1. Use your salad plate for your meal. This will naturally cut at least 200 calories…especially since the salad plates we use now are super-sized. You can fill your plate without guilt since it is a smaller size. Because humans are visual eaters, you will naturally feel that this 'full' plate will fill you up and satisfy you.
2. Take a brisk walk every day. Whether you take a walk alone to center your thoughts and prepare for your day or you walk with family and friends to socialize, make sure you walk everyday to get physical activity that will burn calories. Don’t think you have time for walking? Yes, you do…build it into your day by taking the stairs instead of the elevator and park farther from the door. Every step counts!
3. Focus on the social aspect of the holidays instead of the food. If you are more excited about seeing your family and friends than you are about eating Grandma's pumpkin pie, you will not eat as much since that is not the focus. Trust me this works.
4. Eat whatever you choose in moderation. Do not restrict yourself from your favorite holiday foods. That is a set up for a binge. Your will power to not eat these foods will only last a certain length of time and then you will switch into rationalization mode. Rationalizing food typically leads to over indulgence. So eat a small amount of whatever you want and enjoy every bite!
5. Wear fitted clothes during the holidays as a constant motivator to make good food decisions and maintain your figure. If you feel good in your little black dress, you will not be as tempted to eat everything on the dessert tray and bust the zipper!
Self imposed limitations are established by our beliefs. These limiting beliefs hold us back. They keep us from reaching our full potential and experiencing true joy.
In the movie, Facing the Giants, there is a scene where a high school football coach is attempting to show his players that they are not playing to their full ability and believing in themselves. The team has had a poor football record for several years. The coach asks one of the respected players to stand up and death crawl (crawling on his hands and feet) down the field from one end zone while carrying another player on his back. The coach asks the player how far he can make it. This player says that he can only make it to the 35 yard line while carrying another player and maybe to the 50 with no one his back. The coach says that he believes the player can make it to the 50 yard line with a player on his back and proceeds to blindfold this defense player for the exercise. The player stammers and denies his ability but ultimately positions himself to take the challenge. As the player moves down the field the camera focuses tightly on the coach encouraging him to keep going as the player says he is tired. Soon the camera pans the playerson the sidelines standing up and becoming attentive to watch the progress on the field. The coach tells the player to keep going and use up every ounce of will power he has and just keep going. Finally the player falls to his stomach red faced and out of breath apologizing for stopping. The coach takes off his blind fold to reveal that he went the entire length of the field.
This is a great example of the limitations that we set on ourselves and the limitations that others set on us that we accept as true. The blindfold kept the player going beyond his own expectations and judgments of his ability. He amazed himself and his team mates.
Please think about how you have judged yourself. Think about how you may have accepted other people’s judgments of you. Identify these limitations and release yourself from them today. Start expecting to succeed and feel happy. Just like the anticipation of your limitations held you back, your expectancy of a positive future will propel you forward.
Your limiting beliefs are a choice, not the truth about you. You can choose to change your beliefs and your thinking which will change your life. You have a choice to improve yourself no matter how small the improvements are when you get started. Just get started.
You can do it!
Release your limiting beliefs and become your best self!
Romans 12:2
Kelly Stallings, MS, LPC www.LifeIsMental.com www.Facebook.com/kelly.stallings www.twitter.com/lifeismental
The power of visualization is well known yet many people do not associate it with weight loss. The reality though is that the power of visualization is an amazing tool to help improve one’s look, weight loss and overall confidence. If you want to get to a healthier weight, you should be visualizing your future self on a daily basis.
I am not talking about endless yoga sessions or a full day of chanting. Is all that it takes is a few moments a day, preferably as you are just waking up or just about to fall asleep as those are the times when our mind is most relaxed and our subconscious is open to suggestion.
Can you really visualize your future? Yes, you can. OK, I’ll admit that it is virtually impossible to be able to control your future – there are simply way too many dynamics and variables in the world right? Wrong. OK, I’ll admit that you cannot control every aspect of your future; nor can you decide as to which aspects you specifically want to control.
What I am saying is that you hold the power to dramatically impact your future and how the world opens up to.
Remember when you first got a certain type of car and you started to see those same models at every corner. Remember when you learned something new and all of a sudden you saw the same concept applying to various areas of your life – even though it was really only relative to one aspect at the time you learned it.
Those are examples of situations where you placed focus on something – allowing its possibilities into your world. And then the world opened up to you consistent with your focus.
If you think about the power that goes untapped in most of our minds – the challenge is there. Try something for me (for your benefit as well). Think about an old classmate or work colleague. Think about them several times over the next 3-4 days. Write their name on your calendar a few days from now. Continue to think about them. I bet you that something about them shows up in your life. It could be seeing them on the street or online. It could be that someone else connects with you where you have a mutual connection with your former friend. There are endless possibilities but you controlled the events because you put focus on something.
Imagine if weight loss were that easy. You know what? It is. Grab a compelling vision of your future self – and Let The Vision Empower You!
January is the perfect time to make resolutions and set personal goals for the year. While this is a common practice, apparently less than 2% of us will stick with these newly established resolutions and goals past January. Why is it challenging for folks to keep focused on goals? One reason may be that goals are not revisited after they are created…or worse, maybe these goals were not written down to be revisited.Writing your goals on paper is the important first step to accomplish a desired change. Without identified written goals, there is no easy way to track achievement. Write out your goals in a journal that will be easy to keep track of throughout the year. Include easy to reach short term goals as well as the larger long term goals. Both are important. Be sure to create many short term goals that support the achievement of each long term goal.
Long term goals represent a final destination. An example of this could be achieving your optimal weight. Long term goals may require a commitment for months or years to accomplish. Commitment and patience is required for reaching long term goals.
Short term goals are crucial to the successful achievement of long term goals. These small goals support the big goals. Short term goals give you a sense of accomplishment and motivation as you work toward your long term goals. Short term goals may be items like reducing a size in your clothing or walking for thirty minutes four days a week.
Think of short term goals as the individual steps in a staircase. As you achieve each short term goal, you step up one step at a time toward your long term goal of reaching the top of the staircase. You can get excited and celebrate your progress as you achieve each short term goal that propels you further up the staircase to your long term goal. Looking back at how many steps you have climbed will give you the motivation to keep going when you feel tired of climbing.
Your goals journal is a tool. Use a highlighter to highlight each goal as you achieve it. Since you will make a lot of small easy to accomplish goals, you will be highlighting a lot in your journal. Make a habit of highlighting achieved goals weekly. This keeps you rereading and mindful of your goals. As you update your goals journal, you will feel continually motivated by the growing number of highlights. Thinking of the highlighted goals in your journal and staying mindful of the upcoming goals that you will be highlighting soon could very well help you decide the chocolate cake offered at lunch is not as good as it first looked and easily avoid eating it.
Many people are accustomed to thinking that weight loss is hard, so they proceed in fulfilling that prophecy through negative thinking, self criticism and bad choices. This year, decide that weight loss is easy. Keep it simple and use this technique for organizing your goals this year and accomplish amazing weight loss results!
Many of us live with self imposed limiting beliefs. These limiting beliefs hold us back. They keep us from reaching our full potential and our optimal healthy body.
Up to this point, you most likely have not given your weight loss goals all you’ve got. It is easy to make attempts, get sidetracked by your limiting beliefs and then make excuses. These limits are self imposed negative thoughts and beliefs. You might believe that people in your family are heavy or it is difficult for you to lose weight. Whether these limiting thoughts are your voice or someone else’s, it is time they stop and you are freed!
In the movie, Facing the Giants, there is a scene where a high school football coach is attempting to show his players that they are not playing to their full ability and believing in themselves. The team has had a poor football record for several years. The coach asks one of the defensive players to stand up and death crawl (crawling on his hands and feet) down the field from one end zone while carrying another player on his back. The coach asks the player how far he can make it. This defense guy says that he can only make it to the 35 yard line while carrying another player and maybe to the 50 with no one his back. The coach says that he believes the player can make it to the 50 yard line with a player on his back and proceeds to blindfold this defense player for the exercise. The player stammers and denies his ability but ultimately positions himself to take the challenge. As the player moves down the field the camera focuses tightly on the coach encouraging him to keep going as the player says he is tired. Soon the camera pans the players on the sidelines standing up and becoming attentive to watch the progress on the field. The coach tells the player to keep going and use up every ounce of will power he has and just keep going. Finally the player falls to his stomach red faced and out of breath apologizing for stopping. The coach takes off his blind fold to reveal the he went the entire length of the field.
This is a great example of the limitations that we set on ourselves and the limitations that others set on us that we accept as true. The blindfold kept the defense player going beyond his own expectations and judgments of his ability. He amazed himself and his team mates.
Please think about how you have judged yourself. Think about how you may have accepted other people’s judgments of you concerning your weight and your ability to lose weight. Picture yourself five years from now. What do you look like in five years? Are you at your perfect weight or are you overweight? This is a significant question for you to really think about. If you picture yourself overweight in your future, do you really believe that you can lose weight?
This belief is directly tied to your thinking. Picturing yourself overweight in the future is not thin thinking. You may not have many thin thoughts. You may have a long history of holding limiting beliefs. These limiting beliefs are a choice, not the truth about you. You can choose to change your beliefs and your thinking which will change your life. You have a choice to improve yourself no matter how small the improvements are when you get started.
Release your limiting beliefs and become your best self!
In honor of Women’s History Month, let’s change our personal histories by releasing all issues of body image and poor self-esteem. The awesome side effect of this change is weight loss and thin thinking.
Most women are self critical of their bodies and unfortunately critical of other women’s bodies as well. Studies and surveys are not necessary to prove this to be true. Just think about what you said to yourself as you looked in the mirror this morning. Did you say, ‘you beautiful thing,’ or ‘my face looks fat’? Self criticism leads to poor self-esteem and negative body image that creates weight issues like eating disorders or perpetual yo-yo dieting. If you are unhappy with your body, you may decide to take a drastic dieting measure to lose weight as fast as you can to feel better quickly. The drastic measure is typically not a good plan and you will probably self criticize more harshly when it fails. You may respond to this by eating everything thing in site since you ‘blew the diet’ and the yo-yo cycle starts over.
The ramifications of this negative behavior reach far beyond our bathroom mirrors. It is affecting future women. Studies have shown that young girls start dieting as early as the fourth grade. These girls are listening to the statements women of influence make about their bodies. Does your daughter hear your self criticisms? Does your niece hear you tell yourself that you are going to diet because you look fat? As women, we are helping to perpetuate this issue. This self critical behavior is a choice that we can control. We can make a different choice and change the future for our selves, our daughters, granddaughters and nieces.
Media also plays a part in our self assessment as well as our daughters’ and nieces’ self assessments. We can control the effects of media by not purchasing the magazines or watching the television shows that negatively affect our body image and self esteem. Media needs our support to thrive. If fast food restaurants are now offering sliced apples as an alternative to fries in response to America’s weight issues, I believe that we can affect positive changes in the media for the same reason.
Here are three simple ways to effect change and release weight issues.
1. Love your body as-is. Love your best qualities as well as your perceived flaws. Verbalize this love for your body in place of verbalizing the self criticisms. Feel the love for yourself as you look in the mirror. Practice this exercise daily until it feels normal. It will begin to feel comfortable with practice. Positive feelings create positive choices to support your best body.
2. Compliment daily. Eliminate all self critical thoughts and statements as you recognize them in daily life. Do this for yourself and other women. Compliment yourself multiple times daily on your look and positive actions. Boost other women by complimenting them also. Give compliments to your female friends as well as women you do not know. This creates a new habit of women supporting women feeling good about themselves.
3. Avoid media that portrays women as unrealistically thin. Change the television station. Do not buy the magazines or the movie tickets. Support media and programming that portrays realistic looking women as smart and competent. Media will adjust their focus to capture our dollars.
Improving your self-esteem and body image perception will naturally lead to weight loss. When we feel good, we make better choices about food and exercise. When we feel bad, good choices are replaced with comfort foods, inactivity and more self criticisms. Teach other women to implement these simple strategies into their life. Women are hardwired to help and support others. Use this information to help and support your sisters, mothers, grandmothers, and girlfriends.
It is still January and is the perfect time to make resolutions and set personal goals for the year. If you have not already gotten started with this task, there is no time like the present.
There are three easy ways to make certain that your 2009 resolutions and goals are effective this year, write them down, use visual representations and mentally rehearse goals as if they are achieved. I have already explained an easy way to effectively use written goals. Now incorporate a daily visual of your goals.
Visual representations of goals maintain your constant awareness of these goals. You are more likely to act in ways that move you toward your goals if these goals stay in your awareness. Create a vision board with pictures, symbols and text that represent your goals. Use poster board or a cork board for your vision board. Hang this vision board in a private area that you will see daily. This may be an area of your closet or personal bathroom. It is important that you keep this private to avoid any opportunity for criticism or judgment by others that may affect your motivation or self confidence. Use pictures and text of all kinds representing your goals as achieved. Looking at your board should elicit positive thoughts and feelings of what your life will be like when these goals are achieved. You might include pictures of activities you will be enjoying at your goal weight or clothing with the size tag showing of the clothing size you will be at your goal weight. Be creative so that your board creates a detailed visual picture and elicits feelings you will feel at your goal weight. Look at your vision board each morning as you get dressed or brush your teeth and enjoy the feelings and thoughts these pictures elicit. This allows you to maintain daily awareness of your goals. Keeping in mind the picture of your thin self in your skinny bathing suit, could very well serve as motivation to avoid eating that donut at work or eating a late night snack.
Remember that self fulfilling prophecy idea…believe and expect the best about your weight loss adventure. If you are going to have a self fulfilling prophecy, why not make it a good one in 2009?
January is the perfect time to make resolutions and set personal goals for the year. While this is a common practice, apparently less than 2% of us will stick with these newly established resolutions and goals past January. Why is it challenging for folks to keep focused on goals? One reason may be that goals are not revisited after they are created…or worse, maybe these goals were not written down to be revisited.
There are three easy ways to make certain that your 2009 resolutions and goals are effective this year. Goals need to be written, visually represented and mentally rehearsed. These techniques are simple and easy to incorporate as new habits into your daily schedule. Commit to these three simple new habits to see amazing results this year. Writing your goals on paper is the important first step to accomplish a desired change. Without identified written goals, there is no use for the remaining two techniques. Write out your goals in a journal that will be easy to keep track of throughout the year. The Life is Mental: Think Thin to Live Thin Goals Journal is a great option for a journal. Include both easy to reach short term goals as well as the larger long term goals. Long term goals represent a final destination. An example of this could be achieving your optimal weight. Long term goals may require a commitment for months or years to accomplish. Commitment and patience is required for reaching long term goals. Short term goals are crucial to the successful achievement of long term goals. These small goals support the big goals. Short term goals give you a sense of accomplishment and motivation as you work toward your long term goals. Think of short term goals as the individual steps in a staircase. As you achieve each short term goal, you step up one step at a time toward your long term goal of reaching the top of the staircase. You can get excited and celebrate your progress as you achieve each short term goal that propels you further up the staircase to your long term goal. Looking back at how many steps you have climbed will give you the motivation to keep going when you feel tired of climbing. Your journal is a tool. Use a highlighter to highlight each goal as you achieve it. Since you will make a lot of small easy to accomplish goals, you will be highlighting a lot in your journal. Make a habit of highlighting achieved goals weekly or monthly. This keeps you rereading and staying mindful of your goals. As you update your journal, you will feel continually motivated by the growing number of highlights. Thinking of the highlighted goals in your journal and staying mindful of the upcoming goals that you will be highlighting soon could very well help you decide the chocolate cake offered at lunch is not as good as it first looked and easily avoid eating it.
Keep reading my future blogs to learn more about the simplicity of visually representing and mentally rehearsing goals for achievement as well as easy ways to incorporate these techniques into your daily routine. Many people are accustomed to thinking that weight loss is hard, so they proceed in fulfilling that prophecy through negative thinking, self criticism and bad choices. This year, decide that weight loss is easy. Keep it simple and use these easy techniques. Write down your short and long term goals, post pictures representing your goals, and mentally rehearse being your goal weight. Use these easy techniques this month to create your health/weight goals and accomplish amazing weight loss results in 2009!
Author, Trainer, Speaker-
Kelly Stallings is a Licensed Professional Counselor with a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology. She has more than 12 years of experience working with people in group settings to create significant changes in their life including increased overall physical health. Kelly’s experience reaches beyond working directly with clients. She has extensive experience training medical professionals on the appropriate uses of cognitive behavioral techniques for client’s healthy living. She is a dynamic speaker who puts people at ease with her warm, ‘no fluff’ personality. Kelly has been married to her high school sweetheart for 20 years and they have three great kids. Kelly and her family ‘Think Thin and Live Thin’ in Texas.
