7 Habits That Can Enrich Your Lifestyle

When it comes to habits that can enrich our lifestyle, we often come short of willpower after a time or find out that we have a tough time keeping up with some of them. What most of us do not realize is that the initial source of the problem comes from within us. Yet, with effort, it can be redesigned.

Do you dwell on things? Do you believe you are not good enough, smart enough, or strong enough? If you could just choose one, two or more habits to redesign your lifestyle in the next few months, what would they be? Would they be habits that will have the most impact on your life?

Before anything else, the fact that you must realize is that willpower is more powerful than any I.Q. Your willpower can overtake any thoughts or obstacles you believe are in your way. But to enrich your lifestyle, you have to create habits that allow you acceptance about every part of yourself, which is not always easy.

Since childhood, you hear comments, remarks, laughs and expectations from relatives, acquaintances, peers, colleagues, and people around you, which have often more negative connotation than a constructive meaning.

As a result, you have a low self-esteem which can be at a conscious or unconscious level. But if you could find a way to enrich your lifestyle or life altogether, it would push you to realize that you can do anything you put your mind to doing. You could learn new habits, new skills and live a more satisfying life.

May I remind you that what relatives or anyone else says or think are not the facts, but just opinions formed by others! To begin making a difference and enriching your lifestyle, you need to accept yourself as who you are and that you can be different if required.

7 Habits to Enrich Your Lifestyle
Now let's go over seven of the most valuable habits to ameliorate and create a more satisfying you.

1. Self-Image to Form a Better You
At first, to enrich your lifestyle, you have to understand and realize that you, as a person, matter. Setting goals are an excellent way to create a better you and develop all areas of your life, which in turn will change your lifestyle tremendously.

You have to understand that setting goals have an enormous impact if you want to enhance your life. They are not an instant cure but a component for upgrading your lifestyle. The next step is that you have to take action and begin to make the changes by learning to appreciate and love yourself.

For that reason, you have to stop your inward criticism. Avoid letting your mind take over, or anyone else criticize you. You are somebody and are worthy. To enrich your lifestyle, prevent the negative self- talk. You have to replace the negative statements with positive ones.

2. Self-Focus to Create Good Habits
To enrich your way of life, you have to focus on one goal, on one task at a time which is much more efficient. You also need to focus on one habit at a time before getting another one in the picture. While it might seem very difficult, focusing on one habit is the best way of creating healthy habits

As soon as you try to create many habits at once, you are scattering your focus and energy all over the place. Choose one habit to focus on first. Break it into a goal you can accomplish in the next three months. Pick an action you can do today and begin. Keep doing this until the habit becomes second nature.

When one habit feels like a complete part of you, focus on the next pattern. As you desire to enrich your lifestyle, some goals of yours may also be external ones. Well, in those cases, turn them into habits. Focus entirely on turning your goal into a habit, until the habit is deep-rooted. Then concentrate on the next one.

3. Self-Value to Enrich Your Lifestyle
In today's world, we tend to value people by what they have rather than by who they are. So, to enhance your lifestyle, you have to learn to understand that real value is not material things but rather the value you have about yourself.

Do not get me wrong, material things are great but are not the most important. If you lose everything, what is left? You still have YOU! Therefore, remind yourself that you are a unique, worthy, and brilliant person who matters in this world. You are a miracle of life!

You may like it or not; your ultimate reality is created by what you believe, what you think and how you talk about yourself. So, to enrich your lifestyle, you have to value yourself. You are as good as anyone else out there. And yes, it can be rather challenging to accept as true, but it is always possible.

4. Self-Education to Make You A Fortune

"Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune." - Jim Rohn

Do whatever it takes to educate yourself. Read more than usual, at least 1 hour a day. Read about everything and anything that floats your boat. All successful people read books. It can be audio, but the best is a book where you can highlight important parts you can use or go back to when needed.

Learn and acquire new skills because the more you learn, the more you earn. Reflect and meditate also on what you have read each day for at least fifteen minutes or more. The reason being is that it has amazing benefits for your health but also for your mental and physical capacities.

5. Self-Trust to Build Self Confidence
When you want to enrich your lifestyle, you have to trust your feelings and your gut instincts. You must rely a lot more on your gut feelings when the need comes to make a decision or take action. Avoid letting others make decisions for you.

Therefore, begin by making decisions for yourself instead of following a map set by others for you to follow. The people who do have trust in themselves are the ones that take charge of their own lives, letting no one intrudes on their choices.

You should believe more in yourself, and the best way to enrich your lifestyle is to spend time with people that have self-confidence. Their positive attitude will rub on you. You could even ask them to mentor you.

6. Self-Resilience to Reach a Better Outcome
You always have a choice between reacting or acting firmly to a situation at hand. When you look at resilient people, you can see that they have a strong emotional mindset that gets them through life's challenges without falling apart.

Being self-resilient is not being a cold person who has no feelings but rather being very optimistic and real. And it is a powerful habit and asset you can have when you want to enrich your lifestyle.

To be resilient, you have to focus on what you need to do to change the circumstances. Realize that if you desire to enrich your existence, resilience and persistence will help you reach a better outcome.

7. Self-Respect to Enrich Your Way of Living
Regrettably, too many people make choices based on the desires of their relatives, spouse, friends, and even the media. Self-respect comes from make your own decisions and recognizing your worth as a human being.

When it comes to choosing things such as what to learn, what to read, what to study, what job to choose, where to live, when to get married and how many children to have, you should learn to respect what you desire.

Stop being scared of standing up for yourself. Respect and value your desires. Value yourself for all you are worth, and it will grandly enrich your lifestyle.

One More Thing to Enhance Your Existence
Focus on changing the habits you dislike about you because to make an upgrade in your life; you must stick with wanting to do what is necessary and follow through. It is not an overnight change; it takes time to replace harmful habits and stop putting yourself after everyone else.

You have to quit eradicating yourself from the equation. Instead, start to make the changes that you need, because you are looking to enrich your lifestyle and get a more satisfying journey.

A Few Tips to Enrich Your Lifestyle

• Look in the mirror and realize that the only competition you have is you.
• Write down your achievements and keep note. Read through it out loud to enrich your lifestyle.
• When you get a compliment, look at the person and say "Thank you. I appreciate it."
• Tell yourself each day that you matter and are worthy.
• Write five things about yourself that you appreciate.
• Ask your friends what they admire the most about you.
• Replace negative thoughts with positive ones.
• Enjoy who you are and keep making the necessary changes to grow.
• Get rid of people and situations which are sources of conflict or low self-esteem.
• Think more about yourself and stop trying to please everybody all of the time.
• Reflect and meditate each day.

Enriching your lifestyle is all about taking the time to replace habits, taking action and making you happy. What do matter is how you feel about yourself and your life. So if at this moment, you are not what or where you want to be, remember, you always have the ability to change the next moment.

Sergei VanBellinghen, Personal Growth & Success Expert, Founder of First-Class Lifestyle & SergeiVanBellinghen.com I inspire and help women and men get a fresh start with their career and their life after a divorce, loss or if single. I do this by using self-development techniques to help you grow, succeed and have a better life. Remember, it's not just about growing but also about ending the routine. It's about the lifestyle of working less, living more and enjoying life! Find Out How! Visit my Website [http://sergeivanbellinghen.com] and come to discover how I can afford to stay home and travel anywhere I want.

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weight loss motivation

The Shocking Truth About Celebrity Endorsed Diets

There is no doubt that we love our celebrities.

Just look at the number of tabloids at the checkout line of any market.

Consider the entertainment magazines available including People, Us Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, Star Magazine, and so many more.

Entertainment TV shows include E! Entertainment Television, Entertainment Tonight, and others.

Then you have shows all about the Kardashians and similar "celebrity" oriented programs.

We seem to love watching "stars" shine and stumble with shows like Dancing With The Stars.

The list seems never-ending.

And, if you still have doubts about how much we love - even idolize - celebrities, consider how much you're willing to shell out for tickets for live performances or even just to go a movie these days. To do what? Watch celebrities.

What Do You Have In Common With Celebrity Dieters?

What on Earth do you think you have in common with those celebrities?

How do they go about losing weight?

Are you really the same as the them when it comes to health and nutrition and dieting?

Are they good role models for your weight loss efforts?

Here are just a couple of differences between you dieting in real life and them dieting as "spokesdieters" for mega million dollar dieting programs.

I suppose the biggest difference between your real life and their celebrity life is that they have entourages and staffs and chefs and personal trainers at their beck and call to help and support them to stick to their diets and exercise programs.

You, on the other hand, have yourself. OK, maybe, if you're lucky, you may have one or two family members supporting you, and maybe a friend or two. But your supporters are not being paid by you, are not there for you 24/7, and let's face it, at the end of the day, they aren't truly invested in your success.

In reality, the celebrities are surrounded with support and encouragement and you are pretty much alone.

The second huge difference between you and your favorite spokesdieter is that the famous celebrity is getting paid handsomely not just to endorse the diet, but also to try to convince you it actually works - their "job" is to lose weight.

You, on the other hand - unless you are incredibly unusual - don't have a soul on Earth who's going to pay you millions to lose a few pounds.

The celebrities have a huge incentive to stick to the diet beyond good looks and good health. An incentive that you'll never have. A massive financial incentive.

We could go on with this list of differences between you and the celebrities endorsing diets, but I think you get the idea.

But one truth to take away is that they have a level of support and a huge financial incentive that you'll never have.

What You Can Do

There are 2 big things you can do - as a mere mortal not a celebrity - to help yourself in your weight loss efforts.

First, don't delude yourself. Of course you're exactly like the celebrity spokesdieters in the sense that you're human and so are they.

But just because they can make a diet work with all the paid support they get and all the pay they receive for doing it, doesn't mean it's actually any easier for them than it is for you. That's a good truth to keep in mind.

And, another important truth is that even with the paid support and the pay they receive, even they can't or don't always make it work.

Case in point: Kirstie Ally as the celebrity spokesdieter for Jenny Craig a few years back.

If you remember, Ms. Ally lost something like 80 pounds right before our very eyes on television.

And then, after quitting Jenny, every one of us saw her all over the tabloids, entertainment magazines, and entertainment television shows 80 or more pounds heavier within about a year.

The truth and the lesson is that celebrities are human, too. And, if you don't stick with your diet and healthy eating, of course it's not going to do you a bit of good any more than it will do them a bit of good if they don't stick with it.

Sticking to it. That's the key. That's the truth.

Which brings us to the second big thing you can do for yourself. Follow these 6 simple Guidelines to help you stick to your diet, weight loss, and healthy living plan.

6 Guidelines

1. The More Natural The Better.

When I say "more natural" it's about 2 things.

First, what you eat and drink.

Simply knowing that the more fruits and vegetables as opposed to packaged goods and salty snacks, the better. The more water as opposed to sodas, beer, wine, or anything else, the better. The more "healthy" oils/fats (olive, canola, salmon, avocado, nuts) and the less trans fats (shortening and margarine) and saturated fats (red meat and high fat dairy) the better.

It's pretty simple when you break it down and become just a little bit conscious and aware of what you're doing. You don't need to become a health food fanatic. Just a health minded eater.

The second thing I have in mind when I say "more natural" is YOU. You being more natural. You following your natural tendencies more.

We'll look more in detail about this as we go along, but for now, just keep in mind and that you are not Valerie Bertinelli, Carrie Fisher, Sara Rue, or Jason Alexander on Jenny Craig's payroll. You are not Jennifer Hudson or Charles Barkley being paid by Weight Watchers. You aren't Marie Osmond, Dan Marino, Janet Jackson, or Terry Bradshaw raking in a bundle to endorse Nutrisystem.

The truth is that you are you. The more you get tuned in to your personal strengths, weaknesses, preferences, likes, and priorities, and the more you diet in ways that are comfortable for your natural self, the better.

2. Listen.

Listen to you. It's not about listening to what others have to say, certainly not the celebrity spokesdieters with whom you have almost nothing in common except being human. It's not about listening to the advice of others who don't know or "get" the real, natural you. It's certainly not about listening to the criticism of others. And naturally it's not about listening to the marketing hype that surrounds the entire weight loss industry.

The point here is to listen to yourself.

Listen to you when you are feeling good about how you're managing your weight loss and health goals. Listen to your natural personality. The truth is that it will tell you how you should go about doing what you're doing to manage your weight and health and looks and lifestyle in ways that will help you accomplish your goals.

At the end of the day, you are your own weight loss guru and it is your responsibility to listen to yourself if you want to be effective. And, if you listen to yourself, any diet can and will work for you just fine.

3. Eating Is Complex.

We Americans have many, varied, and complex reasons to eat what we eat. And way too many choices.

Here are a few reasons that you may have to choose to eat a particular food:

Curiosity - you just want to know what that huge piece of Aunt Sue's homemade chocolate pie tastes like.

Emotions - we've all experienced emotional eating whether it's to sooth hurt feelings, work ourselves out of depression, or celebrate a nice promotion at work.

Pleasure - you just feel like treating yourself to something sweet and gooey - to spoil yourself - for the sheer pleasure of it.

Nutrition - this is where you make the choice to eat something more nutritious and healthy in order to lose some fat or maintain a healthy weight, improve your energy, enhance your long term health, look better, feel better, and live longer.

As you are getting ready to make a food or drink choice (and remember, it's always a choice) just take a split second to ask yourself if you're going to choose out of curiosity, to soothe some emotional turmoil or to reward yourself for some emotional victory, just for the pleasure of it, or are you going to choose something to promote your health and good looks?

By the way, these food choice motivations are not mutually exclusive.

As you do this on a conscious basis for a little while, and if you're serious about losing weight, you'll notice that you will automatically start making choices that are more oriented toward good nutrition. It just happens naturally. Your body wants to be healthy if you just get out of its way and let it.

This as a another example of being your own weight loss guru - first asking yourself what you're doing and then giving yourself the right answers. The truth is that you know the answers. Sometimes you just get distracted from them.

4. It's Your Life & Your Personality.

The truth is that there is no diet on Earth, no matter which celebrity is acting as it's spokesdieter, that is going to fit you perfectly.

Diets are designed in general. None is designed exactly for you. None is personalized precisely to match your unique personality, temperament, and behavioral preferences.

The problem most people have when trying to lose weight is an inability to stick with the diet long enough to achieve their goals.

Why don't people stick with their diets? Why don't you stick with yours?

Because you try to change yourself to fit the diet. That puts the diet, which was not designed specifically for you in the first place, in charge of you. And it gives you a ton of dieting related stress. Who wants that?

The solution is simple. Personalize the diet to fit you. Instead of changing your natural self to fit the diet, change the diet to fit your natural self. Personalize it.

That doesn't mean you should change the diet fundamentally. It encourages you to use the diet as guidelines rather than a set of laws that you have to follow perfectly or you'll be arrested and go to jail or something.

Here's another truth. No matter what you are doing in life, including dieting, the more you do it in ways that are consistent and compatible with your own unique personality and behavioral preferences, the easier those things are for you to accomplish, the more fun they are for you, and the more successful you will be at them. It's a law of nature. You do best at what you like best. You like best those things that are most natural for you.

5. Moderation.

Moderation is interesting.

Mark Twain said, "...it has always been my role never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain from smoking when awake."

And for many of us it seems we have the same philosophy when it comes to food...we never eat when asleep and never refrain from eating when awake.

If you're overweight now, as 70% of Americans are so you're certainly not alone, one thing you're not used to is eating in moderation.

I suggest you go back for a moment and review our 3rd Guideline - Eating Is Complex.

If you become aware - consciously at first evolving into automatically - of what the purpose of your food choices are with an emphasis on nutrition whenever possible, you'll automatically develop the moderation habit without having to use a lot of will power. It will lead you, without a lot of conscious effort or stress, to your weight loss and fitness goals.

6. Reasonableness - Common Sense.

Going hand-in-hand with the idea of moderation, is your desire and ability to face the reality that you are not going to be a super model and are not likely to ever become a highly paid celebrity spokesdieter for any diet program.

That does not mean that you cannot easily be as slim, trim, fit, healthy, and active as you want to be.

You can be. You have a right to be. And you deserve to be as healthy and as happy as you want at any healthy weight without ever appearing on national television, without ever adorning a magazine cover, without enviable, photogenic six pack abs, without bulging biceps, and without ever fitting into your skinniest ever jeans.

Don't get me wrong.

I am an advocate of lofty goals.

I am also an advocate of realistic goals.

I am an even bigger advocate of using common sense in all things, especially in how you manage your weight which is directly related to how you manage your health which is directly related to how you look and feel.

The Bottom Line

So yes, we Americans love our celebrities. But let's not give them god-like status. They are just people. If they do not stick to their diets, they will get fat just like you and me.

The truth is that Valerie Bertinelli, Jennifer Hudson, Marie Osmond, and all of the others smile their celebrity smiles and in 60 second spots make it seems like it's easy. But they have to work at their diets like you and I do.

However, they have staffs that are paid handsomely to help and support them and they are being paid ridiculous sums to stick to their diets.

If you are serious about losing weight, you have to do the same thing as the celebrities. Stick to your diet. Unfortunately, you have to do it more on your own than they do and without making millions in the process.

Instead of having a cash payment from a big diet company as an incentive to stick with it, your main incentive is to look in your mirror and feel proud of yourself. It's to look your best, feel your best, and be your best as you accomplish your goals, achieve a healthy weight, and maintain that healthy weight and lifestyle forever. No cash. Just a sense of accomplishment.

Use the 6 Guidelines outlined above and you'll find that your weight loss success will be easier and more successful than you have ever experienced before.

Whether you like Valerie Bertinelly, Jennifer Hudson, Marie Osmond, or one of the celebrity spokesdieters, you are not them. You will not diet like them. You will not lose weight like them.

Luckily for you, you are you. You are unique. You have an individual personality, strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and behavioral preferences. The more you use those traits and characteristics to your advantage to personalize any diet you choose, the more successful you will be at weight loss and long term weight and lifestyle management.

The way you attack your diet plan, your weight loss efforts, and your long term weight management is up to you and you alone.

No matter what diet you choose and no matter what celebrity may currently be endorsing that diet, the truth is that that celebrity's job is to try to get you to buy their diet instead of a different one. Period. He or she is not going to jump out of the TV or off the magazine page to actually help you lose even a pound in your real life.

Whether or not you actually lose weight, personalize your diet, and stick with it is entirely up to you.

The better you get at being natural, listening to yourself, sorting through the complexity of food choice motives, using your own natural personality, relying on your own common sense, and having realistic goals, the more likely you are to get exactly what you want from your weight loss efforts.

With zero help from any celebrity spokesdieter.

Dexter Godbey is the Founder of Dieting Laws. For over a decade he has worked with individuals, businesses, athletes, and sports teams in the effective recognition and use of the power of personalities to achieve goals and get what you want in simple, easy, effective, and successful ways.

He has developed a FREE Dieting Color Profile: http://www.DietingLaws.com. It takes less than 2 minutes and is based on your unique Personality. It's how to use your Personality to lose weight. Scientists are now proving that your Personality may be the most important factor in your ability to lose weight and keep it off. Not genetics, not will-power, not the diet you choose. Your Personality.

This is a revolutionary approach to weight loss. Discover your unique Dieting Color Profile for FREE and how to lose weight more easily and successfully than ever before - regardless of your diet - once and for all...by personalizing any diet you're on to suit your own Personality. http://www.DietingLaws.com

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Watch Your Weight Go Down With Weight Watchers

Weight Watchers is one of the top rated weight loss programs available. Due to the ease in which it can be done, the fact that you can eat real food, and the support that is offered, it is easy to see why. Losing weight can be a difficult process that is easy to begin, but they give you the information that you need when you need it. Whether you choose to join this program online, do it at home, or go to meetings, you will be able to learn how to eat right, so that you can lose weight and get healthier.

How much does it cost? The cost of this weight loss program varies depending upon which program that you choose and the area that you are in. Weight Watchers Online costs $16.95 per month, but you can get a better price if you pay for more months at one time. If you prefer to go to Weight Watchers meetings, you can pay around $13 a week, $39.95 a month, or $119 for 10 weeks. For their at Home diet program, the standard kit is $99.95 and the deluxe kit is $129.95. While these prices may vary, depending upon the area, this will give you an approximate price to go by.  These prices could change but were correct at the time of print.

Is Weight Watchers convenient to use? All of the choices that are offered by this program are convenient, no matter what your tastes. If you prefer to do it on your own, you can choose from the Weight Watchers Online or Weight Watchers At Home options to help you lose the weight once and for all. The handy e-tools that are available online may be to your liking to help you keep track of your points and to get other helpful information. Meetings are available at most anytime of the day or night and on most days of the week as well to allow you to find the time that is convenient for you.

How do they motivate you to lose? Motivation can be found in many places from Weight Watchers. The online message boards that are on the Weight Watchers website offer great motivation or you can choose to go to the meetings to get your motivation. Meetings concentrate on one topic each week to help you learn more about how to make this change to a healthy lifestyle. Either way, you will find that there is quite a bit of camaraderie to motivate and inspire you to lose weight and get healthy.

How well does Weight Watchers work? Weight Watchers has a very good track record as far as results and has been in the weight loss business for over 40 years. This long track record is what gives it credibility as far as weight loss programs go. Millions of people have lost weight on this plan and because it espouses the idea of eating healthy and doing activity, it works.

Do they have weight loss centers? Yes. They have centers that you can visit for weigh-ins and meetings and they also have meetings at churches, community centers, and more. This wide selection of meetings is what makes this program more convenient. The centers themselves have several meetings a day, while the other locations have one or two meetings a week. You should be able to find a meeting location that will work for you quite easily.

Who founded Weight Watchers? Jean Nidetech began inviting people to her home in the early 1960's to discuss the best ways to lose weight. These were the first meetings and from this small beginning, millions of people have lost weight all over the world. For over forty years, they have been the support and mainstay of many people who want and need to lose weight.

What is the premise behind Weight Watchers? This program focuses on teaching you how to manage your weight on a long-term basis, rather than giving you a quick fix that you cannot keep up with. They give you all of the information that you need to learn how to eat healthy over the long-term, rather than giving you specialized foods that you have to eat and not teaching you how to eat real food. This approach to weight loss is what draws many people to Weight Watchers.

Weight Watchers is the top of the heap as far as weight loss programs and it is easy to see why. Information and learning is key to taking weight off and keeping it off, and this is what Weight Watchers does very well. They make their system easy to understand and give you the encouragement and motivation to follow through. The selection of programs, the convenience, and the fact that you can eat real food is what keeps people coming back time and time again. If you have weight to lose and are looking for a program that has long history and results behind it, you will want to consider Weight Watchers.     

If you would like to get off the weight loss merry go round once and for all and would like to join us on our weight loss challenge then visit us soon. More about us... If we don't lose 147 pounds (67 kg) in the next 12 months and keep it off, YOU could end up $25,000....richer! How does that sound? Who else wants to know how to motivate yourself and lose the weight? We will show you how by leading the way! Welcome to Sandi and Shaun's Weightloss Challenge. [http://www.ourweightlosschallenge.com]

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The Slimming World: An Easy Does It But Do It Approach To Weight Loss

We are what we eat. I can't remember where I heard or saw that, but it can be a true and fair statement in many cases. When I got to my heaviest weight ever, I was eating lots of junk food and slouching in front of the TV most nights. I remember saying to myself, as I sat there ramming cup cakes down my neck, "how on earth did I get like this"? It wasn't until I got a grip with my obesity that I realized I was living in denial that genuinely thought I was a victim of my own metabolism..

Anyhow, I did get a grip as I say, and it was easier getting back into shape than I thought it would be, and the reason is this: I followed through! Another realization that hit me was that I never followed through with anything, including diets, exercise regimes, and personal goals. The problem was that I always wanted success like yesterday, and being an impossible target, it was easier to say something wasn't working than I wasn't working something.

My success came from a totally new approach that was much kinder and more reasonable to myself. I used the cliché 'Easy does it' but followed this with the phrase 'But do it'. Easy does it, but do it', was pinned everywhere around the house and so I got to work on my plan of action which I hope will benefit others.

Firstly, set mini goals. Short term goals are far easier to achieve than long term ones. Make sure they are realistic. My previous goals were I had to loose 15 kilos by summer, but my new goals were I will lose 1.5 kilos a week and I also had a specific plan on how I was going to do it. In my case it was a gentle 25 minute jog every other day.

I also made a list of foods to eat, or more specifically what not to eat. I cut out all the junk but didn't go on a specific diet. So the simplicity of this was to not eat this food as it piles on the pounds. I also attempted to balance my food better and made sure my main meal consisted of meat and at least 2 veg. Desert, supper and snacks meant I kept plenty of fresh fruit min the house. Fruit is great as it can be eaten or juiced for those in between meal moments.

I kept a simple food journal too. This was really useful as I couldn't believe how much "unconscious eating" I was doing. I soon realized I was eating a lot out of habit and not because I was really hungry. Identifying this unhealthy eating pattern made it easy for me to rearrange my eating habits. Keeping a log was satisfying because I can look at each day and see with my eyes that I'm changing my lifestyle. It's very rewarding to give yourself little ticks of achievement at the end of each day.

I also became aware that I did a fair bit of emotional eating. That is eating when stressed, bored, or angry. In fact any mood swing would have my head in the fridge. I never knew I did this so once again, knowing the problem allows for a resolve.

There are lot's of little tricks and tweaks that I discovered along the way, but to summarize I set tiny targets, kept a journal, and got to know what I ate and why. As a consequence, I got to know me better and learnt to respect myself more. I've never felt better and as a result of that I'm naturally more active which helps keep the pounds off.

Remember - Easy Does It. But, Do It

Andy Maingam is a proficient writer and webmaster for Slender Folks dot com where he writes on such issues as The Zone Diet and reviews the Bowflex exercise equipment. He also has many other health and weight loss related pieces on the site.

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NOOM REVIEW | 7 Ways I ACTUALLY Got Fit!

Scientific Weight Loss Tips

Weight Loss: Avoiding Plateaus and Ruts

If you've lost a significant amount of weight or followed a weight loss plan for a period of time, you know that even if you continue to follow the plan perfectly, most people will hit a plateau about 6 months in. This happens because your body, as Intelligently created as it is, learns to adapt to what you've been doing and no longer responds as it first did.

It is recommended that for every 10% of your body weight lost, you consume about 20% fewer calories if you want to continue losing weight. At a certain point if you simply continued doing this you would find yourself ravenous! You can only cut the amount of food so much before that backfires.

You want to continue to burn fat and build muscle, since muscle is more metabolically active and will keep your metabolic rate high enough that you don't have to cut the amount of food you eat so drastically.

Another tweak you may find helpful is to increase protein intake so you minimize muscle loss. Protein is also more satisfying so you will feel more satiated. When seeking to continue weight loss you might want to increase clean protein to about 25% of your total caloric intake.

Also keep in mind that your body becomes more efficient as your do your regular workouts. Add to that the fact that you expend less energy to do the same workout as you lose weight resulting in fewer calories burned. I always recommend you switch up your exercise routine every 3 or 4 weeks - the frequency, time, type of workout or intensity. Keep your body guessing and it will respond. Many fitness experts believe "confusing" your muscles by varying your exercises from one session to the next forces adaptation to constantly changing demands, thus improving growth and strength and allowing you to avoid plateaus.

While I'm on this subject of muscle confusion, let's talk about ruts. Maybe you are sticking with the program but feeling unmotivated. Sounds like a rut to me. We all like a bit of variety. Well I believe switching things up - both in your exercise routine and with your diet can just shake things up and renew your motivation as well as shock your body into responding again.

You can change-up your meals. I mention several ways to do this in Today is Still the Day, in the last section, like the progression principle and carb cycling. You could try intermittent fasting and switch up the fasting windows, doing a 16/8 window for a few days or a week and then doing a couple of 14/10 days and maybe a 20/4 day. Your body stays surprised and nothing will lift you out of a rut better than seeing your body respond again. With intermittent fasting, just be sure that you don't eat less, you just eat less often. Also be sure one meal in your eating window is substantial enough to make you feel full so your body knows you are not starving. Otherwise you defeat the purpose and your body will conserve fat rather than burn it.

Do you have a preferred way of getting past a plateau or avoiding a diet/exercise rut?

Ann Musico is a holistic health coach and independent nutritional consultant. She has developed a "3-D Living Program" to assist her coaching clients in achieving vibrant health and wholeness - spirit, soul and body. Visit her website at https://www.threedimensionalvitality.com to learn more about the "3-D Living Program," her book, Today is Still the Day, as well as the coaching packages she offers. Subscribe for her free monthly newsletter and weekly email messages.

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