Archives March 2019

A couple of months ago a bunch of gorgeous women – maybe even you – resolved to make changes to their weight this year.

If your commitment is already waning, here’s something you can do immediately to make 2019 the year that you feel comfortable n your skin.

1. Go and write down your goal.

Make it something meaningful to you.

(Not your mum, not your husband, not your best friend!)

Meaningful to you.

It’s simply impossible to remain committed to something that bores you to tears.

For example, is this year really about losing 20 kgs?

Or, is it the year that you decided to fall in love with yourself. …oh, and by the way, you lost 20kgs in the process?

See what I mean? Make it meaningful to you!

2. Make the action towards your goal absolutely tiny.

Tiddler small. So tiddler small that you can’t help but achieve it.

Maybe it’s a 15-minute walk after dinner.

Perhaps it’s turning off the television while you’re eating so you can be more mindful.

Just pick one thing to focus on at a time.

And before you know it, you’ve dropped a dress size and you’re positively glowing.

But even better than the decreasing weight, is the increasing belief in yourself.

You can do this. You ARE doing this.

And I know it’s not especially glamorous, BUT this is how you get results.

Pick one goal. Change one action.

Remember that small habit change adds up to radical change over time.

If you’ve already fallen off the weight loss bandwagon, don’t be too hard on yourself!

Every day is a new opportunity to start afresh.

Every day.

Any day.

Like today.

I hope you found that useful and I’ll see you next week for another Making Peace With Food tip.

Today’s tip is around ‘pre-thanking’.

Ayyye?!

Yep, you read that right.

PRE-THANKING.

Most people haven’t heard of it. But it is beautiful and very powerful at shifting you into a lovely mindset.

You’ve probably heard of gratitude lists.

They are awesome, and I encourage those – because research shows that people who are grateful people create change much much quicker and more easily than those who don’t count their blessings.

But to take your gratitude to a whole other level, what I want you to start doing is thank the universe for what you’ve not yet received.

You’re pre-thanking the universe.

For example, “I’m so happy and grateful for being my happy shape and size.”

Or “I’m so grateful for feeling healthy, happy and free.”

From the moment your feet hit the floor in the morning, pre-thank the universe for all the beauty coming your way.

Just say “thank you”.

Start your day grateful, pause during the day for a couple of pre-thanking moments.

Hooooooonestly, we all have much for which to feel grateful.

So pre-thank the universe for everything else that is coming your way.

If you’re reading this right now, it shows you’ve got electricity, a computer, wifi connection. Those three things alone put you in the top percentage of lucky people in the world already. If we’re truly honest, most of the issues that you and I face on a daily basis are first world problems.

So why not pre-thank your way to your happy shape and size?

This week I’ve got a lovely tip for you.

It’s especially good if you regularly beat yourself up or are hard on yourself.

Research shows that self-compassion is a critical ingredient for our happiness, health and weight loss.

Even small amounts of self-compassion influence our eating habits in a very very positive manner.

The challenge though is that most of us women, we really struggle to be nice to ourselves for more than five minutes.

So here’s a wee tip to help you remember to support yourself, you be kinder to yourself, to be nicer to yourself, more and more often.

What I suggest you do is…

Add a few ‘pop ups’ in your phone calendar.

Just like you would with an appointment with a friend.

But this is an appointment with yourself.

It might be something like:

            “Good for you on eating slowly!”

            “Well done for being more and more mindful.”

            “Nice work for breathing deeply.”

            “Congratulations on going for that morning walk.”

            “High five for being awesome!!!”

Add a pop up that resonates with you.

The first time I heard this I was like:

            “Whatever! How can something so small possibly work?!”

But it does!

As they pop up during the day, they remind you to be relentlessly encouraging of yourself.

I have four or five pop-ups every day, and even if I only read the first couple of words – rather than the whole message – those words are sooooo supportive.

“Well done…..”, “Rock on……”, “Nice one…….”,”Hats off……..”

Often private clients share how if they’re in a bit of a funk, that pop-up will pop up, and snap them right out of it.

It’s that gentle, encouraging voice helping you to keep on going towards your happy shape and size.

I hope you found that helpful. How

So go ahead, put some encouraging pop-ups in your calendar today.

I’ll see you next week : )

Today’s tip is about the healing power of gratitude. Counting your blessing has soooo man benefits for weight loss.

For example, when we’re in a state of appreciation, our self-repair mechanisms work better, we heal more quickly, we digest our food more efficiently.

Now to be clear, this isn’t about denial or being all Pollyanna.

When we focus on gratitude, we release serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin into our body. Those are all the good-feeling hormones.

Who doesn’t want more of that?!

In the Lighten Up programme, we explore a whole bunch of gratitude tools, but one of the favourites and the one I want to share today is all appreciating your food.

Can you remember the olden days when we’d say grace at the dinner table? Haha, no not in my family either—but we’ve all seen it in the movies!

By saying grace, the intention was to bless the food, to be grateful for it.

The next time you sit down to eat, remind yourself that food is scared.

Chances are if you’re eating, an animal died to provide for your nutrition.

So appreciate the animal, be grateful to the farmer who raised the crop or the secondary school student in the supermarket who packed your groceries.

            “Thank you for the food, thank you to my miraculous body for taking nutrition from this food, thank you… thank you…thank you.”

It’s as easy as that!

So thank you for being here with me this week. I appreciate you : )

I look forward to seeing you next week for another Making Peace With Food tip.