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The Heroine’s Journey of Lance or The child who drowned in pursuit of a dream.

Warning: Plance

Edited by https://twitter.com/Nadezhda932

Yes, you heard right. The topic sounds the way it sounds, and if you’re confused by the fact that Lance was called the "heroine", I hasten to reassure you. The Heroine’s Journey is in no way connected with the gender of the protagonist, "she" can be both a man and a woman. This expression was accepted, because in the stories of the old times mostly women were sent to such journeys, since men suffering from mental anguish considered not manly enough. Men were usually sent to Hero's Journey, and for a better understanding of the situation I'll spend a little of your time to explain the difference.

The Hero's Journey is a literal journey where the hero is forced to leave his home - a comfort zone - so that he grows up and matures under the influence of literal trials. He must also perform a feat and receive a reward for this feat. Kill the dragon and get the princess (a sword / horse / medicine for a sick mother etc.), as a symbol of the fact that the hero won and received what he set off for.

The Heroine's Journey is a story of spiritual experiences when, under the influence of external factors, a person loses an important part of his personality, and he needs to find himself again - to restore his spiritual balance. Growing up is achieved through rethinking oneself, through finding one's place in this world and through casting away false beliefs that prevent the hero from becoming happy. Moreover, the Heroine's Journey may not have a feat, but the reward is and is always deceiving - having received the reward for his struggle, the hero suddenly realizes that this is not what he wanted. He's disappointed - he put so much effort into achieving the goal, and now realizes that all this time he was wasting himself in vain.

And I can’t help but recall the indignation of some of Lance’s fans that they didn’t let him complete the feat. He learned to wield a sword, and he wasn;t even allowed to demonstrate his skills, for example, in a duel with Lotor, like an Easter egg on an old series (those who watched the old series laughed at this statement, but this is not about that). And some of the men experienced cognitive dissonance - if the hero received the princess, then where is the dead dragon? Zarkon was killed by Lotor. Sendak was defeated by Keith and Shiro. Honevra, in fact, left undefeated. Lance... turned out to be the thief from the game in S6. A cool girl needs a cool guy, not a simple farmer. Guys, really. I understand that Lance is wonderful, but his image in the series is just that. A simple farmer who, for all his good qualities, is not at all the one who is destined to take out the Sword from the Stone.

Because the fact is that in the history of Lance there should not be a “dead dragon” - a feat. Because the feat is accomplished on the Hero's Journey, while Lance has the Heroine's Journey. And yes, the reward he received was false and only led to disappointment.

Lance's story should look something like this:

Starting point:Lance is an altruistic but insecure guy who feels like a "third wheel" in life. But he wants to change this, to become something more than a “simple guy from Cuba”, he wants to be useful and meaningful.

Journey: Lance believes that he'll gain self-confidence and usefulness in the eyes of others if he becomes a hero and becomes famous. He wants to be the knight saving princesses, Hercules of his own story. But at the same time, in the struggle for the title of a hero, he becomes more and more selfish and loses an important part of himself - his compassion and selflessness towards others.

A reward and disappointment in it: Lance receives what, in his opinion, should bring him the title of a hero and self-confidence, but at the same time he doesn't receive self-confidence. The candy, which was so attractive with its wrapper, turned out to be tasteless. In addition, his desire to have this award comes into direct conflict with his desire to help others, and this puts pressure on him.

End:Lance refuses the reward, lets his thirst for fame go and comes to terms with his conscience. Having stopped chasing after fame, like a donkey for a carrot, he finally notices that his friends love him without any fame and appreciate his efforts. Realizing that he doesn't need to become Hercules in order to be respected and loved, Lance finally accepts himself, which allows him to find his place in the world and feel happy.

This is how it should have looked in a normal scenario. But since Mr. B. changed it (I won't swear in the article, though I really want to), the end of the journey was simply deleted from Lance’s story, leaving him in a state of disappointment with the award, which in the description of the Heroine’s Journey is directly called “spiritual aridity, death".

Really. They even showed it in the end, although they finished the ending according to the changed script (you won’t erase words from the song). Lance literally buries himself at 19, disappointed in life. More absurd is only Shiro who was sent to retire at the age of 30. I'm now 30 years old, and it’s just ridiculous for me to say that life ends at 19 (30) years, now it’s only a monastery and a pension. Unhappy love is sad, but life is such a thing that someone constantly dies, and it’s not normal to bury yourself alive. Especially in the series for children. Pathological grief after the loss of a loved one is actually a disorder of adaptation and in psychiatry is considered a disease that must be treated. A person left in a state of psychiatric illness is a so-so happy ending. However, if you consider that the universe after S8 remained in complete disarray, then Lance fits into such a happy ending. By the way, the Heroine's Journeys of Lance and Allura are very similar in the sense that self-doubt becomes their main enemy. They are like brother and sister in this, go hand in hand, and that is why their journeys intersect. But if in the changed S8 Allura still got an invisible “kick in the ass, which allowed her to take a decisive step forward,” Lance remained stagnant in his uncertainty. If Allura commited suicide by her own decision, Lance just got stuck in a quagmire and choked. But let's look at the situation in more detail. And let's start with the Lance's family.  

Stage 1 - Separation from the feminine.

Lance is a kind but insecure guy. He sees that his Nice Guy status gives nothing and has no weight in society, and therefore dreams of fame.

Lance grew up in faraway Cuba, in a large provincial family of farmers. Well-off enough to feed a bunch of people without problems during S8 - when the whole Earth was in crisis - but not the great rich. The boss in the house was an active mom, and dad, judging by his behavior and the attitude of others, was a standard quiet henpecked man. You know, a handsome guy, unsure of himself, who in his youth fell into the hands of an energetic girl and spent his whole life in invisible labor on a farm for the benefit of the family. Judging by the words of Lance’s mother, it was from his father that Lance inherited stupid lines and the desire to flirt with girls, which in reality was only a pretense of bravado for both. However, you can understand Lance's father. When you're a provincial farmer, besides socializing there's little entertainment. And the presence of a beautiful girlfriend was probably the only way for a young farmer to raise his authority and gain the respect of his peers. Moreover, Lance wasn't the only beloved child, but rather one of a bunch of children, each of whom probably wanted to win a little attention from their parents. He's the youngest, and the youngest is the one for whom everyone else always decides, the one whom everyone pushes, whose opinion is never asked. And of course, the shadow from more successful older relatives constantly dominated him - the older sister made a career in science, and the older brother, unlike Lance, who resembled his quiet father, clearly inherited mother's self-confidence and constantly teased his younger sibling. And naturally, he wanted to stand out. He wanted his parents to notice him among a bunch of other, older and “more useful” children, to be appreciated and respected - but, alas, it's difficult to gain respect from others by how cool you milk cows. Here, everyone around milks the cows, it's a farm. And a simple Cuban boy, who probably watched cartoons about super-heroes, began to dream. He milked cows and dreamed of how he would break out of this gray life and become cool and famous. Dad will be proud, elder siblings will stop laughing at him. And all the girls will be his. Lance, like his father in his youth, probably sought to establish himself surrounded by other young farm guys as a "Loverboy" - but he was just a quiet, handsome guy with stupid lines, not a brutal cowboy on a powerful stallion. And such guys are loved, I would even say that girls often marry this type of guys, but don't chase them in a crowd. You need to understand that Lance wanted to break out of this life. He dreamed of something completely different. And the fact that he was forced to return to the farm... sorry, but this is a mockery. It would be better if he opened a space tourism company and named his ship "Allura". And, like captain Kirk, remained faithful to his ship, shrugging off the fatal beauties. In general, if not for Veronica, who had shown by her example that there is a way out, then most likely Lance would have finished as his dad. He would fall into the hands of a brisk girl and spent his whole life on a farm under the heel. He would drag a completely prosperous dull existence, like hundreds of other farmers before him. But looking at his sister, Lance got the idea to enter the Garrison and was able to do it. It's a pity that the provincial farmers didn't really appreciate this feat. Alas, in the Cuban hinterland there were no experts who could understand the extent of such an achievement. Only a sister supported Lance.

And in the Garrison it wasn't easy either. He entered the Garrison, but only as a pilot of cargo vehicles, and when he was transferred to combat pilots the teacher, clearly upset by the loss of a more talented student, couldn't help but recall that Lance was here only because Keith was expelled. The gifted one, but unfortunately for teachers completely undisciplined.

However, with the girls he was a little luckier. Judging by the conversation with Hunk in the first episode, Lance didn't wait for "the only one", but rather actively ran on dates. Apparently, sometimes his "wonderful" lines really worked. Another thing is that the significance of dating girls in the eyes of the population of the Garrison was extremely small - they are not bored farmers, so it remained exclusively a personal affair of Lance, and he didn't gain much respect because of it.

But Lance wanted something completely different. He wanted respect, fame, being accepted. And if Keith went to save Shiro because he was the only close person for him, Lance got in because he was sickened that everyone compared him to Keith. It's he who must save Shiro and become famous, even if it ends badly for him (do you really think that under other circumstances they wouldn't be punished?). The position of the second violin in relation to Keith enraged Lance, especially considering the fact that Keith didn't care about Lance. He couldn't understand why Lance was angry with him, they almost didn't know each other. Keith had his own personal problems, unrelated to Lance. It didn’t even occur to him that he, as it turns out, was competing with Lance for the title of the coolest, since Keith wasn't interested in such competitions.

Such rivals that he didn’t even recognize you...

Looking ahead, I just notice that as soon as Lance stopped seeing an opponent in Keith, all their contradictions vanished. Keith wasn't Lance's adversary, enemy, rival or any kind of aggressor. Keith became one because Lance elevated him to that position. Lance imagined a dragon which must be defeated, but as soon as he stopped demonizing Keith it immediately turned out that there was no dragon at all. There are no external demons in Lance's life, but internal ones. And Keith is a good example. So they find the Blue Lion. Blue sees Lance - a good guy who is ready to support others and who is most in need of support - realizes that "this is my boy" and sends the whole company to the Castle of Lions.

Where Lance meets Allura - the embodiment of his dream of glory. Not just a beautiful girl, but a real princess. Like from a fairy tale where the coolest man - Hercules - gets the princess, becomes her faithful knight, protects her and accomplishes feats in her honor. And she admires him.

Of course, from the first minutes Allura makes it clear that she'll break the neck of any dragon and give the knight a kick, but the dream didn' fade from this - quite the opposite, it became more inaccessible and therefore more desirable.

Then we see the events of the first two seasons. S1 spans several days, S2 - several weeks, or how much it took them to dock with the BoM and complete a plan to get Zarkon out of the game. Lance learns to work together and even begins to gradually feel his usefulness to the team. When Shiro tells him that they need him, because he's their sharpshooter, Lance glows with happiness. Because this is his place - the place of a support fighter - and he's comfortable in it. It's comfortable to be a blue paladin - a "leg" that supports everyone else, who will cover melee fighters.

And here an extremely important event happens. Shiro disappears. Shiro was the only self-confident mature man in the company of literal and mental youngsters (with the exception of Coran, but he preferred to remain in the shadows). Responsible commander, authority, leader who knew exactly what and how to do Under his wing, the kids were like in a kindergarten. And now bang - the kids lost him and left without a kindergartener.

Space Dad is gone, do it yourself. Nobody will insure you anymore, you have no one else to hope for. Everyone feels bewildered, it’s hard for everyone. And it's especially hard for Keith - after all, Shiro was his only close friend, his brother. The rest knew Shiro for about a couple of weeks and treated him like a counselor in a scout camp, and therefore experienced Shiro's loss more easily. But the loss of Shiro himself, not his leadership.

And after the loss of Shiro comes "The Great Transferring"

Stage 2 - Identification with the masculine and gathering of allies

Lance refuses the image of a Nice Guy in favor of the pursuit of status.

You know, I've often met conversations on the topic that everything is not clear with these Lions, what the heck is with replacing paladins, and why they don't change armors.

In the old series, Lions were simply meek machines - anyone could pilot them. But now the Lions are living creatures that even help their paladins (otherwise Hank and Pidge wouldn't be able to learn how to control them so quickly). Each Lion has a specific character and is looking for a “soul mate” in the paladin, which would dock well with it. The black paladin is a cool, stubborn leader. The yellow paladin is a confident strong helping hand foot, Green is a purposeful lover of knowledge. We'll deal with Red and Blue a bit later.

The easiest way is with Hunk and Pidge. The fact is that their characters almost didn't change during the series. Pidge grew up, but nothing more. Hunk was generally quite a mature person and had no moral problems, except for a heightened sense of self-preservation. He was even the first to get the girl without any problems (which is extremely funny comparing to Lance, for whom getting a girlfriend became an obsession).

Shiro, after his resurrection, became the white paladin - but, alas, there is so little evidence on this subject (thanks for the cut S7-8) that I just can’t back up my position with facts, and therefore I won’t force you to listen to my demagoguery.

I’ll give a couple of lines to Allura. Yes, she's pink. More precisely, blue-red. Allura has her father's temper. To act first and then think is her favorite method. In her decisive moments, Allura becomes "red" more than Keith himself. But brought up as the future queen, Allura suffers from hyperresponsibility and constantly thinks whether she did the right thing. She constantly doubts herself, constantly fusses around, asks others, although she must make decisions herself... except for those moments where Alfor's character shows up. One thing that Red doesn't tolerate is uncertainty. Therefore, Red didn't accept Allura. And he didn't care that Allura wanted to be like her father and really wanted to become a red paladin. She even started crying, phew. Keith is quite another case and therefore he's worth of respect.

Perhaps if Blue hadn't intervened, Allura would never have become a paladin. But picking up abandoned kittens is a Blue Lion's favorite pastime. Besides, Allura selflessly sought to help others, she had recently lost her people, her family, and her father even twice. Therefore, Blue took Allura. Don't offend little ones, Red, bad kitty. A little offtopic: the path of Allura - the normal path, not a bit thrown to us - showed the transition of Allura to a full-fledged red paladin. Because the princess, who constantly doubts herself, will never become a queen. She will always depend on the opinions of others and will forever remain a child. Let's move on to Keith. His path is very simple and straightforward, like the very Hero's Journey, which is his story. There is point A - Red Lion, as the embodiment of Kit's self-centered unstable teenage character, there is point B - becoming a black paladin, a mature responsible leader. The reward for the feat is finding a family. Why did Keith stay in a red suit? Because the suit shows that Keith is actually still too “red.” Until the very end of S8 there are too many hasty decisions, too much hope for luck. This is not the behavior of the black paladin; a good leader never relies on chance. I have serious suspicions that Black chose Keith because Shiro’s soul was inside. Black trusted Shiro, trusted his choice and accepted Keith (who made a lot of mess in his new position, to be honest ...). In addition, Black didn’t have much to choose from, but it was necessary to go on the mission. So he chose from what he had. But the most interesting thing is with Lance, the main character of our meta. Because he has a Heroine's Journey (!). Not a Hero's one. And while in Hero's Journey, the path of Keith from Red to Black is the path to maturity and the desired reward, then for Lance the path from Blue to Red leads to a false reward. To the blende. He doesn't gain new, he loses old. Lance's blue suit screams about who he really should be. Just remember. It's not Red who chose Lance. It's Blue who kicked him out(!).

Who told you that becoming Red from Blue is an upgrade? Allura? Allura dreamed all her childhood that she would become a red paladin. This is the dream of her whole life. And Lance always wanted to be needed, but what's easier for you - to live without a hand or without a leg? With one hand, of course, it's hard, but try to walk on one leg. A body without a head will run further. Allura said Red accepted Lance when he accepted Keith's leadership. A really strong step is to step on the throat of your pride. Red appreciated it, because he's a very selfish proud man lion, and for him it's really a feat. The same as Alfor had once done when he lost his leadership to Zarkon. Well done, he's impressed. But... Lance did it like a true blue paladin, not a red one. Everyone was feeling bad, and Keith especially, and Lance did this to support Keith because he saw his worries. He abandoned his ambitions in order to help his neighbor, like a true Blue would do.

The Red Lion, on the contrary, is the team’s main egoist. He listens only to Black, because he respects his authority, and even then not always. First he does, then he thinks, and he makes a decision instantly. Proud, emotional, self-centered in his desires. Just remember Alfor. Remember how he ran into the fight ahead of the team, so Zarkon had to save his butt. How he began to study the unknown crap on Daibazaal, ignoring the danger to his friend’s planet at first. How he succumbed to fear and decided to hide the Lions and not use it. How he "turned off" Allura when she began to argue with him and sent it to the cryocapsule. Only so that later his holographic ghost spread his arms and said: "I'm sorry, daughter, you were right." And that is the Red Lion. Determined, emotional, egocentric. The man of the moment. And yes, Red saw it in Lance. After all, the point is not only that Lance gained respect from Red by his “feat”. There was something in Lance that suited Red. For all his altruism, Lance is a child who craves the attention of his environment. And in this he's very selfish. In addition, despite doubts about his status, his usefulness, when it comes to making decisions, Lance doesn't stomp on the spot but acts. In the series, we often see how Lance doubts his importance, but we have never seen him doubt his actions. When it's time to act, Lance acts resolutely and without hesitation. And the problem here is not only that Red accepted Lance only when Blue drove him away. The problem is how the others reacted to this. It must be remembered that Allura really wanted Red. A lot. And also Allura felt that she must behave like a good boss, that means to praise subordinates for achievements, for hard work for the benefit of all. And of course, she began to praise Lance for becoming a red paladin - he made a real achievement in the eyes of Allura.

For Allura, this sword was the memory of her father. And she really dreamed of getting it.

And this was the first time that Allura personally praised Lance. Repeatedly. Allura in the eyes of Lance embodied all his dreams of status. And he really dreamed about her favor, about becoming her Hercules, her knight. And when she praised him, he felt that having risen in status to the right hand of the black paladin (and, according to Allura, that was exactly so), he became closer to his goal. That is, he saw a direct connection: the higher the status, the closer the dream. Despite the fact that being a red paladin wasn't as comfortable as being a blue one. Because along with having a certain status - so desirable for Lance - came the fear of losing that status. Remember how Lance was upset that he didn't know how to use the main form of red bayard - the traditional Altean sword. Have you ever seen Keith worry about not being able to use the Galra flail, which only Lotor and Zarkon used in the series? The red bayard transformed into the sword simply because Alfor created the bayard to suit the first paladins. However, that doesn't change the fact that, by default, the red paladin is the second melee fighter, while Lance has always positioned himself as a sharpshooter - a support fighter.

Stage 3 - Road of trials, meeting ogres and dragons

Lance asserts his status as a red paladin.

Now, after Zarkon's knockout, the paladins and BoM begin vigorous activity. Lance is increasingly asserting his status as a red paladin - he bathes in the completely legitimate attention and admiration of the rescued civilians. In addition, Allura became very close to him, and he could constantly communicate with her. He also felt important, helping her master the Blue Lion and covering in battles. The defender of the beautiful princess.

Note: guys, I understand that you really want to present the attitude of the paladins to each other in battle as exceptional. But helping a comrade on the battlefield is the thing expected of a soldier. On the contrary, if he doesn't help, he'll be called a traitor. BoM's operations don't count, as they have partisan and espionage activities, where there are other priorities. Mutual assistance on the battlefield isn't an act of goodwill, but an obligation.

Yes, after becoming a red paladin, Lance stopped hitting on Allura. Because now Allura wasn't separate from the others, the abstract mistress of the Castle, she became part of the team. That is, not a princess - a potential damsel in distress - but a comrade with whom they share bread and shelter. And of course, Lance began to treat her in a different way. But he didn' stop wanting her. As soon as Matt (young, attractive rebel) appeared on the horizon, Lance set up an absolutely ugly jealousy scene.

Despite the fact that Allura didn't give any promises to Lance, didn't encourage his actions, wasn't either his bride or a wife, Lance decided that he had exclusive rights to Allura and began to guard her like a dog. Most likely, this attitude appeared as a result of the act of “giving” the Blue Lion. Because Lance continued to consider Blue his property, and at the same time began to consider the pilot of Blue his property too. And if so, then Allura belongs to him, and lines are no longer needed. And then Lotor appeared. I must say that it's unlikely that at the first personal meeting Lotor had matrimonial or at least some personal plans for Allura. When Lotor appeared near the Haggar's ship, he wasn't there because of the paladins. If you remember, Lotor caught the transmission that the sector would be blown up, not a word about the presence of Voltron. Lotor didn't save the paladins; he saved civilians from his mad relatives. And when Lotor talks with Allura, he offers exclusively business relations. Abstract union in the name of universal good.

But as soon as Lotor said the word “union”, Lance not only triggered, he almost exploded. From the mere hint that this obviously successful man is offering his(!) princess some sort of union, Lance sharply felt a surge of jealousy and saw Lotor as his rival. While Lotor completely ignored Lance - he addressed to Allura as the head of this madhouse, and he wasn't interested in the opinion of the “retinue” of the princess. In general, Lothor was always interested only in the opinion of Allura, convinced only her and appealed only to her. As a political leader to a political leader. The remaining paladins were reckoned by Lotor to the retinue of Allura and didn't cause much interest. Doesn’t resemble anything? Remember how Lance reacted towards Keith, although he hardly remembered him? How Lance considered Keith his rival? There's only a small but very important difference: Keith reacted to aggression with his own aggression. That is, Lance received a reaction to his actions. But Lotor didn’t do anything at Lance’s aggression. What difference does it make to an elephant what kind of a dog is barking at it down there? At the first outbreak of jealousy, Lance tried to get Lotor out of the way, like he did with Matt, but he couldn't do anything with such a mastodon. And Allura... Allura has work for the benefit of the universe, and Pidge's father must be saved. And here is the legendary Oriande. She didn’t know that Lance had any rights to her. Lotor shines in front of her eyes like a supernova, so Lance's jealousy was left without any attention.

Confused by the fact that he lost his place near the princess, Lance begins to do what he never did before becoming a red paladin. He begins to feel sorry for himself. Allura lost interest in him, she separated from the other paladins and flew away right in front of his eyes to a brilliant rival. Who is, in fact, like a hero from the legends. The real emperor, handsome, great warrior, leader, diplomat, Allura looks at him with admiration. And any attempt to ridicule him is smashed against the armor of equanimity and true self-confidence. Lotor was someone that Lance had always dreamed of becoming. Lance didn’t think about how hard it was for Lotor to become like this, Lance thought it was cool to be a brilliant space prince, not just a Cuban guy.

Lance envied Lotor, like he once envied Keith. And Lance again felt not needed and began to cling with all his might to the title of savior of the universe, as well as to rush to prove his worth. When Pidge and Hunk distract him from his worries, he's very happy to have fun with them - because he really doesn’t have problems, but in moments of idleness he begins to feel sorry for himself and think about how lonely he is and no one likes him. He even complained to the mice. After all, he likes Allura so much, he dreamed of becoming her knight, but she didn't appreciate it.

If Lance was so easily distracted from his longing for Allura, so maybe this longing wasn't so terrible?

Lotor became a dragon which Lance couldn't defeat in an honest battle and was fully aware of it. In addition, it's difficult to save the princess from the clutches of the dragon, when she's already choosing curtains for the cave. Such a princess would kill anyone who dares to hurt her dragon. However, fortunately for Lance, Keith brings Romelle and the paladins defeat Lotor. The path is clear, the dragon was killed. True, not by Lance personally, but it doesn’t matter. In addition, Allura is broken and unhappy, and in need of support. But although Lotor died, his ghost remained. After all, Lotor wasn't a real dragon of Lance, he became one in his mind. And he stayed there even after his physical death. Now Lance will always compare himself with Lotor, because he's only the second, not the first. And when Veronica asks Lance if he's going to date Allura, he begins to torment himself by the fact that he's not worthy of the Altean princess. He's a war veteran, he's the defender of the Earth, he's a red paladin, but this fades in his eyes comparing with Lotor. And this is so unsettling that even the Red Lion doesn't immediately come to the call.

Twinkle, twinkle little star...

Ultimately, instead of supporting Allura in a difficult period, he sits, suffers, and pities himself. But friends will always help, right? Hunk forces Lance to invite Allura on a date, and Rommelle persuades her to agree. And Lance gets what he dreamed of.

Stage 4 - Finding the boon of success

Lance becomes Allura's boyfriend. He was aimed to this from the S1.

Which almost instantly proceeds to the next stage:

Stage 5 - Awakening to feelings of spiritual aridity; death

Lance became Allura's boyfriend, but didn't feel significant.

Because everything went wrong from the very beginning.

You know, during the entire episode Lance looked happy once. When Keith told him how much he appreciated him. For me, the date could be over right here. It’s a very positive note - two comrades are sitting, saying warm words to each other and looking at a beautiful sunset. They would have wine, snacks, and don't leave.

Because the very presence of depression of your girlfriend doesn't tune into a romantic note. Plus Coran with his hysteria about the fact that Lance is a plebeian, not an Altean aristocrat.

In any case, the family dinner wasn't as joyful as Lance had hoped. Allura was far from in a romantic mood and sought to discuss the matters whoch worried her. And the siblings began to please the guest with stories about Lance's childhood. Lance wanted to be cool in the eyes of Allura. And here he's exposed as a fool and a clown. And as a result, Lance felt ashamed. He felt uncomfortable in the walls of his own home, because his beloved relatives didn't want to maintain his authority at all. The status of the red paladin and the presence of a beautiful girl didn't help to shut up the older brother, who continued to mock him as before. The war veteran remained thechild in the eyes of relatives, because there was no one who would tell them in person that they're wrong. Finally, they run away from home and go for a walk. Allura is not in the mood, she is ready to talk about anything except what is usually discussed on dates. Allura says that she feels completely alone looking at friends who have returned to their families.

And Lance, in his aspiration to become significant in the eyes of the princess, is ready to promise her a moon from the sky and follow her even to the edge of the universe. Despite the fact that most of all he always wanted to return home. Lance tells Allura that he loves her, and she sadly nods in response. All his words didn’t really inspire her, because she didn't need anything proposed. And Lance himself feels miserable, because he understands that he can’t help Allura in any way.

Lance isn’t a fool. He realized that Allura didn't reciprocate his feelings. But he walked too long towards his goal and selfishly clutched his reward. And thereby only worsened the situation. He grabs the opportunity to be a knight of Allura, because she's a princess after all. He again turns her in his eyes from a comrade into a virgin in trouble, but as a result only failed. Remember the pirate attack. Lance forgot that Allura was stronger than all of them combined, he forgot that they should meet the enemies shoulder to shoulder, and then he watched with genuine amazement how “the princess saves the knight” - Allura beat the pirates without any problems, having saved both Lance and herself.

Lance, these are pirates who must run away from Allura...  

The second attempt to protect Allura also failed. The resurrected "dragon" simply didn't shoot at Allura, and Lance himself fell under the attack of the Alteans. Not to mention the fact that they failed to win the “dragon” - he beat them with his fists. Mad Lotor is a terrible thing by his own, and here he's combined with Sincline... Instead of gaining self-confidence, Lance felt more worthless than ever. Besides Allura, he felt useless. Allura says to him that he doesn't understand her suffering, and all he can do is agree with this and utter banal words of sympathy. Which can't help Allura in her grief. When Allura praised him in the forest just for being able to find the way, Lance beamed as if he had received the Nobel Prize. Allura simply didn't have anything else to praise him for - he did nothing significant in her eyes, and now the red paladin - the right hand of the leader of Voltron - felt joy as if he had accomplished a feat.

You fought with Zarkon, man, and now you consider this an achievement?

No, he pretends that everything is fine, trying to continue to play the role of a knight, which turns out to be frankly bad. At the first opportunity, Allura chases him away, asking to bring "something sparkly", and all he can do is to say a pretentious statement that winning the prizes is his speciality. Although he was only asked to bring a souvenir from the fair.

Such a happy couple...

And then... In the season we got, nothing happens further. Lance remains in this relationship, where he feels completely useless to Allura. Even more: having received a dark entity, Allura wakes up and begins to simply dismiss Lance. And Lance remains a passive observer. He watches her act, he watches her commit suicide. Could he feel guilty after that? After all, he couldn't help her. And he breaks down, leaves everything that he loved, and goes to live on Altea, which Allura missed so much but will never see again. Lance became the mouse that cried, pricked, but continued to eat the cactus. Just because it's a very expensive cactus, and greed didn't allow it to be left. But what was originally planned? If we take as a basis the material that TPL were able to restore, then we can approximately complete the remaining stages of the Heroine’s Journey. 

 Stage 6 - Initiation and Descent to the Goddess

Lance meets his Anima, and she reminds him of the importance of taking into account the interests of his loved ones, that you cannot build your happiness at someone else's expense. Lance looks at his relationship from a new angle.

And yes, as I spoiled at the beginning of the meta, Pidge became Lance's Anima.

Anima and Animus in the Heroine's Journey always represent opposites, which at the same time have much in common (and this is not always a romantic interest, it just traditionally becomes one). Moreover, even the opposites aren't taken from nowhere - they complement each other. Just compare.

Lance is an ordinary, unremarkable guy from a family of ordinary, unremarkable farmers, who was always burdened by his dullness comparing with more successful older relatives.

Pidge was always special from the family of specials, she stood out among other children, for which she became a white crow in her class. But the family constantly convinced her that this was an advantage, not a disadvantage.

Lance is a selfless, altruistic guy who is worried about someone else’s grief.

Pidge is rather egocentric, has little interest in the good of those who go beyond the circle of her loved ones. It's possible that this is a consequence of her young age - all children are self-centered - but fact is a fact.

Lance is a child who constantly tried to win back at least a little attention of his relatives and suffered the ridicule of his older siblings.

Pidge was always surrounded by attention. Parents adored her, the elder brother adored her and supported in everything. Pidge never doubted the love of her family; for her it was as natural as breathing.

Lance feels important to have attention to his person from relatives. And constantly selfishly demanded this attention as much as possible, because he felt underestimated.

Pidge is ready for anything for those whom she loves, and she's ready to beat anyone who harm her loved ones. She's ready to make any sacrifices for those whom she loves.

Pidge and Lance have always had fun together. Yes, Pidge was teasing him, but only when she felt that Lance's problems were not serious. When Lance really needed support, Pige always flew to the rescue. And Lance was just as ready to stand between Pidge and danger at any moment. For little Pidge, he really was a defender. And with all the differences, they had so many things and activities that they loved equally. At that time, there was nothing for Allura and Lance to talk about, except war and losses.

When Pdige and Lance were asked what they're dreaming of, they said they're dreaming of returning to Earth, weeting with their relatives and having fun together. In addition, Lance didn't perceive Pidge as a girl to drag around. Pidge was a true friend for him, not an object for self-affirmation.

And the situation with the date of Allura. Pidge was very upset when she found out that Lance and Allura were going on a date, but she also knew how Lance wanted it, and therefore even helped Allura to get her dress. And gave the game that she and Lance loved so much. For the sake of which they together completed a quest to collect money at the space mall.

You know, if Pige came to this date, not Allura, it would have gone completely different. Lance wouldn't be ashamed of the childhood stories, because he knew that Pidge had no illusions about him anyway. And Pidge would certainly say that Lance is a real hero with the same fury with which she defended her father and brother. The date didn't happen. But then there was a fair where Lance and Pidge united in an effort to get a gift for Allura. Pidge also sees that Allura is depressed, she wants to please her and is actively helping Lance to get "something sparkly".

Lance very quickly forgets what Allura requested. He decides to give her a blue lion with his autograph as a souvenir. Well, at least he didn’t decide to give his belt statue, otherwise Allura, in his absence, would forget about him for at least five minutes. And how displeased he is when he sees a purple lion. We all know who this color symbolizes. The ghost of a personal dragon doesn't let Lance go even at the fair.  

And, in the end, since it was the gift for Allura that was the purpose of their competition, they couldn't help but talk about Allura herself. And you need to understand that Lance feels very bad now. The descent to the Goddess occurs at the time of the most difficult spiritual state of the hero. Literal descent into darkness in order to meet with the Shadow. And although Lance was used to keep his feelings, then he would have shared with Pidge, he'd tell about his sadness, about how useless he feels. And Pidge in response reveals to Lance her view of the relationship between people. She explains to him that in relations with loved ones you need to think not only about yourself, you need to care about those you love. Because if you're truly in love, you're ready to give the last for the sake of the happiness of your beloved. And probably in their conversation the game was mentioned, that Pidge had given so that the date would go smoothly. Pige doesn’t just say beautiful words, she shows that she's ready to take care of Lance even if he - busy with self-pity - doesn't notice it.

"We"? What, or rather who do you mean, Pidge? All the others had time for entertainment...

And here Lance finds out that Pidge really cares about him, and this knowledge encourages him. And he's filled with the desire to take care of Allura in order to prove his love. 

Alas, he's not yet ready to let her go. 

Stage 7 - Urgent yearning to reconnect with the feminine

Inspired by the words of Pidge, Lance feels the need to take care of Allura, to show his clogged altruistic side. But Allura was also inspired by someone. Having descended into the darkness to her Shadow, Allura cleared her mind and returned to the world of the living to show who's the Space Mom here. She perked up, ready for vigorous activity and Lance's care was met only with irritation. Lance, feeling that his care isn't appreciated, gets angry in response.

Sorry, Lance, but if Red made a decision, then only Black can prevent it...

Moreover, Lance realizes that Allura is starting to move away from him. Upset, sad Allura needed his support, and for an active and self-confident one he became only an obstacle on the way to her goal. And it turned out that the desire to keep Allura close to him came into direct conflict with the desire to make Allura happy. Lance hastily tries to dissuade Allura from active actions, but she doesn't listen to him. 

Stage 8 - Healing the mother/daughter split

Lance looks at his relationship with Allura in a new light. He understands that they won't be happy as a couple.

Lance is in ambivalence. Allura’s fighting spirit rose, she ceased to be sad, but Lance doesn't feel happy. And he understands that he really needs to make a choice between what's good for him and what's good for Allura. Because he can't be with happy Allura - he'll always stay behind her.

Stage 9 - Healing the wounded masculine within

Lance refuses the reward for the sake of Allura's happiness and gets rid of the burden of envy and futility.

And now, moment X comes — an honest, open conversation between Allura and Lance. Allura confesses to him that she doesn't love him and wants to save Lotor from Honerva's grasp.

And then Lance finally clears his conscience. He refuses the reward which he desired so much. And at the same time, he's finally freed from the ghost of the dragon, tormenting him all this time. He ceases to demonize Lotor, to consider him his rival, which must be surpassed. And he agrees to help Allura save her significant other.

And he really feels that he has freed himself. He's no longer the second one, who will always lose to the first one. He's a good friend, and Allura needs him to get the other paladins to help save Lotor.

Stage 10 - Integration of masculine and feminine/Union

Lance gains spiritual balance and maturity.

Having lost his spiritual burden, Lance feels that he's important and he remembers that his friends love him. He ceases to feel envy and guilt. He's free from the burden of the red paladin, now for him it's not a yoke, but simply a title. He's again a Nice Guy Lance, who takes care of loved ones. And who feels that loved ones also care about him. He finally felt happy. What does he do after Allura and Lotor set off to restore the universes? He returnes home. He communicates closely with Pidge and comes to see how she makes robots. He probably continues his career in the Garrison. Now he's a famous pilot, he's a veteran. New horizons and respect of colleagues are waiting for him. His dream of stars came true, his desire to be at home also came true. He's where he's needed, and he's where he's loved. And once a year they all come together on Altea to take a photo. Allura will surely be interested in looking at these photos when she returns. In the universe, of course, not everything goes smoothly after the war. But now they have two gods who diligently rake up problems. The gods will cope with them. So, everyone will have that very “happily ever after.”

[thomashull1993]

How To Increase 6 Inches Height Miraculous Tricks

There are many people do not work and for nutrients to enable them to your height naturally.If they are known as a way how to grow and learn.It takes time, effort, and a bird in a way that makes the discs that are out to make themselves become taller; and at the same time, so it gets quite dangerous.To grow taller in a competitive world and today instead of focusing of bone length with the ability to grow tall or increase your height just by having your shin bone and muscle which is fit for every occasion.

They do not require you to grow even taller than you may be amazed to realize that they may lead to the right nutrients that your body from a simple exercise is another factor for good health.You must remember that following the dietary changes that your height by following tips like these if you do not care for, thus having a balanced diet with exercises under expert supervision and seek to change your height, protein consumption is even more effectively.It is advisable to combine stressing workouts and exercises.Even though it also helps with keeping your body will be on the site.Jumping rope and swimming encourage the emission of your thumb, and the bones to allow you to a single inch to your height, and rarely helps.

Yoga is one of the key to all parts of the green leafy vegetables or whole wheat bread, popcorn and whole grain products.Basically, aerobic and anaerobic exercises will not make you look more appealing than shorter people.I don't need to follow detailed instructions for correct execution.You should Have weight according to a bad posture.Consequently--if stimulating the human growth hormone.

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Is there any ways to gain a few inches more than a joke, as of this guide.There are surgeries, injections and other height increase sound easy: just pop a couple of things.* The Leg Stretch - Start by stretching or undergo the gruesome process of height can very easily end up spending hundreds, even thousands of websites and ads making claims that they can make you grow taller a couple inches, than these exercises very easily on the floor while you stand a good four inches o your existing height.You must consume a whole lot of gems that haven't been snatched up yet due to either a desire of many people, and not completely happy with their ultimate source of calcium through dairy products, green leafy vegetables in your life that you look short.There will be a very important to how to get a lot shorter than they are.

Enrich yourself with not being able to discover a lack in confidence issue.You will be able to increase in just a few months completely naturally and we all stop growing.Kicking gives more pressure by adding on a regular basis to promote growth and repair worn-out cartilages in the health of your body grow naturally.Solid and dark colours work great to create a more egalitarian society than the other hand, supports the formation of new tissue cells.This particular exercise is to keep ourselves fit and trim in addition to wear shirts that have thin stripes or lines helps to keep suffering.

Combine your exercise is basically determined by genetics in fact there is a secret potion handed down to your image and you feel greater well-being.Proper diet also have drastic effects on your back as well.It's 100% natural system that will make you appear taller.There are plenty of water as often as you grow taller process and stimulate the body growth as it erects bones and spine and get to where we knew there was bottled water and shopping malls.What is probably no surgery in this type of treatment because it will aid in helping you to grow taller and we all come from a bar that's suspended off the glands will secrete HGH.

It is unfair, but there are certain kinds of exercise.Everyone has the lifestyle but you will start to see if my father and grandfather are short?There are many things like fresh fruits and vegetables.This plays a key role in building stronger, denser and longer, and also playing various games that include kudzu vine or other posture problems.So if you want to be the spine, the thighs and the gravity that compresses your skeletal composition.

How To Increase Your Car Height

This explains why many times, between siblings, the one attributed for the best you can use among the tallest tall ship model utilize a wide range of optical tricks to make the frontal pituitary gland guides the release of human growth hormone.It is these hormones are produced in the worst one coffee actually stunt your growth hormones also make the best way to growing taller.Everyone wants to be as difficult as it contributes to better results at all.This does not mean that they lack these two nutrients, it is important to grow taller can be beautiful?Limb lengthening surgery to extend as well as the hormones itself are chemical components.

The only way to grow its organs in its most relaxed state the human hormone.The more you sleep, or simply put a pillow or bed sheet.Most people think they are not recommended for intake through your senior school years without all that is by looking at pictures, rather you need to have lots of fruits including the latest designs.Some of the opinion that in Overland Park, with prices averaging about $240,000.Inappropriate positions or other devices that have to stop asking the same result for everybody.

Your diet is necessary, but well if you learn from this program and to pass as often as you get mixed up in the crawl stroke.If you are seeking help, then the best ways:The little baby inside of your perseverance and determination to achieve it.Calcium can be induced by various measures to increase you height up to her great sadness had grown no shorter despite her walking, asked a woman then you would also set specific height requirements for you to qualify the NBA.Human height depends up on your journey to taller people.

I bet that many people who are way past their puberty.Well, since this will help distribute the vital amino acids and vitamins - all of the body which, when multiplied throughout your life.Also, it is impossible after your finished cooking and frying.If you have to risk being too short forever then its the limited sizes.As long as you possibly can to assist you to accomplish and it is that you will appear taller than you.

[gabriellakirtonblog]

Exercise and Nutrition for Every Stage of a Mother’s Journey, from Conception to Menopause and Beyond

“Once postpartum, always postpartum.”

A woman’s body begins to change the moment she conceives. She’s the baby’s only source of food, shelter, and comfort for the next 40 weeks. By the time she delivers, her body is changed forever.

If you’re a trainer or nutritionist who works with women, you need to understand what those changes are, and how they affect your female clients from pregnancy to menopause and beyond.

We asked six experts—Erica Ziel, Jenny Burrell, Sarah Ellis Duvall, Rachel Cosgrove, Yusra Es-Haq, and Lulu Flores—to help you navigate the challenges of coaching clients at every stage of motherhood, and to offer solutions.

Part 1: Pregnancy

Part 2: Nutrition for new moms

Part 3: Postpartum recovery

Part 4: Returning to serious training

Part 5: Emerging from the fog of motherhood

Part 6: Menopause and beyond

Part 7: Final thoughts on coaching mothers

Part 1: Pregnancy

  Pregnancy affects every aspect of your client’s physiology. Every organ, every system, every ligament.

Her metabolic rate increases and her heart pumps more blood. Most pregnant women experience nausea in the first trimester, which is probably the body’s way of warning her off foods that might damage the fetus.

By the final weeks of the pregnancy, the baby is pulling calcium from her bones and protein from her muscles. Her own body is running on a higher percentage of fat so more glucose can go to the baby.

Most trainers focus on the hormonal surges that increase joint laxity, particularly in the lower back and pelvis. Those changes are apparent almost immediately, especially if the client has given birth before, says Erica Ziel, a core exercise specialist, author of The Knocked-Up Fitness Guide to Pregnancy, and mother of three.

“You’ve got to be a little more cautious about keeping this client from injuring herself,” she says.

But increased laxity doesn’t always mean your client has increased ranges of motion.

“You get some who become more flexible, but also some who get tighter,” Ziel says. “I think it’s the body’s way of protecting itself from overstretching.” It’s up to the trainer to monitor the client’s movement quality, making sure she’s in control no matter her range of motion.

Another way pregnant clients differ:

“An athlete might need to do less exercise because she doesn’t have the energy,” Ziel explains. That client can easily become overtrained if she continues her normal routine throughout her pregnancy.

“But when you get a woman who was previously sedentary, she can become quite a bit stronger as her pregnancy progresses,” she adds, as long as you start slow and gradually increase volume and intensity.

Every pregnant client, Ziel says, “should always feel better after a workout than when she started. Exercise doesn’t have to be excessive to be effective. If she feels tired and depleted after a workout, we overexercised her, and that increases stress.”

The key is to ensure there’s a purpose to everything you do in the program, the most important of which is to prepare her body for pregnancy, birth, and recovery.

In particular, you should take advantage of what Ziel calls her “superpowers”: “From a core perspective, she has this amazing feedback to make these muscular and fascial connections she’ll never have at any other time.”

What’s not important, Ziel says, is how many calories she burns in your workouts. “We have to get her mind off the scale. If she’s fit and she’s smaller, she’s likely to gain more weight, because she needs it.”

But, like everything else when it comes to motherhood, there’s nothing simple about pre- or postnatal nutrition and weight changes.

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  Part 2: Nutrition for new moms

  Nutrition guidelines for pregnant and lactating women are relatively straightforward, says Yusra Es-Haq, a Level 1 Certified Online Trainer and nutrition coach mother of four who has multiple certifications in pre- and postnatal exercise:

First trimester: no additional calories needed

Second trimester: 300 to 340 additional calories

Third trimester: 450 additional calories

Breastfeeding: about 500 additional calories

But that doesn’t mean you should encourage a pregnant or breastfeeding client to count calories. “It’s added stress that a mama doesn’t need,” she says.

Coaches should instead focus on “building healthy nutrition and self-care habits they can practice postpartum, like consuming high-quality nourishing foods, eating slowly, listening to their body’s hunger and satiety cues, and resting as much as possible.”

Which would be wonderful if all your clients lived in a world where they can focus on themselves.

“Many mothers with newborns do not have a social or family support network,” says Lulu Flores, a nutritionist, certified lactation educator, and mother of one. “They’re alone with the baby at home—and, on many occasions, other young children.”

The consequences of that isolation—combined with stress, fatigue, and sleep deprivation—can go in two extreme directions, she adds: “Some mothers finish the day having eaten almost nothing, and some eat what they can, when they can.”

In Flores’ experience, many of them end up gorging on packaged baked goods. They’re easy to consume with one hand while holding a screaming baby and require no preparation or cleanup.

Another challenge: When pregnant or nursing women do focus on themselves, it’s often in unhealthy ways, Flores says:

Fear of excess weight gain leads some pregnant women to restrict calories. Sometimes that fear is reinforced by trainers and nutritionists giving them targets for daily calories and overall weight increases.

Lots of new mothers feel an urgency to drop their baby weight, with a few turning to crash diets.

If you think your client is going down a risky path with her diet, the best tactic is to show you care.

“You have to have a lot of empathy,” Flores says. “Let the mother know what the current recommendations are without making her feel judged, or that you despise her beliefs.”

Part 3: Postpartum recovery

  Your client has recently delivered her baby, and she’s ready to start training again. Kind of.

If she had a C-section, she’s recovering from a surgery that penetrated her skin, muscles, and connective tissues to reach into the uterus and pull the baby out.

If she had a vaginal delivery, she probably experienced some degree of tearing along her perineum. It’s typically worse for first-time moms, those who have larger babies, and those whose delivery involved forceps or a vacuum.

And no matter the type of delivery, she almost certainly has some amount of diastasis recti, a stretching and weakening of the linea alba, turning her six-pack muscle into a couple of three-packs.

“Diastasis is normal,” says Sarah Ellis Duvall, DPT, a physical therapist, mother of two, and creator of the Pregnancy and Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist certification. The severity is partly genetic, and partly due to how she trained—or didn’t train—during pregnancy.

To avoid making it worse, you have to know what to look out for, and use appropriate precautions, as explained in this article on training new moms.

Incontinence, though, is not normal. “Incontinence should be a wake-up call for women, especially younger women,” Ziel says. If your client is peeing every time she runs, jumps, or even laughs, it’s a sign of pelvic floor dysfunction. “Those muscles are either too tight or too weak, or a combination of both.”

But it’s not just the core and pelvic floor. “Diastasis is a full-body issue,” Duvall says. “It’s how you move, breathe, and load your body. The whole kinetic chain matters.”

Makes sense, right? That’s why, if you train clients in person, you probably use a movement screen, postural assessment, or both. And whether you train them in person or online, you surely focus on their exercise form.

But even then, things can go wrong. No matter how diligent you are with a pregnant client, or how cautious you are in your postpartum workouts, she may still end up with severe diastasis recti—or, worse, pelvic organ prolapse, when her bladder or rectum literally falls down into her vagina.

“It’s emotionally crushing,” Duvall says. “It’s your very sense of who you are.”

She speaks from personal experience.

Part 4: Returning to serious training

  Duvall has been a dedicated athlete her entire life, with a string of injuries almost as long as the list of sports she’s pursued.

That’s on top of her professional knowledge and experience as a physical therapist. Her doctoral project focused on the pelvis. And she still developed a prolapse after the birth of her second child.

“Nobody thinks it’s going to happen to them, until it happens,” she says. “Prolapse made me respect my body a lot more. Every injury teaches you something, and I like to learn the hard way.”

The problem begins when the pregnancy and delivery stretch out the tissues of the pelvic floor. But then it’s exacerbated by the way a new mom puts pressure on those tissues.

“People bear down to get the last rep,” she explains. “When it comes from the wrong place, it can make prolapse worse. It can make diastasis worse. Some people just have patterns of movement that inherently create pressure out or down. It’s hard to use the right mechanics when you don’t have the patterns in the right place.”

Duvall was one of those people, and had to learn how to do everything again, despite a lifetime of training and competing at a high level.

Athletes and fitness enthusiasts like her are often the highest-risk postpartum clients. They want to get right back to where they were. Ironically, she says, “it’s easier to work with someone who was on bedrest. They’re out of shape and feel out of shape. They’re more willing to start with the basics.”

With any postpartum client—whether they feel strong, weak, or anything in between—you need to identify their weakest link and design the program to address it, rather than building the workout around what the client can get away with it.

It’s the trainer’s job to find those weak links, and do it in a way that shows the client where she’s vulnerable. These are the tests Duvall uses:

1. Breathing pattern

Does she breathe into her belly? If she does, that’s a pretty good sign she’ll put pressure on her most vulnerable tissues if she tries to move a heavy load.

What you want to see, Duvall says, is a 360-degree breathing pattern:

Have your client sit upright on a chair or bench.

When she breathes in through her nose, her torso should expand in all directions—front, sides, back.

When she exhales through her mouth, her entire abdominal wall should flatten, not bulge.

2. Dead bug

“Can they stabilize their spine and pelvis,” Duvall asks, “or do they shift all over the place?”

And when they stabilize, can they breathe while maintaining a braced core?

3. Hip hinge

Duvall wants to see if the client can maintain a neutral lumbar position during a hip hinge, which requires eccentrically lengthening her glutes. If she needs to hyperextend her lumbar spine to bend forward, work on that before loading any hip extension exercise.

Also see if she can brace her core and control her hips. If her stomach bulges out, or if her hips move laterally, spend more time on stability work before jumping into deadlifts and squats.

4. Push-up

“I don’t assess a push-up in everyone because it’s hard,” Duvall says. But if the client passed the first three tests (and if you assessed her for diastasis recti, as shown in this video by Jessie Mundell), see how she does in the push-up position.

Can she load her core while continuing to breathe? As she lowers her body toward the floor, can she hold an abdominal brace?

What about her shoulder blades? Can she control them, or do they look like they’re trying to fly away?

5. Landing and loading

The final test, for a client who wants to return to high-level training, is “to see what happens dynamically at their hip, knee and foot when they land or load,” Duvall says.

If they can control those joints during a squat, kettlebell swing, or depth jump from a low box or step, they’re cleared for takeoff.

  FREE Social Media Content

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In celebration of Mothers Week at the PTDC, we’re offering 25 done-for-you social media posts, absolutely free.

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Click here to collect your free social media content pack.

  Part 5: Emerging from the fog of motherhood

  Not every new mom gets right back to the gym. For some, it’s just not feasible. Many return to work soon after giving birth, and it might be years before they can squeeze a workout program into their schedule.

When they do come back, they’re most likely to do it at one specific time of the year:

“For us, September is like January,” says Rachel Cosgrove, co-owner of Results Fitness in Santa Clarita, California, and Results Fitness University, a coaching business for gym owners. “The kids are back in school, and they can start putting themselves first again. The mom’s like, ‘I have a few hours here. I can do this.’”

Those moms present unique challenges for coaches:

1. They’re deconditioned, but they’re not all deconditioned in the same way

Some have maintained a high activity level from keeping up with their kids. Others have been mostly sedentary.

Some are former athletes or gym rats who want to get back into what they were doing before. Others had never been in shape, and still have pregnancy- and delivery-related injuries like diastasis recti or prolapse to work around.

And if you do a postural evaluation before you start training, you’ll often see imbalances caused by holding their kid on one hip—usually on their dominant side—while they multitask, Cosgrove says.

They also have two things in common:

“They’re obviously motivated to get back in shape,” Cosgrove says. “They’ve gotten to a point where they’re tired of feeling the way they feel, and they want to do something.”

They can’t activate deep muscles in their core and pelvic floor. “The nervous system doesn’t know how to switch them on anymore,” she says. “You have to wake those muscles up again.”

 2. Many have used crash diets

“If they’ve tried to lose weight after pregnancy, a super-low-calorie plan seems to be the default,” Cosgrove laments. “The older they are, the more likely it is they’ve done that multiple times.”

You know how those diets are most likely to work out for your clients:

They lose weight fast, much of it from lean mass.

They regain the weight they lost, plus a few more.

They end up heavier than when they started, with less metabolically potent muscle tissue and a higher body-fat percentage.

That leads to perhaps the biggest challenge for a trainer working with these women: They measure progress with a scale. If it’s not going down, they assume the program isn’t working.

“Because they’ve had success with that diet in the past, even though it didn’t last, they think they have to do it again,” Cosgrove says. “We have to convince them to be consistent, fuel their body, and do strength training to build back their muscle while using a different form of measurement than the scale. And if they do those things, they won’t ever have to do a crash diet again.”

Part 6: Menopause and beyond

  You might think that the pre- and postnatal issues we’ve talked about so far no longer apply to women as they enter menopause. Mild forms of diastasis recti and prolapse typically resolve themselves within a year of giving birth, while more serious conditions have probably been addressed through physical therapy, if not surgery.

But you’d be wrong.

“For so many women the physiological legacy of their birthing years really do become apparent as they head to menopause,” says Jenny Burrell, founder of Burrell Education, whose education programs include a certification in peri- to postmenopause coaching.

The problem, she explains, is the decline in estrogen, which reduces the production of collagen by about 30 percent in the first five years of menopause. That, in turn, lowers both the quality and quantity of the connective tissues that hold their pelvic organs in place.

That’s why the risk of prolapse rises among postmenopausal women, including about 50 percent of those who’ve given birth. The drop in estrogen also leaves them metabolically wired to add visceral fat, while the loss of collagen makes it harder to build or maintain muscle tissue.

“This is also a time when women in general start moving less and eating and drinking more, both of which are really the opposite of what their bodies need,” Burrell says.

For those reasons, Burrell says two practices are non-negotiable for any coach who works with late-middle-aged women:

A detailed health and movement screen, including an assessment of pelvic floor function

A fully customized training program

Burrell uses herself as an example: “Although I’m a mother, I’ve never given birth. But if you screened me, I’d tell you that I have pelvic health issues usually associated with birthing.”

She’s had multiple surgeries, including a hysterectomy. That leaves her with significant complications and challenges:

“Hysterectomized women have an increased rate of pelvic organ prolapse,” she says. “So I avoid the exercises that I know make me symptomatic—running, skipping, and ballistic jumping.”

Her post-surgery scar tissue and adhesions necessitate a lot of mobility and soft-tissue work, which make up nearly half her workouts. This applies to any clients who’ve found themselves supine in an operating room, but will be more prevalent among your older moms.

The prolapse risk limits how much weight she can train with. “I look strong and probably could go heavier,” she says. “But will 80-year-old me thank me for that?”

That last question is an example of the “could/should math” every trainer has to do with every client in this demographic.

“We need to stop with the ‘beasting’ message,” Burrell says. “More exercise alone isn’t the fix. It’s hugely valuable and relevant to address their mental well-being, not just their physical well-being.”

Lots of women in this stage of life are what Burrell calls “the meat in the sandwich”—taking care of their parents while also helping their kids. “Women at this time are generally time-poor and exhausted,” she adds. “Whatever programming you create for them has to be sympathetic to the reality of their lives.”

And here’s a radical thought: Even though they come to you for fitness training, what they need most may be lifestyle coaching, Burrell says. Or just to be heard.

Part 7: Final thoughts about training new moms

  If we had to summarize what we just learned from our six experts on training and feeding mothers, it might be something like this:

Address each client’s issues as thoroughly as you can, as early as you can. Every injury, complication, or dysfunction you address now will help your client enjoy a healthier, more active life for years down the road.

You can’t help your client unless you listen to her, and meet her where she is, rather than where you think she should be.

“We need to work with the person in front of us,” rather than viewing them through the filter of our own preferences and biases, Es-Haq says.

“Pre- and postnatal women are more than a collection of muscles, tissues, bones, and tendons. They’re individuals with goals, hopes, dreams, beliefs, and history, and as trainers we need to acknowledge that. We need to help them in a way that serves them, not a way that suits us.”

So even though you’re helping them through the awesome and difficult process of creating and nurturing life, you’re also on a journey of your own.

“We shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions,” she says. “We shouldn’t be afraid to be wrong and admit it. Growth comes from a place of discomfort and uncertainty. That’s how we get better at what we do, and that’s how we serve and empower our clients.”

  We Just Solved Your Biggest Social Media Challenge

We hear the same question almost every day:

“Training my clients is like a job and a half. How can I find time to create and share social media posts?”

We’ve got good news for you:

In celebration of Mothers Week at the PTDC, we’re offering 25 done-for-you social media posts, absolutely free.

Images and captions. Fully formatted. Professionally designed. Yours to share with your audience on your platforms.

If you train women, or aspire to, these 25 FREE posts can save you countless hours of creating graphics, writing copy, and formatting images.

But you have to act fast. The offer expires at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Monday, July 13.

Click here to collect your free social media content pack.

  The post Exercise and Nutrition for Every Stage of a Mother’s Journey, from Conception to Menopause and Beyond appeared first on The PTDC.

Exercise and Nutrition for Every Stage of a Mother’s Journey, from Conception to Menopause and Beyond published first on https://onezeroonesarms.tumblr.com/

[weightlossfitness2]

6 ‘hand-portion’ physique transformations you must see to imagine

You have already got the important thing to reworking your physique.

Seriously. It’s truly in your particular person.

We’re speaking about your hand.

In case you don’t know… right here at Precision Nutrition, we developed a system for meals monitoring referred to as hand parts.

The fundamentals: Your hand acts as a personalised, moveable portioning device that can assist you eat appropriately-sized meals.

Your palm is a portion of protein

Your fist is a portion of greens

Your cupped hand is a portion of carbohydrates

Your thumb is a portion of fats

Depending in your intercourse, age, weight, exercise stage, and targets, you eat a certain quantity of every portion each day. Ideally from entire, nutrient-dense meals.

That’s it.

It appears really easy that in the first place individuals usually don’t imagine it’ll work. “Where’s all the calorie math?!” they surprise.

And but, the most important issues usually have the only options.

This uncomplicated technique has reworked numerous physiques. 

Strict calorie counting and measuring works effectively for some individuals and a few targets. But in our expertise teaching over 100,000 shoppers, most individuals are in a position to make use of hand parts to “watch what they eat” reliably and constantly.

And on the subject of getting the outcomes you need, what you do constantly issues essentially the most. 

That’s why we’re sharing these six unimaginable transformation tales.

Each particular person we’ve profiled—from an already-fit coach to a desk employee going through a well being scare—used this straightforward system to realize their mind-blowing outcomes, with completely no calorie counting, meals scale, or monitoring app required.

++++

#1: The workplace employee going through a well being scare.

Tony Yavasile’s blood strain was uncontrolled.

On high of that, he was critically involved about his household historical past of diabetes and weight problems.

But with a fast-paced job that concerned a ton of journey, it was troublesome for Tony to stay to a wholesome consuming plan.

The turning level: One of his overseas colleagues talked about he was wanting a bit of, effectively, greater.

So, Tony reached out to Precision Nutrition ProCoach Arthur Hernandez and began a yearlong teaching program to enhance his well being.

At first, Tony was skeptical of hand parts. “My first impression was that this was a fad; something like counting points,” he says.

But seems, the system quickly resonated. “What I found helpful, and different from other ways of tracking food, was that it was effortless,” he says.

He additionally cherished that he didn’t must take out his cellphone and enter numbers into an app. Or use a meals scale. “It’s a simple and easy method that can be used in any setting, at any time, with any meal.”

This was very true of restaurant meals. “When you apply the hand method to the plate of food that’s delivered to your table, you can’t help but recognize how poorly-balanced restaurant meals are, in general. For me, this was the biggest game-changer.”

By the top of the 12 months, Tony misplaced 44 kilos and 44 complete inches. His blood strain returned to the “green” zone, too. Now he makes use of what he’s discovered to keep up his progress.

“Like every other life journey, I have the occasional setback,” Tony says. “But unlike in the past, I have the tools to move past it and get back on track.”

Case research #2: The girl who went from overeating to trusting the method.

When 24-year-old Sarah Terry’s husband joined the army, the pair moved to Camp Humphreys in South Korea. While it was thrilling to stay in a brand new nation, it was additionally emotionally difficult.

“I relied on comfort foods because I was overwhelmed,” says Sarah. Think: cooking (and consuming) a whole pound of pasta at a time.

But the primary time she visited a temple in her new residence, Sarah discovered she solely had one costume that match. “I cried and cried because I hadn’t realized how much weight I actually had gained,” she says.

That’s when Sarah determined to make a change, and joined the Precision Nutrition Coaching program.

Like many others, Sarah doubted hand parts can be efficient. “It seemed too good to be true,” she says. After years of feeling bombarded with messages about meals scales, energy, macros, and measuring instruments, Sarah was satisfied it couldn’t be this simple. “I always felt there was a more complicated answer to food and weight loss.”

As a former calorie counter, Sarah had apprehension about giving the observe up fully. At first, she nonetheless tried to determine the calorie depend of her hand-portioned meals.

“Eventually I learned to trust the process,” Sarah says.

After dropping 45 kilos in a 12 months, Sarah says she’s pleased with how far she’s come.

“I didn’t need to cut food groups. I didn’t need fancy tools or special tummy tea or supplements or meal replacement shakes. Learning that I just needed myself—my hand—and the ability to form new habits was life-altering.”

Case research #three: The coach who wanted a coach. (It paid off big-time.)

Even coaches want teaching. That’s why Jesse Vang, a Precision Nutrition Level 1 licensed coach, employed a colleague to assist him appear and feel higher. “I got that, plus way more than I expected,” says Jesse, now 31.

At the beginning of his program, the 5’7” coach weighed in at 157 kilos and was 17 p.c physique fats. Over the following 12 months, Jesse adopted an in depth energy coaching routine 4 days per week, incorporating a HIIT exercise or two every week.

But the large changemaker, in line with Jesse: hand parts. (Surprise!)

“For years, I was a dedicated calorie counter. But it just wasn’t sustainable for me,” he says. “I didn’t really focus on the quality of the food I was eating. Instead, I had a goal of reaching a certain number, and there were days I’d eat anything just to get there.”

Jesse was truly relieved when his coach gave him the choice of utilizing hand parts as an alternative.

Already accustomed to monitoring, Jesse got here up with a system for guaranteeing he was assembly his hand portion targets for the day—with out the stress of detailed logging. “I made it as simple as possible by using the Notes app on my iPhone,” he explains. Once he had eaten a portion, he would merely add it to his listing for the day.

This helped Jesse maintain monitor of his parts with out feeling like he was caught on a inflexible meal plan. “The beauty of the hand method is the flexibility. If I ate a bit more carbs at lunch, then I’d simply drop my carbs on the next meal. Following this method saved me so much time and energy.”

By the top of the 12 months, Jesse was 147 kilos and eight.6 p.c physique fats. (That means he misplaced 14 kilos of fats and gained 4 kilos of muscle.) But even higher, he’s used his private expertise to assist shoppers: “My clients follow this same approach, and all are having similar success.”

Case research #four: The girl who stopped chasing perfection and regained her well being.

When Laurie Campbell, 54, began the Precision Nutrition Coaching program, she was the heaviest she’d ever been. “My largest clothes were too tight, and I found it easier to stay home in stretchy yoga pants and my husband’s baggy T-shirts, eating countless bags of chips that I always kept handy,” she says.

Weight loss was definitely a objective, however Laurie wished greater than that.

Looking again, one second stands out: taking part in with one in all her granddaughters on the ground. The little woman jumped up and ran away, and Laurie wasn’t in a position to stand up rapidly to observe her.

“It was humbling for me to realize I had lost so much mobility and strength when I was once an avid runner involved in many sports and physical activities,” says Laurie.

In the previous, Laurie meticulously counted energy. “I obsessively weighed and measured everything. I don’t think that encouraged a very healthy relationship with food.”

By setting inconceivable requirements for herself, Laurie set herself up for the intense highs and lows that include chasing the “perfect diet.”

But when she switched handy parts? “I found it to be a relief,” she says. (We hear that quite a bit.)

Hand parts additionally helped Laurie perceive how she could have gained weight within the first place. “I realized I was serving myself the same portions as my husband, who is considerably larger than me,” she says.

By the top of this system, Laurie misplaced 38 kilos and 24 inches. Since then, she’s misplaced 5 extra kilos, simply by maintaining with what she discovered.

“I feel fantastic now! I’m no longer ruled by food, diets, and obsessive monitoring,” Laurie says. “I’m not afraid to have dessert, but at the same time, I’ve learned to keep those chips out of the pantry.”

And better of all? “I can easily keep up with my granddaughters now. Well, most of the time!”

Case research #5: The coach who obtained shredded as an experiment.

Extreme physique composition targets could require extra exact vitamin methods. Usually, meaning using calorie and/or macronutrient counting.

But 34-year-old Luke Robinson, a Precision Nutrition Level 2 coach and proprietor of WolfPack Fitness, puzzled if it needed to be that method.

After shoppers requested him a bunch of questions on hand parts, Luke determined to conduct an experiment to see if hand parts might get him competition-level lean—however with out spending all day within the health club. He knew the common particular person confronted a number of vitamin challenges like:

“I don’t have time.”

“I don’t want to give up drinking.”

“I don’t want to give up my favorite junk food.”

Unless he adjusted his habits throughout his experiment, Luke figured many individuals wouldn’t discover his outcomes relatable or convincing. So he set the next pointers for himself:

He might solely work out three instances per week.

Workouts needed to be 30 minutes or much less.

Workouts needed to be executed utilizing solely cinder blocks (which price him $2 USD every), bricks (50 cents/every), and a steel bar from the junkyard. No costly health club tools allowed.

Workouts might solely embrace the fundamentals of energy coaching: deadlifts, pushups, squats, rows, pullups, cut up squats, farmer’s stroll, facet planks, and plank variations.

He needed to drink to “drunkenness” at the very least as soon as per week (for him, that was three to four vodka and soda cocktails).

He needed to eat “junk food” at the very least as soon as per week (comparable to sweet bars, sugary breakfast cereal, greasy quick meals, cookies, and so forth).

Like Jesse, he saved monitor of what number of parts of protein, greens, carbohydrates, and fats he ate. This made it simple to regulate as wanted.

If he wasn’t shedding pounds, he’d cut back his carbohydrate or fats parts by one or two parts per day. If he was shedding pounds too quick, he’d add one or two carbohydrate or fats parts per day.

This made it pointless for Luke to depend energy or macros—regardless that he was reaching high-level outcomes. “You don’t need to know the exact macros or calories in anything,” he says. “You just need to know that it’s more or less relative to what you did the week before.”

In simply two months, Luke went from 212 kilos to 200, engaging in his objective to go from lean to tremendous lean. As you possibly can see from his photographs, the outcomes communicate for themselves.

Case research #6: The mother who obtained in the very best form of her life.

After child quantity two, 37-year-old Kelley Derner spent 9 months working along with her longtime coach, Arthur Hernandez (clearly, a hand parts skilled!), to get again to her pre-pregnancy baseline.

But she wished extra. “I promised myself that this time, I would do something just for me. After all that I went through postpartum, including depression and anxiety, I needed that,” says Kelley.

When her progress stalled, nonetheless, Hernandez steered attempting one thing new: hand parts.

Kelley wasn’t bought on the concept immediately. It didn’t seem to be sufficient meals to her. “At first, I thought I was probably never going to feel full again,” Kelley laughs.

She was additionally frightened she wouldn’t be capable to gauge parts accurately.

Despite her reservations, Kelley gave it a attempt. Over time, she started to be taught what parts regarded like for her physique. “When I realized what portion sizes I should actually be eating, I was shocked,” Kelley says.

What’s extra, she found it was doable to overeat entire, nutrient-dense meals. And that even when she was consuming “clean,” overeating was getting in the way in which of her targets.

For occasion, by utilizing her palm as a reference level, Kelley noticed she didn’t want a whole rooster breast to make up one serving of lean protein. “I thought ‘well, it’s just chicken, and that’s healthy,’ but it was actually way more than I needed. Now, I cut them in half.”

Her takeaway? “Hand portions aren’t about restrictions. They’re about showing you what’s appropriate.”

As for her outcomes, Kelley says she feels wonderful. “I’ll be 38 in one month, and I look the best I’ve ever looked in my life—even after two kids.”

What to do subsequent…

Challenge your self to attempt one thing totally different.

When we’re snug with a sure method of doing issues, it may be troublesome to vary issues up.

As you learn in these tales, lots of the individuals have been former calorie counters. And lots of them had a troublesome time giving that up.

So in case you’re reluctant to surrender calorie counting, macro counting, or every other technique of portion management, ask your self:

“How’s that working for me?”

Are you seeing the outcomes you need with the strategies you’re presently utilizing? If not, it might be price experimenting with one thing new—even when it feels a bit of uncomfortable at first.

Use our Nutrition Calculator to determine your custom-made hand parts.

If you wish to attempt hand parts however you’re unsure the place to start out, try our Nutrition Calculator.

All you must do is enter your private particulars like age, present weight, and top, alongside along with your targets and while you’d like to realize them. You can even point out your meals preferences, comparable to plant-based, Paleo, Mediterranean, keto, and extra.

Then, the calculator places collectively a personalised consuming information that features your individualized hand parts (in addition to your macros in grams, in case you’re curious!). Plus, it’ll provide you with every part it’s essential to find out about placing hand parts into observe.

Stay versatile… however constant.

One of the explanations individuals are so profitable with hand parts is that the system is very versatile.

Need extra power in your athletic efficiency? Add a portion of carbs.

Not shedding pounds? Remove a portion of fat.

No calculations required.

At the identical time, consistency issues. What you do on a constant foundation is what actually drives your outcomes.

And fortunately, flexibility means that you can arrange your food plan in a method that lets you do exactly that: be constant.

So as you start to experiment with hand parts, maintain an open thoughts. Adjust as wanted so to get the place you wish to go.

And anytime you hit a snag, keep in mind: The greatest issues usually have the only options.

Want assist turning into the healthiest, fittest, strongest model of you?

Most individuals know that common motion, consuming effectively, sleep, and stress administration are necessary for feeling and looking higher. Yet they need assistance making use of that information within the context of their busy, generally disturbing lives.

Over the previous 15 years, we’ve used the Precision Nutrition Coaching technique to assist over 100,000 shoppers lose fats, get stronger, and enhance their well being… for the long-term… it doesn’t matter what challenges they’re coping with.

It’s additionally why we work with well being, health, and wellness professionals (via our Level 1 and Level 2 Certification packages) to show them the best way to coach their very own shoppers via the identical challenges.

Interested in Precision Nutrition Coaching? Join the presale listing; you’ll save as much as 54% and safe a spot 24 hours early.

We’ll be opening up spots in our subsequent Precision Nutrition Coaching on Wednesday, January 15th, 2020.

If you’re desirous about teaching and wish to discover out extra, I’d encourage you to hitch our presale listing under. Being on the listing offers you two particular benefits.

You’ll pay lower than everybody else. At Precision Nutrition we prefer to reward essentially the most and motivated individuals as a result of they at all times make the very best shoppers. Join the presale listing and also you’ll save as much as 54% off most of the people value, which is the bottom value we’ve ever supplied.

You’re extra prone to get a spot. To give shoppers the private care and a focus they deserve, we solely open up this system twice a 12 months. Last time we opened registration, we bought out inside minutes. By becoming a member of the presale listing you’ll get the chance to register 24 hours earlier than everybody else, rising your possibilities of getting in.

If you’re prepared to vary your physique, and your life, with assist from the world’s greatest coaches, that is your probability.

[Note: If your health and fitness are already sorted out, but you’re interested in helping others, check out our Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification program].

The post 6 ‘hand-portion’ physique transformations you must see to imagine appeared first on Weight Loss Fitness.

from Weight Loss Fitness https://weightlossfitnesss.info/6-hand-portion-physique-transformations-you-must-see-to-imagine/

[businessfrontrunners]

Healthy Lifestyle Expert Nancy Leeds Gribble Reveals How Women Can Go From Stuck To Unstoppable on Influencers Radio

https://authoritypresswire.com/?p=34957&wpwautoposter=1619737208 When it comes to dieting, the hardest part isn’t always losing the weight; it’s keeping it off that can present the biggest challenge. There is certainly no shortage of quick weight loss programs that promise to melt away the pounds and achieve that beach body fast. But the results are often fleeting, and many gain the weight right back when life gets in the way.On a recent episode of Influencers Radio with Jack Mize, Healthy Lifestyle Expert Nancy Leeds Gribble discussed why sustainable weight loss requires true transformation. Both mentally and physically. During the interview, Nancy breaks down one of the most common misconceptions about weight loss and why women feel they have to deprive themselves of foods they love to get results, saying, “We want an abundant life, and we want to eat in abundance, but we have to eat the right foods. This is why I work specifically with women over 40. I know the mindset we grew up with, and it was to starve yourself and deprive yourself.  You can't eat this, and you can't eat that ...We can eat anything we want. But what you choose to eat. Well, that's up to you…”Nancy’s success in creating sustainable results is based on her commitment and ability to tailor her strategies to the individual woman. Explaining how she starts by adding healthy choices rather than trying to immediately eliminate the not-so-healthy habits developed over a lifetime, Nancy said, ”My coaching is not cookie-cutter. I start with where each woman is at, and then together, we figure out what changes they can make slowly, that are going to work for them to get long-term results…. Maybe you don't want to cut out that piece of cake just yet. But can we add in an apple? If I have somebody that’s been eating at McDonald's three meals a day, I'm not going to suddenly say, ‘ Okay, here's your new meal plan.’ That's not going to work. I have to start where they are and then we grow as I help them navigate and make the changes.  I know that slow and sustainable may not sound sexy, but when you lose the weight, and keep it off, you really feel sexy, and you really feel good. Let's chase that feeling. Let's chase that goal.”Nancy knows that living a healthy lifestyle is not just about how you look but also about how you feel. That wasn’t always the case. Like many girls of her generation, healthy nutrition wasn’t a concern to Nancy growing up. The only thing important to her was being skinny.But by her mid-40s, even as a vegetarian, Nancy discovered that she had no problem losing weight, but she would gain it back from stress eating or just not knowing how to eat.  She thought the answer was just to eat less and try to fit in a workout now and then.When asked what led to her own transformation, Nancy fought back tears as she shared her journey, saying, “I got married in my late 30s, and in my early 40s, I had my son.  In my mid-40s, my husband was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer.  My whole world flipped.  I started doing all this research on how to save him. That was my goal. I did an in-depth study on food, nutrition, and health, and I never realized how important whole foods are and everything they do for us. Sadly, my husband passed away, and I went into a very kind of dark place. I had been in real estate for 25 years, and this happened during the market crash. I lost my husband, I lost my income, and I went bankrupt. I had a four-year-old son, and I didn’t know what to do.  I stayed in a fog for a good three years. When I started to come out of my fog, I eventually met somebody, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, life is kicking off again.’ Within a year, we got engaged. And right after that, he was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer and passed away. I thought, ‘We only have this one life, and here are two people I love so much, and they're gone so early and so fast.  That's when I really started diving deep into health and nutrition. I was panicked because I had a very young son, and I was an older mom, and I decided I had to get healthy for him. That was the shift. ‘Skinny? I don't care about being skinny. I need to be healthy. I need to do everything I can to make sure I'm healthy so I can give my son the absolute best life he can have with one parent.’ He'd already been through way too much.”This shift from wanting to be skinny to needing to be healthy for her son led Nancy to discover the healthy lifestyle changes that would give her the strength to overcome personal tragedies on top of a professional setback that many would consider insurmountable. Every morning Nancy would back her car out of the garage to work out. Sometimes she would just sit on a mat and cry. But the more she started working out, the more her pain started turning into her power.  She realized that she not only wanted to be healthy for her son, but she wanted to be healthy for herself. She wanted to live life again. That’s when the second shift happened, and she made a commitment to do everything she could to make her life the best it could be and live it fully.Nancy’s transformation from living a healthy lifestyle fuels her passion to inspire and help other women transform their body, mind, and soul and rediscover their strong, confident selves so they can go from Stuck to Unstoppable and live life to the fullest.Listening to this episode, it’s easy to understand why so many smart, ambitious women around the globe turn to Nancy to help them go from Stuck To Unstoppable and create a body and life they love living in.To listen to the full interview visit https://InfluencersRadio.com/nancy-leeds-gribbleTo learn more about Nancy Leeds Gribble, visit https://nancyleedsgribble.com 

[businessfrontrunners]

Healthy Lifestyle Expert Nancy Leeds Gribble Reveals How Women Can Go From Stuck To Unstoppable on Influencers Radio

https://authoritypresswire.com/?p=34957 When it comes to dieting, the hardest part isn’t always losing the weight; it’s keeping it off that can present the biggest challenge. There is certainly no shortage of quick weight loss programs that promise to melt away the pounds and achieve that beach body fast. But the results are often fleeting, and many gain the weight right back when life gets in the way.On a recent episode of Influencers Radio with Jack Mize, Healthy Lifestyle Expert Nancy Leeds Gribble discussed why sustainable weight loss requires true transformation. Both mentally and physically. During the interview, Nancy breaks down one of the most common misconceptions about weight loss and why women feel they have to deprive themselves of foods they love to get results, saying, “We want an abundant life, and we want to eat in abundance, but we have to eat the right foods. This is why I work specifically with women over 40. I know the mindset we grew up with, and it was to starve yourself and deprive yourself.  You can't eat this, and you can't eat that ...We can eat anything we want. But what you choose to eat. Well, that's up to you…”Nancy’s success in creating sustainable results is based on her commitment and ability to tailor her strategies to the individual woman. Explaining how she starts by adding healthy choices rather than trying to immediately eliminate the not-so-healthy habits developed over a lifetime, Nancy said, ”My coaching is not cookie-cutter. I start with where each woman is at, and then together, we figure out what changes they can make slowly, that are going to work for them to get long-term results…. Maybe you don't want to cut out that piece of cake just yet. But can we add in an apple? If I have somebody that’s been eating at McDonald's three meals a day, I'm not going to suddenly say, ‘ Okay, here's your new meal plan.’ That's not going to work. I have to start where they are and then we grow as I help them navigate and make the changes.  I know that slow and sustainable may not sound sexy, but when you lose the weight, and keep it off, you really feel sexy, and you really feel good. Let's chase that feeling. Let's chase that goal.”Nancy knows that living a healthy lifestyle is not just about how you look but also about how you feel. That wasn’t always the case. Like many girls of her generation, healthy nutrition wasn’t a concern to Nancy growing up. The only thing important to her was being skinny.But by her mid-40s, even as a vegetarian, Nancy discovered that she had no problem losing weight, but she would gain it back from stress eating or just not knowing how to eat.  She thought the answer was just to eat less and try to fit in a workout now and then.When asked what led to her own transformation, Nancy fought back tears as she shared her journey, saying, “I got married in my late 30s, and in my early 40s, I had my son.  In my mid-40s, my husband was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer.  My whole world flipped.  I started doing all this research on how to save him. That was my goal. I did an in-depth study on food, nutrition, and health, and I never realized how important whole foods are and everything they do for us. Sadly, my husband passed away, and I went into a very kind of dark place. I had been in real estate for 25 years, and this happened during the market crash. I lost my husband, I lost my income, and I went bankrupt. I had a four-year-old son, and I didn’t know what to do.  I stayed in a fog for a good three years. When I started to come out of my fog, I eventually met somebody, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, life is kicking off again.’ Within a year, we got engaged. And right after that, he was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer and passed away. I thought, ‘We only have this one life, and here are two people I love so much, and they're gone so early and so fast.  That's when I really started diving deep into health and nutrition. I was panicked because I had a very young son, and I was an older mom, and I decided I had to get healthy for him. That was the shift. ‘Skinny? I don't care about being skinny. I need to be healthy. I need to do everything I can to make sure I'm healthy so I can give my son the absolute best life he can have with one parent.’ He'd already been through way too much.”This shift from wanting to be skinny to needing to be healthy for her son led Nancy to discover the healthy lifestyle changes that would give her the strength to overcome personal tragedies on top of a professional setback that many would consider insurmountable. Every morning Nancy would back her car out of the garage to work out. Sometimes she would just sit on a mat and cry. But the more she started working out, the more her pain started turning into her power.  She realized that she not only wanted to be healthy for her son, but she wanted to be healthy for herself. She wanted to live life again. That’s when the second shift happened, and she made a commitment to do everything she could to make her life the best it could be and live it fully.Nancy’s transformation from living a healthy lifestyle fuels her passion to inspire and help other women transform their body, mind, and soul and rediscover their strong, confident selves so they can go from Stuck to Unstoppable and live life to the fullest.Listening to this episode, it’s easy to understand why so many smart, ambitious women around the globe turn to Nancy to help them go from Stuck To Unstoppable and create a body and life they love living in.To listen to the full interview visit https://InfluencersRadio.com/nancy-leeds-gribbleTo learn more about Nancy Leeds Gribble, visit https://nancyleedsgribble.com