Beat the Winter Blues and Spring into Action

March. This is the month when everyone starts to think about bathing suit season.  Are you ready for it? Have you made progress on your new year’s resolutions?

Now that you’ve read all about , it’s time to take it a step further. Certified Life Strategies Coach Jenn Nocera says that it’s more than just eating right and exercising – it’s about changing your subconscious.

“Americans are addicted to food. It’s just how we were raised,” she said in her presentation at a local library this week.

About 66 percent of Americans are overweight. In all 41 percent are on diets. And about 95 percent of those diets will fail. 

So what do you do?

Jackie Smith of Red Bank claimed that she is willing to try anything new that will keep her motivated. 

“I’ve been trying to lose weight for two to three years now, however, I haven’t been successful.  I came here hoping to be inspired to do something,” she said in an interview.

Another patron asserted, “exercise, health, and eating right should always be at the forefront, but sometimes life gets in the way. I came here to focus.”

But, according to Nocera, this is not easy.

“There is so much involved in making fitness and eating clean a lifestyle,” she said.

Nocera focused on the psychological aspects of emotional eating. This condition, which is the consumption of large amounts of food as a response to emotions instead of hunger, is the number one cause of overeating in America. Because of this, Nocera claimed that it is important to identify what triggers you to eat, and then address it accordingly.

“What you are not consciously aware of, you cannot change,” she said during the presentation.

One of the main triggers Nocera identified was television. She claimed that big business in America has dominated our TV sets, airing fast food commercials during weight loss shows. It is this irony that she attributes to some of the underlying weight loss issues in America.

“Everyone wants to look like the celebrities on the red carpet, but just watch the commercials they air during the show,” she said.

As a solution, she recommends trying to cut television down to a minimum. If that is not an option, it is also helpful to do something distracting while the commercials are airing, or even change the channel to avoid seeing them.

In order to try to override this type of addictive behavior that we have become conditioned to follow, Nocera says that life and wellness coaching is unique in its combination of a healthy diet, regular exercise, and the addressing of the psychological factors associated with weight gain.

“We don’t talk about food all the time. We talk about their lives. Coping strategies.  When I first started, I coached a 60-year-old man. He lost 120 pounds, and for once in his life, he thought he was worth it,” she said in an interview.

Nocera concluded by reminding those in attendance, “you are eating to live, not living to eat.”