WINNERS Inspiration

A Little Magic for Your Monday

Feb 08, 2021

How do you feel about Mondays?

I know, there are people out there who LOVE them. “It’s a brand new week!” they say. “It’s another opportunity to change my life!” they say. They begin the week fully charged after a weekend of resting and relaxing.

While I don’t hate Mondays, I generally don’t come rushing into them ready to take on the world. I’m more of a mellow-Monday kind of woman. I try to gather my thoughts and make a plan for the week. I tend to see Monday as a day to get organized. It’s more of a “start your engines,” kind of a day.

Then there are the Monday-haters. I had a friend in my 20s who used to drink to excess on Sunday evenings on purpose. “Mondays suck anyway,” was his philosophy, “so why not be hungover?”

Monday can be a smack-in-the-face, return-to-the-grind kind of day. On Monday we may find ourselves facing what we put off on Friday. I know many who feel the dread...

Say Good-Bye to Motivation Monday! Try This Instead.

Jan 30, 2021

“I just need a little motivation,” she said as we sat sipping coffee and deciding if we should work together. She had over 50 pounds she wanted to lose, she was on medication to reduce her blood pressure and she was recently diagnosed as pre-diabetic.

A motivational meme wasn’t going to be enough to tackle what was really going on for her.

“I know what I need to do, I just don’t do it,” is what you say when you think about making a change in your life.

So you go to your favorite social media or you google “motivational quotes,” find one or two that speak to you, feel a quick burst of energy and enthusiasm and think you’re on your way to a perfect body and perfect health.

Until a few hours later when you haven’t gotten off the couch, it’s too late in the day to go to the gym and you’re foraging in your fridge for something you can call dinner. What happened to the motivation?

...

How to go From, "I Should," to "I Did It!"

Jan 08, 2021

“I just have to do it.”

“I’ve been avoiding it for more than six months.”

“I know what I have to do. I don’t know why I’m not doing it.”

“It’s almost done. I just have to do it.”

I had a conversation with someone last week that drove home how much our beliefs dictate our behavior. I’m sharing the conversation with you because sometimes we don’t recognize what’s holding us back until we see it in someone else.

I’ll call her Barb (name changed). Barb is one signature away from completing paperwork that would help her move ahead with her life. If she signs the paperwork, she gets access to resources she doesn’t have access to now.

She is one signature away from completing the paperwork.

As we spoke, she said, “I just have to do it, I don’t know why I haven’t completed it. I’ve had the...

Top 5 Myths About Healthy People

Nov 12, 2020

How are these myths are holding you back?

“I can’t do that!” she exclaimed when we first met. Six month later she said, “I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner.”

In my career as a Personal Trainer, Nutrition, and Lifestyle Coach, I've heard many reasons that people struggle to take care of their health. I've also listened to some wildly untrue assumptions about why people are healthy and why they're unhealthy.

Here are the top 5 myths I hear all the time and how you can use them to propel you forward.

1. Healthy people love to exercise and go to the gym. Most healthy people I know do NOT love going to the gym, and most don't love to exercise. What they love are the results they get from moving their bodies frequently. Some don't do formal workouts at all. But they are active throughout the day. One of my favorite quotes from Jack LaLanne, the godfather of the modern fitness movement, is, "I hate...

Struggling to Lose Weight? It May Be Time to See Your Doctor

Oct 19, 2020

“I have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis? That’s great!”

This is not something you would expect to hear your client say with enthusiasm when you own a fitness and nutrition coaching business. When you’ve been doing everything in your power to lose weight, and nothing is changing, it may be a sign that you have a medical issue that nutrition and exercise won’t fix.

Seeking help from a Personal Trainer, Nutrition, or Health Coach can also help you recognize when to take it a step further. That’s what happened for my client, who I’ll call Tracy.

Tracy originally came to see me because she wanted to start exercising and had some physical limitations. She knew she wanted to work out, but didn’t know how to work around her “ouchies.” She also wanted to lose some weight, so we worked on her nutrition habits.

Over the first six months, she worked hard. She showed up to every workout, gave it her all,...

High Heels and Weight Loss

Jul 10, 2020

"OMG! I can't take it. Not for another minute!"

I sat down and gingerly detached the strappy, silver 4-inch sandals from my red, swollen feet. I had suffered long enough. The pain in my feet was bad enough that I finally gave in and changed into the ballet slippers I had stashed in my bag.

There comes a point in our lives when the pain of staying where we are, doing what we're doing becomes so great that we must do something to change it. Before we get to that pain point though, we will wallow in a place I call being comfortably uncomfortable. We may stay there for weeks, months, years, or decades. While we're here, we stack up excuses, shrink our world, and "recognize our limitations." This sounds like, "That's ok, you go ahead; I'll stay here," or, "I wouldn't dream of doing that."

We don't think of this as acknowledging our limits. We call it "being realistic."

We Can Spend Our Entire Lives Being Comfortably Uncomfortable.

It's a...

Ten Secrets to Permanent Weight Loss

Mar 19, 2020

You’ve done it! You made the commitment to being healthier and changing some unhealthy habits and you’ve accomplished your goals.

Now what?

Don't be fooled. Now that you've lost the weight, it doesn't magically stay at bay. Once you've reached your goals, you don't want to stop doing what got you here. If you return to old habits, your old body will return even faster and it will be harder to make the changes again in the future.

Here are 10 secret and simple ways to keep the weight off and maintain your new body and health.

Work with Weights – Ideally, while losing body fat you've also gained some muscle mass. This is important because studies consistently show that people with more muscle burn more calories throughout the day, all day long. This means your body will use the food you're eating instead of storing it as fat for later.
Track your food or journal about it – When you write down what you eat, you will be able...

The Most Valuable Lesson

Sep 03, 2019

I love what I do.

I get the privilege of helping women (and a few men) rediscover who they really are. I get to use simple strategies that powerfully shift their health, their weight and I get the honor of seeing them re-engage with life. What could be better?

Today, I want to share an "insider secret" with you.

When it comes to changing you health, weight and lifestyle, there is one lesson that I repeatedly hear from my clients is "the most valuable lesson," they learn from me.

Can you guess what the lesson is?

It's not how to deadlift properly.

It's not how to stop cravings.

It's not even how to lose weight.

The most valuable lesson my clients learn is everything we put into our bodies directly affects our health, our weight, our energy and our outlook on life.

It's a simple lesson, but not an easy lesson to assimilate into our lives.

We like to think that what we eat, drink, read,...

Where Do You Begin?

Jul 16, 2019

When thinking about starting to make changes to your nutrition and lifestyle, do you feel like the toddler in this pic?

Change can seem overwhelming. There are soooooo many things that need to change.

Eat better (whatever that means).
Stop eating out/ordering in
Start food shopping
Learn how to cook
Exercise
Don't get hurt while exercising
Sleep
Drink more water
Manage stress

The list is endless.

The list can paralyze you into doing nothing. It's too big and too scary.

You're right. The list is too big. The list is the equivalent of the steps in front of this toddler. He's looking at the first step. He's looking long and hard at that first step. He almost doesn't see the other steps.

Here's what he doesn't know...and what you may not realize. Any move he makes to get onto that first step is moving him forward and up. Whether he stays focused on that single step in front of him or he looks all the way to the top...

Wine and Women

Jun 27, 2019

I had a conversation with a friend today about wine. She uses it daily (only a glass or two) every night when she comes home from work at her super high-stress job. She also wants to lose weight (specifically around her mid-section).

This is not the first time I've had this conversation. I typically work with women and this is a very common conversation.

Here's the simple answer that many trainers give and expect their clients to simply adhere to: If you want to lose the weight, give up the wine.

Here are the problems with that advice.

You already know that.
You're not willing/able to follow the advice. I don't mean you're an alcoholic. I mean you LIKE your wine and you don't have another mechanism readily available to help you cope with stress.
You already know that. You're looking for a solution to a problem that you may not be ready to solve, but by asking the question you feel like you're making progress...and in some small way, you...

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