I am always curious about why some people reach their goals and others seem to never make the connection. So I asked myself, “What is it that people really want?” I came to the conclusion that most people simply want to find the place where healthy meets enjoyable. What does that mean? Well, most people want to be healthier, but they want to do that in way that is manageable and that fits them personally.
This requires you to do some self-study and to discover what makes you tick. You must first understand the reasons you got to where you are, before you can move on to someplace new. Many people do not want to look into the “whys.” Without this crucial step, progress usually stalls. When you begin to see how you got somewhere, then you can evaluate where you got off track and begin making headway toward your intended destination.
Many people make weight loss a goal, but they never consider what their lifestyle would have to look like to achieve and maintain that weight. Most often it is unrealistic to choose such a low number on the scale, due to the kind of lifestyle you would have to live, not just to get to that weight, but to stay there. That is the main reason I encourage people to focus on improving their fitness versus losing their fatness.
When you switch your motivation you will improve your results. This has to do with your focus. When you think about what you want to achieve, versus what you are trying to avoid, you will enjoy the process much more. This accelerates your progress in the direction you are trying to go. By finding a way to enjoy the process of healthier living you will begin to naturally achieve your goals. If you try to force your goals, the results will only be temporary as you return back to the old familiar habits.
I often discuss the importance of lifestyle. It is all about how you choose to live your life on a day to day basis. When you find ways to add healthier behaviors that you enjoy, you will be more likely to keep them up. If you do something you don’t enjoy just to be healthier then it is usually temporary.
The key is finding things that fit you. When you are willing to change your habits and routines, you will begin to see the progress. Stop and start efforts will never work, it will take a commitment to a new approach to living.
I look at most wellness professionals and they often appear to naturally enjoy exercising and eating healthy. From the sound of their messages they don’t understand what it is like to crave junk food, or to be unmotivated to move more. In their lifestyle, it just makes sense. What I have learned is that you have to meet people where they are.
People have to change their thinking and set their resolve. With the right mindset it will be easier to implement lifestyle changes that will stick. Those changes should be specific to your goals, but more important perhaps is that they are in line with why you made the goal in the first place.
How do you get something different? You must do different things. Until you are willing change your habits, you will be unable to get the kind of results you seek. It is time to stop thinking about all the things you should or should not be doing!
There is power in action. Start with each choice and begin to plan a schedule that includes activity and plans for healthier eating. Make today a great day, then wake up and do the same thing again tomorrow.
Overtime if you continue this day by day approach, you will string together a lifestyle of healthy choices. This is when you will begin to see the realistic goal you have set. When your head, heart and habits all line up, you will create that magical place where healthy meets enjoyable.
“Wellness Matters”
By Lisa Schilling
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Failing Forward
It is important to allow yourself and those you care about, to fail-forward. Often you limit people when you warn them about all of the possible reasons they might fail. If someone steps out in faith, you owe them the opportunity to fail in the pursuit of their goals.
When a person attempts something and fails, they learn a valuable lesson in what does not work. This gives them the knowledge they need to re-tool and try again a new way that might work. When you do not encourage the pursuit of someone’s goals, you limit them to small thinking. This can result in discouragement and unfulfilled needs.
It is vital to encourage creative pursuits and nurture the development of talents. Michael Angelo did not start out making masterpieces. If people chose to discourage him or criticize his talent in the beginning, he might not have gone on to fuel his passion and create his dreams. It is important to realize that whatever someone creates is subject to opinion.
What one person sees as genius, another might see as ridiculous. Those who create should not limit themselves because of the opinions of others. They should be encouraged to do what they love and do it as much as possible.
The result of this could be that they choose to take steps forward and dream big. When the source of their passion is fueled and supported they will create true artistry. It will be artistry because it was created from a pure source, not shaped by the opinions of what some people might think of it.
Be cautious when nurturing creative pursuits or assisting people to realize their talents. Try not to put limits on it. After all, in life there are no crystal balls. You never really know what others may see in the work, even when it seems you know the obvious conclusion. By supporting the creative pursuit you can encourage the talent without having to endorse the project.
All constructive comments are irrelevant to the outcome they will emit. Being creative is an unusual state of being. Those who are more analytical many not understand how it works. Therefore it is even more vital to provide support, encouragement and acknowledgment versus criticism and attempts to be realistic about chances of reaching goals.
When a person expresses interest in pursuing goals and makes attempts to reach them, honor the effort. Allowing them to either succeed or fail, gives them the ability to reach their goals or fail-forward. Worst case, they will rule out something to not do the next time.
Questioning them or expressing doubts, can cause them to question their passion, their purpose and their ability. That is very harmful to the creative process and does not allow the person to evolve forward. Understanding how the creative process is different from the analytical process is important to create healthy partnerships and promote success for all involved.
Passionate creative people promote change and facilitate the expansion of ideas and new ways of thinking. Helping them to grow and expand their talents can be a benefit to everyone. A talent left unexplored is a huge waste and can lead that person to feel something is missing in their life. We are all created with talents, some are conventional and some are unseen traits. Certain types of talents are easy to spot while others may be more difficult to uncover.
No matter what the special talent, without expressing it there will never be fulfillment in day to day life. Often helping others find and develop their talents can be what it takes to find and uncover your own. Be aware of the type of person you are and surround yourself with people who nurture your spirit and your gifts.
Do not allow people’s opinions to limit your dreams. Do not be content to think and live small lives. Think and live big, then act to achieve your dreams. Do not give up over failures, get up and create a new vision and plan. Then most importantly ACT to achieve it.
Being healthy is more than just a physical state. It comes from your mental and emotional wellbeing combined with the physical. Being allowed to express yourself, or allowing others to do so, is healing and promotes total wellness. For total wellness, look for ways you can support others at the same time you nurture your own talents and inclinations.
“Wellness Matters”
By Lisa Schilling
When a person attempts something and fails, they learn a valuable lesson in what does not work. This gives them the knowledge they need to re-tool and try again a new way that might work. When you do not encourage the pursuit of someone’s goals, you limit them to small thinking. This can result in discouragement and unfulfilled needs.
It is vital to encourage creative pursuits and nurture the development of talents. Michael Angelo did not start out making masterpieces. If people chose to discourage him or criticize his talent in the beginning, he might not have gone on to fuel his passion and create his dreams. It is important to realize that whatever someone creates is subject to opinion.
What one person sees as genius, another might see as ridiculous. Those who create should not limit themselves because of the opinions of others. They should be encouraged to do what they love and do it as much as possible.
The result of this could be that they choose to take steps forward and dream big. When the source of their passion is fueled and supported they will create true artistry. It will be artistry because it was created from a pure source, not shaped by the opinions of what some people might think of it.
Be cautious when nurturing creative pursuits or assisting people to realize their talents. Try not to put limits on it. After all, in life there are no crystal balls. You never really know what others may see in the work, even when it seems you know the obvious conclusion. By supporting the creative pursuit you can encourage the talent without having to endorse the project.
All constructive comments are irrelevant to the outcome they will emit. Being creative is an unusual state of being. Those who are more analytical many not understand how it works. Therefore it is even more vital to provide support, encouragement and acknowledgment versus criticism and attempts to be realistic about chances of reaching goals.
When a person expresses interest in pursuing goals and makes attempts to reach them, honor the effort. Allowing them to either succeed or fail, gives them the ability to reach their goals or fail-forward. Worst case, they will rule out something to not do the next time.
Questioning them or expressing doubts, can cause them to question their passion, their purpose and their ability. That is very harmful to the creative process and does not allow the person to evolve forward. Understanding how the creative process is different from the analytical process is important to create healthy partnerships and promote success for all involved.
Passionate creative people promote change and facilitate the expansion of ideas and new ways of thinking. Helping them to grow and expand their talents can be a benefit to everyone. A talent left unexplored is a huge waste and can lead that person to feel something is missing in their life. We are all created with talents, some are conventional and some are unseen traits. Certain types of talents are easy to spot while others may be more difficult to uncover.
No matter what the special talent, without expressing it there will never be fulfillment in day to day life. Often helping others find and develop their talents can be what it takes to find and uncover your own. Be aware of the type of person you are and surround yourself with people who nurture your spirit and your gifts.
Do not allow people’s opinions to limit your dreams. Do not be content to think and live small lives. Think and live big, then act to achieve your dreams. Do not give up over failures, get up and create a new vision and plan. Then most importantly ACT to achieve it.
Being healthy is more than just a physical state. It comes from your mental and emotional wellbeing combined with the physical. Being allowed to express yourself, or allowing others to do so, is healing and promotes total wellness. For total wellness, look for ways you can support others at the same time you nurture your own talents and inclinations.
“Wellness Matters”
By Lisa Schilling
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Override Sub-Conscience Programming Through Conscience Intentions
It has been proven that stress is a major cause of all fatigue and illness. The stress response is a reaction by you, based on perceptions created in your mind. It has been shown that we only use 10% of our mind and that 75% of all sickness and disease has it origin in the mind. That equates to 10% of the mind causing 75% of sickness. This illustrates the power that you hold deep within your mind and in your thoughts. By learning to use your thinking more effectively, you could begin to reduce illness and a live healthier, more productive life.
Studies have also shown that people with a positive outlook live longer and more fulfilled lives. This is because they have learned how to utilize the power of their mind in a positive way. The majority of people fail to get their mind working FOR them. Instead, it seems to work AGAINST them, creating outcomes they do not desire.
Beliefs start in the sub-conscious mind, sometimes with a just a single thought. Change the thoughts, and you can begin to change your beliefs. When you do that, you can begin to change your actions. Learning to work in harmony with both your conscious and subconscious mind takes time, but can be mastered with regular practice. By training your subconscious mind, you can develop the ability to influence your future.
If you want to create healthy changes in your life, you must first address the subconscious programming you have previously accepted. You do that by listening to your internal dialogue, the little voice that keeps a running conversation in your head. Your mind only knows what you tell it and it believes that to be true whether it is reality or not. If your mental dialogue is always interjecting negative thoughts, this is what your mind will work to make reality.
The brain is a complex computer. You use it to record and process information. Like a computer, the mind relies on other components to make it work. On a conscious level, you set goals based on the information you take in and know to be true. However, on a subconscious level, you have very strong but subtle programming that has been established through years of repetition and conditioning.
The brain will introduce thoughts into your mental dialogue based on your prior programming. Often it is this subtle detail that stands in the way of you starting or maintaining healthy habits that you know in your conscious mind are beneficial. These subconscious messages can sabotage your efforts.
Programming is what you have accepted from the outside world or fed to yourself. It sets up your beliefs, and a chain reaction begins from that. Whether this programming was right or wrong, true or false, the result of it is what you believe. What you believe about yourself affects every aspect of life, your chances of success, and your ability to create positive change.
When you get started on something new, you have abundant positive energy. Everything flows easily in the beginning. You start off with extraordinary zest and passion, but over time you grow tired. Your positive energy can become sparse and negative. This energy shift leads to situations you don't want.
At this point, your thoughts can begin to work against you. When you focus your awareness and attention on them, they can draw the very things you are trying to avoid to you. This begins when you lose focus of what you want and shift your thoughts and intentions away from your goals. Instead of being aware of your abundance and all of the “haves” in your life, you begin thinking of all of the “have-nots.” This will set off a negative spiral of events, and each negative thought can yield another.
You must start controlling your thoughts. Reinsert your positive messages and shift your focus back to what you want to create and away from what you hoped to avoid. When you think about what you are trying to stay away from, you feed power to that thing or behavior and make it even more desirable.
You must replace “avoidance thoughts” with “creation thoughts.” By using thought reframing you can help to create incredible personal opportunities, by dwelling on what you are working to create, not what you are working to avoid. Begin to frame thoughts that create the circumstances you want in your life. Since your thoughts shape your reality, you have the power to shape your reality. As Napoleon Hill stated, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
"Wellness Matters"
By Lisa Schilling RN
Studies have also shown that people with a positive outlook live longer and more fulfilled lives. This is because they have learned how to utilize the power of their mind in a positive way. The majority of people fail to get their mind working FOR them. Instead, it seems to work AGAINST them, creating outcomes they do not desire.
Beliefs start in the sub-conscious mind, sometimes with a just a single thought. Change the thoughts, and you can begin to change your beliefs. When you do that, you can begin to change your actions. Learning to work in harmony with both your conscious and subconscious mind takes time, but can be mastered with regular practice. By training your subconscious mind, you can develop the ability to influence your future.
If you want to create healthy changes in your life, you must first address the subconscious programming you have previously accepted. You do that by listening to your internal dialogue, the little voice that keeps a running conversation in your head. Your mind only knows what you tell it and it believes that to be true whether it is reality or not. If your mental dialogue is always interjecting negative thoughts, this is what your mind will work to make reality.
The brain is a complex computer. You use it to record and process information. Like a computer, the mind relies on other components to make it work. On a conscious level, you set goals based on the information you take in and know to be true. However, on a subconscious level, you have very strong but subtle programming that has been established through years of repetition and conditioning.
The brain will introduce thoughts into your mental dialogue based on your prior programming. Often it is this subtle detail that stands in the way of you starting or maintaining healthy habits that you know in your conscious mind are beneficial. These subconscious messages can sabotage your efforts.
Programming is what you have accepted from the outside world or fed to yourself. It sets up your beliefs, and a chain reaction begins from that. Whether this programming was right or wrong, true or false, the result of it is what you believe. What you believe about yourself affects every aspect of life, your chances of success, and your ability to create positive change.
When you get started on something new, you have abundant positive energy. Everything flows easily in the beginning. You start off with extraordinary zest and passion, but over time you grow tired. Your positive energy can become sparse and negative. This energy shift leads to situations you don't want.
At this point, your thoughts can begin to work against you. When you focus your awareness and attention on them, they can draw the very things you are trying to avoid to you. This begins when you lose focus of what you want and shift your thoughts and intentions away from your goals. Instead of being aware of your abundance and all of the “haves” in your life, you begin thinking of all of the “have-nots.” This will set off a negative spiral of events, and each negative thought can yield another.
You must start controlling your thoughts. Reinsert your positive messages and shift your focus back to what you want to create and away from what you hoped to avoid. When you think about what you are trying to stay away from, you feed power to that thing or behavior and make it even more desirable.
You must replace “avoidance thoughts” with “creation thoughts.” By using thought reframing you can help to create incredible personal opportunities, by dwelling on what you are working to create, not what you are working to avoid. Begin to frame thoughts that create the circumstances you want in your life. Since your thoughts shape your reality, you have the power to shape your reality. As Napoleon Hill stated, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
"Wellness Matters"
By Lisa Schilling RN
Mind Over Matter-Using the Power of Your Thoughts to Create What You Desire
The power of the mind is infinite. Your subconscious mind works on the information that you feed it. If that information is negative, then your thoughts will connect to experiences that will help to make that become a reality. Once your subconscious mind gets a message, it attempts to connect you with the people and events needed to create that situation. This is all based on the messages you are sending it.
What you think about in your subconscious mind will actually draw you to people and events that will help make those thoughts a reality. This part of your mind does not make value based judgments. It does not operate from a standpoint of a good or bad action. It only works to create your reality based on the messages you send it.
Your messages are not just your thoughts. Everything action you take, word you say or thought you believe is picked up by your subconscious mind. Just thinking you can do or achieve something does not mean that it will suddenly happen. It does not work that way. What it does do, is create a positive awareness that begins to show up in how you think, act and feel. This energy is sent out to those you encounter and they too, begin to see the possibilities.
The basic principle is that whatever your mind can imagine, it can bring into your awareness, ways to make that dream a reality. How does it do that? What your mind thinks, sees, believes, and feels is routed through your subconscious mind. It works to develop that reality based on the thoughts that began in your mind. To get the most out of your thinking, you need to use the right techniques to develop its full power.
Positive thought reframing is one technique. By looking at the positive, you allow your mind to shift its attention so that can see things differently. This sends a different energy and different message to your subconscious mind. This new message is picked up and attracts these kinds of situations to you.
You are now looking for them to happen. It is much like a self fulfilling prophesy. You expect to fail and it shows in your attitude and in your spirit. This does not evoke a feeling of confidence from you and others will sense it too. This projection effect helps to bring the action into reality. When you focus on success and achieving your goals, other people will begin to see the potential in you too. They are now looking for it, expecting it. You will begin to attract positive situations into your life.
Remember the last new vehicle you got? You probably never noticed how many were on the road before you got yours and now you see them everywhere. Has there been a rapid increase in your make of car, or have you just begun looking for and paying attention to what was already always in front of you?
This is a key point. By raising your awareness of the things or situations you want, you will begin to be drawn to them. It has to do with the minds selective awareness. The brain filters so much of what we take into our awareness. Often we miss things because we were never looking for them. Take a different path home, or walk on the opposite side of the street. What new things will you observe, simply because you are now looking for them?
Begin to look for success, positive people and achievement of your goals. Create awareness about what it takes to achieve your goals. Think about it regularly and begin acting on those thoughts. You will naturally begin pulling those kinds of things into your awareness. This can help to crowd out those old negative thinking patterns.
Which does your mind dwell on-the part of your glass that is full, or the part that is empty? Always thinking about what you don't have or aren't good at, will lower your productivity, efforts and enthusiasm. It will become thought encompassing. At all times, there are good and bad things happening. What are you looking for? The subconscious mind will help you find what your thoughts are “seeing” by looking for them.
You will begin to see the positive aspects in other people, when you first focus on your positive qualities. Turn your attention to what you've done, your strengths and blessings. This attitude of gratitude and thankfulness unleashes creative energy and empowers you to excel.
This technique allows you to release anger and unhappiness because it gets your mind to focus on the positive instead of the negative. This shifts the entire focus of your thinking and will create a more positive energy around you. This energy does attract people because you are now acting like someone who is confident and successful. In turn, people will have more confidence in you.
Creating this positive energy is vital to your success and happiness. Don't waste your energy living with a negative thought life. Negative thoughts equal a negative reality.
Allow yourself to be encouraging and positive to those you meet. Doing this gets your mind going in a positive direction, thus attracting more positive situations. When you back it up with action, you complete the positive cycle and begin to pay forward this same positive energy. Start today and begin creating a positive lifestyle so that you can enjoy the life you have created.
"Wellness Matters"
By Lisa Schilling
What you think about in your subconscious mind will actually draw you to people and events that will help make those thoughts a reality. This part of your mind does not make value based judgments. It does not operate from a standpoint of a good or bad action. It only works to create your reality based on the messages you send it.
Your messages are not just your thoughts. Everything action you take, word you say or thought you believe is picked up by your subconscious mind. Just thinking you can do or achieve something does not mean that it will suddenly happen. It does not work that way. What it does do, is create a positive awareness that begins to show up in how you think, act and feel. This energy is sent out to those you encounter and they too, begin to see the possibilities.
The basic principle is that whatever your mind can imagine, it can bring into your awareness, ways to make that dream a reality. How does it do that? What your mind thinks, sees, believes, and feels is routed through your subconscious mind. It works to develop that reality based on the thoughts that began in your mind. To get the most out of your thinking, you need to use the right techniques to develop its full power.
Positive thought reframing is one technique. By looking at the positive, you allow your mind to shift its attention so that can see things differently. This sends a different energy and different message to your subconscious mind. This new message is picked up and attracts these kinds of situations to you.
You are now looking for them to happen. It is much like a self fulfilling prophesy. You expect to fail and it shows in your attitude and in your spirit. This does not evoke a feeling of confidence from you and others will sense it too. This projection effect helps to bring the action into reality. When you focus on success and achieving your goals, other people will begin to see the potential in you too. They are now looking for it, expecting it. You will begin to attract positive situations into your life.
Remember the last new vehicle you got? You probably never noticed how many were on the road before you got yours and now you see them everywhere. Has there been a rapid increase in your make of car, or have you just begun looking for and paying attention to what was already always in front of you?
This is a key point. By raising your awareness of the things or situations you want, you will begin to be drawn to them. It has to do with the minds selective awareness. The brain filters so much of what we take into our awareness. Often we miss things because we were never looking for them. Take a different path home, or walk on the opposite side of the street. What new things will you observe, simply because you are now looking for them?
Begin to look for success, positive people and achievement of your goals. Create awareness about what it takes to achieve your goals. Think about it regularly and begin acting on those thoughts. You will naturally begin pulling those kinds of things into your awareness. This can help to crowd out those old negative thinking patterns.
Which does your mind dwell on-the part of your glass that is full, or the part that is empty? Always thinking about what you don't have or aren't good at, will lower your productivity, efforts and enthusiasm. It will become thought encompassing. At all times, there are good and bad things happening. What are you looking for? The subconscious mind will help you find what your thoughts are “seeing” by looking for them.
You will begin to see the positive aspects in other people, when you first focus on your positive qualities. Turn your attention to what you've done, your strengths and blessings. This attitude of gratitude and thankfulness unleashes creative energy and empowers you to excel.
This technique allows you to release anger and unhappiness because it gets your mind to focus on the positive instead of the negative. This shifts the entire focus of your thinking and will create a more positive energy around you. This energy does attract people because you are now acting like someone who is confident and successful. In turn, people will have more confidence in you.
Creating this positive energy is vital to your success and happiness. Don't waste your energy living with a negative thought life. Negative thoughts equal a negative reality.
Allow yourself to be encouraging and positive to those you meet. Doing this gets your mind going in a positive direction, thus attracting more positive situations. When you back it up with action, you complete the positive cycle and begin to pay forward this same positive energy. Start today and begin creating a positive lifestyle so that you can enjoy the life you have created.
"Wellness Matters"
By Lisa Schilling
Thursday, June 17, 2010
How to Gain Energy, Lose Weight and Push Past Plateaus
Do you feel frustrated, fat and fatigued? You are not alone! This is a common problem, often stemming from the obvious, eating too much and moving too little. However there are some people who put forth big efforts for seemingly small gains.
For these people, frustration is a huge problem. Their body has reached a set-point, a weight it struggles to remain at, regardless of the pressures on it to change. This is what I call a “life-style comfortable” weight. Your body can maintain this weight in a lifestyle that is easy for you to keep up with.
The body is designed to keep you healthy and protect you from starvation. The closer you get to your goal weight the more your body is going to cling to what is already there. This is called the “push-pull phenomenon:” When you attempt to cut calories, your body fights to release the fat while, at the same time, your fat cells are constantly striving to fill themselves back up with more fat.
Your body perceives dieting as gradual starvation. Traditional dieting involves deliberately withholding the body’s usual supply of nutrients and energy sources. The body will attempt to fight off this depletion of energy stores by slowing down your metabolism. The results of which, can be a weight loss slow down or plateau.
You keep doing the same things you did before, but stop getting results. For some, this can be enough to make them stop trying all together. I have heard people say, “What’s the point? I can’t lose any more weight; no matter how hard I try, so why keep killing myself?” This is a tough place to be.
Realize that it is time to change up your game plan. This is due to the adaptation principal. Your body is smart and can quickly become accustomed to consistent patterns. It is best to keep your metabolism constantly guessing, which prevents your body from quickly adapting to a certain routine of exercise or number of calories it expects to receive.
By not allowing the body to adapt to a regular routine, you force the body to work at a more beneficial level. Changing exercise routines, calorie levels and types of foods, can help to accomplish this.
One way to change things up is to develop a whole-istic eating plan. What does that mean for you? It means making a regular commitment to eating less processed foods and in addition, adding more antioxidant-rich whole foods. These foods are known to turn off fat storage hormones and can reduce cravings and appetite by 20 percent or more. This could be just what you need to punch your metabolism up a notch.
Some foods to consider would be flaxseed, whole wheat, nuts, dairy, yogurt, fresh or frozen fruit–especially berries, prunes, fish of all kinds, fresh or frozen vegetables, beans and lentils, oatmeal-not cut, dark chocolate, lean cuts of meat, and eggs. Also consider adding spices such as cheyenne pepper, cinnamon and garlic. This in addition to plenty of water and occasional green tea will keep your metabolism revved up.
Regularly eating processed foods will slow your metabolism and slow your weight loss progress. Your body does not recognize or metabolize processed foods in the same way that it does natural or fresh foods.
Preservatives, additives and shelf stabilizers can halt your progress. They have been known to stimulate the production of dopamine in the brain. This fuels the urge to eat and makes it more difficult to stop. Studies have shown that heavy consumption of heavily processed foods will actually increase abdominal fat deposits by 30 percent, even for those cutting calories.
If you are at a plateau, commit to a seven day whole food eating plan as a jump start. From there, make fresh, natural or whole food choices on regular days and begin to add some processed foods when offered them at special meals or when eating out, but not on a frequent basis.
Start planning ahead and making the bulk of your diet come from whole, natural and unprocessed foods. That’s it! Sounds easy, but the problem is that it is just as easy, if not easier, not to do it. However, by purposefully altering your eating style in this way, you will begin to feel better, have more energy and it will allow you to bust out of the plateau you are in. The choice is yours, plan, take your time and choose REAL foods consistently.
"Wellness Matters"
By Lisa Schilling RN
For these people, frustration is a huge problem. Their body has reached a set-point, a weight it struggles to remain at, regardless of the pressures on it to change. This is what I call a “life-style comfortable” weight. Your body can maintain this weight in a lifestyle that is easy for you to keep up with.
The body is designed to keep you healthy and protect you from starvation. The closer you get to your goal weight the more your body is going to cling to what is already there. This is called the “push-pull phenomenon:” When you attempt to cut calories, your body fights to release the fat while, at the same time, your fat cells are constantly striving to fill themselves back up with more fat.
Your body perceives dieting as gradual starvation. Traditional dieting involves deliberately withholding the body’s usual supply of nutrients and energy sources. The body will attempt to fight off this depletion of energy stores by slowing down your metabolism. The results of which, can be a weight loss slow down or plateau.
You keep doing the same things you did before, but stop getting results. For some, this can be enough to make them stop trying all together. I have heard people say, “What’s the point? I can’t lose any more weight; no matter how hard I try, so why keep killing myself?” This is a tough place to be.
Realize that it is time to change up your game plan. This is due to the adaptation principal. Your body is smart and can quickly become accustomed to consistent patterns. It is best to keep your metabolism constantly guessing, which prevents your body from quickly adapting to a certain routine of exercise or number of calories it expects to receive.
By not allowing the body to adapt to a regular routine, you force the body to work at a more beneficial level. Changing exercise routines, calorie levels and types of foods, can help to accomplish this.
One way to change things up is to develop a whole-istic eating plan. What does that mean for you? It means making a regular commitment to eating less processed foods and in addition, adding more antioxidant-rich whole foods. These foods are known to turn off fat storage hormones and can reduce cravings and appetite by 20 percent or more. This could be just what you need to punch your metabolism up a notch.
Some foods to consider would be flaxseed, whole wheat, nuts, dairy, yogurt, fresh or frozen fruit–especially berries, prunes, fish of all kinds, fresh or frozen vegetables, beans and lentils, oatmeal-not cut, dark chocolate, lean cuts of meat, and eggs. Also consider adding spices such as cheyenne pepper, cinnamon and garlic. This in addition to plenty of water and occasional green tea will keep your metabolism revved up.
Regularly eating processed foods will slow your metabolism and slow your weight loss progress. Your body does not recognize or metabolize processed foods in the same way that it does natural or fresh foods.
Preservatives, additives and shelf stabilizers can halt your progress. They have been known to stimulate the production of dopamine in the brain. This fuels the urge to eat and makes it more difficult to stop. Studies have shown that heavy consumption of heavily processed foods will actually increase abdominal fat deposits by 30 percent, even for those cutting calories.
If you are at a plateau, commit to a seven day whole food eating plan as a jump start. From there, make fresh, natural or whole food choices on regular days and begin to add some processed foods when offered them at special meals or when eating out, but not on a frequent basis.
Start planning ahead and making the bulk of your diet come from whole, natural and unprocessed foods. That’s it! Sounds easy, but the problem is that it is just as easy, if not easier, not to do it. However, by purposefully altering your eating style in this way, you will begin to feel better, have more energy and it will allow you to bust out of the plateau you are in. The choice is yours, plan, take your time and choose REAL foods consistently.
"Wellness Matters"
By Lisa Schilling RN
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Creating a Recipe for Wellness-Stopping the Cycle of Bad Health Habits
Today it seems that more and more people are falling into a negative spiral of personal habits. The recipe starts out by adding increased stress and responsibilities. Then you add a reduction of personal time, mixed with fatigue and lack of quality sleep. Combine with convenience food, comfort eating, and continue until you are fully unmotivated and discouraged.
Does this sound familiar? Often, this becomes a recipe for disaster. Much like a snowball rolling down a hill, one poor behavior combines with another to increase the speed of the results. You will find that stopping this cycle is just plain difficult.
Because one behavior leads so easily to the next, it is like trying to stop a chain reaction of falling dominos. The more stressed you are, the more you crave non-nutritious foods. The more short on time, the more convenience items you eat and there’s no time for the gym. The more weight you put on, the less energy you have and the more difficult it becomes to move around.
Can you see how easily this situation can get out of hand? Often people wake up one day, take a look in the mirror, and say to themselves, “How did I get this way!” Well it did not happen overnight. It happened while you were focusing on OTHER things. Sometimes these are basic survival needs, but often they are simply poor choices.
Just as Maslow spoke of a Hierarchy of Needs, we see that people must meet basic needs before seeking more advanced ones. Without adequate food, shelter, clothing or safety, the state of your health and fitness seems less important. However, in America the issue has less to do with lack of basic needs, and more to do with a distortion of the “want-need” belief.
Today people are cultured to expect to have television, cell phones, computers, designer clothes, new cars and the list goes on and on. These are not needs. They are wants. Somewhere along the way, people have been conditioned to think that without these kinds of items they cannot live a fulfilled life.
What does that have to do with health and fitness? More than you realize. In order to have all of these items, people put an enormous amount of pressure and stress into their lives. To have, use and maintain these items, people work more and also lead a more sedentary life.
Those two things, increased work load (often unfulfilling work), and an otherwise sedentary lifestyle, lead to being chronically overweight. Being stressed and unfulfilled, leads directly to poor eating habits and a lack of productive exercise. After working all day, being stressed at an unfulfilling job, the last thing most people feel like doing is getting some exercise or cooking a nutritious meal.
It has to do with a time principle. When at work, your time is not your own. When given the chance to be on your own time, many who find themselves overwhelmed and exhausted, will choose to simply wind down or complete the few tasks they still have on their list.
We all have peak energy times. This means you need to plan ahead to achieve your best results. Morning people have an advantage. If you can consistently exercise in the mornings and start your day off right by planning for healthy eating, you have a greater chance of creating a lifelong habit.
However if you are like me, and experience a three-hour brain delay from the time you open your eyes, you may have to be more creative. There are always ways to achieve your goal, if you are willing to learn more about what drives you and what stops you in your tracks.
You can use this information to craft a wellness plan that will be adaptable to your needs. For good health and weight loss you MUST stop the snowball and change the recipe. This will require you to make some manageable changes and consistently stick with them.
First establish WHAT you hope to accomplish, then begin to highlight WHY it is important for you to accomplish it. This will be your motivator and it is required to keep you focused on what really matters.
Evaluate what is holding you back: unfulfilling job, no free time, poor planning, too much stress, or just a lack of direction and make the needed changes.
It is time to shift your focus to what really matters and create a recipe for wellness. Your recipe is created from each choice you make, and the results are measured by your health as well as how you look and feel each day. Choose wisely!
"Wellness Matters"
By Lisa Schilling RN
Does this sound familiar? Often, this becomes a recipe for disaster. Much like a snowball rolling down a hill, one poor behavior combines with another to increase the speed of the results. You will find that stopping this cycle is just plain difficult.
Because one behavior leads so easily to the next, it is like trying to stop a chain reaction of falling dominos. The more stressed you are, the more you crave non-nutritious foods. The more short on time, the more convenience items you eat and there’s no time for the gym. The more weight you put on, the less energy you have and the more difficult it becomes to move around.
Can you see how easily this situation can get out of hand? Often people wake up one day, take a look in the mirror, and say to themselves, “How did I get this way!” Well it did not happen overnight. It happened while you were focusing on OTHER things. Sometimes these are basic survival needs, but often they are simply poor choices.
Just as Maslow spoke of a Hierarchy of Needs, we see that people must meet basic needs before seeking more advanced ones. Without adequate food, shelter, clothing or safety, the state of your health and fitness seems less important. However, in America the issue has less to do with lack of basic needs, and more to do with a distortion of the “want-need” belief.
Today people are cultured to expect to have television, cell phones, computers, designer clothes, new cars and the list goes on and on. These are not needs. They are wants. Somewhere along the way, people have been conditioned to think that without these kinds of items they cannot live a fulfilled life.
What does that have to do with health and fitness? More than you realize. In order to have all of these items, people put an enormous amount of pressure and stress into their lives. To have, use and maintain these items, people work more and also lead a more sedentary life.
Those two things, increased work load (often unfulfilling work), and an otherwise sedentary lifestyle, lead to being chronically overweight. Being stressed and unfulfilled, leads directly to poor eating habits and a lack of productive exercise. After working all day, being stressed at an unfulfilling job, the last thing most people feel like doing is getting some exercise or cooking a nutritious meal.
It has to do with a time principle. When at work, your time is not your own. When given the chance to be on your own time, many who find themselves overwhelmed and exhausted, will choose to simply wind down or complete the few tasks they still have on their list.
We all have peak energy times. This means you need to plan ahead to achieve your best results. Morning people have an advantage. If you can consistently exercise in the mornings and start your day off right by planning for healthy eating, you have a greater chance of creating a lifelong habit.
However if you are like me, and experience a three-hour brain delay from the time you open your eyes, you may have to be more creative. There are always ways to achieve your goal, if you are willing to learn more about what drives you and what stops you in your tracks.
You can use this information to craft a wellness plan that will be adaptable to your needs. For good health and weight loss you MUST stop the snowball and change the recipe. This will require you to make some manageable changes and consistently stick with them.
First establish WHAT you hope to accomplish, then begin to highlight WHY it is important for you to accomplish it. This will be your motivator and it is required to keep you focused on what really matters.
Evaluate what is holding you back: unfulfilling job, no free time, poor planning, too much stress, or just a lack of direction and make the needed changes.
It is time to shift your focus to what really matters and create a recipe for wellness. Your recipe is created from each choice you make, and the results are measured by your health as well as how you look and feel each day. Choose wisely!
"Wellness Matters"
By Lisa Schilling RN
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
How Changing Your Focus Can Change Your Life-From Fat to Fabulous!
While driving to work today, I heard at least three commercials advertising products designed to make you: thin, skinny, or slim. Is it just me, or does anyone else remember hearing kids called this on the playground as a taught or putdown? Perhaps you had a grandma or certain relative that would comment on how skinny you were getting. But also recall their plan was to “put some meat on your bones,” not congratulate you.
Somehow these are now desirable traits, and companies spend a great deal of money to convince you that their product, plan or pill will help you achieve this. Unfortunately, they are missing the point. People simply want to buy a “look,” not improve their health. To be healthy does not require you to be skinny, however many healthy people have lean, trim figures as a result of their efforts. Your state of fitness has more to do with how your body functions than what the scale says.
There are many ways to be thin and only a handful of those ways are healthy. If you only try to be skinny, and neglect improving your health and fitness, you have sold yourself short. One of my favorite mantras has always been: “Focus on the fitness, not the fatness.”
The more you work to eat sensible, participate in weight bearing exercise, and challenging your heart and lungs with cardiovascular training, the greater your health and fitness improvement will be. This will not only affect how you look, but how you feel, for the duration of your life.
Just looking skinny or weighing less, should not be the goal. Instead consider making your goal to lose body fat through targeted exercise and nutrition changes, to increase lean muscle by adding weight bearing exercise, to improve endurance by challenging your heart and lung function with cardio-based exercise, or to reduce or eliminate medication by changing your habits.
This positive activity will also increase your metal attitude as well as your self- esteem. When you improve your health and change your weight due to consistent healthier habits, you will walk with a little spring in your step. You will feel so good about what you are doing for yourself that others can’t help but notice the change in how you carry yourself.
This is about you taking a proactive approach to your habits. Caring more about how healthy and fit you are, than how much you weigh. When you change your focus you can begin to change your life.
If you find yourself overscheduled, overwhelmed and burned-out, or you have struggled with health, fitness, wellness or life-balance issue in the past, it is time to shift your focus. Spend more time on prevention and less time dealing with the preventable symptoms or conditions caused by unhealthy living.
When you learn the supreme importance of valuing yourself, you are empowered to take responsibility for your choices and thus, take control of your outcomes. When you begin to embrace this connection, you can being to enjoy where you are on the way to where you are going.
Embrace the Get REAL Body Image approach, and learn to value your body as well as what makes you unique. I call this learning to love the skin you are in, while making targeted changes to improve your future. By taking a Get REAL approach, you can learn to embrace moderation and let go of “all or nothing” patterns that drive yo-yo dieting and weight cycling.
I challenge you to see the REAL beauty you have within and begin to let that shine through. By changing your focus and attitude, you can begin to improve your external appearance for the better. Always focusing on becoming the best you, you can be and letting go of unrealistic goals and stereotypes.
Having learned the difference between struggling to be what you were 10 years ago, and enjoying a healthy life at the place you are now, I can relate to the struggles that REAL people have; thus, I speak with empathy and authenticity.
By changing your focus to improved health and fitness and releasing the goal of just being skinny, you will gain the perspective to uncover and implement REAL lifestyle changes to move you toward your goals of improved wellness and self acceptance.
"Wellness Matters"
Lisa Schilling RN, CPT
Somehow these are now desirable traits, and companies spend a great deal of money to convince you that their product, plan or pill will help you achieve this. Unfortunately, they are missing the point. People simply want to buy a “look,” not improve their health. To be healthy does not require you to be skinny, however many healthy people have lean, trim figures as a result of their efforts. Your state of fitness has more to do with how your body functions than what the scale says.
There are many ways to be thin and only a handful of those ways are healthy. If you only try to be skinny, and neglect improving your health and fitness, you have sold yourself short. One of my favorite mantras has always been: “Focus on the fitness, not the fatness.”
The more you work to eat sensible, participate in weight bearing exercise, and challenging your heart and lungs with cardiovascular training, the greater your health and fitness improvement will be. This will not only affect how you look, but how you feel, for the duration of your life.
Just looking skinny or weighing less, should not be the goal. Instead consider making your goal to lose body fat through targeted exercise and nutrition changes, to increase lean muscle by adding weight bearing exercise, to improve endurance by challenging your heart and lung function with cardio-based exercise, or to reduce or eliminate medication by changing your habits.
This positive activity will also increase your metal attitude as well as your self- esteem. When you improve your health and change your weight due to consistent healthier habits, you will walk with a little spring in your step. You will feel so good about what you are doing for yourself that others can’t help but notice the change in how you carry yourself.
This is about you taking a proactive approach to your habits. Caring more about how healthy and fit you are, than how much you weigh. When you change your focus you can begin to change your life.
If you find yourself overscheduled, overwhelmed and burned-out, or you have struggled with health, fitness, wellness or life-balance issue in the past, it is time to shift your focus. Spend more time on prevention and less time dealing with the preventable symptoms or conditions caused by unhealthy living.
When you learn the supreme importance of valuing yourself, you are empowered to take responsibility for your choices and thus, take control of your outcomes. When you begin to embrace this connection, you can being to enjoy where you are on the way to where you are going.
Embrace the Get REAL Body Image approach, and learn to value your body as well as what makes you unique. I call this learning to love the skin you are in, while making targeted changes to improve your future. By taking a Get REAL approach, you can learn to embrace moderation and let go of “all or nothing” patterns that drive yo-yo dieting and weight cycling.
I challenge you to see the REAL beauty you have within and begin to let that shine through. By changing your focus and attitude, you can begin to improve your external appearance for the better. Always focusing on becoming the best you, you can be and letting go of unrealistic goals and stereotypes.
Having learned the difference between struggling to be what you were 10 years ago, and enjoying a healthy life at the place you are now, I can relate to the struggles that REAL people have; thus, I speak with empathy and authenticity.
By changing your focus to improved health and fitness and releasing the goal of just being skinny, you will gain the perspective to uncover and implement REAL lifestyle changes to move you toward your goals of improved wellness and self acceptance.
"Wellness Matters"
Lisa Schilling RN, CPT
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)