Is Now The Wrong Time For You?
It’s that time of year again already. December is almost upon us. It is COLD and people are starting to get stressed. There’s the parties, the presents, after work drinkies, food shopping, family and friends zoning in on you, and new for me this year making of the nativity costume (Not Yay!)
There’s a lot on isn’t there, so now must be the wrong time for you to start (or continue) your ‘diet’ and/or exercise. You want to enjoy yourself at these parties and the tastes of these seasonal treats. It’s all part of the experience.
This is your first step in the wrong direction. Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t be enjoying yourself and not enjoying
the foods. The thing is, most people use Christmas as their excuse to not bother. If you are stuck in the mind-set that you’ll just wait until January 1st to start your diet, to change your attitude to food and that relationship you have with yourself, why is the clock starting midnight going to make things any different for you? It isn’t.
There isn’t the perfect time to do something, there is only now. This particularly applies to weight loss and not piling on several lbs of weight at Christmas. The thing is, if you do wait, then you are wasting weeks of your time, worsening what you know you will be trying to do in the New Year.
If you put on 10lbs over Christmas, then you have 10lbs to lose before you even get back to the weight you are today, this very moment. How easy is 10lbs for you to lose? So you are likely to put yourself on a ridiculously strict diet, some celebrity fad that says you will lose a stone in a couple of days. But they don’t work, they are unsustainable, your body cannot work as it is supposed to, and you feel like your belly is touching your backbone because you’re so hungry. Clearly it actually isn’t!
Any time that you lose weight / burn fat is because your body is in a calorie deficit. Food is energy for your body. So when you consume less energy than your body needs to function, and your body uses more energy than what you are putting in, you will lose weight. It’s a simple process, but it might not be easy.
So here are my secrets for surviving the festive period AND still being able to enjoy the yummy goodness of these seasonal goodies:
- Start now. Don’t allow yourself to feel miserable and maybe even ashamed of how you look. Give yourself permission to make changes, make a decision to commit to yourself. You do not need to behave in a way that the old you might have.
- Start listening to your body. Pay attention to what your body tells you and not the clock. Are you actually physically hungry? A great tip here is to have a glass of water – so much of the time when we think we are hungry, we are actually dehydrated. Fuel your body the best way you can, drink water often and all of those internal systems will start working more efficiently and that amazing brain of yours will thank you!
- Start listening to your body. Pay attention to what your body tells you and not the clock. Are you actually physically hungry? A great tip here is to have a glass of water – so much of the time when we think we are hungry, we are actually dehydrated. Fuel your body the best way you can, drink water often and all of those internal systems will start working more efficiently and that amazing brain of yours will thank you!
- Chew the food. Might sound obvious but I’d be willing to take a bet that you probably don’t chew enough. Take your time and enjoy the food you are giving to yourself. Saviour the textures, smells and flavours. Because you slow this process down, the stomach has time to recognise that you are actually eating and give you that “Im Full” signal before you need to loosen that waistband!
- Move. Do move around, go out and take a walk, go to that class you signed up for, stretch. Do something that you will enjoy, because it will take you out of that pressurised environment, and also, you are using up the stored energy (aka fat) that you are trying to get rid of.
- Of course use hypnosis! Get your cravings under control, so that in fact you don’t want to eat so much of the sugary foods. Reconnect the mind and body because sometimes they can get disjointed and really are not working together in harmony. Hypnosis can be wonderful for bringing these back together.
Let me know how you get on and if you need any help getting your mind to work with your body and vice versa get in touch. I’d be delighted to help.
