Freedom!

July is around the corner and we're headed into the week 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 Independence Day, 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 4th of July.

Always encouraging you.

Letha

Contentment = Weight Loss

Last night I taught an extensive class on how to 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 visit with clients every week, I'm continually reminded of that.
 
This week I talked with a client 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 discontentment 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.

I'll be sitting around a camp fire tonight with my friends from The Healthy Weigh. We're going on a camp out to celebrate the last ten weeks of our Team Challenge. We have a lot to celebrate. Clients are losing more weight and keeping it off permanently! I look forward to sharing a few stories with them by the fire! I know one thing for sure, I'm going to feel content tonight!


Always encouraging you,
Letha

Face Your Stuff ~ Don't Stuff Your Face!

This mantra showed up on the back of a team's shirt at our Team Challenge last year! I love it! Yesterday it sprang up again in the dialog of our Team Challenge participants on their face book page. It got me thinking.

"Face your stuff, don't stuff your face." Such wise instruction with life changing results. I thought a lot about my Healthy Weigh clients yesterday, past and present, in regards to this instruction. I observe and hear about how our clients are choosing to NOT stuff their faces...which brings about excitement and weight loss. We celebrate the pounds coming off as clients are choosing a new way to eat. I've observed for 30 years now, that people can avoid overeating, change their actions and lose weight...they can chose to NOT stuff their faces. The bigger questions is...are they facing their stuff?

Are you "white knuckling" it through the weight loss program, or are you facing the deeper issues that caused you to put the weight on in the first place? I am ALL for a program that offers a easy, healthy, system to lose weight, but the program can't stop there or at best the weight loss will be temporary. Are you facing your stuff?

I've talked in the past about coping skills; the act of taking what's inside of you (pain, resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, to name a few)and getting it out... processing the feelings instead of denying them. Sometimes I think that when a client doesn't go to food, doesn't USE food as their drug of choice, they feel like they are facing their stuff, when in reality, they have just avoided stuffing the pain down temporarily. Not stuffing your face is very important in this journey...but facing your stuff is the key to permanent weight loss!

Are you journaling your feelings? Are you talking to a friend or a counselor about the anxieties and pain in your life? Are you identifying what you're really feeling when you stand at the refrigerator looking for "something?" Are you facing your stuff?

What ever our drugs of choice are...food, alcohol, drugs, shopping, working too much, we can change our actions and quit "using" for a time, but unless we choose to face our stuff, we will, on auto pilot, return to the drug that makes us feel better.

My deepest desire as the owner of The Healthy Weigh, is to see my clients/friends, healthy from the inside out. I am proud to offer a nutritional plan that can't be beat, but I am much more passionate about helping people make permanent change that will affect every area of their lives.

July 17th we will begin our 13th season of our Team Challenge. We have a group of individuals who are serious about permanent weight loss. They are facing their stuff. We also have a number of brand new clients beginning a journey at The Heathy Weigh.  I look forward to introducing them to what I believe is the best program available anywhere! At the Healthy Weigh we believe in facing our stuff and we'll be doing just that during the 10 weeks of the Summer Team Challenge!

Journey on my friends. Face your stuff! You'll be so glad you did!

Always encouraging you.
Letha

Announcing Our Summer Team Challenge!

We're going to the Olympics! That's right, The Healthy Weigh announced the theme of the next Team Challenge Tuesday and it's all about the Summer Olympics! What better inspiration is there than using athletes who are reaching for the gold to motivate us to reach for our "gold?" From the stories we'll hear about perseverance, to the thrill of watching athletic world records being broken, we will surely find what it takes to reach our personal best this summer of 2012!


One of my favorite things about my job is being able to use creativity and inspiration to help people live their best lives! Losing weight might have been a boring thing in the past, but at The Healthy Weigh it's anything but that! I do everything I can to bring joy and energy into the serious, personal work that I do. Losing weight and keeping it off can be difficult at times but if you can have fun and celebrate along the way, you'll be more likely to 1. stick with it and 2. keep it off for life! That's what we're about at The Healthy Weigh!


We are currently on our last two weeks of our "CAMP OUT" Team Challenge! Our Spring Team Challenge  has taken us places that we never thought we'd go. On this camp out we've had time to reflect on and renew our attitudes about permanent weight loss. Some times it takes getting out in the woods and taking the time to get to know yourself, to be able to make the changes necessary to keep weight off for life!  Our Teams have done a great job with the physical part of weight loss as well the emotional work necessary to maintain their weight loss. We are two weeks away from breaking the all time record, this 12th season of our team challenge! We will have a greater % of weight loss than all the challenges before this one! It just keeps getting better!



This group of over 80 teams has shown amazing support to each other. From our Face book closed group to the activities outside of the Tuesday challenge, these outstanding people have bonded together. It has been said that 'It is not good for man to be alone'...this groups knows that and has been there for each other through many difficult times in the last 10 weeks. Losing weight and keeping it off can feel impossible when you try to go it alone, but with the love and support of people around you...anythings possible!


As we enter into the Summer of 2012 I can't thing of a creative or more powerful way to motivate people than to use the Olympics as our theme.  We will have a program introduction class explaining the nutritional plan in detail on Tuesday, July 17th at Noon and 6 PM and the following week at Noon and Six, we will have our very own, opening ceremonies! I can't wait!


Here's the run down of the upcoming events leading up to our Opening Ceremonies:


June 19th  GRAND FINALE of our "Camp Out" Team Challenge 6 PM!
June 21st   STABILIZATION Class for all clients near or at goal weight 6 PM
June 22nd  We're going on a CAMP OUT!  A real one!
June 26th   30 minute Infomercials explaining the Team Challenge at 11 AM and 7PM
                  "Olympic Training" at Noon and 6PM (for all those already enrolled in the Summer      Team Challenge)
July 3rd     CLOSED for the holiday
July 10th    30 minute Infomercials explaining the Team Challenge at 11 AM and 7PM
                  "Olympic Training" at Noon and 6PM (for all those already enrolled in the Summer Team Challenge) 
July 17th  Program introduction class at Noon and 6PM for everyone enrolled in the Summer Team Challenge
July 24th  Opening Ceremonies at Noon and 6PM (First weigh in for the Summer Team Challenge)


We've got a fun line up in the weeks to come and great anticipation building as we close out yet another successful Team Challenge and begin again! 

If you've been a part of the Team Challenge before, you know what's ahead of you...if not, I invite you to join us for the Olympic Games 2012!  We begin July 17th and will have our finale on September 25th with clients celebrating 20, 30 40, 60 or more pounds of weight loss that night! It's going to be a Summer Games to remember! For more information, or to register...go on line to www.healthyweigh.com


Always encouraging you,
Letha

The Weight of the Nation!

Twenty two years ago today, I became the owner of The Healthy Weigh. June 1, 1990!  I had been working in the weight loss business for over 9 years at that time and it seemed only natural that I would continue to run the business when the owner of the company stepped away. I have spent the last 31 years dedicated to helping people not only lose weight, but live their best lives. I have to admit that over the last 30 years, I have felt somewhat alone in my efforts to make a difference.  Until yesterday...

Last night I was invited to attend a showing of one of the episodes of the HBO series The Weight of the Nation.  Kaiser Permanente and Clark County Public Health, hosted the event. The room was full of non-profit organizations and community groups that are dedicated to making a difference in our great nation...starting right here in Clark County. Especially with our children.

The obesity epidemic demands every ones attention. Obesity contributes to five of the 10 leading causes of death in America, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and stroke. In the United States today, more than three in 10 children and adolescents, and more than two of every three adults, are over weight or obese.

The Weight of the Nation offers an unflinching look at the severity of the crisis and its crippling effects on health and health care. Three years in the making, The Weight of the Nation is one of the most far-reaching public health campaigns on this epidemic to date, comprising four documentary films, a three-part HBO family series, a website and social media campaign, and a nation wide outreach campaign to more the 40,000 community organizations.

Thursday night's event was an effort to connect people with resources and information, promote the great work that is already being done in Clark County and develop awareness for this concern.

I sat in the room last night feeling proud of what I've spent the last 30 years doing... caring about the weight of the nation.  I felt hopeful that together as a nation, we really can make a difference for the next generation, and I felt relieved that finally our country is facing this very serious epidemic head on!

Here is a list of resources to help you learn more about what's happening in our county and our nation and to help you spread the word.

www.letsmove.gov  (Let's Move Clark County)

CONNECT
facebook.com/theweightofthenation

TAKE ACTION. LEARN MORE
hbo.com/theweightofthenation

SHARE
youtube.com/hbodocs

Over my 30 years of teaching healthy life styles, I've heard many a client tell me that I was trying to "fight against everything that is happening in America."  As I "preached" healthy eating, limiting calories, saying no thank you to over indulgence and moving more, it seemed that I was fighting a up hill battle.  America...welcome to the war! I'm so glad to be fighting with you!

Sixty years ago, people littered with indifference, seal belts weren't an option, and smoking was the norm. Collectively, the nation managed to recognize those problems and reverse those trends, raising up a new generation that recycles, buckles up, and sees smoking as a serious health risk. Obesity is a health concern, a social dilemma, a personal challenge, an economic burden, and a policy issue. Every one of us has the capacity to bring about change in at least one of those arenas, and working together, if we lose enough, we can win.

Happy, Happy Anniversary Healthy Weigh!!

Always encouraging you,
Letha