Posts Tagged ‘healthy habits’

Often times, when we’re in need of a distraction, of comfort or a reward for a good day, or bad, we reach for food. Many times, we’ve been programmed to do this…..what did you celebrate your first birthday with?

I often wonder why sugar treats and salty-crunchy snacks seem to be the “go to” foods in just such an occasion. Why don’t we celebrate with a juicy orange or find comfort in whole wheat? Is it because we were programmed to connect comfort, celebration and reward with food? What were you given at the doctor’s office after your shots? After your first breakup, what big bowl of sugary silkiness comforted you? Yep….definitely programmed!

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If you look at the sonogram of a fetus newly forming in the womb, you would notice a bean shaped little creature with a tail, a spinal column with a tiny little speck sitting at the top. Over the course of weeks and months, the little creature transforms remarkably into the little baby we love and adore.

The tiny speck sitting atop the spinal cord is, of course, the beginning of the brain which evolves into what is now widely known as the limbic brain and sometimes still called our lizard brain. Thankfully, as the baby grows and evolves in the womb, additional parts of our more sophisticated brain develop and with it our ability to have emotion, solve problems, fall in love and do basic math. Otherwise, we’d all be running around like a chicken with our little lizard brain.

This lizard brain is very primal.  It governs our survival behavior and creates very specific chemical reactions that we have zero conscious control over. In addition to being the hard-drive of your basic bodily systems – like breathing, vision and bodily movement, it is hardwired to make sure that we survive as a species on this planet. To accomplish this enormous task, your lizard brain has evolved to the status of a teenager, and is forever hungry, scared, selfish and horny.

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It’s vitally important to have a steady, balanced stream of energy throughout your waking hours. By eating at regular intervals (ideally, every 3 hours), you send a signal to the body that it doesn’t have to store calories. By eating small meals frequently, you are essentially turning off your insulin pump and taking control of cravings.

Portion size is key!

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Now it is time to address the third tip to achieving successful weight loss. And this tip is:

It’s not enough to have a goal to lose some weight. You only need to think about the number of New Year Resolutions created each January to realize that setting a goal does not necessary create the type of commitment needed to follow thru and attain that goal.

That’s why it is important to truly consider what it is that you want and the reasons behind it. As Mark Twain said, “I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is I can’t find anybody who can tell me what they want.”

So true….So let me ask you, do you truly know what you want? And why? Or is your goal a wish, a dream, a thought that you “should” have?
Creating specific outcome goals and writing them down is a system that almost every successful person has. So for us to use this same system, we need to write our outcome goal in a specific way.

I bet you’ve already guessed that you can’t get away with statements like “I want to lose weight” or “I’d like to be skinny”. Those are wishes.  Instead pick a specific goal like   “I am happy and grateful that I weigh 135 pounds at 6pm on December 31st”.  And your goal doesn’t have to be a one-liner. You can write down what you desire to achieve with your weight-loss? Write down the pant size you want to fit in to, the things you’ll be able to accomplish (like walking up six flights of steps with ease) at that weight. The more benefits you can envision coming to you as a result of reaching this goal, the more likely you are to reach it.

Notice that I wrote the goal as if it was already a reality? That’s important. Now visualize it, see it, hear it, smell it, feel it and believe it.
The second step to making a goal a reality is to create process goals in which to make the outcome goal come true. Process goals walk you through the journey, step-by-step toward your outcome goal. A process goal might be the choice to workout three times a week or to drink 64oz. of water every day. You can think of process goals as the weekly check-list you follow until you reach your outcome goal.

And remember what Brian Tracy says….”The minute you set a goal that is worthy of you, obstacles arr thrown in your path to make you the person you must become to be worthy of the goal.”

This is unfortunate (ok, it really sucks!!), but true. How often do you set a goal and then have multiple things move into your path that hinders your success? According to Tracy, those are simply character builders, obstacles that are thrown into your path that make you worthy of reaching your goal. Go into your goal process realizing that these obstacles will come and that you are bigger than they are. Birthday cake can be seen as an obstacle to reach your goal or can be seen as a character builder in which you learn to say “no thanks” with grace and ease. Just realize that obstacles in the form of celebrations, moms who try to feed you, spouses who might not want you to change are going to be there and plan your strategy to address them.

Begin to create your own personal goals. And remember that you can use this system to create goals in other areas of your life too. When you create specific, well framed and positive goals, you are much more likely to reach them

Deciding to make the commitment to changing your lifestyle, lose weight and get healthy can sometimes feel like an overwhelming challenge. Often that challenge is multiplied when dieting has been a constant struggle and a history of weight loss and gain is in your past.

The exciting thing is that you can say goodbye to the past and start powerfully in your in your new commitment to health. Begin by implementing the following motivation tips which will give you new skills and slates in which to work from.

This first tip is one in a series of ways in which to finally take control of your life and health. Ready for the first? It’s really the easiest so let’s start there….

(1)    Bullet Proofing your Kitchen

All twelve step programs have the same first step – do you know what it is?

It’s admitting that you are powerless to give up the things you are addicted to, to acknowledge that you can’t resist them. And there are many things that people can become addicted to….it’s not just alcohol or drugs, but food as well.

When you finally admit this lack or power to resist food and/or the sugary beverages that you may also crave, it actually makes you more powerful, because you know that something has to be done and you are ready to take the next step.

And, come on, you already know what foods you have trouble with, so just get rid of those foods! Don’t have them around you and don’t bring them into your house. After all, if it is not there, you can’t eat it!

Bullet proof your kitchen by creating a microenvironment of health right in your house. If you know that ice cream is your weakness and that even one spoonful of ice cream will lead to eating the entire tub, then don’t keep any in the freezer– why tempt fate, or your willpower. In the struggle between Ben and Jerry’s and your willpower, your willpower will always lose. That’s because of your primitive limbic brain.

The limbic brain controls many unconscious chores for your body. Breathing in and out, blinking your eyes and flinch at a flying object all come from the instruction of this portion of your brain. The limbic brain is also responsible for your fight or flight response, your need to mate and yes…..your need to eat.

The problem is that when we were being biologically designed, fast food wasn’t on every corner and bags of calorie dense chemical cocktails couldn’t be wheeled in a cart to our car. Back then, food wasn’t plentiful and didn’t contain a great many calories. Back then, we had to work hard for our food and expended calories in hunting, gathering and preparing it. Today, sticking a hand out of the car window provides a calorie feast of non-food that our body doesn’t know how to process. But, the limbic brain doesn’t care….it urges us to eat what it sees…..and NOW. That’s why it is important to purge these nasty non-foods from your home environment, so your limbic brain doesn’t have anything to focus on.

If you live with other people, ask for their co-operation, or create an area of the kitchen that is your place and keep the rest of the kitchen off limits. And remember, the rest of your household doesn’t need to eat junk either. Be a good role model and urge the people you live with not only to support you, but to choose health from themselves as well.

Now that you’ve used this concept to make your kitchen a healthy environment, begin extending it to other parts of your life.  Bullet proof other areas of your life too by identifying “toxic situations” or “toxic friends” – those events or people who are not supporting your best life.

Did you already think of one? Now begin considering how you can bullet proof yourself from that person, limit your exposure or have the crucial conversation with them that is long past due.

Yes, when you admit you are powerless to resist, you are able to take action to create an environment that supports your goals and the commitments your have made to yourself. Why weight? Begin bullet proofing your kitchen and other areas of your life too.

Yesterday I was whining on a call with my business coach about not wanting to do a task that I needed to do.  I spoke of how I continue to procrastinate because I (stamping foot) simply didn’t want to do it. Even though it is an important task to move my business forward, I (whiiiine) didn’t want to build it into my daily “to do” list. Yes, I converted into my inner 4year old with arms crossed and lower lip stuck out (pout!).

Have you ever felt that way?

My coach didn’t hesitate and simply said….”you are reluctant to do this simply because the pain isn’t great enough.” He then asked “if your boys were kidnapped and held for ransom and the conditions of the ransom where that you do that task for an hour each day for a month, would you do it?”

You bet I would! For two hours, three hours, twenty-four hours if necessary. I would do it standing on my head with both hands tied behind my back, in my underwear on top of the Sears Tower singing Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Yet…as important as the task is, without those conditions of ransom, without the pain necessary to move me forward, it seemed difficult to drudge up the energy to do what needs to be done.

And I was able to see how that same principle applies to people who are sitting on the thumb tack of ill health.

Is that you?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again….everyone knows exactly HOW to lose weight and gain health. Everyone got the memo that being overweight is deadly, that eating junk food is a causing harm, that exercising is good for the body and brain. Yet, so many things get in the way of making daily choices that invite health.

What excuses are getting in your way? Is the pain of disease and death not enough?

If  your children were kidnapped and held for ransom and the condition of release is that you choose the habits of health, would you do it? What changes would you make? Could you find 30 minutes a day to exercise? Another 30 minutes to pre-plan your menu and shop for fruits and vegetables?

What if I said that your current habits of disease were literally creating a hostage situation for your children. Would you believe me? Or, turn your head and pretend all is well? Would you argue that your bad habits of eating fast and processed food, of sitting on the couch, and drinking sugary drinks were not placing your children in a place of harm.

Children today are predicted to be the first in American history to not outlive their parents. Your habits are becoming their habits. But because their bad habits are beginning so young, their chances of dying early are greater.

Will you set them free? Set yourself free?

I don’t believe for a moment that 68% of Americans are on purpose choosing death. Just like the 4 year old that was whining inside of me yesterday, their inner 4 year old is saying “I’ll live forever”, “tomorrow I’ll follow the rules”, “eating this today won’t hurt me….or them.”

But it is.

I won’t apologize for being brutal and frank right now. I won’t apologize that I may be creating pain for you by writing these words. I only hope that the pain of reading this message is enough to create the shift that creates a different choice in your life.

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!!

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

When I heard those words, I couldn’t help but laugh. Coming from an intelligent male with many years of education under his belt, the earnestness of that comment was truly astounding. And, it got me to thinking….we do live in a world where eating a salad once a week is considered a very big deal.

On a daily basis, I have conversations with people who swear to me that they eat really well, make good food choices and simply don’t understand how the weight continues to creep on or refuses to creep off.  Inevitably, “eat really well” involves processed food they believed to be healthy or simply hadn’t factored in their calorie laden beverages (that’s not food, right?)

Studies show that Americans simply eat vegetables on a daily basis, with one exception – the potato, which is often fried or smothered in fat. Even lovely green vegetables are showing up battered on many a plate. Can’t count those either!

It’s not hard to get your veggies in for the day. For breakfast, sauté veggies with your omelet and snack of veggie strips throughout the day. Bring at least 3 cups of chopped vegetables in a baggie and make sure you eat them before the day is gone. Order a salad for lunch with low carb dressing. The salad acts as a fiber shoot and helps push the other food you eat out of your body sooner. Add spinach instead of iceburg lettuce to your sandwich.

See how easy it is to get in your servings?

And be sure to let me know how much better your feel, and look, once you begin adding veggies to your life. After all, that is the reason they were put on this earth, to give your body the nutrients it needs to be health!