April’s Fitness Theme: 30 Days of Body Transforming Change

Me on the left: The day I decided I wanted real change.

Me on the right: The results of that decision. I made change happen.

If you don’t like your situation, then stop festering in it. Half-assed-ness will not get you there. When it comes to your fitness (and anything else in life, really), the road to change must be traveled daily.

Will you start with these next 30 days?

Hoping, talking about it, and even planning is not enough. You’ve gotta get down in the trenches and do the actual work to make change happen. Consistently and diligently.

There’s no doubt you’ll deal with discouragement at some points in this process — you’re only human, after all. Those feelings are bound to happen, so just accept it as part of the journey and work through it.

You are NOT weak, but your thirst for change has got to be greater than any negative feelings and thoughts that threaten your progress.

Don’t let the reality of your situation paralyze you into not taking action. And keep in mind that this change you’re in pursuit of may first require you to change your mindset, your attitude and your perspective.

This is a call to action for 30 days of body transforming change. Where will you be 30 days from now? Will you make a personal commitment? Real change starts NOW, so don’t get left behind. 

There are a few good roads to get these next 30 days done, so do what works for you. A handful of you have reached out to ask me for guidance in your own journey. If you also need a little help and want to grab some tips from the healthy lifestyle road that I personally travel, then click here for a snapshot of my own fitness and weight loss plan. It’ll give you details of what I do and how I do it. I’m extremely results oriented. I find what works. I do it consistently. And I get results. Won’t you do the same?

xoxo,

Josie

View the original article here

"...it's just a moment of change..."

Hello, my name is Lynn, and I write this blog. You wouldn’t know it, given my 2-week absence, but life got (and still is) really crazy. Let me catch you up.
Two weeks ago I went back to Minnesota to catch up on my brother’s health. Marty is still recovering from the series of seizures he had June 23, which left him with short-term and working memory loss. Caring for Marty was the purpose of my visit. Caring for me happened in the spaces in between.
My care came from, in no particular order:
• Jack, who is BFF Pam’s 8-year-old son and the one who gives up his Vikings bed when I stay overnight. Since he learned to talk, Jack has asked the most *interesting* questions. My favorite one from this visit: Lynn, do you have handcuffs?•  The fire pit at Pam and Mike’s.
•   Sand cranes. There were two standing near a swamp early Sunday morning when Pam took me to the airport.
•  John, my high school boyfriend. Our friendship has endured for 33 years. My daughter Cassie calls him her “Should-be Daddy.”
•  Time alone with my mom.
•  Time alone with my dad.
•  Dinner with Mom and Dad. It was fun to hear them talk about their Hawaii years. Dad was stationed at Pearl. They were married there, and Marty was born at Tripler.
•  The fabulous grilled veggie sandwich at TJ’s. (Thank you, Adele and Jackie, for taking me there!)
•  My brother Matthew’s home-grown tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers and poblano peppers.
•  Lunch with my niece Michaela.
• Yana, from Israel, whom I’d never met before I walked into the JC Penney’s salon in Maple Grove. She cut my hair and waxed my eyebrows and made me feel pretty again.
• The two pairs of jeans I bought at NordstromRack. Not only were they 70 percent off, they fit perfectly. Unheard of!
• The kind man who sat next to me on the flight out who talked me through take off (my least favorite part of flying).
• Listening to JT Hodges at 6:30 a.m. while getting ready to go home. Click on this link and listen to “Hunt You Down.” That man is seriously yummy *smile*
• Having the entire row to myself on the flight home.

• Lunch with Cassie after I landed. It’s the first time in 4 years (since Claire was born) that I’ve had her alone for more than an hour. We went to Mad Mex, where she ordered fried ice cream for dessert. (Here she is sawing through the deep-fried tortilla. She had 700 calories to spend after spin class that morning.)
• Finding – 30,000 feet above Lake Michigan – my desire to write again. I thought I’d lost it this summer. Now that I’m back in school full time, I might not write a blog as frequently, but at least I know I still have the desire *grin*

View the original article here

Hypnosis to Change your Life

- Lose up to 19% Total Body Weight. - Increase metabolic rate by 76.9% without Exercise. - Reduce 40-70% overall Fat under skin. - Lose 20-35% abdominal Fat. - Boost your Confidence level and Self Esteem. -Control compulsive over-eating!!! - Suppress your appetite for sugar and other carbs (such as breads) - Burn calorized fat. WANT TO REVEAL THAT BEAUTIFUL, SLIM BODY HIDING UNDERNEATH THE FAT? WANT TO BE BEAUTIFUL? WANT TO LIVE A LONGER, MORE HEALTHY LIFE? THEN TAKE CHARGE AND TAKE OFF THE FAT !!!! You can lose weight with this powerful weight loss hypnosis CD! It's easier than you think. The mind is in charge of metabolism...change your mind, change your metabolism...it's really as easy as that. You'll see a new you and you'll feel great about it!!! STOP COMPULSIVE OVER-EATING !!!

Price: $29.95

Click here to buy from Amazon

Bikini Monday! Bob Harper’s Pure Burn Super Strength DVD (I Promise It Will Change You)

Frivolous Demands: *Subscribe to the blog *Follow me on Twittah *Like me on Facebook *YouTube my videos

Grab some Shakeology in my Beachbody shop.

Contact me with questions about Shakeology.

Get the Facts On Shakeology

Shakeology is the all-natural meal (shake) developed by Beachbody, the makers of P90X. The shake will help you lose weight, reduce cravings, improve digestion, and lower cholesterol. It can also improve stamina and libido, alleviate hormonal issues (including menopause-related), aid memory, support immune function and boost serotonin levels to improve mood and symptoms of depression, while also reducing the symptoms of high blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis.

Shakeology can be mixed with water on the go, or hook it up in the blender for an ice cream shake experience!

I enjoy my Shakeology on most days of the week and have significantly reduced my cravings and experienced weight loss, better digestion, more energy (which is priceless to me with 4 child-spawns) and a better mood. You can also find out what doctors are saying about Shakeology.

Chocolate Shakeology has 18 grams protein and 140 calories. View the nutrition label.

Greenberry Shakeology has 16 grams of protein and 140 calories. View the nutrition label.

90 Days of Shakeology: My Experiment

Shakeology 30-Day Recipe Calendars

You can purchase Shakeology in my Beachbody shop. Beachbody has a trusted reputation for putting out top-notch products, like P90X and Insanity. There’s no other product like Shakeology on the market and it comes with a 30-day empty bag, money back guarantee. Try it for 30 days. Use up the entire bag, and if you’re not satisfied, then get your money back!

If you have a true passion for fitness and helping people reach their goals, and you’re committed to achieving financial independence, contact me now about becoming a Beachbody Coach.
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View the original article here

Loving yourself to change.

Thais is a 20s something yoga dork (her word) with a passion for food and life. You can catch her taking naps in the park with her black lab Caviar or tweeting away about some quote or another. You can check out her corner of the blogging world at letitgo8.  I do love me some Thais.

I’m a binge eater.

I’m the first to admit it.

When things are rough on the inside – I go to food for comfort. When I am not bingeing, I’m beating myself up about the last binge. I spend the whole day feeling guilty, ashamed, and pretty low. I look at my body with distaste and dwell on the binge like a big black fog that doesn’t lift.

It becomes a vicious circle and pretty soon I forget what started it. Did I binge because I beat myself over and over again or did I beat myself because of the binge?

Today, as I was getting ready for my work out, I was undressing in front of the mirror and I caught my own eye. So I gave myself a good look over.

And I stared. And kept staring, expecting my inner critic to have at it. But for some reason, the voice didn’t come. Instead, all those months of my own voice telling people to love more, to have more compassion, to keep an open heart, came back to me.

And that’s when it hit me like a ton of bricks, right there in the middle of the locker room.

I realized that I WILL NOT CHANGE BY HATING MYSELF.

I will not stop my bingeing by scaring myself to stop.

By blackmailing. By making myself cry with all the self-hate. By starving myself. By avoiding touching my skin because I do not want to feel my fat.

By not buying new clothes for years because I do not want to admit I went up two sizes. By not feeling like I deserve good people in my life.

I cannot hate myself into change. And neither can you!

When’s the last time ignoring, hitting and screaming hateful things at a child generate good response? I would never want to treat any poor child the way I treat myself.

So after that little moment, I decided it’s time to LOVE myself into change.

Because I really do want to change. I do not want to have binge attacks.

I want to lose weight and fit back into my jeans. I want to be able to show off what I have worked so hard to achieve. But my self-love shouldn’t come because I am a certain size.

My self-love should not be dependent on the percentage of body fat I have. My self-love should come because I am ME. I am dedicated, motivated, and I deserve the best.

I am a good person and I have a big heart. Which means I need to start loving myself NOW. No time but the present right? At the end of the day – we all make mistakes, we all slip up. You just gotta laugh, give yourself a big hug, and spend a little more time figuring out how to love yourself more.

And I have a pretty sure feeling that by self-lovin’ myself enough, good things will start to happen. I won’t binge as often because I won’t beat myself up all day about it.

I won’t feel scared to look at a mirror. I’ll stand up a bit taller and hold my head a little higher.

The weight will come off because I am no longer ashamed of it. It’s not going to be easy, but what do I have to lose?

Clearly hating myself hasn’t worked out too well for me so it’s about time I try something new.

What about you? Do you love or hate yourself to change?

View the original article here

Hypnosis to Change your Life

- Lose up to 19% Total Body Weight. - Increase metabolic rate by 76.9% without Exercise. - Reduce 40-70% overall Fat under skin. - Lose 20-35% abdominal Fat. - Boost your Confidence level and Self Esteem. -Control compulsive over-eating!!! - Suppress your appetite for sugar and other carbs (such as breads) - Burn calorized fat. WANT TO REVEAL THAT BEAUTIFUL, SLIM BODY HIDING UNDERNEATH THE FAT? WANT TO BE BEAUTIFUL? WANT TO LIVE A LONGER, MORE HEALTHY LIFE? THEN TAKE CHARGE AND TAKE OFF THE FAT !!!! You can lose weight with this powerful weight loss hypnosis CD! It's easier than you think. The mind is in charge of metabolism...change your mind, change your metabolism...it's really as easy as that. You'll see a new you and you'll feel great about it!!! STOP COMPULSIVE OVER-EATING !!!

Price: $29.95

Click here to buy from Amazon

Weekend Quote: Change the Voices

This quote comes straight from the comments on my recent Note to Self post. Chelsea–who I’m SO happy came out of lurking–was nice enough to lift me up by sharing this amazing line from the Pink song F**ckin’ Perfect…

“Change the voices in your head, make them like you instead”

If you haven’t heard the song, it’s a must listen for those who struggle with body image and self-worth problems. Yea, she drops the f-bomb but in a way I think she needs to. It makes it more powerful. More emotional.

Now Pink – F****n’ Perfect joins the list of songs that immediately make me cry along with Everclear’s Father of Mine and Five for Fighting’s 100 Years

And NO it’s not pregnancy hormones.

I’m just a sap. :)

View the original article here

Hypnosis to Change your Life

- Lose up to 19% Total Body Weight. - Increase metabolic rate by 76.9% without Exercise. - Reduce 40-70% overall Fat under skin. - Lose 20-35% abdominal Fat. - Boost your Confidence level and Self Esteem. -Control compulsive over-eating!!! - Suppress your appetite for sugar and other carbs (such as breads) - Burn calorized fat. WANT TO REVEAL THAT BEAUTIFUL, SLIM BODY HIDING UNDERNEATH THE FAT? WANT TO BE BEAUTIFUL? WANT TO LIVE A LONGER, MORE HEALTHY LIFE? THEN TAKE CHARGE AND TAKE OFF THE FAT !!!! You can lose weight with this powerful weight loss hypnosis CD! It's easier than you think. The mind is in charge of metabolism...change your mind, change your metabolism...it's really as easy as that. You'll see a new you and you'll feel great about it!!! STOP COMPULSIVE OVER-EATING !!!

Price: $29.95

Click here to buy from Amazon

Change From Within (Plus a review & giveaway of Joy Bauer’s new cookbook!)

I have a friend who works in a field that to me, sitting on the outside looking in, seems oppressive to a number of minority groups. She believes in gender and economic equality, so her work seems in contrast to her belief system. However, when I asked her why she chose her career, she said that by working on the inside, she creates real change and believes through her efforts that one day, the institution in which she is affiliated will be transformed.

Seems everywhere you look these days there’s someone saying or writing something about the obesity epidemic. “We have to do something about obesity!” cry politicians, school administrators, and even military officials. But like my friend said, change is best made from the inside out; made by the folks in the trenches.

In the six years since I made the decision to take back my body and health, and especially in the two years I’ve known nutritionist Joy Bauer, I’ve caught the fever for creating dietary changes within our culture. As I wrote in my interview with Joy at the beginning of this year (See “My New Year’s Interview with ‘Today Show’ Nutritionist Joy Bauer”), “I believe in Joy’s message. Her commitment to and passion for teaching and supporting healthy food choices and good nutrition is – in a word – infectious. The minute I met her, I knew I’d met a kindred spirit.”

I’d thought about going back to school to study nutrition, but thinking is all I did until I had surgery in June and spent three days in the hospital eating wretched, wretched (I’m not kidding, it was wretched) food. That’s when I decided I needed to be on the inside formulating change rather than on the outside dictating change. I found a 2-year dietetic technician program at Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh to which I applied, was accepted, and will begin in January. (The program is mostly online. For more information, go to CCAC’s information page.) 

Expanding my knowledge of nutrition in this way will put me in a position to suggest and hopefully implement changes from inside institutions such as hospitals or nursing homes. (A bit of Lynn Trivia: My first “real” job when I turned 16 was as a dietary aid in a nursing home. I loved it, although I doubt I’ll be engaging in mashed potato food fights anymore.)

While Joy Bauer is a big name in the “industry,” her education and expansive knowledge of nutrition puts her squarely on the inside where she implements change within her practice, online, and on Today. In my own transformation from the inside out, learning about food and learning to cook in a more healthy way was imperative. That’s why I recommend Joy’s new cookbook, “Slim & Scrumptious.” It not only includes healthy recipes, but solid (and non-intimidating) information about food selection, spices and cooking in general.

I picked up my copy in April and have made several recipes, including the Banana Pecan Bread, which I include at the end of this blog. So far, every one I’ve tried I’ve loved. “Slim & Scrumptious” includes breakfast recipes, stews and soups, an awesome lentil burger and a quinoa salad that made me fall in love with quinoa. Next up, I’m making the Roasted Cumin Cauliflower and Carrots.

Joy includes several meat-based recipes as well, and nutrition information is listed for each recipe.

I have a copy of Joy’s cookbook to give away! All you have to do to throw your name in the hat is leave a comment or send an email to lynn.haraldson@yahoo.com. I’ll draw a winner on Friday, Oct. 22.

As promised, Joy’s Banana Pecan Bread recipe (with a few notes from me because I didn’t have all the ingredients when I made it Sunday).

½ C pecans (I used walnuts that I toasted in a dry fry pan on the stove)
1 C whole wheat flour
1 C all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1 t ground cinnamon
¼ t ground nutmeg
1 ½ C mashed ripe banana (2 large or 3 to 4 small bananas)
2 T reduced-fat trans-fat-free tub margarine spread, at room temperature (I used 2 T Land O’ Lakes light butter)
½ C packed light brown sugar
2 large egg whites
1 t grated orange zest (I omitted this)
Juice of 1 small orange (I used ¼ C bottled orange juice)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9x5 loaf pan with oil spray and set aside.

Spread the pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast the pecans in the oven until they are lightly toasted, 6 to 8 minutes. Allow them to cool slightly. Finely chop and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, thoroughly combine the mashed bananas, margarine, brown sugar, egg whites, and orange zest and juice.

Sprinkle the dry ingredients over the wet mixture and fold together until the ingredients are just combines. Take care not to overmix; the batter will be slightly lumpy. Gently fold in the pecans.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool completely before removing the bread from the loaf pan.

Serves 20

Nutrition info: 104 calories; 2g protein; 19g carbohydrates; 3g total fat; 0g saturated fat; 0mg cholesterol; 2g fiber; 40mg sodium.

View the original article here

Time To Face The Change. Or Is It?

You don’t have to be a Weight Watcher’s member to know that change may not always be welcome, but it might be for the best.

The new Weight Watchers PointsPlus program puts protein and carbohydrates on the center stage with fiber and fat, and calories are not technically factored. It’s the company’s effort to encourage members to eat more fiber-rich whole foods. I pretty much figured out how to do that as I was losing weight on the old program, but I can see how this new program makes it even easier to do.

As I began tracking all the individual foods I ate yesterday, I thought about the question I posed a few years ago: Which do you prefer: eating a full portion of one thing or eating small portions of several things? Or does it usually depend on what day it is, how creative you’re feeling, and what foods you must use up in the fridge before they grow legs and walk away?

I tend to eat several little things all day, and I also think of food in terms of time. I like to eat slowly and in volume. How long will it take me to eat soup or salad or to drink a latte? It takes me two minutes at most to eat a tube of manicotti (which is the same number of Points as my big salads or hearty soups), and that’s savoring it. It takes me 15 to 20 minutes to eat the salad or soup.

When people ask why I became a vegetarian, I tell them it’s because I get to eat more. And at the end of the day, by eating more I’ve eaten less and I feel better. Of course there are always times when a small piece of something sweet or carby or a half-cup of real ice cream is just the right thing – satisfying and eaten in a matter of a minute. It’s the memory of the taste that lasts so much longer than the actual flavor in your mouth.

I’ve counted Points using the old program for nearly six years. It made sense to me, it worked, it sustained me. Now I’m learning the new PointsPlus system, and while the plan makes a lot of sense (even though it’s going to take me a long time to convert six years of recipes), I wonder if maybe I’m relying too heavily on someone else’s plan rather than the one I’ve morphed into my own. I’m comfortable with how I eat and it won’t change just because a corporation tells me fruit is zero points. I know me, I know my body. If I eat more than two or three fruit servings a day, I will gain weight. Having a glass of wine or two doesn’t derail me. I know that at certain times of the month, simple carbs really are necessary for my mental health. We all learn our needs and our thresholds through trial and error.

Having said that, I still believe in WW and I give the new plan a great deal of credit for encouraging people to eat a more clean, healthy diet. Still, in the end, we all have to do what is right for ourselves, to walk out on the edge and use any plan as a guideline and not the absolute truth for our body mechanics.

Whichever plan you’ve chosen to use, how, the further you get into weight loss or maintenance, has your eating plan changed from the time you started?

View the original article here

Change From Within (Plus a review & giveaway of Joy Bauer’s new cookbook!)

I have a friend who works in a field that to me, sitting on the outside looking in, seems oppressive to a number of minority groups. She believes in gender and economic equality, so her work seems in contrast to her belief system. However, when I asked her why she chose her career, she said that by working on the inside, she creates real change and believes through her efforts that one day, the institution in which she is affiliated will be transformed.

Seems everywhere you look these days there’s someone saying or writing something about the obesity epidemic. “We have to do something about obesity!” cry politicians, school administrators, and even military officials. But like my friend said, change is best made from the inside out; made by the folks in the trenches.

In the six years since I made the decision to take back my body and health, and especially in the two years I’ve known nutritionist Joy Bauer, I’ve caught the fever for creating dietary changes within our culture. As I wrote in my interview with Joy at the beginning of this year (See “My New Year’s Interview with ‘Today Show’ Nutritionist Joy Bauer”), “I believe in Joy’s message. Her commitment to and passion for teaching and supporting healthy food choices and good nutrition is – in a word – infectious. The minute I met her, I knew I’d met a kindred spirit.”

I’d thought about going back to school to study nutrition, but thinking is all I did until I had surgery in June and spent three days in the hospital eating wretched, wretched (I’m not kidding, it was wretched) food. That’s when I decided I needed to be on the inside formulating change rather than on the outside dictating change. I found a 2-year dietetic technician program at Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh to which I applied, was accepted, and will begin in January. (The program is mostly online. For more information, go to CCAC’s information page.) 

Expanding my knowledge of nutrition in this way will put me in a position to suggest and hopefully implement changes from inside institutions such as hospitals or nursing homes. (A bit of Lynn Trivia: My first “real” job when I turned 16 was as a dietary aid in a nursing home. I loved it, although I doubt I’ll be engaging in mashed potato food fights anymore.)

While Joy Bauer is a big name in the “industry,” her education and expansive knowledge of nutrition puts her squarely on the inside where she implements change within her practice, online, and on Today. In my own transformation from the inside out, learning about food and learning to cook in a more healthy way was imperative. That’s why I recommend Joy’s new cookbook, “Slim & Scrumptious.” It not only includes healthy recipes, but solid (and non-intimidating) information about food selection, spices and cooking in general.

I picked up my copy in April and have made several recipes, including the Banana Pecan Bread, which I include at the end of this blog. So far, every one I’ve tried I’ve loved. “Slim & Scrumptious” includes breakfast recipes, stews and soups, an awesome lentil burger and a quinoa salad that made me fall in love with quinoa. Next up, I’m making the Roasted Cumin Cauliflower and Carrots.

Joy includes several meat-based recipes as well, and nutrition information is listed for each recipe.

I have a copy of Joy’s cookbook to give away! All you have to do to throw your name in the hat is leave a comment or send an email to lynn.haraldson@yahoo.com. I’ll draw a winner on Friday, Oct. 22.

As promised, Joy’s Banana Pecan Bread recipe (with a few notes from me because I didn’t have all the ingredients when I made it Sunday).

½ C pecans (I used walnuts that I toasted in a dry fry pan on the stove)
1 C whole wheat flour
1 C all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1 t ground cinnamon
¼ t ground nutmeg
1 ½ C mashed ripe banana (2 large or 3 to 4 small bananas)
2 T reduced-fat trans-fat-free tub margarine spread, at room temperature (I used 2 T Land O’ Lakes light butter)
½ C packed light brown sugar
2 large egg whites
1 t grated orange zest (I omitted this)
Juice of 1 small orange (I used ¼ C bottled orange juice)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9x5 loaf pan with oil spray and set aside.

Spread the pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast the pecans in the oven until they are lightly toasted, 6 to 8 minutes. Allow them to cool slightly. Finely chop and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, thoroughly combine the mashed bananas, margarine, brown sugar, egg whites, and orange zest and juice.

Sprinkle the dry ingredients over the wet mixture and fold together until the ingredients are just combines. Take care not to overmix; the batter will be slightly lumpy. Gently fold in the pecans.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool completely before removing the bread from the loaf pan.

Serves 20

Nutrition info: 104 calories; 2g protein; 19g carbohydrates; 3g total fat; 0g saturated fat; 0mg cholesterol; 2g fiber; 40mg sodium.

View the original article here

Power of Thin: Change Your Mind, Change Your Weight

Steve G. Jones and Frank Mangano give you all the tools and techniques you need to lose weight, shed pounds, and live a healthy lifestyle in their brand new book by using the law of attraction and hypnosis to achieve a new level of health.

Check it out!