The Intervention (Tales From An Ashram)
Last Monday I pulled into the grounds of what would become my home for the next 4 1/2 days. My surroundings couldn’t have been more plush, more beautiful, more bio-diverse, or more fit to my liking ☺ But who I was when I got there…well…she was a bit of a mess. You see, I’d…
Confessions From A Former Fitness Junkie
I used to do ANYTHING to avoid working out. I don’t think it was necessarily the working out part that I was avoiding. I was avoiding risking my body being seen by others…or simply having attention drawn to my overweight, out-of-shape, nonathletic, unskilled body. If I were to participate in sports, extra curricular activities, or…
Are YOU Unknowingly Holding Yourself (And Your Body) Back?
Rewind back to a few years ago, and I was somewhat ‘anti’ a lot of things. I would say things like: “I don’t ‘do’ the outdoors.” “I don’t ‘do’ bathing suits in front of other people.” “I don’t ‘do’ yoga.” “I don’t ‘do’ dancing.” “I don’t ‘do’ [fill in the blank with ANYTHING that left…
Are YOU ‘Bitching’ or ‘Ditching’?
Sometimes there’s things in our lives we don’t love. They can frustrate us, annoy us, or downright piss us off. And sometimes those ‘things’ are outside of our control. As in there’s nothing we can do about it. At that point though, we still have a choice: We can choose to focus on what we…
Have You Become A Victim of The ‘Bounceback Effect’? (It’s A Bitch!)
It’s understandable that to some women, being promised a 12 month transformation is NOT ‘sexy’ compared to things like “losing 30 pounds in 30 days”. And I can understand how pushing pause on dieting and weighing and tracking and measuring to do the ‘work’ – – it’s not sexy either (in fact it can be…
“My Daughter Called Herself Fat!”
A couple of months ago a friend came to me beside herself: “My daughter called herself fat” She went on to say… “I don’t know where she got it from? I never talk like that in front of her. I’m always telling her how beautiful she is, how smart she is… “ “And besides… there’s…
How I Learned to Eat, Play, Love, and Live
Women that I know and women that I work with are always asking me “How do YOU do it?” They talk to me or hang out with me, and it’s very clear to see: ★ I am VERY comfortable in my body. ★ I am VERY comfortable around food (even around the things women think…
Food Is Love (Finally Make Your Peace With It)
Last Mother’s Day I ‘celebrated’ it by sending her some (mildly inappropriate) SomeEcards, and baking her a cookie cake to leave for her at her house (She was out of town that day, I knew she would come home to it late that night). Because… In my family, food is love. Actually I’m pretty sure it’s…
How To Ditch the Bitch (A Music Video)
Let’s be honest: Your inner critic can be brutal. And after a while, it can wear you down. We all have that version of ourselves that we wish would just go away. The version that preys on our insecurities, takes us away from our goals, and generally makes us feel not so nice. I call that…
Why You’ll NEVER Do As You’re Told (The Willpower Solution)
Okay whatever you do, don’t think about the color blue. Seriously. Red, green, even yellow, but NOT blue. Do NOT think about the color blue. How did that work for you? Did your thoughts remain blue-free? I’m not saying it’s IMpossible, but I have a feeling that it was pretty damn hard NOT to picture…
Why You Never KEEP Your Results (The Truth About Motivation)
One of the things I often get told by others is “Leanne you’re such a good motivator!” So I started taking pride in being just that: a great motivator. To my friends that needed a pick-me-up or one of those “glass is half full” pep talks, I was the gal to go to. During my…
As Seen On HuffPost: Why Doing MORE Is Doing LESS
We’re starting to catch on. Overall we’re becoming savvier and wiser. We’re starting to understand that resolutions don’t have a whole lot of meaning if you make them just to make them — or because you think you’re supposed to. Especially if you’re trying to pile on more duties, obligations, and responsibilities to an already…
From ‘Before’ To ‘After’
January 25, 2011: I was 153 pounds, tight, toned and had the “bikini ready” body I had been dreaming of since I was a young girl. But you know what else I had? I had a volatile relationship with food and a toxic relationship with my body. I had yet to except my own drug-like…
10 Permission Slips You Can Give Yourself (Right Now!)
We all have those special people in our lives that we know completely accept us. Whether you are at your best or your worst, say something silly or profound, or make a complete fool of yourself, you can always count on that special few to look at you without criticism or judgement and take you…
What I Plan To Teach My Future Daughter About Her Body
I don’t want my future daughter to grow up suffering from the insecurities that I had as a little girl or feeling the disconnect to herself or her body that I experienced for decades. It’s easy for me to say right now (before I’m actually a mom) that it’s only a matter of having a…
Fat Is NOT Your Fault (It’s No One’s ‘Fault’!)
There’s nothing wrong with YOU… Just because you gained some of the weight back, it doesn’t make you a failure. Just because you resigned from your last diet or workout plan, it doesn’t make you a quitter. Just because you lost the ‘battle’ between yourself and that tub of ice cream or 3rd piece of…
The Truth About Body Acceptance
I tried sticking my fingers down my throat a few times in high school in efforts to control my weight. Turned out it wasn’t for me… It also wasn’t for my parents who proceeded to take their then 15-year old daughter to get some help. But the binging… That was for me. That was the…
Do I Owe You An Apology? (I Am SO Sorry)
If you worked with me in the past, read my posts, or followed my advice, there’s a good chance I told you to: -Monitor and track EVERYTHING you eat, make sure not to wait too long in between meals, and do things like minimize the ‘bad’ foods by saving them for your ‘cheat meal’. -Work…
What Kind of Fat Do YOU Have?
If you ask 100 different people what the best way to ‘lose fat’ is, you’ll get 100 different answers. Most of them though will take you down the “eat less, move more” route. That’s definitely part of the equation, but that’s also where the conventional approaches are missing out the MOST important factor. What kind…
For Every Woman That Calls Herself FAT…
A few months ago I was at my nieces birthday party. It was a pool party. When it came time for cake and ice cream, one of the girls said out loud “I’m such a fatty” because she wanted to have both cake AND ice cream. Another girl proceeded to say “You’re not a fatty.…
Are You Waiting For Your Backup Body?
Whenever I first get a new phone or gadget, I take really good care of it and protect it like it’s a newborn baby. I do my best to make sure the screen doesn’t get all scratched up, that it’s safely out of harm’s way of my bathtub or toilet, and that it’s safely nestled…
How To Stop “Waiting for the Weight”
Since I turned 30, I’ve learned how to hoolah hoop, ice skate, paddle board, and finally went swimming in the ocean without getting attacked by sharks with friggen’ laser beams. (yes I’ll admit, I was afraid of going in the ocean for 30 years). These are just some of things that I either passed up…
Why Your Diet Is DOOMED…
I’ve been on diets and weight loss programs since the age of 7. If losing weight were an Olympic Sport, I could have taken home the gold medal by the time I was 10. You see… I got really good at outsmarting what ever plan or program I was on. I got really good at…
Are You REALLY Hungry, Or Do You Just FEEL Like Eating?
One of the reasons that I went (and still go on) food ‘experiments’ is because I struggled to stick with that ‘one way’ of eating that I knew I could stick with for the duration– for the rest of my life. You name it– paleo, vegan, south beach, low carb, high carb, gluten free– seriously…
Calories Shmalories (Make Yourself HAPPY First!)
We all know that transformation comes down to implementation, not information, right? But how do you expect to implement something day in, day out if you don’t enjoy it? Eventually all of that convincing you’re having to do to yourself (to get yourself to do the things you don’t really want to do) will end,…
Proof! Here’s What Science Has To Say About Becoming Unstoppable
Let’s get real for a moment: Transformation is a head game. Most programs don’t work because they address the effects. Most changes don’t stick because they merely put the fires out. But if you don’t ever address the cause…those fires will KEEP popping up all over the place. And I truly believe that as long…
Exposed! The Fatal Flaw With ‘Just Do It’ Advice
Do you ever find yourself asking: “Why did I do that?” “Why do I do that?” “Why can’t I do that?” “Why didn’t I do that?” “Why am I like that?” Is it nature, or is it nurture? Well… Would you like to know why? I’m sure your imagination could come up with a millions…
The Truth About Overcoming Doubt and Fear
It’s been about 3 years since I had (what I now refer to as) the Great Breakdown (ummm scratch that…AWAKENING) of 2013. People thought I was CRAZY (and I didn’t blame them.) FLASHBACK: October 2013 I was standing in the middle of the lake that I live on now (on the paddle board I was…
20 Ways You Can Lose 5 Pounds This Week
There’s an infinite amount of tweaks you can make to your food intake and your movement or workout routines to cause a change in your body — an endless combination of biological, physical, or chemical factors that could be manipulated to yield a shift in your weight or a change in your body composition. I…
Top 10 Reasons Why Your Weight Loss Plan STOPPED Working
Ever have those days where you feel like something is ‘wrong’ with you because you can’t seem to get yourself to DO all things you “know how to do”? But I assure you, this is NOT the case. There is nothing wrong with you at all! You’re just experiencing the SYMPTOMS of a ‘broken’ SYSTEM.…
I Gained 10 Pounds (And I’m SO Happy I Did!)
I decided I wanted to do a little ‘upgrade’ to my body a little while back, and I have to say: I am SO happy about how my body is looking, moving, and feeling as a result of it. I feel great. But there’s just ONE thing that is a little weird. I’ve actually GAINED…
INSPIRATION
RESOURCES
