Weight loss

Boost Your Mood and Energy Level

Hello My Beauties,

Have you ever questioned why as we get older, our energy and focus diminishes? Well I know I have, and I have learned that it might not be just our age, but more so our hormones. The stresses of life can take their toll; trust me- I get it! But if you’re feeling depressed, lethargic, irritable and can’t seem to shake the funk, your hormones might just be the culprit to your mystery.

Recently I read that that one in 10 people in the U.S take anti- depressants, and an even more alarming statistic is that one and six women between ages 40 and 50 do as well. The truth is, many of these woman and even men may just need their hormone levels checked.

This week I investigate Bioidentical Hormones using Pellet Therapy. You might be thinking to yourself… what the heck is that?!

This technique is a form of anti-aging medicine, that claims to not only aid in helping you build collagen, and even lose that notorious belly bulge, it also claims to help protect the heart, mental health, and cognitive function.

This video is just the beginning of a conversation I want to open up with you about bio identical hormone replacement therapy. Does it interest you? Scare you? Confuse you? Or have you had bio identical hormone replacement therapy? Please share in the comment section below.

In the weeks to come, I will be interviewing more experts and Doctors who share different applications, information, and insights about the benefits and risks associated with bio identical hormone replacement therapy. So stay tuned- and be sure to subscribe to my YouTube page because there’s a lot more to come on this topic that you don’t want to miss!

“Feeling good on the inside is the first step in our journey to finding that balance of what beauty is.”

If you feel good, you look good, and who doesn’t want that!

With love and gratitude,

Michelle

Calling all Beauty Investigator Correspondents!

I’d love to hear your feedback on the topic of hormones! Do you feel your hormones are out of whack? Have you tried Hormone Replacement Therapy? If so, what is your experience?

You Binged. Now What?

By Melissa Kathryn

So it goes a little something like this…

You’re good all week, you’ve worked out everyday, you went to bed early, you’re feeling fabulous and like you’re on your way to your weight loss goals…and then the weekend hits. All of a sudden something drives you and you find yourself to be home, sitting on your couch eating whatever carbs and sugar you can get your hands on.

The next day…self-loathing hits you like a tons of bricks. You feel sick, still full from the night before. You are ridden with guilt and shame. Disgusted with yourself. “What’s wrong with me?”, you ask. “Why do I do this?” “All of my hardwork…now I need to go to the gym just to work it off “.

This can occur from a fight with a spouse, boredom, loneliness, family, going home, stress from work or from life.

There are a multitude of triggers for binges. The key is finding yours. (Tweet it)

Binges are an onset of emotions. What’s interesting is we turn to food because our bodies actually want to make us feel better. At an early age, we were taught to view food as something to make us feel good. When we fell down or did something well, we were rewarded with food, (usually candy or very fattening and highly processed foods). Think about it – if you fell down, you got ice cream. If your team won a game, you went out for pizza and ice cream. Food was instant gratification to bring you happiness, ease pain, or make you feel fulfilled.

There is a stigma around emotional eating. Saying you’re an emotional eater can not only feel wrong, but feel shameful. What’s interesting is that most people’s eating is driven by their emotions over their physical hunger. You don’t have to be obese to be an emotional eater and you don’t have to classify yourself with an “eating disorder”.

This process is about recognizing the “Why Factor” so you can do a course correct. Learn from your binges. They are lessons.

Binges are a way to escape or suppress bad feelings, to gain control and to feel good feelings instead – know this to be true. So the next time, ask yourself, “Why am I reaching for food?” Identifying your triggers is the most direct and effective way to get to the root cause.

Challenge:

Identify your triggers by asking yourself these 3 questions:

What happened in that situation that set me off?
What are trigger situations for me? Meaning, where do you not feel in control or find yourself always overeating or binging?
What am I really hungry for? What happened then that made me upset and why?

How to Recover:

Identify your triggers.
Forgive yourself and learn from your experience – know there is unhealed pain or lack of fulfillment or patterned behavior driving your actions.
Today is a new day – the past is the past, you are in control of your actions, thoughts and emotions moving forward.
Drink tons of water with lemon to help your body digest.

Take positive actions and make today a fabulous day!

A Sneaky Weight Loss Secret

by Renee Heigel

Love Handle I want to share one of the best secrets to weight loss I’ve ever learned. It’s a core shift in focus that changes everything. But before I tell you about that, let me explain what happened to a client of mine recently…

She’s in her bathroom, putting on makeup, it is taking forever. All she wants is to feel attractive. She feels exhausted, unsexy and lethargic… None of her clothes fit and nothing looks good. Moments ago, as she took off outfit #8, she sat for a moment on her bed in anguish and pain. She’s embarrassed, but this will have to do. It’s time to go.

She turns off the light and walks down the hall and then she sees him.

She’s nervous and excited. Early morning’s to work out, drinking and eating all of these healthy things. She is trying…

Her husband is standing at the end of the hall and she is yearning for him to simply notice her. He looks at her and says, “ready to go, we’re going to be late”. He doesn’t see her, check her out or notice her outfit.

He says nothing more and then turns his back to go grab the keys…

She was DYING to be seen, to be appreciated. But it was like she was invisible. (And that wasn’t even the worst part…)

I’ll tell you about the worst part in just a sec. For now one of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned…

Here’s something you should know about me: I do not own a scale.

And, if you are my client, then you’ll know that I’ve probably told you to throw yours away too.

As far as I’m concerned, you have no use for a scale in your house.

A lot of my clients feel incredibly anxious when I challenge them with this…

But here’s the deal: Your scale keeps you focused on LACK.

When you use a scale you are thinking about what you don’t want.

Yes, you might imagine the day you lose those 15 pounds and you see it on the scale…

BUT…

Before you step that little toe up onto your scale, there is an unconscious fear that sucks you into a fearful vortex.

It’s screaming, “please, please, please… weigh less than or at least the same as I weighed last time.”

And then you see the result and you’re never happy.

You cannot win at this point.

Back to our story of my lovely client.

She returned home from her evening out, weighed herself immediately to see if there was difference in her weight. She gained 2 pounds. She is feeling fat, ugly and depressed. Her man didn’t noticed her and she ate like a bird all night for fear of that measurement on her scale sliding forward and she stilled gained weight!?

When her husband fell asleep, do you know what she did?

She got up in the middle of the night and pulled the tub of chocolate marshmallow ice cream out of the fridge and sat at the table and ate it all until it was gone.

It filled that empty void that she didn’t get filled up earlier, but not for long.

She tossed and turned until she fell back to sleep, feeling horrible and like she had failed yet again.

Guess what, she woke up and got on the scale once again only to see that the number had moved by a pound.

If you can only do one thing, then do this:

Make a choice to: Show up for yourself. Listen to your body and ask yourself: How do I feel right now?

It’s not about the scale.

It’s about loving yourself.

If you are stuck in a similar pattern then comment below.

With love,

Renee “no scale” Heigel

Love the body you have…TODAY!

by Celebrity Makeup Artist, Self-Esteem Coach, and Bestselling Author Michelle Phillips

Love the body you have today!

It’s no small secret that women don’t like their bodies. In fact, I’ve been doing a little research and I am sad to report that recent statistics say that more than 80% of women are dissatisfied with their bodies. Even more troubling is that 65% of young girls think they are fat and are already dieting. Ladies of all ages, this has got to change!

As a celebrity makeup artist and stylist the first things I usually hear when when working with a client is “can you cover this up” or “could you make me look 10 pounds thinner?” With the right makeup, lighting, and airbrushing anything is possible in front of the camera, but in real life- the Life Coach in me has to take over from there. That bit of “cover-up” is best if it comes from inside.

I can tell you from working with hundreds of women that the latest diet or workout won’t be the key to having a body you love. Believing in who you are, and in how you look… is the foundation to achieving what you truly want out of life. I know this isn’t always an easy thing to do but freeing yourself of negative thoughts is a huge step towards living a truly beautiful life and achieving a healthy body. The first, and possibly the most crucial step on that path though, is to start loving the body you have right now.

Here are some suggestions to do just that:

Create an “I love myself because…” list

First, write down 20 things that you love about yourself. Your list may include your personality, kind heart, your sense of humor, compassion, smile, elbows, feet, etc. Include your talents and achievements, or various ways you’re proud of yourself. If you have trouble with this exercise think about what your best friend would say about you. It’s time to be your own best friend!

Take notice of the beauty around you

Take a deeper look at nature surrounding you. It may be a tree, mountains, clouds, the moon, butterfly, a flower…is it perfect? Does it have imperfections, maybe a few blemishes on a leaf? Start to notice the beauty around you. Train your mind to let go of the “imperfections” and revel in what makes things uniquely beautiful.

Delete Negative Self-Talk

Every time you hear yourself talking negatively about how you look…STOP! Who needs another critic? Instead, turn that inner dialogue into positive self-talk. You have the power to focus on what is great about you right now by deleting the negative thoughts whenever they show up.

Appreciate your beautiful body

Women are familiar with their face but not necessarily their body. Start to look at your body in the mirror. Study your shape and find the beauty. Notice how your body supports you and your daily life. Our bodies are beautiful vessels that transport our gorgeous souls.

Cut the tags out of your clothes!

Don’t buy a closet full of clothes that are too tight for you to fit into hoping that you’ll be in them soon – those are just guilt garments that don’t make you feel good when you open your closet. Buy and wear clothes that fit the body you have today. They call it a “fitting room” for a reason. Size doesn’t matter; it is all about how you feel in your clothes. By dressing the body you have today will help increase your self-esteem and in-turn unnecessary weight will begin to fall away. When you feel better about yourself, you take better care of yourself. It’s that simple!