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Make Your Exercise Count: What you Eat is only a part of your plan for success

November 22, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

There is something magical that happens when you start tracking or counting your exercise. It gives you motivation to exceed what you have done and more aware of what you are doing. Many of my clients use loseit.com and now they are synched up with a new product that is only $99 that can help you keep track of how much you are exercising. It is called FITBIT.

What I love about FITBIT is that you can count steps, calories burned; miles walked or run and even keep track of calories you are burning when you are not exercising. There are a few ways to get in your daily exercise to be what I call in the weight loss zone. They are: walk 10,000 steps a day or five miles or burn 400 to 500 calories.

You’ll be amazed once you start to keep track, you have a benchmark against which you can improve. You will want to do more and more to make your goal. If you think being healthy and losing weight is just about the food you eat think again. It is also not just about being a maniac about exercise without the food piece. They are two pieces in to puzzle and you don’t get the results without the other.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the Harvard School of Public Affairs, whose research I respect, determined that after the age of 50 you need to exercise for one hour a day to prevent weight gain. This works out to be a little less than what you have to do to lose weight depending on how hard you are working out. It is not about working out hard, as much as doing something every day you enjoy. If you are looking for a motivational hypnosis for exercise I have one that really works. Here is the link to download it. Once you get hypnotized you fill find you start to enjoy exercise. That is now hypnotism works, it is designed to help you have the thoughts about exercise you want, not the ones that keep you stuck.

Personally, I walk every day in nature. I could not live without that. I also enjoy hiking on weekends and a great yoga class (link to past post on yoga if you have one). I have also found that the yogic breathing I teach which is available in my meditation download is great exercise for the lungs. I am never out of breath. Tel l me what you enjoy doing?

Why Angelina Jolie does not look healthy or sexy

October 26, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

Losing weight should be motivated by a desire to live a healthier life style more than a way to find your confidence and “look sexy.” I know women think being thinner is the ticket to more self- confidence and being more attractive to the opposite sex. The problem is that confidence just like happiness comes from within.

I don’t think women realize that research shows men find curvier shapes more attractive. According to the research, looking at curvaceous, the hour-glassed shaped body triggers the pleasure reward circuitry of the brain in a man. Studies across all cultures show that men consistently find curvy women to be more attractive. This is attributed to the subconscious drive of continuing the species: curves and shapely hips, an hour glass shape is subconsciously associated with greater fertility and health in a woman.

Recently I was shocked at an article People magazine had on how Angelina Jolie and other celebrities have an obsession with thinness . Honestly in the most recent pictures of Angelina, she looked like she was sick she was so thin. Obviously there is something else going on here that women just do not get. Read this blog post if you want to get in touch with a bigger more meaningful reason to lose weight.

Our cultural obsession with thinness is reinforced by the models we see on the runways that get thinner, younger and more strange looking every year. This obsession was created by the fashion industry who decided to use super thin models to take away the distraction of the body. If the model was super thing, she became a walking mannequin to show off the clothes not the body.

I think a correction is in order here. A recent research poll published in Ladies Home Journal on women’s satisfaction levels with their lives showed only 27% were satisfied with their health and wellness, and as would be expected, women 19 to 25 feel the most pressure to look beautiful. What we need to realize is that not only happiness, but also beauty comes from within.

We need to find another way to let our beauty blossom. Beauty has more to do with how you glow and what your subtle energy is like than it does now much you weigh. I also think when you cultivate beauty from within it is easier to be the right weight naturally.

Want to know how to how look healthier and sexier? Smile, it turns on the glow factor. Self-confidence is the absence of self-consciousness…focus on seeing the beauty in everyone. It works. Take a look at the downloadable hypnosis MP3 I have on self-confidence to get this on a subconscious level.

I would love your feedback. Do you agree or disagree with this? Connect with me on Facebook and share your comments. Do you think our cultural obsession with thinness is unhealthy?

Eating right by finding the bigger purpose

October 20, 2011 by admin 6 Comments

Recently one of my clients told me about Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet. As you might expect by the title, it is a vegan approach to eating and living. Veganism is a philosophy that avoids consuming animal products as food or in any fashion such as clothes, cosmetics, and products that are tested on animals. Veganism is motivated by a desire to practice a “cruelty free”way of living. In doing so, there can be many benefits to one’s health which might include losing weight, provide natural way to improve you health and alleviate medical conditions that are lifestyle induced.

I have found that finding a bigger meaning or purpose behind what you want to change can be very motivating. For example, many people find it so much easier to give up unhealthy habits such as smoking, drinking, consuming coffee when they are pregnant. If you are struggling with your eating and lifestyle habits, finding your bigger purpose beyond just having to lose weight to look better or because you think you will be more attractive can provide the motivation you are lacking.

One of my clients came to me struggling to overcome a compulsive and unhealthy candy eating habit. Every time she felt the need to shut down emotionally she binged on candy. When I suggested she start to look at the candy negatively she remembered that was what she did when she stopped eating meat. I think it is easier to let go of an unhealthy habit especially one that involves an addictive substance such as sugar, by intentionally focusing on the negatives of what it does to you and how badly it makes you feel. You can also derive energy from knowing that you are no longer supporting companies that practice business in a way that harms others.

I am particularly disturbed by how businesses develop products for the consumer that have the potential to hook them and are unhealthy. Sometimes it takes years for this information to reach the consumer as was the case with smoking. Personally I feel the food industry is very similar to the tobacco industry. Every person that I can help to free from the grips of an addictive substance that is “man-made” the better I feel.

I think we are all disconcerted and disillusioned with the state of affairs in our country. Can you believe that one of our biggest exports is antidepressants and the toxic fast food that is so pervasive in our culture. Perhaps it feels overwhelming and you think there is nothing you can do to help change our state of affairs. I think we all have the power to stop consuming products that are harming us, others, and the environment.

The sooner we wake up to what is going on the more effective we can deploy and use our power of choice. That is why I think you should take a look at Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet. You may find the motivation you were looking for to eat healthier and live healthier by practicing kindness. This “diet” works with the Nirvana Diet™ because the program I developed is a diet for the mind. It helps you make what you want to change your lifestyle.

Join the conversation and let me know what motivates you to live a healthier life.

Get motivated and overcome resistance… the root of stress

October 18, 2011 by admin 2 Comments

When you find the motivation to change the things that are not working in your life, you will find your stress levels go down. Imagine waking up in the morning and feeling you have the power to take the steps necessary to change what you have been resisting or ignoring. That includes having the motivation to pursue some of your dreams as well. In these challenging times, you have to learn how to think out of the box, see the silver lining and deal with the stress. Remember the book Who Moved my Cheese? The message in that book is to stop looking in the same place for the cheese if it is no longer there. In order to do this you have to master and learn how to overcome what prevents you from doing this.

Recently I came across a very inspiring video on Marion Woodman called Dancing in the Flames. Here is the link [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELL_5hStC_k[/youtube] Marion is a well-established Jungian analyst, who overcame an eating disorder and cancer. Marion reveals how she did this in the video. What she was able to do was to overcome resistance.

Resistance leads to stress and eventually to anxiety. Anxiety is different than fear. With anxiety there is no clear cut reason as to why you feel anxious. That means there is no action you take. It is taking action and seeing progress that makes us feel good.

Most of us talk about how we want change, but we do not know what to do and or do not take consistent action to accomplish the goal. Change is the platform by which Obama got elected and yet nothing has changed. Change happens when we learn how to see how what we think is fear is really anxiety and may not be real. If it were real, we would know what to do and do it. It is anxiety that is paralyzing.

Since most people do not want to confront their resistance, they end up with smoke screens in their lives that distract them and keep them from dealing with the real issues. This is the root of stress and anxiety.

You probably have a lot of stress and anxiety in your life, the byproduct of resistance if you are or have:

Drama in your life sucking up your energy
Unhealthy habits that you cannot seem to change
Feel like a victim in your life
Self- critical
Doubt yourself
Fear rejection

It has been my experience that the first step to changing anything is to recognize what is really going on. Once you do that, you can see the actions that need to be taken more clearly and take them. Nothing is “good or bad.” I never look at anything as being bad. It is just feedback. I also trust there is an order to the way things happen that I do not completely control. That is why watching Marion Woodman in Dancing in the Flames is so inspiring. She received valuable feedback from her dreams and intuition. We all have access to this except when we are under the negative and debilitating influence of anxiety.

To overcome stress, resistance, and get motivated you need to learn how to be calm and easy going despite with what is going on around you that is stress inducing. Some people call this going with the flow and are able to do it more naturally. If it does not come naturally to you, the best way to cultivate what I call “presence” is to start meditating. Think meditation is hard, think again, or better yet check my new home study program meditation made easy. This is my personal meditation practice and it works. Getting motivated and overcoming resistance is made easier when you learn how to dance in the flames and have fun. Life is a game…that is why I say “enlighten” up.

6 Steps for Reducing Stress In Difficult Times

October 17, 2011 by admin 2 Comments

When things get difficult is when you need to get “tougher.” It is inevitable that you will be doing a two-step with stress at some point in your day if you are alive. That’s right it is a part of our everyday life. Oftentimes I have conversations with my clients on how to reduce their stress, since so many “unhealthy” habits we have are things we do to give us immediate gratification to make ourselves feel better. I call it looking for pleasure to try to deal with or not feel the pain. The more skillful or enlightened approach is to change your relationship to stress.

Let’s take emotional and compulsive eating or what is called binging. Working with a recent client helped her to identify the triggers and see that the emotional eating usually followed feelings of anxiety, or not getting her needs met and feeling abandoned. I gave her a way to create the gap or space she needed before she binged so she could start to break the pattern. At first she called it stress, once she understood the pattern she had a way to deal with it.

That’s how you start: recognition of the pattern, understanding what is driving it, and focusing on the questions I have provided below. She now feels as if she has more power over the behavior, instead of feeling enslaved by it.

Did you ever think about the fact that your reaction and how to then deal with something is probably the only thing that under your control. Most people do not use their power of choice and react automatically. Here is a way to start to break that pattern and reduce the effects of stress. This is really important because chronic or continual stress can have serious health effects. I first studied this with the master, Jon Kabat Zinn. Read his article At Home in Our Bodies. I have since modified the approach. Here it goes…

Mindfulness in a nutshell to Reduce Stress:

1^st Step to Reduce Stress:

Stop & Breathe. The way out of a habit or a pattern is to break it and just give yourself some space. Slowing down the breath is proven to change your energy and break the stress response.

2^nd Step to Reduce Stress:

Identify what it is that is causing the stress. Mindfulness gives you the opportunity to get out or the conditioned stress reaction and just look at what is objectively.

3^rd Step to Reduce Stress:

Identify what you are feeling and see what the feelings are trying to tell you. That’s right most people do not want to feel their feelings and do not use them as a guidance system. This will help you to do what release and let go of your feelings once you understand what is going on. You can also see if you are over-reacting and use your breathe to calm yourself down. Stress triggers the primitive fight or flight response. It is not a state that gives you the sense that you have many options.

4^th Step to Reduce Stress:

Rethink…is there anything you can or should do about “it.” Decide if there is something you can do to change the situation that is causing you stress. If so…

5^th Step to Reduce Stress:

Act consciously… don’t just react. You may need to take a look at a bigger problem that you are avoiding or just take a simple step like plan your day better next time.

6^th Step to Reduce Stress:

Let it go. Holding on to things is not going to make anything any better. Let it out…write about it in your journal, talk or vent to a friend or just laugh. Don’t eat that will only make matters worse. Make sure you examine the priorities you have in your life. Are you somehow creating your own stress? You are or need to view yourself as a priority.

Download my MP3 on stress reduction. Scroll down to Overcoming Stress in Difficult Times.

Are you taking time to have a self-care practice that you do daily.? That is how you put money in the bank for when you need it. Here’s mine: walk daily, breathe, meditate, spend some time in nature, and make sure I have some unstructured time. Give me your feedback if you have some other tips how you reduce stress and send this to a friend if you feel they are in need of advice.