by Dr. Sandy Jost

Time is constantly flying by, isn’t it?
But have you been noticing any of the changes in your life?

Remember to focus on simple things.
Pay attention to every action you take.
Do not miss a thing!

Don’t become “hypnotized” by all that is going on around you.
Deliberately CHOOSE for the rest of this week!

Make “I choose” statements …

I choose to do this. (or not)
I choose to eat this. (or not)
I choose to chew soooooo slowly and savor every bite. (or not)
I choose to seek what my body is asking me for. (or not)
I choose to drink crystal clear water. (or not)
I choose to pause … and ponder … how wonderful it is to be aware of my strengths through choice! (or not)

And no matter what you “chose” a moment ago … there is always a moment right now which you can CHOOSE all over again!!!!

Isn’t that great?!!!!

…

And whether it is evident or not, I just want you to know that I am with you in spirit,

Always.

You simply MUST find a way to put some walking into your daily routine!

I know that this is not my typical way of trying to inspire you with concepts, words, and ideas, but the truth of the matter is: if you don’t add the simple act of MOTION into your day, your body is NOT going to take you seriously.

Walking for just 30 minutes a day is one of the best things you can do. You can even split those 30 minutes into chunks throughout your day if you wish.

Other fun options to consider: dance around in your bathroom while you’re waiting for the shower to warm up. Stretch with exaggerated motions if that feels more appropriate to you. Give yourself lots of hugs or “body squeezes” while you’re driving to work or sitting at your next boring meeting. Be sure to fidget all day long … even while working at your desk. Pace while you are on the phone. Take your cell phone for a walk at lunch if you wish to have companionship on your stroll. Grab the hand of your spouse, head out the door and around the block, and use that time to reconnect and rediscover why it is that you married that person!
But there are absolutely no excuses about adding the importance of motion to your day.

Notice I did NOT say “exercise!”

Very few people have the mental stamina for exercise. If you do, then do it wisely and don’t be a “weekend warrior” in which you play hard on the weekends in order to make up for the week. This is very dangerous and it really doesn’t work very well either.

Walking a mile burns the same number of calories as jogging a mile, so take it easy and literally enjoy this activity in your day.

So get out there in your life and determine what “movement” works best for you! Find a buddy (which I call M&A’s in my weight loss program) if that helps you to stay on track.

But be prepared … one you do find a way to add walking to your day, you will honestly wonder how you ever did without it!

Here is something I have been asked that is representative of so many people that I thought I would include it here:

I bought a cd of yours and my mind is way to busy to accept self hypnosis. If I was hypnotised by a professional would it help?

If you are like most everyone else, I can imagine that you have a lot of stress in your life. And many people ask me how to stop the stress-eating response they have been using to cope.

The best thing to do is to find other ways to de-stress vs. eat, but that is as individual as a fingerprint!

But at least start by asking yourself: What do I like to do for fun?

Whatever that is then, simply close your eyes for one minute every hour and literally PRETEND that you are doing it in every way!! And I mean … touch it … smell it … feel it … hear it … EVERYTHING … until you can get so good at your pretending that you really do feel as if you ARE doing it!!!

This is imagery!

You are constantly using imagery in your life for the stressful events anyway … even without KNOWING that you’re doing it … because your mind is constantly focusing on what could go wrong, what still needs to be done, etc. Giving your mind a chance to do imagery on the POSITIVE experiences in your life is sooooo helpful to giving your body balance … even if it IS only for one minute out of every 60!

Next to imagery, the next BEST thing I can suggest is that you drink a TON of water!!!! I’m not exaggerating!!! (Well, okay, just a little …) But water is KEY!!!!! Once you have eaten enough food that fits in your hand, any other feeling of hunger is your body’s way of just trying to get enough water into you too!!!!

As I say in my weight loss program … find a container that you love to hold … love to look at … so that you will hold it and drink water often!!! Just water.

You can drink water cold, warm, or even hot with a little lemon or possibly tea if you wish. But use no sugar … no dairy … no substitutes … NOTHING else!!!

Only water sends your body the message that all is well in the world … that there are abundant resources available to you … and that therefore it doesn’t need to stock up or go into storage mode because of any crisis out there in the world.

Add your imagery to this message, and you truly will find a peace that no longer needs to be found through food after all.

The CDs in my weight loss program are filled with these reassuring types of words that can help you to stay focused in a stress-filled day. And the key IS to STAY FOCUSED and AWARE! But not a lot of it is earth-shattering new stuff … it’s all information that will actually sound quite “familiar” to your very core.

The problem with our “regular” world, however, is that there are too many messages being given at any point in time to go ahead and eat all the junk and feel all the stress!!!! So at least surround yourself with raw vegetables to crunch on and take away the junk food. Then have at it with the “stressful eating response!” Raw veggies will actually HELP you lose weight!!!!

But back to the stress itself: Try to enjoy the hidden gifts in your day. Don’t approach anything (unless you are a surgeon) as if must be “perfect!” Instead, approach life solely as if you are being given the gift of celebration that can only be shared with so many other wonderful people in your life.

Love it … live it … And know that you are worth every moment of joyful focus you can find in your day!!!!

After all, what if this moment is all you have!!!

Here is a person whose shyness has helped her to learn to communicate VERY well through the written word. So let me share this person’s comments so that I can be more clear about teaching you new skills that can help …

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Hello.

I was very excited to find out about this group (http://weightloss.meetup.com/223) because I have always believed that my overeating was a “MIND” problem.

I am currently 5′4″ and weigh 260 pounds. I will be 45 on April 1 and I am a female. I weighed 6 pounds at birth but on my 1st bithday I weighed 40 pounds!

I was an overweight child, teased and made fun of. I truly believe that made me pull further into my shell and I still suffer from severe shyness, to the point of social anxiety.

I did lose weigh twice in my life - once as a teenager by taking diet pills from a doctor. I got down to 126 pounds at age 15 but gained it all back and more once I went off the diet pills.

In 1993 I weighed 240 and was disgusted, so I joined Jenny Craig. In 3 months I was down to 190, a loss of 40 pounds. However, I got married for the first time soon after that, and had a miserable marriage. I ended up eating due to severe stress in the marriage, and weighed 250 in 4 years, at the time of my divorce.

I eat when I am bored, when stressed, when depressed, you name it. It just is such a comfort to me at the time.

I would love to learn WHY I do this and to learn how to change it! My life is not good now - I have type 2 diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis, depression and anxiety. I need to lose weight so I can get off all these medications.

Help, Doctor!!

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I think that no matter WHAT you (the reader) weighs, you can relate to a lot of things being expressed by the author of this note.

First of all, we could consider it sad that our infants learn behaviors that are going to last a lifetime. These behaviors can be anything from the suppression of emotions or the wrong foods to eat. But then again, keep any “sadness” in perspective, for it is also BECAUSE of what we learn from our parents that we often are able to “survive” too!
The first “learning” that we take to heart, however, is that we have to “do” something or “be” someone specific in order to “earn” our love from others. And unfortunately, even parents can ONLY teach behaviors that they were taught too. So it is no one’s FAULT. It is all simply LEARNING! It’s not EASY to “unlearn” something once it has been learned, but it IS definitely possible! Otherwise each generation would be an exact replica of the one before us, and that is just not true.

So if you consider the fact that ALL learning is technically trying to keep you “safe” … you can begin to feel empathy for how you … and everyone else around you … is simply trying to mirror back to the world all that they have learned.

In this case, these extra “layers” have always been able to offer protection from a world where vulnerability is not “safe.” This protection can be FROM many things, but in the end, it is only once a person is ready to come out from BEHIND these layers of protection that they will then be able to find new ways to feel “safe.”

Surround yourself by supportive people. Avoid those who are disrespectul, sarcastic, or even negative about OTHERS. This is not as difficult as you might think.
If you are trying to “change your mind” like this, you can do something as simple as put in a CD of supportive information on your way to work … or listen to a guided imagery before you go to bed at night … just do it DAILY!!! Turn OFF the “negative” news stations! The information you receive from the outside world is POWERFUL to your inner mind. Treat your mind as GOLD! Feed it ONLY with support and nurturing nourishment. And then, don’t ignore the fact that the way to FIND support is also to OFFER support to others.

This new “mind food” will nourish you much more sustainably than any food you put into your mouth. But it’s a holistic thing … you must CHOOSE healthy foods that speak to your BODY of weight loss. Then you can feed your MIND with these nourishing thoughts. But don’t forget the fact that you must ALSO feed your SOUL! (… Learn to listen to your inner voice with a greater sense of respect, for your “truth” is always there waiting for you to listen to its greater message — the one that goes BEYOND any information you were ever given by a parent … beyond any message that you are ever fed by the media.)

Underneath it all … in the core of your heart … you will find your inner voice that is just waiting to be expressed! You can learn why you decided to come here and live this life of yours in the first place! You may have to listen hard for this voice. It may have been told to be silent long ago. But know that it does still wait patiently for you. It never goes away. It is like a heartbeat … that just keeps on waiting for you to notice.

Thank you for sharing your heartfelt message with me (and others).

I have a Nourishing Words communication that I send out by email to anyone who wants to sign up. It is a daily connection from me for 30 days that you can sign up for on the main webpage of www.TheLastThingThisWorldNeeds.com. Here is just one of the points I feel so strongly about …

The email you would receive on day 24:

I want to reinforce the fact that I too know it truly is going to take some real effort on your part, to break away from how everyone else around you is going to approach their day!

Listen for it on the news. Look for it in your own response to whatever is said. And simply notice all the times you will hear the message of what your world ‘lacks’ or somehow ‘needs to be changed.’

You may even think it is GOOD to focus on these things … for no one wants to be ‘complacent’ or ‘look the other way’ when things are so ‘wrong’ in the world!

But what if you could focus more energy on the stories that show ‘the heart’ of human goodness evident everywhere? What if you had faith that ‘the big picture’ (in which God’s hand reaches into even the tiniest details) is ‘under control?’

I ask you: Would focusing on abundance bring MORE lack? Or would focusing on abundance bring more ABUNDANCE?

Your body, mind, and soul actually WANT to believe that you are living in a world of abundance … even when all around you, you are probably continuing to receive those messages of ‘lack.’

Only whole foods tell your physical body that you’re living in a world of abundant food. Only focusing on what is whole and ‘right’ in the world will give your soul the same message about your life!

Choose to maintain an ‘abundance focus’ today … choose messages that do you the most ‘good!’

Wishing you only MORE abundance in your ‘whole’ life,

Sandy

I hope you will also “join” me in these thoughts, for together we can learn a new way to embrace life!

Even Albert Einstein once put compounded interest as one of the most powerful forces in the universe!

This is because little changes … over time … add up to be BIG THINGS!!!

Do you know that if you set out in your car to drive to a city that just happened to be in another state just 100 miles away, but your steering wheel was off just ¼ of an inch … by the time you got there, you would miss the whole state in its entirety? This is an example of compounded change!

The “miracle” of this simple law of mathematics is that you don’t have to change MUCH to make a big compounded difference in your life!

• If you choose to eat just a little less processed food EVERY DAY … you would be so proud of your progress!
• If you would choose to eat just a little more fresh vegetables each meal … you would be so proud of your body’s response!
• If you would choose to drink just a little more water each hour … you would find that you have discovered a secret that has somehow managed to change your world!

Most people are doing nothing BIG that is wrong in their weight loss plan, yet most people are doing a lot of LITTLE things that are adding up to those big things … in the wrong direction, keeping them “stuck” and missing the whole “state” of weight loss.

Recognize any of these?

• You know you don’t take enough “down time” from all the stress in your life …
• You have more than a few days when you just don’t get enough solid sleep (in total darkness) …
• You more than likely don’t choose to walk those few extra steps when you park somewhere, because you will choose the closest parking spot every time …

The choice is yours. All these little things are adding up in your life every day. Plot your course. Plan your actions. And let the little things take you to exactly where you once aimed to go!

All the desire in the world is not going to be enough for you to achieve your goals of fitness and health if you don’t have the right tools to get you there.

Study the nutrition facts from unbiased resources that you trust (although I know … this can be a long and winding road).

But also surround yourself with a supportive community that you can lean on.

These two things PLUS desire will get you there!

A holistic approach? You betcha! And here is why:

• Nutrition = Food for the Body
• Desire = Food for the Mind
• Community = Food for the Soul

I put a lot more detail into this approach in The LAST Thing This World Needs Is ANOTHER Weight Loss Program. The three CDs that accompany the program are even labeled as I list them above: Food for Your BODY, Food for Your MIND, and Food for Your SOUL.

Nature intends for you to lose weight! … Now if only you had been taught Mother Nature’s language! [wink, wink]

Foods are in constant communication with your body. And your mind is in constant communication with its interpretations of Life. But none of this so called “holistic language” is difficult. It makes perfect sense, actually. (You can learn more by picking up a copy … or even download it to your computer so you can read and listen to it right now if you wish! The link is http://www.thelastthingthisworldneeds.com/store/, and you can get it in whatever format works best for you).

Each of these parts individually are not enough.

As I said in the beginning, you can have all the “desire” in the world, but if you don’t know WHAT foods are saying to your body and WHEN foods are best eaten and best not eaten, you will likely continue on with whatever path you are currently on, and will continue to get the outcome you’ve always gotten … excess weight!

If you have all the “knowledge” in the world about nutrition, and you already know the language that the foods speak, but you don’t really have the desire to lose weight…(it could be that your spouse wants you to lose weight, or the excess weight actually tends to protect you a bit from the outside world) … well then you’re not going to lose any weight either!

But if you have the support of “community” … in which everyone and every restaurant around you is constantly providing everything you need to lose weight … well then in fact, you probably WILL begin to lose weight in SPITE of yourself!!! Community, it turns out, is one of the most important pieces in this holistic mix.

But since you can’t just change the TV channel every time they show you a packaged food commercial, and you can’t ask every fast food place to move outside of a 100 mile radius of you, and you can’t ask your mom to stop trying to serve you that extra helping of mashed potatoes or the coworkers from bringing in yet another batch of homemade brownies … well then you have to create your OWN community … one that has exactly the same goals as you do!

But the part of my research that surprised me the most was that it’s not the community’s support of YOU that does the most good. It is when you end up supporting the community that you are the MOST likely to find success.

But it only makes sense. Once you realize that helping another person is one of the BEST ways to feed your soul, it gives you just one more tool that is normally rather difficult to find in our sometimes lonely body and world.

Few people realize just how much we become addicted to stress … but it truly is just like any drug. Stress causes our hormones to start pumping away, and in VERY short time we just want more! We may not THINK we like stress, but in fact, in many cases stress is a “choice” that we make. And if you came from a society in which you initially had no stress … within 48 hours you would in fact begin “craving” the increased stress you might find in your culture.
So then, know that when your hormones are flowing, your body wants to munch, and the first thing you may reach for is not necessarily going to be the best for you! Hormones are complex. But your body uses hormones to keep you in balance. Get your body in balance first, and then you will be better able to exert control over the foods for which you reach! But if you cannot simply walk away from the stress right away, here are some tips to help:
If it is something “crunchy” that you crave, then keep plenty of raw vegetables around to chew. If it is something sweet that you crave, keep a few raw fresh fruits around to eat, but know that you may also need lots of water or clear warm unsweetened and uncaffeinated drinks around to help you stop!

And try those warm, clear broths or teas alone … for you might find that they give you a wonderful feeling of satisfaction and warmth.

Do not add sweeteners of any kind to anything! Sugar is truly the worst think you can do to help you manage your stress! And remember that things like chips, pretzels, and other such “unsweetened” foods, are so processed that your body digests them just as easily as sugar! In fact, your body treats ALL processed foods like “sugar!”

Just know that stress is addictive. Start there. And look for outlets other than food to help you “redirect” and improve upon your body’s comfort in continuing these more subtle addictions.

I have decided that the reason people fail is because we really are very “dependent” on others in our lives. Since so many others are overweight, we either find companionship with those who are overweight or we feel unable to “compete” with those who are not.

Now think about this more: In a world that very much supports ‘independence,’ we try to resist the fact that we are nonetheless VERY effected by those around us … especially though the media, through culture, through what’s just simply available in our personal lives, and through the simple thing we call everyday ‘habits.’

I wish you could attend one of my seminars in which I talk about all of this, as well as their link to the bodymind connection. (You can click through to my homepage at the top of the right menu bar and sign up for a free teleseminar if you wish). But let’s face it … we all kinda know that we eat for many reasons OTHER than simple hunger!

If you would study the formula for ’success,’ you come to really understand just how much our eating involves our attempts to nourish our desire for connection … our desire to nourish what we sometimes call our ’soul.’

In order to be successful at weight loss, you MUST find other ways to feed your soul. There are many things you can do, and really … only you will know what might work best for you … but here are a few suggestions:

1. 1) Most important, is the act of helping someone ELSE to lose weight! The amazing thing about this is that fact that the other person’s success at mainaining their path isn’t as important as your ability to feel as if you are HELPING! Become a mentor to someone else as soon as possible. Don’t wait until you are “successful” at weight loss to feel “good enough” to help. Your success depends on it! (You can seek someone to mentor by becoming involved in the community for putting it on the MAP … see the link to the upper right).
2. 2) Surround yourself with others who are supportive to your goals. Sometimes this may appear to be difficult if you have a family member or even work colleagues who are almost determined to “keep you where you are!” This is one of the reasons why I created my weight loss program … because the ability to put a CD into the car stereo on your way to work every day, or having it play in the background for a gentle reminder that seems to stick with you in your mind … is a way to keep a “friend” on your shoulder to help you make good choices.
3. 3) Find things in your life to LIVE for! This is the BEST way to feed your soul … although it is sometimes the most difficult because we so often feel so “stuck” in the way things are. If you want to schedule some private consultation time with me, feel free to do so through the link on the upper right. There are things you can do (some of which will feel less “risky” than others) to help you find a way to fulfill the very purpose your soul intends for you.
4. 4) If possible, listen to CD#3 from The LAST Thing This World Needs Is ANOTHER Weight Loss Program. Don’t spend more time on your input to the body and mind and less on your soul, for you are a holistic being who is much more complex than you may even give yourself credit for from time to time.