Archives February 2019

Hands up if physical exercise is something you tend to have a love-hate relationship with?

I remember when I was a child, my PE teacher told me,

             “If you don’t keep your heart rate elevated for at least 30 minutes, then it doesn’t count as exercise.”

How depressing I thought at the time : (

Good news though because today, I have some wonderful news.

It turns out that old way of thinking is not true.

According to research even short bouts of low-intensity physical activity has substantial health benefits.

YAY!

We’re talking about things like walking your kids to school, hanging out the washing instead of using the dryer, cooking from scratch instead of ordering in take-aways.

Basically, it’s living your life like our grandparents did before all the technological advancements, and we became very sedentary.

If you’re thinking

             “hmmmm, can activities like gardening or cooking have a measurable impact on health?’. After      all, those things aren’t ‘exercise’, right?”

Fortunately, turns out that our bodies don’t care whether those things are ‘exercise’ or not.

Our bodies just love to move.

And anything that reduces us being sedentary is positive.

So, here’s a couple of ways you can add more activity and movement into your day without exercising:

• Use a basket at the supermarket instead of the trolley.
• Hang your washing on the line instead of using the dryer.
• Walk your kids to school.
• Take the stairs! How often do you take the elevator up or down a single floor? Cut it out! The elevator and robs you of movement and it doesn’t save time.

If you work on the 20th floor, leave the elevator on the 18th and walk the last two floors.

This sounds weird, but my personal strategy is to drink a lot of green tea. When you’re continually sipping fluids, you’ll need to pee. Often. That’s a five-minute stroll every hour, right there.

It’s so easy to forget to go for a stroll or take a short break every hour, but it’s impossible to forget to go pee. So you might want to try that one on.

You can see that none of these activities is big in isolation.

But start doing them.

Use the old fashioned method – instead of technological advances…. because these do add up over time.

Lazy tip to super-charge your goal setting!

This week’s tip is one of my favourites because it’s easy, it’s fun, and it appeals to my laaaaazy side.

We all know the power of goal setting. We all know that right?

How often do you write your weight loss goal in a beautiful sparkly journal, then put it aside somewhere, maybe in the top drawer of your desk and then get busy with life?

What I encourage you to do is write down your goal – because that’s important to put it to paper.

Here’s the super-charging tip.

Create a password around your specific goal.

For example, if your goal is to feel ‘slim chic and savvy’ then make your new password – ‘slimchic&savvy73’, or whatever it is that works for you.

If your goal is to be an active, fun mum, make, ‘playfulfunmum’ your password.

Now, by typing your new password into your computer keyboard 5, 10, 20 times per day, into social media, your bank account, your Trademe account – it keeps your goal top of mind, which is a great place for your goal to be.

It so appeals to my lazy side because once you’ve set it up, the system is supporting you, every time you type in your password.

You’re reaping the dividends, without even thinking about it. How cool is that?

So go try it.

What’s your new super-charged password going to be?

Remember, if there’s a part of you cynically thinking these tips are too small to make a difference, remember that small steps add up to radical change over time.

I hope you found that helpful and useful.

This week’s tip is all about the power of language.

What I want you to do is replace the word “loss”, and “losing”, as in “weight loss” or “losing weight.”

Think about the very very negative connotations in English of the word ‘loss’.

For example, “I lost my mobile phone!”

Or, “We lost the match—grrrr.”

Or, there’s that ‘charming’ insult that teenagers hurl at each other – “you’re a loser!!”

Nobody wants to lose anything or be a loser.

You see, our natural response, when we lose something, is to want to find it again.

You do NOT want to regain this weight, right!!

Instead, I encourage you to replace the word ‘loss’ with something more neutral like ‘shifting’ or ‘letting go’ or ‘releasing.’

Or, I  have a spiritually-minded client who sends me texts every month or so reading, “I’ve donated another dress size to the universe!!!”

How awesome is that?!

Another client says “I’m not losing anything, I’m regaining the real me.”

That’s a lovely positive twist.

So start using whatever word feels appropriate for you as an alternative to ‘losing.’

I hope you found that useful.

I’ll see you next week for another tip on making peace with food.

My favourite one-word weight loss affirmation

Today, I’m thrilled to share with you my favourite weight loss affirmation.

Now, there’s a bunch of people out there who knock affirmations and claim, “they just don’t work”.

Maybe you’re one of ‘em.

Once upon a time, I used to be suuuuuper cynical of affirmations too.

Course, affirmations DO work. Because anything you repeat to yourself on a consistent basis WILL BECOME YOUR TRUTH.

So here’s my favourite affirmation.

It’s just one word.

“Enough”.

Or, for those of you who like the long version: “I am enough”.

Say it to yourself now – “I am enough”. Notice how it feels in your body.

“I am enough.”

Saying it at the beginning of the meal helps to curb your appetite.

Saying it at the end of the meal… helps you to recognise “enough now, you’re enough, you’ve had enough food, you’re good, you’re done.”

Your monkey mind will come up with a list of objections:

“How can you be enough… you’ve got cellulite, you can’t wear a bikini!!!!”

“Okay  “Roger that!!!! I do have cellulite, but I’m still enough. And I can     wear a bikini and I will fit my bikini even sooner because I accept that I     am enough.”

Do you see how this enough-ness game works?

Have fun with it!