How to lose weight the Sparkly Self Love way…through glittery platforms, burlesque and good champagne!

Grace Kelly being awesome

So I realized today that I have spent the last year studying at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition learning how to coach people on how to lose weight and eat right, among many other things.  I have also spent the last year taking care of a baby and starting yet another new business!  I think during that time I forgot to apply everything I have learned to my own life.  I love myself and my body more than I ever have, but it’s time to say goodbye to the baby weight once and for all.  Would you like to join me?

Here are the only things you need to do to lose weight, and dieting is absolutely never allowed!  If you follow these steps you will lose weight.  I know, the hard part can be staying on track, but this time I want you to think of this as a way of life.  In life we are constantly learning and evolving.  This way there is no falling off the wagon, only learning interesting lessons along the way.  And so we begin…

Crystal Renn being hot

1.  Love and accept your body and know that you are absolutely perfect right now, this minute, today.  I can’t stress how much more important this is than any other diet tip you will ever hear in your life.  If you are going to lose weight it must come from a place of love and acceptance.  When you lose weight due to self hate and utter revulsion it doesn’t make for a happy thin person.  Read these articles for a little extra inspiration (one, two, three).

so delightful

2.  After you have mastered step one (seriously, this won’t work unless you at least start to master step one!), it is time to envision your ideal future self.  Take 5 minutes and truly get to know her.  What does she wear, what does she eat, what kind of exercise does she do, what is her life like, you get the idea.  Only after you have truly become this woman in your mind (it could take 5 minutes, it could take 20),  I want you to choose 3 words that represent this future woman and her life.  Some examples might be: Delight, Freedom, Romance, Joy, you get the idea.  Write these 3 words on post-its and put them everywhere as your secret little reminder.  Write them on your bathroom mirror in lipstick!  I put mine in my car, my daily planner, my bathroom mirror and the front door!  For extra credit (and results) you would spend a few minutes every day envisioning the woman that you would like to become.

3.  After you are in agreement with the first two steps you are ready for this one.  Write down everything you eat in the most adorable journal that you can find.  All I want you to write down is what time you ate, what you ate (quantity not necessary) and your hunger level.  This is to be done without judgement, which is why it will be fairly ineffective until you get down with the first two.

Here is an example of how I would like you to use this food journal, an honest to goodness example from my life last weekend.

7:30 – some pieces of cinnamon roll – not hungry but had to eat before we left the house.
10:00 – apple fritter from top pot – a little hungry
2:00 – leftover pizza – a little hungry

What? I went to nutrition school? The reason I use this example is that we all encounter some variety of this in our lives. The normal reaction would be to start yelling (internally) at myself about how it’s no wonder that I haven’t lost the baby weight yet. I need to go on a diet immediately, which I’ll probably fail at. Basically, how much I suck.  There isn’t a shred of sparkly self love in that approach.

Here is the sparkly self love response to that day of interesting food intake:
That is so adorable that I ate like that this morning. Truly adorable.
What was going on with me?
Do I want that to happen again?
No? What could I do to prevent it next time.
Yeah!!

The act of writing your food down will automatically cause you to be aware of what you are eating.  You would be surprised how much we all eat when we are completely zoned out.

4.  Here are the food rules you have all been waiting for:

Be aware of what you are eating.
Eat food that makes your body feel good most of the time.
Stop eating when you are satisfied.

Those are the only food rules I am going to give you.  If you are a woman over the age of 20 you have probably read a dozen diet books.  We all know what’s healthy and what’s not healthy.  We live in our bodies every day, so if you pay attention you will know what foods make your body feel good.  Some people can’t tolerate dairy, some do fine with it.  Some people lose weight on a low carb diet, but there are plenty that don’t.  Stop listening to diet fads and start listening to your body.

There is nothing “wrong” with any food.  You will quickly find that some foods should be saved for special occasions and others are meant to be eaten daily.  The key is to savor everything you eat no matter what it is.  If you want to eat croissants every day then that is fine, but put it on the best plate you can find and sit down and enjoy it.  If you do that I bet you’ll find that you enjoy them more if you don’t eat them every day.

Remember the low fat diet craze that many of us are STILL trying to follow?  They have now proven that a low fat diet will make you gain weight over time, yet there are still tons of packaged foods that say non-fat or low-fat on them, and we think we are being “good” by buying them.

so hot…

5.  Move your body and make it fun.  Move your body because it feels good, and not because you are supposed to do it.  There is a form of exercise for everyone.  I promise you.  Don’t believe me?  Perhaps there are a few that you haven’t tried that I happen to think are awesome!  Read this post for a little more…

I think Burlesque, Qoya, Nia and Pole Dancing are the most kick ass ways to get in shape and have more fun in an hour than you ever thought possible.

Yoga is divine and there are so many types of yoga to try!  My favorite right now is My Yoga Online, it is an online yoga class site that has every type of yoga imaginable.  You can also choose to search by class length time, so if you only have 15 minutes you can easily find a class.

Have you ever heard of walking?  It’s a miracle activity!  I do my best creative thinking when I’m walking alone.  You can always listen to a “book on tape” if you don’t feel like thinking!

Lady Glitter Slingbacks from Christian Laboutin

6.  And finally, go buy yourself something really, really pretty.  It could be a tiny trinket or an extravagant bit of happiness.  This will serve as just another reminder that you are amazing, and you deserve to have the very best…Right now…Exactly as you are.  Try to wear or carry this new item with you as much as possible, consider it a talisman of sorts.  This step may not seem important but it really is, now is the time to step up and enjoy who you are.  Stop wasting another moment of your life thinking otherwise!  By the way, these might be an easier alternative to the Laboutins, and this necklace would be a sweet choice!
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a little glittery fairy dust for you

I could go on and on for the next few months on this,  there is a lot to say, but truly it all stems from these 6 topics.  Start working on them slowly and it will all come together.  If you rush into it all at once then it will turn into yet another plan you didn’t stick to.  Savor these steps like a glass of extremely expensive champagne.

I am deep in the trenches of working on my new online class A Lovely Venture, but I am already planning my next project which will be all about this awesome topic.  Be patient though, what I’m working on is going to be phenomenal so I can’t rush it!!