From Spark People for January 30^th

“Everything is a choice.  You choose to watch TV instead of walking or to de-stress by eating instead of talking to someone.  Before you act, stop and ask yourself if this ‘solution’ will really help you in the long run.”

When Kevin and I first started watching Biggest Loser as often as not, we would be eating a pizza we had just had delivered.  My gut tells me we are not the only ones.  I am not judging myself for it, just recognizing I was choosing at that moment to be inspired mentally and emotionally and not to take any action whatsoever.

As we change the choices we make daily, our lives change.  Tonight we already have planned to be exercising while we watch BL.  I will be on the treadmill and Kevin on the elliptical right next to me with the TV up really loud; so we can hear over the sound of the machines.

I choose to start a two day fast last night beginning this morning.  After two meals and a reminder from the founder and president of my company, Carl; I choose to stop my two day fast and continue on my path of healthy eating.

We are always at choice and our life and our bodies reflect those choices.  If we do not like what we are seeing in our life or our bodies, make different choices.  Freedom of choice is what it is all about.

From Spark People for January 25^th

“Celebrate milestones.  While your long term goal may be to lose 50 pounds or more, each pound lost is one step closer and each deserving recognition!

Call a friend or write in your journal.  You never know who you may inspire.”

This is so important.  After five weeks of no weight loss, when I released .2 pounds on my weigh in this week I told everyone I could find or who would listen.  That brought my total so far to 47 pounds gone and was definitely exciting to me.  Would I have liked it to be more? Yes.  Did I gladly accept it?  Heck yeah!

The night before we had gone to a Billy Vera concert and I had grilled fish, steamed vegetables and a baked potato for dinner.  I normally would not have a white potato and I chose that instead of the rice.  Could I have had a double serving of veggies?  I could have because I asked and knew that was an option.  Instead I choose the potato.  It has been over nine months since I have eaten one and since I am not on a DIET, having an occasional potato is ok.

Funny thing is it did not taste as good as the veggies.  How weird is that?  And I would not have known that without ordering it.  Note to self for next time.  And the next morning when I lost the .2 pounds to me that was an affirmation is it not about being perfect.  My journey is about making healthy choices 80% or more of the time.  That is not a ‘diet” and is a healthy lifestyle.  Which do you chose?

Are you feeling losing weight is just too hard? Tuesday, Jan 26th at 6 pm PT I have holding a special free call for anyone interested. I am going to be interviewing a man who has successfully lost 371 pounds and kept that weight off. He now is paying it forward and you will not want to miss this interview. To get t…he call instructions send an email to judi@helpingreshapeheworld.com with Jan 26th Speaker in the subject line!

“If you want to reclaim your life and if you want to the leaner version of yourself that is currently hidden from view beneath an insulating layer of fat, then you’re going to have to break out of your comfort zone.  You cannot change anything by sticking to your current habits.”  ~Tosca Reno

What is a habit?  I would describe it as something we do automatically and mindlessly.  We have done it so often, we really don’t have to think about it.  A great example I have heard is driving a car.  I remember when I first learned to drive (3 speed on the wheel) there was a lot of jerky starts and stops.  However the more I drove, the smoother the ride became.  On one of those beginning tries I was driving around a park in our neighborhood with my dad coaching me and I saw a group of my friends and totally could not drive.  I am surprised the transmission in my dad’s car lived through it.  And yet before I knew it shifting became smooth and later automatic.  I could shift gears without even thinking about it.

All habits are like that.  Nothing starts as a habit and it only becomes one when we do it repeatedly over and over.  Focus today on creating a healthy new habit instead of removing an unhealthy one.  It is better to add to what we are doing than focus on always taking away.  Here are a couple of examples just to get your ideas flowing.

1. Put the fork down between each bite.

2. Have a glass of water first thing every morning.

3. Choose to have one or more dark, leafy green veggies a day.

4. Move you body at least five minutes out of every 60.

And I am sure you have lots of ideas.  What healthy (soon to be habit) can you introduce to your healthy lifestyle today?

Spark People for January 11th

“Practice saying, thinking and writing positive things about yourself.  Acknowledge and take credit for the things you have done well and recognize your abilities and talents.  Keep a list to add to, think about and read to yourself daily.”

I have heard we have as many as 60,000 different thoughts per day.  I also understand we can only think one thought at a time.  Why is this important?  Because each day we have approximately 60,000 opportunities to support ourselves in our weight loss goal or derail ourselves right off track.

Do you remember how you last referred to yourself?

~that was dumb

~I am so clusmey

~I can never remember anything

~I am such a dork

~I will never get this right

Etc., Etc., Etc.  Is it any wonder we find our selves struggling sometimes to stay motivated and positive about our efforts.  I challenge you write now to write down 10 wonderful thoughts about you.  I will start with a couple to set an example.

1.  I have cute feet.

2.  I love the color of my hair.

3.  I make myself laugh out loud.

4.  I am passionate about what I do.

5.  Dogs always like me which means I am a good person.

6.  I support others every opportunity I have.

7.  I am fun to be with.

8.  I have good ankles.

9.  I love my name.

10. I am quick to make a decision.

What are yours?

From Spark People for January 10^th

“Don’t expect perfection. You will mess up, make mistakes and forget along the way.   The key is persistence and a willingness to learn from your mistakes.  Focus on what you have done right instead of dwelling on the negative.”

Ah, the Perfection Expectation Monster will get us every time. Many of us who have been challenged with weight are typically smart and over achievers.  We do everything well, including overeating.  When we decide to do something about it, we expect to change 100% immediately and are failures once we have the first slip.

Perfection is not all it is cracked up to be and there is no opportunity to learn from your mistakes when you are being perfect.  About 10 years ago I did the Optifast Program and did not eat ONE BITE of food for 10 months.  I had five shakes a total and the total calories I was consuming daily was 400.  Now besides all the damage I was doing to my body, what I loved was it was a totally brainless way to lose weight.  I never had to think and in 10 months I lost 150 pounds.

When I reached my goal, I begged to be allowed to stay on the program forever and they told me no- you would die.  Now think about that.  If I kept doing what I was doing I would die; so how healthy was what I had been doing.

So I was back to eating food again.  I had learned nothing about portion control, food groups, calorie deficits etc.  I had learned how to make a great chocolate Optifast Shake normally mixed with a 64 ounce diet Coke.  The result was over the next couple of years I gained back every pound and found 40ish of their friends.  This is how I earned the title Queen of the Weight Lost and Found Department

It is ok to make mistakes.  NO!  It is great to make mistakes as long as you learn from them and don’t keep making the same one over and over.  When you make a decision you regret, use this as an opportunity to discover what you could differently next time.

At this time of year, gifts are on everyone’s minds and I am asking you to think about the following gifts:

1. What gifts did you receive this year to move you closer to your ideal health? (hope, inspiration, motivation, encouragement)

2. What gifts did you give others which made a difference in your life? (Belief, yo ur presence, love)

3. What is YOUR gift to the world and is your weight standing in the way of you delivering that gift to the world?

“We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.

- Mary Dunbar

Happy Holidays, Judi

Team Beachbody Diamond Founding Coach

I realized this morning,  just over three years ago I had given up on ever losing weight again.  I don’t believe I had admitted that to myself, but looking back I must have.  I was at my all time high weight and was doing nothing to reverse that.  I seemed to have hit a plateau at the other end of the spectrum.  While not losing any weight, I was not gaining either.  My meals were totally unhealthy, did NO EXERCISE and mostly just sat at the computer all day and worked.

Losing faith in yourself is not a very good feeling.  Losing and finding weight had been my life for the past 20 years and I did not trust myself to be successful long term.  In other words, I was afraid to try again, lose weight and then gain it back.  I just could not take being a failure again.

This year (2009) I have regained my belief in my ability to succeed and am reveling in it.  Creating The Healthy Breakfast Club was such an inspired idea and I know many of my successes are directly attributable to the support, motivation and encouagementI have received.  Please join weekday mornings if you can to experience the power of having a cheering squad who truly cares about you and supports you on your journey.

As long as you are breathing, don’t give up.   You have the power right in this very minute to change the direction of your life.  In accepting the responsibility for your choices, you gain all the power. Use it!

“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

~Audre Lorde

Grasp Your Power,

Judi

Team Beachbody Founding Diamond Coach

Week two of The Healthy Breakfast Club kicked off with several new club members and lots of great success stories.  Each of us had set a healthy intention for the weekend and everyone shared their results.  My intention was to do one Beachbody DVD workout over the weekend.  And at 7:30 on Sunday evening I did Workout #1 of P90X (Chest and Back) for a modified 25 minutes and I was so excited.  Without the call this morning, I am sure I would have found some way to rationalize not doing it.  With the call, not only did I do it; my husband joined me in the workout. I can not begin to tell you how excited I was at the end…  Starting out though my heart rate was already up because I was nervous about “trying” it.  I watched the infomercial Tony, Traci and Doug did last week on QVC and that is what gave me the courage.  I have always looked at P90X as the workout other, already fit people did and nothing I would ever be able to aspire to.  On the infomercial Tony showed one of the moves (very difficult looking for me) and then he showed the modified version.  I looked at that and said I could do that!

How often are we creating limitations about our abilities in our mind which have no basis or evidence in fact?  And how does that hold us back?  Was pretty silly of me to decide I could not do a program, no matter what, when I had never even opened the package.  Duh!  Hello….Give your self a chance to see what you can do.  In your exercise, your eating, your business, your relationships and the rest of your life – what could you be doing right now, you don’t “think” you could do?  Push the envelope at least a little and take a chance.

Suzanne shared on the call the way she thinks of exercise time is like recess.  The time we get to take a break and go out to play!!!  Changing how we think about something can very simply change the way we feel about it and the actions we take.  Thanks, Suzanne!

We have lots of experience and a wealth of knowledge in our club members.  Today I was excited to have Judy Javislak, one of the great coaches on my Beach Body Team share the following topic:

Purpose, Persistence and Patience

Healthy living is all about adding several good habits into our lives.  How do we add these good habits and make them STICK?  It’s all about PURPOSE, PERSISTENCE, and PATIENCE.  PURPOSE is all about getting in touch with all of the wonderful things we can have in our lives if we adopt this new good habit.  Think about them, make a list, but most importantly…DREAM!  Visualize having all of these good things in your life!  The next step is PERSISTENCE.  Challenges will come up, but it is important to keep moving forward.  For example, when you don’t feel like exercising, just get started with 10 minutes.  Tell yourself that you can quit after 10 minutes.  Sometimes you’ll exceed that 10 minutes because you start to feel good.  Other times, it will just be 10 minutes, and that’s okay!  The secret to success is to NEVER give up!  Finally, PATIENCE is important too!  It’s been said that something done over and over every day will become a habit after around 21 days.  That’s a good start, but it isn’t some magic number.  Keep going until one day you realize that it’s a habit.  Then, start over with your PURPOSE again.  Sometimes you will need to readjust your purpose as your life changes.  But that’s the FUN part of it!  Human nature is such that we are always trying to learn and grow!  Just think how boring life would be if there was nothing new to learn!

Tomorrow we have a special guest I will be interviewing and you do not want to miss the call.  Invite people you know by going towww.thehealthybreakfastclub.com and signing up.  Ask them to be sure to fill in the spot “invited by” as we want to honor the coaching relationships in place.  Your personal Beachbody Coach (or the coach who invited you) can answer any questions you man have and support you on a one on one level.

Until tomorrow, keep pushing play!

Judi

Team Beachbody Diamond Coach