I’m thrilled to be featured in a new book premiering today, “Is She Naturally Thin, or Disciplined: Insider Secrets of the Sexy and Slim!” penned by my friend Sally Shields.  The book is so darn cool that I can’t help but be excited to share my story of how I stay trim and healthy.  And it’s chock full of beautiful pictures and stories of amazing women that will motivate you into action!

Today only, you can receive oodles of freebies within minutes… — hundreds of dollars’ worth of  F-R-E-E  gifts — if you do just ONE thing today!   In honor of the summer season,
my fellow contributors and I are all celebrating the official launch of Sally’s new and highly acclaimed book, Is She Naturally Thin, or Disciplined?

http://www.sallyshields.com/thinbooklaunch/

Today, TUESDAY July 19th, we have a personal goal to help Sally reach the #1 position on Amazon.com and we really need your help. And, for helping, we’re going to reward you in a big, no make that
HUGE way! 

This offer requires the tiniest investment, but will bring you a fabulous return: for only $14.95 you can get a copy of Is She Naturally Thin, or Disciplined?  ..and over 50 free gifts (from yours truly and lots of other amazing people too)!!!! 

You will get advice from over 50 relationship advice experts, health coaches and success coaches from around the world to give you an exceptional offer! 

Go here to find out more about this promotion that makes buying a copy of Is She Naturally Thin, or Disciplined? really worthwhile TODAY, Tuesday, July 19th! Get all of the details here:

http://www.sallyshields.com/thinbooklaunch/

Discover the secret advice and tips from real women who have found a solution to their weight issues at last … 

“This book is NOT ‘another one of those’; it’s radically different and inspiring. Seeing photos of women sharing their stories elevated this from another ‘rah rah’ book about dieting to one showing that whether you’re 20 or 70, healthy weight loss and a healthy life are possible.”
 
~Christa Allan, author

This is a one-time-offer… never to be repeated again, available for the next 24 hours only.  So, grab this unique bundle of gifts and order Is She Naturally Thin, or Disciplined? book right now.  At no other time can you get such value for so little. This is a truly unique offer that’s valid for TODAY ONLY!  

I hope you’ll join me in celebrating great health and vitality featuring amazing women telling their stories.

P.S.  Please share this offer with your friends and family. It’s easy…just send them this link by email to let them know about the many gifts we have made available for them today: 

http://www.sallyshields.com/thinbooklaunch/

The thought came to mind when I was flipping through my April O magazine at the gym and came across an article that totally spoke to me, “The Creative Cook.” Although in the last few years I’ve gotten a lot more creative in the kitchen, it’s still something I’m trying on for size. Yes, I can whip together all kinds of smoothies and fresh vegetable juices based on what I have on hand and what inspires me, but that’s less true say, for a dinner menu.

But I love the premise of the article — we can all find inspiration and learn to trust our intuition in the kitchen. Bingo! Love the concept because I say the same thing about learning to trust our intuition when it comes to tuning into our bodies to notice when something isn’t right.  In this case, it’s all about having fun (I’m all for that), knowing there’s no right or wrong answer and starting the process in simple ways.

For example, the article suggests taking a favorite recipe and just changing one ingredient, perhaps something you’re naturally drawn to that you think will taste good. You have to figure it’s hard to mess up a recipe when you’re just making small tweaks, right? 

Another idea: buy yourself a copy of The Flavor Bible, the quintessential book if you’re serious about a little fun in the kitchen. It fills you in on all the details on how to take a few ingredients in your frig and turn them into a delicious meal. I got so inspired reading about the book that I just ordered it — clearly my next step in the creative process!

What about you, are you naturally intuitive? What inspires you in the kitchen? What do you do to become a more creative cook? Do tell!

And when I say health, I’m talking about all areas of our life – our financial health, physical health and mental health.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of working with my colleagues Jill Jordan and Katana Abbott (pictured here with me) to inspire and motivate women into action.

We teamed up with HAP, the Health Alliance Plan, a large HMO in the Detroit area, that’s committed to women’s health.  We were part of their “Wise Woman: Finding Your Balance” seminar on Saturday and it was a blast.

What I loved is that these awesome women had a chance to take a break for the day and practice some much needed self-care. I don’t know about you, but often I say I’m going to do some self-nurturing things but then I get busy and don’t make it enough of a priority – and that’s in all parts of my life, especially mental health. Simply taking the time to get quiet and clear my mind does me a world of good given the hectic pace at which I’m often working. This was a reminder that I need to do so a lot more often.

And here’s a great example of how information and inspiration equals better health for me. The first speaker at the event, Dr. Cathy Frank, did a great presentation on mental health, focusing specifically on a variety of anxiety disorders. Did you know, for example, that women suffer from anxiety at much greater rates than men? For years, I’ve been convinced that I’ve got some kind of anxiety problem because I tend to be a worrier. But lo and behold, it looks like what I made out to be a huge problem, isn’t nearly as bad as I thought. I don’t have OCD, general anxiety disorder or many of the other disorders she mentioned. Frankly, it was a relief to understand where I fit in.  And simply getting that information inspired me to think differently about my own health within a broader context.

What about you? Have you had the opportunity to get some information about your health that’s informed your thinking or motivated you to get into action?  In what way has that helped you?  I’d love to hear about your experiences and what you have to say!

I’ve been subscribing to O Magazine almost since its inception, several years ago. The articles and features really resonate with me although in recent years, as I’ve become increasingly busy, I don’t have time for cover to cover reading. These days, I’m lucky if I sneak in a few pages here and there – some months I read a lot of it, but some months I hardly touch it.

So I was excited when I got the September issue recently.  I was thumbing through and came across the article, “Got 10 Minutes?” The article focuses on those things we can do to improve our health that don’t have to take a lot of time, be it exercise, relaxing or some other means of getting and staying healthy, yet they can be incredibly impactful. So instead of feeling like everything has to be done in 30 minute or more increments, the idea is to get a little bit in, in small doses.

I love that idea because I think that even in short time periods, we can work toward our larger health goals and results. And because I’m so busy, I do try to take advantage of those small windows of precious time.

Here are just a few of the ways I like to take advantage of short time frames to support my health:

• Chop up veggies for the next night’s meal
• Make a fruit salad
• Make a fresh juice in the juicer (celery, cucumber, carrots, Swiss chard, and an apple – yum!)
• Do a few minutes of stretching
• Make my short list of items to pick up from the store during the week
• Get a short walk in around the block a few times to up my steps for the day.
• Use my resistance bands to build and tone my muscles (perfect example: the power went out in the gym yesterday in the middle of my workout! Can you believe it? We all had to evacuate and I don’t have time to go today so the bands are perfect)
• Watch 10 minutes of my favorite yoga video
• Make delicious and healthy popsicles (see Friday’s post for the recipe)

To me, getting healthy is less about volume, more about consistency. One of the biggest obstacles many people face is how to keep up with their routines and not fall off the wagon. I think small increments is the way to go.

What about you? Do you like the 10 minute increment strategy? What can you do in 10 minutes to support your health? 

I’ll admit that I’m a life long thinker. By that I mean that I’ve become a pro at spending copious amounts of time “in my head.” Thinking, analyzing, worry, intellectualizing, being wracked with anxiety, over-thinking, you name it and I’ve probably done it. And during that time, it definitely took a toll of my health. For years, I suffered from chronic eczema that was made worse by stress and worry. Through lots of different work over the years, I’ve been able to improve my ability to quiet my mind but this training took it to a new level. It gave me an opportunity to more fully tune into my body and learn strategies to get out of my head when I feel myself getting in a loop. And i really tuned in to being present in the moment, not just physically being present and mentally reviewing my to-do list.

I love the connection we can make when we get out of our heads and into our bodies – it’s so closely linked to knowing when something is wrong and improving our health. When we slow down and tune in, it’s much easier to feel what’s going on. When we stop our breakneck pace, we can hear those words of wisdom that may be telling us it’s time to see the doctor or get some other kind of help. When was the last time that you slowed down, got out of your head and really listened to what your body has to say?

I spent far too many years feeling bad when Valentine’s Day would roll around, wondering if there was something wrong with me. Back then, I didn’t get that I could create something special for myself regardless of whether or not I had a boyfriend. Years later, I now really appreciate myself and make it a habit to practice self-care daily.

Given that so many of us run around and have ultra-busy lives, we hardly take time to breath, let alone think about nurturing ourselves. We’re overcommitted, stressed out, anxious, tired, worried, unhealthy and have far too much on our plates to handle. What would your life look like if you took some time to just be? If you got quiet, de-stressed and did something special for you? I have a hunch you’d thoroughly enjoy yourself, just like I do.

One of my favorite resources is a book called Oasis in the Overwhelm by Millie Grenough. Millie is a local life coach in New Haven, who wrote the book after a severe bike accident several years ago. She started to reflect on her life and realized that she was so busy, she wasn’t taking care of herself. In the book she shares four amazingly simple strategies to manage stress. I’ve been using the strategies for awhile, and one thing I know is that they work. And I’m one of her certified trainers, so I also have the pleasure of sharing the strategies with others and helping them find an Oasis.

The thing I love about the book is that the strategies are so easy, you can do any of them anywhere, anytime. Needless to say, we can’t always sneak off to the spa for an hour massage (although this is one of my favorite past times), so the strategies really help solve that problem. I think my favorite is 1-stone, a breathing exercise that encourages you put your entire focus on a stone for 1 minute. You can probably imagine that it helps one to breathe, relax and destress.  Take a look and create your own Oasis.

When I quiet my mind and slow down my pace, I’m much more likely to hear these nuggets. It’s often in the morning while doing yoga that a thought comes to me. Or when I’m doing something in silence and my mind isn’t racing. It’s sort of like the universe speaking to me. And when I slow down, I can actually hear it.

We’re going to be talking about some of these same issues in a few weeks when the Don’t Worry, Get Healthy 12-Week Program starts. It will be interesting to see what happens when we all focus on tuning into our bodies more often.

What would be possible if you could slow down, tune into your body and get quiet? What kind of inspired ideas do you think might be possible?

There’s a simple way to make personal goals for yourself that you can actually achieve and you can have fun along the way!

On Tuesday, January 8 from 8-9 pm ET, I’m leading a FREE – yes FREE – teleclass that addresses these and other issues.  You can attend live or just download the recording – but to do either/both – you must register!

 For more details, and to register, click here.

When Thanksgiving rolls around, it’s an opportunity to think about how much I have to be grateful for and remember that many people, right in my own community, are suffering. Be it hunger, homelessness, domestic violence or another issue, far too many people don’t have enough resources to meet their basic needs. So I’m not only reflecting on what I have, but taking a moment to make a contribution to my favorite local charitable organizations and lend my time and energy to the issues that mean the most to me.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about your own attitude of gratitude. What are you most grateful for and what do you do to reflect on it?