and ideally sink into three to four times per night. During this deep, dreamless sleep, it is believed we release our greatest pulses of growth hormone, the hormone that prompts our body to burn stored fat. And it is also believed that during this stage of sleep our metabolism is regulated. So you can see that not sleeping enough or having sleep interrupted often can work against your weight loss efforts.

And you really can’t “catch up” on your sleep. Just two nights of bad sleep can cut your satiety hormone, leptin by 20% and increase ghrelin, your hunger hormone, by 30. That one-two punch to your appetite control center makes you much more likely to snack on high carb treats, which cause another downward spiral for your health. You see, other research has shown that just three nights of poor sleep made the bodies of healthy test subjects 25% less sensitive to insulin. You could expect this same level of insulin resistence in people carrying an excess of 20-30 pounds. Disturbing to say the least.

The good news is that all of these things can be correctly. You simply must make an effort, strategically plan your life in a way that allows you at least seven hours of undisturbed sleep each night. And plan your environment, darken your room, create a perfect temperature and even listen to music specifically for inducing deep sleep – one of my favorites is www.sleepsecretaudio.com. Hypnosis also works amazingly well, to calm the mind and allow you to sleep deeply – check out http://renewyoutoday.com/sleep (my affiliate link to Wendi’s amazing products).

Remember, sleep is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Don’t start your day without it!!

With SO much information available on the best ways to lose weight, it’s hard to know what’s true or effective and what isn’t! Meanwhile the multi-billion dollar weight-loss industry is lining THEIR bank accounts with YOUR hard-earned money by causing you to jump from one magic weight-loss pill to another. All the while, the only thing that seems to be shrinking is your wallet…NOT your waistline. Sound familiar? Well, it’s time to get off that insane merry-go-round once and for all, and I can help you do that. I will cut through all the  lutter and confusion of weight-loss trends and introduce you to a safe, medically proven plan that works!

You Are Not in This Alone!

It’s been shown time and again that losing fat and achieving a healthy body weight is something most people can’t do alone. So don’t feel ashamed that you’ve tried losing weight on your own and haven’t succeeded. The only shame is in giving up the fight…especially when there is a way to lose the weight without a struggle that is fast, easy and you don’t have to be hungry or crave carbs.

So Let’s Get Together.

What’s worked for others—others who have successfully lost 20 lbs., 30 lbs., even 100 lbs.—can work for YOU. And with our program, the weight you lose is based on behavior and lifestyle changes…changes I coach you through during your journey. My effective and proven program:

• Will help you lose 2-5 pounds per week

• Is clinically proven

• Is perfect for busy lifestyles

• Is safe and effective

• Is simple and convenient

• Includes life modification support

• Is cost neutral for most people.

• Is recommended by over 15,000 medical providers

Together, we can create optimal health for you and reclaim your life once and for all!

A Doctor was addressing a large audience in Tampa.

‘The material we put into our stomachs is enough to have killed most of us sitting here, years ago. Red meat is awful. Soft drinks corrode your stomach lining. Chinese food is loaded with MSG. High fat diets can be disastrous, and none of us realizes the long-term harm caused by the germs in our drinking water. But there is one thing that is the most dangerous of all and we all have, or will, eat it. Can anyone here tell me what food it is that causes the most grief and suffering for years after eating it?’

After several seconds of quiet, a 75-year-old man in the front row raised his hand, and softly said, ‘Wedding Cake?’

Go ahead…..laugh! Really loud!!

This is actually nothing that a lot of us didn’t at least suspect previously, but now, study after study are proving that your positive emotions actually play a larger role in your overall health than was previously known.  It may sound hard to believe, but you can actually laugh your way to fitness.  Don’t get me wrong – you can’t eat whatever you want and expect to lose weight just by listening to a few jokes.

What you can do, however, is make a concerted effort to improve your health by channeling laughter in the right way to help flood your body with positive chemicals (produced by your brain) that do make it easier to lose weight.  Imagine the positive benefits that can be achieved simply by loving life, enjoying a laugh, while eating right and getting some exercise.

And remember this…your body doesn’t know the difference between real laughter and fake. So right now, start fake laughing….go ahead….he he he ha ha ha…..think of something funny, like the time your sibling shot milk out their nose.  Are you feeling a little smile come to your lips?  Go ahead and widen it and he he he ha ha ha some more. When you begin to feel the smile come naturally, feel a shift in your energy and a clarity of your focus. Those are the yummy feel good hormones flooding thru your body. Now….that really is something to giggle about!!!

by Lynette Patterson, ICF Certified Life and Health Coach

When stress becomes long term and chronic, the net result is a metabolism-depressing and vitality-sappy disaster. Do you have a plan to manage stress?

Creating a Strategic Plan for your Life requires a look into all the area that affects your health. Study after study proves that stress makes you vulnerable to a host of physical and mental illness and generally has a negative impact on just about every part of your body. Stress:
• Suppresses your immune system
• Can cause a heart attack or stroke
• Increases your risk of many types of cancers
• Causes delays in wound healing
• Promotes inflammation
• Cause you to gain weight
• Impairs your memory
• Causes depression
• Increases risk of diabetes
• Deteriorates sexual function
• Ages you on the inside and outside

The Good News?

Managing health deteriorating stress is easy. By simply changing your eating patterns, adding some important nutrients and minerals to your diet and practicing stress management techniques, you can minimize the damage that stress creates. Losing weight can also reduce your stress, as being obese is a physical stressor too.

by Lynette Patterson, ICF Certified Life and Health Coach

It’s hard to stand back and watch someone that you care about, a beautiful, amazing human being speak themselves out of being healthy. The “it’s too hard”, “I have no time”, “I don’t like the way it tastes”, “I’m too busy” excuses that rob them of their health and years of life on this planet.

So often, I find that people believe it is diet and exercise that will help them achieve their weight loss goals.

They’re wrong.

Well….not entirely, but as important as diet and exercise is to good health, it is just as important to have a attitude that will support you getting there.

A healthy body begins with a healthy mind and the six inches between your ears is the first thing to get into shape. As important as it is to remove junk food from your kitchen, it’s just as important to remove the junk from your mind. You can have all the support systems in place with all the right tools but if you have a negative attitude or your self-esteem is in the toilet, you won’t create long-term success.
Ready to become unstuck?

Creating the right attitude is so vitally important because thought IS behavior. The power of the mind is complete….the way in which you think about yourself, your body and your life manifests into your reality. It’s so easy for negative thoughts to turn into lack of confidence, hopelessness, despair and depression. And to comfort yourself with your favorite soul food, sit on the couch and stay stuck. It’s so easy for our views of ourselves to become self-fulfilling prophecies.

There are many things you can do to course correct. You can:
•Meditate/pray/journal each morning, focusing on your daily goals. This gives purpose to your day.
•Each night, before you sleep, envision the ultimate you, the strong, healthy, happy, successful person that you dream yourself being.
•Be in gratitude. Before more is available to you, you must first be in gratitude of what you have. Be grateful for your body NOW. Be grateful for your health NOW. Be grateful for your life NOW.
•Keep track of your thoughts. For a few days, keep a journal with you and write down the negative thoughts that come to you. You may be surprised at how often they show up. And with that awareness, you can then begin to monitor them more closely and eventually begin to automatically substitute them with positive, life affirming thoughts until your unconscious disposition is more positively focused.

“I’m on a diet.” It could almost be the national slogan. With so many people attempting to lose weight, it’s amazing how little weight is actually lost and kept off. One of the reasons people find themselves dieting over and over again is they start their efforts without asking one important question: “Am I ready?” To help you find the answer, ask yourself a few more questions:

What’s My Motivation?
Think about your reason for wanting to lose weight and decide if it’s enough to support a long-range commitment. Are you dieting to get ready for the swimsuit season or because your doctor told you your next heart attack could be fatal? Weight loss that’s permanent is more often the result of long-term health considerations than of short-term goals, such as the upcoming class reunion.

Can I Cope With One More Change?
If you’ve just gone through an important change in your life — a divorce, job change, extra stress at work, even a positive change, such as a marriage or new baby — consider postponing changes in your diet and exercise habits. Too much change at once can push you into the high-stress zone.

Am I Willing To Be Realistic?
Perhaps the major reason diets fail is the dieter hopes to shed a large amount of weight in a hurry, to get quick results — and a quick end to the diet. If you expect to be able to lose weight and then on with your life (meaning, go back to your old habits, you are setting yourself up for failure. Your diet isn’t a temporary measure rather than a lifelong change in eating and exercise habits which actually be amazingly enjoyable and fun!

Do I Have Time And Energy?
Experts say that exercise is an important component of any weight-loss program. Are you willing to make walking, jogging, swimming, or an aerobics class a permanent part of your daily life?

How Will Others React?
A supportive and understanding network of family and friends can help you enormously. Do you expect your family to partake of your new healthy recipes? Do you want them to cheer you on, nag you when you lapse, or just leave you alone? Talk over your plans with your loved ones. What are their expectations and fears? For instance, your spouse may worry that as you lose weight, you’ll become too attractive to others. Or your mother may feel rejected if you don’t eat that second helping.

Losing weight permanently requires a major life change, not just another diet. Your answers to the above questions can help you decide if now is the time to start.

Source: www.HealthCoachingU.com

Each day, the average person has 80,000 thoughts…60% of which are negative. It’s not enough that these negative thought lead to anxiety and depression, Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) actually increase the stress hormones, including cortisol, which promotes fat storage (not fair, right?). So it makes sense to believe that eliminating, or at least reducing, these negative thoughts would create a difference in your health. But how?  So glad you asked!

Let’s begin by better understanding the ANTs. You know the ANTs are in your pants when they are:

• Automatic – you don’t decide to think them and they may have become such a habit that it is hard NOT to think them
• Negative – They make you feel bad about yourself. For example, “I’m useless, I’m lazy, I’m fat, I’ll never be good at it”.
• Believable – They simply feel real and they seem to be true. You even accept them as a fact in your life. “My metabolism is slow and I’ll always be overweight. My genes are like my moms and I’ll always be this shape.”

Luckily, you CAN neutralize negative thoughts by asking these questions when they appear:

1. Is it true?
2. Can I absolutely know it is true, what facts evidence this as true?
3. How does it make me feel?
4. Who would I be without this thought?

If you will take a few moments to examine these questions, you can often realize that the negative thoughts were simply random ideas that caught you off guard. Let’s use the example of weight to see how using these questions can neutralize ANTs for you.

Negative thought – “I don’t have enough willpower to be thin.”
Ask yourself…is it true? Have there been times when you demonstrated willpower? Have you passed by dessert or chose a healthier meal? If you did it once, it is possible to do it again. And if it is possible to do it again, you can do it a third time. So the negative thought isn’t true…you HAVE demonstrated willpower in the past.

What evidence is there? Can you, without a doubt, have a doctor locate your broken willpower? Where does it reside in you? Can you pet it? Poke it? Does it have a name? Of course not, it is simply a concept that you’ve bought into, with the conclusion that you don’t have any!!

How does it make you feel? Be careful with this one. On the outside, saying that you have no willpower can make you feel vulnerable and sad, as if this “thing” that is broken inside of you is out of your control. Digging deeper, placing blame on things outside of ourselves creates a sense of resignation and resignation can take a strong hold on you. It keeps you on the couch. Keeps you stuck.

Who would I be without this thought? If you didn’t have this negative thought holding onto you, who would you be? Would you be the thin, energetic person you were meant to be? And what part of the current you would have to be changed? Would you have to have crucial conversations with people around you, would you have to be brave and say no to requests, would you need to be more organized and plan your life by design, would you have to take the steering wheel of your life and drive your own path.?
When you start to get the hang of catching these thoughts, it’s a good idea to write them down. This can help you to look over the thoughts, understand where they come from and challenge them with the questions. Even if you don’t have time or in the right space to ask the questions in that moment, take the time later.
Determination is required to build resilience and it’s a discipline you can strengthen. You CAN eliminate the ANTs in your life. Manage them powerfully and create a new, and healthy, future for yourself!!!

And when you begin to eliminate these negative thought, you develop an uncommon common sense, a bone-deep faith in your belief in your ability to cope in any situation, faith that you can figure out what to do, figure out how to do it, pick up the pieces and move on.

In today’s full-on, fast-paced, non-stop world, more and more people are relying heavily on processed foods to feed not only themselves, but their families as well. When asked, most people note convenience as a major factor in choosing “fast food,” whether it comes from a drive-thru restaurant or from the grocery store as processed, pre-packaged meals.

It is true, processed food may be convenient, especially for busy families on the run, but just HOW convenient is it, truly? In the moment, processed foods ease time crunches and offer momentary comfort or a quick energy fix. But what about hours later, when you don’t have enough energy to do anything but nap? Or when your focus is broken or the indigestion kicks in. Is processed food convenient then?

Let’s also consider what processed foods do to your body. You’ve heard the saying “garbage in, garbage out,” but with our bodies, it isn’t quite so simple. With processed food, when the “garbage goes in,” our bodies have to react in a complex manner to “rescue” you from the fake food you just consumed. Since junk food has no nutrients in it, your body must use its own precious stores of nutrients to even digest what you’ve eaten. Plus, dyes and chemicals used to flavor and preserve junk food demand a lot of extra vitamins and minerals to be utilized just to metabolize and detoxify them.  While convenient food is convenient for your busy life, it certainly isn’t convenient for your body!

Consider this…30 minutes after you consume refined sugar, your immune system is compromised by as much as 50%, causing your body to quickly call in the troops and tap into your enzyme, vitamin and mineral stores. In addition, your pancreas is hard at work gobbling up the excess sugar so that you don’t fall into a diabetic coma. Then, because your body can’t process the sugar, it is laid down as fat, unless you are willing to exercise the needed amount to burn the additional calories.  (you have to walk the length of one football field to burn the calories of one (yes, 1) M&M – how far to you have to walk to burn off the entire pack?) THAT certainly isn’t “convenient” either!

So the next time you find yourself eating donuts, potato chips, fast food or candy bars, think about all those precious enzymes, vitamins and minerals that must be pulled from the important repair processes, tissue re-growth, or bone strengthening they are designed to do just to deal with these foreign invaders called fast food. Ask yourself, just how “convenient” is that convenient food to your body, really? And how “convenient” is it when you are nodding off at your desk or lose productivity because of brain fog? Years from now, how “convenient” is the heart disease, diabetes and other horrid diseases that are certainly in your future.

Remember, you cannot save time; you can only spend it wisely. Lean protein on whole wheat with veggies and fruit on the side will most certainly be time well spent.

And I can’t end without saying…high quality meal replacements are what get me through my busy-working-mom-of-three-boys life. My favorites can be purchased here…. www.lynettepatterson.tsfl.com

There it is….just next to the cash register at every convenience store and gas station in America. Those little packages of temptation that are strategically placed to entice you to buy something other than that gallon of milk or the tank of gasoline your came in for. Isn’t it amazing how those little packages have a way of shouting “eat me”?

While an occasional indulgence doesn’t seem like a bad idea, the truth is that many times, it becomes impossible to stay away. If you are one of those people whose occasional indulgence turns into a full-on gorging, you are not alone.

The food industry does a beautiful job of combining the ingredient of these snack cakes to make us want more and more. After all, it is their job to have you eating as many of these snacks as possible and food science knows exactly how to create combinations that make you crave more. By layering sugar, fat, and sodium, these packaged cakes, doughnuts, and muffins are equivalent in calories and fat (especially the bad, artery-clogging kind) to a hamburger at a fast-food restaurant and combine a lethal mixture that doesn’t allow your brain to know when we are full. They also trigger a hormonal response to keep us craving more and more.

Next time you find yourself craving any of these quick-fix snacks, take a moment to check the nutritional label. Are you shocked at the grams of fat your see? You should be! And don’t be deceived by the “low fat” snack cakes….sugar replaces the fat and are just as unhealthy as the full fat variety.

The next time the snack cake is shouting your name, grab a piece of fruit, sugar free gelatin or a healthy fast food like a meal replacement. Meal replacement bars are very tasty, are low in calories and provide a balance of protein, fat and carbs to stabilize your blood sugar and keep craving at bay. You can buy my favorite by visiting www.lynettepatterson.tsfl.com.

And remember that eating right means that you must eat in a balanced way. Indulging in these high calorie/high fat foods do not fit into a healthy eating plan. Choose your snacks wisely and see the weight fall off and your health improve.