6 Secret Weapons for Rockin’ Your Summer Body with Confidence

By Kristi K. Hoffman, M.S.

Last time we checked, no one was flawless. But that’s not always easy to remember when you’re going to the season’s first pool party or heading to the beach for summer vacation.

Feeling panicked, insecure, and ultra-intimidated about bathing suit weather? No more! Beach vacations and pool parties are about to get fun again.

Ninety percent of teen girls surveyed by Total Package Global, an Ohio-based professional and personal development corporation, have felt insecure about their bodies, often when wearing a bathing suit. In fact, according to Dove Self-Esteem Project research, “Six out of ten girls are so concerned with the way they look that they are holding back from participating in important life activities.” And we can’t have that! So here are six secret weapons for rockin’ your beach body this summer:

1. Don’t pre-determine that you will have a bad time at the beach or that you will look “awful” in your beachwear. Lose self-judgments from the get-go and instead, tell yourself that you will have fun and not be self-conscious. Get your head and your thoughts in the right game — one of positive self-thoughts, not negative ones — and #jbu (just be you!).

2. Erase the negative thoughts you think others are thinking about your body. They’re not.

3. Develop a sassy attitude. Walk with your chin up and shoulders back, wear beachwear you feel confident in, pop up a sassy pony tail, and smile… a lot.

4. Halt the envy. No more “I wish I had her body.” Negative self-talk is your enemy — don’t give those anti-thoughts about your body any energy. Ever think that others are envying you at the same time you are envying them? Put the envy and comparisons to bed…permanently.

5. Focus on your assets. You have many — you may, however, have pushed them aside to obsess about your body image. Get real with your outside beauty. You rock, now list the ways.

6. As you are walking down the beach this summer, repeat this confidence mantra to yourself and you will have graduated from Bathing Suitin’ 101: “I am gorgeous and I know it.”

Remember, pools and beaches are for summer fun, no more insecurities and self-consciousness. It’s time, #rightnow to rock summer #bathingsuitin’ with attitude and confidence.

Late to the New Year’s Resolution Party?

By Kristi Hoffman

Getting a late start on your New Year’s resolutions and now it’s February? Well lucky you. Join the party! February is the new January. So jump on, late “New Year New You” starters.

If hopes of starting a fresh new year filled with resolutions didn’t quite work out as planned. — health or family crises may have taken over, over-commitments didn’t allow it, poor time management took over — c’est la vie. Let’s get going #RightNow.

Here are three actions to get you February-motivated, to step aboard and get unstuck. Who says January 1 is the magic start date? “New Year New You” starts now, no matter what the calendar says!

Action #1: LOSE SOMETHING.

-Release an unhealthy habit such as smoking, over-indulging, impatience with others.

-Let go of an old routine — eating sugar-laden cereals for breakfast (try oatmeal), getting on your computer for hours every night (try talking with the family or call an old friend instead)

-Walk away from a negative, judgmental, nasty person in your world. Meanness is so last year.

-Let go of complacency and become active.

Action #2: CHANGE IT UP.

-Eat breakfast in a different chair.

-Drive the kids to school a different way.

-Get up 15 minutes earlier and read the headlines.

-Stretch before bed.

-Walk for 20 minutes in the morning.

-Have something to look forward to: spring, a vacation, a new job.

-Pray upon waking.

-Start a craft, an adventure, join a club. Start a new “thing.”

Action #3: BE THE FORCE THAT CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING.

-Smile at a stranger.

-Lead by example; people are watching, what are they learning?

-Don’t wait for someone else to tell you it’s “go” time. Take action.

-Trust your intuition.

-Speak positive words about yourself to others.

-Stop gossiping and start complimenting.

And now….. Download the Total Package Lifestyle App for daily positive #MeMantras! Your total package of Body, Brain, and Spirit will thank you! Happy New Year to you, no matter what the date is!

Set Your Set-Point: Uphold Your “Happiness Level” For Life

By Kristi K. Hoffman

We get to set our own goals in life. How beautiful is that? There is great power in realizing our own ability to challenge ourselves and set our GPS toward our loves and talents. And, even more beautiful still is that when we meet our goals, we get to re-calibrate them, and raise the bar to an even more exciting level.

In addition to goal-setting is establishing a personal set point. A set point is that place where you’d like to maintain, stabilize, and stay, as it relates to key areas in your life. Set points are important because they provide structure—something to aim for and stay committed to for future success. Consider your set point a personally satisfying, quantifiable objective you wish to maintain.

Set points help you step up to your next level, aim for and reach your life dreams and goals, uphold your “happiness level” for life. They are your sustainable happy place. Your set point may (will) change and evolve as chapters in your life change. But that’s the beauty of being able to set, reach, and recalibrate your own goals.

Establish a set point for these four areas:

• Weight: Know at what weight (range) you feel good, healthy, and fit. Work with a physician, and as necessary, explore working with a dietitian, a fitness expert, and/or use your FitBit or My Fitness Pal app to stay consistent. Consistency, habit, and discipline are key core competencies here.

• Work/Career: Know what measurable objectives you need to reach to be successful, to get the promotion, to seal the deal, to perform at peak levels, to get high marks on your evaluations, to set yourself up for future success. Drive, desire, and organization will help you with this set point.

• Financial: Know where you’d like to be financially to live the lifestyle that makes you feel happy, comfortable, fulfilled. Be diligent about paying off debt, staying debt free going forward, and building a savings for your dreams. Discipline, perseverance, and patience will be critical core competencies to help you here.

• Personal: Know who you’d like to impact, what your future self looks/acts like, what organization you can assist to make this world a better place, what actions will build a fit, healthy, fun life. That is living the Total Package Lifestyle! Introspection, desire, and passion will be key here.

Once you know your set points in these four areas, write action steps for each, to keep you steady and on track every day. Keep your set points your reality by staying focused on them, and working diligently towards maintaining these core goals. Notice the personal bliss you begin to feel as you achieve your set points. Now that’s a beautiful thing! #TotalPackageLifestyle

How To Kill A ‘Buzz Kill’

By Kristi Hoffman

It’s one of those days … Maybe you didn’t get enough sleep. Your relationships are off kilter. Everything is hitting you wrong. You are slightly defensive, mean-spirited, or just plain evil. In fact, everything, it seems, is a buzz kill, zapping joy at every turn. And the annoyances keep coming. Today the list of incessant, bothersome buzz kills seems longer than usual and there is seemingly nothing you can do to stop the negative energy.

Now, I’m no psychologist but I’ve learned a few ChickSmart rules. First things first. Don’t try to stop the buzz-kill feeling in an instant, because it only gets worse if you force it. Instead, analyze the buzz kill and ride the negative energy wave. Label it a “buzz kill moment” and remember, you aren’t the only one having crap annoy you. Misery really does love company at a moment like this.

Next, ever made a list of your A-#1, absolute, top-of-the-line buzz kills that creep into your world on a pseudo-regular basis? If you don’t have a handy dandy list yet, now is the time to make one. You know what I’m talking about — a list of those things — or people — that/who no matter what, bring you smack out of a good day and drop you right into a crap mood? Maybe it’s the weather. Hormones. Germs. Repeat telemarketers. Noise. Relationship drama. Coworker shenanigans.

What are YOUR buzz kills? Come on…you know the repeat offenders. Jokingly, I say, “escape and eliminate.” But that’s not always possible in the real world. When you can’t run away and eliminate buzz kills from your life, it’s time to take the head-on hit.

Now that you’ve put a label on your buzz kills, ENCAPSULATE them. Stick them in a little (or big) box and, when they creep into your world, acknowledge the box, find some slight humor in it and assign an action step as to how you will deal with the buzz kill. “Here comes numero uno buzz kill,” you might say to yourself to prepare for enduring a direct hit of Annoyance. By recognizing that these negative feelings are coming your way — or have arrived in full force — you can, at a minimum, understand why you feel the way you do, mentally preparing in hopes that the wave will dissipate in the near future. And oftentimes, we can see buzz kills coming at us from a mile away, which aids brain prep time to think through action steps, or better yet, head them off.

So in a buzz kill moment, call a spade a spade, and have a crappy mood for a while. And remember, you can usually kill a buzz kill in three simple steps:

1. Know your buzz kill list and encapsulate it. Escape and eliminate if at all possible.
2. Acknowledge a buzz kill moment and ride the (hopefully short-term) wave, rather than lose the whole day to the negative energy.
3. Find one small sign that will bring the buzz kill wave to shore and assist you in jumping off of it…a song from the 80s, a child laughing, a funny picture, an optimistic friend, a bug that hits your windshield. YOU figure that one out at the moment.

This might not make your day perfect, but you aren’t alone and now you have your buzz kills’ number.

So ride the wave and have yourself a buzz-kill-free day.