The Tyranny of Cravings with Your Online Pilates Instructor

“I know. She’s going to tell me to eat low carb.”

Let me put it this way, If an alchoholic checks into rehab, does the treatment team say, “Lets tell the patient that he can only drink martinis?"

That is what our many diet experts have been saying by recommending fat free low calorie snacks and fruit to people who sincerely want to eat right but have become addicted to spiking their blood sugar. In our respect for these educated professionals, many of us have unwittingly increased our cravings and gained weight.

Reducing cravings is a matter of training our body to release more of the satiety and fat releasing hormones that are right there for you. You don’t have to take medications to reduce cravings. The reason that we crave is completely physiological.

The reasons you feel like eating when your body doesn’t need it are part of the thinking/feeling side of weight addressed in my Reflections for Weight Loss video series. Part three is coming soon.

The fact is that learning to stabilize our own blood sugar 24/7 is by far the most important thing we can do for our overall health. Yes, more important than eating "low fat." Our health care system is overwhelmed with people who have diseases resulting from too many high glycemic foods in their diet.

Some of the things I hear most often from my pilates students who struggle with weight are, “I eat a lot of fruit.” and “I don’t eat breakfast.” or “I eat a banana for breakfast.”

If you want to keep following the “I only eat when I feel like it” diet, you are not ready enough, not really eager and open enough to receive the new body and resulting health that are there waiting for you. One of my beginner mat pilates students just reported, "I've just been trying to follow your basic suggestions and people are saying I look like I've lost weight."

I eat protein every morning. Do I always feel hungry at that time? No. But I know that eating this way will make me feel alert and eat less for the rest of the day. Do I feel like having a mini meal at 4:00 pm? Not always. But I have learned to look forward to that time to sit for a few minutes and treat myself to some almonds and 85 dark chocolate or an apple and a slice of sharp cheddar, or even half a meat sandwich.

Scroll through the blogs for more practical help with and please share your experience with us.

Best Pilates for Your Back - with your Online Pilates Trainer

We all know the feeling.

But how did it get to this point? “I need to take better care of myself.”  “I’ve been neglecting my health.”  “I’ve put on too much weight.”

Most of us have tried to get into a better diet and exercise regimen. We hear the ongoing mental recording, “ I should be eating this, or I should be doing that.”

Though I am a pilates instructor, I am not here with a list of to-dos or “Here’s what I do.” (please...) If I didn’t do this for a living I’d be right there with you.

I want you to relax and do nothing. Yes, just go to a comfortable place, put your feet up and close your eyes. Now do it..... humor me..... 

First of all, ask yourself how you felt when I suggested that you relax. A little resistant? A lot resistant? Believe it or not this somewhat programmed reaction is part of how people come down with chronic back pain.

Some of us tell ourselves that it is better to do the thing that doesn’t feel good, like pushing into pain or loosing sleep to finish a project. This is our western upbringing. This is also the reason most of us are carrying so much weight.

Let’s go back to your job right now. Just sit there and listen to the air come into your lungs and go out five times....

Think about your body in its simplest form. You’ve got bones. Then there’s layers of muscle responding to everything you suggest. You’ve got systems inside you constantly fixing and adjusting to make you feel good without your doing anything.

You may not have felt very grateful for your body lately, but lets just think about it. You do nothing. It constantly works to make you feel good. Let’s just try to feel appreciation for about half a minute. 

You eat. Your body adjusts and fixes to make you handle the food in the best way for you. You stay up late. Your wonderful body produces hormones to help you stay alert, even after what should have been your limit. You drink too much, your resourceful body gets busy removing toxins and readjusting so that you can go to work.

Don’t you feel some love now. Some appreciation and gratitude. Its a fantastic system that doesn’t complain or force us to follow any rules. We are free. We are in charge.

What’s my point? 

Where you are now was created through several years, if not decades of repeated thought. Nothing but a fundamental change in your thinking will cause behaviors to move in a better direction. Instead of buying the latest ab machine or starting a diet plan, go within and begin practicing that gratitude and appreciation for your body.

At first it will feel strange or unfamiliar but you’ll begin to enjoy that feeling and your behaviors will effortlessly move toward health. This could happen overnight, but most likely it will be a process. A process that won’t feel like work at all. 

Get used to feeling good.

Let me know how you do!

Mom's Heartache - With Your Online Weight Loss Coach

My Mom was very beautiful. She was a trained vocalist and pianist. She had perfect olive skin and shiny mouton hair, which even now only has a touch of silver. She had dark chocolate eyes, perfect features, and J. Lo curves.

She and my Father had many challenges raising nine children. Her worst unspoken heartache? Her weight.

My sisters and I watched painfully as Mom went from one weight loss program to another; weighing and measuring, drinking gallons of water, eating cabbage soup all day. The list goes on. That is likely why we all became fitness enthusiasts. Lets see; a weight-loss chain supervisor, a college basketball coach, two pilates instructors, one of them a wellness coach, all prioritizing fitness.

Being the oldest, I retained the most acute feeling of needing to care for Mom. At 71 she is still active in the church, caring for grandchildren, passing along all the latest funny and alarming emails, and 70 lbs overweight.

I’ve tried everything I can to coach her. She still goes from one diet plan to the next.

Why tell you about my mother? Her all-too-common story illustrates the fact that losing weight and keeping it off requires a fundamental change in the way our mind and body work; our psychology and our physiology.

This is the mantra of my blog. We need to train our brain to think differently and our body to reduce cravings. The terrific news is that I am proof that it works. It takes some effort, but without the effort we can never have those delicious feelings of worthiness, accomplishment, and joy in feeling healthy and beautiful!

There is no hidden formula. My winning philosophy is based on learning to:

• keep your blood sugar stable throughout the day
• consistently visualize your body the way that you want it to be

My four week video coaching program is designed to shift your thinking and wake up muscles you never knew you had. Beginning with week one, “Pilates for Weight Loss,” is only part of the  Great Pilates Now membership.

The blog is always free and provides practical advice for keeping weight off and maintaining maximum energy.

Let's begin feeling beautiful and healthy now!

Health Makes Money -with your Online Pilates Coach

Gone is the day of the fat cat business man puffing a stogie, wearing a the suit with a bushel basket inside. Many of today's successful are in better shape than their employees. Whether you have 400 or are home caring for loved ones, improved health builds earning potential.

So many of us stress out and put health aside when it come to work, but beware. This could be bringing less business, a lower level of output, service, or personal care to clients or students.

In James Ray's book "Harmonic Wealth" he explains how neglecting one area of your life brings the other areas down in some way. Education, Relationships, Health, Finances, and Spirituality are referred to as pillars which support your life as a whole.

Melisa Rachiele writes, "Confidence is important in personal finance. Fitness breeds confidence.... Between the short term cost of lost wages, and the long term cost of increased health care expenses, your health is your most important investment."

Sadly we talk ourselves into trade-offs from time to time. Enjoying a relationship while omitting prayer or meditation; Having a great time spending money and neglecting to keep our appointment with the treadmill. Most of us have done it. Or maybe you are considering regular fitness for the first time.

Those who have found a way to maintain these five pillars mentioned above have what most of us want. Lots of love, fun and the ability to give back. Let's beef up our mental clarity, stamina, longterm health, AND ability to earn money by looking at one of the most important things you can do: Stabilize your blood sugar 24/7.

• Begin the day with good protein.
• Eat 5 or 6 small meals including good fat, carbs, and protein.
• Learn the basic glycemic index chart (see earlier post).
• Keep good protein in your purse, car, or desk.
• Let most of your carbs be colorful and raw.
• Begin with some fat and protein when you eat out.
• Eat sweets in small portions only if you've had some healthy protein and fat first.

Did you know that when you live like this you don't need that diet club. You can toss that calorie counting book and know the feeling of being sated (the real word for feeling comfortably finished).

Let's educate ourselves: ALL the illnesses that are ravaging our heath care system are related in a some way to blood sugar. It is very simple to understand. Stable blood sugar with moderate exercise like regular pilates classes or whatever you like, will bring you to your perfect weight and blood levels before you know it.

Look out. These changes will result in improved relationships, spirituality, more money, and more feeling good.   Your thoughts are welcomed below.

Is This is Really My Body? - with Your Online Instructor

When we grow accustomed to a way of life, we begin to believe that it is our limit, that our current circumstances are as far as we will go in life experience. Even though we know there is a bigger world out there, we get in our car, drive to work, go through the day, and come home to our town and family, and begin believing that this is what our world is.

This often happens with people and their bodies. We've heard that our bodies are magnificent and excellent machines. We've seen dancers and gymnasts perform feats that leave our mouths hanging open. And of course there's all the hype around sexual pleasure that many of us feel is for someone else.

Then we get into exercising and health. We begin to feel stamina, mental clarity; we feel good. One of the best things about teaching mat pilates classes is that I get to facilitate this discovery. I get to see people smile as they feel their body do something they thought they could never do. I get to hear someone share about fitting into their clothing or crawling through the tunnels with their grandson at McDonalds.

These human joys are the result of becoming more aware of the body they have had all these years and beginning to move it well. The body level they had plateaued at for so long has become new. It may even feel odd. They may have to adjust to feeling so good!

One of my pilates students had been learning to stabilize her blood sugar and said, "I still love going out for coffee but I don't need it so I'm trying new drinks."

I often refer to the international exhibit "The Body." This excellent exhibit helps us to see our physical selves as they are. We discover ourselves under each layer of skin, connective tissue and muscle. For many, this awareness even brings unexpected, strong emotion.

Dr. Gil Hedley encourages us to discover and pay attention to our bodies, "not because it is a world you want to get lost in, or an end in itself, but because it is a way to more fully live and be."

Unity of mind and body is at the heart of our identity. Our bodies are not the "it" part of ourselves, separate from our thinking and emotions. We have plenty of science to prove the mind and body are continuously working as one. Many of us need to begin to really pull those two together. This unified approach is the basis of how we consider and care for ourselves and those around us.

Where do I start? Here are a few suggestions:

• Try to really appreciating and be grateful for all the parts of your body.
• Pay attention to your body's needs and respond to them as a loving parent to a child.
• Make the effort to stay in the moment with your body while exercising.
• Tell yourself how beautiful or handsome or perfect you are. Feel sexy, lover or not.
• Avoid discussions of illness or injury unless they focus on getting better.

Just thinking through those makes you feel pretty good, right? It only gets better.

Watch Stress Disappear! - with Your Personal Pilates and Wellnes Coach

You can decrease the stress level in your life.

Many people begin coming to my pilates classes because they want to release the stress in their life. I can tell they are stressed because it's difficult for them to enjoy themselves when they are working out. They have trouble staying in the moment with their bodies.

No matter what you are going through: whether your car ran out of gas, or you stepped on a piece of glass, or your husband hit you, or your daughter just informed you that she has a VD, you CAN manage and decrease the stress in your life.

Why do I use such graphic examples? Because many of us have a dirty little secret which says, "She can't be referring to me. My life has REAL stress."or "But she doesn't know how I feel."

I may not know exactly how you feel, but I have discovered the source of stress control. But first lets look at what stress can do to your body. The body reacts by:

• Producing too much adrenalin. This causes compromise to the liver, heart, and adrenals.
• Over producing cortisol. This causes weight gain and depression.
• Excess insulin.  Weight gain and food cravings result here.

The source of keeping these side effects from happening: your thoughts.

Everything that happens to us physiologically is the result of our choice of thought. Too simplistic an answer? Think about it. The next time you are feeling really alive and happy, pay attention to your thoughts. You will find that they are positive. You will find that you can't feel really good and have critical, negative thoughts floating through your mind no matter what the outer circumstances.

People often remark that I am a very positives person. Is my life easier than yours? I don't know. But I am willing to put such a priority on feeling good, that I work on refusing to let negative people or influences affect me, and I work on becoming aware of my own thoughts so that I can do what it takes to shift them to gratitude and love. We can focus on something we like, or something nice that happened to us instead of on the negative thing that wants our attention.

You can do this in a police car, in an ambulance, in a courtroom, or in your bed at night. Again I use these example to help those of you whom I addressed above.

Working on this every day is the key to true health. Fitness and diet will all come together as we start with feeling good now. Do you agree?

The "Bad" Drink We Love - with your Online Coach

Coffee has gotten some bad press over the years.  "It has toxins." "It's addicting." "It is artificial energy." "It's too acidic."

We've heard that before, but some of the healthiest people I know, including me,  enjoy it every day. Lets unpack this.

Yes, coffee is acidic and we must balance this by eating as much raw food as we can. Fruits and veggies, raw almonds, and of course avoiding processed, sugar based, over cooked (yuck) choices.

More than two eight oz cups a day can be too much. Moderation is key in everything. Used other than during pregnancy, organic, pesticide free, coffee has several health benefits. 

Flavonoids and nutrients are abundant in good smelling freshly ground beans. Maybe that's why some of us love the smell only.

Coffee is a whole food with bioflavonoids (which are actually powerful antioxidants) and other nutrients. It has been researched and found that populations who drink organic, freshly ground from the whole bean coffee have much lower incidents of Alzheimer's.

Research also shows that coffee creates something called BDNS. According to Dr. Ori Hoffmaster, this process actually activates stem cells to rebuild! (lots of research being done around this.) High quality coffee activates this in the brain. It's like recycling brain tissue. This process also benefits muscle in a similar way.

Rancid coffee, or coffee broken down into isolate form can result in the same problems that MSG causes - destroying brain cells - and the resulting neurological effect. Isolate coffee is found in instant, and canned sweetened coffee or anywhere you see fast food versions like "cappuccino" from a machine.

When we are really picky about our coffee and don't overuse it, we reap the benefits of a mood enhancement, brain improvement and oxidative stress management. When we use instant, canned sweetened coffee drinks or stale ground coffee we make our body work harder to heal the oxidative stress caused by taking toxins in.

Try high quality coffee without the cream and sugar. You may wonder why you were using it. It could be that you were trying to cover the taste of rancid beans, or coffee isolate.  Keep the beans in the freezer. Learn the great flavor of coffee at its best. As you refine your palate for this and other foods, enjoyment and health will improve.

Now you have something to say when you hear coffee getting a bad rap.

Train Your Brain

We've been addressing fitness with a twist here. Yes diet. Yes exercise.  But these are merely the actions we take to improve our physical body.

Let's go a little deeper and look at what some call our motivation: the reason we take these actions.

We all have beliefs about things, including exercise, our bodies, pilates classes, our time... the list goes on. Did you know that even if we are objectively correct about one of these beliefs, we can deliberately change them to make things go better?

For example, we may think, "I don't have time to eat healthy."

We can ask ourselves to replace that thought with "I enjoy eating healthy and delicious food at every snack or meal." or "I always have something healthy and satisfying available to eat whenever I feel hungry."or "I have boundless energy." or "I feel like a teenager."

When we repeat new beliefs to ourselves, our life takes the shape of them. Remember moving to a new town and feeling new? Well your experience over time caused your belief and feeling of being new (and maybe a little socially uncomfortable) to change to, "I fit right in here!"

We can even speed up this process by creating strong positive emotions like joy, hope, or satisfaction. What an absolutely fun and rewarding activity! It can be done anywhere, anytime like my classes!

At first it feels a little like work. You may not have the good feelings right away. As you repeat your new belief, let's say three times a day for a week, and see those small changes begin, you will start feeling better and believing more strongly until it feels like part of you; you begin to KNOW.

Yes, you can try this at home. Choose a new thought; a new belief that you really want for your body or health. You will feel good now.

How Can Einstein Time Affect Me?

I see so many Pilates students come and go. Many of them leave the classes because they don't get the results they want. They begin pilates classes wanting to lose weight, feel better, look great. The thinking goes something like this,  "I don't look good. I wish I looked like someone else."

Those are the kinds of people who purchase weight loss programs and gadgets continuously, and get limited results.

Let me tell you the secret answer to their problem. It has to do with the way they think about themselves. And it has to do with time.

Did you know that as you look in the mirror, as you look around - as you see the car you drive, the people that are your friends, all of those other results of your life thus far - they reflect who you were?

Einstein gave us a whole new way of looking at time. It's worth studying because it can really help you to reach your goals. Time is a concept from our mind.  Time is the way we think and process our day. Did you know that you can create time by merely clearing your mind?

In the same way, you can create a new body by imagining yourself with your perfect body. When I teach Pilates classes I always tell the women to think inside their bodies about how perfect and wonderful they are. I tell them to close their eyes and picture the body that they desire - that perfect beautiful body with maybe less weight, or more flexibility or a greater feeling of stamina.

I asked them to think of that as who they are right now, this moment. When we do this, we practice going beyond time outside of the moment and create who we are for the future. When we think of ourselves in this way, we become that now, in this moment. The form takes the shape of the thought and sooner or later, depending on our choice of thought, we become that body.

As we continue to think that way, our body will begin to come into that form which we already have created in our mind. On the other hand when we think about ourselves as fat, as weak, as unhealthy, our body will manifest those things in an ongoing basis.

That is why people who look down on themselves cannot lose weight and change their habits. The good news is you can begin to change your body now from wherever you're sitting right now.

Whether you're driving in a car or sitting in front of your computer, you begin to think about yourself as beautiful, lovely, perfect, and younger. You will become that in your own mind and then it will manifest in your body. So your work right now is fun and easy. Your work is to think about yourself as beautiful, healthy, lovely, as a person who cherishes their body.

As you choose those types of thoughts, you will notice that your behaviors will begin to change; for example how can a person who cherishes and loves their body eat four Twinkies in one sitting? That can't happen because they're thinking will not allow them to do that.

Let's talk about this idea more. how do you feel about this idea of creating your body?

Going Out to Eat For the First Time! with Your Online Wellness Coach

Limits and deprivation are the ways many of us have been taught to diet. I am here to say that that way of thinking may very well have gotten you where you are today if you are carrying too much weight or if your weight is making your scale constantly bounce around.

It is important to be mentally and emotionally prepared for a diet plan. This needs to be taken a step further for those of us who were taught that discipline means deprivation. 

Here's a practical example:

We all love to eat out at a nice restaurant. Picture your favorite restaurant right now. You walk in with good friends or that special someone, but you're on a new diet plan so you get distracting thoughts like, "I know I'm gonna blow it" or "It's time to buck up and order the cottage cheese!" These are destructive thoughts for any diet plan.

Now picture the same scenario but this time you understand that all you need to do to have a successful diet plan is to make food choices based on keeping your blood sugar stable. When you have kept your blood sugar stable through healthy eating and a solid diet plan, you have felt that great feeling of having energy all day. Have come to know the feeling of having energy and mental clarity all day and you don't want that to change.

You know that starting the meal with a high glycemic food will throw you off. You understand that fat is not the enemy and helps to balance the glycemic load of the meal.

On the other hand, after you have been off track and on a deprivation diet plan, you've felt the drained, tired feeling that feeling goes along with overeating and drinking.

You want to be able to really enjoy those around you and focus on them instead of being distracted with negative food thoughts and being consumed by how your diet plan will affect your choices. It’s always fun reading through the menu and trying new foods as long as you limit the high glycemic and processed carbs.

With a smart exercise and diet plan you should start your meal off with some good fats and protein before having a glass of wine, this will help you naturally know when you are satisfied.

When your blood sugar is stable, and you are not yo-yoing, it is fun to discover new savory flavors and to not depend on sweets and bread. You are freed up and able to experience the moment and feel really good.

You can feel abundance while managing your weight with a healthy and balanced diet plan. In this new way of eating and thinking you will likely feel like you are eating more. How? By not having thoughts which distract you from the experience of eating your food and loving it! You will be able to be present and in the moment, enjoying the people and atmosphere around you. By having a balanced and healthy diet plan, you are able to feel good about yourself before, during, and after the meal.

What Is "Junk Exercise"? With your Mat Pilates Instructor

Health and fitness professionals are beginning to use some strong language to describe what seems like a great idea, but leaves many injured and wishing they knew better before starting a “Junk Exercise”.

Junk Exercise is when people move their bodies and feel as though they are getting a great workout, but they don't really progress in building white muscle mass. White Muscle mass is a special type of muscle that is partially responsible for twitch movements and tends to fatigue easily. These muscles are located near our joints, and when developed, create greater balance and less likelihood of injury. Pilates is a great exercise to build white muscle mass.

The four most common mistakes people make are:

1.   Using only cardio

2.   Omitting resistance training

3.   Doing too many sets of the same exercise

4.   Lifting weight too fast

Junk classes are usually the latest dance, punching, or competitive weight pushing class that you may have heard of this past year. Just as there are “miracle” diet pills, there are also workouts (junk exercise) that promise quick results. Pilates has been around for over 90 years and will continue on long after the latest crazes have disappeared. Mat Pilates concentrate on strengthening your core and the movements in Pilates are all about quality over quantity.

I always recommend a cardio program when beginning Pilates classes. Cardiovascular exercise is crucial for staying resistant to your insulin and keeping weight off, but we must strengthen through a variety of slow controlled weight-bearing movements. Mat Pilates Classes are one of the most perfect ways to prepare to perform those types of exercises. The slow controlled resistance of Pilates while moving and stretching makes Pilates more effective than even yoga for preventing injury.

We are conditioned to be consumers. Our ears perk when we hear about something new in diet and exercise. We think, "Maybe this will be the answer!" So we buy. When it comes to self-improvement be it physical, spiritual, or improving relationships, real results will happen when we first look within ourselves and then commit and purchase a program we can feel really good about.