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.
The New Year's Resolution
I am back from my holiday break, it was nice having some time off. I hope yours was peaceful.
It is that time of year when everyone is talking about the New Year Resolution? People ask me what mine is daily, thinking because I am a coach I have one, but I don't. I believe that I am on a path of growth all year long and set goals on a regular basis. I do spend time at the beginning of each year to evaluate where I am in my life and where I would like to be. I have a theme that I focus on for the year, last year my theme was simplifying my life. I did actually make progress in this area.
In 2008 my theme is to be who I am and let the world re-orientate itself around me. I know it sounds strange, but in simplifying my life, I realized how most of my stress was not coming from me but from others. Primarily from the expectations of others, we live in a society that promotes workaholism, perfectionism and superstardom achievement to feel successful.
When I check within and identify my purpose and path in life, I am pretty content in life. I like who I am and I do what I love each day. I naturally move at a fast pace and am a proactive and productive individual, that is good enough for me and it should be good enough for anyone who comes into contact with me. So I decided that I am going to be me and not alter who I am and the pace I move at to make a crazy society clap their hands and say "good job, now jump higher, you can do it girl, jump!" I am stepping off of that merry-go-round, what about you? What is your theme for the year?
Be kind to your body during the holidays
How are you doing with suspending judgment? Are you catching yourself being too negative and harsh with your self talk? This is not the time of year to be too tough on your body. Make your goal to coast, plan your meals, get in your daily workouts and tell yourself that you are worth the time and effort! Because you are, this is the time where women focus on everyone but themselves. It is okay to take a little break from overworking and scrutinizing yourself. When you are kind to your body it responds well by returning to it's ideal weight.
Stop attack thoughts
Have you ever notice how harsh our minds can be? Not only do we judge others but we are ten times worse with ourselves. When you say something cruel and insensitive to yourself about yourself, I call these attack thoughts. It is harmful to continuously send these types of messages to your body. You are not helping your body to improve by attacking your self worth, you will help your body and mind when you speak from a loving and concerned perspective. Try it this week, suspend judgment, cease all attack thoughts and speak to your self in a loving and kind manner.
Don't judge this holiday season
I just finished baking five dozen cookies. Yes, I bake and eat cookies. I am participating in a cookie exchange. I only ate one cookie and am quite satisfied. People assume because of the type of business I am in that I don't partake in the ritual of eating or celebrating festivities. I love the holidays, I enjoy baking and I can't resist a piece of cheesecake. What I have found is that most people are harder on me than I would ever be on them. If I am biting into a cookie, people look at me in shock and make a comment. These are often the same people that will ask me not to look at their plate. I honestly never judge what is on someones plate or in their shopping cart. I have an idea for this holiday season, let's take a break from judging each other.
I believe when we judge another, we are not accurately seeing that person, we are projecting the part of ourselves that most bothers us. People show us who
they are by judging.
Choose peace
I think the world's view of what is normal is pretty scary. If you would like to create a happy and healthy lifestyle, you really have to unplug from the unreasonable expectation of others and tune into your own heart. Become centered in your truth and move forward from this place. Then when you see that you are being seduced by the world's definition of success and balance notice if it is taking you away from feeling a sense of harmony. If it is, step back and evaluate the situation. Ask yourself is this in alignment with my true self or taking me away from it? You will know the answer, as soon as you think about it a feeling will wash over you. Notice this feeling, it is either peacefully based or anxiety based. Choose peace, always choose peace.
Leave Jennifer Love Hewitt Alone!
Enough is enough, I can't be silent any longer. Hollywood is warping our image of health and beauty and we really should put a stop to it. As a mother of a soon to be 20 year old, I have always told my daughter that there is a big difference between what Hollywood says a woman's body looks like and what a woman's body naturally looks like. Women with curves, at a healthy weight are being called fat. I am concerned for how we view women and the double standard that we see. Why can't we celebrate our beauty? I am all for creating a healthy body and being within your healthy weight range but I don't think that our happiness and worthiness should depend on it. I think Jennifer's quote saying "I love my body" should be true for all of us no matter what our dress size is.
I think we need to be vocal about this issue, especially with our young readers, reminding them that woman come with curves and that is beautiful. This is why I like her Magazine so much, there models are all real women and their photos are not air brushed to make the model look "perfect". What if we embraced being perfect was looking imperfect?
Cracking your weight loss code isn't rocket science
When cracking your weight loss code you will need to make a few distinctions like realizing that you hold the key to figuring out how your body works. You have the ability to transform your body into a healthy and fit work of art, if you want to. Weight loss isn't rocket science, it is a matter of continuing to do what works long after you see results. Most people get bored or don't plan well and default to eating what is within reach. We have all done this, go back to what works. Start with not eating after 7:00 pm and moving your body on a daily basis. That will shake things up and give your metabolism a boost. If it helps, read my article in this month's issue of her Magazine about staying motivated to workout during the holiday season:
http://herrochester.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071203/LOOKINGGOOD/712030305
Crack the code
Cracking your weight loss code is actually easy. Take an inventory of your life and track the changes you have made in your food intake, exercise and weight then outline your road map. Your body doesn't lie to you, your mind will, but your body is honest.
I love the mind, we can justify anything, either by reason or emotion, we can figure out how to make a case to support our actions. Your body communicates with you moment by moment. The problem is most people are not listening to the body. Take a minute ask your brilliant mind to assist you in listening to your body and cross reference your weight, energy levels and health with your food intake in addition to your exercise program.Then my dear friend do what has worked for you until you see results,
