Susan G Komen Race for a Cure - Raleigh, June 11, 2011

Just a brief post stating that we've signed up to run the world's best 5k once again.
If you are local please consider joining us.  It is a life changing event.
We have all been touched by cancer through loved ones or ourselves - the camaraderie you will feel during this event is unsurpassed and highly motivating and flat-out powerful!
Here's a link to our page
Carolina Life Coaching

Join us, support us, join another team, just get involved!

Give yourself a compassion break

I read an article on this last week and its been on my mind since.
Do you treat everyone else better than you treat yourself?
Do you ensure that others eat the right things while you do not monitor your own nutritional intake?
I know that I had to admit that I cut others a lot more slack than I do myself.  I am the first person to tell someone who is feeling overwhelmed that they need to take a break, yet I will keep pushing myself even though I know I am on the edge.
Why?  Why do we do this to ourselves yet show others such kindness?
I'm not sure why it has taken researchers so long to start looking into this but it is no longer a neglected area.
There are books and websites and articles all dedicated to the topic.
Here is a self assessment link
The person who created that assessment, Kristin Neff, is a pioneer in the field, and shares information on her site.
The people most likely to score low on the self-compassion tests are those who are most likely to be supportive and understanding to others.
Research shows that giving ourselves a break and accepting our imperfections may be the first step toward better health.  People that score high on tests of self-compassion have less depression and anxiety, and tend to be happier and more optimistic. 
Self-compassion contributes positively to motivation, with self-compassion you do what's healthy for you rather than what's harmful to you.
So what can you do to improve your self-compassion?
Here are a few tips:

• List yur best and worst traits, reminding yourself that nobody is perfect
• Think of steps you might take to help feel better about yourself
• Take mediation and "compassion breaks," which involve repeating mantras like "I'm going to be kind to myself in this moment."

Useful Calorie Trackers

Many of us know that if we are serious about losing weight we need to keep track of the number of calories we take in. We need to know how many we are eating (it's also good to know how many you are expending so that you can ensure that you are expending more than you are taking in.)

Unfortunately it isn't always easy or pleasant to accurately track calories but now there are some quite good online calorie trackers that also make use of mobile apps.

Here is a little info on four good ones:

CalorieKing.com - $12 – the mobile apps (apple and android) are at gomeals.com

Features an exercise log and you can set nutrition targets. It is easy to use and has a thorough list, though some ethnic foods are not available. Great for browsing for additional info about healthy eating.

MyFoodDiary.com - $9 – mobile apps (all mobile OS's) included

Easy to read graphs and nutrition labels. Good quality database, searching can take time. To get an item's calorie count you have to click on it to get its nutritional information label

MyNetDiary.com - $9 – free version available but doesn't provide a daily food analysis – mobile apps included (apple, android, & blackberry)

You can customize to track nutrients and also features exercise tracking. Excellent, quick food input, large community database. As-you-type search feature guesses the item you want to select.

MyFitnessPal.com – free – apple, android & blackberry

Recipe builder and an active online community are nice extras. Easy-to-use, some irrelevant search results. Few bells and whistles made the information from the food diary easy to understand

All four are fairly accurate in calorie counting with MyFoodDiary and MyNetDiary the most precise. Although on a test day the four sites were within 311 calories of each other, which isn't too bad.

I haven't tried these myself the information above was taken from a WSJ article.

I do think that I will give one of them a try and see how easy it is and how beneficial. Although I am not sure I want to start today – it's St Patrick's Day and I am sure my input will be greater than my output!

Which reminds me – keep in mind not to obsess about calorie intake – the most important thing is that you are eating fewer calories than you are expending!

Embrace Detours

Many people are familiar with the brand Life is Good, it is one of my favorites for comfort but mostly for their wonderful logos and smile inducing sayings.  Today I saw a tee shirt that said, "Embrace Detours"
How wonderful is that!
Often we tend to see any deviation from the initial plan as a negative, however I am sure many of you have experienced some wonderful things because something outside your plans occurred.
I know I have many times over.
Sometimes in simple ways such as when on a car journey and I saw a sign pointing to a historical landmark or place of interest that was off my current route.
Other times its been a workshop I'm leading that clearly needs to go in a different direction than the one that was scheduled.  The planned topic isn't needed but an offshoot is, so as long as I feel competent to do so and we ensure the original learning has taken place off we go!


I have met people, received opportunities, and had wonderful experiences by following an unplanned route.


I recognize that sometimes detours are time consuming and fruitless but some can be excellent opportunity creating excursions.


Overall I believe in embracing detours and not allowing them to ruin your day.
Give it a try!

What is truly important

Much has been said and written about keeping your focus on what is truly important and keeping perspective in life; I personally love the Don't Sweat the Small Stuff books which to me are all about perspective and offer wonderful anecdotes. If you have not read any of them I highly recommend picking one up and having a quick read!

Still many of my clients, friends and family members often come to me emotionally frustrated over non-essential things.  I allow myself to become frustrated by unimportant things too, it is human nature to get caught up in the moment and forget the hierarchy of one's life.

There is to me no magic secret to keeping perspective other than developing an awareness and consciousness of your emotions and also being able to sort out that which is truly important and that which is not.

If you find yourself spread too thin, not enjoying time with the people you love, allowing work to destroy your personal life or allowing problems in a hobby or avocation to consume too much time or produce too much stress, it is time to evaluate.

Take stock.

Is it worth losing sleep over?

Are your relationships suffering due to your inability to be present, in the moment and not bringing oodles of baggage?

What do you value most? Are you devoting your best energy to that which you value most?

Is that thing that is ruining your every waking moment worth that much energy? Does it deserve that much status?

These are just some of the questions to ask yourself. 

If you find that on your own you are unable to sort through the various things on your plate to your satisfaction you might sit down with a good friend or your partner or a personal coach to help you minimize the drains on your time and energy.

I cannot recommend it strongly enough - now is the time to figure out what you can eliminate from your daily worries so that you can enjoy life to a much greater extent.

A new year, a new you.................again

I must admit that I find myself wondering why January 1st always gets people 'changing';
Whether it is a diet or kicking the smoking habit or starting new business ventures, January 1st always brings change.

Unfortunately by January 30th many people have already given up on the change they were so keen to make.

My promise to you is to share ideas on how to keep your motivation going and how to change your mental approach to the changes you want to make to help you create new habits that last a lifetime.

I, too am not immune to the 'new year - new start' energy - this blog and a new Facebook page devoted to Carolina Life Coaching are part of my new strategies.


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