In my experience far too many women are over 40 & feeling frumpy and they’ve thrown in the proverbial towel on losing weight and getting their mojo back as the hormonal chaos of menopause approaches.
Amanda pulled herself up the stairs to my office huffing and puffing as she went. She’d tipped the 100kg mark on the scales as her 46th birthday approached and was filled with shame. “How did I get here?” she said, “it’s the heaviest I’ve ever been. I’ve tried eating healthier like I’ve done before but nothing’s happening . My body’s not dropping anything and I’m getting scared. I can’t stay here. I look like my mum and I swore I’d never do that to myself. Things have got to change. I need your help Julie, I can’t do this alone. I’ve had a few hot surges, especially at night and my period’s all over the place and heavy.”
I’m here to say not on my watch ladies! It’s all so fixable.
Here are 3 quick things to give you an instant pick me up and lose the feeling frumpy.
Hack #1 Real wholesome colourful foods.
It’s super simple ladies mainly plant based foods with a moderate amount of protein (beans, tofu, fish, chicken, lamb, beef, eggs…) and leave out all the fillers, numbers, artificial things, sugar and excess salt.
Stop listening to the hype and noise in the media that’s confusing the hell out of everyone. In real terms it’s a palm size piece of meat and three handfuls of a colourful array of vegetables, steamed or raw. Now, repeat often.
Remember the learning is in the doing. Start simple and improve over time. Model to your children to pass down great habits.
Real energy will soar with consistency, so no need for endless coffees, teas – one per day should be plenty.
Blood sugar levels will plummet and so will your waist line, fluid retention and feeling frumpy.
“Get out of bed and move every day and you’ll feel better and have more energy. Your energy is locked in your cells and moving releases that energy and sets you up for a better day with better decision making.” I’d have to agree 110% with this one.
Schedule a minimum of 20 minutes a day to oxygenate your cells and clear out the waste. Walk, jog, cycle, swim, kayak, Pilates, yoga, weights, dance….the possibilities are endless.
Set yourself up for a great day, don’t just hope for one.
It’s hard to be feeling frumpy when you’re bouncing with energy and kissing goodbye to the kilos.
Hack #3 Technology detox
Schedule in tech free time each day. To make sure you’re using technology it’s not using you. It wears you out all the swiping, liking and over comparing. Get in and get out.
I’m a big advocate for putting on an alarm one hour before bed (ideally 9pm), heralding fill myself up time – having a bath, reading a book, meditating, stretching, journaling or watching the stars.
Practice the art of being present – warm water caressing your body, cold air dancing on your face. It benefits you and everybody around you. You’ll have a great night sleep and dial down your stress barometer, which blocks weight loss, messes with your mood and gets you feeling frumpy.
Did you know being present hones your listening and empathy skills, vital for building and maintaining trust in relationships? And we all know better relationships equal a better life.
Do I hear you say, god that’s so simple. Is that all you have to do? Yes it is, the hard thing is being consistent. But the results are enormous and they’re long lasting because you’ve changed what you do everyday. Change your patterns, change your life.
Hope that’s got you started on your journey from feeling frumpy to fabulous! It’s never too late.
Early on in my life I noticed those who had a spark and those that didn’t. To me it made a huge impact on the quality, joy and the way a person shared their unique gifts with the world. There was something engaging and magnetic about those with a spark that drew you to what they had to offer. Whether it be your high school English teacher, local hairdresser, delivery man or sales person.
This intrigue turned into my passion for helping those whose spark has dimmed and need a guiding hand to restore the natural spark they were born with.
Our bodies and minds are complex so there are plenty of places to get stuck. When I work with clients I start at the base with your biochemistry and daily patterns and declutter and build from there. Once you’ve got the foundations strong and stable you can go forth.
Hence I’d like you to meet Perri Curtis – brain pattern breaker and maker extraordinaire.
I’ve been working alongside Perri for the last 18 months and she’s a fabulous resource to help those who find that a pattern is difficult to break consciously.
I’ll get Perri to explain the rest…
How Does Your Brain Run Your Life?
Whatever is happening in the brain is happening in the body. We hear a lot these days about managing patterns like stress, depression and anxiety.
In actual fact everything we know such as how to think, feel or do has a pattern in the brain. These patterns are called “neural maps”.
Patterns may be unhelpful such as –
anxiety,
depression,
phobias,
pain,
smoking,
overeating,
poor sleep
Or helpful and desirable like –
creativity,
learning,
confidence,
performance at school/ work,
riding a bike
speaking a language
“Angela had severe anxiety and agoraphobia and couldn’t leave the house. Anxiety was cluttering up her life, draining all her energy and resources as she just coped to get through.
She came to me with five things on her list to fix. I said, ‘I’m going to treat the one thing that everything else is hinged on, and that’s anxiety.’
When I treated her anxiety, she got her energy back because having anxiety 24/7 sucks. You go to sleep with it in your face, wake up with it in your face, and all day long you’re trying to cope.
She had no interest in eating well or exercising or even having a bath to nurture herself. She was just living hour to hour to get through. I eliminated her anxiety brain pattern in a few sessions that had become locked in, through hypnotherapy.
Once that was cleared she had energy. Now her question is, ‘What can I do to feel good?’”
It’s interesting to know that our brain has created these patterns and so, is also capable of creating something different. This is where clinical hypnotherapy is a powerful tool and can be used to great advantage.
People often ask me, “What is the difference between psychology and clinical hypnotherapy?”
As a psychologist and clinical hypnotherapist with a background in neuroscience, it’s a good question!
The easy answer is that-
psychology deals with the conscious mind which is about our version of reality and keeping our patterns going.
clinical hypnotherapy deals with the subconscious mindwhich is about imagination and creation.
The subconscious mind is the Pattern Maker and the Pattern Breaker.
Traditional psychology is great for learning about ourselves and the origins of our version of “reality”. We can learn about our triggers for patterns of feeling, thinking, behaving and functioning, and create strategies to deal with them. But sometimes unfortunately we still get stuck in the pattern.
The subconscious mind, as the Pattern Maker-Pattern Breaker, does not differentiate between reality and imagination so when suggestions for change are made they are more readily accepted.
Any brain pattern is susceptible to change….and the aim in clinical hypnotherapy is to replace old unhelpful patterns and their neural maps with new ones that are helpful and desirable.
For example, in anxiety and depression,neural maps have been activated for a very long time in many patients and they get bigger and stronger the more they are activated.
So, in clinical hypnotherapy we don’t do lots of sessions that include lots of talking about the issue because that can actually activate a pattern and neural map further.
We simply do –
Sufficient investigation into a patient’s background to understand what the pattern is, how it may have begun, how their brain processes information best and identify what changes would be most desirable.
Then get the brain into a suggestible state which is like daydreaming or relaxing. This is what is called “hypnotic state”.
In fact, it is just a brain wave pattern. It’s the same one we are in when we relax, daydream, meditate, imagine an outfit when we’re online shopping or zoning out at the computer!
It’s a normal brain state that we experience every day. In this state called Alpha-Theta brain waves, the mind will create new patterns quite easily that can begin to be effective immediately.
So if your brain is running your life…What is running your brain?
If the answer is “old patterns” that don’t serve you, then take action and take back control!
Because when your brain changes…everything changes.
Super excited to share what I do Feeling Great Naturopath Corowa video I love to Read more
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