July 16, 2010

Hope your summer (or winter for some of you) is going wonderfully so far! We're having an unusually cool summer, which has some folks thrilled and me a little miffed. (I run cold as a lizard, I tell ya.)

Ever feel like you make sometimes vastly different lifestyle decisions when spending time with your coworkers, at home, or with your social group?

This week I focus on how we can use our social tendencies to help us in making lifestyle changes and I share my personal monkey see monkey do social tendencies to HELP me exercise instead of becoming "one" with the couch cushions (not a pretty picture!).

I hope you have fun with the experiment yourself over the next week and would love to hear how it goes! You can always reach me here.

Cheers and Love,

Confident Vision Living News
News

Free Self-Doubt Smackdown! Break Free of Doubt & Reset Your Confidence Button eBook

Did you download your eBook yet? I sent it out last week to all current subscribers (and all new subscribers can get it when they sign up on the CVL home page). You can download the eBook here.

Tired of second-guessing yourself? Knocked down by funky moods? Holding off from making decisions? Underestimating yourself?

Check out the 53-page Self-Doubt Smackdown book. It focuses on pushing self-doubt down to where it belongs, at a healthy level, keeping us humble and properly cautious, instead holding us back from living our lives with joy, confidence, and vitality.

Petaluma Weight Loss Workshop 8/26

Joins us Thursday, August 26 in Petaluma, CA at the chocolates and dessert cafe, Viva Cocolat. Details and registration here.

Of course you can eat chocolate and still lose weight. It's a all about choosing wisely, no extremes. Living a balanced healthy life definitely includes having fun and making decisions that work for YOU.

Unlike most weight loss workshops, we're not talking about a particular diet and exercise. My passion is talking about the key factors that can make or break your success with ANY healthy actions you take.

Make this the season you set yourself up to SUCCEED at creating the life you dream about... and make it real!

No matter how many hours a day we sit behind a computer screen or alone in our cars each day, we humans are a social bunch.

When it comes to healthy living that can work for or against us.

We're all pretty familiar with the against us, part, right? You are home alone, eating your new healthy diet and then your husband (or roommate) comes home with pizza. Ugh. Rats.

Or you're doing fine with your usual routine of working out but you go on vacation and everyone is sitting around with mai tais and rich meals and you end up blending in with the group's style embracing a life of leisure.

While there are more factors at play here then the social element, let's focus on how powerfully influential what the people around us are doing truly is.

Instead of letting others influence us for the worst, let's use our human nature (and survival instinct) of "going with the flow" of the crowd to our advantage.

In what situations or groups do you make healthier or ideal decisions?

• Do you tend to pig out with your friend, Lola, but eat a healthy lunch around Reisha? Maybe eat before you meet Lola or do something else not food related like go for a walk or sightsee.
• Do you do more athletic activities with your coworker, Bill, and more sedentary things with your pal, Joe? Mix it up - invite Joe over to work on a house project or get your workout in before you hang out with Joe.

Use social pressures to your advantage. When you’re hanging out with healthy people, you’ll naturally feel like making better choices yourself. (Or perhaps you're too embarrassed to overindulge in front of certain people - if so, that's great knowledge to have about yourself.)

We humans are such social creatures, that even watching people working out on TV makes me instinctively want to exercise, too. It actually helps me!

Our brains don’t know that what we’re seeing on TV isn’t live right in front of us so it seems to trigger our tribal monkey see, monkey do response to bond with others and join in. I believe it helps us feel less hyper conscious about our own movements and less self-conscious in general.

Action-packed reality shows, dance shows, exercise-related shows, fitness programs, dance movies, ice skating movies, sports movies, even fitness-related infomercials can be great to get yourself connected with your body and moving for longer. Doesn’t matter if it’s an infomercial for a fitness product, the Biggest Loser reality show, the Tour de France or a dancing competition – if they’re moving, it helps me keep moving, too.

It's not about turning your social life upside down or changing your friends, but in becoming aware. Sometimes a simple shift in awareness is all you need to snap out of an automatic response.

How can you use that to reinforce and encourage you to eat better, be truer to your goals, to be more and more the person you want to be?

Pay attention over the next week to how you behave differently as your social group changes. Notice the office vs. home, out in public vs. in private, alone vs. with others.

Use that knowledge to your benefit and set yourself up for SUCCESS, instead of temptation whenever possible.

Quote of the Month

Insight

You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?' ~ George Bernard Shaw

For more motivation quotes see Even More Motivation Quotes.

(Pasta-Free) Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca
Healthy Recipe

Sometimes there's nothing better than an Italian dish to satisfy our senses and make us feel cared for and comforted.

Here's a vast improvement upon the usual out-of-the-box standard pasta fare.

This recipe is gluten-free and dairy-, soy-, and wheat-free as well! Easy, healthy, and delicious. I'm lucky to say I have personally tried this dish of Shana's and it was a beautiful and very satisfying meal. It didn't look easy to make, but she tells me it is. Surprise your family with this fabulous improvement upon the usual "pasta paste."

Whaaaat? you say? Well... pasta is flour and water, right? So it's just COOKED PASTE really.

Gluten and wheat aren't my friends anyway, but if ever tempted, I can often hold off by thinking about a paste ball sitting in my stomach. Blech! Not nutritious or good for me. Sure makes it easier to choose something else instead! Veggies in marinara sauce are just as good and filling in my book with none of the baggage.

Check out the amazing and multi-talented Shana Dean's recipe of Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca made the healthy way that tastes even better than the "real thing."

Thanks again, Shana, for sharing another one of your delicious creations!


Enjoy a wonderful week taking action on what matters to you most.

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