Summer is over, the air feels crisp and blustery, the leaves on the trees are a kaleidoscope of yellows and reds while the days are getting shorter and the nights longer.
You can already see hints of Christmas in the air - banners outside of pubs and restaurants advertising their Christmas menu; Christmas gifts and plum puddings gradually being added to the supermarket shelves.
Soon the diet industry will also start its weight loss campaigns encouraging you to lose weight so that you look great for those Christmas parties coming up. Ironic isn’t it – messages about Christmas and food, food, food and messages about dieting, losing weight and not being tempted by luscious food. Just can’t win, can you!
Here is where it is easy for me to go off on a tangent about the futility of dieting. I’ve worked in a specialist eating disorders unit for 10 years and have worked with eating disorders in my private therapy practice for 15 years, as well as having been on loads of courses and conferences – so I have a pretty good idea about the world of dieting.
My bottom line is: Diets don’t work!!
There are both psychological and physiological reasons why that is so but I won’t digress now. [Maybe I’ll write a free special report on the topic instead. Let me know if this would be of interest].
Anyway, getting back to my real point. I’ve never dieted in my life and I’m definitely against dieting – which is not to say I was never overweight – because I have been.
I’m an advocate of lifestyle and not diets. If you make lifestyle changes as a way of losing weight, you are more likely to keep the weight off.
You will also feel better because you won’t get caught in the Two Dieting Traps:
• The yo-yo dieting lifestyle trap where you end up spending your life and money on programmes to lose weight, only in the end to gain the weight you lost, plus a few more pounds.
• The self-flagellation trap, where you beat yourself up for ‘failing’ which only serves to leave your self esteem in tatters.
Lifestyle Changes
It’s not rocket science. In its simplest form, to lose weight means you have to take in less energy than you use.
Most people focus on reducing the energy intake. The minute I hear the word ‘diet’ I start thinking about deprivation – what I can’t have, what I can’t eat and quite frankly I do like my food. Diets just seem like really hard work!
I like to turn the idea slightly on its head. I prefer to focus on expending more energy than you are taking in.
I know some of you are thinking – “well yes, but if that means going to the gym 3-4 times a week – forget it, I hate it. That’s hard work!”
Which is why I’m also a believer in making change as easy as possible. It’s got to fit in with who you are and it’s got to be sustainable. So that leads me to a simple concept that over time will become one of your health habits. You won’t feel any ‘pain.’ You will be using more energy than you are now and you, might, like me, find you start having fun with coming up with more creative ideas for using more energy.
The idea I’m going to share with you comes from Paul McKenna’s book, I Can Make You Thin. At least I’m pretty sure it does. I’ve lent my copy to someonehis morning just to double check but realized that I’ve lent it to someone – unfortunately I can’t remember who I leant it to! So here is the idea:
Keeping In Step
Step 1: Get hold of a pedometer. They are available online, in sports shops, in gyms, even in cereal boxes sometimes!
Step 2: For one week monitor how many steps you are taking each day. Don’t make any changes to your routine. Use a simple spreadsheet to record the number of steps you take each day. After 7 days, add them up to get your total for the week.
Step 3: In week two think of one way you could add more steps.
• Choose a different route to work – one that is slightly longer
• Use the stairs, not the lift at work or when you go shopping
• Park a little further away from the shops when you shop
Monitor your steps for a week with the new small change you’ve made and again, find your weekly total. Give yourself a pat on the back for the increase.
When you’ve adjusted to that change and it feels like a ‘normal’ part of your routine, choose another way you could add more steps… and keep the process going.
Last year, the lifts in the office block I work in got flooded and were out of order for 9 months. I got used to taking the stairs and even though the lifts work again, I choose to continue to take the stairs. I take the stairs when I’m shopping and in the car parks now too. I find that I’m just as quick – often quicker now – than the lifts. So I’m using more energy overall but it just feels normal - no hard work there.
Remember that the simplest way to extinguish old, lazy habits is to choose new ones that you want and practise them consistently until you get the new habit ‘in the muscle.’
Next time, I’ll share a simple tip to help you work your core muscles without even realising it!
Have fun, get creative and l’d love to hear how you get on!
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