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!

How do I start exercise? What exercise is for me?

Don't make it too difficult for yourself choose an exercise - it doesn't have to be something too hard to do.  Just choose something that you enjoy and do it more.  


Like everything else everyone is different and likes very different things.  So whilst someone might enjoy the latest "zumba" craze or run around the neighborhood another will be just as happy, walking. 


Try one or more of these ideas:

• Start by walking everyday- around the house, park the car far away from the mall door and walk all around the mall, walk to pick your kids up from school. 
• use the stairs not the lifts, 
• Start skipping, 
• try walking up and down the stairs a few times at your house, 
• get off the couch and get what you want - don't ask other people to get things for you. 
• Walk the dog or get a dog and then walk them,
• try a local gym,
• try zumba, 
• pilates, 
• yoga, 
• walk at lunch at work.  
• Don't phone or email people at work- go and find them and speak to them face to face.  
• Try jogging, 
• play with your children
• join a running group, 
• walk your new baby to the park
• wash the car

You get the idea - get up and move! 

Even if you haven't exercised for years and are stuck in a bigger body than what you want.  Invest in a pedometer then you can check your own progress.  Eventually aim for 5,000 to 7,000 steps everyday.

Just start today, right now...every step you take adds to the next one.  
The important thing with exercise is move more than you did yesterday, move everyday.

Kick Starting your metabolism!

 Permanent weight loss is due to several life style changes not just one!  

You need to:

• move more, 
• change how many times you eat during the day, 
• the quality of the food you eat, 
• build up your self esteem.  

Today we will be looking at kick starting and maintaining your metabolism.  If you have your metabolism burning at a higher rate it will help you to lose weight & keep it off.  (Don't forget that your metabolism is the process in your body that converts food into either energy for muscle use now or energy stores for later)

Forget about skipping breakfast or other meals because you are too busy or you ate too much on a previous meal.  Make time - plan ahead... 

If you skip meals this will actually SLOW your metabolism which will result in your body not burning it up as it normally does - it will simply store it as fat.  It is a primitive response by the body for survival- when it does not receive regular meals it thinks that we will not be eating for a while and so stores the food as reserves in the body instead of burning it and using it.

 We don't want the body to do this...so eat at least every 3 hours during the day. I know this sounds like a lot but after some practice you will get used to it and you will feel like eating.   

• Ok, start by reducing the size of your breakfast, lunch & dinner serves- try to have a plate in the following proportions try this:1/2 your plate as water vegetables (salad,spinach,broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, beetroot, asparagus, onion, carrot), 1/4 your plate as meat & 1/4 as carbohydrate (bread, rice, potato).  eat as many water vegetables as you can at these meals - as these fill you up and keep you from feeling hungry.
• Eat fruit, yogurt, vegetables, crackers, nuts, or milk at morning tea, afternoon tea & supper. 
• Choose the best exercise program for you...or as i like to think about it...MOVE MORE!!!  Have you started moving yet? Did you move more today than you did yesterday. Good on you!! 
• Is there any sort of exercise that appeals to you- as exercise works hand in hand with boosting your metabolism - try walking, water aerobics, pilates, yoga, running club, riding a bike, take the stairs instead of the lift, park further away from the mall door, whatever gets you to move more than you did yesterday!

 If you decide that you would like to help your metabolism burn faster, you may like to look at the products below.  They work for some people and not others, either way these are a short term solution to help with a long term problem.  Whether you use diet pills or metabolism boosters or other weight loss pills - you will need to change your lifestyle to keep any slimming benefits you get with these tablets.

   

Plan to Lose Weight Today!

How did you go over the Christmas / new year break?  With the endless parties with family and friends to attend.  I love this time of the year because everyone is in good spirits and they make the time to get together, but it is SO HARD to maintain your weight and It is very hard if you are trying to lose weight.

    

Between the too much food and the too much alcohol – I think people trying to lose weight (or at least trying to maintain what they have previously lost) at this time of year should be given medals. 

Welcome to 2011- it should be a great year!  Now is the time to start to set up realistic goals for yourself this year.

What do you want?  Is it to lose weight or just to become fitter?  Once you know what you want- start to plan it.  My goal is to lose 33lbs this year. 

If you have just decided that it is time to lose weight – I would like you to think about something else.  I believe that you need to look at your whole life- and see what’s working and what’s not.  If your life is not how you want it to be – you can change it. 

It’s time to start thinking about you…after all you are always thinking about your friends, spouse, kids, dogs, work, colleagues…it’s time for YOU!  The more happier you are with yourself, your weight and your life – there will be more of you to support all of your family & friends much better than you can now.

 I hope I didn’t lose you in the last paragraph- but I am really passionate about self improvement, after speaking with many friends, attending conferences, speaking with psychologists and watching plenty of news articles- there is a HUGE link between how you feel and how you look.  Ie: there is a reason why u are overweight, think hard & try to find the reason, if you find it & can deal with it-then the weight loss will come. 

If you deal with your other issues and you change your thinking and your outlook – this is the path to losing weight.  This is not an easy path and you may fall off the path every now and again, but let’s lose weight one small step at a time.

Re-establish your purpose in life

What are your new years resolutions? Maybe set a day & time for exercising (or move more than you did yesterday), drink more water, enjoy life.

5 Key Elements to Successful Weight Loss part 2

As i said yesterday - I have found that there must be 5 key elements in any weight loss plan, whether you use supplements, gyms, pills or diet:

1. Drink water
2. Activity
3. Food
4. Mind set
5. Support

I covered drinking water and moving more (or "exercise") yesterday in more detail.

3. Food - you need to be eating regularly, forget skipping breakfast or other meals to make up for eating too much.  What this does is actually slow down your metabolism and you don't lose weight...sometimes you even put more weight on.  
The body thinks that it will not be having any food soon- so converts as much of the previous meal into body fat to store as energy reserves to get you through this time- this is a primal response as much as you cannot control the "fight or flight" reaction of the body you cannot control this.  
So to make sure your body does not do this- feed it regularly- have breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, evening meal, supper.  The three main meals are normal size and the other meals are snack size.  
Try to reduce your fat, salt & alcohol intake where you can - I will cover this in later posts, it's best to eat to the healthy food guidelines which recommend 5 serves of vegetables and two serves of fruit a day. 
 
4. Mind Set-what I mean by this- is that you need to be in a positive frame of mind to help in your weight loss journey.  This may mean that you need to build up your own self esteem and confidence before you can even consider losing weight.  Unfortunately there are many different reasons why people, women in particular, have low self esteem- I will cover some strategies in later posts to help you feel better about yourself. 
So you need to believe that you can do it ( & let's face it...you can!).  You can see many people that have successfully lost weight and of course that means that you are able to do it too.

5. Support- you need to have a great support network, it helps if you can talk to other like minded people (email, facebook, telephone,sms) - but try not to listen to well meaning friends and relatives- they can often be bad for your weight loss progress.  They are not in the same mind set- it doesn't matter what others think- you can do it....but you have to believe in yourself.  
If you are able to connect with like minded people, great- if you cannot don't worry - the most important person to support you should be yourself.  You deserve it!

Set up some rewards for when you reach some weight loss milestones (eg: when you have lost your first 10 lbs) - but make sure it is not a food reward- make it something that means something to you- like a massage or a new book, or some new clothes or some new music, something for the garden...you get the idea!!

Have a great day, evening & see you tomorrow!!

5 Key Elements to Successful Weight Loss

This is the secret to successful weight loss.....You must eat less calories than your body uses!  It’s as simple as that….but this is not easy or instant!!



I have found that there must be 5 key elements in any weight loss plan, whether you use supplements, gyms, pills or diet:

1. Drink water
2. Activity
3. Food
4. Mind set
5. Support

1. Drink water


You must always drink water- now in the beginning of my weight loss journey I found this the most difficult thing to do as water is not my favorite drink.  Especially when you are advised to drink 8 glasses a day - I was struggling with that amount of water, however i have been drinking that now for 9 months and now i find it easy and in fact my body tells me i'm thirsty.  I now find water very refreshing and energy providing.  
The way i did this was to trick myself in the beginning and only drink 4 glasses of water a day (but the glasses i used where twice the size).  It is so much easier to drink 4 glasses a day- i mean you break it down to 2 in the morning and 2 at night.
2. Activity- or "move more" as i call it, this simply means move more than you did yesterday.  If you are a gym junkie- good on you.  
But if you are not, try it simple at first- don't worry you will eventually want to exercise - you will feel better about yourself and it will be easier.  But at the beginning this is difficult if you are not used to exercising.
(I was always a person that said that “I was allergic to exercise” – as a joke of course.  But at the end of tiring day at work, attending to the family, children, spouse- there really was little to no interest in exercising.) 
So to start why not try to just walk or take the dog for a walk, or maybe invest in the zumba fitness craze, or maybe check out your local gym to see if they have something that interests you.  
One of your new goals should be to move everyday,  get yourself a pedometer and make sure you know how many steps (or miles you are walking a day)



 * I will post about 
3. Food, 
4. Mind set &
5. Support tomorrow.

Until then, have a great time with your Family & Friends and enjoy yourself!

Need to have a positive mindset and believe in yourself!