Month: August 2022

 

 

Happy Tuesday! My mom and I always laugh when we go shopping together because trying on clothes can be very comical! When we try on clothes that look great on the rack, we often have very negative reactions when we put them on our bodies! We might say that we’re big, fat, old looking, or frumpy. Does this sound familiar? We might look in the mirror and not like what we see. It’s easy to insult ourselves and feel discouraged. I say this because I have done it myself and it feels terrible. Let me offer some reframing so that your next dressing room experience can be more positive!

Instead of saying: I LOOK FAT IN THIS! Flip it to: THIS JUST DOESN’T SUIT MY BODY.

Instead of saying: THIS COLOR IS AWFUL ON ME! Flip it to: THIS COLOR DOESN’T SERVE ME.

Instead of saying: I LOOK SO BIG AND NEED TO GO ON A DIET! Flip it to: I DON’T LOOK MY BEST TODAY AND I WILL DO BETTER WITH MY FOOD CHOICES!

Instead of saying:  WHY CAN’T I WEAR CUTE CLOTHES LIKE SMALLER PEOPLE? Flip it to: I’M WORKING ON MY BODY SO THAT I CAN WEAR DIFFERENT CLOTHES!

Instead of saying:  NOTHING FITS ME! Flip it to: RIGHT NOW, I’M NOT YET WHERE I WANT TO BE WITH HOW MY CLOTHES FIT!

Instead of saying:  I DON’T DESERVE NICE CLOTHES! Flip it to: I DESERVE NICE CLOTHES WHICH IS WHY I’M WORKING ON MY WEIGHT LOSS GOALS.

Instead of saying:  I WISH I WERE SMALLER! Flip it to: I’M WORKING HARD TO CHANGE MY BODY SIZE IN A HEALTHY WAY.

 

So the next time that you are trying on clothes, be kind to yourself with what you think and tell yourself. Be positive and optimistic that your hard world to lose weight will pay off! Flip dressing room drama into a more pleasant experience!

You’ve got this!

Georgette

 

Happy Tuesday! I adore sloths and love watching them move so slowly! There is something calming to watch them in action whether they are in animated form or real. Their motion is very slow, careful, and intentional. There is something so peaceful about how they go about their day one small, slow step at a time. They do not seem to worry, hurry, or care about much at all. Have you ever noticed how we women in particular do the opposite? We rush from place to place, task to task, and person to person. Just watch someone in action and observe the hurriedness of how they move about. It is exhausting to watch, so you can only imagine how it feels to operate at this pace.

 

When it comes to our emotional and physical health, it is such a great idea to slow down and take our time with everything. Here are some simple tips to slow down to improve your health TODAY! 

 

#1: Rewrite your daily to-do list to include 3-5 items to accomplish and be specific. Instead of saying “workout”, write down “walk for 30 minutes”.

 

#2: If you are a morning person, make the most of your time then with activities that require brain power and energy. For example, if you journal daily, decide when is the best time to be alert and focused to do it.

 

#3: Take breaks! 20-30 minutes is a good amount of time to fully concentrate on a task before needing a break. During your break (5-10 minutes works well), move/walk around, leave the room, drink some water, and head outside for fresh air and sunshine. It will refresh you and recharge your batteries for the next task.

 

#4:  Set the timer! When you take a break, set a timer so that you will honor your time and optimize your day. For example, if you need to take a power nap, set the timer for 20 minutes and honor that boundary. This puts boundaries around the importance of the break and protects your time!

 

#5: Less is more! This is one of the most liberating mindset shifts that I have made and I know it will help you! We all have the same 24 hours in a day, so use them well. Try to do fewer things each day in a more intentional way with focus and watch how much “free time” you actually have! For example, food shopping and meal planning one time a week is more efficient than running to the grocery store every day at the last minute when you are tired and hungry. You will set yourself up for success by being efficient.

 

My challenge to you this week is to pick one new way to slow down and to feel better about your pace of life and how you are spending your time. I am sure that you will find more time to do more of the things that you want to do instead of the things that you have to do. Start today with one small step!

 

You’ve got this!

Georgette

 

Happy Tuesday! In life, we often tell ourselves that we should be happy 100% of the time and that weight loss should be easy. We tell ourselves that shedding pounds is easy for other people, so it should be for us, too. Let’s look at those thoughts for a second. First, life is 50/50; it’s not always sunshine and daisies…for everybody. I can feel like bad or hard things only happen to us when we are focused on our own life, but I assure you that every human on the planet has good days and bad days. That’s reality. When you compare and despair, it distorts that truth.

 

For example, you will have good days with your health and you will have hard days. The hard days prepare you for enjoying the good days that much more. When you open your thinking to knowing the 50/50 concept, you are ready to accept both kinds of experiences. Some days when you hop on the scale, the feedback will be good and some days it will be hard to take. I hesitate to always say good and bad, so I often will say easy and hard or positive and negative. You choose which words work for you to use! 

 

When you set realistic expectations for your weight loss based on the 50/50 concept, it is easier to navigate through each day of your weight loss journey. It allows you to shift to a growth mindset and to be ready to handle the “lifey” moments. I promise that we all have the ups and downs and that we all can often feel like they are out of balance. I have to catch myself many times when I start to tell myself “When it rains it pours.” or “Here we go again!” During the moments of overwhelm and stress when things pile up, mainly when things are hard, a new habit to create is reminding yourself that this is life and 50/50 is the name of the game. It can feel like you’re the only one struggling with your weight, but that is not true. You are not alone.

 

A good tip when you feel like life is more heavily in the not so positive category is to draw a circle, which I call your stress circle. In the circle, write down everything that is stressing you out. Then look at each item and cross off the ones that are really not so true or that hard. Look at what is left and pick a few things to tackle. It might mean cutting out sugar or walking daily or making a smaller to-do list, for example. Just seeing it on paper takes out the drama that we have created in our brain. It’s a powerful practice to use regularly! Give it a try to see how 50/50 can look a little different in your life!

 

You’ve got this!

Georgette

 

Happy Tuesday! Are you a people pleaser? Do you ever say YES to something you really don’t want to do or can’t do? Do you say yes and then regret it? Today I’m offering you how to say NO THANK YOU without regret or worry.

 

When you say yes all the time, are you chipping away at valuable time that could be spent on other things, such as working out or making healthy meals? How does saying yes affect you? If you think about it and realize that saying yes is crowding your schedule and preventing you from achieving your health goals, it’s time to learn the art of saying “no thank you”.

 

First, saying no thank you to something that you really don’t want to do or can’t do allows you to say yes to other things that serve you and that bring you closer to your health goals. You are in charge of what you do and how you spend your time. Overscheduling yourself can lead to exhaustion, overwhelm, and resentment. It can also mean that you are pushed to the bottom of your priority list, which does not support weight loss and exercise.

 

We all find time for what is important, so before you say yes to someone, ask yourself a few things:

 

  1. Do I really want to do this?
  2. Do I want to spend time and energy on this?
  3. Do I have time for this?
  4. Does this keep me at the top of my priority list?
  5. Does this move me closer to my health goals?
  6. What would I have to give up or shift to do this?
  7. On a scale of 1-10 (1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest), how important is this to me?

 

Once you decide to say yes, promise yourself to do it cheerfully without regret and resentment. That’s how you’ll know that it was the right decision! If you say no thank you, do not apologize or justify it. Chances are, no one will even challenge you on it. If they do, simply say, it’s not something that serves me or that I am going to do right now. You do not owe reasons, so hang on to your power and live with your decision. You’ll notice right away that you now have time to spend getting your health results and keeping control of your decisions and time! What a powerful habit change!

 

You’ve got this!

Georgette

Stepping on a scale can be compared to buying a bathing suit for most women: It can be terrifying to say the least. There are thoughts and feelings deeply attached to this ritual, and I used to give the scale, a piece of metal that shows you a number of how much your body mass weighs, all of my power. Stepping on the scale and seeing a number of how much I weighed used to be a stressful experience for me personally, which is why I want to share these tips with you today so that perhaps your weigh-in experience could be healthier for you than it was for me in the past. 

 

You see, every month I would weigh in on Saturday morning and THAT would decide how the rest of my day (and my family’s) would play out. It was the “tale of two scale results” and it dragged me down every time, especially when the number wasn’t what I had hoped it would be. If the number was one that I liked, I felt happy, proud, and in a good mood. I wrote it down in a notebook and compared it to last month’s statistics. I judged myself solely based on that number and it set the tone for the whole day and sometimes the whole weekend. Also, if it was a “good” number, I celebrated it and told myself that I was “good”.

 

On the contrary, if the number was not what I expected or wanted, I was instantly upset and my day (and my family’s) was ruined. That reaction often continued all weekend. My thoughts were that I was “bad” and unworthy of weight loss. I would punish myself by restricting my food and beating myself up with unkind words such as I’m fat, unworthy, and hopeless. I told myself that I couldn’t lose weight and that all my work was for nothing. It was so defeating and limiting and did not move me forward in a positive direction. I convinced myself that I was stuck and couldn’t lose weight. It held me back many times. I also labeled myself as “bad”.

 

Can you relate to anything I described? Have you ever let the scale choose your mood? Have you let your chatter brain take over and keep you down? Most women can relate to this tale of the scale. I finally figured out a way to change my weigh-in experience completely to turn it into a feedback opportunity. It has made a world of difference, and I hope that you can take away one thing to flip your own weigh-in routine into a positive, informative experience.

 

#1: CHOOSE YOUR WEIGH-IN PLAN

Choose when to weigh yourself based on what works for you and what your weight loss goals are. There are different schools of thought about how often to weigh yourself. Some people weigh themselves daily, some do it weekly, and some do it monthly. There are even people who weigh themselves only a few times a year. There is no right or wrong way to do this, so put your wants and needs first.

 

#2: REFRAME YOUR MINDSET

When you step on the scale, remember that it is a piece of metal that gives you feedback on how much you weigh in mass. It does not reflect your self-worth. It does not give you thoughts and feelings; it simply shows you a number. Look at that number and get curious about what it tells you as feedback. THAT. IS. IT.

 

#3: TREAT THE NUMBER AS FEEDBACK AND GET CURIOUS ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU

Look at the number of your weight in mass, write it down (if you wish), and ask yourself what it tells you. For example, ask yourself if it matches your eating plan this past week or not. If so, write down what worked so that you can keep that up. If not, think about why that number may have shown up on the scale. Do this with curiosity and kindness instead of criticism. List honest reasons that your number did not reflect a loss. Be kind and forgiving to yourself as you dig deep to think about this so that you can be objective and not self critical. A last step is to set a few action steps to put you back on track for weight loss the next time you step on the scale.

 

How you treat this emotionally charged ritual is key to how you progress in your weight loss journey from the inside out. Seeing the scale as a neutral tool and deciding how to think and feel about the number will change this experience completely for you, as it did for me. Believe it or not, the dread and fear will diminish each time you do this when you have flipped your tale of the scale. Be kind to yourself, get curious about the feedback, and plan your next step to a healthier you! You are worth it!

 

You’ve got this!

Georgette

 

Need my help as a coach to lose weight? Contact me at glepage7@me.com to set up a 15-minute discovery call to learn more!