Health At Every Size


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Be Healthy at Every Size!

We try SO many things to achieve weight loss!

DIET = Die + "T" for Torture!

By Revilo at http://www.revilocartoons.com/

There's GOT to be a better way!

Have you ever been on a diet before? How did they work for you? What problems came up? Did the programs or approaches that you tried promote healthy, long-term changes in your life?

2017 BODY MANIFESTO

Did they promote respectful, empowering changes that you could follow for a lifetime? Most people don't find permanent, enjoyable suggestions and strategies that help them make lasting adjustments in their lives.

This website does it differently. If you're tried of all the OLD approaches, then read on to discover a fresh, FUN, new way!

All of the sections of this Web site apply my focus in Balanced Weight Management, that of cultivating Health-At-Any-Size.

This includes eating well (with pleasure and awareness), living actively (celebrating the joy of movement), and feeling good about yourself and others--really celebrating your life! Every section discusses an aspect of whole-person health: health of body, mind, and spirit. Frolic around the Essential Skills! Discover that as your life comes into greater balance...your weight and health will come into balance.

Dieting versus Non-dieting*

Grim (harmful) approach Gentle (nurturing) approach

Motivation:

Believing that being thin is good, being overweight is bad.

Thinking you must weigh XXX pounds.

Hating your body--always at war with yourself.

Thinking your life will be better when you just lost weight

Losing pounds is the focus

Motivation:

Seeking to improve health, energy, fitness, and well-being.

Appreciating body differences of all people, including you

Respecting your body and honoring yourself with your daily choices.

Accepting yourself for the wonderful person you already are, right now.

Cultivating more nurturing and healthful inner attitudes and behaviors is the focus. This happens from an understanding of how lifestyle, familial, genetic, and cultural factors influence your daily patterns.

Attitude:

Seeking a quick fix (impatient)

Planning to change behaviors only temporarily.

Being rigid and perfectionist--all or nothing--abusive towards ourselves and authoritarian.

Not wanting to spend the time to explore the "root causes" that have led to your present lifestyle imbalance.

Attitude:

Progressing one step at a time (patient) while having FUN!

Developing new respectful lifestyle habits that can last a lifetime.

Remaining flexible and open to new ideas as you celebrate the joy of learning.

Be gentle with ourselves as we practice kind-discipline. We see our unborn wholeness and trust for it to emerge.

We set the intention to free our hearts and minds from suffering and desire to cultivate choices that bring lasting well-being to us.

Behavior:

Relying on "experts" and exterior guidelines.

Attempting deprivation and restriction.

Judging food, eating, and exercise behavior as good or bad.

Allowing a program to control what you eat, how much, and when.

Needing to force yourself to exercise and being very obsessive.

Behavior:

Trusting yourself to find what works as you tune within your own self, for your own answers.

Being moderate and positive.

Doing what you want--with personal responsibility for your choices. Learning where your choices lead you.

Eating what you want--with awareness and pleasure.

Learning to move your body in ways that bring you pleasure.

Results:

You may lose weight, but will usually gain it back--plus more.

Setbacks will cause guilt, self-blame, and self- hatred.

Reinforces binge eating and a preoccupation with food.

Lowers your metabolism

You'll feel like a failure when weight is regained.

You'll become even more discouraged that you'll ever find a solution that is safe and effective.

Reinforces an unhealthy relationship with foods and yourself.

Diets don't work for long and they are harmful to us!

Results:

Your small steps will lead to successfully becoming more fit, healthy, and frisky from within.

Setbacks (which are normal and a part of the process of learning any new skill) will encourage forgiveness and increased self understanding and self-mastery.

You'll feel more in charge, as you become more skilled.

You'll learn more about yourself than you might have ever thought possible and make changes that you really want to make.

You have learned to develop a more unconditional and compassionate friendship with yourself!

"Change your thoughts and you change your world. " Norman Vincent Peale

Before you begin your journey, I encourage you to set your motivation, your intention—your reason for making the effort. Fertilize your new growth with If You Would Grow. Bask in A Daily Reminder and Practice Kind Discipline: Transform The "Good/Bad" Paradigm, and lastly Life-Long Companion.

Encourage yourself with How to Keep Motivated: Remember Each Day Your Motivation! Doing this will help you weather the ups and downs of your life's journey. Consider also that you want to free your heart, mind, body, and spirit from choices and patterns that don't work. You want to be a healthy, happy camper! Perhaps explore How Can You Begin to Make Changes? and use the guidelines of the Daily Personal Tune Up.

You Desire to Celebrate Your Life!☺ What Does It Look Like When Things Are Going Well?

My Hope For You

This Web site Is About Cultivating Gradual, Sustainable Change.

My goal is to empower each person to become a loving caregiver (their own lifestyle COACH) to their body, mind, and spirit; in effect, to learn how to nurture, honor, and respect themselves as they embark of their journey to achieve a healthier weight.

In this Website each person will get to the root of their weight imbalance by identifying thoughts, feelings, and lifestyle patterns that affect on their eating and activity choices. For each person, I will support your efforts as you learn skills that allow you to:

See your life as a whole and develop wisdom and discernment about your moment-to-moment choices. You will come to understand how each of your daily choices affect your body, mind, and spirit--how everything is interconnected.

Learn to become a more compassionate and loving friend to yourself...feel a deep affection for you!
Appreciate & care for your body with the daily choices you make. Notice that your body has "resisted your best efforts to kill it off and still works!" Over time, your health will improve!
Identify personal needs and how to meet these needs.
Improve overall self-care--to figure out what you need to be a healthy, happy camper!
Set realistic expectations as you learn how to be your own lifestyle self-manager (a coach). As you learn this skill, your self-confidence will improve!
Explore the emotional aspects of your weight and come to meet your deep needs in skillful ways.
Practice eating for health & pleasure. Yum! You will no longer be obsessed with food! You will experience a healthy relationship with it. You will know that "food is a delicious nutrient, NOT a lover!"
Learn to savor the joys of an active lifestyle as you improve your friskiness!
Create a more fulfilling lifestyle; one that blesses you and others!
Learn to see your life as an ECOSYSTEM. Your Life--Everything Is Interconnected!
Discover how to take the long-term view as you gain perspective that life is a JOURNEY, not a race!

Feast on a diet of self-love

Stir up and savor nurturing thoughts and actions

Discover How to Develop a Loving Relationship with You

Lovely Nurturing Nibbles Laminated Posters

The graph above expresses a holistic and respectful focus. This Web site (see 12 Essential Skills section and others) make suggestions on how to apply this new paradigm. My intension is promote this new way of cultivating life-long health and well-being.

This Web site is VERY ECLECTIC, that is I have included many different approaches from numerous authors. I have NOT found that there is any one approach that will work for everyone. The issues that I have explored in this Web site have been all of the ones that influence the 40 - 75 people that I have seen every week during the last year and during the last 25 years that I have taught healthier lifestyle programs.

I have found that NO ONE approach, book, resource, or process provides the COMPLETE answer to personal transformation. So, take what you like (what works for you) and leave the rest (what doesn't work for you).

Engender a sense of tolerance.

There are many paths to well-being.

Use what works. Release what doesn't.

These tools and information are supplied as a initial support to promote self-management and self-awareness (guided learning) in certain areas. They are to provide FLEXIBLE--NOT RIGID--STRUCTURE and a "tool kit" of OPTIONS to try out. They are to be experimented with, using the suggestions and ideas FLEXIBLY and respectfully. Take what you like--what is helpful, and leave the rest--what isn't helpful to you.

It is also essential to explore Do You Experience Overwhelming Circumstances? section if you find your life at present is touched by many challenging circumstances that make achieving a healthier weight seem impossible. You might feel helpless and hopeless about changing. Is this how you are feeling? I have felt that same way before. Things CAN change for the better.

To achieve a healthier weight and be healthier--permanently, (weight and health maintenance), you will need to change the way you live your life. An essential skill and practice is for YOU to become your own personal lifestyle coach. To begin, see How To Use This Site.

This process can be FUN and enjoyable! Self-care should NEVER be torture, or in any way personally disrespectful. You can learn to celebrate a healthful lifestyle! In fact, making FUN your focus will insure that your new patterns naturally become your new way you create your life.

Frolic around: CELEBRATE Healthful Eating! Yum! Make It FUN. Make It Colorful!, CELEBRATING The Simple Joys Of Life!, The Power of Fun: Celebrate Enjoyable Ways To Be Active!, Frolic in Nature, An Alphabetical Guide to Zestful Living, and Sprinkle Dollops of Delight and Self-Care Towards Yourself for ideas of how to begin.

My intension is that you DO NO HARM to yourself through your exploring and using any of the materials on the Web site. You guide yourself with intention--the vision to be the happiest and healthiest you can be-- but NOT torture or any form of self-disrespect! Know when to focus out. Stop trying too hard. Make learning all of these new skills more like a enjoying a hobby rather than doing a tedious and difficult job. Practice the Essential Skill #9-self-nurturing and self-esteem when you find your "well of reserve" a little depleted and you feel drooped.

Along your journey of change, be gentle with yourself!

Be respectful towards yourself:

"Don’t shout at the apple and demand that it ripen!

It won’t ripen any faster and all you’ll get is a sore throat!!!"

—Advice given to me by my counselor

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