The Juicy Woman

Increase Confidence With A Stepped Approach To Learning

Got BlackBerry fever? I just caught a case of it myself. Just to be sure that we're on the same page, I'm not talking about the fruit, I'm talking about the internet based mobile device that will take your business out of the office. It's from T-Mobile, and it makes staying connected via e-mail to friends, family and life as easy as making a call. With my new BlackBerry Pearl, I've also got a camera, MP3 player, Bluetooth and web browsing capability. Great business tool, right? Sure but only if I use it.

In the past, I've been known to sit on the fence and let opportunities pass me by because I've been resistant to change. But that old dusty thinking got aired out last week when I felt the pangs of regret after I realized that I was letting a great slip through my fingers because I didn't want to take time to learn something new.

Tyra Banks: The Juicy Woman's Role Model For A Healthy Self Esteem

Ever since I was a girl, I loved playing dress up. I truly relish being a gal. It’s fun to be able to enjoy lovely clothes, put on makeup and reinvent myself all the time. That’s why one of my favorite shows is "America’s Next Top Model.”

Recently I heard in the news that Tyra Banks, the host of the show, and a Nationally Famous Supermodel was being harassed because she had gained weight. Many people were questioning her ability to lead the show. She was even being pressured to leave her show, “

Unwilling to take this lying down, the confident woman retorted, “You have to be thin to be a model-I don’t have to live up to that model standard anymore.” If I had lower self esteem, I would probably be starving myself right now.”

Leverage All Your Assets For Maximum Weight Loss

Have you ever had a great resource that you realize has gone largely untapped?

This was the question that rolled around in my head as I sat at the Help Counter of Apple Computer's Mac Genius Bar.

A couple of years ago, my dad was concerned that my PC computer had become vulnerable to viruses. He gifted me with a Powerbook G4, a model which including all the bells and whistles du jour. Not being very comfortable with learning new technology, I just used the machine for basics and ignored most of its great benefits. It became a very expensive paperweight. I guess you could say that I was reluctant to step out of my comfort zone.

Well my PC has been attacked by a virus again. It's not working and that made me realize that I need to do something different. Now it's time to step out of my comfort zone and embrace my Mac.

Stop In the Name Of Fat!

At dinner today, my husband, Angel invited the kids and I to enjoy one of our favorite restaurants, a Japanese steakhouse. I love eating there. I enjoy the food so much and the atmosphere is such fun. I was having a ball nuzzling with my hubby and laughing with the kids.

I ordered Hibachi Steak for dinner.  I told the chef exactly how I wanted it. I said, I’d like it well cooked on the outside and very rare on the inside and please don’t trim it. I thought I made myself very clear but evidently there was some misunderstanding.

As the chef was preparing the steak on the hibachi table, I watched him trim the fat from each of the four steaks on the grill.  Quietly I sat, mute as he scooted each of the trimmed portions of fat into the waste pocket on the side of the grill.

Express Yourself For Maximum Eating Pleasure

I’ve been thinking about the lesson that resulted from yesterday’s white plighted binge.  I’ve come to a conclusion. It’s about self expression and making your needs known. I continue to work on that on a daily basis. Today another opportunity to become aware of expressing my needs rose to light.

When 12:00 rolled around, I was technically free to eat any food that I wanted. Yet I chose to eat a banana and some potato crisps that I had bought yesterday.
It struck me as odd that the exact foods that I felt controlled and limited to yesterday, became the food that I chose today. Then I had an insight. Like so many women, I have a tendency to have a good girl streak in me. That means that I am a real rules oriented gal.

My White Hot Binge

I just got back from the dentist today. Every couple of years I like to get my teeth whitened. Today was the day. At the end of the treatment, my hygienist, Linda gave me a sheet of paper indicating what foods to avoid. She told me don’t eat anything that can stain a white shirt.

In the past, I went late in the afternoon to the dentist, once finished, I dashed to the store and grabbed a can of New England Clam Chowder and some fish and I was good to go. That was back in the dieting days, and with Weight Watchers point counting, I would never have spent 10 points or 500 calories on a bowl of chowder. In essence, I used to look at that meal as a real treat.

Today my appointment was at 9:00 a.m. That left the entire day to mull about thinking about what I could not eat. It felt like torture.

Visualize Your Way To A Thinner Body and A Juicylicious Life

This evening I enjoyed a lively chat with several Juicy Woman colleagues of mine. We discussed the importance of being able to visualize goals by creating a clear image of what you desire.

By having a clearly defined image, your brain has a place to ‘hang its hat,’ so to speak. It has an image to move toward as it directs you to carry out your day. If you are focusing on thinking about having fat thighs or flappy arms, and every time you think about yourself, that’s what you see in your mind's eye, you’ll get to keep your flappy arms and chunky thighs. In order to get something different, you have to feed your brain some new input.

On my next free call, we will talk about the mind body connection to weight loss and what that actually means to you and how your thoughts can actually affect your body. Don't miss out!

Diets Lead To Binges: Binges Lead To Diets

Diets! How hateful are they? In my opinion, their restrictive nature keeps you tied up in knots, often causing you, the dieter to obsesss about foods in a way that is unnatural. Diets have an alarmingly low rate of success. Most people who have been on a diet and lost weight, have eventually regained that weight back. That evidences the fact that ultimately the diet didn’t work. 

Most women aren’t conditioned to believe that. They’ve been sold a bill of goods that says, that something is wrong with them. So many say that they have no will power, lack self control, have no discipline, they’re too weak or too lazy. We beat up on ourselves when in fact, in my opinion, we should be beating up on diets. Diets don't work!

How Intuitive Eating Is Changing My Eating Habits

As you begin your journey along the road to non diet weight loss, you can expect to experience many changes. One of my Losing Weight Without Dieting graduates, Linda, says, “many of the foods that you thought you loved, you won’t even like anymore. In fact, you’ll hate them.” Boy is she right!

The following is just a bird’s eye view into my experience of how this process of Intuitive Eating has changed my own eating habits. You’ll notice that the changes are gradual. This is not a get thin quick scheme. This is a way of reteaching your body how to eat to nourish itself. The changes are all internalized and come from body awareness, not anyone telling you what to do. You just begin doing it because it makes you feel good and overeating makes you feel rotten.

I began in August of 2006 - Among the first changes that I noticed were a sensitivity to the taste of salt. Many foods that I once loved no longer appeal to me after I gave myself permission to eat them. They tasted too salty. These include most fast food restaurants, like Burger King, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and one of my former favorite craves…

Just Catching Up...

Over the past 81 days, I’ve been leading a team of professionals in creating information products in an amazing program called, “The 90 Day Product Factory.” (If you're looking to create a killer information product in less than 90 days with a team of support, networking and a deadline, then it's for you!) As a team leader and a repeat participant, I can't say enough about it.

I’ve learned so much by having had the opportunity to lead 25 people from around the world, get to know them, learn about their businesses as I supported them in creating a unique product that will capture the hearts of their clients. It's definitely kept me pretty busy but all the while you, Juicy Woman have been in my heart and thoughts all the while. That's why I've been stirring up something special just for all you stay at home working Moms. Stay tuned for more on The Slim and Savvy Club coming  later this month. If you can't wait, shoot me an email at andrea@thejuicywoman.com