It's taken me an age to
write this blog as we have new readers - and not so new readers - so I decided to
stay middle of the road and make it relevant to all and stay safe. J
We completed the
busiest month since launching the PortionBuster in January, so I would like to
welcome over one hundred new readers from January alone. PortionBuster has sold
670 gauges in 12 months but, once again, they are only as good as the
user. It will not help you if it is shut
away in a drawer.So get it out,see it,and use it!
I hope with this many
sales it means that many more of you are getting around to the idea that
portion size is so important. You can have everything you want to eat without
being hungry, or craving for food, and can still lead a healthier lifestyle
whilst slowly losing weight. You didn’t put this weight on in a small amount of
time, so you are not going to lose it in a short amount of time either. Slowly and surely is best.
Whilst we have been
busy, it also means that many more of us are struggling with losing weight and are
most certainly not as healthy as we could be.
One of
the biggest surprises this year, for me, was what I learnt from an online
nutrition course I enrolled in. For example, whilst a salad is low in calories, it's not
the most nutritious of meals (unless a few almonds are added). There are so many, better,
alternatives out there! I guess this is great news for folk who hate salads! This
goes for many foods we eat that we think are healthy but are not always
beneficial to us.
The
course also taught me to eat the best foods to meet my body's demands and to forget
the weight scales. The visceral fat we carry around our organs is what to
concentrate on. Reducing my visceral fat is one of my 2015 aims - together with the
loss of another stone. Watch this space!
The thing
that surprised me the most was facts about nuts.
Let's
look at nuts - and almonds in particular.
Almonds are high in monounsaturated fats; the
same type of health-promoting fats that are found in olive oil. These fats have been associated with reducing
the risk of heart disease. So, in addition to their cholesterol-lowering effects,
almonds have the ability to reduce the risk of heart disease. This may be partly due to the antioxidant
action of the vitamin E found in them,
as well as to the LDL-lowering effect of these monounsaturated fats. (LDL is
the form of cholesterol that has been linked to atherosclerosis and heart
disease).
Don't just enjoy almonds as a between-meal snack,
spread a little almond butter on your toast or down the centre of a stalk of
celery. Add a handful of lightly roasted almonds to your salad, or chop them and
use as a topping for pasta or on steamed or healthily sautéed vegetables. When eating foods with a higher glycaemic index,
including almonds in the meal can help keep your blood sugar under control.
Although nuts are known to provide a variety of cardio-protective
benefits, many people avoid them for fear of gaining weight. In fact, it has
been found that people who eat nuts at least twice a week are much less likely
to gain weight than those who almost never eat nuts. Don't let concerns about gaining weight prevent
you from enjoying the delicious taste and many health benefits of nuts!
If you are serious about being healthy, look
into the nutrition courses that are available online. Amazon Local offer one at a great price of
less than 30 pounds. Don’t worry about
the test at the end of the course, just take the course to get the knowledge it
offers. Find out why you have afternoon
slumps and what foods to eat to get the best from your body. Even sports nutrition and how to safely get
the best results is covered.
Let me jump back to January
the 1st and New Year resolutions. The
reason being that the fire in your belly about getting slimmer could now be just
smouldering and on its way out. Let's look at the info on New Year Resolutions…
Depending on where you
get your numbers, you are at least 80% more likely to fall back into your old
habits and patterns than you are to stick with a new behaviour.
(Behaviour is what you
do consciously; habits are what you do automatically.)
Changing your behaviour
is hard. No doubt about it. Remember it takes at least 21 days to change or
develop a habit.
Why is that? What are
the biggest reasons new habits fail to stick? And what can we do to make
positive changes easier?
PROBLEM 1: Trying to Change Everything at Once
SOLUTION: Pick one thing and do it well.The general consensus among behaviour change researchers is that you should focus on changing a very small number of habits at the same time. To change a habit takes at least 21 days.(Some say up to 40 and 60 days.)
Personally, I prefer to focus on building one new behaviour into
my life at a time. Once it becomes a habit, I move on to the next one. For
example: changing sugar for honey, and then slowly reducing the intake of
honey. It is certainly better for me, even
if I didn’t reduce the consumption.
PROBLEM 2: Starting With a Change That is Too Big
SOLUTION: Make it so easy that you
can’t say “No.”
In other words, the most difficult part of developing a new
habit is starting the new behaviour. It takes a lot of motivation to head to
the gym for a workout after an exhausting day at work, so focus on a ten minute
walk to the shop for essentials (not chocolate). The hardest part is the beginning.
PROBLEM 3: Seeking a Result, Not a Ritual
SOLUTION: Focus on the behaviour, not
the outcome.
Nearly every conversation about goals and resolutions is focused
on some type of result. What do you want to achieve? How much weight do you
want to lose? How much money do you want to save? How many books do you want to
read? How much less do you want to drink?
Naturally, we are outcome-focused because we want our new
behaviour to deliver new results.
Here’s the problem: new goals don’t deliver new results; new
lifestyles do. And a lifestyle is not an outcome; it is a process. For this
reason, all of your energy should go into building better rituals and not
chasing better results.
If you want a new habit, you have to fall in love with a new
ritual.
PROBLEM 4: Not Changing Your Environment
SOLUTION: Build an environment that
promotes good habits.
Nobody can consistently stick to positive habits in a negative
environment. You can frame this statement in many different ways:
·
It is nearly impossible to eat healthily all of the time if you
are constantly surrounded by unhealthy food.
·
It is nearly impossible to remain positive all of the time if
you are constantly surrounded by negative people.
·
It is nearly impossible to not drink if you are constantly
surrounded by alcohol. And so on…
We rarely admit it (or even realise it), but our behaviour is
often a simple response to the environment we find ourselves in.
If your environment doesn’t change, you probably won’t either.
PROBLEM 5: Assuming Small Changes Don’t Add Up.
SOLUTION:Get one percent better each
day. (In 100 days you will be twice as
good as you are now…)
If you listen to nearly anyone talking about their goals, you’ll
hear them describe the minimum that they want to achieve:
·
“I want to be healthier this year”;
·
“I want to lose at least 20 pounds before Summer”; etc.
The underlying assumption is that your achievements need to be
big to make a difference. Because of this, we always talk ourselves into
chasing a big habit. “If I want to lose at least 20 pounds, I need to start trying
really hard and working out for 90 minutes a day!”
If you look at your current habits, however, you’ll see a
different picture. Nearly every habit you have today, good or bad, is the result
of many small choices made over time. It is the repeated pattern of small changes
in behaviour that leads to significant results. Each day we might make the
choice to become one percent better or one percent worse, but so often the
choices are so small that we miss them.
If you’re serious about building a new habit, then start with
something small. Start with something you can stick with for good. Then, once you’ve
repeated it enough times and it becomes habitual, you can worry about
increasing the intensity.
To
conclude, focus on changing your behaviour in small steps. Keep your portions under control and say to
yourself “ Size does matter”
.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Norma
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