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healthymov · 4 years

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10 Fast Weight Loss Tips if You Weigh 200 lbs or More

These fast weight loss tips if you weigh 200 lbs are perfect for you if you are feeling like you’ve tried everything under the sun and still can’t reduce. Gut health, exercise, carbohydrate intake, then many other factors are likely at play here.

Read below and see if any of the subsequent resonates with you…

Do you desire you’ve tried every weight loss scheme under the sun?

That regardless of what crazy diet you are trying nothing seems to stick?

You watch helplessly because the scale slowly creeps up higher and better while feeling totally out of control and powerless… you recognize you desperately want to reduce, be thin and free, but regardless of what you are doing, it just doesn’t work.

That’s because weight loss isn't a game of numbers. It’s emotional.

It’s much deeper than data or calories.

If you truly reflect thereon long enough, it could likely bring tears to your eyes.

But let’s reflect on something else instead…

Where you're going.

Take a second, right now, to pause and deeply imagine where you'll be 1 year from now with the proper plan in place.

What will your body look like?

How light will you are feeling on your feet?

Most importantly, how differently would you be feeling about yourself and the way differently you'd live your life?

The truth is, you’ve got so much a lot left to measure for then far more of life to experience.

If you can lock-in, focus, and be present for this text, we are getting to do absolutely the best we will to assist you to slay this weight loss dragon.

We’ve now walked hand in hand with thousands of clients through this process of losing weight at 200 pounds or more.

Beautiful women like Shawna, Cory, Alison, and thousands of others have completely touched our lives and even brought us to pools of tears with their stories.

Now, it’s your turn…

10 Fast Weight Loss Tips if You Weight 200 Pounds or More

1 - You’re a snowflake.

A successful weight loss journey goes to vary for you than some 20-something…

Talk about obvious statements right?

And it’s the capital T Truth.

We’re shocked by what percentage women are placed on some fast weight loss protocol designed for a college-age girl looking to lose her last 5 pounds…

Instead of that, you would like a program and lifestyle designed for YOU!

2 - STOP pounding the pavement and exercising!

While every weight loss program on the earth is telling you to travel running, do many jumping, and perform crazy intense exercises, we’re just sitting here shaking our heads.

Exercising at this weight will unnecessarily stress your joints, cause cravings, and is just too much of a risk. Besides, our clients reduce without doing ANY of that.

This is because exercise plays such a minuscule role for weight loss…

In fact, a recent study done by Current Biology took 322 adults from 5 different countries through a calorie reduction weight loss program. They split the groups between people who did exercise and people that didn't.

Shockingly enough, adding in exercise didn't play ANY major role over calories burned or weight lost. And for people who saw changes, they were minor at the best.

Your focus must get on your diet, not on some new “P90ExtremeJumpingFactor” program.

Before a number of you freak out… We like to exercise and believe that it's INCREDIBLY healthy and necessary for long-term health.

3 - Do not neglect the emotional aspect of weight loss.

Binge eating and emotional eating are things most of our clients have experienced and suffered greatly from.

In fact, Dr. Michael Mantell from Greatist.com found that there have been 5 main negative emotional factors that cause binge and emotional eating:

Stress

Anxiety

Depression

Dopamine (searching out rewards from boredom)

Community Peer Pressure

Tackling these is crucial to fast weight loss success.

You need to tackle the emotional aspect of this with a strong support group or community of individuals you'll trust.

Do whatever it takes to urge with a community that will help. It’s that important.

This is a key part of our fast weight loss program, for this very reason. Because IT WORKS.

Next abreast of our list of fast weight loss tips if you weigh 200 lbs or more is…

4 - You are likely very insulin resistant (detox needed).

Listen, we don’t hate carbohydrates.

They are fine and dandy.

The problem is that if you’re 200 pounds or more, you likely have tons of insulin resistance (90% of the time).

This makes every carbohydrate you eat wildly ineffective at providing the energy you'll use and stick with your body like glue.

It can also cause metabolic resistance, pre-diabetes, or diabetes.

You need to try to to a carbohydrate DETOX.

Cut out carbohydrates for a month-long period at a bare minimum.

You can reintroduce them later when the body repairs itself and your hormones level out. The body needs an opportunity from excessive consumption to reset and detox.

5 - You’re likely leptin resistant.

Leptin is that the hormone designed to send the brain these two important messages:

I’m full and have had enough to eat I’ve got some extra calories to burn, let’s go exercise! Many of you'll be thinking: Where has this hormone been??!!

The truth is, leptin is getting blocked thanks to the insulin resistance you've got.

This is why once you specialize in diet first, exercise will are available later very naturally to your life when your leptin is functioning properly again.

Cutting down on carbohydrates and eating many lean protein and veggies will help level your leptin.

6 - Heal your leaky and inflamed gut.

Gut inflammation is probably going an underlying issue if you weigh 200 lbs or more.

The annoying part of this is often that if you've got a leaky gut, the body isn’t processing properly the foods you eat (even the great ones!).

The good news? Healing the alimentary canal is straightforward.

First, you eliminate foods that hurt your gut health (sugars, flour, processed foods). Then you consume probiotics to exchange the heal the gut.

Consume many apple vinegars and confirm to require an honest probiotics supplement to try to do this!

7 - Walking is SO underrated!

Walking is surprisingly effective for weight loss.

It improves fat burning. – Because walking isn't intense like jogging, you won’t read glycogen stores, and you'll primarily burn fat.

It improves posture. – This has also been proven to lower cortisol levels, which is your stress and stubborn fat-holding hormone!

It improves blood flow. – the higher your circulation, the higher your health is and faster weight are going to be lost!

Some of you'll be unable to try to to a full walk thanks to knee and hip problems.

That’s okay. Just do what you'll with what you have!

Next abreast of our list of fast weight loss tips if you weigh 200 lbs or more is…

8 - Skip calorie counting.

Counting calories may be a great model for bodybuilders looking to urge to five body fat or overly obsessed personal trainers looking to require mirror photos.

Counting calories may be a pretty terrible model if you're over 200 pounds and trying to urge a weight loss journey started off on the proper foot.

This is due to the hormonal damage you likely have.

Insulin resistance, leptin resistance, high cortisol, and lots of others are likely affecting you.

So once you do count calories, the load won’t drop fast enough. Sometimes it won’t budge in the least .

This is an excruciating feeling once you are eating sort of a rabbit and not seeing the size move.

Focus less on calories and more on the standard of what you're eating.

9 - YOU NEED TO GET RESULTS FAST!

According to the newest science, militant diets win out vs. standard diets.

Those who lose the foremost weight within the first 2-4 weeks of dieting have the best weight loss leads to the subsequent year.

Therefore, losing weight fast will better impact you in both the short-term and therefore the long-term. the foremost effective thing you'll do is really a chilly turkey approach.

Losing weight FAST will motivate you to lose more.

It gives you momentum.

It puts the sails at your front and therefore the wind at your back.

And you would like some weight loss wins at your back to stay moving forward!

Get results fast, and use a program that moves quickly.

10 - Love yourself.

The more you love yourself, accept yourself, and plan to work on yourself, the higher off you'll be.

A failure to require care of yourself and your body may be a failure to like yourself.

Commit to this journey, accepting where you're, and loving yourself throughout the whole process!

#workout #healthyfood #lifestyle #yoga #exercices

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airoasis · 6 years

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Aiming To Discover Inspiration to obtain Your Butt In Gear? Count Your Saturdays

If you’re anything like me, or the other 7 billion-ish people on the planet, you’ve struggled to find motivation to get things done.

Whether it’s exercising or avoiding dietary pitfalls to drop a few LB’s, saving more money for retirement, or crushing your debt, or even being intentional about building stronger relationships, motivation can be a difficult thing to find.

It’s not that we don’t want the benefits these things would bring. Indeed, we do.

It’s just that doggone it, we can’t find the will to overcome our lazy selves. Or we can for a short period of time, and then we fall back into old habits.

One reason for this is that we lie to ourselves and say that we can always do it in the future. Research has shown that we actually at a later date, even if we never follow through.

Since dopamine is highly addictive, we can easily fall prey to saying we’ll do something good for ourselves in the future that will require discipline or sacrifice (eating better, saving more money, etc.) and then never doing it.

For our selfish selves, it’s really a beautiful thing. Feel good for committing to doing something and indulge our laziness by not doing it.

And repeat.

It can cause a person to waste their most valuable asset.

Time.

Your Average Life

The average North American lives to be about 80. While it would be impossible to summarize an entire life in one picture, I’ll try.

Whoops, sorry. How’d that get in there. Wrong picture.

This is what a human life looks like in years.

Each box represents a year. 80 boxes = your life on a page.

A year though, is a relatively long period of time. It’s hard to get a deep sense of how long it actually is. I mean, we know how long it is, but it’s hard to deeply experience a year.

Perhaps a shorter time frame would be better.

For those of you keeping track, 80 years is 32,850 days.

Now that’s a lot of days to try to visualize. I personally can’t visualize 32,850 of anything. To me it’s far to large and abstract a number to wrap my head around. And I can barely remember what I did yesterday let alone account for each of my 32,000 or so days.

So let me ask you a question.

What’s your favorite day of the week?

Mine is Saturday.

I love Saturdays. Saturdays are when my wife and kids and I get to enjoy just hanging out. It’s when we do special things, like going out for breakfast, or taking the kids to skating or music lessons. It’s when I make lunch (I make a mean grilled cheese or pita pizza) and we all sit at the kitchen table and chat.

It’s the day that I get to sleep in a bit more. My daughter will sometimes bring me a delicious breakfast in bed of Cheerios!

It’s when I give pony rides and we play “dad’s the best playground” and I wrestle with my son. We get a few things done during the day, then go to church after supper. We come home to put the kids to bed and my wife and I crash and relax and maybe even watch a movie. Sometimes we even go on dates on Saturdays!!

It’s a day I LOVE (Sunday would be a close second). I mean, I like the other days of the week, but they don’t hold a candle to Saturdays.

A few months ago I saw a video at my church that was encouraging people to take stock of their lives. It was one of those “don’t waste your life” or “live like you’re dying” kind of things, except this time it really resonated with me.

The speaker was encouraging us to actually count how many Saturdays we had left in our life.

-____ (your age x 52 + # of Saturdays since your last birthday)

For me, the numbers looked like this:

When I did my calculation, I was taken aback by the finite number of Saturdays (weeks) remaining in my life.

Here is my life in WEEKS and how many Saturdays I have left.

There it stood on the page.

2225 Saturdays left.

No more. No less.

A Change in Perspective

Seeing this number changed my outlook on my time. Usually when we think about our time, it’s an abstract idea that we only ever briefly catch glimpses of at specific moments in our lives.

The birth of a child. The death of a loved one. That scene from Rudy where his elderly failing dad proudly claps and weeps as his undersized bull-terrier of a son is carried off the field at the end of the season with the crowd roaring wildly.

The point is, while both time a money are finite, money seems more so. When we spend, we can see our bank account actually going down. When we buy something, the cash from our wallets actually disappears. It’s tangible. Gone.

Time, on the other hand, is not so tangible. It just feels like it will run out “someday”. And as the famous Creedence Clearwater Revival song goes, many people treat their lives as though “someday never comes”.

For me, this exercise made my time a “real” number. It made me far more intentional about “spending” it.

So last Saturday when I spent my time helping my daughter and son run a lemonade stand at my in-laws garage sale, it was time well spent.

Money Motivation

Not only has it affected how I view time by itself, but it has really reinforced how important it is to be honest with myself when it comes to how time impacts money.

And make no mistake, one of the biggest factors that affects our money is time.

The problem is, we like to deny the impact that time has on money. For some of us, we outright lie to ourselves.

And for many, we are pathological liars.

We tell ourselves that we don’t have enough money to be able to invest for our future. Our lack of saving for the future gets rationalized by telling ourselves that once we get that promotion and the raise that comes with it, then we’ll start contributing more to our company retirement plan. We’re too busy to take the time to draft a will right now, but when “things slow down” (which they never do) we’ll get to it then.

We lie, and we lie, and we lie. And the sad part is, sometimes we believe ourselves.

Perhaps the biggest lie that we tell ourselves with regards to our financial futures is that we’ve got lots of time to get our house in order.

Really?

To find out how many Saturdays you have until you retire, run this quick calculation:

Age at which you’ll retire x 52

-Age you are right now x 52 + # of Saturdays since your last birthday

925

O.k., so if that first number wasn’t motivation, this one should be.

I’ve got 925 Saturdays left until I plan on retiring.

That’s not that long, especially when you consider that each year eats up 52 of those!! It’s going to be here before I know it!!

Which is why both you and I can’t afford to put any of those important financial decisions off any longer.

Have you started saving for your retirement? If not, the best time to start was 10 years ago. The second best time is now.

Are you putting away enough to fully fund your retirement? Don’t put off finding out what that number needs to be NOW. If you wait, you may regret under saving (or over saving) down the road. My friends at Planswell can help you figure out where you’re at in terms of reaching your future goals.

Have you done your will? Don’t delay any more. You’ve played with fire long enough. Any longer, and you may get burned.

Bringing It All Together

Knowing the actual number of Saturdays we have left, whether in our lives or until our eventual retirement, paints a much clearer picture of what we need to accomplish TODAY.

While it’s easy to grasp the idea of opportunity cost with money and that spending cash on one item means we can’t buy something else, time as a finite resource is more tricky. Although more valuable than money in many ways, we have a tendency to not think of money in terms of opportunity costs, but we should. We often let time flow through our fingers without realizing that every moment we spend is a moment not spent doing something else.

With this insight should come a level of urgency. Not panic or anxiety, but thoughtful urgency.

Fear, after rall, can be a very powerful motivator.

Our days literally are numbered.

We owe it to ourselves to make the most of them.

Looking to Find Motivation to Get Your Butt In Gear? Count Your Saturdays first appeared on Young And Thrifty

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artsoccupychi · 7 years

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9 Surprising Reasons People Don’t Get Well, Or Stay Well

In the 25 years since I learned how to get healthy, and then did it–I’ve never stopped researching.

I even went on a global investigative tour of 19 holistic wellness clinics. And I continue to write about what I learned about how people get well.

In that research tour, and my 450-city, 6-year speaking tour, I met a lot of people who are very ill.

Almost always, they immediately want to tell me all the things they’ve done, to try to solve their health problems. They are looking for answers.

The more I research the scientific literature, and talk to people who are happy, and people who are miserable, the more I uncover surprising, powerful reasons why we’re sick. Addressing them can be key, to get well.

In this blog post, I share with you 9 significant but often-overlooked reasons I believe people get sick, and stay sick.

1. Addictions have you by the throat.

It’s not your fault you’re addicted to…well, everything.

Big food manufacturers like Pepsi and Frito Lay organize focus groups to test the “sweet spot” for exactly how much refined sugar, refined salt, and even neurotoxic seasonings like aspartame and monosodium glutamate, provoke people to eat maximum amounts of their product.

Big food manufacturers test the “sweet spot” for exactly how much refined sugar, refined salt, and even neurotoxic seasonings provoke people to eat and drink maximum amounts of their product.

Literally, millions of dollars are spent to figure out how to get you to eat more.

But even though it’s not your fault they have your number—only you can get yourself free of the addictions.

You’re the only motivated party, in that relationship you have with the processed food–or alcohol, tobacco, or painkiller–industries.

One very hopeful fact is that your ancestors ate virtually no processed sugar, until the past few generations—and your body is actually programmed to resonate with the higher-frequency foods, such as colorful fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds.

When you go completely cold turkey off all sugars and refined salt, for even four days—I’m talking about all processed food—while those first four days can be very difficult, what happens next is very exciting.

In my favorite book I’ve ever authored, The Adventures of Junk Food Dude, we explore how our tastes completely change, in just four days off sugar.

Are you open to story time? I read a story, from a children’s book, to over 100 adult audiences, on my lecture tour, and they loved it.

In my favorite book of the 15 titles I’ve authored, The Adventures of Junk Food Dude, we explore how our tastes completely change, in just four days off sugar.

Does that seem too simple, to possibly be truthful?

It’s not. Sugar, according to several animal studies, is more addictive than cocaine. (In animal studies, unlike human studies, ethically, you can put both cocaine and sugar in a dispenser, and let the rats go for it.)

And, once you’ve been pressing the lever, for a dopamine rush of sugar (or fried foods, or alcohol), you’re far more likely to press it again, and again. And again.

But your neurological system regains control, in a surprisingly short period of time. My informal research has led me to this surprising fact:

Most people have never, not once in their lives, gone four days without refined sugar.

In fact, most people don’t even know when they’re eating foods full of sugar, and salt.

Why? Food is so easy, these days, that there’s little effort to get it, little effort to eat it—and we expend correspondingly little effort to be mindful of what’s in it.

Try it. Go off all sugar for four days. Let the magic happen.

If you’re up for a full 26 days without sugar, eating only whole foods, to completely reset your metabolic system, check out my free detox video masterclass.

It’s a shortcut, to my 20 years of research in how to get our energy back, lose weight effortlessly, and rebalance the hormonal, immune, and digestive systems.

2. You’re taking advice from the “sick care” specialists, instead of the wellness experts.

“My doctor says…” is how I’ve found most people start a conversation about their health.

A small but growing minority of health care practitioners are moving into “functional medicine,” a movement to diagnose, and then treat, the root cause of disease. Functional doctors treat a patient holistically, and preventatively, with treatments that do no harm.

With treatments that resolve problems, rather than masking symptoms.

But the vast majority of the billions of dollars we spend on health care, these days, goes to the complex of M.D.’s who are trained in sick care. That is, if your body is in auto-immune crisis, rather than find out why your thyroid or adrenals are failing–they give you a drug to mask the symptoms.

If you have a tumor, they’ll direct radioactive rays to burn it. Or they’ll inject chemicals in your veins, to poison it—and hope the rest of your body survives the treatment.

What they don’t do is examine why your immune system stopped metabolizing cancer cells in the first place. Or how exposure to toxicity may have caused a serious weakness in the organ where cancer started.

While you might feel better in the short term, if you’re taking the prescriptions from the medical complex run by M.D.’s, you still have a problem.

Masking the symptoms with drugs is like putting duct tape over the engine light signal in the dashboard of your car. You can’t see it any more—but your engine is still in jeopardy.

I don’t mean to disparage doctors, because they’re great at what they were trained in.

They might do the same surgery, three times a day, for 20 years—and they’re the right person for the job, if you need a triple bypass, or a Lasik procedure, or a joint replacement.

They won’t be able to help you recover your cardiovascular health, or stop losing your eyesight, or rebuild connective tissue. They don’t know anything about nutrition, or how to be healthy. Medical school didn’t cover any of that.

They may know their diabetic meds, and be able to teach you how to monitor your blood sugar levels, and adjust your insulin.

What they don’t know how to do, is heal your endocrine system.

So, the best person to have in the driver’s seat of your car, is you.

Getting educated from the best books about human health, and being guided by a very experienced functional-medicine practitioner, is a great idea.

3. You think the latest fad diet will save you. (Because you’re confused about what ‘eating healthy’ really means.)

When one of my readers talks to me about their diet, in growing numbers, they tell me what diet fad they follow. This trend is alarming to me.

Ditch the diets. Don’t be afraid of carbohydrates. (Eat the complex, whole-foods versions, like fruits, whole grains, and legumes.)

“I eat Paleo,” they’ll say, or “I’ve been doing the Ketogenic diet, the past several months.”

If you think that “eating Paleo” or “eating Keto” means “good nutrition,” you’re not alone. Today’s generations have followed so many diets, that they don’t know that a healthy diet doesn’t require them to count their grams of carbohydrates, or avoid some of the food classes people have been eating for literally millions of years.

Ditch the diets. Don’t be afraid of carbohydrates. (Eat the complex, whole-foods versions, like fruits, whole grains, and legumes.)

Don’t buy into the silly idea that “protein” is found only in animal foods, or that you have to maximize your protein intake.

Stop counting calories. Don’t avoid healthy fats found in whole foods—and don’t overeat them, either.

When I opted out of the medical complex, the meat-and-dairy complex, and the processed-food complex—three of the wealthiest industries in the history of the world—I got my health back.

And the hundreds of books and research papers I studied, gave me clarity that has helped me steer clear of confusing my body, disrupting normal metabolic processes, yo-yo dieting and radical changes of diet, year after year.

I feel like I literally got off the roller coaster. The Cliff’s Notes of what I learned can be found in my 12 Steps to Whole Foods Video Masterclass, which I now share with you, for free.

4. You rely on supplements, and underestimate the power of your dietary choices.

So many of us think that health is found through taking supplements. If you’re new on the journey, you may be looking to nutritional supplements, rather than to pharmaceutical drugs. That’s an important first step. Being aware of the destructive effects of chemical drugs, and realizing that they don’t solve underlying health problems.

But too many of us are refusing to address the very foundation of our diet. No handfuls of supplements can cover for a deficient diet.

You see, while I may be able to make a synthetic version of one of the amino acids that could help you see better, or may play a role in a mood disorder, no scientist has been able to put, in any pill, what is found in the magical, synergistic foods that grow on trees, and in the ground.

(When people ate those, we didn’t have an epidemic of depression and anxiety. Or diabetes, obesity, and cancer.)

These types of food have soluble and insoluble fiber, that is stripped out, when a supplement company makes it into a pill.

Any given nutrient works in concert, with potentially hundreds of other nutritional compounds, for optimal human health. Science has less information than you may think, about the elegant way that whole foods support slow aging, living without symptoms and disease, and enjoying energy from early till late, every day.

If you’re taking a lot of pills (of any kind) and not getting well, ask yourself if the foundation of your diet (90 percent of it or more) consists of greens, vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds.

These are the foods that human beings ate, before the epidemic of cancer, heart disease, and auto-immune conditions.

I take supplements. Vitamin D, for instance, is very hard to come by, where I live–where the sun doesn’t shine long enough, or it’s too cold to go outside, for six months of the year. And low Vitamin D levels may be more correlated to high cancer risk, than any other factor.

I also take fulvic and humic acid, found in ancient plant deposits–the most bioavailable source of all 90+ minerals needed, for every transaction in the human body, in a world where soils are depleted.

And I experiment with supplements, for various reasons, on a regular basis. I do so after carefully educating myself, because you can overdose on many supplements, and you can do harm, with the wrong dosing or the wrong supplement.

Science is exploding with natural antibiotics, natural anti-inflammatories, and more. They can be powerful.

Use supplements, but don’t buy into the mindset that with supplements, your diet doesn’t matter. Nothing could be further than the truth.

5. You underestimate the effect of your “natural emotional state” on being physically healthy.

One of the most important findings, in functional medicine in recent decades, is the fact that unmetabolized, low-vibration emotions can seem to “play on a loop” for those affected by anxiety and depression.

Being “stuck” emotionally can affect our ability to get well and stay well.

Pretend we’re sitting at your kitchen table, and I’m asking you a question. Answer the truth.

Don’t think about it, just answer:

“What is your natural, default emotional state?”

If “happy” (or something like it) wasn’t your quick answer, the good news is, there’s much you can do, to turn that around.

Tapping the higher vibrations, to stay out of a funk, regardless of circumstances, is the subject of my most recent book, Vibe: Unlock the Energetic Frequencies of Limitless Health, Love & Success.

I wrote the book, after 50 years of finding my way out of a childhood of abuse, and many difficult circumstances, including divorce after 20 years, and several big failures—and achieving a life that by any standards, is really wonderful.

But if you’re happy, naturally, but sometimes struggle? Becoming mindful, and finding ways out of that state, quickly, can completely transform your health—both physical and emotional.

Women who “stuff” their emotions are more prone to breast cancer.

People who are angry or fearful, regularly, are more likely to have heart attacks and strokes. People who cannot forgive, and hold grudges, have mysterious physical symptoms, that often resolve, when that “stuck energy” is released.

While this way of thinking isn’t particularly mechanistic, and not easily decoded, we are holistic beings, and our physical health affects our emotional state, and vice versa.

Thirty years ago, the “helping professions” used mostly talk therapy, to get to the root of your misery, anxiety, depression, fear, anger, and inability to forgive.

The psychological interventions, from Freud to Gestalt to Behaviorism, weren’t particularly effective. Insurance companies even refused to pay for most of it, due to lack of efficacy of most talk therapy.

Most people in therapy didn’t get better, although the patient became more aware, and couples started communicating, with an intermediary–which can start a change process for many.

Now bioenergetic interventions and neurofeedback training, EMDR interventions even in mainstream psychotherapy, and various forms of “energy healing” are having remarkable results in allowing us to emotionally heal, which facilitates physical healing.

If you eat a clean, disciplined diet, but you’re stuck on “replay” with your childhood of abuse or trauma, or can’t release resentments from how others have wronged you, I hope you’ll consider whether this is an area to focus on, in recovering from a physical illness.

After all, there really is no clear distinction between our spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical health.

6. You don’t stick to your plan long enough.

The half-life of a new diet, a new cure-all, a lifestyle change, has never been shorter. As soon as you read Guru X’s book, Doctor Y comes along, publishing a competing philosophy.

In the age of media-24/7, you’ve got a lot of noise, competing for your attention–and we’ve all developed a bit of Attention Deficit Disorder.

You’re on to the next fad, quickly, not seeing the healing process through, that takes place from committed dietary and lifestyle changes.

How many programs or ideas resonated with you, but after some quick wins for a few days or weeks, you fell off the wagon, and didn’t get back on again?

It takes time, to learn new recipes, new shopping habits, and truly commit to a whole-foods program. This is required, to get you out of a life dominated by symptoms and fear. Each recipe you discover, that is delicious to you, as well as healthy, is an important step on the journey.

It took you a long time, to end up with poor health, and the “long play” of getting your health back means that you must stay in your program, until it becomes habit, and sustainable.

Even “two steps forward, one step back” is true progress. (No one’s perfect, and even if you decide to eat a 95 percent whole-foods, mostly plant-based diet, you might slip, now and then.) But don’t let that be a reason to quit.

Have a vision in mind of how health is rebuilt–one habit, one recipe, at a time. Replacing 10 dishes you currently eat, with 10 new, healthier dishes, can be a totally game changer.

You start with the first one. Then the second one is easier, and the third is easier still. Remember that old principle of physics you learned in high school:

Bodies in motion tends to stay in motion.

It’s never too late to make small changes that lead to big wins, for your health.

7. You don’t break a sweat every day.

Everyone knows that exercising, for the sake of your cardiovascular health, and disease risk, is critically important.

What you may not know, in the age of Crossfit and ultra-marathons, is that more evidence is coming to light that more isn’t necessarily better.

Even going for a 30-minute brisk walk, six days a week, is powerful, in lowering your disease risk. And pushing the body through “extreme” sports such as marathons, comes with its own set of health risks.

Even slightly overweight people who exercise regularly, may have lower morbidity rates, according to new research, than thin people who don’t exercise.

So, don’t hold the bar so high that you think that if you don’t have time for an hour on the Stairmaster, you might as well not do anything.

For some, with stressed adrenals, regular yoga classes may be just the right type and amount of exercise.

Listen to your body, and do what you can. But whatever you do, don’t be sedentary. Your spine compresses, and combined with the stress many of us face, in our work and our lives, you put yourself at unnecessary risk.

Going for a walk lets you breathe clean air (oxygen!), get some sunshine on your skin (Vitamin D!), and lifts your spirits, in addition to increasing your fitness level.

And for those who aren’t able to be mobile, an infrared sauna can passively achieve many of the benefits of exercise.

Or a vibrational plate you stand on, for 15 minutes a day, can cause trillions of muscle fibers to fire, and raise your vibration in many ways—you’ll notice the difference, after doing any of these easy habits for just a few days.

Small bursts of exercise increase oxygen to the brain, which makes you sharper and more productive.

Get up from your desk, once every 60 minutes, and do 20 sit-ups, jumping jacks, pushups, or squats—because small bursts of exercise increase oxygen to the brain, which makes you sharper and more productive.

Some evidence suggests doing this for a total of 20 minutes a day, in short increments, may outweigh the benefits of a 60-minute jog!

We are the only people, in the history of the world, who go entire days with very little movement. It’s unnatural, it’s a big contributor to the anxiety and depression epidemic, and the solutions are easy, and varied.

8. You haven’t learned a healthier way of being “in relationship” with others.

The old schools of psychology held that an emotionally healthy human being was one who was “independent” of others, and didn’t rely on parental figures, friendships, and intimate relationships.

The newer science of attachment theory has yielded dozens of published papers proving that nothing could be further from the truth. We “bond” with our mothers not just because they provide us nourishment, but because we are fundamentally, innately tribal creatures who need companionship and love from those around us.

Needing others doesn’t make us “needy”–it makes us human.

And when our closest relationships are “toxic,” trapped in cycles of criticism, shaming, neglect, or silence, we suffer. Walling ourselves off from the pain of difficult relationships isn’t the answer.

Yes, babies who can “self soothe” are happier babies. But babies without human touch, eye contact, and affection, have poor outcomes as older children and adults. In orphanages, they sometimes die.

Many of us default into the unhealthy patterns we observed in our parents, and the “dysfunctional family” may describe many or even most of our early-life experiences. But research shows that even having a flawed family is better than having no family.

Many studies now document that those with furry pets have lower blood pressure and fewer heart attacks.

Relationships with pets can help fill the void, for people who have few relationships. I work fulltime from home, the past 10 years, and my last child is about to fly the coop. Having my cat in my lap, while I work, and someone to talk to, when my “virtual” relationships aren’t enough, gives me energetic connection to living beings that helps me feel grounded and connected–until “girls’ night out” on the weekends, or my next work or vacation trip with friends or family.

Many studies now document that those with furry pets have lower blood pressure and fewer heart attacks.

Physical touch is important, and if you aren’t in an intimate relationship, the energy exchange from a professional massage can also help fill the bill. We literally exchange electrons with any kind of positive physical touch. So, hug people more often—the big, long, bear-hug type of embrace.

Seeking out group experiences, and new friendships, can be difficult in mid-life, or when we’re feeling socially isolated—and many of us do, in the digital age when most of our interaction with others is online.

But it’s also a part of whether we’re physically healthy, or not.

Join Meetup, and you’ll find a group in your town based on almost any interest you might have. A face-to-face interaction with another person is far healthier than a text thread.

And above all, solve, or eliminate, relationships that cause you chronic suffering. It’s okay to limit contact with a relative you’ve sought resolution with, but cannot achieve despite your best efforts.

(Owning your part in relationship troubles is also highly beneficial to your health. After all, when you’re accountable, you’re also empowered, and change is possible. You can’t change their behavior and feelings, but you can change yours.)

And seeking out, and spending time with, people who inspire and encourage you in your goals, is one of the most important things you can do, as you seek a healthier life.

The best way to learn if someone is an encourager, the type who can be “wind under your wings?” Make a concerted effort to be the wind under theirs.

These are three proven keys to healthy relationships:

A. Set boundaries. Boundaries don’t have to be ten-foot brick walls. Some healthy boundaries are semi-permeable.

I go to family events with a parent who was abusive and destructive to my self-concept, for the earlier decades of my life. I honor her for giving me life, I’m polite to her, and I do not engage in arguments or conflict—but that doesn’t mean I have to have sleepovers or invite her out with my girlfriends.

Setting boundaries I am comfortable with has led to peaceful co-existence with others, because some people I spend a lot of time with, some people I spend a little time with, and some people, I give myself permission to spend no time with.

B. Communicate clearly and effectively. No one knows your needs, unless you express them.

What your family member or friend does, with that information, is their prerogative, but finding a neutral tone to express how you feel, in “I” language, rather than provocative “you” language, just might help you feel understood, and turn a corner in the relationship.

Expressing yourself when you’re angry, isn’t effective, and can cause additional damage to a strained relationship. When you can revisit an issue, when you’re feeling calm and clear, however, can lead to breakthroughs in even very difficult relationships.

C. Be willing to end toxic relationships.

People trapped in “toxic” relationships are also at higher risk for many diseases.

Amy Poehler’s autiobiography says, “I don’t consider a ten-year marriage to be a failure.” While many would take issue with that, and our culture highly values marriages that last “till death do us part,” some relationships have a natural end.

This can apply to friendships, as well. All relationships can be instructive. And since we are only one of two parties in any relationship, we can’t always control whether they continue, or end.

When we find the gift and learning opportunity in every relationship, then the end of a relationship can be an opportunity to forge new ones, and move forward in peace.

No one maintains every relationship they’ve ever built–and while working through problems is highly valuable, in some cases, “letting go” is the right thing to do, for the sake of your health.

9. You don’t have meaningful work, giving you “life purpose.”

Many people think of work as a chore, and something you just plow through, till quitting time—then, and only then, can you be happy. “Happy hour” starting at 5 p.m. was built on this concept!

But the happiest and healthiest people are those who have meaningful work. And over 80 percent of Americans report that they don’t have their “dream job,” or even particularly enjoy their work.

You don’t have to be a doctor, psychotherapist, kindergarten teacher, or a mother of babies, to love your work.

You do have to feel like your creativity and contribution is valued, you are compensated fairly for your work, and you look forward to doing it.

“Flow states” have been studied, for several decades, as one of the highest-vibration states of the human being. This is where you may lose track of time, a crowbar couldn’t separate you from the task you’re immersed in, and you have extraordinary satisfaction not just in the paycheck or work product—but in the process itself.

Do you experience it, on a regular basis? After reading Mihali Csikszentmihalyi’s book, Flow, over 20 years ago, I began to tune into when I tap that state of high-frequency creation and productivity.

Playing tennis is one of my “flow states,” so it’s one of the activities that I seek out as often as I can.

I find flow states in my life most often, doing three things: (1) when I’m writing or speaking (most of what I do, in my job), (2) when I’m playing tennis (my favorite hobby), and (3) when I’m deep in a conversation with someone I connect with.

So, I now seek those activities out. While I run a business with 22 employees, and some tasks (such as reviewing spreadsheets) do not light up all the pleasure centers, I find ways that research and writing can benefit my influence with others, and my business in general. Because I love it.

If you aren’t in a career that meets these objectives and give you a sense of purpose, remember:

People change careers several times, in a lifetime. It’s not impossible. Create an intention to watch for– and act on–opportunities. Verbalize your career hopes, to those around you. Ask boldly for opportunities. Sometimes the answer will be yes.

And magic will begin to happen.

Remember, people with life purpose are happy, healthy people.

–Robyn Openshaw, MSW, is the founder of GreenSmoothieGirl.com, and the author of the USA Today and Amazon #1 Bestseller Vibe: Unlock the Energetic Frequencies of Limitless Health, Love & Success.

Disclosure: This post may contain Affiliate links that help support the GSG mission without costing you extra. I recommend only companies and products that I use myself.

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#infrared saunas #healthy

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northshoregadgets · 7 years

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How to Crush Overwhelm, with the Author of The Joy Plan

When you’re a blogger, you have to churn.

You’re churning out content, marketing copy, pitch emails, comments, and so much more. A lot of times what started out as a passion can slip into a source of overwhelm along the way, especially if you’re successful at it!

To address this ugly little issue of overwhelm, Wendy Toth, Director of Content for PetSmart’s lifestyle websites, petMD and PawCulture, reached out to super-successful blogger and author, Kaia Roman, to share her secrets for crushing overwhelm before it crushes us!

WT: Tell us a little about yourself.

KR: I’m a mother, a wife, a writer, a mindfulness teacher to elementary school children, and a lot of other things. My new book, The Joy Plan, covers the neuroscience of joy, as told through an entertaining memoir. Before I wrote a book, I started blogging for a number of health and wellness blogs, like mindbodygreen, Thrive Global, and Livestrong. In fact, my book started out as a blog post, but just kept going and going until it became a book.

WT: Many of us began our blogging or writing journey out of a sense of passion and excitement, but the constant workflow can get old. How do you keep the joy in it?

KR: In The Joy Plan, I talk about a brain behavior theory called resonant wave patterns. Those of us that have chosen writing, especially if we started doing it for a passionate cause, often gravitate toward the research and problem-solving brain wave pattern. Writing can be a soothing way for us to organize our thoughts and communicate our passions to a wider audience.

The challenge is to focus on the joy of the process of writing, rather than the stress of the deadlines or other pressures. Come back to the desire that drew your fingers to the keyboard in the first place—that “writer’s high” or rush of dopamine that we get when we finish a job that we not only enjoyed, but know will help someone out there in blog land.

WT: How do you balance the demands of promotion and putting yourself out there, with the need to do what I call the “real work”– the research and writing?

KR: While on the one hand, it’s amazing that we can communicate in so many different ways, we also face the pressure to do so. Many of us feel the pressure to be on all the social media channels, sending out emails, keeping up a blog, creating videos, and continuing to churn out constant content.

It’s important that we check in with ourselves regularly to make sure what we’re doing feels balanced and joyful, or if it’s tipping toward causing more stress than joy. At times, we may need to readjust how we’re spending our time and energy, or seek help and delegate when it comes to the ancillary work that keeps us from our true passion.

WT: If you could go back and give yourself advice from when you were just starting out as a writer, what would it be?

KR: Writers I admire like Elizabeth Gilbert and Anne Lamott talk about planting your butt in the seat and writing, every day, no matter what. Whether it’s good or bad, whether anyone else ever sees it or not, just keep writing. Write what you know, write from the heart, and back it up with research. Like anything else, good writing comes from practice, like strengthening a muscle.

WT: What’s one tool or tactic you use that bloggers can copy today, to help avoid overwhelm?

KR: Feeling overwhelmed is both a mental and a physical experience. When we perceive an event or set of events as more than we can handle, our amygdala (the fear sensor in the brain) activates and sounds the alarm throughout our bodies. When you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s important to recognize that you are having a physical response (your amygdala is active, your body is going into fight-or-flight mode) to a mental reaction (“I can’t handle this!”).

At those times, you really need to take a break and tend to your wellbeing first. Even a quick walk outside or mild indoor exercise can provide a shift in your mental, emotional, or physical state. It will induce endorphins, which calm the body’s reactionary stress response and provide motivation to move forward with your day.

Get some fresh air (amygdala-soothing oxygen!), give yourself a change of scenery, and see your situation from fresh eyes once you’ve had a bit of respite. You’ll most likely find that you can accomplish more, in less time, and with less angst, once you’ve taken a break. You’ll be ready to divide and conquer with renewed energy and a clear head.

WT: Last question. Many pet bloggers do their work for a cause, but even that can get daunting when you are faced with the scope of the issue again and again. Do you have any tips for facing this sort of fatigue?

KR: Make sure that your passionate writing about animals doesn’t keep you from your actual time with animals in real life. Get your fix of furry cuddles, volunteering, or whatever it is that fills your heart and emotional reserves (and also boosts your oxytocin levels!).

Most of us bloggers draw from our day-to-day life experiences to inspire our writing, so we have to make sure we aren’t writing more than we’re living, or we’ll have nothing left to write about.

Wendy Toth is Director of Content for PetSmart’s lifestyle websites, petMD and PawCulture. She has written for The New York Times, Parents Magazine, Weight Watchers Magazine, NBC, and more. You can find her on her image and confidence blog for overachievers, Power Suiting and on Twitter.

Kaia Roman is the author of the new book, The Joy Plan (Sourcebooks, July 2017). She teaches Mindfulness to elementary school students in Santa Cruz, California and is a blogger for minbodygreen and other sites. She writes about how she went from joyless and anxious to grateful and optimistic so she can remember how she did it if she forgets. For everyday joy and mindfulness tips, sign up for Kaia’s newsletter at TheJoyPlan.com. You’ll also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The post How to Crush Overwhelm, with the Author of The Joy Plan appeared first on BlogPaws.

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jesicajparksuk · 7 years

Text

How to Crush Overwhelm, with the Author of The Joy Plan

When you’re a blogger, you have to churn.

WT: Tell us a little about yourself.

WT: Many of us began our blogging or writing journey out of a sense of passion and excitement, but the constant workflow can get old. How do you keep the joy in it?

WT: How do you balance the demands of promotion and putting yourself out there, with the need to do what I call the “real work”– the research and writing?

WT: If you could go back and give yourself advice from when you were just starting out as a writer, what would it be?

WT: What’s one tool or tactic you use that bloggers can copy today, to help avoid overwhelm?

The post How to Crush Overwhelm, with the Author of The Joy Plan appeared first on BlogPaws.

from News And Updates About Pets http://blogpaws.com/executive-blog/how-to-crush-overwhelm-with-the-author-of-the-joy-plan/

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