http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/ en chris@staxsystem.com Copyright 2012 2012-03-28T20:19:09+00:00 http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/losing_weight_when_you_feel_sick/ http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/losing_weight_when_you_feel_sick/#When:20:19:09Z When we are feeling sick, sometimes our healthy diet goes out the window and we run to our comfort foods. Don’t use this as an excuse to throw your good habits under the bus. It is very important to still get all our food in, so make sure you prepare your food in advance to ensure that you are continuing to make healthy decisions. Stay hydrated, even though it might seem hard to do. Try drinking hot herbal green teas, low sodium chicken or vegetable broth, and avoid the caffeine. Avoid sugary juices such as orange and apple juice. We all need vitamin C, but the calories aren’t worth it. Always ask your doctor first, but some supplements you can take to help boost your immune system are Zinc, Vitamin C, and Echinacea. When it comes to exercise, don’t over do it. Just do as much as you can, but ultimately listen to what your body is telling you. Watch your diet, get plenty of rest, drink lots of water and you should be better in no time! 2012-03-28T20:19:09+00:00 http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/will_you_be_my_valentine/ http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/will_you_be_my_valentine/#When:17:11:52Z Love is one of the strongest words in the english language. It can mean a lot of things. It’s a noun, it’s a verb and we say it almost every day. It evokes a lot of emotion, both good or bad. Love has even been the cause of some wars in history. With everything going on in our lives, do we take the time to stop to smell the roses and say to ourselves and mean it, “I love myself. I really, really, love myself!” Valentine’s Day is a holiday when we stop what we are doing and show our love to others. We make elaborate plans in hopes of expressing our love to a significant other. For example, I love my girlfriend, so I show her by getting her flowers, making her breakfast in bed and taking her out on a date. We do nice things for others, but what do we do for ourselves? I don’t know about you, but I love myself with food. I love the movies, but I really love eating movie theater popcorn. I love baseball, but I really love having a beer and peanuts at the game. Sometimes my love of a food, instead of just the activity, gets in the way of living a healthy lifestyle. I don’t always realize it, but it’s true. I don’t need popcorn and beer to love what I am doing and have a good time. We can experience love in another way, with the companionship of a significant other, a good friend or even a puppy. But first, we have to love ourselves. That’s the l-o-v-e that we all need in our lives. Happy Valentine’s Day! Love 2012-02-14T17:11:52+00:00 http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/why_do_we_binge/ http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/why_do_we_binge/#When:23:46:36Z Why do we eat stuff we aren’t suppose to? The answer is different for most of us. We don’t wake up and roll out of bed and say to ourselves, “I could really go for a burger and fries right now.” No, we are motivated, we eat our breakfast and we go to work, school or to the gym. For me, I am an emotional eater. If I have a rough day or even a good day, I want to eat. It’s like I don’t have a conscience until after I look in the pantry and the fridge for stuff I am not suppose to have. It’s mindless eating and it’s not worth it. Sure there is a little spark when you engorge yourself, but its short lived. The guilt you have after isn’t worth it. I can’t explain the suffering and the pain I cause myself after. It isn’t worth the 5 seconds of bliss for all the agony in the world. When I am not in the right mindset I am going to fail. Emotions are powerful, but so is our will. When life is coming at me like a stampede of emotional turmoil, I have to grab the bull by the horns and be the one in control. I have to take myself out of the situation. I then focus on something else and go for a short walk to regroup. I think about all the positives in my life and how happy I am when I am healthy. After a few minutes I find that the need to binge eat is greatly diminished and I am back in control again.  Eat 2012-01-23T23:46:36+00:00 http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/Motivating_Each_Other/ http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/Motivating_Each_Other/#When:00:23:53Z There will come a time when you will be shouting from the mountain top about your weight loss journey. People love to hear a good success story. Have you found yourself seeing someone else’s achievement and wondering, “Why not me?” Instead of just wishing, say to yourself, “That’s going to be me!” We all are weight loss superstars, my story and yours. I am constantly motivated by all the members on the Reshape the Nation Community page. “daGopha” lost 72 pounds, “spidermonkey615” lost 30 pounds, and “Sandwulf” lost 45 pounds. How cool is that? I also appreciate how “Oceanblue” is always showing the love, as well as “walkwithchappy” posting all his motivating videos along his journey with his wife. One thing I want us to work on is to not downplay our achievements, whether they are 5 pounds or 100 pounds. We tell ourself that it must be water weight or that it’s just a fluke. We have to give ourselves a pat on the back and be proud of the accomplishments we have made. We have worked really hard, done our Metaboosts and Accelerators, followed our meal plans and have stayed focused. Congratulations on your own success story!  Live 2011-12-01T00:23:53+00:00 http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/thanksgiving/ http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/thanksgiving/#When:22:41:42Z Instead of fumbling the ball on Thanksgiving, score a touchdown!  A few ways to avoid Thanksgiving follies is to use a smaller plate to serve yourself smaller portions. Think green and load up on the veggies. And Green bean casserole isn’t a green veggie! Yes, Thanksgiving is a reward day, but make sure you stay in control as well. Before the big meal, avoid the summer sausage, cheese and crackers and eat from the veggie platter instead. Remember, Thanksgiving is to give thanks to family and friends—not food. Also, make sure you drink a tall glass of water before you eat. If you are going to multiple dinners, just take 2 bites of each dessert rather than whole portions of each. If Aunt Edna gets offended that you didn’t try her homemade stuffing, say that you’re full and ask to take a plate to-go. When you leave, toss it! When it comes to leftovers we can’t always trust ourselves. Throw it all out except the white turkey meat and green veggies. Get it out of the house, because the temptation just isn’t worth it. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Eat 2011-11-22T22:41:42+00:00 http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/keeping_your_metabolism_fired_up_this_winter/ http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/keeping_your_metabolism_fired_up_this_winter/#When:22:10:10Z Oh the weather outside is frightful, But the fire is so delightful, And since we’ve no place to go, Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! When I hear that song, I think of staying inside by the fire and drinking hot cocoa all day. In a perfect world that might work, but this is the real world (no claymation needed) and we all have the same goals to lose weight and be healthy. I know the weather isn’t going to be playing nice with us most of the time and putting on our winter clothes can be a hassle, but its very important that we get our Accelerators done one way or another. Accelerators are very important to our weight loss. Let’s not sell ourselves short and try rationalizing our way out of doing them. We have come a long way and we can’t let a little bit of cold weather derail our progress. It’s going to be cold every year and you know it’s going to happen, so let’s stay focused, put on our long johns and get moving! Accelerators can be walking, biking, swimming, ellipticals, and anything that keeps us moving in the daily assigned intervals. We can do them inside or outside, in a gym, in our home or in a mall while holiday shopping. It doesn’t matter where, just get it done! Let’s fire up that metabolism and stay warm this winter! Move 2011-11-09T22:10:10+00:00 http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/trick_or_treat/ http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/trick_or_treat/#When:20:45:18Z Happy Halloween Reshapers! Its that time of year again, when we buy too much candy and we end up eating the leftovers. We see candy corn, candy pumpkins, chocolate peeps, and other novelty Halloween candy and we think to ourselves, “I’ve gotta get some extra bags, because its once a year I get to indulge in them”. Its not our fault. We are bombarded everywhere with huge, mega bags of Snickers, Twix, and M&M’s. We always buy too much candy and it seems at the end of every Halloween night we have at least a bag or so left over. It was bad enough when after every trick or treater we would sneak in a bar or two. You might think, “They are so small and its not like I’m are eating a whole candy bar”. Not so fast! On average each snack size has over 80 to 100 calories, and you don’t even want to know what the regular and king size bars pack in on calories. Before we know it at the end of the night we have knocked down 10 bars and are close to 1000 calories. To avoid this holiday trap, I would buy candy that you don’t have any interest in to help avoid eating it. I am not a big fan of 3 Musketeers, so I buy that. At the end of the night, toss it all out. And don’t fall into the trap trying to check the kid’s candy and taking a few bars without looking suspicious. Don’t do it - it’s just not worth it. If you feel you must have a Halloween treat, save it for a Reward, but don’t save more than 2 or 3 small pieces, max. Throw out the rest. Don’t tempt yourself by keeping it in the house. You will binge on it later if you have access to it. I want everyone to have a safe and healthy Halloween night! Eat 2011-10-31T20:45:18+00:00 http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/david_smiths_healthy_outlets/ http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/david_smiths_healthy_outlets/#When:19:47:51Z We all need an outlet and one of my main outlets was food. I turned to it so many times that my weight was maxed out around 650 pounds. I knew I had to turn to something else. Even before I started a healthy way with Reshape, my uncle suggested that I start journaling as a way to get my emotions out. I laughed it off at first because I thought only little girls wrote in their diary. It was now a year later and I was starting at the beginning of my weight loss, having a hard time. I didn’t want to binge and ruin my progress like I had in the past. I finally did what my uncle suggested, bought a notebook and wrote on the first page, “How I saved my life, my journal”. I wrote in it mostly at night before bed, but if something came up I wrote it down immediately.  My journal got me through some tough times as well as some good times. It’s good to thumb through it and remember how hard it was and realize how far along I have come. I didn’t have to worry about sitting down at a hockey game, because now I could fit in the seat. I didn’t have to worry about not fitting in the front seat of a car. I didn’t have to worry about ever going to a truck stop to get weighed again. If I binged, I now realized the triggers involved and took myself out of that situation. I was amazed someone opened the door for me and smiled. I was laughed at in the parking lot and a long line of people stared and gawked at me while I walked by, but I had still left the house and I was so proud. I have so many memories and experiences that I can recall forever. I now have a healthy outlet through journaling and a remembrance of how I saved my life. Learn 2011-10-20T19:47:51+00:00 http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/creating_an_environment_for_success/ http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/creating_an_environment_for_success/#When:21:42:58Z With all of the new information you need to get started on your weight loss journey with Reshape the Nation, one important step is to create an environment for success. What does that mean exactly? Well… It’s time to clear your space and environment (home, car and office) of things that may have a negative impact on your success! While “reward foods” are part of the Reshape meal plan, they do not belong in your space because as David Smith put it, “will power is highly overrated”. Reward foods belong where they come from; the shelf, restaurant or grocery store. The moment you bring these treats into your home is the last grasp of will power you thought you had. Most of us are weak to the power that reward foods have when they are in the next room. They practically speak to us out loud, calling our name to rescue them from the dark and lonely pantry, freezer or other unmentionable hiding place. Trust us, we know how it is! These Reward items include but are not limited to: —Candy—Soda—Juice—Chocolate—Breads—Crackers—Cookies—Baked Goods—Chips—Ice Cream—Fried Foods Also remove all foods containing the following ingredients: —White Sugar—Brown Sugar—Raw Sugar—Corn Syrup—Hydrogenated Oils—Honey—Maple Syrup—White Flour—White Rice—Beer—Hard Alcohol—Wine The sooner you remove these from your environment, space, home, car or hiding place you thought no one else knew about, the better your chances are of succeeding! You can do it, Team Reshape believes in you! Want to try Reshape the Nation for 7-days to see if it’s what you’ve been looking for? Click Here 2011-08-01T21:42:58+00:00 http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/how_does_chris_powell_and_reshape_the_nation_motivate_you/ http://www.reshapethenation.com/blog/site/how_does_chris_powell_and_reshape_the_nation_motivate_you/#When:22:00:56Z It’s been 8 years in the making. Chris Powell, trainer, started working with David Smith to help him lose over 400lbs. He and David took those same practices that helped him lose weight and applied them to an online program where anyone could go to interact, learn and ultimately have success with long-term weight-loss and good health. Out of the vision both Chris Powell and David Smith had to “pay it forward”, Reshape the Nation was born. 8 years later, Chris’ final episode of the first season of Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition airs on Monday night, 10/9PM C on ABC. It promises to be the best yet, leaving you wanting more and inspiring you to make extraordinary changes in your own life, for the rest of your life. Take part in the journey that is yours, be present and pass along what you learn, you have nothing to lose! What was Chris Powell’s Reshape the Nation like in the beginning? Well, let’s take a trip down memory lane… Those were but a few of the memories we’ve had here at Reshape the Nation. We are so proud of everyone of you who’s taken the steps to change your life forever, we commend your efforts and admire the dedication! We really are in this together! There’s no stopping a train that runs on the pure energy we give it, keep it going guys—keep Reshaping the Nation! For a free 7-day all-access membership to Reshape the Nation, click here. 2011-07-22T22:00:56+00:00