8 Ways to Persist and Get Healthier with Inner Peace When Life is Tough

Sometimes the world throws us challenges… challenges upon challenges. It’s a tough time in the world right now. Plus, the intensity of personal struggles can make these time very hard. Soothing yourself in a healthy way to continue to grow and enjoy life is very important for your wellbeing right now.

Here’s what has helps me persist and pursue my dreams with inner peace amongst stress and hardships. My hope is these 8 tips can help you too.

8 Ways I Find Pursue My Goals & Inner Peace

When Life is Tough

1. Eat optimally.

   Eating optimally is the number one way I keep my body feeling great, pain free, lean and strong. Having that, directly creates a stronger ability to handle tough times.

   Once you know how to properly fuel your body is a maintainable way, food becomes a foundation… deliciousness to depend on to support you through the hard times (not cause you to spiral or cause added turmoil in your life). Food is powerful medicine and eating is one of the the few things we have control over in life (although it may not feel that way for you now).

   As a Maintainable Weight Loss Coach, I help about 95% my clients lose 1-3 lbs a week with a sustainable lifestyle change that’s best for their whole health (in addition to weight loss). Watch video success stories of my clients here to learn the power of Optimal Eating.

   Or, read my book ‘The Optimal Eating Solution: Maintainable Weight Loss and Longevity Even If You Can’t Exercise.’ It details a step-by-step guide for how to slim down without eating less, calorie counting, supplements, shakes or portion control. It includes everything I teach my clients!

2. Vigorous Exercice.

   I vigorously exercise (preferably in the morning) to get my blood pumping because NOTHING helps me conquer my day like intense exercise. Nothing else helps my mental health better than challenging exercise.

   You might not be at the place where you can vigorously exercise (nor is it the place to start if you’re struggling with 75+ extra pounds… eating optimally is where to start). Do the best you can whatever fitness ability you currently have and stay committed to learning how to eat optimally. Then, exercising becomes a lot easier and less painful.

   That’s the process I take my clients through — we put an optimal eating plan in place first, get them losing 1-3 pounds a week, lower their inflammation, increase their energy and then our personal fitness trainer puts an individualized exercise program in place for them and starts training them online.

3. Sleep.

   I can better handle stress when I go to bed before 12 a.m. (this is not easy for me) and when I wake up earlier. Getting 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep (this means my cat Philly has to sleep elsewhere) is imperative for a healthier emotional and physical state of being. Tracking my sleep and setting a “get ready for bed” alarm on my phone are two ways I keep myself accountable to reaching this goal because everything is harder when you’re tired.

4. Counseling.

   Last year I started great counseling for the first time in my life and still, weekly, I talk with a counselor. This has significantly helped heal and strengthen my emotional health (in ways I didn’t even know I needed). Remember, asking for and accepting help is a brave and courages act. Your emotional and mental health are just as important as your physical health.

5. Gratitude and journaling.

   Almost every morning I start my day by writing down what I’m grateful for, how I feel and a few other Trishy things to reach my biz goals and stay on track. Gratitude and journaling help put my mind in a strong and love-filled space to feel peace, appreciation and strength going into my day.

6. Meditation or yoga.

   My goal is to meditate for 10 minutes every morning to calm the mind, connect with my Self and get inspired with new creative ideas. My one year clients and I start some of our coaching calls with meditation too.

7. Friends and community.

   We humans are social creatures. It’s essential to connect with people you love, who encourage you and whom you can have fun with.

8. Play.

   I LOVE to dance (what’s your favorite way to play? Comment below. I’d love to hear). I’m a competitive pole dancer and it’s one of the funnest things I doing multiple times a week. I was a gymnast as a child, so pole dance is the perfect combination of flipping, climbing and dancing that brings me so much joy, fun and lol nice muscle too ;). During the COVID-19 shutdown, I’ve also been blasting music on my back porch and dancing by myself amongst the trees just for the fun of it.

I don’t do all of eight of these everyday but a large combination of them is present in every one of my days, especially when times are tough. I never skip out on optimal eating though. That one is essential multiple times a day ;)

There’s NO expectation that you should be able to figure how to do all of these things on your own. Remember, there’s no shame in getting help. In fact, getting help will grow your self-esteem, help you feel stronger and more capable because you’re being brave and taking a step in the right direction for yourself.

If you need help with maintainable weight loss that’s great for your whole health despite injuries and additional diagnoses, I encourage you to schedule a free Zoom video consult with me here. We’ll see what’s possible for you and if you like, you can ask me if I think I could help you.

In your corner.

Love and Leafy Greens,

Trish

New study: weight-loss and plant-based, vegan diets

Can people really lose their belly jiggles without focusing on exercise, while eating until they're satisfied and full and without counting calories?

The answer is yes, and here's another new study, showing just that, using a whole-foods, plant-based and vegan diet (well they didn't analyze "belly jiggles" per say, but they did measure BMI, weight and waist circumference).

Watch the video below to learn about the results of the "Broad Study: A randomized controlled trial using a whole food plant-based diet in the community for obesity, ischemic heart disease or diabetes." 

Take Control Now Question

What's one new thing you learned from this video?  Any additional insights to add?

Comment by clicking 'comment' below.

3 ways to lose weight when you've plateaud on a plant-based diet

Ever feel like you're doing everything right, by the book, but you're still not losing weight?

You're eating plant-based, feeling better (which is awesome), but the scale hasn't budged and you need it to.  You know you're on the right path but wonder "what am I doing wrong?"  

My friend Kathy feels this way and maybe you do too.  She had this to say commenting on Dr. Brie's interview from last week...

“I’ve been eating plant-based for almost 7 months. A friend and I began together and it’s been a lot of fun sharing recipes and texting pics of what we ate that day. I feel great on this eating plan. I’m post menopausal and even though I’ve been following this diet for 7 months I can’t seem to lose weight. Help!”

— Kathy, Take Control Tuesday friend

Even if you're not post menopausal it can be really frustrating knowing you're on the right path, but not getting the health results you want or expected.  And I've been there.  Multiple times and I know how to get through it.  

To help Kathy, today I'm sharing 3 ways to lose weight when you've plateaued on a plant-based diet whether you're post menopausal or not.

3 ways to lose weight when you've plateaued on a plant-based diet

1.  Make sure you're doing the diet right.  

There's many ways to do plant-based wrong or half-right.  Wrong or half-right won't get you the best results.  Here's an example of doing a plant-based diet wrong:  

Eating a junk-food vegan diet.  Tortilla chips (50%-ish fat), fries, vegan cookies etc. don't contain animal products, but that doesn't mean they're good for you.  Especially on a regular basis. At best, they're treats to be saved for special occasions.

Just because a diet is called plant-based or vegan doesn't mean it's good for you.

You must eat whole plant foods 90-100% of the time.  This includes fruits, veggies, whole-grains, legumes (beans, peas, lentils) and the optional nuts and seeds.  Refined foods (vegetable oils, white flour products and sugar) and animal products are not whole plant foods and should be avoided.  

Another example is eating high-fat plant food such as avocados, coconut, olives, nuts and seeds at every meal or as snacks.  Eating peanut butter out of the jar or peanut butter toast every morning instead of something more filling with less calories like oatmeal and fresh fruit can also prevent weight-loss (see point number two).  

Bottom line:  Learn how to do the diet right.  

Good news is, you're in the perfect place for that.  Sign-up for email updates above and you'll be the first to know when my free 'doing the diet right' crash course comes out in the next 2 weeks.  Or, learn from John McDougall, MD or Pam Popper, PhD, ND.  These are my top two teachers for doing the diet right.

2.  Eat high-fat plant foods as condiments or don't eat them at all.

People love avocados.  I do.  And that's partly because of the high amount of fat that's in them.

By design, fat tastes good so we'd eat it when we were hunter and gatherers.  At that time we needed the extra calories that fat provides because we never knew when we'd get more calories and needed any calories we could get to survive.  

The reason we need to be cautious of high-fat food is because fat has 5 extra calories per gram compared to a gram of carbohydrate or protein.  Carbohydrate and protein both have 4 calories per gram, while fat has 9 calories per gram.  Same quantity, but more calories in fat.  

For example, nuts can be great for your health.  But, if you casually snack through just one cup of almonds throughout the day, that's 838 calories (1).  They're very calorie dense which means their small volume of food is packed with more calories.  Compare that to one cup of a baked sweet potato (same amount) which is only 184 calories (2).  Plus it's really filling so you're more likely to stop eating instead of continually snacking.    

Bottom line:  nuts and seeds should be used as condiments, not snacks to enjoy to their health benefits and flavor, without overdosing on calories.  Or, simply omit high-fat plant foods completely.  

 

3.  Increase the intensity, duration and frequency of your exercise and stick to it!

Most people I've worked with have more trouble sticking to a long-term and challenging exercise regiment than changing their diet.  Once you've hit a weight-loss plateau, it's time to ramp up your exercise.  

You need to continuously increase...

• the intensity (how hard you're working),
• the duration (how long you're exercising for) and or
• the frequency (often you're working out)

for fitness to improve and weight loss to be encouraged.

The optimal goal is 5-6 days a week of exercising in your target heart rate for 45-60 minutes a day.

For post-menopausal women especially, hot yoga is a great way to reach that goal.  If you're in Columbia, SC, try Bikram Yoga or Yoga Masala.  I've been to them both.  Contact me if you want my opinion.

Now I'd love to hear from you.  Share your thoughts by clicking 'comment' below and answer...

Take Control Now Question

Which of these 3 tips do you need to implement the most and why?  

What's going to be the hardest part about getting started?

I can't wait to hear from you in the comments.

Love and Leafy Greens,

Trish