Lose Weight Find Life

I love those lists of “Lessons I’ve Learned From My Dog, My Cat, My Lawmower, etc.”  They are funny and cute yet meaningful and have a commonality that speaks to me.

The Super Bowl is right around the corner.  With a husband and two sons, the chatter and banter of the Super Bowl are already going on in my house.

In the spirit of the Superbowl, here are 10 Weight Loss Touchdown Tips:

1. Planning is key.
You don’t win the game without planning and strategy. The same is true when it comes to weight loss and healthy eating.  If you leave your food choices to chance, the chances are you’ll find yourself making unhealthy food choices.  Eating snacks, junk food with sugar and fats at the top of the game of food choices will turn out to be the result of poor planning and no strategy.  Rather than tackling your daily food choices without any plan or strategies, pull out a sheet of paper and a pen to draw out your plan of attack. Turn to your food log or food journal and create your game plan of food for the day.

2. You gotta wanna.
Teams don’t get to the Super Bowl simply by luck. The players have a burning desire to win. You won’t get lose weight unless you truly want to. You must have a passion to make healthy food choices, exercise and incorporate regular activity and movement, take your high quality vitamins regularly, and drink 64 ounces of water per day.  You gotta wanna do what it takes to reach your weight loss goals.

3. Go for the goals.
There are both major goals and mini-goals in football. One of the most common major goals during a football game is to score touchdowns and win the game. But it’s also important to think about the mini goals. Take the field, for instance. One hundreds yards is broken down into 10 yards each. The offensive team has to make it 10 yards at a time to achieve a ‘first down.’ They don’t have to make it 100 yards all at once. Take your major goals of losing weight and break it down into smaller, more achievable goals. You’ll be less overwhelmed, and you’ll have a sense of accomplishment along your journey.  For example, tackle one habit you want to change each month – master the exchange of habit and move on to another habit the next month.

4. Give yourself reasonable time limits.
In football, there are always time limits. Each game is broken down into four 15-minute quarters . Challenge yourself by setting realistic timeframe to accomplish your goal.  If you want to lose 50 pounds, you won’t lose it in a month (in a healthy, realistic way).  You didn’t gain the 50 pounds in a short period of time so give yourself adequate time to lose is slow and healthfully, and you’ll lose it once and for all.

5. Teamwork is so important.
Football players know that they cannot win football games without the help of their teammates. Each person on the team is assigned different tasks. When losing weight, get a team of support.  Build your support team with family, friends, and a weight loss or weight loss surgery support group.  Also, teams have a coach which is instrumental to a team’s success.  Get your own weight loss coach to be your coach for your weight loss success.

6. Pass the ball.
A quarterback knows that he can’t get the touchdowns by himself. He must pass the ball to other players. What duties or responsibilities can you pass to others to allow yourself time to get in exercise, grocery shopping for healthy food choices or other tasks that promote your weight loss goal?

7. Take some time outs.
Time-outs are periods during the football game that stop the game clock and allow players to rest and/or go over plays with the coach. Sometimes, it’s necessary for you to take some ‘time outs’ in your day. These are best taken when you’re feeling overwhelmed, or when something is distracting you or when you simply need a break. A 5 to 15 minute time-out can help you to clear your mind and rejuvenate your energy. Take a quick walk. Take a short nap. Call a friend and release some of your stress. Enjoy a healthy snack. Do whatever is necessary for you to return to your task feeling refreshed.

8. Get yourself a cup of motivation.
It can be depressing to work on something that you don’t feel motivated about. Football players rely on fans to keep them motivated and enthusiastic. Get your own cheering section. Tell a friend or co-worker you’re trying to lose weight or get on track, and ask him or her to encourage you. Tell a family member what you’re trying to accomplish. Ask this person to cheer you on along the way.  When other people are involved in your goals and accomplishments, it gives you a good reason to excel.

9. Have a vision.
Football players have a very clear vision at the beginning of the year, of what they want to achieve. A common shared vision is making it to the Super Bowl and winning the game.  What is your vision? Do you want to weigh a certain weight or wear a certain size or accomplish some other non-scale victory?

Now you have something to strive towards every day. You might post a photo, or something that reminds you of reaching your goal, where you can see it every day. This will give you a vision, and a daily reminder to achieve that vision.

10. Celebrate your wins.
Every time a touchdown occurs in football, the players celebrate that accomplishment. When a team wins the Super Bowl, there’s a major celebration. Celebrate the wins in your life. Designate some rewards for accomplishing your mini-goals. They don’t have to be expensive rewards. They can be as simple as watching your favorite movie tonight, or going window-shopping in the mall, or having a cup of hot tea by the fireplace. And when you accomplish some major goals, have a big celebration. You deserve to have some fun after all your hard work!

As you watch the upcoming Super Bowl, let it reinforce your own personal Super Bowl victory and championship.  Yeah YOU!

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator

I was coaching a client on a weight regain that she is frustrated and upset over.  It is a big challenge to her, just as it was for me when I was where she was.

Certain when the challenge is in front of you, it looks huge, difficult, overwhelming and seems impossible to overcome.  Yet when the same challenge is behind you as a success, you feel awesome and happy that you took it on.

Are there challenges looking at you square in your face?  A challenge that might seem insurmountable?  Challenges are not nearly so difficult as they seem at first.  Once you get past them, they don’t seem all that difficult at all.  In overcoming your challenges that stand in your way as obstacles, you learn, you improve, you grow, you become more confident and you become stronger inside yourself.

Many times we want to obtain weight loss success in an unrealistic period of time.  Once we’ve made the decision to undertake, for example, losing weight, we want it off NOW!  We become impatient with the rate of loss or plateaus and can stay stuck in the rut of wanting to lose weight rather than active in the process of losing weight and reaching your success.  Does this mean you are destined to stay stuck?  No, not at all.  It means for you to take assessment of what your challenges have been in the past in your attempts to lose weight, make a plan to face and overcome those challenges and move ahead to your desired success.

As you think of your challenge right now, imagine that you are there, on the other side of the challenge and you are looking at it in your rear view mirror.  It is an obstacle that you have overcome.  You are already past the challenge, stronger and more experienced.  You will have achieved something of value and, perhaps more importantly, put yourself in a position to take on even greater, even more rewarding challenges in a more confident way.

So jump in right now and begin to work your way through the challenges that confront you. You know you’ll get through them, to discover great new value on the other side.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator

“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”  – Margaret Thatcher.

Failure.  Even the mere word sounds negative.  That is because since the time we were kids we were taught that failure was bad.  Is that really true?  Is failure bad?  Reframe that thinking to consider failure as a tool to further your future.

I like a baseball analogy.  Do you know what the record is for a season batting average is?  It was Ted Williams and his season batting average was .411 one year.  That means that out of 1,000 times at bat he would get a hit 411 times.  That is considered by baseball fans as one of the greatest records ever.  There are players that are making millions of dollars that hit .281.

What does that statistic tell us if we flip it around?  It tells us that the best season any better ever had in the major leagues was a failure rate of .589!  Even the best fail on a regular basis.

What about the richest people on Wall Street?  Do they fail?  Obviously by today’s headlines they do.  They pick bad stocks sometimes, but they cut their losses and learn from their failures.

Michael Jordan is one of the greatest athletes in our time.  Even Michael missed over 50% of the shots he made.

So what does all this mean?  What does it mean for us?  The fact is, I think we can learn a lot about failure that will actually make us a great success.  Here are some thoughts to help you use failure to further your future.

Failure is inevitable if you are trying for greatness.  Failure is something we must accept as a part of the road we travel to success.  This is a very important item and number one on the list because a lot of what steps people from pursuing success is their fear of failure.  When we embrace the fact that we will fail, and that is okay, then we have nothing to fear any longer.  Instead, we keep our eyes open and pick ourselves, adjust from the failure and move ahead.

Failure is never failure unless you fail to learn something from it.  We ought to stop calling these bumps in the road to success as failures.  Call them “learning experiences” because when you fail, the first thing you should think is “What can I learn from this experience?”  If you can pull just one lesson or idea out of that question, then the experience was worth it.

A great example of a failure is the 3M Company.  Sometimes failure is a blessing in disguise.  The folks at 3M Company were looking for an adhesive and got a sticky paste that held but not permanently.  Failure, right?  Ha, no!  Instead they spread some on the back of little sheets of yellow paper and called them “Post-It Notes.”  Nice failure, right?

Failure isn’t the end but truly is the beginning.  One of our greatest fears is that our whole world will collapse if we fail.  The truth is that rarely happens.  Most of the time we can pick up again, make some adjustments and be right back on the path to success.  It is a new beginning.  Now there is no need to go down the road you’ve already taken so there is one less option you have to try to reach your success.

Sometimes we miss out on success because we quit in the middle of a problem.  It becomes a failure instead of an obstacle we could have persevered through.  When people encounter trouble they have a tendency to quit.  Then they see themselves as having failed.  Failure only happens because they quit.  Don’t give up, keep pushing and perhaps you will see yourself through to your successes and dreams.

The greatest thing to overcome is the fear of failure.  Most of the battle is right between our ears in our brains.  It has been said that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.”  That is true because in most of our “failures” the end result is usually much less than we feared it would be.  Yet in giving into fear and not trying, we suffer the ultimate consequence of no possibility of success.  Begin to tell yourself the good stuff and change the direction of your thinking.  Begin to see the possibilities of success, not failure.

If you don’t risk failure, you can’t obtain the benefits of success.  Don’t sit on the sidelines of your life fearful of failure.  Get on the field of your life and play – play hard to reach success.

Questions to ask yourself when you “fail”:

*What can I learn from this?
*What did I do right in this?
*What specifically went wrong?
*How can I start again and benefit from this experience?
*What resources do I need to make sure I achieve the success I desire?

Use your answers to start again, renewed, to plot your new course to success.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator

Television is a killer for those of us that have issues with emotional eating, boredom and inactivity.  Nighttime eating is mostly done while watching television.  It is a double whammy in that it encourages poor food choices and encourages inactivity.

If you find it hard to escape the lure of the television, or if watching your favorite show turns into wasted time zoning out and tuning into poor food choices, you are not alone.  We watch television an average of four hours every day.  Even if we are not sitting watching television, it is on for an average of eight hours a day.  Have you ever noticed how much television is a part of your life?  From the non-profit organization, TV-Turnoff Network, here are some shocking television facts:

* By the time you’re 65 years of age, you’ve seen 2 million television commecials!  Most of the commercials we see feature fast food, junk food, soda, booze, sugary cereals, bakery items, and candy.  When it comes to television commercials, think “out of sight, out of mind” as a way to avoid temptation.

* Our children spend approximately 900 hours per year in school, and over 1,000 hours per year watching television.  A portion of the childhood obesity epidemic stems from sitting in front of the tube, contributing factors are also poor nutrition and inactivity.  Limit the amount of time your kids (and you, as an example) watch television.  Encourage more physical activity like helping with yard work, taking walks together, walk the dog, play sports, and any other active hobbies that get you to move.

Does the idea of turning it off seem awful to you?  What would you fill your time with?  What would you do?  Try it.  Turn off your television for an entire week.  You will have more free time than you ever imagined.  There are many fun things you can do with your new found free time.  Here’s a few:

*Take a drive someplace new or to a favorite location.
*Take a class to learn a new activity or hobby.
*Write a note or e-mail to those that you haven’t been in touch with for awhile.
*Go for a leisurely trip to the grocery store.  Take your time to read labels and check out new food choices to add variety in your diet.
*Pick up a project that is left undone.  That sewing project, embroidery, counted cross-switch or other hobbies that are midway to completion.
*Cook a family meal together.
*Play a board game together.
*Anything else you can think of that doesn’t involve television!!!

Just as you learn and incorporate new habits into your routine when you change your life to lose weight, television is a habit.  Decide what your true favorite shows are, watch them, and eliminate the television background noise in your life.  Fill your life and your home with the sounds of your family having fun together or the silence that comes with you enjoying a solitary hobby of reading a book or hand crafts.

Whenever I hear from clients that they don’t have time to cook a healthy meal or exercise, I ask them how much television they watch every day.  If you question how much television you watch and how important of a habit it is, turn it off and notice how you feel.  Do you feel anxious, too quiet, bored or relieved?  I think when you eliminate or limit your t.v. time, you’ll have lots of quality time available to you.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator

Ah, instant gratification.  You can get what you want whenever you want it.  No longer do we have to get up to turn the channel on the television, get out of car to order a meal, walk up to the bank for a transaction, send an e-mail rather than walk down the hall to talk to a co-worker, and open a box to stick in the microwave.  We want what we want when we want it.

We’ve grown accustom to ‘instant gratification’ and I think it’s really hurt us.  I know it’s hurt me.  I’m very impatient and expect immediate results when I try something.  With weight loss, we tend to want the weight to melt off when we make the decision we want to lose weight.  It took a long time, usually years, or in the case or weight regain it could have been months, yet it should be “poof” gone.  Over the years and especially with my own weight regain, I’ve learned results just don’t happen over night.  No, it’s not fair, but it’s the way it is.

I believe having to work at losing weight once when I originally had surgery and then twice to re-lose weight regain, I truly appreciate my health and weight loss.  I think twice before indulging in something that will cause me to re-lose it.  In these times of financial turmoil, it has made me truly appreciate how much things really cost.  I often pause and think twice before I spend any money on anything because I think how many paid hours or clients it will take to pay for this item?

When your food triggers hit, the same holds true with eating and exercise.  Is it really worth it?
How many miles will I have to run in order to indulge in a food choice?  How long will I have to workout to lose the weight from a trigger food.  My list of things that are “worth it” are very short.  There’s a reason why we don’t wear our wedding dress on a regular basis.  It’s saved for a special occasion.  Just because it’s Friday night, a vacation or holiday, why is that a special occasion and our reason for drinking and eating too much?

I was always one to convince myself that “I deserved it after a long hard week” and I bought into that and racked up 147 excess pounds.  Well, that may be true, but really I deserved a break a time to relax, not to over indulge and throw my nutrition and exercise program out the window to the wind.

So, as you prepare for your success in October remember you are planting seeds and your time for harvest may not happen for many months, but all of the preparation and caring for your “soil” will pay great dividends in the months to come.  Plant a good foundation of nutrition, activity, weight loss and feeling great!

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator

We shouldn’t try to be anyone else but ourselves.  For so many of us, we don’t like who we are so we try to be anyone else but ourselves.

After my own personal growth and reflection on my life, the things that I used to reject and not like about myself are now things that I respect, appreciate and value.  For years, I was told I was overly sensitive.  The fact that I was overly sensitive was another way of telling me that I was too aware and inquisitive to rock the boat.  I questioned the status quo.

I value the fact that I am sensitive.  Being sensitive makes me a great coach and a caring person.  It is who I am.  I am reflective, value my own personal growth and development, family, friends, my clients and coaching, training, my job, teaching, my personal interests and hobbies, things that I believe in.  After many years of rejecting the characteristics and core parts of myself, I now love those parts of me so much.  I appreciate, value and enjoy them.  I would strongly encourage you to do the same.  It makes you feel so differently about yourself and your life like never before.

Each of is unique and special, and our highest and best is to be precisely and fully who we are.  However, that being said, we can, and do learn from others.  To often we learn bad habits that take up too much space in our lives.  But we can also learn from the most successful and inspiring people we can find.  Find someone that has achieved weight loss success and maintained it.  Find someone that you can learn from to model your weight loss surgery success.  Take what you learn and try it on for size for yourself.  If it fits and feels comfortable, incorporate it into your life and make it yours.  Your life and weight loss success depends on it.  Go for it.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator

From being morbidly obese and heavy the majority of my life, I am very apprehensive about jogging or running.  I can walk briskly without any concern but when it comes to jogging, I have a block that I can’t do it.  For the most part, I see myself as my current body size.  However, the lingerings of being heavy prevent me from feeling comfortable and confident that I can push my body to job.  Will my body give way to the activity and pressure of jogging.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE to walk.  Walking is my favorite form of activity.  However, I would like to be able to jog for short periods of time to maximize my workout.

So, how do you transition from walking to jogging?  In a word: GRADUALLY. One of the biggest fitness mistakes people make is expecting to achieve too much too soon. Take an incremental approach to increasing your workout challenge, and you’ll revel in the results.

Here’s a general plan:

- Reach the point where you can walk at a brisk pace for 30 minutes easily and comfortably. (If you’re not at that point yet, don’t worry. Simply add on a couple minutes or increase your speed slightly every few workouts, until 30 minutes of brisk walking feels good.)

- Start introducing 30-second “micro-jogs” into your walk. After the 30 seconds, resume walking until you’ve recovered (caught your breath, feel re-energized), then jog for another 30 seconds, recover by walking, etc.

- Gradually increase the length of each jogging interval to 1 minute, 2 minutes, and so on. Before long, the jogging portion of your workout will be longer than the walking part. And beyond that, you’ll be jogging start-to-finish.

Of course, this step-wise plan—often referred to as “interval training” by fitness exerts—will work if you decide you want to advance from jogging to running.  Of course, check with your personal physician before you start or change your current level of activity.

I don’t know that I’ll even be a marathon jogger.  My goal is to continue working out with brisk walks and short periods of jogging.  It feels great to move your body and I look forward to feeling the additional “high” of pushing my body to maximum performance.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator

How was your weekend?  Are your weekends more difficult to stay on track with your healthy habits than your routine during the week?  Are your weeks a case of five steps forward and two steps back?

It is important that we have and follow a routine.  Create a routine of consistency with your food choices, your exercise and even sleeping.  Many times we follow a great weekday routine only to slack off over the weekend.  The weekends are usually filled with unstructured time and, as a result, unstructured time can prevent a problem.  I find for myself that I do best with a routine.

On weekends, we run errands, drive the kids around, social get-together, or just taking it easy contributes to eating more, eating out and possibly do less activity or not exercise at all.  Weekends have presented a problem because I don’t do all that well with the unstructured time and different activities we do that are opportunities to eat off my food plan.

What I’ve done that is a big help is to use a version of FitDay that I downloaded on my computer.  I complete the food I’m going to eat that day and that helps since I’ve already planned my food for the day.  When things come up, I’m not rigid and don’t go with the flow but I will make food choices as close to what I’ve logged into FitDay.

Another strategy that has helped me is to plan.  My trigger foods are the snacky, junky food found in convenience stores, vending machines (yuck, I know) or movie theater goodies.  The Concession Stand is just that, you give into the concession and bail on your normal food choices.  When I know where we are going and what we will do, I plan.  I either bring my own snacks to the movie (Kay’s Naturals White Cheddar Kruncheez are my favorite movie snacks), I’ll bring other protein choices such as turkey jerky to enjoy throughout the day to stay on track.  If we are going out to a restaurant, I’ll check the menu online and make my choice of what I’ll eat in my own home rather than go to the restaurant and get caught up in the restaurant atmosphere.  I won’t even look at the menu because I’ve planned my food choice already.

Lastly, I’ll exercise before we go out for our weekend events.  When I exercise before I go, I’m more apt to stay on track.  I’ve reinforced my commitment to my weight and staying on track.  The lure of poor food choices I may encounter are less enticing when I’ve exercised.

Do you prefer the weekday routine and tend to have a difficult time with the unstructured time of the weekend?  Consider how you can create a routine of food choices and and exercise yet still enjoy the unstructured time in a fun and healthy way.

Focus on your family, friends and what you’re doing rather than the food!

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator

Are you still celebrating the holidays as far as your habits?  Parties, get-togethers, lunch with friends,  office parties, happy hour, birthday dinners, business lunches–it always seems like there’s some occasion that needs celebrating. But if you’re watching your weight, these events can be anything but happy: Instead of enjoying yourself, you’re stressing over what to order, counting calories and wondering how you’ll refuse dessert.

Relax! You can eat out without blowing your healthy food choices. The secret is to know how and what to order. And with more and more places offering low-fat options or smaller portions, it’s easier than ever. Use the tricks below, and your next happy hour will be just that–happy.

Choose the place. Pick a restaurant that you’re familiar with, one that serves nutritious, tasty food. If someone has already made reservations, go online ahead of time to check out the menu. That way, you can avoid the pressure of finding a diet-friendly dish on the fly.  If you come to the restaurant knowing what you’ll order beforehand, you can skip the temptations of checking out the menu.

Eat ahead of time. Have a small snack, like a piece of fruit and part-skim string cheese, before you leave. It’s hard to order healthfully when your stomach is growling.

Master the menu. Certain words can tip you off to the nutritional value of a meal. For instance, baked or broiled is healthy; fried, creamy or crispy isn’t. And don’t be afraid to ask for something that’s not on the menu.  You’re paying for it so have it your way.  If you want vegetables steamed instead of swimming in butter, ask for them.  If you want something on the side, ask for it.  When you’re a patron at a restaurant, you’re the boss of your meal.

Bypass the bread basket. Try to steer clear of the bread basket if possible. To make it a little easier, ask the waiter to bring it out with the main course so you’re not tempted to nibble while you wait.  You an also put it on the opposite side of the table from where you are.  If possible, skip it all together.

Box it To Go. Request a to go box at the time you order.  After your meal is served, place all but the appropriate portion you’ll be eating in the box.  You’ll save calories and money by enjoying the rest of your meal on another day.

Start with a salad. You’ll eat less of your main course if you have a salad first. Opt for a bowl of plain greens, and remember to use a low-fat dressing on the side.  The healthy salad stays healthy without drowning in salad dressing, cheese, and croutons.

When dining out, remember that what is important is the friends and family you are with and truly not the food.  Focus on your dining companions and having fun.  That’s what it is truly all about.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator

Many of my clients are coaching with me to get back on track.  Unfortunately with weight loss surgery, it is common to regain weight.  Regained weight is caused by many factors.  Reasons for regained weight are as individual as we are.  Coaching helps you to determine the causes for weight regain and, most importantly, develop strategies to get back on track and avoid weight regain in the future.

Back on track is a common phrase that is discussed among weight loss and weight loss surgery patients.  Back on track means different things to each of us.  For some of us, being back on track includes the number of meals per day, snacking or not, what we eat, when we eat, exercise, and other aspects of how we identify being back on track.

If you are trying to get back on track, define what that means to you.  What is Back On Track to you?  Write down the behaviors and elements that include being on track to you.  Consider this…..if you were back on track, what would you be doing; what would it look like as far as with your food, exercise, water, vitamins, etc., what would you weigh or what size you would wear?  Write down the details.  You need to see it to believe it!

Try not to focus on the past as in how much you’ve gained and how far you need to go to get back on track.  Look ahead, move forward and live as though you’re back on track.  Rather than change all the habits you’ve picked up that don’t promote your weight loss goals, pick one.  Work on that one habit for a month.  After you’ve mastered that one habit, select another to accomplish for one month and continue on.  You will create a momentum of back on track success.  It takes three weeks to establish a habit.  By giving yourself a month, you’ll have the one habit for that month down.  Before you know it, you’ll be on the losing trend by being back on track.

With my clients, this is the first step to getting back on track and then we move forward.  As we move forward, my clients not only get back on track but stay on track.  Now, that is the ultimate weight loss surgery success!

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator