Atlanta Fitness Coach: A Blog about Weight-Loss, Nutrition and the T-Tapp Workout

Perfectionism Is Paralyzing!

Over the years, I've found primarily intelligent women are attracted to T-Tapp.  I think it's because there is so much to it.  Every part of every movement Teresa developed has a purpose.  There is a reason why we flex our feet during the balance work and point them when doing half frog sit-ups.

T-Tappers understand we must increase the density of the muscles that attach to our spine if we are going to cinch in and up.  We understand the importance of pumping the lymphatic system in order to help our bodies detoxify and sweep away the lactic acid build up.  We understand the principle "less is more" when you are using muscle activation techniques and going to your personal max each time you Tapp.

I've also found many of my women T-Tappers are perfectionists. We want to get it RIGHT!  We want to have perfect form (which by the way - doesn't exist.  Once again...it's a journey).  The ugly side of perfectionism is it can cause us to not T-Tapp because we don't want to get it WRONG!  Perfectionism can be paralyzing!

"But I don't want to bulk my thighs and Teresa says if you aren't doing it RIGHT, you'll bulk your thighs." Yes, I've heard this more than a few times from would-be Tappers.  It's used as an excuse not to tapp.  Because there is one sure way to not bulk your thighs!  Don't do anything. 

This morning I want to take the opportunity to commend you for finding T-Tapp.  You are obviously looking for a way to look and feel your best.  WELCOME!  You've found the workout.  It requires only one extra component.  YOU!  But you must do the workout to receive the results.

It's not about doing it perfectly.  It's about doing it consistently.  Yes, it's about fine-tuning your form.  But not from a place of fear.  If you don't do it perfectly, you aren't going to mess it up.  You'll still get great results!!!!  As you get great results, you just keep doing it, feeling it deeper and deeper in your body and learning from what you are feeling.

T-Tapp from a place of self-care.  We Tapp because it's what we do to nurture our bodies and our minds! 

Tom Loses 90 Pounds and eliminates 142 Units of Insulin!

In T-Tapp class, we discussed the last post about my new client with diabetes.  The T-Tappers wanted to know how the women is doing on the Balanced Eating Program.  She will actually start the program next week and I will be following her progress.

The Balanced Eating program isn't new.  Hundreds of thousands of people have gotten incredible results from it.  Let me share the results from one of our clients.

Here is Tom.  Tom weighed 323 pounds.  He decided to have Bariatric surgery in order to save his life.  He went for the mandatory stress test and failed.  The surgeons couldn't operate until Tom lost some weight and could pass the stress test.  Tom was devastated! 

Luckily, his Nurse Practitioner is a Health Coach and understands the Balanced Eating program.  She highly recommended it to him and luckily, he decided to go on it in order to save his life.  Because he was on so much medication for his diabetes and related conditions, his NP worked very closely with him to regulate his medications as he was losing his weight.

Here is his account of his journey.  

This is my chronology of medication reductions and eliminations resulting from the Balanced Eating program

 

  Day  Weight               Event

-187   323           Bariatric Surgeon consultation, start weight loss

  -7      313           The introduction by my Health Coach

   1      313           Start

   2      310           Cut insulin from 142 to 95 units

   5      305           Cut insulin from 95 to 75 units

   7      302           Cut insulin from 75 to 30 units

   9      299           Cut insulin from 30 to 25 units and

                           end one of two insulin types

 17      293           Discontinue diuretic

 24      287           Cut Rx ace inhibitor by 50%

 31      283           Cut insulin to 15 units and end ace inhibitor

 65      270           Cut insulin to 12 units

 75      267           Put CPAP away on closet shelf

 85      263           Last insulin injection

 96      259           Cholesterol + Triglycerides = 112

103     255           Cut Rx beta blocker by 50%

144     247           Eliminate an oral diabetes medication

            232           Today’s weight

 

I expect to reach my healthy weight, 185 pounds, in the fall.    On May 20 @ 241 pounds with 56 pounds to go to my healthy weight.

Thank you Tom for allowing me to share your story. You are a true inspiration.  It shows you can lose weight, reduce and/or eliminate medication for all these chronic conditions. It does take a commitment to get healthy. Isn't it incredible to know there is a program out there that WORKS! 

Is It Working For You?

Last night I met with a lovely women who wanted to lose weight and get off all her diabetic medication.  Oral medication wasn't controlling her diabetes and she was having to take insulin. 

This women was following the instructions she was given by the "diabetic educator" to the letter.  She was walking 4 - 5 miles 5 days a week.  When it was too hot to do it outside, she was inside doing her Leslie Sansome walking tapes.  (I know...If she'd just add T-Tapp technique to her walks she would have 10 x the results.  But that's a discussion for another day).

She felt better from the exercise, but she hadn't lost a pound!  "I know it's the food.  But I'm doing everything they tell me to do.  The "educator" told me it's almost impossible for a diabetic on insulin to lose weight."

Can you hear me screaming "STOP THIS INSANITY!!!"  This is an outrage!  Of course people with diabetes who follow the crap they are still slinging won't lose weight.  The question is...how much longer are you going to continue to tow the party line and watch people get sicker and sicker???

I asked the women what she has for breakfast.  I have 1/2 cup of cereal with 1/2 cup of skim milk.  Okay...I'd already had enough.  Then she shared this little tidbit... she was told not to have more than 4 ounces of a protein source a day.

No wonder this poor women can't lose weight!!!!  Even walking 5 miles 5 days a week! 

She was ready to do whatever it took to lose the weight and feel better.  She will be eating my balanced eating program that will have her eating 6 small BALANCED meals a day.  This program isn't just a philosophy.  There is no argument about whether she should eat a high protein/low carb or a low proten/high carb diet or anything in between. 

Here is the bottom line...Is it working for you????  The way most "diabetic educators" are still teaching doesn't seem to be working for very many people.  On my balanced eating program, participants in an 86 week clinical study lost 2 1/2 times more weight and were twice as compliant than those on the program recommended by the American Diabetes Association.  AND...24% of the people were able to reduce or eliminate their diabetic medications on this program.  0% on the ADA program.

Is is working for you?  That is the only valuble question there is!

It's All About Body Composition!

When you ask yourself what you want, really give it some thought.  Most women tell me they want to lose weight.  What does that mean?  You can have an organ removed and that will cause you to lose weight.  I know that sounds ridiculous but I'm using that to make a point.

The point is to be very clear about what you want so you can learn how to create that result.  Do you want a trim, firm, healthy body?  If so, then you need to learn how to use your food and your movement plan to burn off your body's excess fat (it's own stored energy source) and increase your lean tissue (muscle).

Have you ever seen one pound of body fat next to one pound of body muscle?  The weight is the same.  The difference you will see is the mass.  The pound of fat is fluffy and large.  The pound of muscle is tight and small. 

The other difference is in their metabolic processes.  Fat is practically inert.  Muscle is very metabolically active.  It is estimated that one pound of muscle burns around 60 calories per day.  One pound of fat, around 5.  If you go on a "diet" and you lose 5 pounds of scale weight but out of that 5 pounds, you lost 3 pounds of muscle and only 2 pounds of fat, you've lost the ability to burn an extra 3 x 60 calories or 180 caolories a day to maintain that lower weight.

You now weigh less, but you are fatter!!!  And that lower weight will be much harder to maintain.

Let's change our thinking and decide to change our body composition.  Let's say we want to burn our excess fat and increases our lean muscle tissue so we look and feel our best.  We are going to do that by making sure we eat our protein!!!

Or more specifically we are going to balance our lean protein with our low glycemic veggies and a moderate amount of good fats in order to balance our blood sugar, lower our insulin levels, increase our phytonutrient levels and increase our fiber. 

That is the prescription for changing body composition using your food choices.  The next part of the prescription is adding and anti-aging movement program to the  mix.

If you want to have a trim, lean, healthy body take a look at the people who you want to emulate.  What are they doing?  They are eating a diet designed to do just that.  Burn body fat and increase lean tissue.

Wishing you a balanced day!

Exercises For Anti-Aging Benefits!

Are there specific exercises essential for an anti-aging program?  This is a question I get a lot and the answer is a resounding YES!!! 

But the important aspects of these anti-aging exercises might surprise you.  It's not necessarily running distances or doing a lot of aerobic activity.  When you are doing these kinds of activities, you don't necessarily reduce your excess fat around your middle (the kind that ages you) and you can cause all kinds of damage to your joints (feet, knees, hips..)

Now for those of you who are doing these kinds of high impact cardio exercises and loving them, keep on doing them.  I'm all about doing what works for YOU.  Or doing it until it doesn't work anymore.

But for the rest of us, the key to anti-aging exercise lies in stretching and strengthening all 600 muscles and 200 bones in the body.   We need to rebalance the body to reduce pain and prevent injury.  We need full range of motion to make all the activities of daily living comfortable and natural.

If you are specifically looking to lose excess fat in your torso, bring down your blood sugar,reduce insulin levels (major anti-aging key), get and keep your back pain-free and feel better...you must do movements that will stretch and strengthen those muscles that attach to your spine.  it's all about creating density of those spinal muscles.

How to do this?  With specific movements that require you to twist, bend forward, backward and sideways.  In other words, activate those muscles!!!   Here's another incredible side effect:  Improved posture!

T-Tapp was designed to do just that.  This is why it is so effective as an anti-aging workout.  Don't believe me?  Still think you need to spend hours in the gym lifting weights and running your butt off?  Well Charlotte Siems didn't and the results she got speak much louder than any words I can speak.

Check out her success!  Click here!  You will be blown away.  Charlotte is just one of thousands of women getting these same kinds of results.  Will you be one of them?

Powerful Questions Result in Powerful Answers!

Powerful questions are one of the best tools for assisting us in gaining clarity on what it is we really want.  If you are working on weight as a health issue, here is an interesting question to ask:

"What is the DOWNSIDE of losing weight?"  or  stated a different way  "What is the UPSIDE of remaining overweight"?

If you wanted to immediately dismiss this question as having no relevance to you, I'd urge you to stop and give it some thought.  If you haven't been able to lose weight and keep it off, you must be getting some payoff for remaining overweight.  Wouldn't it be helpful to become aware of what that might be and then decide if the reason is truly valid for you.

Sometimes it's simply "your story" and you'd have to change your story if you lost the weight.  You could no longer be able to say you've tried everything and nothing works for you.  Programs might work for everyone else, but you are special.  And they just don't work for you. 

Or perhaps you are afaid if you lost weight you'd get more attention and you don't think you can handle that.  Or perhaps you'd think people would expect more of you and you don't think you have more to give.

Everybodys reasons are unique to them and to their programming.  Asking powerful questions of ourselves is one way to become aware of how our programming is keeping us in an unhealthy situation.

Wishing you a day of powerful inquiry and massive clarity!

End the Dieting Obsession!

What would your life be like if you stopped obsessing over dieting and losing weight? 

This question is interesting because answering it forces you to become aware of all the time you spend in those negative thought loops about dieting.  It can be overwelming.  And when we are in those negative loops, our perception is very limited.   We only see what has been programmed into our minds about the subject over many years.  Old programming is limited and doesn't contain the truth.

Time spent obsessing drains our energy resources.  Have you noticed when you are in an obsessing pattern, you are frequently tired?  You don't seem to be as mentally sharp and your ability to focus is lessened.  Perhaps your memory isn't as good.  And you can't seem to let any germ just pass you by without getting the next cold or flu?  All this and it doesn't stop your overeating!!!  It just makes you feel worse about it.

Our negative emotions affect our physiology in a huge way.  And our dieting and weight loss obsessions can be a huge source of negative emotion that builds up and zaps our energy and strength.

How many times have you yelled at yourself to "just stop eating all that crap!!!"  And it worked until something happened in your life that threw you into a stress mode.  Before you even knew what hit you, you find yourself in front of the refridgerator with a now empty ice cream container in your hand.

And the self-recrimination begins again. 

How would you like to STOP THE INSANITY!  (Sorry!  I simply had to borrow that great line) 

It can be done.  It is simple and easy.  The only thing required is your commitment to yourself and to the process and the tools.

I'm so excited about my new "END Stress and Emotional Eating" coaching program.  The program will allow you to reduce your stress response and empower you to take back your energy and stop the emotional drain. 

When you are ready to claim your life back from stress and emotional eating issues, call me.  Your life is waiting!

Don't Let Stress Land on Your Belly, Butt and Thighs!

Have you gone on a million diets, lost weight and done well until "life got in the way???"  This is one of the most common reasons I hear for abandoning our new healthy lifestyle choices.

What exactly does "life got in the way" mean?  I've found it is a catch all phrase for stress!!!!  Just reading the word can cause your heart rate to speed up! 

For the past fifteen years, I've been researching ways to assist people in, not just dealing with stress, but actually transforming it into a wonderful tool for self empowerment.

Let's face it...the perfect nutrition and workout plan are only helpful when you do them. If you don't have a way to skillfully navigate the stressful times in your day, your automatic reaction will be to use food to get you through.  This is what you have been doing for a long time.  It's a pattern that is ingrained in your system. 

It takes a new way of navigating the deep and choppy waters of stress. 

Guess what????  Once again my searching has paid off in a huge way!!!!

If you are ready to learn to deal with whatever life throws at you without having that stress land on your belly, butt and thighs...raise your hand and let me know.  The time has come! 

You can call me at 678-522-8056 or post a comment on this post. 

Ask Better Questions! Get Better Answers!

Questions are one of the most valuble tools we have for changing our health.  Why?  Because the right questions allow us to get very clear about what it is we really want.  Once you have clarity about what it is you want, you can set your intention to get it and proceed with taking action.

Once I establish with a new client what it is they want, I proceed to share tools to help them get it.  Let's say it's the Balanced Eating Program.  Almost always, people will tell me it sounds great.  "But I've lost weight with this, that and the other popular program, and when I went off it, I gained it all back...and then some.  What does your program have those didn't to help me keep off the weight???"

HMMMM!  Let me recap what I just heard.  You went on a program and you lost the weight.  In other words, the program worked.  Then you went off the program and you gained it back.  Right? 

Seems to me it wasn't about the program.  When you were "on" the program, you lost weight and felt better.  The better question to ask is "if it was working, why did you go off it?"

BUSTED!!!  Don't you hate that it always comes back to us.  NOT from a blame or fault-finding mission.  But simply to pay attention to our thought processes and emotional sabateurs that get in our way just as we are looking success in the face.

Here are some of the answers I typically get: "I get bored with the food"; "I got stressed out and ate my way through the refridgerator"; "Life got in the way".  Here's another common answer: "I was only losing about a pound a week. I got impatient and figured it wasn't working so why bother."

Do any of these sound familiar?  What could my program offer that can counteract all these things? 

Guess What???  There are tools and techniques that help you deal effectively with all these things. If you have any interest in finally gaining back control over these unconscious habits keeping you from achieving your long-term weight loss success, please let me know. 

But first ask yourself what you really want.  Are you ready to shift into a healthy lifestyle in a soft, easy way?  Can you do it by being really gentle and loving with yourself or does it have to be hard and painful?"  WOW!  Powerful questions, huh?

Chosen as a Top 50 Best Health Coaching Blog!

I started this blog because I wanted a place to share my thoughts, tools, ideas and tips.  I love writing it!  I hope it is helpful to those of you looking for tools that actually WORK!  Not just information that has "clinical" data to say it is "truth".

The things I choose to write about come from experience gained by working with people everyday on their weight loss and health issues.  There is so much information out there.  Much of it is conflicting.  The cases made on both sides of an issue sounds so "right".

I like to say your body is your most perfect feedback mechanism.  Instead of giving some "authority figure" the power to make decisions about your health for you, if something sounds reasonable, try it and let your body tell you whether it's correct for you...or NOT. 

The key is to ask and LISTEN to what your body is saying to you.  If you chose to follow a specific nutrition program, allow your body to tell you if it's right for you.  Follow it for 2 weeks.  Listen to your body.  If you find you're always physically hungry, you don't have the right balance (protein/carb/fat) for your metabolic type.  You'll need to tweak the balance.

Are you tired, cranky, shaky, having food cravings a few hours after you eat?  These are all signs the program isn't quite right for you.  Even if your friend lost a ton of weight on it or your doctor told you to go on it.

Okay...I got off on a completely different tangent.  I really just wanted to thank the writers of this nursing school blog for including my blog as one of their top 50 health coach blog picks.  I'm so incredibly flattered.  I went to the link and took a look at some of the other sites chosen and they were terrific.  I love being in their "company".

Thanks so much for including my blog.  I hope some of my posts will be inspirational to your readers!