Four Steps to Slim

It's spring. Give yourself every chance to move forward and fall in love with your life all over again. This is a season of new beginnings. Here are four easy, non-stress steps to feeling slim. Start following these today and by June, you will notice a difference.

(1) S - START using all of your senses more throughout the day - including common sense. Common sense is balancing what you know, with what you feel, to do what is in your best interest.

• It's common sense to eat slower and it's easy!! Put your fork or sandwich down between bites.
• When we really taste and chew food, we eat less. Don't be lazy - taste your food!
• Portion control is as basic as using our eyes to see how much food is on the plate. 
• If you go out for dinner, ask to have your main course on a salad plate and only eat what fits on that plate.

(2 ) L - LET go of diet dogma and tune-in to your own body. 95% of dieters gain back more weight than they lose.

•  Diets are generic; you are not. Learn which foods are nutritious and then, eat what you feel like having, for energy and nutrition. Here is a helpful site for nutrition facts.
• Self-control is about yourself. Eating is personal. Do what works best for you.
• Try enjoying soup or dessert with a teaspoon instead of a large spoon. You will eat slower and less.

(3) I - INTUITION is our friend. Everyone has it. Intuitive tools are a total support system with guidelines that connect with what we value. These help us stay in control of eating mentally, physically and emotionally. Intuitive tools are an attitude to bring to the table every time you eat. Tenacity, determination and dignity are examples of intuitive tools.

• Tenacity is being true to yourself.  When you make a decision to have this attitude, you connect with an attitude of determination, which stops feelings of frustration! Instead of stress around eating for nutrition and energy, your priorities realign and you are more patient with yourself. It's awesome.
• An attitude of dignity is always an asset. You feel it in your chest. Don't ever put yourself in a position that offends your dignity!

(4) M -ME. Think about "me" when you eat. Experience your own body, your own mind and your own soul. Be kind to yourself and honest with yourself. Love has a way of helping us. Love yourself at mealtime. Loving starts by forgiving yourself for every bad eating decision you ever made. That's a secret for moving forward.

• Before you get out of bed in the morning, close your eyes and visualize your ideal, healthy body. Imagine what it feels like to be fit and how much energy you will have during the day.
• Appreciate your ability to make choices and your strength to follow through with being the best you can be.
• Connect with an attitude of gratitude for little things that make your life easier. It's those little things that we can count on that help us stay on track when the going gets rough.

Am I Really Hungry, 6th Sense Diet: Intuitive Eating  will help reset your priorities and you will recognize what's holding you back from eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're not. Pick up a hard copy and stick markers on pages that help you stay true to yourself, or buy an e-copy and access intuitive tools from your phone!

#janebernard

Diet Crisis: Frustration, 4 Tips

A diet crisis can happen if we're frustrated or even when feeling good! Either way, it's going off the track of what we really want, and it feels lousy. Stuff happens; we're human. It's time to keep moving forward. Don't get stuck in a diet crisis.

The way to start moving forward is to forgive yourself. 

Do it to reconnect with the relief of momentum! 

Remember, no matter where you are, if you don't keep moving, you won't reach your goal.

Here are tips for staying on track. They are intuitive, and easy to remember when you feel a crisis. Before you begin eating, especially when you feel frustrated, always take 2 slow deep breath in and out. Look at the food and see what feels right to you. This connects you with your intuition and your body.

4 intuitive tools to connect with calm and relief:

• Patience with yourself ends frustration and helps overcome the temptation to give up. It is an opportunity to prove yourself to you, to be all that you can be. Patience connects with the big picture. This keeps our attitude flexible and we feel less pressure.

• Determination to follow through is deep inside each of us. You can call on it by remembering that you are worthy of fighting for. Fight for yourself by eating just enough and no more. Listen to the voice of determination that lives in your heart. This creates the comforting feeling of balance and control.

• Dignity to honor yourself is especially helpful if you feel frustrated, deprived or sorry for yourself. Dignity directly connects with determination. This means when you try to feel dignified when frustration happens, you will get an extra assist from your intuition to honor yourself. You will discover an inner attitude of gratitude that takes away your appetite.  Dignity is a guide to see, do, feel and be what is best.

• Prudence is like comparison shopping. It connects with common sense and is very helpful for shedding self-disappointment, frustration or doubt. It is the intuitive way to recognize that there are always options. Frustration connects with a self-defeating victim mentality. Prudence guides us to see choices. It  keeps our minds open.  In fact, determination proves that there is always another option, and prudence is a stress-buster.

There are ten organic, intuitive tools that are amazing for getting rid of frustration at any time. Find them in chapter 15, 'Frustration', in Am I Really Hungry? 6th sense diet: Intuitive Eating.

Your Inner Rebel

Louise was trying to lose weight, walking every day and being conscious of portion size. Louise was doing a great job of changing her body. She was converting fat to muscle and felt tighter, but since muscle weighs more than fat her weight was the same. Louise didn't trust herself or even deeply believe in her efforts. Instead she depended the scale for validation. But the scale didn't budge and she felt defeated.

Using a scale to validate your progress to lose weight sabotages by undermining your efforts. Sabotage often is experienced as craving or binging. In fact, your scale is an obstacle in the way to connecting with the needs of your body.  When we define ourselves by measuring 'progress' we're not allowing the space and time of organic change to unfold in a natural or enduring way. 

When you decide to lose weight, instead of supervising yourself with rules, listen to your body. Imposing control that feels stressful won't bring long-term weight loss. That type of control feels restrictive and encourages your inner rebel. The inner rebel is your survival instinct- it feels stress and holds on to those fat cells until it feels safe. 

Use your eyes to see portion size and use taste to judge quality. Get moderate exercise and eat slow enough to notice how you feel. Let experience remind you that respecting your body is respecting your self. Respecting yourself  makes your body feel safe and allows it to let go of fat.  

Use the intuitive tools of dignity and determination to allow your body to complete it's process so you look and feel good.  Dignity, determination and self respect is how to walk the walk of long-term body health.  

It's a bold step for a dieter to trust her body. Spring is a time of new beginnings. Take the first step to change by tuning in to your senses to notice what you notice. You don't need a scale to validate your efforts. Use dignity and determination to fortify the bold choice to trust yourself. You're worth it! 

Keeping momentum and dropping pounds

Sometimes when you're achieving an intuitive breakthrough you won't notice it's happening. Habit is to focus on what isn't happening and how bad you feel about yourself which puts you in a fog.  Use your senses to wake up to what's real- You are a work of art in progress. Be open to your natural momentum and you will drop pounds.

Susan planned to go to her brother's anniversary party knowing that it would hit all of her emotional buttons. Filled with self-doubt, she felt fear, anger and stubborn. She imagined standing by the buffet eating one piece of cake after another and hating herself for doing it, for being fat and feeling awful. Doubt pushed her into a corner of self-defeat. 

Taking a deep breath, Susan connected her senses with her heart and realized she was repeating old unpleasant habits. She used and dignity with  determination to change her mind-set.

Susan loves cake. She decided to visualize herself slowly eating one delicious piece away from the buffet - while enjoying conversation with her family. She even thought about putting some icing on her finger and enjoying licking it off! Susan used foresight to protect herself and ate a light protein dense dinner before the party so she wouldn't feel starved once she got there. She was taking control of the situation. An instant later she felt a lightness of contentment and comfort. Momentum and self-control feel like the same thing.

April is the time to start thinking about looking great in a bathing suit.

Working hard to lose weight can feel disappointing because it's easy to lose sight of change as a process not a moment. Instant gratification is not real. Eating intuitively is a long-term weight maintenance plan. Stick with the plan and look great in a bathing suit this summer.  

As soon as you decide, you're doing a great job right now! It's intuitive to protect your body by keeping it healthy. Breathe in and out. Keep the momentum going.

Lose weight without thinking!

Intuition is not a way of thinking. It is a way of being tuned in to your self. You are born much more capable and complete then the most advanced computer. It's mind blowing to even begin to think about what goes on 24/7 with your body. Every cell is reproducing itself, your heart beats, your eyes see, your mind thinks, your lungs are always in motion- and that’s all stuff you don’t have to think about!

Intuition is your sixth sense and it filters and clarifies everything that you are, in a way that is protective, and also gives you pleasure. This is why intuitive eating works to lose weight and to maintain your healthy weight.

When you eat, you are laying the foundation for your future. Eating connects with much more than losing or gaining weight. Eating connects with your sense of personal satisfaction, your physical comfort, and the energy you have- to deal with stress and to create pleasure in your life. Eating impacts your sex drive, the color of your skin, and the way you perspire. Intuitive eating is totally natural and easy- just like breathing. That’s why letting intuition to guide your eating choices makes sense.

You can recognize your intuition by noticing what you notice. Being determined helps. Be determined and you will begin to remember to recognize what you are seeing when you sit down to eat. Stay determined to use your intuition to lose weight, and notice how your food tastes and smells. Notice how your body feels when you eat. Be determined to connect with your self to be the best that you can be. That is all you need to do to connect with your sixth sense. You don’t need to think about it.

Be determined. Don't think. Just make the choice.