Simply Woman! by Crystal Andrus
Fearlessness
We can only live with true authenticity by living fearlessly, yet fear holds many of us back. We’re afraid that we can’t make positive changes, or the opposite, that we might actually do it and then fear the changes success might bring.
We fear that we might lose those we care about if our dreams don’t mesh with theirs, or that dreaming too big might make us look foolish. Most often our fear comes from one place, a fear of inadequacy. Many of us carry around a belief that we are not good enough, and we will do anything to hide that fear from the world.
Fear has many expressions. For some women it’s often a need to be perfect. They want to have the perfect home, perfect children, perfect marriage and perfect body. Often, too, they want to always appear happy and optimistic.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are women who fear that are never good enough, so they self-sabotage in extremely negative ways. They become sexually promiscuous, delinquent, addicted, irresponsible, or neglectful. These are the women who society ostracizes. We look down on the woman who is in the bar every weekend, or who is the opposite of Suzie-homemaker, such as the exotic dancer or prostitute.
Somewhere in the middle lie many of the rest, women who are simply indifferent. They self-sabotage by doing nothing at all. Yet, the behaviours of the perfectionist, the promiscuous, and the indifferent come from the same source – feeling inadequate.
As Eleanor Roosevelt so eloquently stated, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Realize and claim your own worth, and you will see your true beauty. Authenticity can only come from you.
Nutrition
As you know, one pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. This means to lose one pound of fat we have to burn off 3,500 calories. To lose fat, we need to burn those calories by exercising and by reducing the amount of food we eat. Regardless of how healthy, low-glycemic, high-protein, or low-fat your food is, if you are eating too much, you won’t lose weight.
The problem with calorie cutting is that although it can help us lose the weight, we can actually create more problems for ourselves down the road. If you stop eating or cut too many calories, eventually your metabolism will slow down so that when you do start to eat, and you will, you will gain weight very easily.
This is why you should never let your daily calorie intake drop below 1,100. Our body learns to adapt and survive under the most horrendous circumstances and eventually we will learn to function on small amounts of food. When we do start eating again, those extra calories will be stored as fat. Even worse, we have lowered our resting metabolic rate. This is why so many diets fail.
Live on the 80/20 plan
Watching your caloric intake, monitoring portions, and eating “green light” carbohydrates and protein six days a week works perfectly. Come Saturday eat, drink, and be merry. One day a week is your treat day.
Here’s how it works. Whatever we do the majority of the time is going to prevail. If an obese person ate salad one day a week, they would not lose weight. Conversely, if a healthy, lean person eats junk food on their treat day, they are not going to gain weight. The 80/20 plan effectively increases weight loss because our bodies are very adaptive and quickly learn how to balance out any changes we make. If we don’t drink water, we hold it. If we stop eating, our metabolic rate slows. By us throwing in some fat and “red light” carbohydrates to our diet one day each week, our bodies get confused. “I thought she was depriving me but maybe I’m wrong.” It’s like throwing gasoline onto your campfire.
Exercise
Continue your three to five cardio and three strength-training workouts. You should already be feeling stronger and tighter. If you are having trouble staying motivated to keep on exercising: Remember that one pound of muscle can burn up to 50 calories per day. That works out to 18,200 calories per year.
Crystal Andrus’s column is a condensed version of her new book on personal transformation. She is an authority on women’s health, a sought after speaker and author of the best seller Simply Woman! The 12 Week Body/Mind/Soul Total Transformation Program. www.hayhouse.com/details.php?id=2247
www.simplywoman.com
