Recently I have been reading “French Women Don’t        Get  Fat” by Mireille Guiliano. I have known about the book for years but have not gotten around to reading it until now. (I have a feeling that as I start writing my book, I am also going to be reading a lot more books period!)

It’s a very cute book-several times throughout it I thought “I must be French!”  And even though I don’t fully agree with everything she says, her overall points are great and are underutilized here in the US for sure.

One of the points she makes that I have been doing for years without identifying it as a strategic behavior for me is how to eat in line with the seasons but also the time of day. Since the winter brings us heartier vegetables like squash, potatoes and pumpkin, people often are concerned with winter weight gain.

With the likelihood that winter also brings less movement (unless you do winter sports or live in CA), it makes sense that we might have this concern.  How I have always balanced my daily intake of calories during the winter, and what Mirelle Guiliano is calling “very French”, is to make soups!

Yes, soup!

And homemade preferably, not out of a can.  During the winter, I love making my vegetable nut soup. Soups are hearty but also provided loads of vitamins and minerals from more vegetables than I would eat in one sitting every day.

Making a soup is a great way to get in those veggies you don’t eat often.  Having soup for dinner balances out the calories over the day and warms your insides as you wind down for the day.

In fact, she inspired me to make a chicken rice soup today!  I got to use the leftover parsley, onions, garlic, carrots and celery from my Thanksgiving preparations.  We had some chicken to use and I was getting bored with chicken dinners so I thought how perfect!  And the weather has been chilly lately so I needed some internal warmth for dinner.

So one of the secrets to staying slim is to incorporate soups regularly into your diet.  If you make them homemade, they most likely will be healthier and enjoyed more for the effort and care you put in.  Plus, making soup is fun!  It’s a one pot meal!

Next week, I will share a few favorite soup recipes like this chicken rice I made today. Until then, happy soup making!

Written by JJ Flizanes of Invisible Fitness. www.invisiblefitness.com, Creator of the 6 Week Beach Body, 90 Day Health and Body Makevoer Program, The 30 Day JUMP Start Program and more!  800 571 5722

In the last few weeks, I have been busy traveling around in meetings, business trainings and new clients. I have been on different time zones, I have had irregular sleep and I haven’t really slowed down all that much.

So I have adrenal fatigue.  It’s a mild case compared to when I had it last year after my wedding when I came home from the honeymoon and my body crashed literally for a month or more.  Taking a walk got my heart rate up!  I could tell by how my body was responding and acting that it had taken on too much stress and it would need some time to heal.

I haven’t gone that far this time but for sure my body was telling me to slow down.  I have actually started on some bio-identical hormones as well and will show you everything I am doing and why so you can get a first-hand look at it all.

The bottom line for most of us is- WE ARE NOT MACHINES.  And for us women, we are not MEN.  Men have more testosterone and can “hunt the deer” for many more hours than we are supposed to.  So when women push and drive like men, we burn out quickly.

I have always had a lot of energy but I do push myself mostly because frankly, I can.  But my body pays the price and at least I love myself enough to catch it early and be proactive about it.  If I didn’t, I’d have no one to blame in 5-10 years when I have chronic pain or a disease or sickness.  What you do now creates your future in every way.

Here is me getting needled!  It’s my #1 favorite way to take care of myself in addition to eating well and exercising!

Here is a list of all my favorite local acupuncturists!

Heather Lounsbury 310.259.5165  For anyone in Santa Monica, Hollywood, West LA

Maria Ravis: 310 640 2129  For anyone in Southbay area (El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach)

Bill Flanagan: 949 244 5170 for anyone in Orange County (Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Laguna )

Shaheed Abdullah:  310 993 6903  for anyone in San Diego area

Since our 6 Week Beach Body Program uses MIND TOOLS such as EFT, hypnosis and meditation, I wanted to share with you WHY and HOW you can lose weight by changing the way you THINK.

For some of you , the idea of hypnosis is being told to act like a chicken.  Wrong.

This article was written by Susan French, C.Ht.

Hypnosis is a powerful tool but exactly HOW does it work? The real magic is that hypnosis works as both a “magic wand” and as a “snowball gathering snow.”

Let’s take a look at each separately and then how they work together.

The magic-wand effect is when you have a hypnosis session and your issue is solved instantly and without further effort. Magic!

The snowball effect is what you experience with several hypnosis sessions, in which each session reinforces and enhances the relief created by previous sessions.

The reality is that both effects create permanent change. Hypnosis creates the initial change. Reinforcement ensures that the change lasts.

Reinforcement occurs when you regularly use a reinforcement CD made by your hypnotherapist, induce self-hypnosis, or through continued subsequent sessions with your hypnotherapist. Your hypnotherapist guides you in creating the initial change and reinforcing it, thereby accomplishing your goal of permanent, positive change.

Now, let’s look at it a little more closely.

We use hypnosis to change responses and behaviors. All responses and behaviors are learned. All that hypnosis really does is cause very rapid learning (or relearning) to take place so that new responses and behaviors become automatic.

Hypnosis allows this rapid learning to occur by interrupting the conscious, critical factor of the mind/brain. For reasons of survival, the critical factor of the mind/brain slows down the learning process. However, when those initial survival reasons are no longer necessary, it makes sense to interrupt or bypass the critical factor, which is precisely what hypnosis does – painlessly, safely, and effectively.

We know that no learning is INSTANT. You didn’t learn to ride a bike instantly. You didn’t learn to speak instantly. You didn’t learn to read or write instantly. You were taught the initial ideas and methods and those ideas were repeatedly reinforced until they become automatic.

Hypnosis allows that learning or relearning to happen more rapidly. However, as with any learning process, it needs to be reinforced. Thus, hypnosis is both a “magic wand” and a “snowball gathering snow.”

Let’s take a look at Joanna’s experience to get a better idea of exactly how hypnosis DOES work:

Joanna was sitting in the waiting room at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute. She was waiting for her first hypnotherapy appointment. She was desperate to lose weight. She had lost and gained at least three hundred pounds in her thirty-two years. Now, here she was, seventy pounds overweight again. She had tried everything.

She had heard some say that hypnosis could be like a magic wand. She had heard others say it didn’t work at all. Her best friend Martha had just lost fifty-five pounds using hypnosis. She said it was easy and it worked, but that Joanna would have to do her part too. Would it work for her?

If this reminds you of your own questions about weight loss and hypnosis, keep reading.

We can call the habit of overeating a food addiction, compulsive overeating, or a self-destructive habit. Whatever we call it, though, once that kind of behavior takes control, you will need to unlearn old, destructive behaviors and relearn new, constructive ones.

Joanna followed through with her hypnosis for weight loss. She learned the reasons she ate for comfort and she altered those behaviors. She learned that eating good, fueling foods were essential, and she incorporated those ideas into her daily life. She also learned that she needed to move her body more. Exercise became her oasis. It became her “me-time” every day.

Joanna lost her seventy pounds easily and happily and has maintained her new weight because she created a new relationship with food, with her body, and with life itself. That was five years ago.

Hypnosis makes the process of transforming counterproductive behaviors to productive behaviors easy, effective, and empowering. Any behavior that does not serve your goals and dreams can be changed using hypnosis.

Hypnosis accelerates your learning process so that what might have taken you twenty years to “learn” can be restructured in four to six sessions.

Hypnosis is being used in major medical institutions, such as, Harvard Medical School, UCLA, Stanford, Kaiser Permanente, Beth Israel Deaconness Hospital, and many burn centers, to ease pain, fear, and treatment [, and accelerate healing] for their patients.

Hypnosis is approved by, both, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) for Complementary and Alternative Medical Treatment and as an adjunct to traditional treatments.

The moral of this story is this: if you are wondering if hypnosis is a magic wand or a cumulative change response (snowball effect), it is both!

If all else has failed and you are ready and committed to achieving your goals, it is time to try hypnosis. It works!

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And that’s why we use it as the foundation for changing your MIND on the 6 Week Beach Body Program.  We want you to have long lasting change, not temporary results!   http://www.6weekbeachbody.com

1. Adrenal Fatigue and Hormones
2. Realistic expectations of the exercises you choose
3. Progression and Adaptation
4. Tools- HR Monitor
5. Physiology of resistance training

Now let me explain what this all means.

1.      Adrenal Fatigue: common symptom is severe fatigue.  Factors include high stress, aging, decline of hormones, lack of rest and balance. This is the #1 mistake people make in creating their programs because they do not know or take into account how the hormones and adrenals affect your results. Cortisol, your flight or fight hormone, will keep your body in a holding pattern and not release fat, water or weight if it’s elevated.  Simultaneously, if coritsol is high, your DHEA is low.  DHEA is the hormone needed to be the building block for your sex and thyroid hormones.  If your DHEA is low, that may throw off the production of all your other hormones.  If you have adrenal fatigue,  you should build you program around correcting that and supporting the changes that need to occur so your body can rebalance, replenish and release.

2.      Realistic Expectations of the exercises you choose: If you want weight loss, doing pilates or Hatha yoga for hours a week can leave you very frustrated that you are not seeing the results you expected.  These exercises are not the most efficient choice for weight loss for several reasons.  This does not mean you could not experience weight loss if you are adding other things and attending  to your diet, but generally speaking these are not “efficient” choices for a weight loss goal. Another example is when I ask clients if they do legs, they say ” I run”.  Cardio work is not resistance training.  Most cardio programs will not build muscle in your legs.

3.      Progression and Adaptation: Once you start a program, your body will change to adapt to the new circumstances ( the exercises). Depending on the degree of the intensity of the new environment will determine how much and how fast the body changes.  But regardless if you are adding a little or a lot, once you adapt, you slow down or stop seeing results.  In order to keep getting results, you have to keep progressing in your program.  There are several factors, including the FITT principle (Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type), that can be altered and adjusted to keep getting results.  Too often, I have clients who tell me they have been doing the SAME exercise routine for 3-5 years or more.  You can’t expect your body to change when it’s obviously good at what you do!  If you want change, you have to progress.

4.      Tools- HR Monitor: I can’t stress this one enough.  How do you know how hard something is for your body?  We often use RPE, Rate of Perceived Exertion, to determine how hard we think we work.  But this is a very flawed method because it will differ greatly from person to person. Ex athletes will have a higher threshold and maybe over train.  Non athletic people may have a low threshold and under train. The consistent gauge is a heart rate monitor that can tell you exactly what is going on inside of you minute by minute.  How do you know when it’s time to increase the intensity? Cardio training prescriptions are based on some of the prior points made here so one size does not fit all.

5.      Physiology of Resistance Training: I have been meeting with people who have no idea how to build muscle- unless you studied it, most people do not know. One person thinks that using light weights while doing aerobics will do it- nope.  Another thinks that lifting heavy and fast for 20 seconds will do it- nope.  There is a very specific science called physiology that explains the amount of intensity and time needed to change the muscle cells. Just like in point #3, as the body adapts, we need to progress.  Progression in resistance training to keep stimulating muscle growth is determined by a few things.  Again , using the FITT principle, applying #1 from this list and of course lifestyle are 3 main factors in designing an appropriate  and effective resistance training program.  How you know if it’s working?  You are losing body fat and increasing lean mass- this could still look like weight loss only.  You would need a before and after for body fat tests to compare.

Believe it or not, I have just scratched the surface of this topic.  Stay tuned for part #2 which is focused more for the population that is not consistent with exercise, lacks motivation and discipline and is unsure where to start.

Here is the 45 minute audio recording we did to cover this topic more in depth:

5 Biggest Mistake- Part 1 call replay

For an individual consultation on what you should do to get started or to uncover what factor is getting in your way and what to do about it, please call J.J. Flizanes at 800 571 5722 or check out http://www.invisiblefitness.com

Credentials and accolades follow the name of JJ Flizanes wherever it appears and for good reason. JJ is the creator of world-class fitness programs and routines, such as the Foundations Program for the New York Sports Club and Invisible Fitness^TM. What sets JJ apart from her Celebrity Fitness counterparts lies in her anatomically centered routines, which protect overworked and aging joints from catastrophic failure. Named by Elite Traveler Magazine as their 2007 Global Black Book pick of Best Personal Trainer in Los Angeles , JJ has been lauded by Shape Magazine as one of the top 6 fitness trainers in 2003.   JJ has been featured in many magazines including Muscle and Fitness HERS, Elegant Bride, Fitness Magazine, E Pregnancy Magazine to name a few. Her television appearances include LA’s KTLA, CBS and NBC. She appeared every week last summer on YOURLA on NBC in Los Angeles and has been heard on The Aware Show with Lisa Garr in local radio. She is the Fitness Expert for the Nourishing Wellness Medical Centre and an in house expert for FKC International.   In January of 2007, JJ launches her most challenging and exciting program to date: The 90 day Health and Body Makeover, in which candidates take on creating a new body and lifestyle for life. Invisible Fitness offer fitness training, fitness coaching, workshops & seminars, and corporate programs. www.invisiblefitness.com

Click here to view the embedded video.

Chocolate has antioxidants: I have to first explain to you what an antioxidant is and why it’s a good thing. Imagine your body is like your car-the engine makes it run.  The engine produces the energy for the car to run just like your body produces energy for you to run.  There is a bi-product of the engine when it is creating energy and that is the exhaust. Your body also produces “exhaust” called free radicals-they are a natural bi-product of your body.  Free radicals can be neutralized by antioxidants. Back in the day when we ate a Paleolithic Diet (from the earth: meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds), we got plenty of antioxidants in our diet. Now, we eat more processed foods, we have toxins in our air and products and our stress levels are so high that we create even more free radicals than before with less antioxidants in our daily diets. Free radicals cause oxidation in the body which is like rust for your car-it speeds aging.

Have you heard that joke that chocolate is a vegetable?  It’s not so far-fetched. Chocolate comes from the cocoa bean and because it’s a plant, it has phytonutrients, which are a “plant based nutrient”. Cocoa beans most important phytonutrients are several classes of polyphenols, which is a group of chemical substances that act as building blocks. These polyphenols are largely recognized as some of the most powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds.

Polyphenols are found in a variety of fruits and vegetables ranging from onions to apples, green tea, grapes and the cocoa bean. Tests showed the chocolate measured significantly higher than green tea and red wine in antioxidant content. That’s great news!  Chocolate is good for you!

Chocolate is gluten free: As you will learn later, most of us have a mild to severe allergic reaction to gluten, which is wheat, barley and rye.  Most pastries are made with wheat four. Cakes, cookies, pies are usually made with wheat flour so it makes eating dessert very risky for causing inflammation and holding on to a few extra pounds of water. Some molds for chocolate could contain gluten but at least the ingredients are gluten free-it’s a much safer choice.

Chocolate is an aphrodisiac: Now what more could you want?! The Mayans and Aztecs were the first to recognize the potency of chocolate, celebrating the harvest of the cacao bean with festivals of wild orgies. The Aztec ruler, Montezuma, reportedly drank 50 cups of chocolate each day to better serve his harem of 600 women. It’s been scientifically studied and found that chocolate contains PEA, or Phenylethylamine, which is the very same molecule that courses through the veins of people in love!  It’s fascinating!  Chocolate can promote intimacy and love-can’t beat that!

Not all chocolate is equal however and I want to empower you with the differences so you don’t think you are getting good quality antioxidants from a bad piece of chocolate!  This is just the start.. more to come on chocolate!

Watch this first: http://twitpwr.com/Oprah/

1. Oprah’s exercise form is AWFUL.  She is probably doing a few different exercises for the camera but she has not control, she is swinging her arms and she isn’t doing enough weight or reps to get real benefit.  Whether this was staged for camera or not, it’s bad.

2. She isn’t wearing a Heart Rate Monitor.  HOW CAN SHE NOT KNOW about a HR Monitor?  Bob isn’t that good…. This is inefficient use of her time.  The talk test is not very accurate in telling you when it’s time to change your cardio to get the most bang for your buck in time.

3. She is working out 6 days a week?  No wonder she can’t stick to a program…..it’s all or nothing.  There is a happy medium….

4. I am sure she knows nothing about Gluten.  And I would bet money she (since we all are) is gluten sensitive.  The only thing I could see in her diet that’s gluten is probably the salad dressing…

5. Mental/ emotional- she didn’t touch on that one… but it’s the foundation.

6. Hormones- Oprah DID NOT test the right things- very incomplete.  She only did TSH. There are 3 Thyroid hormones: TSH, T3 and T4.  Dr Oz is BEHIND the times…..

7. I heard nothing of Cortisol.  That’s an adrenal hormone that I am SURE was elevated because of her imbalance of stress and schedule.  She probably had adrenal fatigue but would need to test DHEA to know for sure.  DHEA helps to make your Thyroid hormones so this would be WHY her medication didn’t work.

What IS good about this video

1.      She is scheduling herself in it for balance- good!

2.      Her food is charted out ( seems a bit boring of a menu to me hence why someone would fall off b/c it’s not very fun and it’s too repetitive)

3.      She gets her exercise in

When wanting to follow or create a program – please get some personal help with it!!!  That way you don’t waste time, deal with your real issues and have success from the start!  No one likes to waste time..

We offer a free program to help you get started!  Our 30 Day JUMP Start at http://www.invisiblefitness.com 800 571 5722

I have gone through some major life changes in the last few months and I myself have been extremely exhausted–sleeping 10-11 hours every night and still having no energy!  I was so UN motivated and tired to the point of wondering if it was mild depression!  I want to share my story with you for two reasons.  First, I am human too and feel ALL the same things you go through to the extent of my experience.  It’s always amazing to me to hear what clients think I am “like”. I am not super human. Secondly, through my pain and suffering, I hope to provide some hope, insight and maybe a new perspective on your own journey. I also want you to know that I truly understand.

As some if not most of you know, I got married in early August.  In the few months prior to the wedding, I was on “super overdrive” trying to get all details taken care of and successfully fund our event. I had a wedding planner (who was great) and that did help but the stress of this undertaking especially when we did it as a destination wedding was HUGE- more than I thought.  Well, more than I was aware at the time.

The wedding was fabulous and the wedding day was stress free thanks to all this planning! On our honeymoon, we got a call from Jeanne Peters who shared with us a “healer” named Ken that creates and works with flower essences.  Jeanne had encouraged us to have a session with him if we could before we left the island.  And we did.

To keep it short and simple, my reading was one of the deepest and intense readings he had ever done.  He said it 4 times in the 45 minutes we spent focused on me. I think he was relieved when my reading was over because he wasn’t used to delivering such powerful news.  Most flower essence readings are “kinda nice” as he described it.

The gist of my reading had to do with very early patterns growing up that I developed to compensate for something I didn’t want to feel.  There has been a feeling for 30+ years that I have NOT allowed myself to feel!  The flower essences were suppose to bring those up in order to balance them and dissolve them.

Let’s just say that for the past few weeks, since returning from the wedding, I have been not motivated, exhausted, depressed, and physically weak.   This phase went on for 3-4 weeks!!  ( I feel better now)  If I didn’t have to leave the house, I wouldn’t.  I even cancelled all my appointment one day because I was immobile and my body felt heavy and weak.  Even going for a walk would get me in my target heart rate zone!  Just WALKING!  I saw physical effects of my emotions.  I had plenty of rest, I ate fairly well (I am still gluten free) so the only thing it could be was emotional.

Wow.  What do you do when you feel this way?  I had no idea.  Normally, I just talk myself out of it! And choosing your thoughts is how to gain control of your life but I was doing it to AVOID feeling what I felt.  And so the feelings would get “Swept under the rug” so to speak and have built up over my life time.

So what if you are not motivated?  I wasn’t.  But what I was- was curious as to WHY.  Of course I have the desire to be as healthy and as fit as I can.  I didn’t like that I wasn’t working out.  I didn’t like feeling exhausted.  But just like a detox, I came to understand what was going on with me to except thi”phase”.

Had Ken NOT explained that the emotions would be triggered, I may have not taken the whole prescribed bottle.  But I knew to expect a detox of sorts.  I also while really IN this, made peace with myself, forgave myself and tried to be as loving as I could.  And then it passed.  I didn’t fight it.

For some people, feeling unmotivated is the excuse to stay in that stage longer than you need to.  It could be fear.  Fear of failure.  Fear of success. Fear of lack of support or fear of the unknown.

What is the underlying reason of your lack of motivation?  I believe, once you can pinpoint that, it dissolves.

For all the ladies who have made it to the end of this story, Jeanne Peters Rd and I are hosting a women’s only workshop called LOVE YOUR BODY.  It’s happening November 7-9^th, 2008.  If you would like to get to the bottom of your lack of motivation or any other feeling that is stopping you from attaining the health and body YOU deserve, call or email to sign up.  We’d love to help you transform your relationship with YOUR body.

Written by JJ Flizanes, Director of Invisible Fitness

800 571 5722

http://www.invisiblefitness.com