You Have The Power...Now Flip That Switch!

You know the switch I'm talking about. The one that when flipped, you are ON PROGRAM! You are fired up and nothing can break your resolve! You are excited, motivated and driven to follow the nutritional plan and see results. That switch!

I've spent time in the last 30 years discovering ways to flip that switch in my own life. Not only in regards to my eating habits, but in other areas of my life that require excellence as well! I've gotten really good at it!

There are really two things you need to invest in, to flip the switch...time and emotions. Oh, I can hear the sighs right now! :-) You're always short on time...and you avoid those emotional moments really well!

Do you want to flip the switch? Do you wake up each morning and say "This day is going to be better" and by the time you lie down at night, you are discouraged with your self again? If you are willing to spend some time, and feel some feelings, you too can flip that switch and TODAY can be the start of a great fall and a content holiday season!

TIME...we rarely take the time to get to know ourselves. We race through this life, taking care of other people and obligations without the important connection with our selves! Can you stop at a coffee shop today and sit in a corner by yourself? Can you drive to a big parking lot and sit in your car on your lunch hour? Can you go to a room in your house that never gets used and spend some time there today? Get alone with yourself! Invest some time in YOU. Some of us are alone a lot...but are we alone, focused on ourselves? Flipping the switch requires time and focus on you!

EMOTIONS...I can promise you, if you have been eating off program, unable to follow through for even one day, you are stuffing your emotions! It's time to look at them and allow them to surface. The first question I ask my self is "Letha, What's up?" I ALWAYS get an answer! You will too. (that's why you're afraid to ask it) If you have a journal...start writing in it. If you have junk mail in the floor board of your car, that works too. Get something down on paper!

Another effective tool I use is the pain and pleasure list! I hope you have all used this "power tool."

Make a list of the pain, over eating is causing you...go for it! Don't stop, get real, get painful...allow it to take you all the way to gaining ALL your weight back, feeling miserable, and overwhelmed with medical problems and personal pain that choosing food has caused you! Don't skip ahead fast...if you have an hour, spend at least 30 of it on this list! Don't forget to include family, children and spouses in this list. How has your overeating affected them. Your overeating has caused you to be irritated, mad at the world and not very fun...how's that working for you and your family? Your clothes don't fit, you feel frumpy, and you don't want to do much of anything! Your overeating is affecting EVERY area of your life!

Now...if you have done a good job on that list... it's time to move ahead...if you haven't, you are not really serious about flipping the switch.(or you're just scared)

This list is a lot more fun! This is the list that includes all the emotions that you feel when you are on program, eating healthy, and setting limits for yourself! Have fun, spend time on this list too. Don't forget to include your family, children and spouse also. How has eating healthy, feeling attractive and in control, made a difference in those relationships? How's your wardrobe? How much energy do you have? Are you fun? Do you laugh more? Do you take pride in how you look and enjoy going out? Is EVERY area of your life affected by how you eat and what choices you are making? Don't stop short dreaming as you make this list. Allow the good feelings to overwhelm you and fill you with hope.

Look at those two lists...ask the all important question now. "Why am I living here...when I could be living here?"

If no tears are involved with this project...you might be dead!:-)

I've had clients tell me, "Ive done the pain and pleasure list thing and it doesn't work." I'm wondering have they REALLY done it. Have they really taken the time to look at the way their eating is affecting their life and the lives of all the people around them? Have they asked them selves, "Why am I letting food win?" "Why am I letting food be the boss of me?"

My friends...to lose weight and keep it off, you must be able to use pain as your friend. Flipping the switch when you are living on maintenance is crucial to you keeping your weight off for life.

I wish I had time to sit in your car with you...but I guess you wouldn't be alone then would you? Take time, allow your emotions to come forth...and flip the switch. Don't wait...today is the perfect day to change the direction of your life!

Always encouraging and pushing you,

Letha

CHANGE...It Does the Body Good!

As we close out the Spring Team Challenge I look back and think about all we've learned about willpower! It's been amazing!  Our thinking has truly changed and I for one, won't ever think about willpower the way I used to. The more I learn about willpower, the more I see that having more of it, is a choice. You don't have willpower, you choose willpower.

Now we're heading into Summer and another great 10 week challenge. This summers' theme..."Change, It Does the Body Good." We are going to spend 10 weeks this summer learning about CHANGE! We are going to explore change and discover more about why it's so darn hard to do it...change permanently that is!

Back in 2006, I chose the word CHANGE as my word for the year.  I studied it, focused on it, and came under the influence of it. CHANGE rocked my world! I was in need of change in many areas of my life and I surrendered to it...and oh boy did change happen!!

One thing I learned that year is that CHANGE IS HARD! That's why people stay stuck! It's easier to stay right where we're at, even though we might be miserable, than it is to change.
I also learned that CHANGE IS REALLY GOOD! As hard as the process is, what you find on the other side is your best life!

I've observed throughout the years that one of the reasons people don't achieve their goals is that they desire to change their results without changing their thinking. We won't move past week one of this Summer Team Challenge without getting one thing straight...it's ALL about your thinking! "The level of thinking that got you where you are...won't take you where you're going." Albert Einstein said that...smart guy! I'll be doing my very best in the next ten weeks convincing my clients of that!

We've got some CHANGE happening at The Healthy Weigh this summer too.  I've gone from being the landlord of suite 120 to be a sub lessee.  I'll be subleasing the suite on THURSDAYS and holding the Team Challenge gatherings then.  I'm excited about the changes and looking forward to a different day of the week. Thursdays are soon to become my favorite day of the week!

I hope you'll join us starting July 11th, for a powerful 10 weeks.  CHANGE will be happening at The Healthy Weigh. Come and be a part of something really great!

CHANGE...IT DOES THE BODY GOOD!

Always encouraging you,
Letha

Meet Your Future Self!

We're growing our willpower at The Healthy Weigh...or should I say, our 'I will' power, 'I won't' power and 'I want' power...the three powers that make up willpower! This week we focused on two more practices that have been scientifically proven to build willpower. Willpower lives in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, and the more blood flow we can get to this region of the brain, the more willpower we'll have.

Our list of ways to boost willpower is growing by the week! The key to boosting willpower  however, is not in knowing about the things on this list...but practicing them. This week we learned about something that helps us delay our gratification...hence providing more willpower.  Meeting our future self!  We added that to our impressive list of willpower boosters! 

Here's our list so far:

Meditate

Rewards

Exercise

Internal processing

Revisit want power

Maintain level blood sugar

Avoid triggers

Complete tasks that you've been reluctant to do

Meet your future self

Brain-imaging studies show that we use different regions of the brain to think about our present selves and our future selves. When people imagine enjoying a future experience, the brain areas associated with thinking about oneself and surprisingly engaged. It's as if we are picturing someone else enjoying the sunset or running a race. The same is true when people are asked to consider whether certain traits describe their present selves or their futures selves. When reflecting on the future self, the brain's activation is identical to when it is considering the traits of another person. It's as if we are observing a person from the outside to decide what is true about them, rather than looking within to decide what is true of ourselves. The brains habit of treating the future self like another person has major consequences for self-control. Studies show that the less active your brain's self reflection system is when you contemplate your future self, the more likely you are to say "forget you" to future you,  and "yes" to immediate gratification.

You can help yourself make wiser choices by sending yourself to the future! Below are three ideas for making the future feel real, and for getting to know your future self.

1. Create a Future Memory. Imagining the future helps people delay gratification.  You don't even need to think about the future rewards of delaying gratification, just thinking about the future seems to work. For example, if you're trying to decide between starting a project now or putting it off, imagine yourself grocery shopping next week, or at a meeting you have scheduled. When you picture the future, the brain begins to think more concretely and immediately about the consequences of our present choice. The more real and vivid the future feels, the more likely you are to make a decision that your future self won't regret.

2. Send a Message to Your Future Self. The founders of FutureMe.org have created a way for people to e-mail their future selves. Since 2003, they've been holding on to e-mails people write to themselves, and delivering them on a future date chosen by the writer. Why not take advantage of the opportunity to think about what your future self will be doing, and how he or she will feel about the choices you're making now? Describe to your future self what you are going to do now to help yourself meet your long-term goals. What are your hopes for your future self? What do your think you will look like? You can also imagine your future self looking back on your present self. What would your future self thank you for, if you were able to commit to it today?

3. Imagine Your Future Self. Studies show that imagining your future self can increase your present self's willpower. One experiment asked couch potatoes to imagine either a hoped-for future self who exercised regularly and enjoyed health and energy, or a feared future self who was inactive and suffering from health consequences. Both visualizations got them off the couch, and they were exercising more frequently two months later than a control group that did not imagine a future self.  To boost your willpower, imagine a hoped-for future self who is committed to the change and reaping the benefits or a future self suffering the consequences of not changing.  Let yourself daydream in vivid detail, imagining how you will feel, how you will look, and what pride, gratitude, or regret you will have for your past self's choices.

Feeling estranged from your future self is a problem...a willpower problem.  It's important to begin to start to integrate your current self and your future self.   Your future self is not a stranger or another person...your future self is YOU!

Work on one or more of these ideas this weekend and I'm SURE you'll have more willpower!

See you in the future.

Always encouraging you,

Letha 

Forgiving = Willpower?

We're growing our willpower at The Healthy Weigh...or should I say, our 'I will' power, 'I won't' power and 'I want' power...the three powers that make up willpower! This week we focused on two more practices that have been scientifically proven to build willpower. Willpower lives in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, and the more blood flow we can get to this region of the brain, the more willpower we'll have.

Our list of ways to boost willpower is growing by the week! The key to boosting willpower  however, is not in knowing about the things on this list...but practicing them. This week we focused on one of the willpower boosters that's not so fun...internal processing.

Here's our list so far:

Meditate

Rewards

Exercise

Internal processing

Revisit want power

Maintain level blood sugar

Avoid triggers

Complete tasks that you've been reluctant to do

Can you spell vulnerability? That was me, this week, helping our Team Challenge participants go deeper, by sharing my own story. This week we listened to "Coping Skills ~ Feeling Your Way Through Life."  We followed up on Tuesday spending time on forgiveness and grief. "Hard but good." That's the way one of our healthy weigh clients described the day!

We took a look at the coping skills that our society uses. Drinking, drugs, shopping, and over eating to name a few.Coping; wrestling or grappling with difficulties and acting to over come them. As we looked closer at our societies list, we realized that we are not coping at all...we're avoiding. Avoiding the pain of the past and present. Instead of overcoming and healing our issues and pain, we are numbing them.

At The Healthy Weigh, we are convinced that unless a person acquires a healthy list of coping skills and begins to use them to heal past and present wounds, they will have temporary success at best.

The feeling wheel was introduced this week as a great tool to identify feelings and begin to process them. For many of us, we are a bit handicapped when it comes to expressing our feelings. We were taught to feel; mad, glad or sad. Identifying our true feelings is the first step to being able to process what's really going on inside of us. We recommend that you keep your feeling wheel on the inside of a journal so that you can refer to it as often as necessary while you're journaling. It wouldn't be such a bad idea to put it on the fridge so that the whole family could benefit from it!

We spent most of our time Thursday talking about forgiveness. I believe that unforgiveness robs us of more joy than any thing else in life. I shared a technique or tool to help clients begin to forgive the people, including themselves, that they need to, to heal those wounded places inside. Forgiveness only takes one person, so it definitely is a process that we all find right inside of our own back packs! It is your responsibility to do the work to heal the places that are keeping you from living the life you were intended to live.

I inspired courage Tuesday...it takes a little bit to forge ahead and begin to use real coping skills. What I know is that a mind that is healthy, and emotions that are healed will effect a physical body more than any diet ever could!

Here's to courage to do the hard, but good stuff!

I love you all, I'm walking with you and want you to have your very best life.

Until next week.

Always encouraging you.

Letha

A Terrible Thing to Waste

We're growing our willpower at The Healthy Weigh...or should I say, our 'I will' power, 'I won't' power and 'I want' power...the three powers that make up willpower! This week we focused on two more practices that have been scientifically proven to build willpower. Willpower lives in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, and the more blood flow we can get to this region of the brain, the more willpower we'll have.

Our list of ways to boost willpower is growing by the week! The key to boosting willpower  however, is not in knowing about the things on this list...but practicing them. The brain is a terrible thing to waste...especially when it comes to the prefrontal cortex!

Here's our list so far:

Meditate

Rewards

Exercise

Internal processing

Revisit want power

Maintain level blood sugar

Avoid triggers

Complete tasks that you've been reluctant to do

When I look over this list of "willpower boosters," it makes so much sense.  A person who is practicing this kind of life style will absolutely have more willpower!

This person is centered and focused, (meditation). They are giving to themselves good things that bring them pleasure vs. food rewards that are really the cause of their pain. (rewards)  This person is  experiencing the "high"  that comes from regular activity. (exercise)  They aren't afraid to process past and current pain to avoid numbing their feelings with food, (internal processing) and when they feel their willpower weakening, they re-visit the real reason they are eating healthy. (want power) Because they are eating regularly, eating a balanced diet, and staying away from diet sodas, they are feeling physically satisfied. (maintain blood sugar levels) They don't test their willpower by bringing unhealthy foods into the house. (avoid triggers) They have discovered that some of the projects that they've been putting off aren't that bad after all, and they really can complete them, just like they can say no to the bad and yes to the good. (complete tasks that you've been reluctant to do)

Can you see why this person has more willpower??!!  It's not a matter of white knuckling it through life...It's a matter of doing the things to build up that prefrontal cortex so that you are living a balanced, healthy lifestyle on auto pilot.

It always goes back to this...change your thinking and you'll change your life!  We spend WAY too much time thinking about food, recipes, what we can and can't eat...and way too little time on this list of willpower boosters!

Having a solid, effective nutritional plan to follow is a must when losing weight...but keeping it off for life requires more than that! It requires a lifestyle that promotes willpower. As a person who lives and works to maintain my goal weight, I'm very aware of the importance of living this balanced lifestyle. I'm working at this list all the time!

So here's to willpower and here's to celebrating the fact that we have the ability to grow it in ourselves! Until next week when we add to this list...work on that gray matter, it's a terrible to waste!

Always encouraging you,

Letha

WANT POWER...it's what fuels the engine!

We're growing our willpower at The Healthy Weigh...or should I say, our 'I will' power, 'I won't' power and 'I want' power...the three powers that make up willpower! This week we focused on two more practices that have been scientifically proven to build willpower. Willpower lives in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, and the more blood flow we can get to this region of the brain, the more willpower we'll have.

We revisited one of the most important parts of willpower this week, the part of willpower that fuels the engine...WANT POWER! When your willpower is running low you can find renewed strength by tapping into your want power. It's important to be able to think about these motivations. Motivation... the motive that causes one to act.

1. How will you benefit from succeeding at this willpower challenge? 
What is the payoff for you personally? Greater health, happiness, freedom?

2. Who else will benefit if you succeed at this challenge?
Surely there are others who depend on you and will be affected by your choices. How does your behavior influence your family, friends, co workers, and your community? How would your success help them?

3. Imagine that this challenge will get easier for you over time if you are willing to do what is difficult now.
Can you imagine what your life will be like, and how you will feel about yourself, as you make progress on this challenge?

As you face your challenges this week, ask yourself which motivation holds the most power for you in that moment. Are you willing to do something difficult for others, when you might not for yourself? When you find your biggest want power, the thing that gives you strength when you feel weak, bring it to mind whenever you find yourself most tempted to give in or give up!

Along with revisiting the importance of WANT power, we looked at a physical key to willpower...blood sugar levels.  Scientists consider glucose as one of the key nutrients needed by the brain for effective self control. Willpower drops when glucose drops. Willpower rises when glucose rises. It is as if running low on energy biases us to be the worst versions of ourselves.

So along with keeping blood levels stable by eating regularly and avoiding diet sodas and artificial sweeteners that trick the body into taking up glucose from the bloodstream in anticipation of a blood sugar spike, we learned that exercise regulates your body's glucose.

Let's look at our willpower booster growing checklist:

Meditate
Rewards
Exercise
Internal processing
Want power
Maintain level blood sugar

Learning that we all have willpower that we haven't tapped into yet is exciting. Learning that we have the ability to grow our willpower and assert more self control in our lives is powerful. We really can't use "lack of willpower" as an excuse any more. We've got what it takes to build it up...so the buck stops here when it comes to willpower!  I guess it always gets back to that all important question...WHAT DO YOU WANT!?

Always encouraging you,
Letha

The Miracle Drug For More Willpower!

We're growing our willpower at The Healthy Weigh...or should I say, our 'I will' power, 'I won't' power and 'I want' power...the three powers that make up willpower! This week we focused on two more practices that have been scientifically proven to build willpower. Willpower lives in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, and the more blood flow we can get to this region of the brain, the more willpower we'll have.

Researchers from Macquarie University in Sydney Australia did some intense research about a new treatment to enhance self-control (willpower). They were stunned by the findings. While they had hoped for positive results, nobody could have predicted how far-reaching the treatment's effects would be.  The trials guinea pigs were six men and eighteen women, ranging in age from eighteen to fifty years old.  After two months of the treatment, they showed improvements in attention and the ability to ignore distractions. In an age of thirty second attention spans, that would have been reason enough to celebrate. But there was more. They had reduced their smoking, drinking, and caffeine intake, despite the fact that nobody had asked them to.  They were eating less junk food and more healthy food. They were spending less time watching TV and more time studying. They were saving money and spending less on impulse purchases. They felt more in control of their emotions. They even procrastinated less and were less likely to be late for appointments.

When the findings came out... colleagues were asking, what is this miracle drug and where can I get a prescription?  The intervention wasn't a drug at all. The willpower miracle was physical exercise.  The participants, none of whom exercised regularly before the intervention, were given free memberships to a gym and encouraged to make good use of it. They exercised an average of just one time per week for the first month, but were up to three times per week by the end of the two month study. The researchers did not ask them to make any other changes in their lives, and yet the exercise program seemed to spark new found strength and self-control in ALL aspects of there lives. EXERCISE...our 3rd willpower booster!

As we take a closer look at willpower and the ways to boost our gray matter we also have to look at why some people seem to have a greater willpower reserve the others. Many factors influence your willpower reserve. Anything that puts a stress on your mind or body can interfere with the physiology of self-control, and by extension, sabotage your willpower.  Anxiety, anger, depression, and loneliness are all associated with less self-control. Chronic pain and illness can also drain the body's willpower reserve. 

My studies of willpower  have encouraged me to continue to challenge my clients at the Healthy Weigh to keep pursuing emotional and spiritual wellness as they follow their nutritional plans. Our 4th willpower booster is to do the INTERNAL WORK of weight loss to heal and relieve stresses that are keeping them from having more willpower. I guess it's about dieting from the inside out!

Our Willpower boosting list is growing...here's what we've got so far:

1. Meditation

2. Rewards

3. Exercise

4. Internal processing

As we continue to grow this list, I'm convinced that my clients are going to see themselves resisting more temptations and meeting more of their personal goals!  Big brains and lots of gray matter...that's what we're after!

Always encouraging you,

Letha