Thursday, May 20, 2010

The reason why women have body-image issues=> Hooters Waitress Fired for Being FAT???

Ok, this story just ticks me off! This is the reason WHY my weight-loss coaching clients come to me with extreme emotional baggage around how they look and feel about their body!

This is why I have to help my clients to start to feel better about themselves and coach them around boosting their self-esteem. Stories like this cause lots of self-loathing (especially with women) and many of them come to the conclusion that they are "not good enough" based on other peoples' standards.

And don't let me even go there when it comes to the male manager who they interviewed in the Hooters Restaurant! Really, hooters ... maybe you should have a talk with him because eventually someone like him is going to have a negative impact on your health care costs! Have you thought about that? I understand that he is not the one who is serving the food, but don't you think you should balance out the standards a little bit more between what you expect your female employees to look like and your male employees to look like?

What message does this "news" story send out to all those young girls out there?

Are you kidding me ... this waitress is 5'8" tall and weighs anywhere between 132 and 138 lbs according to all the media reports. That IS fit and beautiful. That is a healthy weight -- are you kidding me, Hooters!

Yes, I understand that you have a business that is based on how hot your waitresses look -- I get it -- as you say in your interview ("you have a standard to uphold"). Where the heck do you get your standards from?

Who is the mucky-muck who decided that 5'8" and 138 lbs is FAT?
Let me see what they look like!


Ladies .. whomever you are (young, middle-aged or older), please know this -- those are "standards" set by someone that you don't want to listen to.

Love your body. Appreciate the great health you do have. Know that your beauty should only be determined by one thing and one thing only -- how much joy you feel and how much you love yourself. If you love you, your beauty will radiate to everyone around you. And what someone else says about your weight says more about them than you! Period!

And to the Hooters waitress that is the center of all this media frenzy, here's my opinion (for what it is worth) ... you don't need HOOTERS! You are a beautiful woman who can get a job anywhere, preferably somewhere where you are respected and appreciated for who you are right now. You don't need to change for anyone. The only time you need to make a change is when you feel that change will make you happier.


Here's the news video on this story for those of you who have not seen it yet.

Please feel free to leave your comments here about this story and how you feel about it.

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Thursday, May 13, 2010

Oprah's Interview with Geneen Roth - Author of Women Food and God

Since this topic is such a passion of mine to teach my clients, I wanted to see the interview that Oprah did last week with Geneen Roth about her new book: Women, Food and God.

As I have been blogging about for quite some time now, the most important thing that impacts the state of your overall health is the nature of your thoughts and feelings. The fitness level of your body is MORE dependent on

1) What you think and feel about your body (do you critique your body every time you look in the mirror?),

2) What you feel about all areas of your life (are there some areas of your life that you feel lackful and worry constantly about?),

3) Your BELIEFS about the foods you eat & the exercise you have to do in order to stay fit (do you have beliefs that some foods will make you fat and then eat them anyway, do you believe you have a "slow metabolism" and that your "skinny" friends are blessed with a high metabolism? That story will definitely impact what happens with your body!),

4) How you deal with the emotional stress in your life (do you go to food immediately when you are under a great deal of stress to "feed" your emotions, instead of addressing them head on?)

It's not about the food, the exercise, dieting, nutritional supplements ... it's about your beliefs, your relationship with you, how you deal with the stessors in your life. Your weight is a by-product of what you think and feel on a daily basis. Period.

On the Oprah show last week, Geneen Roth spoke about "never dieting again" and got to the issue of WHY people are fat. Many of you may think that if you just eat the "right foods" than BAM ... the weight will just come off! Not so. If there was some magic bullet to lose weight then everyone would be skinny.

It's about your RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU. I work with my coaching clients to understand the real reasons why they are overweight. Like I teach in my Law of Attraction Weight Loss Program, it's about resetting your "fat" mindset. It's also about SHIFTING your thoughts and feelings so they are aligned with wellness & joy. It's about being kinder to you. It's about "addressing the stress".

All the people that were interviewed on the Geneen Roth Oprah show had one thing in common...
They were not happy with where they were at in their life and they were definitely NOT happy with their bodies.

There was so much self judgment and self-loathing - and that only STOPS you from attracting the body you so desire to have.

What I believe is that many overweight people (especially women) are "FEEDING their emotions" instead of "FEELING their emotions and then making a conscious choice to reach for a better feeling."

This is what I am so passionate about teaching my clients to do so that they can feel more joy in this moment, which will open the door and lead them to a healthier and more fit body!

One of the women interviewed on the Oprah Show said that "When I am eating, I don't think about anything else" -- however, this same woman had worries about her Mom, brother and other concerns when it came to her quality of life. It's about addressing these other concerns that is more important than immediately trying to address the excess weight. The excess weight is more about the emotional baggage that people hold onto and the excessive focusing on their body that they loathe!

Matter of fact Geneen Roth mentioned what many women are doing is just adding an extra level of pain to what they are already experiencing. How? Well, they have emotions to life situations that they are just feeding with food that is just going to make them feel even worse later on. Because then, what most of you do, is you beat up on yourself AFTER you eat that way and then you feel even worse than you did before.

I had a doctor client who was so overwhelmed with the stress and demands of her job while simultaneously trying to balance a family of 6 kids that she turned to fried cheese curds as a meal. But then after eating the fried cheese curds felt so bad and was beating up on herself so much that it just ADDED to the stress level that she felt. And on top of that, she had the attitude that "well, I may as well eat unhealthy later since I already screwed up today". But then I coached her around the stress and helped her be at peace with where she was at right in that moment so that she could embrace a different attitude for the meal later on that night. When she left that coaching call, she was feeling so much better about herself and her life, that she chose the healthier option to balance out her "fried" choice earlier on in the day.

Bottom line ... you have to FEEL GOOD in order to make healthier decisions. From a place of Being Happy and Lovin' Life Now, you will more easily align with total wellness than you would if you are depressed, de-motivated and beating up on yourself every single day.

I am going to state my popular quote again =>

"Being Happy Makes You Healthy!" ~Lesetz

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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Your "Ideal" Weight: What if "Being Fatter" was Better?

I was just speaking about this topic of weight loss with a friend and the picture that society and the media paints, especially when it comes to women and their ideal weight. And this question came to me:

"What if there was a magic wand that was waved over all of society today and BEING FATTER WAS BETTER?"

Now, I know that this question sounds silly on the surface, but let me explain a bit further the motivation behind this thought. We all build our belief systems by what we are brought up with and what we see in the world. And many women I know base their self-image on the standards that other people have set. Think of all the commercials for losing weight!

We know that models in magazines are airbrushed but young girls still see this and many think "oooh, that's the way I want to look!" Or a family member tells you "you are fat" and that sticks with you, until you recognize (if you ever do) that it's just a story that is someone else's and you can change it if you want to. And let's face it, changing that affirmation would make you feel SO MUCH BETTER! So why don't you? Why do you choose to believe that?

So, what if society actually embraced that being fatter was better? Would many of us women like our bodies better? Would we feel better about ourselves? Does our self image have more to do with what other people say and buy into?

Ask yourself this question now -- if society had it all turned around and the more plump you were, the sexier you were, how would that change how you feel about you? If you are very skinny, would it make you want to go out and gain some weight? If you are very overweight, would you think "cool ... I don't have to lose this weight anymore -- Ahhhh, what a relief!".

I am posing this question because I want you to really think about WHY you want to be a different weight?

I am not suggesting that "fatter is better", I am just giving you some food for thought about society standards and how they play a role in what you think of you.

If you want to lose weight, are you doing it for YOU? How will you FEEL when you are at that goal weight? Or is it because of what other people say and think that makes you want to lose that weight? What's been programmed into your mind about a healthy and fit body? Does that programming EMPOWER YOU or DIS-EMPOWER YOU?

I am pretty sure that there are some cultures where "being thin is NOT in". How does that impact their self image / their self worth?

Start reflecting inward as to WHY you really want to be a different weight. It's all about what will make you feel good and starting to feel good NOW before you actually lose all that weight. Your healthy and fit body is more of an "inside job". You can take all the action steps in the world to losing that excess weight, but if you are not coming from a "feel good" place when you take those action steps, the journey will feel like a long and difficult one.

Forget about what others think you should weigh or how you should look. That's all that matters is what you really think and feel and what you really want for yourself and WHY you want it.

Who will you be when you have that "ideal" body? ... Be that person NOW!

What will you be doing differently as a result of having that "ideal" body? ... Start doing those things NOW or at least do things that will get you into the feeling place of doing those different things!

How will you FEEL when you are at what YOU consider to be your ideal weight? ... Start reaching for that feeling now. There are many things you can do to feel "more energetic" or "empowered" -- those feelings are not only correlated with having a healthy and fit body. For example, you can feel more energetic or empowered by taking on a project that you are passionate about. REACH FOR THAT FEELING NOW and you will attract more things in your life that will make you feel energetic and empowered, including that healthy and fit body you so desire!

Don't get so caught up with the number on the scale or the size of your pants -- it's just a number! Tap into the feel good place of WHY you want to have that slimmer body (if that is your desire). Don't let the number rule your life.

And next time you hear the media talk about someone's weight or look at a magazine and think that model is the standard for what you should look like ... STOP and remind yourself that it doesn't matter what the rest of the world says or looks like. That should have nothing to do with your goals and dreams. This is your body, your life, and it's all about what makes you FEEL GOOD!

There, I said it! :)

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Monday, May 03, 2010

Lessons from the Diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis

You may be wondering "what does the title of this blog post have to do with Lovin' Life and Losin' Weight?" Well, quite frankly ... everything.

You see, when I was diagnosed with MS it felt like life just threw me a great big curve ball! I had a choice in that moment to treat it as the "end of the road" or "just another bump in the road". And I chose the latter. It was just a bump in the road of life -- something that all of us experience in so many different ways during the course of our lifetime. That diagnosis was not going to define me -- it was just a little "blip on the screen"!

Here's what I learned from that experience that can be applied to any life challenge you may be facing (and yes, that includes weight loss, money, relationships -- you name it, these lessons apply 100%).

1) Focus on what IS working in your life. Feel blessed for the health you do have. Look for the positive evidence in your life. Appreciate more. Worry less.
If you are laser focused on what doesn't feel good (e.g., physical symptoms, what others may think, your "out-of-shape" body, what the future holds when you go to the worse-case scenario, etc.), then you are just going to attract more stuff that you don't feel good about into your life. You MUST shift your focus to the "feel good" stuff!

2) Allow for the possibility of wellness, healing and great health! Don't dismiss the positive outcome just because there are naysayers and people telling you that it can be doom and gloom. You choose your life experiences. You decide whether something is just a bump in the road or a big deal. Based on that one decision, you will steer your life in that direction. I made the decision that one day I would be drug-free, experiencing great health and Lovin' Life. And I made this decision without knowing HOW this was going to happen. And now, 8 years later, I am experiencing exactly what I intended to happen and what I decided was going to happen. It was a HELL YES for me. No doubt. No worries. I just knew that I was going to be fine! Don't ever underestimate that type of decision with a strong conviction. It manifests great things all the time!

3) Your overall health depends on the nature of your thoughts & feelings. It is 100% correlated with your attitude and what you feel each day. If "stress" is part of your every day existence and focusing on the negative is too, then your health will be less than optimal as a result of that experience. Feeling stressed is a choice and so is being at peace and feeling JOY!

Those are just a few of my many lessons on this journey. But do know, that all these lessons apply to every area of your life that you are not happy with and want to change.

No matter what your goals are, you have the power within you to achieve them! You can turn your life around, despite what you are currently facing.

Yes, you are that powerful. Once my coaching clients realize how powerful they are to create their life experiences and embrace that 100%, their dreams unfold beautifully and with ease. Life doesn't have to be as hard as we make it!

There is a hidden gem in every adversity that you encounter on this road trip of life. The diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis was a blessing in disguise for me.

If you are at your wits' end when it comes to the state of your overall health and you are ready to change how you feel about it, then check out my 12-month Law of Attraction Health Coaching Program.

Embrace the lessons from life's adversities and just know that the state of your overall health is within your hands -- well, actually, your mindset! It is within your reach to feel so much better than you currently do and to live life to its fullest, despite any health challenge you are currently experiencing.

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