Photo via Pixabay, by Maialisa
Quick! Take this one question quiz. Which is the correct answer (there is only one correct answer)
I’m overweight because:
a) I take medications that make me fat.
b) I have an underactive thyroid.
c) I have a medical condition.
d) because I eat too much.
(Spoiler: If you believe a, b, or c is the primary reason you are overweight, you are only fooling yourself.)
Photo via Pixabay, by Quimono 
__________________________
Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com
Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen!
All images are Creative Common Zero.
 

MYST 163 Medical Conditions

Reach Your Goal Weight and Become the Person You Deserve to Be

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Fitness & Nutrition

In this holiday season, many of us tend to eat more than might be optimal. I posted on my LoseIt page about my upcoming Christmas Dinner and a friend named Gordon responded with “Enjoy….no guilt!”
And I thought, “I never feel guilty about what I choose to eat.” And why should we feel guilty? It is our choice to eat (or not eat.) No one else sets the rules about our dietary choices. We aren’t breaking any laws, other than the laws we impose upon ourselves.
If we choose to eat too many calories (or maybe the “wrong food”, although I disagree with that concept), we are making a choice. And with every choice comes consequences. If we choose to stick to our budget, we enhance weight loss. If we choose to exceed our calorie budget, we will slow our losses (but only temporarily, unless we never get back on track–which is another choice!)
Try to remove the guilt from our already-too-difficult-journey. Make sensible choices. Eat the food you love, but strive to eat the correct portions.
Enjoy life! Don’t put yourself into an emotional prison, with walls and bars constructed of your own guilt.
The choice is yours!
Photos via Pixabay, but TryJimmy (Prison Cell) and Geralt (Guilty)
All photos published on Pixabay can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and non-commercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.
_________________________
Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com
Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.

MYST 198: I Feel Guilty

Success is the result of finishing a task. But the ability to finish a task is dependent on whether we work toward our goal consistently, and if we enjoy what we are doing to reach that goal. That applies to weight loss, writing a book or running a marathon. If we don’t enjoy the process, we are unlikely to stick with it long enough to see the results we hope to achieve.
And one way to help ensure “working consistently” is to make good habits. Find a process that works and habituate yourself. For example (and this will sound truly trivial) when I sit down to create a podcast cast episode, I need to make coffee first. The ten minutes it takes helps me get into the right mindset for creation. So I always start a production day by making a pot of coffee.
It’s my habit and because I really like coffee, it works for me. When I start my day by following a routine–a routine that has always helped me find success–it becomes easier to continue finding success.

What happens when the ideas fade and I cannot connect with my muse? I wander out to my birds and just relax for a little while. Usually, that brings me back to a place where I can work.
In that photo of my studio, you can almost see some of the vintage items we collect. I have hundreds (actually, 594 by actual count) of vintage beer glassware. These are the glasses that relate to that “high quality” beer, more popular in the 60s and 70s, “malt liquor”. Again, it is something like this that helps calm down and reorient to creativity. Yes. I know, it’s odd. I’m okay with being “odd”.

Photos are mine, and cannot be used by anyone else.
All photos published on Pixabay can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and non-commercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.
_________________________
Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com
Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.

MYST 197 How Do You Do It?

We trap ourselves with our beliefs. We let our previous stumbles define our total capabilities. Weight loss is hard, and it never ends. We sometimes find ourselves stepping on the scale and seeing a number that our mind says “Nope! That’s it! We can’t lose more!”
And you don’t lose more.
You have reached your limit, based on your previous limits. You are now a trained flea.
Break that training. We need to redefine our goals and not stop until we get them, even if “not stopping” means we take purposeful pauses.
I don’t know how many pounds you want to lose, but let’s break past your previous training. Let’s stop being trained fleas. Reset your goal for 10 pounds, and the rate of 1 pound a week.  You should reach that goal in 8-12 weeks (unless you are only 10 pounds away from your ideal weight.)
When you hit that 10-pound “interval goal”, set your plan to your maintenance budget, and stay on maintenance for as long as it took you to lose those 10 pounds. Keep active and don’t eat your exercise calories (you probably won’t need to  because your budget will be 500 calories more than you are used to.)
 
After that “rest period” reset your goal for the next 10 pounds at 1 pound a week. Keep doing that until you reach your ultimate goal.
You may need to lose 100 pounds and that is a lot of weight. And deep in the recesses of your mind, you might hear a voice saying, “You can’t lose 100 pounds!” That voice might be right.
But you know that you can lose 10 pounds. That is a simple goal. You’ve probably done it several times. So now you are going to just lose 10 pounds at a time, taking a break between each 10-pound segment. No stress. No worries.
You KNOW you can lose 10 pounds! Even a trained flea can lose 10 pounds!
Photos via Pixabay by DougandPeteGardening (Believe) and 5182824 (Push-ups)
All photos published on Pixabay can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and non-commercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.
_________________________
Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com
Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.

MYST 196 Trained Fleas


Are you good enough?
How about your weight? Is it “good enough”? Are you quitting?
“Good enough” implies that you are complacent now and that any further progress is not worth the effort. And if that’s the case, then just say “I’m done”. To do anything else is to play word games with yourself. You are better than that!
Now it may be that you have reached a point where success eludes you and you truly are satisfied at your current point. Then just say “I’m done. For now. I may restart later.” Our words define how we think, and our thoughts define who we become.
So. Are you “good enough”?
Photo via Unsplash by HelloImNik
All images from LoseIt are mine, and cannot be used without permission.
All photos published on Unsplash can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and noncommercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.
_________________________
Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com
Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.

MYST 195 Good Enough

“Wow! You’ve lost a lot of weight. I think you might be getting too skinny!”
“Huh. Sure, I suppose YOU are going to just eat a salad while we all eat real food!”
How do those comments make you feel about yourself, about your progress, about your self-worth? Your friends and family might actually think they are making helpful statements but in reality, they are sabotaging you. And if you don’t challenge them, you have chosen to let them continue their subtle sabotage.
Yes. By staying silent, you are telling them they are right.
Now, I don’t want you to throw your salad in their face and scream “Shut up!” (Although, if you are like me, you’ve thought about it.) Try for a more assertive yet firm response. For the first statement:
“Thanks for noticing my hard work. Weight loss has been a lifelong challenge, and my goal is to become as healthy as I can be.”
For the second statement:
“You are right, I do enjoy salads, but when I pay attention, I can–and do–eat the same food choices that you eat. I just will probably eat less than you because I eat only the number of calories that my body burns each day.”

Be assertive. You know your own body. Most people think they are helping when they “give you good advice” but you know what you need to to.
 
Photo via Pixabay by jamesoladujoy  (Two men talking) and geralt (Woman) All images and videos on Pixabay are released under the Creative Commons CC0. Thus, they may be used freely for almost any purpose – even commercially and in printed format. Attribution is appreciated, but not required.
All images from LoseIt are mine, and cannot be used without permission.
_________________________
Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com
Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen.

MYST 163 Medical Conditions

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