July 28, 2013

By Lisa English

Just tell me what to do! Give me a meal plan. Are squats better than lunges? Can I have (insert food)? Will I get results if I can only come to work out with you once a week? You dont understand its just not possible for me to get more than 4 hours of sleep.

Sound familiar? That is the sound of people searching for the magic answer to their daily obstacles. I get it. I HEAR YOU PEOPLE! I am one of you!

Darren Hardy, author of The Compound Effect , says that we already know all that we need to succeed. New or more information is not what you need a new plan of action is. Its time to create new behaviors and habits that are oriented away from sabotage and towards success. Its that simple.

If its so simple, this whole taking action thing, then why do we struggle so much to do it?

Because changing our habits and behaviors is hard and takes time.

We take plenty of actions each and every day, but are we engaging in those actions that we know we need to in order to achieve our goals?

Think about it. Do you go to bed when you know you should or do you stay up too late and then hit snooze 5 times the next morning? Do you pack a healthy lunch and snacks to take with you to work or do you just eat the pizza in the office and hit the vending machine at 3:00 for your sugar and caffeine fix? Do you make time for a quick workout or do you find an excuse for why you cant (kids, happy hour, too tired, no time, etc.)?

If you want something different, whether it be a healthier body, a better job, more money, more time, more energy or better relationships; then you have to DO something different than what you are doing now.

Get honest with yourself. Take a good honest look at how you spend your time and your money each and every day. If youre like me, youll find that being busy is not the same as being productive. Youll also start to see how going to the vending machine, Starbucks, eating out for lunch, and buying energy drinks (because you didnt go to bed on time) every day is costing you a lot of money. Oh yeah and staying on top of all the latest Facebook status updates (guilty!), getting to the next level of Candy Crush, and checking your email or phone every 5 minutes can add up to a lot of unproductive busy time. Its the little things we do each day that either help us or hurt us. Once you are honest with yourself about how you are spending your time, money, and energy you can then choose to change what isnt working.

Pick ONE THING to change. For some reason, we feel like we have to do some major overhaul to our lives in order to improve them. That is simply not true and it is that type of thinking that drives us to self-sabotage. You dont have to stop eating out for lunch every day in order to lose weight. You just have to stop eating crap! If packing your lunch is too much of a hassle, then figure out how to eat out in a way that supports your health and fitness goals. You dont have to get the burger and fries or fried chicken fingers. You can choose to order a grilled chicken salad. That one small change requires very little effort (far less effort than packing your lunch every day!). If time management is an issue, then designate short, specific windows of time when you will check Facebook, email, voice messages, etc. and only engage in those activities during the designated time. You can still be in the know without spending ALL DAY checking in for the latest status update or Groupon deal! J

Be consistent. This is perhaps the most important thing you can do in order to achieve success. You dont have to be perfect when making changes and adopting new habits, but you do have to be consistent. The little things matter the most. If you want to be healthier, lose weight, and have more energy, and more time to get things done then you have to act like it. Its not good enough to eat perfect for a week and then binge and go back to your old habits. Its not good enough to workout for two hours on Saturday and then do nothing for a week because you are too sore to move. Its not good enough to sleep for 10 hours on weekend nights and then spend the workweek exhausted because youre only averaging 4-5 hours of sleep each night. This goes back to picking the one thing and being consistent with it day in and day out no excuses.

Examples of small changes:

1. Exercise for 10-30 minutes most days. Walk, jump rope, do pushups. Keep it simple and do it at home!
2. Add vegetables to each main meal (or even one meal).
3. Choose grilled lean meat over fried, fatty food.
4. Go to bed 15 minutes earlier or set your alarm for 15 minutes earlier.
5. Choose nuts instead of candy when visiting the vending machine.
6. Reserve one hour of time in the morning and/or evening to check email and Facebook.

When these small changes are practiced consistently over long periods of time they become habits. When we are consistent with each small daily habit we will achieve success. Its just like brushing your teeth. You couldnt imagine NOT brushing your teeth every morning (that would be disgusting and youd have some serious dental problems, lol!). Find your ONE thing and practice that until you just cant imagine NOT doing it.

In another post Ill share one of my recent personal stories on how consistently focusing on the small things helped me to overcome one of my health challenges.

Until then, I want you to decide what your one small thing is and then do it! Stop wishing, thinking, asking, and regretting and start DOING one thing consistently that will help push you toward success!

Let me know how you do!

November 9, 2012

By Lisa English

I often get asked for advice on nutrition. All too often people want my opinion on some diet that has worked for others or is popular at the moment. Just in the past couple of weeks Ive been asked about the Paleo diet, the HCG diet, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and a Vegan diet. Most people really want to know one thing. Is this diet good or bad?

I always start by reminding people that I am not a dietician and I do not prescribe any diets of any kind. That being said, people still want to know what and how they should eat. To help provide a little clarity to this mystery, consider the following 5 tips when choosing what diet to follow.

1. Stop dieting. Seriously, who wants to be on a diet all the time? When most people hear the word diet they automatically think DEPRIVATION and that leads straight to fear-based thinking. Fear of being hungry, fear of giving up our favorite foods, fear of not being able to have fun, fear of not being able to stick with it, and ultimately, fear of failure. No wonder diet is a dirty four letter word!

If you dont go on a diet you dont have to worry about all the things you cant have, and you dont have to feel like a loser when you go off the diet

2. Do your research. (Two of my favorite resources at the moment are The New Me Diet by Drs. Jade and Keoni Teta and Jonathan Bailors The Smarter Science of Slim.) Dont just assume that because a diet is being prescribed by doctors, or because you saw it on Dr. Oz, or because your best friend lost 30 pounds without being hungry that any one diet is right for you. There are no magic pills, shots, foods, supplements, or macro-nutrient ratios that are guaranteed to work for you. The magic happens when you search for your own answers and make your own decisions about what is right for you. This can take years and it will likely change, which leads me to my next point.

3. Get comfortable with change. My way of eating has evolved over time and that is mainly due to three things: 1) I have changed my thinking, and therefore stopped dieting; 2) I keep learning and applying new information about nutrition and how the body works; and 3) I keep my focus on what works for ME and make adjustments when Im not getting results. Changing my thinking was the most important step in getting to where I am right now. Before I changed my thinking, I was a dieter. Ive done the starve yourself all day and then binge at night diet, the its fat free so it must be good for me diet, the strict competition diet, and the now Im going to eat everything Ive been missing for the last 16 weeks diet! Some of those diets lasted longer than others, but ultimately they all failed; and I got tired of feeling like a failure.

4. Clarify your goals. This is so important with anything in life and deciding what and how to eat is largely dependent upon what we want to achieve. If you are looking to improve blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, or your health in general then you will need to choose to eat foods that produce those results. If you want to sport a six pack on the beach, then you will likely have to go beyond just eating healthy foods and choose to follow a nutrition plan that will make your abs pop! The point is that your nutrition has to support your goals, and your goals may change and evolve over time (which is why number 3 is on this list!).

5. Think long term. If you want lasting results, then you have to think about that when making changes to your diet. If you can be satisfied, healthy, and happy never eating ice cream again then go for it! I for one, know that is not possible for me, so I build it in to my nutrition plan in a way that supports my goals and works for me. This is the difference between diets and lifestyles. Diets are usually rigid and temporary; lifestyles are flexible and easy to follow over the long haul.

I dont pretend to have all the answers. I am still learning, but what I do know is that a good diet is one that supports your goals, fits into your lifestyle, and one you can stick with!

There is no one size fits all plan. You can choose an off the rack diet and see how it fits, or you can choose a custom diet designed by you. Whatever it is, own your choice!

Want to learn more about nutrition and how to find what works for you? I include nutrition education in all of my boot camps . I also coach individuals on nutrition through personal training and wellness coaching.