Our bodies were designed to move, play, and feel good!

And we all know that moving and using our bodies is an essential ingredient in losing weight.

To make a new daily habit of moving and using your body, you need to find out what makes you feel Passion and Pleasure in order to create a new habit of moving and using your body everyday.

Walking is one of the easiest ways to get into moving and using your body every day.

You can create Pleasure and Passion for WALKING everyday

by going on a Beauty Walk!

How do you go on a Beauty Walk?

As you walk, notice little snapshots of beauty around you, every where you go.

Notice flowers, the shape of shadows and sunlight, babies, beautiful furniture or clothes in store windows.

I love bringing along my phone or camera and taking pictures of some of the beautiful things I see while I walk.

At the top of this article is a photo from one of my recent Beauty Walks—a snapshot of my dog Bear with this lovely heart of sunshine!

Plus, extra bonus: the more Beauty you notice around you, the more Beautiful you feel! Now, that is an awesome benefit!

If you want to learn more about stepping into the Pleasure of Moving your body, and feeling beautiful while you move, check out my dance videos!

Click Here to learn how to add Swing to your Step!

With lots of love,

Theresa Stevens

Samba Dance Teacher and

Creator of the Lose Weight By Dancing Program

]]> http://www.lovelightsamba.com/blog/weight-loss/go-for-a-beauty-walk-to-make-a-healthy-lifestyle-change-with-exercise/feed/ 0 http://www.lovelightsamba.com/blog/what-does-it-take-to-make-a-healthy-lifestyle-change/ http://www.lovelightsamba.com/blog/what-does-it-take-to-make-a-healthy-lifestyle-change/#comments Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:54:26 +0000 Theresa Stevens http://www.loseweightbydancing.com/?p=331 What does it take for me or you

to make a Healthy Lifestyle Change?

Many people wait until they have a health crisis that demands that they make a healthy lifestyle change. I am a firm believer that you do not need a health crisis to make a change! That is a really painful way to go.

 So, how DO you decide to make Healthy Lifestyle Changes and follow through on them?

 I believe that THIS is the magic formula: you need to get your Mind, Body, and Spirit all pointed in the same direction.

 To Make a Healthy Lifestyle Change:

Get All Parts of You Pointed in Same Direction—Towards Your Goal

When I say ALL parts of You—I mean your Body, Mind, and Spirit. Each part of you needs to be pointed in the same direction for you to make healthy changes in your life.

When only 2 parts of you are pointed towards your goal—say your Body in working out and your Mind in being committed to it—if your Spirit isn’t involved through having Fun, being in Pleasure, feeling really stimulated, Passionate, and free—then you are going to have very slooooow progress in following through on your new commitment and losing weight.

And when you add Passion + Pleasure = Discipline!

Let’s break down this “magic” formula for making permanent healthy lifestyle changes.

Pleasure is simply another word for “feeling good.”

Passion means loving something so much that something deep inside you makes you keep going, even when things are challenging or inconvenient.

Having Pleasure (feeling good) and Passion (deep love) creates Discipline. Discipline doesn’t seem like a word you would put in the same sentence with Pleasure—but Discipline to me means when you do something you love even when it is inconvenient or you don’t feel 100%–and you still do it because something inside of you LOVES this thing so much.

For example, many people are Passionate (deep love) for their children. Their children bring them so much Pleasure (feeling good). And caring for them becomes a Discipline (a deep commitment).

Get Passionate about Feeling Good!

So I think the real magic bullet in creating a Discipline and a commitment to making any healthy lifestyle change, means that it is time to get Passionate about Feeling Good in your body!

Below is a story from my life, and how I found Passion for Feeling Good after experiencing a mini Health Crisis…

A few years ago I had sought the help of a local nutritionist after a crisis happened with my work, with the non-profit I founded and directed, and I found myself experiencing depression and very low energy.

As the Executive Director, I worked very long hours. I ate frozen pizza almost every night for dinner. I ate deli sandwiches or fast food for lunch—in the car while driving. I ate a bagel or a donut for breakfast—also usually while driving.

When my work crisis happened, not surprisingly, my health crisis did too. And I knew it was time to make changes with everything in my life, and especially with how I took care of myself. And I really needed to make changes with how I ate and what I ate.

I started learning about the power of food and how much it affects your mind and body. But making a real change was awkward.

Friends, co-workers, and family made fun of me and tried to guilt me into eating the way we always had. Very challenging!

It took more time to prepare my food and I had to find creative ways to make this time.

And I ended up spending money on foods that I had never even tasted before. These foods were new and they looked like they were going to taste yucky or be hard to swallow.

Cottage cheese was one of these weird, new foods for me. I’d never had it before and the texture looked horrible to me—pasty white and lumpy. But I bought it and ate it. And to my surprise, it actually tasted really good.

As I followed through on the strict and disciplined recommendations from my nutritionist (which mirror the program developed by my favorite on-line nutritionist, Isabel De Los Rios), I started to FEEL better in my body. And that was the hook!

I used my mind to motivate me to make these healthy lifestyle changes. I learned about food and that got me started with making these big changes in the way I ate.

But what kept me going past the first grocery shopping trip? How did I not slip back into my old, comfortable ways of eating?

It was that thing about Feeling Good!

I started feeling good. Really, really good.

My mind felt really clear. I felt sustained energy throughout the day. I felt alive and positive. I felt in control of my health and my life.

And the outside of me starting changing too! I lost extra weight. My hair and nails grew. My acne cleared up and my skin began to glow. I stopped getting little colds and flus. And I felt an even-flow of emotions that replaced the depression I had experienced.

The Pleasure of Feeling Good in my body, created so much Passion for eating healthy food. And this Passion created a new Discipline in my life with my eating habits.

Are you ready to get Passionate about Feeling Good?

Are you ready to make a Healthy Lifestyle Change?

I created a special Free Report that shares how you can tap into the power of your mind, body, and spirit to make a healthy lifestyle change.

This Free Report shares simple daily activities that will help you get Passionate about Feeling Good!

Just enter your name and email below and I will send you my free report on how to make a healthy lifestyle change using Pleasure, Passion, and Dance!

Many people have LOVED this report and I know you will too!

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With lots of love,

Theresa Stevens

Samba dancer and teacher

and creator of the Lose Weight By Dancing program

www.loseweightbydancing.com

And it is so FUN and satisfying to wear Feathers in your Hair! And to remind yourself everyday to celebrate your beauty and shine bright.

Learn how to to Install Feather Hair Extensions in my short 3 minute video below

Click Here to learn how Dance and Pleasure can help you have the Body and Beauty of your Dreams! 

So many people shuffle along in heels. Theresa will show you 1 simple technique to look HOT and feel fantastic while walking and dancing in heels in this 2 minute video below!

Click Here to learn how to celebrate your beauty and love your body through Samba Dance!

Theresa has been dancing on stilts for 4 years and she loves shaking her hips and booty to Samba Reggae music! Enjoy!

Click Here to learn how to shake your hips and booty! And experience all of the pleasure and joy of Brazilian Samba dance!

I can teach you how to make a beautiful Costume with Feathers.

Check out my short 2 minute video below!

Click Here to learn how to make a beautiful Costume with Feathers, how to dance Samba, and how to shake your hips and booty!

Drinking lots of water every day is a wonderful way to honor and care for your body. It flushes away all of the stress, lactic acid, and toxins that you release as you get into playing in your body through Dance. 

Drinking enough water during the day helps:

• your entire body to function optimally
• your skin to look more youthful and hydrated
• your energy level to naturally increase
• you to feel more patient and peaceful
• you to lose weight and reduce hunger in general.

And if you are someone who is often dehydrated, your body will request water. And you can misinterpret your body's requests for water as requests for food! Which can lead to snacking on anything and everything in sight.

Give your body what it needs–lots of yummy water!

But how much water exactly?

Here I will refer to nutrition expert, Isabel De Los Rios, the author of The Diet Solution Program, who breaks down the amount of water you need to drink every day into a simple math formula:

• Take half your Body Weight in Pounds (Total body weight divided by 2)
• And drink that in Ounces!

So a 140 pound person (140 divided by 2), should drink 70 ounces of water.

If there are 8 ounces in a glass–that's about 9 glasses of water to drink every day!

Now–that's a lot of water!

Want to learn some tips and tricks to help you drink more water everyday?

And enjoy every sip of it?

The above video has some great ideas on how to make water taste great.

Now, you just need to actually drink it!

Can DANCE help you drink more water?

Yes! There is one sure-fire way to help yourself drink more: and that's DANCE!

When you dance, you can actually FUEL yourself with Water, and feel incredibly energized while you are shaking your hips and booty.

Drink 2 glasses of water 15 minutes before you Dance. Drink 2 glasses of water while you are dancing. It will go down easy and your body will thank you. Drink 2 glasses of water after you dance, and you will help your muscles and your body feel amazing.

And, add in drinking a glass of water when you wake up, at lunch, and close to bedtime–and you will have easily made your water quotient for the day!

Dancing helps you not only drink more water, but care for every aspect of your wellness. To me, dancing is like a "gateway drug" into loving and caring for your body in every aspect of your health: nutrition, drinking more water, stretching, training, resting, and loving and caring for yourself.

Click Here to learn how Pleasure and Dance will help you lose weight, love your body, and care for every aspect of your health and wellness!

Try this fun play-cercise: Dancing with the Mirror.

First: Put on some music that you love! Or download this free Samba dance track here.

Next: find some time to be by yourself in a room with a mirror. Shut the door. Everything and everyone can wait a moment. 

Dig through your closet. Put on a super cute outfit that makes you feel alive, sexy, and beautiful in your body. 

Then, get yourself in front of a mirror. Put on the new Samba dance track, turn it up, and dance in the mirror! Have fun, shake your hips, try out some new dance moves, and get down with your booty-full self!

Play with your hair and make-up, make sexy and funny faces at yourself in the mirror, make friends with yourself there. 

Find a part of your body that you usually find yourself griping about and find a new way to actually appreciate this part of your body. Find a new word to describe this part of you!

This play-cercise is guaranteed to get your mojo flowing and your glitter-glow on! And you, and everyone around you, will enjoy the results!

Theresa Stevens

Click Here to learn how Pleasure and Dance will help you lose weight and feel amazing in your body!

I hope you enjoy this little video of me dancing at a Burningman Decompression party in San Francisco with one of my performance groups, Samba Stilt Circus.

Shaking your hips and booty just feels so good! And Brazilian Samba drumming is simply irresistible! Enjoy!

Click Here to learn how to shake your hips and booty, and enjoy all of the pleasure and joy of Brazilian Samba Dance!

And we use the phrase “To Lose Weight” to sum up everything that we want to experience—and that's feeling hot, sexy, alive, confident, comfortable, and alive in our bodies.

So, instead of focusing on the catch-all phrase of “Losing Weight,” what I want to focus on is stepping into the feeling of a special word I made up called BodyJoy.

Being in BodyJoy is a very child-like state when your body mind, and spirit are deeply connected. When you are fully IN your body and not conscious of your body—all at the same time.

Little kids are in BodyJoy most of the time—you can see them dance everywhere and express their emotion using their entire body.  

Focusing on getting into a state of being in Body Joy is your key to losing weight, loving and appreciating your body, and feeling really GOOD in your body.

And as women we have this awesome way of getting into BodyJoy—and that is through the pleasure center of our HIPS!

Our hips surround our core muscles—where all of our movement comes from—it's the center of our power, our pleasure, our movement.

And you can get straight into BODYJOY by putting your attention there when you WALK!

I made a special little video that shows you how to do this—it's called Walking Like A Goddess—and there is just so much pleasure to be had in the simple everyday task of walking.

Most people just shuffle along, trying to get from here to there when there is just SO much pleasure to be found with the way you walk and putting your attention in your HIPS, in your pleasure center.

It is such a powerful, easy, and GENTLE way to focus on Getting Into BodyJoy—to focus on feeling beautiful in your body–just as it is right now–and to really get into the spirit of playing in your body and celebrating yourself!

Click Here to learn how Pleasure and Dance will help you lose weight and feel amazing in your body!