ARE YOU SAYING I CAN’T EAT COOKIES?

“I caved in last night, and I ate a batch of cookies I baked.  I know it’s not good, it’s just that, when my husband started eating them, I couldn’t resist.” ​In a situation like this, a really important question to ask yourself here, is, if you weren’t eating the cookies out of a physiological need (hunger), what need were the cookies meeting? A cookie is not a very satiating (physiologically satisfying) food.  But it is being eaten to meet a need. Now, there’s all kinds of potential emotions in play here. Jealousy/Envy (why does he/she get to and I don’t?); FOMO…

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WHY DIETS WILL NEVER WORK

How do you achieve permanent transformation? Consistency. (Thanks Captain Obvious) But, really, how do you stay consistent? You do something that you can stick with, not just in the good times, but when things are really tough. Make it as simple and as easy as possible. I’ve never seen extreme and rapid methods produce lasting results. In order for transformation to be permanent, it requires a permanent change of lifestyle. This is why so few people actually lose weight and keep it off. ​Why is it so incredibly difficult?  And what can we do about it? It’s because it requires a…

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“JUST BREATHE” … NO THANKS, RIGHT NOW I FEEL LIKE PUNCHING SOMEONE IN THE FACE

Being told to “calm down” or “just breathe” can be absolutely infuriating and make the situation worse.  This is because it completely invalidates what you’re feeling right now, when in fact, your feelings are perfectly valid (even though your thoughts might not be rational). Often, calming down isn’t the best option right away. Maybe you’ve just had a stressful encounter with a co-worker, and you’ve built up some nervous energy.  Maybe now you want to scream and punch things.  You’re not a bad person, you just need an outlet for all that pent up stressful energy.  What can you do,…

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“YOUR HEAD LOOKS SO SKINNY!!”

“Your head looks so SKINNY” my wife exclaimed, when she saw the photo … (below) I didn’t realize how stark the contrast until I saw this photo from 2 years ago … I was nearly 290lbs, suffering from major stress, high blood pressure, and in pain most days It was also just after that first picture was taken, that I swallowed my ego, and hired a coach to help me. It turned out to be a life-changing decision.   I thought he was going to tell me what a fat loser I was, and prescribe me a meal plan, and…

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WHY CAN’T I STOP SNACKING AT NIGHT?

Let’s touch on what goes on in the brain.  I like analogies.   To keep it simple, we’ll say you have 2 “brains”. A small logical “thinky” brain, and a big powerful emotional brain. In the book, The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathon Hardt suggests we imagine it like an elephant with a rider. Your logical brain (the rider) has a flyswatter to steer the emotional brain (the elephant). When everything is going just fine, it’s pretty easy to steer the elephant. But when the elephant gets annoyed, bored, startled etc … it completely overrides any instructions from the rider. Over the course of a…

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