Misconceptions of Healthy Living: I have to change everything "right now!"

A common misconception that creates a lot of confusion and resistance to lifestyle changes is that you have to change everything all at once! This is absolutely untrue and I would like to clear up some of this confusion. Change is good, however too much change too soon can become overwhelming. Changes that occur slowing, stay for a lifetime!

I recommend that people make small changes that they can incorporate into their every day living instead of huge changes that take up all of their extra energy. Something I hear a lot of is "I just can't keep up with this" which lets me know that too much was done too quickly. When this happens I realize that this person has learned new information and tried to change everything in their life to be healthier. Well if things are done too quickly the body is unable to process the changes as beneficial and sees them as challenges, which drains your energy. For instance, have you ever tried to eat better? You go and buy fresh foods, make a healthy menu, and do great for the first week or two. Then afterwards meal time becomes a huge chore, which you dread and ultimately give up on because it takes up too much of your time, you always feel like you're in the kitchen cooking! It's not because eating well takes too much time, you just changed too much of your regular routine too fast. Habits, even good ones, take time to properly develop so that they come effortlessly. Habits that are effortless are ones that we incorporate into our healthy lifestyle and stay with us forever!!
Here are some easy tips to help you create effortless habits:

• Choose something easy to change. This allows you to set yourself up for success!



• Change as a family/group. Working together as a family/group creates a support team, where everyone can participate in healthy lifestyle development and accountability.



• Choose 1 thing to change each month. If you choose 1 thing/month for a year, that's 12 new healthy habits you develop each year! This also keeps things simple.



• Use notes or post-its to constantly remind yourself of the change you are making. It takes about 25 days (depending on what you read) for a habit to be developed or broken.



• Go slow! For instance, if you are wanting to eat healthier, don't change from eating fast foods all the time to raw vegetables immediately. Your body is not ready for that kind of change yet, slowing incorporate cooked vegetables into each of your meals. This is easier on your digestive tract.

We will be discussing these tips and more in greater detail at the Simply Live workshop. I hope these help you develop healthier habits for you and your family.

Simply Live Workshop Details

A Workshop Designed to Help You:

Live more Passionately

Embody your Feminine Energy

Make healthy decisions effortlessly

Fit in exercise and eating well

Be more consciously aware of yourself

Simplify your Health

Simplify your life

The Simply live Workshop is designed to help busy women effortlessly live their lives to the fullest every day! We want to strive to help you put yourself first and discover the deepest sense of who you are and how you want your life to be every single day.

Dr. Audrey and I have set up different modules based on the questions we are asked daily from our clients on how to implement healthy changes into your life and keep it that way.

We will be talking about finding and creating your passion, Claiming your femininity and increasing your presence, how the choices you make effect your life, as well as fitting in exercise and nutrition.

Details

February 19 and 20

Friday 6pm-8:30pm

Saturday 9am-5pm

Presented by Dr. Audrey Lefler and Lauren Sheehan

Cost:

$50– Earlybird until Feb. 10

$65 registration after Feb. 10

Held in the Keller Williams Education Center

2580 E. Harmony Rd. Ft. Collins CO 80525

Misconception of Healthy Living: “If I exercise I can eat whatever I want”

 

 

Live up to your full potential!

 

Have you ever heard someone say, “I exercise so that I can eat whatever I want.” I used to say this all the time and feel really cool that I could say that… and that I could eat whatever I want.

Surprisingly… and I say that as sarcastically as possible….I found out that eating whatever you want, as long as eating whatever you want includes lots of sugar and refined carbohydrates, and really reaching your full potential is not possible.

Over the years, exercise has been at the top of the list of things Americans need to do more of. So much so, that people are really starting to “get it”. People in America have learned how to exercise and they know they need to get it done. The exercise part is the easy part to most people’s minds. The eating part, that’s where it gets confusing. All the information we receive about health makes us think that if we only exercise a little more, all our problems will be solved.

I don’t want to discourage anyone at all by creating thoughts that just beginning to exercise won’t do you any good. Exercise is an amazing thing you can do for your body and it is absolutely necessary for healthy living and I am all for baby steps. My point here is that a lot of times I hear and see with clients and in the media that exercise is the end all, be all of losing weight, getting healthy, and feeling great. And it’s just not. Most people start with exercise, stop there, and then get frustrated when they aren’t seeing results.

Sure you can start exercising more, and you might lose some weight, and feel a little better, but in the end, what are most people doing by just exercising more? They are masking the real problem: they need to eat real, clean foods. Exercise is only becoming another excuse to pile on to people’s reasoning for not cleaning up the rest of their unhealthy habits.

The eating part of the equation is the real hard part for people. Eating in this country has become one of the hardest things to do and the more I encounter people the more I realize that most people have no idea how to put together even a semi-healthy meal or if they do they perceive it to be almost impossible to do. Most people have no idea about inflammatory and allergenic foods and how they are affecting their bodies. Most people have no idea that eating things with gluten is like eating poison ivy.

The diet and weight loss industry lies to you, weird! They try to make you believe that there is an easy way out of having to eat more vegetables, and cook your own meals at home so that you know your food contains only clean and wholesome foods. They try to sell you a quick fix and I am here to tell you the truth which is THERE IS NO QUICK FIX! THERE IS NO EASY WAY OUT. This is why the diet and weight loss industry makes billions of dollars every year, because they feed into this impossible thought… with short cuts.

If you want to truly be healthy and live up to your highest potential you must make changes in your food choices. One piece of candy DOES matter. A little bit of white bread DOES matter. It doesn’t matter how much exercise you do afterwards because it’s not about calories, it’s about the quality of your food and the damage being done to your intestines and to the rest of your body in turn.

Think about it this way, If you witnessed a self proclaimed vegan “taste” a bit of your steak and brush it off as, “Oh it doesn’t matter, it was only a bite” what would go through your mind?

The difference I see in clients who begin an exercise program and also begin to make healthier food choices by kicking out inflammatory and allergenic foods is GINORMOUS! And odd enough, the more changes my clients make, the better results they get. This is especially important for those of us looking to lose that 5-10 pounds we just can’t seem to lose. I have news for you, exercise isn’t the answer; CLEAN UNPROCESSED FOOD IS!

So the real question is: what is the most important thing to you? Simply looking good, or being able to walk around the planet feeling energized, powerful, happy, and creative? And what would you say if I told you that the latter choices would bring you the first choice by default. It’s your choice.

Health Misconception: It's TOO expensive

I hear this a lot in my clinic, "I would really like to do ___, but it's too expensive." You can fill in the "blank" with a number of things such as: exercising, eating organic foods, coaching, preventative health care for the entire family, etc. Everyone has a "blank" they would like to do, but don't; and being too expensive is an easy excuse to use. Now, I am not being flippant and disregarding the fact that many people have lost their jobs and that money isn't tight in most households, especially with Christmas right around the corner. Money is tight in EVERY household, no matter how much you make you could always use a little bit more money. However if you really want something bad enough, you find a way to get it. It's all about prioritizing what is important to you and budgeting for those priorities. I am not here to say which priorities are more important than others, because that depends on what you want out of life.

The one "blank" I would like to focus on this week is affording healthy organic foods. I would be a complete hypocrite if I told you to eat only organic foods, because I don't eat organic foods 100% of the time, however I do eat them about 90% of the time and don't break the bank doing it. Organic foods can cost more, but if you knew that spending more money today on better quality foods would save you more money in the future on doctor's bills wouldn't you do it? I do recommend that you choose organic whenever possible, if it's not an option choose locally grown, which we have a variety to choose from here in CO. The best way to fill your house with nourishing foods is to plan ahead! Don't just show up at the store and start shopping from scratch not knowing yet what you want to cook for your upcoming meals; this is a recipe for disaster and spending a lot of money. Plan out your weekly meals ahead of time; actually sit down and write out what you want to eat and what you already have in pantry, that way you don't buy something you already have. I plan many of my meals around items I already have in the pantry or freezer and I pick recipes that share ingredients so things do not go to waste. Having a list also saves time at the store. Stick to your list and you will be amazed at how much money you can avoid spending on things you don not need. Another helpful tip I have found to work is to take a calculator and add things up as you put them in your cart. Weighing your produce and only buying what you need is another simple way to save money and not buy too much that goes to waste. These tips will allow you to choose better quality foods to feed to you and your family!

Here are a couple of websites where I find some of my healthy recipes:
www.vegweb.com
www.elanaspantry.com


I hope this information helps you shop smarter and healthier! If you have any questions about this information please feel free to email me at DrAudreyHBC@yahoo.com

Blessings,
Dr. Audrey