SC Guest Speaker

OKay, I’m a day early with this post, but it’s Halloween Day, adn there is candy everywhere. Plus, I’m excited about Karalane’s Post!!

Karalane Gervais is a trained fitness and nutrition consultant with 10 years working in the weight loss industry. She’s consulted with Jenny Craig, Herbal Magic, and now owns and operates the P.A.I.N (Personal Attention to Individual Needs) Center in Calgary using the newest technology from Europe to increase all over body inch loss with the Eurowave(Tm) machine.

It’s All About Mindset
By Karalane Gervais

True success with your dieting and exercise program is found by learning and adhering to three key words:

1. Discipline
2. Self-Control
3. Consistency

Discipline is training yourself to develop a specific character or pattern of behaviour. If you make a goal, accomplish it and make a new one. When just starting out, make an attainable goal and learn to maintain discipline by adhering to it. This goal could be to simply cut out mayonnaise from your nutrition plan or to lose your first 5 pounds. Once you learn to have discipline in small goals, this will grow into larger ones which you will be able to set on your path to a healthier lifestyle. Remember too to celebrate your accomplishments (not with food!) before moving on to your next goal.

Self-control means “how badly do you want it”. Moderation really comes into play here. Proper portion sizes and slowing down at meal times are really important. Learn what a proper portion of chicken is and learn how to taste your foods. Take 20 minutes to finish a meal. When engaged in conversation or even when you are experiencing a stressful or emotional time, it is easy to over eat. This is why taking 20 minutes with each meal is important as it gives you time to ask yourself questions such as , “am I depressed”, “do I feel like over eating”, ” do I need comfort foods”, and “is it worth it to over indulge”. Also, it takes the stomach and brain about 20 minutes to communicate with each other to determine if you are satisfied or full.

Consistency is achieved by utilizing a food journal and or exercise journal to guide you through your journey to a healthier lifestyle. It will tell you whether you had all your starches or proteins for a specific day and help you remember how you felt when you did not get in all the calories your body needs to lose weight efficiently. Be patient too. Your weight did not come on over night and it will not come off over night either.

Change the word diet to lifestyle. The word diet is just “die” with a “t” on the end. “Dieting” will always lead to failure as the action of dieting is taking away something as if to punish a certain behaviour. So, train your mind and body for a lifestyle change. It may sound scary being that it will be a life commitment but try not to think of it that way. Most people think of healthy foods as being steamed broccoli, broiled chicken and flax seeds. Healthy is simply cutting back and cutting out the empty calorie additions one makes to common foods such as mayonnaise and cheese.

Finally, everyone cheats too so don’t beat yourself up. There will be times when you want a dessert or a pizza. In these instances, always get ready for a planned cheat and enjoy it. It also helps if you know what that dessert or slice of pizza counts as when it comes to your nutrition plan. For instance, one slice of pizza may count as 1 starch serving, 1 dairy, 1-2 fats (depending on toppings), ½ vegetable, etc.. Dissect your cheats so that you know what you are having and build it into your daily nutrition plan.