You Ugly Fat Cow

Many, many women spend most of their waking hours thinking about dieting. Or losing weight. Thinking about basically trimming fat off of their bodies so they can be more pleased with the reflection in the mirror. Or healthier.

Many, many men spend most of their waking hours thinking about sex and how good they might look to prospective girlfriends/wife. Thinking about what to do to tone up, bulk up, firm up so they can be more macho. Or healthier.

So we work out and we pay attention to what we eat and don’t eat. And most of us don’t get permanent results if all we are doing is move more and eat better. Because it’s all backwards.

Because Life happens from the inside out.

But interestingly enough, we want the out before we get the in. We are so backwards sometimes. Investing into changing our minds, nourishing them, cherishing them, changing them, stirring them up a bit seems lame. Too labor intensive. Stupid.

Yet come to think of it, controlling and growing our thoughts in the right direction is truly the first pillar of change. Because we won’t ever live above our thoughts. And this is the one pillar that will cause all other pillars to be strong. And only when this pillar is well established can we actually change the shape and health of our bodies. Because everything in life starts and happens from the inside out.  

In my career as a personal trainer, I once had a lovely client who saw herself as an “ugly fat cow.” Every time she would see herself in my wall-to-wall mirror, she would point her chin to the mirror and say, “you ugly fat cow!” Probably three times a session. Or maybe more.

You ugly fat cow.

You ugly fat cow.

You ugly fat cow.

She said it, she believed it, she was it in her own mind. And you know what? As long as that is where her mind was, her body never changed. No matter how hard she worked. No matter how little she ate. Nothing changed.

You ugly fat cow.

As I gained her confidence, I began to talk to her about her thoughts and her speech. Eventually, we got to the place where she was forbidden to say “you ugly fat cow.”

And then she began to believe me.

She changed her mind about herself. She changed her thoughts.

And her body changed.

Confidence Confessions

Living life to match a number on the scales or in your clothes is not living. 

There, I said it.

And I should know. Because that’s been the story of my life until I finally got a hold of myself.

High school was not a fun time for me, I was overweight and had bad skin…  To say the least, I was not confident.  But later on in life, something amazing happened: a few key people express confidence in me.  And the transformation was the coolest thing; not so much what happened on the outside, it was what took place on the inside. I was finally doing things to make myself be the best ME I could be. I was polishing up the rough edges. I started working out. I started eating better.

Eventually, my skin started looking better. And I started walking taller and with more confidence.

I began paying attention to what was going on in the world and started investing myself in things I believe in. That meant I had to really get a hold of what I believed in for real. I had to establish clear personal boundaries and stick to them.

And I learned that health from the inside out comes from doing the best I can with what I have. And letting who I am shine through.

After I changed how I treated myself, people changed how they treated me.

I am so much more than numbers on a scale.

And you, my friend, are so much more than a number on a scale. It’s time to invest in yourself. It’s time to start living a healthy lifestyle, not to be skinny, but to feel good and to live a long, strong and healthy life. That’s how we find inner happiness, confidence and beauty.

We actually do have control over the ME we are. and the ME we project. Don’t do things backwards.

We can choose to be pitiful or powerful. No victims here!

The Alphabet of Health–I is for Intensity

I am a firm believer in exercise, period. Any kind of movement is great. You get off the couch and you are already a winner.

But just like with anything else in life, you need specific strategies for specific results. You don’t use a hammer to screw a screw into your wall, and you don’t use garlic to make a sweet dessert.  That’s just common sense.

Well, it’s the same with exercise. If you want to build muscle, you lift weights. If you are recovering from an injury, you walk and you start slow. If you are train for a marathon, you work on endurance. And if you are looking to burn some fat off of your body, you need to increase the intensity of your workouts. Why is that? Three reasons: (1)  you need to increase your caloric expenditure. (2) you need to build muscles in order to rev up your metabolism (3) you want to burn calories even after you are done working out.

Unless you have not worked out at all for a while, slow walking isn’t going to do the trick. So set your mind, research some higher intensity workouts, and go to it!

Homemade

When the kids were little, we made butter by shaking the cream in a jar for forever. It was hard work, but so much fun at the same time. And we used to make our own bread. Now, I make my own yogurt. And I started to make cheese. And vanilla. And we hardly ever buy spaghetti sauce; it tastes so much better homemade. Actually, we buy very few products that aren’t just the thing itself. Mixes don’t really have a place in my house. I even started to make my own laundry soap and shampoo. And I love it!

All of that to say that there is a lot to be said about homemade. It’s empowering somehow. Feels like I am taking my life into my own hands, away from the manufacturers that seek to fill me with inexpensive, fattening, bad-for-you junk. Makes me feel more in control. Capable. Productive. Self-sufficient. Even creative.

And it makes me feel like I am participating in the world in a positive way.  And alive. And that is healthy all the way.

So, I’d love to hear from you. Are you taking small or giant steps towards more control in what you eat and your home environment  Do you have wonderful homemade recipes to share with us from cleaning products to food items? Barb’s Fit U Community could become a cool source of information for all of us if we let it!

 

 

 

 

 

The Alphabet of Health-G is for GUT

When it comes to your body, every single little part is important. I mean, think about going through life without a thumb. Or an eyelid. Or the nerves that make you smile. But there are some parts that have a bigger influence on the whole than others, and your gut is one of those.  Hyppocrates figured it out over 2000 years ago when he said, “All disease begins in the gut.”

What does that really mean? Basically, your gut health matters a whole lot. An unhealthy gut contributes to diabetes, obesity, arthritis, depression and chronic fatigue syndrome to just name a few. Really? Really.

Gut health is determined by the gut flora and the gut barrier.

(1)  The gut flora: hard to even comprehend, but your gut is the home of approximately 100 trillion microorganisms. That’s 15 zeros by the way. Its role, among others, it to promote normal gostrointestinal function, protect you from infection and regulate your metabolism. The gut flora is negatively affected by antibiotics, diets high in refined carbs and processed foods and low in fibers, chronic stress and infections.

(2) The gut barrier: it decides what gets in and what stays out. If this barrier becomes permeable, “stuff” escape into the bloodstream, and the body reacts by attacking it. This is the leaky gut syndrome, and it seems to be playing a role in the development of autoimmune diseases. Symptoms for leaky gut can be skin problems, heart issues, joint pains or even mental illness! Anything that can destroy the gut flora (poor diet, antibiotics, infections, stress, hormonal issues, etc…) can cause leaky gut.  There is a good chance that a bad gut flora means you have a leaky gut, and vice versa.

And that means inflammation.

The solution? Basically, we need to start rebuilding good gut flora and try to restore the intestinal barrier. And much of this is done by diet: remove food toxins, eat lots of fiber, eat fermented food. As far as lifestyle, take the necessary steps to begin managing your stress.

God knew what He was doing when He gave us real food and told us not to worry…

 

Higher Purpose

For the sake of this article, I am going to assume that you (and I) are trying to eat healthy most  of the time.  My question is simply, “Why?”

Is it simply because we want a longer life, a skinnier life, a disease-free life, a leaner, stronger body?  Or because it eases our consciences? I know that probably sounds pretty lame, but I am not so sure that this isn’t true for many of us…

So you spend a ton of energy sculpting a skinny body, but what’s your skinny body for? Just so you can look in the mirror and smile? What gift are you here to give others? Or you work very hard at becoming a vegetarian; so what? How is it going to make your life more meaningful?

I am thinking that good nutrition needs to have more of a purpose than good health, because health by itself doesn’t always have meaning. I mean, living is about more than health, isn’t it? We need a reason, a purpose for being here on planet earth. A healthy body has to have purpose, because we are more than our bodies. We actually are a spirit that has a mind and lives in a body for now. Your body is what carries you around. It’s really a gift. The purpose of the gift is more than health, isn’t it? It’s so that you can be all that you were meant to be.

Nothing wrong with having personal physical goals and reaching for them; I am all about that myself. Go for it! But when this becomes your only reason for doing what you do with your body, maybe things have become somewhat out of balance… Maybe you forgot that your life has a lot more meaning than that.

As corny as it sounds, you are here for a reason. The world needs you. It wants you, your gift, your talents, your service, your heart, your mind, and your creative potential fulfilled. And the world isn’t that interested in whether or not you’ve been eating low fat or high fiber, or if you finally lost the 5 pounds.

So yes, let’s eat healthy, look good, sculpt our bodies and have lots of energy. But we can’t stop there. We have to have a reason beyond all that. We ought to make a difference because of that.

The Alphabet of Health–D

D IS FOR “DO IT!”

You can talk about it until you are blue in the face, but at the end of the day, if you did not do something, you’ve got nothing. Zilch. Zero. Nada.

Sometimes, we’d like to make it all so complicated.

But the bottom line is this: Today, not Tomorrow.

It’s that simple. It doesn’t matter that you don’t have it together yet, and it’s probably not true that you still have to do this or that before you can get started. And you know what? Tomorrow, you will have a thousand new reasons why it’s not a good day for starting.

But the bottom line is truly this simple: Today, not Tomorrow.

Today is a great day to go for a walk. Today is a perfect day to add two glasses of water. Today is the right day for signing up for that class. Today is the day to stop worrying about what you can’t change.

Really, the bottom line is just this crazy: Today, not Tomorrow.

So… what are you doing today? 

Resolution Success

So… the new year has arrived and we are living in it fully now. How are you doing on these resolutions, or goals?

Here’s a bit of motivation for you:

1. Focus on the Process: Almost every goal focuses on an outcome, such as losing 40 pounds or running a marathon. Instead, focus on the process that will get you there. This means that your goal should focus on what you will do, translating your wish list into specific actions. For example, try “I will eat clean 90 % of every meal”  instead of “losing 40 pounds.”

2. Make It Daily: Your best bet for success is turning your goals/resolution into a daily actions, so that they become a habit. “Exercise 10 minutes a day”  is way better than “Go to the gym every week at some point.”

3. Visualize: It may sound like weird new age stuff, but visualizing yourself doing your resolution/goal does help. When you visualize, your brain “practices” your action. Musicians and athletes use this to improve their performance, and you can use it to increase your success. Just spend a few moments picturing yourself eating less, exercising more or relaxing, or whatever it is you are wanting for yourself this year. Make it vivid — picture sites, smells, and sounds.

4. Feel It: You need to feel the benefits of your resolution in your body. That means pay attention to how your body feels. Is your goal/resolution improving your sleep, mood or energy level? Does it remove stress from your life? Are you seeing benefits? As you feel your progress, you will be encouraged to go on. 

5. Commit: Nothing works if you don’t commit to it. Write down a sentence that says what you are going to do in the new year. Once you write it down, tell everyone about your plans. The more people you tell, the better your chance for success –they can hold you accountable to your pledge, and you can feel an increased sense of needing to stand by your word.

Now go do it!

Resolutions?

OK, it’s the last day of the year…

 and you all have a huge list of resolutions, right? And by next week, well…

It’s way harder to develop habits that we think, or to deny ingrained habits  cold turkey. And often, we set ourselves up for failure with ridiculous resolutions that no one could ever keep. Even though you might have great intentions, a better alternative might be to develop new goals for the future..

Goals are better than resolutions because:

Rigid vs. Fluid:

Resolutions stay the same: “I will go to bed by 10pm.” “I will stop eating junk.” “I will go to the gym five times a week.” If these are somewhat big changes, it may feel like a huge change with no buildup. Goals, however, can be tackled in steps, beginning with baby steps and increasing in difficulty as you become more accustomed to the change. This makes goals more realistic for lasting change.

Sense of Accomplishment vs. Sense of Failure:

Goals give you a direction to aspire to, but with the baby steps you may be taking toward your goal, you can still feel like you’ve accomplished something and are on the right track, which will, in turn, keep you moving in the right direction. Once you’ve broken a rigid resolution, however, it’s easier to feel like a failure and give up

The Scope of the Change:

Resolutions are usually a means to a goal, but if you find a resolution too difficult to stick to, it’s usually dropped and forgotten. With goals, if you find a planned change too difficult to carry out, you can drop that plan, but pick a different new behavior to try that will still lead to the same end result, and not lose sight of the goal. For example, imagine you want to get in the habit of exercising to be in better shape. You might make a resolution to go to the gym five times a week. But if you find that you just hate the gym, you probably won’t stick to your resolution, and you’ll be no closer to your goal. However, if you make ‘getting more exercise’ the goal, you may drop the gym, but switch to walking through your neighborhood each morning, and still meet your goal.

Now that you know some of why resolutions often fail and goals are a more realistic route, here are some tips for setting goals you can get behind:

~Keep your future in mind.

~Think in terms of broad changes rather than specific behaviors.

For instance, resolving to develop A Stress Management Practice gives more room for growth and change than “Do Yoga Every Morning”. While you’ll want to put your broad goals into specific behaviors, deciding to Develop a Stress Management Practice gives you room to experiment, and allows you to change course if you find that Yoga isn’t working for you.

~Think in terms of what you’d like to add to your life, rather than what you’d like to take away.

For example, instead of making the goal to “Eat Less Unhealthy Food”, focus on trying to “Eat More Healthy Food”. You may subconsciously feel more deprived if you think of taking something away rather than adding something good, and if you replace unhealthy food in your diet with healthy food, the same goal is accomplished. Also, it’s usually easier to add a behavior than to stop a behavior.

Once you have your goals set, keep them in the forefront of your mind. Keep them listed in your day-planner, have them as part of your screen saver, or post-it them in prominent places around your house for a while. Reward yourself with something small for continuing to stick with it, until you make enough progress toward your goals that the progress becomes its own reward. And remember that change doesn’t come overnight, but as you work toward developing what is important to you, the change will come, and it will be lasting. Remember this, and enjoy building the life you were meant to live!

Tomorrow, a new year starts. Are you living the life you pictured a few years back? If not, it might be time to drop resolutions and start working on some goals. Because goals really work. All other animals besides humans are directed entirely by impulse written into their genetic code. But as humans, if we don’t like the story of our life thus far, we can rip up the script and write a completely new one.

Ask anyone who has achieved great success in life—there was a turning point, a time when they made a clear and resolute decision that from that moment forward, their life would never be the same. They drew a figurative line in the sand and separated the patterns of their past from their new vision of themselves and the life they were committed to leading. Some make that turning point at age 15, some not until they’re 50; some do it several times throughout their lives and some never at all. This year, this month, this day, this moment. What you have accomplished so far is only a fraction of what’s truly possible for you. You are far more powerful, capable and gifted than you allow yourself to be. The only thing separating you from your grandest vision of your life is courage. Muster the courage to declare that right now, this year is your turning point. Yep!

The Alphabet of Health–A

A is for Attitude

Because no matter how much knowledge you have, and how intelligent or strong or determined or beautiful or… you fill in the blanks…you might be, if your attitude is not in line with your goals, you are probably not going to be very successful. And no matter how little breaks you get, how little money, or time, or support, or equipment, or friends or … you fill in the blanks… you might have, if your attitude is one of a winner, you are certainly going to make it.

Success doesn’t have much to do with great circumstances or genes; success is really all about how you see yourself, your progress, your goal, your future. It’s really all about how you think about all these.

I wouldn’t say that I am a Ghandi fan, but these words of his pretty much sum up what I think on the matter: “Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”

If you think yourself a loser, that is where you will go, even if all the odds are in your favor. And if you think yourself a winner, well, that is what you are. Your life is truly the sum of your thoughts; you and I are what we think we are.

Let’s be careful out there…