Are You Fully Engaged? Principle # 2

Continued from last week...
a reminder:
To be fully engaged, we must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interests.

The challenge of great life performance is to manage your energy more effectively in all dimensions to achieve your goals. Four key energy management principles drive this process. They lie at the heart of change, and they are critical for building the capacity to live a productive, fully engaged life.

So…to fully engage the following 4 energy management principles will be key:
This week we'll address Principle #2

PRINCIPLE 2:
Because energy capacity diminishes both with overuse and with under use, we must balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal.

We rarely consider how much energy we are spending because we take it for granted that the energy available to us is limitless. In fact, increased demand progressively depletes our energy reserves, especially in the absences of any efforts to reverse the loss of capacity that comes with age. We can dramatically slow our decline both physically and mentally, and we should actually deepen our emotional and spiritual capacity until the very end of our lives.

When we spend far more energy than we recover and the eventual consequence is that we break down, burn out, atrophy, lose passion, get sick and even die prematurely. Sadly the need for recovery is often viewed as evidence of weakness rather than as an integral aspect of sustained performance. The result is that we give no attention to renewing and expanding our energy reserves, individually or organizationally.

The richest, happiest, and most productive lives are characterized by the ability to fully engage in the challenge at hand, but also disengage periodically and seek renewal. Instead, many of us live our lives as if we are running in an endless marathon, pushing ourselves far beyond healthy levels of exertion.

We become flat lines mentally and emotionally by spending energy without sufficient recovery. We become flat lines physically and spiritually by not expending enough energy. Either way, we slowly wear down.

Think for a moment about the look of many long distance runners. Gaunt, sallow, slightly sunken and emotionally flat. Now visualize a sprinter. Sprinters typically look powerful, bursting with energy and eager to push themselves to their limits. The explanation is simple. No matter how intense the demand they face, the finish line is 100 or 200 meters down the track.

We, too must learn to live our lives as a series of sprints. We must fully engaged for periods of time, then fully disengage and seek renewal before jumping back into the fray to face whatever challenges confront us.

Here's to a week with a series of sprints!
More next week.

Always encouraging you,
Letha

Are You Fully Engaged? Principle # 1

Continued from last week...

a reminder:
To be fully engaged, we must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interests.

The challenge of great life performance is to manage your energy more effectively in all dimensions to achieve your goals. Four key energy management principles drive this process. They lie at the heart of change, and they are critical for building the capacity to live a productive, fully engaged life.

So…to fully engage the following 4 energy management principles will be key:
This week we'll address Principle #1.


PRINCIPLE 1:

Full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related sources of energy; physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

The truth is that humans beings are complex energy systems. Full engagement is not one dimensional. The energy that pulses through us is physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. All four dynamics are critical. None is sufficient by itself and each one profoundly influences the others.

To perform at our best we must skillfully manage each of these dimensions. Subtract any one of these and we lose our capacity to fully engage…much the way an engine sputters when one of it’s cylinders misfires.


Energy is the common denominator in all dimensions of our lives. Physical energy capacity is measured in terms of quantity (low to high) where emotional energy capacity is measured in quality (negative to positive).

These are our most fundamental sources of energy because without sufficient high-octane fuel no mission can be accomplished. The more toxic and unpleasant our energy, the less effective we perform. The more positive and pleasant, the energy, the more efficient it is. Full engagement and maximum performance are only possible when we are living lives with high physical energy and positive emotional energy.

The importance of full engagement is most vivid in situations where the consequences of disengagement are profound.

Imagine for a moment that you are facing open-heart surgery. Where on a scale from low to high would you want your surgeon to be? How would you feel if he entered the operating room feeling angry, frustrated and anxious. How about overworked, exhausted, and depressed. What if he was laid back and slightly spacey? Obviously, you want your surgeon energized, confident and upbeat.

Imagine that every time you reacted inappropriately at someone in frustration or did sloppy work on a project or failed to focus your attention fully on the task at hand, you put someone’s life at risk? Very quickly, you would become less negative, reckless and sloppy in the way you manage your energy.

We must learn to hold ourselves accountable for how we manage our energy, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, just as we do our time.

So for this week...be fully engaged by managing your energy, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

Next week we'll look at principle #2

Always encouraging you.
Letha

Will you be fully enagaed in 2012?

We are only two weeks into 2012...how many of you already feel like the demands of your life exceeds your capacity to make it all happen?

We live in a digital time. Our rhythms are rushed, our days are carved up in to bits and bytes.
We survive on too little sleep, fuel up on coffee, and go non stop from morning until night. We have demands all day and arrive home feeling exhausted and often experience the things and people waiting for us at home as one more demand instead of a place to refuel and feel renewed.

Our lives feel over burdened.

We take pride in our ability to multi task, we have cell phones, pagers, emails and pop up reminders. We use words like obsessed, stressed, crazy and overwhelmed. Feeling starved for time we feel we have no choice but to cram as much as possible into every day.

Managing time efficiently does not guarantee that we are living our lives fully engaged…it does not guarantee that we are bringing sufficient energy into whatever we are doing.


The ultimate measure of our lives is not how much time we spend on the planet, but rather how much energy we invest in the time that we have. The number of hours in a day is fixed, but the quantity and the quality of energy available to us is not.

To be fully engaged, we must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interests.

Full engagement begins with feeling eager to get to work in the morning, equally happy to return home in the evening and capable of setting clear boundaries between the two. It means being able to immerse yourself in the mission you are on, whether it’s grappling with a creative challenge at work, managing a group of people on a project, spending time with loved ones or simply having fun.


I want to do something fun and compare our lives, our busy, successful, time crunched lives, to those of a professional athlete.

Think about it…
Professional athletes typically spend about 90 percent of their time training, in order to perform 10 percent of the time. Their entire lives are designed around expanding, sustaining, and renewing the energy they need to compete for short, focused periods of time.

They build very precise routines for managing energy in all spheres of their lives. Eating and sleeping…working out and resting…summoning the appropriate emotions, mentally staying focused and connecting regularly to the mission they have set for themselves.

Although most of us spend little or no time systematically training in any of these dimensions, we are expected to perform at our best for eight, ten even twelve hours a day.

Most professional athletes also enjoy an off-season of four to five months a year. After competing under extraordinary pressure for several months, a long off-season gives athletes the critical time that thy need for rest and healing, renewal and growth.

By contrast, our “off” season amounts to a few weeks of vacation a year, Even then we probably aren’t solely resting and recovering. More likely we are spending a least some of our vacation answering emails, checking our voice mail and thinking about our work.

Finally, professional athletes have an average career span of five to seven years. If they have handled their finances reasonable well, they are often set for life. Few of them are under pressure to run out and get another job.
By contrast, we can probably expect to work for forty to fifty years without any significant breaks.

Given these stark facts, what makes it possible to keep performing at our best without sacrificing our health, our happiness and our passions for life?

We must become fully engaged!

To be fully engaged, we must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interests.

The challenge of great life performance is to manage your energy more effectively in all dimensions to achieve your goals. Four key energy management principles drive this process. They lie at the heart of change, and they are critical for building the capacity to live a productive, fully engaged life.

So…to fully engage, four energy management principles will be key:

We'll look at those principles for the next 4 weeks!
Until then...be fully engaged, be in the moment.

Always encouraging you,
Letha

The Year in Review!

It's that time of year again! Time to celebrate all that happened in 2011 and time to anticipate 2012! Powerful things are happening at The Healthy Weigh and I couldn't be more excited!

Join me for a look back at 2011:

Last January I made the decision after 30 years, to discontinue the one on one counseling side of The Healthy Weigh's program. That decision came after months of success and participation with our group Team Challenge! Because of the overwhelming success the clients were experiencing at the Team Challenge, the decision came easy. I chose to put all my efforts, finances and energy into what was helping our clients the most! We went on to produce 4 Team Challenges the year of 2011! Our clients lost over 7000 pounds in those 4 challenges, but more importantly, I saw lives being changed from the inside out!

As the participation in the Team Challenge grew, so did our need for a bigger location. It just happened that the suite down the hall was perfect for us! We moved in March just in time to celebrate the finale of our "Saddle Up Your Horses" winter Team Challenge! We purchased 50 more chairs and made room for our spring Team Challenge, "Road Trip." During our summer Team Challenge, "The Amazing Race," We were approached about sharing our space! Because The Healthy Weigh is now only using the space on Tuesday's for the Team Challenge, it made perfect sense to sublease our suite the rest of the week. I was excited to work with "Clark County Career Development" to come up with a shared plan that helped us both. We added a couple of walls, moved a fixture or two and we are happily sharing office space.

We closed out 2011 celebrating one of the most exciting years The Healthy Weigh has ever seen. I saw more weight loss than I've experienced in my 30 year career and I'm working with a community of people that are looking into 2012 with GREAT anticipation!

Stay with me to look into 2012:

We are preparing to begin our 11th season of the Team Challenge on January 10th! Our theme for this 10 week challenge is "BEYOND THE LIMITS." We are climbing Mt. Everest together! :-) As I write this blog on January 6th, we have over 60 teams signed up and ready to begin. I would imagine that 15 to 20 more teams will show up in the next few days! It's going to be an incredible 10 weeks!

We have plans to offer 4 Team Challenges again this year and are so excited about the numbers of clients reaching goal weight and now participating in our Alumni program. Our closed Face book page launched each Team Challenge, has provided a greater support group than I've experienced before. It's with great confidence I'm proud to say the participants in The Healthy Weigh's Team Challenge are some of the most outstanding and supportive people in Clark County. I am honored to be the facilitator of something so powerful!

Here's to the best year The Healthy Weigh and it's clients have ever seen! Here's to permanent weight loss, lives being changed and the ripple effect that all of that change brings!

If you are reading this and haven't participated in The Team Challenge before...don't wait. Come join us on Tuesday,January 10th at noon or 6pm for the program introduction class and climb Mt. Everest with us! We are going to push BEYOND THE LIMITS in 2012...come and push with us!

Always encouraging you,
Letha

Your Word for 2012

We have a tradition at The Healthy Weigh...choosing a word for the year. As 2011 comes to a close, we've been working on our word choices. We've each been deciding on a word, that if studied, focused on, and mastered would alter our lives in 2012.

Words carry enormous power to move us to a greater level of living. Words create impressions, images and expectations. They build psychological connections. Words dictate how we think, and since our thoughts dictate our actions, there's a powerful connection between the words we focus on and speak, and the results we get.

Poorly chosen words can kill enthusiasm, impact self-esteem, lower expectations and hold people back.
Well chosen words motivate people, offer hope, impact thinking, and alter results. Do you want altered results in 2009?

Choose a word, just for you...then become an expert at it. Select a word that creates a visual of the desired outcome. Choose your word as if it matters...because it does. Research it, become a student of it, and display it all year. Let your friends and family know about your word. Allow your word to alter you in 2012.

I Thought I would post a few of my clients word choices with their explanations as to why they chose that word. It might help get you started on your own word choice.

My word is TRANSITION.
Meaning the process of changing; passing from one condition to another. Its an exciting word for me in many ways; my weight, my fitness goals, and my job. This year I became eligible for early retirement and I get excited thinking about all the things I could do and change the season of my life to a new and exciting chapter but I haven't done anything towards making that happen. I found it interesting to look up and see that opposite words are stagnation, sameness (wow, that's where I've been). While I may not mentally be ready to completely let go I do want to take steps that direction such as cutting back hours and responsibilities to focus on personal goals and interests. Yep, I like the word meaning the "process" of changing and setting goals in all areas of my life in that direction will make it happen!
Peggy

I've had a problem with my word for the last couple of years and finally decided to adopt it. It's not a pretty word like "hope" or "believe" or "understanding".
My word is TENACIOUS
Meaning "persistent in maintaining or seeking something of value", "holding fast", "not easily pulled asunder", "unyielding". I Will Be Tenacious This Year!!!

Susan

My word is FREEDOM.
The state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint 2. exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
3. the power to determine action without restraint.
Kimberli

My word for the year is TRIUMPH or TRIUMPHANT.
depending on how you are using it. Triumph/Triumphant...the act, fact, or condition of being victorious or triumphant; victory; conquest, a significant success or noteworthy achievement, exultation resulting from victory; joy over success, to be successful, to be elated or glad; rejoice proudly, the feeling of exultation and happiness derived from a victory or major achievement. What makes this word even better is having the word REJOICE (another great one) in the definition! This is so my word!!!!
Karen

I hope that these words have inspired you to start this powerful and life changing tradition for yourself! I'd love to see your comments and hear about your words for 2012!

Always encouraging you,

Letha...oh, and by the way, my word for 2012 is...FUN!

Give yourself permission to have a Merry Christmas!

It's the Friday before Christmas and I just sat and read through my clients face book posts. I've been inspired to write this morning because of them. I love face book for that reason. It gives me a peek into their lives this Christmas.I read about their struggles and their desire to stay the course. Let's face it, the holiday season isn't an easy time for people who have decided to lose weight and eat healthy.

I guess I want to give a new perspective on eating healthy through the holidays this morning. I could make a list of the top 10 ways to "stay on your diet," I could give a list of "diet recipes" to take to your holiday parties or I could give one of my motivational talks about what it looks like to "make a decision!" Instead I'm going to give you a new way to look at this wonderful time of year!

Have you ever noticed that thin, healthy people go through the holidays and come out on the other side thin and healthy? It's not because they are staying away from EVERYTHING that's not on their program, it's because they are making healthy choices for the most part and then enjoying a few bites of "sometimes foods." Those are the foods that we don't have every day...or even every week. They are the foods that we should have "sometimes" in our diets. Those sometimes foods show up more often during the holidays!

What would happen if you(who are on a weight loss diet)made sure that you were exercising, drinking water, getting in your important food groups, had a bite or two of those "sometimes foods?" I'll tell you...you'd probably STILL lose weight over the holiday!

But here's what happens! Instead of eating your basic, nutritional foods, you start saying yes to the sometimes foods and no to your healthy foods. You don't have a bite of something yummy, you finish it off! Guilt sets in because you were "off program" and to make matters worse, you feel physically sick as well! That sets in motion more of the same and you throw in the towel! You gain weight over the holidays and have to climb out of that hole after New Years' and "start over."

What if you gave yourself permission to take a bite of Aunt Judy's fudge? What if you gave yourself permission to eat the prettiest sugar cookie on the plate? What if you gave yourself permission to eat like a thin, healthy person on Christmas Eve? I'll tell you. You'd feel great, you'd be really proud of your choices and you'd probably lose weight over the holidays!

If I had a list of things to do to stay healthy over the holidays it'd look like this:
Make sure you are eating ALL your program food! Don't miss a meal.
Put cranberries or frozen strawberries with lime in your water and drink a ton of it!
Before you start your holiday cooking/baking, eat a meal!
Don't run out of healthy/program food!
Get outside and MOVE!
When you choose to have a bite of a "sometimes food"...pick the best! don't waste a calorie on something that isn't GREAT!
GET RID OF LEFTOVERS! Don't let the celebration continue for days!

I know for some of you this perspective will be a relief, for others it will stress you out! Living in extremes is a similar characteristic of over weight people; it's all or nothing. What if you gave yourself permission to live life in the balance this Christmas?

I'm making sugar cookies today. The sparkly snowflakes are my favorite! I'll be having one with my Christmas Eve dinner.

To you and yours I say Merry Christmas my friends. Have a healthy, balanced, guilt free Christmas!

VISION 2012!

At our house we have a saying about good movies, we just say. “quality movie.”
Remember The Titans… “quality movie”, The Count of Monte Cristo… “quality movie”, …Zoro “quality movie”.

We always remember great lines of quality movies. One of my favorite lines ever is in the movie Zoro when the governor of California asks Alejandro, “Are you a man of vision?” He replies… “I am a man in search of a vision!”

So I’ve got to ask you today…are you a person of vision, or are you a person in search of a vision?…or neither?

Vision; a dream, a mental picture, foresight, the ability to see the future.

Quest; a chase, pursuit, you go in search of, you are on a hunt for.

To change, to lose weight permanently, to have a vital, strong, healthy, free life, you MUST have vision quest!

It works like this: You know your vision…now you’re on a quest to get there!


Without Vision…people perish…(give up the ghost), die!

The first step to any change is to know what you want,to have vision! Vision is about looking ahead, looking to what you want.


Vision is a picture or idea you have in your mind of yourself, or your life. A clear vision helps you pursue dreams and achieve goals. A vision that is clear will open your thoughts to the endless possibilities of the future. Your thoughts dictate your feelings and your feeling dictate your actions so you’ve got to have vision to open your thoughts and keep them on right track!

A vision will help you to overcome obstacles in the way and helps you hold on when times are tough. A vision that is well defined helps you to focus and create a purpose that becomes your measurement for your success.

If you do not have a vision of who you want to be, how you want to succeed or what you want out of life, you begin to lack drive and your life becomes just an order of events.
A strong and current vision connects with your passions and greatest potentials. Regardless of what is going on in the world or challenges that present themselves, a vision helps you know what and why you are doing the things you are doing. Having a vision is most important in the path of your success in life.

A vision might be the most powerful way to keep focused on what you want in life while keeping you motivated in achieving it. A vision will open up your mind to many possibilities and a brighter and bigger future. When you can envision a future that is better, happier, more productive, you are going to make the changes that are necessary for you to reach that type of life.

Who do you want to be?
Your vision should include who you want to be. It is important to know clearly who you are right now to know who you want to become. This includes your habits, attitudes, and your beliefs. If you are unclear about yourself, you will be unclear about your future. The destination of your vision should be emotional, physical, spiritual and intellectual.

When you create a successful vision, you begin to feel passionate about it. The only way to be successful in your vision is to visualize it and set goals and a plan of action to reach your vision.

Over time, you will begin to see more parts of your vision coming true until one day you see yourself living your vision. You gained your weight little by little. You didn’t wake up one morning with 30 extra pounds on your body because of what you ate last night. That’s how it is when we begin to live a new life, with new habits, based on a vision of the life we really want. Little by little we begin to see that vision lived out! That’s so cool!

A vision is the capability to see beyond your current reality, creating and inventing what does not now exist and becoming what you are not right now. A vision is important in all aspects of life; body, soul and spirit. Building your vision does not have to be difficult as long as you know exactly what it is you see for yourself in the future. But that can be the problem sometimes, not knowing what we really want.

Important things to remember when creating a vision:
Know exactly who you are.
Brainstorm, imagine and dream.
Focus on things that give your life purpose and meaning.
Do not put limits on your dreams.

What do you really want? Why have you set out to lose fat off your body? Is your vision to weigh less, or is your vision to live more!!!?

If you have not created a vision for the life you want to be living, the life you MUST live, then now is the time to do it!
It’s really about having the discipline to sit down and dream. We are all so different,but it helps me to dream in compartments. A vision for my physical body, a vision for my soul;my mind, will and emotions and a vision for my spiritual life;the deepest place of who I am.

Creating a vision should be intense,it’s about knowing who you are today, knowing how you live today and saying "I want it to look different." "I want a new life." "I want it to be different!"
Then and only then, will you be inspired to move, to go, to leave behind what you’ve known and go to that new place!

Without vision people parish. Be a person of vision as we head into 2012!

Always encouraging you,
Letha