– EAT FRESH, SEASONAL, LOCAL foods! This is just more fun and helps your body to feel great, especially if you are going to the coast!

– MOVE! This could be in any form – from paddle boarding to hiking or dancing. Do something you can’t do at home or you don’t do in your usual routine!

– REMEMBER: What you do everyday matters more than what you do once in a while.

Credit: Ali Hively; Fitness instructor here at The Wembley Club, and owner/founder of Kijia Living!

2. Pack simple snacks for back up – throw some protein powder in your bag or a bag of beef jerky or almonds that you can chow down if you get stuck starving.

3. Focus on veggies – when ordering a meal – make sure you have some veggies in your meal!

4. Drink lots of water – so often when we travel we don’t drink enough so make sure you bring your water bottle!

5. Skip the foods you KNOW will make you feel bad.

What works better: taking one skill on at a time and really fitting it into your life. When you focus on succeeding at one skill at a time, it becomes natural and normal and you can sustain it when you add another skill.

2. You never create a solid action plan to work from in the first place.

What works better: making a plan or getting support and guidance on your plan to change your lifestyle and create the habits you want to make healthy living easier. When you have a guide to help you move through a plan, you can focus on the action needed to carry out the plan, which is the important part!

3. You fail to address life patterns that reinforce old habits.

What works better: taking a look at patterns in your life that reinforce old habits and being mindful of them. Taking one step at a time to change these patterns that may be keeping you from changing.

Not only will you feel amazing, you will get yourself organized and aligned to enjoy life and be happy with your body!

Focus on:

• Eating better, without dieting or feeling deprived.
• Getting active, no matter what shape you’re in now.
• Ditch the food rules, dropping the fad diets and conflicting advice, so you can do what works for you and your body.
• Mastering your mindset to stay committed to yourself, even when life gets busy.

The result? You’ll:

• Get yourself back so you feel great in your body!
• Build physical strength and confidence in your body.
• Gain freedom and clarity
• Let go of food confusion, learn what to do, how to do it.
• Get off the diet roller coaster once and for all, and never look back.

Unlike other nutrition programs, I don’t prescribe diets or meal plans.
Instead, I help you build the skills and habits necessary to look and
feel better — for life.

Credit: Ali Hively; Fitness instructor here at The Wembley Club, and owner/founder of Kijia Living!

You desperately want to make a change to lose weight, but nothing sticks.

And after each failed attempt, you get down on yourself.

Does this sound familiar?

Good News!!!
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you (it’s true); you’re just trying to change the wrong way.

And the wrong way leaves you feeling helpless, out of control, and bad.

Here are the 3 reasons why you may be still struggling.

1) You’re not doing the inner work consistenly

The most common weight loss mistake is trying to lose weight by ONLY changing what you eat. Don’t get me wrong, changing what (and how) you eat is a crucial part of weight loss and healthy living, but you also you need to change how you think.

You need to deal with the voice (the hurtful and critical and annoying voice) inside your head.

The voice that constantly criticizes, compares, and judges yourself and others.
The voice that tells you you’re not good enough, not smart enough, or not strong enough to succeed.

Changing your diet without also changing your thoughts and beliefs is a huge (HUGE) weight loss mistake.

2) You’re not on the same team with your body

You are constantly working against your body and not listening to it. When it sends you messages, you blow past them. When you it gives you signs, you ignore them. Believe me, I have been here, too.

3) You don’t have the type of support you need.

Depending on your personality and human nature, you may need or want more support than your friend. It may feel empowering to have a person walking through this journey with you and guiding you. Often times, we can’t even hear our inner voice and it’s not until we get support that we can make major changes.

Plus, who likes to do things alone? The people that we choose to support and guide us are one of the biggest factors that influence not just our success, but also our happiness.

The good news is, you can lose the weight, get the energy and feel amazing in your body.
You can get the habits in place that make taking care of yourself feel good and natural.
You can be free from the negative self talk and you can be confident and less stressed!

Credit: Ali Hively; Fitness instructor here at The Wembley Club, and owner/founder of Kijia Living!

Here are a few reasons why you may fail diets and what to do instead:

You try to use willpower instead of habits or science.

*When you rely on willpower, you can drain your tank before the end of the day. When you set your environment up for success, so it can work for you, not against you, you will automatically be aligned to do what you ultimately want to to.
HABITS are the key here! When something is a habit you do it without thinking. This takes so much less brain power.
Think about brushing your teeth – you don’t spend time thinking and deciding if you should brush your teeth each day, you just do it. This is how things could be for you when it comes to healthy eating and exercise!
This makes it SO much easier!

You have an all or nothing mentality with a program or plan.

*Ditch the all or nothing mentality and eat based on foundations of nutrition. Keep in mind, perfection is the enemy of good! Bottom line – you need to have some involvement in creating the plan that works for you otherwise it will be hard to stick with!

Your diet or plan are not taking into account who YOU are, your personality and your life situation.

*Stop and ask yourself if this diet was ever really a good fit for you. I am a volume eater. I love eating so it plans that made me really restrict always backfired. If you are traveling all the time, you need a different plan than someone always home. If you like to snack all day, you are going to eat differently than someone who prefers bigger meals. IT IS ALL OK! It just needs to be about you and it needs to be backed by good sound nutrition.

Credit: Ali Hively; Fitness instructor here at The Wembley Club, and owner/founder of Kijia Living!

Everything you read tells you to set goals but I am telling you, there is a better way!!!

5 Ways Habits Are Better Than Goals

Have you ever set a goal to do something for 30 days, then when the 30 days was up, you didn’t really know what to do, because you were finished. So you just let things start sliding back to how they were.

Or you set a goal and something came up – maybe an injury, a party or a vacation. You didn’t know how to maneuver around this obstacle, so you either paused the goal or didn’t complete it.

Goals sound good, but in reality, they can work against you in terms of creating sustainable change.

I used to set weight loss goals, exercise goals, goals for cutting out certain foods, goals and more goals. This worked for very short term things, a race, a wedding or a vacation.

But as life got busier, the thought of starting a strict diet or doing something short term got more overwhelming and horrible sounding ?.

I found myself not happy with the way things were, but not wanting to do something drastic to reach another short term goal.

This was when I discovered this amazing secret….HABITS!!

By switching my focus from achieving specific goals to creating positive long-term habits, I made continuous improvement in many ways of life.

Here are 5 Ways Habits Are Better Than Goals

• Habits are easier to complete. When you set a habit of eating a veggie at each meal, you can do it. You can do it again and again and again and when you do, amazing things happen!
• Goals suggest that you can control things that you have no control over. Every time we set a goal, we try to do it. We try to plan out where we will be and when we will make it there. We try to predict how quickly we can make progress, even though we have no idea what circumstances or situations will arise along the way. Then when things come up, they derail us from the goal. While habits can happen through life’s crazy events.
• Goals are temporary and habits are the long haul. When you set a goal and complete it, you find it is easy to go right back to your old ways because you are “done”. When you focus on habits, there is no end time.
• Goals rely on willpower and self-discipline while habits become automatic and save you time and energy. Who doesn’t need more time and energy!?
• Goals reduce your current happiness. When you’re working toward a goal, you are essentially saying, “I’m not good enough yet, but I will be when I reach my goal.” When you get into the process you can enjoy life, while making the changes you want!
• If you are finding that your goals are not doing it anymore, you will find that habits are the way to go!

Credit: Ali Hively; Fitness instructor here at The Wembley Club, and owner/founder of Kijia Living!

Many of us spend our days putting out fires, handling to-do lists, driving carpool, wiping little noses, meeting big deadlines, all while making sure other people are fed, safe, and happy.

Here’s the thing… we wouldn’t want it another way, we just want it to feel better, easier, sexier, happier.

If you are like me, you enjoy rising to the challenge of supporting others and getting stuff done.
That is, until your energy runs out and you realize you don’t have any left over for yourself.

And slowly, after months or years of putting other people first, multitasking, and wrangling that epic to-do list: you get drained. The time you used to be able to spend on self-care and a post work hot yoga class or a morning run, is gone.

Your clothes may feel tighter and the need for daily sugary treats has increased.

You may have jumped on a fad diet or 5, which worked for the 30 days…but that was it.

With so much time going into taking care of others, and handling life, you feel like you have lost yourself.

But!
Great news!!
It doesn’t have to be this way.

You can:

• feel healthy, fit, and good in your own skin.
• regain control of your schedule
• show love and appreciation to others while still taking care of yourself.

Mindset

This is a huge piece of the puzzle that is often missing from people’s lives and maybe the most life changing!!

Movement

This is your exercise routine- what it looks like for you, how to make it happen and what to do for your body.

Nutrition

This is what you eat that is realistic and enjoyable and works to change your body!!

Lifestyle Habits

These are the behind the scenes pieces to the puzzle that make things work. They include your environment, sleep, meal planning, awareness, mindfulness etc.

Credit: Ali Hively; Fitness instructor here at The Wembley Club, and owner/founder of Kijia Living!

It’s wonderful and amazing and beautiful, but it’s not easy.

You are constantly thinking about taking care of someone else.

You are giving your love, your time, your body, your sandwich, your energy, your compassion, your everything.

You are always planning your day around the schedules of your kids, whether they are little or grown!

When you are not cleaning up, you are probably prepping something or doing one of the 3984929 things you do each and every day just to function.

If you aren’t doing something, you are thinking of doing something – which can be worse!!

You love love love your job as a mom, and you feel so lucky but there is a part of you that wants to get yourself back.

You want someone to take care of you.
You want to feel light and less stressed.
You want to feel like your clothes fit well and like you have energy to do all the things you want.
You want to feel confident that you are being the role model you want to be to your kids.
You want to feel amazing!

This is possible!
I promise.

As I try to balance my 3 girls, work, and everything else, I am constantly feeling the stress and pressure of life. I have found that when I take better care of myself, through nutrition, mindset and movement, I am able to handle everything so much better.

I used to rely on willpower to help me resist certain foods. I used to rely on motivation to get me to workout.

Now I know better.
I know both of these things come and go.
They leave you when you need them most.
They are not there for you during the hard times. So I have found a better way.

Habits.
When you develop habits you don’t need willpower and motivation. You have trained your brain to do things when you don’t want to.

You don’t need to spend so much time thinking about “if” you want to workout, you just do it and you feel amazing.

You don’t need to spend time thinking about what you are going to make for dinner and “if” it’s going to be healthy – because it’s a habit.

Habits are the secret to a whole new world for you and I have just the perfect program to help you create the ones that fit your life.

Credit: Ali Hively; Fitness instructor here at The Wembley Club, and owner/founder of Kijia Living!