Behavior change is actually IDENTITY CHANGE. We need to shift the beliefs behind our behavior to create lasting results. Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you want to become.  Ask yourself:

• Which beliefs HELP your identity? 

• Which beliefs HURT your identity?

• What actions do you take to vote for the person you want to become? 

• Which actions or habits vote AGAINST the person you want to become? 

INTENTIONAL IMPLEMENTATION: Identifying a specific (intentional) action you can take that brings you 1 step closer to the person you wish to become / your desired outcome/ identity

What is a 2 minute habit you can implement with intention in your daily routine this week? 

Examples: 

If you want to….run a marathon —- put on running shoes 

If you want to…..workout 4 x / week— go to the gym (no time requirement, just literally go and be there and sit in the lobby if you must) 

If you want to…..be a better partner — bring my spouse coffee in the morning 

If you want to…..drink 1 gallon of H20 —- fill my water bottle each night before I go to sleep  

So, what can you do to really start implementing some habits that LAST? Enter my 4 Habit Hacks:

1. THE HABIT MUST BE ESTABLISHED BEFORE IT CAN BE IMPROVED

We all want to be GREAT before we are good; we want to have it all before we put in the work. But that doesn’t work.

So, rather than trying to overturn your entire life, simply take ONE step towards your goal. What is ONE, sustainable thing you can change to get closer to your goal? Establishing the habit and being able to sustain it is the first step. Then, it can grow and evolve into the bigger and better version you wish to achieve. 

2. RIGHT HABIT + RIGHT TIME + RIGHT PLACE = SUCCESS 

You must have ALL THREE components in order for everything to truly fall into place and achieve lasting results. Whenever trying to create / establish a new habit (and sustain it for the long haul), location, timing and where it falls in your routine is everything. One way of doing this is called “HABIT STACKING.” Habit Stacking is when you sandwich a new habit between two existing habits making it FOOLPROOF.

EXAMPLE: New habit = going to the gym.

1. RIGHT HABIT: I want to start going to the gym as my goal is to elevate to my best self.

2. RIGHT TIME- I am at my best in the mornings, so I want to do this before work.

3. RIGHT PLACE- this must be easy, obvious and convenient (a gym near my office or at least en route on my commute).

4. HABIT STACKING: I stack going to the gym between getting dressed/morning coffee routine and my showering routine. This way I go from 1, to 2, to 3, without skipping a beat.

3. REDUCE FRICTION IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT

CREATE an environment that encourages your habit and is conducive to the result you want to achieve! For example, if the gym was WAY out of my way, the likelihood of that becoming a successful habit is extremely small. Additionally, if I tried to exercise in the evenings when I am the most tired, I would likely flake on my plans. These are keys to long-term success.

YOU HAVE A GOAL TO STUDY FOR THAT BIG EXAM?

• ENVIRONMENT W/ FRICTION: studying next to your loudest, most chatty classmate

• ENVIRONMENT W/O FRICTION: studying in a quiet space with minimal distractions on my desk, and my favorite beverage (habit encouragers vs. habit sabotagers)

4. PRIME YOUR ENVIRONMENT

Make it easy to do and gather the supplies you need to make the habit more automatic!

EXAMPLES OF PRIMING YOUR ENVIRONMENT

1. WANT TO EAT HEALTHIER? Chop up fresh fruits and veggies ahead of time for snacks to reduce temptation to grab not so healthy items.

2. WANT TO GO FOR A MORNING RUN? Leave your shoes by the front door…literally in the way of leaving.

3. WANT TO STOP SPENDING SO MUCH? Delete those apps! (Bye bye Amazon, Lululemon, and Target).

I hope these tips help you start creating some lasting habits and get you on the road towards your best self.

XO,

Carson

You already know that exercise and nutrition play a key role in mental health and wellbeing. Eating right and working out can help us destress, improve cognitive function, and release precious neurotransmitters and chemicals that balance our mood, sleep cycles, and more. That’s why my philosophy isn’t ONLY focused on nutrition. Yes, nourishment is essential, but so is movement, connection, rest, play, and …. You guessed it… mindset/ mental health/ your head game. The work we do together as coaches and clients is also a major aspect of mental health, and a big reason I love having a coach of my own.

A big part of prioritizing mental health is knowing how to. Being able to be thoughtful about what we need and do not need in our lives is called mindfulness. Each of us have different things that promote or take away from our mental health. We could divide these up into:

Energy boosters - things that make you feel expansive and blissfully happy. And Energy drains - things that make you feel empty and create a negative charge in your life.

The goal is to build in systems that allow you to maintain great mental health, and live a lifestyle that truly fulfills you.

Self care is different for everyone and should be! To find what’s right for you, try this: Make a happy list with at least 5 things. These are activities or things that make you FEEL great, bring you peace and relax or energize you. When you have your list, schedule them throughout the month. Share your list and schedule with a friend for accountability and then repeat it monthly.

Here are some of the things that are on my happy list:

• Walks outside

• Cuticle oil

• Essential oils

• Candles

• Soft music

• Dim lighting

• Unplugging

• Nature sounds

• Yoga

• Happy books

• Workouts

• Face mask

• Hair mask

• Therapy

• Sit in the sun

• Victory list

• Journal

If you feel like you want a little bit of extra help, check out these valuable resources to use today or tuck away for when you need them most.

US Mental Health Resources: https://www.mentalhealth.gov/

Crisis Text Line: https://www.crisistextline.org/

Text HOME to 741741 from anywhere in the United States, anytime to connect with a crisis counselor.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

A free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Mental Health America: https://www.mhanational.org/

A community-based nonprofit [dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness.

National Institute for Mental Health: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/find-help/

A research-focused agency with important statistics, information, and educational resources.

Losing weight is about more than JUST tracking your nutrition and moving with intention. There is a third and vital piece that many people neglect when they start their weight loss journey. That forgotten piece is your mindset. 

Your mindset is the one thing that will help to keep you moving forward day after day and enable you to create a sustainable health conscious lifestyle!

Here are eight tips to help get your mindset just as fit as your body!

Know WHY you Want to Lose Weight

Take the time to stop and reflect. What is your motivation to lose weight? Is it that you have an event coming up that you wish you were 10 lbs lighter for? Or is it that you want to be able to keep up with your children at the playground? 

Short term goals and a short term timeline can be less productive than we think. Having a goal to lose a certain amount of weight in a short amount of time can increase your stress, which increases cortisol which irritates your body and actually lowers your body’s responsiveness!

Find your true WHY for wanting to lose weight. Your deep down, long term reason for making this change. That will keep you motivated and ready to work.

Break up with Your Scale

Repeat after me - “I am not a number.” 

There are so many factors that go into the number that pops up on the scale when we step on it. Way more than just the amount of fat that is on our body. The scale number changes when our sleep changes, our stress changes, our hormones change and more! We should use the number on the scale for data ONLY. And not as our only source of data. A more accurate measure of our progress will also include progress photos, how our clothes fit, body measurements and our energy.

Develop a Positive Mindset

Dieting and weight loss often go hand in hand with negative feelings. There is often a fear of failure, or shame and embarrassment. Dieting can also lead us to focus on feelings of deprivations. Focusing on the things that we can not have often makes us view the world in a negative mindset. It is important when going through a weight loss journey to keep your mindset positive. When you are making a more health conscious food choice, instead of thinking of the things that you ‘can’t eat’ think instead of the thinking ‘I choose to eat this.’ You have the ability to change your perspective to see the glass half full!

The people that we surround ourselves are important to our enjoyment and success in life. It is important that the people closest to you are people who lift you up and support you. Think about your friendships - which ones are filled with positive talk? How do the people in your life make you feel? Focus your time with the people who make you feel the best. 

Have Patience!

Weight loss takes TIME! A fast, crash diet will get you nowhere - and most often will set you back. Know that moving forward slow, steady and sustainably is what will get you to your goal. You will lose fat and preserve muscle this way. Remember that weight loss is not linear. You will have to practice patience when it feels like you take a step back in progress. Continuing forward will continue the progress!

Plan for Success

Ben Franklin said - “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” Spend the time to make a plan for how you are going to get from your start to finish. Imagine your weight loss journey like a road trip. Along the way you will need to plan for grocery shopping success, plan out your meals the night before, schedule your workouts for the week etc. It is important to look ahead at your week and look for any obstacles or temptations that might come your way and decide how you will overcome them!

Put Pen to Paper

Writing things down has been shown to increase rates of success significantly. Using a food or exercise journal helps you to stay focused on your goal and gives you time to reflect and provide yourself with feedback. You can gain a lot of knowledge by looking at your patterns overtime with your nutrition, movement, water intake, hunger and mood.

Quit the Comparison Game

The saying is true - comparison is the thief of joy! Your journey is your own and unique to you. Because of this, what works for one person will not work for another in the same way. We each hold the knowledge and truth of our own journey, and though you might see a part of someone’s story on social media - we do not see their whole pathway or read their whole story. It is important to invest in what works for YOU and not what works for someone else. 

And - isn’t your goal to love your own body - not theirs anyway?

Incorporate Yoga & Meditation

Yoga and meditation are proven methods to increase happiness levels, self love and a sense of overall peace and wellbeing. They have the ability to “workout” the awareness and concentration regions of the brain (this is GREAT for staying on track for weight loss, among other things). Peaceful minds tend to not binge, go off the deep end or overindulge because yoga and meditation teach us to nurture our emotions with tools other than food. 

Which of these tips spoke to you today? What will you start on focusing on right away?

Now more than ever we are spending A LOT of time at home. With a global pandemic our homes have now become our work place, our school, our gyms, as well as our sanctuary for relaxation and time with loved ones. Your environment has a direct and profound impact on your wellbeing. The people we spend time with, the rooms in your home you most frequently occupy, the content you choose to consume or to which you are exposed ALL provide our minds with feedback, which can be positive or extremely negative. With being in your home so much more, it is important to make sure that we keep our environment in a way that creates positivity.

I am personally embarking on a new season of life and chapter, including moving into a new home! Moving gives me the opportunity to reassess our space and make sure that I am creating the most supportive and encouraging environment for my family. One way to do this is to declutter! Moving often encourages a full on purge of clothing, belongings and anything else that does or does not make sense to carry into my new space. 

Decluttering isn’t always easy! In fact, it can be rather daunting without a plan or the strategies to simplify the process. Even the purging professionals often get stuck on where to start and what to do from there. That’s why I’ve created a list of strategies to help you maximize your space, minimize clutter and free your mind to focus on the things that are most important to you! 

Like all things encompassing a healthy, balanced lifestyle, decluttering your home must be done in a sustainable way in order to be effective. It’s easy to go on a declutter rampage, but the results typically don’t last or the task isn't completely completed before you get burnt out and give up! Start with one small drawer, corner, room and allow the process to take some time. The end result will be life changing and provide a priceless reward of experiencing more JOY because of it!

Losing weight is one of the most common goals for women all around the world. Despite what the cover of most magazines make us think - it isn’t an easy one! Between the number of fad diets and challenges and stressors in everyday life, there are plenty of obstacles to overcome when you are working to achieve your goals. 

One of the biggest obstacles to losing weight is overcoming anxiety. Even though over 40 million americans struggle with anxiety, myself included, it isn’t often talked about. Our levels of anxiety are higher than ever with new ways of life and routines and a fear of new illnesses we have never seen before. This anxiety impacts many of the systems in our body that contribute to the process of weight loss. 

Anxiety impacts our sleep, motivation, and mindset. All vital parts to reaching our goals.

Your Sleep

Anxiety often keeps us up late into the night, sleepless. Being anxious produces excess cortisol which adds more difficulty to losing weight, results in stomach fat and leaves us feeling ‘wired’ at night and then tired in the morning.  Losing sleep impacts your hunger hormones - leptin and ghrelin. This can create false hunger signals.

Your Motivation

The feelings of overwhelm that come with anxiety create difficulty in decision making. Your mood being lower creates lethargic feelings,  making getting to the gym or being active much harder. This also lowers our strength to stop and think about our food choices, which makes positive choices in nutrition less likely. 

Your Mindset

It takes so much strength to keep a positive mindset. When you are anxious this strength can often be lost. Your mindset directly impacts your physical body. What we feel on the inside, shows on the outside. 

So What Are Your Solutions?

There are ways that we can set ourselves up to avoid losing sleep, motivation and strength for a positive mindset when we become anxious.  Try preparing yourself with these five solutions:

Have you ever wondered why breathing deeply helps you to calm down? Or why meditation works to soothe your physical body into a relaxed state? This connection of your mind and your body is made possible by your Vagus Nerve. 

The Vagus Nerve is your body’s longest cranial nerve, running all the way from the brain stem to part of the colon. The 12 cranial nerves in your body control sensory information (like smells, tastes, or sounds) or control movement. But the Vagus Nerve - it does BOTH!

The role of the vagus nerve in the parasympathetic nervous system is to slow the sympathetic stress response. Some evidence shows that it reduces anxiety! So, if you are feeling anxiety - stimulating your Vagus Nerve is a great way to self soothe. 

Here are some ideas to stimulate the Vagus Nerve: 

1. Cold Exposure - Like taking cold showers

2. Singing or chanting

3. Yoga

4. Meditation

5. Laughter

6. Deep and slow breathing

7. Massage

8. Prayer 

9. Probiotics

10. Exercise

11. Sleeping or laying on right side

12. Tai chi

Practicing one or more of the above activities will help your Vagus Nerve help you to reduce anxiety and have less stressful days.