Small Changes to help you with your new shape

• Make an effort to stand taller everyday, try not to slouch, this will make you look better and feel better.  It also starts to get the stomach muscles into the habit of toning not relaxing 
• Pull in your stomach muscles 5 times a day for sets of 5 each time.  This can be done anywhere, and no-one can see you do it.  This is just to get your stomach muscles used to the fact that they need to start working again.
• Pull in your butt 5 times a day for sets of 5 each time.
• Act like a cat and stretch after every sitting or lying position. 
• Swap deep frying for shallow frying, indoor grilling or outdoor grilling, this will reduce a lot of your fat intake

• It may be difficult to change your eating habits, because fat makes food taste so good.  So while you cut out the amount of butter or oil you use, try substituting with a flavored sauce, chilli or fresh herbs
• Reduce your servings, get a smaller plate so you are not tempted to eat too much

Welcome to 2012 and the New Improved You!

This is the best time of the year to set weight loss goals for the year.   You have 51 weeks left of this year, which could mean a lot of weight can be lost, especially if you aim to lose 2 pounds a week.  Using this logic you can lose 100 pounds this year.

But I am sure that you actually want to lose less weight than that, so can you see that you are able to achieve that this year?  It's not going to be easy, but it doesn't have to be really hard either.
For the best results, you will have to change your thinking and your eating habits.


Where to start?
Let's start at step 1.

1. Start drinking more water,  drink 4 x 16oz glasses of water,
2. Get some good sleep
3. Move more than you did yesterday. (exercise)
4. Eat more fruit and vegetables

The reason most weight loss programs fail (and believe me I know about this first hand) is because you change too much too soon.  It becomes too difficult to continue and you feel restricted and as soon as life gets you down the first thing to suffer is your new weight loss diet.

Simply put, a diet does not mean it is so restricted that all you eat is carrots and apples.  What you are eating now is also called a diet, however it wouldn't be called a weight loss diet!

So don't worry about the word diet so much, you can still eat the foods you love, just eat less of them and do more exercise.  

If you are not comfortable going outside to exercise or join a gym, do yourself a favor and make a small investment in something like a simple walking dvd to start your exercise regime at home.
Now walking is not hard, but finding the time to do it is- so make sure you allocate time to do this new exercise, plan a date with yourself.  Can you get up 30 minutes earlier? Or do it as soon as the kids are in bed? or can you do it as soon as you get home?  Work out what is best for you and just do it.
I will be choosing to continue my walking regime as soon as I come home from work- this is hard, because as soon as i walk in everyone wants something whether it's the cats, dogs or the children.  But, it is only for 30 minutes so everyone will get used to it, however if you leave it to do after you have done everything else it will be either too late or you will be too tired.


To your success!