How Happy is... 5 Easy Ways To Your Ideal Weight

Your body is housing you through this lifetime. It is like a car, treat it well, and it will look after you. You can't ignore this and then complain when it starts to fail on you later on in life. It makes much more sense when it comes to health to chose the tortoise mentality and think long term, rather than the hare mentality of abuse now and think about it, and often pay the penalty, later. Here are five easy ways to help you to get to your optimum size and to help you become more conscious of what you are putting in your body and how you are treating it.

1. Put a mirror on your fridge. This means that you catch a glimpse of yourself each time you open the fridge and it helps you become aware of how many times you actually open it unconsciously, as a habit, when you're not even hungry, but perhaps as a reaction to stress or other such emotions. The mirror helps you to almost do a double take and gives you a second to break the habit. A seconds gap in between the cause i.e. what has made you upset and the response i.e. to open the fridge to comfort eat, can help you to make a new decision. The mirror gives you a glimpse of how you look and can serve to remind you that when you reach in to the fridge that it will be better to take out a healthy choice.

2. Think ahead. Before you put food in to your mouth, imagine how it will feel in your body for the next few hours as it digests. So, for example, if you have vegetables, some protein or complex carbs, you will no doubt have a lot of energy and it will feed your body with fuel. If you have a packet of chips, cookies, or load yourself up with bread, you will find that you will feel rather heavy and tired for hours after. Remember, that food is fuel. You are eating to live, not living to eat. This means becoming conscious of how you're body feels in the long term, while it is digesting, not the one-second taste in your mouth.

3. Pace Yourself. Exercise, but don't over do it. If you go on an exercise binge, you are so less likely to continue with it if it is not in your nature. Now, I am not talking to those of you who exercise really regularly because you genuinely love it. I am talking to those of you who find it hard to do any exercise. Better to do it every other day and stop when you are really enjoying it. It means that your last memory of whatever you did two days before will be a happy one, rather than that you stayed a little too long on the treadmill or swam ten too many lengths and got bored with it.

4. Drink lots of water and learn to love it. Over half of our body weight is water and we lose a huge amount throughout the day, which means you have to keep replenishing the nutrients in your body. It is going to help with so many things, including your digestion. I know some of you don't like to drink because you are concerned about going to the restroom too often. Good, is all I have to say to that, just keep flushing out your system, and if you want to add something to your water, add a hint of herbal tea.

5. Maintain a balance. Write a list of all the junk food that you eat and in an ideal world could actually do with out. Let's say, for example, that it's chocolate, chips, and bread. Then take one of those out at a time. For example, if you start with bread and find some non-wheat alternatives, you will find that you will not have a sense of lack as you've replaced it with something else, close to it. Then, once you have done that for two weeks or a month, whatever period seems realistic to you, take out the chips and do that for a month. Replace them with something else that is healthy and perhaps has the same crunchy element to it. In this way, you are taking away one addiction at a time and are changing your lifestyle over time, without being in a rush to do it all at once. The key is to be patient and persistent.

That's it for this week. I hope those tips have helped and if you want to contact me I would love to hear from you at [e-mail].

Comments

[Grannysue]

I went on a seven day diet two months ago, still haven't lost a pound!

[Promise]

I lost weight after I discovered that I had a candida yeast problem. What happens is that the yeast, itself, craves carbs and sugars in order to thrive. When you kill off the candida, the cravings disappear. Check out candida on the internet.

[LolaP]

if you stop eating wheat products i can guarantee you'll lose weight. but most people won't even try and if they do and they don't lose all the weight it in a week they claim it doesn't work and go back to their old eating habits. i keep telling my mother who's always looking for a miracle diet that if you just cut ONE thing out of your diet, all wheat or all sugar, you'll lose weight but does she even try? no. just depends on how much you want it really. if you stick to something for 6 months and nothing's changed - then you're right and i'm wrong. but i'm not

[pilgrim7]

I tried going gluten-free for a couple of months for digestive reasons and dropped over 20 pounds effortlessly. When I began eating wheat again, the weight came back.

[AngelaQuattrano]

Except that doing these will in all likelihood have no effect on weight loss, which is never "easy".

[robynr]

let's not forget the evil potatoes, rice & pasta... these foods are a result of our own manufacturing, bread does not occur on it's own in nature.
in the beginning we were hunter/gatherers. so going on that, i try not to eat more than i would be able carry in the bowl formed by my hands at a sitting.
also, don't eat in front of the t.v. more goes in when you're not paying attention.
savour, chew & take a walk every day.
i also keep a bowl of fresh berries in the fridge for when i just NEED a sweetie! way better than candy! all the rush with no crash.

[nevadagirl]

Potatoes don't occur in nature?

[rachel88]

Why exactly is bread being named inbetween chocolate, chips and other junk-food?

[skinnycoach]

Bread, and flour in general, is one of the worse foods you can put in your body. Flour, even whole grain flour is a refined carbohydrate and many people are highly sensitive to it. For me, and lots of the people I help, eating any refined carbohydrate causes terrible cravings that make it impossible for me to stay at a healthy weight. When we abstain from those foods, the cravings disappear and so does the fat off of our bodies. Cravings are simply an unhealthy desire to eat that is created by the bodies reaction to foods, like bread, that the body is not particularly adept at dealing with. Remember, flour is a fairly new addition to the food supply - our bodies have not adapted and that is why as we eat more refined foods we are getting fatter and fatter.
Bread and flour are junk foods and if you have a problem with compulsive overeating or dieting, I can almost guarantee that if you eliminate these foods you will drop the pounds effortlessly.

[TchoupitoulasCanal]

Goodness.....can I hire you to talk to my patients who swear that this whole carbohydrate thing is a myth? You're on fire, skinnycoach!!

There have been a number of well-respected scientific studies that confirm everything you just said. It's an addiction (a word that is strong but warranted) on par with nicotine and opiates, so the cravings are so strong!

Best thing you can do for your overall health is to try to cut back on refined breads and flours....and sugar (which includes high fructose corn syrup).

[rachel88]

Are you serious? I mean c'mon hasn't bread always been around?
So are you saying we should pass on all baked goods, because they all contain flour?

[nevadagirl]

skinnycoach, I am a vegetarian who has eaten bread every day of my life and I am 51 and have excellent health so shut up about bread being junk food. That is utter nonsene!

[rjmiller]

"I know some of you don't like to drink because you are concerned about going to the restroom too often."

Is that seriously a concern? People need to lighten up.

[rachel88]

It is a concern if there are no public restrooms around you, or the ones that are there are unbearable.

[nevadagirl]

So you'd rather be dehydrated than use an unpleasant restroom? Ridiculous.

[ProfessorDuh]

I have lost 50 pounds in seven months counting calories on line. It was just about that simple.

[AngelaQuattrano]

The odds are that in 2 years you will have gained back most of the weight, if not even more than you lost. If there was a simple path to weight loss, we'd have found it, and doctors would be recommending it to their patients, instead of a multi-billion dollar industry making big money from people not losing weight permanently.

[goddess1871]

I have found that if I pay myself a dollar a day for drinking a gallon of water over the course of the day, I do much better at it. At the end of the month that's about $30 I have saved up to do something special for myself.

[TchoupitoulasCanal]

Great idea, goddess1871. Thanks for sharing your suggestion with us other water-loather!!

[timezone]

I definitely agree those are big "helper's" in keeping weight off, particularly planning ahead. While weight loss is never a breeze, particularly as one gets past 40, I find getting lower fat and calorie substitutions and making sure I always have a tasty variety of good stuff in the house so helps. Worst? Being hungry as I'm doing errands and I'm close to my favorite Mexican take-out! Oh, and I keep energy bars (the mini kind are perfect) in my purse. At least if I'm starving, I can chew on one while I finish errands to take the "edge" off.

[quindy]

Put the mirror in my fridge? Where? My fridge is full. Drink lots of water. Hate it, can't do it. I also cannot think of food the way you suggest. I think of food and imagine how good I will feel once I have it and that is my undoing.

[LolaP]

what if you put some lemon, fresh mint leaves, strawberries or cucumber in your water? that would give it a bit more taste and it's really good for you.

[emilyatfitwoman]

Love these ideas, Sophie! I truly think half the battle is learning to eat mindfully, as opposed to mindLESSly, which becomes a habit that's tough to pull yourself out of.

Emily
http://aweightlifted.blogs.com/

[brandnewstuff]

I swear food is the easy to understand
And ladies no matter how much you workout- It is 90% of what you eat-- Eat smart and everything else is easy
Learn to graze-
My trick- I have EAS protein powder - with frozen strawberries or other fruit in the blender withalmond or soy milk-
so everyday I have two or three shakes and they are healthy way to indulge have have all my needs met

[nevadagirl]

EAS powder is another highly processed product that is about as far from real food as you can get. Plus it costs about ten times more than buying real food.

[SouthJerseySteve]

Liposuction doesn't hurt either.

Actually, I find that I do better when I find alternatives to food for my "stress relievers" plus I try to avoid bringing my "toxic" foods into the house by replacing them with certain snacks such as sugar-free candy and low salt nuts. Then, if I must have a piece of chocolate, I eat the sugar-free kind, and it's still a piece of chocolate, so I don't feel the need to cheat or binge.

[nevadagirl]

There is nothing wholesome about sugar-free foods. The sweet taste is made from chemicals that are more toxic than sugar. Eat a peice of fruit.

[NoSillyName]

Dark chocolate is good for you. Forget the sugar-free junk; its usually sweetened with nasty chemicals or various sugar alcohols: malitol, sorbitol, etc.