Amy Hinson On The 5 Things You Need To Do To Achieve a Healthy Body Weight, And Keep It Permanently

We hear this quite often now, but we need to remove the “stuff”. This means cleaning up your living space, your car & your work space. Clutter equals anxiety for the best of us! After reading several books on minimalism and de-cluttering I again cleaned out my closet keeping in mind the many guidelines and I can tell you that I felt freedom. Freedom from the excess, freedom from having to choose. Having what I needed, where I needed it and in an orderly fashion made getting ready for any day easier and therefore adding less distraction and anxiety to my day!

So many of us have tried dieting. All too often though, many of us lose 10–20 pounds, but we end up gaining it back. Not only is yo-yo dieting unhealthy, it is also demoralizing and makes us feel like giving up. What exactly do we have to do to achieve a healthy body weight and to stick with it forever?

In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Do To Achieve A Healthy Body Weight And Keep It Permanently” we are interviewing health and wellness professionals who can share lessons from their research and experience about how to do this.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Amy Hinson.

Amy Hinson is a Master Certified Health & Life Coach of MindBloom Coaching and serves women with superpowers, otherwise known as ADHD and Bipolar! She is on a mission to support these women through habit & mindset changes that lead to healthier weight, more energy, strategic coping skills and a mindset that removes the shame and builds confidence through authentic living.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

I grew up in the 70’s & 80’s in what I thought was a normal small town family. We went on vacations, had a dog, and lived in a nice home with nice cars and a mom & dad. However, the life behind the front door was violent, my parents physically and emotionally abused each other. This twisted my view of the world.

What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.

Where do I start? A high school guidance counselor derailed my hopes of attending a private design school. A boy stole my heart and swore to save me! I married and attended community college. He was abusive after the first month of marriage and my spirit was broken. I began to struggle with my self-worth, and became overwhelmed with depression. As depression moved towards suicidal thoughts I was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. I hid this and my home life from everyone. The shame was all I could see. At 44 I became a widow and to be frank, I regained my worth and I began to put myself first. I remarried and later went through a layoff just before my 50th birthday. I knew I did not want to go back into a corporate job. I wanted to serve, to be a life coach for women. This also evolved and now I work with women who have superpowers, mental illness, that they have kept hidden for so long. I cannot imagine not being a life coach today.

None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?

As long as I have had the ability to make a phone call, my sister, has been there for me. I am certain I come across as “off the wall” sometimes, but she listens to me and gives me great advice. She is older than me and I have called on her in every aspect of my life! Without her I might not have taken as many positive leaps as I have!

Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?

I knew that I wanted to serve women as a life coach so I began setting up my home office, my website and so forth. I am laughing to myself, but yes this is an easy question. I was terribly concerned with the appearance and design of my home office! I wanted pretty file folders to say the least! I realize now that this was simple fear, fear of getting started and fear of failure. I thought being busy was actually working on my business, but no, it was procrastination out of fear!

Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?

The Chinese Proverb: The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

This reminds me that I cannot go back and make changes, but I can change what I do today. I can start over today.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

I have a group of women that are completing a 7 week journey, The 7 Week Plot Twist. These women have been immersed in my program that takes them through 7 weeks of work towards taking a leap of faith with regards to their dreams, weight, lifestyle, relationships, careers and more.

Working with women is such a great joy for me, as I never thought I could be authentic with other women and many others feel this way too. So, when we work individually or within a group we break down these barriers and real friendships and strong relationships are built. This is exciting and makes a difference in lives across all lines!

For the benefit of our readers, can you briefly let us know why you are an authority in the fitness and wellness field?

Life experience has given me more skills than I can document! In addition to my education, certifications and these life experiences I continue to keep my nose in the realm of self-development. I find something new every day that I can work on within myself and then I am able to share with others what I have learned and how it has taken me on to the next level.

OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview about achieving a healthy body weight. Let’s begin with a basic definition of terms so that all of us are on the same page. How do you define a “Healthy Body Weight”?

Everyone has a healthy weight, in most cases it is not that of a waif model from the 90’s! A healthy weight is one achieved through focused awareness. This focus is on how we eat, slowly and not to a full stomach, but just before so our brain and stomach can catch up. We focus on what we eat, can we pronounce the ingredients, did it grow in the ground and what will this do for or against my body? With time and focus we learn to love ourselves and our decisions of what to eat become so simple! I hate the word diet and the fact that it requires deprivation. No, I want cake! So, I eat cake in moderation and I don’t eat cake simply because I am bored or avoiding my emotions in the moment. A healthy body weight results from this strategy. Your body will feel good to you, you will feel proud and your clothes will fit nicely. The number on the scale will not necessarily be the best way to know when you have arrived. The overall goal is health, energy and a life well lived!

How can an individual learn what is a healthy body weight for them? How can we discern what is “too overweight” or what is “too underweight”?

As I said before, the scale is not always the best measure of a healthy weight. Overweight is when you are overly fatigued, you do not feel your best, you have brain fog and no stamina for daily life and you may even hide from the camera. Underweight is similar in that you have low energy and so forth. In either situation you want to remember to eat with focus, will this food help or hurt my body? Can I pronounce the ingredients in this prepackaged dinner? If not, I suppose it did not grow in the ground. This can become a really simple way to live without restriction.

This might be intuitive to you, but it will be instructive to expressly articulate this. Can you please share a few reasons why being over your healthy body weight, or under your healthy body weight, can be harmful to your health?

Here are a few common issues readers may recognize that may be directly associated with their body weight: Acid reflux, fatigue, some forms of depression & anxiety. Being overweight puts a strain on organs that must work harder due to the extra pounds. Consider your heart, it has to pump harder and this is not a muscle you want to wear out sooner than later. In addition, your joints suffer when under the pressure of weight, leading to long term issues and possible joint replacement. While we may not see self-worth as a health issue it certainly contributes to depression and anxiety which can spiral into poor choices that then spills over into our work and relationships.

In contrast, can you help articulate a few examples of how a person who achieves and maintains a healthy body weight will feel better and perform better in many areas of life?

Getting to a healthy weight will offer you great confidence. From confidence we see strong relationships, better performance in the workplace and less fatigue which lends itself to more social aspects of our lives. Once you have overcome a weight problem you know you can do anything you set your mind to!

Ok, fantastic. Here is the main question of our discussion. Can you please share your “5 Things You Need To Do To Achieve a Healthy Body Weight And Keep It Permanently?”. If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

1. We hear this quite often now, but we need to remove the “stuff”. This means cleaning up your living space, your car & your work space. Clutter equals anxiety for the best of us! After reading several books on minimalism and de-cluttering I again cleaned out my closet keeping in mind the many guidelines and I can tell you that I felt freedom. Freedom from the excess, freedom from having to choose. Having what I needed, where I needed it and in an orderly fashion made getting ready for any day easier and therefore adding less distraction and anxiety to my day!
2. The same goes for the mind, I talked about mindset earlier and this is key to anyone’s journey towards better wellbeing. Our subconscious mind holds our beliefs….true or not. Therefore if we meditate or declare daily affirmations of what we want to believe, versus what we have believed for a lifetime, we can change these beliefs. A former client just knew she could not make a career change because she would lose her benefits, her income might not be sufficient and so much more minutia. As we dug a little deeper into this belief we found that she held this belief based on her parents belief that you started with a company and you stayed there until you retired. Now, I grew up the very same way and had the same beliefs, however I did not stay with jobs due to my superpowers and found for me this created shame around the belief that I should have one job for 30 years. My client was able to overcome her false beliefs with some simple affirmation exercises. She did make the career change and yes she was still nervous, but now had the mindset to take the leap of faith!
3. For me and most, wellbeing includes healthy living. From that point, most of us could benefit from a healthier way of eating! I have learned and share with my clients to eat a plant based diet at least 80% of the time. The benefits are extraordinary! No matter what you choose to eat, eat with focus, focus on chewing until your food is easily digested. Focus on the ques your stomach is giving and eat until you feel about 80% full. Your stomach sends messages to your brain with regards to fullness, but we are often at 80% before the brain gets this message. So, you will more than likely be full when you feel only 80% full. Eat on smaller plates, don’t take seconds unless it is green, think broccoli minus the cheese and other fats. Eat to fuel your body, but don’t deprive yourself. Once you tell yourself that you cannot eat cake no matter what, all your brain hears is EAT CAKE! So, you won’t just have little bite, you will eat a whole cake! My story here…..I have eaten a dozen donuts, yes in my car, under the cover of darkness!
4. While this may now be a cliché, gratitude is the only “tude” (as in attitude) to have! When we take a moment, and I know these seem like stolen moments, to write down 5 things, 5 moments we are grateful for our day will change. As an example, I lived in Atlanta for years and made the commute into the city each day for work. Living just 20 miles away could mean a 1 or even 2 hour commute depending on the will of the gods. As most of you know, a commute can raise your blood pressure, increase your anxiety, and create a bad start to the day in general. What if, bear with me here, what if you smiled instead of yelling at another driver, what if you picked up your coffee and you gave the barista a compliment, what if you listen to an audio book on your commute, something that made you smile, what if you walked into the office and said hello with a smile in your voice? I don’t mean fake it till you make it, I mean a genuine smile! How do you get to this attitude? You have gratitude in your heart. When you go to bed at night write down or just make a mental list of all the little things you are grateful for. Maybe it is as simple as, “I am grateful that my husband picked up his gross socks and put them in the hamper before bed”! It could be this, something I often recite in my head after lying on my pillow, “I am grateful for all of my grandchildren and I am grateful for my pets that are so much easier to raise than my children were”! Just teasing, but it does not have to be a great work of literature, just a couple of small things you noticed during your day that put a smile on your face. Remember, you do not know what is happening behind the scenes for the people you interact with each day, so offer everyone a smile!
5. Here is a tough one, maybe best left to last, be honest with yourself. Wow, I know this is hard, it was for me. I decided to be honest and share that I have superpowers with the world….we’ve all watched the TV shows and movies where those of us with superpowers are locked away because we can’t control the lightning bolts we have to offer the world! At 51, I shared my story of suicidal tendencies, destruction and financial disasters that I had created because I did not know how to use my powers for greatness. Well, now I do. I know that being honest with the world, forget what they think about you, and will truly set you free! I cannot tell you the fear I held that people would judge me and I am sure they have and will continue to. Once I spoke my truth the flood gates opened in my mind and I was free to be me without a care in the world of what others might think of me. Let’s be honest and know that “they” whoever they are, have just as much dirty laundry as the rest of us! So let what they believe about you be on them. You must live your authentic life for better wellbeing. You will not regret it!

The emphasis of this series is how to maintain an ideal weight for the long term, and how to avoid yo-yo dieting. Specifically, how does a person who loses weight maintain that permanently and sustainably?

Permanent weight loss must include all the foods you love. You must recognize that food comes from the ground if you are following a plant based diet. Knowledge is power and you need to know that there are good fats and that the sugars in fruit are not the same a high fructose corn syrup in most processed foods. Once you have this knowledge and you draw from it daily you will have a new way of eating and thinking for a lifetime. You now have a mindset of loving yourself and knowing that if I eat this junk food I am not loving myself, so I will make better choices for this one and only body I have been given.

What are a few of the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they try to lose weight? What errors cause people to just snap back to their old unhealthy selves? What can they do to avoid those mistakes?

Number one, they are told they cannot eat _____….so the brain says I need to focus on ______. For me it was always cake or some form of sweets. When I would break down and eat the cake, I’d feel terrible about my choice and then I’d throw in the towel and tell myself that I don’t deserve to lose the weight. To avoid this I suggest that we don’t think of food in the form of good or bad. Before I talk to a client about food of any kind we talk about their mindset and beliefs around food and weight. Once these are clear then we talk about food and exercise.

How do we take all this information and integrate it into our actual lives?

The truth is that we all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables, eat less sugar, etc. But while we know it intellectually, it’s difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. In your opinion what are the main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives?

Comfort, when we leave our comfort zone, our bad habits, and take a leap of faith into discomfort it requires a clear a focused mindset. We need to change the dialogue in our brain to say this is not comfortable, this is uncomfortable so I am trying something new. When we decide that this, our norm, is not comfortable then we can take on the challenge. It is a challenge, it takes work and focus, but it is not impossible.

On the flip side, how can we prevent these ideas from just being trapped in a rarified, theoretical ideal that never gets put into practice? What specific habits can we develop to take these intellectual ideas and integrate them into our normal routine?

To make any change in our habits, we need to take a look at what we can do today in this moment to reach our goal. This is a small step that we take. For example, today I can drink more water and start to reduce soda. Nothing more, just this one step. Tomorrow I will drink more water and bring a snack to work for the afternoon slump. This snack will give me energy, but I will not grab candy from the vending machine. Each day we do something, some small step towards our big goal. These small steps stack up and before you know it you are half way there! Don’t make the journey overwhelming by looking at the whole map….just look at the map within a 25 or 50 mile radius. Small steps, just one at a time is key.

Ok, we are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

A movement, that is a big one….I would like to live in a world where mental illness was seen as a superpower that not everyone was lucky enough to have! I would like to see influential people in the world declare this to be true and that those of us with these powers could and would wear it proudly on our chest just like Superman or better yet Wonder Woman!

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why?

He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)

Gabrielle Bernstein, I want to dive deeper into the spirituality she shares with the world. I know this is an area where I need to put more energy!

How can our readers further follow your work online?

www.mindbloomcoach.net

https://www.facebook.com/MindBloomHealthCoaching

Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.