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| Beautiful to Beautiful-er |
DAY 2 of Your Year to Wellness
Welcome Transformers ---sorry I spent part of yesterday watching movies with my kids. However, we are transforming into a higher version of ourselves. As you begin to change, you will find lots of things to laugh about along the way.
I have found that the more well I become the more I have to go to the bathroom. This is a normal thing and something you should just do. So why is then that when I’m cozy in bed, I find that I have to go and go and go. Last night I just couldn’t get up. I was watching Gladiator for the ba-gillionth time and I just wouldn’t get up to go. When I finally did, I had watched the entire movie and Russell Crowe was walking through the Elysian fields greeting his wife and son. When I did get to the bathroom, which by the way is adjoined to my bedroom, I felt as if I’d climbed Mt. Everest, pride and all.
Getting well is just like that. We don’t want to do all of the little things that are necessary but when you do and you feel the results, you can see just how easy and natural it is. (Bet you were wondering where I was going with the whole bathroom thing weren’t you?)
For too long we have looked for some kind of magic pill or program for weight loss. Every year around this time we frantically purchase the products from late night infomercials all “guaranting” to make us thin in 30 days. I’ve learned that a slow and steady wellness program will get you there for good.
I have a very exciting life. I can be in one state in the morning and another at night. Some weeks, I’ve done more travel than the busiest pilot, but still, I maintain my wellness routines. You must create what works for you in the time that works for you, otherwise, you are simply living someone else’s life and that will not work past those magical 30 days.
Here are 5 things to add to your wellness journey. Don’t try to do too much at once, nor should you jump at the chance of adding all in the same week. Remember, small steps make big impactful changes.
5 Things that promote More Weight Loss than Dieting
· Smaller Meals more often--I eat six times a day. I use a nine inch plate and a smaller fork. Taking smaller bites I chew my food as much as possible. I’ve noticed that the birds on my feeders and skinny people all eat the same way. Eating more frequently keeps your metabolism revved and running.
· H2O –Water is the magical elixir you need. I recently met a woman at a book function in Tulsa called Sisters Sippin’ Tea. There, a hand full of woman hosts hundreds of folks at a luncheon to raise scholarship money for college students. (I’m smiling just thinking about them.) Anyway, this woman had read A Year To Wellness a few months before the event. All of her friends were telling me that they were getting the book because she had changed so much. The woman told me that she had lost over 40 pounds but the big difference was in her mood and her mobility. She was much less stressed and wasn’t as tired as she had been prior to doing the program. I asked her what she attributed the changes to and she told me that she followed the program, but the major difference in her life was water. In the a few months of her journey, she substituted all of her regular beverages with water. She said she hadn’t realized how little she drank prior to her wellness program. Her friends commented on how much younger she looked and how pleasant she was to be with and she agreed. You may not substitute all beverages, but we can all drink more water. It cleanses the body, gets oxygen to the heart and lungs and does so much more. I drink water when I get up in the morning and then after every meal.
· Meditation and Visualization—Sounds crazy I know, but then so does the Ab Roller, The Deal-A-Meal and the work-out program, Insanity but how many of those things do you have? Find a mediation class in your area or on line and start today. Calming the mind and visualizing your desired results will prepare you for the changes to come. What the mind can conceive, the body can achieve. We have learned more about the brain in the last 5 years than we have in all the years of research before. We now know that meditation and visualization aide in calming the mind, thereby reducing stress while visualization enables you to practice an event over and over reducing fear and anxiety. When I weighed 290 pounds, I visualized myself at the size I am now. No one else could see this for me; I had to see it for myself.
· Massage/ Facials and Proper Touch---I believe that humans (and my dog Othello) need 13 to 300 hugs a day. Okay, I’ll admit that made up those numbers, but research supports the belief. Without a proper touch from a loved one, we are less humane. We need touch to guide us on our journey. Sadly though as we age we get less and less touch. When I see a beautiful senior in the grocery store or walking in the park, I take the time to say hello or to tell them that they look nice. Your touch can take the form of a smile or even a handshake. Look someone in the eye and say, “Hello,” what you give out always comes back. Massage and facials may sound like pampering, but the medical effects are too many to list (I’ve done so in the book. Come on you knew it was coming.) For now, I will tell you that in addition to reducing stress, a great massage promotes a reduction of the weight gaining effects of cortisol, the fight or flight hormone and helps tone the skin (after shedding well over 100 pounds, I don’t have the sagging effect that often accompanies weight loss.)
· Sleep--- (See earlier post on resting) When you begin your movement routine; notice I didn’t say exercise, you need to get moving throughout the day every day, you will find it's easier to rest at night. Sleep not only enables you to download and store what you’ve learned the day before, it also enables your body the time it needs for repair. Sleep is really when the magic happens.
These things all promote weight loss, but more importantly, they are necessary for total wellness. Avoid the magical junk that you already have too much of and begin to take small steps toward major a transformation.
· What can you introduce today?
· When you do, make and observation of how you feel.
· Compliment someone you don’t know.
· BE more you more often.
· BE WELL
Bertice Berry, PhD
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