Nothing like new shoes to put spring in your step.

Yosemite trekking is 2 weeks out and when we were there last May, my veteran trail shoes did not stand up to the slip of granite!  So I looked for something with a gecko sole and I think I may have round it in these Adidas Kanadia TR W.

Why the funky foot show?  I know I'll never see these shoes this bright – colored again and I wanted to document it. Northern California foothills and mountains are all about red dirt.  Kiss your white sneakers goodbye.

Off to test drive these puppies!

Christmas in September!

Without further ado, shoot over right now to my gift package page so you can download your goodies.  How's that sound?

It's all there for you in the video above, but just to spell it out, here's what you'll get in my gift kit:

• Video Download: Fit Quickies™ #1 v 2.0, “7 Seconds to a Flat Belly”

• 30- minute Audio download: “How to Supercharge Your Energy and Stoke Your Metabolism in 4 Fast Minutes: The Busy Woman’s Secret Weapon For Time-Saving Fitness and Fat Loss” PLUS
  

• Action Guide and Tip Sheet

• Science Files

• And if you're not already receiving it, a complimentary subscription to FitDream Ezine, insider tips, information and motivation to your email each week.

Then you have to promise to tell me how you like it the Fitness Breakthrough Kit. What are your favorite pieces? How do you like v 2.0 of "7 Seconds"? What questions might you have?  Fire away with them.  Click here to post your thoughts in comments below.

But before you go to collect your goodies, thank you for your readership, your business, and friendship.  You make it possible for me to do what I love – help busy women who struggle with weight, energy, and getting the food and workout thing together – succeed so that they can live their body ideal, have more energy, and be more productive and successful in their business and their lives.  There's nothing like it!

Here's to better bodies for busy women!

It was upon a recent visit with Greg's Dad (a solid Giants fan since forever) at a birthday celebration not long ago that we got re-hooked on the game. Pop somehow got us looped back in.

Take me out to the ballgame!

Blossoming.  Bursting.  Bright.  Unique.

Full of potential and promise.

You.

Ready to realize the next of your dreams.

Woman's Fitness BluePrint:  An Action Plan for  Success gets underway August 22!

If you are one of the lucky women who have snagged a ticket for this exclusive, transformational session, watch your email because the key to entering our course area is on its way within hours.

And I've filled it with sunflowers for you.  Our WFB mascot.

Heaps of whole foods keep your hunger satisfied and keep you trim; brilliant! That's today's filling yet slimming lunch, above

In "Numbers UP On The Scale?  Don't Panic!" I gave you the skinny on how I transformed my relationship to the bathroom scale from one of "fight or flight" to mutual respect.

The scale can be your friend, as trendy as it may be to say otherwise.  And if you are afraid of the bathroom scale, it's time to take a look at THAT.  Because making the scale your friend can be a very helpful tool when it comes to weight management.

Dietary Guidelines Pave The Simple Solution Path.

Since I know that nutrition is number one when it comes to weight management (see You Can't Out train A Bad Diet), I thought back to my eats the last couple of weeks to find where this slight gain might have come from.

It is, after all, all about calorie density. The simple solution is to pare down foods high in calorie density – that means a high amount of calories per pound of food – and to nudge your selections back in the direction of low and overall moderate calorie density with vegetables, starchy vegetables, whole unprocessed grains, fruits, and legumes.  This crowds out the culprits while keeping you happily well fed.

You look at what you have been eating that may be creating weight challenges due to its calorie density.  For me, looking back the past couple of weeks, it was not hard to find:

• Tahini sauce on my veggies more often than usual
• Champagne on a couple of occasions
• Extra rounds of grainy bread
• Slices of avocado (on the grainy bread) more often than usual

Each of these on their own might not be enough to make a difference.  But put them together, and they end up making a difference.  Reality!  I got it!

Here's The Immediate Action I've Taken

When the scale goes UP, I just make sure that I have plenty to eat that will reverse the gain, so that I can shed the extra lbs without hunger and with complete satiety.  Quickly and easily. It works like a charm.

Here's what I did today to insure success:

Rinsing potatoes - 3 varieties - to bake in a big batch

1. Fired up my rice cooker with a big new batch of brown jasmine rice
2. Pressure cooked a new big pot of black turtle beans
3. Soaked and scrubbed a dozen potatoes:  red, gold, and sweet – to bake today

I'll can the avo and tahini for now, save the champagne for down the road a bit and replace most of the bread with rice, other whole grains, and potatoes for a few days.

That's all it will take. And this will match my requirements of being well-fed, eat according to appetite, and stay up with my usual, time-saving workout strategies.

Simple solution.  Piece of cake.

Do you have a strategy for taking action if or when the scale nudges up?   Share about it in comments below.

And I promise to report back in with the success of my FitDream Food Plan.

© Lani Muelrath 2010

Take the "fight or flight" out of the scale experience

Numbers UP on the scale?

This used to grip my heart with fear and send my stomach sinking.

But that was BEFORE I transformed my relationship with food, eating, and my body.

What Is Your Relationship With The Scale?

Between you and me, I used to have a love/hate relationship with the scale.  I was either:

1. Compelled to weigh several times a day (big mistake),  or
2. Avoiding its reality like the plague (problematic red flag)

When I finally committed to making a good relationship between me, weight, and food a priority, I made a choice to be true to my "all the cards on the table" nature.

That meant instead of having a pathology about the numbers on the scale, to instead change my relationship to that, too.  The goal of freedom I kept before me like a shining star. And that mean abandoning avoidance and embracing a new attitude.

Man, am I glad I did.

I did this for 2 reasons:

1. To take back my power (scale fear puts the scale in power)
   
2. To be able to share the reality of these numbers with women I knew I would be coaching through this same process down the road

In a very short period of time, by cultivating a new relationship with the scale instead of being commandeered by an old one, it became a useful tool for me.

Nothing more, nothing less.

It's called freedom through embracing the reality check.The truth shall set you free .

And since then, I've discovered that research shows those who monitor their weight enjoy more success with weight management.  (See Does Checking The Scale Help With Weight Management?)

So for those who insist the scale doesn't tell you what you are measuring, and can report wild fluctuations in weight day-to-day depending on food intake and activity levels, it is an indicator of trends and can be a darn good additional tool of measure, along with how your clothes fit and how you feel.

Scale Reality Check Still Works Today

The work I did with cleaning up my combat with the scale continues to pay off, more than a dozen years later.  And it can do the same for you.

When I see my weight pop up, it's usually due to a salty meal or post-exercise hydration, where the challenged muscle packs on some extra water weight in the process of recovery.

Yet if I see the upward trend persist, I know it's time to take a look at the eats.

This past couple of weeks, I noted an upward trend on the scale that persisted.  Just a couple of pounds, but that is precisely the wisdom of checking in regularly.  It gives me a chance to reality check my food choices, and redirect them to be in alignment with my body composition goals.  Fancy way of staying trim WHILE being well fed at the same time.

Well fed is critical in my book.  Hunger and weight management are NOT a good match.

CLICK HERE to find out my simple, quick strategies to redirect weight gain.

image:  invisible

Think about it.

Dig in and find any challenging goal, right now.

Something that presents itself to you without much thought.  You know what I mean.

For example, take the goal of doing your workout schedule this week.  Hopefully, you've planned something that takes minimal time for maximum results and has flexibility built into it, due to the always-present human predicament of the unpredictable happening.

Now, out load, say "Yes, I can do my workout schedule this week".

Then, say THIS out loud instead:

"Yes, I WILL do my workout schedule this week".

Feel the difference?

One is of them has an "I'll try" feel to it.  Wiggle room.

The other has an vested commitment.  Solid.

I'm betting my bottom dollar on "I will" getting you a heck of a lot closer to your goals than "I can".

This is on my mind today as wild circumstances have been swirling all around me.

• A close, aging relative is in serious condition in the hospital.

• My web server had problems in the middle of some important business projects.

• The roofer arrived to repair the roof leak.  Shall I go on?

Here's the thing.

Though it took extra resolve to follow through on my workout plans and being prepared with healthy, energizing eats today, to NOT do so would have made these circumstances far more difficult to manage.  It's easy to say "just this time…there's too much stress to eat right!", or "I don't have time to get in a workout!"

But in most cases, neither of these statements are true.

Nor are they in your best interest.  You will be more resilient, better able to face even the most unpleasant of circumstances and tasks, and of better service to not only yourself but those around you as well when you take care of your health and energy needs.  That's what wellness is all about.

In other words, put the oxygen mask on first.  Then you can breathe.  And have the vitality to be up to the tasks.  And be of service.

Are you an "I can" or an "I will" person?

You can learn to become an "I will" person.  This doesn't mean you'll get the oxygen mask on in time each and every time.  But trust me, it'll happen a lot more often than if you are rallying around in "I can" territory.

The Bigger Picture

Extend this same idea to another endeavor in your life.  Give it the "I can" vs. the "I will" test.  See if you don't experience a shift in energy.

Spare Me The Yabutz

"Yeah, but what if…."

Hey, don't go there. If something comes up and you absolutely need to change your plan, and it will from time to time, then you just do what you need to do.

But without the foundation of "I will", the change in plans can happen just often enough to destroy your dreams.

Challenge: take just one thing that you have been "can-ning", and turn it into a "will" statement.  Watch what happens.  And click here tell what YOU are changing to an "I will" in comments below.

© Lani Muelrath 2010     image:  prospurring

We've been known for our no carb left behind romps through Italy. Like this find of grainy pizza crust "senza formaggio" and piles of chopped fresh tomato we scored in Cinque Terra.

What do YOU do with appetite swings?

I just go with it.

Back in the old "count, weight, measure" days, we operated on the assumption that every day would be a match energetically and with appetite.  Know what I mean?

Sorry sister, ain't the truth in real life.  Our bodies have all kinds of reasons – most which we  probably know nothing about – for swinging our appetites.

And if we eliminated or seriously made a dent in the dastardly diet-slammers such as highly processed foods, rich pastries, desserts, fiber-free dairy, and other agents of sabotage to natural fullness, then we are free to go with the appetite flow without fear of weight gain.  Trust me.

Case in Point

If it brings confidence and comfort that it IS possible to eat according to hunger and fullness signals without gaining weight endlessly and forever – and to actually use it as an effective tool to keep you trim – Ill give you an example from my eating life.  Here is my food journal – best I can recall – from the past 2 days.

Yesterday

Breakfast:

• Big bowl of muesli with crispy rice cereal and flax seed, 2 kinds of peach and blueberries, splash of rice milk

Mid-morning:

• green plum.  Perfect

Lunch:

• pile of romaine with kidney beans
• sandwich with 2 slices of whole grain bread with thick chunks of tomato and pickles

Afternoon.  Nothing.  (Unusual!)

Dinner:

• giant ear of corn

Today:

Breakfast:

• Bowl of hot muesli, ground flax seed, fresh peaches, splash of rice milk.

Mid morning:

• plum

• nectarine

• rice cake with sesame butter, and
  

  Snapshot of today's tabouleh; from my upcoming FitFood Quickies Comford Food Cookbook

• several scoops of the tabouli salad I was making for lunch.  Yeah, it almost didn't make it.  To lunch.  The tabouleh I mean. Click HERE for my easy tabouleh recipe.

Lunch:

• pile of baby spinach with big scoop of tabouleh with garbanzos all over the top

• sandwich with 2 slices of whole grain bread with thick chunks of tomato and pickles

Afternoon:

• no hunger until dinner, as well satisfied in the morning

Dinner:

• corn on the cob

• cauliflower with veggie chorizo

• bruschetta of chopped tomato on wholegrain bread

Later:

• huge bowl of watermelon chunks

So, what's with the appetite shifts?

Who knows. Both days I took a long leisurely morning walk.

Yesterday I did my Bar Method workout after the walk.

A longtime favorite, this cracked-wheat winner is a natural for the busy woman.  High in fiber and low in fat, this simple grain-based salad rates a resounding "ding-ding-ding!" on the comfort-foods-that-won't-make-you-fat scale.

I like to take snapshots of food just prepped in my kitchen to show you how quick and easy it can be to eat well and not spend a lot of time.  I hate to cook but I love to eat, so go the distance when I have to.

But I rely on simple, 5-ingredients-or-less recipes like this one to keep me well-fed and trim at the same time.  As a matter of fact, often I just make up a recipe based on something slightly more complex I might have enjoyed on one or more occasions.  Such is the case with my tabouleh.

From my upcoming companion to my Fit Quickies™, the FitFood Quickies Cookbook, (aka the Comfort Food Diet Cookbook! ):

Tabouleh

• 1 cup bulgur, (cracked wheat)

• 2 cups water

• 2 coarsely chopped tomatoes

• 1/2  cup coarsely chopped sweet white onion

• salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

• handful of chopped cilantro

Place the cracked wheat in a bowl.  Bring water to a boil, pour it over the wheat, and cover.  In an hour or so, just sitting there, it will be done!

Chop the onions and tomatoes and mix in. Salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate the whole thing.  Mix in cilantro (parsley works well too) as desired.

You can always add a squeeze of lemon juice or other fat-free accent agent if you like

There you have it!

Sherry and a 4 - legged treasure

Lani, I'm not really surprised but have to say that your organization and thoughtfulness with McBooty Camp are unparalled. Everything is so organized!

I feel fabulous!

I was just thrilled this morning when looking in the mirror.

Even with a far from perfect participation level, I have:

• In these 2 weeks of McBooty Camp, lost 7 – 8 lbs.
• Significant firming and toning through the torso and lower lats, obliques and lower abs due largely to Fit Quickie #1, which surpasses my previous favorite abs exercise! We're talking highly visible toning and tightening
  
• A renewed commitment to working out and some new ideas on how to introduce variety. I feel like I look good which is 95% of the battle to looking good!
• It is like all of a sudden, people are noticing me. I keep getting compliments in a way that I've never experienced.

I count that is pretty darn good given the many distractions I've had over the two weeks.

I've learned that just minor changes in nutrition can lead to big results

Even though I haven't been able to participate fully, I am soooo very glad I at least started and did what I could. I would be at the same place I was almost 2 weeks ago if I hadn't just jumped in with both feet.

PLUS I was thrilled when I stepped on the scale today and did not gain anything back during the girls trip last weekend! Actually, I think I've lost a little more but it just isn't showing up on the scale yet.

Kudos to Lani for orchestrating such a great program!

~ Sherry R., Houston, TX

If transformation can truly take place in 2 weeks, the women in the July Better Bodies for Busy Women Break Free McBooty Camp have proven it.  Once again.

Here's what makes the difference. The power of:

• the focus
• the team pull
• intensive, laser coaching
• intention to dive into massive overhaul using the most powerful success tools in a telescoped time period
• the accountability
• the targeted body shaping
• the regular activity
• the simple, clear, no-hunger dietary guidelines
  

What an honor to work with this amazing group of women.  We rolled up our sleeves and got some serious work done, making huge strides in embedding new tactics, strategies, and attitude.

Results are still coming in, but I don't want to wait a minute longer in sharing some of them with you, my valued reader.

I'll let them tell more of their own stories.

Sharon

My closure to the McBooty camp:  today I weighed in and am  down 6.4 pounds by my math in 2 weeks!

I am now 1.4 pounds from being  the lowest weight I have managed to achieve in 8 years.  (I did lose down to my goal weight 1993, shortly after my son was born, using Jenny Craig – and I stayed at that weight for about 5 minutes, was hungry all the time and sick of the prepackaged food.)

I feel very enthused and confident that using the principles I have learned and continue to learn from Lani and my fellow MCBooty Camp and FitDream Fusion peeps that I will reach my goal of 145 lbs, size 8.  My size 14 jeans are getting loose! Yay!  After comparing my measurements that were taken at the beginning , I have lost a total of 3 inches in 2 weeks.

Lani, thank you so very much for the nutrition DVD. My husband was watching it yesterday and is just all over it, much to my surprise! My son will be here tomorrow and we are going to watch it together as a family.  I am looking forward to continuing on with FitDream Fusion.

Sharon Mack, Paralegal,, Rocky River, OH

Janice

Lani, thanks for a great class. It really  expanded my ability to do harder & more intense exercise. I now have increased confidence for reaching goals and being active. I also lost 1.8 lbs.

I loved the daily audio.  It was this quiet little whisper in my ear of things to focus on. I liked both calls and found them very helpful. Obviously I was all over the forums!  Your responses to all of my posts was unexpected and I felt very loved and cared for.

I liked the resources made available – and that you responded to my thoughts about goals by providing more info.  That was really helpful.

Looking forward to seeing you in the FitDream Fusion forums!

Janice Nelson, Redwood City, CA

Paym

Even though McBooty Camp came at a very busy time for me,  I not only kept on track with exercise, but I lost some weight.

As a matter of fact, this now brings me to 22 lbs lost since jumping into FitDream Fusion and applying the tools.

A pair of jeans are literally falling off ME – REALLY – I FINALLY understand how someone CAN have their jeans fall off their butt!

The daily audios certainly spoke to me.  I found myself listening and taking notes for future reference – and so much was so relevant to what I'm going through or doing right now!

The energy level was wonderful to be a part of.

The Teleclasses were AWESOME.

Thanks Lani!~ Paym  Bergson, Entrepeneur,  Paym Bergson Enterprise  Trainer/Writer, Toronto

I am proud I did the two week McBooty Camp even though it was such a busy time!  It was a short enough program to commit to,  and I got great support and results.  I feel more motivated and determined to continue eating this way and keeping up with exercise.

More results:

• I lost 3.5 lbs,

• I have increased energy and better sleep.

• I feel thinner:  I tried on clothes that fit looser in the stomach, waist and thighs.

• I have better control of my eating through your guidelines

• I think the Fit Quickies, which were new for me, are very effective in a short time.

Overall I feel more in control of my eating and  I think the dietary plan is a great program to jump start.  It made me very mindful of eating healthy without oils, cheese, and dairy products.

I feel better about myself and more empowered to move forward and I hope I continue to see progress.

I was very impressed by  the details of the program and support. The daily messages were great! The tele class kick start was very helpful to increase motivation and help me get organized.  The Q and A was  very helpful at addressing individual concerns.

I think McBooty Camp is a great program, because it is short, very well organized, motivating and supportive and Lani is awesome in giving individualized feedback in a very professional, timely and warm manner.  The support of the group is great, too.  For someone who is feeling stuck, this is a great jump start program, with actual results in a short amount of time.  Thanks Lani.

~ Maxine Becker, Cupertino, CA

Want to be sure to know when the next McBooty Camp is scheduled?

Go here NOW and let me know!

Woman's Fitness Blueprint:  An Action Plan for Success Registration HERE, NOW!