Monday 26 January 2009

Losing weight, improving health

Here's a few simple tips for taking control of your weight and your health

1. Avoid sugar-filled puddings, white bread, potatoes and pasta and focus on low-glycemic carbohydrates like brown rice. Fill up on vegetables and salads.
2. Keep fruit juices to a single glass a day and replace its high sugar kick with whole fruit which releases the sugar slower and includes fibre
3. Eat protein with every meal to put your body in fat-burning mode. Protein is also satisfying so you feel full for longer. Good quality protein comes from free range beef, chicken, eggs (preferably organic), fish, nuts and beans.
4. Some fats are healthy - so eat the healthy fats like olive oil and avocado. Numerous studies have concluded that people who eat healthy fats, and supplement with omega 3 lose weight easier, and faster and stay healthier.
5. Eat plenty of fibre through vegetables and fruits and wholefoods.
6. Read the label. And ask yourself - is it healthy if it's got a LABEL???!

Don't diet - change your eating habits to healthy eating habits. And if it's too hard - call me - hypnosis makes it easy!


Friday 16 January 2009

Hypno-diets

Hope you've picked up on my latest information on "hypno-dieting" "The latest craze to sweep the US and Hollywood". It's being talked about in the Daily Mail, Grazia and many other magazines as the way that singer Lily Allen lost her weight. And Of course, it's exactly what I've been doing here in Leeds and Huddersfield for the past 7 years!

Using hypnosis to help you eat healthily ("diet" meaning, simply what you eat) is the easiest way to reach your goals. In the sessions we talk about nutrition and health, what you need to do to lose weight and be healthy - and what you need to stop doing! Hypnosis helps you to change what you do, what you eat, how much you eat, when you eat and why you eat. So you don't want to snack just because you're bored. You don't feel the need for a bar of chocolate just because you're having a break. You don't eat for any negative or positive emotional reasons. You eat for nutrition only. Food and drink aren't a substitute for anything else - or an answer to a problem.

If you didn't want chocolate/crisps/pizza/wine/a pudding then you wouldn't miss them - would you? How easy would it be to lose weight if you didn't want the sugary and fattening foods?

Yes, that's how easy it can be!

Thursday 15 January 2009

Message to Self - and breakfasts

Message to Self: I must keep up with this blog!
Yet again, busy people haven't got time to blog! And isn't it true that, often, busy people haven't got time to look after themselves and their families properly?

Answer this question honestly. How often do you miss a breakfast because you don't have time? Occasionally? Once a week? Most days? If you want to become - and stay - slim then eat breakfast. Even if it's only a piece of fruit, or a slice of toast. This will get your metabolism working and, literally, break your fast! A working metabolism means it's burning calories and that's got to be a good thing! PLUS you'll feel better and much less stressed! If you get up and sit and eat breakfast with your partner/kids you will all feel better and much less stressed.

Ideal breakfasts include wholemeal toast (add a boiled or poached egg and make it even better) or a bowl of wholewheat cereal. For example, 2 weetabix, 2 shredded wheat, bran flakes are OK (Allbran actually isn't wholewheat) or of course, that wonderful, filling, cholesterol busting porridge! As always, if you're eating cereal read the label! Some cereals have more sugar than you want in your system so avoid them at all costs.

Oh, and cereal bars DO NOT COUNT! They are just a way for Mr Kellog's to recoup some of the profits they lost when so many people got too busy to eat cornflakes!

Eating "on the run" is to be avoided (see stress above) but better an apple and a few nuts in the car on the way to work than nothing at all!

More tips on getting slim tomorrow (or when I have the time!!)

Saturday 3 January 2009

Taking control of your weight

My son always says "if you can read you can cook" and I think he's right. These days everything you buy has a label that says how to prepare and/or cook it. And how many chef's are there writing recipe books these days! You don't have to buy ready meals (heat complete in the microwave) when you can buy Tesco's Finest or M & S Ready to eat meals all nicely packaged yet still fresh and top quality food. But in the same vein most meats, fish and even some vegetables have the cooking instructions on the pack so why not cook "from scratch" and save some cash?!

My saying is "if you can read you can lose weight" because my big thing is to READ THE LABEL. Checking for additives and extra sugar or sweeteners in foods has become second nature to me. Almost all packaged food is labelled with calories, fat and (most important for me) sugar levels. As a rough guideline look at the "percentage of daily amount" figures. Based on three meals and two snacks a day nothing should be more than 25% of your daily sugar or fat intake. (Why is sugar important? - come back tomorrow and I'll tell you!)

Then there's the cereal bars, meal replacements and "slimmers" foods. STOP. Read the label. Most cereal bars have as many calories - and a lot more sugar - than a piece of toast with a bit of butter on it! Get to know the calories of some of your favourite foods - and then check that you're not "giving up" something you love, to eat something that's manufactured and, in fact has just as many calories!

If you want to lose weight just cutting down on one thing a day could make a big difference - so have 3 glasses of wine instead of 4 and save 200 calories!!! Let's face it one of anything may taste nice, the second good, the third OK but the fourth? That's just STUFF going into your mouth! Think about wine, lager, pizza slices, biscuits.....3000 calories extra is 1lb in weight extra. Two weeks of "one less" a day could be 1lb lost! This is how you put it on - so this is how to take it off - slowly! And if you think 1lb every two weeks isn't enough multiply it out.... It's nearly 2 stone in a year. 2 stone lighter by next Christmas? This easily? Try it!

Thursday 1 January 2009

Happy New Year

Well here we are at 1st January 2009.
Ready to make some New Year's Resolutions?
Not AGAIN!! How many years will it be before you realise that resolutions lead to failure?

The key to change is not just making the decision but taking ACTION - ASAP, immediately, NOW!

Here is the NLP way to make changes.

1. Make it positive - what do you want (rather than what don't you want!)
2. Can you influence it? For example winning the lottery is out of your hands even if you've bought a ticket! And you can't change anyone else! But you CAN stop smoking, lose weight, reduce stress.
3. Be Specific. If you want to lose weight state how much; give yourself a specific goal not a general one.
4. Describe what you will see, hear and feel when you have reached your goal. How will you KNOW that you have what you wanted? How will you look? What will others say to you? How will you feel?
5. If you could have it NOW - would you have it? This is a good check on goals which maybe we should want but don't really want. How will achieving your goal change you life? Your relationships? Is that what you really want?

So here's an example.
Problem:You're overweight and are ready to take control.
Plan: I want to lose 2 stone and weigh 10 stone by the summer holiday.
I can do this by changing what I eat and exercising more (and booking in for some hypnotherapy to make it easier! :)
When I weigh 10 stone I will look great in a pair of tight jeans, be able to run upstairs without getting out of breath, my friends will tell me how well I look, I'll feel more confident.
If I was 10 stone NOW I'd be able to wear the trousers I bought last Christmas!

So now, go set those New Year's Resolutions!

If you've missed me for the past month (hope you have!) I proved the one thing I've alwasy said - only people with time on their hands can possibly have the time to write a blog!!!!