Tag: heal

Broke Your Diet? Give Yourself Compassion to Get Back on Track

Have you broken your diet?
Have your circumstances — whether due to to hearbreak, stress, trauma or grief — led you to ditch your resolve to eat eat cleanly so you can shed your dreaded excess weight?
Now that you’ve blown your diet, are you beating yourself up now for letting yourself go and mindlessly shoveling in unhealthy, sugary, fatty or salty unreal foods?
Woman shoveling plate in front of mouthPlease take a brief time out.
It’s time to hit the pause button.
Beating up on yourself after you blow your diet won’t make your life or your body better.
Instead, at this time, the first step you want to take to Get Back on Track is to Shower Yourself with Compassion.
Yes, it’s time to cut yoruself lots of slack.
Yes, you blew your diet. Yes, you gained weight. But probably had some darn good reasons for falling off the diet wagon.
It’s imperative to give yourself compassion after you blow your diet.
A year and a half ago, I learned a lot about the power and health ramifications of mindfully giving yourself loving-kindness, acceptance, empathy, and compassion after you blow your diet or do anything else self-destructive or counter productive.
Self-CompassionNewJacketIn fact, I decided to learn more about the power of compassion by attending a fabulous fsix-day workshop on Mindful Self-Compassion for Professionals with renowned self-compassion researchers and advocates Kristen Neff, Ph.D., and Christopher Geremer, Ph.D.,
You see, I needed to become compassionate myself, because I, too, had blown my clean way of eating.
You can read My Carb Confession here, where I reveal that I had a major relapse while healing from My Bittersweet Last Year with Mom.
At the time, after gaining 20 extra pounds, I was absolutely mortified.
I even hid out, especially from fellow health experts, because it was agonizingly difficult to admit that I’d fallen off the wagon since Ii’m a recognized sugar and carb expert, who has eating cleanly since 1998 (well, for the most part).
You derive many benefits from giving yourself self-compassion, according to Dr. Krisin Neff:
You reduce your anxiiety, depression, stress, desire for perfectionism, body shame, and fear of failure.
You also increase your life satisfaction, happiness, self-confidence, optimism, curiosity, creativity, and gratitude.
If you’ve blown your diet or are beating up on yourself for other self-destructive behaviior, I highly recommend that you check out Dr. Neff’s book, Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself.
Stay tuned for more tips and tactics to help you Rebound After Relapse.
Join the Conversation: Have you had a diet relapse? If you like, share when and why, too.
About Connie: Since 1998, after kicking sugar and fast carbs on doctor’s orders and bidding 44 ailments farewell, Connie Bennett achieved acclaim as a health expert, Sweet Freedom Coach and author of the bestselling books, Sugar Shock and Beyond Sugar Shock. But in 2012, after the grueling, year-long traumatic terminal illness and subsequent death of her mother, Connie did massive Heartbreak Carb Bingeing™. The upshot? She gained 21 pounds. Oops! Now, Connie’s back to help you, too, Rebound After Relapse™. Sign up for Connie’s mailing list to get tips so you can Bounce Back After Relapse™. And stay tuned for Connie’s upcoming book and companion program.

9 Ways Strategic Social Media Breaks Make You More Social

In today’s world you need to be social even if you’re not naturally gregarious or extroverted.
To spread the word about your book, program, product, or professional expertise, you have to be active in social media in a BIG way, using such tools as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, your blog, Pinterest, etc.
But what if you’re feeling decidedly anti-social, because you’re facing a grueling Dark Night of the Soul?
Should you continue to post regularly on Facebook, Twitter, and your blog when you’re enduring an existential crisis like a terminally ill parent or spouse, the breakup of your long-term marriage, or the death of a cherished loved one?
TwitterWhen you’re shaken up by such a trying situation, I contend, you need to take Strategic Social Media Breaks of varying lengths of time—from a few days to a few weeks.
Something interesting happens when you become deliberately anti-social. Ultimately, after you devote time to yourself and your healing, you ultimately become more social.
In other words, staying away from social media paves the way for you to become active again and to return with vitality, peace of mind, and a better frame of mind.
Gab with the Gurus Large LogoFor my part, I discovered the value and need to take Strategic Social Media Breaks soon afterddiscovering that my mother—who lived on the other side of the country—was terminally ill with stage 4 lung cancer.
Over the next two years, I took several Social Media Breaks—during Mom’s final months when we enjoyed a plethora of plays, operas, and farmer’s markets together, and she taught me how to die with grace and spunk.
Three months before Mom died, I became quite active again on social media when my new new book, Beyond Sugar Shock, was published. But soon afterwards, I needed a longer Social Media Break after Mom passed away and I was grief-stricken and depressed.
Again, I needed more time away from social media when I needed to travel around to find a new, peaceful place to live; and when I needed to Take Back My Power and heal from my mother’s unintentional cancer-driven rage, abuse, betrayal and symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
If you’re facing a family crisis, I urge you to step back from social media. Here are nine benefits of staying away from the Web for a few days or weeks.
You can spend precious time with a loved one. (This is especially important if your loved one is very ill.).
You can take ample time to go inward and put your attention on nurturing and nourishing yourself.
Focusing on yourself rather than on posts or tweets allows you to emerge more compassionate and committed to giving valuable information to your fans through social media..
When you’re absent from social media, you can become more fully present in your life.
You can reassess your priorities without getting distracted by social media.
When you shift your focus from serving others to preserving yourself, it’s easier to triumph over your stressful, heart-breaking situations.
When you’re not concerned about the responses you’re getting to a comment, quote or photo you posted on Facebook, your blog or Google+, you have more energy to face your profound pain, which, in turn, will help you move faster away from the dark and into the light.
When you’re not sidetracked by social media, you can gain valuable perspective, insights, and the distance you need to rise above your pain.
A Social Media Break “fills you up” so that you can return with more energy, exuberance, and enthusiasm to serving people.
So how do you know you need a Social Media Break? Youi may benefit from time away from social media if you haven’t regained your mojo, zest, or gusto after your Dark Night of the Soul. In other words:
You often feel anxious, depressed, and devastated after the death of a loved one.
You just don’t have much enthusiasm to share great information with your fans. Rather, you need to focus on healing after your challenging time such as the end of your marriage.
You just don’t feel ready to serve your Facebook fans, Twitter followers, blog readers, etc. Before being so visible ot he world, you need to regain your strength.
Anyhow, now that I’m active again in social media, I invite you to become social with me.
Please subscribe to this Sugar Shock Blog; listen to my Gab with the Gurus Shows on BlogTalkRadio; connect with me on Facebook; and follow me on Twitter.
Share Your Feedback: Have you ever taken a Strategic Social Media Break? Why and for how long? How did being anti-social help you to become more social? Let us know your experiences here.

My ABC’s to Break Free of Sugar & Other Bad Habits (Babits™)

Have you seen my video yet on YouTube, in which I shared My ABC’s to Break Free of Your Sugar Habit and Other Bad Habits?
Here’s a companion article to give you more information and tips to release your bad habits or what I call babits™.
My ABC’s to Break Free of Your Sugar Addiction & Other Bad Habits by Connie Bennett, CPC, CHHC
If you’re like most people, you’re often tempted by gorgeous, mouth-watering, nutrient-poor “treats”—dazzling donuts, colorful cereal or buttered bagels—and other bad habits such as excessive coffee-drinking, negative thinking, procrastinating and obsessive texting.
As I mentioned on my companion YouTube video, It’s certainly understandable if you feel tempted. Wherever you go and wherever you live, you’re inevitably bombarded by unhealthy foods, substances, thoughts and activities.
But I invite you to look inside and decide: Do you feel trapped or imprisoned by your sugar habit or other bad habit (what I call a babit™)?
And are you plagued by baffling health issues such as annoying weight gain, ferocious headaches or even type 2 diabetes?
I’m here to reassure you. You can escape from the prison of a bad habit.
In fact, I respectfully challenge you. Get out from under your sugar habit or other babits™ so that you can have a life that rocks!
You may be wondering WIFY (What’s In It For You?) if you overcome your bad habit. You can benefit in many ways!
You can get more energy, concentrate better, lose weight, become more productive, enjoy better relationships and so much more. And, as many clients have delightedly shared with me, if you cut out sugar and refined carbs, you even may be able to boost your libido!
So let me share my Double ABC’s to Break Free of Your Sugar Habit & Other Bad Habits (or what I call Babits™).(In my companion YouTube video, I share some of these tips. You’ll find more here.)
A is for Assume & Accept.
Just assume and accept that just about wherever you go, you’ll be tempted.
Your favorite aunt will nudge you to eat her favorite chocolate cake. You have to pass that vending machine at work. And no matter what, you’ll be taunted by candies galore while purchasing sundries at the local drug store.
But if you prepare for temptations—ones way more unhealthy than apples in the Garden of Eden—you can be prepared and always have healthy snacks on hand such as edamame (soy nuts), pumpkin seeds, hard-boiled eggs and sugar-free crackers or an apple (preferably organic) with almond butter.