The Slim Habit Blog

How do you see yourself? Is the image that greets you in the mirror every morning one you like to see? How do you think others see you? Do you worry about what they think? Your self-image is very important, but it’s often not accurate. I you are overweight, there’s a fair chance that you have a very distorted self-image.

Your image of yourself is important because it colors your attitude to yourself, to others and to the way you behave. Did you realize that fat people behave in a very different way to slim people? Fat people do what fat people do. Their behavior is geared to what they can and can’t do and by the way they think of themselves. They mix with other fat people because they feel less threatened and under less pressure to change their ways.

One thing is very clear. If you think of yourself as fat, fat you will remain. The image in the mirror may not be what you would really like to see, but you can do something about it. The first thing to do is not to awfulize about what you look like now. If you think negatively about yourself you will find it hard to make change. Stay positive and you will be able to win through. The person you see in the mirror maybe overweight, but that’s not the real you. The real you is an amazing person. This amazing person can do great things.

A very useful weight loss tip is to practice visualizing yourself as a slim. What would you look like? What would it feel like to be slim? Do this as often as you can and it will start to strengthen your resolve to lose weight. Permanent weight loss is just around the corner.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Technorati Tags: how to lose weight permanently, lose weight permanently, permanent weight loss, stay slim

Have you thought what it’s going to be like when you’ve been successful in achieving permanent weight loss? What are the reactions of your friends and colleagues going to be to your weight loss? You will have to sharpen up your powers of empathy if you don’t want to be confused by their reactions

What is empathy? It’s your ‘social radar’. It provides vital social information. What’s empathy got to do with weight loss? Well, it hasn’t got a lot to do with the actual process of losing weight, but it has a great deal to do with the way you communicate with people and with relationships. As you lose weight, people’s reactions to you may change. This could affect some relationships, which is why understanding empathy is so important.

As you go through your weight loss program, a slimmer, more confident you will be appearing. How will people react to this? It really depends upon you. Over the last six weeks your thoughts have been focused on you and your feelings. This is understandable, but you’re running the risk of not picking up on other people’s reactions accurately and being able to interpret their emotions correctly. You need to ‘put yourself in their shoes’.

Reactions to the ‘new you’ are almost certainly going to be positive, but it will help you immensely if you remove your focus away from yourself and concentrate your attention on others. Notice how they look, their expression, the intonation in their voice, their body language. Try to put yourself in their situation and to recognize their emotions – in other words, empathies. You’re in a programme where you are the focus of your attention. Try not to become too introspective and inward-looking. Practicing your empathy skills will be helpful to you. Here are some tips:

·         Be attentive to emotional cues and listen well

·         Show sensitivity and understanding

·         Understand other people’s needs and feelings

·         NOTICE: Facial expressions, body language, moods, emotions. Be alert to when they change.

Losing weight has a huge number of advantages. Fine tuning your empathy skills will make a huge difference to your life and your relationships.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Technorati Tags: lose weight, lose weight permanently, permanent weight loss, weight loss, weight loss diet

If you want to achieve lasting success in anything, but particularly something like permanent weight loss, your efforts will be greatly helped if you have self-discipline.

The best definition of self-discipline is ‘positive action’ – something to feel good about”. You’ve demonstrated self-discipline if you have decided to join a weight loss program, and you should be feeling good about that. Self-discipline is a form of self-control which we exercise consciously. Self-discipline is very important in our spiritual, emotional and spiritual life because it gives us the power, and the focus, to achieve what we want to achieve.

Some of the self-discipline you’ve imposed on yourself in the past few weeks has been quite difficult. Saying ‘no’ to yourself is not easy. Denying yourself the gratification of eating something which is utterly delicious (but swarming in fats and sugars) is not easy, but the pay-off is huge. You feel really good when you’re able to resist temptation.

The temptation to find an excuse for not taking exercise, and not keeping to your personal exercise programme, has probably crossed your mind. When you have the self-discipline to cast out the demons that are trying to persuade you to be weak, the feeling is twice as good.

Napoleon Hill, author of several personal success books, put self-discipline this way: “Self-discipline begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you can’t control what you think, you cannot control what you do. Simply, self-discipline ensures you think first and act afterwards”.

The importance of mastering your thinking process cannot be over stated. . When you’ve achieved the mastery of your thinking process – and you will – you’ll certainly have something to feel good about.

Maintaining permanent weight loss takes self-discipline too. It is all too easy to slip back into your old ways. You have to retain your focus. The personal profit from doing so can be enormous, so keep at it!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Technorati Tags: lose weight, lose weight permanently, permanent weight loss, weight loss, weight loss diet

Life is full of the unexpected, some of it good and some of it bad.  You may have had some challenges in your weight loss program, and even some setbacks. How did you deal with the setbacks? Your attitude to setbacks will very much determine how successful you are going to be – in whatever you do. What matters most is how you respond to setback. Ask yourself these questions:

·         Are setbacks overwhelming disasters or manageable hurdles?

·         Do you perceive adversity as unrelenting or short-lived?

·         Is a setback a challenge to be confronted or an insurmountable obstacle to be avoided?

The key to dealing with setbacks, particularly if you are trying to lose weight permanently, is to be an optimist. Optimists see a setback as something they have the power to do something about, not a flaw or deficiency in themselves. Pessimists, on the other hand, see a setback as a confirming sign that there is some internal flaw in themselves that cannot be changed. You have demonstrated great courage and conviction by embarking on this program. You can overcome any setbacks in the future if you maintain the same courage and conviction – and optimism. Always remember to:

·         Persevere in the face of adversity.

·         Maintain a positive attitude and outlook.

·         Always identify a positive outcome.

If permanent weight loss is your goal you will have to work hard to keep your head above water. There will be times when you want to throw in the towel and let things go back to where they were. Even when you have achieved permanent weight loss, you will be faced with many, many challenges which will threaten to derail all your hard won weight loss. The secret is to face up to the challenges and deal with them. You’ll soon become an expert and you will be stronger and more resilient as a result.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Technorati Tags: lose weight, lose weight permanently, permanent weight loss, weight loss, weight loss diet

Losing weight can be quite an emotional experience, but do we really understand our emotions? Are our efforts to lose weight hampered by our lack of emotional awareness?

We often fail to identify our emotions properly. We’re too casual (and sometimes lazy) about correctly naming our emotions. We think we’re angry when actually we’re not angry at all – we’re irritated. There’s a very big difference. If we then behave as if we’re angry, we’ll send out all the wrong signals. Confusion and misunderstanding is the result – for us and for others.

There are eight primary emotions: fear, acceptance, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, anticipation and happiness. What you need to be able to do is to identify the ‘color’ of the emotion. For instance, let’s take anger. At one end of the spectrum this could be annoyance, and at the other end it could be rage. In between there’s frustration, irritation, indignation, malice, fury and hatred. There’s a huge variation. Are you angry or just irritated? Is it really hatred that you feel or are you just thoroughly frustrated?

You can see why it’s so important to recognize and identify your emotions accurately. If you get it wrong, or just don’t take enough care, you’ll distort your thinking. Before you know it, negative thoughts will be multiplying in your mind.

Being overweight can be emotionally challenging, so it’s very important that you take care (and time) to identify your emotions properly.

Being able to read and manage your emotions will be very important when it comes to losing weight permanently. When you achieve permanent weight loss you’ll find that an emotionally intelligent approach to maintaining that weight loss will be immensely helpful.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Technorati Tags: lose weight, lose weight permanently, permanent weight loss, weight loss, weight loss diet

Before you begin a weight loss program, who is it that you have to convince that the whole thing is a good idea? It’s you, isn’t it? You’ve had endless conversations with yourself about how to achieve permanent weight loss, how to stay slim and diet free. You’re very familiar with all the arguments.

We never stop talking…to ourselves. There’s a constant internal conversation going on in our minds. It’s called self-talk. Self-talk goes on in our mind all the time. What’s it all about? Anything and everything:  from a commentary on the way you feel to something deep in your imagination.

Most of us allow our self-talk to carry on unchecked and uncontrolled. This is dangerous because the thoughts we have influence our behavior. If you allow your negative thoughts to go unchecked, there will be consequences in both your behavior and your actions. Negative thinking will reduce your self-confidence, and harm your self-esteem. Positive thoughts, on the other hand, will produce positive outcomes.

The important thing to remember is that thoughts influence behaviors, and you are programmed by your thoughts. It’s crucial, therefore, that you learn to manage your thoughts.

How do you do this? The first thing is to deliberately change to positive self-talk when your self-talk starts to become negative.  If your self-talk is saying “I can’t lose weight”, then don’t be surprised that you don’t. If on the other hand your self-talk says “I’m going to achieve success with my weight loss program”, then you will.

Make your self-talk work for you, not against you.

Positive self-talk is something that will help you to maintain permanent weight loss, it’s important.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Technorati Tags: lose weight, lose weight permanently, permanent weight loss, weight loss, weight loss diet

When you’re trying to lose weight there are quite a few unexpected obstacles which make your task quite difficult. If you can pre-empt them it can make life a whole lot easier.

“Have some more, dear.”  You can probably hear your mother saying it to you now. You feel that you might offend if you refuse, so you allow your plate to be piled high with food that you don’t need or probably want. It can be a tricky problem to overcome. The best way is for you to prepare the ground before you sit down to eat. Make it clear to your friends and family that you’re trying to eat less, and they can help. Resist being bullied or pressured into eating more than you want.

As you become more successful with your weight loss program, everyone will start to notice the ‘new you’ emerging. You’ll look better and you’ll have a much more positive attitude. This will not go unnoticed.  The reaction you get may be surprising. Some of your friends will rejoice in your success and offer encouragement. Others who don’t have your motivation and resolve (but wish they did), might be jealous of your success. Just be aware of this. Their comments could be quite hurtful and negative – if you allowed them to be.

Don’t be put off by people who want to sabotage your weight loss efforts. Some people will be totally unaware of what they are doing, innocent of any bad intention, but others will have a less than helpful purpose. Stay strong!

If you want to lose weight permanently, staying strong is probably one of the best weight loss tips you will ever get. Permanent weight loss is a challenge, but it is one you can overcome if you keep your wits about you.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Technorati Tags: lose weight, lose weight permanently, permanent weight loss, weight loss, weight loss diet

Do you get enough sleep? How many hours do you get every night? If you’re getting under 7 hours’ sleep a night you’re not getting enough. Does it matter? It certainly does – particularly if you want to lose weight!

Over the past fifty years we have reduced the number of hours that we spend asleep every night by nearly two hours. That’s quite a lot. Why has this happened? Mainly because we have so many other calls on our time, we’ve become busier. We’ve also become less good at getting ourselves organized – and of course there’s the ‘mustn’t miss’ television show that goes on until midnight.

What effect is this lack of sleep having? Scientists would have us believe that it is making us unhappy, inefficient and fat. They point to the fact that over the past fifty years we’ve gotten into the habit of sleeping less and we’ve also become more overweight. Is this coincidental? They say not.

When we don’t get enough sleep, our body sends a message to our brain to say that we’re tired. This message is interpreted as being a lack of energy. Lots of sweet carbohydrate will soon redress the ‘energy’ imbalance…so we think. We eagerly tuck into a large plate of sugary cereal at breakfast time, pop in a large candy bar on our way to work and the problem is solved…but not quite!  The result is weight gain.

If you want to lose weight permanently and say goodbye to diets forever, you have to have a good nights’ sleep. You have to get the habit – the slim habit, of getting 7-8 hours’ sleep every night. It’s a habit that will transform your life.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Technorati Tags: habits that will transform your life, Learn new habits, lose weight permanently