Susan Smith Jones, PhD

Step 8 of 8 in the series Metabolic Weight Loss & Body Tune-UP Tips

CLICK HERE to start with the Introduction.

Accelerate Fat Loss & Get Fit for Life in 8 Easy Steps

8. Nourish your spirit. To maintain a healthy body, you must first nourish your spirit. The real epidemic in our culture is spiritual heart disease—the experience of low self-esteem combined with feelings of loneliness, isolation, and alienation that pervade our culture. I talk about  this in detail in my audio books Wired to Meditate and Choose to Live Peacefully and my new books The Joy Factor and Walking on Air. Many people who suffer from spiritual malaise use food or stimulants such as drugs, caffeine, alcohol, sex, or overwork to numb the pain and get through the day.

Stretching, deep breathing, spending time out in nature, and meditation (for details on all of these subjects, refer to Renew Your Life) will relax your mind and you will experience a greater sense of peace and well-being. Then you’ll be able to make eating and exercise decisions—and other lifestyle choices—that are life enhancing rather than self-destructive. Engage in physical activities that nourish your body and soul. Cherished activities I enjoy include hiking, in-line skating and biking on the bike path on the Santa Monica beach, gardening, walking in a botanical or flower garden, or stretching or yoga (without being in a hurry!).

To wrap up these 8 steps for effective weight loss, remember that dieting alone doesn’t work. Good nutrition combined with regular aerobic exercise is better, but it won’t replace the muscle tissue that’s lost in aging. It’s when you combine strength training, aerobic exercise, sensible eating, stress management, meditation, and other nourishment for your spirit that you have an unbeatable combination for reaching and maintaining your ideal weight, improving your metabolism, creating a fit, lean body, and celebrating life.

Walking on Air: Your 30-Day Inside and Out Rejuvenation Makeover: Have you ever wanted to give not only your body, but your mind, home, and spiritual self a makeover as well? It sounds like a daunting task. Yet, I will show you how this is actually possible. Breaking down life changes into a manageable 30-day plan, I guide you on how to make simple, yet effective, choices with your food, your home, your relationships, your lifestyle, and your state of mind. Each shift is a daily turn toward better health, more conscious living, and greater awareness of the spiritual calm that can flood all aspects of your life. Their cumulative effect is designed to bring you to a new level of vibrant health and deeper joy so that your spirit soars. 

Offering practical advice about "superfoods" and spices, how to become CEO of your body, how to cultivate joy and prosperity, and help with how to maintain discipline, in Walking on Air, I outline how to overcome the major stumbling blocks that every person experiences in modern life. The beauty of this compact, yet thorough, program is how holistically change is offered. Each step builds on the next and attention is given to the whole person – body, mind, soul, and environment. Designed to create lasting change, after a month's dedication to this plan, you will feel rejuvenated both inside and out, less bound to earth by anxiety and physical complaints, and more like you are walking on air.

From the new book's Foreword, bestselling author and contemporary philosopher, Alexandra Stoddard, writes the following: "Busy lives inevitably create a hectic pace of life. Experiencing beauty, feeling wonder, and breathing deeply of nature's blessings unfortunately often falls to the bottom of our to-do lists. Susan's inspiring book will help you to reconsider your priorities and reassess how you use your time and what you value in order to live a more fully realized life. Her secret to creating these transforming changes is that they're made daily, incrementally, and they build on one another, so that nothing becomes a burden, but rather manageable steps onwards until their cumulative effect carries you forward. It's not easy to start a new life-changing program or to give up old habits. Fortunately, Walking on Air is a nurturing guide. Listening to her advice reminds us of listening to an old friend reaching across the kitchen table to share both common sense and uncommon wisdom. This book is practical to read and delightfully pleasant to follow. If you commit yourself to this 30-day plan and daily principles, you'll find that in just one month's time, you will feel stronger, happier, healthier, and more serene, restored, and ready to soar." (AlexandraStoddard.com)

To purchase first edition copies of Walking on Air (Conari Press 2011) for yourself and gifts for family and friends, please call: 800-523-9971 (US & Canada) or 215-632-6100 (International), both ET, M - F • 8:30 - 5pm. With each purchase, you can get FREE, just for the asking, a copy of my popular natural remedy booklet/CD combo titled Herbs: Nature's Medicine Chest.