Do you know the look?  The look you get in the grocery store when they are glancing into your cart to see what you are buying.  At a restaurant, when others are looking to see what you have ordered for your meal.  Especially difficult for me is in the line to board a plane when I imagine everyone is hoping they won’t be sitting next to me.
The look is about “being judged.”

I start imagining the conversations they are having in their mind in my own mind:

“She obviously does not have any will power”
“She must be very lazy”
“You can tell she doesn’t care what she looks like”
“She must be stupid or at least not very smart”
“I doubt she is very successful in life being that much overweight”
“What a loser and why doesn’t she just eat less”

And worse, I start arguing back with them in my head.

“You have no idea how much will power it takes to walk onto this plane knowing what you are thinking”
“Lazy?  I probably do more in one day than you do in a week”
“You have no idea what I am feeling”
“I am fabulously successful in every area of my life, except my weight. How successful are you and what does what I weigh have to do with it anyway?”

To achieve and maintain a healthy weight I need to do three important things:

1.  Healthy, clean eating, with a variety of foods all in reasonable portions.
2.  Exercise in some way every day.
3.  Have a healthy mindset which is congruent with a healthy lifestyle.

At The Healthy Breakfast Club this morning we talked about an article by Charles E Henderson, Ph.D. called “Some Real Reasons Why People have Weight Control Problems.  Dr. Henderson listed 4 categories of reasons including environment, health, conscious and sub conscious.

He listed as the conscious reasons eating to feel good, lack of nutritional information and insufficient exercise.  However, it was in the list of subconscious reasons I found the root of most of my struggles.  How I describe them include eating to fill a void, loneliness, fear of rejection by loved ones, fear of jealousy, fear of being vulnerable and daring people to love and respect us in spite of our weight to measure their genuineness.

In creating a congruent healthy lifestyle and mindset, it can be easier to start with creating healthy daily routines.  You can make one decision or one step or one small change towards health and then implement it immediately.  For example, when I first joined Beachbody my exercise goal was to walk non-stop for three minutes for three days.  For the next four days, I walked for four minutes nonstop.  And then I moved to five days of five minutes etc.  You get the point.  Was it a huge step?  Heck no!  Was it a step?   Yes, lots of them building on one another and creating congruency.

I have heard that Rome was not built in a day.  And I am choosing to take one step each day and improve the quality of my life.  On a call yesterday for one of my businesses are expert speaker shared “Consistency over time creates results.”  That is what my goal is.  To consistently take steps which are in the right direction.

What step are you prepared to take today?  My next action after writing this will be to go to the kitchen and prepare a healthy, balanced breakfast before I do anything else.

________________________________________
Weight control would be much simpler if the reasons people consciously believe for their overweight were true.   But they are not.

~ Dr. Charles Henderson

I want to share this post with you for those of you who may not know Tony Horton.  Tony is the creator of to name a few, Power 90, P90X, P90X+ and one of the great celebrity trainers who are a part of Beachbody.  P90X is most days, the number one workout done in WOWY and that is because it works!   To me personally, Tony is a very special human being and I love meeting people who do his workouts and I have the opportunity to share my personal experience of Tony.  In 2007 I was one of the winners of the Top Coach Contest and won a trip to Maui with Beachbody.  We stayed at the Grand Wailea for four days and it was amazing.  Part of the program included daily workouts on the big lawn in front of resort bordering on the beach and Tony led those workouts.

If you read the previous post about will power, maybe you can understand what it took for me to walk out to that lawn with a towel and a bottle of water to work out with a group of 4o-50 totally fit people when I had lost only 30 pounds of the 187.5 pounds which was my goal.  After a humiliating comment in the elevator from a little boy about my weight to walking out there required every ounce of will power I could summon.  I went to the way back last row and committed to doing the best I could because I was here and I had an opportunity to work out with Tony.  Ok, just starting to write about this is making me start to cry.  Several times, Tony came down off the big stage and walked over to me to suggest a way to modify a certain move and to tell me how great I was doing in a very soft voice.  I am sure you can imagine how much that meant to me.  And I was out there working out each morning.  However, there is more.

The second or third evening we were there, we were treated to a sunset dinner whale watching cruise and it was spectacularly beautiful and the whale sitings were plentiful.  What I remember most was standing next to Carl Daikeler (Founder and Owner of Beachbody)  at the rail watching whales and Carl asked me if I was having a good time.  I shared I was having a wonderful time and thanking him for bringing us all on this great award trip.  Carl turned to me and said “Tony told me how proud he is of you showing up every day for the workout sessions and giving it your whole.”   This was one of the meaningful things to me in my history with Beachbody and demonstrated how the coaches and the community of everyone involved is committed to the success and health of each of us.  Tony and Carl, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

“I was talking with a dear friend of mine the other day and we were discussing why so many people don’t live up to their potential. I was telling him that I know dozens of people who should be happy, more productive, purposeful and better off financially then they are. These are smart, interesting resourceful people. This friend of mine is extremely successful. His work ethic is amazing. He helped build a company from the ground up and he’s also one of the most altruistic people I’ve ever known. Financial freedom and life purpose is not his problem. His issue is FOOD! As successful as he is (and with me as his trainer) he can’t stop eating. He’s strong, flexible and aerobically very fit but he could stand to lose a final 20 pounds to be more comfortable in his skin.

We’re all good at some things while also having traits and behaviors that make our lives more difficult than they ought to be. We know what we want out of life and most of are aware that it require some work; but why is it that so many of us fall short? During our discussion the other day my friend said most people have all these goals and somewhere along the way we run into an obstacle or two and say, “I can’t I quit.” This phenomenon is why we aren’t healthier, fitter, happier and in control of our lives. Everyone of us at one time or another has had an idea or vision about something and didn’t see it through because of a bad conversation, unmet deadline, closed door or some other self created stumbling block.

I was in my gym with my good pal Scott Fifer the other day trying this crazy balance exercise, where you place the balls of your feet (no shoes or socks) on a basketball while in a pre push-up position. The goal is to do a push-up then walk your hands toward the ball, drawing your feet on top of the ball. Stand all the way up, (balancing on the basketball) then slowly squat down and crawl back to a push-up position. Repeat this as many times as you can. After the first four failed attempts I told Scott I can’t, I quit. What? I gave up (momentarily) until I realized that my thoughts and words were part of the problem. For a laugh I decided to pronounce out loud, “I can I will.” I managed 4 in a row. It was freaky. The new mindset and words created a completely different outcome.

I honestly believe that success starts with getting out of your own way. Recognize the problem or obstacle then get busy doing something to find the solution. It starts by figuring out what you want. Step two involves writing down what you’re going to do to get it. It’s also important to understand that falling down, messing up, making mistakes, getting bad advice and starting over and over again are all part of the journey. If this thing called life were easy why would you be here? The whole thing is a lesson so understand that everything you want is always outside of your comfort zone. I can’t I quit creates nothing. I can I will won’t give you everything, but it’s a much better way to start your journey.”  ~Tony Horton

The Healthy Breakfast Club Opens!!!

You are invited to become a member of my Healthy Breakfast Club designed to provide support  to begin each day with a  healthy mindset.  The call is designed for people who on a journey to achieve and/or maintain a healthy body weight and  would like to be part of a group of like minded people.

Every weekday morning at 7 am PT I will be facilitating “The Healthy Breakfast Club” and we would love you to join us.  The call will last approximately thirty minutes and the agenda will include the following:

1.  Welcome and introductions
2.  Celebrations
3.  Question and Answer Period
4.  Educational Nugget
5.  Challenge for the day.

Whether you have 2 pounds to release or 200 pounds to release, relax in the positive, goal oriented, one step at a time  support you will receive.  Just like sitting around your favorite coffee shop with a few good friends.  And you know how good that feels and how much it helps to share.

There is no cost to attend and you can remain annomyous if you like.  You can participate actively or just listen.  Grab some green tea, protein shakes, oatmeal, Shakeology, banana etc. and join us for a Healthy Breakfast Club where the focus in on you and your success.

To receive the call in information send an email to judi@in-homefitness.com and put The Healthy Breakfast Club in the subject line!

To your health,

Judi Finneran
Team Beachbody, Diamond Coach
www.in-homefitness.com
www.in-homecoach.com
judi@in-homefitness.com