Who hasn’t heard the saying ‘what you believe you can achieve’? It’s true too when it comes to weight loss. 

If you haven’t got your head in the right space and you aren't ready to make the necessary changes, then the chances of you going the distance aren't great.

Before you even start, you need to work out why are you attempting to lose weight. Why is it important to you? Then you have to decide whether or not you are prepared to do what it takes. Are you prepared to modify your lifestyle? Are you prepared to put in a reasonable amount of effort? Because believe me, there is no magic, you get back what you put in as a rule. You also have to be prepared to take hits in your stride.

With the Easter break over and the Christmas holiday behind us, what are your excuses for not starting? Consider this, if you were to lose a mere 1 kilo per month between now and Christmas that is a good 8 kilos less of fat you would be carrying around by Christmas. One kilo per month takes very little effort to achieve, but how amazing would it be to have lost 8 kilos by Christmas? Put a little more effort in and average a very do-able loss of 2 kilos of fat per month by Christmas and that’s 16 kilos lighter you would be. 

But, you have to start now. If you put it off for yet another month, then that's one month more it is going to take you to reach your target, along with the possibility of gaining more weight in the meantime.

Only you can decide if the effort is worth it and only you can actually put the work in to get the result. If you are ready and you do want to lose 8-16 kilos before Christmas, contact me now and let’s put goals and a plan in place.

A sobering thought that may help you decide is that a longitudinal study featuring nearly 74,000 US women has found that

"The longer a woman has been overweight or obese during her adult life, the higher her risk of developing cancer"

The finding highlights the importance of preventing excess weight and obesity at any age, the study’s authors said. You can view the study’s results here.

Carrying extra fat, especially visceral fat, is a health risk as it increases inflammation in the body. That inflammation is associated with various cancers, heart disease, diabetes and other health issues. Losing fat is important but so are other lifestyle factors that we can control, namely:

• Increase physical fitness. Make time for regular exercise. 30 minutes is fine, but you need to do it several times a week to reap the full benefit.
   
• Stop smoking. I don’t even need to list all the reasons why smoking is a life limiting bad habit and one of the worst things you can do to destroy your health.
   
• Reduce stress. Ongoing stress has a huge impact on our bodies which manifests in many ways. None of them good.
   
• Poor oral hygiene can lead to heart issues as the bacteria in our mouth can be deadly when released into our bloodstream.
   
• Drink alcohol only moderately and have a minimum of two days alcohol free per week.
   
• Obesity as mentioned above.

The above are all lifestyle factors that we have control over.

When it comes to diet, eat a ‘real food’ diet. Keep away from packaged and processed foods, include good fats (olive oil, fish, avocado, nuts and seeds) in your daily diet, drink green tea, eat lots of leafy greens and reduce simple sugars. Nourish and respect your body.

Keep in mind, what is harder, being overweight, unhappy and unhealthy, or making gradual changes to your lifestyle?

Try some new recipes

With the days considerably shorter now and a bit of a nip in the air, it might be time to extend your recipe repertoire. Remember, there are lots of recipes on my website or you are welcome to bring in any recipes that you are wondering whether they would be good to use. I can help you modify them if necessary too.

Client Success

I love it when clients experience ongoing success, but it is important to know that along the way everyone has ‘bad’ days, that’s just part of life. It is what you do after the hiccup that matters. If you walk away and decide that you really don’t care, you will again at some stage and then you have to start all over again. It is better to face up to whatever happened and just move on. One bad meal won't make you fat, just as one great meal won't make you slim. 

Emma has been hanging in there and has now lost almost 16 kilos. Some weeks she has been disappointed with her results, but she just keeps trying. She recently sent me this lovely note:

"I took a couple of progress photos this morning. I was shocked when I put the photos side by side. I just had to share them with you. Thank you for changing my life."

You can read more Success Stories here.

Early notice that I will be away

My husband and I are heading off for a long holiday, with my last day of work being 31 May and my first day back being 7 August. We have never had a holiday of longer than two weeks in 38 years of marriage, so this year is it. I will be keeping some kind of a travel blog, most likely on my Facebook page and I will be receiving emails whilst away and making appointments for August. 

I will post this again in my May newsletter, but if you are wanting to get back on track and have some accountability, now is the time to do it.  Email me and let’s make an appointment.