It’s Monday morning.

Today’s the day you’re going to lose weight and get healthy!

You plan to eat right and exercise, and this time you’re committed! No excuses.

You hop out of bed, ready to make it work, and then…

…your life happens.

You realize you haven’t allowed time to eat breakfast, so you skip it and grab a latte on the way to work. You are booked with meetings all day, so you miss your planned exercise during the lunch hour. You feel distraught over a conversation with a negative friend, so you ease the stress with a doughnut from the office lounge.

By the time you get home to prepare a healthy dinner for the family, you are exhausted and realize you need to spend two hours helping your kids with their homework. You order pizza for everyone and eat three pieces because you’re starving.

After the kids go to bed, you walk into your home office with the hope of getting some work done. But your desk is a mess, and you’ve misplaced the bill that needs paying this week. You’re frustrated and decide you don’t have time to prepare the healthy lunch you wanted to bring to work the next day. You call it a night, vowing to restart your weight loss plan the next day.

It’s Tuesday morning.

You wake up to the same life. Nothing has changed – you’re late, you’re busy, you’re stressed, you’re disorganized, you don’t exercise, and you make unhealthy food choices.

Yet in the midst of this you really do want to lose weight.

So, what’s stopping you?

That’s right, it’s your Fat Kid Mentality, convincing you that life is too busy and you don’t have a choice. This is just the way life is.

But this is not the way life is. It’s just the way YOUR life is. You can make life look however you want, which is exactly what this lesson will teach you.

The key to success is to create a “life template” that ensures your plan to lose weight is congruent with the patterns of your life.

The template of your life is the way you’ve always done things. It’s a blueprint or a mold with a certain structure that you have adhered to day after day, year after year, with predictable results. The very nature of a template is that it’s static, and nothing ever changes.

The problem is that you want things to change. You have all these great intentions, but something keeps getting in the way of your following through on them.

When my clients ask me why this happens, I answer:

“You can’t put new goals on an old template.”

It’s impossible to take a new set of healthy practices – such as exercise, meditation, or healthy meal planning – and integrate them into a life template that is not designed for these activities.

Currently, your life template is set up so that every day you wake up late, skip breakfast, stay disorganized, and so on. If you take NEW goals and try to put them on this OLD template, the system doesn’t work. So to successfully integrate the new goals, you need to take specific action steps that allow new habits to fit in.

When I first began to take care of my health, I made several changes to my life template that allowed me to integrate healthy habits, like running, into my daily routine. One of the most important changes I made was to block out every afternoon for exercise. I explained to my friends that I couldn’t commit to any plans after school because I needed to reserve this time for exercise. Bringing my friends in on my plan made it much easier to stay on track, because they knew not to tempt me with invitations that would lead me astray.

Rearranging my schedule to allow for running, was not the only change I made. In fact, that was just a small piece to the bigger picture changes that allowed me to really commit to my new life template.

The biggest change I made was to alter my beliefs and my vision around what it meant to be healthy.

I had to shift from the doubt of the Fat Kid Mentality to full-out believing that I AM a healthy person. I had to shift from a state of worry to one of faith. And I had to envision the life I wanted, making sure that I came from a place of pure conviction that being fit and healthy was simply meant to be. And, in fact, once I started to believe that this was possible, I became fit and healthy,

The steps below will show you how to powerfully create your new life template.

SMALL CHANGE:

There are three steps you need to take to create a new life template. Complete these steps, and you will be astounded at how quickly you are able to integrate healthy activities into your life with EASE!

CREATE SPACE

If you want the gift of health, you need to create space in your life to receive it. Just as though someone were to place this gift in your hand, you would need to first let go of what you are holding.

The universe abhors a vacuum. So when there is space, it’s Nature’s job to fill it. Nature is designed to fill this space with something beneficial. Notice that I said it is “designed” to do this. Now this doesn’t always happen, because there are opposing forces – such as negative thoughts or practices – that would attract something unwanted into that space. But if you are really intentional about bringing goodness into your life, then Nature will respond accordingly.

Since Nature is friendly, it will fill it with good. So if you want greater good in your life, you need to make room for it in a new life template and create the thoughts around what you want to come into this space so that it will happen in accordance with Nature. When things are in accordance with Nature, they happen with more ease.

What can you clear out of your life to create the space that will allow healthy habits to come in?

Let’s first start with clutter…

Now let’s look at what I call the “time killers.” These are unproductive activities that make up your current template and drain your day of energy and time. Once you identify your time killers, you need to eliminate them. At first they may seem insignificant. Yet, when you add them up during the day, you’ll see how they consume a considerable amount of your time and mental energy.

These time killers include:

• Unnecessary tidying around the house.

• Watching TV even though you’re not interested in the show.

• Searching the Internet rather than sticking to specific Internet-driven tasks.

• Responding to e-mails during the day that can be saved for the evening.

• Gossiping with friends.

• Spending non-strategic time on social networking media.

• Arguing with spouses or children.

• Playing video games.

These are just a few. If you can think of more, take time right now to write them down.

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Once you’ve identified your time killers, STOP DOING THEM! This may seem like a big step to take, so if anything, just eliminate a few and see what happens. If you really want to get present to how these activities are killing your day, start to track how much time you spend doing each. Let’s say you spent twenty minutes watching TV, ten minutes needlessly tidying, and fifteen minutes with random Internet searches.

That’s forty-five minutes! That’s enough time for a workout, to prepare a meal, to write in your Food Diary, or to cut up fresh fruit and vegetables for snacking.

TAKE TEN MINUTES

If you got out of bed ten minutes earlier, what could you get done in that time that would promote healthier habits? Or let’s say you tagged on ten minutes at the end of the day by getting rid of your time killers as listed above. What could you get accomplished with this ten-minute change in your life template?

Here are some ideas

• Meditate.
• Take a ten-minute walk around the block.
• Make instant oatmeal and grab a hard-boiled egg for the ride to work.
• Grab a ready-made protein shake or protein bar for breakfast.
• Take your nutritional supplements with a big glass of water.
• Warm up a frozen whole-grain waffle and pair it with string cheese for your kids.
• Stretch or do ten minutes of a yoga video.
• Add ten minutes to your twenty-minute workout video.
• Pack workout clothes for the gym.
• Write in your journal.
• Walk ten more minutes with the dog.
• Read a short story to your child.
• Prepare your child’s lunch for the next day.
• Plan the next night’s meal.
• Put together your grocery list for the weekend shopping trip.
• Put aside a baggie of healthy snacks (e.g., almonds, fruit, string cheese) to take to work the next day.
• Read ten minutes of a self-improvement book.
• Pick out one, new, healthy recipe and check to see what ingredients you need to buy.
• Cut up some broccoli and stick it in the steamer.
• Throw cooked chicken breast on some packaged salad mix and add cooked garbanzo beans and bottled dressing for an easy dinner.
• Organize your desk or sort through the mail.

You HAVE the time to live healthfully. You just need to create the space for beneficial activities to fit in.

CALL IT IN

Do you know the power in asking?

You have an idea of what you want your life to look like, but you forget to truly ask for what you want in a meaningful way. Whether this be through prayer, through conversation with others, or in a spoken message to the universe, asking for what you want is a critical first step in getting what you want.

Perfect health belongs to all of us.

Your desire to be healthy comes from an essential part of you. Your true spirit – hidden under the layers of ego and human experience – knows abundant health as being unequivocally yours!

So often my coaching clients feel uneasy when I ask them to envision their best life. That’s because it’s unnatural for humans to think beyond a certain idea of what life should look like. I ask them to dream BIG and really imagine what it would feel like to be at their ideal weight. What would it look like if their newfound health inspired them to run a marathon, find a lifelong lover, or generate a seven-figure income?

What about you? Can you imagine?

If you said no, you can’t imagine, then this exercise will be very helpful for you. It will help to unleash the possibilities that are dormant, just waiting to be set free and manifested.

If you said yes, then I invite you to expand on your current vision. Make it bigger, grander, UNREASONABLE! Let go of those limitations holding you back and know to your core that what you imagine comes from pure inspiration and your life’s purpose.

What do you want your health to look like? I mean, what do you really want? If you could wave a magic wand, what miraculous events would take place in your life that would allow for perfect health? Would you absolutely love fresh, wholesome food? Would you run a 10k race? Would you fit into a size 6? Would you invent new, healthy recipes and write a cookbook? Would you be a spokesperson for healthy living?

Sound crazy?

Well, take it from me. I thought so too. But remember, I was the fat girl. I was fifty pounds overweight. I was the one who did the Dieting Dance over and over again. And you know what I’m doing now?

I’m running a 50-mile race in Mexico. I’m wearing designer jeans and tucking in my shirts to show off my waist. I’m craving foods like salmon, broccoli, brown rice, and mango. I am writing this book and living the life of a global advocate for healthy families.

That’s because I follow these steps every single day to “call in” exactly what I want out of life. I don’t just imagine perfect health, and then shrink it down to fit into “reasonable” expectations. I ask for EXACTLY what I want, and it shows up in the most amazing ways. Even better, the more I ask and believe in the asking, the faster I receive what I ask for.

You can read more about this in the Big Impact story below. For now, please proceed with this exercise of calling in perfect health.

Write down your top ten desires around your health. Again, these do not need to be reasonable requests. Think of the magic wand and dream big!

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2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Take each desire and describe how it would feel if each one came true. For instance, if your desire is to have tons of energy, how would you feel every day if you had such abundant energy? Or if you could fit into a size 6, how would that make you feel every day?

I want you to write a story about your life that includes all of these desires and feelings as being part of your life. Imagine yourself living into EVERYTHING you listed above. What would your life look like?

You have now created your life for the calling.

It is your responsibility to tune into this vision and ask for your desires to manifest in your life. Whether through prayer, meditation, journaling, or just speaking to a higher source (e.g., the universe), you must consciously ask every day for everything you’ve listed in your story of perfect health.

This is best done by focusing on daily, monthly, and yearly intentions. But rather than asking for what you want in the form of a request, you want to call it in by stating your desire as something that already exists.

You can use the samples below to guide you.

Daily: Find a time, preferably in the morning, to write your daily statement.

For example: “Today I am enjoying healthy food, and I spend time savoring every bite of my freshly prepared breakfast.”

Your turn:

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Monthly: At the beginning of each month, you can expect miracles by writing what my business and spiritual coach calls a “monthly surprise” that will show up sometime during the month.

For example: “I love my six-mile run and lose inches around my waist and my thighs. (Rather than “Please let me get up to six miles this month so that I can lose weight.”)

Your turn:

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Annual: List five to ten desires that you believe will show up in your life over the course of the next 365 days. You can also do this exercise again, if you wish, on the first day of the new year. These are not RESOLUTIONS, which implies that there’s a problem to fix or resolve. Rather these are intentions or REVOLUTIONS that will evolve over the course of the year with solid action steps.

For example:

1. Get to 130 pounds.
2. Buy new wardrobe.
3. Meet life partner.
4. Run the 10k race on Thanksgiving.
5. Collect 100 new recipes I enjoy cooking.

Your turn:

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2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

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10.

There is so much power in calling in what you see for your life. These aren’t just wishes but solid visions of what is going to show up in your life. The key to this is to let go of the idea that these are just fun ideas. Rather, you need to have full-out conviction that one year from now the things you have listed will have ARRIVED!

With this belief, you will be utterly amazed at the miracle of life. Keep reading to see how I changed my life template by following this system.

BIG IMPACT:

I have always had a very strong belief that I will get what I want if I ask for it. I don’t say this in a boastful or demanding way, but rather that I believe there is a force greater than I – God, in my case – who has devised a plan that delivers only greatness. So, if I want that greatness to show up in my life, I just need to ask for it to arrive. If I don’t ask, then possibly I’m not ready for it.

Even in my darkest hours, when I was miserably overweight and depressed, I knew I would always be taken care of – that somehow I would find a solution that would get me out of an ugly mess. Admittedly, there were times when “being taken care of” meant being rescued. I attracted people who would band-aid a situation so that I could get to the next phase in life, but I wouldn’t really learn how to do things differently.

This was never a sustainable solution. Yet I know to my core that I created the space and called in the people and opportunities that got me what I wanted in that particular place and time.

And you know what? You can too.

Even if you don’t believe that God or a higher source is the grand deviser of your life, getting what you want by asking will still work. You may believe that you need to ask more of yourself by tapping into an internal force that generally moves you forward in decisions.

You see, I learned much later in life that we all have this power. We are all blessed with the power to create WHATEVER WE WANT in our lives. Those things you call “coincidence” or “circumstance”…you created them. Those things you call “miracles” or “unimaginable”…you created them. The people, situations, opportunities, events – everything that happens in your life – you have made space for and called in.

When I got present to this, I realized I could harness this power for more desirable results and with more ease. Rather than calling in a diet that would offer temporary solutions, I asked for guidance in learning how to listen to what my body really needed. As a result, I was drawn to going back to school to get my training in nutrition and living by the principles I learned through this process.

To this day I am learning how to harness this power and ask for results that are aligned with exactly what I want – no matter how unreasonable they may seem.

For example, rather than trying to find another physical therapist to rehab my knee so that I could train for a marathon, I just created the intention that running would continue to be my exercise of choice, and I would find a way to heal my body and keep running. I called in resources that would show me how to do this by honoring my body.

A few months later I started dating my boyfriend, Andrew. He gave me a book that taught a way of running that’s used by the best ultra-marathoners (people who run 100-mile races) in the world. I devoured the book and started trail-running with Andrew shortly thereafter. He also offered some coaching, and within a few weeks I was trail-running thirteen miles with no knee problems!

Rather than beating up my body to train for marathons (which I failed at because I kept pushing something that wasn’t meant to be), I am now gracefully training for a 50-mile run in Mexico. I am up to twenty miles, in the mountains, with no problems. I knew I wanted to run, and I get such a high by being out in nature. If I had kept forcing the marathon training, I would have never experienced the exuberance and full-out spiritual experience of my runs with Andrew on the trails just minutes from our home.

You can do this too.

Creating a healthy body and fit life doesn’t mean you need to be training for ultra-marathons. All you need to do is envision your perfect scenario and just keep focusing and trusting that vision…every single day! If you do this and stay committed to your vision, I guarantee that something or someone will show up in your life that allows that vision to manifest.

Now, this may not happen tomorrow. In fact, it may take several years for your perfect vision to come true. But as said before, the more conviction and trust that you place on your visions, the faster they become a reality.

It takes practice, but believe me, one day you will write a daily intention and by the end of the day – even sometimes within a few hours – it will come true.