2439: 5 Ways to Boost Your Happiness & Stop Hating Your Body by Kara Silva with JillFit on Image & Stress Management

[00:00:00] Delicious meets nutritious in the snack that packs a real protein punch. Wonderful Pistachios. Each one-out serving of wonderful pistachios has 6 grams of protein, giving you over 10% of your daily value and making wonderful pistachios one of the highest protein nuts.

[00:00:16] But perhaps more than that, I love all of the flavors they have. Their sea salt and vinegar ones are my favorite when I'm craving that flavor but want to keep it healthy. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

[00:00:27] Wonderful pistachios come in a variety of flavors, like chili roasted, honey roasted, smoky barbecue and jalapeno lime. Perfect for enjoying with family and friends or taking them with you on the go. Whether you're a pistachio purist who loves cracking open every nut or you prefer the

[00:00:45] convenience of no shells pistachios, wonderful pistachios has got you covered. Grab wonderful pistachios and elevate your snacking game today. So fill up with a healthy snack when hunger strikes. Visit wonderfulpistachios.com to learn more. That's wonderfulpistachios.com. This is Optimal Health Daily, Episode 2439.

[00:01:09] Five Ways To Boost Your Happiness And Stop Hating Your Body by Cara Silva with JillFitt.com and I'm Dr. Neal, your very own personal narrator. Hey there, happy Sunday and welcome back to another weekend edition of Optimal Health Daily.

[00:01:23] This is where I read you from some of the best health and fitness blogs on the web and always with a little bit of my commentary at the end. And with that, let's get right to today's post as we optimize your life.

[00:01:39] Five Ways To Boost Your Happiness And Stop Hating Your Body by Cara Silva with JillFitt.com If you read the JillFitt blogs with any frequency, you understand that chronic stress has an impact on health and body composition.

[00:01:54] Stress can come from many sources, balancing the craziness of working out full-time jobs, school, kids, relationships, activities and so on, also known as life. Stress can also come from our language and our thoughts.

[00:02:09] For years I woke up every morning and touched my stomach, my not flat bulgy stomach in hopes that something had changed overnight, that suddenly I would touch it and somehow find it flat and toned, and I would feel those six-pack muscles popping out. It never happened.

[00:02:27] My first thoughts to myself in the morning were how fat and lazy I was. This would often be accompanied by walking into the bathroom and stepping on the scale. Many of us know whatever number is reflected back at us can make or break our day.

[00:02:42] Sounds like a great stress-free way to start each day, huh? For years I spent so many hours beating the cr- out of myself for not being a certain body fat percentage or not having visible show-off worthy abs. I could find no peace.

[00:02:57] Over and over again in my mind I would feel the disappointment of not being super fit. I would feel angry at myself for not having the discipline to do what needed to be done to hit the goal that what felt like my whole heart, body and soul wanted.

[00:03:13] That feels like chronic stress to me, not good for my physical or mental health or body composition, not to mention what a joy it is to be around someone like that. Last year I made a deep shift in my acceptance of myself and my body composition.

[00:03:27] I stopped hating my body. Here are my insights from that change. 1. Understand what hitting that goal really means for you. Have you been dieting, sweating and straining for a goal for years and never really getting to where you feel like you need it to be?

[00:03:45] Take some time to journal around if I hit this goal what does that mean about me? Also the opposite question is just as insightful. If I never achieve X what does that mean about me?

[00:03:59] I have had some plastic surgery that is not something I admit to many people. I did it as I was determined one way or another to try and hit my goal of beautiful abs. My first thought upon waking from my surgery is that I am still me.

[00:04:14] This changed nothing. I was disappointed. I had hoped maybe not even really at a conscious level that I would wake up transformed. I did not. I was still me with a few less fat cells. That was an eye-opening realization.

[00:04:31] It was not the abs that I really wanted, it was who I imagined I would supposedly be and what life would be like if I had those abs. 2. You have a choice. A bit of self-talk is a choice and a learned behavior. It can be changed.

[00:04:46] First, bring awareness to your language. Spend some time really hearing how you talk to yourself and when that shows up. How often are you beating yourself up? What is your first thought in the morning? Awareness is the first step.

[00:05:02] Once you have that, you can begin to make different choices. 3. Practice gratitude. Gratitude is mind, heart and emotion shifting. The scale isn't where you want it to be today? Okay. But are you breathing easily? Awesome. That means your lungs are working.

[00:05:19] Were you able to get up out of bed on your own? Perfect. Your muscles are strong and working well enough to support your body. Can you see the numbers on the scale? Cool. Your eyes are working. Did you hear your alarm this morning? Woohoo! You can hear.

[00:05:35] Did you wake up today? Super. You're awake and alive and may have a whole other day of life ahead of you. There's always something to be grateful for in any situation. Once you start practicing gratitude, it changes your view of the world in ways you can't even imagine. 4.

[00:05:52] Loving and accepting yourself exactly as you are is not giving up. I had to work through this issue with myself quite a bit at first. I thought if I'm giving up driving to a low body fat percentage because it's

[00:06:04] making me crazy and miserable, then the only other alternative is just to be a fat slob on the couch. Believe it or not there are so many more choices available on that spectrum. Because I love and accept myself, I want to fill my body with nourishing food.

[00:06:19] Because I love and accept myself, I love getting into the gym to challenge myself with weights. Because I love and accept myself, not only do I get better but the people around me do too. The behaviors like smart food choices, exercising, getting sleep and working for balance can

[00:06:37] be the same as they were before. But my motivation and mindset are completely different and it's so beautiful and freeing. I might even still one day set a goal to get to 15% body fat as a challenge to myself.

[00:06:51] That will only be because I want to try for that as a challenge and not because I'm not okay if I am not that. 5. Practice Practice Practice. Neurons that fire together, wire together.

[00:07:07] All of this takes time and you will have so many chances to practice loving who you are. The cool thing is the more opportunities that come up, the more chances you get to practice loving your body, the more those pathways in your brain grow and it becomes easier

[00:07:22] and better. Life simply gets better from changing your mental messaging. Stop hating your body so that you can live a happier life. You just listened to the post titled 5 Ways to Boost Your Happiness and Stop Hating Your

[00:07:39] Body by Cara Silva with jillfit.com and I'll be right back with my commentary. Dr. Neal here for my commentary. Dr. Sean Acor from Harvard University has performed a bunch of research on how gratitude changes the brain.

[00:07:54] Dr. Acor found that when we practice gratitude regularly, it in fact changes the way our brain processes our everyday experiences. Just as today's author Cara described, how we express gratitude for many of the things

[00:08:09] we often take for granted like simply being able to hear our alarm in the morning, the fact that we are able to move our bodies to get out of bed and so on. All of this changes our brain.

[00:08:20] It changes the brain to see the positives in our lives instead of focusing on the negatives. But again, this doesn't happen immediately. This requires regular practice. You can even start by simply writing down 5 things you're grateful for.

[00:08:35] Do this most days of the week and eventually, you'll start to see the world in a more positive light. Alright that'll do it for today. I hope you have a great weekend if you're listening in real time and I'll be back

[00:08:46] here tomorrow as usual where your optimal life awaits.