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?

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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, and I feel younger too!”

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 it 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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Biggest Loser or Biggest Winner? Do Tell!

I’ve just read four fitness blogs on the subject of the TV show “The Biggest Loser”… shamelessly, I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and see if my readers were willing to have their say… could you please post your comments?

Personally, I don’t watch much TV, sorry if that offends anyone but it is not on my priority list of things to do. That being said, I often find myself “socially challenged” when people ask me if I have seen a particular show.

Because of the work I do, “The Biggest Loser” is one show that pops up frequently in my conversations with people.

If you are clueless, this reality show now in its’ eighth season, showcases obese people struggling to lose weight in the name of ratings and big money. The contestants are whipped into shape in warp speed, with weight-loss exercise and nutrition programs, as their personal trainer Jillian Michaels screams abusive remarks at them.

The contestant who losses the most weight wins 1/4 million-dollars… and audiences all over the world love to come and watch.

Fitness professionals are highly concerned about the methods of training used on the program. Very sedentary, de-conditioned and obese individuals are put into physical situations that are way too dangerous for them… sprints, one-mile beach runs, joint-risking high impact moves, over-training as many as 6 hours each day, to the point of vomiting and passing out, and more than one person ending up in the hospital, certainly not a training session I would want on my watch.

If that were not enough, the contestants are yelled at by Ms. Michaels, with gratuitous profanity, humiliating them about their size and physical condition, making them feel badly about their ability, bullying them and bringing down their self-esteem.

Most trainers are not supporting this unsafe training and work ethic, and are highly suspect of the contestants ability to maintain their weight for the long term.

This treatment is not empowering to anyone especially over-weight people who may already have issues of self-worth. When positive supporting environments have already been a proven method of success in treating the over-weight and obese, what impact do you think a very popular show like The Biggest Loser could have on the obesity epidemic?

Does it give an unrealistic view of what is necessary to lose weight, to the point of why bother trying? Will it discourage those who are losing a safe 1/2 pound to 2 pounds a week they are not doing a good job unless they work out 4-6 hours a day?

The argument in favor of the show is it gives hope to people who struggle with weight because the contestants achieve rapid physical and emotional transformations. It suggests that people need to be pushed with “tough love” even if it involves tough work to overcome their food addiction.

It certainly offers a support group and accountability, although not in a positive or safe environment. It does make a case that hard work and proper nutrition will pay off. For some, maybe it is inspiring because the show is so emotionally charged. Do you think it will cause more people to take action, or to lose hope…“If only that were me?”

What do you think… Exploitive TV? Inspirational? Unrealistic?

If you watch the show or if you have any thoughts… I’d love it if you would kindly post your comments.

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Put Your Health Care on the Priority List

I spent last weekend visiting my family in North Carolina… mostly to visit my mom who is in a senior living facility. Myself, and many baby-boomers who may be reading this, have parents who are aging or are already gone.

Seeing the seniors at the facility, I couldn’t help but reflect on what will happen to me as I age?

We all want to live a long productive, fulfilling life, have no serious health problems, a sharp mind, and when it is time, our death be painless, peaceful and short.

We can’t determine our destiny but we can improve our chances for having a better quality of life for a longer time.

Our health should be our number one priority.

While many illnesses, are just bad luck… most leading causes of death are totally preventable by making healthy life style choices.

Healthcare costs would not be skyrocketing and not as many people would be sick if everyone made healthy lifestyle choices.

Those of us who do stay well because of the healthy lifestyle choices we make, are footing the bill for those who choose not to. In fact, we would all be much better off if the US spent more on PREVENTATIVE HEALTH CARE and reforming our food industry rather than our healthcare system.

Let’s face it. We are all busy and we are all guilty of taking our own health off of our priority list… not eating what we should, not exercising consistently or indulging in unhealthy habits.

Some of us are busy parents, or busy professionals, or both. Life is moving fast, it gets complicated, you are thinking: How will I get it all done? Where do I find the time? I’m so stressed out!!!

The more you de-prioritize yourself, the more unhappy and unhealthy you will be. It’s hard to see the effects day by day like you would see if you stopped watering your garden, but eventually not prioritizing your health could kill you… or you could live with difficulty for a long time.

Everything you do in your life depends on your being in good health and in good physical condition. To take care of your job or your family, you have to take care of yourself.

Having a preventable health problem and doing nothing about it because you are so busy taking care of everything and everybody is what will literally take you down… and our healthcare costs up.

Ask yourself: “What is most important to me in life?” Now ask: “Does any of that really matter if I am too sick, too immobilized to get out of my chair?”

If you know you need to change but are not changing… it is time you take action. Enlist the service of a wellness coach… in fact you can’t afford not to.

I have many programs and options available. Why not start with a free strategy session? You have a lot to gain if you do, and a lot lose if you don’t.

Click here for a free strategy session: http://bestbodymakeover.com/strategy.html

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How To Get Rid Of Belly Fat

It seems the subject of getting rid of belly fat has been beaten to death already but evidently, it still needs to be addressed. While everyone is convinced they must include an abdominal exercise or two or three or four in every workout if their goal is to lose belly fat, it is not the secret to losing belly fat. The answer may not be what you want hear but if you truly want to reduce the fat around your belly, you need to pay real close attention and more importantly, take action.

Ridding yourself of belly fat is not an impossible feat, but depending on how long it took you to get the fat around your belly or how much fat you have, it can be challenging. It can take a long time to get into a mess, and sometimes longer to get out of one… but you can get out of it and achieve extraordinary results as long as you are focused and on board with taking extraordinary efforts. There is not one single thing that will give you six-pack abs or even a flat tummy; rather it is a combination and synergy of many things working together.

First and foremost, what energy balance are you creating, meaning calories-in and calories-out? If you don’t know the answer to that equation it means you are not willing to measure and be accountable to what you eat. If you knew for certain that people who weigh, measure, journal their food achieve their results, why is that stopping you from doing the same?

If you know for certain that you are honestly reporting the amount of food you eat, and you are burning more than you consume without results, then it is time to look deeper. It’s time to take the guesswork out and make sure you don’t have any underlying causes. Have your blood and saliva tested. Testing can uncover many issues: difficulty with weight loss, fatigue and lack of energy, thyroid dysfunction, adrenal fatigue and imbalance, anemia, hormone or blood-sugar stabilization and much more. Find out. If you find out there is an issue, then take some time to re-frame it. Is this an impossible obstacle, or is it a challenging opportunity?

Next, what are you doing to maximize your fitness plan? Are you simply showing up at the gym dutifully three times a week and going through the weight machines without a real game plan before you even show up there? Are you spinning your wheels doing the belly fat exercises that you read somewhere in a magazine? Does your aerobic exercise consist of walking the dog every morning, or reading a book or watching “CNN” or “Oprah” on the television while on the elliptical?

If you are not honestly ramping up the intensity of your exercise, your body will simply be maintaining what you have. Your muscles will create whatever demand you are giving them. So if you are not increasing the amount of weight you lift, or changing up the type of exercise you do, you will not be building more muscle tissue or burning more fat.

This does not mean you need to spend more time at the gym necessarily, but it does mean you should make the time you are there more effective. You can burn more calories running 30 minutes than walking 60 minutes for example… and that does not mean you have to become a runner… that is just an example.

To lose the fat around your belly, you have to build muscle and work all of your body. The belly is where most of your fat is stored. By building muscle you will increase your metabolism and burn more fat and calories. Your body has to work harder to keep up with the increased demand you are placing on it.

Last and definitely not least, it is not which exercise or nutrition program you follow that will be the secret to losing your belly fat. There are many ways to get from point A to point B. What makes a program great, is when it will motivate you to take action and stay in action for a lifetime.

If you need help getting a program that will keep you on track by all means do not delay, click on this link:

http://www.bestbodymakeover.com/virtual/

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Motivation: Create it… Don’t Wait for it

Why do so many people wait for motivation to just fall on their lap?

Do you have a game plan when it comes to making healthy choices for
your body that you will always be inspired to take action on?

Whether it’s to break out of a sedentary life, make better food
choices, run in a marathon, or complete a certain number of
body-weight pull-ups, it’s what is driving you to stay on your plan
that will move you forward.

Most of us try to move forward without any kind of a game plan, you
just wake up one morning and you feel fat, have no energy, your
clothes don’t fit and you realize you need to do something. You may
start walking or try to cut out some junk food and hope it all
works out.
[Read more]

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