It's Here!! Our NEW Emotional Well-being eBook! Get Your FREE Copy Now!

As many of us know because of our own life journey, emotional well being and physical health go hand-in-hand. This is why we have created a special new ebook with Connie Stapleton, Ph.D. entitled Emotional Barriers to Sustained Weight Loss Success: Facing Our Fears, Mindset, and Addictions. This ebook highlights the importance of addressing our mental health and emotions related to food. This is especially pertinent as we enter into the fall season and with the holidays quickly approaching. The key to our sustained success in living a healthy lifestyle is addressing our emotional well-being.

Inside this much-need ebook you'll find:

• Ideas and resources to help you on your emotional well-being journey 
• Steps to help you live life as your healthiest self
• How to achieve a positive mindset
• Tools to support you in a right-sized eating environment 

We are honored to be partnering with Connie Stapleton, Ph.D. who is a well-known and well-regarded psychologist who specializes in helping people live life fully, free from the mental and emotional shackles of constant thoughts (and guilt) related to food and weight. Join us for a lively conversation about the launch of our new ebook and the topics of our emotional well-being and living a healthy lifestyle. We will be live on Facebook tonight this Tuesday, October 8, 2019. You can follow us on Facebook here, so you don't miss out on this exciting collaboration!

Livliga was created to support people in their journey to live and sustain a healthier lifestyle. This ebook is intended to reinforce the importance of tending to our mental and emotional health. As is the case with all our ebooks, this one is free and downloadable. May it help inspire and motivate you to take the next steps.

To Your Healthiest You! Live Vibrant!

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Book Review: The Complete Guide to Weight Loss Surgery

This is a great book. It is true to its promise of being a complete guide that finally answers your questions about WLS. It has a direct and simple style so it is easy to understand. In fact, at the very beginning the authors, Lisa Kaouk, MPH, RD and Monica Bashaw, MScA, RD take the time to go over the common vocabulary used surrounding weight loss surgery and the post op experience. This is very helpful.

The topics covered include the real issues of “dumping,” hair loss, weight loss plateaus, eating out, and, of course, our favorite topic, portion control! As Lisa and Monica state, “…we strongly suggest that you weigh and measure your food throughout your WLS journey,” and they go on to say “…we’ve never met anyone who weighs and measures their food everyday for their entire life.” That’s why, with full disclosure, they reached out to Livliga when they discovered our Just Right Set® bariatric dish set because it eliminates the constant need to weigh and measure due to its built in measurements designed into each piece.  Along with their expertise and our tool, it makes the cooking, measuring and balanced meal aspects of a post bariatric surgery lifestyle much easier and more manageable. 

One of the chapters I found especially practical and helpful was Chapter 14: Cooking, Not Cooking & Meal Prep. Like all the other chapters it identifies the real issues surrounding fixing our meals by stating the ideal, and then providing options when it just isn’t possible to meet the daunting task of home cooked, from scratch meals. What Lisa and Monica present are healthy options that are doable and still keep you on track.

They also don’t shy away from the challenging topic of Emotional Changes after surgery. In chapter 18 they acknowledge and list the significant changes that occur after WLS. Lisa and Monica cite the importance of seeking support to help you through these changes. They list the many ways you can receive ongoing support. The key, as they recommend, is to reach out and to find the types of support that will work best for you. It is made clear that you are not alone and you do not have to go through your WLS journey alone. Everyone needs to read this and embrace the message.

It might be helpful to have some information on the authors. Lisa Kaouk, MPH, RD and Monica Bashaw, MScA, RD are compassionate and enthusiastic Canadian registered dieticians who have specialized in all things WLS. They are co-founders of www.bariatricsurgerynutrition.com, an online company that offers a variety of nutrition services to the WLS community. They are all about “no more guesswork, just practical expert answers.”

As they state at the end of the book…”our wish for you, is that:

• You find moderation and balance with all foods;

• You don’t lose the pleasure of eating;

• You embrace your journey;

• You find your best weight and celebrate it;

• You learn to listen for and trust your body’s cues;

• You develop new habits that will last a lifetime;

• You let go of diet language and see right through the latest weight loss fad;

• You won’t be afraid to seek help when you feel alone;

• You focus on the positive changes in your quality of life that WLS has brought you;

• You be kind to your fellow WLS patients;

• You find peace within.”

As you hopefully see, there is a lot to like about this book and the expert wisdom the authors share throughout its pages.

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Top 8 Healthy Lifestyle Blogs

As we head towards the weeks ahead when school starts, fall activities set in, and we get back to the “normal” pattern of our lives it is good to remind ourselves of what it takes to get back in gear and sustain our healthy lifestyles. To help with that we thought it would be fun to provide our top 8 Healthy Lifestyle Blogs for some ideas and inspiration.

Let’s start at the beginning…

How to Start a Healthy Lifestyle

It is hard for a lot of us, but when it comes to our health, we need to be the first priority. What do you think needs to change first in your life to help you get started on the road to more health and happiness?

8 Great Tips for Right—Sizing Your Food Environment

Our eyes make all the decisions about the food we eat. That is why our food environment has such a profound effect on us, and the decisions we make about the food we eat.

6 Ways Livliga Helps Us Eat a Balanced Diet

We focus so much on “dieting” and “losing weight.” When we talk about losing weight or even about weight management, it all centers on the types of foods we eat, like whole foods, or about the amounts of food we eat. Very rarely do we talk about the importance of the combination of foods we eat to fuel our bodies and live our healthiest life.

Nutrition is about portion AND proportion

Do the words “portion” and “proportion” automatically mean anything to you? It took me a while to understand what they meant as well as why both are important to pay attention to when planning meals and menus as part of a healthy lifestyle. It is all about what a balanced meal looks like including the foods that make up the meal as well as the amounts of those foods that are best for us for eating healthy and not overeating.

Impulse Eating—Grazing While Fixing Meals

I have a lot of issues when it comes to eating. I have come to understand I am not alone in this reality. As I focus on my Year of Intention I have committed to unveiling my eating quirks to look at them, understand them better, be mindful of them and ultimately switch things up so I can continue to advance in my journey of an ever improving healthy lifestyle.

Portion Distortion—The Real Danger of Eating Out of The Bag

I have so many bad habits. Some are harder to change than others. It is really about being mindless to what we are doing, a zombie-like state. I have had way too many repetitive, mindless moments. I came across a great article that reminded me NEVER to eat out of a bag. Pre-portioning is definitely the way to go before eating.

The Secret to Avoiding Destructive Eating Habits at Restaurants

I have been in a long search to discover the secret to avoiding destructive eating habits at a restaurant. Recently my family has been eating more meals out in restaurants. I have found myself wanting to drift back to old, destructive habits. It is hard to break old habits. No one understands this better than I do. But it is possible. 

Scarfing Food is Not Good For Our Health

When I sit down to eat a meal I tend to dive in and scarf the food on my plate. You would think I hadn’t eaten in weeks or that I was in a contest to see who can finish their meal first. It is a mindless habit.

Here’s to you and living life as your healthiest self!

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How to Start a Healthy Lifestyle

There are so many parts and ebb and flows to living a healthy lifestyle. First things first, though, you have to get started. This can be a hard step. We like the way things are and we know how to stay the same…it is our comfort zone. We have to want to change. And change cannot be wished for or created in a place that is our comfort zone of sameness. We have to shake things up, do things differently, and unseat the destructive, unhealthy sameness that has caused us to need and want to change.

Making changes does not mean you have to upend your life, quit your job, move to a different city, walk away from family, or start over again. Sometimes those dramatic moments are when we do make big life altering changes but it is not the norm. For most of us it is about doing some things differently and adding new health-minded activities to the way we go about living our lives.

It is about figuring out how to be in control of our food environment and more in charge of our lives.  It is hard for a lot of us, but when it comes to our health, we need to be the first priority. What do you think needs to change first in your life to help you get started on the road to more health and happiness?

Some ideas:

Eat less

Eat healthier

Exercise

Sleep more

Eliminate some stress

Drink more water

Drink less alcohol

Find time for fun

Work less

All these ideas can contribute to living a healthy lifestyle. All are possible to achieve. They hold different levels of priority for each of us depending on our own lives. Hands down, however, eating healthy can contribute to your success in all other priorities. If we can get a handle on what we eat and how much we eat we can improve the quality of our overall lives profoundly. 

Creating a healthy food environment in your home can make a world of difference for you and the ones you love. Start by replacing packaged food with fresh, whole foods. Buy oranges or bananas or grapes, whatever is cheapest and in season and make it available on your kitchen table. New to cooking or planning meals? Scan the internet and foodie blogs, like Live Vibrant, Bariatric Foodie and Diabetic Foodie to find recipes and make-it-a-meal ideas. Start with planning a few meals a week and build up to a weeks worth of menus. Find a way to be mindful of portions from the recipes you choose to the way you serve up (Livliga can really help in this area!). 

Start with a few easy changes, commit to them, and then add on additional changes that are on your priority list. Before you know it, or even realize it, you are living a happier and healthier life. Remember, you can be in control and you are in charge of living life as your healthiest you!

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Update & Check in for 2018 Healthy Lifestyle Goals

Part of making goals successful is checking in on them to see how you are doing with them. The other thing that is important to do is to adjuct goals when they aren't working. If they are goals that are important to you they should never be abandoned, they may just need to be reworked to work for you and in your current life situation. With my 6 month 2018 annual goals check in I found all these things to be true. Here is how I am doing and how I have succeeded as well as how I have had to modify my goals.

1. What goals can I embrace to better practice healthy habits?

Update: I am doing very well with this goal. I have discovered Cooking Light Diet that provides weekly menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The recipes are included and it also prepares a grocery list! I am loving it!

2. What have I learned or experienced previously that was unexpected and fun in helping me practice healthy habits? Being included in Fitbit challenges.

Update: I got off to a bang with this one. I even started a couple of weekly challenges and invited others to join! Then I found out I have a chronic problem with my knees so I have had to switch my workout routine. I am now swimming 3 times a weekly at the YMCA. I love it! And I have adjusted my daily step goals to accommodate my knees so I’ll still be able to participate in some Fitbit challenges, just not as avidly.

3. What do I want to do more of? Walk the dogs.

Update: I am not doing so well on this goal…I have found it is really hard to make the time to walk the dogs after work. It is on my calendar, I just am always busy with work or feeling too booped to fit in a walk before preparing dinner. They do get an occasional walk....just not every day. I am hoping with the longer days of summer I will find more time and ease into walking the dogs more regularly. I haven’t given up!

As for the kayaking…we were supposed to have out first adventure during Mother’s Day weekend. Unfortunately it was a cold, rainy weekend. It has been rescheduled so all three fun times are ahead on on the calendar.

4. What habit do I want as my highest priority and how can I support it? Eating just the right amount of food.

Update: Overall I am doing well with focusing on being mindful and using the tools to help me.

I am measuring out my food and when at home I am being consistent about my meal and snack times.

I could do better with my water intake. I do use my Yeti thermos consistently so I can be intentional about how much water and tea I am drinking.

My journaling is very simple. I use the 5 minute journal app. It helps me to focus on the reasons I am grateful and goals to make each day great.

Something new I have discovered to help me pace my eating and enjoy my meals more is that I am putting my fork down between bites so I can fully chew and swallow before I take another bite. I really am enjoying my meals more and find that this technique is not that hard to be consistent with. I am much more present.

5. Where does losing weight fit into my priorities? Absolutely… but not by being on a “diet.” I want to do it by eating right and living a healthy lifestyle.

Update: I am doing really well with this goal. I have lost nearly 20 pounds since the beginning of the year. It does prove that if you focus on a healthy lifestyle…consistently…and mindfully, it does pay off!

6. My accountability. Make it public. It is right here in print!

Update: Well I guess I am holding true to this commitment! I have given you my honest mid-year update. And the Barrier Busters are being posted weekly for all of us to reflect on and hopefully be motivated by.

Next...How are you doing with your healthy lifestyle goals? What do you need to tweak and/or reboot? Now is the time to do your own check in!


Enjoy! And as always, Live Vibrant!

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