Attitude Is Key When Tackling Weight Loss

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One of the most important things you can do for your health and fitness is to maintain a positive attitude.  What you think and, even more importantly, what you say about your body has extreme power.  Even the most detailed, well-researched weight loss plan is going to have a tough time standing up to negative thought patterns.

A few years ago I read a great quote by Oprah Winfrey that really stuck with me.  It is such a powerful statement that I wanted to share it with you and discuss the importance of a healthy self image.

“Say bye-bye to feeling bad about your looks. Are you ready to stop colluding with a culture that makes so many of us feel physically inadequate? Say goodbye to your inner critic, and take this pledge to be kinder to yourself and others.”

I agree wholeheartedly with Oprah that we have actually allowed the media to make us feel inadequate. We have succumbed to unhealthy diets — and sometimes painful exercise just to “fit in.”

I believe that you were uniquely designed. Some of us are thinner than others. I also believe it is perfectly normal to exercise and eat right so you look great in a bathing suit — or obtain those “guns” to look good in a t-shirt. However, not everyone has the time or the desire to look like a model on the cover of a fitness magazine.

Interestingly enough, an unhealthy body image does not discriminate. This type of self-loathing can occur for any body size. When I was a size two, I was never satisfied with my looks. Now, I’m a size 6-8 with lots of curves and I love the way I look. Am I motivated by vanity from time to time? Sure I am. However, I am no longer a slave to it. I exercise, eat healthy, and focus on living a balanced life.

A POOR SELF-IMAGE SABOTAGES YOUR WEIGHT LOSS.

An unhealthy body image can lead to yo-yo dieting, over training, and unhealthy eating patterns. These patterns can actually cause weight gain. Yo-yo dieting and over training can actually cause your metabolism to slow down. Being unhappy with your body can cause binge eating which will destroy your hard work. At this point, guilt can set in which may lead to depression and often times more binging.

What do you say to yourself when you look in the mirror?  Years ago a fellow fitness coach used the phrase “watch your words, your body’s listening!” That forever stuck with me. When you speak negatively about yourself, your subconscious accepts the information as truth.

And, since the brain “fights to be right,” your subconscious will automatically want to carry out what you said about yourself. If you say “I have a big gut,” then your brain will agree. You will do what it takes to maintain that “big gut.” This is not just ooky-spooky hocus pocus. This has been proven by neurologists.

THREE WAYS TO DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN A HEALTHY BODY IMAGE

1) Discover what you want. Take time to write what you want your healthy body to look like — not how the media says you should look. Research what it would take to accomplish these goals. Then decide if your goals are realistic and mirror the life you desire. Not everyone wants to be at the gym five days a week.

Once you have a reasonable set of health and fitness goals, ignore the outside chatter. There will always be some new diet or pill, a well-meaning friend, and Lord knows the magazines waiting to tell you that your plan is not ambitious enough. Or, that their way is better. My favorite is the person posing and asking “don’t you want to look like me?”

Now, I’m not saying to be closed-minded on a better way of doing things. I’m saying you should always question if a health or fitness idea fits into your life and values.

2) Speak Success. Tell your body what you want, not what you don’t want. When you look in the mirror, use phrases like “I am losing weight,” or “I have a flat stomach.” In the beginning this can be tough. You tend to think “you are lying.” However, you are not. In my favorite success book, The Bible, it says “speak as if it is already.” This is called faith, my friend! You are believing you can accomplish your goals.

Negative thoughts will enter your mind. That’s normal. You’re human.  Just don’t let them leave your lips. Replace each negative thought with a positive statement. If that’s tough in the beginning, use one of my favorite personal quotes. If you don’t have anything nice to say about yourself, don’t say anything at all. You wouldn’t say something that mean to a friend so, why say it to yourself?

Leave notes around the house as reminders to speak positively about yourself. This will help you build the mental muscles you will need to make success talk a habit.

3) Birds of a feather flock together. Pay attention to how your friends talk about their own bodies. Do they have a healthy self-image, or do they tend to put themselves or others down? Now I’m not suggesting you dump all your friends. Sometimes we need to examine if a relationship is healthy for us or not. If you notice friends putting themselves down, take the opportunity to respond with positive attributes you can point out about them. This practice will help you do the same for yourself.   Oftentimes your positive behavior will rub off on others and the conversation begins to change whenever you are with them.  And, you may discover people just can’t seem to get enough of you.

A healthy self-image is critical to losing weight and maintaining it without having to be a slave to dieting. This is powerful, my friend. Take it seriously.

To your success!
Jennifer

P.S.  Have a body image story you’d like to share?  Please post it below.  I’d love to hear from you!

No More Struggling With Push Ups

No More Struggling With Push Ups

Have you ever struggled with traditional push ups? If you have, you are not alone.

Push ups are a good way to build strong muscles and sculpt the body. However, it’s VERY important that they be performed correctly and with good form. Often times, it’s better to start with a modified version of the exercise until you have built up the strength to perform it correctly.

In today’s short video I share how to perform a modified push up.

The tips I share in the video below will help you build the strength to do a proper push up and avoid injury.

If you’ve already mastered a traditional push up, that’s awesome! I still recommend watching the video. The tips I give on form are important for every level of exerciser to know and understand.

To your health and fitness!
Jennifer

P.S. Please feel free to share this video with anyone you think could benefit from it. We are all on this journey together!



What Does It Mean To Eat Clean?

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The term “eating clean” has been tossed around a lot these days.  I have to admit when I first saw the phrase pop up on the internet my initial reaction was a big eye roll.  I thought “Oh great, another fad diet designed to make people feel guilty about what they eat.  We have enough of those to last an eternity!”

Fortunately, that’s not what it’s about.

While there’s no scientific definition attached to the phrase “eating clean,” the concept is actually a good one.  The goal is to eat food in as close to its natural state as possible.

Clean eating is about understanding how to read labels, knowing where the ingredients came from, and what process they went through to make it onto your plate.  Things like additives, preservatives, and ingredients that add flavor can contribute to making a food less wholesome.

It’s about shopping around the perimeter of the store for as much of your food as possible and knowing what to look for when tackling the center aisles full of prepackaged food.

Please understand, I’m not suggesting that you should never eat anything processed.  One of the challenges with many of the clean eating plans is they usually have too many rules and restrictions.  However, a balanced approach to “eating clean” is a wise choice to help you maintain your weight and your health.

Here are five simple tips to help you make cleaner choices when you are shopping at the markets.

Cook as much as you can.  One of the top reasons I encourage meal planning and cooking your own food is that you have more control over the ingredients.  You can modify recipes to suit dietary needs and have 100% control over what goes into your body.  Magazines like Cooking Light are a great place to find healthy recipes that  won’t skimp on taste or ingredients.

Not all processed food is unhealthy.  Food that is deliberately changed before it is made available for us to eat is considered processed.  It’s usually packaged in boxes or bags and contains more than one item on the ingredient list.

Some processed foods are actually healthy for you and can be great time savers.  Foods like precooked whole grains, greek yogurt, nut butters, frozen fruits and veggies, organic soups, and canned beans are all great examples of healthy processed foods.

Take a quick look at the ingredient list before purchasing processed food.  Ask yourself if it’s something you could make at home or can it only be made in a lab.  If you see things like high-fructose corn syrup or partially hydrogenated fats (transfats), the food has undergone a chemical process.  I recommend avoiding these chemicals in your food as much as possible.

Load up on fruits and vegetables.  Choose recipes like stir fry’s that include a lot of vegetables.  Try adding a side salad with your dinner or lunch, or including a piece of fruit with your snack.  If you like to keep it simple, fill up half of your plate with fruits and veggies and then add your protein and carbohydrate.

Know where your food comes from.  Ask your market where the food you are buying came from.  Look for meat that is grass-fed and raised without antibiotics or hormones.  Produce that travels a few hours to get to your plate is less likely to have artificial preservatives than the fruits and veggies traveling 1500 miles or more from other countries.  Buy produce that’s in season and shop weekly.  If spoilage is a concern, buy frozen organic fruits and vegetables.  They will last  longer and can be more budget friendly.  I like to buy a combination of fresh and frozen every week and then focus on using the foods that have a shorter shelf life first.  Freeze meat and defrost it as needed.

Drink plenty of water.  Staying properly hydrated is important for numerous health reasons.  It also helps you limit beverages that contain artificial sweeteners.  Coconut water or sparkling water with a squeeze of lemon is a nice alternative to some of the chemically sweetened beverages available on the market.

Eating clean is really nothing new.  It’s a simply a new phrase attached to the way of life my great-grandmother would have understood living on their farm.  Food that comes directly from the farm to the table is usually about as clean as you can get.

I think my grandmother would have wondered what all the fuss was about.  🙂

To your health!
Jennifer

 
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