The Slim Habit Blog

Self-image is the mental picture you have of yourself. This same image is the image you think other people have of you.

How we imagine ourselves to be influences our behavior, so it’s not surprising that we tend to act consistently with the way we think ourselves to be. Our self-talk also helps to reinforce this image. It’s a powerful combination. If it’s negative, it works against us in a big way. If it’s positive, it’s life enhancing.

When you’re overweight, you may not have a good image of yourself. Can you remember what your self-image was before you started to lose weight?  What’s your self-image now? What does the new picture of you look like? It should be very different to the one you had nine weeks ago.

Think about your new self-image. Think about the new person you’ve become. Both mentally and physically, you’ll have changed. Your attitude will have changed too – and have you noticed a change in your friends’ and colleagues’ reaction to you? What is your self-talk saying?

As the ‘new you’ starts to emerge, there’s an exciting future to look forward to. You have a new self-image, and a much better relationship with yourself and those around you. Life will be more fun. Enjoy it!

If you want to get slim and lose weight permanently, then you have to confront your self-image. Just remember to talk yourself up…you’re a remarkable and very special person – in case you hadn’t noticed!

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If you want to be successful at losing weight, you need to know about fats.

So much of our food today is processed in some way or other. Much of it is tasty and ‘moreish’. Food manufacturers have been very clever at putting temptation in our way, but this abundance has not gone hand in hand with health. A lot of the processed food we eat is detrimental to our health. Much of this is due to the ingredients added in the manufacturing process. One of the additives you should be most aware of is fats. Consume too many of the wrong fats, and weight loss will be impossible. You’ll also run the risk of raising your cholesterol and developing heart disease. 

Your body needs fat, but not a lot. Fats are essential for energy and promote cell growth. They also help your body absorb some nutrients and produce important hormones. But there are ‘good fats’ and ‘bad fats’. You need to be aware of two ‘bad fats’: saturated fat and trans fat. These are fats which are most commonly included in the processed foods we eat. Saturated fats are found mainly in margarines, cooking fats, sweets, chocolate, biscuits, ready meals, animal produce and dairy produce. Your diet needs to contain no more than 7% saturated fat.

Trans fats are produced when vegetable and fish oils are ‘hydrogenated’. These fats commonly appear in margarine and shortening. Trans fats are ‘bad’ fats and your diet should include only 1% of them because your body can’t digest them properly.

As your food awareness grows, look out for the fats on the labels of the food you buy, and avoid saturated and trans fat products as much as possible.

‘Low fat’ products are fine, but just be careful that extra sugar hasn’t been substituted for fat.

If you want to lose weight permanently here is a useful weight loss tip: know your fats. Permanent weight loss means that you must always be on guard when it come s to fats. Too much of the wrong type of fat and your weight loss program will not be successful.

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When was the last time you had a really good laugh? Do you have fun? Have you really laughed – laughed out loud – this week? When was the last time you laughed until it hurt? Having fun and enjoying yourself is really important. You’ve got to have time in your life when you can ‘let go’ and have a good time. Life is far too serious for most of us and we have to find a way of ‘letting go’ occasionally.

Did you know that moods are infectious? That laughter and cheerfulness spread like wildfire – everybody wants to be a part of it.  It’s been said that “laughter is the shortest distance between two people”, and it’s true. It locks our emotional brains together. Laughter signals friendliness rather than aggression, trust rather than hostility. This is picked by our emotional brain – our limbic system – which recognizes there’s a relaxation in the emotional temperature, and an opportunity for the engagement of both heart and mind.

People who are trying to lose weight can be grumpy and grim. They’re not usually a bundle of laughs. There’s no need for you to be the same. Take time to go out and really enjoy yourself. Go and have fun. Laugh a lot.  It’ll do you good.

Far too many diets have a restrictive calorie regime and this has the effect of making us depressed and miserable. We are not nice to be around when we are losing weight. However, it needn’t be that way. The best way to lose weight is not to go on a diet. Does that sound crazy? Well, it’s not. Sure, if you want to lose weight and you don’t mind the weight coming back again, then a diet is fine because ‘weight rebound’ is what happens when you go on a diet.

If you want to keep the smile on your face and lose weight permanently, you have to learn new habits, slim habits. Only by changing your brhavior will permanent weight loss become a reality.

If you’re trying to lose weight permanently then you have to keep your morale up. Try visualizing a positive outcome when you’ve lost weight and you are able to enjoy a slim, healthy life. It can be a great motivator

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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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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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There are days when you discover something that you’ve been wishing for years. When you find it, you just want to tell the world. You want to shout it from the roof tops. I had one of those discoveries recently, and I want to share it with you. I’ve been going on diets for years. I always lose weight, but I always put the weight back on again – and some. Frankly, it’s very depressing. I can’t lose weight and keep it off. Diets simply do not work. Until recently I thought I was destined to be overweight for the rest of my life.

My great discovery is that permanent weight loss is not about restricting what I eat for eight weeks, but about making change, permanent change. It’s all about recognising and understanding the behaviors that made you overweight in the first place and learning new habits – you can call them slim habits, if you like. If you learn new habits you will be able to make the changes in your life that will allow you to lose weight and keep it off – permanently. This is not rocket science, but the concept is revolutionary in its simplicity.

What’s been a great revelation to me is that I was never, repeat never, going to have any chance of losing weight and keeping it off unless I changed my ways. You can’t go on doing the same old, same old, year after year, occasionally going on a diet to prove you have some small amount of will power left, unless you make a commitment to change.

Nobody’s going to do it for you. You can’t buy your health, you’ve got to make it happen. To change you’ve got to learn new habits, hot wire them onto your brain if you’re ever going to have any chance of leading a normal, diet free life. I never thought of myself as a revolutionary, but I’m a fully paid up member of the habit change revolution. I have said goodbye to diets forever. New habits are going to be my passport to a slimmer, happier, healthier life. Change is possible for all of us. This is the helping hand we’ve all been waiting for – we all need to get the habit – the Slim Habit!

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