The Last Frontier: How to Lose the Last 10 Pounds

Posted on Balanced Body | May 26, 2010 | 15 Comments

This post was written by Anastasiya. Follow me on Twitter or StumbleUpon and keep your life balanced!

You have been exercising and leading a fairly healthy lifestyle but you are still looking at the scale and thinking “How can I lose these last 10 (5, 2) pounds?”

Does this situation sound familiar to you?

It might sound surprising, but sometimes losing 5-10 pounds is the most difficult weight loss goal. I’ve been struggling with my last few pounds for a while but now I am finally happy with where I am (or what I weigh). The approach to losing 30+ pounds and just 10 pounds is completely different so you should not feel bad if your attempts to scale down do not work. There are a number of reasons why it is so difficult to get rid of that “last frontier” of extra weight on your body:

1. Weight loss plateau. If you’ve already lost a lot of weight then you have reached a plateau. Your metabolism is slower than it used to be (for every pound you lose your metabolism slows down by 20 cal a day) and your body is used to your current exercise routine and diet.
2. Not enough emotional support. People who have to lose 30+ pounds usually have a lot of emotional support from friends, relatives and medical personnel. If a person is overweight then losing weight is the essential strategy that will help them resolve a lot of health problems.
3. “Anti-support.” When you want to lose pounds just to reach your ideal weight then you might hear these types of comments from people around you “Why do you need to lose weight? You already look great,” “We love you the way you are,” “You will look too skinny,” “Stop torturing yourself and enjoy life (with no exercise and a lot of deserts!)”
4. Procrastination. You think that you can lose those last pounds any time you really get to them that is why you indulge in special treats, skip workouts and eat out way too often. Your mind (read: laziness) tells you that losing those pounds is not critical for your well-being and that is why you always come up with a reason why now is not the best time to do it.

You will need a little bit more mental tweaking to lose weight if reasons 2-4 sound familiar to you and you will need a few lifestyle changes to get around reason 1.

I want to show you a few tricks that worked for me and I hope that they will work for you too. Balance it more »

6 Rules of Stress Free Work/Life Balance

Posted on Balanced Lifestyle | May 20, 2010 | 9 Comments

This post was written by Anastasiya. Follow me on Twitter or StumbleUpon and keep your life balanced!

What does the number 3.184 billion tell you?

Most of you will have a close connection to this number even if you’ve never heard it before. 3.184 billion is the number of working people in the world (according to CIA stats.) While this number is really enormous, there is another one that will surprise you even more. About 80% of these people experience on-the-job stress and about half of them need help managing this stress (Gallup study). Considering that stress is the #1 health problem in the US today (and one of the main factors contributing to heart attacks), work/life balance and job satisfaction are not topics that can be taken lightly.

What is your relationship with your job? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Do you just tolerate it? Are you crazy about it (in a good sense)? No matter what your answer is I am sure that all of us can have a little bit more work/life balance to help us stay happy and stress-free most of the time.

Approach to work/life balance should be very personal because we all have different lives, different priorities in life and different types of jobs but there are 6 rules that can help anybody feel more “in-balance” no matter what life throws at you.

1. Get clear on your priorities. The problem with work – life balance starts when we try to focus on too many things at the same time. You might be trying to be a good parent, to cook only home-made meals for the family, to have the hottest body around, spend a lot of time with your friends and at the same time have high-flying career goals. I personally haven’t met a person yet who can do it all at the same time. The art of work/life balance starts with prioritizing activities in your life and compromising.
   The easiest way to set priorities in life is to ask yourself “What can’t I live without even one day?” If it’s your job then you will focus your entire life around your work (you can say good bye for the most part to free time and fun activities with your loved ones.) If you put your family first then you will be able to turn down a promotion if you realize that the extra money is probably not worth it.
   There are always choices that each of us has to make. There is no right or wrong way of living, but when you set priorities you should prepare yourself for the consequences of your choices.

Balance it more »

10 Negative Thinking Patterns to Avoid

Posted on Balanced Mind and Soul | May 15, 2010 | 12 Comments

This post was written by Chris Akins of ChrisAkinsdotCom.

Just as we form habits in the way we act, we also form habits in the way we think. Sometimes these habits are positive, and help us form better relationships and achieve greater success in life. Other times our habitual thinking patterns can be damaging to our own mental health, to our relationships, and even to others around us.

These toxic thinking patterns are usually made up of thoughts that distort our realities, or what mental health professionals call cognitive distortions. And we all have them to some degree or another. But when these patterns become habitual they can lead not only to inconveniences, but outright serious mental health and emotional problems.

The interesting, and scary, thing about cognitive distortions is that most often we don’t even recognize them. That is because when they become habitual, they also become automatic. There is a great deal of research that shows that these automatic thoughts are actually responsible for our moods, states, and general outlook on life. By learning to recognize these automatic thoughts, eliminating cognitive distortions, and reframing them to be positive in nature, we can literally create a more fulfilling and enjoyable reality.

Why are automatic thoughts so powerful?

Automatic thoughts probably originate in the part of the mind that is most directly responsible for emotions – the amygdala. This is the most primitive part of our mind, the part that our distant ancestors relied on to decide whether to flee a perceived threat, or stand and fight; also known as the “fight or flight” response to danger. The amygdala, and its super fast reactionary responses is undoubtedly a major reason why we humans survived and evolved. Without it, we would be kitty food for that sabre toothed tiger… Balance it more »

10 Things to Do When There Is Too Much on You

Posted on Balanced Lifestyle, Balanced Mind and Soul | May 12, 2010 | 22 Comments

This post was written by Anastasiya. Follow me on Twitter or StumbleUpon and keep your life balanced!

Do you sometimes feel that you are running round like a squirrel in a cage? Once you are finished with one project there is already another one waiting for you. You get through one deadline but the next one is already knocking on the door. When you think that you can finally relax you realize that there is some other emergency that you just have to take care of. And it never stops. I’ve had that feeling lately.

There is nothing wrong with being busy but if you overdo it then you feel completely out of balance. Being busy does not mean only working hard. It means taking care of the family, helping friends or relatives, working on new projects and even getting absorbed into your hobbies. I know that each of you has his/her responsibilities that can keep you busy all the time.

When you feel overwhelmed with everything around you it is time to stop and think. Is everything in your schedule really that important?
I know your first answer, “Yes, it is.” Most of us would agree at first glance that most everything we keep in our schedules is extremely important but more than often making our schedules lighter is the answer we really need. I guess Leo Babauta with his Power of Less was right after all

So when you feel that you are just too busy and have no time for yourself then it is time to stop and think. Here are some simple thoughts that will hopefully bring a little balance back into your life. Balance it more »

How to Learn to Listen to Yourself

Posted on Balanced Mind and Soul | May 4, 2010 | 29 Comments

This post was written by Anastasiya. Follow me on Twitter or StumbleUpon and keep your life balanced!

How many times have you heard the advice “Just listen to yourself”? I must say, that I’ve heard that advice a lot of times and I have given that advice probably just as much.

The idea of “listening to yourself” is really brilliant if you know how to do it. But what if you do not hear the voice that tells you what is right for you and what is not? What if you don’t know what your inner self is telling you? How do you know that listening to yourself is better than listening to all the smart people around you and following their most logical path in life?

When you listen to yourself you make decisions that are right for you. No one else knows what will make you happy (even if they say they do) and bring your life in balance.

If you want to learn to listen to yourself then you have two major tasks: Know yourself and Hear yourself.

Know Yourself

If you know who you are, what your interests are and how you feel about things in life then you can hear your inner voice. A lot of times we don’t know ourselves completely because we are always surrounded by the opinions and expectations of other people.

Maybe one of your parents had a dream that you would be a successful doctor and that dream became your path in life. Was it your dream? Do you really like being a doctor? I almost made the mistake of following the path that my family thought was right for me (yes, their dream for me was to become a doctor) but I am glad that I chose my own way instead.

1. Become mindful of everything you do. Make it a habit to think about everything you do throughout the day. How does it make you feel? Why are you doing it? What are the results of every action? If you practice mindfulness then you will learn to stop and think clearly about what you are doing. You will know what is going on inside of you every second of your life.

Balance it more »