Skinny

What would you do to be skinny?
I know what I would do. I did it and guess what? It didn’t work. Sometime around the age of 12 I realized my self-image. I was at a friend’s house and we were trying on jeans. Hers were 2 sizes smaller than mine. I immediately thought that I was not good. I was fat. I was 12! I wasn’t fat. I was just a different shape. I didn’t have a clue about dieting. We ate out of box or can most of the time. I remember the regular meals at my house were fried chicken, spaghetti, pizza or we went out to Red Lobster and I ate a plate of fries. I rarely remember having fresh fruit and veggies in the house. When I got to high school it was even worse. I started to eat less and work out. However, my workouts were not very consistent. The concept of working out at home was not exciting and I didn’t have the money to join a gym. Graduated and stated college. Put on the freshman 15. Got a job at a restaurant and put on even more weight.

What have I done to get skinny?
• Starting myself
• Diet pills. Many times
• Liposuction
• Patches
• Hypnosis
• Not eating after 3pm and only drinking diet cokes
• No carbs, low carbs, Atkins, etc.
• You name it I’ve tried it. I haven’t tried HCG

I thought that being skinny would solve all of my problems. Trying to get skinny only created new ones. Lose 10, gain 15, lose 15, gain 20 and the yo-yo kept going.

The secret to being skinny

Here is the secret…There isn’t a secret!!!!! You must put healthy things in your body and you must exercise. If you are trying yet another “diet” you will fail. You will quit and go back to your old ways. You must find a way to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Maybe your goal is not to have ripped abs or run a marathon. Maybe your goal is to get off of medication. Maybe your goal is to walk a mile or avoid surgery on your knees.

How did I change?
• Tracking my food with Weight Watchers (myfitnesspal.com is great too)
• Following a schedule for my workouts. All Beachbody programs have a calendar and nutrition plan. Insanity was the program that changed it all for me.
• Accountability by being a coach. Helping others motivates me to keep taking care of myself. Having an audience makes me push harder and never quit. I’m not just in it for me.
• Setting new and more difficult goals (running ½ marathon, triathlon, harder workout program, cleaner eating, cleanse, etc)
• Drinking Shakeology every day. I was never a shake drinker in the past. Now I rarely go a day without it. If you want to change the way you feel you must change what you are doing and how you feed your body.
• I listen and read tons of personal development. In 2012 I spent more on Personal Development than I did on my electric bill. The investment in myself pays off.

I still have a weight goal. I still “fall off the wagon” when I’m on vacation. But I make better choices for longer periods of time. I know myself. If I have ice cream in the house I will eat it so now I don’t buy it. I don’t bring it in the house. If I really want it I go to the ice cream shop and order a small and have that one scoop and I’m out. I love French fries. They are my kryptonite. I love them. I know this and I don’t bring fries into the house. I don’t order them when I’m out either. Occasionally I will allow myself to have fries. Like at the ballbark or at an amusement park or the state fair. I might steal one or two off of someone else’s plate too. Shhhhhh

I would much rather put good things into my body and feel good. Have you ever noticed when you eat poorly you feel poor? If all you do is load up on coffee with sugar, diet cokes with caffeine, burgers, cheese, pizza, take out that you just keep feeling worse. You crash more often, you want to nap, you have zero energy to workout. You barely want to walk from the car into the restaurant. When you eat healthy fresh foods you have more energy, you are actually hungry for food, and you rest more soundly. I can spout off numerous sources of this. I’m sure you can google it. You know the truth. Eat crap and you feel like crap. Eat well and you feel well. You are what you eat.

Sounds great but how do you change? Baby steps.
• Eat less. Drink less. If you drink 5 diet cokes a day cut one out. If you always get the super size then just get regular. If you always get fries go for a small or zero fries. If you always order pizza on Sunday get a thin crust or get a medium instead of a large. Don’t eat out at places with bread baskets or chip baskets. If you know you can’t resist the basket then know you are going to gorge on it and order something small or share your meal with a friend.
• Move more. If you are not working out at all then start walking around the block. Get some great music on your iPod and start walking. Buy a Beachbody program and modify. Start working out at home in your living room where no one is watching you.
• Get listening to personal development now! Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay. Feed your mind and change your mindset of I’m not worthy, I’m fat, I’m a loser to I’m awesome, I can do anything, I am a work in progress.
• Stop thinking of all of the things you “have to do” in order to lose weight and just start doing them. Time will reveal your choices. Either you continued to sit on the couch or you got up and moved. In 60 days or 6 months the choice will be obvious.
• Get a coach. You can’t do your own brain surgery. You can’t coach yourself. I have a coach. I need help. I work on myself daily with personal development. I talk to a success partner weekly. I talk to a coach weekly. I need help to improve and progress. Everyone does. Get started today on improving yourself. Find yourself a coach who fits with your style and get going!

“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you
see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you
could be”

-Tom Landry