Maya’s Own

Here are some tips and ideas I have used to lose weight, most of those tips are common sense but it pays to repeat them. A good way to use this list  is to  print it and keep it as a reminder, it is easy to feel you already know all of that but it is quite a different thing to implement it. Print it on a nice color paper and put it where you see it first thing in the morning, I would suggest the bathroom mirror, read through it at least twice a day and  use those  tips.

• Move around more, take the stairs when ever possible.
• Try to walk 10.000 steps daily, this may be hard but you can build up to it.
• Cut out all soft drinks and flavored milk drinks.
• Cut out all fast foods
• Cut all fried foods
• Keep a food diary, this way you can see what exactly you eat each and every day.
• Exercise for 20 minutes each day, this could be a brisk walk or dancing, swimming, whatever gets your heart rate up.
• Change to wholemeal and wholegrain bread and pasta.
• Cut out all sugar, replace with stevia  or honey if you must have sweetener. remember that honey is full of cals but it is better for you than sugar.
• Eat a healthy breakfast; fruit with muesli or oatmeal, a good breakfast will stop those mid morning snack sessions.
• Drink more water, 2 lts a day aqt least.
• Replace one of your main meals with  homemade soup.
• Drink green tea, it is full of anti oxidants and helps to curb the appetite.
• Select one day a week when you can indulge in cake or ice cream, in moderation of course and try to stick to reasonable portions.
• Cut back the amount you eat, just a little bit less food could amount to a few hundred calories and get you used to eating less in one session.
• Eat apples, they are full of vitamins and fibre, try to eat an apple half an hour before a meal, this will make you less hungry and make you feel full faster.
• Don’t do it alone, start a group and build a network of people wanting to lose weight.
• Read the labels, avoid trans fats and modified sugars like high fructose syrup, in fact stay away from anything modified.
• Find out what the healthy alternatives are to your favorite foods, if you like burgers make your own without all the fats using a plain bun and adding a lot of salad.
• Avoid bottled sauces which contain too much salt and/or sugar, try the sugar and salt reduced variety.
• Don’t weigh yourself too often, I found it a little discouraging to weigh myself daily, once or twice a week should give you a good idea on how you are progressing.
• Be easy on yourself, eat and exercise in moderation, avoid the burnout many go through if exercising too much on a calories restricted diet.
• Set yourself a realistic goal, you may not get your 21 year old body back but you can be a lot healthier and fitter in a slimmed down version of yourself now.
• Use positive affirmations.
• Keep a weight loss journal.
• Have a good night sleep, if you are well rested you may have less tendency to reach for the sugar snacks and coffees during the day.
• Snack on carrot and celery sticks or apples, keep them handy to stave off hunger or the desire for a sugar hit.
• Eat more fiber, add some bran or psyllium husk to your morning oatmeal.
• Keep alcoholic drinks to a minimum, better still cut them out if you can, a glass of wine can become a treat.

Getting on the weight loss journey should not be a chore but something you want to achieve for overall health and well being. Forget about all the quick fix diets and magic pills, take a more holistic  view and change your life, because no matter how old you are if you are overweight and unfit you are heading towards some serious health issues.

Start today , ” A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step“

Affirmations are the perfect tool to reprogram your subconscious negative thought patterns and bring about a desired change toward a more positive outcome.
This can work in many areas of your life:
• Relationships
• Health
• Ageing
• Weight loss
A very common mistake in using affirmations is to give up to soon, after all think about it: you had those negative thought patterns for probably most of your life, they are deeply engrained and dare I say, they feel comfortable!

Take the issue of weight for example: at some stage in your life you started to believe that you were unloved and maybe unlovable, it felt safe to eat and the extra weight just kept things rolling along nicely. This is not necessarily a conscious thought, all you know is that for some reason you crave food in times of stress, in particular the rich calories laden meals. Very soon eating becomes an emotional outlet.
Once you start on affirmations you will encounter some resistance to some affirmations more than others, I suggest you persist with those resistant ones as they may be the most important and effective ones. Often the strongest objections are the ones that hit on the root cause of negative thoughts.

Try with 2 or 3 key affirmations that will appeal to you or seem to have the biggest relevance and start by writing them down on a piece of card, make several of them and keep one with you at all times and place the others in prominent positions around the house, in your bedroom, bathroom and in your car.
Make the affirmations you chose as personal and relevant to you as you possibly can, this way they become YOURS and will have a lot more power.

For affirmations to work you will need:
• Passion = really wanting that result
• Strong emotion= feel the excitement and thrill at bringing this result into your life
• Conviction= you know already that positive results are imminent
• Faith= you totally trust the process

Affirmations are always in the present tense, your mind is very accommodating, a statement always in the future tense will stay that way: in the future.

1. Make your affirmations positive:
“I don’t want to be fat” is negative, your mind will pick up on “fat” and “want” and duly oblige. A better affirmation would be: “I am slim and trim” or “every day and in every way I am getting healthier and trim”, note that by adding “healthier” I make sure that I don’t get slim by getting some nasty disease! Cover your bases, you want to be healthy and fit, so add this to your affirmation. Keep your affirmation positive and in the present and your mind will start to make the necessary changes to accommodate to the truth of this statement.

2. You know already that you have the power to create your own reality; affirmations are the road signs to this new reality.
3. Be as clear and precise as you possibly can and keep a clear focus by affirming that your desired result is in the present.
4. Make sure that you mean it when you say your affirmations, you could make up a song or a rhyming poem, include your name to make it even more powerful. Write your affirmations on your computer desktop and/or draw a picture and keep it where you will see it daily. You could also record them and play your daily favorites on your iPod.
5. Visualize the result and see yourself having achieved your desired outcome.
6. Keep it light, once an affirmation starts to feel stale, move on to a new one.