How To Change Your Relationship With The Scale

by Dr. Sara Solomon P.T., DMD

 Over the course of 20 years and a dozen or so trainers, I came to hate enforced weekly weigh-ins. I was always filled with dread before I begrudgingly set foot on the scale, knowing that my self-worth and mood for the entire week hung in the balance.

On the rare days I lost weight, I felt elated. Most of the time, though, I either gained weight or hit a plateau; and on those days, in my mind, I became a “fat failure,” even if I thought I looked amazing in the mirror. I would let the scale distort my self-perception, leading me down a dangerous path of self-loathing and depression.

In an attempt to lower my stubborn scale readings, my trainer adjusted my program on a weekly basis. Usually this meant more cardio and fewer calories. Unfortunately, these weekly changes seldom achieved their desired effect. What did result was chronic irritability, depression, disordered eating, and exercise obsession.

Fitness, something I used to adore, became something I abhorred. I believed that if only I could lose the weight, I would be happy. And I was anything but.

A Big Weight off My Shoulders 

After enduring this for a year, I finally hit rock bottom. I just couldn’t do it anymore. So I did some research and implemented the following changes: I put an end to the mandatory weigh-ins, the two-hour daily cardio sessions, and the severely restricted diet that failed me for 52 solid weeks. I replaced them with my mirror; 20-minute, high-intensity home workouts; and intermittent fasting.

Guess what happened next? I lost all the weight, regained my sanity, started finding pleasure in fitness again, reestablished a healthy relationship with food, and once again became the happy Sara my family used to know and love.

Through this experience, I learned that a cookie-cutter approach does not exist. What works for one person may not work for another. But no one should become a slave to numbers on a scale. Curious as to whether I was alone in this battle, I asked some fellow fitness personalities about their relationship with the scale. 

 

Here is a list of our links.

• website – http://www.celestialhealing.net
• Facebook Fanpage – http://www.facebook.com/celestial.healing
  
• Healing Power Hour Youtube – http://www.youtube.com/HealingPowerHour

Why A.M. Exercise is Awesome

Alice Oglethorpe, SELF magazine

According to researchers at the University College London, it only takes 18 days to make a habit stick. Get up and out for an A.M. sweat session with these five tips.

1. It’s the Fit Girl’s #1 Secret: The enviably in-shape women we polled–athletes, trainers, everyday superwomen with flat abs–break a sweat first thing. No wonder: In the morning, you have max willpower, but as the day wears on, making healthy decisions becomes tougher, says Roy Baumeister, Ph.D., social psychology professor at Florida State University and coauthor of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. Resisting online shopping splurges, ignoring an ex’s text–these feats sap resolve, and you may not have much left to drag yourself to the gym at night.

2.Treats Won’t Be As Tempting: A workout can make you less I-need-that at the sight of food (like those office cupcakes that show up at your weakest moments), say Brigham Young University researchers. And that crap about exercise making you famished? Nothing to it; you won’t eat more after you sweat, their research indicates.

3. You Could be Little Miss Sunshine All Day: The mood high from exercise lasts up to 12 hours, a study from The University of Vermont found. That’s a lot of smiling.

4. BTW, You Might Nab a Promotion: After a sweatfeast, people are better at managing their time at work (aka you’re more likely to switch your Gchat notification to Busy), a study from the University of Bristol in England reports.

5. No More Tossing and Turning: Morning exercisers have less trouble falling asleep than do evening gymgoers, a study published in Sleep shows, and the more A.M. minutes you log, the easier it is to nod off. Better still: Your night’s wide open!

Use Visualization to Achieve Weight Loss Success – It Works!

by Remez Sasson

Creative visualization is a great tool for losing weight. By visualizing your body as you want it to be, you induce your subconscious mind to shape your body to look as close to your mental image as possible.

This does not mean that creative visualization will completely change the shape of your body. It means that if you visualize in accordance with the laws of visualization, you will improve the way it looks and reduce its weight.

It is a known fact that thoughts and emotions affect the body for better or worse, depending on your predominant thoughts and emotions. Negative thinking, stress, fear, excitement, worry and anger hurt the body. Under these conditions the body releases toxins into the blood, which affect it adversely.

Positive thinking, happiness, love and confidence heal, strengthen and energize the body.

You can use the connection between the mind and the body to your advantage. The subconscious mind accepts and treats both real conditions and mentally imagined conditions as real. This means that if you visualize yourself as being slim, your subconscious mind will accept what you visualize as true, and will act to make your body conform to your mental image.

Losing weight with the help of creative visualization can be termed as a “mental diet”. Of course, the chances of success will be greater, if in addition to visualization you reduce the amount of food you eat, follow a diet and exercise your body.

Tips for losing weight through visualization:

- Two or three times a day, sit down for several minutes in a quiet place, and visualize your body as you wish it to be. Leave your worries, doubts and other thoughts behind, and concentrate on what you are doing. Use Dr Akilah’s FREE success scale by clicking here. You can print it out or download it to your computer. 

- See yourself slim and beautiful, with your ideal weight. Forget how you look now. You are creating a new reality. See yourself at the beach or pool wearing a swimming suit. See how gorgeous you look. Imagine yourself wearing all those tight clothing that you have always wanted to wear.

- Visualize your family and friends complimenting you about how gorgeous your body looks and how slim you look now. Look at the whole scene as real, and as happening right now at the present moment, not in the future.

- You can construct in your mind any other scene you wish. You can see yourself exercising, dancing, with friends, with your husband or wife, at work, etc. See yourself moving and in action. Hear people complimenting you about your slim body, and see their admiring glances. In short, make the mental image as real as possible.

- Construct in your mind images that ignite your emotions. Make them alive and colorful. Make the scenes in your mind interesting and real, and see yourself in each scene as slim, the way you will look after you lose weight.

- Never visualize that you are disgusted with food or with eating, and do not develop a loathing for any kind of food. By visualizing your body as you wish it to look, your subconscious mind will direct you to eat the appropriate food in the right quantities.

- While visualizing, and after finishing your visualization session, don’t tell yourself: “well, it is all nonsense, I cannot lose weight”. If you say these words you destroy all the work you have done. When thoughts of disbelief crawl into your mind do not listen to them. Let only thoughts of your ideal body shape enter and pass through your mind.

As in everything else in life, persistence is required.

Tips and Warnings

• Think positive Create positive habits to replace the negative ones Tell friends and family about what you are doing Keep a journal of how you feel and results you see According to the author of the book “Creative Visualization,” “create an ideal scene in your mind and keep it in a notebook where you can read it often.” Your brain listens to what you are saying and thinking, therefore negative thoughts produce negative outcomes. Take charge of your mind and think yourself to a new slimmer you. Count your blessings each day and think of everything that you have to be grateful for. Think of good memories and the feelings surrounding these thoughts. This will keep you on track to main a positive outlook each day while working on your visualization techniques.

Click Here to use this free visual aid tool to program your subconscious mind to help your body lose lots of weight fast. This simple mind trick can help melt pounds of excess fat off your body.

What’s Your Fitness Motivation?

By Mindy Walker 

Find out how to tap into your inner workout drive (yes, you do have one!) with our customized get-up-and-go plan.

1. You’ve been exercising… 
A. Only since your sister-in-law was diagnosed with heart disease — at 40. That’s way too close to your age! 
B. Regularly, since you tried your gym’s popular boot camp class. 
C. Like crazy before swimsuit season, intermittently the rest of the year. 
D. Forever. Exercise has always been a part of your life. 

2. Which situation most closely describes your ideal workout? 
A. A session on the elliptical or treadmill, during which you monitor your heart rate, miles covered, and calories burned. 
B. Playing soccer on a Saturday morning or walking with a friend. 
C. Alone in your living room, doing a body-sculpting DVD. 
D. Kickboxing class, to release stress and tension. 

3. Warming up for your routine, you… 
A. Sneak a peek at the Pilates class at the gym. You’ve heard that core-strengthening can help your back. 
B. Chat with your running buddy. 
C. Picture yourself with toned arms. You resolve to do free weights later. 
D. Take deep breaths. You like to turn off the noise in your head before exercising. 

4. You would describe your workout clothes as… 
A. Fairly new. You’ve just made the commitment to exercise regularly. 
B. A wide collection of tees from the charity 5Ks and 10Ks you’ve done. 
C. Mostly comfy stuff for solo workouts, with a few flattering pieces. 
D. A full wardrobe — running gear, yoga pants, capris, technical tanks, you name it. 

5. What do you love most about exercise? 
A. Getting it done, because your doctor advised a daily regimen to improve your health. 
B. The good-natured banter with others sweating it out in a gym class. 
C. The way your skinny jeans fit. Look, no muffin top! 
D. The intense rush you get from huffing and puffing. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Results 

Mostly A’s 
Motivation button: Your health 
This is one of the most powerful reasons for starting an exercise program, according to a study of pregnant women by Western University in Ontario. But here’s the catch: You have to want to work out, and not just do it because your doctor tells you to. “If exercise isn’t something you’re choosing freely, your motivation may not last,” says Marcus Kilpatrick, PhD, an associate professor of exercise science at the University of South Florida. 

Your stick-to-it plan 
Improve your aim. Chances are, you need to lose weight to boost your health. But instead of setting a goal of “I will drop 20 pounds,” make it “I will exercise four times a week,” which will put you on the path to wellness by lowering your cholesterol and blood pressure and making you stronger and more relaxed, says Kendrin Sonneville, RD, a nutritionist in Boston. 

Schedule it. You plan to take a bike ride after work three times this week. Great, but you need to be even more concrete about it, says Anca Gaston, PhD, an exercise psychologist at Western University. Write out a weekly schedule listing what each exercise session will consist of, when and where it will happen, for how long and with whom. “Lack of time is a big exercise barrier,” Gaston says. “It takes practice to find periods during your week when you can exercise; writing it down can make it more automatic for you.” 

Get pumped. If you want to enjoy working out more, be your own coach, says JoAnn Dahlkoetter, PhD, a sports psychologist and the author of Your Performing Edge. A good coach wouldn’t let you trash talk yourself, so trade negative thinking such as I’m so slow, what’s the use? for Every step is making my heart more powerful, my lungs clearer, and my bones stronger. 

Mostly B’s
Motivation button: Making friends 
You get an energy boost from the connection you have with other people in your Zumba class. “In our studies, when sedentary people participate in a group-based exercise program, they typically stick with it longer than they do with exercising alone,” says Timothy Church, MD, PhD, a professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. The downside is, if your exercise buddies drop out, you may lose interest too. 

Your stick-to-it plan
Get sporty. Join a team. People who take part in sports have more fun and may be more likely to keep it up than those who do solo workouts, according to research in the Journal of American College Health. 

Join the club. To get the camara­derie you crave, check out local running, hiking, and biking clubs. Besides the socializing, you’ll probably bump up your performance a notch as you start comparing your speed and distance with other those of other members. 

Use your social network. Friends are the best cheerleaders, so tweet, text, or e-mail your latest mileage achievements to your pals. When they zap back their congrats, you’ll get a blast of inspiration and be psyched to keep going. 

Mostly C’s
Motivation button: Your swimsuit 
Call it superficial, but the pursuit of a sleek physique will get you to the gym. After health, appearance is the most common reason women say they exercise, according to a University of Kentucky survey. Just be aware that your focus on the endgame, rather than on enjoying the process, can cost you. When beach season is over, you may lose interest in putting in the work it takes to stay slim. 

Your stick-to-it plan
Ease up a little. ”People who want to look their best for a specific event, like a reunion, may be willing to exercise harder and diet because they think it will help them more quickly achieve their goals,” Kilpatrick says. “But we’ve found that for many people, continuous high-intensity exercise can actually discourage them from continuing to do it.” It’s more effective to go for a jog several times a week if sprinting like crazy for 15 minutes today is going to make you bail on your workout tomorrow. 

Strength-train. For the best results, add a body-sculpting class, Pilates, or any type of resistance work to your regimen. “When you overdo cardio, your body starts to burn muscle instead of fat,” says Greg Joujon-Roche, a personal trainer and the founder of Holistic Fitness in Los Angeles. Strength training tones muscle and trims flab. 

Picture perfect. Successful athletes envision themselves acing that serve, crossing the finish line, or scoring a goal. “When you visualize an achievement, you’re doing a mental workout that is creating neuromuscular connections between your brain and muscles,” Dahlkoetter says. This technique helps you appreciate how amazing your body is. Yes, it’s cool to be a healthy size 6, but it’s even cooler that the muscles that make you a 6 can move so beautifully. 

Mostly D’s
Motivation button: The mental rush you get 
You use exercise to beat stress, alleviate frustration, and boost feel-good endorphins. You’re one of the lucky ones: Intrinsic motivation — drive that comes from within — is more likely to lead to long-term behavioral change, Gaston says. The only trouble is, you may be so in love with how exercise makes you feel mentally that you ignore what it’s doing to you physically, putting you at risk for injury. 

Your stick-to-it plan
Take a time-out. Be sure to schedule at least one day off a week to let your body rest. And make sure you alternate activities — running one day, Pilates the next — so you stay strong from head to toe. 

Try new things. Even the most ardent exercisers can get bored by the monotony of Mondays, bike; Wednesdays, run; Fridays, yoga. So branch out. Take lessons to learn a new sport, like tennis. Or try adventurous activities like rock climbing or kayaking. 

Recover from a bump. Whether it’s a killer work deadline or your honeymoon, getting back on the exercise wagon after a hiatus can be tricky. Pick it up again without obsessing about your performance. Instead of overthinking how your backstroke is going to look, just do it and focus on how good it feels.

How to Be Your Own Fitness Trainer

By Corrie Pikul

Your Goal: Find an “Emergency” Routine You Can Do Anywhere

You need a portable routine to squeeze in between scheduled workouts–something you can easily do in your living room, a hotel room or the spare room at your parents’ house (where you’ll be staying during your next visit). This routine by New York City celebrity trainer Joel Harper builds muscle, creates flexibility and keeps your fitness level up without requiring any equipment. Best of all: You need only 20 minutes. 

Your Goal: Work Out at Least Four Times a Week

You feel the most pumped to work out at night, but deadlines, family, friends and Mad Men have made it hard to stick to a schedule. Try picking an evening class (maybe even a pricey yoga or spin session) and treating it like a meeting or a social obligation. When you have a regular fitness appointment, you schedule the rest of your life around your workout instead of trying to fit your workout into your life, says Michelle Kennedy, MS, Best Life fitness expert. If that doesn’t work, you may have to override your natural rhythms. The first week or two might be tough, but Kennedy swears a.m. workouts get easier over time. And she should know: because of her schedule and two young children, she needs to leave for the gym by 4:30 a.m.

Your Goal: Transition from the Treadmill to the Race Course

You’ve been racing yourself (or the little red dot that serves as your digital doppelganger) for months, and now you’re ready to challenge another runner-or even a crowd of them. Personal trainer Andrea Metcalf has a six-week guide that will help you run your first 5K in under 30 minutes. It involves alternating a circuit of 2 minutes of walking followed by 2 minutes of jogging and then 1 minute of running.

Your Goal: Do Something About Your Tummy

It’s one of life’s unfair truths: Your chances of washboard abs are mostly determined by your body type-like how much extra weight you’re carrying and where you’re carrying it. But regardless of your abdominal DNA, you can build a stronger, more toned-looking core that can support your back, help you stand straighter (and therefore look slimmer) and lower your risk of injury. Skip sit-ups and crunches, and instead focus on planks: Here’s how to do them correctly. Once you’ve mastered them, incorporate your legs and arms by doing mountain climbers like these with a stability ball. 

Your Goal: Get Red-Carpet-Ready Thighs

Squats are a big-name trainer’s go-to move; you’ve seen them mentioned in articles about how this celebrity or that one got their pre-baby body back, or got fit for the beach scenes in their last movie, or prepared for that awards show. You know you can’t easily spot-shrink the thighs nature (or your parents) gave you, but squats can help you reshape them.

Your Goal: Develop Comebacks to Your Best Excuses

You’re pretty good about sticking to a fitness plan, but there are those days when you’d really love a kick in the sweatpants. Need a good reason to work out today? Here are Bob Greene’s Top 10 excuse-busters, including the obvious (you want to look better) as well as the ones you often forget about (you love your kids, you don’t sleep well). Print these out and tape them to the inside of your closet-it’s the next best thing to having Bob on speed dial.

Your Goal: Save Money on Gym (and Trainer) Fees

A new survey from the American Cancer Society found that women are more likely to consider working out to be “work” than men: 40 percent of women said they would be more physically active in their free time if exercise felt more like play. You can relate. You’re sick of cardio machines that don’t take you anywhere, and you secretly hope to get kicked out of boot camp. Good news: You can burn just as many calories with some of these nontraditional exercises that make working out feel fun again. Instead of running, try Ultimate Frisbee, or drop the dumbbells in favor of a hiking pack you can take with you into the hills.

 

Here is a list of our links.

• website – http://www.celestialhealing.net
• Facebook Fanpage – http://www.facebook.com/celestial.healing
  
• Healing Power Hour Youtube – http://www.youtube.com/HealingPowerHour