As we head into the autumn, it is a really great time to think about shaking up what you have been eating. Did you know when we are bored with what we are eating, we tend to eat even more?

As the days get crisp this time of year, I love to pull out recipe books and pore over soups and stews. This year in LA, it’s been too hot to think of hot soup and so I have gone online for some new ideas. I found a great new recipe site that I love that I want to share with you: www.realhealthyrecipes.com
http://www.realhealthyrecipes.com/ 

I also am focusing this week’s coaching on a specific technique to zero in on tastes that you love.  It's a great tool for finding foods that fit that flavor profile without taking you over your calorie budget.

Deconstructing Your Taste Palate

How many times have you been on a diet and have been craving ice cream but instead you forced yourself to eat celery as a snack instead? Think about a dish of ice cream.  What is so great...

I hope that you are enjoying your month. I recently flipped through a book that you may have heard of. It’s called: The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

If you haven’t read it, it’s a very short book about how to de-clutter your life of things you don’t really need. This means paring down your current and overwhelming amount of “stuff” into only the things that bring you joy. In fact, the way the author has you de-clutter your home is by asking the question to yourself, “does this spark joy?”

I thought about how similar this is to a Shift strategy “Thinking it Through” that you can use for the same purpose of seducing your Inner Rebel out of impulsive food choices and overindulging. The basic idea is that while your rebel is trying to seduce you, your inner coach steps in and asks the question…”how will eating this make me feel three hours from now?” Basically asking the same question, ”will...

A funny thing happened when I got on the scale Monday.  We were having someone work on our bathroom and the scale had been put away so I had not weighed myself for a week.  I admit, when I get out of the routine of getting on the scale, it’s always harder to get back on.  That’s why I do it every day, to keep it a mindless habit I don’t even think about.  Part of being in the weight mastery cycle for me is just doing what works for me. Weighing myself and not making it a big deal and  just staying in touch with reality helps my brain and weight stay stable.

So, my thoughts walking to the bathroom to get on the scale were, "just get on.  Yes you ate (and drank, it was a fun Sunday!) more calories than you usually did but overall I bet you are fine because you didn’t overeat enough to gain" (BTW this is a huge benefit of tracking while you are away: knowing for certain where you stand when you get home) "and you exercised. So just...

Welcome to October and the month of sugary temptations. This month we are going to be focusing on the weight mastery cycle. This is the cycle of thinking and habits that promotes weight release and long term weight mastery.

As we have learned, when you are in the weight struggle, you are in the “on or off”, “good or bad”, “all or nothing” mindset. It’s easy to eat a candy or something “bad”, say “I blew it” and then eat everything before getting back on track the next day. This repeats over and over causing frustration and weight gain.

The weight mastery cycle focuses instead on you being a student of weight mastery and the 9 skills of weight mastery which are gleaned from over 200 studies of people who have taken weight off and kept it off over time.  Today, I would just like you to understand the cycle itself and the art of practicing the cycle versus being 'good' on a diet—it is a totally different way...

As we continue re-focusing ourselves on our weight mastery structure this September, I want to look at something that is crucial to weight release: the concept of portions and getting clear on what a portion looks like.

Over the years, our culture has re-adapted our eyes to what a serving size is. What used to be a dinner for 4 is now presented to you on a plate at a restaurant as a single serving and we now believe unconsciously that it is a single serving. We have adapted the outside world’s idea of what a portion is into our own beliefs and often forget what a real single serving looks like.

Since we use our eyes more than our stomach as the judge of how much we should eat, one of the ways we can manage our perceptions is to re-train our eyes. Our eyes are helpful, but they tend to misjudge the size of a true portion.  I know personally that I have to get out my food scale and measuring cup to remind myself of what 3 oz of chicken looks like or how much cantaloupe...

September is already half way through and I hope that you have been reaping the rewards of getting some structure in your weight mastery. This week I want to look at our relationship to one of the most important ingredients of long term permanent weight mastery: exercise. One of the biggest complaints I hear from clients is that they cannot be consistent with exercise over time. I would like to offer a few reasons why you may not be as consistent as you want and some ways to SHIFT this, along with a fun mind technique to reconnect you with exercise in a powerful way.

YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH EXERCISE

Let’s look at the definition of the word “relationship”: a connection, association, or involvement.
Now, let’s look at the definition of the word “exercise”: physical activity that is planned, structured, and repetitive for the purpose of health.

When describing the concept of a relationship, a couple’s therapist might say, “well,...

Many of my clients doubt they can lose weight because they do not know how to cook, or do not like to cook, or feel overwhelmed at the end of the day when it’s time to make dinner. As we look at getting Back to Structure this week, I want to focus on an easy, repeatable structure for creating low-calorie, highly nutritious and fast meals.

When we have the structure of an easy, automated way of throwing together a lunch or dinner that is nutritious and filling, it helps us stay away from the fast food, take out, and out of the box meals, that tend to be higher in calories and lower in nourishment value.

I have been out of my kitchen for almost a month now and even though I only have a fridge and a microwave, I am putting together some awesome meals in about 10 minutes and have not relied upon take out or fast food to get through this time of my kitchen remodel.

Meal assembly is the idea of throwing together some basic ingredients that create a meal that is fast, filling and...

Welcome to September!

Being a Virgo, I love this month, not only because my birthday is in it, but because I love to be and feel organized. To me, this month represents getting back into more structured patterns after the hazy, lazy days of summer.

I have been thinking about the daily rituals that make up the structures of our lives, particularly the ones that are oriented towards weight mastery. My kitchen was renovated during this time of year, so a lot of my rituals were disrupted. Thinking of that time has made me more keenly aware of the ones that help me maintain my weight.

WEEKLY THINKING RITUALS

I would like to take the first week this month to look at just the weekly thinking rituals that go into releasing weight and maintaining this loss, long term. Research shows that most people who have achieved weight release long term have undergone what is called “cognitive restructuring” which just is a science-y way of saying that they have created new ways of...

This is our last week exploring our path of Loving Ourselves Down the Scale and I would like to invite you to do something radical: Forgive yourself for struggling with weight and, if you can, forgive the struggle.

Now, I know that you might be thinking: why would I forgive myself? After all, if I were stronger, had more will power, and wasn’t so addictive and weak, I wouldn’t be having this issue with weight and struggling. I don’t need to be forgiving of myself; I need to be tougher on myself. If I forgive myself, then things will get worse and all hell will break loose.

Actually, the opposite is true. Let’s take a minute to explore why, in order to truly move forward and release weight long term and, more importantly, heal this part of your life, you must forgive yourself.

WHY SHOULD I FORGIVE ME?

Self Anger Keeps You Stuck In The Past. There is nothing like regret over gaining weight or blaming ourselves for being stupid or weak to keep us stuck in...

This week of 'Loving Ourselves Down the Scale' month, I want to discuss our environments and how they either love us into weight mastery or leave us in the weight struggle.

Eight times out of ten, when a client who has been experiencing easy weight release begins to struggle the roadblock is environment related:

• Someone brought a tempting food into the client's environment (and that someone might be them.)
• The client forgot to restock healthy foods or plan their meals ahead.
• The friend who was initially supportive is now becoming a saboteur, asking the client to join them at their old favorite and fattening restaurant.

It's easy to take our environment for granted and not realize the power they wield with regards to our weight release success or failure.

LOVE YOU OR LEAVE YOU

I have been thinking about my own weight mastery and how over the years, I evolved a loving attitude towards myself. As part of this, I want all the places that I spend my time in to provide me with a...