Awaken to Health, Confidence and The Power of You!

“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” Gloria Steinem

Achieving happiness is by no means a matter of luck. It requires a mix of planning, dreaming and believing in yourself. If you want to awaken to the power of you, then you need to open up to your amazing potential. Tap into your creative energy, be a role model for change and actively create the life that you love by daring to dream big and by putting your dream life into action. Discover that happiness, energy and vitality are not some elusive goals but instead a matter of connecting with your body. The elixir of life simply stated is healthy living. In my latest blog, “Awaken to the Power of You,” I’ll give you a preview of my upcoming workshop at The Awakening Festival in Montreal on June 18^th. In it, I will share steps you can take towards living an inspired life powered by healthy living.

Today’s women are plagued by low self-esteem, high levels of stress, record obesity rates, physical inactivity and lack of sleep. Our lives have become a vicious cycle of increased stress due to work and family commitments, resulting in lack of time to exercise, sleep or eat well. Increased demands on our time are making us fatter, tired and creatively uninspired.

Living life in overdrive is coming at a cost to our health and well being and it’s time for a shift in our values and perspective. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”, says Albert Einstein. And insane, we are! Our current behaviour, if not checked, will continue to result in a host of health related problems, unrestrained stress and resulting unhappiness.

“The only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself as a person, is by creative work of her own. There is no other way,” says Betty Friedan. Sadly, when we are speeding around life in fifth gear, the first thing to get left by the roadside is our creative energy. However, it is this expression of creative energy that is paramount to our self-esteem and our sense of purpose. In the 1950’s and 60’s, Betty Freidan was renowned for her contribution to the feminist movement and for her book The Feminine Mystique published in 1963. In it, she explores the “problem that has no name”-a pervasive unhappiness of women in American culture who were left wanting more in life than being a mother and housewife.

Sixty years later, women are more liberated, more equal and more intellectually challenged, but we are still failing. We are now trying to do it all-balance work and family life and at the end of the day, there’s little left for us or our creative expression. Women are notorious for putting ourselves last. As caregivers of our families, this is second nature for us. However, by never taking time for ourselves to exercise, to eat right or to recharge our batteries, we are sending a message to our families and peers that our needs don’t matter. We know we are better mothers, wives, employees and role models when we invest time in ourselves. When we learn to say “no”, we can begin awaken to our needs and potential and we can become exemplary and inspiring role-models of health and well-being to all of those around us.

Shockingly, 80% of American women are dissatisfied with their appearance. Why are women failing so dramatically? When did we become so self-conscious and ashamed of our bodies?

More importantly, how do we get back that joy? The media is largely responsible for creating these deep-seeded insecurities in ourselves and our bodies. It’s no wonder we are insecure when the average American woman is 5’4” and weighs 140 pounds and the average model is 5’11” and weighs 117 pounds! So, we find ourselves reaching for a quick fix. In fact, in 2006 Americans paid for 11 million plastic surgical procedures, a 7 % increase over previous years. Instead, women need to celebrate their amazing and healthy bodies, not denigrate themselves for having “large hips” or “flabby abs.” I love the above photo and quote from the Dove Self-Esteem for Girls Campaign as it speaks to our need to love our bodies for what they are! (See top of page).

More than a quarter (26%) of Canadian women ages 45-64 report a high degree of life stress, according to Statistics Canada (Health Indicators 2005). Longer work weeks are the new norm, leaving less time for family, friends and less time to grow personally and spiritually. These numbers represent a hard truth and an obstacle that is difficult to work around. True we are more pressed for time, but we also need to look at our behaviour in response to stress. When we are stressed and tired after a day of work, it’s easy to turn on the TV to relax. Instead, we could be going out to a yoga class or going for a walk to get some fresh air and exercise. Or perhaps, we are dashing home from work, only to rush out the door again to take kids to a program, grabbing a fast-food dinner en route. Again, we have a choice instead to re-evaluate our kids’ schedules, maybe cutting out a dance program or chess club. We need to be careful of over programming our kids for their sake and for the sake of our family and life balance.

Among Canadian women ages 12 plus, 53% are physically inactive. Also, 53% of Canadian women ages 18+ are overweight or obese. We are spending an average of $40 billion per year on diets and self-help books searching for a magic bullet to alleviate our problem with obesity and yet, the answer is free-eat less, move more. Most nutritionists claim that the most effective way to lose weight is to restrict caloric intake, and the most effective way to maintain that loss is through regular exercise.

There seems to be a real disconnect in our society between what we know to be healthy food and our behavior. We’ve all seen Canada’s Food Guide and although we probably don’t have it memorized; we instinctively know the message- eat more vegetables and fruit and eat less processed food. And yet, in the time trap of our daily lives, we still justify reaching for a frozen pizza to feed our kids after arriving home from a busy work day. It’s these kinds of processed, salt-laden, nutritionally void foods though that are killing us. Results from The Canadian Heart Health Strategy and Action Plan (CHHS-AP) Nutrition survey in 2009 indicate that processed foods are the main source of sodium in our diets, accounting for an average of 77% of our average daily sodium intake! Most processed foods are also a mine-field of unhealthy sweeteners, salts, artificial flavors, colourings, chemicals and preservatives. Shifting behavior isn’t always easy, but there are many ways to create quick and nutritious meals from home, without all the additives!

In my workshop on June 18^th in Hudson, Quebec at The Awakening Festival, together we are going to further explore many of these issues of self-esteem, stress, nutrition and weight challenges and give you tools to create positive change in your life. In this interactive session, I am going to help you Awaken to The Power of You and begin to live your best life! To register for The Awakening Festival, please go to http://www.awakeningfestival.org/registration/.  

Weight Loss Weigh In

According to the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA,) Americans spend an estimated $30 billion per year on diet programs and products, including diet foods and drinks. However, we know that the formula for weight loss is simple and we’ve heard it a million times: diet and exercise, calories in/calories out. Or do we? As a fitness leader of 25 years, I have repeatedly paid homage to this axiom. I’ve stood by it as the gold standard truism of weight loss. Recently, however, career woman, wife, mother and dieter, Suzanne Hallam opened my eyes to the possibility that weight loss may be more complex than just “diet and exercise.”

Suzanne started a diet in January, 14 weeks ago, with a goal to lose weight, lower her blood pressure and have more energy. “Everyone says it’s simple; you just need to diet and exercise, but for me that doesn’t work,” says Suzanne. “It’s more difficult than that,” she says.  Suzanne was diagnosed with a thyroid condition at age 19 and has high blood pressure. “Everyone is so individual,” says Suzanne.

 In a candid interview, Suzanne shared the multiple challenges that she faces in her quest for a healthy weight, including her health condition, work stress, family pressures, her dislike of exercise and her emotional trials. What I learned from our conversation is that the road to weight loss may not be so straight and narrow as just “diet and exercise”. So, if you have had limited success with weight loss and are looking for a fresh perspective, read on. Suzanne will share her “real-life” approach to reaching her goals with you, what roadblocks she has encountered and overcome, as well as the weight loss program that consistently works for her!

When Suzanne was 19, she was diagnosed with a thyroid condition. Her condition developed after a bout of mono and lead to a slow, gradual weight gain over several years. It affected her energy level and her metabolism and meant that she would need to take medication to control her symptoms. She decided to take action. It was one year before her wedding and like many brides-to-be, she was motivated to get into her dress. This was the first of three times in the last 15 years that Suzanne has committed to a plan of diet and exercise to lose weight and get healthy. More recently, Suzanne hit the wall again when she noticed that it became hard to do up her shoes.

Another challenge that Suzanne faces is high blood pressure. She is quick to retain fluid, so she has to be very careful of her salt intake, challenging for a girl who loves salty food! Her answer is to drink plenty of water to flush out her system. “I drink three glasses of water before I leave the house in the morning,” says Suzanne. “I used to drink two cans of pop per day, juice and milk, all which I have replaced with water.”

Being a career mom also presents challenges to her weight loss goals. After working all day and arriving home at 6:30pm, Suzanne finds it difficult to cook nutritious meals. Not only that, the pressures of work add to her overall anxiety making it easier for her to reach for food to relieve her stress. Her solution is to use exercise instead of munching to control her stress. She also shops for the family groceries on the weekend and chops up veggies to have them ready for an easy access snack. For another quick, healthy, easy to grab snack, she bakes homemade muffins, usually on the weekend. One of her goals going forward is to look at more ways that she can keep work stress in check.

In addition to work pressures, family obligations present an obstacle to her weight loss goals. Like many mothers, Suzanne is a “soccer mom” running around playing chauffeur to her son for his programs. It is also difficult she says to get “buy in” from her husband and son to adjust their diet and eat healthier. Luckily her husband loves to cook. He is typically a “meat and potatoes” guy though, so if he cooks, Suzanne uses portion control to keep her caloric intake in check.

One of Suzanne’s biggest challenges to her weight loss goals is the constant diligence that is needed to stay on course. “Being diligent all the time is hard work,” Suzanne admits. “I often feel like I’m around people who are eating what they want and I’m the outsider,” she says. It’s like she feels she cannot join the party. Sometimes she just wants to be free of the structure of dieting. Suzanne says she flip-flops between being really diligent and between wanting to block it out and relax and eat what she wants. What keeps her motivated are the results. She knows that she feels better when she sticks to the program. “It’s also positive reinforcement when people start to notice that you have lost weight,” says Suzanne. As further motivation, if she drops a dress size, Suzanne will treat herself to new clothes.

You are probably wondering what diet Suzanne attributes to her successful weight loss. Is it the popular Barry Sear’s no carbs “Zone” diet, Jennifer Aniston’s Baby Food Diet, South Beach Diet, the latest and greatest Acai Berry Diet or the Master Cleanse diet popularized by Beyonce? No, it's none of these. Her approach to weight loss is a little more old-fashioned. It’s been around for 45 years and has had proven success. It focuses on long-term results, lifestyle change, incorporating exercise into your routine and offers community support. You guessed it: Weight Watcher’s. Why Suzanne thinks the Weight Watcher’s program is different from other programs is that it allows her to use common sense and eat the foods she loves, instead of following a strict regimen. “I can work the program into the family unit,” says Suzanne. “Weight Watchers teaches portion control and recommends that you lose no more than 1-2 pounds per week,” she says.

Weight Watchers uses a “Points Plus Program”, a system that attributes a point value to everything that you eat. On the Weight Watcher’s plan, you are encouraged to eat a healthy and balanced diet. Weight Watchers also promotes healthy habits, a supportive environment, and exercise, in addition to teaching smarter food choices. Instead of a crash diet promising quick results, Weight Watchers works because it is about lasting lifestyle change.

The Weight Watchers program maintains that activity is an important part of weight loss, a key component that is missing from most fad diets. As a fitness instructor, I often assume that everyone is like me and loves to exercise; that it’s fun and gives you energy in addition to providing social interaction. For Suzanne, like many others though, nothing could be further from the truth. Forty-eight per cent of Canadians aged 12 and over — or about 12.7 million people — are inactive, getting the equivalent of less than a half-hour of walking each day, according to research from Statistics Canada.

 “When exercise is labeled “exercise”, it’s not enjoyable,” says Suzanne. “I’d rather go swimming with my son,” she says. However, Suzanne is sold on the health benefits of exercise, so when she found a Gazelle exercise machine at a garage sale for $20, she picked it up and now jumps on it for twenty minutes three times per week. She also does some resistance training to tone her upper body.

“Exercise used to be my last priority,” says Suzanne. When exercise is more about lifestyle and active living however, Suzanne is totally on-board. Another way Suzanne stays motivated to get moving is by walking her dog. “We bought a dog six years ago that needed exercise,” Suzanne admits. She deliberately chose a breed that needed a lot of exercise, so that she would need to go out rain or shine.

Suzanne has seen a lot of positive changes from her current diet and exercise regime, namely she  declares she has more energy, has less water retention, lower blood pressure, and has lost twelve pounds. Diet and exercise has helped her work towards her ultimate goals, however the road to get there has been marred with many roadblocks from dealing with work and family stress, finding exercise that she likes, coping with her health concerns and emotional trials. So, if anyone tells her it’s really easy to lose weight; that it’s just "diet and exercise", she may just sucker punch you with her newly defined biceps!

Suzanne does agree though that weight loss is achievable with dedication and a dose of reality. Being aware of your personal roadblocks and coming up with ways to overcome them are key. When asked what one of the biggest changes is that she has made to her routine since she started her diet, Suzanne answers, “making the time.” As women, we are notoriously guilty of putting others needs before our own. Recognizing this and taking the time for ourselves, makes us healthier, happier, and a better role model for our family and friends. Happiness comes first from within and radiates outward…and you should see Suzanne shine!