First, a bit of a glitch happened with my PayPal buttons (again!).  If you happened to take advantage of my Fantastic Friday or Super Small Business Saturday sales, please let me know as I haven’t received any notification (because the e-mail address was wrong!).

Second–my sale goes on through TODAY!   Fantastic Friday has morphed again into Marvelous Monday!

Third–T-Tapp is having a Cyber Monday sale!  From 12:01 a.m. on November 26 through 11:59 p.m. PST you can order any T-Tapp product for 20% discount!  Use the coupon code GIFT20 at the T-Tapp Store!

Happy shopping!

Happy Thanksgiving!

May you be surrounded by those you love,

finding much to be grateful for!

With love,

~Trisch

      Go ahead–have one of each!

I had hoped to have a post out today, but instead I am getting PayPal buttons figured out!  Technology is wonderful–when it works!

I want to share some quick, carb-busting moves to help you through the Holidays!  Keeping your ribs up helps engage those lats, which in turn can boost your metabolism 15%!  (Yeah, sit up straight while you’re reading this!)  Two great moves to the rescue:

Hoedowns

Butterflies

Easy to sneak off to a bedroom or bathroom and do quickly–under 3 minutes!

Fantastic Friday will kick off a sale on Skype sessions, video reviews and even private in-person sessions!   Make sure you make time for YOU during this busy season!

See you Friday! 🙂

Photo credit:  Neeta Lind

Deep Discount Tuesday is posted and it’s a great deal!

Basic Workout Plus set (BWO+, Barefoot Basic and Basic Tempo
CRT Skin Tightening System (includes a brush, FiberTox, Premium Blended Alfalfa and a dvd that demonstrates the brushing PLUS 4 bonus moves!)
PLUS a free Fit and Fabulous in Fifteen Minutes book!

All for $99!

Click here:  Deep Discount Tuesday!

Feel like there’s no hope of keeping up with any type of fitness or health goals throughout the holidays?  Do you figure you’ll just wait until January 2 to refocus and start again?

How would you like to keep your foundation strong–even through a busy season?

That’s what we’re going to do in Foundations for Holiday Fitness!

Starting November 26, 2012 and running through January 5, 2013 the Foundations program has three levels to help you stay on track!   Whether it’s support only to keep you in touch, doing 2-3 moves per day to get some lymph pumping in without stressing, or getting short workouts in 3-4 days per week–there’s a level for you!

There are even options to add a video review or a Skype session–which you can redeem after the holidays if you want!  Sweet! 🙂

You can find out more details here:

Foundations for Holiday Fitness!

I’d love to help you create a game plan to not lose any hard-earned ground, and yet not stress your body or mind while doing it.  See which level works for you–and let’s keep that foundation strong!

Photo credit:  Sam Howzit

I’ve been busy this week!  Taught some T-Tappers in Ft. Wayne on Monday, worked the polls Tuesday, and have been spending the past few days working on some projects!

One of my projects is starting a fun (hopefully!) holiday program over on the T-Tapp forums.  It’s a way to help have accountability during that time of year that threatens to sabotage the good habits we established the rest of the year!

Here is the link if you’d like to join us!

 Festive Fitness!

Next week I have a new way to get your vitamin C in as well as a review of a new product that has become quite popular–Nerium AD.  Have a great weekend!

Photo credit:  Joe Buckingham

On Tuesday I started sharing my recent journey to freedom with you (What’s Driving You?).  This is a continuation!

There is a verse in the Bible that says, “The full soul loathes a honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.”  (Proverbs 27:7)  When I read that the other day, it really hit me how deeply true it is!  When our “souls” are crying out for help, whether due to losing a loved one, financial issues causing stress, stress in family relationships or friendships, health issues, or a trauma past or present, we often don’t want to deal with the issue because of the pain/stress so we turn instead to something else to help us “cope”.  That is where food, drugs, overexercise, self-sabotage, etc. come into the picture.

As I acknowledged I had an issue, then just watched for opportunities to address the issue as it came up, my desire for junk diminished greatly–and totally without effort on my part.  There was no willpower (I honestly don’t believe in “willpower” anymore–but that’s a whole different post!), no “gotta be more disciplined”, no “I need to practice self-control”.   Now, there’s nothing wrong with evaluating my workout schedule, what I’m eating, etc.  BUT–what I have found is, I can spend an inordinate amount of time “examining”, coming up with a plan, beating myself up that I’m not doing it right and stressing over it, which all add up to upsetting my metabolism and raising cortisol….which adds to belly fat, for one thing, among many other consequences!

Slightly counterproductive, don’t you think?!

This is the second time something like this has happened (because too often I took the “overthink it and stress it out” route!), and this time was totally “effortless” as far as the junk cravings going away!  I seriously am craving good yogurt, nuts, dried fruits, and about the only real “junk” treat I want right now is animal crackers!  (Yeah, go figure!  But it’s better than M&Ms, yes?!)

I’m sharing all this to encourage you that you can be free from the things that drive you, without stressing out about addressing them.  My faith plays a huge part in my learning to rest and let the Lord help me tackle things as I’m ready.  No one said you had to get it all figured out and back on track in a day!

I know it’s tough when the clothes aren’t fitting–but beating yourself into submission is not going to help in the long term, either!

May I gently encourage you to learn to rest?  As things come to mind, acknowledge them. It’s okay to say someone’s cutting remark hurt.  Or that you still miss your mom.  Or that you wish your close friend hadn’t moved away.  Or that a childhood trauma still affects you.  Often admitting it to ourselves is the first step to healing.  In my case, I didn’t ask why  or where or for examples–I simply agreed.  Then as each opportunity to trust came up (in many areas–relationships, finances, timing, decisions), I realized I needed to first trust.

I still miss my mom as well as my friend, Peggy.  I still wish my kids didn’t struggle with cavities so much.  (Financial AND health issues there!)  I wish my one daughter’s chest heaviness would just go away (no physical cause, but still a mystery).  Those are just a few areas that I realized I needed to simply….rest and trust.  As I did, though, decisions came easier, financial issues aren’t bothering me as much (and neither are the teeth–not that I like it but I have perfect trust that we’ll find the right answer for us), and we’re pursuing some other ideas for my daughter.  In the meantime, my food addictions simply fell away!

Do I think that’s the last of it?

No!

Because we are living beings and nothing stays static.  But we can stay consistent as we can, even if it’s just a few moves a day, keeping up on our water intake and learning to inhale/exhale deeply to help with the stress while it’s happening!  In the long term, we’ll be better for it–healthier, stronger both physically and emotionally, which only serves to help us in future times of stress.

So, I ask again–what’s driving you?

What one thing would help you rest and not be as focused on that driving factor?  What one step can you take in your journey to freedom today?

I’d love to hear your progress! Remember–it’s not just “making yourself do it” but being willing to gently address the factors that are the real cause.  It takes time.

But it the freedom it brings is worth it!

Photo credit: dweekly

Last time, I talked about destressing our lives a bit–taking stock of our busyness, learning to say no, taking time to Refresh and Regroup.

I also mentioned being “addicted to busyness”.  We can keep adding things to our already overloaded lives, sometimes out of sense of guilt, but often due to something deeper within.  What actually motivates, or drives, those decisions?

Addictions come in many forms–of course we’re familiar with alcohol and drug addictions, but there are more subtle and insidious addictions that can be signs of inner imbalance.  Food.   Exercise.  Drama.   Eating certain foods can be associated with comfort and pleasure–God gave us taste buds to enjoy food!  But when the food becomes an end in itself, or we think we can derive comfort, encouragement and emotional strength from food alone, it has crossed a line to become an addiction.  We may have a deeper emotional response and turn to the food rather than deal with the deeper issue driving us.

Same with exercise–did you know you can actually get addicted to exercise?!  It is a way, like food, that people self-medicate when their metabolism is out of balance. Exercise produces endorphins–a feel good hormone.   But, just like a drug, it takes more and more to keep those levels high enough to feel good–and then we get scared to back off because we don’t want to go through the “withdrawals” from our “drug”!

Drama–we all know someone we call a “Drama Queen” (or King)–hopefully none of us are in that camp!  Yet we can still escalate our emotions to a level of drama either through our own lives or vicariously through those we watch in movies or on television shows.  We “get high” on the drama whether it’s our real life or reality tv!    Now, we all have some dramatic events that sometimes hit us, but when we can’t seem to get through our day without a daily dose of drama, we might stop and reevaluate if it’s become an addiction.  Even if you’re just “watching” someone else’s drama, it still affects your adrenals!

These are just a few areas to examine and see if they “drive” you–who is in the driver’s seat?  Food, or you?  Exercise, or you?  Drama, or you?

Even in self examination, it is easy to stress even about figuring out what is behind our eating, our overexercising or other forms of “self-medicating” as Dr. Diana Schwarzbein calls it.   I have found that it is enough, for a start, to acknowledge something is there.

I am going to walk you through a recent example in my own life.

Last spring I found mint M&Ms.  My, are they good! 🙂  Over several weeks’ time, I found myself craving them, wanting them way more than an occasional treat.  I stopped to think what was going on in my life–I recently went through the time of my mom’s birthday and the second anniversary of her passing.  I also lost a good friend to cancer around the same time I lost my mom two years ago.   So yes, I was dealing with a few emotional issues!

Knowing my previous tendency to stress over “getting to the bottom of it”, I knew I needed to rest and be aware, but not overthink it.  And I kept eating mint M&Ms…..

Over the summer I definitely ate more sugar than I normally would have, but I was slowly dealing with some emotional issues–not just the ones I mentioned but other things that were coming up.  (Nothing deep and scary, but still things that affected me.)  I know I gained at least one if not two sizes.   Now, I was also eating good foods during this time–not just pigging out on M&Ms and ice cream! 🙂

Towards the end of August I sensed the Lord telling me I had trust issues.  I simply agreed with that as I knew that was true.  I didn’t stress about just where and how and when, but acknowledged it, then kept aware of when I wasn’t trusting.

Amazingly, from that point on, my “taste” for mint M&Ms waned!  I took 3 days to eat a small bag….then didn’t buy any for weeks.  When I did have another bag recently, they honestly didn’t taste that good at all!

I’ll share more on Friday about my recent journey to freedom!

Photo credit:  Stephen Cummings