Couples Who Get Strong Together… Live Long Together

Isn’t it time you and your partner really supported each other in your fat loss journey?
Your partner who will be doing every possible step with you to achieve your success?
Your partner who understands you, helps you overcome all the challenges, and share your wins?

Together as a team, you can share an amazing journey towards a better, stronger and healthier relationship… like never before.

• Do you approach weight loss as individuals or work against each other?
• Do you sabotage each other with poor eating choices?
• Do you have equal exercise time in your day-to-day lives, or do you hold resentment for the time that only one of you gets to go to the gym?

If this is you, discover how when you support one another, your chances of success are far greater. You can enjoy the many physical benefits that working out and eating healthy together can offer.

When you work together as a team toward a common goal, you will find there will be a lot more benefits than weight loss alone:

• Grow emotionally as a couple as you reinforce good feelings in your relationship by sharing your experience.
• Build trust and improve communication.
• Gain a greater respect for each other .
• Have a deeper appreciation for each other’s needs.
• Face challenges and overcome obstacles together better.
• Keep each other accountable.
• Have a greater sexual attraction for each other.

You really CAN get back your sexy body you desire and at the same strengthen your relationship. As a team you can work together on a common goal. This will become an exciting journey for both of you.

• Having a workout partner is often the most critical link to your adherence to exercise. When someone is counting on you to workout, you have to be accountable to the plan.

• Working towards a common goal will give you much to talk about and will establish a new connection with each other.

• You will be less likely to cheat on your nutrition plan when someone else is feeling a little stronger than you are at a weak moment.

• You will increase your energy as you begin even to make small changes towards a healthy lifestyle. This will lead to more productivity in other aspects of your life. With both of you having unstoppable energy, it will be a win-win!

• Becoming more physical with each other will establish deeper intimacy and you will have a better self-esteem because of it. As you become more fit and lean, you will FEEL much more attractive when you begin to tone up and fit into smaller sizes. When you feel that good about yourself you will want to share your feelings with your loved one.

• If you have children at home you will become a great role model not only for each other… but for them. Whatever age your children are, the best gift you could ever give them is instilling the value of a healthy lifestyle.

So how can you go about doing all this?

As a special VALENTINE gift to you, from now until February 15th, my coaching program is two for the price of one!

If you are willing to work together as a team… then I would like to be a part of your SUCCESS TEAM too!

Ten Goal-Setting Tips

You can achieve your goal as long as you follow the ten tips to creating your perfect outcome.

1- Keep the momentum – you may miss a workout here and there, or eat junk food in a moment of stress, but don’t let that be a reason to quit… get back in the game as soon as you can.

2- Use positive self-talk – we all have an inner voice that moves us forward towards our goals… or keeps us from achieving them. What does YOUR inner voice say?

3- Have written and clearly defined goals that are measurable and time bound – do not leave this to chance. Be specific about what you want, when you want it and an action plan of how you are going to achieve it.

4- Don’t reinvent the wheel – If something is already proven, backed by reliable scientific evidence, why wouldn’t you want to follow it exactly as it is?

5- Be willing to pay for it – This is not just about the money. It could cost you time, hard work, going out of your comfort zone, and this is where people often give up or use these “obstacles” as excuses. You cannot put a price on your health… it makes everything in your life run smoothly.

6- Run your own race, wear blinders if you have to - Do not let the “nay-sayers” and “sabotagers” get in your way. Stay focused and surround yourself with people who support you and your goal.

7- Make sure you want it bad enough – Is this goal worthy of your best efforts? Have a strong and powerful reason for wanting to achieve your goal.

8- Make sure it is consistent with your values - will this affect your responsibilities? Is it consistent with the way you see yourself?

9- Always buy the best equipment, don’t scrimp – you will end up saving a lot of time and money in the long run if you just do it right to the best of your ability in the first place.

10- Have a large goal in mind but chunk it down into smaller goals. When your goals are achievable you will feel a sense of accomplishment. Set progressively higher goals to keep the momentum.

New Year’s Resolutions

I want to thank everyone for all the kind wishes and positive
words I received over the year. I really love what I do and it is
extremely rewarding to know I have helped facilitate a change
that improved the quality of your life.

It is hard to believe that we are not only closing another year,
but a decade too!

For the first blog post of 2010, I would like to give you some
helpful tips to “master” the art of making New Year’s
Resolutions to create the outcomes you want.

First, consider a few questions:

1- Is your nutrition healthier than it was 10 years ago… or
even one year ago?

2- Have you been doing the same exercise routine year after
year but your body has shown no improvement?

3- Were you better off ten years ago in terms of your lifestyle?

Most people make resolutions. That is only the beginning.
Resolutions are the words you speak. They sound like great
ideas but they don’t really mean anything unless they are
accompanied with a plan of action.

Talk without action is only dreaming about a possibility…
and that’s a good start, because all actions begin with a
thought or a desire. When you make a commitment… and
make the appointment that is written in your schedule and
prioritized, guess what… you get it done, no kidding.

I am re-launching my New Year’s Resolution program from
last year at the same price with more added bonuses…
Because guess what, you will get it done, no kidding and
here’s why… it’s those tips I was going to tell you about…

http://bestbodymakeover.com/newyear/

1. Know what worked. It is important to identify all the
things that have worked well for you in the past. Commit
to them… do them consistently and more often.

2. Pay attention to what you learned. Whether you
reach your desired outcome or not, that knowledge is the
feedback that will help you advance. Then, you can speed
up your results each time around and not repeat the same
mistakes over and over again.

3. Have a plan in advance before you set your goal
rather than make it up as you go along. Without a plan you
will waste time. Setting a goal is just the start, achieving
your goal requires a consistent plan of action for both
training and nutrition.

4. Know what it will cost. Every goal has a cost… and it’s
not just about money. It can cost you time, it could cost
you a relationship, and it can cost you your health if you don’t
do it… Most of the costs lie outside your comfort zone. This
is probably what gets most people into trouble.

People don’t realistically think about the cost of what it will
take to achieve their goals. They are unwilling to pay the
price and quit at the first obstacle.

5. You are worth it, pay the price! That’s right… This may
be tough love but if it’s a goal you want, you need to suck it
up! This is your life and quite frankly you cannot put a price
on your health.

If you cannot honestly say you have improved your nutrition
or exercise habits over the past year or decade; then you can
make the next weeks, months, even decade ahead be different
that the last 10 by making a decision and a commitment to
change no matter what price.

Find out more about New Year’s resolutions and how you can
keep yours by clicking on this link:

http://bestbodymakeover.com/newyear/

You will discover everything you need to succeed: nutrition,
cardio training, strength training, and your motivation to do it
all. You will stay focused on the resolutions you make.

I will be customizing this program for you with personal
one-on-one attention. Nobody else gives you this kind of
support.

There is one catch… because it is important that I give you top
quality attention, it is very time intensive for me, I have to limit
this to 12 people.

As an added incentive to make 2010 a significant year of change
for you, grab this offer before January 6th, and save big time
for a limited time.

http://bestbodymakeover.com/newyear/

All the best in 2010!
Lauren

Who Else Wants to Change in 2010?

Each new year is a time of reflection for what you would like to do differently in order to have desired outcomes. Perhaps the most popular change people want to make for the new year is to lose weight.

Everybody wants the magic bullet. Our culture expects quick fixes. Sadly, when quick changes happen, they don’t last long term. See the diets, amazing ab machines, magic pills or fat-burners for what they are. Save your money and time on all these quick-fix products… they only create false hopes.

You probably already know what you need to do yet… you’re not doing it! Here is the problem with thinking you know everything. If you were told you should drink more water or eat more vegetables, your first response might be… “I know that.”

You instantly shut down your brain when you have heard something before, especially when it involves a behavior change and leaving your comfort zone.

Without being receptive to the learning, a behavioral change will not happen. Change requires not being you. Tell yourself: “If I have to change, I need to stop being me.” You are capable of not being you, but you need to learn how… in consistent small doses over time. That’s how habits change, and ultimately results occur.

The stories you don’t always hear or want to hear about the people who create long-term success, is they got out of their comfort zone, stayed focused, and changed. When they had a setback, they did not stay immobilized, they got up and got back on track.

What keeps these people so driven and how can you create that “do whatever it takes mindset”?

It is important to see the big picture of where you want to be, but your focus should be on what you can do now to get to the next step.

You can see and feel significant change and results in 12 weeks. Those results will fuel wanting more success. This is how an unstoppable mindset and lasting habits are created. When that happens, true learning takes place.

Ask yourself, “What do I already ‘know’ about my health that I am not changing?”

How to Create a New Habit

Do you have a health habit that you would like to create but for some reason you are having trouble creating it?

For example, you set the alarm early so you have time to exercise. However when the alarm goes off, you are overcome with sleep, and the comfort and warmth of staying in bed overrides the need to get up and exercise.

Worse, you feel defeated and guilty for not getting up, but you hit the snooze button to go back to sleep anyway, and you don’t create the new habit.

I’m sure everyone has experienced not being able to get out of bed early to exercise, yet some people are able to maintain the habit of getting up early to exercise consistently… and have been doing it for years.

Let’s suppose all the excuses, the holidays, no time, no gym membership, no training partner, too old, bad knee, etc., are not really what’s stopping you… and by the way these really are just excuses.

In order to change a behavior, you need to replace the belief or feeling about the current behavior with one that is stronger and more desirable.

What drives you to change? Your brain works in a way that it will choose the feeling or behavior that drives you the most.

Let’s take the same example of wanting get up early to exercise. If you really believed your life would be better if you changed this behavior, and you believed that the consequences of not changing would produce undesirable consequences, you would be driven to change. Changing would not only feel good, it would feel better.

So how could you replace the habit to stay in bed under the warm covers?

Maybe the new habit would feel better because of the results that getting up and exercising elicits… having more energy throughout the day, less body fat, looking and fitting into clothes better, and you would no longer feel guilty and defeated from sleeping in and not taking responsibility to get in shape.

Any time you want to change a behavior, the intervention is to replace or move towards a new behavior by associating the new behavior with good feelings…feelings that will override the feelings you had for the behavior you need or want to replace.

How can you create a new habit that would feel good and benefit your health?

The Goal of Staying Healthy Through the Holidays

Are you setting a goal for failure just because it is the “holiday season”?

Without even being aware, it is easy to automatically assume that you will be too busy to work out and you will over-eat because of all the holiday goodies. With all the family, friends, and socials, you may be thinking it will be impossible to stay in shape, so why bother trying because gaining weight is certain?

It’s as if holiday time is the perfect excuse to overindulge in food and not work out so you have “permission” to gain weight.

This of course sets the stage for January, when many people decide to join a gym or go on a diet. Sadly, most people never make it to bathing suit season, or even to February. When the going gets tough, people quit at the first obstacle. You see, the goal was to join a gym or go on a diet… and once the membership was paid for and the diet started, the goal was met!

So how do you turn all this insanity around? First of all, holidays do not have to mean you have to deprive yourself of all the fun in order to stay in shape. And just because it is holiday time, you don’t have to be helpless.

Why not set the goal to be in the best shape of your life for the holidays… or set the goal to maintain your current weight. You can improve during this time AND enjoy the fun if you set your intension and desire to do so.

You don’t have to give up the parties and food. The trick is to put your focus on the people and eat responsibly with smart portion sizes and then go right back to your healthy plan. Every meal in December does not have to be out of whack and there is no reason why you can’t train harder, especially knowing you will be attending holiday festivities. You have time for what you make a priority.

Be as passionate about improving your health over the month of December, as you are passionate about the love and joy of the holiday. Set the right goal and take action.

The Secret to Getting the Body You Want

What if you could have the lean sleek body you’ve always wanted… simply by investing 7 min. a week with 7 people. Is that something you’d want to do?

I’m going to tell you exactly how to do that in a minute, but before I do, let me see if this resonates with you…

Are you trying hard to eat right and exercise regularly so that you can lose the fat, get toned and strong, but you’re finding that you’re not doing what you want to do?

Do you find that you’re setting the goals but even with the best of intentions, you are not really following through on them? You’re not holding yourself accountable or taking the steps to get them done?

Before you know it, you’re getting more frustrated because it seems the more you know what you want, the more you stop taking any action to achieve your goals… and you can’t figure out why! You don’t have a structure that supports you.

As Tony Robbins says, “If you talk about it, it’s a dream, if you envision it, it’s possible, but if you schedule it, it’s real.”

So how come you can’t schedule it? Do you know if you simply followed through on all the things you intend to do you would probably get all the results you desire?

Setting goals that you can be held accountable to is one of the most powerful things in terms of going from intention to results.

You want to be first be accountable to yourself by using a scale, body fat caliper, tape measure, weekly progress chart, a daily nutrition diary and a training journal, whatever it takes. Then you can double your motivation and double your results if you had external accountability to a group who is there to support you and hold you to your commitments.

There really is a powerful structure to do exactly that, and it only takes 7 minutes a week with 7 people. You may have heard the term before of masterminding. Let me tell you how this works. This is not coaching. This is about holding you accountable, keeping you motivated, and having a community to check in with once a week.

It’s kind of like going to the gym …if you have to go on your own it’s not quite the same as having a buddy to go with. Well, that’s what this is all about. You are going to have 6 buddies and we’re all going to keep ourselves motivated and accountable. We’re going to celebrate our wins and it’s going to help us in a fun way to make sure we meet all our fitness and nutrition goals and virtually guarantee success.

I’m running a Mastermind group specifically for people who really want to make changes in their life, and really see changes in their body. If you are not getting the results you want, you probably are not changing what you doing. Setting goals are fine, but if you have nothing keeping you accountable to take the action steps necessary, those goals quickly become empty promises that just make you feel frustrated for even trying.

I’m sure you’ll agree, that if you could get all the results that you want, and stop spending money on fitness gear, on nutritional supplements, and all the stuff that you don’t use… but you could actually get results by being in a community of like-minded people who all share your goals, and have access to me, a wellness coach and personal trainer leading your group, I’m sure you would easily agree that is easily worth $49… but really you can’t even put a price on an outcome as important as improving your life!

Because I am launching this new mastermind program, and I want to offer it to you with the first 4 calls free of charge, after that it will be $49.00 per month. If you were to pay one-on-one coaching with me, it would be $300 a month, but with this program you will have access to me for much less. Oh, and I almost forgot, for as long as you stay in the mastermind program, you will have free access to my online training and nutrition program with over 13 custom nutrition plans and a library of over 700 exercises with video descriptions.

The only thing I ask is, if you do participate, you make a commitment to every call. This is not a drop in when you want to and then hear the replay later. This is a team. It relies on your contribution. You are not just receiving benefit, but you are providing benefit too. If you’re not there, you’re not helping, in fact you’re hurting. If you can’t make the commitment to come for each call, don’t sign up.

You are welcome to join, make a difference in your life, and the lives of the others in the group by emailing me: lauren@yourpartnerforchange.com

If you want more details, you can refer back to the previous post: 1-Hour Mastermind

1-Hour Mastermind

First Come First Serve!

Happy November! We are officially into the holiday season. This is indeed a fun time although notoriously stressful as well.

Besides “normal” craziness… there are work parties, social gatherings, and family celebrations that can throw off your routine.

The reason for the statistic of people gaining and average of 10 pounds between now and New Years happens because not only are your normal eating patterns interrupted, but you are shorter on “me” time, that’s where the stress comes in. Before you know it you are cutting out workouts to fit everything in.

While we should all be able to enjoy the holidays it is challenging for anyone trying to stay or become lean.

I am beginning a mastermind group for this reason and I want to keep the group small, 7 people maximum… if there is more interest, I will open more groups based on responses collected.

What is a mastermind?

This will be a 1-hour recorded call, scheduled once a week, and lead by me personally. It is based on the mastermind practices of industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who was the wealthiest man in the world in the 1930’s, wealthy even by today’s standards, and he was also the biggest philanthropist of the 20th century.

Andrew Carnegie was successful for a number of reasons, but notably for doing more with less and optimizing efficiencies for effectiveness. He found an advantage, and used it repeatedly, an advantage that we can all profit from. He regularly used masterminds as his number one tool.

Most people know masterminding from Napoleon Hill’s legendary book Think and Grow Rich. (Chapter 10 for those of you who have it.) Napoleon Hill depicted the success formula of Andrew Carnegie.

What’s all that have to do with weight-loss??

What a mastermind accomplishes is accountability to a group, setting goals and the best practices in getting goals done… in short, easy solutions to achieve your outcome… in this case, staying motivated and taking action to be in the best shape of your life, through the holiday season… and always.

In our 1-hour mastermind, we will meet on a recorded call so you can access and review it at any time, everyone will have a turn to ask a question and get feedback, and then everyone will in turn state their S.M.A.R.T. goal, (specific, measurable, accountable, realistic, and time-bound), for the week and report back each week.

What’s in it for YOU?

If you want to see your body make changes for the better, avoid unnecessary holiday weight gain, and develop the laser-focused attention to get the job done with the support and wisdom of a like-minded accountability group, then this is an amazing opportunity for you. This will not be a time suck… the meetings are succinct yet productive to keep you on tract.

In addition, everyone in the 1-hour mastermind will have access to the self-serve version of my on-line exercise and nutrition program (a $20/month value) at no additional cost. If you would like me to custom design your program, that would be extra, but we could work out an arrangement if that interests you.

To launch this new mastermind program, I am offering the first 2 calls free of charge, after that it will be $49.00 per month. This is a limited time offer until November 15th!

I hope you will consider the Carnegie mastermind formula to achieve your greatest success in this challenging time, and always. While no one can do the exercises for you or eat for you, you don’t have to do this alone. Support from a group has been documented and proven to increase your success exponentially.

If you want to take advantage of this special launch offer, email me at this address: lauren@yourpartnerforchange.com and please be sure to include your time zone!

How would you feel, being in the best shape of your life by New Years 2010 while everyone else is making resolutions?

I look forward to hearing from you,

Lauren

Seven Halloween Tricks to Avoid Weight Gain

What is scary about Halloween is that it is the kick-off season for holiday weight gain. It is no surprise… with all the free candy lying around the temptation is everywhere you look. You’ll find candy at work, the bank, every reception desk, treats sent home with your kids, friends and family. This goes on virtually all month long, not to mention into November with all the left-over candy.
Halloween candy is easily eaten mindlessly and that means weight-gain. With a big bowl of candy sitting on your kitchen counter, it is easy to grab. Even though the portions are usually small, before you know it, a tootsie roll here and a few candy-corns there… the calories begin adding up quicker than you realize. Your body’s ability to burn fat is much harder.
Here are some good tricks:
1- Write down everything you eat, when you see your “honest reporting” on paper the results may scare you! Sometimes you think you are eating in moderation until you take inventory. Remember even fat-free and/or sugar-free candy has calories. Limit yourself to one piece/serving a day or if you can’t control that, none at all.
2- Keep the candy out of sight.
3- Burn the excess calories with exercise. This should never be the end all and the be all to fat loss, (proper nutrition is a highly important component to the mix), but the more muscle you build the faster you burn the calories, and that will help you all the more if you can’t seem to part with the candy bowl.
4- Eat something healthy and include lean protein before you dip into the candy to avoid blood sugar spikes and over-eating and binging on the candy.
5- Get the healthiest treats possible such as raisin packs, trail mix bars, pop-corn, etc. or buy a candy you don’t like to avoid the temptation.
6- Buy your candy at the last minute and be very generous with the last trick-or-treaters to avoid having too much left over.
7- Don’t skip your workouts over the time between Halloween and New Years. This is the time you need to workout most of all. Get started with pumpkin workouts and you could be in the best shape of your life by January 2010 while everyone else is making New Year’s resolutions.

Exercise …Fun?

Reframing is when you create a shift in consciousness to see things in a whole new way. This video at the bottom illustrates the point beautifully.

What happens when you have a choice such as this one in the video, to take the stairs or to take the escalator to go up? Without consciously being aware of it, your mind makes a decision that could be based on many things. Perhaps it’s your time, your level of energy, the shoes you are wearing, your determination to stay fit, or any number of things.

What if you could see all your day-to-day habits in a whole new way… from an entirely different point of view? You can look at any given situation more than one way.

What is your perspective about exercise? Is it work? Is it punishment for over-indulging in food that added too much fat around your belly? Is it something necessary but you absolutely hate doing? Do you have a limiting perspective that is only negative about exercise?

A limiting perspective about something usually fuels your excuses for not taking action. Those thoughts sabotage you! For example, the most common excuse for not exercising is not having enough time. What if you reframed that to: “I make the time for anything I am committed to.” Here is another common limiting belief: “I am too old to change. I just don’t have the energy I used to have… when you get to be my age, there is just no going back!” Reframe: “It’s never too late to make a change. The more consistently I exercise, and eat healthy, the more energetic I become!”

How is that limiting perspective about exercise working for you? What if exercise were fun? Would you make the time for it? Can you think of anything enjoyable about your exercise? The results if gives you perhaps?

If you can change your perspective from a negative experience to a more empowering one, you can change your action and emotional state about it. Your perspective about anything directly produces its outcome.

Your mind and body are part of the same system and affect each other. The way you think about something will have a direct impact on the result you will create. If your mind is not aligned with what you want your body to do (you want to exercise but are making every excuse not to) find out more about coaching.

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