Why Is Loving Ourselves So Hard?

I know you are an absolutely amazing human.

 You show up powerfully in the world, give so much of yourself, and you’re the best for others that you could possibly be.

 So, why do we often struggle so much to love ourselves?

 Seriously…we spend all day taking care of business and forget to acknowledge all that we are and all that we do.

 We feel not good enough for so many reasons…

 -standards placed on us by society we feel we haven’t met

-scars from childhood

-sadness from unkind words spoken to us or looks of judgement thrown our way

 We put these pressures on ourselves to DO, but it’s just never enough – even if we are the last ones to get our own attention.

 Life in 2019 leaves us feeling drained and chronically behind.

But I want you to know, that right here and right now you have more than earned your own love.

You’ve done and given to exhaustion, and I want to HONOR YOU for your selflessness.

So, take a moment…

Now close your eyes. Take a deep breath in. And with that breath, breathe in love + gratitude. And as you exhale, release everything you feel for yourself that isn’t love.

Repeat at least 10 times.

How do you feel?

Start everyday by using this technique. Always remember that Loving Yourself is the best first step towards living a healthier lifestyle and now more than ever the world could use a little more love.

3 Ways To Lose Body Fat That Have Nothing To Do With Dieting

Even as a Fitness Professional, sometimes I feel my own head spinning with the amount of diet plans, supplements, coaches, and offers on the market.

It almost seems like every Facebook friend is selling a different solution.

So, today I want to offer you 3 ways that you can drop body fat that cost nothing and don’t require the next crazy fad diet...

1. Speak kindly to yourself. I fully believe that our bodies become what we say they are. If you’re constantly telling yourself that you’re fat or out of control, your behavior will reflect those things, and ultimately, so will your body.

2. Visualize yourself creating the body you dream of. In your mind’s eye, every single day see the version of you that you desire to become moving throughout your day, practicing the habits you want to commit to, and creating the body you want.

3. Pay attention to your triggers. Notice the emotion, experiences, and/or people surrounding your choices for bad food or skipping exercise. Change the routine. Surround yourself with different people. Choose to assign different meaning or emotions to those trigger experiences. Changing patterns and habits change outcomes.

Creating change is never easy, and sustaining it for a lifetime is even harder. But I promise that if you incorporate these behavioral pieces into your daily routine, you will begin noticing a huge difference in yourself that will also show up in how your body looks.

Risk vs. Reward

Playing it safe gets you nowhere but average. 

In my life, I’ve taken multiple substantial risks in terms of business, investments, relationships...

I’ve lost badly a few times. 

But I’ve also won big. 

I was thinking today about how most people aren’t willing to risk the loss despite desiring more for their lives - freedom, body, health, income, whatever the desire is. 

But instead of focusing on how they’re going to win, people focus on what they have to lose. 

They stay stuck. Complacent. Settling for average. 

Just about all of the great things that have happened in my life have come from taking risks.

Of course there have been times where I’ve stayed unhappy because the discomfort of taking a risk felt too great...and those always turn out to be unhappy times. 

There is no real reward without substantial risk. 

And there are no guarantees. 

But would you rather play it safe your whole life and career or take risk in exchange for something potentially extraordinary?

I always choose the latter.

Work-Life Balance Is A Myth?

There’s this concept of work-life balance floating around for years now.

 It’s this idea that there’s a magical ratio of work hours to home life hours to relaxation.

 And it’s elusive to most people because it doesn’t truly exist. Like everything else in life, your perfect balance is something YOU have to create.

 What does exist, however, is our ability to take ownership of our time, to schedule what works best for us, and to honor our commitments to that schedule.

 What will work for one person and make them feel balanced will be entirely different for another.

 So, to create some order in your life and give you a better sense of balance and control, here are a few suggestions:

 1.     Utilize a calendar. Literally everything from sleep time to workouts to downtime goes in that calendar. You won’t have to do this forever – just until the routine feels freeing, natural, and “balanced.”

2.     Don’t cross work and down time. This means bringing your work home with you. When there is no separation between work and home life, you always feel like you’re on the clock.

3.     Ensure you schedule doing things you LOVE every week. Interestingly, so much of our free time gets wasted with things like social media and TV, but including things that you really love and set your soul on fire will make you feel far more rejuvenated.

 Instead of hoping the mystical work-life balance finds you someday, try the above instead and see how much more productive and energized you find yourself!

4 Ways To Show Self-Love

Most people think of candlelight bubble baths, drinking wine, or eating chocolates as self-care.

 And frankly, it can be.

 But if this stuff doesn’t resonate with you or help you move your life forward, there are other waysAnd because showing self-love and self-care is so important, here are 4 ways you can express self-love that don’t involve baths or consumption J…

 1.     Create space for yourself daily to reflect and dream – this can look like visualizing the life you want, journaling, or meditating. There’s no right or wrong, but you should feel inspired when you’re done. It doesn’t have to take more than 10 minutes per day.

2.     Take up a new hobby (or spend more time with one you already have). Uncovering new skills or finding ways to re-focus and release stress will do wonders for you.

3.     Spend time with friends. Too many people get caught up in the grind, hustle, and responsibility of life. So, make a commitment to yourself and your people to get together to share, talk, and laugh 2-4 times per month. It’s totally rejuvenating!

4.     Set a goal to help you level up and work toward it. This could be a fitness goal, a career goal, a money goal, a relationship goal, etc. It doesn’t matter what the category is, but humans thrive best when they have something to work toward.

 The key with creating success from these strategies is consistency and following through on them even when you don’t want to or you’re short on time.

 I promise this can change your mood, success, and your entire life

Don’t Let This Stop You

Stress is an unavoidable part of life that we all have to deal with – usually on a daily basis. Yet so often people use stress and busyness as an excuse to eat poorly and not exercise. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve spoken to people who say something like “I REALLY need your help, but things are just crazy right now. Can I start in 4 months?” Whoa. That’s 4 months of making yourself less healthy and delaying your own happiness and confidence. And for what? Because legitimately, that’s just a silly excuse that translates to “It’s not a priority right now.” No matter how busy or stressed people get, they typically still find time to eat and watch their favorite TV programs or surf social media. And the very old saying “Where there’s a will, there’s a way” absolutely applies to health and fitness.

So are you currently allowing stress or busyness to get in your way? In today’s world, there will ALWAYS be stress. There will ALWAYS be more things to do. But we can’t do them if we’re not healthy…or worse…if we’re not alive. I’m here today to call it like I see it and support you in making the decision to do what you need to do to be the best version of YOU!

Have you noticed this pattern in your life? If you’re ready to make a change, then maybe we can help. Feel free to email us anytime with questions you might have.

Thoughts Chronically Fit People Never Have

There are very distinct mindsets that differentiate those who are chronically fit and those who wish to be, and I want to call them out here.

This isn’t to make anyone feel bad but rather to create an eye-opening conversation that can help you shift your current thoughts.

So, check these out and note any differences that you might be experiencing:

1. They don’t dread their workouts. Even fit people aren’t super excited for every single workout, but there’s no sense of dread or pain around the idea of exercise. They appreciate what their bodies are capable of and the feeling of getting stronger.

2. They don’t put pressure on themselves to suffer through hours of cardio. Unless, it’s personal preference or they’re training for a particular event, fit people know fat loss occurs best with strength training and they have also developed very efficient workout routines that don’t require hours of effort.

3. They don’t believe in restrictive calorie counting. Because that stuff just doesn’t work in the long run anyway. Instead, they find a way of eating they can sustain forever that encompasses all foods they love and prevents binging.

4. They don’t place blame. Whether it’s blaming a slow metabolism, family members and their diets, or busy schedules, fit people look for solutions so they can stay fit forever. Because there is ALWAYS a solution.

5. They don’t use their love of food or alcohol as a reason they’ll never be as fit as they want.

They know there’s a way to have it all, and they’ve found that balance.

You see, staying chronically fit doesn’t come down to a specific gene or being wired a certain way.

Most of us are on an even playing field and are given a fair shot when it comes to achieving fitness – it’s the mindset and effort that is different.

Coming Home To Your Body

There’s such a strong message in the world about what your body should look like, and it can create an unimaginable heaviness inside of us and chronic feelings about not being good enough.

Perhaps you’ve experienced this?

I know I have. And you might be thinking – “But you’re a fitness professional! How is that possible?”

Oh, but it is! The pressure and the standard is very high in my industry, so believe it or not, I absolutely relate to what you might be experiencing. And I want to introduce this idea that brings me so much peace…

It’s the idea of coming home to your body and to yourself.

It’s where you honor, nourish, love, and appreciate the body you’ve been given.

It’s where you actively and regularly identify things about yourself that you absolutely love.

It’s where you take pride in the things you do to take care of yourself – exercise, eat well, rest…

It’s where you become part of a community of people all working toward finding that home and feeling peace with their bodies.

More than anything, it’s about releasing judgement, guilt, and negativity toward yourself.

Find Peace In The Struggle

Life is a combination of every emotion under the sun. We live for the moments of happiness, joy, excitement, and all of the wonderful things that energize us, inspire us, and make us feel complete. But what about the tough stuff? Broken relationships, body disappointment, poor health and disease, financial struggles… I believe that some of the most powerful growth experiences of our lives will always come from our struggles. We won’t necessarily appreciate that struggle in the moment. In fact, we might hate it and wonder why something so awful is happening to us. But there’s a lesson and opportunity for growth under it all. When you feel these intense struggles throughout your life remember… …Thousands or millions of other people have also experienced this struggle and you are not alone. …Life is cyclical and better times are coming. …You can become curious about the circumstance rather than fill yourself full of fear and worry. Seek meaning and lessons. …And simply know that you are up-leveling as person in some way. You will be stronger, better prepared, and a more solid individual from this experience. I know that it’s hard to see opportunities in struggle, but I promise, if you can shift your perspective, not only will the struggle be easier to manage, but the experience also won’t be nearly as painful. The only thing we can really control in life is how we react to things. Manage this well and so much changes.

5 Steps For Leveling-Up Your Mindset

The perspective from which I want to discuss this topic today has to do with cultivating a mindset that

actually allows you to reach your goals. It’s easy to get fed up with your current situation – whether it be weight, a job, finances, a relationship, or otherwise – and say to yourself “I’m done! Things are about to change!” But then they don’t.

Because that moment of inspiration from frustration is fleeting.

A month, a year, and 5 years go by and things are still the same…

…unless you create a new mindset that will allow you to follow through all the way to success.

Here are 5 steps you can take to do just that:

1. Identify your past mistakes. Chances are that this thing you want to change…well, it’s not the

first time you’ve thought of tackling it. So go back and take note of why you weren’t successful

in the past.

2. Create small goals to achieve along the way. If you’v got a pretty big goal, it can feel like you’re

standing at the base of Mount Everest. Overwhelm will not be helpful in getting to your

destination, so setting smaller goals to work toward that ultimately add up to the big goal is

important for maintaining your motivation.

3. Stay flexible in your pursuit. Plans don’t always work out like we want them to. Life throws us

challenges. Most people quit as soon as things get in their way. You cannot! Be ready to adapt

as you move forward.

4. Stay inspired. The initial burst of inspiration you get to take action won’t last forever, so you

have to find ways to keep the inspiration. Some suggestions can be creating a vision board,

having an accountability circle of others who keep you on track, or listening to/reading things

that inspire you every day.

5. Engage in a daily routine. Whether it’s journaling, reading, writing or saying affirmations,

visualization, or a combination of all of them, having a daily routine centered around personal

growth will absolutely keep you on track in pursuit of your goals.

This is a formula, not a pick-and-choose, so it’s important that you do all of the above!