Feel Great and Lose Weight!

Diets are depressing.This article is named Feel Great And Lose Weight because it really needs to be that way around.If you feel great then losing weight is merely an added bonus that happens when you are not looking.

How many people at this time of year become OBSESSED with losing weight?  Thousands!In actual fact they want to feel great and they think that losing weight will do that, but that’s not necessarily true.Diets are depressing.  Diets make you obsess about food and about scales.  When you tell yourself you can’t have something, you can’t eat that you can’t do that, can’t have that you are depriving yourself of things that give you pleasure, that’s not going to make you feel good is it?  As a result it is on our minds every minute of the day, which makes it even more painful as you want it even more!  We ALL want something when we are told we can’t have it. At the same time we feel like a failure and the months stretch before us, torturing us with the misery of being forbidden the thing that we love-food.  Food is not our enemy, it keeps us alive !  It gives us energy.  The wrong food can make us feel tired and down if we eat too much of it,  that’s not healthy.

So this year, instead of torturing yourself with a diet that  will be short lived and make you feel like a failure why not make a commitment to making yourself feel great instead? And then see the weight fall off!  After all,you want to lose weight to make you feel good so why not feel good anyway?

When we eat healthily we feel great.  Eating healthily doesn’t mean that you are forbidden from eating anything.  It means you eat as much as you need (no more) and you eat foods that are going to benefit your body 80% of the time.  If you feel like having a piece of cake that’s ok!  It isn’t wrong to eat!  But just have one piece of cake, or one bar of chocolate and don’t feel guilty!  Slim people eat cake, and chocolate, they do!  I know, I’ve seen them!

Ask yourself this, what do you really want?

Do you want to be healthy, full of energy, feeling great about yourself?

Or do you want to feel obsessed,depressed and deprived of food you love and probably gaining weight instead of losing it?

Write down how you want to feel.

Did you choose the first option? Ok, good.  Then take a look at my suggestions for you.  Choose which ones you want to do and practice them everyday.  The more you do the better you feel, be committed.  This is a way of life, not a diet.  Your goal is to feel great!

1. Drink 8 glasses of water every day.I   know, you knew this one but it is so important.  Sometimes we eat because we think we are hungry but we are actually thirsty.  This coupled with the fact that fat cells become harder to break down  when we are dehydrated shows how much harder it is to lose weight when we don’t drink enough.  Two reasons we will lose weight easier if we drink lots of water and we feel better too.

Water also flushes toxins out of our body,can cure tension headaches,ease fatigue and clear our skin.

2.  Always,always eat breakfast.Get your metabolism working, you don’t need a lot for breakfast but you do need something.  You will have more energy and burn more calories when your metabolism speeds up.  If you feel more tired after breakfast change what you are eating.  You want to eat foods that make you feel good.

3.  Positive self talk. You are hereby banned from saying anything negative to yourself.  Think about it, what do you say to yourself when you look in the mirror?

Fat?  Disgusting?  Yuk?

You seriously need to change that.  Would you talk to your friend like that?  Or even someone you don’t really like that much?  Then don’t do it to yourself, it’s cruel and hurtful and you deserve better.

Your subconscious mind hears that and believes it.  And it does as its told .It is your subconscious that controls your actions.  If you tell it you are fat it will make you do all the actions to reinforce that because that’s what it thinks you want..You will eat.

Tell yourself, I am beautiful.  I love me just the way I am.  I know it will sound strange and difficult at first but you must start to see yourself in a different light.  Maybe more how the people who love you see you.

Pick out you best features and focus on them.

4. Your thoughts control your feelings.  If you feel sad then its because you are thinking negatively.  What are you focusing on? Change it to something positive, that makes you happy.T  he one thing in your life you CAN control and only you is your thoughts, and seeing as you thoughts control your feelings chose to feel great!

5. Set a goal.  Make it a positive.  Not about losing weight but getting into a size whatever it is.  Don’t make you goal to huge,i t has to be believable for you.  Maybe two dress sizes at a time.  Remember this is about feeling great,imagine yourself in that size…If you focus on losing something that’s a negative.  Or make a goal about work,or finances to boost your self esteem.

6.  Exercise.

Exercise release endorphins and can really make you feel great.  Even just 20 minutes can uplift you and make you feel good about yourself.

7. Smile.

Smile at everyone you come into contact with.  Give compliments and spread kind words and thoughts.  Making other peoples’ day make you feel great!  It has a knock on effect and reduces your stress.  Smiling releases endorphins, reduces blood pressure and can improve your immune system.  It lakes you feel happier!

8.  Don’t fret about little things.  Do they matter really?  Comfort eating is a major cause of obesity.  We all know it is our state of mind (our thoughts and feelings) that prompt us to comfort eat.  Does is not therefore make sense to change the way we feel first? (We don’t comfort eat when we are happy do we?)

So go through your day focusing on all that is positive and good.  Feel joy and gratitude for all that you have.  If someone drives badly let it go over your head, if you partners driving you crazy go have a bubble bath or do something nice for yourself.  Choose to be calm, not stressed.

9. Eat foods which give you energy.

Green leafy vegetables, nuts, yoghurt, eggs, oranges, beans, lentils, dried fruit and seeds.

10.  Eat good fats.  You need to eat fat to burn fat.  Eat oily fish, nuts, seeds and avocados.  Don’t eat to much oily fish if pregnant.  Eat sunflower,rapeseed and olive oils. These fats will help you feel wonderful. These fats will help you feel great and lose weight!

11.  Accept a compliment. If someone pays you a compliment say thankyou and believe it.  They didn’t have to say it, allow yourself to feel good about it.

12. See yourself as a success not a failure.  Take up Yoga, Pilate’s or Meditation.  Any if these activities can help you feel fabulous.  Go to a class with a friend, have fun.

Remember, do all that you can to truly feel great and the weight will go, just focus on the feeling and forget about the weight.

Jane

Why You Need To Break Out Of Your Comfort Zone

If you keep doing what you’ve always done you will keep getting what you’ve always got."~W L Bateman

Changing one small thing can change your life forever.

I love this quote above,if you haven’t heard it before it should speak volumes.

Einstein also said that it is a sign of insanity to keep doing the same thing over and over and expect the results to be different.  Most of us aren’t even aware that we are habitually repeating patterns safely inside our comfort zone.  After all, it feels good in there right?  That’s why its called a comfort zone.  The problem is that we are generally unfulfilled there.  If we have hopes,dreams and aspirations for a better life they aren’t going to be in our comfort zone, we know!  We’re already there!

That’s why you need to break out.

If you don’t it will all stay the same.  Is that what you want?  I don’t think so.
Yes,its scary,it can be uncomfortable just thinking about it.

But fear can be used as an inspirational tool.

When we overcome it and we achieve our goal as a result of that, the feeling of achievement is so intense!  It inspires us to break out more.
So the trick is a little at a time.  Focus on your end goal,envisage what that feels like, is it worth feeling the fear?  I am guessing it is.
And as you grow with it so will your confidence and your faith in yourself.

Ask yourself this…What would you do if you KNEW you couldn’t fail?hink about it, let your mind wander.  Did you come up with something new?  Or was it a dream that you have had for a long time but haven’t moved any closer toward achieving?

What small step can you take today to move a little closer to your dream?

Will you do it?  Even if it is scary,just do one small thing.  And then give yourself a pat on the back you are closer today than you were yesterday but not as close as you will be tomorrow.  I often find that when the first small step has been taken it snowballs and you just want to do more.  It is the BIG picture that’s scary.  The little steps are easy,and thankfully  it is the little steps that take you to the reality of your dream.

Think about what you are scared of. Fear of failure,success,what people may say/think of you?

As far as the failure part goes, there is no such thing. You can LEARN that that particular way does not work for you,and then try a different way.The great people of all time didn’t succeed first time round,they just see failure as an opportunity to do it a different way!Look at it as a journey,if you lose your way try a different road.

As for success, it generally doesn’t come overnight so you will have plenty of time to adjust to it on the way, one step at a time.

And what do people know about you?  No one knows what is best for you better than you. You know your dreams, they don’t.  Even of you told them they still wouldn’t see them exactly as you do.  Be proud of who you are, because there is no one in this world like you, show what you are made of and look back on your life and be thankful that you stepped out of your comfort zone and achieved your full worth and made your mark on the world.

Stepping out of your comfort zone can give you the life you always wanted.Write down how you truly want your life to be and focus on it,be positive,and take one small step,today.

“What The Mind Can Conceive It Can Achieve.”

W.Clement Stone

Step Up Or Step Off

I posted this article because of the inspirational example of a single mum succeeding where others would have given up,or just not attempted in the first place,Jane

As we step into spring, I've been thinking about people stepping up.

There's a lot of it going on around us, it seems, positive signs that even in the toughest economic winters people are as resilient as ever. Of course, that's the nature of "tough times," isn't it? We all have a greater opportunity to overcome, perhaps, to dig a little deeper, to find the heroes in ourselves.

A recent example that sticks out to me is a woman in her mid 40s who graduated at the top of her 2009 class from a college in California. She was valedictorian. The remarkable thing was, she was a single, working mother of 13 kids (8 of them adopted), and she had taken in dozens of foster kids over 25 years as a stay-at-home mom. When asked why she did it, she explained that after her divorce she realized she needed a college degree to get a decent job, and she wanted to inspire her kids. When asked how she did it, she said she just did it. She and the kids all helped each other with chores and homework.

She told interviewers, "You know what... if you want to do it. Just do it. Do it afraid and the courage will come later."

But with every opportunity to step up, like this one, there's also an opportunity to step off, to find a reason to do nothing or take a less heroic path. We always have an opportunity to blame others, to view ourselves as helpless victims, to rationalize excuses for our low expectations or outcomes, to believe that we can't make a difference. We might hear some of these common cop-outs in our own head:

"Everyone else does it." 

"I'm just one person." 

"That's not my job." 

"No one else cares; why should I?" 

"I did my part; those other people dropped the ball." 

"She made the mistake." 

"I don't get the credit I deserve." 

"Life isn't fair."

Let's face it; life isn't always fair. It's often not very fair at all. We have big challenges and bad breaks to overcome on our journey through it. But, we are ultimately defined by how we respond to what life throws at us (and it's been throwing a lot at many of us lately).

Stepping out of this cold winter with a mind to step up a little more might just lead us somewhere warmer and brighter.

Small steps.... We might choose to act with integrity during a tempting moment to do otherwise (even when no one else is watching). We might choose to commit a selfless act during a tempting moment to do otherwise. We might choose to dig a little deeper within ourselves, to light a candle rather than curse the darkness, to do it afraid and let the courage come later.

Happy spring, and happy stepping!

Dave Neal is a senior partner at 4th Street Training, a premiere instructional design group that helps move individuals and organizations to new levels. Learn more athttp://www.4thstreettraining.com/