My New Website!

Hi there, from now on, I will be posting new blogs on http://www.stopovereatingtips.com so please join me there every day for free tips on how to eat healthy and enjoy your life more.

I'd love your feedback. What do you like about the site? What do you think would make it better?

Thanks!

How to Not Overeat at 4th of July Parties

Hey there...I was going to write Part 2 of Why Fear Doesn't Motivate People To Lose Weight, but I'm going to put that on hold for a couple of reasons. First, I want to hear from YOU. How many of you have weight loss stories? What motivated YOU to lose weight and keep it off? Let me know by posting your comments below.

Secondly, I want to help people think ahead so they don't overeat during the July 4th festivities. I do this with my clients over the phone all the time. They tell me what social events they have coming up soon and what their game plan is so they don't go overboard and splurge like they used to do.

So, think about what you're going to be doing tomorrow. Going to a bbq? Having friends over? Visualize yourself at this social event and decide now what you are going to do to avoid overeating. Maybe you'll walk around with a cup of water or soda in your hand the whole time so instead of overeating, you can take small sips throughout the event. It helps to have something constantly in your hands so you don't reach for extra food.

Visualize yourself going through the buffet line only one time and eating the food slowly that you chose. Before going through the line, you can avoid impulsively spooning everything onto your plate by deciding what you will eat and how much of it.

For those of you with success stories who used new strategies to not overeat at social events, I want to hear from you! What worked? What did you try that was new, different, and successful? For those of you who overate, what would you do differently next time? What would you do the same?

Wishing everyone a very fun and healthy 4th,

Camille
Life Coach and Author of Stop Overeating Today!

p.s. Don't forget to tell me what motivated you to successfully lose weight by posting your comment - thanks!
p.p.s. For more stop overeating strategies, visit my website: http://www.stopovereatingtips.com

Why Doesn't Fear Motivate People to Lose Weight?

My sister-in-law is a dietitian and was talking to a doctor one day about weight loss. He told her that generally, when he tells his patients to lose weight, they don't follow his advice. They don't change their daily routine to fit in exercise and they don't change their eating habits. And the next time they go to the doctor they either way the same or even more.

This may come as a shock that people are ignoring their doctor's warnings, since doctors only tell people to lose weight because they want them to avoid a slew of negative outcomes: diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart attacks, and other problems. I know from talking to my clients that before they lost weight, they lived with a looming fear in the back of their minds that they could spontaneously have a heart attack one day and die. But that fear didn't equate to a strong motivation and actions to change. Why not?

One day seems like it will never come. One day you may get diabetes and one day you might have to take medication for it. It's different than, if you don't exercise today, you will suffer major consequences today! The reason that fear doesn't motivate well is that people become complacent and feel like they are getting by well enough. Maybe they don't consider their situation ideal, but it is not uncomfortable enough for them to get moving and make a change. They figure that to start changing their habits today would be more uncomfortable and inconvenient than just doing the same old same old.

So if fear doesn't motivate, what does? Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, that will be about the BEST way to motivate yourself to adopt healthier habits.

To read FREE chapters from the book Stop Overeating Today!, visit www.stopovereatingtips.com

How to Run Like a Tortoise and Beat the Hare

If you already have a copy of my book Stop Overeating Today!, you know that my first chapter/tip talks about the tortoise and the hare and advises people to not try to revamp their entire eating and exercise routines overnight. I want people to be excited when they read the book and be zealous, but I also want them to be realistic. Have you ever heard anyone say anything similar to the following:

- "I made a goal today to run for 30 minutes every day!" (This person never goes running)

- "I am going to bike for 10 miles 3 days per week." (This person has no habit of bike riding)

- "I made a goal to never eat cake again!"

I'm all for ambitious goals, but I want people to also feel a sense of accomplishment and success by setting smaller and realistic goals, especially when they're starting out. That's key to maintenance. Lots of people can lose a bunch of weight by doing something drastic like a juice fast, but six months later, did they keep the weight off? Let's revise the above goals:

- "I made a goal to go running tomorrow for 30 minutes!"

-"I am going to bike for 10 miles this week."

- "I made a goal to only have a small slice of cake at the birthday part this weekend and to not go back for seconds."

After achieving success with your first small goal, you are now on your way to setting more small, simple, and reachable goals. The feeling of success with propel you forward and help you grow into setting even bigger and more exciting goals. Leave me a comment and let me know how your goal setting is going!

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To find out more about the book Stop Overeating Today, visit: http://www.stopovereatingtips.com

I Just Want to Say "Thanks"

I just wanted to send a short and simple thank you to everyone who reads my blog and who finds its tips helpful for their lives. I am writing this blog for you and I am so grateful for the many subscribers and followers who come here for daily or weekly inspiration, rejuvenation, and ideas to live healthier and happier lives. It's no fun to write a blog that no one follows or subscribes to (trust me, I did it for the first few months) and so now that I have a lot of people to share my posts with, I am grateful for each and every one of you.

That's all. Good night. :)

How's your body image? Take the quiz.

In her amazing book, DEALING WITH THE STUFF THAT MAKES LIFE TOUGH, our friend, Jill Zimmerman Rutledge, M.S.W., LCSW wrote some cool stuff about body image. For over 20 years Jill has been counseling adolescent girls and young women who have eating disorders and she knows what she's talking about.

Here is an excerpt from her book:

Some people define body image as how we think and feel about our bodies, but that's only part of it. Body image is also created by what we think and feel about ourselves, how we behave, who we choose for friends, and the culture we live in. If you feel bad about yourself, you probably feel bad about your body too. Or if all your friends are dieting, you may begin to think you need to lose weight too. You may dislike your body for lots of other reasons. For one thing, magazines and other media can have a negative impact on your body image. When we look at pictures of very thin models, many of us want to lose weight immediately so we can look like them. Feeling bad about our bodies interferes with our lives. Your poor body image may make you feel awkward and self-conscious with guys. As 16-year-old Tina put it, "No guy wants a fat girl and I'm fat. I know if I start liking a guy, I'll just get rejected so why bother?" You may feel so uncomfortable about your body that you go to the beach in long shorts and a baggy T-shirt, instead of a bathing suit. When you feel dissatisfied with your body, it's important to look at your life as a whole. What else could you be unhappy about. Do you have low self-esteem? Do you exercise moderately but regularly? (Moderate-not obsessive-exercise helps you develop positive feelings about6 your body.) Are you having problems with family or friends? Are you eating healthily or loading up on junk food? Poor body image feels like it has everything to do with your body but in fact, it also has to do with how you're coping with life.

It is important to be realistic about your body compared to your body image. Here is a quiz Jill posted in her book. Let us know how you did on it and remember to love yourself and get healthy.

Do you have poor body image? Take this short quiz to see:

1. How do you feel about how you look?
a. Very good
b. OK
c. Mixed feelings
d. Bad, ashamed

2. Are you happy with your current weight?
a. Very happy
b. Happy enough
c. Somewhat unhappy
d. Very unhappy

3. Have you ever felt too fat after reading an article that reveals the body weight of a model or actress?
a. Yes
b. No

4. If you gained five pounds, you'd
a. Be OK with that-five pounds isn't a big deal
b. Feel neutral-not good or bad
c. Feel somewhat unahppy
d. Feel very upset

5. When someone says you look nice, you think:
a. I'm looking good.
b. They don't have anything else to say.
c. They're trying to make me feel good.
d. They're lying-they really think I'm gross.

Scoring: For questions 1, 2, 4 and 5, give yourself 1 point or a, 2 points for b, 3 points for c, and 4 points for d. For question 3, give yourself 1 point for a and 2 points for b. If you have a total score of 5-9, you're on the road to a good body image. Keep it up! If you scored 10-15, you may have some body image issues to work out. If you scored more than 16, you may have a poor body image.

If you're spending time worrying about how you look instead of having fun, you'll want to read PICTURE PERFECT another cool book written by Jill S. Zimmerman Rutledge. It will definitely help you feel better about your body. You can purchase PICTURE PERFECT at HeyUGLY.org for $14.95.

Don't Let Your Box Define You

I was at church the other day and the speaker said something that reminded me of what a life coach would say. He said, "Don't let the box of your life define you. Be whatever you need to be in the moment." As I was listening I grabbed for a pen and wrote those profound words down on a scrap of paper.

His words remind me of one of the tips in my book Stop Overeating Today! The tip is all about how to play an empowering role. I blogged about it back in September: http://stopovereatingtips.blogspot.com/search/label/self-identity

If you are battling with your thoughts and emotions to stop overeating, "don't let your box define you" is a very important thing to remember. Take a break from your identity as someone with an overeating problem. Take a break from focusing on your weaknesses around food. Don't tell yourself who you are if your description is negative. Just be what you need to be in the moment, reinvent yourself, don't let negative thoughts about who you are keep you stuck in old patterns that never end.