The Divine Connection Between Faith and Weight Success

Faith and weight success have a divine connection that can boost your weight loss efforts. Spirituality can be a important key to losing and maintaining weight loss for a lot of women. If you are a faith-driven woman who has a goal to live a happier and healthier life, then this article may help you go to the next level of weight success.

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Why Many Women Fail At Dieting

There are some amazing eating plans available, but for many women they don't work. If you have tried diet after diet without any real results then you want to read this article. There is one critical component that you may be missing that can make all of the difference, starting today!

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Let's Chew The Fat A Bit Shall We?

Fat... just what the heck good is it anyway? Well, there's lots of good about it actually. Some fats are actually so good that you need them in your diet (think Omega-3 fats!) So, let's get a run-down on what is so good about this macronutrient.

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Defeating Emotional Eating

Emotional eating is a battle that many women are losing. Emotional eating is eating for reasons other than being hungry. Some of the reasons women eat emotionally are being anxious, being bored, being lonely and stress, just to name a few. If you struggle with emotional eating it is your moment to defeat it once and for all.

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The Best Pilates Moves You Can Do Without a Reformer

Feeling Sh*tty About Life? Here's an Important Reminder

I want you to know that nothing is wrong with you. I know this sounds cliché and trite and like I'm patting the top of your head while telling you all the things you want to hear. No, that's not where I'm coming from. I need you to know and I need myself to know that there is nothing wrong with you/me. We're f*cking fine. Do you hear me? We're fine.

I want you to know that you can try to be better, you can work hard, you can do all the things you think you need to do, but none of that will do anything to prove to you that you are worth your space in this world. The only person that can decide that is you. You.

You decide how much space you get to take up. You decide how much your voice is worth. You can work yourself ragged and accrue everything you ever thought you needed, but if you don't believe who you are underneath the glitz, nothing will matter. A fevered mind has a funny way of turning gold into dust.

I want you to know there's nothing to prove, that even if you do all the things that you or someone else told you that you couldn't do, there will be no glory in it. There is no glory in living a life in search of undoing a feeling. You have a core belief that you are not worthy, that you are not lovable, and that you are not good enough? There is no manner of things you can achieve, people you can impress, or people who will love you in order to convince you of a thing you can't believe in yourself. You can't turn a sour belief sweet just by outrunning it forever.

I want you to know that you can't outrun your life, your emotions, and those little beliefs that feel tiny enough to overlook but fester over time. Inconsequential negative beliefs have a way of turning into hugely damaging beliefs. Believe me, I've lived in search of the magic elixir that will turn my emotions into something else, something better, and my life into something shinier. I've searched everywhere, but the only real magic elixir is reckoning with yourself, taking the responsibility, demanding that the only person who can save you is you. It's you, babe. It's you.

You're the savior. You're the one you've been looking for.

I want you to know that you will never be enough if all you're looking to be is enough. You need to forget about enough and look beyond it to something else entirely, something that can be measured. "Enoughness" can't be measured. You are only as enough as you are better than someone else, and that's a slippery slope. Not being enough needs participation from others—because it's always comparison. That's always where it begins and ends—this incessant need to weigh the value of your life against another person's. Are you more than another? Less than another? You don't really want to be adequate or good enough. No. What you're searching for is to be special, to be better than others. And that's a losing game, even if you think you've won.

I want you to know that if you need to feel loved, please look around at your life and see the magic everywhere. You may not have a thousand friends or a perfect family, but you have your people and they matter, even if the number of those you can count on is in the single digits. Don't throw that away looking for more. I know it seems like admiration, fame, social validation make you feel the love you may not feel for yourself, but it's so fleeting. It's dangerous to stake anything on.

Attention is not love. Double taps are not reminders of your adequacy. Favorites, likes, and followers are not an indictment of your value, no matter how big or small the number reaches or falls. If you've found yourself entirely too consumed with the digital trail of admirers you do or don't have, remind yourself that you are valuable, as you are, without anything or anyone paying attention. Your value exists without condition.

I want you to know that strength is not what you think it is or what the world has told you it is. Strength is not your loud voice or your angry rally cries. Strength is in keeping a positive heart in a negative world, a sensitive soul in a cruel world that often feels beyond the realm of soulless. There is a strength in not letting this world swallow you and spit you out as someone who thinks preaching their opinion off the highest mountain is what brave people do.

Courage is listening when your knuckles are going white from clenching down on the arms of your chair. Courage is respect and not letting any number of heartbreaks sour you from believing that there is good, there is love, there is something in this mad world to have hope for.

I want you to know that within you lies something integral to this world. You're a puzzle piece that fits into the grander framework of humanity. Today is a whole new day, and you can turn it all around in one quick decision to do something, anything, different than how you've done it before. Change comes slowly and then all at once. You will think you're going down the long tunnel of darkness until it happens, until you're renewed. Trust that it's coming. Trust that something bigger is forming. Trust your tender heart. Trust your wild ideas. Take the chance. Say no when it doesn't light you up. Follow whatever within you tells you that you're doing something that makes you come alive.

I want you to know that the only waste here would be for you to sleep through your life. The only thing you could do wrong is to opt out of who you are, to forgo whatever fights come out of you. Because something does fight within you to be said, to be done—no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential you think it is. You can change a heart in the most ordinary gesture. Don't let this world harden you until all you see is what's going wrong, what's bad. Because the thing no one tells you is there is as much good as there is bad. As much darkness as there is light. It simply depends on where you focus your eyes.

This piece was originally published on Medium and was republished with the author's permission. Jamie Varon is a writer based in Los Angeles. The views expressed herein are hers. Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

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How to Know If a New Diet Will Actually Work for You

“I don’t know what to believe.”

If you’ve ever read a fitness magazine or searched for any health-related information on the Internet, this is probably how you feel. Or maybe it’s more like, “WTF! Why does every piece of information contradict the other?”

First carbs are bad, and then they’re considered kinda rad (for athletes, at least). We say fats aren't part of the plan, but what about Paleo, where bacon is the jam? I hear that intermittant fasting can eliminate fat… or is that only true if you’re a lab rat? It’s enough to make you want to throw your computer across the room—and not just because of the terrible rhymes.

This stuff (nutrition and fitness) is a business—one of misinformation, overreactions, and enough double-talk to make you think Paleo and Atkins are running against Mediterranean and Low-Sugar for the office of diet supremacy. Like any election, all candidates have their flaws, but that’s a major reason why I’m writing this column, Naked Truth: less confusion, more answers, and a place for you to turn when you’re sick of reading everything and just want to know what to believe.

I’m not here to break the news. I’m here to make sense of it all so you can live a healthy life without all the added stress and second-guessing. And while you can safely assume any plan that includes the words “cookie” or “miracle” is full of sh!t, trying to tackle every new diet trend would be an impossible task. Instead of naming names, here are three tips to help you figure out what actually works and what might work best for you.

1. Avoid any plan that points out one “enemy.”

So many new trends in the health and fitness world use smart marketing techniques to both scare you and promise quick results. Neither is usually valid, which is why it’s important to read this next part very carefully: Weight loss is a complex topic. It’s about calories, food quality, hormones, health history, genetics, exercise, body type, food sensitivity, age, and even your family history.

Does that mean you need to become a nutrition expert before trying any new eating plan? Hell no. But it does mean that if any diet suggests changing one element is the “key to success,” you should run. Fast.

It is a gross overstatement to say that avoiding any one of the following items is “all it takes”: carbs, fat, wheat, dairy, gluten, sugar, late-night eating, or processed and/or packaged foods. Can adjusting your diet around these things lead to weight loss? Of course. But it’s not the long-term solution. Why? Because it relies on unnecessary restriction of foods you might enjoy, which limits the likelihood that you’ll stick with it.

86 percent of people who thought they were gluten intolerant were not.

Yes, some people might actually need to avoid certain foods or ingredients due to food allergies (which is an entirely different, super-interesting topic), but the truth is most people are overreacting and cutting foods from their diet because they’ve been tricked into believing these “bad foods” are a health problem. They’re not.

For the most part, odds are you don’t have a food allergy—no matter how much the latest book might try to convince you otherwise. Case in point: Research found that 86 percent of people who thought they were gluten intolerant were not. And scientists estimate that only one to two percent of people in the world actually suffer from gluten intolerance. If you’re truly allergic to a food, then you’ll experience a reaction in your body when you eat it, similar to how pollen crushes my sinuses every summer.

If you’re trying to understand nutrition, it’s best to consider the words of Mike Israetel, Ph.D., professor of exercise science at Temple University:

“Ultimately, successfully countering weight gain and obesity is a combination of many nutrition and behavioral principles that keep the fundamentals (like calorie balance) in mind. Catchphrase demonization of a single nutrient as a magic-bullet cure is unlikely to ever be the solution, and–in fact–more likely to create problems and confusion about how to fight obesity.”

2. Think of dieting like dating (hear me out).

Looking at what works for your friend, sister, coworker, or favorite Instagram star is a bad idea. And yet, that’s often how a lot of people get inspired to start a new diet. Instead, think of dieting like dating .

You wouldn’t choose to be in a relationship with someone who you despise from day one, so why would you do that with the foods you eat. Every. Single. Day. Anything that sounds like it might make your life miserable is going to be a problem. Your body might survive just fine, but your mind won’t. You will quit the plan, you will learn to hate healthy eating, and you’ll probably end up more frustrated and confused than when you started.

After working with hundreds of clients over the past 10 years, here are a few things I’ve seen:

Bad Relationship No. 1

Molly wants to try a low-carb diet, but she loves pasta. She’ll be OK for four to six weeks, snap, pay rent at her favorite Italian spot for the next month, and then think dieting can’t work.

Bad Relationship No. 2

Paul loves dessert. He tries a clean eating plan of mainly chicken and broccoli. It satisfies him for about two weeks, and then he becomes grumpy and hates his life.

Bad Relationship No. 3

Rebecca loves breakfast. It’s her favorite meal of the day. But she’s heard that intermittent fasting works really well and that she should only eat during an eight-hour window that starts at 12 p.m. every day. This relationship does not go well.

The problems repeat over and over (and over) again. Choosing a diet because it sounds good or because it worked for your BFF and not prioritizing your personality, preferences, and lifestyle sets you up to fail.

“Do what works for your body" is simple advice, but it works incredibly well. And it makes perfect sense. You have a different body than your friends or siblings, so why wouldn’t you want to make slight, personalized adjustments that seem to fit?

If you want to live a healthy, low-stress life, you need to honestly consider whether a plan is a good fit for you.

3. Focus on the big picture.

The most important parts of any healthy eating plan–whether low-carb, low-sugar, or anything in between–are consistency and sustainability. (I’ve written about it many times.) You must see the bigger picture when it comes to nutrition and your health. Just as you don’t transform your body by doing one exercise repeatedly for 30 days, you won’t change your body permanently by committing to something for such a short period of time.

Eating is social, fun, and should bring happiness. You should feel in control and know that your healthy choices are making a difference and helping in the ways you want—without preventing you from living your normal life.

Choosing your diet is like investing in your career. If you want to rise to the top, you have to play the long game. It’s not sexy. It’s not an exciting sell. But at the end of the day, when done right, it’s always more rewarding.

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times best-selling author and the founder of Born Fitness, a company on a mission to cut through the noise and share what you need to know to live a healthy, happy life. He extends that mission even further as Greatest’s Naked Truth columnist. Learn more on his profile page or follow BornFitness on Facebook.

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