Top Four Reasons Diets Don't Work (and what does)

Are You Still On That Diet You Resolved to Go on Last New Year's? 

Don't Feel bad- I can't think of a single person who is.

In fact, studies show that 89% of people who start a new diet for the new year, end up abandoning it just a few months later. 

But why is this so?
Everyone wants to change their body and life for the better, so why can 't we stick to the diets we vow we are going to follow? Here are a few reasons I've come up with in my personal experience and in my experience working with my clients:

1. Because diets don't address the mental and emotional components that come along with losing weight. They provide no tools to address emotional eating and therefore, when life gets hard or presents challenges (which it inevitably will), most emotional eaters have no idea how to cope without food, therefore, the diet is not sustainable.

2. Because diets have rules or "good" & "bad" foods which promotes black and white thinking and behavior. When we eat a food that falls in the "bad" foods category, it tends to make us binge for the rest of the day since we've "blown it" anyway.

3. Diets make us feel like crap about ourselves. When we eat foods off our diets we label ourselves as "bad" or we say things like "I was bad today, I ate nachos instead of salad at lunch". Food is food and we shouldn't label our character by the food we eat. If you are a good person- you are a good person, regardless of whether you chose salad or nachos for your lunch.

4. Diets don't address the fact that everyone has different genetic makeup, backgrounds, and lifestyles. Everyone needs to eat differently. You need tools to help you figure out what your body needs.

Our new program, Happy, Healthy, & Hot Coaching addresses all the components that diets do not. With a Health Coach Designed e-course on Eating & Exercise, a personalized Virtual Style Session, and a Self-Esteem Bootcamp, HHH will address all of the elements that diets fail to address.

Just think- after taking embarking on our program, this time next year, you won't be scrambling around looking for the latest diet trends to follow for the New Year. You'll know exactly what to eat, how to move, dress and think to keep you looking and feeling fabulous all year long.

Registration is now open. Click here for details about our exciting new program!

The Top 5 Style Challenges Women Have (and How to Overcome Them)

Did you know that how you dress everyday can affect how you view your body, even if you haven't lost a single pound, or gone to the gym in weeks? How we dress everyday is a silent message to the world about who we are and what we think about ourselves. It is also a message to the world (at least on a first impression) about how we want people to view us and even treat us. 

Think about the last time you left the house dressed in something that you thought made you look great.

How did you walk, talk, and interact with others? Did you notice a difference in the way others treated you? My guess is that you did, and most (if not all of it) was on the positive side of the spectrum.

Think about how you view others who dress well vs. people you know who obviously don't put much thought into their appearance. Who would you ask for directions from on the street? Who would you want to do your taxes, take care of your kids, or meet you for dinner?

Looking good can be a cycle that can improve the way you take care of yourself and live life in general.

Because when you look good, you feel good, when you feel good, you exude confidence, when you exude confidence you inspire respect. 

Plus, when you feel sexy and beautiful you are way less likely to scarf down a family-sized bag of Cheetos by yourself in your living room. You will be out on the town raking in the compliments from awe-struck onlookers as you strut your cute self to meet the hubs for a hot date, pick up your kid from daycare, or grab the mail.

I know what you're thinking- yep, that all sounds great Maureen, but I have no idea how to dress myself, so what now?

Don't go back to the Cheetos. You are not the only one with this problem! Many women face the challenges of not knowing what to wear on a daily basis. That's why I've invited Personal Style Expert and Contributor to our Program, Happy, Healthy & Hot Coaching, Barbara Aleks Hecht to share the top 5 struggles women have with dressing themselves, and (more importantly) what to do about them.

Here's what she had to say:

I’ve been Styling a lot of clients online lately and the more women I work with globally, the more evident it is that when it comes to shopping and getting dressed, no matter where my clients live, whether it’s in Canada, the US, Australia or Austria, the majority of them struggle with the same issues.

Here are the Top 5 Style Challenges I see, and how to overcome them…

1. You Don’t Know What Suits Your Body Shape, Personality or Personal Color Palette.  

This first challenge is at the root of all the other challenges on this list. If you don’t know what suits you or what looks good on you, how can you effectively know what to buy, what to wear, how to put an outfit together or know which new things to try?

Before you do anything else, you need to figure what works for you. How? By learning. Learn about your body shape and how to dress for it – which cuts and styles to wear and how to wear them. Learn about which colours suit you and learn about your own personal style – what you like and dislike, what feels like “you” and what doesn’t.

Read books, scour the internet or hire a Personal Stylist to give you one-on-one, personalized assistance and advice.


2. You Don’t Know How to Put Outfits Together.

Many women struggle with putting outfits together. They’re often overwhelmed by the process, don’t know where to start or are unsure of which items to pair together.

One reason they struggle is that they don’t know what to wear (see Challenge 1). Another is that they’re trying to create the outfit all at once, instead of breaking it down. A third is that they don’t have the right pieces in their closet to pull from. Finally, many don’t know how to accessorize, so they skip this final and crucial step altogether.

If you struggle with putting outfits together, first make sure that you’ve got Challenge 1 figured out. Then read the piece I wrote about the 5 Steps to the Perfect Outfit Every Time. It helps break the process down into easy to follow steps.


3. You Have a Closet Full of Clothes But Nothing to Wear.

In the many years that I’ve been Styling, never have I ever had a client with nothing to wear. (One came close, but even she had a few good outfits.)

The most common reason for feeling like you have nothing to wear is that you (like most people) probably wear 20% of your clothes, 80% of the time.

If you don’t believe me, or even if you do, start stacking clothes that you wear regularly onto one side of your closet or group them together. You’ll soon start to see which clothes you wear most and which ones get left behind.

Try to figure out why you don’t wear the ones in the “left behind” section. Are they the wrong size, colour or style? Do they need altering, cleaning or repairs, or are you waiting to buy other pieces to go with them?

You’ll soon see that not only do you have something to wear; you probably have more than enough or at the very least, a good place to start.


4. You Don’t Know What to Buy. 

By this point, you can probably deduce where the challenge of not knowing what to buy comes from. If you haven’t figured it out, read Challenges 1 through 3 again.

If you don’t know what suits you, if you don’t know how to put outfits together, if you have no idea what you actually have in your closet and why you do or don’t wear certain pieces, how will you ever know what to buy? Add that to the fact that you go into a store filled with limitless possibilities, it’s no wonder you either leave empty handed or buy the first half decent thing you stumble upon.

Once you know what suits you; once you know how to put yourself together; and once you’ve determined what’s in your closet and what might be missing, you’ll know exactly what you to look for and buy. You’ll be able to zero in on pieces that are right for you and avoid the ones that aren’t.


5. You Are Afraid to Try Something New.

Many women are afraid to try something new – whether it’s a new colour, pattern, cut or style. Part of this stems from knowing whether or not it suits them (there’s Challenge 1 again). The other part comes from fear and/or lack of confidence.

Trying something new is risky and scary, but how will you ever know how fabulous you could look if you never try? Trying new things allows you to grow and evolve and get better and better.

The only way to overcome this is to just do it. If you know what works for you and what doesn’t, there’s a good chance you’ll try something new and it’ll look great. If, on the other hand it doesn’t, well, then, no biggie – at least you tried. Just make sure no one took photos.

While these are the most common challenges I see, they’re not the only ones. Every single one of us struggles with something when it comes to style, getting dressed, knowing what to buy and how to wear it, looking good and feeling great.

As part of the Happy, Healthy & Hot Coaching Program I’ll be there to help you with whatever it is that you struggle with or are unsure of. I’ll be there to answer your questions, offer advice and share my expertise. I’ll be there for YOU!

Good luck and please tell me in the comments section of my blog how it’s going and what new sexy outfits you're creating to  inspire your self-worth.

Sincerely,
Coach Maureen
 
PS- If you'd like 1:1 advice from Barbara on how to dress for your own body type, then click here to learn about my upcoming (post-holiday) coaching program, Happy, Healthy & Hot!

How I Lost 50 lbs; My Personal Weight Loss Story

I have had many people ask me about my personal story and the motivation behind losing 54 pounds. They ask how I did it, how I kept it off and how I plan to lose the baby weight I'm currently gaining. So, I thought that since we are smack dab in the middle of the Holiday Season (and New Years Resolution Season is right around the corner), that I would share my personal story with you today.

I share this with you in hopes that it will help you realize that you are not alone if you have struggled with weight loss and/or a healthy self-image. Please feel free to comment on the blog, or email me with any questions you have- I love hearing from you!

I started wishing to be thinner when I was 8 years old. I know this because my mom recently pulled out a family album on which we wrote our wishes for the coming years. All of my family’s wishes for the future were hopes for traveling to exotic destinations and experiencing new things. My only wish, as an eight-year-old girl, was to become thinner as I got older.

Sadly, my wish was unfulfilled. In fact, I got bigger with age and my self-esteem & happiness continued to weaken.

I started dieting and trying to lose weight when I was 11 years old. My Mother who was equally disappointed in my weight (since she was a thin perfectionist) helped me by reading up on the latest diet fads and planning my meals for school. I constantly calculated calories, and became obsessed with staying within my daily caloric budget. I don’t think it’s any surprise that I stopped growing at age 12, topping out at 5ft tall.

Once I fell off my restrictive regimin, I immediately gained back all the weight, plus some. I became an “all or nothing” dieter, so even the slightest cheat was grounds for bingeing.

This was the beginning of my disordered eating cycle.

My Mother was always there to remind me when I was eating something “off” whatever diet I was following. This is when I started to secretly binge when no one was around to judge me. On top of the pressure I received to watch what I was eating at home, I was frequently teased at school by my (mostly male) peers as well. I was told by my middle school crush that I was too “Bloated” for him to go out with after I made my affection for him public.

Through my teen years and early twenties, I read diet books instead of schoolbooks. I gained and lost 30 pounds over and over and over again. I became obsessed with thin (not healthy). I tried every method the diet industry could throw at me; diet pills, low carb, low fat, the Grapefruit Diet, South Beach- you name it. It was all I could talk about around my friends and family. I would begrudgingly munch carrots and celery while my skinny friends would enjoy Whoppers & fries on a regular basis.

By the time I got to college, I was ready to rebel against dieting all together. I went on a four-year eating spree and gained over 50 pounds. Each time I ate, the goal was not to nourish my body, but to “stick it” to everyone in my life that made me feel like I needed to be on a diet. Everybody that found fault in the way I looked.

I got out of college wearing almost 60 extra pounds, with unhealthy skin, hair & teeth, and a terrible outlook on life.

I started working as a teacher and jumped right back into my binge/diet routine that I’d known in High School. Since I was in my late 20’s however, I was finding that losing the weight was not as easy as it had been when I was a teen. I was single, I didn’t find my job satisfying at all, and I was constantly dieting with little to no real results.

It was finally when I decided to start taking classes at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and became a Health Coach that I realized:

IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT WHAT YOU PUT INTO YOUR MOUTH 

that matters when it comes to health and weight loss.

Sure, it can be about that at the beginning, when you start your diet, but you've got to have a foundation of self-love and respect to stay on a healthy path for a lifetime.

Without the foundation, you will fail on every weight loss journey you embark on.  

I had no idea that how I felt about myself or how I took care of myself on a daily basis was affecting my health (and weight) so much!

After becoming a Health Coach, I decided to make nourishing my body the onlygoal when sitting down to eat. This naturally led to shifts in my food choices- mostly whole foods with little human interference. I chose exercises that I enjoyed, like walking and running, 

And I stopped working out just to lose weight.

I also started reading self-esteem & confidence books that were recommended in the curriculum at my school (just as voraciously as I had read diet books in the past). I started speaking to myself with respect and admiration instead of hissing toxic insults at myself under my breath.

I realized that I was dressing to “cover up” my body since I had gained so much weight and had started to look frumpy and aged. I hadn’t the faintest clue about style or how to dress for my body type (I’m a total Pear!). So, I set up an appointment with a personal stylist to update my wardrobe, get recommendations for what colors flatter my skin tone, and how to feel confident with my outfit choice every time I left the house.

I learned that in order to look great, I needed to start feeling great IN THE MOMENT instead of waiting for that magical number to appear on the scale. 

AND YOU KNOW WHAT? 

Even though I hadn't lost a pound, I felt Fantastic! I had amazing energy, I smiled more, I dressed like I was proud of my body, I unapologetically took risks without worrying so much about what others thought.

And let me tell you- people noticed!

Everyone started telling me how beautiful and “put-together” I looked, and “what was I doing differently?!”, and the most frequent question- “what was I doing to lose weight?!”.

This was crazy to me because at that time, I was at the heaviest weight of my entire life! 

And then this slowly happened:
 

I lost 54 lbs. and returned to my body’s natural weight just by making a few simple changes in my eating routine and nurturing a positive self-image.

You know that old adage “I’ll believe it when I see it”? Well, when the goal is to lose weight and look great, I’ve learned:

“You must Believe it First, in order to see it Happen!”

You can't wait to love yourself until you lose weight. That is Conditional Love. You've got to give yourself Unconditional Love and believe that you are worth Every. Single. Bit. 

So that’s my personal weight loss story. If you get anything from it, I hope it’s this:

HOW YOU FEEL ON THE INSIDE, WILL EVENTUALLY MANIFEST ON THE OUTSIDE!

So, you must work hard to FEEL AMAZING on the inside! 
This is the reason I created the Happy, Healthy & Hot Coaching Program. This program is basically the summation of the path that I took two years ago to lose the weight for good!

I’ve combined health & nutrition with coaching in self-esteem, confidence, and personal style. But, unlike my journey, this program will have three SUPERSTAR PROFRESSIONALS guiding you every step of the way to help you feel and look amazing in just three months!

If you feel like you are ready to make that FINAL RESOLUTION to lose weight & look FANTASTIC in 2015, then click here to JOIN US and make this your Healthiest, Happiest, Hottest Year Ever!

Have a great rest of your week!
Sincerely,
Coach Maureen