Body Love: How I Lost 17 Pounds In 7 Months 21
Welcome to Season 3 of the Happiness Mama Podcast with Heather Ash! Season 3 is all about Self-Love…
Loving ourselves, body, mind, and spirit.
This episode is about loving our bodies, and specifically I talk about how I lost 17 pounds in less than 7 months. Listen to find out how I did it, and learn tips and strategies to make your own new healthy habits easy, doable, and fun!
(I even analyzed some data from my bullet journals… You might be surprised at the results. I was!)
Highlights:
- My weight journey
- Pregnancy weight gain
- Postpartum priorities
- How I’d rather not be motivated to lose weight and get in shape
- The foundational mindset for losing weight and getting in shape (or making any other changes in your life)
- The biggest factor in my weight loss success
- The second biggest factor in my weight loss success
- Dealing with imperfection
- Imperfect dieting and exercise
- The slow carb diet by Tim Ferriss
- The key to losing weight
- Real weight training results
- Surprising results after climbing a mountain
- How to make your habits stick
- Surprising nerd results: What the charts revealed…
- Creating a self-love mindset: Body Love Affirmations
- Show your love by becoming a Happiness Mama Patron! And get mentioned on the show…
Books and Resources Mentioned In This Episode:
- The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss
- Body Love Affirmations: Free access at happinessmama.com/affirmations
- Shownotes: www.happinessmama.com/21
Spread the Word:
If you enjoyed the podcast and want to help other mamas be happier, too, visit iTunes orStitcher and kindly leave me a rating, review, and subscribe. Thank you!
How to Subscribe to the Happiness Mama Podcast:
- Click here to subscribe via iTunes
- Click here to subscribe via RSS
- Click here to subscribe via Stitcher
Thank you so much for listening! I hope this podcast helps you love yourself more, body, mind, and spirit. Love to you!
Which Shining Academy Membership Is Right For You?
Are you thinking of joining Leonie Dawson’s Shining Academy? I hope this article will answer your questions and help you decide which Shining Academy membership type is right for you at this point in your life.
Did you know you don’t have to have a business to benefit from being a member of the Shining Academy?
Did you know you can join the Academy and get access to tons of life resources and courses, without paying the full membership price?
Are you thinking of joining the Academy, but you’re unsure about what is included in each membership type, and which one makes the most sense for you and your life, right now?
Read on!
Shining Academy Membership: Two Types
There are two types of membership in the Shining Academy.
One type of membership is Life + Biz Access, which is full Academy membership.
Next there is Life Access Only membership, which includes a plethora of life resources and excludes business and technical resources.
Let’s dive in to learn more about each type of membership so you can decide on the one that’s right for you.
Life Access Only Membership in the Shining Academy
Membership in the Shining Academy includes a wide variety of life programs, courses, and resources to help you in all areas of life: family, spirituality, creativity, health, relationships, home, meditation, and more.
If you don’t have your own business, but you love Leonie and would love to gain access to all of her life resources and trainings, Life Access Only membership may be right for you.
Life Courses, Trainings, and Meditations
Here are some of the life courses and resources included in the Shining Academy. Over 72 life courses, workshops, and resources are available to Life Access Academy Members.
The following list is not exhaustive. These are some of the highlights. Check out Leonie’s website for more.
Personal Growth/Life Courses
Radiant Goddess E-Course
Creating Your Goddess Haven E-Course
How to Be a Morning Goddess
How to Create More Joy In Your Life Mini Workshop
How to Trust Your Intuition Mini Workshop
Healing Goddess Workshop
How to Face Your Fears
7 Life-Changing Habits for an Abundant 2016
How to Find Your Purpose Mini Workshop
Boundaries Bootcamp
Creativity Courses
Creative Goddess E-Course
Intuitive Art Workshop
Mega Colouring Book
How to Create a Mini Retreat
How to Create a Dream Board
The Project Finisher E-Book
Meditations
I Create My Amazing Year Meditation
Best Day Ever Meditation
Divine Dreaming Meditation Kit
Chakra Healing Meditation Kit
Releasing Fears Meditation Kit
Holy Dinger Uber Zennifying Meditation Kit
Instant Uplift Meditation
Shining Academy Life Mastermind
When you join with Life Access Only membership, you gain access to a Mastermind of like-minded women. This is a great community to help you find support, encouragement, friendship, and accountability. The group is very active and is located on Facebook.
What’s Not Included
In Life Access Only Academy Membership, you do not get any of the workbooks or diary delivered to your door as you do with full Life + Biz membership.
However, you do get access to the Life Workbook, which you can download and print yourself.
You also don’t get the business and marketing resources/courses.
What Else Is Included
Discounts to various tools and resources for life and business.
Monthly live coaching calls with Leonie, so you can get 1-1 support.
Regular chances to ask Leonie and other team members questions within the Mastermind (live).
Investment
Your investment to join the Shining Academy with Life Access Only is $197, which is less than half the cost of full Biz + Life Membership.
You can also take advantage of a payment plan. If you choose the payment play, you make four payments of $60 each.
Full Shining Biz + Life Academy Membership
Full membership in the Shining Academy includes all of the life resources plus tons of courses and resources to help you start and grow your business.
Business Courses and Resources
Here are some of the business resources and courses that are included in full Shining Biz + Life Academy Membership. To find out more, visit the Shining Academy website by clicking here.
Double Your Business Intensive
Business Goddess 2.o
How to Hire, Grow, and Keep a 6-Figure Team
How to Market Your Business with Videos/YouTube
SEO Masterclass: How to Get to #1 on Google
Woman Breadwinner: How to Make It Work For Your Family
Grow Your Local Bricks & Mortar Business
Create Your Sacred Sales Funnel
Self-Love in Business
Money Manifesting Course
How to Raise Your Rates Mini Workshop
How to Get and Share Testimonials to Grow Your Business
Creating a Website with WordPress
How to Use Masterminds to Accelerate Your Business
The 7 Chakra Business Model
How to Create Your Standard Operating Procedures
6i Success System
You can read more about my experience in the Shining Academy in my Shining Academy Review.
Shining Academy Business Mastermind
Full Academy membership includes access to the Shining Biz Mastermind. Located on Facebook, it’s a very active community. It’s a great place to get accountability and support, find answers to questions, and find new connections and collaborations.
Workbooks, Planners, Diary, Oh My!
When you join at the full membership level, physical copies of the yearly planners and diary, plus calendar and to-do list are included. Shipping is included as well. This is a great perk of full membership.
What Else Is Included
Discounts to various tools and resources for life and business.
Monthly live group coaching calls with Leonie, so you can get help from Leonie.
Regular chances to ask Leonie and other team members questions within the Mastermind (live).
Investment
Investment in the full Biz + Life Academy membership is $497, or 4 payments (back to back) of $140 each.
What About Customer Support?
I love the customer support team at Leonie Dawson International. They are extremely responsive and just plain nice. I’ve never had any problems with my membership, but I have had a few questions here and there.
Customer support team members are just wonderful. I know that if I have any questions or need help with anything related to my membership account, they’re just an email away and will be happy to help. And as you know, that means a ton.
Which Shining Academy Membership Is Right For You?
Do you love Leonie? She is an inspiring. uplifting, gifted teacher. If you resonate with her and her work, and you have a business you’re growing or one you’re just starting, I highly recommend considering joining the Academy at the full membership level.
You get all of the awesome business resources, plus you get the life resources, AND the physical copies of workbooks and diary will be delivered to you. That is included in the price of membership.
So if you want to get paper workbooks, this is a good way to go.
If you don’t have a business, but you want to transform your life, then Leonie’s Shining Academy Life Access is a fabulous resource and community of like-minded women.
Financially, the Life Access Only membership is less than half the cost of the full membership. However, if you do have a business or need help to start one, the full membership is a great deal. $497 over the course of one year comes out to only about $41 a month. That’s not a lot to invest in your business and life.
Paper copies of the workbooks and diary are not included in life only access, but you can print out your own copy of the life workbook. I started by printing out my first yearly workbook in 2013. It’s a great way to start.
They both have payment plans, which is great.
They both have access to the discounts, which are one great way to save money on other courses and products. There is also an affiliate program which is fantastic, and a great way to easily make back the cost of your membership simply by telling others about the Academy.
If you have a business, then definitely consider the full membership. It’s definitely worth the investment if you will use it. From courses, to meditations, to discounts, to the mastermind, and the yearly planners… It’s a great investment in your business and your life.
Shining Academy Doors Are Closing Soon
Enrollments will close at the end of this month. Whichever membership you choose, make sure to join before the end of September. Doors are closing, and it won’t open again until sometime next year, 2017.
Let Me Show You Around + Presents!
When you join the Academy using my affiliate link, I have some special gifts for you.
1. A group video chat in November to show you around the Academy and get you off to a great start, so you know where everything is, how it works, and where you personally might like to begin. I’ll also share some tips to help you get the most out of your membership, so you can make sure you get the most possible out of it.
2. My upcoming course, The Self-Care Habit Formula, to help you create habits of self-care so you can feel your best and create the life you want. This is a great course that will empower you and help you feel your best so you can create your best life (and business, if you have one).
3. Optional: Mini Class to help you make back your investment through sharing the Leonie Love (being an affiliate).
What about you? Which membership type sounds right for you?
Questions? Just Ask!
I hope you found this article helpful! Please get in touch if you have any questions about either type of membership or which might be right for you. I know it’s an investment, either way. I’m happy to share my experience and answer any questions you have.
Love,
Heather
Small Steps to Self-Care
As busy mamas it can be such a challenge to find even a small bit of me-time, to breathe, much less for self-care.
If you want to get back to yourself and spend a little time for YOU again, it doesn’t have to be hard or involve drastic changes all at once.
Through small steps, you can get the self-care you need to feel good, to feel like your truest self again. You can get back to you.
Small Steps Lead to Results
Often it is easiest and most effective to start with very small steps to make change. Choose just one to three areas to focus on this week.
Choose Small Steps
What small steps can you take to bring your self-care to where you want it to be?
Make them tiny, so that they feel almost effortless. This idea was brought home to me a few years ago when I learned the Tiny Habits Method of habit formation.
Here are some examples of applying tiny habits to our self-care practice:
1. Leave a glass of water on the kitchen counter. Take a sip every time you walk into the kitchen.
2. Do anything on your yoga mat for 5 minutes a day.
Use Anchor Habits
This strategy really has the power to make actions into habits.
Notice in the first example that going into the kitchen is the anchor, and it’s the trigger for the new habit of taking a sip of water.
And in the second example, I can make it easier by choosing an anchor. It should be something I do every day that is already a habit that I do automatically.
For example, I could try making my anchor the moment I come in the door from dropping off my daughter at school. The only drawback is that it’s not something I do every day.
Ideally it’s good to choose an anchor you do every day to help you solidify your new small step into a habit.
Set the Stage
Another helpful strategy for making our small steps even easier is to do what we can to set the stage, or alter the environment in ways that make it easy for us to follow through.
In the first example, make it easy by leaving the glass on the counter in the kitchen near the water filter.
For the second example, set the stage by putting out the yoga mat the night before and leave it right in front of the door so that you can see it when you walk in and out.
Celebrate!
It’s a wonderful (and needful!) practice to celebrate our successes in life, big and small.
It’s also a powerful way to create habits.
This is how it works to change small steps into habits that become an effortless part of our lives (the definition of habits!):
Right after or even while you are doing your small step, consciously choose to feel great and say encouraging, celebratory words to yourself. You can do this aloud (if you don’t mind the people around you thinking you’re a little bit off your rocker) or you can do it in your mind.
What I do is usually think, “Woohoo! Yay, I did it!” If you want you can add a hand motion to it, such as raising your arms in victory, jazz fingers, or a fist pump, the moonwalk (yes!) or whatever feels good.
Every time you do your small step, you do the celebration. This really helps make the step into a habit more quickly.
For bonus points, kick off your habit formation practice by doing your desired habits on purpose, several times in a row. Basically, act it out. Do it. Over and over… Fun, right!? And silly! But it works… :)
Be Gentle with Yourself
Just try. If you forget, or if it doesn’t happen for whatever reason, just try again.
And celebrate!
Notice your thoughts, bring awareness to your feelings, and let it all go. Cultivate positive thoughts and the attitude of loving yourself no matter what.
It takes work to create new habits. Our brains want to keep on doing things as they’ve been doing.
So one of the keys is to keep on. We try again. And we celebrate the successes while letting go of negative feelings such as shame or inadequacy.
One of my favorite maxims is to “Just Show Up.”
Just keep on showing up for yourself as you cultivate your self-care habits.
You can do this!
Every little bit counts, and you are enough, no matter what.
Jenn Sher: Awakening through Mixed Media Art 06
Jenn Sher, mom to three girls, is an amazingly talented mixed media artist and blogger. In this episode, Jenn and I talk about her recent dive into mixed media art, and she has great advice for other moms who are interesting in getting started with it. She also shares how she and her husband got fit, gained energy, and together lost 73 pounds, in 12 weeks! Jenn also shares her word of the year and what it means to her. I loved talking with Jenn, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
This is the first episode of Season 2 of The Happiness Mama Podcast, which is focusing on Self-Care! A new episode will be released twice a month, so stay tuned! Enjoy…
Highlights of Our Conversation:
- Journalling
- How she got into mixed media art
- Advice for moms who are new to mixed media art
- How she and her husband got fit, lost weight, and gained energy, in just 12 weeks
- How Jenn prepares healthy meals AND saves time
- Her secret to getting voluntary help in the kitchen
- Word of the year and what it means to her
- Her special free offer of an Andy Warhol-inspired custom portrait (!)
Quotes from This Episode by Jenn Sher:
- “I want to show people that if you take steps, you can do it.”
- “Take yourself out of the whole chaos or just the regular routine, and do something that [makes] you feel like a child.”
Links and Books Mentioned In This Episode:
- Jenn’s Mixed Media Art – The Blog www.thesherhouse.com
- Jenn’s free offer: www.thesherhouse.com/freebies
- www.sixpackshortcuts.com
- Jubilee Rice
- If I’m So Smart, Why Can’t I Lose Weight? by Brooke Castillo
- Jenn’s Facebook Page, Jenn’s Mixed Media Art Journey
- Connect with Jenn on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenn_sher/
- The Happiness Mama Community on Facebook
- The (free) Self-Care Workbook www.happinessmama.com/selfcare
Spread the Word:
If you enjoyed the podcast and want to help other mamas be happier, too, visit iTunes or Stitcher and kindly leave me a rating, review, and subscribe. More ratings and reviews can lead to more eyes and ears seeing and hearing the podcast. Thank you!
How to Subscribe to the Happiness Mama Podcast:
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Stay in Touch:
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Click here to get the Happiness Mama Newsletter and your free gift, The Self-Care Workbook, with a self-care assessment and over 50 specific ways to add more self-care to your life, so you can feel AMAZING.
Thank you so much for listening! I hope this podcast helps you be a little bit happier, and remember, self-care is not selfish, it’s essential.
Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means at no cost to you, I may receive a commission if you make a purchase. Thank you for supporting the podcast!