Archives September 2011

“‘Hooonesty Avril. I’ve been eating like a sparrow and I’ve STILL GAINED WEIGHT,” she despaired.

She was about as frustrated as a girl can be. My heart went out to her.

But my head… well, nope.

Because science tells us that what she’s saying is impossible.

Here’s why: it violates the law of thermodynamics.

Let’s face it, if her body truly was capable of producing ‘weight from nothing’, she’d have been head-hunted by UNICEF and, the world’s hunger problem, eradicated.

A number of clients share this claim (I can relate). They support it by talking about how diligent they’ve been with their exercise and food intake.

It’s only when I do a detailed inquiry about their exercise and eating habits, they get to see they’ve been tricking themselves. Often unintentionally.

Here’s the little heads-up I share with them. It’s fundamental to weight loss.

OK, here we go…

Assuming you’re an average person, during your lifetime you’ll eat 60 million calories. And to maintain your steady weight, you’ll need to expend 60 million calories.

60 million in + 60 million out = steady weight.

OK, so nothing earth-shattering so far… good old ‘calories in versus calories out’.

But put some numbers in the formula and here’s where it gets interesting, ladies.

If you’re an average woman ….

(clearly you’re not Miss Average, you’re unique and wonderful, but for the sake of the example, today, you’re Miss Average)

…who needs 2,700 calories per day to remain at a steady weight but you take in 2,800 and expend only 2,700 calories, you will gain 12 pounds (about 5.5 kgs) EVERY year.

Here’s the kicker…

An apple is about 100 calories.

That’s just an apple a day difference.

In other words, it’s very easy to be overweight!

Now the reason I share these numbers with you is not to depress you. Or scare you off consuming apples.

It’s to remind you of the delicate balance in which our bodies thrive.

It’s to remind you that if you make the slightest error in this balancing act, YOU WILL GAIN WEIGHT.

Next time you go to nibble on something and you tell yourself, “it’s only a slurp, only a lick, only a taste… it won’t make any difference to the number on the scales”.

STOP.

Remember the apples.

Quit tricking yourself.

You know your numbers now.

You are in control of YOUR apples.

That metaphoric apple WILL make a difference. . . all the difference in the world.

Love etc, Avril

With the world’s book shelves heaving with information on how to get your good self motivated, why then, is finding motivation still such an issue in our society?

What are we missing?

Motivation, it seems, is a funny thing. An elusive concept.

Sometimes we experience it, sometimes we don’t. And when we do get it, it doesn’t seem to hang about for very long.

What if there was a simple technique you could apply immediately to kick start your motivation?

Would you want to know about it?

I know I would.

Today’s article was written as a result of this simple technique, so I know it works…

Chris Hammer, a Canadian-based psychologist, says we need to quit using the “elusiveness of motivation” as an excuse to not get things done.

O.U.C.H

He reckons we have a tendency to see motivation as this “thing” that “needs to be found”.

And that as soon as we “find it”, things will be smooth sailing. That everything will be easy peasy.

Don’t we just?! I know I do.

Hammer goes on to say, as long as we don’t “have it”, we’re not really pressured to accomplish the thing we want to achieve and that we can easily blame our inaction on the fact that we just haven’t “tapped into it yet”.

So we get to stay stuck. . .wheels spinning. . . going nowhere.

But the truth is that it’s NOT impossible to act. . . EVEN IF WE’RE NOT FEELING motivated.

Ladies, wouldn’t you agree…we get so caught up in the idea that we can’t move forward (eat well and exercise) unless we’re “feeling it”.

But this just simply isn’t true.

It might not feel the greatest to take action without possessing this magical thing called motivation… but we’re all completely capable of doing it anyway.

So instead of looking for down the back of the couch for motivation-gone-AWOL, take action. Action CAN (and frequently does) precede motivation.

In other words, WE JUST NEED TO GET STARTED.

Or as Nike would say, “Just do it”.

…just
do
it…regardless of how you feel, and stop looking for some (non-existent) magic formula.

You’ll be glad you did.

Inspire us in the comments section below, what are you going to JFDI today?

Love etc, Avril

“You’ve GOT to be kiddin’ me . . . what’s with this ‘listen to my body’ stuff?” she despaired.

“Yup,” I nod, “you were born knowing what foods your body needs. Why don’t you see what that voice has to say?”

“Yeah, right. If I listened to THAT voice, it’d say eat chocolate sundaes…… TEN of them…… right NOW!’”

My client was getting snippy.

Confusion and frustration hummed down the phone line.

Here’s what I shared with her.

In a fascinating experiment performed in the 1930s, scientists gave a group of toddlers unlimited access to a range of foods from ice cream to spinach, and everything in between, with the purpose of allowing the youngsters to create their own diet based on nothing more than their individual sense of what they wanted to nibble on.

The results may surprise you.

Despite the variations in when, what order and how often they ate, every child in the study choose what was considered to be a balanced healthy diet. All the children maintained their happy weight.

And you assumed they’d scoff only the ice cream!

Here’s the thing.

Our bodies are an incredible source of (constructive) feedback. They’re constantly nattering to us.

And, we are all unique. While a particular food might be heaven on a platter for me, it might be an injudicious choice for you and your body.

How To Be Your OWN Guru

Any weight loss programme that tells you specifically what you must or mustn’t eat is doomed to fail.

Taboo foods become VERY attractive, don’t they. Deprivation leads to rebellion. Entire contents of the fridge….demolished.

The fact is this: some foods increase your vitality and energy. Other foods diminish it.

You need to learn to listen to the wisdom of YOUR body, so you can experience the benefits of optimal health.

Here’s a great little exercise from researcher, Dr Gay Hendricks, to help you determine which foods are YOUR personal high-energy foods.

1. Eat the food you like.
2. Notice how your body feels about 45 minutes later.

Easy aye. If you feel ready hit the dance floor or take the woofer for walkies, that’s a high-energy food for you. If you want to collapse on the couch, laze around and watch telly, it’s not.

If you actually listen to your body (not your mind) you’ll discover that you DON’T want those chocolate sundaes. At least, not 10 of them anyway.

As soon as you give yourself permission to eat the sundae you’ll find the desire for it lessens…as it is no longer taboo.

I encourage you to practice this delightfully simple technique for as little as a week and notice how your food choices start to change for the better.

You’ll feel energised, vital, alive. You might surprise yourself at the healthy foods you start to crave because your body responds so positively. Can you imagine being addicted to feeling great?

Gradually, the cravings for the low-energy foods will give way to contemplation, and you’ll start to listen to your body’s own innate wisdom. It has been longing to speak to you, but you’ve always been too busy listening to someone else’s version of what you ought to eat.

Be your own guru.

Eat to nourish.

Come home to your body’s own natural wisdom.

Listen.

With nourishing love, Avril

Strauss, S. (2006) Clara Davis and the wisdom of letting children choose their own diets. CMAJ November 7, 2006 vol. 175 no. 10

So let me get this right…see that we’re on the same page.

You’re telling me that you’ll feel happier when you lose those extra kilograms.

Yes?

If you found yourself nodding “ah yeeeeah” then you’re amongst the resounding majority of women I speak to every day.

My next question is always…

(Since you think that losing weight will make you happy…)

“Do you believe you deserve to be happy?”

And the answer is … silence.

Comprehending silence.

Long pauses accompanied by tears.

Here’s the thing, darling. If you don’t believe that you deserve to be happy there will never be enough space for your slimmer self to show up.

Here’s why.

If deep down you don’t believe you have the right to be happy you’ll find plenty of ways to sabotage your weight loss goals.

Rest assured, now and then, EVERYONE on the planet feels pangs of being ‘not quite good enough’. We all have thoughts of being ‘undeserving’ of happiness.

The key is to NOT entertain these thoughts.

Don’t resist them either.

Simply allow yourself to notice them and say, “Hmmm…isn’t that curious? or “I’m having that weird thought again…so what?” and redirect your attention.

When these thoughts of being undeserving pop up, allow them to simply pass over your mind like wind over water.

Let ’em go.

Not indulging in undeserving thoughts is a LEARNABLE skill and an ABSOLUTE MUST if you want to get to (and remain at) your happy weight.

Here’s the thing: you can either focus on your self-doubts and feelings of being undeserving OR you can focus on great health and your happy weight…As Is Your Birth Right.

I suggest the latter.

I encourage you to read the magical words below and notice how the residual feelings of being undeserving of health, happiness and attaining your happy weight melt away… into the land of illusion …from whence they came.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?”
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it’s in EVERYONE.
And as we let our own light shine … we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear … our example automatically liberates others.”

These delightful words of deserving by Marianne Williamson, as cited in Nelson Mandela’s Inaugural Speech, 1994.

Sweetheart…YOU deserve to be slim, happy and healthy…starting right now.

Love etc, Avril