Rosa Smith-Montanaro blog
Rosa Smith-Montanaro is your virtual weight loss and wellness coach. She is the author of Mind Over Platter®: Train Your Brain to Think Thin and the award-winning creator of www.MindOverPlatter.com. Rosa is a certified Success Coach with an expertise in weight management and the mind/body connection. She is also certified at the Master level in Hypnosis, Neuro Linguistics Programming (NLP), Thought Field Therapy
TM (TFT), Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), Herbal Specialist and Humanistic Neuro Linguistic Psychology. Rosa teaches seminars throughout the country on the mind/body connection and how to create a life that is a reflection of your values. Rosa and her husband live in Greece and have three children. She welcomes you to blog with her and discover how you can create a healthier, happier and balanced life. Rosa can be reached at MindOverPlatter@aol.com.
People will avoid pain
I hope you have been thinking about your reality check. People will take action because the pain of their reality is far greater than the sacrifice that they will have to make to overcome it. Human nature is to be motivated by pain, if you think that your weight isn't that bad, you will not be motivated to slim down. But if you feel the pain of not fitting in your clothes, you will act quickly and often aggressively.
People underestimate what they are capable of doing until they reach a point of pain in their lives that they feel they have no choice but to make a major change. This can be a turning point in their lives. They decide that whatever it takes they will do it to avoid feeling that pain. They often rise to the challenge and find a way to accomplish their goals. Their ability to succeed escalates because of their intense desire and motivation.
Start with a reality check
I told you I would relate how believing in your ability to reach your goal relates to weight loss. I realized two years ago that I needed a different game plan, the approach I was using was not getting me where I wanted to go. So I had a reality check. I love and hate the reality check, first it makes me upset because I know it is true, then it is the reason I will take action. Once I did this, the next question becomes how do I turn this around and move in a different direction?
That is where your belief in your ability comes in. Do you have the resources you need to turn the situation around? With weight loss, it means working out, eating specific foods, timing of your meals, family support, discipline, a scale or measurement tape, etc. Too many people have told me why they won't be successful when losing weight, they don't believe they can do it.
I am challenging you to push past the doubt and take that next step. Which very well might be a reality check, maybe you are not losing weight because you eat ice cream at night? Don't make time for a walk? Eat too many carbs late in the day? Skip meals when you should be snacking? Snacking on high calories foods? The list goes on and on.
Look at your actions and daily habits and ask yourself what is really getting in the way and what do you have to change to move forward. Join in and share your reality check, we will continue this discussion tomorrow.
Do you believe in your own ability?
I am back from a well deserved vacation. We went to Baltimore to visit my brother-in-law. I was in the mood to celebrate for many reasons one is that he was recently promoted and has relocated to Baltimore. Second, because the day before I left I accomplished a goal that took over two years to accomplish. I had a goal to pay off some of my business debt that had me mentally distracted. I realized two years ago that if I wanted to do this I would have to make some major changes in my life. I knew it would be hard and I wasn't sure I could actually do it. I had doubt in my ability to stick to a plan that was counterintuitive to my way of being. But I knew it was in my best interest.
Accomplishing my goal felt great and it required 100% of my applying what I spend my life teaching others. Because of this, the theme for the week is do you believe in your ability to reach your goal? I am going to talk more about this throughout the week and how it relates to weight loss.
Thinking Thin Thought:"This is only a temporary situation, that I will overcome. As long as I stick to my plan, stay positive and keep moving forward, I will be successful."Assignment:Write down your goal and imagine the relief of having accomplished it.
Vacation
Greetings Rochester!
I am on vacation for the week. My husband and I are visiting my brother in law in Baltimore. Have a good week and I will resume my blog when I return.
Protein will stimulate your metabolism
Let's finish up the week with our protein kick. It is the small things that count. A little bit of protein at each meal or snack will go a long way in managing your weight. It stimulates your metabolism to speed up.
Think of your metabolism as a furnace that needs wood to keep burning. The best way to keep it going is with a steady supply of wood. You want heat
consistently, not a major fire or it to completely die out. Protein is like wood, it will supply your metabolism with a good source of fuel. You also need good
carbs and healthy fat for
optimal fuel that will help your body become a fat burning machine.
Keep protein at work
I have been drinking a protein shake every morning when I get into the office. It has drastically reduced my desire to pick on sweets. Have you noticed a change when you add more protein to your day? Make it easy to adapt, bring in a container of protein powder, a thermos to mix it in and keep cold and leave the powder at work. The less you have to think, the better. You spend too much time at work to not have a back up plan.
The fat burning power of protein
Thinking Thin Thought: "I will begin each day with protein to stabilize my blood sugar."
It is so easy to slip into a routine that increases your blood sugar, causing you to snack more and slowly putting on an extra five pounds. Mornings can be a challenge. If you usually have a bowl of cereal, which is high in impact carbs and low in protein, you could throw off your blood sugar before the day begins. This week, I would like you to start your day off by stabilizing your blood sugar. Protein when properly combined with carbs will help your body to burn fat.
Your first meal should contain some protein (eggs, tofu, raw almonds, a protein drink, peanut butter, even Kashi-the high protein one). Get in the habit of adding protein to your morning and you should notice less cravings for sugar through out the day. Try it and let me know how you feel.
Inspired to live well
By letting go of yesterday's mistakes and clearing out what is negative in your life you will experience a sense of clarity. You will feel motivated to act on your clarity, things begin to fall into place, in all areas of your life. You might even notice that you are inspired to eat healthy and exercise because you have a desire to continue to feel well. And it all began with clearing out the old, negative "stuff".
The price of holding on to the past
Thinking Thin Thought:
"The amount of energy I waste thinking about yesterday is draining my potential for tomorrow."How much of your precious energy is you wasting to feel bad? Are you thinking about how much you ate yesterday? How tight your clothes feel? Maybe you are replaying a conversation with your ex and it still bothers you.
When you spend time thinking about the past and feeling bad you rob your body's energy to DO something today that will change tomorrow.
Clear out the negativity from your mind
My theme this week is clearing out negativity. It creeps up on us and lives in places you never question. You notice it as comments from our in laws, co-workers and the tabloids, but the worse place is the negativity that comes from your own mind. The ways you shut yourself down are too many to count. I wonder what would happen it you stopped yourself each time you had a negative thought and said "delete that thought" how much room you would have to replace that thought with something new, something empowering, something truly inspiring...
Take that next step
The next step you take could make all the difference in the world. The next book you read or CD you listen to could impact you so profoundly that everything else falls into place. My big breakthrough came at a seminar over 14 years ago this week. I have a realization that the person I was, IS good enough. That I was desperately trying to be someone else to make everyone else happy. I had an epiphany, I like the woman I am. I like the playful, bubbly, loud, laughing, talkative, social, vocal, busy, loving, energetic Rosa. When I decided it was okay to be me, my life changed. Boy did it change, I stop settling for what didn't fit and I trusted in my intuition and God that I would be okay. It wasn't easy but it sure is worth it. Have you been still long enough to listen to your inner guidance? Go ahead, take that step.
When to eat those impact carbs.
Have you decided on one thing to do differently? If you are unsure of what to do then let me help you, there is one easy change that will make a difference fast. Most people don't like to do it, but it is a good habit to adapt. The simple things usually are. Okay, I will tell you, eat your impact carbs (bread, pasta, potatoes, sweets, etc) early in the day. Your body burns carbs first for fuel, if you consume them earlier in the day, you have a better chance of burning them by the days end and not storing them.
