My Top 10 Inspiring People of 2010

Posted on 21. Dec, 2010 by Susan in Blog

One of the best things about my gig, is that I get to share on a regular basis what inspires me for a living.  I’ve always done this. If I read a book that’s awesome, I have to tell everyone to read it. Or, if I see a great quote, watch an amazing show, hear a motivating talk, or find some boots on sale, my people definitely hear about it.

Earlier this year, I shared this little worksheet on creativity and inspiration.  It helps to be intentional about what gets you going. Because, as we all know, whether you are raising kids, running a business, or trying to hear the voice of truth amidst the noise of suckage, it helps to have some places to go where the light is shining bright.

And while I could feature ten inspiring people every month, because I know and admire so many, I decided to pick the ten that I go to frequently, or think about often, when I need a little inspiration.  (In no particular order)

1. Danielle LaPorte www.whitehottruth.com

Danielle LaPorte is a very cool mix of poet, rebel, entrepreneur and sister. She’ll zing your soul and lift your spirit.  Her blog is a must read.




2. Mark Zuckerberg  www.Facebook.com

Nothing but props for someone who had a vision of how the future could connect people and worked tirelessly to achieve that vision.  And, who was motivated by the product and not the profits.




3. Oprah Winfrey www.oprah.com

Oprah will always have a top spot in my heart.  I’ve watched her show since I was in the 7th or 8th grade. She was the first person that I ever heard say, if you do what you love, the money will follow.  Or, that you have passion and purpose, no matter who you are. I have consistently been motivated by her shows, books and magazine. Of course she’s on my list.



4. Martha Beck www.marthabeck.com

Martha is about the funniest and smartest person that I know.  You just can’t find her blend of science, spirituality and humor any place else. And, she just so happened to change my entire life for the better with her teachings. If you do not know Martha Beck, you gotta. Check her out.




5. Ellen DeGeneres http://ellen.warnerbros.com/

Cool and relevant? Check. Heart centered? Check. Funny as hell? Double check.  Ellen has perfected how to be funny without being snarky. There is nothing but light that comes out of her show.


6. Lin Eleoff www.theworstmother.com

Visit Lin’s blog and thank me later. I sometimes laugh so hard that I cry reading her illustrated musings. If you are a mom, it’s a must.




7. Kris Carr www.crazysexylife.com

Kris Carr is a bundle of green juice energy. Her story of beating cancer through nutrition is eye pop opening. You can’t help but feel good when you read her books.




8. Robyn Openshaw www.greensmoothiegirl.com

One of my favorite resources for all things green smoothie. Robyn is smart, dedicated to whole foods, and walks her talk.





9. Maria Shriver www.mariashriver.com

I love that Maria Shriver encourages us all to be “Architects for Change” in our own lives and the world. Her conferences, books and site are epic. Really.




10. Jamie Oliver www.jamieoliver.com

My man Jamie Oliver is a triple whammy of passion, purpose and mad skillz.  I love that this man is tackling school lunch reform, can whip up some mean roasted root vegetables, and makes whole foods look as cool as they are.  His cookbooks pack some heat. Love.

Getting What You Want

Posted on 09. Feb, 2010 by Susan in Get What You Want

Ask the questions that can move you forward

“I never get what I want, and it sucks!” My client was almost as irritated as I had been when Ray the Beagle, then a puppy, chewed through a Lands’ End shipping box and used four pairs of new leather school shoes as teething rings. Almost.

Martha Beck, the insanely talented genius who trained me, recently wrote in the first chapter draft of her new book in progress, The Team, (get your free chapter here) two questions that she asks herself continuously:

  1. How did I get here?
  2. What do I do next?

Fabulous questions to ask–especially since she asked them as she was faced with a mama rhinoceros protecting her young, during one of her retreats in Africa. Practical and useful given that situation. And, given my client’s circumstances.

Instead, I find that most of us, who are not getting what we think we want, are asking the wrong questions. Instead of the two simple path tweakers above, the decidedly “unlucky” will ask:

  1. Who did this to me? And
  2. Who is going to fix this for me?

Notice the difference? Hint: the second set of questions is victim like. No sense of independence or of living as a creator.

We can relearn how to create what we want from kids. Take my nine-year-old daughter, Emily, for example. Sassiness on wheels, she continuously astounds me with her resourcefulness. Despite being born into our clearly crazy family, and the fact that she has a life coach for a mother, she thrives.

Several months ago, Emily asked me if she could have a “girl. dog.” Apparently, I hadn’t noticed the huge problem that all of our pets (2 beagles, 1 cat, 2 ferrets and 1 hamster) were all male. The horror. I politely declined her invitation (over and over and over again) to add another thing that pees to our family.

Jake

Jake, soon to have a sister

She kept asking. She got more creative in her requests and propositions. Until one day, I took her bait. If you’ve ever read my blog or Facebook status updates, you know that Jake, our skinny Beagle, is a challenging subject. He’s not exactly bringing home trophies from obedience training. So when Emily offered to train Jake in exchange for getting a girl puppy, I agreed. Of course! This is a deal that I cannot lose! Train JAKE?! I laughed. She asked why I did not have faith in her. I told her that I had truckloads of faith in her, just not in her subject. I underestimated both of them.

Emily bought a booked called Dog Training for Dummies, watched my DVD’s of the Dog Whisperer, and bought special liver treats for her training experiment. We agreed on five tricks that she would teach Jake. Once Jake could consistently sit, stay, beg, drop, and do a circle trick, we would know that Emily had done her job.

I was so amused by her optimism.

A few days later, I was attending a “graduation ceremony” for Jake, complete with a special certificate Emily made him.

The darned dog was actually trainable! And Emily had done it! It was Emily’s turn for amusement. Now I am shopping for a girl puppy.

The lessons here are both simple and profound:

  1. Ask yourself constantly: How did I get here, and what will I do next?
    Stop waiting for other people to solve your issues for you. It’s your life. Live it. Ask yourself powerful questions to create a vision.
  2. Create a plan. Come up with tiny steps to inch toward your vision.
  3. Celebrate! When you reach your vision, enjoy it!
  4. Never underestimate the magic of strong intentions. Find. A. Way.

Brace yourself for an onslaught of blog posts about our new addition. I know she’ll be amazing, as she was created with the best of intentions.

Popular Weight Loss Advice That Sucks, and why you don’t have to listen

Posted on 07. Jan, 2010 by Susan in Weight Loss

Celebrities are hired to glam up crappy packaged foods and poisonous “fat blocking” pills. Pick up any “health” magazine, and you’ll find a newly-fit, slightly-famous woman declaring dieting words of wisdom that include earth shattering tips like, “clear out all tempting foods and eat only carrots.” Google “weight loss” and you will receive 426,000,000 results. Most of it is full of damaging lies that separate you from your money, your natural body weight, and your own power.

As a former yo-yo dieter, I’m passionate about reconnecting women with their inner wisdom and the handiest weight loss tool around — their very own bodies. I’ve selected three popular weight loss tips that I invite you to drop. They don’t create lasting weight loss or inner peace.

Clean Sweep

apple_tape measureYou’ve seen these segments on TV. A weight loss “expert” will go into a dieter’s kitchen and fill a dumpster in their front yard with all their mayonnaise, Cheetos, bread, hamburger meat, and basically anything that contains more than 100 calories. The dieter cries, the “expert” tells her to suck it up, and the cameras capture this “motivating” encounter to “help” us understand that we are powerless to the fat gram. We need to clean out our fridges and pantries and purses if we ever hope to stuff our muffin tops into skinny jeans. We can’t be tempted.

After the camera crew leaves, and the dieter has had enough white knuckling, eating lettuce, and chewing on the baseboards, a tsunami of binging and self-flogging ensues. The dieter wonders what’s wrong with her and why she can’t lose weight. The truth is that deprivation just doesn’t work. You can’t hide from food. Food isn’t the issue in the first place. A lasting weight loss journey begins with understanding the thoughts and emotions that are creating the need to overeat in the first place. YOU can become your expert. So, what are you hungry for really? When you cure boredom with a plate of brownies, or stuff down anger with pizza, or create your entertainment through wine and cheese, notice it.

Three Square Meals

We’ve become a nation obsessed with eating according to external cues. We eat by the clock and abide by the rules of the Clean Plate Club. The Clean Plate Club does not allow snacking between meals, eating after 7 p.m., before 5 a.m. or on Sundays. I recently saw a very famous wellness guru Tweet to eat three 400-calorie meals a day with no snacking in between for successful weight loss. Is there no wonder why Americans SUPERSIZE our portions when we think we’ve got to get all we can in three meals? The truth is that your magnificent and miraculous human body is equipped to alert you when to eat and when to stop. This usually results in eating 5-6 times a day and a naturally thin body. It doesn’t matter what time of day that is. If you eat when you are hungry, and fuel your body according to its signals, you can bag all the crazy rules. Visit here to download a free Hunger Scale Guide.

Eat This Not That

Surf around on enough weight loss web sites, and you’ll be warned that you should not eat carbs, meat, egg, boysenberries, and actual real food. You can’t be trusted with any of them. Just go ahead and buy frozen, fake food so that you can control yourself. Ridiculousness! The truth that I have learned by honoring my own body, and working with hundreds of other women and their unique bodies, is that your very own body will TELL you what foods feel good and bad in your system. Guess what? Eggs, and orange juice, and cottage cheese feel just great in my body. They energize and fuel me. Not so for some of my clients. These foods feel sickly in their stomachs. It’s not a one-size-fits-all thing with food. Learning how to pay attention to how different foods actually feel inside your body through food journaling can free you from these crazy rules. Visit here to download a free Food Journal worksheet.

The diet industry has a lot to lose if you take back your power. In a $60 billion industry, it’s counting on you to continue using food in unhealthy ways. I challenge you to start your very own personal body revolution. It’s not about counting calories, weighing food, and over exercising. It is about learning how to think. You can do that. You can live at your natural weight. Just take the first sane and rational steps.

Join Martha Beck, PhD and best-selling author of The Four Day Win, Brooke Castillo, Master Coach and author of If I’m So Smart Why Can’t I Lose Weight?, and me for a weekend designed to help you lose the drama and the weight — January 22-24 in Phoenix, Arizona. Get all the details and register at www.weightlossforsmartwomen.com.

Celebrities are hired to glam up crappy packaged foods and poisonous “fat blocking” pills. Pick up any “health” magazine, and you’ll find a newly-fit, slightly-famous woman declaring dieting words of wisdom that include earth shattering tips like, “clear out all tempting foods and eat only carrots.” Google “weight loss” and you will receive 426,000,000 results. Most of it is full of damaging lies that separate you from your money, your natural body weight, and your own power.
As a former yo-yo dieter, I’m passionate about reconnecting women with their inner wisdom and the handiest weight loss tool around — their very own bodies. I’ve selected three popular weight loss tips that I invite you to drop. They don’t create lasting weight loss or inner peace.
Clean Sweep
You’ve seen these segments on TV. A weight loss “expert” will go into a dieter’s kitchen and fill a dumpster in their front yard with all their mayonnaise, Cheetos, bread, hamburger meat, and basically anything that contains more than 100 calories. The dieter cries, the “expert” tells her to suck it up, and the cameras capture this “motivating” encounter to “help” us understand that we are powerless to the fat gram. We need to clean out our fridges and pantries and purses if we ever hope to stuff our muffin tops into skinny jeans. We can’t be tempted.
After the camera crew leaves, and the dieter has had enough white knuckling, eating lettuce, and chewing on the baseboards, a tsunami of binging and self-flogging ensues. The dieter wonders what’s wrong with her and why she can’t lose weight. The truth is that deprivation just doesn’t work. You can’t hide from food. Food isn’t the issue in the first place. A lasting weight loss journey begins with understanding the thoughts and emotions that are creating the need to overeat in the first place. YOU can become your expert. So, what are you hungry for really? When you cure boredom with a plate of brownies, or stuff down anger with pizza, or create your entertainment through wine and cheese, notice it.
Three Square Meals
We’ve become a nation obsessed with eating according to external cues. We eat by the clock and abide by the rules of the Clean Plate Club. The Clean Plate Club does not allow snacking between meals, eating after 7 p.m., before 5 a.m. or on Sundays. I recently saw a very famous wellness guru Tweet to eat three 400-calorie meals a day with no snacking in between for successful weight loss. Is there no wonder why Americans SUPERSIZE our portions when we think we’ve got to get all we can in three meals? The truth is that your magnificent and miraculous human body is equipped to alert you when to eat and when to stop. This usually results in eating 5-6 times a day and a naturally thin body. It doesn’t matter what time of day that is. If you eat when you are hungry, and fuel your body according to its signals, you can bag all the crazy rules. Visit here to download a free Hunger Scale Guide.
Eat This Not That
Surf around on enough weight loss web sites, and you’ll be warned that you should not eat carbs, meat, egg, boysenberries, and actual real food. You can’t be trusted with any of them. Just go ahead and buy frozen, fake food so that you can control yourself. Ridiculousness! The truth that I have learned by honoring my own body, and working with hundreds of other women and their unique bodies, is that your very own body will TELL you what foods feel good and bad in your system. Guess what? Eggs, and orange juice, and cottage cheese feel just great in my body. They energize and fuel me. Not so for some of my clients. These foods feel sickly in their stomachs. It’s not a one-size-fits-all thing with food. Learning how to pay attention to how different foods actually feel inside your body through food journaling can free you from these crazy rules. Visit here to download a free Food Journal worksheet.
The diet industry has a lot to lose if you take back your power. In a $60 billion industry, it’s counting on you to continue using food in unhealthy ways. I challenge you to start your very own personal body revolution. It’s not about counting calories, weighing food, and over exercising. It is about learning how to think. You can do that. You can live at your natural weight. Just take the first sane and rational steps.

Weight Loss for Smart Women…join the revolution

Posted on 29. May, 2009 by Susan in Weight Loss

Eight-Week Telecourse with Brooke Castillo and Susan Hyatt

“End your diet war and achieve thinner peace.”
~Martha Beck

Wednesdays, June 17- August 5, 2009
10am Pacific | 11am Mountain | 12pm Central | 1pm Eastern
All classes are 60 minutes

Have
you tried everything and still struggle with losing weight? Lose the
drama and the weight. In eight weeks, learn the most effective weight
loss tools on the planet from Martha Beck’s “The Four Day Win” and
Brooke Castillo’s “If I’m So Smart Why Can’t I Lose Weight?”
methodologies. It’s thinner peace.

June 17 — Pre-Contemplation and 4 Days at a Time (Susan)
June 24 — Eating Tools (Brooke)
July 1 — Contemplation and The Watcher, The Dictator and The Wild Child (Susan)
July 8 — Feeling Tools (Brooke)
July 15 — Preparation and Action (Susan)
July 22 — Belief Tools (Brooke)
July 29 — Keeping the Momentum and Maintenance(Susan)
August 5 — Future Focus Tools (Brooke)

Can’t make one or more of those dates? No problem. All participants will receive an mp3 recording of each session.

All 8 sessions, including mp3 recordings, for just $99!

Register here.

Questions? Please contact Support@MarthaBeck.com.

“If you want a diet, I am not your woman. If you want a personal revolution, join me.”
~Susan Hyatt

I have learned first hand how to apply Master Coach Brooke Castillo’s ground breaking tools. I can help you do the same.

I am a weight loss coach with virtually no interest in how many calories you eat or how many sit ups you do. I am solely
interested in finding the limiting thoughts that you think that drive
your patterns of behavior, and helping you get rid of them. There are a
million diet programs that will tell you how to eat and how to move. I
will teach you how to think. And from that place,
you will find freedom that will not only feel lighter, but will create
new patterns of behavior that will make you literally lighter in the
process.

See my story here.

All 8 sessions with mp3 recordings for just $99!

Register now!

This Ain’t Your Mama’s Christmas Telecourse

Posted on 21. Oct, 2008 by Susan in Inspiration

I’m really excited about this 90 minute telecourse that I am offering through Martha Beck, Inc. The class will take place on Thursday, November 13th at 11am Pacific.  The class will be recorded, so you can download the MP3 if you can’t be there live.  Click on this link to register NOW! http://www.marthabeck.com/telecourses_detail.php?class_id=92&cat_name=Live%20Telecourses