2010-09-17T01:27:17Z urn:uuid:60a76c80-d399-11d9-b93C-0003939e0af6 CoalEngine CoalSpeak urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a 2010-09-17T01:27:17Z

Ten Secrets of Highly Successful Weight Losers By: Dr. Russ L'HommeDieu, DPT Category: Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT Printer Friendly On Wed, 9/22 from 7:00pm - 8:30pm I will be presenting a FREE teleseminar called the 10 secrets of highly successful losers and I can’t wait to share these 10 things you need to know in order to lose 10 pounds right now AND keep going until you NEVER have to diet again FREE teleseminar! To Register, all you have to do is go to www.10weightlosersecrets.com As many of you know, I am Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu the founder of Lose Weight for Good! I’m not only a doctor of physical therapy, but I am also a highly successful loser. You have no idea how excited I am to have the opportunity to help you lose weight for good. Through my work on myself and my clients, I have identified 10 secrets of highly successful losers and I can’t wait to share these 10 things you need to know in order to lose 10 pounds right now AND keep going until you become a person that NEVER has to diet again. Now wait – let’s just let that sink in for a moment. To become a person that never has to diet again. A person that NEVER has to diet again … wow – now that is powerful and I want to give you that power. As you get to know me, I will reveal the secrets behind my amazing 10 pound weight loss. Now I know what you are thinking, “10 pounds is no big deal” well, I am here to tell you that losing ten pounds is a big deal and it is amazing. Look at it this way, if you are 100 pounds overweight, 10 pounds is 10% of your ultimate goal. 10% is a big deal. How would you like a 10% raise in pay? Not bad, right? 10% is always significant and if you have less to lose, 10 pounds becomes a much larger percentage. What makes my 10 pound weight loss even more amazing is that I repeated it over 20 times. If you do the math, that is over 200 pounds and that is a lot of weight. No matter how big your weight problem is, when you focus on 10 pounds at a time, the problem becomes manageable. When I say that my 200 pound weight loss is REALLY just a 10 pound weight loss that has been repeated 20 times it sounds pretty doable. I know it is doable, because I did it. Another reason that this technique is important is that it connects you to the cause and effect relationship between what you do (and don’t do) for weight loss with a REALISTIC goal. While it might be easy to convince yourself that a single Twinkie won’t make a difference to your 100 pound weight loss odyssey, it is not so easy to scoff one down when you are half way to making your 10 pound weight loss goal. Focusing on the small WILL accomplish the big!! I know that I did not simply wake up one morning and weigh 400 pounds and I certainly did not lose the weight overnight. Research shows that when you lose weight very rapidly, you tend to gain it back almost as fast. Whether you have to lose 10 pounds or 200 pounds, it all has to start somewhere. The moment you register for this FREE teleseminar with me, you will be plugging in to an awesome supply of inspiration AND information to lose your first 10 pounds … and keep going. Even if you have had weight loss surgery, you will get something from this call. To Register, all you have to do is go to www.10weightlosersecrets.com Lose Weight for Good! Is not just about weight loss. If you not only want to lose weight but also want to: 1) Feel Better 2) Move Better 3) Breathe Better 4) Feel more comfortable in your clothes 5) AND you want to feel more free and ALIVE Then you are in the right place. I am so excited that you are here because I know that journey that you begin with me is going to get you of the diet roller coaster and give you the tools you need to make a real difference in your life, your career and in the lives of those you love. More often than not, my clients end up with huge growth everywhere in their lives. Some go on to achieve bigger paychecks and still others are making real change happen in the world. Lose Weight for Good is no ordinary weight loss program. Actually, one of the things we stress to clients that lose weight and get smaller, is that they step into a bigger life. I look forward to the day when hear about all the amazingly cool stuff each of you has gone onto do with all the existing and potential energy on this call, I am sure that each and every one of you is going to start, or continue to make a difference in the world. So what are these 10 Secrets? OK – here we go. What I have learned is that ALL successful losers actually re-invent themselves. No matter where they start. No matter how bad off they are. When they become successful losers, they all seem to have these 10 common traits. They Have a Compelling Vision & Solid Purpose They Maintain An Honest Awareness of Their Thoughts, Actions and Surroundings They Don’t Take it Too Lightly or Themselves Too Seriously They Eat Well and Often They Move Well and Often They Are Accountable They Construct Support Positive Systems and Accept Help They Explore Life Outside Their Comfort Zone and Embrace the Change They Under Promise and Over Deliver They Believe in Who They Are & What They Can Do Now, I know some of these statements may not appear like real weight loss tools but, I can assure you that understanding what they mean is of vital importance to your weight loss SUCCESS. I have broken down the weight loss success pathway into three distinct phases. The first phase is the 10 pound quick start which is exactly where we always start. The next phase is getting over the hump and becoming plateau proof and finally, the third stage is when you achieve your ideal weight and become a person that never has to diet again. While we may be concentrating on phase one initially, I have taken the 10 secrets and developed valuable lessons and learning tools for EVERY phase of the success pathway. Lose Weight for Good! is a program designed for people who want more out of their life and career. Imagine a world where your body becomes your greatest asset. You have more confidence, vitality and energy. You become supercharged to make a difference in your life and the lives of those you love. Your energy is infectious, and your life is alive with possibility & purpose! You finally live in a world where the size of your impact is greater than the impact of your size. Even if you feel like a diet failure, we can help you unlock your hidden ability to lose weight, look great, feel great and, ultimately be great … for good! Printer Friendly

urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a 2010-05-21T12:26:50Z

The Grand Scale of Things By: Dr. Russ L'HommeDieu, DPT Category: Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT Printer Friendly Weight loss is a game of balance. The balance scale is the simplest way to illustrate the often complex issues of weight loss. On one side are the calories you consume and on the other are the calories you expend through movement. If you consume more than you use (eat too much and move too little), your scale will tip toward the calorie consumption and you will gain weight. If you use more energy than you consume and the scale will tip the other way and you will lose weight. When the calories you eat equals the calories you “burn” the scale will balance and you will neither lose nor gain. But, have you thought about the base of the scale? What is holding the whole thing up? In fact it is the often ignored base that makes the problem so complex. The base of a scale is called the Fulcrum. Answers.com defines fulcrum as: “The point or support on which a lever pivots.” Interestingly it also lists: “An agent through which vital powers are exercised.” as a definition. It can be argued that the human spirit is the most powerful force in the universe. In the case of balancing your weight (and your life) it is the agent through which your vital powers are exercised. Your spirit is the fulcrum of the energy balance scale. That is what makes the issue so complex. The stronger your beliefs, the easier it will be for you to tip this precarious scale of nourishment and action to your favor. With your spirit as a steady fulcrum, it will also be easier for you to balance the scale when it comes time to maintain your weight. If the base to this scale is faulty, the scale will swing wildly. It will be difficult to control and you will seemingly go from amazing weight loss to uncontrolled weight gain. If you have ever been a victim of yo-yo dieting, you have experienced this concept. Doc Russ The BetternessCoach is not only a Doctor of Physical Therapy but has lost over 230 pounds and maintained it! He has combined his weight loss experience with his life-long passion for food, nutrition, exercise and human motivation into a small step, life change program he calls Betterness®. As the world’s first Betterness® Coach, Doc Russ helps people achieve their goals by giving them permission to stop straining for perfection and start striving toward being better. He uses the 4 tenets of Betterness (Awareness, Accountability, Action and Adaptation) to help people become – and STAY - a little better every day. If you want more Betterness® in your life, catch Russ online at www.betternessinstitute.org, where you find a selection of his writings and sign up for his free weekly newsletter. Doc Russ is also available for private coaching (either in his office or over the phone), lectures and events. Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT, Betterness® Coach The Betterness®Institute Hamptons / North Fork 631.772.9212 Manhattan 212.365.4438 Toll Free: 888.4DocRuss (888)436.2787 Fax: 631.614.4291 www.betternessinstitute.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/betternesscoach Twitter: www.twitter.com/betternesscoach Website: www.betternessinstitute.org Printer Friendly

urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a 2010-05-08T14:04:07Z

Make your cake (or ice cream) and eat it too! By: Dr. Russ L'HommeDieu, DPT Category: Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT Printer Friendly Although I have left the ice cream business behind (yes, I was in the Ice Cream Business) , I do not believe ice cream itself is evil. While I DO believe even slightly overindulging in ice cream WILL throw off your efforts to lose weight after surgery - I do NOT see ice cream itself as “evil.” When I was a boy, Mr. Meyers the local dairy farmer lived up the road. On Sundays (and only Sundays) he would make ice cream. Here is his recipe as I remember: Fresh cream, sugar and vanilla. Not a toxic chemical in sight. It was simple, wholesome and it tasted darned good. From my perspective, Mr. Meyers was a healthy, lean old guy. Even as he aged, his “ice cream” habit he never seemed to cause him to gain weight. The key is that Mr. Meyers only made and ate ice cream on Sunday’s in the summer. He made just enough for that day, he ate a small amount and enjoyed every bit of it. As an added bonus, his “ice cream Sunday” was an event. He took time and pride to make his indulgence and that made it worth even more. The time and thought that went into his ice cream gave him the gift of true appreciation for the food. He did not mindlessly devour it because he understood what it took to get it. Although making your own ice cream is fun, it is a true pain in the butt. It is time consuming and messy. This process makes it just inconvenient enough to allow you to eat ice cream while automatically restricting how much you will eat. As an added bonus, if you hand crank it, you burn calories in the process. Do this with your kids, and you now have created a family moment that they will never forget. Remember, the key to lasting weight loss does not lie in a diet plan, the key is lifestyle. If you love ice cream, develop a strategy that will allow ice cream into your world while at the same time, limiting the damage it causes you. Consider using an ice cream maker and begin to explore ways to make your ice cream recipes healthier. There are many ways to reduce the calories of homemade ice cream and include healthy ingredients such as pomegranates and walnuts. The secret is not to deprive your self. It is to lower the calories of what you eat by controlling the ingredients, portion size and how frequently you indulge. Another great frozen treat is to simply blend frozen fruit with ordinary yogurt. (I use an organic yogurt, of course) The frozen fruit actually freezes the yogurt and you have a frozen treat that looks and tastes just like soft serve ice cream. Trust me; I have seen a lot of soft serve ice cream! After you make some ice cream, take it to the next level. Try making ALL your snacks. Absurd? Maybe and maybe not. According to Michael Pollan, author of Food Rules, “Special occasion foods offer some of the great pleasures of life, so we shouldn’t deprive ourselves of them, but the sense of occasion needs to be restored. One way is to start making these foods yourself; if you bake dessert yourself, you won’t go to that much trouble everyday.” (the key is to only bake single portions) What if you only ate French Fries that you made … from scratch. No freezer fry cheatin’! From potato to fry - - I bet you would eat fewer French Fries AND it would be more of an event. It might even be fun. Another is to limit your consumption of such foods to weekends or special occasions.” BUT, not every day is an “occasion.” Not every day calls for chocolate-covered cherries. In fact, Pollan is a proponent of the so-called S policy: “No snacks, no seconds, no sweets - except on days that begin with the letter S.” Betterness means living a life of joy, health and fulfillment - not deprivation. So take this as my advice on one way you can begin to “eat better” for now and for always. Doc Russ The BetternessCoach is not only a Doctor of Physical Therapy but has lost over 230 pounds and maintained it! He has combined his weight loss experience with his life-long passion for food, nutrition, exercise and human motivation into a small step, life change program he calls Betterness®. As the world’s first Betterness® Coach, Doc Russ helps people achieve their goals by giving them permission to stop straining for perfection and start striving toward being better. He uses the 4 tenets of Betterness (Awareness, Accountability, Action and Adaptation) to help people become – and STAY - a little better every day. If you want more Betterness® in your life, catch Russ online at www.betternessinstitute.org, where you find a selection of his writings and sign up for his free weekly newsletter. Doc Russ is also available for private coaching (either in his office or over the phone), lectures and events. Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT, Betterness® Coach The Betterness®Institute Hamptons / North Fork 631.772.9212 Manhattan 212.365.4438 Toll Free: 888.4DocRuss (888)436.2787 Fax: 631.614.4291 www.betternessinstitute.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/betternesscoach Twitter: www.twitter.com/betternesscoach Website: www.betternessinstitute.org Printer Friendly

urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a 2010-05-02T16:19:01Z

The Problems start when “All-or-Nothing” thinking leaves you with NOTHING By: Dr. Russ L'HommeDieu, DPT Category: Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT Printer Friendly “I am an all or nothing person.” Is what my new client said. I knew instantly what that meant because I was an all-or-nothing person too. What I have come to realize is that when I defined myself like that, I usually ended up with a whole lot of “Nuthin.” Then, Betterness® found me and, while I don’t have it “all” (whatever that means) I do have a lot of what I want and I am getting closer to the things I have yet to achieve. All-in-all, it’s pretty cool. Now all I have to do is help my new friend re-define herself from an “all-or-nothing” person to a “Betterness” person. Bett•er•ness: (bet-ēr-nes) n. an accumulation of small, positive changes that achieves major life improvement. Antonym: All-or-Nothing As it so happens I just talked a lot about re-defining oneself in one of my last posts – so go back and read “You Are Who Think You Are and You Become Who You Think You Can Become” if you haven’t already. I’ll wait… Ok, now that we are all on the same page, I will continue. A lot of my clients get stuck when they can’t achieve their goals. In other words, by not doing it all they get frustrated into doing nothing. This is actually pretty common. The truth is that it is OK to fail. In fact failure is a necessary part of learning. Think back to your best learned lessons of life. Chances are, the ones you will never forget were the ones that you learned from experience. Experience is just a word for re-engineered failure. The people who tend to succeed are those who simply do not see failure as failure. They see it as a message to do something different. One core belief or self definition that seems to be holding people back that they harbor doubts about their abilities to achieve their vision. Not everyone, however, is limited by this kind of limited thinking. Some people not only believe that lasting change is possible for them; they see it as natural and inevitable. They believe that who they are right now is temporary, a function only of the here and now. For such people, all change is an energizing ingredient of learning and growth. They truly believe that every moment is simply a passageway to a better them. In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (Random House, 2006), psychologist Carol Dweck describes her extensive studies of people who think in this manner. She describes them as having a growth mindset. You may call them successful. Personally, I call them betterness thinkers. What Dr. Dweck observed is that people who understand the nature of change see possibility in everything. One reason people who don’t believe they are capable of change get stuck is because their blindness to possibility causes them to miss opportunities. Betterness thinkers have fewer limitations on their potential than people that don’t think they can change. The way they think literally programs them for success. What she also observed is that no one needs to be stuck. Betterness thinking is learned. No matter what, you can un-stick your weight loss success by becoming a betterness thinker. All you need to do in order to free-up your thinking is to believe that you are capable of real, lasting, life alteration. When you do, all sorts of possibilities unfold right before your eyes and your life will change. By definition, Betterness thinking does not have to come all at once. When you believe a small change is possible, you are likely to make that change. I used a series of small successes build my betterness thinking. Barriers to belief disappear once your mind sees success by any measure. Success is the brain food of belief. Your success is the most solid proof on earth that you should believe in yourself. Doc Russ The BetternessCoach is not only a Doctor of Physical Therapy but has lost over 230 pounds and maintained it! He has combined his weight loss experience with his life-long passion for food, nutrition, exercise and human motivation into a small step, life change program he calls Betterness®. As the world’s first Betterness® Coach, Doc Russ helps people achieve their goals by giving them permission to stop straining for perfection and start striving toward being better. He uses the 4 tenets of Betterness (Awareness, Accountability, Action and Adaptation) to help people become – and STAY - a little better every day. If you want more Betterness® in your life, catch Russ online at www.betternessinstitute.org, where you find a selection of his writings and sign up for his free weekly newsletter. Doc Russ is also available for private coaching (either in his office or over the phone), lectures and events. Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT, Betterness® Coach The Betterness®Institute Hamptons / North Fork 631.772.9212 Manhattan 212.365.4438 Toll Free: 888.4DocRuss (888)436.2787 Fax: 631.614.4291 www.betternessinstitute.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/betternesscoach Twitter: www.twitter.com/betternesscoach Website: www.betternessinstitute.org Printer Friendly

urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a 2010-04-12T22:38:40Z

The Calorie Monster - Not All Calories Are Evil By: Dr. Russ L'HommeDieu, DPT Category: Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT Printer Friendly In their purest form, calories are units of life sustaining energy. When found in moderate groups, they are known to be benevolent providers of life, health and vitality. Caloric Horrors of Science and Freaks of Nature Unfortunately, due to excessive food processing and the frequent human manipulation of nature, some of these calories mutate into something ugly. These ugly calories are the scourge of modern society and they have been termed Calorie Monsters. These Calorie Monsters are gross exceptions to the norm and tend to wreak havoc on your body’s ecosystem. They are taken to being exceptionally evil, grotesque, unreasonably strict and uncaring, sociopathic, sadistic, narcissistic, lazy and frankly, not that smart. The very word monster connotes something wrong or evil. In the popular sense, a monstrous being is: very morally objectionable, physically or psychologically hideous, or regarded as a freak of nature. These special monster calories fit all those criteria* When these Monster Calorie things get into your body, there is no telling what they will do. It is best to try to avoid these things all together. Don’t Crowd Your Calories To make matters worse, these calorie monster mutations also occur when ordinary, law abiding, calories get overcrowded. Simply stuffing too many “nice” calories into your body all at once can make them cranky and turn them into Calorie Monsters. *Adapted from Wikipedia the online Doc Russ The BetternessCoach is not only a Doctor of Physical Therapy but has lost over 230 pounds and maintained it! He has combined his weight loss experience with his life-long passion for food, nutrition, exercise and human motivation into a small step, life change program he calls Betterness®. As the world’s first Betterness® Coach, Doc Russ helps people achieve their goals by giving them permission to stop straining for perfection and start striving toward being better. He uses the 4 tenets of Betterness (Awareness, Accountability, Action and Adaptation) to help people become – and STAY - a little better every day. If you want more Betterness® in your life, catch Russ online at www.betternessinstitute.org, where you find a selection of his writings and sign up for his free weekly newsletter. Doc Russ is also available for private coaching (either in his office or over the phone), lectures and events. Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT, Betterness® Coach The Betterness®Institute Hamptons / North Fork 631.772.9212 Manhattan 212.365.4438 Toll Free: 888.4DocRuss (888)436.2787 Fax: 631.614.4291 www.betternessinstitute.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/betternesscoach Twitter: www.twitter.com/betternesscoach Website: www.betternessinstitute.org Printer Friendly

urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a 2010-04-03T12:25:58Z

Do you have a problem with eating too much at night? By: Dr. Russ L'HommeDieu, DPT Category: Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT Printer Friendly As I sit here in office, I am looking at the flip chart that I use when I work with clients. Frankly, it is barely legible. It represents a frenzy of ideas and thoughts that came out during my last coaching session. While it all made perfect sense as the session unfolded, to someone that was not at the session, it looks like utter chaos. You see, as a life coach, I am a bit “unconventional.” While working with me is all about getting better, it is also about having fun, laughing and being entertained. Coaching is about re-creating yourself. The way I look at it, if re-creation is at the heart of coaching - it should resemble recreation, and that is why “fun” is such an important part of how I do what I do. In fact, I have so much fun when I am working that many of my sessions run way longer than the agreed upon 30 minutes and nobody (not even me) seems to care. At the top of the board is a direct quote from my client, “I eat all the time.” and then under that a list of times. 9am breakfast NO SNACKING 1pm lunch NO SNACKING 5pm dinner 7pm to 10pm non-stop eating (which is consistent with her Facebook post of the previous evening: “Why am I still eating” to which I responded “Step AWAY from the Buffet!” … and she did) While my client felt that she was “eating all the time,” the schedule that she described clearly showed that her “problem” really was just those critical 3 hours. I think she thought I was crazy (an already well established fact in our coaching relationship) when I started jumping around the room telling her what good news this was. I told her that eating too much at night was a very common issue and it was much easier to deal with than if she were actually “eating all the time.” … and believe me, I get it. I am plagued with the same demon. I tend to eat more then I would like after dinner. “Heck, now we have a target,” I said “AND Isn’t it GOOD news that a problem you thought you had (eating continuously for about 16 hours) was actually 80% less (eating continuously for only about 3 hours).Now let’s focus.” The way I see it, we can approach a problem like this from four possible directions: How much you eat (Quantity) What you eat (Quality) When you eat (Timing - sorry could not think of a “Q” word) Quit altogether (Yeah, kinda not an option for most of us … at least not at first) If you are not careful, you can mindlessly cram a lot of food in your stomach in three hours. The same things that mindlessly cause us to gain weight can also help us mindlessly lose weight.- Dr. Brian, Wansank Author Mindless Eating If you were to simply SLOW down, you would eat less food in that same 3 hours. When you are in your car and you approach a speed bump, you slow down right? Well, an eat bump is a similar “helpful barrier” to eating. Often, you can hold on to the “habit” of eating after dinner - if you just eat less food. Try these suggestions for installing “eat bumps” into your night eating habit: Eat slowly (I use chop sticks) - it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to get the “I’m full” signal from your stomach. If you are eating slowly - it gives your brain time to catch up to your stomach. PLUS, it gives you time to chew AND enjoy what you are eating. You should NEVER put food in your mouth while you are chewing food and it is down right wasteful to swallow food until you have gotten all the FLAVOR out of it. So, chew well! Take Breaks - this also helps you eat less - make sure you are not actually eating continuously. This behavior is called “grazing” and it is a HUGE problem for people who have had WLS like the Lap-Band. One way to ensure that you take breaks is to portion out your food - when the portion is gone, agree to wait at least 10 or 15minutes (yes you should actually time it) before you eat again. ”Step Away From the Buffet!” - Try getting out of the house. Take a walk. Chances are, if you are walkin’, you ain’t eatin’! Also, being distracted with a hobby is good. Doing things that keep your hands busy are best. Sports like basketball and tennis are awesome. I like to kayak in the evening while my dad, on the other hand loves to carve and my mom is into quilting. I also have clients big into scrap booking. The key is remove yourself from food while keeping your mind and hands occupied. Portioning is REALLY important: Put your food on a plate and don’t eat from the container or bag, use a small plate, only eat out of pre-portioned bags … and so on. Make sure you sit down to eat - that way you actually have to get up in order to get more food. Who knows, you may decide that getting out of the chair for food is not worth the effort. This is one of the few times when laziness can actually HELP you lose weight. Another issue is that these “eating” episodes can look pretty nasty. I can only imagine what I looked like at 410 pounds as I stood in my kitchen, in my underwear, stuffing my face with cookies and cake (ala mode). I’m sure it was NOT pretty. What I decided to do was to imagine what my grandmother would think if she saw me as I was eating … when I did, I started to eat in a manner that was a bit more “civilized” and thus I put an end to a lot of the mindless “stuffing” of my face. My colleague, Dr. Kelly Allison told me that she had worked with someone who thought it might be best to allow himself to eat whatever he wanted, as much as he wanted at night. So how did that solve his night eating problem? Well, what he also decided to do was to ONLY eat this “night food” while staring into the mirror of the dirtiest, nastiest room in his house. (the bathroom normally used only by his teenage kids) As it turned out, that helped him lick the night eating habit for good! Another idea would be to simply write down everything you eat after dinner. Not all day, just after dinner. Research shows that many people will simply not eat something if they know they have to write it down. Either way, when you are done writing (and eating) for the night, you will have a much better idea of the severity of your problem. The quality of what you eat. When I talk of quality, I not only talk of nutritional quality but I also talk of the ability of a food to fill you up for very few calories. To learn more about this, see my previous post When you understand calorie density, you could eat more and lose weight! As the discussion with my client progressed, we explored new foods like hard boiled eggs. I explained to her that 1 hard boiled egg was 78 calories while, on the other hand, the same amount of EGG WHITES only was only 17 calories. She could eat an egg white omelette with some veggies OR make egg white salad (hold the mayo) with mustard or relish or add some spice like Tabasco. Also, we talked about her making the ShroomWah Mushroom infused Quinoa? from my last blog post: Another option would be to make the worst food in the house inconvenient (like storing the chips in the basement or garage) or by keeping junk food out of the house by not buying it. A major key to this plan would be to PLAN! Having good choices available is an excellent way to assure that you will eat the right things. Have pre-prepared “good” food ready to go and keep the healthy food in convenient places while the “less than healthy” food is decidedly “inconvenient.” (remember eat bumps) Timing. What I have found is that there are two approaches to this facet of the problem. One is to simply decide to not eat after a certain time of night. I call this the kitchen closed strategy. Honestly, the kitchen closed strategy does not really work for me. What does work is what I call the “fourth meal” strategy. As I deal with MY night eating issues, (Yes, I have issues) I simply have decided it best to plan for a very modest “fourth meal” (don’t call it a snack). I have a very specific time for this “meal,” I don’t eat before the appointed time and if I miss my appointment, I miss the “meal.” - No big deal. Sometimes, I don’t even “need” the fourth meal. Another way to ensure success is to get in the habit of eating a very light “3rd meal” (dinner) secure in the knowledge that you are going to eat a little more later in the evening. While it is probably best to “Quit” eating late at night altogether, for those of us dealing with Night Eating Syndrome- that can seem a daunting goal. I know a lot of experts will tell you that you CAN’T lose weight if you eat late - I’m not so sure that is true. While I do agree that eating BREAKFAST is super important, I believe that, for weight loss, controlling the amount of calories you eat is more important than controlling WHEN you eat them. When I talked to Dr. Allison about my “night eating” issues she said - “Listen, you said that you have lost the weight you want AND you have not gained any weight back. Perhaps you should relax a bit about the night eating. Keep an eye on your weight and if you begin to gain, look at your night eating patterns again. That is probably your Achilles heel but, for now, I wouldn’t worry about it.” Rather than get yourself all worked up about eating late, try to remember the larger goal here - lose weight, feel great and … be a better, healthier you. Perhaps simply altering your night eating will be enough - certainly it will be enough to get started. Remember we are practicing BETTERNESS. Don’t try to do EVERYTHING I mentioned. Just pick one or two to try. Maybe you will think of something even better. If you do, be sure to share it with me. Honestly, if you simply eat LESS food, with more nutrition and fewer calories - YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT! Besides, simply altering a night eating habit is the first step to ditching it altogether. If you eat late, you MAY be suffering from a disorder called “night eating syndrome.” In fact, if you find yourself actually WAKING UP to eat, there is a real good chance that you have this problem. So what exactly is Night Eating Syndrome? According to Wikipedia: “Night eating syndrome, or NES, is an emerging eating disorder diagnosis, which primarily characterizes an ongoing, persistent pattern of late-night binge eating. NES was originally described by Dr Albert Stunkard in 1955 and is currently proposed for inclusion in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The diagnosis is controversial; its validity and clinical utility have been questioned and there are currently no official diagnostic criteria. It affects between 1 and 2% of the population. Although it can affect all ages and both sexes, it is more common in young women. People with NES were shown to have higher scores for depression and low self-esteem, and it has been demonstrated that nocturnal levels of the hormones melatonin and leptin are decreased . NES is often accompanied by or confused with nocturnal sleep related eating disorder, which is primarily a sleep disorder” rather than an eating disorder, in which people are unaware of having eaten while asleep. There is debate as to whether these should be viewed as separate diseases, or part of a continuum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nighteatingsyndrome To learn more about Night Eating Syndrome, check out the book: Overcoming Night Eating Syndrome … or take this online survey from the University of Pennsylvania at http://www.med.upenn.edu/weight/nighteatingform.shtml Doc Russ The BetternessCoach is not only a Doctor of Physical Therapy but has lost over 230 pounds and maintained it! He has combined his weight loss experience with his life-long passion for food, nutrition, exercise and human motivation into a small step, life change program he calls Betterness®. As the world’s first Betterness® Coach, Doc Russ helps people achieve their goals by giving them permission to stop straining for perfection and start striving toward being better. He uses the 4 tenets of Betterness (Awareness, Accountability, Action and Adaptation) to help people become – and STAY - a little better every day. If you want more Betterness® in your life, catch Russ online at www.betternessinstitute.org, where you find a selection of his writings and sign up for his free weekly newsletter. Doc Russ is also available for private coaching (either in his office or over the phone), lectures and events. Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT, Betterness® Coach The Betterness®Institute Hamptons / North Fork 631.772.9212 Manhattan 212.365.4438 Toll Free: 888.4DocRuss (888)436.2787 Fax: 631.614.4291 www.betternessinstitute.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/betternesscoach Twitter: www.twitter.com/betternesscoach Website: www.betternessinstitute.org Printer Friendly

urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a 2010-03-27T15:52:28Z

When you understand calorie density, you could eat more and lose weight! By: Dr. Russ L'HommeDieu, DPT Category: Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT Printer Friendly Water, water everywhere— and you don’t always have to drink! Did you know that the water contained in food actually counts the same, as water you drink? For instance: a Cucumber is 96% water. If you were to eat a cucumber that weighed 12 ounces, it would be just like drinking an 11 ½ ounce glass of water and because that water is part of the food, it stays in your stomach longer. If you know the percentage of the water in a food item, you can easily find out how much water it actually contains. (12 ounces multiplied by .96 = 11.52 ounces). Most fruits and vegetables are just loaded with water. This makes fruits and vegetables are incredibly important for weight loss. High water content foods not only provide you with the water your body needs, but they also provide you the added benefit of filling your stomach while delivering fewer Calories! In the case of the cucumber, the water it contains makes it 96% CALORIE FREE! And the story gets even better! Fruits and Vegetables are chocked full of essential vitamins and minerals as well as other vital nutrients. They are really good for you. This is not new information. The fact is that we eat very few fruits and vegetables in this country and we are one of the fattest countries in the world. When you do a WAN*D (What About Now is Different) test on the American diet, you will see that as we got fatter, our consumption of fruits and vegetables also decreased! Table of the water content of various foods Fruits & Vegetables Food - % Water Apple - 84% Broccoli - 91% Apricot - 86% Cabbage (green) - 93% Banana - 74% Cabbage (red) - 92% Blueberries - 85% Carrots - 87% Cantaloupe - 90% Cauliflower - 92% Cherries - 81% Celery - 95% Cranberries - 87% Cucumber - 96% Grapes - 81% Eggplant - 92% Grapefruit - 91% Lettuce(iceberg) - 96% Orange - 87% Peas - 79% Peach - 88% Peppers (Sweet) - 92% Pear - 84% Potato (white) - 79% Pineapple - 87% Radish - 95% Plum - 85% Spinach - 92% Raspberries - 87% Zucchini - 95% Strawberries - 92% Tomato (red) - 94% Watermelon - 92% Tomato (green) - 93% Adapted from the text Bowes & Church’s Food Values, 1994 When the tide goes out the water goes with it! Be aware that when you remove the water from food, it is gone. Sounds simple enough but many people don’t realize that the way you cook food can either add or subtract water. Obviously, if you dehydrate food you take all or most of the water out of it. Grapes have are 81% water while raisins contain almost no water. As a result, raisins, while still healthy, don’t have any useful water found in grapes. Because of the lack of calorie free water, the caloric cost of dehydrated food can be quite high. A cup of raisins, for instance, has 493 calories while a cup of grapes only has 62. When you can, stick with the grapes. They will fill you up fast and deliver a lot less calories. When you eat 10 grapes, you start to feel full while, on the other hand, when you eat 10 raisins you are just getting started! The main advantage to dehydrating food is that it lasts for a long time and does not need to be refrigerated. I actually own a dehydrator because when I go hiking or camping I can bring healthy fruits and vegetables without worrying about spoilage. When you bake, you also remove water. Baked foods will have a more calories per pound than their boiled counter parts. Cooking in water will increase the water content in food. When I get to my campsite, I often boil or steam my dehydrated food and, viola! It is as good as new! Steaming fresh broccoli will also increase its water content. Soups made from broth have a terrific amount of water and are relatively low in Calories. Soups made with cream tend to have less water and more fat when compared to broth based soup. As a result they will also have more calories per serving. For instance the low-fat chicken noodle soup at Panera bread has about 100 Calories per bowel while the cream of chicken & wild rice soup weighs in at 200 Calories for the same sized bowel. Although the importance of drinking water can not be over emphasized for weight loss, the water from food is actually more important. As part of food, the calorie free volume of the water sticks around throughout the digestion process. You feel full longer and that will help keep your head out of the refrigerator. Which is heavier a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks? Which is heaver: a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks? Answer: They weigh the same. Were you tempted to say a pound of bricks? It was a trick question. If you did say bricks, you had the right answer to the wrong question. You might have been thinking about the density of the bricks. Density is a measure of weight as it relates to volume. Bricks always seem “heavier” than feathers because bricks pack so much weight into a small package. They are actually just denser. How about this question: Which takes up more space: a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks? Answer: The feathers! Imagine your stomach is an empty bucket. With this bucket in your mind, imagine it filled with feathers. This is your pound of feathers. Now, draw a line on the bucket at the place you think a pound of bricks would fill the bucket to. Where is that line? If it is fairly close to the bottom, you are probably right. What about a pound of wooden blocks? How much would they fill the bucket up? Chances are, that line would be somewhere between the feathers and the bricks. Now imagine that the weight of the bricks, blocks and feathers represent their CALORIES. Imagine that the pound of bricks is really 100 CALORIES. Now think of the bricks as fats. Fats have more caloric “density” than the other macronutrients at 9 Calories per gram. They are the bricks in your bucket. They don’t physically fill your bucket (stomach) very much but they do make it “heavy” with calories. Alcohol (not a nutrient) can qualify as “bricks” too at an impressive 7 Calories per gram. Carbohydrates and protein are less dense at 4 Calories per gram and they are the blocks. Finally, because it takes up space in the bucket while having no calorie weight, the dietary feather is water. You may recall that fiber is that special kind of carbohydrate that helps to regulate how fast sugar flows into your system. As it so happens, it is also a calorie feather weighing in at just 2 Calories per gram. Feathers Feed Ferocious Famishment True hunger comes from having an empty bucket. How you fill that bucket determines whether you will lose or gain weight. If you fill the bucket with too many “heavy” calories, you will gain weight. By simply lightening your bucket a little at each meal, you will save calories and ultimately lose weight. In short if you eat more feathers you will have less room for the heavier calories. The best news about this system is that you don’t have to deny yourself anything and you don’t have to “count” calories. By simply classifying your food as feathers, blocks and bricks, you will have a pretty good idea of which foods you can eat a lot of and which ones should be taken in moderation. The typical American diet contains way too many bricks (fats) and not enough feathers (fiber & water). As a nation, we are overweight partly because we take in too many “dense” calories. As a result, in order to feel full (fill our bucket) we eat way too many calories. Although the volume of food consumed is an issue, the calorie weight of that full bucket is the real killer. If you fill your bucket with bricks, you will gain weight. In the real world, real food is usually not made up of just fats, just carbs or just fiber. Most food is made up of a little of each macro nutrient. For instance; a cup of raw carrots contains 45 calories. Based on the weights of each macro nutrient; of those 45 Calories, 42 of Calories come from carbohydrates (87%), 4 from protein (8%) and 3 from fat (5%). The remainder of the volume of that cup is taken up by fiber and water. For a mere 45 calories, you have “filled your bucket” by a cupful of volume. On the other hand, that same cup, filled with cheddar cheese contains 455 Calories. 6 of those Calories come from carbohydrates (1%), 112 from protein (25%) and a whopping 337 from fat (74%). When compared to the carrots, the cheese has very little water. The cheese is made of mostly bricks. When compared to carrots, filling up on cheese will cost you TEN times (10X, 110, 1000%!!) more in calories. Does that mean you should avoid cheese? No. Just make sure you fill up with some feathers before diving into the fondue pot. Because of its high fat content and low water content, cheese is a brick and should be enjoyed in moderation. The carrots have a low caloric density because they are made mostly of “feathers.” In general, foods with a high fiber and water content have a low caloric density. Foods high in fat are the densest. The idea is to “fill your bucket” with as many feathers as possible leaving less room for the bricks. A very sensible strategy is to set up your plate with more, low calorie dense foods and to eat them first. This way, by the time you get to the higher density foods you will be well on your way to feeling full. By starting your meal with a big salad (light on the dressing), moving to a generous helping of vegetables (watch that butter!), and finishing with the meat, you will find that you will finish your meal satisfied BEFORE all the meat is gone! When eating in the real world, my advice is to eat your feathers first!!. If you were to approach a meal in this way, you would be able to eat more food and take in fewer calories. In essence you could eat more and lose weight! WOOWHOOO! This could be that secret you have been looking for!! Wanna learn more about calorie density? Doc Russ The BetternessCoach is not only a Doctor of Physical Therapy but has lost over 230 pounds and maintained it! He has combined his weight loss experience with his life-long passion for food, nutrition, exercise and human motivation into a small step, life change program he calls Betterness®. As the world’s first Betterness® Coach, Doc Russ helps people achieve their goals by giving them permission to stop straining for perfection and start striving toward being better. He uses the 4 tenets of Betterness (Awareness, Accountability, Action and Adaptation) to help people become – and STAY - a little better every day. If you want more Betterness® in your life, catch Russ online at www.betternessinstitute.org, where you find a selection of his writings and sign up for his free weekly newsletter. Doc Russ is also available for private coaching (either in his office or over the phone), lectures and events. Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT, Betterness® Coach The Betterness®Institute Hamptons / North Fork 631.772.9212 Manhattan 212.365.4438 Toll Free: 888.4DocRuss (888)436.2787 Fax: 631.614.4291 www.betternessinstitute.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/betternesscoach Twitter: www.twitter.com/betternesscoach Website: www.betternessinstitute.org Printer Friendly

urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a 2010-03-05T21:47:34Z

Importance of writing down your goal! By: Dr. Russ L'HommeDieu, DPT Category: Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT Printer Friendly A famous study from Yale in 1953 said that the 3% of Yale graduates who had written goals had more wealth 10 years later than the other 97% of the class combined. In his book; what they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack, he talks about survey given to the 1979 graduating class the Harvard Business School’s MBA program when they graduated and then again 10 years later. On the initial survey, when asked: “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” Only three percent of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13 percent had goals, but they were not in writing; and 84 percent had no specific goals at all. These are HARVARD GRADUATES!! The findings of the follow-up survey were shockingly predictable. Ten years later, the members of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the ones who had no goals at all. The minority of students that actually wrote down their goals blew their classmates away by earning, an average of ten times as much as the remainder of the class put together. Hmm. I wonder if people that write down their weight loss goals lose 10 times the amount of weight as those who don’t? I write my goals down. I have notebooks I refer to daily. I design myself goal forms, send myself emails and stick post-it notes all over the house. I have not only lost 100% of my excess body weight, but I am successfully maintaining it. I wonder if there is a connection? The good news is that it is NEVER too late to start. If you really want to accomplish something write it down. If it is worth doing, it is worth making the contract. If you are not ready to write the contract, you are not ready to accomplish the goal. I once bought a racing kayak paddle from one of the top racers in New England. When I got to his house in Newport, RI, I immediately asked to use the bathroom. I drink A LOT of water. While I was washing up, I noticed that he had written: “When you are NOT training, someone else is!” on his mirror. This guy was already at the top of his game and he was still writing his goals! Having already looked through his medicine cabinet, I got bored and thought I would see if it was written with a permanent marker. It wasn’t. Oops! In the accompanying workbook (Click Here) I will be giving you tools to write down your goals, to track your progress. These tools are invaluable; you need to commit to your goals. If this problem is important enough for you to be reading this book, it is important enough for you to write down your goals. I am repeating myself for a reason! This is important! You would not buy a car without a contract; you would not buy a house without a contract. Take the time and make good solid contracts, these promises to yourself could save your life. Doc Russ The BetternessCoach is not only a Doctor of Physical Therapy but has lost over 230 pounds and maintained it! He has combined his weight loss experience with his life-long passion for food, nutrition, exercise and human motivation into a small step, life change program he calls Betterness®. As the world’s first Betterness® Coach, Doc Russ helps people achieve their goals by giving them permission to stop straining for perfection and start striving toward being better. He uses the 4 tenets of Betterness (Awareness, Accountability, Action and Adaptation) to help people become – and STAY - a little better every day. If you want more Betterness® in your life, catch Russ online at www.betternessinstitute.org, where you find a selection of his writings and sign up for his free weekly newsletter. Doc Russ is also available for private coaching (either in his office or over the phone), lectures and events. Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT, Betterness® Coach The Betterness®Institute Hamptons / North Fork 631.772.9212 Manhattan 212.365.4438 Toll Free: 888.4DocRuss (888)436.2787 Fax: 631.614.4291 www.betternessinstitute.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/betternesscoach Twitter: www.twitter.com/betternesscoach Website: www.betternessinstitute.org Printer Friendly

urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a 2010-02-28T21:07:30Z

You Are Who Think You Are and You Become Who You Think You Can Become By: Dr. Russ L'HommeDieu, DPT Category: Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT Printer Friendly I talk a lot about the importance of defining yourself and then redefining yourself. When I say “define yourself” what I really mean is that you should become more aware of how you already define yourself. I had a very interesting chat with a client yesterday who said “I’m a couch potato … a ‘sitter,’ really. I sit around a lot.” I remember when I used to consider myself a “couch potato.” I believe that part of the reason that I sat around a lot was because my body was taking orders from my subconscious mind. My core beliefs (“I’m a couch potato”) made it really difficult to imagine a world beyond the couch. Without that image, my default position was sitting. Now, I am a walker, a kayaker and a rock climber. Those are the things that define me. That is why I never “forget” to take the stairs and why I have some business meetings while walking through central park. One thing I have learned is that the most important beliefs you hold about yourself are your beliefs about your abilities. When it comes to weight loss success, what are your true beliefs about your ability to change your life? If your beliefs are telling you that you can’t, you will be needlessly stuck. You can unlock amazing potential to lose weight if you simply erase the word “can’t” from your thinking. I can trace the beginnings of my successful long-term weight loss directly back to the single belief that it was possible. Removing “can’t” from your vocabulary isn’t enough. It needs to be removed entirely from your beliefs about your ability to reach your weight-loss goal. Doubting possibility leaves nothing except for impossibility. The problem is that this doubt hides. Doubts about your ability to achieve your goal, whether you are aware of it or not, act as a constant false reminder that you are powerless to lose weight. As a result, you are powerless to lose weight. Try this Think Better- Awareness Tool Write down the number of pounds you feel that you need to lose. Then, take a moment to ask yourself, “Do I truly believe that I can lose the weight I want and keep it off?” Don’t just ask the question superficially. Dig deep into your thoughts. Of what do you really believe you are capable? Then write your answer in the betterness planner. As you survey your beliefs about losing weight, be on the look out for thoughts that place your ability to lose weight outside of your control. While certain aspects of your life are out of your control, many people underestimate what they can control. Phrases like “I can’t,” “It runs in my family,” “My wife feeds me too much,” and “I’m addicted to food” will be disempowering to you and counteract your efforts. When your subconscious mind is weighed down by the false beliefs of impossibility, it will constantly whisper, “What’s the use?” whenever things get tough. Let’s face it, nobody likes to be wrong and that goes double for your subconscious mind. If you are convinced that you were born to be fat, your mind will look at every setback as an I-told-you-so moment. This process is tough enough without that kind of baggage. I believe that you can, and will be able to, lose weight but my belief is not going to cut it. In the conclusion of this chapter, I intend to help you see things my way. In order to do that, I need you to be open to the possibility that you are capable of more than you currently think you are. The best way to get started is to match your expectations with your beliefs about your expectations. If raising beliefs proves overwhelming right now, then you must work to adjust your expectations so they are comfortable. If you don’t believe you can lose all the weight you want, find a goal you can truly believe in—even if it is a small one. This process will work if you are constantly shooting for targets you know you can hit. It is imperative, however, that once you hit those targets you raise your beliefs. At a top weight of over 400 pounds, I had over 200 pounds to lose and I honestly did not believe I could do it. Every time I focused on the goal of losing all the weight I needed to lose, I lost momentum—but not pounds. I attribute my success to the constant matched escalation of beliefs to goals. Years of little successes followed up with raised expectations leading to more little success proved to my brain that I had been selling myself short about my abilities—not just with weight loss, but also with everything. My success at losing weight helped me to restructure my entire way of thinking about all of my limitations. Ten years ago, my palms used to sweat whenever I had to write a letter. I couldn’t type, my grammar was awful, and I was a crappy speller. I was convinced that I was just not “a writer.” Tackling a seemingly impossible goal like weight loss gave me proof that, with focus and effort, I can do anything, even write a book. What I now believe is that if any other human being has done it (whatever “it” is) so can I and so can you. In the past, I had limited my weight loss success with low expectations. Even when I lost weight, my mind convinced me that I was “born to be fat” and “fat” is where I always seemed to end up. Success is one form of proof that always elevates belief. If you start by modifying your goals to match your beliefs, you will reach those goals. When you use that success to raise your beliefs about your abilities, you will be free to set much higher goals. When belief is elevated, previously ‘impossible” goals become quite attainable. As you repeat the process, success breeds more success. Every success you have today will set the stage for you to make a better tomorrow. It won’t take too many tomorrows to prove the validity of this concept. I would like you to start looking within your own life for the proof you need to believe you are capable of incredible change. Chances are that proof is not that far off. All you need to do is take a look at some accomplishment from your past that of which you are proud. Remember that client that was a “couch potato?” In that same conversation, I asked her if she drank a lot of high calorie drinks and she said, “Oh no, I’m a water / unsweetened tea person.” She actually said it that way. Here was evidence of a truly healthy self-definition and, as I was about to learn, it gets even better. She then said that she used to be a ‘soda person.’ She admitted that she had kicked a very serious soda habit a few years ago and that she was very proud of the accomplishment. As well she should! What this shows is that she is capable of major life change and that, when completed, it feels pretty darned good! Not only that, it demonstrates how powerful these statements of definition can be. She would not even think of having soda now – she does not crave it because she wrote it out of her subconscious. She would no sooner have a soda than rob a bank. Seriously, she thinks herself an honest person that drinks only water and tea. So it is a given that she neither drinks soda nor robs banks, steals candy from babies and so on. ”Change is inevitable, growth is optional.” —Walt Disney If you have trouble seeing yourself as a fit and healthy person, consider how adaptable humans are. As a species, we pulled ourselves out of caves and built empires. That’s not bad for a loose band of naked apes. Remember, if another human has done it (whatever “it” is), so can you. Take, for instance, the amazing nearly 450-pound weight-loss story of the former Ringling Brother’s fat lady Dolly Dimples. After a near fatal heart attack in 1949, she dropped from 555 pounds to 112 pounds. Although she lost her circus job, later she authored a diet book, made it into The Guinness Book of Records for weight loss, and lived to the ripe old age of 81. Even if you don’t believe that you are world record material, consider how many ordinary people achieve their weight loss goals. The National Weight Control Registry is a list of almost 5,000 such people, whose weight losses have ranging from 30 to 300 pounds. The list was started as a research project in 1994 and it is full of ordinary people like you who were able to lose weight and have been successfully keeping it off for as many as 66 years and counting. *Try This Think Better Awareness Tool * Find someone in whom you can see that your incredible success is possible. Maybe you don’t know anyone on the National Weight Control Registry and maybe you just can’t identify with a woman that achieved world-record weight loss 50 years ago. Find someone with whom you can identify, who has accomplished what you want to accomplish. Write this individual’s name or paste his picture in your betterness planner. Refer to him as proof that it can be done. No matter who your role model is, the role model is just an ordinary person like you. In reality, there are very few remarkable people in the world. The world, however, is full of ordinary people who have done remarkable things. When you find this role model, don’t try to do exactly what he did, rather look upon his accomplishment as proof of your capability. You need to find your own path. Sometimes, when you are looking for proof that you are changeable, you are your own best role model. When you think about it, you have been radically changing since the day you were born. Take a moment to think back about the life you led when you were a teenager, when you were in your twenties, thirties, and so on. As you review the list of beliefs, perceptions, behaviors, and preferences that defined you during each stage of your life, you will see that you are not who you used to be. I am certainly not the same person as I was in high school, college, before I was married or before my wife and I had children. The passage of time and the events of my life have changed me, and I have also changed myself. Life changes everyone. So the person you are today is not the person you will be tomorrow. Whether the you of the future is better or worse than the you of today remains to be seen, and remains for you to decide. If the evolution of your own life is not proof enough that you have untapped potential, look at what science has to show. In the past, certain human attributes like personality, hand dominance, and the tendency to be fat were thought to be established early in life—essentially unchangeable. Now, technologies are emerging that allow us to see how the brain is continually developing. Advanced science has proved that when the brain focuses on new thoughts and radical ideas it exercises the gray matter causing it to grow like a muscle lifting weights. Scientists call this phenomenon neuroplasticity. Their new understanding of brain building is blowing the lid off our old ideas about how many new tricks our “old dog” brains can learn. The research shows that even when significant parts of the brain are irreversibly damaged, people can use their thoughts to literally transform and grow the remainder of their brain to fill the gaps. This concept of the brain’s expandability by mental effort is now being used to help train people who were previously thought to be beyond help. With mental focus, hard work and belief in possibility, stroke victims are re-connecting their damaged brain with their muscles, Alzheimer’s patients are improving their memory, under-achieving children are becoming more competent in school, and, yes, people with life-long weight problems are re-inventing themselves toward a better life. Doc Russ The BetternessCoach is not only a Doctor of Physical Therapy but has lost over 230 pounds and maintained it! He has combined his weight loss experience with his life-long passion for food, nutrition, exercise and human motivation into a small step, life change program he calls Betterness®. As the world’s first Betterness® Coach, Doc Russ helps people achieve their goals by giving them permission to stop straining for perfection and start striving toward being better. He uses the 4 tenets of Betterness (Awareness, Accountability, Action and Adaptation) to help people become – and STAY - a little better every day. If you want more Betterness® in your life, catch Russ online at www.betternessinstitute.org, where you find a selection of his writings and sign up for his free weekly newsletter. Doc Russ is also available for private coaching (either in his office or over the phone), lectures and events. Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT, Betterness® Coach The Betterness®Institute Hamptons / North Fork 631.772.9212 Manhattan 212.365.4438 Toll Free: 888.4DocRuss (888)436.2787 Fax: 631.614.4291 www.betternessinstitute.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/betternesscoach Twitter: www.twitter.com/betternesscoach Website: www.betternessinstitute.org Printer Friendly

urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a 2010-02-19T11:13:48Z

Stop and Smell the Goal Roses By: Dr. Russ L'HommeDieu, DPT Category: Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT Printer Friendly You just can’t manufacture a new, better, life. It must be cultivated. Imagine that the new life you are growing is like a rose garden. Truly beautiful roses do not simply grow by accident. All roses need the nutrients of the soil, an ample supply of water and the support of a trellis. Most of all, roses do not grow overnight, they take time. If you were to try to rush your rose along, the rose would seem to defy your best efforts and still not grow any faster. You would surely become stressed and frustrated. You may even want to give up on your rose altogether. Neglected roses are left to die, often before they bloom. It would be a shame to see all that potential beauty turn directly to compost. Goal setting is the cornerstone to the cultivation of this garden of new life. Each goal is a rose in itself. Each one contributes to the garden. Although they do not each have to be perfect, they do need to be allowed to grow to their own full potential. Occasionally, in pursuit of the perfect garden, a few roses are pruned back and discarded. This is true of goals as well. The best way to grow a beautiful garden is to keep it manageable. Focusing on a few goals at a time will, absolutely, lead to an awesome goal garden and ultimately to a new and better life. As roses mature, they will require less attention to maintain them. This is also true of goals. The best way to expand the size of your garden is to plant new roses only after you have the starter garden under control. By this analogy, as your goals mature, they will require less attention from you. This is a great time to make new goals. The Purpose Well The water needed to cultivate each a rose comes from a well. For the purposes of this garden, imagine each rose has its own well. The ability of that well to produce water will determine the ability of that rose to flourish. Without the water from that well, the rose will die. In the same way that the rose needs the water, your goals need purpose. For you to continue to cultivate a goal, this purpose needs continuous replenishment. Every time you are confronted with one of your goals, your mind needs to make a decision to do it or not. At the very moment this decision is made, your mind goes to the well of purpose. If the well produces water, the goal is kept. If the well is dry the goal is not. The ability to keep true to your goals is more about purpose and less about willpower. If your purpose well goes dry, your goals will die. The deeper a well, the more water it can produce. Often, shallow wells go dry because they draw from small underground pockets of water. Deeper wells, on the other hand, tap into large pools of water called aquifers. An aquifer is like an underground ocean. The key feature of an aquifer is that the water you take from the well does not necessarily come from directly underneath the well. Because of their size, aquifers collect every drop of water that hits the ground for miles around. The water you ultimately take from your well could have come from just about anywhere. When your purpose well only taps into a shallow pool, it will often run dry. The key is to recognize that the well is drying up and deepen it. For instance, your initial purpose for exercising might be to fit into a certain size dress for that high school reunion. After the reunion the purpose for getting into that dress dries up and your workout routine suffers. To keep your interest in working out, you need to deepen your purpose. One way to deepen your purpose is to tie the goal of working out to how great it makes you feel. Deepen it further by connecting it with the benefit it provides to your overall health. Drill a little deeper and you strike the “age gracefully” aquifer. The deepest wells of purpose are those that are beyond you. If you believe that your morning exercise routine will provide a better life to those you love, your well will never go dry. A stretch? I don’t think so. My daily exercise gives me energy to spend time with my wife and children. I can do things with them that I could never do before. Furthermore, it makes me feel good mentally. It helps me focus on what is really important in my life. Because of the increased blood supply that exercise brings to the brain, it really does prevent depression and improve mental function. I can use that mental focus to enhance the lives of those I love. You can’t get a deeper well than that. Doc Russ The BetternessCoach is not only a Doctor of Physical Therapy but has lost over 230 pounds and maintained it! He has combined his weight loss experience with his life-long passion for food, nutrition, exercise and human motivation into a small step, life change program he calls Betterness®. As the world’s first Betterness® Coach, Doc Russ helps people achieve their goals by giving them permission to stop straining for perfection and start striving toward being better. He uses the 4 tenets of Betterness (Awareness, Accountability, Action and Adaptation) to help people become – and STAY - a little better every day. If you want more Betterness® in your life, catch Russ online at www.betternessinstitute.org, where you find a selection of his writings and sign up for his free weekly newsletter. Doc Russ is also available for private coaching (either in his office or over the phone), lectures and events. Dr. Russ L’HommeDieu, DPT, Betterness® Coach The Betterness®Institute Hamptons / North Fork 631.772.9212 Manhattan 212.365.4438 Toll Free: 888.4DocRuss (888)436.2787 Fax: 631.614.4291 www.betternessinstitute.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/betternesscoach Twitter: www.twitter.com/betternesscoach Website: www.betternessinstitute.org Printer Friendly