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Looking back this week I notice that I miss the excitement of the Olympics. There are always such great stories of human triumph that come from the many participants from the various countries. This year’s Olympics where no exception. The women’s figure skating championships by itself, was enough to get even the toughest heart to shed a tear or two. (me I was a big baby)
I can’t imagine the pressure felt by the medal winner from Korea that had her whole country behind her as long as she won. If not she would live in shame before he whole county. And I get nervous talking in front of people. She not only gave a stellar performance but she went out on a limb to woe the judges. Just one piece of bad ice could have tumbled her hopes for the gold but she went all out.
Then there was Canada’s skater who won a medal even though her mother had died there just two days before her performance. I can’t imagine the courage and discipline that it took just to suit up and put her skates on. When she blew that kiss to her mother in the heavens I was weeping and touched.
I waited for a while to write this to not distract from their time in the spotlight and to think about what it took to do those things that most of us think of as superhuman efforts. I believe it has everything to do with vision and goals. You see both young ladies had the vision to be skaters and win from a very early age. Both had to put in hour after hour of practice. They sacrificed friends, family, and time to be everyday normal kind of people to do something that takes a committed effort and persistence.
This meant that when it came time to reach their goal, they knew that they could not stop. They had to go on and do what they had come to do. That would be to give their all. I heard that story told throughout the week by many athletes. No matter what they achieved they walked away giving it everything they had. That to me is true inspiration!
What if each of us gave our lives the best we had to offer each day. Does it have to be hours and hours of practice or working towards some endeavor? Or can it just be the best we can do that day to improve ourselves and our situation? See effort looks different for different people. I remember when it took effort just to walk up the stairs. It took effort not to give up. It took effort to even keep any hope that life could change. But, when I watch the achievers I am reminded that nothing achieved comes without effort. And much of the time the effort is always rewarded.
Take a moment out today, ask yourself what one thing you would change about yourself if you could. Then find a way to change it. Olympians use trainers and coaches. They don’t do it on their own. Together as a team they reach for their ultimate “perfect performance”. They got at it again and again, doing a little better each time at whatever they do. For some they come away with a medal, for some they just come away knowing they have to do better next time or they had some bad luck during the competition. All of them can come away knowing they gave it their best and got to participate in a competition that very few can qualify for.
Where will you compete? You will you inspire? Whose life will change by something you decide to do? I can say I will never win an Olympic medal but already this year I have done things I never thought I would be able to do. This year is still young and perhaps there is at least a medal or race that I can run for my age and win. Perhaps all that I will ever take away is knowing I gave it my best, and that my dear readers is always enough.
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Tags: Challenges, Family, Fitness, Health, health coach, Helping Others, Inspiration
Seems to be a lot more written lately about if being slim means that you are in better physical condition. I find this question lacking in common sense actually. Why? Because it relates to the idea of physical fitness. Not to how you are doing physically. Over the years as I had become bigger and my obesity started to really take it’s toll, I was often more active than many people my age. Now looking at me you would not have guessed it because at almost 3/4 of my height inches around my waist. I worked out each week. Many of my friends did not. I would often work harder in group situations than many of the people that where thinner and even younger.
You could say I had more endurance than some, but still I wasn’t physically fit. I could not have run a mile to save my life. Three miles before work like yesterday would have been out of the question. First of all I could not have done 3 miles in one setting walking or running. Giving it my best still would have wiped me out for the day. So active is not always fit. And slim is not always active. How to measure fitness?
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1. Determine if you are talking medical fitness or endurance fitness. Medical fitness can be tested and measured as well as endurance fitness. Each one is a different set of tests. Medical fitness is measured with things like blood tests, having check-ups, body fat percentages, and various other measurements of healthy body. Put them all together and you have a measurable results that tells you if you are healthy or not. Physical fitness has other tests. Length of workouts, recovery, intensity, endurance, and the list goes on. It too can be measured and tracked. If physical fitness is not being worked on, it is dropping.
2.Decide what needs to change. If you are at your ideal weight (determined by you and someone you trust) than you may need to look at the other forms of testing. Are there areas of either physical fitness or medical fitness that you need to look at? Start working on them and perhaps you can combine the two for “optimal health”. If you weight needs to change, stop fighting it and work on weight loss. If you have no endurance then exercise and come up with a plan to change it. If you have no ideas, than ask for help. It is available here and many other place on the net. Make a change.
3. Lastly stop making excuses for yourself. I hear it all the time. On of my favorites is that BMI charts are old science and have no bearing in truth. So frigging what! Adjust it for your body type and muscle mass and figure out if you are in shape or get your body fat measured. Stop using it as an excuse for not doing the work to reach a healthful state. Same with exercise. Here it is I am too out of shape or it takes too much time. How will that change if you don’t change something? As far as time goes you can pack life changing fitness into 20 mins a day or less. So time is not the issue. Commitment is! Way out of shape? Start slow and keep ramping it up till you get where you want to be.
You are not too big, too old, too young, too timid, too out of shape or too anything to not change something to make an improvement. You may need some help to get started. You may need a kick start on your weight loss or your physical program. You may even need some one like our team to teach and encourage you. But you can do it! You can reach optimal health no matter where you are now. And optimal health is the best that your body can do for the condition it is in, not in comparison to someone else and their abilities.
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Tags: BMI, health coach, Healthy Habits, lifestyle choices, Loosing Weight, optimal health
I often find myself giving doctors a bad rap when it comes to weight loss care and obesity treatment. I use my own experience and in the back o f my mind I start thinking “Well on all the other fronts he seems like a good doctor.” Then I run across something like this report included in this video and I am reminded that obesity is a problem on many fronts. One of which is fair treatment of the individual.
Imagine if you will walking into your doctor and telling them you have a symptom that may be extremely important if you where normal weight and they would run all kinds of tests to find out what was going on. The same symptoms on an obese person might get, oh that is just a symptom of your weight, loose some weight and lets see if it continues.
Take a look at the video clip …
Obesity doesn’t pay at the doctor’s office
Now we all know that not all doctors are the same. I don’t want to start another prejudice in this country we have enough as is. What I will say over and over again is if your doctor won’t talk honestly with you about your weight, find one that will. Do not go years with the idea it is all your fault and all you have to do is work harder and eat less. Also be wary when they go to the other extreme and tell you that you have no self control so the only answer is surgery or pills.
Find a doctor that will discuss your options fully and look at you like a regular person with a medical condition, not some one that they don’t want to take proper care of because they judge you as someone that doesn’t want to take care of yourself.
I want to thank the folks at Obesity Thunder Bay for their emails bringing this type of information to my attention. The more you know the better you can take care of yourself.
Tags: Challenges, Doctors, Loosing Weight, Obesity, obesity in America, Weight Loss
Several of my clients and friends have asked me to start using my hypnosis certification again. I have to agree with the meal plan and hypnosis it will make life easier for many of our clients to make permanent changes in their lifestyle. Well that would be “positive changes” as well. Sorry I could not resist the pun there as I think certain businesses take much more out of your pocket than they should. This week alone I have had 2 past positively changed patients come to me and ask for a re-tune.
So check out the other site. It will be more business than blogg and we will over other tools to help your weight loss there. Here is a quote from our first post.
I found this fascinating quote today:
We all have had times when diet and exercise feels tedious, repetitive and just plain boring. We start to lose our resolve to stay on target after the New Year passes. That is because we are shooting at the wrong target.boisehypnosis.coachtolose.com, How Will This Year Be Different?, Jan 2010
You should read the whole article.
Tags: hypnosis, lifestyle choices, Weight Loss, weight loss coach
One of the great advantages in blogging is the people you meet. Over the last year I have gotten to know various health care professionals, fitness people, life and weight loss coaches, hypnotherapists, and other various versions of people that are interested in weight loss and optimal health. Top that off with working with clients, learning and teaching, support groups, and the research that it takes to keep up with it, I finally feel like we can start putting it all together.
- Image via Wikipedia
I wanted to start out with the various folks that have followed my journey from morbid obesity and stuck with me over the last year or so and offer it up to them first. I am looking for those of you that want to be contributors to the blog and therefore the newsletter. I talk with so many passionate people that have something to teach on weight loss and fitness that just need a place to express it. It is time to start putting it down and archiving it. America needs to hear the facts on obesity. I am not convinced they need to hear the judgment and condemnation that goes with it from some. But, I am convinced that there are more than enough people that have made the journey that want to help others.
This weekend I have added the news letter sign-up again to the site. If you go to subscription options you can set it for everything from each post to a monthly newsletter. It is easily subscribed to and opted out if needed. I can tell you unless I get a graphics person it will have to evolve a while before it becomes pretty. Having said all that I can say that if you like the blog, you will like the newsletter as that will be where it comes from. We will throw in some extras along the way for those that subscribe when we can. We will see how it goes.
I am sure we will start out slow, but I am also sure that as some of the team gets the hang of it that you will find it an honest place to get information that will inspire, motivate and inform you on your weight loss journey.
Thanks for being apart of this new stretch for me as I reach out one more way to help people have the hope and faith that morbid obesity is not the “final answer”. It can be overcome! We can turn the tide and make sure our future children and grandchildren don’t live shorter life spans than we will.
Tags: dedication, health coach, lifestyle choices, Morbidly Obese, optimal health, Support Groups, Weight Loss
This last week was the first time in months that I was feeling so bad I had to take some time off from work and workouts. I came down with a cold or flu and just before that I had pulled something in my back during one of my last weight trainings. Reminder to self remember to stretch more. So imagine for a few short moments coughing and sneezing with your back spasms that would normally bring me to my knees if I could just get out of bed. That was just two days ago and this morning I was back up and walked out 2 miles.
No, I am no superman. I did have to dig in and find that hero I wrote about recently. I had to get back at it as soon as I was able. Why you ask? Well because it was the workouts and the weight loss that turned what would have been a full weeks worth of illness to just half a week. That’s right my recovery was faster because my body was stronger. It wasn’t hauling around an extra 100 lbs. It was not in the constantly worn down condition of no sleep and no reserves. When I got back there where still people out from the same or similar bug.
- Image via Wikipedia
I went and got my back adjusted as I had gotten it out of alignment. Feels much better today. Again a recovery that would normally take a couple of weeks before I would even think of going back to working out. In talking to the chiropractor we talked about recent vacations he had taken this last year and I commented that I used to think that action, fun-filled things like hiking and snorkeling where out of the question for me just one short year ago. That this last year I had hiked the Grand Canyon for the full day and loved every minute of it. I look forward to my next tropical vacation where I can get back in the water and enjoy the fish and swimming without feeling like I was going to run out of breath.
To answer the question I used for the title, I realized on my walk this morning that the way to recover is to start back at it. It doesn’t matter if it was illness or lack of weight loss that slows us down. It doesn’t matter that we are discouraged or feeling a bit let down. It matter how we overcome that feeling. It matters that we do what we can do. Last week it was keeping the hands out of the chocolate jar at work. This week it was going for a walk rather then slacking another day. All of it based on choices that stacked up over this last year that made it even possible to do it in the first place.
That’s right loosing weight and working out made me stronger and recovery was faster. Small price to pay to have along with it more energy and determination to keep going. What goal are you working on today? What are you willing and able to do to get there? Think about it and DO Something about it today!
Tags: benefit, Challenges, Exercise, Fitness, habits, Healthy Habits, Loosing Weight, motivation, self control
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I had an experience yesterday that I won’t go into a lot of detail with, but I found myself severely disappointed and feeling let down. Perhaps you know the feeling. You work really hard during the week. You eat right, you work-out as planned, and you even pass right by that tempting desert. Yet at the end of the week you don’t see the results that you had great expectations for. Well this disappointment wasn’t weight related, it was people related. It also didn’t involve days, weeks, or even months worth of work. It involved years! Thank goodness I have had this last year to learn a few things. Otherwise I might have been even more crushed by the results.
- Image by ninahale via Flickr
First Lesson: No matter what you think the results should be, they are what they are. You have to dig down to find that hero inside to keep going. After all why do you do what you do? Is it the short term results or the long term journey that you are after. For instance in weight loss. Loosing weight and adding years to your life is a long term goal. In the scheme of things does it matter if it moved today? No what matters is your consistency of doing the right stuff to reach the long term goal.
Second Lesson: Don’t count on anyone else to get you where you want to be. After all they are so focused on themselves they might not even give you another thought. Now don’t confuse this with coaching and mentoring. They are essential to success. It is just a clear statement that if it is meant to be it is up to me! I will need to take the steps each day to achieve that dream I have. I need to stay on my purpose.
Last Lesson: It is not if there will be disappointments in a journey. There will days when it seems like everything is going as planned. The scale is moving, people are noticing, you are feeling stronger, and you make all the right choices towards your goal. Then there will be days that everything seems to go in the opposite direction. It is on the days that you feel like nothing is changing, you question yourself on if you will ever get there. Remember this one thing: “What the mind can conceive it can and will achieve.” Stay faithful to your journey and mindfully take each step. You will get there!
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Tags: coaching, faith, Loosing Weight, success, weight, Weight Loss
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