Archives 2016

Are you worried about gaining weight over the silly season?

Well, there’s good and bad news.

The bad news first.

Studies show that if you gain weight over the holidays, you tend not to lose it in January.

Despite our resolutions to change, statistics are not on our side because the majority of NY’s diets do not work.

The good news… festive season weight gain is not inevitable!

You really can enjoy the holidays without gaining weight with these 7 tips.

1. First, STOP giving yourself ‘permission’ to put on weight

There’s nothing like the stress of Christmas shopping and plentiful festive treats to bring out our negative internal chatter.

“Oh Lordy, I’m guaranteed to put on 5kgs over Chrissy!!!”

If you give yourself ‘permission’ to put on weight over the holiday – guess what? You will!

Instead, make a commitment to eat mindfully, slowly and enjoy every mouthful.

Once you make that commitment, nourishing decisions are easier.

 2. Move your body every day

Our bodies were designed to move and being sedentary makes our metabolism sluggish.

Why not commit to 15 minutes of movement every day? Have a dance or play tennis with your cousins or get the garden in tip-top condition.

The key is to keep it simple and get your body moving – even a 10-minute stroll does wonders for your body.

You’ll relieve stress, offset holiday weight gain, and get yourself in a terrific routine for 2017.

HEADS-UP: Do be active, but don’t use it as an excuse to eat double portions. The “I walked an extra block so that I can have an extra serve of pudding” logic results in weight gain.

3. Connect with family and friends NOT food

Instead of focusing on the food and drink, focus on connecting with the people gathered around.

When we connect with people, we change the biochemistry in our body. During social engagement with loved ones, the good-feeling hormone oxytocin is increased, which decreases our desire for food.

4. Never go to a party hungry. 

It’s tempting to forego food before the party, don’t! Instead, have a snack before going out, so you don’t show up famished and overdo it on the treats. If you go to a party hungry, you will eat more food than if you ate a handful of nuts before arriving.

5. It’s OK to say “no.”

You don’t have to try everything. Just because Nana made it, doesn’t mean you have to eat it. Choose your favourites – and savour the smell, textures and flavours. Eat slowly and mindfully so you feel fuller with less. Remember it’s okay to say, “No, thank you, maybe later.”

6. Drink water. All. Day. Long.

You’re probably eating more foods with salt and consuming more alcohol around the holidays, so it’s even more important to keep your body hydrated. Start your day with some lemon water and keep sipping water throughout the day.

7. If you do overindulge, forgive yourself!

It’s impossible to put on a substantial amount of weight from one meal with all the trimmings. So if you know you overdid it, ease up on yourself and don’t use it an excuse to throw in the towel.

Wishing you all happy, healthy holidays!

Love etc, Avril

PS: If you’re tired of struggling with eating habits that prevent you from being the shape and size you want to be, why not drop me a line? Let 2017 be the year you create the body you love : )

Every other day a study warns of health risks linked to soft drinks.

Here’s today’s: “Two fizzy drinks a day is all it takes to double the risk of diabetes – even if they are diet versions” – a Swedish study has found.

The research is in. Soda is out.

The Lancet, the British medical journal, published an independent, peer-reviewed study that demonstrated a strong link between soft drink consumption and obesity.

It found that 12-year-olds who regularly drank soft drinks were significantly more likely to be overweight than those who didn’t.

One can of soft drink per day can add as much as 15 pounds to your weight over the course of a single year. A single year!

Nutritionally-speaking, soda has zero nourishment. Zip. Not only does it contain no nutrients, it has anti-nutrients. The worst of these being high fructose corn syrup.

HFCS does some nasty things inside you.

For example, it interferes with your production of leptin, which is an issue if you want to lose weight, because it’s leptin that sends the “I’m full” signal to your brain. When you drink soda, your brain no longer receives the message and that’s why you crave more food.

Many of these smart women I coach get a good portion of their daily hydration from soft drinks.

As one client put it, “I get stressed, I reach for a diet coke. I want some chocolate, I reach for a diet coke, I don’t feel satisfied so I reach for a third can, and then have the chocolate anyway. And then another diet coke, of course.”

Isn’t it time to upgrade your fuel and nourish your body?

My plan isn’t to nag you into changing your soft drink habit.

My cunning plan is to give you the facts. You’re a smart woman so you can decide for yourself exactly how you want to hydrate your one and only, miraculous body.
Once upon a time, a can of diet coke lived permanently in my hand. When I learned the facts and I knew deep down I needed to make a change.

If you are serious about feeling good and if you’re serious about losing weight I encourage you to stop drinking soda for 21 days.

No tantrums. No sulking. No sneaking. Just do it.

What’s 21 short days out of your lovely, long life? And notice how your grateful body responds.

Love etc, Avril

PS: If you’d like to join the hundreds of happy women who’ve ditched their diet soda habit with the virtual gastric band hypnosis, why not drop me a line. Why not let 2017 be your year of being the shape and size you want to be?

“Get up you lazy bitch and go for a run. Remember you’re still on a diet today.”

I found these unloving words during a recent spring clean. They were on a note I’d penned to my 14-year-old self.

Instantly, tears stung my eyes as I time-travelled back to a place where I hated my body.

It was just one of the many body-hating notes I’d woken up to, morning after morning, year after year.

Like many women, I believed, “If I hate myself enough, I’ll be motivated to lose weight, and then I’ll like myself more.”

It seemed logical at the time.

Many of the women I work with fall into a similar trap, “When these lumps and bumps have gone, then I’ll take care of my body.”

But … the exact opposite occurs.

You see, when we say “I’ll moisturise my thighs when they’re slimmer,” we’re giving ourselves conditional love.

And no-one is motivated by conditional love.

Because, conditional love unleashes the rebellious, self-sabotaging three-year-old in us all.

We all know that one, right?!

That vulnerable, inner child who yearns to be loved for who she is, right now…

Not for her dress size.
Not for how she looks.
Definitely, not for how much she weighs.

Conditional love is heart-breaking.

And it’s the opposite of motivational.

Imagine a friend saying:

“I don’t love you…. well, not yet …sure, if you make some changes, then I’ll consider loving you…. but right now, you’re not good enough for my love.”

Ouch!!!!

You’d unfriend them immediately, wouldn’t you?

But we speak to ourselves like that…. day after day, year after year.

Conditional love is beating yourself up. It’s judgement, shame, and fear.

It’s a heart-breaking concept: “If I hate myself enough, I’ll end up by loving myself!!!”

Reeeally?!

The antidote: how to love yourself slim

Start noticing how unkind you are to yourself. Sometimes we don’t even realise how nasty we are. Do you ever tell yourself you’re not good enough, slim enough, pretty enough, smart enough?

Being your happy shape and size occurs from a place of acceptance, compassion, kindness. It happens when you treat your body with love, when you nourish your body.

From this loving space, the rebellious inner child is placated, and self-sabotage ends.

So start treating your one-and-only body with reverence, instead of stuffing her beyond full. Start moisturising your body after every shower, instead of delaying until she’s a specific size. Start saying something kind about your body every day, not waiting when she’s a specific weight.

You can do it.

If right now you’re in the “icky” hateful space that I was in at the time of penning that note – trust me – with curiosity and patience, and with small loving changes, you can feel radically different about your beautiful body tomorrow.

Unconditional love etc, Avril

PS: If you need help moving into a more loving space around your body, maybe it’s time to drop me a line.

Sometimes we experience it, sometimes we don’t.

And when we do “have it”, it doesn’t seem to hang about for very long.

What I am talking about?

Motivation!

Why is finding and keeping motivation such an issue?

The biggest motivational mistake we all make

According to Chris Hammer, a Canadian psychologist, we need to stop using the “elusiveness of motivation” as an excuse to not get things done.

What?!

He says we have a tendency to see motivation as this “thing” that “needs to be found”.

And that as soon as we “find it”, everything will be easy.

Don’t we just – I know I do!

Hammer goes on to say, “As long as we don’t “have it”, we’re not pressured to accomplish the thing we want to achieve and we can easily blame our inaction on the fact that we just haven’t “tapped into it yet”.

So we get to stay stuck. . .wheels spinning. . . going nowhere.

But the truth is that it’s NOT impossible to act. . . even if we’re not feeling motivated.

I know I sometimes get so caught up in the idea that I can’t move forward (eat well and exercise) unless I’m “feeling it”.

But this just simply isn’t true.

It might not feel the greatest to take action without possessing this magical thing called motivation… but we’re all completely capable of doing it anyway.

Strugglers look for motivation, winners just do it

So instead of looking for motivation, just take action. It’s a very simple mindset shift, but very powerful.

Action can (and frequently does) precede motivation.

In other words, WE JUST NEED TO GET STARTED.

Or as Nike says….

…just
do
it…

…regardless of how you feel.

Stop looking for some (non-existent) magic formula. And just do it!

Love etc, Avril

PS: If you’ve been umming and ahhing about finding motivation to lose some weight for summer then maybe this is the sign you were waiting for! The virtual gastric band can help you feel more motivated to take the action you know you need to take to be the shape and size you want to be. Curious? Why not pop on over here and start the ball rolling. I’m here to help : )

Depression. Self-hate. Frustration.

That’s what most of us feel when we hit a weight loss plateau.

And pretty soon we’re heading for the biscuit tin.

It’s not much fun, is it?

Here’s three tips you can use immediately to convert your frustration into inspiration when the scales aren’t budging.

1. Plateaus are going to happen. Expect ‘em.

If you think you’re the exception to this rule, you’re living in fantasy-land.

And this kind of thinking sets you up for failure because when the scale doesn’t move, you go into self-judgement, “Arrrgh, I suck, I might as well give up now.”

The best thing to do is expect the plateaus.

Women who successfully shift weight and kept it off expect plateaus – celebrate them – because they know they’re part of the journey.

So stop looking at a plateau as failure. Instead…

Expect them.
Embrace them.
Celebrate them.

2. Take back your power from the plateau.

A plateau is just a plateau is just a plateau.

We need to stop believing the plateau has a magical superpower because that’s how we abdicate our own power.

We literally give away our power by making the non-movement of the scale mean all sorts of unhelpful things (how often should I weigh myself?)

The sky isn’t falling on your head. And no, you don’t suck! Stop making the plateau mean something it isn’t.

Instead, take back your power by asking yourself, “How do I need to look at it to make it ok?”

What if the plateau was simply a landing on the stairway to your goal? A chance to re-energise before moving forward? The opportunity for your body to catch up with your mind?

When you’re first pregnant, the outside world can’t see the miraculous shifts happening inside you. The mirror only reflects the changes in the second trimester. Your weight loss journey is similar. The scales simply aren’t sophisticated enough to show all the changes happening inside.

3. Stay curious: what can I learn here?

Sure, you want to be your goal shape and size right now. I get that!

And there’s an impatient part of you saying “If it doesn’t happen by Tuesday, then I may as well go back to my old habits because obviously being healthy doesn’t work.”

That impatience is the fear-based part of your brain lulling you back to your comfort zone.

Push past the fear brain (and plateau) by asking yourself, “What do I need to learn here?”

“What is it that I need to learn about myself, the learning of which, will help me move past this plateau and release this as an issue in my life forever?”

Take the time to listen for the answer.

If you’re impatient and ignore the learning, the universe will make you repeat the lesson.

Instead be curious. The smallest step can represent the biggest step forward, which indicates a break from the past.

As you learn the lesson, you’ll move forward.

Maybe the lesson you need to learn is patience.

Or persistence. Or letting go of perfectionism. Or self-compassion. Or forgiveness.

Stay brave. Stay consistent. Most importantly, stay engaged and keep going – step by step by step.

Love etc, Avril

PS: If you need help taking staying inspired during a plateau, virtual gastric band hypnosis can help. Why not take the first step and drop me a line so you can make peace with food…