The Slim Habit Blog

Okay, you need to lose weight and so you decide that you need to cut out sugar. No more sugar in your coffee, no more soft drinks containing sugar, no more ready meals with sugar on the label. You’re on a mission, and sugar has got to go! You start to examine every label you can find to try and eliminate all sugar from your diet. But is it the right thing to do?

Despite what you may think, refined sugar is not a food, it’s a chemical. It’s extracted from plants, which contain no fiber, no minerals, no proteins, no fats and no enzymes. It is made up of empty calories.

What happens when you eat sugar? Your body borrows vital nutrients from healthy cells to metabolize this incomplete food. It raises your insulin level and the signals the brain receives when this happens are often interpreted as hunger signals. Likely as not you’ll reward these signals with more high-calorie food – usually containing sugar.

It would appear that stopping eating sugar is no bad thing. But here’s the question. Are you just going to give it up or are you going to look for a sugar substitute like aspartame or saccharin?  If you are, then you should think again.

One thing that has been puzzling scientists is that despite the growth in the consumption of sugar substitutes, there has been no reduction in levels of obesity, in fact the situation has become considerably worse.

Recent studies have found that far from helping you to lose weight, artificial sweeteners actually help you to put on weight!

Scientists at Perdue University carried out experiments with animals, some of whom were fed food containing natural sweeteners and others with food containing artificial sweeteners. Over the same period those animals fed with artificial sweeteners consumed more calories and gained more weight than those fed with natural sweeteners. Why? Because our bodies have learned to associate sweetness with food loaded with calories. When the calories don’t materialize we continue to eat to make up for the shortfall in expected calorie intake – the result – weight gain. You can’t fool your body!

The message is very simple. If you want to lose weight, start to reduce your sugar intake: stop adding sugar to coffee etc., don’t eat sugary foods. Don’t use artificial sweeteners or buy foods containing sugar substitutes.

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We live in exciting times! Barak Obama’s victory signals that we’re entering a period of change. Actually, people are hungry for change. Don’t all those people standing in line to vote say something? They sure do!

He stood for change and that is probably what he’s going to deliver. Some of the change won’t be particularly pleasant, but let’s hope for the first time we have a president who doesn’t care if he doesn’t get re-elected. Let’s hope he just does what has to be done.

But what about change: have any of us really sat down and thought what it really means? A lot of people are afraid of change. Why? Primarily because they are afraid of the unknown.

Change is not something to be afraid of, it is to be embraced! If you remember that change is just another word for learning it should dispel any fear that you might have.

A world without change is a world where there is no progress. All of us have been stuck in a time-warp, happy to protect the status quo. It’s done us a whole lot of no good too!

When Barak Obama talks about change, he also wants you to change. He doesn’t want to be the only catalyst, he’s expecting you to play your part too.

If change is just another word for learning, shouldn’t we be taking a leaf from his book? If we were to exercise the same amount of self-discipline, determination and effort in our personal lives as he has demonstrated in his bid for the White House, what a huge difference that would make.

Let’s take one part of our lives that far too many of us have seriously neglected: our health, and in particular our weight. If we really made an effort to lose weight – permanently, we would need to change, change our behaviour and learn new habits – new slim habits. What a difference we could make to our lives – and to the health and well-being of the nation. Isn’t this the spirit of what Barak Obama wants us to do? Let’s go for it!

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Isn’t it great to see young talent blossom? Lewis Hamilton is now the youngest ever Formula 1 World Champion at the tender age of 23. Like any talent that is truly remarkable, it sticks out a mile doesn’t it?

What makes a world champion? In nearly every case there are six essential ingredients: self-discipline, self-confidence, determination, dedication effort and practice. There is probably one other quality that sticks out, and that is single-mindedness.

You can be sure that the last thing Lewis Hamilton needs is to do is to lose weight, but his victory serves to illustrate what is needed to achieve success. What lessons does this have for us? Well, no matter what we try and do, if we want to succeed we have to follow his example. True success isn’t easily won.

If we want to lose weight we have to adopt the same disciplines as he did to win the world championship – perhaps not to the same degree, but adopt them we must.  Unfortunately very few of us are prepared to do this.

The weight loss industry has been swamped by diets and weight loss programs that promise the earth in double quick time without making any real effort. No wonder that over 90% of people who go on a diet never achieve permanent weight loss.

If you want to lose weight permanently you have to be prepared to make an effort. You have to have the self-discipline to make it work. You have to be determined that you are going to achieve your goal. If you don’t, you will never succeed.

Don’t be too disheartened! Lewis has had lots of support and guidance and that’s what you need when you start a weight loss program, so be careful which one you choose. Remember, successful weight loss has got to be permanent weight loss. The best way to achieve permanent weight loss is to make personal change. To make successful change you need to learn new habits – slim habits.

So, a weight loss program that is going to really work has got to address habit change and offer you support. There’s one program that will do that for you, it’s called the Slim Habit. If you want to lose weight – permanently, get the habit – the Slim Habit

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The Wall Street Weight Loss Plan – are you crazy? Surely they’ve got other things to think about? Maybe they’ve got some spare time on their hands while things are being sorted out or some genius has decided that a little less ‘fat on the cat’ might do their public image a bit of good.

Wall Street is in bad health. Why? Because of excess and greed, it’s that simple. The situation is so bad that it is in the process of suffering a breakdown.

Weight gain is about excess and greed too. When we behave in an irresponsible or unconcerned way about what we eat and how much we eat, we too increase the risk of our health breaking down.

We all know that Wall Street is going to have to change if it wants to return to good health. It is going to have to behave in a different way in future. It’s going to have to learn new habits.

By learning new habits, and if it can maintain those new habits, (with a little help from a more watchful regulator) it can enjoy a healthy future.

The same applies to us. Sometimes we need to be brought up short to realize the error of our ways – as in Wall Street.  We all know in our heart of hearts that the bill for our excesses and our greed is going to have to be paid someday. 

What has gone on in Wall Street has a positive point which all those who are overweight or obese would be wise to note. It is in fact a very clear prompt that sometimes change is not an option, it’s a necessity.

Events on Wall Street show us that sometimes things have to change or survival is put at risk. In the same way, we have to make personal change if we are to lose weight and secure our health and survival. To do this we must do what they are doing on Wall Street right now – to recognize the behaviors that caused the problems in the first place and then learn new habits. Learning new habits will determine new behaviors. Only when we learn new habits – new Slim Habits, can we secure lasting change.

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What is to become of us? 65% of us are overweight or obese. Are we eventually all going to look like the passengers of the spaceship Axiom in the movie WALL . E? What are we going to do? The obesity epidemic is not getting any better, in fact it is getting worse. If we go on a diet we may lose between 5 and 10% of our body weight, but only for a short while. The weight comes back again as sure as night follows day.

What’s the answer? People are becoming more and more desperate to try and find a solution to the problem. The answer is proving to be very illusive indeed.

Diets have somehow endorsed people’s consciences. They feel that at least they are doing something even although they know that any success they achieve is going to be short lived. The effect of this ’serial dieting’ is not good. Serial dieting causes depression and physical weakness and should be avoided at all costs.

What about drugs? There is no doubt that some acute cases of obesity require drug therapy. There is no other answer because the problem has become a case of life and death. For the majority of obese or overweight people, this is not an option and it never should be!

Weight loss drugs are not the answer. They are for those who are chronically or morbidly obese. For them there is little else that can get the weight loss ball rolling. They are also helpful to those who have diabetes, and heart disease, but they are not for giving out to people who need to slim down.

Proprietary weight loss drugs fall into the category of diets in their long-term effectiveness.  The side effects of weight loss drugs are not pleasant and include headache, back pain, constipation and insomnia, so for those who have to take them, it’s no walk in the park. 

There is a great demand from those who are overweight or obese for a ‘fast’ solution to their problem. This is a little strange as the weight gain was almost certainly not ‘fast’. Unfortunately for those that fall for fast solutions, fast weight loss is usually followed by fast weight gain. The one thing that has to be realized is that there is never any real and lasting effect on weight without change.

Making personal change is the only real way to achieve permanent weight loss. It takes commitment and the will to want to live a slimmer, happier, healthier life. By understanding your behaviors and being aware of the causes of your condition you can make successful change. You can learn new habits – slim habits, which will enable you to achieve permanent weight loss. No pills!

To be able to say goodbye to diets forever is something all dieters dream of – you need to get the habit – the Slim Habit.

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To be healthy, wealthy and wise must be everybody’s dream. What is the most valuable? It has got to be health. Health is something you can’t buy. Sometimes, though we don’t give as much thought to our health as we should.

When we are growing up, most of us don’t give our health any thought whatsoever. When something goes wrong though, we soon sit up and take notice, but by that time it may be too late.

 Diet is somebody else’s concern when we are young, we don’t worry ourselves about it. All we are interested in is getting more of what we like – which is usually candy, cake and cookies washed down with copious quantities of cola. 

When we become teenagers we begin to notice others and make comparisons. This is the first time we become aware of how we look. It’s the first time it becomes an important issue in our lives.

Eating the right food when we are children is vitally important. We don’t normally have too much say in what we eat, but children do try and intimidate their parents into giving them things they want. Sometimes this can result in a very distorted diet – a bad diet.

To be overweight in your early twenties is not a good thing to be. You are probably not aware of what made you overweight and you have very little idea of how you are going to change matters.

The most important thing is to break bad habits and that requires developing an awareness of what they are. Many of the bad habits will have been endorsed by upbringing. To go against this can be a challenge. What has been accepted as a family culture in terms of diet and exercise takes real resolve and determination to change.

To make a real and lasting difference it’s not diets that are needed, but a more fundamental change in behaviour. The only really successful way to do this is to learn new habits, slim habits, that will enable lasting change to take place.

To be able to say goodbye to diets forever is something all dieters thinkof. The Slim Habit makes it all possible.

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When you look in the mirror in the morning and then wish you hadn’t, then it’s time to start to think about doing something about the large tyre that has appeared round your middle.

The first thing to do is to have a really good look at what you are doing wrong. Don’t try and kid yourself, if you’ve put on weight there is a reason – actually, probably several.

When you decide that you want to be thinner, you have to be prepared to make a plan or course of action, work. This is not the time for half-hearted efforts. You either want it or you don’t. What sort of commitment are you prepared to make. Get this right at the onset will determine how successful you are going to be.

If you have a sweet tooth you are going to have to give up the candy bars and the sandwiches, the full fat cheese and all those delicious cakes. You have to make yourself aware of all the things you think have contributed to your weight gain and cut them out.

Do you know what the value of calories there is in what you eat every day? Do you know how much energy you use in a day – or how many calories you eat? You need to know this.

There is one thing that you need to avoid and that is reducing you calorie intake dramatically. If you do you are going to put more weight on in the long-run.

How much exercise do you take? You have to be honest with yourself here. There is no point in convincing yourself you take enough exercise when in your heart of hearts you know perfectly well that you take very little.

Exercise is very important because it burns calories. It’s also very good for you. We were not meant to sit around looking at television or playing computer games. Our bodies were meant to be used. It is certainly true that if you don’t use it you lose it – something to remember! Losing weight effectively is about learning new habits, new slim habits that will help you to change. If you don’t change, and are not prepared to change, no amount of dieting will ever result in permanent weight loss.

To be able to say goodbye to diets forever is something all dieters dream of.

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Most diets deliver pretty instant results. Unless you’re bending the rules you should see some movement downwards in your weight.  Just when you are enjoying the fruits of your success and starting to tell the world how clever you’ve been, everything stops!

  This happens because your body needs to rest in order to deal with the calories reduced during your dieting period. When your body is suddenly deprived of the calories it is accustomed to, it tends to stop losing weight so that it can recuperate.

If you start to ‘plateau’ it could well be because you are taking in as much energy as you are using. Has your daily exercise regime changed? Have you eaten more than you had planned to? Have you misunderstood some of the calorie value of what you’ve eaten? There are many different reasons. 

Your body’s reaction to having its usual large helpings of high calorific food cut off, is to react as if the end of the world is nigh, and close down. It tries to protect itself from what it thinks is famine and slows down your metabolism – in other words you become less efficient at burning calories.

When your metabolism slows down and you become less efficient at burning calories, you will naturally reach a plateau. The problem is that when you reach this state, it’s very difficult to budge of the plateau. One way of doing this is to increase the amount of exercise that you take. You won’t see instant results, but it will help to get you moving.

Dramatically reducing your calorie intake and you will give yourself problems. Mess with your body’s natural rhythm or change its balance, its homeostasis, and you will run into problems. This is really why most diets don’t work.

What you’re experiencing is your body working against you. It doesn’t like you disturbing its natural rhythms, its balance, its homeostasis – whether it’s right or wrong.

Best of all, it is the healthy option to burn fat. It is not your diet that will make you lose weight, but it’s what you do. If you change your behavior and way of thinking then you can achieve something without the help of any special diets and supplements.

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Do diets work? Every year, more and more people decide to go on a diet to try and get rid of unwanted pounds. They put their faith in some new formula which promises to deliver their dream – permanent weight loss. Be it the Atkins diet or the South Beach Diet, their expectations are always high. These diets can deliver short-term weight loss, but the majority of dieters will be disappointed because permanent weight loss will not happen.

The essential ingredient that is missing is the means to effect change, permanent change. What is needed are new habits, slim habits if you like, that can be repeated and practiced to effect that change, not just another restrictive diet.

Traci Mann, who is a psychologist at UCLA has been doing some very interesting work on the effectiveness of diets. She didn’t take just one or two diets, she studied 31 – and over a period of between two and five years. What she discovered is that for the majority of people, diets don’t lead to better health benefits or sustained weight loss.

The study found that you can lose between 5 to 10% of your bodyweight on any number of diets, but the weight comes back. The majority of dieters put all the weight back on again – plus some. Going on a diet can actually make you fat. Another study found that only one person in every 100 loses weight permanently – that’s a failure rate of 99%!

There have been some enormous advances made in the fields of neuroscience and psychology. There is now a far better understanding about how our body and brain work, how they interact and what we can do to make change and take control of our lives. One new weight loss system, the Slim Habit, puts this new knowledge into plain, easy to understand language and translates it into practical applications – ’slim habits’. This is interesting because learning new habits and discarding old behaviors is the way to achieve permanent weight loss.

Making change is not difficult, but it helps to have a program that supplies a knowledge base and also a means of offering long-term support. We need help and a formal structure if we are to identify our old behaviors and learn new habits. We have to have a means of taking control of our lives to make long-term change. It needs to be a program of learning and where we can discover our true strength and resolve.

Habit change is not difficult, but it takes commitment – as does anything that is worthwhile. Permanent weight loss doesn’t come from a formula or by spending eight weeks restricting your calorie intake, it comes from learning new habits.

For those struggling to lose weight permanently, the big weight could soon be over.

Henry John has been writing and commentating on health matters for many years. He has a particular interest in permanent weight loss and behavior change and has been a member of the Slim Habit team. www.slimhabit.com

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If you’re overweight, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

·         Would you like to lose weight and feel better mentally and physically?

·         Would you like to significantly reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke?

·         Would you like to protect your heart and live longer?

·         Would you like to reduce the risk of getting cancer?

·         Would you like to stay younger and be able to live a long and healthy life?

These questions are ‘no brainers’ really, aren’t they? Each one of them share a common thread – exercise. If we take regular, intentional exercise we significantly reduce the risk of attracting disease and improve our quality of life.
Too many of us lead a sedentary lifestyle these days. We spend hours sitting in front of the television or the computer; we don’t have to forage for our food; we have easy access to vast supplies of relatively cheap, high-calorific food – we can even have it delivered to our door. We can eat ourselves silly without moving a muscle. When we want to go somewhere we just jump in the car or take a bus or train or plane and, hey presto, we’re there! It’s all so easy. We are caught up in this modern-day lifestyle whether we like it or not – and it’s killing us!

The consequences of a lifestyle where there is such a low level of physical activity is starting to become more and more apparent. An increase in the number of people who are overweight …yes! An increase in the instances of heart disease and stroke…yes! An increase in cancer rates in people who are overweight or obese…yes! An increase in diabetes…yes! An increase in the number of deaths associated with being overweight or obese…yes! It’s not a pretty picture. Is there an answer? There most definitely is.

If we want to lose the pounds and maintain a sensible weight, if we want to lead a happy, healthy life and feel mentally and physically well, all of us need to take regular, intentional exercise.

Regular, intentional exercise is no big deal. It doesn’t have to be difficult. It doesn’t have to be a chore or painful. The fact is that the thought of exercise is always far worse than the reality. The reality of regular, intentional exercise is that it can enjoyable, and fun too.

For many people the idea of taking regular, intentional exercise conjures up thoughts of making a public exhibition of their lack of fitness, of pain and sweat and misery. It doesn’t have to be like that at all.

The simplest (and one of the most effective) way of taking exercise is to walk. Walking is simple, natural and doesn’t require any special skill or equipment – other than a good pair of shoes.

In the past, running was thought to be the most beneficial aerobic exercise, speeding up your heart and getting your metabolism going, but these days research has proved that walking is able to give you the same long-term health benefits as running – with a lot less risk and a lot less sweat. Running is perhaps more time –efficient, but fast walking delivers the same benefits.

Getting started is always the hardest part, but once you’ve got going you’ll find it easy and you’ll start to really enjoy it. You need a Personal Exercise Plan that doesn’t drop you in at the deep end with an exacting exercise programme. You need something that sets out a gradual programme of exercise that builds up slowly and gently to a level that you feel comfortable with, and that gives you maximum benefit. The Slim Habit has an excellent Personal Exercise Plan which gradually gets you into the way of taking regular, intentional exercise which gives your weight loss efforts a real boost.

Getting the exercise habit is so important. It’s important if you want to achieve long-term weight loss. It’s important if you want to be healthy. Get the exercise habit – get the Slim Habit – and you’ll feel better in yourself and about yourself.

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