The Oprah Reaction

Read Julia Havey's article first on the previous blog post.

Here's my comments:

Julia, I couldn't agree with you more. I watched the show and had the same reaction. As an obesity survivor too, I completely understand the “Blue Chips” vice. But, why is there a bag of the chips within arms reach from her “diet” menu? How long will it be before the “Blue Chips” creep their way back on to the daily menu. I work with many women over 50 who are struggling with various hormonal challenges, so I KNOW that the thyroid issue is significant. She’ll have to work harder in her workouts and have daily struggles to find that paper menu appealing. Oprah, one day that fish and salad will lose to the Blue Chips if they are sitting side by side on an emotional day. Throw ‘em out the window NOW! Show yourself some love and figure out the vices before trying to revamp your pantry. Remember the last time you did that, you traded potato chips for these "Blue Chips", didn't you?

It was nice to see Oprah realize the importance of strength training for the aging woman. Exercise is everything for the woman over 40! If you used a hammer and nail to mount your new healthy habits, know that you can’t get anywhere without good nutrition. It’s the hammer. But nothing STAYS off or “up” without building and maintaining muscle. It’s the nail. Build yourself the strongest anchor possible and the healthy habits will weather the “age” storm much easier.

Healthy New Year

Healthy New Year!

This is a great article from Julia Havey. She is AWESOME! I admire her greatly and I'm always encouraged that there are other weight loss gurus that feel the way I do. Read on, it's a good one. My comments are on the next post.
-Marisa

Happy New Year!! I hope that your holidays were blessed and you enjoyed some relaxing downtime.

Today is January 6th and the sad reality is that 71% of people who started a "diet" have already "cheated", as happens whenever someone goes on a diet. This statistics are from a survey that eDiets.com did to their 14 million readers to research if my Vice Busting principles to losing weight were fad or fact. What we found was amazing. 33% of people polled said that they break their diets EVERY day while another 38% said that the broke it at least once during the week. So we know 71% of people who are attempting to lose weight via a "diet" are doomed to fail. Sad.

Even more sad is that in front of millions of viewers (85% of who are likely on diets themselves or trying to lose weight because that is the number of Americans on a diet at any given moment) the most influential woman on television publically started yet another "DIET". Oprah, girlfriend when are you going to learn?

I just watched the videos from the show today, the BEST Life week which she is dedicating to helping people start the new year off right and she showed her diet menu for the month. I am will to bet all the money I have, against all the money that she has that within this month she will stray from her "diet menu", I am 100% certain of it.

Why?

Because she hasn't figured out yet that her figure doesn't rollercoaster up and down because she is deficient of the right meal plan but because she "loves" a few foods that when on a diet don't show up on the brocolli, salmon, 1/2 a yam meal or the oatmeal/egg whites breakfast.

The very foods that drive 71% of people to a binge within the first week of their diet; their "Vice Foods". A diet vice by definition is any food, drink or action that inhibits the individual from living at a healthful weight--habitual food drink or action. Your routine, your habits, your favorite munchy foods. Oprah held up a bag of Blue Chips and said if she doesn't plan, she will grab the chips and eat them all.

Oprah, it's NOT the diet menu, it's the chips! You can allow yourself more variety and interesting foods and eat normally once you BUST forever the vice foods that call your name, cry out to you in the middle of a stressful day.

We all have them. The most common are chips, soda, fast food, pizza, candy, cookies and chocolate.

Imagine what the obese population would look like if these foods were forever banned from their diet?

I can't watching anymore. Seeing Oprah on the path to another up and down makes me sad, and the fact that millions will line up to do what she's doing with her.

(I will note that in addition to having gone back to her vice foods, the years of dieting, like most of us, have taken a toll on her system--it did to mine. The thyroid can really go out of whack as our weight goes up and down. I am now on thyroid medication and bio-identical hormones and feel better than I have in years. I will be discussing those in my next book geared to women like me and like Oprah!)

I turned the channel, TLC was on and it was worse. They were running a show "Half Ton Mom" (she weighed 1400 pounds and died 2 weeks after gastric bypass surgery) and next up was "Half Ton Dad",(he lost 300 of his 1200 pounds in ONE month--just by eliminating his fast food and cola diet and putting him on a bit less than his typical 30,000 calories a day diet. The show also featured a teenager who weighed an astonishing 800 lbs on his journey to have gastric bypass.

It's not the bypass causes weight loss.

It's the elimination of pure junk from the diet, adding exercise, drinking water. Imagine my frustration to KNOW that I have the answer yet we live in a day and age where 2 Million people are now considered "Super Obese" in the U.S. and another 15 million are morbidly obese (the super obese are super morbidly obese).

Wonder how we got in this mess? Maybe, just maybe it has to do with the fact that we spend over 110 BILLION dollars a year consuming McDonalds and other Super Obese diet staples. That is more money than is spent on higher education.

Want off the roller coaster and have no interest in becomming "super"? Join me won't you and learn how to live diet free and lose weight and the best part is; keep that weight you shed OFF forever!

Julia
www.JuliaHavey.com

F.A.T. Habits

I'm on a roll this morning. I'm blogging like lightning!!!!

Okay, so you're wondering from my other blogs, what are F.A.T. Habits? I talk about them, write about them, and run from them. It's simple.
F = Foolish
A = Adult
T = Tendencies

In my simplified version of what causes people to let themselves go, I've concluded: If you have enough foolish adult tendencies, you'll end up fat, fatigued, and ultimately sick.

So, what would those tendencies be? Here are some of the most common.

-Skipping Breakfast
-Not Drinking Enough Water
-Ditching the Daily Workout
-Do Cardio, but no strength or resistance exercise
-Sit, Sit, and Sit some more at work, in the car, and at home
-Eating Fast Food and Dining Out more than once every couple of weeks
-Eating Beef on a Regular Basis (mostly because it's most people's #1 source of saturated fat)
-Not Eating Enough, the chronic undereater who thinks "getting things done" is more important that taking a break for a snack or meal
-Eating Too Much, the chronic overeater who can't understand why they don't lose weight when they just ate a half pound burger and wedge fries "with a salad"
-Drink Carbonated Drinks Daily
-Use artificial sweetener in everything
-Eat only "fat-free" foods
-Think that "Skinny Cows" are free-for-all ice cream delicacies (It's still a cow, how smart can a skinny cow be?)
-Eat late at night
-Don't get enough sleep
-Chronically Stressed Out

There are more..... but... Last, not least, the ultimate FAT habit: Tell yourself that "getting older" means getting slower, bigger, and believing all the aches and pains are normal.

HOGWASH!

Fat Loss and Lifestyle Change are Emotional

Last night my family and I watched one of our favorite shows, Biggest Loser. My kids get a kick out of watching other trainers do their stuff and say, "OH, Mommy does that with her clients too! Or, I know how to do that. Or, we have one of those things in the studio." It's so fun for them to see people losing weight on TV when they see the process happen everyday in our studio.

But, last night's show was very intriguing to them. The contestants had some emotional breakthroughs and there was crying and anger. My kids wondered why people cry when they're losing weight or why they get upset. Or, the best questions of all, why do people quit if they know it's the healthy thing for them to do?

To me the process on the show is very normal. I see it everyday in the faces of my clients. Sometimes they have tears, sometimes there is anger. Sometimes total apathy. Sometimes hot frustration. I push, a client pushes back. I push harder, some kind of emotion breaks thru. The journey has its ups and down, but every sojourner agrees it's worth the self discovery and life change.

Here are some reasons why the process is emotional and why so many people need a coach to help them get thru it.

1. Losing fat is a bio-chemical rollercoaster. Since fat can act as it's own organ, there are hormones, toxins, and chemical responses that occur when the body has to use it and eliminate the by-products. It's a very stressful process in the body. The "loser" may feel many different things going on physically and emotionally. Humans are emotional beings and many of those emotions have a chemical origin as well as a mental one. Feelings like sadness, frustration, anger, apathy, depression, and the one I hear most "I don't know what I feel, I just feel like crying." are common in the process.

2. The tree has to get knocked over to expose the roots. Lifestyle change combined with exercise and new foods can be like a bulldozer knocking over your comfort zone. Obesity doesn't happen overnight unless there is a clear medical issue. Obesity is often a side effect of something deeper going on. What is the root of the issue? It may have nothing to do with eating or exercising. In my 16 years as a "loser" encourager, I've seen a broad spectrum of emotional and life issues surface. Most of the time, it surfaces unexpectedly and abruptly with surprising reactions.

3. Most people don't like to be pushed beyond their pre-determined willingness zone. Here's where my job becomes a fun challenge. If I say, "Do 100 pushups!" and a clients says, "Are you crazy, I can't do that!" then I know we have a willingness zone issue. How do you know what you can or cannot do until you try? Maybe you can't do 100 pushups, but it's worth the try to find out. I have a client who is a beautiful, young, smart, motivated overweight teen who gives me 110% effort if I ask it. If I don't demand that of her, she only gives me about 50% of what I know she can accomplish. I tell her every single session, "You are stronger than you know! You are smarter than you think! You can do this if you really try." Guess what? She succeeds every time even though she always thinks she won't be able to. She needs me to coach her thru this weight loss, because she needs to be reminded of herself, her strength, her potential, the goal, the finish line, and the prize at the end.

For some people, "sweat" and "safe" don't mix well. I'm talking about emotional and mental safety. They typically believe: If it doesn't feel "safe", it's too much to do. It's not for me. I say, "Fiddlesticks! Bologne! Excuses!" If you keep that mentality up, you'll never get the fat off.

If I never get the privilege to to tell you this in person, hear me now. YOU CAN DO THIS! YOU CAN GET TO THE HEALTHY PLACE YOU DESERVE! IT HAS TIMES OF DISCOMFORT. IT HAS TIMES OF FRUSTRATION. IT'S NOT FAST AND YOU CAN ONLY CONTROL CERTAIN PARTS OF HOW IT HAPPENS. BUT, IT'S EASIER THAN YOUR FEAR ALLOWS YOU TO BELIEVE AND IT'S REWARD IS GREATER THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE! CHOOSE THE MAXIMUM POTENTIAL YOU, MY FRIEND. CHOOSE THE YOU THAT SCREAMS VITALITY AND VIBRANCE.

Marisa, - I'm a failing diva! Aha! Moment

I found a little slice of heaven while in Phoenix last Friday morning. It was my priviledge to stay back with the kids and we jumped in the pool at our rental home. While the kids played, I made myself a smoothie, grabbed a book, and sat in the hot tub to read. I don't normally like hot tubs, but this one was just the right temperature, the weather perfect, and the smoothie just cold enough to balance everything out. And, I love to read....Heaven!

It must have been my total relaxation while reading the book, Go for No!, my thoughts were excited. The book is really about marketing, but basically challenges the reader to view failure as a desired, necessary step to success. Set out to get "No's" and eventually you'll get a "Yes!" View the "No!" as a learning experience to push toward the "Yes!" I realized it's correlation to diet, exercise and weight management. I can't tell you how many times I've heard a client say, "I've tried every diet out there and nothing works! I lose weight only to gain it back." or " I hate exercise, it doesn't work for me. I can't stay consistent enough."

My response is,"Keep trying and eventually it WILL work." I assure you if you try and keep trying at making good food choices and exercising, there will be days you will fail. Even days when you fail miserably. But, there will also be days you will WIN! You WILL eat well, workout smart, get enough, sleep, manage your stress, and have a joyful day. The key is to keep trying. I mean really trying, not crash dieting, not binging, not doing a self-instructed killer exercise bootcamp, not chaining the door of the refrigerator. Those things aren't trying, they are repeating a past failure. Quit repeating the failures and try something new. Gather accountability and get help with your plan.

I admit that every day of my week is spent "trying". I have bad days, really bad ones that seem tasty and "worth it" at the moment, then give me agonizing stomach aches for hours, not to mention the bloating. My days are so busy that I could NOT force myself to workout after a long day training. I skip meals when I'm too tired or lazy to make myself something good. I mess up, give in and get discouraged just like everyone else. The reason why I'm not the fat kid that turned into the fat adult, is because I try and try and try.... everyday.

I don't want to get up at 5am to workout, but I do. I do this because I've failed many times trying to fit in the workouts any other time of day. If I don't do it then, I've learned I won't do it at all. I love pizza, cheese, chile con queso, chicken fingers, fatty Chinese food, and big wedge fries from Trudy's. I don't eat those things everyday, because I've tried eating them and I gain weight - I get sick. I bloat. I gain. I fail. So, I found healthier foods that I love too and I eat those instead. That works! I win. It took time, learning about my body, learning how the body works and digests, trial and error, throwing away foods, buying new ones to find those delicious alternatives. And, I keep trying new things. If anyone finds an alternative to homemade Ranch dressing that doesn't have a boat full of salt or dairy, please let me know. I have about 1000 people who would like to know, including me.

I live a superwoman lifestyle. Multi-tasker extraordinairre. Great for the task list, bad for stress. I can't do it all or I fail at stress management. I have to force myself to turn of the laptop, lie down, talk about nothing, and cuddle my husband. If I don't do this, I'll work until my eyes turn red. That's me, that's how I fail. So, I don't do it. Well, I try....

I need 8 hours of sleep. Yes, 8. If I don't get the sleep, the multi-tasking skills dwindle to nothing. I like being efficient. If I start watching a movie or doing a task at 9pm, I know that I won't get to bed on time. So, I try not to start something new too late, I try...

The point is: Accept the fact you will fail. Learn from the failure. Keep trying and make sure it's something new.

Don't do the same diet you did last year that worked, then you gained it all back. Don't start working out at the gym the way you did last year when it only lasted 2 weeks because you got bored or life got hectic. Keep trying until you find what works for you! If you don't give up, you will find it or it will find you!

We never do the same exact workout twice in the studio because we're looking for what works. When we do find what works, we use our knowledge and client's hard work to sculpt a masterpiece. I give people guidelines for nutrition, but I don't tell them EXACTLY what to eat everyday. That's a diet, and I know (science and years of expereince tells me) diets don't work longterm. So, I work hard to help people find what works for them. The foods, the menu, the grocery list, the disciplines, etc....

If you need help from a "multi-failure, fat turned lean, try and try still failing-on-occasion-diva !" Call me, email me, please... http://www.EatWellWorkoutSmart.com

I can help you fail yourself to success! HA!

Marisa - Tuesday, April 15th

Today is one of those days that I wish I had more hours in the day and more energy to make it through. I'm exhausted! After a 17 hour work day, I think of you reading this and I smile. I smile because I know you're either looking for inspiration, filtering for guidance, interested in my weight loss and fitness methods, or just looking for glimpse into my life. All of those reasons help me press on to keep on keeping on. You care. I care. So, I write - in hopes that you're inspired to achieve your best health, best body, and actually enjoy the journey.

Today's workout: Too tired to remember, but I did workout this morning with heavy resistance and abs, abs, abs.
Breakfast: Plain oatmeal with cinnamon, agave nectar, and organic raisins
Snacks: Apple, JP+ Thins and Walnuts
Lunch: Sandwich, Baked Tortilla Chips and Salsa, Apple Juice, Fruit
Dinner: Whole Wheat Pasta, Marinara Sauce, Spinach and Tomatoes in Balsamic Vinegar
Lots of water!

Recap of the day: Trained 23 people, returned 5 phone calls, answered emails, sent emails, made myself and family breakfast lunch and dinner, booked travel plans for the summer, did laundry, monitored a garage remodel, and watched the last few minutes of Biggest Loser. First female Biggest Loser, go girl!

Remember, despite the rapid pace of my day, no breaks, preparing to go out of town, exhaustion, and long list of things undone, I was able to workout, eat well, and drink my water...
Now, I'll go work on a little sleep. You can do it too! Smiles to you!