I don’t know anyone who doesn’t care what others think of them. Some may not admit it, but for most of us we care how others perceive us and the way we are – even if it is only a little bit. There is a great desire and want to “fit in” and when we are bombarded with advertisements to be slim, trim and healthy – it can leave us feeling left out and a failure. But this message is conflicting.

Despite this need to fit in, being overweight and unhealthy is the NORM! I think this is something we all really need to focus on. It is normal to be overweight and it is normal to eat junk food. It isn’t normal to be healthy and slim. In the Western world at least two thirds of us are overweight. So what is normal and what is fitting in is being overweight and desiring being thin – not being thin.

Despite being normal we all want to be perceived as healthy and fit. It is a great attribute to have – it’s desirable. Being unhealthy isn’t exactly something wonderful to live with. Who wants to feel tired, stressed and miserable all the time? No one does, but a lot of us feel that way.

But even so, when we take a step out of the bubble of junk food and maccy d’s, we are odd and people notice. They notice you trying to be healthy, trying to lose weight and it makes them feel uncomfortable. They deal with this by putting you down or joking about what you are eating. When you don’t have the support and esteem it can be very hard not to become what they say – a quitter!

Caring what others think about us can stop us from getting where we want to with our weight loss. I remember talking to one of my friends a few years ago about their weight loss. Their problem was that every time they tried to make healthier choices and to start a diet program, their family would give unhelpful negative comments e.g. “Oh this isn’t going to last – why don’t you just have some dinner with us?” etc. Their family made it much harder for them to move away from unhealthy dietary choices. Instead of my friend sticking to their guns about the healthier choices, she would often fall back into her family’s way of eating and it was making her miserable. She cared what they thought about her and by caring she ultimately lived up to their expectations (not lasting one second on her new diet).

Her need to be accepted by her family overtook her need to lose weight and be healthier. He family was also overweight and maybe they felt threatened by the desire of their daughter to lose weight as though they should care about theirs too.

If you care what others think you may never reach your goals in life. If you allow others opinions to bring you down and stop you eating the way you want to, to lose weight, you won’t make it. So it might not be normal for you to go to the gym or to eat a salad but it CAN be. The desire to change, to be healthy doesn’t have to be forgotten because that isn’t you (according to friends and family). It is you and you need to be determined and motivated to stick with it. Focus on your wants and don’t concern yourself with what others think of you

If people put you down or belittle your attempts it is only out of their own insecurities about themselves. It is much easier to attack you then for them to look inside themselves and see the real issue.

Insecurity can lead you to conform and continue to sabotage yourself and your goals in life. And although it may feel comfortable socially, within you, you will be dissatisfied and unfulfilled. Why allow others to control you? It isn’t their life to lead – it is yours and you should live it the way YOU want to.

How do you stop caring?

When you decide not to care what others think it is something that is a working process – just like losing weight. You first have to make the decision not to care anymore and remind yourself as often as possible that you do not care what others think. You need to remind yourself so you can stop yourself making choices on the basis of others’ opinions.

If someone says “oh this diet isn’t going to last, just have a little cake”, if you don’t remind yourself that you don’t care what this person thinks, you may haphazardly give in to this because you feel upset by it and by doing so you make your weight loss goal that little bit harder to reach.

Of course sometimes, someone’s opinion can be helpful to you and losing weight so ignoring all opinions may not be beneficial. Instead you need to listen to each opinion, pause and consider whether it is of value to you or not. If that person understands where you are coming from, what you are trying to do then their opinion will more likely be valuable. They may have wanted to pointy something out to help you as opposed to put you down. This is when you should listen and take it into consideration as this could help you as opposed to hinder you.

Be honest with yourself and don’t allow others opinions of you hold you back from making the lifestyle changes you need to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle.

Helpful Posts:

Weight Loss Goals Part One: Creating A Positive Weight Loss Mindset

Weight Loss Goals Part Two: The 3 Beliefs You Need For Weight Loss Success

Weight Loss Goals Part Three: Weight Loss Planning

Previous Post: Weight Loss Obstacle NO.2: Giving Up Too Quickly

When following a weight loss program or someone else’s guidance in trying to achieve our slimmer figures, we can sometimes give up too quickly and easily before we see any real results from it. We then deem it a failure on the part of the weight loss program as opposed to really evaluating the true cause of our failure. Yes it could be as a result of the program but we will never really know this because we gave up so soon.

Now giving up could be as a result of fear and insecurity. Many of us don’t go after what we truly want because we are fearful or unsure. We end up living a life that just doesn’t feel right. Most of us also aren’t fully or consciously aware of this fear. We don’t know or simply do not understand what is holding us back from what we want in life.

If you truly want to lose weight and it is something that consumes you on a daily basis – don’t give up on it.

Of course losing weight can have a number of meanings for us other than just losing weight. It can symbolize better health, reducing an illness or many other things.

Do you want to look back and regret that you never lost weight or made your life easier and more healthful because of fear and insecurity? Do you want to regret not making the right choices for yourself and being a good example for your children?

When pursuing my own goals in weight loss and health, one of my biggest motivations was my son. I wanted to be a good role model and wanted him to have a healthy start in life. I didn’t want to have a negative influence on him (or what I saw as a negative influence on him) and wanted to show him and be able to show him that with determination and perseverance you can achieve the goals you set for yourself.

It can be very difficult to find your hearts true desire – the real reason for your weight loss goals as opposed to the superficial reasons – because of social conditioning. We to some extent are bound up in society’s habits and restrictions, so knowing what we want can be hard to assess. It is important that you take some time to really get to the root reasons for wanting to lose weight so you have something more valid to work towards. Superficial goals don’t always give you the determination you need to succeed or to keep going when you doubt yourself.

Finding your true reasons for weight loss will take care of the motivation. My son was only one reason for me and wouldn’t necessarily have been a big enough reason to change without my other personal motivations. I wanted to overcome my asthma and allergies. I wanted to feel calm and more at peace. I have overcome my asthma and allergies now and do feel calmer (although this is something I am still working on). The point is if you give up too soon you will never reach your goals.

Add Emotion To Your Goals

Another reason to find your true reasons for losing weight is to add emotion. The thought of spending another second being controlled by my asthma was a good starting point for me. I was sick of it. I was sick of constantly having a runny nose, no matter what time of year. Writing down my reasons with emotion really helped me stay focused. With weight loss you are more likely to see results a LOT sooner than I did with my asthma. It took me a long while before I saw any improvement and I tried a lot of things. I think overcoming these issues really set me up with becoming more focused with my weight loss after pregnancy and so I use them to remind me of what perseverance can achieve for me.

The more reasons you can come up with to achieve your goal the better. The more fed up you will get with your current situation and the more likely you will persevere.

It will also help you to not give up due to slow progress.

Don’t Give Up If Your Progress Is Slow

If you are pursuing your true desires for weight loss, then you will find you are less likely to quit early on. When your desire and need is so strong, your progress isn’t as relevant as it would be if you had no clear direction or no real want.

Of course you may feel discouraged if you suddenly come to a halt in your progress. You may be unsure how to overcome it and feel like giving up. Writing down a plan of action will help overcome this – whether that is to read up more within nutrition or to find inspiration to keep you going.

Remember though you can’t change everything all at once and so quickly. Yes seeing some quick results is a good sign that you are on the right path but really you should be aiming for slow steady progress. This will not only make sure you keep the weight off for good but will also allow you to enjoy the progress, focus on the good and not feel panicked when there seems like no progress has been made, because most likely there has been progress you just can’t physically see it yet.

Be Flexible

Don’t let who you are now stop you from being who you want to be. Be willing to make changes to your lifestyle, learn new things if you need to, so you can reach your goal of being slimmer and healthier. If you aren’t willing to change and be flexible, then you will find that your goals will be unreachable.

If it feels quite daunting to change, make small progressive changes to help you lose weight. For example, as mentioned in Obstacle No.1, start by changing your breakfast to something healthier for a few weeks and then move on to changing other meals in your day. Also incorporate exercise in slowly too if its something you really struggle with.

This leads me to say…

Don’t Give Up Out Of Laziness!

There are no shortcuts to achieving your goals. If you want something then you have to work for it. As you work at it you will find it does become easier especially as it becomes your new habit(s).

Living a lazy lifestyle, never achieving anything will ultimately lead to dissatisfaction. Start living a productive life and you will reap the benefits. Living a satisfying life is hard work though, especially at first but that shouldn’t’ put you off achieving your goals.

Success Is Closer Than You Think

Don’t give up, even when you want to! You could be so close to achieving your goals – closer than you think! If you give up, you have to start the cycle all over again. Persevere and if you aren’t gaining quick results, at least be happy in the knowledge that you are building a great life long habit. Eating right and exercising are crucial parts to any health/weight loss program.

If you give up on your weight loss goals, how do you know you won’t give up on other goals in life just as easily? Maybe you do. I think that for me, achieving an asthma and allergy free life has been an important and crucial achievement in my life. It has made me realize ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE if I persevere. It makes achieving other goals a lot easier, because I know eventually I will get to where I want to be and as a result I am living a much more fulfilling and content life.

One Tip To Get You Going

Start visualizing what you want now. The more and more you visualize where you want to be the more focused you will be and the more likely you will persevere. Visualize yourself slim, confident and happy. Visualize yourself involved in exercise and enjoying it. Visualize how much energy you have.

Visualizing can be very powerful but the key is to be consistent with it and to keep believing in yourself.

Remember: It is possible for you to lose weight, you are able to lose weight and you deserve to lose weight. Just don’t give up too soon before you can see results.

Helpful Posts:

Weight Loss Goals Part One: Creating A Positive Weight Loss Mindset

Weight Loss Goals Part Two: The 3 Beliefs You Need For Weight Loss Success

Weight Loss Goals Part Three: Weight Loss Planning

Previous Post: Weight Loss Obstacle NO.1: Always Looking For The Shortcut

If we take a look at the weight loss market today, it is riddled with quick and easy weight loss solutions – lose weight with as little as 5 minutes work a week, lose weight instantly, diet pills, secret formulas or any other newly discovered shortcut to weight loss heaven. You rarely ever see anyone talking about consistency and hard work.

However weight loss success is rarely easy and rarely ever comes without any hard work or consistency. You can choose a path of least resistance, going at your own pace and end up where you want to be later down the line. But this won’t give you instant results or instant gratification either.

Changing a lifetime of habits is not going to be solved in a simple pill or 5 minute a week formula and if it is solved – it will be short lived. If you want to lose weight for good you need to work at it and be consistent in your efforts – whether that is gradually working towards introducing more and more fresh whole foods, increasing your weekly exercise schedule or whether you suddenly change your entire lifestyle overnight. You have to keep at it for lasting results.

It is very easy to get stuck in the cycle of wanting one thing after another and thinking that THIS will be the cure to your weight loss woes (the latest diet pill or exercise equipment to flatten your abs). Advertisers and marketers are just good at their jobs. Buying the item gives you instant gratification but its short lived and doesn’t get you anywhere closer to your weight loss goals.

When you aren’t seeing instant results from the lifestyle choices you have made and feel like you are getting suckered into another weight loss cure, step back and assess it for what it is. Think about past products/diet programs you have purchased and that you haven’t use or haven’t worked. This should help you and stop you from making the same mistake again.

What about the programs/products that do work? Even if you do find a quick fix product that does, I guarantee that it won’t be easy to maintain. So even with quick fix solutions you still have to put the hard work in – e.g. going on a crash diet and not giving into major cravings from lack of food. In fact quick fix solutions are much more work than simple diet and exercise.

It doesn’t have to be hard to change your lifestyle and make healthier choices, it can be effortless if you can provide your body with the right nutrition – the diet itself doesn’t have to be hard, neither does the exercise you choose to do (pick something enjoyable!). But learning and becoming knowledgeable in what you need to achieve can be hard work and this is where you really need to take the time and effort. Once you have the right knowledge you can implement it. On a long-term basis, for the least amount of effort you should ease into a new lifestyle change. Start by changing your breakfast to something healthier, then a few weeks later your lunch as well. You can also increase exercise as the weeks go by. This will make the transition to a healthier slimmer you easier and more successful. You won’t get instant gratification from it like you will from eating one of your favorite junk foods but you will have long lasting results. You will also enjoy the process a lot more than if you chose to struggle to find your instant cure or easy weight loss solution. They don’t exist.

There are easy ways to eat, optimum ways to eat for us and many people will claim it is an easy way to live and easy way to lose weight BUT somewhere among it will be some hard work and effort. Whether that is struggling to adapt to a new lifestyle (old habits die hard), overcoming emotional eating, cravings or struggling to get enough exercise in. There is always something. Pills and products cannot solve them – only you can.

Make a weight loss plan, work hard and maintain it and you will soon be seeing results. Maybe you won’t get them instantly but just knowing you are making the right choice for your health and body, should be enough motivation to move you forward and closer to your weight loss goals.

Helpful Articles:

Weight Loss Goals Part One: Creating A Positive Weight Loss Mindset

Weight Loss Goals Part Two: The 3 Beliefs You Need For Weight Loss Success

Weight Loss Goals Part Three: Weight Loss Planning

The China Study is one of the first books I read on nutrition and it alerted me to the consequences of too much protein in one’s diet and how this can contribute to cancer among many other Western diseases.  It is a book I recommend to anyone who is interested in nutrition, health and weight loss.

If you are not familiar with The China Study, this is a great video to get you started:

Being free from emotional eating takes time – it can take a LOT of time. For some people their emotional attachment to food is less severe and they can be done with the issue in months. For others, like myself, it can take years.

I never realized how much emotional eating was a part of my life and never thought I was an emotional eater. Only until very recently, in the past few years, has it become so abundantly clear that emotional eating is something I take part in on a regular basis or try not to! Unfortunately, although I was getting somewhere with my battles against it, it can take another emotional blow to send you back into an emotional panic again and delve for the food.

A year and a half ago my mother died. It was just after the birth of my son, so the blow couldn’t have come at a more devastating time. I was excited about my new bundle of joy, but I had been more excited about spending time with my mother and her helping me bring up her grandson. Unfortunately, this wasn’t meant to be and although I thought I could handle her death, it has been an ongoing battle since then. When people say it gets better, I really haven’t seen the evidence of this yet.

So what’s this got to do with emotional eating? Well, my emotional eating habits got a lot worse once this event occurred and have been a lot harder for me to deal with. They come in waves. Every so often a powerful wave of emotion hits me that I try to avoid feeling through comfort eating. It’s almost as though it creeps up on me and takes over me before I even notice. I then tend to act as though I haven’t really got a clue why I am suddenly obsessing with food again – but really, if I took a good look at myself the answer is there, I just want to avoid it. Avoidance of my issues seems to be on a subconscious level though, so I am not intentionally avoiding the issues but I am (if that makes sense!).

I did have my emotional eating under control before this occurrence but since, it is almost as though I have had to rewire my thinking again and get back on track – like I have fallen off the wagon. It hasn’t been as simple as addressing the underlying issues either – my grief. I can’t force it out all in one go. It comes in waves and I don’t know how long these waves will go on. All I know is that without the support of my boyfriend, I would have found it almost impossible to stop myself falling into the trap of emotional eating again and this is why I made this post.

If you are an emotional eater, you need to get support. You need to find someone you can go to when it gets too tough. It is so very easy to cave and eat the food. The instant gratification is so very tempting that we need someone to help us overcome it. When life gets tough, others’ support is needed to stop us indulging in the behaviors that cause us pain and repression. If you can’t find someone to support you in person, there are many forums online that can give you support too and I have used a few myself and found them to be useful in times when I felt misunderstood. So do a search for an emotional eating forum or use a forum you already frequent for support if necessary.

Sometimes, all we need is to discuss our emotional eating habits with someone who has been there or is there and once we have spoke about it, we feel instantly less emotional and more powerful.

So when you start to acknowledge your emotional eating and your maladaptive comfort eating, make sure you have a friend who can help you through the times when you feel like you can’t overcome overeating on your own. Sometimes its all you need.

And remember.

It is possible to overcome emotional eating,

You are able to overcome emotional eating.

And you deserve to overcome emotional eating.

Don’t suffer in silence: get support.

I was talking to a friend just now about her craving issues and how she struggles a lot with keeping them under control. She revealed that she rarely ever gets breakfast in and ends up drinking coffee all morning, which doesn’t really help with her hunger.  I told her that if she wants to overcome her cravings then the first step is to get a good breakfast!

So this article is just a quick overview of why it is important to eat breakfast and make a regular habit of it. WHAT you eat is just as important as eating. In Neal Barnard’s book Breaking the Food Seduction he mentions a study done where for 1 week volunteers had instant oatmeal and for another week they had regular oatmeal. Volunteer’s cravings and snacking reduced by 35%. The difference in these bowls was the amount of fiber. More refined foods have less fiber so make sure you have a fiber rich breakfast to sustain you until lunch.

A Breakfast To End All Cravings!

Breakfast is considered by many to be the most important meal of the day. Although I don’t necessarily agree with the “breakfast” part I do agree that the first meal you eat of the day is going to have the biggest impact on cravings and energy levels. I know that if my first meal is small and not very nutritious I will tend to crave like my by the time lunch has come around or very soon after. This feeling will often spill into the afternoon as well. If I have a nutritious breakfast then I tend to feel sustained throughout the day. So from my own experience the first meal I eat is usually a fairly hefty size

As stated above having a breakfast full of fiber is important as it keeps you from snacking. I also feel it is important to keep it simple, make it easy on your digestion and also quick for you to obtain the nutrients you need from it. This is why I start my day with a large banana smoothie (5-6 bananas or more! with some added water to blend). My smoothie will give me about 500-600 calories maybe more depending on how greedy I am. I tend to have this after being up out of bed for an hour as I don’t get hungry straight away.

Fruit to me is the best starter of the day – full of fiber, easy on digestion and quickly digested. The key is to eat plenty of it to feel satiated.

So if you want to lose weight and avoid cravings, make breakfast an important part of your day. For me, it was the easiest part to get right about my diet and the most crucial part to get right for my weight loss and well being.

End Cravings

Negative thinking can prevent you from living the life you want to live and becoming the slimmer lighter you: the you, you want to be. We may not even be aware of how negative we are as individuals as it can become part and parcel of who we are and the people we are around.

As children we seek acceptance from others around us, especially our parents. So we tend to absorb those ways of thinking and being into our own patterns without question. If we have negative parents and negative friends, we can become negative ourselves. I didn’t fully realize the extent of my negativity until someone pointed it out to me – since that time I have been able to turn it around quite substantially, but sometimes all habits creep in.

When we decide to look at the world honestly we might feel truly entrenched in these negative thought processes and feelings may arise against our ideal vision of ourselves.

Becoming aware of the negativity in your thoughts, speech and writing is the first step to changing it. By becoming aware and changing the way you perceive the world and how you choose to address others and talk to others can have a dramatic effect on your health and well being.

The more often you choose to focus on the positive the more you will notice the negative and will be able to step away from it.

Always focus on what you do want, what you love, what you enjoy and what you desire rather than on anything you perceive as a problematic. This will have a huge impact on your weight loss success.

Thoughts are extremely powerful and can help you get to where you want to be but can also hinder you and prevent you from losing weight.

What do you want to experience? Do you focus on your joy and love? (The slimmer fit you) Or do you focus on how difficult it is for you to lose weight and how unlikely it is you will lose weight or be able to stop overeating?

Keep your outlook light. This doesn’t mean be unrealistic – we all have challenge in our life, but try to view your experience as a game. Choose to enjoy your time. Remember your end goal: to be slimmer.

It cannot be said enough how important it is to maintain a positive outlook during the process of overcoming cravings. I discovered when I was overcoming mine that I put those foods I adored and craved on a pedestal. It was only by seeing that food for what it was and taken it off that pedestal that I was able to move forward.

Does that food love you back the way you love it? NO!

Changing your eating habits is a CHOICE. If you are offered something that doesn’t fit in with that choice, try to avoid saying things like “I am not allowed that” or “I can’t eat that”. Instead try to express yourself in a better way that benefits you and your journey e.g. “No thank you, I am choosing not to eat that way” or “It is my choice and I love it”.

Embrace and celebrate your lifestyle choices.  Enjoy the journey and weight loss will be easier than you think!

Previous Post: Sleep & Its Importance For Health & Weight Loss

Most of us do not get enough sleep and rest. Most of us don’t listen to our bodies when they scream out I need sleep/I need to rest/I am tired and instead continue to keep going. One of the main reasons for this is that we feel guilty for sleeping more or for resting and may even feel lazy. I remember when I was younger I would feel bad for sleeping in until 1pm as though I had wasted a big chunk of the day on something unimportant. But sleep IS important and you shouldn’t feel guilty for lying in or for having a lazy day to rest.

Getting little sleep and rest can cause you to gain weight and keep it on. A lot of overeating happens due to exhaustion. Often times we mistake signs of tiredness for hunger and end up eating instead of getting the rest we badly need.

These days I have taken it upon myself to make sure I am getting enough rest and if I do stay up to do some extra work and get hungry I often have a glass of water or a cup of green tea to warm/comfort me and keep me going until the end of my project and then go to bed. I used to mistake my tiredness for hunger as well as needing sleep so would eat. I now know that my hunger isn’t hunger but a sign I need to get to bed (not getting enough sleep puts the hormones that control hunger and appetite out of balance causing us to be hungry) and so I do not eat. If I did eat anyway it would cause me to have a bad night’s sleep so that is another reason to avoid it!

Sometimes when I get tired during the day I will take a nap with my 11/2 year old. I like napping with him.

So my advice to you it to learn and to allow yourself to rest when you need it. I know this isn’t always possible, but when you do get the opportunity to, take it! Don’t make excuses about it, it is important. Rest is just as important as eating and exercising and getting fresh air.

You are only as strong as your weakest link – if sleep is a weak link for you, you owe it to yourself and your weight loss goals to make sure you are getting enough. Sometimes all we need is to lie on the couch for half an hour to get more energy, we don’t necessarily need to sleep.

Resting and getting enough sleep are also important because when we lack these, our body also produces hormones that make us hold onto extra weight.

So getting enough sleep will not only benefit your mood and your energy levels but will also aid you in losing the weight you desire and stop you eating late at night and bingeing. When you get enough sleep you are also better able to handle stress and busy work days.

So get enough sleep! Learn to put your body’s needs first and learn to recognize when your body is asking you for sleep or rest. Observe how giving yourself that little extra rest or sleeping time affects your mood, weight loss and happiness – I think you will be surprised.

Previous Post: Weight Loss Goals Part 3: Weight Loss Planning