CHANGE YOUR FOCUS......CHANGE YOUR RESULTS!

"I've been working so hard in the gym and I'm not seeing results!" I hear this more than any other complaint! It can be beyond frustrating to work that hard and still be in the same pant size that you started in!! I remember when I was trying to lose weight. I found myself frustrated to tears, declaring, "The weight only comes off when I'm perfect! As soon as I slip up, it comes right back on." It felt like the truth....

Truth is, I wasn't being very honest with myself. Sure, I would do great for a while, but when I slipped, I fell into the deep pit of my old ways and it took forever to completely climb back out. I was good at lying to myself, declaring how one slip up would put all that weight back on. Well, that one slip up wasn't a cheat meal, it was a cheat weekend leading to a cheat week, followed by more cheats into the next week as I tried to get my act back together.

It wasn't until I decided, "I'm not going to try to lose weight, I am going to be "healthy" that it really started to happen for me. With that came some realizations:

• Occasional indulgences were healthy. Carrying that indulgent into the next meal...day...week...was not.
• Working out was healthy. Restricting too many calories and not feeding my body to support my workout was not.
• Learning about calories in/calories out was healthy. Counting calories on a Big Mac was not.
• Switching to lighter lunches was healthy. Lean Cuisines and other "diet" foods as a replacement were not.
• Cutting fat was healthy. Avoiding fats like, nuts, avocado, and olive oils, was not.
• Cutting out sodas was healthy. Switching to diet Sobes and other chemical ridden drinks was not.
• Extra hard workouts were effective! Over eating because I worked extra hard was not.
• And finally, looking good didn't equate to feeling good....Feeling good equated to looking good!
  

When I focused all of my efforts on losing weight, I inevitably failed (even though I would occasionally and briefly succeed). The "diet" industry is HUGE!! We all want to lose weight, look good and feel great. These goals are very emotional and emotions are easily marketed! Pills, cleansers, programs, diet foods, strange exercise contraptions, and unsafe shoes with big weight loss and sculpting promises. We are complicated creatures that want instant gratification without having to put down the Big Mac. Large corporations give us permission to have our Big Mac and eat it too!! Focusing on weight loss allowed me to buy into all the untruths that kept me fat and allowed me to play victim to the "diet" world.


When I focused on being healthy, I began to change my thinking and make choices that revolved around being healthy. I came to the mind set of,

"Number one Goal should be to get healthy and balanced....Everything else will fall into place."

IT DID!! It began to fall right in place. With every step I took to get healthy, I learned what healthy was. AND IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE "WEIGHT LOSS" OR "DIET" INDUSTRY! It had to do with:

• balancing all of the fundamentals of fitness
  
• education
  
• fresh, whole, clean foods
• educating myself on proteins, carbs, and fats (and how important each is, despite what the diet industry wants you to believe)
  
• proper sleep and adequate water
• stress reduction
  
• developing a healthy relationship with food
• And most important, developing a healthy relationship with self

None of this comes in a magic bottle and you can't put a time frame on it. It's called life. As with everything, it takes time to program ourselves to reach new mile stones. Get out of your head that you need to look a certain way by a certain time, and begin a journey to a healthy life style. You will be surprised at the difference and how it all begins to fall into place!
CHANGE YOUR FOCUS, CHANGE YOUR RESULTS!