I wasn’t sure if there would be a July edition of Stop the Weight, it’s been a challenging few weeks. By the time this comes out, it may actually be August already! As I stress with my clients, it’s important to put your own self-care and personal priorities first, no matter what. And most of us find that hard to do. So in that spirit, that’s what I have been doing.
Of course, some of it was simply by default. I live in Butte County, California and if you have seen any news in the last few weeks, you have probably seen my area up in flames. It seems we haven’t had a break in wildfires, and we really haven’t since mid-June. In fact, my husband and I returned home from our vacation to Nashville the day after a huge fire had started up here and we couldn’t even get to our house because the roads were closed. We have been really lucky and never had to evacuate, but we were told to be ready at a moment’s notice. It’s really interesting to go through your home and decide what is truly important that you would take with you in an evacuation. For us, it was mainly our pets, pictures, important documents and my computer and business files. I was surprised how little really mattered when it came right down to that decision.
Because of the wonderful dedication of the firefighters and emergency officials, most of our community came out of this scared but untouched. It’s been really nice to get back to work and focus on “normal” things once again.
I have tons to share with all of you, but I only have room for so much. I’ll save some for next month and if there is something I must let you know about before then, I will send out a special email. I hope you enjoy the information this month and please be sure to check out the Inspiration section, a very special film producer and director shared a video with me that he directed for an artist that deserves to be known and get more attention. I appreciate him letting me share this with all of you and I hope if you are inspired that you check out her website and her music.
I hope your summer is going well and is safe! I’m looking forward to the rainy season….
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I have a confession that I’ve been reluctant to share until recently. I have this dream of being able to bring intuitive eating and the idea of self acceptance to the country music industry. I know this sounds kind of weird, but it would combine my two big passions. It really bothers me when I see the pressure female artists are under to confirm to a certain image. Case in point is how much weight Carrie Underwood had to lose after she won American Idol. She was absolutely beautiful during the competition, and she still is, but I believe she didn’t need to lose weight and I know it was the industry and probably her label that forced her to do so. It must be very difficult to maintain such a weight and I wouldn’t want to live that way. What bothers me even more is the influence that female artists have on their young female fans. Girls aren’t just seeing a strong, capable woman who has followed her dreams, but they are also getting a message that perfection is necessary for success.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting an independent film maker, Glenn Sweitzer of Fresh Design Films from Nashville on MySpace. He is a great artist and I’ve shared with him my vision, and he agrees with me and also sees the challenges in achieving it. He recently filmed a video for an independent artist, Brandi Thornton. I love the video and the message of her song, and I encourage you to check it out and support her and her music.
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Trainer to Go Final Blow Out
A couple months ago I shared with you the special my friends Heather and Mary were having on their Trainer to Go system. Well, it moved very fast at the special price and now they have 9 left! This is your last chance before it’s gone!
Are you serious about changing your body, getting fit, and feeling great? Then order now to get one of only 9 Trainer To Go Mastery units left at 70% off!
Office of Research on Women’s Health
The Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) serves as a focal point for women's health research at the NIH (National Institutes of Health). This link will give you many websites that are designed for consumer information. It’s great to see a governmental office dedicated to the health of women since so much health research in the past has been conducted on men only.
Women’s Health and Fitness Podcast Directory
The Women’s Health and Fitness Podcast Directory can be depended on to bring the latest information on the hottest topics including exercise motivation, intuitive eating, menopause, weight loss, pregnancy and nutrition, to name just a few.
Superviva Life List
This is a fun website a client told me about. You can record your dreams and goals, big or small and get a reminder about them in your email. You can even look at others’ ideas and dreams to get your own ideas!
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July 2008
Leave Your Legacy Giveaways!
I was recommended for an intuitive eating “success story” article that was being written for Health magazine. It finally came out this month and you can see a brief summary of my story as well as two other women and some tips on adopting an intuitive eating approach. While I’m not a fan of before and after pictures, it was fun to be featured in the article and hopefully inspire others to learn more and break free from the diet mentality.
This issue is still available in stores, it is the July/August 2008 edition. The article begins on page 47, called “How to think yourself thin”, and I am on page 51. You can also see it on the Health website. Here are the links:
Full Article
My Story
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The following is an excerpt from Healthier Outcomes’ special report, “6 Simple Steps to Guilt-Free Eating” available in its entirety at HealthierOutcomes.com:
Are you stuffing your feelings down with food? In other words, when you get stressed, frustrated, angry or depressed do you find yourself eating rather than dealing with the circumstances that are causing you to feel a certain way?
Don’t beat yourself up if you are doing this. You’re certainly not alone. Not only are millions of people doing the same thing, but I’ve been there too.
Challenge
We don’t start out in life eating for emotional reasons. It’s actually something we learn. As we grow up we learn not to trust our body to tell us when to eat. Emotional eating is usually taught by our parents or other authority figures. What happened when you fell down and hurt yourself? Did you get a cookie “to make it better”?
In our society, we also associate holidays, birthdays, and almost any event with food. We eat for almost any reason – stress, anger, sadness, boredom, happiness, excitement, just about anything but physical hunger.
Do you ever crave “comfort food”? This is usually a sign that you are experiencing some kind of intense emotion. You may not even realize this if you often engage in emotional overeating. Comfort food allows us to “stuff down” those feelings and “numb out” temporarily from the feeling.
Food is a distraction and when you overeat so much that you feel sick, this creates an even bigger distraction. If you can relate to this, don’t beat yourself up. Like me, this is how you learned to take care of yourself, it’s a protective measure. You could have learned to use drugs, alcohol, shopping, gambling, or any other destructive habit instead of using food.
Solution
There is good and bad news. First, the bad news – you will have to feel your feelings. The good news is as you truly allow yourself to feel your feelings, they will lower in intensity and so will the desire for comfort food.
Of course there is a good chance you won’t know what you are feeling. This is because food is usually the response to any intense feeling. So first, you need to be aware of when you are going for food. If you find you really aren’t physically hungry, ask yourself what you’re feeling. This isn’t always so simple, especially when you do not want to face the truth of the issue. Run through a list of emotions – anxious, lonely, bored, tired, angry, hurt, embarrassed?
If you can’t identify the feeling, that’s ok. Keep trying and practicing as feelings come up. Journaling thoughts and feelings is very helpful for some people to identify what emotion is going on.
If you can determine the feeling, ask yourself, “Am I going to die if I sit with this feeling for five minutes?” All you have to do is sit and feel. It may not feel very good, but notice how it gets less intense as you allow yourself to feel it. As you practice this more and more, you will find it easier to deal with emotions and find yourself less drawn to food to solve your problems.
This article has been excerpted from the special report, “6 Simple Steps to Guilt-Free Eating” available for download at HealthierOutcomes.com. Gillian Hood-Gabrielson, MS, ACSM, is the president of Healthier Outcomes, a nationwide coaching practice specializing in intuitive eating and fitness coaching. For more information please visit HealthierOutcomes.com. Gillian can be reached at gillian@HealthierOutcomes.com or 866-650-6464.
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Did you know that August is Leave Your Legacy Month?
As a business owner, you get to do something you're passionate about every day. It's fulfilling to be able to do work you love and make a real difference for people.
Have you ever really sat and thought about the impact you’re having - not only for your clients, but on the world?
Building a business is big work and it cannot be done alone. As an entrepreneur, you need help, and you need to be supported. For the month of August, I've teamed up with 12 other fabulous business-building professionals. These women are experts in their field, they relate to what you're going through, and are eager to help you build a strong business.
We are offering tools and resources - *fre*e* - that you can download and check out right now. Simply go to www.MindfulBusinessesPartner.com to meet these fantastic women and get the help you need.
Be sure you check it out soon - the page will only be active for the month of August. After that, the bonuses come down to make web space for another project.
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