Stop before you are full. Don’t snack. Or if you do, take 2-6 of the item and return the pack to the fridge or cupboard. Then, only eat what you took and walk away.
Drink a glass of water when you get out of bed. Have another one every time you go to have a snack or a meal.
Commit and stand tall and be proud of yourself for sticking to your plan each hour.
Move more too!
Don’t leave it to chance. Don’t be lazy with it. Be in your best shape. Eat the best, nutritious, natural food that you can.
It’s your one body for life. Treat it that way.
Eat better. Eat less. Walk more. Lift some lite weights, or cans of soup, for just 5 minutes per day. Make your body glow.
You’ll miss what you had if you don’t spend 10 minutes per day on upkeep. So easy to make it a habit. So easy not to as well. What type of person are you? Maintainer of your amazing body? Or the, ‘Who cares’, type?
Notice how this philosophy permeates the rest of your life. Be brutally honest with yourself – is this what you actually, truly want and would wish for, if a genie granted you three wishes?
This is a great tactic to help you lose weight or maintain a certain weight range. I call it the water sandwich.
A key element to weight management and overall health and fitness is to drink a couple of litres of water each day. But this can be difficult, especially for people not used to drinking that much water each day. They often forget or put it off, especially if they don’t enjoy the taste.
However, we often enjoy a little too much of our favourite foods. So the water sandwich idea to minimise food intake and maximise water intake is as follows:
Take the item that you are craving, or want in the moment, and have just a small bite. This gets you interested in having more and has the benefit of getting the food taste in your mouth.
Then drink a glass or pint of water. If you do it quickly, you’ll still have the idea of the taste of your preferred food in your mouth or mind. This helps you get a large amount of water on board.
Finally, take another small bite of your preferred food and walk away. Now you feel full from all of the water and you walk away with the taste of your preferred food on your tastebuds. Yet, you’re so full from the pint of water, you couldn’t imagine having any more of the food at the moment.
There you have it. The water sandwich is an excellent tool to use to increase water intake and reduce food consumption while still getting the nice taste of certain foods. Try it.
These two words can dramatically improve your life. Why? Because most people have trained themselves in short term, one-step thinking. People often do better, in the long term, if they incorporate more ‘several-step’ thinking into their life.
Simply by asking, ‘Then what?’, more often, you will train your brain to consider outcomes beyond the immediate and into the longer term.
This can help in all sorts of areas of your life. Weight loss is one. If I eat this delicious cake, then what? I will need to work out more tomorrow. And it will take more time. Then what? Then I’ll be late for work. So with just a couple of ‘then what’s’, we see undesirable outcomes because of our initial behaviour.
This can be applied to house purchases, holiday planning and career path considerations, to name a few things.
What one thing could you do differently, starting today, that could make a nice difference in your life?
What could you eliminate from your day? Or what could you adjust to make the outcome you want more likely?
Don’t buy sugary or salty snacks or treats and keep them in the house. Keep cherry tomatoes and hummus instead. When you think you are hungry, pour a cool glass of water. Set your morning wake up bell to 15 minutes earlier and then get up and do 30 push ups and sit ups.
Get things ready now or in the evening before bed so it is easier to make the changes happen tomorrow.
Each time you set up your environment to win, your future self smiles and remembers how clever you are. That’s a nice feeling.
It’s amazing how water can fix so many things. Dehydration, which can cause sluggishness or loss of focus, can be fixed with a few glasses of water.
Have a glass of water a little before bed and have a full glass when you wake up. These are easy times to remember and great habits to instil.
A few more glasses of water throughout the day and you’ll feel fresher, more awake, energised and focused.
Keep the water flowing. You’ll feel better for it.
Do you prefer to satisfy your taste or manage your waist? What’s more important to you? If I look, I will be able to see which you prefer.
There may not be a right or wrong. However, if you want one but focus on the other, happiness will elude you.
If you let yourself drift along, it will be harder for you. Being determined, committed and following through will give you a feeling of having a super power. You will love it!
Think of sugar as poison. Eating poison, or items with poison in them, would be terrible for you. Stop thinking sugary items are a treat. They are more of a threat to your health.
Focus on your waist but allow moments of taste to be fully enjoyed. Enjoy and even savour the taste of all food and drink you consume. Linger on it. Enjoy!
But go easy on the Hummus. Everything will get better for you.
Goals were written and you started off great! But then the wheels came off. Your great new habits have been slowly becoming one-offs rather than habitual. With that, your confidence has taken a hit and old habits are creeping back in.
What happened?!?!
This last one tends to catch a lot of people out. If you’ve spent a long time saying you’re not sporty, it can be pretty hard to stick with walking, running or more engaging activities and sports.
Years of saying ‘I’m not a reader’ or ‘I don’t read’, will make it difficult to read a book per month.
You will likely benefit from adopting a mantra that reflects the new you that you are becoming. Mantra’s like, ‘I am a runner’, ‘I am fit, active and healthy’, or ‘I am a reader’ and ‘I am a well read person’.
If you’re good at starting new initiatives, habits and activities, that’s great! For many, that is the hardest part. You just need to become the outcome. Become a completer/finisher. State with strong intent, ‘I am disciplined and results driven.’ Fall in love with the process. And then, like a miracle, you’ll become who you decided to be.
Getting started can be tough. Continuing can be even harder. But that is the work you need to do to succeed. Consistency is powerful both in terms of confidence and outcomes.
A consistent drip of water is enough to put a dent or hole in a rock over time. You may not get the result you want straight away, but over time the probability of reaching your goal increases.
You can see this with any goal you are aiming at. If you are consistent with the foods and drinks you consume, you can reduce or maintain your weight. Keeping to a daily and weekly exercise regime will work wonders to tone your body and improve your fitness.
The great feeling of seeing daily or weekly improvements also builds confidence. Inconsistent approaches return uncertain results. This in turn weakens your faith in the process. With a reduction in faith, you are less likely to continue to do the things you are supposed to do. This creates an unnecessary loss in confidence.
You see, the flywheel can work both ways. It can help you improve, gain confidence and flourish. However, the negative reinforcement can also accelerate your demise.
Consistency is powerful. Use it to your benefit.
