Don’t start creating lofty goals for your New Year resolutions unless you are willing to fail.
Most people give up their new year resolutions after a couple of weeks because they fail. After a year of being stuck at home, stopping our routines, even losing ‘incidental’ exercise and activity – things have gone downhill for many of us. The habit of drinking more wine or cocktails – in fact just drinking more alcohol – and eating more snacks, have consequences – over a whole year. Some people have said to me, oh don’t worry, I’ll go on a diet in January.
In fact, I know someone who has three different dress sizes in her wardrobe because her weight fluctuates that much.
But just because people eat cakes, biscuits and chocolate (and a few glasses of champagne and red wine) it doesn’t mean they have to suffer in January – IF they know how to make the cakes the right way or where to buy them.
Maybe the government’s anti-obesity drive to cut obesity will work – by restricting promotions on foods high in salt, fat and sugar and banning soft drink refills. ‘No more ‘bogofs’ or 3 for 2 on unhealthy products’ was the announcement made by the Dept of Health and Social care yesterday. However, chocolate shops are exempt! Health minister Jo Churchill wants to make sure the healthy choice is the easy choice.
Yes, this is a start, but these foods are highly addictive and weight gain creeps up on many of us without us even realising. Many people can’t see the harm in having a treat. But, over time, weight gain leads to serious health conditions including type 2 diabetes and cancer.
It is good to try to improve our environments, but often we can’t control our circumstances so we have to find out a way to tweak our responses to our environment. It’s not only other people and places, but it’s also in our heads too!
I love the new year! I am SO excited about laying out my quarterly and monthly goals so I can reach them, and mark the achievements on my calendar so I can celebrate them.
How many people actually do this for their own personal goals? Sure, if you run a business you have to have a business plan to pitch it to get financing, but if you want to look better or be able to avert going up a dress size or worse still having bariatric surgery, or dying before your time, how are you going to ensure you stay on track and don’t give up? Coaching is one of the fasting growing choices for high achievers. Can you imagine an Olympic athlete without a coach? Can you imagine a successful doctor, lawyer or civil servant/politician without a mentor? So what is holding you back? You are. But guess what, it is in your hands to make the first step, and once you do it you will never look back.
This week I watched the biopic on Karen Carpenter, who died of anorexia. Anorexia is a mental illness.
It was so dreadfully sad watching this – but being obese or overweight and having an overeating disorder is equally distressful.
The truth is that we are our thoughts. Some people are able to stop eating because they are unhappy enough to feel that the only way they can get a grip and some control is via what they eat and drink. It is an extreme illness. I studied it as a specialist subject in one of my exams.
Mental health has always interested me. So too has personal development. The trouble is so many of us are stuck in an old pattern of negative self-talk it is incredibly difficult to change and start believing that a healthy slim body is hidden beneath the layers of fat. Healthy bodies are supposed to be slim. Fat is where toxins are stored in our bodies. There is no blame though. Quite the opposite. We can change.
The solution to being able to stop overeating but still eating enough to satiety and for nourishment is first and foremost balancing the hormones.
Once our hormones are in balance, our appetite reduces, and we eat when we are hungry. We stop eating when we are full.
To set up a plan for success we need a guide who has been there and helped many other people believe in themselves to achieve success. So often I hear people tell me they don’t think they are good enough. They tell me they can’t trust themselves with having a certain type of food in the house. Or they can’t stop themselves going out and buying a ‘heart attack on a plate’ meal. Or the scales stay the same even though they think they are being healthy. (That one takes a little digging to uncover the real reason!)
If this sounds like you, then I urge you to reconsider why you have been feeling this way for so long and whether it is serving you.
What are you going to do about it?