Contentment = Permanent Weight Loss

I love to help people lose weight, I also love to help them stabilize and then maintain weight loss for life. Although I have gained tremendous knowledge about food, calories and nutrition over the past 30 years working in the weight loss industry, you'll rarely find me talking about those things in this blog. The amount of information available to the public about dieting is overwhelming and plentiful. If you have a question about food, calories and protein...you can get that question answered 100 different ways.

My experience has taught me this...it's a lot more about what's eating you...than what you're eating! As I work with clients every week, I'm continually reminded of that.

This week I visited with clients who seem to be "bored with the food" on the Healthy Weigh weight loss diet, but with further examination discovered that discontentment was at the root of "needing" more or different food.

Being content isn't easy. If you've studied contentment at all you find it gets harder before it gets better. Contentment is being satisfied with what you have and where you are; a feeling of calm satisfaction. The problem with contentment is that we look for the circumstances to change, when being content is really learning to be satisfied with things just like they are.

The rub comes when we feel those feelings of discontent and we don't know what to do with them. Food so often becomes the drug of choice to numb, avoid, or escape that uncomfortable feeling of discontentment.

The answer is ALWAYS to identify those feelings and then process them. That might look like journaling, talking to a friend or choosing gratitude for what you have and where you are right now.

Choose contentment this weekend. Challenge yourself to process feelings of discontent and be grateful. See if finding contentment in your present circumstances doesn't just make following your diet a little easier.


Always encouraging you.
Letha

Selfish or Self Care?

I'm a wife and I'm a mom, I'm a sister, aunt,daughter and friend. All of these roles in my life take time, energy, and sacrifice. I've worked hard over the years making sure that the people that I love the most get the best of me...they get the best of me, because I work to be the best me.

I'm convinced that taking care of myself is the very best thing I can do for all of my loved ones. My husband has a wife that feels confident and beautiful. My son has a mom that he looks up to and respects. My sisters and brothers look to me for inspiration and my nieces and nephews see me as a role model. My Mom just loves me.

I meet with men and women every week who do a lot of sacrificing, but they do it to their detriment. They give out all they've got without taking care of themselves first. They love, they serve, they give, all while they aren't in touch with their very best self!

I once heard a great analogy for this issue. When you go on an airplane and the flight attendant is explaining the oxygen mask that will fall down in an emergency...she says, "If you're with a child, remember to put your mask on first, and then help the child." That's the way we should see it every day. We need to be taking care of ourselves first so that we might be able to help and love those around us.

I've always felt like I owed it to my husband and to my son to be my very best; physically, emotionally and spiritually. I think it would be selfish of me to live any other way. Sometimes I see men and women that have that thinking backwards...they think if they take care of themselves first, that somehow, that is selfish.

Selfish to me is being unhappy, dissatisfied, and angry with my self. Selfish to me is spending time worrying about how I haven't taken care of my self, how bad I look and how frustrated I am with my self!

Self care is truly the selfless thing to do. When we are at our best, we are able to pour out, love on, and be free, around the very most important people in our lives.

I hope you will reflect on your self care this weekend and know that the greatest thing you can do for those people in your life, is become the very best you!

Always encouraging you.
Letha

Restaurant Eating...Aint No Big Thing!

One of the obstacles when trying to lose weight seems to be eating out. I say seems to be, because restaurant eating...aint no big thing. We've worked it up to be more difficult than it is. In some ways, eating out can be easier while you are "dieting" than eating at home.

I could tell you all the new ways to find out what you’re eating when you go out to a restaurant. You'll find information about calories,fat grams and carbohydrates, on the internet or even the brand new text message service. I’m sure there is an app for that. BUT it’s easier than that! We make this harder that it should be and then we’re not getting the results we’re looking for.(weight loss)

We’re going on line to look up restaurants menus and nutritional information, then we’re focusing on calories and fat grams and we’re not staying on our nutritional program. We’re being provided nutritional information at some restaurants and saying things like "Wow the 6 inch sub only has 6 grams of fat…that sounds good." We’re making healthier choices than before, but not losing weight.

There’s a difference between being on a weight loss program and being on maintenance eating a healthy diet. The tools offered on the internet, etc are great, but while you’re on the weight loss program, I want to help you go out to eat and stay 100% on your weight loss plan!

I went restaurant hopping and gathered up menus. I wanted to be able to show you, hey, this eating out in restaurants aint no big thing. So here’s what I found, VERY FEW MENUS HAVE PROGRAM FOOD ON THEM! But repeat after me…”The food you need, is in the kitchen!” The restaurants kitchen, that is! It really is. I have picked up MANY menus and looked over them, from our favorite fast food restaurants to the finest dining around. The same thing was true,nothing on the menu, but the food we need is in their kitchen!

So here’s the trick. Confidence! Belief in your ability to order and the knowledge that every restaurant wants to serve you…with love. They need you and will serve you what you need. You just have to be in charge of you and what goes in your mouth!

Let me give you some examples;

Olive Garden…this isn’t on the menu, but this is what I order.
Garden fresh salad, no dressing, with a piece of grilled chicken breast on the top. No bread sticks please. Ice tea with lemon.

Red lobster…"The food I need is in the kitchen."
I will have the broiled sole no butter
Extra vegetables, no rice
Dinner salad~ hold the croutons please and don’t bring the cheese rolls.

Azteca
Chicken sandwich…hold the bun, hold the fries, side salad please, with fat free dressing.

Great Taste Chinese Restaurant
Steamed shrimp with steamed broccoli
Steamed vegetable deluxe
White rice

Subway (don't listen to Jared)
Make any 6 inch sub into a salad, order double meat

Red Robin
Red rice bowl
Hold the rice, hold the crunchy noodles, just bring vegetable and chicken OR
Chicken burger hold the bun, extra fruit or side salad instead of the fries

Burgerville
Side salad
Rosemary grilled chicken breast on top


So are you getting a feel for what needs to be done? The food on this nutritional plan, is in every restaurant in Vancouver and Portland…we must be confident and help our server, help us. The program choices most likely will not be on the menu, but the food you need is in the kitchen. I rarely look at menus,I just order what I need.

So now let's talk portions! We are served meals on platters…what’s up with that?! Then,we’re afraid to leave food! Are you afraid that you’re not going to get your money’s worth? You have to ask yourself, "What did I pay for my weight loss program?"
I often ask for a ‘to go’ box when my food is served and put 1/2 my food away for my next meal.

You are worthy of ordering what you need. You are not high maintenance,you are healthy, in control and confident. You are happy and a role model!
If you had a life threatening illness and had to eat certain foods, would you have confidence then? Or better yet,if your child or grandchild had a life threatening illness and had to eat certain foods,would you have confidence to order what they needed then? Would you be assertive? Oh you bet you would.

Really, I’ve found it easier to eat out.
You order the food, it comes, you eat it.
At home; you buy it, bring it home and put it away, take it back out, prepare it, serve it, clean it up, put away leftovers!

Don’t use the opportunity to go out, to go off program. You can absolutely follow your nutritional plan while eating out!

Be confident, be in charge of what goes in your mouth,and remember, the food you need is in the kitchen!

Always encouraging you,
Letha

Keeper of The Keys

I love to study people. I'm curious about what makes us do the things we do. The longer I live, the more life I experience, the more firm I am in my belief that our actions are ALWAYS dictated by how we think. Our thought life has EVERYTHING to do with how we act. That continues to be a source of great inspiration to me because I believe that we have complete control over how we think. Our past experiences and our current circumstances have a lot to do with our thought life, that's for sure, but ultimately we have the ability to think rightly about the past and the present, and that right thinking changes everything.

I found this poem years ago and it really speaks to the truth about our thought life.

"Keeper of the Keys"

You are the Keeper of The Keys.
You are the Guard at The Gate.
Waiting in line to get through that door
Is LOVE and also HATE.
In line to enter is GENTLE PEACE.
And also VIOLENT WAR.
You must choose who may, and who
May not come through the door.
INTOLERANCE tries to sneak on through
On wings of FEAR, or PRIDE.
It hides behind DREAMS of BELONGING,
And tries to sneak inside.
Oh! Be alert! You're the Guard who decides
Who GOES and who may STAY.
You are The Keeper of The Keys to Your Mind.
Who will you let in today?

Guy Gilchrist


I encourage you to be the "Keeper of the Keys" to your mind. Choose to think rightly and guard your thoughts. Who will you let in today?

Always encouraging you,
Letha

Freedom!

It's July, and we're headed into the weekend that we as a country celebrate our Independence and our freedoms. I'm wondering today how free you really feel? Has food, or your struggles to control your eating, made you feel less than free? Do you sometimes feel like a prisoner, trapped in an unhealthy body?

Freedom takes work. It took work over 200 hundred years ago as our forefathers fought for what was ours. It takes work today as we fight for what is ours; a healthy, fit body. To be free is to not be under the control or power of someone or something. To be free is not to give in to the desires of our natural man...that in fact, is bondage to the flesh. I see men and women fighting to be free every week at The Healthy Weigh, they are re-defining freedom for themselves! It's exciting!

I'm convinced that the key to being free from overeating is to fight the battles on the inside as well as the outside. How much time are you spending on coping with life's difficulties, healing past pain, and working to understand your beliefs? Equal time or more should be given to the inside of us, as we focus on changing the outside. That's when freedom comes!

As you spend time with your families this weekend, celebrating our great country, I hope that you will take some time to ponder your freedom as a healthy adult. Choose freedom both on the inside and out this Independence Day.

Always encouraging you.
Letha