We all want it. Our brain SEEKS it out. And yet, we're barking up the wrong tree when it comes to fat loss.
The answer isn't NOT to look for instant gratification on your fat loss / health journey. The answer also is not to look for instant gratification where the science tells us it's simply not possible.
So where SHOULD we be seeking out instant gratification?
LET ME TELL YOU!
Any questions? I'm a comment away. ;-) Happy Monday, you guys!
XO,
Tara
Money is tight for many people right now…
...and yet, more than ever we are reminded that we need to take our health into our own hands! We cannot wait for insurance companies to catch up with true health care, unfortunately. The time is now!
How are my longest clients managing to continue to pay me monthly for our important nutrition, fitness, and health coaching work during this current financial crisis?
I was curious. So I asked them. :-)
And the responses were pretty awesome! Maybe you have been looking for a sign that it's time to take the next step towards feeling INCREDIBLE and vibrant and fit and sexy. Maybe you've felt some guilt (as we do sometimes) about how to make room for a coach like me in your budget.
Or maybe it's just not in the cards for you and I to ever work together but you'd like to hear a few ideas about saving money in 2020 anyway!
Whatever the reasons that pique your interest, CHECK OUT THE VIDEO RIGHT HERE.
And if you think you're worth the $157 / month for a year so that you can feel fabulous and healthy indefinitely, here are the details of my customized, virtual (yay) coaching program. Simply hit reply to this email if you'd like to schedule a (free) time to chat some more.
XO,
Tara
P.S. Attn: MOMS…
I was recently interviewed for this piece about motherhood lessons. "Inner Beauty" is where you can find my response, but check out the whole article. It's such a beautifully written, thoughtful article.
Link: https://circlearound.com/post/15-moms-share-what-motherhood-has-taught-them
Which one is actually more effective?
You might be surprised to learn that one does seem to matter a lot more than the other to achieve your fat loss goals. CHECK OUT THIS QUICK (3 min.) VIDEO to hear more.
What questions do you have about your goals? Leave a comment and I'll be happy to help. :-)
Happy Tuesday,
Tara
Look, it sounds good, right? If we don't eat enough our body holds onto every last morsel of food and we go into starvation mode -- unable to lose anymore body fat.
But it's simply not true.
Due to the society we live in, it's quite a blow to our ego to admit to ourselves that we are overeating. It feels much more gentle to say you're undereating and that's stopping your progress. But I think the bigger blow to our egos come when we are chasing the same goals year after year without seeing progress.
If I locked myself in the basement for a week with no food, I wouldn't weigh the same. I'd have lost quite a bit of weight! Some of it would be water weight, some fat, and some muscle due to the rapid nature of the weight loss.
You can certainly down-regulate your metabolism by undereating, but not enough to stop seeing progress. What's more likely is that your body requires less fuel than you think it does... or on average, you're overeating or eating to maintain your body just as it is now without reaching those fat loss goals. This is VERY common with 'weekday dieters'... the ones that hardly eat anything Monday through Friday and then overdue it on the weekends so much so that they have negated any kind of deficit they had been in.
CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO for more and then reach out to me if you have any questions. I'm here and I'd love to help. you. :-)
Happy Tuesday,
Tara
Heyyyyy there! I know it's tempting to want to tally calories or macros. You might like to track all the details of your workouts. Or maybe it's points you're used to adding up?
Some of those things can be helpful for certain people, but I'd like to share what I believe is helpful for EVERYONE on a health / body transformation journey and why it should be the first thing (and maybe only thing?) you track.
CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO and get ready to implement this simple yet effective metric to track that has the potential to turn everything around for you!
XO,
Tara
P.S. Are we friends on social? If so, you may have seen me mention that I will be increasing my 1-on-1 coaching prices very soon. I've made lots of upgrades to the program and it's time to restructure the investment as well. That being said, I want to extend you the opportunity to jump on and be grandfathered (or grandmothered?) in at the lower rate as a thank you for hanging out with me here on my email list.
Here are the details of the program.
For 2 more weeks I will be extending the lower rate if you simply mention this blog post. That's $30 off per month!
If you are ready to optimize your health, body, and finally feel amazing in your skin and in your life, let's do it! Schedule a free call so we can dive into details about your goals and set a start date. I can't wait to work with you!! :-)
I know. I don't wanna make that choice either! Luckily there are ways that science tells us we can achieve both, even though these goals can be considered at odds with one another, traditionally.
IN THIS VIDEO I chat about why they are at odds with one another and what I'm currently doing to chase both goals. I hope you'll learn something, but more importantly, I hope you'll find excitement in all the cutting edge research that's being done telling us -- in greater detail -- how we can take our health into our own hands.
The video happened live last week, but the offer still stands. Any questions? Anything you'd like to chat about? I'm a quick email away. Tara@TaraAllenHealth.com
Happy Monday!
XO,
Tara
Twenty twenty has been off to an interesting start, to say the least. And as we're pushed beyond the sharp edges of our comfort levels in what seems like ALL areas, we must choose to learn and grow from it all. Without that very deliberate and often tricky decision, we will merely wallow in self-pity and sorrow for others. Rather than wallow, let's let it in, feel it, and move through it.
Let's move to awareness.
Listening.
Action.
Hope.
Help.
Community.
Momentum.
Resilience.
Strength.
In all areas. In all we've been experiencing.
And if you know anything about me, you know I'm the biggest believer that everything starts with us. If we are taking care of our physical and mental health, we are able to focus on our needs and the needs of our family, friends, and community.
If we are energetic and vibrant and confident, our voices get a little louder. Our hobbies creep back in. Our family sees more smiles out of us. We stand up for what we believe in. If we are healthy and glowing, we can be better leaders, more productive, calm and kind. We can volunteer. We can take an extra few minutes to give the better answer to our kids' complicated questions. With greater health comes greater capacity - we can love all over others.
Today, I want to remind you of this one thing: taking care of your physical and mental health so you can be that elevated version of yourself is something you get to have power over right now.
So while some will say this is not the time to focus on you, I offer the opposite perspective. This is not the time to take the focus OFF of you as you are needed now more than ever, regardless of how that is showing up in your life. This year has rocked our worlds - every single one of us. I know you're needed. Whatever your role, do it with magic. And how can you be magic when you don't feel magical?
Upgrade your habits one by one.
Sleep, seriously. Please sleep.
Eat well, balanced, and not more than your body needs. Most of our chronic disease comes from excess.
Move your beautiful body.
And learn some tricks for dealing with stress. You might be 'Type A' like me or easily wound-up, but you can teach yourself to become much less reactive through mindfulness and breathing protocols. It's a change worth making. I promise.
If you need help with the specifics of any of this, let me know. I'm here to help YOU.
Peace + love,
Tara
P.S. Come say "hi" on Instagram. I was muted & listening for a week to stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter as I shared resources and many beautiful voices and perspectives of people of color. And now I'm back doing what I do best - focusing on healthy bodies and minds for everyone. I share my workouts, tips, recipes, and answer every single (appropriate) DM. I'd love to connect with you over there.
Some people need help with the information, of course, but most people know enough to get them to their goals. So how come the plan you create in the morning falls by the wayside at 8 PM when you're overwhelmed and need a break? How come you can't seem to stick to an exercise routine for more than a week at a time?
It's your VCR.
Let me explain. You have been trying to take valuable information and plans (nutrition, fitness) that are on a DVD ... and play them inside your VCR. (For you young folks, VCRs are the machines that played videotapes and became extinct around the time the dinosaurs say goodbye).
You have an old operating system and simply need an upgrade. It's a brain thing and it's been going on for years, if not decades! Once you make that upgrade to a DVD player, whichever DVD you choose to run will work.
(Yes, I totally get the fact that DVDs are a bit outdated as well, but I think it's an analogy that you guys will get.)
IN MY LATEST VIDEO, I got into the old operating system you have, the new one you need, and how to make the upgrade.
If your transformation starts with nutrition or fitness or both without addressing old patterns, habits, thoughts, connections... it won't stick. Band-aids only help when there's healing going on underneath.
Hit 'reply' to this email and let me know if you'd like to learn more about how to upgrade your operating system so you'll be able to stick to the changes you make going forward. :-)
Stay well,
Tara
Let's just get that disappointing fact out of the way. You can do everything according to plan and wake up to a higher number. You can go off the rails and wake up to a lower number. There will always be fluctuations that are very much out of our control - water retention, sodium levels, hormones, bathroom habits... there are many outside factors!
So, when we focus on something that is not exactly in our control, we get frustrated. We try to control it more only to realize that no matter what, weight loss goals OR weight gain goals will never be a linear process. The frustration and feeling of being out of control messes with our head and ultimately leads to us throwing in the towel. Why strive for something we're not able to control anyway, right? Ugh!
But there is a better way. ;-)
We DO have control over our consistency. We should be tracking our consistency with precision and laser-focus. Here's how it works: you have ONE nutrition and fitness goal for each day. They need to be things you can easily say you either did or did not do at the end of the day. Then, you track whether or not you did those things each day.
That's it! Not bad, right? Grab a journal, notebook, wall calendar, or use your phone. Simply circle the days you hit both goals and mark an 'x' for the ones you. missed one or both of the goals. Looking back, you should have at least 80% consistency. If you are at least 80% consistent and patient (you wait at least 4-6 weeks), you will absolutely notice results if your plan is a good one.
Rinse and repeat. Tweak as necessary. Enjoy your newfound freedom and confidence from finally reaching those health + body goals. ;-)
Enjoy your week!
P.S. Do you need help with a customized plan so you know exactly what to be working on? Might you benefit from having accountability from a coach to help you stay on track and be consistent? That's what I do! I help clients (virtually) with health, nutrition, and fitness. It's an all-in-one program and is completely customized to your needs and your goals. I've had many new clients start with me since quarantine started because they tell me they are more conscious of their health and have no more excuses since they can workout at home and don't have the usual temptation of driving by the fast food places anymore. If you are ready to start feeling confident, fit, strong, and vibrant by summer, I'm ready to help! I've shifted things a bit and am opening up a handful of new 1-on-1 coaching opportunities for this month.
Learn more about the program here.
Then, schedule your (free) 15-minute consultation here.
Can't wait to speak with you and help you achieve those goals that you've had for so long!
XO,
Tara
My Immunity Plan - Pandemic 2020 and beyond...
A few of you asked me over on social media what I'm doing to keep myself as healthy as possible during this time.
It's a fair question, even though what I'm doing might not necessarily be exactly what you need to be doing. And, even though there's not nearly enough research out yet about this virus to let us in on specificities.
But ya know what the best news is? It's never a bad idea to optimize your health, body, and immunity. So while I'm not obsessing over doing these things to prevent getting sick, I am focusing on making my health a priority now and moving forward.
Check out the video right here.
I'd love to hear from you. How's it going in your quarantine neck of the woods?
XO,
Tara
What's been happening on social?
Box O' Blocks Workout
Health-promoting responsibility to others?
Beginner vs. advanced resistance band workout
Home HIIT workout
Little Yellow Chair Workout
Kettlebell workout
Chocolate Protein Mug Cake Recipe
Shoulder workout
Stoics and a quarantine epiphany
Most people think that their weight LOSS goals or their weight GAIN goals are on opposite sides of the spectrum.
And while it's slightly true, in a health-first approach, the strategies to achieve any body goals - and improved health - are 95% identical!
Why? Well optimization is optimization. Being able to change some aspect of your body (such as losing excess body fat) requires a certain level of nourishment, a certain baseline of the foundations like sleep, and a buzzing metabolism.
If you're curious about how I can help one person lose weight and another person gain weight using a nearly identical approach, check out my latest Workshop Wednesday video that I recorded last week. In the video, I cover lots of the topics we address in both cases. If you're a go-getter, you're going to want to use these topics as a framework to develop your own plan!
If going at it alone has not been working - or not been lasting - I have a few spots open for my private, fully customized virtual coaching program opening up in August. If you are someone that likes to save money and time and get results, you have to check it out.
Do you know there are people that spend SO MUCH MONEY and TIME and EFFORT and still do not get the results they want?! Maybe you have been doing this too…I certainly did in the past. I can tell you first-hand that doctor appointments add up, meds add up, supplements, books, "quick fixes", unused memberships, lost time at work…it all becomes so expensive when we are not optimizing our health!
If you've been feeling like you're ready to improve your health, love your body, and impress the socks off of yourself, then check out all the details (yup…including prices) for my private, virtual coaching program.
And if you are feeling EXCITED about the possibilities for your future and want to make sure we are the right fit to work together, sign up for a free 15-minute call right here. We'll talk about your goals and figure out if I'm the person to help you - once and forever. ;-)
In good health,
Tara