by Brant Secunda and Mark Allen

Adapted from their bestselling book, “Fit Soul, Fit Body”

For many of us, 2011 was a year characterized by stress, weight gain, too much work, lack of motivation, and negative emotions. Fortunately, a new year is upon us. With it comes a new chance to achieve health and happiness by trying out some new behaviors and attitudes, and working at it step-by-step.

It’s not difficult to change your body, your mood, and your relationship to life, work, and others. We travel the US teaching people how to manage stress, get reacquainted with nature, and become energetic and healthy.

Here are nine keys to achieving a fit body and a fit soul in 2012.

Key #1: Minimize six types of stress in your life. Chronic stress produces high cortisol levels that don’t go away. Chronically high cortisol will make you sick, physically and emotionally. Stress can come from multiple sources including these six: negative emotions, too little sleep, poor diet, overwork, toxic chemicals, and inflammation. The antidote for stress is balance. Look at each of these six stress triggers individually and work on finding small ways to reduce excesses and achieve more balance in each area. Seek more laughter, calmness, and clarity in your life.

Key #2: Seek a “quiet mind.” Ignoring external chatter and focusing on one thought or a single repetition is an extremely effective tool for dissipating emotional stress and helping shift negative thoughts. Learning to achieve a quiet mind also helps to reduce cortisol levels in your body and increase DHEA, a feel-good hormone that promotes feeling of serenity. Quieting your mind can help you sleep better, eat more healthfully, and keep work and life pressures in perspective. One of the best ways to quiet your mind is to exercise, especially outside.

Key #3: Transform negative emotions. Good thoughts lead us to incredible awareness and experiences. Olympic athletes know this, which is why they psyche themselves up before a big event. Each day brings personal “Olympic moments”–for instance, an important meeting, a big workout, a tough but necessary talk with a friend, or a commitment to a daily spiritual practice. Fear, anger, and jealousy hinder our optimal performance. Bite off a smaller chunk of tasks that seem overwhelming. Get perspective on the real significance of your troubles and reactions by being out in nature. Accept the fact that challenge is normal and life is not controllable.

Key #4: Reconnect to nature. Who hasn’t been touched by a rose in bloom or trees coming to life in the springtime? Having a sense that you and Mother Earth have a special relationship lets you know that everything is as it should be, which makes our souls happy. The more you connect to nature, the more open you will be to its wisdom and calming influence.

Key #5: Love yourself more. Self-love is the best way to honor yourself, and the most immediate tool you can use to fortify yourself against negative emotions like fear or self-doubt. Learning to honor and love yourself instantly transforms “need” into “peace.” One of the factors that eats away at self-love is boredom–boredom with work, boredom with your own repetitious behaviors, boredom with life. Try to find what’s new in the old; seek out new ways of thinking and behaving. Draw strength, support, and affirmation from community.

Key #6: Know your goal. To get somewhere, you first have to know where you want to go. What physical goals are you striving toward? What kind of person do you want to become? Having these answers sets your intentions, helps focus your efforts, and provides you with tangible ways to measure the results. Set small goals. Set yourself up for success; for example, schedule your workouts at a time when you’ll be most likely to do them. Turn your attention away from negative thoughts.

Key #7: Live your intention. Asking for a healthy soul but choosing unsupportive friends will only prevent you from finding peace. Asking for a fit body, but eating junk foods, will only sabotage your own success. Surround yourself with actions, thoughts, and people who will empower you and allow you to achieve your personal success.

Key #8: Slow down. In the modern world, most people feel they must push their bodies and souls to the limit to make any gains in fitness, or in life. Slowing down allows your body to run more efficiently. Apply small focused changes that are gradual versus intense.

Key #9: Eat like a cave man. Our bodies weren’t built to withstand the rapid changes we’ve witnessed in our food industry. The hunting and gathering we once did has turned into drive-throughs, super-sized meals, and chemically laden foods our organs don’t have the ability to use or process. Eating the right amounts of carbohydrates, fats, and protein based on ancient genetics keeps you from eating either too little or too much, both of which cause us to hold onto unwanted and unnecessary body fat. Drink lots of water and eat whole, unprocessed foods.

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Shaman-healer Brant Secunda and six-time world champion Ironman Mark Allen are body-soul fitness experts and seminar leaders known for blending ancient shamanic wisdom with the latest scientific findings on nutrition, fitness, mood, and stress, and turning them into fresh tips and advice for improving health and well-being. Their new book is Fit Soul, Fit Body: 9 Keys to Healthier, Happier You (BenBella Books). Learn more at www.fitsoul-fitbody.com.

This guest post comes from Maria Rainier:

For many people, the holidays create a sort of black hole in their fitness or health goals, as if the months November and December weren’t even on their calendars.  People who ran daily miles and survived on minimum-calorie diets suddenly tear out their hair and let loose the words, “C’mon, it’s the holidays.”  Inevitably, they gain weight by the New Year, lament, and simply repeat the process the next year.

Good Housekeeping columnist, former disordered eater, and sage Geneen Roth says, “For every diet, there is an equal and opposite binge.”  (No kidding; research indicates that 95 to 98% of dieters gain lost weight back and often more within three years.)  This absolute rule is probably truest during the holidays.

1. The key to not becoming a statistic is this: enjoy food.  It sounds counter-intuitive, but the more you relish a single bite of food, the longer it lasts, and the less food you consume before you feel full.Moreover, do you tend to fill your plate at Thanksgiving full of turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin pie?  Where are the vegetables?  If you make delicious, healthier meals and side-dishes, you’re bound to eat them and get the nutrients your body needs rather than filling up on empty carbs.
   If you’re in charge of cooking (or bringing a dish to the party), cook healthful meals that go beyond standard recipes.  For example, if you love stuffing, add healthy ingredients like pears, mushrooms, and pomegranate (find the recipe at Self.com).  If you love pumpkin pie, try making pumpkin pie cupcakes.  You still get nutrients from the pumpkin but the muffins come pre-portioned so no one can convince you to take a bigger slice.  Look online for new, healthy recipes that take advantage of herbs rather than salt and butter for vegetable-centered or lower-fat side-dishes.  If the veggies taste better, you’ll eat them!
2. If you’re in the habit of “saving room for later” (skipping breakfast and lunch so you can go nuts at dinner), stop.  Firstly, that breakfast is the most important meal of the day is no myth.  It gives you the calories to rev up your metabolism.  A slower metabolism means that your body is less efficient at burning calories.  When you starve yourself, your body goes into survival mode and rather than using calories, stores them as fat, usually around your hips and thighs.  A good rule of thumb is to eat breakfast within 90 minutes of waking and waiting no more than 4 hours between meals or snacks.
3. Speaking of survival mode, did you know that being stressed lowers your metabolism?  When you’re irritated that you’re late for a meeting because you seem to catch all the red lights in town, your body attempts to conserve energy and store fat (straight to the hips, again).  Rather than fuming, take a deep breath and keep the bigger picture in mind.  What’s irritating you now probably won’t matter next month, or even next week.  Keep your cool and practice some calming exercises like meditation, yoga, or bundling up and walking the dog around the neighborhood.
4. Just because it’s cold outside doesn’t mean you can stop exercising and expect to maintain your weight.  Even fifteen minutes a day of strength or interval training, or taking the stairs up to the third floor instead of the elevator will make a world of a difference, since each time you exercise, it stokes your metabolism.
   If you absolutely hate running in the cold weather or you’ve come to detest the gym, however, try something else.  Forcing yourself to do an exercise you don’t like is bound to actually create stress, which negates the entire purpose of exercise.  Instead, try something new this season like a new sport or renting a fitness DVD from the local library.

Bio: Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education and performs research surrounding online schools. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

This guest post comes from the wonderful Rachel Lerner of Personal Web Nutrition:

As a child I remember Halloween being one of my favorite “holidays”. Halloween for me was all about the excitement of picking out the perfect costume, figuring out the best trick-or-treating route and of course deciding which pillowcase would hold the most candy. While I don’t remember too many of my costumes (except for the hand sewn clown outfit my grandma made for me), I do vividly remember enjoying the actual trick-or-treating. Collecting the candy was secondary for me, I enjoyed walking around numerous neighborhoods (while my Dad waiting in the car nearby) and being greeted by friendly home owners. Of course collecting candy was part of the fun of Halloween but I also remember not really eating much of my candy. For me, it was about dressing up in a costume, hanging out with friends and being friendly to fellow trick-or-treaters. I would pick one piece of candy to enjoy that night and the rest of the candy just sat in the “snack drawer” until eventually we would get rid of it.

Today most kids collect and unfortunately consume a TON of candy during Halloween. Childhood obesity (not to mention adults) has become such a huge problem that grade school children today could actually see a decrease in average age span for the first time in a century. While I am not saying we should stop celebrating Halloween, I do think there needs to be balance.

5 Healthier Treat Ideas for Halloween:

1. individual packages of freeze dried fruit or boxes of raisins
2. mini bags of baby carrots
3. snack-size packages of air popped popcorn or baked chips
4. small squares of dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa
5. low-fat/sugar granola bars.

If you want to forgo food/candy all together, dare I mention it, purchase inexpensive toys at your local .99 store!

Wishing you a healthy, safe and Happy Halloween!

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Rachel Lerner is a holistic health coach accredited with the American Association of Drugless Practitioners (AADP) and founder of Personal Web Nutrition, a company devoted to empowering individuals and corporations to find the right food and lifestyle choices that best support their goals. She has led seminars for several corporations, including Starwood Hotels, Time Warner and YMCA, written articles for numerous national publications and websites.  You can receive a FREE guide to grocery shopping and learn more about Rachel and her services by visiting http://www.personalwebnutrition.com

This guest post comes from Rachel Lerner of Personal Web Nutrition:

Are you tired of always being tired? Struggling to find the time to take-care of yourself? Feel you need an IV of coffee or sugar to make it through the day?

If you are READY to:

• Have MORE energy than you can handle

• BEAT those afternoon cravings

• LEARN savvy secrets to living a healthy lifestyle

• Get SUPPORT around your health and lifestyle goals

This Wellness Wednesdays Tele-series is for you!

You will LEARN:

• How to decrease your cravings without deprivation

• About many new and exciting foods

• Which foods can increase and decrease your energy

• Easy to implement ways to maintain a healthy weight

• Natural ways to reduce toxins in your body

READY to take a step towards making real CHANGES in your life?

You also get:

• To participate in a FREE yahoo group
• All calls recorded so you can put them on your ipod and listen at your leisure

When: Wednesday afternoons 12-1pm on 11/03, 11/17 and 12/01

Where: By phone from the comfort of your home or office (Call-in details will be provided on 11/03)

This investment in your well-being is $99.95 BUT if you register by 10/20 it is ONLY $79.95 ($20 Savings)!  As an added BONUS if you register by 10/08 you will receive a FREE 20 minute coaching call with me.

Space is LIMITED!  Register by clicking on http://wellnesswednesdaysteleseries.eventbrite.com/

Don’t miss out on this tele-series, I promise it is going to be TRANSFORMATIONAL for you.

I’m an avid reader of food labels, mainly because what I don’t know may eventually kill me. Most products showcase in huge letters on the fronts of packages, one nutritious ingredient. Great sell right? For many that’s all it takes to grab and buy, but if you don’t read the label you’re missing out on the most important information. Case in point, I’ve been trying to get my husband to be more aware of what he’s putting into his “temple.” So he goes to the supermarket and scoops up 100% whole grain Fig Newtons, comes home, and brags that he picked up some healthy cookies. I flip over the package, and sure enough the cookies do contain whole grain, but then it goes downhill fast. As I scan the label I see high fructose corn syrup, which aside from being blamed for contributing to childhood obesity, also contains mercury, according to some researchers, and was concocted in a laboratory! The list goes on. Partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, which is the worst kind of fat. Getting back to what you don’t know may kill you…trans fats are so lethal that according to top nutritionists at Harvard, before trans fats were cut out of a lot of our foods, they may have been responsible for as many as 30,000 premature coronary deaths every year. Studies show that trans fats increase our bad cholesterol the same way that saturated fat in meat and butter does. Am I making my point? Please read the labels, www.lifeclinic.com/focus/nutrition/food-label.asp, and opt for healthier options. I buy a very similar, delicious cookie at my local health food store for just 39 cents more. Pay a little more now, or a lot more at your doctor’s office later. I don’t know about you, but I want to enjoy what I’m eating without the worry, it’s just another ingredient that I don’t need.

For more nutrition information, visit www.janetzappala.com.

Janet Zappala/Certified Nutritional Coach/Author/Award-Winning Journalist

Janet Zappala’s career has taken her many places, but her most recent endeavor has been writing her first cookbook–My Italian Kitchen, Home-Style Recipes Made Lighter & Healthier, released April, 2010. Her passion for cooking nutritious dishes has led Janet to be a sought after speaker on healthful eating and lifestyle. She also serves as a nutrition expert for national television and radio satellite tours. An acclaimed journalist, Janet is a six-time Emmy award winner, a Golden Mike recipient and an Associated Press First Place Award winner. She has worked as an anchor/host and reporter in several cities around the country, including Los Angeles, Denver and Philadelphia. In 2008, Janet became a certified nutritional consultant, studying at the Global College of Natural Medicine which is located in Northern California. She also holds a second certification from the American Association of Drugless Practitioners.

We have all seen those advertisements that promise us immediate weight loss results while letting us still be able to eat the foods we love and do little to no exercise.  These promises are about as fake as the “before and after” pictures they show along with them.

There is no quick solution to being overweight.  It takes a lot of hard work to “battle the bulge”, as I like to call it.  Losing weight and keeping it off takes time and commitment and an “I can do this” attitude.  However, when it finally happens, when the stars align and you lose those 20, 30, 50+ pounds you have tried your darnedest to lose, the feeling of accomplishment you get along with it could not be any more fulfilling.

So how do you go about losing the weight?  I have found with years of experience battling my own bulge, that the first month of any weight loss program is the hardest.  When you’re doing everything you possibly can to lose weight, yet still not seeing results, that is the most disheartening of feelings.  But once the pounds start to drop and your clothes loosen up, it’s that much easier to keep with your weight loss goal and continue seeing results.

I recently published an article on FaveDiets called Lose Weight the Right Way: 5 Tips to Weight Loss Success.  It’s packed full of my seasoned diet wisdom and offers five tips you probably have heard countless times before, but maybe never really put to good use.  Some of the things covered are moderation, writing down what you eat and one of the most important concepts that I think often gets overlooked in this day and age, losing weight for you, as opposed to losing weight in order to please others.

I really hope this article will reach at least a few people and help them on their weight loss journey.  No matter how many times you have tried in the past and failed, losing weight is absolutely, 100% possible.  It takes a lot of motivation and hard work, but it is definitely an attainable goal.

I’m interested in learning about other people’s battles with the bulge, so feel free to share your weight loss stories in this blog!  =)

Process driven thinking is very different that result driven thinking – my weight release program is a process.  Honestly, it is also my personal process – and it is always a journey.  I have been a compulsive eater – it is easy for me to get triggered and find myself binging on unhealthy foods.  The difference in my life today is choice – I have a choice.  With self-awareness and self-compassion I can observe my experience and adjust my choices.  As a process, failure is out of the equation.  My life is a series of choices, just choices – every day.  The difference is that most of the choices are conscious verses unconscious.  And when I slip into unhealthy patterns, I have a process to correct my course and get back on track.

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Freeman Michaels is America’s #1 weight release expert and coach. He is the author of Weight Release: A Liberating Journey. His groundbreaking program uses personal development principles to end the “diet cycle” and help people release weight forever.

When the weekend rolls around I feel inclined to let loose a little.  I don’t drink like I did in my 20s but I still crave a drink or two on a Friday night.  Dinner parties on Saturday or a family get together on Sunday can involve alcohol as well.  The challenge is the food and booze combination.  When I have had even a small amount of alcohol I tend to loose my observer around food.  I offer a few ideas in this video blog of how to interrupt the unhealthy patterns and make better choices when it comes to food and alcohol.

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Freeman Michaels is America’s #1 weight release expert and coach. He is the author of Weight Release: A Liberating Journey. His groundbreaking program uses personal development principles to end the “diet cycle” and help people release weight forever.

Dairy – milk, cheese, yogurt and the like – can be a terrific source of calcium and protein in your diet. But if you’re not careful, dairy can be a big source of fat, calories and cholesterol too. Many dairy products are big sources of saturated fat and LDL, the type of cholesterol that clogs arteries. Scary stuff!

But it doesn’t have to be this way! Choose low fat dairy to get all the health benefits without the fat and cholesterol. For healthier dairy options, try these recipes:

Low-Fat Banana Yogurt Pops
Homemade Powdered Milk Yogurt
Low Fat Granola Strawberry Parfait

“I’ll be happy when…” (you complete the sentence). I know all about this – for me it was a number on the scale – my “goal weight”. For others it is a dress size or a special outfit they once fit into.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news (or good news), but no external achievement can fill an internal void. Lumping all of the discontentment in your life onto your weight is not only inaccurate, you are actually adding to your personal burden.

Many of us go on a diet or engage in some extreme exercise regime because we believe that our unhappiness is caused by our weight. We invest in the fantasy that loosing the weight will instantly cause us to be happy – it won’t. The weight, or the eating patterns, is a byproduct of your unhappiness.

However, (here is the good news) by addressing your unhappiness directly you can begin to permanently release weight. In my weight release program I stress “fulfillment” as the focus – “what really feeds you”. You need to refocus on the qualities that are fulfilling and orient your life towards those qualities. From a self-nurturing, self-honoring, perspective it is easy to make healthier choices around food and exercise.

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Freeman Michaels is America’s #1 weight release expert and coach. He is the author of Weight Release: A Liberating Journey. His groundbreaking program uses personal development principles to end the “diet cycle” and help people release weight forever.