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Affirming Holiday Weight Loss Success Gillian Hood-Gabrielson shows us how it is possible to enjoy the holidays without gaining weight or beating yourself up.

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"The ancestor of every
action is a thought."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quarterly Affirmation

My life is filled with joy and gratitude,
and I am abundant in every way!

Isn’t it interesting how many of us know that eating healthy and exercising regularly is the key to weight loss, yet so few are able to achieve their desired results? We all know the basics, and yet the United States has among the most obese population in the world. Could it be that there is actually more to losing weight? The truth is—knowledge alone is not enough. Most of us need a guide to support us in the process, cheer our successes, help us detect and eliminate roadblocks, and uncover the deeper issues that sabotage our progress. We can use this help particularly during the holidays, when high-calorie but oh-so-delightful temptations are abundant.

For this holiday newsletter, we contacted a guide, Intuitive eating and fitness coach, Gillian Hood-Gabrielson (www.healthieroutcomes.com), for suggestions about weight maintenance during the holidays. Gillian has dealt with her own weight issues, after which she became a fitness coach 12 years ago. In that process, she discovered her own emotional eating problem, along with the fact that nearly all of her fitness clients had the same issue.

INTUITIVE EATING
Setting out to resolve those issues, once and for all, Gillian learned about intuitive eating. As babies and small children, most of us know intuitively to eat when we are hungry and stop eating when we are full. As we grow up, and become influenced by outside sources, many lose that intuitive understanding of their bodies.

Gillian’s first-hand experience and training as a professional coach has prepared her to help clients address their eating issues long before she begins motivating them to exercise. “Without first addressing the way clients eat and their relationship to food, they may never see results from exercising,” explains Gillian. “In order to be successful in any weight loss program, clients must first agree that they’ve been on their last diet, and that they are willing to put forth trust in the process.”

AFFIRMING CHANGE
That process almost always includes affirmations. While some clients are resistant, once they begin to see the results of using affirmations, the majority embrace the process. While working on her own eating issues, Gillian’s coach asked her if she was happy with her results. The answer was no, so her coach suggested that she examine her thoughts. “At the time, I couldn’t figure out what the connection was between my thoughts and my weight loss results,” says Gillian. “Of course, my thoughts all hovered around ‘I’m fat”, ‘I’ll never lose weight’, ‘I hate how I look in this’.” Gillian’s coach gave her this formula:

Thoughts lead to >  Feelings that lead to >  Behavior which lead to >  Results

Once she saw this, it made perfect sense to Gillian how she had been unconsciously sabotaging her progress with her thoughts and words. There is no way around it: Thoughts must improve in order to improve results.

Anyone who wants to lose weight has to be willing to honestly examine their self-talk, which in many cases is keeping them stuck. “I tell clients,” Gillian explains, “If you wouldn’t say it to a small child, don’t say it to yourself…because your subconscious is always listening and acting on your thoughts. Your subconscious is like a small child, soaking up whatever you are saying or thinking.”

For coach Gillian, affirmations are a crucial tool in reshaping our self-talk. By developing and using affirmations that focus on each individual’s self-talk and eating issues, her clients are building a foundation for success.

BABY STEPS
When clients feel the most direct affirmation is too much of a stretch for them, Gillian suggests they create what coaches call a ‘bridge belief’, or a statement that closes the gap between current reality and the client’s desired results. “A bridge belief is like taking baby steps toward the bigger goal. When saying, I’ve lost all my excess weight! feels unimaginable, I have them try something more like, I am doing everything I need to lose weight and be healthy!  Then, clients can take as many baby steps as they need until they get to where they want to be.” says Gillian, “It really doesn’t take that long until I love my body! feels true.”

Of course, affirmations never feel ‘right’ or true at the beginning. If they did, we wouldn’t need them! The truth is that we need affirmations to shift our thinking patterns in a new direction, and this has to be done with conscious effort. To do so, we have to keep our goal in mind, and say something that has not yet appeared in our life. This takes trust that we can, in fact, have exactly what we desire or see in our mind’s eye. Gillian reports that the majority of her clients, after confronting their initial resistance, see the power in affirmations and continue to use them.

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PREPARING FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Whether you want to maintain your weight during the holidays or continue shedding the pounds, Gillian has this advice:

I. Don't expect to keep up your eating routine during the holidays, especially if you are traveling. Let go of perfection.

II. Put a plan in place ahead of time:
a. Never go to a party hungry
b. If you choose to drink alcohol, alternate it with water
c. Keep your regular exercise regimen
i. Do not counteract with more exercise. Stay on your regular schedule.
ii. Have other exercise options available
iii. Minimum 20 min. x 3 days a week

III. Eat only the foods that you love—before, during, or after parties

IV. If / When you do overeat
a. Make a conscious decision to be an adult about it (don’t make excuses or beat yourself up)
b. Acknowledge it, let it go and move on

V. Use these affirmations all year long:
a.  I easily stop eating when I’m full!
b. I enjoy food without overeating!

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Gillian Hood-Gabrielson, MS, ACSM, is the president of Healthier Outcomes, specializing in intuitive eating and fitness coaching. For more information and to receive a free report, "6 Steps to Guilt-Free Eating", visit her website at www.HealthierOutcomes.com. Gillian can be reached at gillian@HealthierOutcomes.com or 866-650-6464.

Nancy Barry-Jansson is an illustrator and the creator of AffirmingSpirit™ Affirmation Cards, which are sold online through AffirmingSpirit.com. The cards were first conceived when Nancy was looking for a more beautiful way to experience her daily affirmations. Her intention is that the cards will inspire and help others in their daily practice of affirmations. You can reach her at newsletter@affirmingspirit.com.

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© 2006 Barry-Jansson & Associates and AffirmingSpirit.com.

We welcome suggestions for this quarterly newsletter. Got a question you'd like explored, a resource to recomment, or a great idea to share? Send your suggestions to newsletter@affirmingspirit.com!

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