Posts Tagged ‘motivation’
Guest Blog: The struggle is real… But why?
By Lisa Goldberg, Licensed Clinical Nutritionist
Why do you think sustainable weight loss eludes you? You’re smart, savvy and you know what healthy is and what it’s not. You’ve probably read a million books and articles on eating healthy for weight loss. You have all of the information. So how is it you know what to do but you just can’t do it??
Your struggle with weight just drains you. You wrack your brain wondering why the weight just won’t come off no matter what you do. You have tried every trick in the book. You lose weight but over time the weight slowly comes back on. Or maybe for you it quickly comes back.
What do you think that’s all about? Lack of motivation? Lack of willpower? Laziness?
I want to let you know its not any of those things. It’s about your self-defeating behaviors.
What exactly are self-defeating behaviors? Actions or attitudes stemming from faulty or limited beliefs that once worked to help us cope with hurtful experiences, but now they prevent us from responding to life in healthy ways.
These behaviors lead us to make choices in all aspects of our life, health, work, relationships etc that perpetuate cycles of failure. Samples of this include: My metabolism is broken so why should I try? Nothing works for me. I am destined to be overweight. No matter what I do the weight will come back. I’m afraid to fail again… Do any of these sound Familiar?
It is your self-defeating behaviors and faulty beliefs that keep you stuck in your struggle with food, weight loss, relationships and anything else you haven’t been able to sustainably change in your life.
This is why the weight always comes back. Because all you’ve done is focus on changing the food. You’ve haven’t yet addressed the “Why.”
You can continue to try every diet on the planet but unless you change what you believe about yourself and the behaviors that follow…the weight will always come back.
Close your eyes for a few seconds and imagine what it would feel like to continuously replace self-defeating behaviors with life-enhancing behaviors. You continuously make choices that make you feel good, happy and proud. Imagine how that would feel? Pretty darn good, right? Well, I want to let you know this is possible.
I want to let you know that by learning the right tools and strategies you can change your self-defeating behaviors to new, habitual life-enhancing behaviors so you can overcome your struggle with food and lose the weight for good.
After all, you know its never really about the food. It’s about changing the habits, behaviors and your old coping mechanism that causes you to eat to soothe your feelings with food. If you are done with the quick fixes and you are ready to address the root cause of your yo-yo dieting, don’t wait any longer to set up a call with me to see how I can support you.
Don’t let fear of change, fear of failure, indecision or caring what other people think stop you. Life is just too short to stay stuck in old patterns that no longer serve you. Over the last 16 years I have had hundreds of clients put their trust in me to help them change the behaviors that keep them stuck in their struggle with food and desirable weight loss. Here are some of their discoveries and Ah-ha moments:
“Thanks to you for the large part, I have not been bingeing even through all this! I haven’t lost anymore but I haven’t gained either. I already knew everything you taught me however you say it in a magical way that I truly get it!”
“I am a totally different in terms of how I eat and how I think about food. All the techniques we have discussed were extremely helpful in getting me to this point which I call “autopilot.” I have started focusing less on restricting my intake and more on eating healthy foods”
“Posting a few wins that happened this week. I received a few compliments that I have really “slimmed down” and it shows in my clothes. I think by not letting the number on the scale stress me out and dictate my mood for the day – I have been able lose more inches.”
“I’m really understanding now when you said it’s just food – it has NO magical powers. It might make me feel good for a few seconds but that is nothing compared to how long the great feeling for losing weight and being healthy lasts. I’m going to remember that at difficult or stressful times and in the heat of the moment when my mind thinks of nothing but food and I start reaching for the food that I think will “solve” my unpleasant feeling.”
Take the first step at this very moment to start to change your self-defeating behaviors and stop saying “What if I can’t?” and start saying “Yes, I can!”
About the Guest Blogger:
Lisa Goldberg is a nutritionist with a Masters degree in Clinical Nutrition from New York University. In addition, her certifications and Licenses include: Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Dietician/Nutritionist licensed by New York State, Certified in Adult Weight Management by the ADA. Lisa is also a personal trainer certified by the American Counsel on Exercise since 1994. She was the Nutritionist at the New York Stock Exchange from 2003-2007 and for 10 years served as the nutritionist to traders on Wall Street. Anyone who would like to discuss their weight loss goals with Lisa can schedule a free 30-minute weight loss consultation with her by clicking here. (Simply let Lisa know you found out about her on the Just Stop! blog.)
A Note from Gregg:
As some of you Just Stoppers might remember, I have been lucky enough to be a guest in nutrition rockstar Lisa Goldberg’s recent weight loss summits not once, but twice. I love Lisa’s total approach to wellness, which not only includes getting to a healthy weight, but also enjoying life and learning to love and appreciate yourself in the process. Lisa is about to begin her exclusive 6 month online group weight loss program (for the body, mind and soul) – during which you can discover how to break old habits and behavior patterns that keep you from losing weight once and for all.
Any Just Stopper who wants to find out more information (without any obligation), can click here to schedule a free 30-minute Discovery Session with Lisa herself to find out more about the upcoming 6 month online group weight loss program.
Photo Source: Simpatico
It’s not too late!
It’s not too late to join me, nutrition guru Lisa Goldberg and a slew of other diet, exercise and mental wellness experts for the free Well Fed Mind Online Summit.
There is no charge for signing up and being treated to 21 top experts in the field of health and wellness that will speak about nutrition, a healthy mindset and the kind of movement that can help you get off of the diet roller coaster once and for all. These experts (including yours truly) will help you create lifestyle changes that are permanent and sustainable. All for no charge at all. Simply click here to sign up today.
I’m truly so excited to be participating in this free online summit. I hope you’ll join me. (And please feel free to share this link with anyone else you think might value this kind of motivational information. After all, we’re all in this together!)
Top Photo Source: Eat Like A Goddess
Happy Monday (yes, really!)
Ready for some Monday Motivation? Well, here we go. It’s a new week that’s full of new possibilities. All you have to decide is what those possibilities hold for you. Is this the week you give up diet soda? Or the week you choose to have a healthy lunch salad instead of that submarine sandwich? Maybe it’s the week you let yourself go “crazy” by having a bowl of ice cream. But a measured bowl that equals a healthy portion that won’t upset your fitness goals (or send your scale spiraling out of control). Maybe it’s the week you decide to not get on the scale and, instead, decide to find joy in the fact that your clothes are a little looser — or at least will be looser in the near future.
Whatever you have in your line of vision, make it positive. Make it motivational. Make it serve you. Being depressed that the weekend is over or even “down” because you did something you now regret (like perhaps “cheat” on your diet) doesn’t help anything or anyone — least of all you. Forgive. Forget. Move on. It can be a fabulous day and a fantastic week if we allow it to.
So let’s take that next positive step together, shall we? (Feel free to share the things you’re holding in your line of vision by commenting below! And know I support your efforts and believe in you 100%!)
Photo Source: The Sykes Group’s OnPoint
You matter
It’s that time again… And no one likes a new beginning as much as those of us with a “dieter’s mentality.” And here we are at the grand slam of new beginnings — the first week of a new year. If misery loves company, we can take heart in the fact that almost everyone is getting on the scale right now, vowing to take off at least a couple pounds (“Welcome to our world, suckers!”).
But in actuality, none of us has to be miserable about it at all.
So often we think of dieting and losing weight as a punishment of sorts. When, really, it’s a choice. A choice that offers freedom, better health, more happiness and looking damned fine in our skinniest jeans. It’s all about changing that mental channel from ‘deprivation’ to “elation.”
Yeah, that’s right — elation.
In other words, I challenge you to be happy about your choice to take off a few (or a 100+) pounds this year. Do it with pep. With zest. And with the knowledge that it’s really not about deprivation at all.
When it comes down to it, you can eat anything you’d like while working to take off excess weight. The key, of course, is portion control. And I know that can be a tough thing to wrestle with after allowing one’s self to drink a whole vat of eggnog during the previous week since we knew we’d be starting (or re-starting) diets after the first of the year. But that was then. This is now.
As for your favorite foods, you might know that you can’t eat a single cup of ice cream right now because you’d be too tempted to make it 8 or more cups. Same could be true for French Fries, potato chips or whatever your “trigger foods” might be. So in that case, you might choose to forego these foods for a little while. But this isn’t deprivation either. Again, this is choice.
I urge you to abandon the concept of “I can never have ice cream (or whatever) again.” That’s just simply not true. You can have your favorite foods at anytime. But you can also not have them for a while, in an effort to encourage a little self-control. Once again, with feeling: This isn’t punishment. This is choice.
And perhaps when you’re down a few pounds, breathing easier, sleeping better and putting on your pants without having to offer up several prayers to get the waist fastened, you can then choose to have some ice cream – in a supermodel portion size (because that’s what you are… A supermodel). After all, even those skinny folks choose to have ice cream (or whatever) from time to time, rather than every day — and in a reasonable portion size that couldn’t feed a small nation.
Remember, you’re what matters. Your health. Your looks (no false vanity here, folks). Your happiness. And the key to all this isn’t going to be found in angst, in guilt or in the concept of being punished. Last year was then. Those eating habits were then. The vats of eggnog were then. This is now. This moment. And this is what matters most.
Not totally convinced? Then take a look at the belt I used to wear (shown above)… A belt made for a 60-inch waist…. A belt that I was wearing out at the last buckle hole… A belt that I haven’t had the need for in over a decade — other than as a reminder of what I’ve accomplished. If I can do it, you can do it. No, check that… We can do it!
So take a deep breath and commit to the choice of being your true, amazing, fabulous self this New Year. The choice can happen right now, in this very moment. Let’s make this choice together — at the same time — and move forward with vitality, vivaciousness and an attitude that lets the world (and ourselves) know that this time we mean business!
Pure inspiration
Who can turn the world on with her smile? Turns out it’s not just Mary Tyler Moore, but also Valerie Harper, who has bravely come forward with her brain cancer diagnosis and is inspiring all of us with her brave and positive attitude.
After recently catching Ms. Harper (appearing with others from the original Mary Tyler Moore show) on Katie, I was moved by her joy, her courage and her refusal to stop living life even after being told by her doctors that she may have just months to live. Instead, Ms. Harper gracefully cautioned us all to “Not go to the funeral before the actual funeral.”
I realized in that moment (while watching her speak) that despite what I thought was a stressful day (the kind of day that made me want to reach for the nearest package of cookies and eat them all), that I actually had nothing to complain about. After all, if Ms. Harper could smile even when facing her current circumstances, then why couldn’t I?
Ms. Harper is a great reminder for us all to live in the moment. As she recently told CNN, “I just want folks to see me, that I’m OK, that I’m not suffering so far. There may be pain. There may be a lot of things ahead, but whatever they are, they’re ahead. They’re not now.”
She went onto tell interviewer Piers Morgan that she is trying to live in the moment and then offered this advice for others: “Keep your chin up and don’t go to the funeral, mine or yours or your loved ones, until the day of the funeral because then you miss the life that you have left.”
“Death is out there for all of us,” she told Mr. Morgan. “There’s other ways to handle it than just sit on the couch and accept.”
I always find it very inspirational when people facing odds we can’t even imagine share their courage and inspiration with the rest of us. It helps make whatever we’re facing seem tolerable — while also reminding us to count our blessings and be thankful for every little thing in our lives (cookies and otherwise).
Photo Source: knue.com
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