What would your life be like if healthy didn't feel hard? In this episode, I share the necessary steps to create a sustainable healthy lifestyle that you never want to ditch. I walk you through the 3 phases of the Life Boost Jumpstart Program so that you can set yourself up for long term success.
The next round of the Life Boost Jumpstart program starts July 11th! Join here: https://lifeboostwithamelia.simplero.com/startyourlifeboostjumpstarttoday
Connect with me on your favorite social media channel: Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn!
Learn more about how I can help you here!
I love to hear from you. You can always reach me at amelia@lifeboost.today.
Music: “Play Thing” by Ketsa
From Free Music Archive
Connect with me on your favorite social media channel: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn!
To learn more about my approach and the programs and free resources available to support you, visit my website: www.lifeboost.today
I love to hear from you. You can always reach me at amelia@lifeboost.today.
What would your life be like if healthy didn't feel hard? In this episode, I share the necessary steps to create a sustainable healthy lifestyle that you never want to ditch. I walk you through the 3 phases of the Life Boost Jumpstart Program so that you can set yourself up for long term success.
The next round of the Life Boost Jumpstart program starts July 11th! Join here: https://lifeboostwithamelia.simplero.com/startyourlifeboostjumpstarttoday
Connect with me on your favorite social media channel: Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn!
Learn more about how I can help you here!
I love to hear from you. You can always reach me at amelia@lifeboost.today.
Music: “Play Thing” by Ketsa
From Free Music Archive
Connect with me on your favorite social media channel: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn!
To learn more about my approach and the programs and free resources available to support you, visit my website: www.lifeboost.today
I love to hear from you. You can always reach me at amelia@lifeboost.today.
Hey life booster. This is Dr. Amelia health coach and veterinarian here to help you ditch yoyo, dieting people, pleasing and perfectionism by breaking the norm and living a life that energizes you from within. I am recording this on July 1st, which means it is a bright, shiny new month. And this episode is going to be all about the life boost jumpstart program. And I really encourage you to listen to this, even if you are not thinking about doing the program, because I am going to share the necessary steps and process to go through any time that you want to make real sustainable changes that feel good physically and mentally. But before we dive into that, because it is the start of a new month. I encourage you to take a moment to reflect on the past month. How was June? Take some time to really think about what were your successes? What are you proud of? What were your wins? We do not take enough time to acknowledge the good things and the, the wins in our life. Right? So easy to focus on the things that don't go right, or to get caught up, but just in the whirlwind of life and to not just take a moment to acknowledge the good. So just take a little time, go ahead and pause this and write down what were your successes? Because my guess is that you're not acknowledging your awesomeness enough. And then I also do encourage you to think about some challenges that you had and just stay curious about them. Judgment leads you nowhere. Why was it hard? What could you learn about yourself and how could you approach things differently this month in a way that feels good in order to support your body and mind? Once you have done that, then we can dive into the life boost jump start program. So the next round starts July 11th. That is so soon. And. The jumpstart program is eight weeks and I called it the jumpstart program because it really is about creating a new norm and jumpstarting a whole new way of living for you, where instead of feeling drained by your life, it gives you energy and you feel in control because you've partnered with your body and you understand it on a whole new level. That transformation means really paying attention to your body and learning how to communicate with it while also starting to pay attention to the thoughts and beliefs in your mind that have been getting in the way in the past, and that have been making things harder in your life than they have to be. When we put those two things together, truly magical things happen. And I can tell you from experience, this process is not one that the diet culture or the fitness industry, they, they miss this whole journey in that those approaches make things hard because they don't address the mindset component. It's always, you have to work harder. You have to restrict or work out harder. And they're, it's never getting to the bottom of like, why, why have things not worked in the past? And it's also not tuning into your body instead it's kind of ignoring all of your cues. You know, when you're focused on the calories, it's like restrict, yes, maybe your body is wanting foods, but you can only have the good foods don't be bad. And when you're working out, it's kind of like that"no pain, no gain mentality". When in reality, if you want sustainable results and a sustainable lifestyle that you don't want to ditch, you're not afraid off falling off the bandwagon that level three life boost where it's just your life that you're living and that feels good. You're not having to rely on discipline and willpower. Then you need to really partner with your body and you need to respect it. And those other approaches of just pushing your body and restricting it, that is not respectful. That's not partnering with your body. That's forcing it. So the life boost jump start program has three phases, and I'm gonna walk you through each one now. So phase one is prep for success. Before making any healthy changes, it's really important to prepare yourself physically and mentally before just diving in, going cold Turkey, because it's important to really get to the bottom of why you are making these changes and to get clear about what you want out of it. It can be so easy to like, read about a diet and then just have a vacation coming up and know that you just wanna lose weight quickly. And just to like start it and just be focused on the number on the scale and to not really realize, like, how do you want to feel? Why is it that you actually want to see that number? Why are you uncomfortable right now with the way that you are and what isn't working for you? So in the prep for success phase each day, there are some different exercises and journal prompts to help you to really reflect on where you've been in the past. You know, have you been stuck in level one where it's, that I'll do it dot, dot dot tomorrow? You know, you're just postponing things. You're always saying tomorrow I'll make healthy changes not today. Or do you live stuck on the, the bandwagon right of that like white knuckling, your way, relying on discipline and willpower, just fluctuating between that, like being good and sticking to, you know, what you should be eating, being good and on your best behavior versus caving and, and being bad or having cheat meals and just always being worried that you're going to inevitably fall off the bandwagon and get off track. Basically just not trusting yourself Where have you spent the most time and now how do you hope this journey will be? And getting clear on that, thinking about if you are going to be making changes to the food that you're eating, taking some time to acknowledge any fears that come up, any hesitations, what are you worried about? What challenges do you anticipate? Take some time, to be honest with yourself and to work through those, it's okay to feel a little bit overwhelmed, but if you don't take the time to acknowledge those fears, then they're going to have a lot more power. And so that's an important thing that we do during this. Another important thing is to set up your environment for your success. So with the jumpstart program, you do make some changes to the food that you're eating and it's important to limit temptations and minimize them as much as possible. And to make sure that you have a lot of the foods that you can eat and want to eat readily available. If you just dive in and then suddenly you don't have any food available, that's going to make your life feel really hard. Finally, anytime you're making healthy changes, I really encourage you to check in with your body. So if you are wanting to lose weight, what are the other things that you hope to get out of it? Because a lot of the times, when you're living a really stressed, busy lifestyle and you're wanting to lose weight. My guess is there are other things in your body that don't feel good aside from that extra weight, right? Like, are you having frequent headaches? Does your body ache? Are you having GI issues, GI discomfort? Are you having low energy? It's important to really check in and kind of get a baseline and pay attention to what other things you hope to get relief from when making healthy changes. It's important to always be paying attention to your energy because especially if your goal is weight loss, it can be really easy for those changes to drain your energy, to start to feel hungry or deprived. And that's not how you wanna feel, right? You do not wanna see your goal number on the scale and just feel miserable and tired and hangry. That's not a desirable outcome. You wanna feel like energized and strong and confident and great, right? And you don't wanna feel bloated. So it's important to check in and just get a baseline to get clear about where you have been, why that's not working for you and what you really want. And a huge part of any time you have a weight loss goal is to be very clear about what you want other than the number on the scale. What does that number mean to you and why is that truly important? So in that phase one, we do some mindset work. It's a way to start checking in with the thoughts and beliefs going on in your mind that may have been getting in the way, starting to check in with your body a little bit and really setting yourself up for success. So, there are lots of resources for those that are doing the program in terms of here are tons of easy recipe ideas, there's time to look through the program. There's time to go grocery shopping and to not feel overwhelmed for phase two. So phase two is a really magical month. You will be amazed how much your body and mindset changes in four short weeks with this body vacation. And even if you're not gonna do the jumpstart program, I'll give you a glimpse about what goes on. So again, for making sustainable changes and achieving sustainable weight loss, or just feeling good in your body, if you've been noticing low energy and or headaches or GI issues, or if you just haven't been able to achieve a healthy lifestyle that feels doable. There are two things that need to happen. One is that you need to really be partnering with your body and you need to start communicating with it. You need to start trusting when it feels satisfied. You need to start understanding why there were cravings. You need to start figuring out what gives you really stable energy because that's what's going to help you to feel in control. And the big problem in our society is that the food that is readily available to you is not setting you up for success. It's making it very hard for your body to communicate with your brain clearly. And that makes you feel really out of control. Food that's readily available is making your blood sugar go on a roller coaster ride throughout the day. It is feeding sugar cravings, and it's not giving you all of the nutrients and the building blocks that your body really needs in order to thrive and to do its job properly. So the body vacation is taking a break from all of those main food categories that have been making it impossible to listen to your body. Those food categories are ultra processed food, added sugar, gluten, dairy, and alcohol. That probably sounds like a big list. And if you're like, well, what would I eat? You would eat real food there is, there are endless amounts of options that are very much available to you when you cut out those food groups. And what happens is that you are finally giving your body everything that it has been wanting, everything that it was designed to have real food packed with micronutrients and the protein and healthy fats and nourishing carbs that it has really been craving. If your brain is starting to think,"well, that sounds really restrictive", I invite you to look at this perspective: when you're eating a lot of ultra processed food or foods that don't have a lot of the micronutrients that your body needs, your body is feeling restricted and deprived. It's feeling restricted and deprived of all of the building blocks that it actually needs. And that is why it has been having outta control cravings. And it hasn't been having low energy. It's not getting what it needs. Your taste buds might be happy with the food that you're eating and you maybe like,"oh, you know, the, the pizzas and the bagels and the sandwich and the pastas, like that's, you know, I'm eating what I, what I want to, and I don't wanna feel restricted". But the reason that you don't feel in control is because your body is like," hello, we are not getting what we need". We are going to keep on asking and keep on telling you that we're not satisfied because this is confusing. This is not what we want. So if you want to feel in control and you want to understand what your body really needs, you need to take a break from those. The ultra processed food is designed by food engineers to make you not feel satisfied. It's designed to achieve the bliss point where it's just that perfect combination of taste and texture that just is ultra satisfying to your brain and it is going to make you not feel satisfied. Like have you ever had some chips and like a serving. And then you're like,"Ahh! I just feel completely satisfied. And I don't want any more food. And yes, that was perfect."? No. When you eat like really sweet or ultra processed food and all those like chips and crunchy things, you just want more and more, you have to take a break from those. With added sugar it's the same thing. When you are eating sugar, your body will crave more sugar. And the thing that happens is that your blood sugar spikes, and then it crashes. And as you're heading down during that crash, that stresses your body and it also makes your body feel like it needs more energy. And if your energy is crashing, probably your go-to is something sweet. So you can get another sugar spike. And that is not a fun ride to go on throughout the day. You may not think that you're having a lot of added sugar right now. But you probably are because in our society, there is hidden sugar in everything, savory food it's in everything, crackers, pasta, pasta sauce, salsa meats, start looking on food labels when you're going grocery shopping, or even look at the labels in your kitchen. And look at, there is a line for added sugar. I guarantee you're going to be so surprised where there is added sugar. And so what happens is you think that you're just eating savory food. You may not be trying to eat sweets, and yet you could very easily be exceeding the amount of added sugar that you should be having in a day. And so while your brain doesn't think you're having sweets, your taste buds are registering that, and that is really setting up cravings and it still is influencing your blood sugar. So it's important to start to be aware to start swapping out products that don't have added sugar. That switch alone will have a massive impact on your cravings and your sweet tooth. That's one of the magical things that happens with a month of a break from added sugar. Your taste buds will change in a really dramatic way, and you're not going to be craving sugar as much. You may think that you have a major sweet tooth and that could absolutely be true right now. It does not have to be true forever. What happens is that your taste buds get used to sugar and then they need more and more sugar to get satisfied. It's a lot, like when you're at a concert, the music is super loud, right? So once the concert ends and you're just talking with your friend, you're screaming, right. It's hard to hear a normal voice. That's a lot like what happens when you're just blasting your taste buds with sugar, they can't register a normal amount of natural sugar until you take a break, right? Like once you've been away from the concert, like afterwards, you can start to hear things at a normal level and that's what happens when you are eliminating all that extra sugar. Your taste buds are able to then register natural sugar. And suddenly things like fruit are actually going to seem really sweet to you and things like cake are going to be kind of sickeningly sweet. You'll be shocked. Now the body vacation involves a break from alcohol for a few reasons. I mean, alcohol absolutely can be the catalyst to making other unhealthy changes. Right? As soon as you have alcohol, then you're more likely to just not really be caring about the food that you're eating and probably going to be making unhealthy choices. There's a lot to unpack with alcohol as well in terms of mindset. Alcohol is a go to for dealing with stress, helping you to feel more comfortable in social settings, helping you to be comfortable being more you. And those are all things that we really need to unpack, right? Because alcohol is not a stress management technique. It is a numbing technique. It is a way of not dealing with the things that are really stressing you out. And so, if you truly do want to make healthy, sustainable changes, and you want to start living a life that really energizes you from within and really helps you to feel in control, you need to stop numbing and you need to take some time to really reflect on what alcohol has been doing for you and to help you observe how alcohol is making you feel. Because if you're having an evening glass of wine, it's probably making your body inflamed and probably contributing to not a very healthy gut or headaches and brain fog signs that you may not even be aware of if that's your norm to have an evening class of wine. I will never tell you whether or whether or not you should have alcohol. Your body will tell you how it works for you, but in order for you to be empowered, to make that decision, you need to take a break from it so that when you reintroduce it, you can see how it makes you feel, and you can decide. You don't want to be reliant on it. Right? And then the two other categories are gluten and dairy. Now, the big reason for that is that those are two categories that are most commonly the culprit in terms of poor gut health, a lot of GI discomfort and, and other weird signs in the body in terms of food, sensitivities and intolerances. And so taking a break from these can be helpful just so that you can observe how they make you feel. They also are food categories that people tend to be very attached to. People love cheese, right? Cheese on everything. And that's sometimes one of the things that people are most afraid of taking a break from, because like, what will you eat if you aren't having cheese or yogurt and dairy is everywhere. The thing is most people don't tolerate dairy very well. And with cows products there are several reasons, but certainly, the hormones that are in dairy, especially for women who are having any kind fertility issues or have been having some inflammatory conditions like endometriosis, PCS... Then this is a really important category to take a break from, to give your body a reset. And then gluten, everybody loves, I mean, gluten is everywhere, right? Pastas sandwiches, bagels, donuts. It's the norm. And that can feel hard to take a break from, but the gluten containing foods are often contributing to inflammation in the body or food sensitivities and intolerances. I want to pause and make it clear that gluten itself is not necessarily a bad thing. And in the program, we talk about what it is about gluten containing products that may not be working for somebody. And I may make an entire podcast on what you actually need to know about gluten, because there's so much misinformation about that. And it's so easy, you know, with all of the paleo diets and that type of thing, just to be like, oh, gluten equals inflammatory. And that that's not necessarily the case. There are many reasons why gluten containing foods may not be working for you. And a lot of the times it's not actually the gluten that's causing the issue, but that's getting into too many details for this podcast episode. Basically just know that if you are struggling with any GI signs, if you're struggling with headaches, body aches, or you're just finding it hard to stick with healthy habits and listening to your body, I really do encourage you to take a break from gluten. Not because it's inherently evil or bad, but just so that you can learn how it is impacting your body. And if you join the jumpstart program, you'll really learn whether gluten works for your body. And if there are intolerances or reactions, you may still be able to incorporate gluten into your diet. It just involves a process of figuring out what works for you. Now with all of those categories, the one main thing is that those all contribute to inflammation in your body, and they also can really negatively impact gut health. So what happens when you give your body a vacation from all those inflammatory things, is that you fight inflammation in a really amazing way. And when you take out those, there is room for so much real nourishing food and your body is going to just take a big sigh of relief-eventually. Now here's the kicker. Here's the one thing to be aware of when you take a break from these. your typical diet has involved, a lot of these foods, your body may experience what I like to call a body temper tantrum. It has gotten used to the things that you are giving it, and it's reliant on those. Especially things like added sugar. So when you take a break from those foods your body is going to let you know that it's not really happy about that. And so that's something that can make it really hard when you're trying to make healthy changes. If you are wanting to make healthy changes and you're like, you know what? I think I know that sugar is an issue. So I'm gonna take, like for one week, I'm just going to cut out added sugar. That way I'm gonna have great energy. I'm gonna feel so good. Then if you do that, and suddenly you have really low energy, you're in a bad mood, you have headaches... you're gonna be like, oh, this isn't working for me. This is miserable. It's important to know that your body is going to go through that process. It's going to throw its body temper tantrum, and then you will start to feel amazing. Unfortunately, it does have to go through kind of that withdrawal process. And that is why the body vacation is a month. Now, there are two reasons. One reason is that if your body is having food sensitivities or intolerances, or if it's really inflamed, It takes some time. It takes a minimum of two weeks of a break from those foods to often to start noticing really big changes. The reason that I made the body vacation a month is because it also takes a minimum of 21 days to create new habits. The jumpstart program is not a diet. It is about creating a new norm and a new lifestyle, a new way of living. And that means creating new routines and a new norm for yourself. During the body vacation. I want you to be finding new go-to meals that you really love. Foods that are easy and doable for your lifestyle, foods that make your taste buds and your body really happy and foods that you want to keep eating long term. And if you just make changes for a week or two, that's not going to be enough time to, to be creating that new norm. And it's also not enough time to really give your body a break so that it really are decreasing that inflammation and helping to relieve those other signs of like bloating and headaches and body aches that were causing discomfort so that you can find out what foods were contributing to that in the first place. Now if the thought of cutting out all of those food categories is overwhelming or the thought of the body temper tantrum sounds really unappealing. It is true that these are big changes and that can feel uncomfortable. And that's why a huge component of phase two is also the mindset work that's involved. And that's a huge piece that's often missing in so many other health and fitness plans, not addressing what feels hard. And instead it's just this thought of like, well, just push through. You've gotta do it. If you wanna see results, it's gonna be hard. No, you need to start paying attention to why things feel hard. Why is it hard? Cutting out alcohol? Why are you feeling overwhelmed? We need to take time to really pay attention to your feelings and the thoughts that are contributing to them and starting to find your inner researcher and to learn from patterns that have not been serving you in the past. This is a big reason why we have weekly coaching calls. Of course, I'm there to support you in finding like what recipes work for you, helping to understand all of the logistics and to make it easier on the food end. But the most important thing is time to really work through why things feel hard and to help you to understand what your body really needs and to help you to start identifying your blind spots. Another huge component of phase two is really partnering with your body and mind and finding your inner researcher where you leave judgment behind. And you start getting curious about any uncomfortable signs that come up. If you're feeling uncomfortable in your body, let's identify why. If you are having a hard time with the changes or you're feeling overwhelmed, let's identify why. Really it's about partnering with your nervous system, addressing the causes of your stress, helping you to feel more in control when you are feeling stressed and to start getting curious about any uncomfortable feelings, what are the thoughts that are contributing to that? When you don't like your actions or your feeling kind of out of control or overwhelmed, let's find out why. That's a huge part of the program because when you understand why you've gotten caught in the cycles or why you're feeling overwhelmed, that opens up the room to problem solve. And phase two is all about starting to problem solve and starting to check in with your body instead of just forcing it through things that feel hard without learning why they feel hard and what you can do to make things feel more comfortable in the future. Now, the final thing I wanna say about phase two is that the jumpstart program is not a diet. Okay. It is a diagnostic tool. In general, I do not recommend having this thought of like good food versus bad food and cheat meals really encourage you to get away from that thought process. When you see things as good versus bad, then there's this mindset component around like the good is less desirable, the bad is more desirable, but then there's so much guilt associated with that or shame, or you feel like you're cheating. You need to get away from that. That is not a healthy relationship with food. The reason that you are taking a break from the foods during phase two is because they are making it hard to listen to your body and they're contributing to inflammation and you need to be empowered to understand how those foods are influencing you so that you have the choice of whether you want to have those foods or not. So you are not taking a break from these in order to lose weight quickly, or because they are. Necessarily bad. You're taking the break as a diagnostic tool, so you can learn how those foods are impacting you so that you can choose what you want to have. Okay. Now, when you are taking a break from food a really easy thing, Is to start telling all those around you about all the things that you can't have. Right. It's easy to focus on like, oh, if you're going out to eat or you're going to a friend's house, you're like, oh, I need to tell them, like, I'm not drinking. I'm, can't have added sugar. I'm not having gluten or dairy or to tell your family about that, if they're not doing the jumpstart program with you, or if they're not making the same healthy changes that you're making, and all you're saying to your family is, oh yeah, I can't have this. I can't have that. You're not able to have the food that they're eating. Then your friends and family are constantly going to be reminding you of all the things that you can't have. And that's going to make things feel hard too, because that's a constant reminder and you're already in a kind of vulnerable point where you're trying to make these changes, but it doesn't feel natural yet. So it's important to not be calling it a diet, not to be focusing on what you can't have. Instead, it's important to focus on everything that you can have. You can be loading your body with really nourishing, delicious, fresh vegetables, fruits, healthy protein sources, healthy nourishing fats. You don't have to be doing low fat. Having really nourishing carbs. There is a world of real food that you can have, that's going to be making you feel really good. And so focusing on that and telling others around you about all of the delicious food that you're eating is going to be really helpful. So anytime you're making changes whether or not you're doing the jumpstart program, if you want to have support from those around you make sure that you're telling them about the good part of the changes,about how excited you are about the really good food, tell your family, like, show them the new things that you're trying and, and how yummy they are and get them excited. Because if you're not telling them about the good parts of the changes that you're making and how it's making you feel, they aren't going to be excited about that. They're just going to talk about the things that you can't have and that'll make it feel harder. So to summarize so far, anytime you are making changes, number one, take some time to reflect on why you're doing it, what you really hope to get out of it, how you want to feel, make sure that you take time to set your environment up for success. Take away temptations, make sure that you have everything available that you need. And then when you are making changes, make sure that you understand why you are making those changes. If you're cutting out categories of food, understand why you're taking them out and what you want to get out of that, make sure that you're not just creating rules and not knowing why or, you know, just having it be something that your friend or Google told you was a good idea. Understand what you want to get out of it. Make sure that you are tuning in with how you feel and make sure that you are checking in with the mindset component and your nervous system and being really compassionate and kind with yourself and understanding, get curious about any time, why it feels hard so that you can problem solve and move forward. In phase two, you have a whole life boost toolbox for success, and those are lots of different tools that I provide in order to help you to problem solve and check in with your nervous system anytime things are failing hard. And that's something that you can take with you throughout life. They're all things that I personally use that have had a really profound impact on the, my overall mindset and the way that I feel physically and mentally. And finally there is phase three, this is a self discovery phase. And during this phase, this is when you really get to know yourself on a deeper level. And this is when you start to really create your new norm and figure out the lifestyle that's going to work for you long term. So this is when you start to reintroduce foods. Now a super important thing is that you don't just do a month of eliminating those kind of inflammatory foods and then just instantly like, oh, you can't wait to reintroduce pizza and have some beer wine and just like go crazy. That is the biggest mistake people sometimes make. And that's a huge reason why during phase two, we really wanna address all the mindset behind food and why you've been attached to it so that you're not just ready to go back to normal. That's not what we want creating a new normal. You have to not be so attached to those foods. So during the reintroduction phase, you reintroduce one thing at a time so that you can observe. And during this time you are doing a food journal and a food journal is not...at least my food journals are not...documenting macros or calories or anything like that. It is paying attention to the way that food makes you feel and paying attention to your energy levels, your stress levels, your sleep. And then also any signs that are uncomfortable in your body, whether that's GI signs like diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating, heartburn, if are you having headaches... Are you just brain foggy, not able to focus? All of those things are really valuable. When do you reintroduce a food like gluten, the really tricky thing is that it can take up to 48 hours for intolerances or sensitivities to just show up. And so you can't just, you know, like reintroduce a food one day and then if you don't notice a reaction, then reintroduce another food you need to do is introduce a food and then you need to go back to the body vacation for a couple of days and observe your body and how you feel. And then that's observing how you feel mentally. Are you having cravings or is it affecting your mood, and energy? And then also checking in and paying attention to your body. So this is a really key time because this is when you get to decide whether you like the way that that food is making you feel or not. And we go into all the details in the program, but it's also important to know, like if, if you have huge reactions to dairy, that doesn't mean you can't ever have dairy. There may be certain categories within dairy. Like there may be certain types of cheeses that your body tolerates compared to others, or maybe you do tolerate things like goats milk, just not cows milk. And so there are ways to really get more focused, um, and to pinpoint exactly what foods don't work for you instead of just completely eliminating big, big categories. The same would work for gluten. Definitely, if you have reactions to that, that does not mean that all gluten is bad. You may be able to tolerate certain glutens, just fine, unless you have celiac disease. So that is one really key part of phase three. Now the other part of phase three, and during the whole jump start program, it's really about getting to know yourself on a much deeper level and really learning to respect and trust yourself and to understand yourself like why you do the things that you do. And so during phase three, I encouraged doing some different personality quizzes like finding out your Enneagram, the love languages, or Myers Briggs and doing some different exercises like the circle of life. All of these are ways of taking a step back and looking at yourself or reading about yourself or looking at your life from a different perspective and reflecting on how those descriptions or tendencies maybe showing up in your own life, it's just a way of starting to increase self awareness in a new way, this is absolutely something that you can do without going through the jumpstart program. It's a fun thing. I think it's really interesting to find out like what Enneagram you are and with your friends or partner, and to see how those personality types interact, that can be really fun, but it's also can be very empowering to take a step back and to read what are your strengths? And then what are also the weaknesses and how could those tendencies maybe be influencing your approach to healthy lifestyle and how can you learn from that to set yourself up for success long term And during the final week of phase three, that is about setting you up for success long term. So anytime you're making any healthy changes, for example, if your goal is weight loss, the huge mistake with diets is this concept that you will diet. And then you'll go back to normal. If you diet and then you go back to normal, your weight will go back to normal too. You can't just, you can't lose weight and then go back to your old habits and expect to maintain that weight loss. That's not practical. So you need to create a new norm. And so all these things you, you need to not be seeing them as temporary. You need to want to do them long term. And that means having a clear plan. And so during the final week of phase three, it's another time of really taking time to reflect like I was talking about at the beginning of this episode of like a whole new month, really taking time to celebrate your successes, reflecting on the journey and what you've learned about yourself. And then once again, getting clear on what you want in the future and how you're going to make that happen. There's a really wonderful snowball effect that happens when you start to make healthy changes and experience positive changes in your body. As you do that, as you are addressing your stress, as you are feeling much more comfortable in your body, as you're feeling excited about the foods that you're eating, you start to have this internal motivation and this drive to see what other amazing changes you can make in your life. You start to have energy and interest in wanting to move your body in a good way and to start workout plans. You start to see how much stress is impacting the way that you have been feeling in your body. And you want to make changes in your life to create better boundaries or create new hobbies. And it creates this really, really cool ripple effect and snowball effect throughout your life. And so that's a time to get clear on what are the next steps? What are the next things that you want to explore? Two months is a really short period of time. It's enough time to completely change your entire approach to life and to completely change your taste buds and to create a new norm. But you want to make sure that you feel confident in your next steps and clear about what you want. And so whether you're doing the jumpstart program or you're making other healthy changes, I really encourage you to make sure that you are continuing to check in always acknowledging your successes, what you've learned, acknowledging any challenges, and then getting clear about how you want to continue to move forward, to continue to feel better and better and more in control in your life. Now at the root of the jumpstart program are some key principles. And these are ones that I really encourage you to carry with you, whether or not you are planning on doing the jumpstart program. Number one, embrace your inner researcher. When you find your inner researcher, things are not good or bad. They are all really valuable data points to move forward. If you do something, if you eat something or do it in action, that doesn't feel good in your body. That's really valuable information to get to know yourself more, to get curious about why you did it and to problem solve, to see and think about how you can approach things differently in order to set yourself up for success next time. In life, when you ditch judgment and you embrace curiosity, and you just always want to learn from things that feel hard, you'll be empowered and free, and you will have so much more trust and respect for your body. The second is that you really need to start paying attention to the way that you are treating yourself and checking in with your thoughts or that inner critic and checking in with the commentary. Are you living with like a mean girl who's constantly judging you or making telling you you're not good enough? A huge piece of really transforming your approach to life in a way that feels energizing is to start having your own back and to start truly loving yourself now, in this moment, not once you have achieved some ideal. At the root of making healthy changes is wanting to treat your body well. You're making healthy changes should not be from a place of punishment. It should be because you want to take care of your body. You want to respect it and nourish it and give it what it needs. You need to really embrace kindness towards yourself. When you are making healthy changes it's really important that that's coming from a loving and respectful place. If you are wanting to lose weight and you are doing things in order to punish your body because you haven't been eating right or exercising, or you're thinking that you're lazy, or you just don't have motivation, that's not what it is. Anytime you think that you're lazy, that just means that somewhere else in your life is taking up too much energy. And there's an imbalance, right? When making sustainable, healthy changes, it needs to be coming from a place of respecting yourself and your body as it is now. It's okay if your body, isn't the way that you want it to be right now, you can still have respect for it and love it. Because when you want to take care of it, that is going to help you to feel so much more comfortable. Because you and your body are in this together for the long haul, right. You're stuck together. So your wellness journey is going to be so much more enjoyable if you choose to partner and love and respect yourself at the starting point instead of only being willing to love and accept yourself. Once you see a certain number on the scale. You are an amazing human now. You are deserving and worthy of your love and respect now. And sometimes it's easy to feel like there's this worry that well, if you just fully love and embrace yourself now, then you won't make healthy changes, but that's not true because when you do love and respect your body, then that's when you want to get curious about what it actually needs. And that's when you open room to no longer be getting caught in that cycle of cheating or doing things you shouldn't. When you don't love your body. And you're like always punishing it, then it's just this turbulent relationship. I encourage you right now to reflect on the things that you've tried in the past and just what your current relationship is like with yourself and whether that's a relationship that feels good. So that's one of the things to really dive deep into and to start paying attention before making any healthy changes is thinking about the relationship that you want to have with yourself and how you can really embrace kindness towards yourself in this journey. And number three is you have to be willing to break the norm. What's normal in our society is to not be in a loving and respectful relationship with yourself. It is not to be eating real food that gives your body all of the nutrients that it needs, and it is not to be addressing the stress and the thoughts and beliefs, and to actually be paying attention to what's going on in your mind, we live in a really hectic busy world where all of the food that is most easily and readily available and that everybody is eating is creating the norm. And the norm is to be sick, overweight, and unhappy. So if you want to not feel that way, you want to be living a life that energizes you from within, you need to start being comfortable with breaking the norm. And that's another amazing part of the jumpstart program, I invite you into the life boost community. You join of private Facebook group and you are a member for life. And that's because the jumpstart program is about so much more than two months. It is about jump starting a whole new norm and lifestyle for you that you love, that you never want to ditch, and that energizes you from within. And that means getting to connect with other people who are also going on a similar journey. It also means that that is a place where you can continue to return to have support or to receive coaching from me long after the program ends because your inevitable health, happiness, and success, your long term success is so important to me. Ultimately with this two month journey, you are addressing the life boost approach, the lb approach. So as a reminder, that means prioritizing the three L's. That's love You have to love the things that you're doing and the way that they're making you feel. Lifestyle it has to be doable for your lifestyle and the time that you have. And long term, it's all about setting you up for long term results. And then while prioritizing the three LS, we balance the three BS: Belly, Brain, Blood Sugar. Belly this is an amazing way if you are experiencing any gut distress or gut health issues, this is a key foundation and place to start. There's very high likelihood that you'll experience a dramatic, uh, improvement or resolution of GI discomfort just with this short journey. Brain-we've talked a lot about how much we dive deep into the mindset and stress and happiness. That is a huge component in creating a lifestyle that you never want to ditch. And so we dive deep into that And blood sugar-we do not want your blood sugar going on a roller coaster ride throughout the day. One very consistent result that we get in the jumpstart program is that people who have had sugar cravings and such a sweet tooth throughout their life, they're known to by the end of the program to see pretty epic donuts in the break room and to not want them. But the key is that say there's like a really amazing birthday cake, that there is once a year, they will enjoy that guilt free. And that's ultimately what I want. I want you to be living a lifestyle where you feel confident and in control and comfortable in your body. Where you are making food choices and lifestyle choices, because you want to not because you have to. You feel empowered. You're not living with rules and restrictions. You are free to live the life that feels good to you. Ultimately healthy shouldn't feel hard. Healthy is what should make you feel energized and alive. So if you are listening to this and you think that you want to go on this incredible wellness journey, if you're curious about what you could learn about yourself and how your body would feel in just two short months, then join the life boost party! The next round starts July 11th. I encourage you to sign up now because as soon as you do, you will be invited instantly into the private Facebook life boost community, where you can get support, you can connect with others, and I'll also send you some pretty great recipes to get you jump started. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook, I'm life boost with Amelia. You can send me an email at amelia@lifeboost.today. Or you can get more information and sign up by following the link in this caption. You can also find it if you visit my website, which is www.life boost.today. You'll be able to read about all the details included. You can read some testimonials and most importantly, you can sign up. I cannot wait to have you join the party. Cheers to your inevitable health, happiness, and success.