Working With Positive Affirmations and Positive Thinking

Most of us have heard of the practice of using "positive affirmations" or "thinking positive" as a way to change your life for the better. I do believe that being positive in thought makes a big difference in how we live our lives. I do not believe that is all you have to do though. Thinking positively is a great thing, but taking positive action needs to accompany your positive thinking.


There have been many studies that prove positive affirmations work. For instance, if you are up to bat at a ball game and you say to yourself "I can hit this ball", you most likely will. If you tell yourself that you will not hit the ball, you most likely won't hit it.



This positive thinking can be applied to just about everything that you do. When you hear someone say, "I will never be able to lose this weight", I would bet that that person will never be able to lose their weight.


If they say "I will be able to lose this weight", then I would feel very confident that is exactly what will happen. It really comes down to the belief system in a person that makes things happen, and their conversation will reflect what it is they believe, which will create what will happen.


You can practice positive affirmations even when you do not believe them. For instance, if you say to yourself "I am a very successful person", but your life is not reflecting that and your belief system does not match up to that, saying it over and over will begin to change your belief system, and then life will change to match your affirmation.

How many negative things do you tell yourself daily? If you are like most people, negative thoughts run ramped through their minds all day long. Do you know of anyone who is negative most of the time, but has a positive life? Most negative people live lives that are filled with negative things. Well, being positive works in the same way, you will have more positive things in your life.


Practice being aware of your thoughts and if they are negative, shift them to a positive affirmation. Once again we are talking about mindfulness. Being aware of what you are thinking and how you are acting. Thinking positively will help you to feel better no matter what is going on. Feeling better is always a good thing.


Being in positive thought is a practice, particularly if you are used to having negative thoughts. Keep practicing positive thoughts every day until it becomes your norm. I used to think negative, fearful thoughts most of the time. Years ago I began to work with mindfulness and switching my thoughts from fear and negativity, to more positive, uplifting thoughts. It was not easy at first, but as time went by, it became normal for me.


Now when I slip back into a negative, fearful, thought, I am uncomfortable and become conscious of what I am doing. Before this practice, I wasn't even aware of all the negative thoughts I was having. Remember that we have approximately 60,000 thoughts going through our minds each day. It is better to have those thoughts be positive if you want to feel good and experience life in a better way.



So practice your positive affirmations and positive thoughts everyday. This will help to make your life more fulfilling and happy, I promise you that!



Till Monday,
Queenie

The Real Reason Why We Eat Food

Lately I have been observing all of the nutritional and health news that has been in our media. Most of it is about the horrible obesity epidemic that has taken over our country. At 68% of our population overweight or obese, it is truly something to be alarmed about.


What fascinates me is that no one seems to understand that the solution to this enormous problem involves educating the public that they can no longer keep eating the processed food, junk food, high sugar, high fat, non-nutritional foods. They need to reduce their portion size, and they also need to get up off their butts and begin moving more every day. That is the solution to this problem, but our society doesn't seem to think that is a possibility.



As I stated yesterday, the new solution is to medicate all of the obese people so they can survive. I find that to be another move by an insane culture.


Let's talk about the "real" reason we eat food. I know this may come as a shock to many of you, but we eat food so that our bodies can get the "nutrition" it needs to properly function on every level.



Our bodies need vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, probiotics, and water, to help with all of the functions of every organ that keeps us alive. These things are found in "Nature's" foods like, fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, and lean animal protein. They are not found in fast foods, processed food, and junk foods.


So if you are a person that consumes all of the foods that have no nutrition in them, how can your body function properly? It can't, and that is why people are obese, have diabetes, heart disease, and a host of other high body fat related illness's. Your body is being filled with non nutritious foods that do not help the body to be in proper health.


The amount of food our citizens of this country eat in one sitting is glutenous to say the least. Many people eat in one meal, what should be eaten in three meals. We need to use some common sense when it comes to our nutritional needs. At this time, there is none of that.



Without exercise, your body will slow down its metabolism and burn less calories. Without muscle on your body, you will age quicker, and carry more body fat. This will only exacerbate your bad health from eating poorly.


We are so ignorant to why we should eat. We eat emotionally, we eat for fun, we eat purely for taste, but most of us do not eat for nutrition. This needs to change or our population is going to all be kept alive by medications prolonging our obesity related illness's.



Your taste buds will get used to whatever you decide to eat. If you eat high sodium, high fat, or high sugar foods, that is what you conditioned your tasted buds for. You can change this by changing what you eat. Eventually you will like the healthier foods if you stick with it.


My diet mostly consists of natures foods. If I eat something that is fattening, sugary, or overly processed, I do not like it. I have trained my tasted buds to like the healthier foods. So can you.



So when you choose your foods, ask yourself if it is nutritional. If it isn't, choose again if you are wanting to be healthy and fit. It is the quality of life that you are choosing....it is your life that is at stake. Choose health!



Till Tomorrow,
Queenie

The Speed Up of Time

When I was a kid, I thought a year took forever to end. I could not wait until summer came, and it seemed like the three months of summer lasted a long time.


We did not have e-mail or the internet, so we wrote letters to our friends and family that lived elsewhere. It took a week to get a letter to its destination, and then another week to receive one back.


If we wanted to research something, it involved a trip to the library, and then many times it took hours to find what it was that we were looking for. There were index cards to locate books with, not computers. It was all done manually.


Weekends were long and lazy times. We did not have scheduled time, or homework to do, that was all done during the week. We relaxed and had leisure time.


Well all of those things are a thing of the past. Now summer seems to last for a few weeks, letters have now been replaced by instant e-mails, research is done in seconds on the Internet, and everyday has some kind of schedule and something that has to be done on the to-do list.


I don't know if it is our world of technology that has sped everything up, or if time really is moving faster. I thought it was the technology until a friend of mines five year old daughter announced at the end of her first year in kindergarten, "Mommy, kindergarten went by really fast!".


What does she have to even relate it to? She isn't involved with the fast moving tech part of our existence. Kindergarten was a fifth of her life, how could she possibly feel time going by fast?


What I do know is that all of my teen students have the feeling that time zooms by. They do not feel as I did at their age that time moved on like a snail.





What ever the reason for it, time is at warp speed. I closed my eyes at 39, and opened them at 56. That is how fast it feels. Knowing this, it is important to understand that this life is just a blip on the radar screen. It is fast and fleeting. Best to make the best of it by not wasting it.


Do you put things off because you think you have an endless amount of time? Do you think that it will take forever before you start getting old? Do you feel like you can create your life later because you have so much time?


It has been my experience that we do not have the time that we think. If you have a dream to do something, begin working on it now. Many of my students have dreams of starting a business, or going to a certain college, but they think they have lots of time before they have to begin thinking about it. They don't. Many of them are going to be seniors this coming fall, and now is the time to begin planning for that college, or trade school, or whatever dream they are hoping for.

There is a old saying, "The early bird gets the worm." In our world today that is so true. There are so many people vying for certain careers, jobs, and dreams. If you are not aggressive with your education and planning, you just might be left behind. Time will march on without you.


Time is precious, and we need to remember that. If you have plans or dreams, work on them now. Tomorrow may seem far away, but it is not. You will find yourself a decade older in what may seem like no time at all. Talk to anyone who is older, and they will tell you the same thing.



You do not want to wake up at forty years old and say "Oops, I forgot to plan for my life".
Being mindful of time. This life will not last forever!


Till Tomorrow,
Queenie

New Weight Loss Drug?

I could not believe my ears this morning when I heard about a new weight loss drug about to come out on the market. Have we not learned anything about "pharmaceuticals" for weight loss? Every time a drug is used for this, there have been harmful, if not deadly, side effects.


But, here we go again, another quick fix to not being obese. Never mind eating right and exercising daily. God forbid we do something like that. Oh no, we have to take a pill to lose our fat, while we continue the bad lifestyle that got us to that place.


Back in the nineties a drug called Fen-phen was released for weight loss to the public. After several years of thousands of people taking this "miracle" pill, over 11,000 people sued the company for heart problems and death.


Am I crazy to think that it is strange to take medicine for something that you can take control of by stopping the ingestion of processed, fast, and junk foods, and start exercising? What has happened to us that the solution to everything is to take a pill?


If you are depressed, take a pill; if you are tired, take a pill; if you are fat, take a pill. It is ludicrous to say the least. Why not stop doing the things that you are doing that make you fat?



Ok, then people will say, "I have no self control.", or "It's easy for you, but I can't stop myself." Well it is not easy for me or for most people that control their eating and body movement. It is the results that are more important. I do not want to suffer the ills of being fat.


I do not like the way I feel when I gain weight. The satisfaction of eating lasts ten or fifteen minutes, while the results of gaining weight last a long time. I think about the consequences of my eating behavior, and that keeps me from eating badly. I am more interested in feeling good, than feeling bad. Gaining weight makes me feel bad.


I like the way I feel after I exercise, not always the way I feel while I am doing it. There are days I do not want to exercise, many days, but I know what good it does for my health and mental state, that is why I do it on a regular bases. Just like brushing my teeth. Do I love that task? Of course not, but I know what would happen to them if I stopped brushing them, just like I know what would happen if I ate crap foods all the time, so I don't.


Our society needs to wake up and stop all of this nonsense that we have no control over ourselves. Its called discipline "People". With 68% of our population over weight and obese, we need to get back to the basics of healthy food, and being active. Put down the fast food, processed food, and get off the computer or the couch, and get up and move!


Or take a pill and hope you don't die from it down the road. Oh, and yes, there will be side effects, unless this medication is different from all others, which I doubt. There will never be an easy or magic way to stay healthy and fit. It will always involve effort on your part.


Choose to be healthy the old fashioned way. Its called eating right and exercising. Simple, to the point, and the only side effect to this prescription is feeling good, and being healthy!



Till Tomorrow,
Queenie

Is Your Focus Health or Vanity?

In all of my years of working with people in fitness, unfortunately most of them have been focused on how they look as opposed to how they feel and their health. This is not uncommon in our society, and given the way our society focuses on "perfect beauty" in all that we do, it makes sense that many of us are victims of that belief.


We are bombarded with flawless bodies, beautiful faces, and perfection in the media as the norm. It is this type of hype that gives many of us a feeling that we need to look a certain way to be happy and successful.



We all know that the pictures we see in the media are not the norm, and most of them are not even reality, but super imposed and airbrushed to death, leaving us with an unrealistic, unattainable view of how we should look.


This is the place most people come from when putting a fitness program into action. It is based on how they can change their looks to get to that place of "body perfection". This is a shallow and empty place to approach your fitness and health plan from.


How you look is such a small part of what exercise and healthy eating will do for you. Take a look at some of my past blogs as evidence to what you will gain by exercise and eating right. When you are healthy, you will feel your best too.



Changing your looks for the better is a side effect of exercise and healthy eating....it will happen to you even when it is not your focus, which is a better way of approaching your fitness program.


You will reverse your aging process, ward off disease, have more energy, reduce stress, and be at your very best when you eat right and exercise, and oh yes, you will look great as a bonus!


Focusing strictly on how you look will never be enough of a motivator to keep you disciplined on your fitness regime. I have seen it a thousand times over. It is just not what keeps people exercising and eating right for a life style. Feeling good, and having quality of life is a great motivator and keeps people in the fitness game. It is about how you "feel" that really matters, not how we look.


So change your view point if you are a "vanity" exercise person. Begin to notice how much better you feel when you eat right and exercise. Doing these two things will get you looking your best anyway, no need to focus on that part.


Exercise for health, wellness, quality of life, and feeling the best you can. That is a great reason to keep doing it forever. It is not important how long we live, but how long we can live with quality. Eating healthy and exercising daily will give you quality, and you will look great too!




Till Tomorrow,
Queenie

Celebrating the Fourth of July

I can't even believe that it is the fourth of July already....over half the year has just zipped by. If you are like most people, the fourth of July is all about pic-nic's, barbeque's, fire works, and out door fun.


As it is a special occasion, we will all eat lots of food, drink lots of drink, and get lots of sun. Just remember the consequences to your holiday fun.


Make sure that you have your sun block on to prevent sunburn and future skin damage. Wear hats or visors to protect your face. As I have said before, time goes by so quickly, future sun damage will be here before you know it!


Watch out for all of the potato chips, dips, and extra fattening foods that will be out most of the day. You can eat a lot of calories, and ingest a bunch of fat when you are not paying attention to how much you are snacking on a holiday.


Drink water mostly instead of sugary sodas. If you must have a soda, try and stick with just one throughout the day. Remember that a small soda has ten teaspoons of sugar in it, and that is more than you should have in a day. Also a reminder that diet sodas are more harmful to you, and increase your appetite, so try and stay away from diet drinks all together.


Eat your hamburgers and hot dogs, but if you are trying to lose weight, you might want to skip the buns. You will save yourself a lot of calories by skipping the bread.



It is a day that we splurge and have fun, but if you are wanting to lose some fat, be sensible about what you are eating. You can still have fun eating healthier by being a little more cautious on what you choose.



It is a day of celebration. It is our country's birthday, so have fun and enjoy. I will be taking next week off, see you back here July 12th!

Till Then,
Queenie

Dealing with a Disappointing Day

Have you ever had one of those days where it just keeps getting worse the longer the day went on? Well, I am having one of those days that has been a tough one to get through. Whether it is disappointing news or things just keep going wrong, we all have those types of days.


I have decided to look at it without assuming (see blog on Four Agreements) that it is as bad as it might seem. This is a time where we might automatically look at the negative and magnify it all out of whack until we feel everything sucks! Or we can choose to think of it as a momentary blip, and that good days are just a moment away.


Remember it is our choice to think about things how ever we choose to. Why not choose to think positive thoughts, even if it is just to make your self feel better in this moment.


I also think it is good to take a moment before we react to upsetting news, or things going wrong. If we pause and try and stay in the moment, things really aren't as bad as we might be thinking they are. I can say that what ever crummy things have happened to me today, I am sitting here with good health, a peaceful place to live, food in my kitchen, and people who love me and who I love.


Just those things alone make me better off than most people in the world. Remember we always need to be grateful for what we do have, and not just focus on what we don't have, or what has gone wrong.



So I am going to finish my day by putting in a "Doris Day" movie and relax. Doris Day movies always make me feel better. They are movies I watched as a kid, and they are innocent and light, just what I need!



Remember when you have a hard day...."this too shall pass"....they always do!


Till Tomorrow,
Queenie