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The 7 BETTER Basics: A Guide To Living Well & Losing Fat

December 22, 2014
Why Stress Causes Fat Gain

This time of year brings Holiday happiness and often sugar, booze and too much food. In a about a week the time will be ripe for making a New Year’s resolution to not let those things get the best of you again. I love and loathe New Year’s resolutions.

They are filled with hope and stem from a genuine desire to be BETTER. But they are also usually vague as in “I want to lose weight” or “I want to get healthy”, rarely involve any strategic planning which sets you  up for failure, and often call for a complete overhaul to your life. All of that makes them, more often than not, totally ineffective. Just look at your gym in January and again in March. Where did everyone go? Motivation wanes.

There needs to be a little inspiration behind your goals. They need some organization and some planning upfront. They need troubleshooting and strategy and they need some real consideration if you want to pull it off. The ideas in this blog will be helpful in carving out a resolution but they will help you right now, today, as well.

As you navigate December’s extra eating, family stresses, lack of “me time” and as you plan your weight loss and health goals for 2015, keep these 7 BETTER tenants in mind: Think NOURISH not PUNISH when it comes to your diet and exercise plan.

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Those of us that struggle to lose fat and keep it off, have been at this whole weight loss thing for a while.  At this stage in the game, if we’ve found enough oomph to try again, we are often choking down a salad and hating every bite. Or we’re sentencing ourselves to one more mile on the treadmill because “we’re too fat”.  This is punishment and it’s damaging to our spirit.  Do we still need to eat well and workout? Yes. Can we do them because they are nourishing, making us stronger and closer to our goals? Yes.  And that feels a whole lot better.

Knowing better doesn’t always mean doing better.

Don’t be afraid to tackle what’s holding you back from employing all you know to do for yourself.  Sabotage seems to come with the territory of trying to lose weight. Whether through therapy, reading self-help books, talking it through with a friend, or journaling – dig deep. Look for what you may not be willing to give up about your unhealthy habits and what it really means to step up and show up for yourselves in this way. This work is as necessary as doing squats. (I have an amazing new tool for this stuff coming in January, sit tight!)

Do more of what works.

Focus on your successes in diet and health more than your failures.  Learn from mistakes instead of feeling guilty about them. Turn set-backs into set-forward by learning.

We do so much on autopilot – slow down and look at what’s not working. See what simple changes you could make to do better.

For example, have at least one restaurant on speed dial to order a healthy meal from on those nights when the fridge is empty and you’re worn out.  Leave extra gym clothes in the car if you tend to get home and find the couch more enticing than the workout you had planned. If more prep time on Sunday sets you up for more success during the week because you’ve got plenty of healthy food ready, then do it.

Food sends instructions.

Pay attention to what your body is telling you. Be careful of the instructions you’re sending your metabolism and heed your hormones’ messages. Send fat burning vs. fat storing messages by eating more veggies and protein and heed your UCT. Use your body’s cues to guide your decisions around food and exercise especially if you’re geared up to start the year off with a strict diet, cleanse or other rigid plan.

If you don’t consider the messages you’re sending your body and it’s sending you, about a week into your new “diet”  you’ll be craving all those foods you’ve sworn off as your metabolism bites back.

Remember your metabolism is like a rubber band, you have to put just enough stretch on it to get results but not so much that is snaps back. This is where honoring your UCT, listening to your ACES (appetite, cravings, energy and success – as in are you losing fat or not) comes in. When these variables are more in balance, your metabolism is working BETTER – meaning less struggle for you to keep going.

Fuel your fat loss and better health with inspiration vs. motivation.

Inspiration gets you up at 5am to workout and it helps you eat a salad instead of pizza.  Motivation is sexy upfront and will abandon you a couple weeks in. Motivation relies on exhaustible willpower – tap into your WHY power. Inspiration is kept alive by a big, meaningful, and unwavering WHY.

Be. Eat. Think. Thank. Exercise. Restore.

BE the healthy, lean woman you desire to be. If it’s in your being, your actions will follow (what you eat, how you exercise, what clothes you buy, how you stand up confident and tall, etc.).  Mind your thoughts – be nice in your head.  Be grateful for the body and health you have now – even if you want more for yourself.

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Move that body every day and spend your precious time doing exercise that burns fat, not just burns your time. Don’t neglect foam rolling, walking, yoga, rest.  Keep stress down and sleep up. Do this all over and over again. Small BETTER decisions add up to big changes in your body – and life.

Between perfection and giving up, there’s BETTER.

You don’t have to be perfect,you simply have to bring your best to any given moment and do better. Perfection stifles your stamina because it’s unattainable and impossible. Simply be BETTER. Happy Holidays everyone! And please stay tuned as I’ve got two new email based programs for you coming VERY soon! The first is a free habit change program to help you really get 2015 off to a great start! Together we’ll make some real change this year. Details coming very soon!

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