JULIE ANNE JONES
ALIGN
your whole being
CONNECT
TO YOUR BODY
ENJOY
FOOD without fear
Welcome To
happy exercise®
Step 4 of Happy Calories Don’t Count®
HOW YOU FEEL IN - AND ABOUT - YOUR BODY MATTERS!
This is not an issue of "vanity." Your body is the vehicle through which you experience this life. Therefore, how you feel in - and about - your body directly impacts every single aspect of your life - your relationships, your career, your finances, your family, your health, your well-being... EVERYTHING.
How you feel in and about your body literally affects the quality of your life.
What Is Happy Exercise®?
Happy Exercise® is a perspective, a state of being, a lifestyle and the 4th Step of the Happy Calories Don’t Count® methodology.
I originally coined the term in the 90s when I first started doing Pilates. After years of hard-core, punishing, body-bashing workouts that focused only on burning calories and controlling my weight, Pilates was a completely different experience.
For the first time in my lifetime of exercise, I was able to connect with my body… to feel my body… to consciously move my body… and it felt GREAT! I felt strong. I felt flexible. I felt embodied. And best of all, I didn’t hurt. Pilates was my “Happy Exercise.”
This life-changing experience helped me heal my relationship with my body - and with exercise itself. I was able to take what I had learned in the Pilates studio and apply it to all sorts of physical activities - including many of my old workouts - transforming them into “Happy Exercise®.”
People noticed a change in me - I seemed happier, freer, and I was looking better than ever - and they wanted to know my “secret.” So I wrote a book, Happy Calories Don’t Count (neither does unhappy exercise) - and everything grew from there.
Happy Exercise® helps you create a body AND life you love!
this means that you
optimize your physical results without diets or crazy workout plans
with programs that meet you where you are & take you where you want to go
The Problem is NOT With You!
The problem is with the conventional, cultural
"diet and exercise" model.
The "Diet & Exercise" Model suggests two things.
1) You have to "pay a price" to eat. The price? Exercise - or weight gain. It is this underlying idea that creates of all of the "crazies" we have around food and exercise. All of the diets, all of the mental gymnastics, bargaining and judging - the good food and bad food - and the crazy making. And don't forget those extended body-bashing workouts to "make up for" what you may have eaten or to even earn the "right" to eat.
2) This idea is even worse. It implies that your weight is your fault. This model suggests that if you are not the size or shape you want to be, you are at best unmotivated or undisciplined or at worst, you’re lazy or stupid because everyone knows what you’re supposed to do… eat less and move more – or eat the “right” food and do the “right” kind of exercise. And this is the piece that creates the pain and shame.
But the fact that you are responsible for what you eat and what you do for exercise, does not mean that you can therefore control your body and your weight through diet and exercise. That is a fallacy. That is the fallacy that lies at the heart of your pain, shame, drama and dysfunction around food, exercise, your body and your weight.
Your weight is not your fault. But your healing is your responsibility. And to truly heal and transform your relationships with food and exercise – to find peace and healing - and create a body you love - you need to work with a completely different underlying model.
Happy Calories Don’t Count® is that completely different underlying model.
I feel more freedom than I’ve ever felt and the guilt and pressure I’ve always felt around food is little by little, day by day, fading, being replaced by how great I feel in my own skin.
JULIE KICK
AUTHOR, WEATHERING THE GRIEF STORM
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
I was stuck. I knew from painful years of experience that diets didn’t work. And every alternative weight loss approach I tried left me feeling angry, deprived and frustrated. I thought the problem was me: I had a bad attitude; I needed to try harder.
Then I came upon Happy Calories Don’t Count®, and I had the revelation that the problem wasn’t my failure, it was the failure of the diet and exercise model.
Carmela’s approach is truly revolutionary. She puts forth a new paradigm that not only makes sense, it works.
Following her five steps, I appreciate my body, enjoy my food, and made it through the holiday season having lost weight. No need for a New Year resolution this time!!!
DANA LIGHTMAN, PhD
AUTHOR, POWER OPTIMISM
Imagine what your life could be like if you felt good about your body!
you absolutely can heal your diet drama,
transform your body and feel empowered
CREATE A MAGNIFICENT,
BEAUTIFUL, MEANINGFUL LIFE
FINALLY FEEL CONFIDENT IN
AND ABOUT YOUR BODY
create a body & life you love!
An Excerpt From My Latest Award-Winning Book:
“If you could have one superpower what would it be?” I don’t know if anyone asks this question anymore, but it used to be a common icebreaker. While other people would offer up such exciting powers as flying, teleporting, or being invisible, I would always say I wanted to be able to heal people. I would offer up healing abilities as a superpower because I was too ashamed to admit the one power that I truly, desperately wanted: to be able to eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted without having to worry about getting fat – to have food just be a non-issue and still look good. I bet that confession just opened up a big can of worms. Some may see this as vanity. Some may bristle at the word “fat.” Some people (who probably aren’t reading this book) may think all of this is silly and a waste of time. But I promise you it is not. Your body is the vehicle through which you experience this life. Period. It does not matter if you are coming at things from a general health and fitness perspective, a deeper emotional and spiritual point of view, or a body image/body positivity frame of mind. If your experience of your body is not happy, neither is your life experience. It simply cannot be.
How you feel in your body and about your body is a very big deal. It influences everything – your sense of self, your relationships, your career, your finances, your health – everything. How you feel in and about your body literally affects the quality of your life.
If you picked up this book, the quality of your life is likely compromised. And you are not alone. With the amount of time, money and energy – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energy – most women often spend dealing with body anxiety, shame and hatred, we are prevented from truly living. Furthermore, our families, friends and society as a whole lose out on the unique gifts that only we can offer.
This book is about optimizing your quality of life. You won’t learn what to eat to “master your metabolism,” how to train so that you can “keep burning fat hours after your workout,” or the “secret to manifesting” your dream body. This is not a self-help or personal development book that motivates you to “embrace your inner goddess” and “overcome those obstacles” that are keeping you from your diet, fitness and weight loss goals. Rather this book offers an honest and intelligent conversation on personal transformation, specifically in the areas of body image and weight loss. This book discusses everything from the physical to the metaphysical, from body shame to body positivity, through a very specific lens – the lens of my own hard-fought experience. For through that experience, I have developed my coveted superpower. I really can eat whatever I want whenever I want and not have to worry about getting fat. Food truly is a non-issue and I do feel good in my body and about my body. And now I realize that my answer to that icebreaker question was not actually wrong – I do want to heal people – and I can. If you deal with diet drama - stress, anxiety, frustration, pain or shame around food, exercise, your body or your weight – the principles outlined in this book will heal you. You will discover a sense of peace, freedom and joy that you didn’t know was possible. You will learn how to optimize your health, vitality and wellbeing. You will finally be able to create a body and a life you love.
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